Revival?

Well, it's been some time again. I am a little frustrated with Facebook, too much rubbish coming into my flow, and too much ill-tempered debating. So I started cleaning up my blog after a long time and thought I would put up a post to possibly get going again. There is much more to do though, but this is hopefully a restart.

I have now retired, and have therefore time to enjoy walks in London, meet friends and have a coffee or a meal. Great!

I Have Nothing to Write About

Well, that's how it feels at least. I just can't get started. I find it difficult to focus on material for this blog. Self doubt has started to creep in.

I could write about the goings-on in the garden, the in-fighting greenfinches, the cheeky squirrels, the blackbird splashing in the bath, the new bird feeder stand in black metal and preying cats, but I don't.

I could write about the progress of the book I am trying to write (in Swedish), currently at around 100 A4 pages after a lot of editing (deleting mostly), how I struggle sometimes to write anything for long periods of time, the joy of actually achieving something, but I don't.

I could write about my part-time work at a boarding house where I sleep in an uncomfortable bed, supervise spotty teenagers and drink lots of tea, but I don't (partly because of confidentiality).

I could write about how I invigilate GCSE and A-level exams, but that would be plain boring, so I don't.

I could write about life as a civilian dependent in a NATO community in Germany, the imminent relocation of half of this community to the UK, the many second-hand cars in the main car park people are trying to sell before they leave, the anxiety of many colleagues because of an uncertain future, knowing the whole garrison will close in a few years' time, but I don't.

I could write about our own situation, where to move next, where to settle and eventually retire, Sweden (where only I have lived), France (where we only have a holiday home) or the UK (where both of us have lived), but I don't.

I could write about my health and the complication of doctors trying to establish which type of diabetes I have got, type 2 or 1.5 (LADA), but I don't.

I could write about the joy of still having my mother (87), my son and two grandchildren, other family and friends, but I don't.

Why don't I?

I Take Too Many Photographs

Or do I? I seem never to be able to catch up and put the best ones on my photo web site Pictura Digitalis. Not only are there many images, but I have also realised that I needed to re-design the navigation slightly to make it easier when numbers grow. I am in the process of doing that now.

Once I understood how to use the web-building software it did not seem to take a lot of time, but I think I now have found a way of making it easier for the future.

Creating new galleries is rather time-consuming though. That is why I have not had much time to blog, and even less time to read other blogs. But now I have almost caught up and the site is more or less up to date.

To make up for my absence I post some new images that also will be found on my photo website.

Please visit. I would love to hear what you think.

 

                   

 

The Internet And Home Security

A blogger friend of mine said that she and her husband were going on an extended weekend trip somewhere, mid-week! So more like between two extended weekends then? I thought it was a rather funny way of putting it. This coming weekend I myself am going to France to burn up a lot of firewood in the wood-burning stove and just chill out. That would constitute two extended weekends AND the days in between.

Have you noticed how I have not mentioned who this blogger friend is? I have done that out of consideration for her security. One should not let the whole world know when one's house is empty so web-surfing burglars can plan their activities and serve up a surprise for when you return. That seems to be common-sense advice in most people's minds.

However I have a somewhat different situation, living on a NATO base. It is populated by military and attached civilians of various kinds, among them teachers. Security is high, as you might expect, and burglary is almost unheard of. Although the roads actually are German public roads, the armed guards at the gates require you to identify yourself and state the purpose of your visit.

There is a German bus service which terminates here. The front of the bus displays "Hauptquartier", so it is no secret what this funny place is, but every bus passenger has to be questioned by the guard who walks down the aisle checking IDs.

Every time I return to base (ha ha), after having been into Germany proper, I have to produce my special ID or my passport. Sometimes the guard says "Boot 'n bonnet, sir!" Which means I have to personally open and show I am not hiding anything dangerous. Likewise all delivery vans have to be searched for obvious security reasons.

Both German police and British Military Police patrol the area, as well as a security force whose vehicles regularly come down even the smallest side street. So we should be able to feel extra safe and protected. Therefore I don't mind mentioning that I am going away, being under the protection of armed guards!

So even if you should forget to close your front door properly, the only real concern would be stray animals having taken up residence in your house while you've been out.

My Top Five Blog Posts – Statistically

 

Do you keep an eye on your stats? I do, mostly to see if I’ve had a visitor for the first time from a country, so I can add the flag to my little collection in a special flag folder on my PC. At the moment I have had visitors from 93 countries. Will I ever get to 100? Who knows?

The stats also reveal searches, both for text and for images. I am still amazed at how many elementary or primary school teachers search the web for work sheets on Pippi Longstocking, whom I wrote about a long time ago.

People all over the world also seem to be very concerned about their pulmonary health.

An increasing number of Brits are interested in finding out about Fougères Castle in Brittany.

The love padlocks (Liebesschlösser) on Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne pull in visitors from all corners of the world.

Then of course my blog post about Ryanair and their questionable policy on fining their passengers has a fast-growing number of hits. I am definitely not the only disgruntled (ex-) customer.

The List

1 Pippi Longstocking (lazy teachers)

2 Smoker’s Lungs (worried smokers)

3 Ryanair (frustrated passengers)

4 Love Padlocks (romantic people)

5 Fougères Castle (history nerds or holiday makers)

Building a Photo Web Site

I have been a very absent blogger of late. Sorry about that. The reason for this is that I am building a web site, and I am currently organising and processing lots of photos. The main structure is more or less in place, but the many photo galleries are hard work.

Why do I do this? Well, I just did not know what to do with all my pictures. I post some of them here and some on my photo blog, Camera Digitalis, so I thought I would display them in a much more organised way. I am building a straight-forward, no-frills, no bells-and-whistles site, although I use flash galleries to make it a little lively at least. Everything is done from scratch, no templates, because the only suitable photo site template that came with the software, was inadequate in my opinion.

The great difficulty is of course which photos to choose, how to categorise them and then to create the appropriate folders. After that comes the watermarking, since I want to protect my copyright. I am not so foolish as to think that all of my images are so attractive that people would want to copy them (steal them) all, but out of principle and for practical purposes I watermark every single one.

My particular interest in photography took off when I bought my digital SLR in the spring this year. Together with my previous compact camera photos, I have now many thousand images, although I have learned to be self-critical and I delete loads of them after transferring them to my PC for close inspection.

In the last couple of weeks I have trawled through gigabyte after gigabyte to find photos that I believe would be suitable. I am sure I will have second thoughts about many of them and take them off, and also replace some as I add new pictures.

One big issue is that I am not quite certain how much space they will use up of my total allowance, and also how long they will take to upload, so maybe I should launch the site well before I have completed all my planned galleries. Maybe I have to buy more space, we will see.

I am not far off now, perhaps a couple of weeks, so I hope to be able to announce the news before too long. It might come as a surprise to some readers, but I have decided to lift the veil of anonymity and use my real name on the new photo web site. I have nothing to hide, rather the opposite.

Weltkindertag - World Children's Day

We went to Cologne for the weekend and found to our surprise that the World Children's Day is celebrated on 20th September in Germany, not on 20th November as in the rest of the world. So when we went for a Sunday stroll along the river Rhine we were part of a lively crowd trying to negotiate our way between various activities and stalls where charities, associations and companies did their best to promote their merchandise or services. Anything to do with children was present. Although the fire brigade posing for a calendar shoot in front of the mighty cathedral was a coincidence, I guess.

I had my camera at the ready not to miss any interesting in this huge crowd. But I found it increasingly difficult to take photographs for obvious reasons. There is something called privacy and integrity, which are fundamental rights. Yes, we have all taken pictures of people who were unaware of it, or we were unaware of it ourselves and discovered that we had captured the image of a stranger who just happened to be there. That is quite understandable in most people's eyes, I believe.

I certainly find other people fascinating when I am out and about, for instance at a tourist attraction, and I enjoy observing  them as they are being absorbed by the the beauty of something, or they are reading a sign with interesting facts and their faces sometimes reveal their reactions and feelings. In such situations, I have to confess, I find it very difficult to resist taking a photograph secretly. But I am very reluctant to use it on my blog, because I am not absolutely certain where to draw the line.

When it comes to children the issue gets even more important and emotionally charged. I understand that most countries have laws that are extra restrictive to protect children, and we have all seen blurred faces or "headless" children on TV for instance. So you can imagine how hard I found it to take some interesting pictures at the Weltkindertag yesterday! I ended up with lots of abstract pictures and other unobtrusive pictures.

I have however managed to collect some harmless pictures to illustrate the event in Cologne yesterday. You will have to imagine the rest! (Do you find this issue tricky, how intrusive you can be with your camera?)

Why I Have Not Blogged for So Long

No, I have not had writer's block. I have not been without ideas, and I have definitely not been short of photos to illustrate blog posts with.

I have written a lot, but not for this blog. My ideas have gone into other writing. Since I last posted here I have taken about 1600 photos, some of which will appear here today and in the near future.

You see, we do not have a land line at our house in the French countryside, which means no internet connection. I have used my netbook on a couple of occasions to check email and to get news using a hotel's or restaurant's Wi-Fi, but I have not dared do internet banking or anything involving passwords and money. Neither do I have the necessary programs on the netbook to blog. I have, in other words, been bloggingly celibate.

The fact is, we do not even have a TV, just French radio, so we have been almost completely out of touch with the rest of the world apart from a few mobile phone calls and text messages. I will come back to our French holiday in a later post.

As soon as the school year was over, I and Ms Swenglish went to see my son's family in Stockholm. I do not think I need to tell you what a wonderful time we had. Among other things we went on a couple of sightseeing tours by boat in gorgeous weather.

I leave you for now with some pictures from the beautiful Swedish capital.

 

Now I might even find time to read other people's blogs!

Writer's Block - Blog Block

Writer's Block, Blog Block, Writer's Block, Blog Block, Writer's Block, Blog Block, Writer's Block, Blog Block, Writer's Block, Blog Block, Writer's Block, Blog Block, Writer's Block, Blog Block, Writer's Block, Blog Block, Writer's Block, Blog Block, Writer's Block, Blog Block ..........

Try reading that! How's that for a tongue twister?

Happy Valentine's Day to All My Bloglings

 

 

Word Verifications!

We all know about them, We all sometimes try to pronounce them and think of funny meanings in some lesser known language. They can sound funny, intriguing and also a bit rude. When you read them out loud they often take on a new meaning you had not thought of. If you are a speaker of more than one language you can have even more fun with them, but I won't demand any Swedish knowledge from my readers, not this time at least. But languages are fun!

I have collected these for some time and will now share some of them with you. You might need some imagination, like separating a word into two, skipping a sound or two and possibly mispronounce a word slightly.

Word Verifications

mentickl (and women don’t?)

handinis (Italian for little hands?)

comeal (when you actually eat together?)

ghstlamp (a spooky lamp without the O-factor?)

rimetr ( per rimetr fence?)

irandy ( sex-deprived Iranian man?)

witiose (how good/funny is he? a real witiose!)

esses (how many esses are there in esses?)

prictai (one of those naughty men who travel to the Far East for under-age sex?)

sockwuhl (is that some special wool for socks?)

tragism (the new word for tragedy?)

plizer (a really cool guy who plizzzes women?)

ainel (alternative spelling not to get unwanted blog visitors?)

comanest (a teenager's bed!)

amici (a proper Italian word!)

Bloglings

No, I have not made a typo in the title.

I was talking to Mrs S at lunchtime, and I referred to a phone conversation earlier in the day when I had spoken to a friend (little Noah's mum) who is not into blogging, yet. I explained about how easy it was to set up a basic blog and how you could manage and moderate it. She mentioned comments I have had, and how there seemed to be people who are regular visitors/commentators.

In my conversation with Mrs S I used words/expressions like bloggers, blogger friends, blogger acquaintances and other visitors for various people. So, a blogger blogs, a visitor visits, but when do they become blogger acquaintances and friends, I ask myself? Somebody you know a little is an acquaintance, who can later develop into a friend, you might say.

Then I misheard something my wife said, and I knew instantly that I had found the Word. She said blog links, but I heard blogling! What a perfect new word for people, other bloggers, you communicate with. It does not matter how close you feel to them, how you define them, they can all be your bloglings. I think the word has a positive ring to it. Instead of saying "Oh, darling!", you can now say "Oh, blogling!" or "Oh, my little blogling!". If you have very strong feelings you might get slightly confused and call somebody "snogling" by mistake. Tread carefully!

Am I silly or mad? (Please don't say yes!) No I just love words and languages, and to sometimes have fun with them like this. Somebody's got to come up with new words. Why not blogling? What do you think, my bloglings?

From Lo-Tech To Hi-Tech

I have had one of those philosophical moments thinking about technological development. I thought of my grandfather, who was twenty years old when the brothers Wright managed to fly an aircraft for the very first time on 17 December 1903. Well before he passed away in 1976 he had also seen the first man on the moon. Isn't that a wonderful, fantastic thought? In his lifetime mankind developed the technology to put a man on that mysterious round disc illuminating the night sky. However Leonardo da Vinci, that multi-talented brainbox from half a millennium ago with his many ingenious ideas, did not always get it right. Like this one ...

So I started thinking about technological milestones in my own life, so far. Typing this draws my mind back to when I was a little boy. Then I used a pencil for most writing; on the odd occasion we used metal-nibbed pens in school for handwriting practice. Later the fountain pen, despite the danger of making a mess of your shirt pocket or your pencil case, made it much more user-friendly since you did not have to dip the nib into a bottle of ink every five seconds. My first fountain pen though, was of the kind that you had to fill, sucking the ink up with a pulling movement. When the ink cartridge was introduced some time later you felt that things were really moving on. Then there was the ballpoint pen, the greatest of them all. How that has revolutionised writing by hand! They were initially not really affordable to the average person, but these days most people would not care if they lost their ballpoint pen.

Long before these relatively modern writing tools, the quill pen was the only alternative, the forerunner to the metal-nibbed pen. I still remember how, when I was thirteen, I had found a big wing feather from a buzzard or similar bird of prey, and I made my own modern ballpoint quill pen out of it by inserting the ink tube with ballpoint into the shaft of the feather. Genius, I thought.

As a lucky seven-year-old I was sometimes allowed to use my fathers typewriter. Remember them? When the ribbon got stuck, entangled and messy? And the arms with the letters on them jammed completely if you tried to type too quickly! Much better when the electric ones with the spinning ball were introduced. There was no stopping the world's typists then. The employers could demand even higher speeds, as long as you did not forget to put in the carbon sheet so you got a copy, because this was when photo-copying was relatively new and expensive. Do you remember those days?

I was a newly appointed deputy head teacher when my head teacher said I needed a calculator for my work. I would be reimbursed, he assured me, otherwise I might have hesitated. This one had solar cells, and I was so impressed by the whole idea that I asked the shop assistant how long the solar cells would last?! I still use my second calculator, which must be at least twenty to twenty-five years old; and the cells have not given up on me yet!

Thinking of sunlight, makes me think again of my grandfather, how he went about taking photographs. It was a slow process; at least that was what we children thought as we stood there waiting to have the group picture taken. The technology in my digital camera is quite different.

Then we have communication technology; remember telex machines? The sender had to either type, punching a tape that then (I think) was put into another machine producing typed text, or it was received as it was typed in at the other end. After telex came fax; what a revolution! You could send any document over the phone?! Unheard of! Put the sheet in the facsimile machine, watch it being pulled slowly through and then phone to check that it had been received alright. You could not really trust the fickle fax!

These days we just attach a document to an email, but hey, that was almost surpassing the computer! Young folk nowadays have little understanding of how quickly things have moved on with computers. The computer on the first lunar landing craft, The Eagle, had less memory than a modern mobile phone. I remember buying my first PC nearly twenty years ago, how I said that I did not want to become a second class citizen, I had to learn about this new technology. How things have moved on since!

In the beginning the features of a computer were extremely limited and when the internet started up it was a desperate struggle to find anything since search engines were in their infancy as well. Those of you who also know the whole development would probably agree when I say it has been mind-boggling.

I must not forget to mention mobile phones; texting, sending pictures, taking photos ...

We have come a long way from the bricks of the eighties to the iPhones. It is amazing; and you wonder what will come next. Did I forget the iPod?

And here I am blogging about it all in my personal little space in the blogosphere.

C u l8r!