1twentyeight — Brad Hamilton

I recently purchased a Flip Mino HD. Overall I’ve been really impressed with the camera. It’s dead simple to use, small enough to fit in your pocket, and provides very good picture quality. The one downside would be image stabilization. Because of the small size and light weight of the camera it can be difficult to keep still while recording. And forget about walking while shooting and getting a still picture. Another small gripe is that the FlipShare software, while allowing simple uploading to YouTube, it doesn’t allow for the uploading of HD video.

Here’s a short clip (50 seconds) of the view from the back of our house. Don’t forget to watch it in HD.

Three months, four posts, and now a re-design…sure, why not. I had great hopes for this site. I dreamt of it being a holding place for all things “me”. The dream is still there, but the thing about dreams…if you don’t get off your bum and do something with them they’ll just remain dreams. And so, I find myself busy with life, not giving to this site what I intended to give.

Then, after looking at it for a couple of months I decided I didn’t like the way it looked. So I set off on a search for a new look. I finally settled on the nice Bloggingstream theme by Woothemes. I’m not finished tweaking things. I still need to clean up the type and make sure some links are working properly. But for the most part things are as they should be.

So why should you care…because I’m ready to make the dream a reality. I’m ready to give to the site what I initially set out to give. If you’re still interested in following along and joining in then I welcome you.

And by the way, just because I’ve not been active here doesn’t mean I’ve not been active at all. Sometimes it’s just easier to post to Tumblr, and of course Twitter.

Here are some things that caught my attention this week:

• Tweetie for Mac comes out on Monday, April 20th. I’m pretty excited about this one. After trying Tweetdeck, Eventbox, and Nambu, I’m hoping Tweetie succeeds where the others have failed.
• London Street Fashion is a pretty cool site that shows fashion photos from different parts of London.
• Oprah is on Twitter. It’s suddenly less attractive to me now.
• I’m really digging the look of Tim Van Damme’s personal site – maxvoltar.com. Very clean look, nice use of the grid.
• Church in Britain is in a sad state of affairs. NPR Article.

Have a great Sunday. See you next week.

…at least that’s what I was told last night at Ignite Cardiff. It’s hard to describe exactly what Ignite is or who it’s aimed at, but let me briefly try to explain.

Basically, a presenter is given 5 minutes, 20 slides at 15 seconds per slide, and can talk about anything they want. Last night there were 11 presenters with topics ranging from the truly geek (“Drupal”) to the truly philosophical (“Change”).

The crowd was predominantly male with an average age in the mid-30′s. I would also suspect that the majority of people in the crowd had some interest, either hobby or work, in web technologies, design, social media, etc.

A couple of highlights:

• Pete Prior talked about how he’s tagged his cats with an RFID collar and now knows when they leave the house. You can follow his cats movements on Twitter.
• Lloyd Morgan talked about the psychology of wine. Don’t order the second cheapest bottle of wine on the menu. It’s been marked up the most.
• Rob May gave us all a plan for retreating to Cardiff Castle should zombies attack the city.

All in all it was a good night. I’m looking forward to the next Ignite Cardiff. Thanks to Cardiff Web Scene, Nocci, and Lonely Planet for putting on the event.

I think this is pretty cool: http://ignite.oreilly.com/

I’ll be attending Ignite Cardiff. http://www.cardiffwebscene.com/events/ignite-cardiff-2

Cheers.

There are certain things that I have a thing for. Me having a thing for these things is what makes me me. Hope you followed that. I wouldn’t say that these things are things that I’m passionate about. I’ve written about the things that I’m passionate about elsewhere. But these are things, some simple, some unfortunately expensive, that bring a smile to my face. They give me that nice little feeling in the place that you get nice little feelings. So, I give you…the things that I have a thing for:

• Moleskine Journals – I currently have 7 Moleskines, each serving it’s own purpose. Here are the first 5 (from left to right):

2009 Pocket Weekly Notbook (soft cover)
Address Book
Large Plain Notebook (my primary journal)
City Guide Journal (Barcelona)
Small Plain Notebook (for taking notes in meetings or when I’m out in the city)

The next 2 Moleskines are my favorites. These were given to me by Julie this past Valentines Day. They are small lined pocket journals. They are from a limited edition made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation of the font Helvetica. They were made available at a museum exhibition in Japan, and had to be purchased from the Asia Moleskine website. They are still wrapped, and I haven’t decided when, or if, I’m going to open them. They’re just too cool to write in. And I figure if I do decide to write in them it better be something special I write about.

• Pens – For some reason, ever since university, I’ve been on the hunt for the best pen that doesn’t require me to sell my organs on the black market. After all these years I still haven’t decided what the best is, or if I prefer rollerballs to ballpoints. I do know that fountain pens are at the top of the list, but not for everyday writing. A Mont Blanc is on the wishlist, but it will have to be a Christmas present. Here’s what I use currently (from left to right):

Staples Optiflow Rollerball – not great, but can be used in a pinch.
Uniball Rollerball – my most used pen
Waterman Fountain Pen – the special occasion pen
Sensa ballpoint – first “real” pen I owned. Valentines gift from Julie years and years ago.
Parker Profile XL ballpoint – my current favorite

• Watches – For some reason I just like watches. I like big watches, but if they get too big they look funny on my arm. I’ve owned Fossil, Guess, and until recently a Timex Helix, which I loved. I currently have a Tissot T-Touch (stainless steel), pictured below. The glass is tactile sapphire crystal which means that it is touch sensitive. I love the Tissot. By touching certain parts of the glass I can tell the temperature, altitude, barometric pressure, direction (compass), set an alarm, or use the chronograph.

• Type – I’ve got a thing for type…or fonts…or more specifically, the use of fonts to convey a message. I’ve got favorites, but honestly, if you’re still reading at this point you don’t want to be reading about the names of fonts. So instead, I’ll show you a picture of a special find from a few weeks ago. Julie and I (and the kids) went about an hour northeast of Cardiff to a store called Bailey’s (I think). And I found this old type set. It has the complete alphabet, plus numbers and punctuation marks. I think the font is Helvetica Bold Condensed. I’m not sure what I’ll use it for, but I couldn’t pass it up.

So, that’s part of me. The things that I have a thing for.

I was reminded this week, through the newspaper and my kids, about the power of words and influence. The first occurred when I read an article in the Times about Jim Rogers, a big time American investor. According to him, the sterling (or pound), the currency for the UK has lost it’s value. The result of Mr. Rogers words sent the pound to a seven year low against the dollar. While this is great news for us it’s not so great news for the millions of investors here in the UK.

The second occurred as Julie and I were watching the inauguration. Harper and Brooks were off to the side playing when all of the sudden Brooks walked up to the TV and punched it. We paused the inauguration and through a series of questions and answers found out that he hit the TV for no other reason than his big sister told him to. You see, Harper (age 6) is finding out that because of her position as the bigger, older sister she has influence over the actions of her younger, impressionable brother (age 3).

Both of these events got me to thinking. In my circle of friends, family, and acquaintances I must be cognizant of the fact that my words contain power. I can build up or tear down. I can encourage or discourage. And I also carry influence, to some degree, over those in my life. What am I influencing them towards or away from? Does my influence build up the Kingdom or myself?

We must always be mindful of the power of our words and the influence we have.

Cheers.

I’m not much for New Year’s Resolutions. To me, they are thinly veiled goals, which the average person isn’t good at setting and keeping anyway. I’m not a big goal setter, so it only makes sense that I wouldn’t be a resolution setter.

I read yesterday where John Stickley, in writing about the same topic, quoted the Apostle Paul who said,

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

That’s quite a resolution. But for the not-yet follower of Christ this type of resolution probably carries little weight. Even for the follower of Christ it needs to be unpacked a little.

I thought I would take a shot at unpacking it by talking about affection. Typically, our affections are stirred toward someone or something. It’s a general fondness or liking of someone (something). And when we have an affection towards someone (something) we are usually influenced by that person (thing). I’ve started thinking about what stirs my affections for Christ. This is not new, others have written about it before, but it’s a new way of thinking for me. So, what are those things in my life that stir my affections for Christ…those things that put my focus where it should be and result in a natural worship of God and an increased involvement in His mission. Here’s a short list of things that stir my affection for Christ. It’s not exhaustive, will probably change, and is no particular order:

• spending time with Julie
• the laughter of my children
• the book of Romans (the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Rome)
• anything by John Piper (sermons, books, podcasts)
• a good conversation with close friends
• most songs by U2

My encouragement to you in this new year…find those things that stir your affections for Christ and focus on them. Don’t resolve to be a “good” person or a “better” person. One, what is a “good” person anyway, and two, you won’t succeed. Instead, allow your affections for Christ to be stirred and you will be better for it.

Cheers.