There are a few moments in everyone’s life which were so huge that they will always remember where they were and what they were doing. For example, when JFK was shot, when John Lennon was shot, the Dunblane massacre, the London bombings of 7/7, the Glasgow Airport attack.

On 11 September 2001, I was at home, on a day off from university. For the past 10 years, I’ve been a bit of a news junkie. This day was the catalyst. Like most people, I heard about the North Tower being struck and switched to the rolling news. I was horrified and astounded that a pilot could have suffered any kind of system failure which could have led to an accident of this magnitude. Then the South Tower was struck. This was not an accident. It was a terrorist attack. I was watching something which was changing the world.

At some point during all of this, I received a phone call asking if I could come into work as they got very busy all of a sudden. I worked for a phone company which did cheap phone calls to other countries. Everyone was trying to call the US. We were told that the authorities in the US had turned off all the mobile phone networks in New York and that landlines were incredibly congested. This led to a swathe of calls from American ex-pats who were incredibly rude to my colleagues and I. There was, of course, nothing we could do to get these people through to their loved ones. This was anger due to panic, due to concern for loved ones, due to an attack on their homeland. I couldn’t blame them for that. These callers didn’t realise however, that I too, had lost friends and colleagues that morning. You see, the company I worked for had its New York switching equipment in World Trade Center.

Its hard to understand exactly how I changed after these events. I’m more suspicious, certainly. I’ve learned a bit more about other cultures, and religion in general. I’ve decided for some, religion is a comfort, but for me, and many others, its about control. Trying to get people to think and behave in a certain way.

The events of 9/11 changed the world. For everyone. The world is now a more dangerous place. I just accepted this as a fact of life, but now, as a new father, I need to help reverse this. We need to change the world for the better. If we all do at least one good thing every day for a fellow human being, things will change. We can all change the world for the better.

For those who haven’t read the story, or this one for that matter, ACM Bryant warned MPs that the RAF’s ability to deal with future emergencies is under threat if British intervention in Libya continues beyond September. This echos similar warning last week by the First Sea Lord, Sir Mark Stanhope.

Now, given that these warnings come from people at the top of our armed forces, you would think that the Prime Minister would take those warnings seriously, and look into the concerns of the RAF and Royal Navy. Apparently not. Instead, he opted to feed the following snide comment to the press:

There are moments when I wake up and read the newspapers and think: ‘I tell you what, you do the fighting and I’ll do the talking’.

Perhaps if the talking was a little less snide and a little more informed, the fighting would be a little less regular, don’t you think?

Anyway, since Michelle and Helen Boo’d, I felt I had to keep up with them, and post my own, so find mine here:

What’s Twestival? Well, straight from the Twestival site, its something like this:

On Thursday 25 March 2010, people in hundreds of cities around the world will come together offline to rally around the important cause of Education by hosting local events to have fun and create awareness. Twestival™ (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good. All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects.

In Glasgow, I was the lead organiser, for my sins. We had less time than usual to organise it – 4 weeks to be precise. In that time, we had to find a venue, a headline sponsor, some bands, a compere, a photographer and some raffle and auction items. Oh, and we had to get it all for free. I’m delighted to say that we did, in fact, manage it. We even had time to produce a video beforehand:

We set a target of £2500. I thought that was a VERY adventurous target, considering the timeframe. It turns out I was WAY off. At last count, we raised around £6500! To say I’m astounded is an absolutely understatement. It was such a huge achievement, and I know that Concern can do a whole load with that cash.

Our headline sponsor, iomart Group went nuts on Twestival this year. Not only were they sponsors of the Glasgow Twestival, they also sponsored the London Twestival, and provided a cocktail bar and smoothie bar in Glasgow and London respectively. That wasn’t all though. Phil from iomart attended both events. He kicked off in London, and made a 400 mile trip with a road cone – Glasgow’s unofficial mascot, picking up autographs along the way! Phil Collins did Live Aid, Phil Worms did Twestival. So what’s next? Some sleep. A lot of it:

A huge thanks to everyone who helped pull this event together and make it what it was. The next one will be in August/September, and I’ll be there. Will you?

After drifting in and out of it during this period, I’m now properly back on Twitter. I had fallen away from it for a while, just as I had with the rest of social media. It feels good to be back though, I missed being plugged into the Matrix. There is one problem though – it is full of Apple disciples and Big Brother fans, so at certain times of the day or month, I will lay low until the dust has settled from whichever Apple or Endemol launch/scandal has happened on any given day. So for that reason, I will probably be a ‘floater’, dipping in and out of Twitter as it suits me.

I can’t believe we’re almost into February too – is it possible that due to all the issues with snow and cold weather, January has just passed us by completely? Possibly. Were we all too distracted in our efforts not to slip and break our necks to notice that Burns’ Night was approaching? Definately. Thank God Steve Jobs was on hand to snap us out of it by tempting us all with an iPad. He’ll be launching the more discreet iTampon in the summer.

By the way, I had a beta version of the iPad a few years ago. Back then though, they called it an Etch-a-Sketch.

It seems, however, that everyone knew but me. That’s not strictly true, but it certainly felt like that last night. Yesterday was also her birthday, and a group of her friends and I were summoned by Robert to be at a restaurant for a surprise party. When I say ‘surprise’, I really just mean it as a figure of speech – again, there was some amount of hinting during the weeks in the run-up to this meal.

Anyway, I digress. We had a lovely meal, and when the meal and birthday cake were dispensed with, Robert stood up and started to make a speech. I thought it was odd that he would be making a speech at my sister’s birthday meal, and then it clicked. It wasn’t long before the ring box came out, and he’d dropped to one knee. She naturally said yes, there was much applause and serving of champagne, followed by a few people asking me if I knew this would be happening. I did not. It turns out though, that a few of her friends did.

Why not me? Well, family wasn’t to know. My mum didn’t know, but this was also true of my dad. Oops. He doesn’t look that bothered, but I think he might have liked to have been asked beforehand. It turns out Robert’s dad knew though, so I guess I’m feeling bad for my dad at this stage.

It wasn’t quite like this video though..

Anyway, AudioBoo is the latest Web2.0 craze, and to be honest, its one I can totally get on board with. It is audio-based, after all. The only complaint I have had with AudioBoo in the past is that it’s an iPhone-only app, and it has been since launch. However, the nice guys at AudioBoo are planning to launch an API on 11 July to enable others to build cool stuff. Some of that cool stuff, I’m hoping, will be applications for the Symbian S60 OS. Creating apps based on this API will allow me to use AudioBoo properly, and in higher quality.

Now, I know that I said it was an iPhone-only app, and that’s true, but as part of the internal testing of the API, an AudioBoo developer created PhoneBoo – a version of AudioBoo which allows you to call a UK-based number and create your Boo that way. This is how I plan to use AudioBoo until the Symbian-based apps start appearing. Roll on 11 July!

Anyway, just for giggles, here’s my very first Boo:

UPDATE:

The iPadio folks have been Twittering me since I posted about AudioBoo, and have convinced me to give it a try. I’ve given it a go, and so far, it’s much the same as AudioBoo. However, they are working on an MP3 upload service which will post audio to Twitter in much the same way as TwitPic posts images. It just goes to show what a chance email can do, eh?

Unlike AudioBoo though, iPadio is creating apps for mobile handsets other than the iPhone. They have indicated to me that there will be something much better coming for Nokia handsets, but due to a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Nokia they couldn’t go into anything substantial with me at this time. I’ve asked to be a beta tester for the service, and they’ve agreed, so if I can talk about it, I’ll post it here.

Just for laughs, here’s my iPadio phlog:

So it appears that everyone around me is coming down with Swine Flu. My sister, last night, was one of the latest to become a confirmed case, and my mum was swabbed last night by a nurse – we’re now waiting for the results of that test.

I’ve been lucky – so far. I’m not displaying any symptoms, and I don’t really intend to put myself in harm’s way. I’m currently working from home because I’ve become the office leper (you see, I’m not ill, but they don’t want to take the chance), so I’m holed up in my bedroom with my laptop, TV and Xbox. I could do with a small fridge and a microwave – then I’d be truly self-sufficient. I’m pretty much ready for a nuclear holocaust – my room has become my own personal nuclear bunker – now, where did I put my shortwave radio?

It’s pretty bizarre being thrust into the middle of a Swine Flu zone. Up until now, it was something which was happening to other people. It was happening in other parts of the country, other parts of the city, but it wasn’t happening to anyone I had met or anyone I knew. Until Sunday. If you’ve read my last blog entry, you’ll know that I went to Glasgow’s West End Festival. It was there that I came into contact with someone who’s now been confirmed as being H1N1 positive. Unknown to me, my sister had been in this person’s company a lot over the previous couple of days, and I suspect that’s how she ended up with the virus. In turn, it would seem logical that this is how my mum ended up with symptoms.

I feel a little let down by the public health authorities in Glasgow. I understand that this pandemic is a living, breathing, evolving entity, but NHS Scotland (via NHS24) and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde don’t appear to be singing from the same hymnsheet. My GP informed me that it was my decision whether I attended work or not. He also stated that they were no longer conducting swab tests for suspected cases. This was directly contradicted by the NHS Scotland nurse who came out to test my mum last night. This, coupled with the fact that other GPs in the same area are testing patients, etc., I am forced to ask the question: If different public health agencies are not approaching the pandemic situation in a uniform way, how do they plan to minimise the impact it has on the country? In other words, how do they plan on minimising the risk of me getting it?

So, I await the results of my mum’s test, and we’ll see whether I eventually succumb.

Image by rumpleteaser on Flickr. Used under licence.

It all started when Mrs. Stewart said “let’s go to the West End Festival”. At this point, I thought that was a good idea. We’ll walk along to Byres Road, have a nice brunch at AdLib, and then head along to Kelvingrove Park for the Mardi Gras parade.

So, we set off at 12:30 and enjoyed said brunch. I had the All-American Breakfast minus the tomato and mushrooms, if you’re interested. I also got baked beans as a substitute for that less-desirable veg. All-in-all though, Ad Lib is a very nice place to brunch. Particularly on a nice day like today.

Once we were done with the brunch, we made our way along to Kelvin Way and Kelvingrove Park. There were plenty of stands, fast food places and ice cream vans, but my favourite stand was at the skate park. They had a BMX stunt display which was very, very impressive. A true testament to the skill of the riders - I want to say artists, but I’m not really sure if BMX stunts can be defined as art - and to the technology employed to build the bikes these guys ride. Death-defying leaps from platforms showed that not even these guys are able to escape the forces of gravity.

The Mardi Gras parade was only OK – it wasn’t great. There were loads of colourful costumes, and the band leading the parade, like last year was outstanding, but overall, it was average. There weren’t as many groups in the parade, and in my opinion, the organisers made a mistake in having the parade proceed down Kelvin Way. If anyone from the organising committee happens to be reading this, please switch back to Byres Road. There was much more of a community spirit in previous years.

We finished off the day sitting in the park before stopping for a drink in The Goat. It was at that point that I realised my foot was sore. However, not being one to remove my shoes and socks in a pub, I elected to keep my feet in my trainers until I got home. Which is now.

My feet are swollen, and I have a H-U-G-E blister on the heel of my left one. I suspect that this may be due to the fact that my trainers are completely done and ready to be thrown out, but I love them so. I’m not one to complain too much though, so let’s just leave it at that.

I’ve had a great day, and I appear to be a bit burnt (in a Close Encounters of the Third Kind) sort of a way, so I think I may be keeping a low profile for the next few days.

This is and idea I’ve toyed with for a while now, but two things have been stopping me: the lack of a home for the blog and the the will to do it. I’ve managed to muster up the will now, and thanks to those nice people over at 1-2-3 Reg, I managed to score myself a .info domain for the measly sum of 88 pence.

Yes. 88. Pence.

So here I am, this is me. I’m not really sure what form this blog will take, and I’m hoping it’ll just ‘come together’ over time. It may be that I end up posting a series of links/photos/videos I like, but equally, I may produce award-winning literary works (although that’s unlikely).

Anyway, to start us off, here’s a video I produced recently. It features my good friend Steven Scott. The joke here is that he’s visually impaired. Enjoy!