The Boy Who Likes To

What I'll miss; Sunsets

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:50:00 +0000

With around four more weeks living time here in Spain I thought I'd take the opportunity to show you what I'll miss.

With the main source of light coming from the huge patio doors I always see beautiful sunsets. Everyday without fail. Back in England I'll be lucky to see a handful of these.

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Nerja '79?

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:10:00 +0000

Is this how Nerja looked 30 years ago?
Playing around on Picsay for Android

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From a different angle

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:25:00 +0000

No matter how much equipment you purchase (for these particular photos a few hundred pounds worth of camera, another few hundred for lens and filter) sometimes photos look best when taken from a different perspective.

In this case we gave my dads Nikon D90 to some child on the beach, who was supposed to be handing on flyers for the local Wai Wai Wok but was instead asking to use the camera.

Here are his results; some of the face from down on the beach.

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Spoiler Alert

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:32:00 +0000

Spotted this ride with some major spoiler help. Don't know how poor this guy thinks his aerodynamics are but can't be four spoiler bad.

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You're my hero

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:37:00 +0000

I have a new youtube hero. shane12lee. This guy is awesome. Inspiring stuff

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http://www.learnsomethingeveryday.co.uk/

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:53:00 +0000

Have just came across this website, http://www.learnsomethingeveryday.co.uk/ It's awesome!

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(Beach)Race warm-up

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:21:00 +0000

There's a jetrally boat race at the beach this weekend. Thought I'd have a little look.
The race line passes in front of the balcony, shame I haven't got a decent zoom camera :-(

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The Feria

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:02:00 +0000

A brief visit to the feria. Far too packed to even move.

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Not to Fall pre-feria

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:22:00 +0000

"Smithster" guest mic'ing with Not to Fall.

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More mantis

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:36:00 +0000

(I need to learn to shrink these photos before emailing them)

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Looked what the cat dragged in

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:28:00 +0000

Each evening Liz Lemon and Scruffy cat will play on the balcony. Lately they've been fighting over a small rubber lizard toy.

Tonight was slightly different. There was a bit more commotion. Almost like the lizard really was alive.

Then I took a closer look through the big glass door and noticed that Liz Lemon had in her a mouth a praying mantis.

Me, lover of all creatures attempted to save the poor praying mantis from the clutches of an over excited kitten.

After looking half dead on the floor I slid it on to a card (actually it was a wedding invite, sorry sis) and placed it in a bush. Where it made a quick recovery and climbed up the branches.

I've kept on guard for the mantis for the last hour or so making sure none of the cats spot it as they do their casual walk across the wall of the balcony. Luckily none have noticed it but they have spent more time in that corner then before. Perhaps they know and are just playing with me.

Perhaps not.

Either way. The mantis is fine. And it's still sat on the same bush just hanging around.

Good catch Liz Lemon

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Instructions

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:46:00 +0000

My regular bread now comes in a new bag. This new packaged bread has some instructions. Not instructions on how to make sandwiches, I know how to do that. But instructions on how to tie knots.

I also know how to do that.

All this is for a new way of keeping the bag closed and the bread fresh.

Change is good.

And just to prove I can follow instructions.

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Time for a catnap

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:01:00 +0000

You better be tired. You woke me up at 5 today.

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Went to a gig...

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:45:00 +0000

Went to a gig on Saturday. Could of sworn the lead singer was out of Shameless.

Sorry for poor quality photo.

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Somewhere in the World this just happened

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:55:00 +0000

There is no better way to start the day then with a good conspiracy theory.

Hitler Still Alive

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6242144/Adolf-Hitler-alive-weird-conspiracy-theories.html

Somewhere in the World this just happened.

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Back to health

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:34:00 +0000

Liz Lemon is recovering well from her op.

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New Phone

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:52:00 +0000

A day and a half ago a little present dropped in my lap, a HTC Hero phone. I've had a while to play with it now and thought I'd give my impressions.

Here is my phone, as you can see it's my sisters birthday today, so Happy Birthday Sis!

For starters, the HTC Hero runs on Android, what initially started out belonging to Google. It's been plunked in to the same boat as all the other Apple iphone killers. Unfortunately, for reasons that I dislike Apple and it's software, I've never owned or touched an iphone/itouch, so I cannot make comparisons myself.

The phone itself is decent sized (112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm). A lot smaller then I had originally thought it was going to be. When I unpacked it I was surprised at just how small it was. It is a bit on the heavy side and the casing is made with some kind of metal but overall it makes the phone feel very sold and sturdy rather then a weak plastic phone.

The phone runs on an Android/HTC Sense UI hybrid software. Although I read on some forums that the phone suffered from some lag when changing screens/opening applications I've never encountered any of these problems. Also I was a bit lucky that when my phone did arrive there was a new update to upgrade the firmware on the phone which I think resolved some of these issues.

The phone can connect with your Google/Facebook contacts. Using your Gmail contact list your phone book will be updated, then using the built in Facebook app you can link a contact to their Facebook profile. You can then use their info, birthday/profile picture on your phone. It will also keep you updated with events and notifications on that person when you go in to their contact information.

The main focus of the Hero and Android is that you can download apps from the Android Market (similar to that of Apples iphone apps). Most of the apps are free. A lot are pointless (apps that give you a switch to turn on/off bluetooth/wifi/GPS, I don't understand when the phone already has them???) Downloading apps is straight forward. You go to the Market application on your phone either search or browse for the app you want and click install. A few minutes later you will be told that the app has installed.

The main feature with HTC Hero's Sense is that you can have 8 scenes or home screens. To switch between scenes you swipe your finger. Each scene can have any app or widget running on them. You can have one scene for media, another for settings, on for texts and emails and another for your address book. It's all very customizable. And the widgets are very cool. Rather then just being a button you click to get access to a certain app, some apps, like the built in Twitter app Peep, can take up a whole screen and will constantly run in the background getting your friends feeds, working in the same manner as a desktop top Twitter app.

Here are a few of my favourite apps that I've currently got installed.

Taskiller One of the few problems that I do have with the phone is there is no built in application manager. If you open a browser (for an example but this issue is with ALL apps) and exit it it will still run in the background. This eats up memory, battery life and in some cases if you're not careful you will get charged for data roaming fees. Android doesn't have a way of exiting or stopping these processes. That's where Market comes in and more specifically Taskiller. I found this to be one of the best ways of killing all running apps. If you go for the paid version you can have a little widget on your phone that shows all running apps and with one single click you can stop everything. Sweet. Another good thing about this is you can create an "Ignore" list. So if you want to always have Twitter or something running, add it to the Ignore list and it will never get closed with the one hit kill.

Gmote This app turns your phone in to a media controller for your PC. Connecting over wifi at any range (within that wifi) you can control your computers mouse using the touch screen and control media on your computer. Browse files on your PC, via your phones screen, select the movie or track you want to play and hit start. You can then pause, skip, play and control the volume from your phone no matter where you are in the house. Another feature of this app is what is being tested out in Beta. You can play songs/videos that are on your PC from your phone. So if you wanted to watch a movie while in bed but didn't want to take the laptop in, you can watch the movie straight from your phone instead.

Google Sky Map Using your phones built GPS and compass you can point your phone at the stars and then find out via the screen the name of that star. You can also search for planets and your screen will display an arrow showing which direction you have to face to see that planet.

Google Maps. It's Google Maps. On your phone. With one great feature which could possibly stop me from holidaying anywhere else. Here is a little video.

So using this I can stick myself in any city and go sightseeing from the warmth of my living room.

My Tracks For anyone who likes to exercise. Switch this app on and using the built in GPS and accelerometer this app will track your movements and measure how far you have travelled. It can then display this information to you in many ways including a file to add to Google Maps/Earth showing where you travelled.

PicSay Pro This comes in Lite or paid for variety. I got the paid one at around £2 (€2.37). With this you can add speech bubbles, effects (like black and white, blur, morph) paint and place amusing stickers on any photo on your phone. Then quickly and effortless upload those photos to your Facebook/flickr/Twitter/Gmail account. Highly amusing for getting new Facebook profile pics.

Netcounter With so much of this phone connected to the internet it's always a good idea to see how much date you are using. This is one way how.

(Luckily the phone has a big tick option in it's wireless menus to switch off all data roaming so you will only use wifi.)

ChompSMS A different way to view text's. Customize the colours of your inbox but the main point to this is you can view your texts in an iphone style speech bubble conversation way. And even all that is customisable.

Last.fm Listen to Last.fm radio or simple just scrobble what your playing and send to your Last.fm account.

Metal Detector I have no idea why I would ever need to use this. Or when. What I know is that some how, maybe magic, this app actually works. Switch this on, hold your phone next to something not metal, nothing. Hold it near something metal and the phone starts vibrating. Some Android based phones are shipped with metal detecting sensors.....WTF!!!

I can't think of many things I don't like about this phone. The battery life up to now isn't very good but saying that I've had wifi and GPS switched on since I got it and been installing/playing around a lot. The one big problem I do have though is getting the back cover off. Rather then having a little button to push to pop the back off the phone this one has a thin hole that you have to stick your thumb/nail in to just pull the back off. And with the SD card slot being inside the back cover I have a horrible feeling I might break off a little important hook-y thing one day taking the back off.

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New Ring Tone

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:27:00 +0000

I want to make this my new ring tone

2001: A Musical Oddity

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You Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:53:00 +0000

Chicken Ring Tone
Download now or listen on posterous

Chicken Rong tone.mp3 (143 KB)

I've just got round to watching Arrested Development. The first time this came on the air a few years back I think it was on the BBC and like most American shows the BBC picks up it puts it on at the most ridiculous time.

I only caught a few episodes of the first seasons and thought it wasn't for me.

Recently I watched the whole lot. I'm not sure at which point but the show turns from so-so to laugh out loud funny half way through season 2.

If you haven't yet seen it I highly recommend it, even just for the Chicken Dances.

Also if you want your own chicken ring tone, here you go (taken from a different scene)

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More then just washing

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:44:00 +0000

Spotted this very youthful praying mantis hanging on the washing.

Think I'll wait until it's left before I bring in the washing.

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Last.fm+Spotify=Finger-firmly-on-head-Genius!

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:49:00 +0000

If only there was someway I could get my last.fm/recs feed directly in to Spotify.

Robbie

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Tapas

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:52:00 +0000

The family is here. Yesterday I took them out for tapas.

The only photo from the tapas bars as I was too busy stuffing my face.

For the first time I tried squid. Not battered squid rings but actual fried and left whole on your plate squid. It was very nice.

09/09/09 09:09:09

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:09:00 +0000

It happens less then a Blue Moon (which next occurs 31 December 2009 for your information)

It won’t happen for another 100 years….or another hour if you’re living in the UK.

And to continue the recurring 9 theme...

Gardening

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:10:00 +0000

Off doing some gardening.

Not much has changed

noreply@blogger.com (Robbie) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:34:00 +0000

So I’ve been back in the UK for almost two weeks now. Already looking forward to getting back to Spain. Not that I’ve hated or even disliked my time here, it’s just been way too busy here and the weather is well rubbish.

I’ve not been up to much since getting back. Seen some old friends. Not much has changed. I don’t have much to update them with (another reason why my blog stays quiet for weeks on end these days)

Some highlights have been.

Watching Chelsea beat United in community shield. Many reasons for this, I’m a Chelsea fan, was good to be drinking with me dad while watching football (always a favourite past time) and it also means that football is back. (It’s even better that today’s back pages are full of Ferguson’s rants rather then the actual football.)

BBQ. My dad decided to throw a last minute BBQ. Well, one had been half planned for last weekend but it was a bit on/off. Friday we made a definite plan it was on the the very next day. In all there was about 15~18 people there and I was the lone chef. It was a bit tricky trying to cook for that many people. Some sausages did get burnt but no one has since complained about stomach bugs, which is nice.
I was even told that the plain chicken I cooked for the step brother was ate, despite him being one of the highest critics of food I’ve know. Even in restaurants he might not eat if the food isn’t perfect, so for him to eat my BBQd plain chicken was good to hear.

During the BBQ there was also a challenge set by my dad. He challenged my friend to jump on some massive trampoline in the garden, bounce down on to his bum and bounce back on to his feet. All in one go. My dad (initial) failed and took him three attempts. Here is mine..

Check out the celebration.

Some lowlights.

Drinking everyday. I’m not a huge drinker of alcohol. Just a social drinker. Except since being in England I’ve seen different people each day in different social situations….and drank at all of them. Don’t think my body can take much more.

My trainers. I came over with just one pair of trainers. Early on in the “holiday” the sole on my left shoe became unglued and now slides down my foot by about an inch or so. That means that when I stand (which is something I’ve done a lot in pubs and bars) my heel rests on the edge of the thick sole giving me a sore heel. Unfortunately all my other shoes are back in Spain.

Insect bites. Since living in Spain for about 16 months I’ve been a bit lucky and only had a handful of insect bites. Being in England for a few days I’ve received a back full of bites. I guess that might have something to do with the fact that there is more skin on offer in Spain and in England all skin is covered up under jumpers and coats at the moment, so any exposed skin for any amount of time, say a topless guy doing some lawn mowing and gardening for his dad, might get a load on his back.

And that’s been it. Apart from the big wedding at the end of the “holiday” I have not much else planned. eat a pasty, maybe a KFC. Speaking of which I haven’t even had a single sandwich yet, should really sort that out asap. Perhaps tomorrow when I’m in Liverpool (which is home to my all time favourite sandwich shop).

And I have to do it all again in a few weeks time when I return in November.