A blog (short for Web Log) is a way of posting writings, thoughts or just plain inane ramblings to the web in a easy manner. It's easier to keep updated and as my site has proven troublesome to keep updated, I've employed a blog here to help keep things current.

Some of these "posts" may not be explicitly Christian - that is they may not be Bible studies :o) but all of them are written from my perspective as a Christian. It is , after all, part of what makes me... well, me.

Note that the blog pages are subject to a different licence to the rest of the site - see the bottom of the page for details.

London 2012

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

On the London thing, Local Gov is currently trying it's hardest to drum up (public) support for the London Olympics 2012 bid and I just want to add my small voice to the campaign. I think the idea of London hosting the Olympics is a great idea, the regeneration of parts of London will be good as will the much needed update to the public transport system. BUT... this will only be any good for London if these things affect the whole of London not just the part of it that hosts the Olympics (East London). I'm all for the building of proper sports facilities and investment in public transport but we need to learn from the Millenium Dome fiasco here. In the late 90s UK Gov invested into a brand new extension to the Jubilee line (on the tube) to provide transport to the Dome, so what we got was one line that had new stock, new track and new stations and all the others continued with the old stiock the old track and the old stations. Similarly a part of Greenwich got a lot of money poured into it and the rest of London had to sit back and suffer.

So listen up Ken and Tony, if you're going to do this - do it properly. Don't just build a new line for the Olympics, invest into the whole Tube network. Don't just build Crossrail and be done with it - invest in the whole overground rail network. Don't just regenerate one part of London, invest in the whole of London. Give us more than an Olympic Village, give us other facilities to make tourists and (in my biased opinion) more importantly residents a generally better time in London. Little things like cleaning the streets regularly (and not just in the tourist areas), providing bins (which are emptied) would be a great start.

The Olympics would be great for London but we need to make sure London would be great for London as well.

Cheers
C
Copyright Ryan P. Cartwright.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

The original blogger?

I must confess I've never been one for writing diaries et al. so my blog is fairly sparse. To be honest this was an experiment anyway (to see if I could actually be bothered to blog) so I guess I have my answer.

Anyway I have recently discovered Pepys Diary and being British and a Londoner, I am enjoying it. Here we have a real blog, an insight into life in 17th Century London (okay, into Pepys life). Great stuff.

Cheers
C
Copyright Ryan P. Cartwright.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

first time parents

Monday, November 08, 2004

our Son (first) has just turned one and, like many new parents I guess, I find myself in between a feeling of the last year going so quick and yet it seeming like a lot longer than only a year since we first brought him home.

I guess I tend towards the latter - it's kind of hard to remember life before him.
Before you jump to any conclusions, this is not because of the "dreaded" sleepless nights and nappies but because I just can't imagine getting home from work and not seeing his smile (schmultzy I know but true).

The thing is - and this is for all those prospective first time parents who have been met with choruses of "oooh sleepless nights, nappies... good luck!" whenever they tell anyone they're expecting - all that stuff, all the nappies that make you gag, sleepless nights and hours of worry while you try to decipher what this particualr "waaaagghhhh" actually means and why your attempts to stop it are not working, all those things are made worth it every time your child looks up at you and smiles with recognition. This is why new parents become a bit of a baby bore at work, when your life seems an endless stream of poo and sick the slightest glimmer of hope, like a smile, seems like a giant leap for mankind. But equally when you suddenly see that little parcel of flesh start to do things for itself - like grow or focus or react to your voice - you get a clarity and excitement which cannot be put into words - but hey you try anyway!

So for all you who have been bored by new parents - especially those who know me - forgive us - we're just excited in a way we can't explain and although we know we're a pain we just can't help it.

And for all those who are expecting - ignore everything anybody says to you about long labour, sleepless nights, nappies, sick and crying. All those things happen but so do things like - smiles, turning towards your voice, sitting up, holding a toy, crawling, walking, laughing, gurgling, singing, eating solid food. These may not seem like remarkable things - after we do them all the time - but when you watch another person do them for the first time and you remember that just a short year ago all it seemed they could do was cry because they had just arrived.

Cheers
C
Copyright Ryan P. Cartwright.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

SocialSource UK - where the open source and voluntary communities come together

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Social Source UK: I'm one of the organisers/founders of a group of people seeking to promote the use and best practice of Open Source and Free Software within the voluntary & community (non-profit for those in the US) sector in the UK.

We held an event in Sept 2004 which was (IMHO) a roaring success.

If you're involved in either the VCS or FLOSS game and have, or want to have, an interest in the other one, then check out the wiki

Cheers
C
Copyright Ryan P. Cartwright.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

up for an award - MakingContact.org

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Bit of blatant self back-patting here but a site that I have developed for my employer (Contact a Family) called MakingContact.org is up for two national awards.

MC.Org is designed to allow families of disabled children to get in touch with each other in a secure and safe way, building much needed support networks.

It has been shortlisted for two national awards: The Guardian Public Services Awards and the Community Care Awards.

Cheers
C
Copyright Ryan P. Cartwright.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

And so it begins....

I've been interested in the concept of blogging for some time now but didn't get one because quote frankly I didn't know if I'd ever use it.

So, instead of trying to work out if I 'd use one before i got one, I've decdied to set this one and see what happens.

If you want to see more of what I've put webside for the last seven or so years then check out my main site (Crimperman.org)

You might also like to check out some of my documentation and software contributions to the Free/Open Source software world.

cheers
C
Copyright Ryan P. Cartwright.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.