Kingdom's Blog

December 3rd, 2008

…and it’s beginning to stress me!



Christmas, at the time of writing, is just over three weeks away and I have bought very little in the way of presents. While this isn’t completely out of character for me, the thing that is really bothering me is a lack of a list of things to buy!



Last year, and admitedly for the first time ever, I was very organised. So much so that I even had (please keep this a secret between the two of us) an Excel Spreadsheet with items to buy and bought, where the gifts came from, who they were for, and whether or not they had been delivered! It all worked like clockwork and I think I had all of my Chrsitmas pressies bought by mid December. This year, I am afraid to say it’s going to be a different story. Inspiration for gifts is sadly lacking and I’m struggling to come up with good gift ideas.In my defence, I am probably causing a similar amount of grief to the people who are buying for me. Whenever anyone asks what I would like for Christmas I usually say “…I don’t need anything…” - and then watch the frustration spread across their face. While it seems like I’m just being difficult, I really don’t need anything new! It almost brings up that eternal festive dilemma…what do you get the man who has everything?



The answer to that is a simple one - Angelina Jolie! 

October 12th, 2008

Of course…..it’s Facebook!As I’m sure you’ll already know, Facebook is one of these social networking sites that have appeared on the net over the past few years. In fact, I think that Facebook was one of the first. It launched in 2004 and was developed by a student at Hardvard University in Boston who created it so that students at Harvard could stay in touch with other students there. He then rolled it out to other ‘Ivy League’ Universities in the US and then it was opened to the world at large. From then, it’s fair to say it’s gone from strength to strength.


Okay…all well and good I hear you mumble…but why the history lesson? Well, here comes my point….brace yourself!


Imagine being the creator of Facebook - one Mark Zuckerberg for you fact finders! Imagine sitting down, perhaps over a few beers in the pub and saying something like “…listen guys, I’ve got this idea for a website… it’s a site that just sits there, and instead of just telling your friends face to face what you’re doing, you type it. Instead of showing some pictures of your last holiday to your friends you upload them so your friends can log on and see them. Instead of actually talking to your friends, you leave them messages on a ‘wall’. What do you think??…”


I wasn’t there when that (probably fictional) chat happened, but I’m sure some of the more generous people who heard it would’ve politely said ‘that sounds fine…but don’t give up the day job’; the less generous may have dismissed it out of hand. The point is this…. Mark Zuckerberg stuck to his guns, developed his idea and launched his site. Today, at the last count, the estimated value of Facebook is in the region of $8 billion!


When inspiration strikes, stick to your guns; don’t let anyone put you off. And if you end up with a company worth billions, remember my good advice!


Oh…and add me to your list of Facebook friends!

September 9th, 2008

The definition of which, as far as computers are concerned at least is :  a graphical image that represents a person, as on the Internet.


If you use MSN Messenger and the like you may have come across Avatar creation websites in the past. I remember a particular hysteria in the Kingdom FM office when the Simpsons Movie was being released and the official movie website allowed you to create yourself in the style of a Simpson’s character.  It kept us all off our work for literally minutes!This past weekend one of my online contacts on one of these ’social networking’ sites posted a link to the latest Avatar creation site. If you want to kill 15 minutes just head here >  www.faceyourmanga.com  


This is how I think I look in a manga-esque cartoon style…. what do you think?

August 12th, 2008

This is the book that started an obsession on the show yesterday….

While I was on holiday I read a book which was recommended by Craig from the newsteam. It was comedian Dave Gorman’s third book called “Dave Gorman: America Unchained”. If you’re looking for an entertaining, light-hearted read I can thoroughly recommend it!


Once I had finished that book, I decided to get my hands on the author’s previous publication “Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure” for two reasons. 1. I had heard about the standup show related to the book and 2. You know me…I’m a bit of a geek so I wanted to know for sure what a ‘Googlewhack’ is!


I won’t go into detail of what a Googlewhack is just now….so here’s the brief version….. You type 2 words (they have to be real English words with definitions at Dictionary.com) into Google’s search engine and try to come up with a search result of just one webpage. Now, given there are around 3 billion web pages out there, that task is not as easy as it may seem. In fact….why not try it for yourself and see how you get on!


On my first attempt I managed a result of more than a million web pages….. not a great start! By the time I started the show yesterday I had managed to get the results down to just TWO webpages…but I was stumped! That of course is where you came to the rescue! Thanks so much to everyone who sent text suggestions and called in with words to put into the search box. I am very pleased to say that together we managed around FIVE googlewhacks before the end of the show at 7pm.


If you don’t believe me try typing the following words into Google yourself …. at the time of writing….it’s a Googlewhack! “scuzzbuckets nubbin”

August 10th, 2008

So this is British Summertime is it?

What is going on with the weather these days? I know we don’t exactly live in the Tropics, but I can’t remember there ever being so much rain at this time of year before. According to our top news team, we had a months rain in just a few days. As with most statistics, without context that doesn’t really mean much to me, so let’s put this into perspective. As I write this, the River Ore has burst it’s banks, many roads are closed due to flooding and land slides and even public transport has been affected. Not good! What’s more, the Kingdom FM Roadshow due to take place yesterday at The Man I’ The Rock in Dysart was cancelled too. That’s a real shame - I was really looking forward to that. If you were planning on going along, I share your disappointment.

On a more positive note, I’ll be out the next two Saturdays with the Kingdom FM Roadshow with Barry Snedden so let’s hope the weather holds for those! Keep listening for details on air of where and when we’ll be out and come along and say hello.

I’ll be the fella in the wetsuit on top of the Ark!

April 24th, 2008

Sometimes you stumble across a website that, for reason’s you can’t quite understand, is strangely addictive!

That happened to me the other night during the show. Barry and I were chatting about a site called Google Fight that allows you to enter two search terms in the boxes provided. Once you’ve done that it’s easy! All you do is click ‘FIGHT’ and the website scurries off and shows which of the two serach terms has more hit’s on Google’s search engine.

Naturally, the first two terms I searched for, as we were doing our evening handover, was ‘Darren Stenhouse’ and ‘Barry Snedden’! Much to my disappointment I lost that fight!

Even Craig Arthur got in on the action as I noticed on my Bebo page when I got home. Craig had set up a Google Fight with my name and his name…and I even lost that fight!

Kevin Brady’s Google Fight, if memory serves, returned more than a million results, so I don’t know what he’s getting up to online, but he’s currently Kingdom FM’s Google Fight Super Heavyweight champion!