Evolution of Musical Tastes

I love music, almost all music.

The first album I ever owned was AC/DC's "Back in Black."  This album became the gateway for me into the Heavy Metal of the 80s when I was in high school.  I started to listen to bands like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Rainbow, Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Metallica, Ratt, Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, and the list went on and on.  I primarily only listened to Heavy Metal back then.  You would have never caught me actively listening to bands like The Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Thompson Twins or similar bands.  Yes, I knew about them, but I wouldn't go out and buy one of their tapes or records.

At the beginning of the next decade, the 90s, I found I was listening to more Grunge and Punk bands.  However, I continued listening to the great Heavy Metal bands of the 70s and 80s.  So my repertoire of bands grew as I added bands like U2, Nirvana, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, The Sex Pistols and Siouxie Sioux & the Banchees.  I also started to appreciate bands that I didn't normally listen to and saw what they provided to music in general.  Bands like Duran Duran and the Eurythmics.

Now, here I am in my 40s and I find that my library radio station on Last.fm consists of bands ranging from Haste the Day to the Thompson twins.  Funny how as people grew up and mature so do their music tastes.

I still can't stand country or rap, though.  I probably never will like them.

Wife's Visa

Good News!  Okay, well not necessarily good news, just news.

As most of you know, my wife had to go back to the United States in order to apply for her settlement visa to the United Kingdom.  She submitted the form late April.  So after two months she received a request for more information.  Apparently, either they lost my birth certificate or I forgot to send one along with my wife to include in the supporting documentation, because they are requesting proof that I am a British national.

So due to this shortsightedness, I need to provide proof of my nationality ... AND pay a processing fee of £80.  Which might not seem like a lot, but that is on top of the already paid  £810.   Yeah, it hurts when I sit down.

At least we know they are doing something with the application; that is more than what we had known for the last two months.  I'm hoping that shortly after they receive this additional information we'll hear word from them.  I'm getting excited.  It'll be nice to have my wife back home again.

Trees ...

are not bicycle racks.  Those things, under the red arrow, across the street, are.  Please use them.

Writing

I started this blog at the beginning of May.  In May, I wrote 14 posts, an average of one every other day.  In June, three.

Yeah, I need to write more. :)

Granny, Family and Salvation

Many of you don't know this, but over the Queen's Jubilee celebration weekend, my Granny, Irene Kieffer passed away suddenly.  The shock of the passing was the suddenness of it.  The day before she was shopping; the next day, she had passed.

My Aunt Christine organized the funeral, which was this past Wednesday.  I have to say that it was lovely.  It was exactly what I would have pictured Granny wanting for her funeral.  First of all, Christine had asked us not to wear black.  Granny had always hated funerals so Chris, didn't want this one to be depressing.  Sad, yes, because we had lost a loved one -- but depressing, no.

The service opened up with a Nat King Cole song, which I learned was one of the Granny's favorite singers.  Please enjoy...

Ahhh, they just don't write them like that any more...

During the appreciation and celebration of Granny's life, Chris read us a short synopsis of her life.  I learned some things about Granny that I found fascinating.  I knew that she had been born in London and had spent her younger years there; what I didn't know was that her family ran an illegal booking shop, which moved into the country when they were forced to leave London due to the bombings during WWII.  Hehe, I never knew that my Granny's family were "gansta."  She was "OG." :)

Chris continued to share Granny's love for family, the outdoors, and people in general.  She shared anecdotes about Granny, my mom, and her brothers.  She shared about how my Granny finally passing her driving test after the fourth try, and how happy she was about that.  Granny was truly a wonderful woman who loved life.  

After a few hymns and more words by the pastor running the service, Chris had closed out the service on a lighter note.

NOTE:  I'm going to see if I can get a copy of Christine's eulogy and post it here.  It truly brought out the person who Granny was.

After the memorial service, we spent the better part of the day reminiscing with the family at my Uncle Robert's house.  My sister brought a box of photos that she had found at Granny's when they were clearing her house.  We spent a good few hours poring through those photos, pointing and laughing at each other when an "embarrassing" younger photo of us cropped up.  It was all in good fun.
 
Due to the death of my Granny and because of the funeral.  Memories came back that I didn't know I had.  All the times I remember about her were good times.  Even though I didn't stay in touch with my British family over the past 25+ years because I was living in the United States, and because I am just horrible with basic correspondence, I still loved her and will miss her dearly.  

One thing that really keeps cropping up in my mind isn't an actual memory of my Granny; it is actually a recollection of a conversation between my Granny and my youngest sister.   Granny was visiting my youngest sister to watch her eldest daughter get confirmed.  On the way home, Granny was talking about confirmations, and asked my sister whether or not she will "go to the same place" that Grandad went if she wasn't confirmed.  My sister responded, "It is what you believe, not a ceremony, that determines where you go afterwards."

My sister probably doesn't know how right she was in that answer.  Where you go, heaven or hell, is definitely determined by what you believe, and not what you do.  

According to Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."  Because we are human, we aren't perfect.  However, since God is perfect, we fall short.  We all have sinned, and will continue to sin, because we are fallen creatures.  God created us to worship him, but since He cannot tolerate sin, and we are sinners, we aren't able gain access to Him in order to worship Him.  Kind of a Catch-22.  Because of our sin, we are cursed to death.  Romans 6:23a states "For the wages of sin is death..."

However, God provided a solution to this curse in the second half of Rom 6:23: "...but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  How did he grant us this gift?  By providing His perfect son, Jesus, as a living sacrifice for us.  Romans 5:8 states: "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Jesus -- perfect man, wholly God allowed Himself to die so that we don't have to.  This sacrifice is beyond anything we can imagine. Jesus paid for our sins, so we won't have to.  What an awesome gift that is!

While Jesus paying for our sins on the cross is enough, Romans 10:9 says that we have to confess that Jesus is Lord, that He died and was then resurrected again.  "[T]hat if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Romans 8:1 says that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."  If we confess our sins and accept what Christ did, then we will have eternal life.  I wholeheartedly believe that.  I really do.

Yes, I know that I'm far from being a perfect Christian, and am probably not the best witness in the world for Christ.  But I continue asking the Holy Spirit to give me the words and actions to be that witness.  And I wished I was around to explain to my Granny that so she wouldn't have any doubt about that.  I wasn't.  I do know that God is faithful and is able to reveal Himself to anyone who is looking for the true answer.  I believe that Granny was, I believe that the Lord revealed Himself to her, and I believe that she accepted.  Because of that, I believe that I'll see her again in heaven.

Now, my prayer is that the Lord will give me the boldness, words and actions to help me bring any of my family members who don't know Him into His fold.

Language settings...

I was born in England, and according to British laws, I am British by birth.  However, my father was a US serviceman, so was raised as an American, and spent all of my adult life in the United States.


Recently, due to unforeseen circumstances, I have now relocated back to England.  


This has caused a little bit of annoying "problems."


First, when I started working here, I was given a British keyboard.  Now, please look at the two layouts below.

British Keyboard Layout

United States Keyboard Layout

As you can see, they are primarily the same keyboard.  However, please look at the differences.   And these cause issues for someone like me.  For example, while using a British keyboards, I would consistently hit "\" when I am trying to add a capital letter, because the left shift is half the size and the add the | \ key next to the Z.  Or when I think I am hitting Enter, I keep adding a # character instead.  This apparently small differences can completely throw off someone who has been using the same keyboard layout for roughly 25 years. 


So, I went to Amazon.co.uk, ordered two US keyboards for about £5 each.  So now I am using a US keyboard, and changed the language settings on Windows to use English (US) to that it would know that I am using the correct keyboard.


There is ONE slight annoyance for doing this...when I boot up the computers.  The IT department have various scripts that run during boot up.  All of these scripts use English (UK).  Due to this, I have to pretend I am using a British keyboard when I first login.  Once I login, my roaming profile takes over and the system thinks I use English (US).   


You see, from my time working in the Department of Defense field for 10 years, I've gotten into the have gotten into the habit of using strong passwords.  So I use special characters, along with numerals and upper & lower case letter.  Well as you can see, because of the differences in the placement of special characters I have to think twice before character selection.  For example, if I use "$" in a password, I have a slight problem during my initial login after a reboot, or boot up.  Mainly because there isn't a "$" on a British keyboard.  So, I either have to remember its ALT code, or I have to use another symbol.  As I mentioned, a slight annoyance, but easily handled.


Another slight annoyance is...date formatting.  In the United States the format is MM/DD/YYYY.  However, here in England the format is DD/MM/YYYY.  Question: Why isn't there an international date format?


Regardless of where I live, 03/07/2012 should always mean the same thing.  Is this March 7th, 2012?  Or is this July 3rd, 2012?  Doesn't matter, should always be one or the other, not both depending on which chunk of earth I happen to reside.


You see, this particular issue continues to bite me in the ass.  I use Google Docs (now Google Drive) for a variety of things, one of the things I've been using it for is as an account log book (ie, check book).  Google docs, unlike MS   Office only provides you with formatted dates based on the language settings you have set for your Google profile.  This bugs me.  You see, I want my language to be English (US) for things like spell check.  Because I want to use "color" vs "colour."  Or "check" vs "cheque."  But because of work, and such, I want the date to be in the British format (DD/MM/YYYY) rather than in the US format (MM/DD/YYYY) but I can't.

Now granted, this particular rant should be against Google for not allowing a mish mash whenever it comes to data formatting within a spreadsheet, but I still think that there should be an international standard for formatting something that we all use...such as date.

New Bicycling Commuter - Equipment

First of all, please let me apologize for the lack of posts. I've recently obtained Skyrim for my PS3 (yes, I know a bit late) and have been playing it like crazy. :)

Okay, now to the post I wish to actually write. As most of you are aware, I ride my bicycle to work each and every day. Rain or shine, and not as of yet ... snow.

If you do research you will find blog after blog or site after site explaining all the different bicycles you can use for commuting, and all the different clothing or equipment. It can be very daunting if you are even considering starting to commuting on a bicycle instead of a car or public transport. Not only can it be daunting, but I personally think that it can be a deterrent, because the bicycles, clothing and equipment these blogs/sites list can cost thousands of pounds.

You don't need to go out and buy a £1000 bicycle or spend hundreds of pounds on riding clothing. You don't need special equipment, or gear to commute.

There is only one thing you need in order to commute: a bicycle.

It also doesn't have to be an expensive bicycle. I personally am using a 1994 Claude Butler Quantum mountain bicycle that I found on Gumtree for £40.

The next thing I suggest you buying, which isn't required, but recommended, is a decent helmet.  You don't need anything fancy, or expensive.  Just something that fits comfortably, and has enough vents to keep your head cool if you ever plan on riding for exercise rather than for commuting.  Prices for helmets can range from £10 to £150+.  Remember, cheaper helmets will protect your noggin just as well as the expensive ones, the price is normally dictated by design, brand and comfort.   As I mentioned before, not required, I just think it is smart to protect that brain dome of yours as you start to weave in and out of traffic that is consisting of 1500 lbs vehicles.

As for clothing, there is only one thing I suggest you buy, especially in sunny England :P, a set of waterproof clothes to put over your work clothes.  I bought mine from Millets for about £20 for a jacket and a pair of pants (trousers for you British).  If you go this route ensure you buy them large enough to go over whatever clothing you would normally wear to work.

Or if you don't want to wear waterproof clothing over your normal work clothes on those yucky days, another way is to invest in a good waterproof bag that would be large enough to contain your clothes and just wear workout clothing for your clothing.  This set of bags from Amazon.co.uk are perfect and the prices for the set of four is great as well.

As for gear, a good backpack is essential for your beginner commuter.  You'll want to be able to carry the stuff you normally take with you in the car, so the backpack needs to be large enough to carry those items.  Hehe, I got my backpack from my sister, so it didn't cost me anything.

So, if we go through our list of items needed to start commuting:

• Bicycle - £40 to £150 will buy you a great reliable bicycle to start
• Clothing - wet weather gear - £20 to £40
• Waterproof bags (Optional) - £25 to £50
• Backpack - £15 to £40

So, to start you can spend anywhere from £100 to £200 to start.  Now these numbers aren't so daunting are they?

As you commute more consistently you will find you will purchase additional items to make things easier.  For example, the first thing I did with my bicycle is change the tires from the knobbly MTB tires to tires that are better suited for road riding.  These road tires were also have a reinforced strip of kevlar to help prevent punctures (LIFE SAVER!).  I also bought a decent bicycle pump to mount to the frame.

I have also bought a rear rack and a set of panniers because I was getting tired of my back getting soaked with sweat from me carrying a backpack. :P

So the moral of the story is, don't do any research if you want to start commuting on a bicycle.  Just go out and buy yourself a bicycle and do.

UPDATE:  I forgot, if you plan on commuting during the winter months, especially in the UK, then you will need a set of lights for your bicycle, white up front and red in the back.  These are essential, and I think even required by law in the UK.  I bought mine from Halfords for about £18.  Also, you should invest in a hivis vest, which I bought from B&Q for £5. 

PS.  As always, please leave a comment giving me pointers or feedback regarding this post, or this blog in general.  Thank you. - Paul