18 February 2024
by wpAdmin
0 comments

We-dentity?

The sermon I heard today at church followed on from the one last week and had identity as a main theme. I wonder, though, if we make too much of each finding our “I”-dentity even when set in the context of an identity in Christ? So much of God’s message through the Bible is written to people (plural) and not individual persons. It was often delivered through named individuals but the message is often to groups and for the building up of the people of God – specifically the Hebrew people in the Old Testament and then to the church as the New Testament reveals Jesus as the Messiah and the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of God’s promise to us.

I am incomplete without Christ but I am also incomplete without the many others he has also called; my purpose is to be a healthy, functioning part of his body and not a piece cut out and set aside. In an age when many struggle with a range of conflicting views on their identity, perhaps emphasing our we-dentity and the importance of considering how our actions and choices help or harm those around us is an important theme?

17 February 2024
by wpAdmin
0 comments

Rosemary

I bought my first new plants of the year today, a couple of small rosemary shrubs. In Oxford we were spoilt with a huge, well-established plant that came in the garden of the house we bought but we didn’t take any cuttings. We did have another plant (bought, I think, even before we moved to Oxford) but that was always in a pot and finally expired last year.

Anyway, now I’ve got some replacements, all I need to do is figure out where to put them!

16 February 2024
by wpAdmin
0 comments

My New Favourite Local Business

I needed to pick up a couple of fastenings this week – screws for repairing some of the children’s chairs at church and some grub screws for my six string headless bass. I’d looked online at Screwfix, which has been my normal go-to for such things, but the chair screws were about £10 for 100 (I needed three and certainly not that many spares) and the grub screws were only available in a set for about £30 and I don’t think any of them would have been suitable. That’s when I remembered a friend’s recommendation for Charnwood Fasteners, which even nearer to me than my local Screwfix (although only by a couple of hundred metres).

You can probably guess from the title that I hit gold. They took one look at the sample screw and came back with a perfect match. The grub screws took a little longer but only because they had to check on my bass to gauge the width and depth (M6 and about 5mm long for future reference). I went for 10 of the first screw and was just going to get six of the grub screws but the chap suggested I might as well get 12 as they were inexpensive.

How inexpensive? My order came to a grand total of £1.50. In fact the only problem was that I only had a £20 note and they didn’t want to take a card transaction for such a small amount so, despite me being a brand new customer, they suggested I pop in and pay later when I had the change. I’ll see if I can break the £20 this weekend and pop back on Monday but they absolutely deserve this glowing recommendation. I know exactly where I’m headed next time I need some kind of fastener.

Don’t worry Screwfix — the power tool battery I also picked up this morning works very well so you aren’t entirely abandoned except for, well, screws and fixings!

15 February 2024
by wpAdmin
1 Comment

Back out with the chainsaw

It turned out nice this afternoon (although raining again now) so I seized the opportunity to spend a couple of hours outside chopping up some more wood and splitting it down. I’m not sure whether my DeWalt batteries are losing a bit of capacity but, given they came with an oscillating multitool, I think I am pushing them a bit hard with the chainsaw, especially on larger logs.

Tomorrow I’ll pick up a bigger battery and see how 4ah gets on compared to a pair of 2ah ones.

14 February 2024
by wpAdmin
0 comments

AI Gone Camping

Our theme at the toddlers group today was tents and tabernacles. For a craft activity, I wanted to do some paper folding to create something like an A frame tent with scenes on the inside and outside reflecting relevant activities. That would give the children a chance to do some colouring but also to add some folding and construction skills for the older ones. The only problem is that this would mean four sets of images to draw (two for the outside top faces and two for the inside ones that could be exposed by opening it up or looking inside) which means quite a lot of time drawing.

That’s when my thought turned to some of the free AI image generation tools available online. Could I get suitable and unique images which I could make use of by asking a computer? It turns out I could. The image above is one of several I prompted stablediffusionweb.com to produce for me. Not every attempt was successful but a few minutes yielded four images that did the job. I still had to make some adjustments, like cropping this one and removing the colour from the fire, and it shows some typical “glitches” (eg. look at some of the hands and faces or how horizon lines don’t always sensibly continue past objects) but it was a quick solution for what will probably be a single use project.

It doesn’t mean that I’ll give up drawing by hand but I can certainly see the potential for applications like this.

13 February 2024
by wpAdmin
0 comments

A Patchy Day

This afternoon was a bit patchy, in that I was helping a friend plug up a patch bay unit in his music room. He has a rackmount Focusrite interface but most of the inputs are round the back and so inaccessible where he has it installed. Fortunately, he also has an old patch bay unit and lots of suitable cables so we got things connected, tested and installed.

For now, we’ve only set up eight channels out of, I think, a potential sixteen, but that will be enough to get going and we’ve also set up his DAW with a template that takes the input of each channel to a separate mono track. So, next time I’m round there for a jam with him and others we can produce a full multitrack recording to build on.

12 February 2024
by wpAdmin
0 comments

DIY for a Friend

I did a little DIY job for a friend today. They have an arbour in their garden and the back had come off in recent winds. I think the problem was that it had two shortish screws holding it on one side and two even shorter screws on the other side so, as the arbour flexed, the shortest screws came out and then the other side worked off by pulling out of the wood.

Removing the screws was awkward because of how it fitted together – either a short handled screwdriver or one with a flexitube to the tip would have been easier. I had to resort to gripping the protruding ends with pliers and rotating them to get them started and move the screw head to where my impact driver could reach them.

Hopefully the repair, with four longer screws (angled through the wood for easier insertion and potential removal if it needs taking apart again) will do the job.

11 February 2024
by wpAdmin
0 comments

Eighties Flashback

Eighties Flashback is the title of a piece arranged by Paul Murtha that got handed out at the CSWO rehearsal tonight. Gulp! Three pages, with some reasonably up tempo tunes and quite a few syncopated rhythms among them.

Two things got me through. One is that the 1980s were my teenage years, so I was taking in a lot of the pop music of the time. I’ve even played versions of several of the included pieces, like Time After Time and Eye of the Tiger in different groups over the years. All of that gives the ear something to go on. More importantly though is my developing sight reading ability. The time going into that, week by week is certainly paying off and parts that would once have baulked me are beginning to flow more naturally. The ambition I mentioned (!) eight years ago is coming to fruition.

If you want to listen to the arrangement, the publisher has put it online here:

Meanwhile, I’m going to track down the original recordings. The conductor has given me the go ahead to unleash some of the special FX in my Helix box of tricks so I’m going to do a bit of work out just what will capture some of the moods from the source pieces – for example, Thriller cries out for a synth bass sound and I think I’ve got some of that in the tank.

10 February 2024
by wpAdmin
0 comments

Plough Sing-around – 10 February 2024

It was a slightly quieter session today although still well attended with plenty going on. That meant I ended up leading on four songs, starting with Wayfaring Stranger. D minor is definitely a better key for me than the A minor I tried it in at the Bluegrass jam last week!

When my turn came round I again, I turned back to a familiar old blues tune, You Got to Move, and then, on my next go it was back to bluegrass repertoire with Will the Circle Be Unbroken. I say bluegrass but I think I probably leaned a bit too much in to funk influences to try it quite like that at a bluegrass session! There were also a couple of tunes to finish the afternoon and I volunteered the well known Folsom Prison Blues before someone else put in a final song.

It happens again on 24 February although, sadly, I’m otherwise engaged that day so probably won’t make it at all.

9 February 2024
by wpAdmin
0 comments

New Shoes Day

It was getting on for five years ago that I blogged about the Vimes Boots Theory which comes from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and posits that poor people end up spending more money on things like footwear because they buy cheap things that wear out quickly rather than expensive things that last much, much longer and give a better return on investment. However, I’m not sure that entirely holds up, certainly in the world of footwear. I picked up some Clarks shoes about a year and half ago and opted to go for a pair somewhat more expensive than I would normally spend but they are now showing signs of wear and, even if I knew a local cobbler, I’m not sure they would be repairable.

As a way to eke their life out a bit further (for when I need smart looking, black shoes), I took advantage of an offer in Lidl today and picked up a pair of ‘hiking shoes’ for less than a fifth of what I paid for the Clarks. If they last less than six months, that doesn’t bode well for the boots theory! Assuming they live up to the standard of most of the things that come from Lidl, they should do at least that: the test begins.

Wulf's Webden

The Webden on WordPress