youth retreat

I may have imparted a small untruth to you earlier in the week! I said I was going to update you on what had gone on at Youth Retreat but I didn't. Sorry - but my photos didn't come out properly.

Timmy "Good soundman, bad cameraman" Magic

rink youth retreat 2006

I write this evening having just returned from a weekend of good jokes and spiritual teaching at the Frontier Centre in Rushden.

I will share some of the good japes that were had tomorrow evening.

Timmy "Techie" Magic

visited countries

Thanks to some fairly mindless googling, I came across the UrbanArmy blog by Gordon Cotterill at Poplar, which led me to the blogs of some friends/other people I know - including Nick Hanover's

One of his posts makes reference to his visited countries and invite the reader to find out theirs! Can you tell what is coming?



create your own visited countries map

I have visited 6% of the world's countries - 15 in total

Timmy "Working on the 94%" Magic

high council 2006

So High Council 2006 is over almost before it has begun. Seven days after the official welcome to the High council, a new general has been chosen.

Current UK Territorial Commander Commissioner Shaw Clifton is now General-elect, ending months of speculation. Yet the speculation will start all over again in the coming days - who will be the new UK TC? who will take on the role of Chief of the Staff? what of Commissoners Gaither if he isn't asked to be Chief again?

I will keep you posted as and when I hear and for those who want to see the official news and webcasts click here

Timmy "General Shaw" Magic

the dogs, the job and the game

Happy New Year all! I know it's a little late for the Gregorian New Year - so for
convenience sake I am going to be Chinese for the next few days and thus be early with my "恭喜發財" or "Gung hay fat choy" for Sunday.

I hope this year of the Dog is everything you are hoping for!

This year holds many exciting things in store, not least the start of my training as a Police Community Support Officer with the Metropolitan Police, which starts on the 13th of February! 4 weeks at Hendon College is an exciting but daunting prospect!

I also discovered in recent days a game called "The Game".

For those who know how to play The Game, you have just lost!
For those who don't know, welcome to The Game, as per rule 1

To know The Game is to play the game. You can never stop playing.

Hopefully see you and/or speak to you within the next weeks!

Timmy "It's all about The Game!" Magic

festive felicitations

Hey all!

I hope everyone had a fun Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa period and are looking forward to a prosperous New Year.

As an aside, my official Ubuntu cds arrived in the post yesterday, so I have 4 going spare. If you wish to avail yourself of one, just holler and I'll send it to you! I will even waive the P&P charge (it is Christmas after all!)

Timmy "Have a magic 2006" Magic

ubuntu linux

I have recently made the move from Windows ME to Ubuntu Linux Breezy Badger and thought I would post to let you know how I am getting on.
(Ubuntu is a South African concept of humanity towards others)

For a start, Linux uses the resources available on the machine much more effectively. During installation it asks what you intend to use the computer for, and only installs the required software (eg network software, graphics programs and music players as per your needs). It makes use of some of the best free software on the market, including the cross-platform web browser, Firefox, which I use on my desktop in addtion to on my laptop and the GIMP, one of the best graphics programs around. Another great bit of software is OpenOffice.org which offers compatability for the entire MS Office suite as well as Adobe PDF support.

What is best of all is the fact that all of this is free. Linux advocates open source software, that is to say, the source code is freely available to be tweaked and changed to suit your requirements. As a result of this, even getting the CDs to install the operating system are free. To save on postage costs, and to widen the Linux usage, Ubuntu's Shipit system offer free postage of CDs, which are distributed as minimum orders of 5 discs. Do let me know if you want one - I have 4 going spare when they arrive.

The system requirements for the full installation are very low by today's standards, requiring only 128 megabytes of RAM & 2 gigabytes of hard drive space for desktop installation and 64 megabytes of RAM and 500 megabytes of hard drive space for server installation.

So if you are looking to broaden your computing horizons, or have a unused and antiquated PC lying around, Linux, and Ubuntu, might be the way to go!

Timmy "Blogging from Ubuntu" Magic

translations via MM

Further to the comments made the other day about playing a Dekan Jones piece at Expressions, there is soon to be a concert at Wembley by the famous pop group, "Nehmen sie", supported by the French group, "Prenez qui"

Timmy "Take What?" Magic

the chronicles of narnia

The time has arrived - the first film of the Narnia series, but as I said of the Lord of the Rings series, I won't see the film until I have read the books. This time round, however, I have started to read the series (actually I have finished the first book, 'The Magician's Nephew') and am really enjoying it. It is well worth a read.

Official Film Site

IMDB Site

Timmy "The Magician" Magic

bbc blogging

If you got the chance to see "Have I Got News For You?" this week, you will have seen the BBC's political editor and Andrew Marr's replacement, Nick Robinson. Nick Robinson has a blog, the BBC's first, on which he comments on the current UK and world political climate as well as his episode of HIGNFY and his debut as a Queen musician.

Here is the link to his blog, with his latest post talking of Charles Kennedy and his leadership issues with the Liberal Democrats.

Timmy "has a blog" Magic