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Inception – Great film

Marie Surprised me last night by taking me out to Bombay Bicycle Indian Restaurant in the holland park area, i can say it was awesome food, excellent service and an all round great restaurant, we were leaving at 8 and decided to see what was on at the cinema in Shepherds Bush and decided to see Inception.

Just as a rough guide of what inception is from the cinemas this is Vue’s description:

Blockbuster sci-fi thriller written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a professional thief with a difference: the spoils he goes after are not material objects but the thoughts, dreams and secrets buried in the minds of other people. This rare talent has cost him dear, rendering him a solitary fugitive stripped of everything he ever really cared about. When he is offered a chance for redemption by reversing the process and planting an idea rather than stealing it, he and his team of specialists find themselves pitted against a dangerous enemy that appears to pre-empt their every move. Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine and Joseph Gordon-Levitt co-star.

the film was very cleverly put together and had me on the edge of my seat throughout (although that could have also been the not so comfortable seets at the Shepherds Bush Vue cinema!) the actors played brilliantly and i really did like the love tragedy aspect of it, it almost made it a modern shakespeare equivalent it was written so well. The film did take a few minutes to really get going though and they perhaps could have gotten things moving faster but all in all it didnt detract that much.

The story was complex and at times i got lost in the details because the film was very detailed and it covered virtually everything, it almost made me think was this real or not. the ending was very cool too, wont spoil it too much but it leaves the imagination running high of the possibilities as it leaves just one question unanswered which runs through the film via the character of Leanardo Di Caprio’s Wife.

all in all a very good film to go see on a saturday night, as much as i get annoyed when people are noisy in cinemas, it was great to go see a film where the screen was mostly full rather than being only 1 of 5 or 6 people watching, there is something different about watching a film in a full cinema screen over an empty one.




How do i do it!

so how is my site built, its quite simple really.

i use Drupal which is a CMS system that uses PHP and MySQL its module based so that you can extend the functionality really quickly and fairly easily, this setup is reasonably simple and uses very few non “Core” modules.

some important modules that i would reccomend for anyone seriously working with drupal are:

1. CCK (Content Creation Kit)

not so much a module but a set of modules that allow you to do so much more with drupal by adding fields and the ability build custom forms as one example, its power is really shown when you combine it with Views, the best kind of overview for CCK can be found at: http://learnbythedrop.com/drop/86

2. Views

this is a module that can help you improve the way you display almost anything in drupal, it is essentially a smart query builder that allows you to present almost anything within drupal how you require it.

3. Wysiwyg, TinyMCE, IMCE, IMCE Bridge

these 4 modules combined make actual content creation so much easier, from a simple editor interface that resembles a basic version of your favourite word processor(TinyMCE – not actually a current drupal module), combined with easy file upload and picture management from IMCE, and producing good posts with zero HTML coding makes life a lot easier.

there are so many more good modules out there, and these are by no means the only modules you should use when building a drupal site, but they are a great base point to start from.

at some point i will point out some other great modules and give a life update soon, but for now its late and tomorrow i have to do some consultancy work for my local church which will involve the setup of a brand new dedicated server for all there web needs and emails, its going to be fun.




All Change please!

If your taking a look here and have visited previously, you will have noticed 2 things:

  1. New look
  2. A new post (yes this one!)

well yes you guessed it, i am kind of back! i have been thinking for a long time that i needed to give my site a long overdue update and sort out, even if only to stop the daily emails informing me that there is an update to drupal (the backend of the site)

as my work for Newfrontiers involves a fair amount of web work and the fact that i needed to create some sort of portfolio of my skillset (web and otherwise) having just finished the build of my first official website set to go live within the next week or so (more info later)

i thought about putting it here, sadly my choice of domain name several years ago just didnt feel appropriate (i was just a motorsport and racing game mad kid back then! – to some extent still am!) so my solution…

somersettechsolutions.co.uk

obviously my new site is still under active development (i only got the domain today!) but i am happy to say that i have my first working instance of the drupal multi-site functionality so only one update to do each time 🙂 so as i obviously have 2 sites now i thought that i need to layout my idea and plan for them.

i want this site to very much remain as my ramblings and other personal stuff, i dont want to say how often i will post (i will try as regularly as i can) and what i will post, but i would like to post anything and everything from my goings on personally, to random geek things i have learned or discovered or just plain random postings.

my other site will very much be a showcase of what i have done and can do so will have content relating to that (so geek stuff mostly!) i dont particularly want to run 2 seperate blogs so i will see how things pan out with regards to how i develop the new site.

this post is already too long so i will cut it short here, i already have a fair few things to say but i figure holding a few things back will give me content when i cant think of any and also build some suspense 🙂




FP Done

Well i have made it! a full 12 months of volunteer work completed! apologies for the lack of update over recent months but this has been a crazy time with everything that has happened from issues with my old flat, the usual shenanigans by local councils and a very busy few weeks surrounding Newday.

so Newday, it was an amazing time. i dont think i enjoyed it quite as much as i could have because i was so busy doing Newfrontiers IT work as well as serving in Cafe Edge (the best of course!) wasnt helpful having to travel back to London for church on the sunday morning, on the plus side i directed Visuals for the first time and it went ok.

so FP is done! i dont know what i am going to do with my Sunday mornings anymore (at least when i am not on PA or visuals, i guess at the moment i will be glad to have the rest and chance to lie in once in a while now 🙂 its been a tough but amazing year. God has provided in so many ways this year from People being in the right place at the right time, Very Generous people!, some luck with financial things and more importantly a new Job that i absolutely love! there have been moments this year i wished i could give up and just go and curl up in a ball somewhere and wish it all would go away. God has been with me every step of the way so far and i have needed him more than ever, if in 20 years time i only remember one thing from this year (other than that the production guys are awesome!) is that total reliance on God is a must! there have been many times where i have been naive about things and thinking it would be fine on my own, but nearly everytime something has happened in which i have been left thinking why me? every moment like that has left me having to lean on God just that little bit more, but everytime i did he came through in ways i could never imagine. for instance my new Job.

it was sheer chance that the particular job was going in Newfrontiers at the time and that the hours were suitable and that its a job i love and thats being an IT guy, or in english a professional geek! i have finished the year on a high, i am not as burnt out as i thought i would be and i definately am not a nervous wreck! so all in all this year has been challenging but ultimately a success, and for me a success that honoured God every step of the way which is amazing and i hope i can translate that into my working life outside of the christian bubble i have been in this year. this next year is going to be interesting for me. i will be going to City University to study Computer Science and i am fired up and cant wait!

its gonna be another awesome year, i only hope i can honour God in it as much as i did this year




General Update

well i revamped the site, so i might as well keep you all up to date with the comings and goings of my life, and besides i am feeling a little ill at the moment and cant sleep.

its been a busy week although it was a “normal” week – nothing is ever normal around here! sunday went incredibly smoothly, intially it looked like the production team were running late in terms of setup and lunch was late, but sound check, and rehearsal went well, and so did the service, i had been working on lighting states with Rhys, Paul and Tom during the week, and i think we have sorted all our running problems and not forgetting it now looks better! i have to get some time to work on a standard setup and program as the lighting arrangement settles down so that more people can learn how to do it and have just as much fun as i do! set down was just extra slick – i joined the ladies to help with refreshments and when i left the stage was already pretty much set down! and official leaving time (which is last person out of stage door – usually simon) was 20:13 which i believe is a record for set down on a baptismal service.

in terms of the service, it was awesome, it is always inspiring to see people being baptised in a west end theatre and to see 7 of them and at least 2 of them were friends was amazingly powerful, and i really felt Jesus calling “come follow me” through Adrian’s evangelistic message!

monday was same old same old, not much to say about it! tuesday was busy but productive, meetings, emails etc. one thing i do enjoy about tuesday’s is the chance to have lunch and spend time worshipping god and praying for things happening in the coming week, it is always a great time although quite often cold at the moment as we meet in a church building in parsons green! its great to share time with the elders, and its awesome that they can take some time out of there often very busy schedules to pray with the whole ChristChurch London team, they often have some interesting insight and quite often very humorous anecdotes!

wednesday was nice and cold! spent the morning sorting equipment out in our piccadilly store, didnt really get around to do much equipment checking as certain boxes were packed under other stuff so it was mostly a tidying and sorting morning and a little idea making and fact finding mission, not to forget picking up an orange tiny terror guitar head unit and cab unit from tottenham court road. now i worked both parts from TCR to the store, silly me should have thought and used the buses or even a taxi! for the afternoon i got to catch up with a good friend of mine, Miles, for a bit of lunch plus the grand tour of Bose, where he works, and i picked my favourite sound systems that if i won the lottery i would buy (after tything 10% to the church of course!!)

speaking of tything i must say god has really blessed me with this year so far and his provision is amazing and that was just by actually starting to tythe, at our offering service for example, i was really worried if i was in a financial situation to actually make an offering to god’s work, but when the time came to it i did so and actually felt glad i did, it was definately sacrificial and i honestly dont have any regrets for giving that money to god and if i did win the lottery tonight (i haven’t bought a ticket so unlikely!) i would most likely give a whole lot more than 10% of it to God’s work because he is so awesome!

phew that was a mouthful so anyway, wednesday concluded with heading down the golf bar to set up and run sound for our weekly alpha course (contact andy tilsley for more info – andy(at)christchurchlondon(dot)org), had some fun during setup when our pa broke and we had no time to go out and get the spare part (a fuse of all things!) so we had to use the golf bars speaker system, i haven’t yet had feedback on sound so dont know how it compares to normal.

thursday as always is a 10 am start for me however i mistimed tubes (in my favour) and arrived at around 9.30 ish in the office which was good as there was lots of little things to do and then the big thing that was setting up the new printer, which works brilliantly! and order parts to fix stuff and lots of admin things. thursday night was a slight non event, played some christian music nice and loud for about 20 minutes, router for the internet packed up so had to fix it! then got on with my study for my Frontier Project (FP). FP is quite a big thing to talk about so i will do that in another post soon! but needless to say i didnt feel i made any progress which is quite disconcerting, maybe i am looking in the wrong places i may even be forgetting to ask God more for help and guidance, who knows? i shall have to pray about it and ask for help!

friday, fairly slow day only 2 of us in the christchurch office, had to carry stuff to church for sunday and also did a little work in a bar in the evening for a party, its been a while since i last pulled a pint but i could almost say its like riding a bicycle! saturday, HAHA my lazy day no alarms set and i didnt wake up until 10 but for some reason i didnt get out of bed until 1pm! have not been feeling great of late and friday was the worst day because i had quite a cold, and wouldn’t be surprised if there are any tissues left in the office(sorry people!) i got to meet up with my brother for the first time in 5 years! which was good, it was a pity i had to cut it short because i was quite ill at the time (i suspect what i had eaten earlier in the day!) and well here we are, me writing this!

i think i might have to update this more often so i dont have to write as much at a time! maybe twice a week might work! if i remember!, the site will slowly change as i get to grips with the CMS system in place and start delving into the code and design/modify a theme for me! and i think the site name is due a change! until next time…

That’s How for Now!