SteveHeyes .co.uk

I have realised that my tumblr has been severely neglected and abused over the past few months. This is mainly due to final year of university taking over my life, including my final year project; Odima. 

However, this week on Tuesday I found out that it was all worth as I gained a First in my degree and won an award for Odima. I am really pleased with this, as you can imagine!

And so these past few weeks since finishing uni have been a bit of a roller coaster. I haven’t decided if I’ll write about it all yet but it has been good and it has been bad. Good in the sense that we have partied and I have such a bright and exciting future ahead, bad in the sense that it is the end of an era and security!

However, I aim to revitilise my tumblr to make it more interesting than my listening habits! So I am going to do the 30 days of Tumblr challenge that a couple of people have done. Hopefully, this will get me excited about blogging and sharing again. If not, no worries, but it should be fun.

This will start in July because I am going away with Amy to Brighton on Sunday till Friday and intended not to look at Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or GMail. This will be all about exploring the area and having (more of a) rest!

I may post a couple things between now and then, but this is the plan. Hope you will enjoy it!

Peace.

It is my 23rd birthday on 9th May. I am looking forward to it, although it is slightly marred by my impending finals that start the day after. Every year I get asked the same question; what do you want for your birthday? I am in a very privileged position to have gifts bought for me on this day. However, this year I’d like to do things differently.

A couple months ago, our water stopped working in the house I share with some friends. It was completely cut off. There was a slight uncertainty around as we spoke to the water company and neighbours about the situation; How would we get a cup of tea? How would we shower? How would we flush the loo?

It may sound rather silly, but I realised how great we had it. The fact that I can go to the kitchen and get a glass of water. And that this water was clean and drinkable. So I started to look into those who didn’t have this and what I found was astounding:

Almost a billion people don’t have access to clean water.

Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.

90% of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are to children under five years old.

This is not ok. I want to do something about this. So this is what I am going to do.

This year for my birthday, I will give all of my monetary birthday gifts to chairty:water. Chairty:water is a “non-profit organisation bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.” 100% of their donations go into their projects, while their staff are funded by outside sources. For more information check out their website: http://www.charitywater.org/

Over the next week I will be posting something every day about charity:water and how providing clean water does more than quench thirst.

I know that some people like to give gifts, and I don’t want to take that away from people. But can I suggest if you would like to get me a gift, then please get a smaller one and give a donation as well. This is what I want for my birthday.

Also, for those who don’t usually give me a gift, but want to give someone access to a basic human need, I will be setting up a Just Giving page for people to give to. 

Thank you all in advance for this.

• Create my own Tumblr theme
• Finish of The Bible App
• Create a decent Facebook app for integrating/uploading Flickr photos
• Go on holiday
• Finish off all the updates to sites I should have done but Uni stole took over my life
• Met up for a coffee/drink with everyone I should have done but Uni stole took over my life
• A day of doing nothing
• Set up the next stage of my life

amysian:

My boyfriend is a geek (Hi Steve).
We have been together for 3 months.
I just commented on how people really shouldn’t make websites in flash (while trying to navigate one via my phone).
I’m scared of what I’m becoming…

Totally worth reblogging.

:)

I would like to take a couple of moments to explain briefly what I will be doing after graduation. I have been asked this quite a lot recently and thought it best to explain it in one place.

As some of you may be aware of, I graduate from Aston University this summer (my last exam is 21st May) and soon I will be out of the bubble of student life and into the big, bad world. Over the past 6 months I have been thinking and praying about what direction to take and now things are becoming more firm I would like to explain to you a little about what I will be doing.

As a Christian, I have felt it important to listen to God on what he wants for my life. I have been praying and fasting trying to discern his will. It wasn’t until a dream I had that it all became clear. The dream was that I was in a cold, dark place in the middle of a snow storm. At first I thought this was Birmingham, but then I saw some people. They weren’t Brummies, they were Inuits. They look lost, wandering around the snow storm. I then heard God say “show them the way Steve.” I then woke up.

This dream has stuck with me and so after careful thought, discussion and prayer I have decided to take a risk. As of September I will be leaving England to go and live with a Christian Inuit family who are currently trying to plant a church in their local Inuit community. The couple I will be living with are called Itigiaq and Kapik. They have 2 children with a third on the way so it will be a pretty full iglo. The idea is that eventually I will get my own iglo, maybe live with some of the Inuits who will join the church as it grows.

So this is it. I know it may come as a bit of a shock to you, but it also came to a bit of a shock to me! I would like you to keep me all in your thoughts for it. I will blogging about my experience over at http://jesus4inuits.wordpress.com If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Also, I will probably be freelancing while I’m over there so if you have any work for a poor missionary then please let me know.

Thanks.
Steve Heyes.

sketchesofadream:

Saw this list, thought it was a good plan

• Day 01 — Your favorite song
• Day 02 — Your favorite movie
• Day 03 — Your favorite television program
• Day 04 — Your favorite book
• Day 05 — Your favorite quote
• Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy
• Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
• Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad
• Day 09 — A photo you took
• Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago
• Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently
• Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy
• Day 13 — A fictional book
• Day 14 — A non-fictional book
• Day 15 — A fanfic
• Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
• Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
• Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy
• Day 19 — A talent of yours
• Day 20 — A hobby of yours
• Day 21 — A recipe
• Day 22 — A website
• Day 23 — A YouTube video
• Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy
• Day 25 — Your day, in great detail
• Day 26 — Your week, in great detail
• Day 27 — This month, in great detail
• Day 28 — This year, in great detail
• Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
• Day 30 — Whatever tickles your fancy

It begins tomorrow. Hope you enjoy

This looks like fun. I think I shall play too.

This evening I had a very quick play with Tumblr Ask. I thought I would share with you a couple of my thoughts about it.

First off, what is it? Tumblr Ask is a way of asking a tumblr user a question. Simple as that really. As far as I can gather, they seemed to of taken their idea from Form Spring which according to their site is a way of “Send[ing] and receive anonymous questions, and learn more about people you find interesting by following their answers.” I have seen this on a few tumblr blogs but not really bothered much with it, but thought I would try out Tumblrs version.

So my experience with it. Honestly, I found it a little clunky to use. The javascript used to answer a question seems to be very slow and sometimes it took me 3 or 4 attempts to answer a question. I know that it is in testing, so I don’t hold this against them. Also, the counter next to ‘Messages’ in the side menu on the dashboard seemed a little unreliable. Saying that, Tumblr probably have hundreds of users trying this out (they had 843 notes on last check of the post) and are ironing out the bugs.

I do like the design of the posts on the dashboard. Due to how new the functionality, my template doesn’t display them as nice. But that’s fine, it will either get updated, or I will use one which has the functionality built in. That will just take time.

You might be wondering why I am making a deal out of this. Basically, it comes down to user directed development, which seems to be a patten in web applications recently. I would define user directed development as incorporating functionality that the users are already doing or want.

For example, the majority of Twitters current features (@mentions, #hashtags, search, ReTweet, lists etc) have either come form users constantly using the same techniques (@mentions for example) or an in house recreation of a popular web service (search and #hashtags). I think the same kind of thing is happening on Tumblr.

I say this is happening, but I may be getting a head of myself. There is only the one new feature that has been added due to a popular web service being linked with tumblr a lot. However, I do know that the guys at Tumblr HQ go through the stats of what people are blogging, so it wouldn’t surprise me. They have also added a number of functionality that users have suggested (‘J’ & ‘K’ scrolling, video thumbnails) Also, I haven’t been using Tumblr long enough to comment on whether ‘rebloging’ was created because people where already doing it.

So, in conclusion, Tumblr Ask is fun and pretty, if a bit buggy. More interestingly to me is that it is part of a wider pattern of user directed development which is an interesting way of growing an application.

The narrative of a New Years Resolution is always the same. It comes to December 30th and you think “Oh, I wonder what my New Year Resolution will be?” But by the time the new year rolls in you have talked yourself out of binding yourself to a somewhat useless contract that you know you will eventually break and then feel guilty about.

Sound about right?

I play that game with myself every year but I like the idea of New Years Resolutions. I like the idea of being able to start fresh on something and to have a goal. Last year I wanted to do something new every month. I think I managed it. Honestly, I forgot all about it by May. But I’m sure I can twist something to fit it to avoid breaking the resolution.

This year I have made a couple of resolutions. All of them have get out clauses or very loose rules. I did wonder if this made them pointless and if I was just a victim of the Resolution system. I then decided I didn’t care that much and wanted to do them anyway!

The first is really a continuation from last year. I want to do at least one new thing every month. Knowing some of what is coming up this year I know this will be easy.

The second is I want to read a book a month. I have never been a big reader, but recently I have really enjoyed looking at something that wasn’t made up of pixels. I also think there is a lot to be learnt from books. One of my favourite pass times has been going to a coffee shop, getting a drink and reading a book.

With this second resolution, I am giving myself a 2 week grace period. The main reason I am doing this is not that I read 12 books but that I have an incentive to read. Even if I only get through 8 books, that is better than the 2 or 3 a year I go through at the moment.

You see, this is what it comes down to for me. Would I complete these resolutions because I want to do them? Or because I have to now that I have blogged about them?

I am doing these resolutions because I want to. I want to do something new every month to keep things exciting and fresh and to make sure I don’t get too stuck in a rut. And I am aiming to read a book a month because I want to read more books. I don’t have to make resolutions for these really but I find it a helpful aid.

As yet, I have not thought what I am going to do this month. Also, I am half way through a book at the moment. So I don’t have a clean start for that. But honestly, it doesn’t matter. The point of the resolutions are to encourage, to guide and to help in what I want to do. As soon as they stop doing that, then I will stop doing them.

Song of the Year

Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event

Ever since hearing this song for the first time I have loved it. It is a song about a situation I think nobody wants to be in and describes it so well. It draws you into the story and then leaves you at the end filled with melancholy and pity for the protagonist. While not the happiest song, the effect it had on me was startling.

Album of the Year

Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons

Easy this one really. Every song on this album is amazing, every lyric edifying and every note pure audible joy. Stunning album. Just stunning.

Film of the Year

Watchmen

This was the hardest one to choose. Mainly because I haven’t seen that many films this year. Saying that Avatar stood out mainly because of its ground breaking CGI. However, after reading the graphic novel first, I still find Watchmen fantastic to watch. Maybe it wasn’t the greatest film out this year but it is my favourite.

Website of the Year

Tumblr

Tumblr have really grown over the past year. I have been using it for 18months or so now and they seem to be getting better and better. I used to be annoyed with the way you can’t search by type, however adding simple tag solves this. Especially now tags are shown in the dashboard and are available in templates. Good work Tumblr.

Favourite Posts of 2009:

Text: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/159382303/things-ive-learnt-today-9th-aug-2009
Photo: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/89066600
Quote: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/201795747/ive-just-found-out-that-when-i-saw-a-patch-of-oil
Link: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/112075559/so-youre-in-love-with-one-of-your-friends-but-she
Chat: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/82030417/me-say-hi-to-brandon-flowers-for-me-we-used-to
Audio: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/103278324/brie-stoner-come-down-this-has-been-my-prayer
Video: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/110421412/funny-talking-animals-walk-on-the-wild-side