Saturday, June 4, 2011
Elvis Presley Wallpapers
The Best Top Desktop Elvis Presley wallpapers in all kind of resolutions and sizes. For your PC, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Mac OS. High resolution Elvis Presley photos, widescreen, 4:3, 16:9 and HD wallpapers.Black Elvis Aaron Presley - King of Rock and Roll Elvis Presley playing guitarElvis Presley in black with purple suit Black and white Elvis Presley WallpaperBlack and white
Oprah Winfrey Wallpapers
The Best Top Desktop Oprah Winfrey Wallpapers in all kind of resolutions and sizes. For your PC, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Mac OS. High resolution Oprah Winfrey photos, widescreen, 4:3, 16:9 and HD wallpapers.Oprah Winfrey in red blouse in notice of her tv talk showTalk show host and producer Oprah Winfrey in purple clothes and silver earrings smilingGray Oprah Winfrey desktop
Friday, June 3, 2011
Tennis Player Roger Federer Wallpapers
The Best Top Desktop Roger Federer Wallpapers in all kind of resolutions and sizes. For your PC, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Mac OS. High resolution Roger Federer photos, widescreen, 4:3, 16:9 and HD wallpapers.Tennis Player Roger Federer on green field screaming Tennis Player Roger Federer Wallpaper red blackTennis Player Roger Federer championTennis Player Roger Federer Wallpaper
Tennis Player Rafael Nadal Wallpapers
The Best Top Desktop Rafael Nadal wallpapers in all kind of resolutions and sizes. For your PC, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Mac OS. High resolution Rafael Nadal photos, widescreen, 4:3, 16:9 and HD wallpapers.Tennis player Rafael Nadal wearing a yellow shirtTennis player Rafael Nadal wallpaper hitting the ball wearing a purple shirtTennis player Rafael Nadal cheeringTennis player
Hobbies
We've got a bank holiday weekend in Ireland, so I thought I'd talk about hobbies and the things we like to do when we give ourselves time to just completely chill out and ignore our day to day cares.
I remember going through countless different hobbies as a child. I read cooks on history, dinosaurs, science, model-making, art, the lot. I took classes in martial arts, pottery and drawing. I've even dabbled in archery and horse-riding. For various reasons I let a lot of my hobbies go over the years. I don't have a head for science, so while I find scientific discoveries absolutely fascinating, I get frustrated because I can't get my head to accommodate my own scientific thoughts.
I guess I figured pretty early that I was better at creative things than academic pursuits.
For the last 15 years or so my major hobby has been tabletop roleplaying games and board games. My interest in them is directly responsible for the majority of friends I have. We have regular weekly game nights, and every few weeks I'll host an afternoon-long gaming day at our house on a Saturday. As I see people drift and make changes in their lives due to work, relationships or where they live, it's incredibly reassuring to have this common interest and an easy way to bring a lot of friends together in one place. It's really rewarding to get together and create stories for our mutual fun and entertainment. We might not be able to all go to the cinema together on a Friday night anymore, or hang around drinking coffee for hours on end, but we can take the time to meet up on an evening, have a bit of fun, and remember why we're all still friends.
What about you guys? What pastimes keep drawing you back?
I remember going through countless different hobbies as a child. I read cooks on history, dinosaurs, science, model-making, art, the lot. I took classes in martial arts, pottery and drawing. I've even dabbled in archery and horse-riding. For various reasons I let a lot of my hobbies go over the years. I don't have a head for science, so while I find scientific discoveries absolutely fascinating, I get frustrated because I can't get my head to accommodate my own scientific thoughts.
I guess I figured pretty early that I was better at creative things than academic pursuits.
For the last 15 years or so my major hobby has been tabletop roleplaying games and board games. My interest in them is directly responsible for the majority of friends I have. We have regular weekly game nights, and every few weeks I'll host an afternoon-long gaming day at our house on a Saturday. As I see people drift and make changes in their lives due to work, relationships or where they live, it's incredibly reassuring to have this common interest and an easy way to bring a lot of friends together in one place. It's really rewarding to get together and create stories for our mutual fun and entertainment. We might not be able to all go to the cinema together on a Friday night anymore, or hang around drinking coffee for hours on end, but we can take the time to meet up on an evening, have a bit of fun, and remember why we're all still friends.
What about you guys? What pastimes keep drawing you back?
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Welcome First Clickers
..
The Sock would like to welcome to her bloggywog all those who have followed the link from First Click
I'm very flattered that the BBC and Carol Klein have linked to my blog for the First Click campaign particularly as helping people take their first steps with computers is something I have experienced.
In the dim and distant past I worked at a University and was one of the first people to use what was then the Joint Academic Network - an early form of the internet linking Universities around the world together. I knew little about computers but even my tiny knowledge was a great deal more than most people had at that time. Knowing less made me more able to identify with those I taught basic word processing and computer use to - I knew how they felt confronted with this new technology and no question was too stupid or irrelevant to be asked and no knowledge presumed. Often a problem could be solved by asking something as simple as "Had the user had turned the computer on?" I remembered my own experience of sitting in front of a screen for some time waiting for something to happen until my boss seeing my puzzled expression flicked the switch on at the back.
And so when my elderly neighbour Mona decided, at the age of 84, to start using a computer I bore this in mind and was only too willing to help. Mona's house backed on to mine - her lovely garden being a playground for my cats over the years - and we would occasionally chat over the back wall or I would be invited around to taste the yearly vintage of Mona's sloe gin. Mona's mind was sharp but her body fragile and after years of activity she was mostly confined to her house where she lived alone. Mona's impatience with her new computer was legendary and not helped by the fact it was an old secondhand one. My phone would ring "Arabella!!! I can't get the blasted thing to work!!" I would wander around to her house to see what assistance I could offer which was mainly along the lines of "Try switching the blasted thing off and back on again - that will usually clear 90% of problems".
Eventually Mona and her temperamental computer got into the swing of things - her amazement and delight at being able to email friends abroad was a joy to behold. Sadly as her computer skills increased her mobility decreased and after two falls she could no longer even shuffle around her beloved garden with her zimmer frame. Email became her eyes on the outside world. I would send her descriptions of how her garden was growing, whether the gardener was trimming the large shrubs that now grew over her back wall tangling into mine, news on the occasional sighting of a fox in the gardens (there are now eleven living within 100 metres of our gardens - how she would have savoured that bit of news!) . Despite her extremely correct and genteel upbringing Mona delighted in a bit of email gossip about the neighbours their births, deaths, pets and various idiocies. I sent her pictures of my new greenhouse, my cats and the seasons in her own garden. At first Mona's email responses were very formal as if writing a letter until I explained the different etiquette of email and how to judge whether an immediate response was required or whether she should reply at her leisure. Mona didn't
utilize the full capabilities of her computer and the world of the internet but derived a great deal of pleasure from the bit that she did. It was probably just as well that she never found the sites where Bridge could be played online - she was an extremely skilled Bridge player and would probably have played for money and fleeced everyone!
Sadly Mona died last year but I know that using the computer had enhanced the last years of her life.
It really is worth encouraging elderly people to take that First Click.
 |
| Early morning foxes in next door's garden |
The Sock would like to welcome to her bloggywog all those who have followed the link from First Click
I'm very flattered that the BBC and Carol Klein have linked to my blog for the First Click campaign particularly as helping people take their first steps with computers is something I have experienced.
In the dim and distant past I worked at a University and was one of the first people to use what was then the Joint Academic Network - an early form of the internet linking Universities around the world together. I knew little about computers but even my tiny knowledge was a great deal more than most people had at that time. Knowing less made me more able to identify with those I taught basic word processing and computer use to - I knew how they felt confronted with this new technology and no question was too stupid or irrelevant to be asked and no knowledge presumed. Often a problem could be solved by asking something as simple as "Had the user had turned the computer on?" I remembered my own experience of sitting in front of a screen for some time waiting for something to happen until my boss seeing my puzzled expression flicked the switch on at the back.
And so when my elderly neighbour Mona decided, at the age of 84, to start using a computer I bore this in mind and was only too willing to help. Mona's house backed on to mine - her lovely garden being a playground for my cats over the years - and we would occasionally chat over the back wall or I would be invited around to taste the yearly vintage of Mona's sloe gin. Mona's mind was sharp but her body fragile and after years of activity she was mostly confined to her house where she lived alone. Mona's impatience with her new computer was legendary and not helped by the fact it was an old secondhand one. My phone would ring "Arabella!!! I can't get the blasted thing to work!!" I would wander around to her house to see what assistance I could offer which was mainly along the lines of "Try switching the blasted thing off and back on again - that will usually clear 90% of problems".
Eventually Mona and her temperamental computer got into the swing of things - her amazement and delight at being able to email friends abroad was a joy to behold. Sadly as her computer skills increased her mobility decreased and after two falls she could no longer even shuffle around her beloved garden with her zimmer frame. Email became her eyes on the outside world. I would send her descriptions of how her garden was growing, whether the gardener was trimming the large shrubs that now grew over her back wall tangling into mine, news on the occasional sighting of a fox in the gardens (there are now eleven living within 100 metres of our gardens - how she would have savoured that bit of news!) . Despite her extremely correct and genteel upbringing Mona delighted in a bit of email gossip about the neighbours their births, deaths, pets and various idiocies. I sent her pictures of my new greenhouse, my cats and the seasons in her own garden. At first Mona's email responses were very formal as if writing a letter until I explained the different etiquette of email and how to judge whether an immediate response was required or whether she should reply at her leisure. Mona didn't
utilize the full capabilities of her computer and the world of the internet but derived a great deal of pleasure from the bit that she did. It was probably just as well that she never found the sites where Bridge could be played online - she was an extremely skilled Bridge player and would probably have played for money and fleeced everyone!
Sadly Mona died last year but I know that using the computer had enhanced the last years of her life.
It really is worth encouraging elderly people to take that First Click.
___________________________________
The Sock is about to go off on hols for a week. For a taster of the usual kind of blog postings scroll down and don't miss the Sock's take on the Chelsea Flower show.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Who Ya Gonna Call?
I only learned yesterday that what is perhaps the most iconic firestation in the western world is due to close this summer. Hook & Ladder 8, the firestation used in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, will close on July 1st.
It's part of a budget measure to save New York City approximately $55 million by closing 20 fire stations in the greater New York area. The merits and flaws of this decision, in terms of finances and public safety, have been debated by people far more qualified than myself. All I can really contribute is my sadness that such a landmark building will no longer serve in helping to keep the people of New York safe.
I grew up on Ghostbusters. When I was 8, that's what I wanted to be when I grew up. I specifically wanted to go to New York, buy that firehouse, and become a Ghostbuster, logic be damned! Even today Ghostbusters has such a special place in my heart that my wife and I made a point of going to see the firestation when we were in New York on our honeymoon (I took that picture above). The father of Nathan Shepherd, the main character in my novel, is an ex-firefighter who worked at Hook & Ladder Co. 8. So I guess I have this double sadness, realising that the place that was Mike Shepherd's second home, his calling, is closing.
I hope, whatever happens to the building, that it remains a New York landmark, and that whoever now comes to own it treats it with the repsect worthy of a building that has both served the public for over a hundred years, and is such a cultural symbol.
I wonder, can I see Nathan moving in?
It's part of a budget measure to save New York City approximately $55 million by closing 20 fire stations in the greater New York area. The merits and flaws of this decision, in terms of finances and public safety, have been debated by people far more qualified than myself. All I can really contribute is my sadness that such a landmark building will no longer serve in helping to keep the people of New York safe.
I grew up on Ghostbusters. When I was 8, that's what I wanted to be when I grew up. I specifically wanted to go to New York, buy that firehouse, and become a Ghostbuster, logic be damned! Even today Ghostbusters has such a special place in my heart that my wife and I made a point of going to see the firestation when we were in New York on our honeymoon (I took that picture above). The father of Nathan Shepherd, the main character in my novel, is an ex-firefighter who worked at Hook & Ladder Co. 8. So I guess I have this double sadness, realising that the place that was Mike Shepherd's second home, his calling, is closing.
I hope, whatever happens to the building, that it remains a New York landmark, and that whoever now comes to own it treats it with the repsect worthy of a building that has both served the public for over a hundred years, and is such a cultural symbol.
I wonder, can I see Nathan moving in?
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