Author: Mark

Categories
Faith

What is a SOAP

SOAP stands for Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer. It is a way focussing on what you are reading in the bible (though with some modification it could apply to anything).
The basis of SOAP is to read a Bible chapter, and select one verse (or thereabouts) that really speaks to you. This is the Scripture. Write out the verse.

The idea of Observation is to put the verse in context of what is happening in the bible, or failing that, simply put the verse into your own words.

Application: how does this verse apply to my life or the things that I see around me at the moment.

Prayer: write a short prayer pertaining to the scripture or your observations or application.

Categories
Think

Digital Fridge

Bern posted the previous article to some friends and family, and we got a reply wondering “”was this the modern-day equivalent of the artwork pegged up on the fridge!””

I guess it is!
Please don’t leave the door open………. 🙂

Categories
Journal

First Craft

Bec went to a new playgroup today, down at Lilydale Lake. They have one set activity and some playtime, and today’s activity was to make a finger puppet. Bec calls hers Doll

I’m so proud!

Categories
Journal

Words

Bec started talking a couple of months ago. She started with the usual Mum and eventually Dad and then the next word she said was Dog. In fact she would just be sitting the playing away, and she would say dog”, seemingly out of the blue, but I found that if I stopped and played back in my mind what had just happened, I could hear a dog barking in the distance, which she had obviously heard and responded to.

Since then she has been adding new words every day or two. Next up was doll, ball, book, car and a few others from things in and around the house or in the books we read her.

One particular car trip she pointed at basically every car we saw and said “”car, brhoohm-brhoom””.

After a trip to Ringwood lake with Louise & Ryan she came back with a gorgeous “”quack”” from watching and listing to the ducks around the lake (with some help from Mum).

Recently she has started saying “”wheee”” when she finds something fun & fast and the other day I was heartbroken as she pointed out the window at her slide and said “”wheee slide”” but it was too wet to go out and play.

It is so beautiful to watch her develop. Bec, when you read this, I love you!

Categories
Journal

Connecting the TV, VCR, DVD & Set-top box

I helped my sister & brother in law out when they moved house, and of course, one of the jobs I got was setting up the TV, VCR & DVD. We got it all working and layed out the speakers as best we could, but because they live in the boondocks, TV reception was terrible…

The solution to that was to buy a digital set-top box, but the manual, was to be honest, terrible, so we had do some real thinking to get it set up and working.

In the end, there were compromises, but this is how everything fits together. If you have a better sugestion, please email me and enlighten me….

Categories
Links

PHP scripting

PHP is a web based scripting language that I like to use for my web sites. Why? because it is powerful and fairly simple to use.

A tiny little example is this: http://www.geekzone.com.au/index.php?about_us
This page currently (2004) lists the fact Jase & I have 21 years of experience, but that number is correct, even though the page hasn’t been updated in 2 years.. Why? a piece of PHP code that says: $experience = ((date (“”Y””) – 1997)*2)+7:: meaning we’ve both been in the industry since 1997, plus I have been for 7 years before that. Simple bit of code, took 15 minutes to develop, means that page never needs changing..

Categories
Journal

Battery thing

I went to replace the batteries on one of Bec’s toys the other day, and I checked the back of the toy where it said 2 x AA” Batteries and got the batteries and the screwdriver. When I opened it up, I found this:

which is a plastic case in the shape of 1 1/2 AA batteries that contains 3 x button cell batteries. I honestly can’t believe this is cheaper than sticking in 2 cheap batteries, but it must be, possibly because the button cells don’t leak for years.

Categories
Journal

Touch Lamps

I’ve got 2 broken touch lamps at home (you know, the ones that start off and go on in three stages just by touching them and then go off again) and I thought I’d do a bit of web surfing to see if I could find out how to fix them.

I found this page: www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_appfaq6.html#APPFAQ_001 which was very helpful, but I also found this which was very funny:

“I’ve tracked down touch lamps over a block away. Found two in a house across the street from the house behind me. Found another in a house on the block corner opposite my location.

When they are close enough to you like next door, you can control them with your radio transmissions. Years ago, a new neighbor moved in directly in back of my house. I was sitting in front of the HF rig listening when they plugged in their touch lamp. 10-20db over S9 of noise pulse every 72 Khz across the band popped up immediately. I QSYed to CW and tuned to the bottom of a pulse. When I keyed the rig, the pulse shifted upward a few KC. Retuned to the bottom & keyed and it shifted it again. Same thing the third time. On the fourth key up, it shifted back down to about the original starting freq. I had total control on the 3-way lamp!

So I went about having some fun with it. I sent messages encoded by the number of shifts. Not sure if they ever copied the messages, but they sure unplugged the lamp every time I played with it very long. They either thought it was broken or that their new house was haunted!

Latter that summer I saw they had a garage sale. Stopped in and found they had a touch lamp for sale. I probably should’ve bought it to ensure no one nearby did, but apparently no one did since it hasn’t shown up on the bands for years now.””
From lists.contesting.com/archives/html/RFI/2000-12/msg00033.html

I don’t understand all the technical bits, but I certainly found it funny!!

Categories
Journal

Bec is on the move again

Bec has been standing up for quite a while now, and she quickly began to walk around the edge of furniture, especially her beautiful big toy box that Pa made for her, but she took it to a new level today.

We were at a partnership meeting at the church, and Bec crawled off to her Pram and stood up at. The problem was, the brake wasn’t on, so it started to roll away, and she had to walk behind it to keep up. She kept going, occasionally stumbling and dragging her feet, but managing to stay upright and walking.

We were both so proud.

Categories
Journal

About me

This started out as being an introduction to myself for my new book. It was way too detailed though, so I thought I’d just post it here for posterity:

Computers are now basically a part of everyones life in the Western World, but even as recently as when I grew and went to school, people that used computers for purposes other than playing games were considered at the very least, a bit strange. I used my first personal computer (TRS-80) at the age of 8 (my brother bought it for Uni) and there were no games, unless you typed the programs in yourself longhand.

Using that computer I taught myself the basics of programming and started a love of computers that has never left me. I finished high school having completed few formal computer classes, and being taught basically nothing I didn’t already know.

I moved on to do a self-paced Diploma in Micro-Computer Technology which was a great course for an into to everything in the world of business computing and then shoot you out into the real world to find out what you need to know.