steve – Page 66

September 26, 2008August 14, 2009

Things I’ve learnt this week

Quite a busy week for me. Done a couple of social things and was generally quite busy with work and stuff.

So things learnt.

Moo Cards – small business cards which look smart (thanks Jo!)
Canadian Lumber Standard (CLS) – wood, decent constructional timber (thanks Jewsons)

O.k I admit it’s not a huge list, but at least I learnt something.

Found that Moo cards can be bought for £9.99 (+£3.50 P&P) – So I bought them, with 11 of my images (was going to be 10, but for some reason upload too many). Hopefully the all import text at the back works. I’ve referenced my company – BCG Media Limited, rather than my photography site. I suppose that’s probably the best thing to do.

You’d think timber is timber, well it is sort of. It’s wood afterall, so where does CLS come in. It’s construction grade timber, ie fairly straight. I had a look at the rough cut wood and that curved more than a curvy thing with weights at the end.

So there you have it, 2 things learnt.

September 26, 2008August 14, 2009

Birmingham Social Media Cafe

Picture sums it up! Lots of people in a coffee shop and quite a few laptops. So what was it all about. Well, it’s the inaugral meeting of the Birmingham Social Media group. The facebook page created by Jo Geary explains it much better than I could. Met up will a fair few of the bloggers from tuesday and quite a few media people today.

Anyway, went away knowing the Social media people are a nice bunch. Now I might even get round to setting up a Twitter account 🙂

Special thanks to Jo Geary for organising the event and Marc Reeves for funding the Coffee/Tea!

September 25, 2008August 14, 2009

Strange feeling

A old school friend of my aunt (Margaret, deceased) called Steve passed away recently, Dad told me today.

Now I remember him, but my two brothers knew him better as he had an interest in war stuff and I believe he owned his own Jeep. Steve apparently died of a heart attack, I’m guessing he was probably around late fifties/early sixties.

Now although I don’t remember him much (I remember his ex-wife more and his son who had a page 3 collection from the sun – early pr0n?), one thing I do recall was on a day trip with my Aunt, Steve and my cousin Bryan.

We was somewhere near Evesham, at a pub next to a river. The river had a small boat (might have been a skip!) that was secured by a rope/cable to pull to get access to either side. Now me and Bryan decided to swim on the return leg, but the current took me away. As I was drifting off towards the sides Steve dived into save me. As fortune would have it I managed to get my foot on something as he just dived in. That said, he helped me up and out of the river.

I recalled the incident and thanked him a few years back when I last saw him (at Aunt Margarets funeral). Glad I got the chance to say thanks anyway.

So thanks again Steve. I don’t know if I would have survived anyway, but the good thing is you made sure I did.

September 25, 2008August 14, 2009

Wii Fit, Mii Fat

Whilst walking through brum today, noticed an A4 notice in the window of GameStation.

WII FIT in Stock!!!!!! (probably didn’t have all the exclamation marks). Decided as the belly is too big and the bike is currently of reach to purchase. Seems everyone else decided to as well. Queue was quite long, couple of Emo types very indecisive about Final Fantasy on the DS (I think) anyway after about 10 minutes I got one.

The fitness starts as soon as you purchase and walk out of the shop, the main reason is the bleeding balance board does weigh a bit. Eventually after work, tea and Traffic Cops (wtf were those Swedish women doing bouncing off cars/trucks?) I fired it up. Takes a while to get into it, the initial setup requires a little calibration.

So puts in height (which the Wii already knows – maybe my mii has the details) and DOB etc. It then tells me my weight. Fortunately as the balance board is on the carpet it loses a few kg. So I’m around 15 1/2 stone (97ish Kg), I’m obese and my Wii Fit age is…………….48

Bleedin hell. Anyway started up and had around 30 minutes on all the activities.

The Yoga was interesting as my balance is good (must be the real Yoga – I wont tell Jayne though). As usual the tree pose (the one you see on the cover of Wii Fit) was utter crap. Though I can imagine the other yoga bits will be as difficult as my real Yoga lessons.

Also hard are the arms and legs work outs. These are more like gym work, and having the belly and weak arms I notice them more.

Balance is quite a fun departure, the slalom skiing and Ski Jump are difficult to master. I was absolutely shite at the football (heading). The balance game also has a mini marble madness type game, though it’s just drop a number of mii balls through a hole (got to level 4).

I forget what the other games were, but they are simple things like step and jogging (not on the balance board though. The Wiimote goes in the pocket and jumps out!).

Overall, a good bit of fun. Not too sure if i’m a morning person or an evening one for the training. Hopefully I can keep it up. My ambition is to lose a 1 and a half stone in 3 months. We’ll see.

September 23, 2008August 14, 2009

Birmingham Bloggers Meet

Quite a strange experience as I’ve not done this before. Mom always said don’t talk to strangers, well sorry Mom I’ll be doing this in a bit.

Today’s event is held at Stans Cafe in the Jewellery Quarter, which is currently hosting the ‘Of all the people in the world’ exhibition (or the thericeshow as it’s also known).

Anyway. Early impressions – Quiet, as I’m the first here (usually attempt to get in early). So blogging in an empty cafe, with a cup of tea.

I hear voices………….

……..quite a few turned up. Spent a while around the rice show. Will update with pictures later (train is about to go through snowhill tunnel, so I’ll loose the 3g).

So, back home now. Met quite a few of the bloggers, seems quite a few know each other very well. Bit difficult to really break into a group, still was my first time as an attendee but hopefully will get round to speak to more at the next one. Spoke to Joanna and Mark form the post, both nice and approachable people (apologised to Joanna for being a little blunt with her in the past) also met up with Simon who I sort of know from Skyscrapercity.com (when it works).

Met up with Nick Booth (Podnosh), Pete Ashton (formerly of Created in Birmingham) and Chris Unitt (now runs CiB) as well. All nice guys.

So, I had my camera……….

Riceshow