Update March 28 2011
Oh dear time seems to go by so quickly and I see that it is over two months since I did a report.
Since that time a few things have been happening, firstly you will see from the videos down below that Annemarie Wright visited and presented me with the wonderful portrait that she had done of me. It is now framed and hangs in my lounge for all to see....not that many will as I seldom have visitors but it is there and will be a talking point if and when they do.
Another visitor was a young man named Richard who is setting up a channel on YouTube on which he is doing interviews. There are many people who do this usually with the facility of Skype and they are of course interesting but Richard was more professional, he filmed with a good camera, thought about the lighting and framing etc which resulted in a wonderful interview. I have been interviewed many times by television crews when they want short quick answers to their questions and the interviewer needs you to feed the question back in the answer (their own voice is not recorded) which I find difficult and often results in a yes/no answer. Whereas with Richard we talked in a very relaxed way and I think produced a nicer interview. The videos are below with the relevant links to his channel.
So what else has been happening? Well as Michael will know there are always some academics who seem to always be doing some paper on social networking, it seem to me that I have been having requests for years to give information about my life to them. I usually try to comply but goodness knows where the information goes.
Another thing that has been taking up a lot of time has been cooperating with a company in Germany who are setting up a magazine aimed at the teenage market. Why on earth would they want me to do anything? but it was once again telling my life story to a reporter (fortunately via Skype and not having to write it all out) It would appear that part of their magazine will be online on a website and there they propose to let teenagers ask questions which they will require me to answer by video response. I have no idea whether it will ever be published (due to be so in the summer sometime) or whether I will be further involved but it all keeps me busy. I will let you know what happens there.
Can't think of anything else that has happened that would be of interest. My days are pretty routine in that the mornings are spent mostly on youtube, viewing the videos that those that I subscribe to have put up the previous day and texting and/or talking with friends on Skype. But lately I have been looking at instructional videos about the use of the Garage Band software. I now know a bit more about it but unfortunately haven't got a real use for it in that I don't play an instrument to make my own music. I did sing along to the chorus of my song Rose of my Heart and do a few tweeks on it for my own amusement. I have been in a number of recording studios and of course seen all the stuff of mixing desks and recording decks and seen them working on their computers to put the song together but never studied it. I think that Garage Band uses similar set up to Logic which is one of the programs that I know the professionals use so guess that it is fairly powerful. Maybe one day I will get an instrument and learn to play it or find some background music to sing along to like a karaoke.......or maybe not......but it has occupied my time and thoughts this week.
I saw a Virgin balloon in the sky the other day so obviously they have started flying again. They did promise that they would give me a flight (previous ones were cancelled due to the weather). I expect that they have forgotten about it but if I do hear from them I will let you know. I am sure if I contacted them that they would arrange it but better to see if they contact me. Not all that sure that I would take up the offer if it were made but we will see.
It is nice that our winter is now just a memory and we can look forward to warmer and more sunny weather, I wish for all of you that you have a good summer.