Long straws and sweets

Long straws and sweets
Originally uploaded by paulmorriss

Am I a proper biker?

When I started riding a motorbike I took the Compulsory Basic Training - a day of training which you have to do before you are allowed out on the road.

As we travelled to the car park where we do the training the trainer remarked "Have you heard that Joey Dunlop has died?". I hadn't heard of Joey Dunlop. If you haven't heard of him either, that's like not knowing who Ayrton Senna is.

I am a proper biker if I don't know that? I do ride a bike to work almost every day normally, unless there's snow on the ground. Some "proper" bikers don't do that, but only ride when the weather's nice. I don't go to bikers' gatherings, watch bike racing, buy bike magazines or any of the stuff like that.

I wonder if I come across a group of proper bikers if they'll want me to join their groups and only then will I be a proper biker?

"...and a little more!"

"...and a little more!"
Originally uploaded by paulmorriss

This is the "mayor making" ceremony. The outgoing mayor and all his officials are weighed and their weights compared to how much they weighed a year ago. The town crier shouts out their name and "and no more" or "and a little more" if they've put on weight. If they have it's because they've taken advantage of their office and they are booed.

My 11 year old son saw this ceremony and remarked the other day, "This fuss about the MPs expenses is the same thing isn't it?".

Very astute.

Brian Eno on ambient music and PCs

A couple of quotes from an episode of the Museum of Curiosities on Radio 4 from Brian Eno.

In response to the question, "Did you invent ambient music, is that your term?", he said:

"Yes. Now it's a category in record shops, full of records I don't like."

He also composed the Windows 95 startup sound, on a Mac.

"I've never used a PC in my life, I don't like them."

Analogue cheese flavour?

Analogue cheese flavour?
Originally uploaded by paulmorriss

Is it any different to digital cheese flavour?

Pastor on a sabbatical

One of our pastors is on a sabbatical. One of the things he aimed to do during this sabbatical is update his blog English Pulpit. However he hasn't turned on any comments, so it's a bit of a one way conversation. Maybe he'll use some sort of tool like Technorati to spot inbound links from here and a conversation can start!

Following Martin Kelner's article on Children's Radio in Media Guardian last week I decided to put some questions to my own little focus group. I asked my children what they might want from radio for children. One suggested "theme tunes". Unlike Martin's daughter our children don't tire of commercial radio. They love the local radio station and so probably for them, radio = music.

I introduced them to Go For It on Radio 4 and one of them loved it. Having a TV presenter presenting it probably helped. The same child that loved it also likes First News, the children's newspaper. My children have never heard of it, so if the BBC is thinking of cutting back, they ought to do a bit of cross promotion on children's TV to let children know that it's out there.

Spotify rocks (as they say)

It's a measure of significance when something on the internet makes the BBC News at Ten, and that happened last week with Spotify. I downloaded it and saw what all the fuss was about. I've used last.fm on and off for years. However you can't necessarily hear every track.

I signed up for some other music service the other week, but I haven't been back and I can't even remember what it was called.

Spotify gives quick access to loads of tracks, with a very slick user interface. I immediately began compiling a couple of playlists that I've had in my head for years, including reconstructing a mix tape from Uni days which I must have thrown out years ago. There are a few holes in the coverage, so I couldn't add All Together Now by the Farm to my happy morning songs playlist. I could listen to whole albums by ELO, Kate Bush and Queen so that provided a bit of nostalgia on Saturday. I just hope that they can manage to keep some sort of free service for casual users like me.

Millenium bridge

Millenium bridge
Originally uploaded by paulmorriss

We were walking across the bridge and suddenly I notice a photographer with an SLR on her knees photographing back the way I'd come. A teenager, her daughter, was dangling a small tripod near her, saying, "Mum...".

I didn't drop to my knees but I did photograph back the way I'd come.

Pushy parents magazine

Pushy parents magazine
Originally uploaded by paulmorriss

I did this a while ago, but I've only just uploaded it. It was probably inspired by hearing that some parents think their children need more homework. Seriously.


Next I'm going to do one for boys called "Sticks" or maybe "What Stick" if that's not breaching someone's trademark.

Wycombe Winter Night Shelter

I have updated my blog post about the Night Shelter, as it is running again and has its own website.

Coke can and ants - safety issue?

My photo of a coke can and ants was used on the Safety Issues website. My photos are licensed for non-commercial use, so whilst this is flattering, it's also naughty, so I'll be contacting them.

Update: apparently they are a non-profit organisation, so that's OK.

Teaching children

On a Sunday morning I teach the 5 to 8 year olds at "Hope Street" at our church, Union Baptist Church. Pascal said, "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time" (in French). I don't think teaching children is an easy option compared to adults. I find I need to take the time to make the lessons simple. It's a challenge I enjoy.

I've been planning for this Sunday and we're covering the passage from Luke 12:6:

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

I haven't seen sparrows for sale in the shops recently, so the way I'm going to bring this picture up to date is to talk about carnations which are fairly cheap, yet attractive, scented and (so I found out this evening) edible.

Those clever people at Utata have done some clever computer stuff to take photos from flickr and present them nicely in an annual photo essay project, Utata speaks.

Here's my essay "A family holiday in France".

Lots of photos of France

Barn wall
Originally uploaded by paulmorriss

Click this picture and then feel free to browse some more.


My France set.

Top Gear and road signs

The Top Gear have recently asked for examples of silly road signs. One that amuses me are the "Think Bike" road signs:


What are you supposed to do if you're riding a bike and you come across one? Spend a few seconds considering how fortunate you are to be riding a bike when all around you almost everyone else is in their metal cages? Check that you've turned the choke off? That you've switched the fuel switch away from reserve?

If you ride a bike sometimes, but you're in a car when you see it, there's a chance that you may forget you're in a car and nod to the bike coming the other way, or try to squeeze through a gap that's too wide for a car.

Still, I'm glad that the car drivers are thinking of us.

Doctor Who/Shopping List

Doctor Who/Shopping List
Originally uploaded by paulmorriss

What happens when you mix some Doctor Who fridge magnets with shopping list fridge magnets

Ebay feedback

My Ebay feedback is now greater than my age. I don't know if that's significant. In case you're wondering what my age is, my feedback is the answer to life the universe and everything.

Flickr now has video

Walking through the leaves
Originally uploaded by paulmorriss

I get a chance to do some short abstract pieces.

Online Church book review

I've just read a booklet called "Online Church? First Steps Towards Virtual Incarnation", by Mark Howe. It is published by Grove Books, who's tagline is "Not the last word... but often the first". Mark has been involved in St Pixels, an online church, which you can find at stpixels.com. He writes, "St Pixels is one of the older and larger online churches, so it is likely that all online churches will face many of the issues that St Pixels has encountered".

He describes the profile of the participants, gathered via a survey. The typical "member" of St Pixels is a British female in her forties with experience of church leadership. Although it is an online church from time to time the members organise meetings amongst themselves. Like any church, in order to stop things descending into chaos, some leadership is necessary. A management team of eight people runs St Pixels.

I could tell you more, but that would mean that you might not buy the book! It is available on the bookstall, and if you buy it you can find out the answers to the questions:
What is online worship like?
How do you do group prayer online?
Does it do mission?
Is it really a proper church?

New website for Children's activities at our church

For the first time in my life I've bought a domain name: unionbaptistkids.org. I set it up so that the Children's activities at our church have a presence on the internet.

I got the idea when I went on a CPAS training day. Someone there said you could set up a website for your church in 5 minutes. He was talking about a blog really. Even though the blog format is fairly constrained, it's good enough for our purposes.

Radio 4

Since I was a child Radio 4 has kept me company on sick days. I still remember as a child under 10 listening to the news and hearing pretty much every hour about some famous person dying, I forget who.

I always loved the Today programme with its fast moving mix of topical stories. One day however a couple of years ago though I got fed up with it when they had a story near the end of the programme about a singing statue of Perry Como. Maybe it was just because I was unwell, but that was just a waste of my time hearing about it (not that I've got anything against Perry Como). So instead I spent the day listening to XFm and thinking that although it wasn't much fun being ill, listening to this lovely indie rock was not a bad way to spend the day when you're not up to anything else.

Last week I was ill again and Radio 4 came to the rescue. Coincidentally I've been reading Radio: A True Love Story by Libby Purves, about her career in radio. She concludes, talking about a day listening to talk radio (presumably Radio 4):

Yet all the time that my mind dwelt on stethoscopes, sisterhood, Hindu Theology and public affairs I was phsycially busy, travelling and dealing with the irritating minutiae of daily life. Music radio mught have soothed or invigorated me, and inane disk-jocky chat could have been some sort of ersatz "comapny". But what this neo-Reithian kind of radio did was actually to double the usefulness and value of that day in my life, making me laugh and think and mentally explore. It make the dull physical jobs tolerable, and fitted me better for the mental ones to come. It make me more alive.
What could be more precious? Or more worth fighting for?

Like she said.

CPAS day for children's workers

I've just been to a day for those who work with children in churches, run by CPAS (Church Pastoral Aid Society). It was very well run. I went to a seminar on a church that had started a "Messy Church" service for kids and families, and one on using puppets with 11-14 year olds. Plenty of food for thought...

Extended Schools Initiative

The Extended Schools Initiative comes from the UK government:
"An extended school works with the local authority and other partners to offer access to a range of services and activities which support and motivate children and young people to achieve their full potential." From Extended Schools.

There is a great potential for churches to work together in a town to be one of those partners offering services. I found examples of Youth for Christ getting involved in Bath and Warwickshire

The Consultative Group on Ministry Among Children has a page of resources too.

The The Extended Schools Initiative page mentioned above has links to lots of resources, which I've yet to explore. Interesting stuff....

We're just beginning to think about it in our church.

Free bidet

Free bidet
Originally uploaded by paulmorriss

Found by the side of the road. I didn't take it home.

Sharing my photos

I got an enquiry from someone wanting to use one of my flickr photos on their website. It got me thinking about the licensing on my photos. I deliberately chose to reserve all my copyright rights when I put them up there, but that enquiry has prompted me to share them under a Creative Commons license, known as "Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0".

That person will still have to buy the right to use it, if they want, but for non-commerical uses you can use them.

I'm a big fan of Creative Commons as a consumer - I sometimes get CC photos from flickr, or download CC music from magnatune.com.

Wycombe Winter Night Shelter

Jan and Feb are my two least favourite months of the year. Dark evenings, cold and wet days. However I'm lucky to have somewhere to live. Which brings me to the Wycombe Winter Night Shelter, a project organised by several churches in High Wycombe (UK). It provides a bed for the night for homeless people for January to March. I'm not taking part in this in any way, so I'm not blowing my own trumpet even though our church (Union Baptist) is involved. I'm very pleased to see how many people have volunteered.

One of the volunteers is a journalist and has written an article about it.

Update for 2009: It is running again and Wycombe Winter Night Shelter now have their own website. Hopefully with that link they will rank higher than my blog on Google!

Darth Vader on a cathedral

On the Washington National Cathedral you can find Darth Vader.

BBC iplayer goes up to 11

I'm very impressed with the online version of the BBC iplayer. It even goes up to 11:

A cloud of sheep

A cloud of sheep
Originally uploaded by paulmorriss

I thought this was great. I went to the trouble of turning round on my bike and coming back to take it. However on Flickr, only one person has looked at it. At the moment.