Choir as Folk, Killead Presbyterian

No, I didn't know where it was either. But it was quite easy to find in the end. My Dad, one of my sisters and myself made our way to this little church on Thursday night for part of their 38th Annual Festival of Praise.

Dad heard about the event through a guy he works with who also happened to be conducting one of the many and varied choirs taking part. Basically, a number of churches within the Templepatrick Presbytery assembled their choirs for one night singing a number of tunes ranging from old classics to modern but soon to be classics!

I enjoyed it for the music and for a few other little things that just amused me. First, as the assembled choirs occupied the ground floor, we the congregation had to sit in the balcony. In the old cross shaped building this made for difficult viewing of the participants. Then, in a service that was to run unannounced the guest conducter proceeded to introduce just about everything.

But the bit that really made me chuckle was when, toward the end of the evening, the conductor address the combined choir prior to the benediction. She said something along the lines of 'I don't need to tell you how to sing a benediction, but if you can remember to start quietly and build....'. As I whispered to my sister next to me, I wondered how long she would have had to speak had she deemed it necessary to tell them how to sing it!

Please don't think I'm aweful for saying this sort of thing. These things just make me chuckle and bring a smile to my face. But regardless off all these things, what makes me smile the most is that the people both in the choirs and in the congregation took part in a night for which the aim was to sing the praise of Almighty God. We should be thankful the our Lord that has given us music and the ability to derive pleasure from it. But more importantly we should be willing, like the choirs that put the work into this event, to use the gift of music in the proclamation of the greatness of God our creator, our Saviour, friend and Lord!

Thanks to Killead and all the other churches that took part!

Oh, forgot to mention. One choir used a Djembe drum! Thanks to the Katie and Rachel for letting me know what it was.

Saab Song, Release Me

Have you seen the recent Saab commercial? I just can't get the song from it out of my head. It is beautiful. A girl called Frida Orhn from a band called Laura sounds wonderful as she sings it. Here is a YouTube video of a promotional recording:



What do you think? Pretty good, eh? If you really like it you can buy the track from iTunes by clicking the link below. I have the feeling some people will be looking for it!



If you know this band and can recommend other essential listening by them or by others, please let me know!

iSync, Spanning Sync and Goosync Update

I am pleasantly surprised. After blogging the last post I opened my Google Calendar to remove the offending double entries etc. I then ran Spanning Sync to update iCal. Sadly, iCal seemd to update Google again with all the entries I had already deleted.

So why am I still pleasantly surprised? Well, because there is more.....

I then deleted the duplicate entries from iCal and ran iSync to update my phone. I limited my phones access to my own calendars. As I did this, the Goosync application on my phone (forgot to mentiont that bit before) also activated itself. So in one action, that is, running iSync my mac updated my phone which in turn syncronised with Google!

I think this is what happened. I am pretty tired so maybe when I think about it some more I'll have to correct this. At the moment I'm liking Goosync a lot!

That Syncing Feeling

Ok, so I know what happened. I must say from the outset that it had nothing to to with my mac! It boiled down to how the two programs I used and my n73 handle shared calendars.

First I tried a program called Spanning Sync. This is a little application for the mac that sits in the system preferences and places its little icon in the menu bar up top. Once I entered my Google account details it was able to pull my calendar entries down and place them in iCal. Thus my iCal and Google Calendar were beautifully syncronised! It even allowed me to download details of a shared calendar - placing it in iCal in a different colour.

So at this point my mac and my google were getting along just great but my N73 was a bit left out. Using iSync I was able to update my phone with my iCal detail. This, as per usual, was such a simple process. It transferred details of all my calendars to my phone BUT - and this is where is started to go wrong - it didn't separate the calendars. So whether the calendar event was Dermo's or mine they sat on my phone just the same. I almost started picking praise songs for church on Sunday because my phone said that is what I should be doing tonight!

Dermo had recommended Goosync. This works differently to Spanning Sync as it does not involve my mac. It works by allowing my phone to sync with my Google calendar using my mobile web connection. The benefit of this is that I can update my Google Calendar on the go. This seemed like a cool thing to be able to do so once I was signed up etc I tried it. Big mistake. Bear in mind I had managed to merge two calendars into one on my phone. This meant that when my N73 set about updating Google it placed all my events and Dermo's events (it couldn't tell the difference) to my own Google Calendar giving me the irritating double entries!

The good news is that Goosync can only update a limited amount at a time so the damage shouldn't take too long to fix. My trouble now is figuring out which of these systems to use. Neither of them do exactly what I want which is one package that syncronises Google Calendar, iCal and my N73 in one go. There must be a way to do this through iSync? Similar to the way it would link up with .mac? I don't know enough about it but hopefully someone out there will.

For now I'm going to continue to play around with these two packages both of which are pretty good in their own way. My first step would be to limit my phone access to my calendar only as the issue started with the way it handled multiple calendars. I'll keep you all updated if I work out anything else.

Everything but the Kitchen Sync

Nightmare! I have been testing two methods of keeping my N73, iCal and my Google Calendar in sync. I now have double entries in Google and iCal. I fear that if I ran iSync right now I would end up with something similar on my phone! Grrrr

Ok, what should I do? Well, right now I'm going to turn this thing off and go to bed. This will have to wait until tomorrow. I'll let you know what I did, what I wished I didn't do (pretty much the same thing) and give me opinion on the software I used. Goodnight!

iSync and the N73

One of the few drawbacks to my n73 was that it did not syncronise properly with iSync on my mac. I had used a few plug-ins in the past to overcome this but though they did work, they didn't have the usual slickness that I would associate with a mac.

Well, thanks to the Mac OS 10.4.9 update it now syncs natively. This should come as good news to Matt, owner of an n95 and soon to be owner of a new Macbook Pro!

Google to Go!

I just set up my N73 so I can get my Google Mail on the go. While the downloadable gmail application (go to http://googlemail.com/app with your phone's browser) looks and works pretty well I decided to try and use the N73s own email client. Using the settings for 'other' devices as advised by Google, and making sure that my Google Mail settings were such that they allowed POP, it wasn't long before I got it working.

A point to note though. If you allow POP for all mail and then connect using your phone you may well find that all your old email, even the archived ones, are then downloaded to your phone. Probably best to set the POP bit up for new mail only or just ask your phone to retrieve only new mail.

So send me an email so I can pick it up on my phone!

Pink Chocolate

In my previous post about Liasmon's Chocolate Fountain lights I ended by saying that the chocolate had to be brown. Well, my sister read it today and quickly corrected me. To be honest I felt kind of silly when she pointed out I had forgotten about white chocolate. But then she mentioned the availability of pink chocolate. 'Pink Chocolate??' I said, in a fashion not dissimilar to Peter Kay's 'Garlic Bread'. But apparently it is true and the cake thing in picture is covered in it.

So I must apologise to both Liasmon and of course to the Milky Bar Kid for that little mistake.

Tracy isn't 30!

Happy Birthday to Tracy who is still fortunate to be a couple of years shy of the big 30! She was in the above photo when I pushed the button on my Nokia N73 but spookily disappeared by the time the digital delay ran its course. So instead you see a number of dimly lit friends.

How'd you like them Apples!

An apple a day is said to keep the doctor away. Guess it can't hurt at any rate.

But I have heard a few sad Apple stories this week. Well, they at least they started that way. First of all, Jim's (Jim's blogg) Macbook broke and then I heard that Matt's (Hararya) had his trusty old Powerbook stolen!

If you are reading this while using Matt's stolen Powerbook - shame on you!! I'd tell you to give it back but he's pretty made up now that he is getting a new Macbook Pro! Hope you enjoy it my friend - I have a feeling you will.

Jim's story ended well too. You can read about it on his site but he is to be credited for his persistence! Guess you could say he took a bite out of the Apple and it tasted goooooooood!

Bear Naked Ladies, Photos and a Drum

This week I posed for a photo shoot that had something to do with Bear Naked Ladies. But before you all rush to my house to council me on the error of my ways let me explain. Matt and Joanne (Hararya Matt!) asked me to be the subject matter for their entry to a competition run by the band known as 'Bear Naked Ladies'. So relax guys, nothing too bad about that at all!

It was a good night. I enjoyed it because I got to be the centre of attention for a whole night, plus Matt bought me pizza.

Hopefully I'll get to show off the results of their hard work and my stunning good looks...ahem...soon enough!

Just to add a bit of colour to this entry I have included this pic of Matt and a drum. Incidentally, does anyone know what sort of a drum this is? Dermo? Any ideas? I know enough not to call it a congo or a bongo....anyway, answers on post card. Actually, better than that - just leave a comment.

Dermo is 30!

Happy Birthday to Dermo who hit the big 30 yesterday. The lads celebrated it in Trev's caravan and much fun was had by all. And being a bunch of young and energetic individuals we stayed up really late and everything!

But, after a lovely fry-up (thanks Asda!) and a round of golf (if I could be so bold as to call what I did on the course, golf!) we had to sit down to a nice cup of coffee or juice before heading home to get rested. Think we were kidding ourselves by thinking we were kids!

It was great craic and more that made up for my cold-ridden Easter! Hope you enjoyed yourself Dermo!

Eyes Wider Than Before

Scott Matthews Gig

I want to begin by saying that this guy is not related to Dave Matthews of Dave Matthews Band. According to his MySpace page he is from Wolverhampton but on April 11th, 2007 he was in Belfast at the Spring & Airbrake. I was there!

Following on from his full band tour this rather cut-down affair comprised just the man himself and a percussionist. But the gig was still good. As I have said in previous blogs, you should check out his album 'Passing Stranger' and keep an eye out for the next one!

He was so passionate during one of his intense guitar solo parts that his head actually exploded in a blinding flash. A little unnerving but quite spectacular! Brilliant!

David Healey International Airport

A notion suggested to me in a text message from my brother in the excitement following David Healey's second goal against Sweden. Just a thought.