E.mail to blog from Thunderbird

I have been struggling with the Wordpress e.mail to blog hack of wp-mail.php from John Blade.

The problems I had with his hack were:

# It didn’t interpret the HTML properly from Thunderbird
# It didn’t format the pictures automatically

My version of the hack is a combination of the information in the comments on John’s hack.
# Attached images are automatically resized to 250 pixels. The script is from http://www.vienna360.net/files/wp-mail.phps.
# HTML in plain text e.mails works. Thanks to Harry Sufehmi and comment number 43.

A copy of the my combination of the hacks is here.

More limericks

Isaac and Alice helped write some limericks over tea today.

Isaac was a little boy,
Who liked to think he was coy,
But his mouth was loud,
And of this he was proud,
In fact he was a normal boy.

There was a young girl called Alice,
In whom there was no malice.
She dressed in pretty clothes,
from her head to her toes
And wished she lived in a palace.

Isaac is very good a rhyming words. He thought of the line to go with "She dressed in pretty clothes".

Nativity Play

We had an interesting time during the nativity service. Sandra had burned all the music she wanted to a CD, which we intended to play in the DVD player. As the disk contained a mix of audio CD files and MPEG files, the DVD only found the MPEG files. That would have been fine, only we realised only 5 minutes before we needed them (the service was in full swing and I was sat at the back with Stephen, because he was a bit concerned it might all go wrong).

I had a serious moment of panic when I realised that:
1. The congregation didn’t know the songs.
2. The children didn’t know the songs.
3. The musicians didn’t know the songs.
4. The DVD player didn’t know the songs.

It was a moment to behold….. (well in hindsight at least) What on earth were we going to do. In a moment of inspiration we liberated a CD player from the Sunday special cupboard and held a microphone in front of it. It all went well in the end but Stephen, Norman and I looked a bit haggered by the end of it!

In the evening I played a one minute clip from Joan Osborne’s "what if God was one of us" (A transcript of the talk can be found on the website). And that went fine. It did occur to me that if the sound from the PC was connected to the PA then we could have set it all up in a power point file and all the music would have played for exactly the right length of time in exactly the right places.

Relevant Web Links:
www.stanleyroad.org.uk
www.joanosborne.com

New Nephew

I have got a new nephew:

The e.mail from Steve read:

To our joy, & surprise in so many ways, Barnabas Harvey Doel was born this
morning at a quarter to five, weighing 7lbs and 1.5 oz (the half is very
important, I’m told). Both he and Jenny are doing well, and expect to be
coming home tomorrow to join his sisters, who couldn’t keep their hands off
him during our hospital visit this afternoon!

Family Talent Night

Every year, at some point, Louise’s family subject us to the ordeal of a family talent night. This is my contribution to this years:

There was an old couple from Bole Hill
who’s brood grew and grew until,
they left to marry,
and now they tarry,
on the phone which won’t stop ringing still.

In Morecambe lived a ministers wife
who liked to think she had a life,
the kids all knew
that she couldn’t carry it through
without enduring strife.

From Derbyshire came a couple who liked laughing,
as they thought about increasing their staffing.
They ended up late,
for every little date,
with a car full of everything for faffing.

Though in Brigsteer the smallest lady,
was expecting her second baby.
The scan did show
what she said she didn’t know,
that the bump was another little … (oh sorry were not supposed to say).

In Barrow was a man who liked driving,
he had a family who loved their diving.
They went to college,
to improve their knowledge,
To move their household so thriving.

There was a young man from Derby,
who took to his his bike on the kerby.
He loved to fly,
on his bike, through the sky,
which made him feel just like Herby.

Graham Doel
22 December 2004

Why do I blog, and where do I find the time.

Since I started to blog people have asked me why and where do I find the time to do it.

I started blogging because there were a few things I wanted to remember. I wanted to remember some of Isaac’s questions when his all big and grown up. The house has had some very frustrating moments and I wanted to be able to store some of the solutions I found and the feelings I went through, so next time I think about taking on a large project I might not!

My blog is primarily for myself. This is the first entry that I haven’t written for me. I have let a few people know about my blog because they have asked about the kitchen or the family, so I have occasionally sent a link.

Finding the time is quite simple. I e.mail the server and it posts it for me, so blogging is only a case of sending a quick e.mail.

MFI lets us down

Louise and I decided that we weren’t going to have a sink from Howdens but to get a nice ceramic one and a half bowl one (just like Louise’s mums). We found one in the sale at MFI and ordered it on the 16 November. They gave us a delivery date of 15th December.

On Monday this week we god a phone call from a young sounding lad in a call centre. He was ringing me to tell me that the best they would be able to do would be to deliver the sink on the 8th of January. The conversation went on a bit. He was unable to do anything to help and unable to let me talk to a supervisor. The only thing he could do for me was to give me a customer services number. I was quite good and didn’t loose my rag, after all it wasn’t his fault.

I rang customer services. The conversation went on. It transpired that they are closed for the holidays soon and the 8th of January is their first delivery date after the holidays. So I explained that I actually have no sink. It’s not that I am waiting for a replacement, but that we get our water from an outside tap. The conversation went on… I was put on hold a couple of times. After a while it became apparent she was trying to close the conversation. "So" I said, "all your company can do for me is deliver the sink on the 8th of January or give me my money back". I was politely asked to be put on hold again. She came back. Apparently I could go to Howdens, choose any sink I liked and MFI would pay for it.

I couldn’t help thinking that if I wanted a Howdens sink, I would have bought a Howdens sink in the first place. I accepted her offer with thanks, because at least at the end of the day she had tried to sort out the problem, after all it’s not her fault that MFI run an unaccountable system where goods are sold when they are not in stock and where no one will accept responsibility for the mistake.

Progress on the Kitchen

Progress on the kitchen is good. The cooker is in and the units are in, but without doors. We are using it now. The underfloor heating is great, you come down in the morning and the tiles are warm. Its going to be fantastic.

Blogging by e.mail

I have tried to get blogging by e.mail working on Wordpress working, but have come
unstuck every time I tried to set up a cron job to automate it (a cron
job is an automatic job on the server). Thanks to Matt’s blog on the subject
I have finally got it working. All I needed to do was prefix the cron
command with "php"

Regeneration of the West End of Morecambe

There is a move to regenerate the West End of Morecambe. The proposals attempt to provide a an opportunity for the area to change significantly. One of the larger issues is the return of Multi Occupancy Homes to single dwellings.

Although it seems to me that the return of many of the multi-occupancy houses to single dwellings will change the demographics of the area, there has been little said about the treatment of the existing occupants. The area does have a significant number of people who do not conform to accepted social norms, often because of some form of alcahol or substance abuse. I realise that to those living in the area their behaviour must be at best terribly frustrating and to move these people on would make the area pleasant to live in. I am concerned that to move them on without providing the opportunity to change their lifestyle is short sighted. Although it will improve this area and many will benefit, it merely moves the problem, rather than solving it.

Why can’t the regeneration of Morecambe include facility for these people to have the opportunity to modify their lifestyle. Some want to change, but they need a resource to help them. It seems to me that society wants to write them off without giving them the opportunity to recover.

Lancashire County Council press release

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