It’s for this reason that I’ve decided to set myself a challenge. Take a photograph of something which has some significance or meaning to me. Every. Single. Day. Today’s photograph reflects my passion for a charity which I’ve worked with for the past 14 years: Radio Lollipop.

Radio Lollipop is a charity providing care, comfort, play and entertainment to children in hospital. I’m the station’s chief engineer, and Tuesday night presenter, but more important than that; I’m a volunteer. Every single one of Radio Lollipop’s volunteers is just that; a volunteer. No-one is paid for their time. From the volunteers on their very first night, right up to the chairman of the Board of Trustees, everyone gives their time freely and generously in order to realise this very simple fact: happy children get better quicker.

This is Day 1. This is Radio Lollipop:

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.

Molly was born at 0455 on Thursday, 21 July 2011. It wasn’t an easy birth, it wasn’t a short birth. It was a long birth with a traumatic, dramatic finish. I’m not going to go into all that here. If you know me at all, you’ll know the story by now.

Anyway, putting all that aside, it’s been six weeks of progression. Six weeks of watching Molly grow and develop. Six weeks of watching Jen slide with ease into the role of being a mum. Six weeks of trying to get use to the fact that your life is no longer your own. You’re no longer a couple. You’re a FAMILY. Yes, we still exist as individuals, we’re still husband and wife and we do all the things that married couples do, but we’re also now ‘Mummy and Daddy’.

It’s taken a bit of getting used to, but we’re finally found the groove. That balance between it being all about Molly, and being able to do things like household tasks. It’s taken six weeks, but we’ve made it. For now. Until Molly decides to change the rules.

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?

The other day, however, I did manage to finish a project which is kind of central to the whole project. When I say ‘central’, I literally mean ‘central’. In smart home circles, this means ‘Node Zero/Node 0′. Node Zero is usually the point in the home where everything comes together. Figuratively, the centre of the home setup. For most, this is a rack of equipment including all your AV equipment, security, applicance control, network, digital storage and other stuff. It’s usually found in one of three places: under the stairs, in the garage, or in my case, the loft.

Now, my loft hatch isn’t big enough to take a 19″ rack in one piece, and with a baby on the way, money is tight. Metal racks can be expensive and I couldn’t, in all good concience, try to convince SWMBO to let me fork out for a proper rack. The alternative? Build one from wood. Its not pretty, its not going to withstand a tornado, but its strong enough to hold all my kit. I think.

It’s not completely finished, but it’s getting there. I’ll have to dismantle it before getting it up into the loft, but here it is in all its unfinished glory:

Any thoughts on how to make this better, or suggestions for my next project will be graciously received!

So some of the more regular readers of this blog will know that I recently formed my own company: *audioninjas. What you may also know is that this is not my full-time job. So far, it’s a passion which doesn’t quite pay. Yet.

I recently demo’d for some potential work. I got the script, I got the voice, I got the price and I got the demo produced. I didn’t, however, get the work. This naturally led to disappointment and thoughts of “what could I have done better?”, but it also led me to ask myself a question: “What’s next?”.

Now, this isn’t something I usually do. Anyone who has known me any reasonable length of time will tell you that I generally take rejection and things of that nature to heart, and it will normally affect me for a couple of days, if not a couple of weeks. This time around, it affected me for a couple of minutes. Why? To be honest, I’m not quite sure. It may be that I simply don’t have time to wallow in the thought of what might have been. It was maybe that I’m currently distracted by a very heavily pregnant wife. I don’t think it is though.

I think I’ve just now begun to realise, at 29, that life’s too short. If I want to get anywhere close to making my passion something which allows me to not only feed my family, but to reach my goals and realise my dreams, I just have to pick myself up, dust myself off and get straight back to work. This surprised me, but I know its the right decision.

(Photo by CarynNL. Thanks!)

That is all.

Sunday is supposed to be a ‘day of rest’ isn’t it? Not for me, not today. I started off by heading out to the Mini dealership. Jen was picking up her new car:

A whole hour wasted! Maybe its just me, but time spent in a car dealership when you’re not getting a car for yourself seems like a bit of a waste of time.

I had the forethought to pick up my laptop on the way out, thankfully. This meant that I was able to actually do some work! I’ve been able to write two blog entries for The Tech Show. Now I’m writing this one. Three blog entries in one day? A trip to the Mini dealership? I need to lie down!