johnpsmyth-blog

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Early morning walk in Hubbard's Hills, on the outskirts of Louth.

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My first spoon, few minutes here and there spread over a few weeks. Probably two hours in total. Can say I am happy with the outcome.

Carved from Apple wood, not the most interesting of woods to look at, but a joy to carve.

Now it's onto more a more ambitious project with Sycamore, watch this space.

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iTunes Irritation, yes more.

Now the damn thing tells me that I am denied access as I do not have sufficient rights!

Look, it is my PC and my iPod, I think that should give me the rights to do what I choose with my music, don't you?

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Ben Orford Hybrid Handle Crook Knife

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Spoons

Decided to Google for some wood carving tips, as I had just started on a project for the garden, a wood sprite.

Found some good videos on YouTube with plenty of hints and tips, all new to me so very useful. It was the chance discovery of a spoon carving video that set me off in a new direction.

After some deliberation I ordered a Mora Frost Spoon Carving knife and on its arrival set to with gusto on a piece of Sycamore from the woodpile. It was not long before I had a lovely pile of wood chips and a kindling stick.

Second attempt was a lot better, a smaller spoon carved from a piece of Apple wood, very pleased with the result and felt spurred on to up grade to a better quality spoon knife. Decided on a Ben Orford hybrid handle crook knife. First trial with it told me I had made a wise move, the quality and edge is superb, cuts like a hot knife through butter. Lovely balance too.

Looks like my Christmas wish list will, in future, be including some good quality woodworking tools.

Yes, I know that this is not exactly scintillating stuff, but then I am in my mid fifties.  I have done my share of adrenalin stuff, motorbikes, potholing, sky diving, living in Grimsby. Now its time to enjoy more leisurely pursuits, besides, I can have a beer while I am carving, not something you can do while you are caving for example.

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iTunes Irritation (cont;)

So, finally bit the bullet and decided to switch from XP to W7. Knew it would be a challenge, it is not an upgrade option, but a clean install.

Files backed up and all went smoothly. Migrated Music, Pictures and Documents with no problem. Started the task of re installing software with iTunes, it is one of my most used bits of kit.

Again, no problem, or so I thought. Wanted to play a particular, downloaded from iTunes, track. Problems started.

Message box pops up telling me that the track was authorised on another PC, did I want to authorise for this machine? Now trying to explain to a message box that it was the same machine, just a different OS was going to be a futile exercise, so I just said yes. Entered user name and password for iTunes Store, accepted and told, Track now Authorised. Great!

Wrong.

Tried to play the track and message box pops up and the process repeats itself, this went on four times, each time the same. It is authorised, it is not authorised.

Groundhog moment.

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ROBOTS OR DINOSAURS?

Dinosaurs without a doubt, well I am practically one according to my daughter!

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Not the begining

This is not the beginning, I am not exactly a blog virgin. Many years ago in the early days of Blogspot, I created and enjoyed my first Blog. Sadly life got in the way and through inactivity the Blog was deleted, sad. Many happy memories lay within. Time to move on.

This brings us neatly to March 2012 and a new dawn.

So dipping my toes back into the blog water I will start, as ever, cautiously.