Back in the UK - for a while.

Hello Blog.
Hello everyone who reads this blog.
Hello google-bot.
Hello world.

It's me. Daniel. Back again. Exciting, wot?

So, we're back in the UK. I arrived back here literally 4 hours before getting on to a bus to go to TeenStreet in Germany, which we (OMNIvision) were doing video and some sound and lights and so on for. After two weeks of running this event, which I will tell you all about - later, which was very cool, we came back to the UK.

10 days later, Adam, Becky and myself went across to the Nederlands for our friends Jurgens and Eleanor's wedding. Which was lots of fun. We came back after that to the the UK again.

Bridget (from that biggish place near New Zealand... um, forgottern what it's called. Aus something? Something with trailers? or something?) also came with us back to the UK, and was here with us for about a month, hanging out, working at OMNIvision, and so on.

Then 10 days ago (or so) Bridget took us over to Malta, so see the Logos Hope for a few days, and also Becky's dad and church there. I'd never been to Malta before, but Becky grew up there, so that was VERY cool. Malta is beautiful.

I'll be posting more detailed stuff and photos later.. This is just to catch y'all up to date, you know.

So. We then came back to the UK, last week.

Now for the next scattered layer of events in between those all.

Yesterday we ran the video and lights for the Northern Women's Convention, which we've been doing for the best part of a decade every year now, I believe.

On friday morning, we set up our whole smaller OB unit (the bus - aka "The Tardis") at the main office for devotions, we filmed a bunch of stories people were telling. We hadn't set up the unit in a while, so this was good to check everything was working before the Women's convention... one bad camera cable, one missing focus adaptor, not much else actually wrong.

Two weeks ago, just before going off to Malta I ran sound and we did a spill-over room for the local Baptist church - as they had a new minister arriving (for the first time in decades) and so there were a few hundred people along. I'm in the middle of overhauling our sound equipment / side-racks stuff, so it's good as well getting these smaller gigs to test things on.

I also went down to the Quinta and ran sound for them for their big 30 years Quinta+OM celebration a few weeks ago.

I do enjoy doing live sound stuff. I still wonder quite frequently if I should somehow go and do some more official training for it...

Oh well.

So, that's the grand scope of my last few months, I'll post more details soon.

This week...

Some pictures from the week.

Treatment for insect bites.

Measurements of the new theatre building.

My blender mockup. We're still discussing.

You can't work efficiently in blender on a laptop without an external keyboard and mouse.

Beautiful Greek letters! I find keyboards and mice from supermarkets are the cheapest, and the longest lasting. Apple and Microsoft branded mice - just say NO!

More clutter destined for the trash.

Why it may be worth going to Sunday Morning "Church Services"

At a Sunday morning in Birmingham, the dude running the event got up to lead a prayer. Being an Anglican service, it was a pre-written one. Alas, he picked the wrong one, and only realised half way through:

"Lord God, we have sinned, oops. Sorry..."

Thoughts...

We've booked our tickets to leave Cyprus in a month-ish. This time has gone SO fast ... it did last time too.

I've started thinking about "stuff". Very vague, I know. More, possessions type stuff. Here's a picture of my cupboard:


as you can see, crammed full of all kinds of bits and pieces. From recorders (blockflöten) to juggling balls to old marmite jars with elastic bands to rope to old telephones to candles to old CD players to scissors...

I know I'm naturally something of a hoarder, and don't want to throw stuff away... but on Doulos I think I either learned to be more balanced, or else some how got even more messed up! :-)

By the time I left AV, I had picked up quite a bit of "are we using it? No? Is it working? No? OK, then throw it away." - I know Ant and Adam will claim somewhat otherwise *cough*oldA&Hsound-desks*cough* - but I know I've actually changed a lot. So now, looking at all this stuff in my cupboard, things I haven't used in over 4 years now... I find it really hard to want to keep it.

How is it helping me to have this here? How is it helping anyone? Am I using it? No. Is it working? Well, some of it, kind of. Will I use it again?

Probably not... well... some of it? Maybe?

Sentimental value seems to be something I no longer really care about much.

I've thrown out the old hand-made juggling clubs (plastic milk bottles, newspaper and kitchen-roll centers :-) ) and broken telephones (for a juggling routine to do with communication), and some other odds and ends, but amn't sure what to do with the rest.

Does it actually behoove me ( I've been wanting to use that word for AGES! ha! Done it! ) to throw stuff away?

Now I'm going back to Carlisle for a few years, and getting married next year, I need to think more about such stuff, I guess. I will no longer be a batchelor, able to just keep random clutter in a cupboard. I'm fine with that. (I'm pretty sure I'll end up picking up more...)

I do have a lot of projects on the go at once. Juggling stuff - one day I will get back into it more; Obscure music stuff - I will take up the bagpipes one day; art stuff - I love painting, I just haven't done any for a while; computer programming - a hobby. I don't want a job of this! But a little is fun; graphic design... etc... etc...

But it's not very efficient. I know I need to prioritise, cut away the cruft. I don't NEED this stuff! But maybe not? Maybe actually having lots of clutter and things on the go is actually how I function best? Or maybe not?

Isn't it great being decisive? Well, perhaps? Or perhaps not? Some times? Er...

So.

How do you make big announcements?

Do you blow trumpets and dance and stuff?

Or pretend like nothing is up and act all blasé?

Which is less pretentious? Which is less gauche? (I am enjoying using all these fancy words, but I have to use the flippin' spell checker to make sure I get them right, which rather spoils the whole sophisticated air of the thing. Oh well.)

I kind of feel I should respect my British heritage, and get all worked up about the tiniest things (such as toasters, knots, AV, coffee machines, and so on) and drop big announcements as if they're specks of dust being flicked from ones mess-jacket (not that I have a mess jacket, but it sounds right, Bertie Woosterish).

Enough of this blithering.

I'm engaged to be married to the most wonderful girl in the world! Life is a happy thing, full of kittens and sunshine and gentle summer breezes, and stuff!

Hopefully that somewhat fell between the lines of fanfare and faux pas, hint and hyperbole, I shall now go and dance for a bit.

The Abomination is Dead.

I don't like Mobile Phones.

I was somewhat forced by various parents (well, mine, actually) to take one with me, when I first went off to Doulos, 5 years ago.

Here it is:



I named it "The Abomination".

5 years later, I have conceded that they are somewhat useful. Alas, I dropped it this week. It now only does this:



So it is deceased. Good bye Abomination.

Rest in Pieces.

Larnaca

We've been in Larnaca for a couple of weeks now, it's good spending time with mum and dad, the cats, friends, supporters, etc.

Not so good are the mozzie bites. I'm being rather eaten - if it's not mozzies, it's some other kind of wee beastie of the "eating daniel" variety.

We've been spending a lot of time reading, resting, and meeting people.

And playing a LOT of Settlers of Catan, probably the best board game around.

between a clock and the next place...

Again, it's that weird time - about a week before leaving. Time to start packing and preparing, yet also not quite late enough that you can pack everything without needing to unpack bits again over the next week.

I've just been reading this book, which is quite challenging. I recomend reading it. Basically, it's the story of a young radical student type, who couldn't sit back and watch all the injustice and insanity in the world, and couldn't support ways to end it from his couch or by sending a tenner a month to TearFund, but actually had to get his hands dirty, go live with the homeless in his area, visit Mother Teresa, work with them, and so on. The longish review on Amazon.co.uk is good - it is quite an americo-centric take on things. But suck the juice, spit the pips, you know.

So - yeah. Becky and I will be heading over to Cyprus in about a week, for a few months. It feels quite weird. We should be back here by September, God willing. So many details to organise, and also so much to just trust God about, things we have no control over.

Oh, btw, Bridget, this photo is for you:



OMNIvision's new mobile book shop opened for the first time yesterday! Since Becky has been running the thing so far, sorting the books and generally making things happen, she was running the cashdesk (the ones from Doulos, strangely enough, which got shipped over to us) and I was able to take her out for a tea and cheesecake break in the afternoon. Cheesecake is good stuff. The bookshop is doing well, we're all pretty excited to be able to provide this service for the church in Carlisle.

And here's the last photo for the day:



Playing with my camera, I found some open source firmware which lets me do very fast shutter speeds. A bit of a hack, but hey. Fun to play with.

at quinta again

Back from Spain. It went really well. Really great people, and it was cool helping to support technically all these guys who are so excited by what they're doing.

Quite a surprise that some friends from Cyprus were particpants at the conference! So it was quite cool meeting up with them!

We've been back a week now. Becky was with some friends down south, and I was up in Carlisle finishing off some projects, and then we met up again on Friday, here at the Quinta.

Last time I was here, was for a few days break after my first 2 years on Doulos. I'm now here with Becky for a couple of days debrief with our home-office, and talking to some of the new people who are joining the company in september about life on board the ships.

It's again quiet, relaxing, and also very good hanging out with some of my friends from the Doulos who are living and working here now.

I managed to spend catch lunch with my brother and some friends in Birmingham on the way down.

Here's a crazy story:

Trying to buy tickets to get here, straight from Carlisle to Quinta would cost 40 pounds+... but if I booked Carlisle to Birmingham, and then Birmingham to Quinta, it cost 26.

I do NOT understand why. I blaim computers. They're evil. It's all a conspiracy.

We only have a few weeks more at Carlisle, for now, and hope to fly to Cyprus in about a month. Probably.

Then, hopefully, God willing, etc, to come back here for a few years starting some time in the summer.

We'll see how that all goes.

Travelling again...

This evening we'll be heading down to catch a ferry to Spain.

Exotic holiday time? Um, no.

Eloping? Um, also no.

Work? Yes. My name's Daniel, and I'm a workaholic. I know.

So, there's a conference in Spain, which our team here is covering the audio/visual side of. So we'll take the Outside Broadcast bus down by ferry, stuffed to the gunwhales (if busses have gunwhales, but anyway. Stuffed...) with equipment, and also a blue van equally stuffed full of equipment. Due to ferry time-tables, we arrive a bit earlier than we need to, so Becky and I can visit her mum for a day or so en route - which is pretty cool! Then we'll arrive at the hotel, and set up. The reason for the whole bus is that they also want everything videod and recorded, so we'll be doing a 3 camera shoot, and producing DVDs of it.

Becky will be running a camera, while I'll be in the bus operating the Camera Control Units, routing, recording, graphics and so on. I'm quite new at this - and while I got to do some last time I was with the team 2 years ago, I'm also quite glad that it's the usual chief engineer directing, so I can learn from him.

Anyway. Time to go and pack...

What the heck is twitter?

Apparently there's this new thing called Twitter gone and showed up while I was out drifting the ocean waves.

What the heck is it?

Just WHY is it popular?

What is the point, pray?

Why do posts look so UGLY with it?

Is there any reason to use it, and how can it be used usefully?

Half the media seem obsessed with it, the other half seem scornfully scathing of it...

New Blogging Software...

I just got some software, “MacJournal” which looks like it may be cool, I bought it with a bundle of other stuff. Hopefully this helps me to be a bit more disciplined with my blogging.

Let’s see.

New Blogging Software...

I just got some software, “MacJournal” which looks like it may be cool, I bought it with a bundle of other stuff. Hopefully this helps me to be a bit more disciplined with my blogging.

Let’s see.

So... Blogging.

Today marks 2 months of Becky and me being at OMNIvision, up in Carlisle. Time... is weird. It has gone so fast, and yet it seems like we've been here for only a few weeks, and yet Doulos is like another world away in the past.

I guess there will be another 200 odd people around the globe feeling the same way right now... and about 300 people every year have been feeling that for the last 30 years.

Our work is a bit random - we hardly know what we'll be doing, one day to the next. We spent a lot of time in our first week or two pulling wires out of a big OB truck, then about 10 days sorting out books, inventorying, etc, then a few days moving a server rack across the building, including making and crimping all the new cables/extensions. Then a bunch of random small editing projects, a live concert in Manchester (me on a camera, Becky as my "cable monkey"), Becky is working a lot on admin stuff - figuring out some of the shipping arrangements for equipment, and writing the OMNIvision manual, and I've been doing some cleaning, sorting, lighting design, editing, fixing stuff, inventorying equipment, measuring cables, pulling electric cables through ceiling spaces, writing 30 second advert clips, and so on...

Yes. Quite busy.

And yet, not... it feels in some ways a lot more relaxed and slow than Doulos... yet also it feels a bit like I have less free time.

Becky and I live about 20 minutes walk apart, and neither of us have cars. The Office - where we go 2 mornings a week - is 15 minutes one direction, and the Studio - where we work the rest of the time - is 20 minutes the other direction. Busses are slow, somewhat irregular, and expensive, so we're spending a LOT of time travelling. Also all the regular domestic stuff - cleaning, cooking, washing up, etc, takes time. On Doulos, I'd frequently be working until 6.15, pop down to the dining room, grab a plate of food, and the continue working while eating my meal. Same for lunch, and often Breakfast. Here, a meal can take over an hour. I guess it's good, helping me to slow down... but BOY is it frustrating.

Like yesterday, I hoped to get a video project edited and finished... but then after Prayer Breakfast at the Office, I got a lift to the Shed (where we keep the vechicals), and picked up some equipment there, then got a lift to the Studio, and it was already 12.30. At lunch, there were a whole bunch of announcements and talking... and then with computers taking a long time to work, and Final Cut Server being a pain, I didn't actually get to editing until 2.30pm!! And then Final Cut Pro decided to act stupid and to forget half the work I did with the Multi-Camera Editing tool (which otherwise is VERY cool...).... So I only really got about 2 hours work done. Still, I'd done enough prep work with the lighting to make the keying and stuff a fairly easy job. I spent most of today editing too, and so that's another piece basically finished.

I'm not sure if I like editing and that or not... in some ways it's a lot of fun, and I do enjoy it. Yet I also miss "live" theatre.

So. That's a bit about what we've been up to. I'll blog more about future plans... in the future.

Contrasts

Very Hot:


Very Cold:

email down...

Hello. Not especially bloggy, but enough people read this who might want to email me that it's worth saying...

I.T. have re-routed my on-board email to go to my gmail account, which is fine. The trouble is that I can't access my gmail on board, as their firewall blocks it. So I'm offline re. email until next week some time, probably.

Kind of makes things on board a bit more complex too, as almost all meetings and information about various events, etc, is communicated via email.

I'll try and go to the mall or something and get email access there somehow, but it'll be sporadic at best.

Today...

We saw a Penguin today, and named it Bridget.

Long time no update...

So I guess I'd better try and get back into the swing of things.

Well, it finally happened. Doulos is officially ending. In just under 3 weeks time.

Surprised? Well, I wasn't. We'd known that many issues were coming to light during the drydock, and it turned out the issues were more than were worth trying to sort out, for an increasingly short possible length of time.

You can read more about it on http://www.doulos.org/ if you hadn't already heard...

It's been public for about a month now, I guess... and so my girlfriend and I will be leaving Doulos in exactly 2 weeks.

We'll be going to work with OMNIvision for a few months, hoping to get a clearer notion as to whether we should go back there for a few years longer, later next year.

Right now, I'm pretty tired. I'm officially not AV any more, but working in training department, but still with many AV commitments, and jobs. I've not been able to hand over some of the last bits to my friend and replacement, as too many bits were caught up in the whole drydock thing, which didn't really end solidly, so stuff just dragged out.

I'm getting bits of my new jobs kind of messed up to - down to forgetting to organize someone to lead music this morning at the "Tuesday Morning Devotions".

I'm horribly behind with email, blog, newletters, packing and preparing to leave here soon, I'm behind on days-off, I have large projects I don't even know where to start on, and so on.

I'm writing this at 5am, after having stayed up all night working with the videographer on finishing an "End of Doulos" presentation video which is needed later today. I was mainly doing audio engineering / cleaning up work. We still need one shot, and so a couple of guys are heading out at in half an hour to go shoot it - us sailing Doulos into Vivo City in Singapore for the final time. Then it'll be rendering all day until getting shown this evening.

I also need to rig up an amplifier for some speakers in the bookshop this morning, and then I'm going out off the ship with the other Training Department people for the day.

It's busy.

More Before and After pics

Here you go, Carlien.


Before:


After:



Before:


After:


With nowt but vacuum cleaner and soft paintbrush (of course not stolen from Liezel, who's doing much more interesting things this dry-dock), this has got to be one of the most satisfying and easy jobs on the ship.

Non-AV post

So, dry dock continues.

I'm not hugely productive, alas.

I just can't seem to build up momentum to get a whole lot done in a day. I suspect a large part of it may be how horribly messy AV is right now. I'll spend as much time as I need tomorrow in cleaning up.

So, other stuff.

A List Apart is a really cool website. I've done enough web design to find the articles very interesting, and was just reading some of the ones about typography. I think I need to work on my blog to make it a little more beautiful to read.

It's unfortunate, I spend just enough time on the web and doing designy things to not be comfortable using the default layouts and all that, and want to make my own, but not enough to actually be able to do it very well. So the titles & dates, on this blog, for instance.

I modified the design last year while on furlough, and, having not spent enough time to really get my brain all the way around EMs and ENs, alignment, leading and everything, used something of a hack (I think) to get the date and title of each post a little closer together.

It looks OK to me, currently. However, if I forget to put a title, then it shifts up the date do that it overlaps some of the blog text.

Not good.

So, the answer, of course, is to insert a non-breaking-space into the title block.

But blogger won't let me do that! So, instead, I'll just have to keep on remembering to put in titles.

I'll be thinking a lot about vertical rhythm of text layout, and possibly make some changes to size and stuff later. I like learning these things as it helps fill in gaps in my head.

I sometimes wish for a fuller education. But given that I'm interested in EVERYTHING, it could take a while. Someone suggested I take a Liberal Arts degree or something like that. But then that doesn't really cover physics, electronic engineering , accoustics, psycology, software design, or that. It might help my spelling, I guess.

If I get a chance (which means, a bunch of years in a stable job with enough free time), then I may try and do something like that by corrospondence. But otherwise, I have wikipedia, a list apart, google, and the other tools of the 2009 home-educator's mind...