Journey of an Ordinary Guy

Check Your Remote

Some time ago I mentioned an easy and cheap way of amplifying the sounds from your iPhone speaker using a glass.

Now comes the easy way to find out if your remote control needs new batteries using your camera. Simply point the front of the remote control at your camera and press any button on said remote. Although you can’t see the infra red emitter light up with the naked eye your camera will detect the light. Note the blue light in the picture below.

Taking a photograph is optional.

If you don’t see the light via the camera then you probably need new batteries in the remote.

Significance

Photo by Tony Peters

For some weeks, maybe even months, I’ve been wrestling with the notion of personal significance. As the news spread that the worldwide population had reached seven billion it made me wonder about my place in the crowd.

Many times in personal reviews at work I’ve been described as a nice guy. But is that enough?

As I’ve grown older and seen more of life it’s become more and more apparent that western society is built around the pyramid structure; there are only a very small number of top roles (King, President, CEO, Archbishop, Nobel Prize Winner, Million-Selling Singer, Formula 1 World Champion, Number 1 Seed at Tennis etc) Are the rest of us here just to make up the numbers?

And how does that fit with my faith that God values and fiercely loves each of us?

I’ve struggled with the common question of, “why am I here?”

Everything I’ve asked of God and myself has been about my purpose. Why was I created? Who am I that an all-powerful God should even care? There must be a purpose for my life otherwise what is the point of being alive?

I think that perhaps the answer is that it’s not what you DO that’s important, it’s the fact that you’re YOU. Maybe it’s time to stop worrying about purpose and start concentrating about relationships with family, friends and others.

Maybe it’s time to invest in some be-ing instead of some do-ing.

What to choose

Trying to decide what to have on a meal out together as a family…

First Decade

Ten years ago today the calm, placid, relatively organised lives of MrsG-T and I were turned upside down by the slightly early arrival of MiniG-T. Literally upside down as he refused point-blank to turn the right way up in the womb and so had a fabulously organised birth by Caesarian section. We still remember the fourteen medical staff attending to MrsG-T and him in the theatre at Warwick.

The intervening years have seen laughter, arguments, tears of joy and sadness, lessons learned (on all sides!), boundaries challenged, decisions discussed and pride in our hearts.

Babies are a blank canvas. By the age of ten its becoming clear what the shades of colour on the canvas are.

We’re proud that MiniG-T has a very caring heart. His teachers often comment that he’s the one who gets alongside the loners. He loves animals. His natural aptitudes are towards arts and crafts and not geek things.

Our oldest son is both a massive challenge and a massive blessing and we love him to bits!

Happy 10th Birthday, MiniG-T!

Parental Supervision

As MiniG-T gets older he’s been starting to use our computers at home more and is considerably more comfortable surfing the internet. We tend to think we’re quite responsible parents and so have set him up with his own user profile which has parental controls set for times he can use it, how long he can spend on and, probably most importantly, internet access locked down.

The computer also stays in the lounge where adult(s) are present so we can keep an eye on what he’s up to.

You can imagine my surprise when this week he asked about a YouTube video that had come up with the question “Is This Child Abuse?” as a title.

It turns out that to limit childrens’ access to YouTube you have to sign up for a Google account or you have to set the Safety setting to ‘On’ every time your child goes to the website. I have a google account so did the necessary with each of the three browsers on my laptop that he sometimes uses. In view of the default ‘Off’ setting I thought I’d just test out the settings.

On the home page there was highlighted an excerpt from Black Mirror, with the following summary:

Catch Up on the Latest TV

This week… Charlie Brooker’s blackly comic ‘Black Mirror’ premieres to much acclaim (and horror!) in the first ep ‘The National Anthem’;

Safe for children? I don’t think so.

Clicking the link brings up the following screen:

I took the laptop to MiniG-T and asked him, “If you saw this, what would you click?”

It took four goes and some encouragement to read all the text before he finally worked out what he should click.

Personally I don’t think this is good enough. At the very least, the ‘yes I’m 18′ button should be swapped with the ‘cancel’ hyperlink to save younger children from seeing images that they shouldn’t see.

What do you think?

Fall Back

Don’t forget to put your clocks back one hour this Saturday!

If you live outside the UK feel free to do this too…

Special

Not special because of the inherent qualities of the bike, or because of my skill in riding, but for the sensations of a relaxed ride on a gloriously warm evening. The wind, the smell of country air as you meander along winding roads, the views out over lush green fields with the sun shining through the reddening leaves of autumn-touched trees.

Flying

This is my favourite picture of MiniG-T. Thanks to Mark for the suggestion on how best to crop the image.

Cassie

1995 – 2011

The Phone Zone

The phone rings and I can see it’s MrsG-T calling. I answer.

“I’ve dropped my iPhone and smashed the front.”

After ascertaining that she can still use the touch screen and therefore that it’s only the glass that’s cracked I go online to find a way of getting it fixed. Googling iPhone repair Coventry brings up a seemingly never-ending list of companies that clearly aren’t located in the city but have tags with every city name in the UK, and require you to mail your handset off to them. I don’t want to do this.

So, unexpectedly, I find myself in Coventry city centre on a Saturday morning looking for a phone shop. After trying a few unhelpful ones, including an Apple specialist (their advice – drive to Solihull or Birmingham, hand the nice Apple Genius your handset and £120 and they’ll replace it. Umm. Yeah. Right.), I arrive at The Phone Zone.

The man behind the counter is very helpful but can’t do the repair that day due to another commitment. I indicate that it’s fairly urgent as my wife needs the phone for work on Monday.

He offers to do it on the following day, Sunday and informs me of their opening hours.

I arrive the next day and, as it turns out, he’s arrived an hour early just to help us out. He takes the handset and I wander off to grab a relaxed coffee. Forty-five minutes later I’m back.

The handset is not only as good as new, but he’s beautifully fitted a screen protector to try and avoid the same thing happening again. And he charged a very reasonable price.

So, thanks for the Good Service to The Phone Zone.

Click here to find out their contact details.