Myself and best mate Joe are convinced there are secret spy satellites listening to each and every one of our groundbreaking ideas. We would often discuss thoughts of grand money-making schemes or world changing invention, but we would never see them through to fruition. More often than not, exactly one year later we would see our amazing ideas, as purloined by the spy satellites, developed by someone else! So I figured what is the point in fighting the system, and so have decided to work with it by proactively publishing my inventions, and what better way to publish them than on the World Wide Web! I do not know how broadcasting such ideas in a blog will affect any copyright issues, but, should anyone read one of my ideas, and make lots of cash from developing it, please do not forget to donate a “reasonable” amount back to me.

The first of my inventions which I am going to publish has already been stolen by the spy satellites!… A while ago I had the idea of developing a lens which could be attached to any camera phone which would allow zooming, pan or filter effects. Much to my dismay while in the Science Museum gift shop last weekend I saw such lenses for sale - I even brought one! Another variation on the idea is to develop an adapter which would allow standard SLR type lenses to be attached to the back of a mobile phone, thus enabling high quality photographs to be taken.

“In 1972 a crack comando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles Underground. Today, still wanted by the government they survive as solders of fortune. So, if you have a problem, if no one else can help and if you can find them, maybe you can hire….. The A-Team!” –A-Team Theme

Here is another clever reading phenomenon… Count the number of times the letter “F” appears in the following quote (Do not read on until you have counted them!)…

“FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS…”

How many times is the letter “F” used? …3? …Wrong! There are 6 “F’s” in the text! No joke, read it again? The reasoning behind is due the brain not processing the word “OF” when reading sentences. Go back and read it one more time? Anyone who counts all 6 “F’s” on the first attempt is a genius, 3 is normal, 4 is quite rare.

“The 50:50 rule is only correct 50% of the time!” –JLSaunders

If you tuhohgt slpeling at shocol was imtaprnot… aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deos not mttaer wicht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are pclead, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and the lsat ltteer are in the ccreort poistoin. Tihs dteratmonses the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, and wroks bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Vwieing wrdos wtertin in tihs mnaner deos not seem to solw dwon riednag etiher, as senaetncs can siltl be sikm raed.

I wulod iaginme tihs wluod cusae all sotrs of truolbe wehn Gogloe teris to idnex pgae cnteont wtetrin in tihs way! and of cuorse spmeamrs hvae been utizlinig tihs mtheod in teihr “phraeutimaccal” and “pienis enaelemrgnt” eaimls for yaers.

“…and the answer to all my dreams; you’re my sun, my moon, my guiding star; my kind of wonderful, that’s what you are” –Barry White

As winters icy fingers steal the hours of daylight from our lives, I am ever increasingly getting frustrated by the retail industry persistent pulling Christmas forward even earlier in the year. Don’t get me wrong I am not a scrooge, I love Christmas and think it is an amazing and special time for all the family, what I don’t like is the shops stretching Christmas out like some kind of rubber band, giving you a feeling of “I can’t wait until this is all over with” when the real Christmas actually comes. If I were able, I would make it law that shops are not allowed to start Christmas until after mid November, of course this judgment may also be affected by my increasing age.

As for general Jimbo life… The job at NTL is going well, and I have an impressive job title of “ADSL Data Planning Engineer”. Claire and I are finding that preparation for our wedding is not a breeze when you only have 7 months left, we are getting there tho. We have booked the venue, hotel, dress and registrar. But we still have a lot to do including photographer, catering, guest list etc. After a visit to a wedding fair yesterday we both came away feeling stressed as everybody is exclaiming “ooo, you haven’t got long left you better get it booked!” but we are trying to keep a calm head.

Went to the London Science Museum this weekend with Claire, Alli, Cwaig, Simon, Jane, Dave, Graham and Helen and had a great time learning and interacting with all the funky, techy, geeky stuff. After the museum went straight to a surprise birthday party for Dave which Emma had been secretly preparing while we were away in London, a game of charades was inevitable.

“If what you believe does not reflect the truth, what you feel will not reflect reality” –Freedom in Christ Discipleship Course