T.A.C.T - Just Giving

I don't know Aaron Bixley, I just recieved an email through from a good friend and wanted to post about it here and let you know via twitter and other means... So, over the next 24 or so hours I will be on about it, a lot... Please bear with me. As you mostly all know, I've just welcomed my new little man, Sebastian, into the world and the thought of having to go through what Aaron has had to go through is heartbreaking. Please consider not spending your next £2.44 on a coffee at Starbucks and instead donating it via the links in this post or directly to TACT HERE Here is Aaron's letter for you to consider.

Hello everyone (Apologies for the round robin),

Last year, in February, a beautiful baby girl was born called Phoebe. She arrived at 25 weeks gestation and was an amazingly brave human being.

We visited Phoebe every day in Leicester & Coventry;  I had to stop working to take care of my family & because we fell short of the benefit system, we were forced to live off Sarah's maternity pay.

Sarah & I shuttled to & from hospital every day for 10 months.  We very quickly got ourselves into debt with nursery fee's (for Phoebe's brother, Jude), our petrol fuel bill was running at £200 per week, hospital parking charges, hospital food, plus the normal cost of running a home!

When Sarah & I were at our lowest ebb, when Natwest refused extra credit, or a payment holiday on our mortgage, TACT stepped in & helped my family.  I’d always thought that Sarah & I were fairly ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.  When our life was thrown into turmoil, it was the help from TACT that touched & astonished us.

As you probably know, Phoebe died last November having never made it home. I took up running which gave me space to think about Phoebe & how happy she made me.

I'm taking part in the Virgin London Marathon 2010 on 25/04/2010 to raise money for TACT and I'd really appreciate your support. Phoebe couldn’t come home, so we took home to Phoebe.  By making a donation you are helping other families do the same.

It's easy to donate online with a credit or debit card - just go to my JustGiving page:

http://www.justgiving.com/AaronBixley

JustGiving sends your donation straight to TACT and automatically reclaims Gift Aid if you're a UK taxpayer, so your donation is worth even more. I hope you'll join me in supporting The Actors' Charitable Trust.

Thank you.

Aaron

Aaron, best of luck with your run and your donation target.

Sime // gtvone.com

INQ Mini 3g - First impressions

It's been almost twentyfour hours since I went into the 3 shop at Westfield. ...almost twentyfour hours since I was handed my INQ Mini 3G by the very helpful sales guy. First impressions are not to be "lived by" they're not always an accurate depiction of things to come, but they do tend to give you a semi-decent idea of "things to come" So, with that in mind, here's my list of things that I don't like all that much - so far. Keep in mind that this is also my first time using the Three network (on my own dime...)

• The device has restarted by itself three times
• When I unplugged it from my PC just now, my PC Blue screened
• The space key is on the zero, rather than the # as with all other devices
• You can't easily pull up a # Tag for twitter without pressing the # ket twice (to change the font size) and then hitting the * key
• When using the Twitter app, I can't find a way to see messages @ me
• Network seems to drop out more than any other network I've used - SW5 / W6  area (Compared to Vodafone)
• USB headphones (#Fail)
• A bit slow with multiple apps open (Skype, Facebook and Twitter)

Now, that's a bit of a list, but there are MANY good points to this device, too...

• Standard USB connection - plugged straight into my Mac and PC and charged.
• Sturdy feel
• Good screen size for a small phone
• Skype actually WORKS
• Switching between apps works well if a little slow
• Camera, despite being 2MP seems to work OK
• It's small!
• My wife always asks me what the temperature is - home screen current temperature is a god send!

These are first impressions, I dare say in a couple of days I will know exactly what we're dealing with... Until then, you can keep up to date with my thoughts on Twitter or via my RSS Feed

gtvone - what does it mean?

There's much speculation surrounding "gtvone" and what it actually means. Let's start with how to pronounce it, shall we? It's not "gt-vone" it's "gtv-one" that sounds a lot like g.t.v...one got it? say it back to yourself... gtv ONE that's it. So, now that you can say it, what's it mean? Well - Let's speculate and say that it is a fictional character from space, but it's not true now, is it... GTVone is with reference to my first love... A 1978 Alfa Romeo GTV - I'm not a sports lover "as such" in that I don't like football all that much, Tennis bores me and Cricket? Give me the sandwiches... you can keep the rest! Motorsports, I like motorsports... WRC, F1, V8's and Bikes... Love it - something fast and (usually!) controllable is where it's at for me... So, that's got absolutely nothing to do with gtvone, but it's great that you know, now... I only have one photo of gtvone - "back then" I didn't see the need for pictures of her, she was in my back yard and always around some place... whereas now, she's dead, gone...

I hear you saying - what's all this got to do with music photography? well, largely nothing... But it's a commonly asked question (according to my google analytics) so, here's the answer.