So, Agent J is turning 9 years bold on Monday! He started guitar lessons last year and has quite taken to it, passing his grade 1 a few months ago over Zoom -- ah, the modern world! Since his teacher is running Zoom lessons 4 or 5 times a week I decided to get him a second guitar that can be at my house for when he is with me. His current nylon string 1/2 size is due an upgrade i think, so today I went into Belfast and came home with a 3/4 size with steel strings so that it

I took this picture of a monkey in the road when I was on a local bus in Sri Lanka a few years ago... I started using it as an avatar on my profile for chess.com and quite liked it - since the monkey looked like it was thinking! I recently thought it would be a good replacement for the cat logo for all the reasons mentioned in the previous post - and - because it looks like it it thinking which is great for a website devoted to games about solving problems or challenges. Here

I like pictures in the house to have a story to explain their presence. For example i have this picture in my lounge next to the fire place of a woman's face in negative. I really like it from a purely visual point of view, but I've no idea who it is... But who is she? I'd been wanting to replace it with a woman who I find inspiring and had been considering Hedy Lamarr due to her inventions but the more i found out about the post-Holywood side of things the less inspired i b

Painting is a good way to get extended conversation with the kids, flick paint at each other and do silly stuff. Agent K is already quite handy with a pencil or paint brush being a bit older than Agent J. So one breakfast we decided to have a collaboration between daddy and Agent J. I showed them a handy trick that i'd just learned for making a grid to scale up a picture in a book to a big canvas without the need for measuring anything. Agent J selected the picture from a

There's 'making your bed' and then there's actually making your own bed from wood, glue, screws and hard work... Step 1 get the kids to help you create a mock-up using lollipop sticks to explore what might work and how strong/weak the frame shapes are... 6 legged bed frame. The idea of the six-legged frame was to maximise unhindered space beneath it. It did seem a bit risky though! So we took the safer option and opted for making two identical frames with four legs. This h

I found a drop-leaf table that fitted in the space beside the chimney breast in my lounge and also opened large enough to serve as a dining table occasionally for up to 6 people and more typically serve as a general work surface for making stuff with the kids.. Here's what it looked like when i got it from Gumtree... And i got the idea of painting it bright lime green or like a zebra. I looked online for zebra ideas and found this picture which i took as inspiration... From

I was frustratedly peering at some music score — I’ve always been slow to recognise notes that are extended above or below the stave — I wasn’t sure at first glance if the note was two lines up or three? Was it on the line or between the lines? Also I know the name of all the notes on the main stave far better than the extended ones. Traditional music score showing extended notes above the stave. It struck me that manuscript is still in the dark ages of black and white pri

Was thinking about a logo for my website. —I like the black cat but it’s not my logo so it has to change :( What I like about it is that it’s - instantly recognisable - simple bold - high contrast - conveys personality (curious, etc) - people have feelings towards pets rather than abstract shapes Bad cone My best idea so far is something along the lines of this sketch of a cone character... It ticks the most of those same bullet points whilst having some connection to t

Boring flights are great opportunities to try out new apps. On the flight home from a holiday in Naples, I tried out the Paper app for the iPad which allows you to paint with water-colour like effects. Unfortunately i only had a finger rather than a paint brush or a stylus. Mount Vesuvius Viewed From Pompeii Pompeii Prima Donna Does Not Watch

Sometimes meetings are just too boring to do anything else...