http://bit.ly/bbGxwJ I want one of these!

Bose have brought out a new TV that is supposed to have wonderful sound reproduction. I have an older Bose mini system that produces excellent sound from radio and CDs. When I can afford it, I think I'll try their new "speakerless" 46" television as shown here.

Duke of Edinburgh Award

I went to Derbyshire with two groups of Grammar School students who were doing their Silver expedition. They had to spend seven hours per day walking and working towards their "purpose" for the three days. They also have to cook for and take care of themselves, spending two nights in tents. One group had seven youngsters and the other six. Both bunches worked well together and did very well. On Sunday they walked a circuit from Edale to a camp site near Hope via Mam Tor and Lose Hill. I got one of them to take the picture of me on top of Lose Hill. 

On Monday they were supposed to meet me at High Neb which is one of the hill tops along Stanage Edge. I was up there some three hours in the cloud, cold and wet and only saw the two adult supervisors for the groups. While we were at High Neb, one of them got a phone call from the first group. They had decided that because the weather was so bad, they would walk along the bottom of the hills and were already at their camp site. We gave up on seeing the second group at about 4pm and walked down out of the cloud. When we were about a kilometre from where I had left the school bus we could hear voices. This turned out to be the second group. All were safe and well. 

Yesterday they had quite a long walk along a National Footpath that took them past Chatsworth House to the car park where I had the minibus and trailer waiting. Both groups were in good spirits when they reached the bus and said they had enjoyed the experience. They had doen really well, especially considering the amount of rain that they had to put up with. We got back to school at a little after 6pm, the lads made sure the minibus was clean & tidy and then they went home. A "job" well done.

Duke of Edinburgh Award

I have now finished my packing and am ready to go tomorrow morning. I'll be getting up at 06:00, having a shower and then breakfast before going to school and sorting out the minibus & trailer. It will take us about three hours to get to Edale where the two Silver groups will be dropped off to start their expedition. Once they are on their way, I'll go to our camp site to put my tent up and have lunch. After that I shall drive in to Hope, park the van and walk up Lose Hill to meet the groups and see how they are getting on.

 Coming from the "fens," I suspect that they will be tired when they reach their camp site. I have got a camera so will take some pictures of the scenery and the youngsters for their records. I am looking forward to it even though the weather forecast is not all that wonderful. They have to walk for three days and camp out two nights, cooking for themselves and generally being self sufficient.

Packing Up

I have startred packing up my camping gear for the weekend. Two teachers from school will be supervising a Duke of Edinburgh Award Silver expedition group each and I will be assessing them from Sunday to Tuesday. We have got the school minibus and trailer to take the sixteen of us, plus gear, to theDerbyshire Peak District. The weather is supposed to be cooling down for the weekend and that will make the walking a bit more comfortable for them. I will be taking some pictures and will post one or two for you to see. In fact, I had better put the camera battery on charge. Done that, so it should be cooked by the morning. 

My small walking rucksack will contain:- Waterproofs, windproof top, lightweight pullover, six person bothy, survival "bivi" bag, first aid kit, water bottle with fitted metal mug & "cooker" with fuel, lighter,  emergency rations, compass, map, head torch & spare batteries, wool hat & headover, and gloves. I also use walking poles to distribute my weight to help me going up steep hills. I almost forgot, comfy bum. Never go on the hill without soft toilet paper as one never knows when that particular bit of nature will call.

Challenge Team

I've just got off Skype afte having a conference with the team I am in for The Challenge this year. I am finding that the support, encouragement and knowledge sharing is a real boost. Not only for morale but gaining ideas and the means of using them too. When reading up on personal development I have noticed that just about all of the "gurus" recommend having a group of people to bounce ideas off, give support and be accountable to. As I am now experiencing these benefits, I can also recommend it.

http://bit.ly/9KpJ7g About Apple TV

Apple TV May be more powerful than you imagine. See here for today's details.

I am Lucky

I've been off work since Tuesday due to a collision on the road and have not felt up to much. I was walking across a road junction on my way to the school where I work when I saw something big and white looming from my right. It wasn't hanging about considering it was approaching a main road. I managed to get my arms up so that they could take the impact rather than my body. The van hit me and I did a little dance in order to stop myself going under the wheels. The van stopped and the driver and I exchanged pleasantries. I thought I was alright and carried on walking to school. Later in the morning I was writing instructions for the class on a board and realised that I could not raise my arm without a lot of pain the arm had become weak. I went to the local hospital for a check up. By this time my shoulders and upper arms were well stiff and sore. I was advised to go and put ice packs on the affected parts, take some paracetamol and keep moving the limbs. It was painful but I did it. Wednesday morning I was really stiff and sore. When I checked myself I found a bruise on my right knee, another on my right forearm and yet another on the back of my left hand. My left wrist had some small scratches where my watch goes and I could hardly move my shoulders and upper arms. I kept on taking paracetamol and gently moving & stretching my arms. It was hurting but Eileen told me that I must keep going. Yesterday afternoon I had a visit form a Police lady who did the accident booklet for the collision. 

This morning when I woke up I realised that my shoulders and arms were not hurting so much when I washed my hair. I am definitely on the mend and consider myself very lucky as if I had been a second or two later off the pavement, I would have gone under the van and been a lot worse. I am fairly sure that I shall be able to go back to work on Monday. Now I am going to use today to do some research and write some content for my web sites.

http://j.mp/96xc4b the myth of preparation

http://j.mp/96xc4b to have a look at what Seth Godin has to say on preparation. I have seen that many people give up just before they are about to become successful. A lot more try for perfection before they try to do anything. If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly at the start of your "doing process." We do not get better by doing nothing, we get better by practising. When I was on the firearms team, I practised drawing and shooting a lot. This brought a "muscle memory" that stood me in good stead when I needed to do shoot quickly and accurately. The old saying that practice makes perfect is not far from the truth.

http://ht.ly/2CGmB to see why most people fail.

Most people fail because they give up on their ideas, goals or targets. Ed Dale who started The Challenge is seen here giving a brief chat on why he believes that people fail at internet marketing and why people are not told the pitfalls for those trying to start up an online business.

http://t.co/yXgpfLG Singularity University Limited Briefing

Singularity University Limited Briefing http://t.co/yXgpfLG looks to be something that will interest a lot of people who are concerned about what we humans may have previously done to the planet and how we can possibly do something about improving it.

http://j.mp/conyyG to see Google's improvements.

Google Instant is just starting up and they state that we can save time by using their new system. For information on how it will work, go to http://j.mp/conyyG

Not for the Faint Hearted http://bit.ly/bDKfRD

I was sent this link http://bit.ly/bDKfRD to see the "top ten" low fly past scenes on video.  With some of them, the margine left for any error is minimal to say the least. Enjoy.

Back to School

The students started back at my school today. It seems to me that some of them have taken the school holidays as an opportunity to do absolutely nothing. What I mean to say is, they have not even done anything to enjoy themselves and I find that very disappointing. How am I going to motivate them to get some work done if they can't motivate themselves enough to have a good time? I have tried to explain to them that the UK government is going to make big cuts to many budgets and I reckon education will be among them. This will mean that there will be less university places and my students will have to do really well in their exams, and, be able to show that they have something more to bring to the table so that they stand out from the rest of the applicants. To this end, I am trying some incentives and I'll see how we got this year. At least I've got a brilliant bunch of youngsters to work with. It's just that I can not seem to be able to convince them of just how good they are. I'll just have to introduce them to my old school chum Percy Vere.

http://bit.ly/1bbuiN for a Jessica Mills writeup

My friend and actress Jessica Mills has a series of short films on the web. http://bit.ly/1bbuiN gives a writeup of what a critic thinks of the show. Go to http://www.projectaproductions.com/Awkward_Embraces.html to see what the fuss is about. I have watched them all and have not been disappointed. But then, I am weird. Go on, you know ou want to.

http://amzn.to/cQDtnE for Who Moved My Cheese?

I recently bought a "classic" book called "Who Moved My Cheese?" by Dr Spencer Johnson. There's some good stuff in it. It's reduced in price on Amazon at present http://amzn.to/cQDtnE

Bleucchh!

I am a complete bonehead when it comes to sorting out anything to do with websites. I have a number of URLs with Namecheap and hosting with Hostgator. I was trying to get a "simple" Wordpress web site sorted today but just messed up. At least I have now got the DNS server stuff sorted and should be able to get on and do a web site over the weekend. I can't do it Saturday as I am off to RAF Duxford with my son in law Rich to see the Battle of Britain aircraft displays. That said, I shall also be using Wordpress Direct to sort some more web site stuff out in quick time as I wrote a couple of articles today. Back to school tomorrow!