I was worried I’d borked my Asus slider earlier this week.
I’ve got the excellent SwitchMe app, which allows me to have different profiles for the different people who use the tablet. For it to work properly, you also need to have rooted the device. This is working very well.
However, this week Asus released a Firmware update, which refuses to install. It downloads fine, reboots the device… and then says the update is available again.
So I thought, perhaps it’s because I’d rooted the device. So I temporarily unrooted using OTA RootKeeper. Bad idea – when it rebooted, I was completely locked out. The lock screen refused to go away. Fortunately I could get in via adb shell, and tried various things to turn off the lock screen, or get root back – no joy.
Just before I decided I’d have to do some sort of emergency recovery process, I discovered sfink’s page about how to get root back! What a hero.
The steps were:
adb shell
cd /system
./usr/we-need-root/su-backup
mount # to see device of /system
mount -w -o remount (device) /system
cp usr/we-need-root/su-backup xbin/su
mount -r -o remount (device) /system
I rebooted, SwitchMe was working properly again, and I was in.
Still haven’t got to the bottom of why the Firmware won’t install though…
I’ve created a new website/blog called katartismos.net that I have decided to ‘launch’ today. It’s from the greek word found in Ephesians 4.
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13
My heart is for equipping the saints. Or perfecting, or preparing, or training, or knitting – however you choose to translate katartismon.
It has this that has lead me to start that website. Somehow I (and hopefully others) can post resources, ideas, and encouragement for ways to engage with God and the Bible, and walk more closely with Him.
At present I have only one post up – All about Lectio Divino, or Holy Reading. I have a further 5 posts in the pipeline, and my plan is to try and put up one a month or so. The topics I have slated in are on journalling, experiential bible study, quiet times, the awareness examen, and life verses, although not necessarily in that order.
The key thing for me is that this is not theoretical or academic stuff. These are things I use in my own life, and have used with others, that are fruitful useful ways to keep on going and to move on with God. They are practical too – the point is you actually try them out for yourself! None of them are my invention or particularly new – I am merely the recipient and beneficiary, and want to pass them on.
There was quite a funny little exchange on Twitter a few weeks back, when Catherine Fox mentioned the Dean Martin song That’s Amore (you know – “when the moon hits your eye like a big-a pizza pie, that’s amore”). This launched a series of alternative lines, which I thought were worth collating. You may beg to differ!
Sorry they aren’t formatted properly – writing this on the WordPress Android app, and it’s too painful to try and do the tweet magic.
Chris Upton @Turkeyplucker When an eel bites your thigh and you think you might die, that’s a moray.
Jeremy Parsons @jdap When your fav’rite main course has a nice cheesy sauce, that’s a mornay
Catherine Fox @FictionFox When you’re prancing in France a traditional dance, that’s a bourree.
Catherine Fox @FictionFox When your MP is posh and he’s got loads of dosh, he’s a Toray.
Catherine Fox @FictionFox When your soft fruit is pulped so it’s easily gulped, that’s a puree.
Stephen M Day @therevsteve Dolly Suite or Cantique, Requiem magnifique, it’s a Fauré
Neil Bower @icycleboy When one tweet’s far too long & it’s all gone quite wrong, that’s a bore-hey?
Richard Bateman @richardgbateman When you hear English folk by a Macclesfield bloke, that’s Jim Moray.
I went to Ripon Cathedral on Sunday to support my vicar being installed as an Honorary Canon.
The installation was carried out during Choral Evensong, which is a very beautiful service, especially with the acoustics of the cathedral. It was lovely to see his parishioners out in force – It felt like every church family must have been represented in one way or another (although I know some couldn’t make it)
It was great to see him honoured in this way, both in the position itself, but also through the words said during the service.
I had one of the most horrible experiences of my life this week. I should prefix this story by saying that everything turned out ok!! I should also say that this is a potentially traumatic story if you have kids!
On Tuesday we went out to the Stray to line the route of the Torch (see my last post), which was all very exciting and uplifting – and we even got a free bottle of coke out of it.
When we got back home, it was a lovely hot afternoon, so the boys and I played about in the garden while Mum went shopping. We sat in the sun for a bit (hard to believe it was sunny, given the non-stop rain we’ve had since then), bounced on the trampoline, and then careered around the garden on the tricycle. Well, that is to say the younger one sat on the trike while I pushed and the elder dived out of the way with amazing feats of bravery and acrobatics.
I’d strapped in the little one, as we were zooming around, and I stopped zooming for a moment to catch my breath. The boy then sort of leant over sideways, as if he was trying to get out, and hung there by the seatbelt. I assumed he was messing about, so went round to see what he was up to, and he was just hanging there, eyes unfocussed not moving.
I unplugged him and picked him up, and he started shaking and convulsing – still staring blankly, and sort of making a horrible gagging noise and choking on his tongue. I ran inside, still holding him, and dialled 999 for an ambulance (not knowing what else to do). The ambulance lady told me a crew was on the way, and that I had to put him in the recovery position, or hold him if that was more comfortable for us both. The convulsions stopped, and turned into a sort of shaking quivering, and his breathing became ragged, and his checks started to become tinged with purple.
His then stopped moving altogether, and his breathing became shallower and shallower, and his eyes started to close. He hadn’t responded to me in any way the whole time, and eventually his eyes closed completely and his breathing had almost stopped.
While this was going on, I’d asked the elder boy to phone mum on her mobile, but no answer!
At this point I was sure he was dying. If he was to be taken away from me, I would probably choose it to be with him in my arms, cuddling him, but I wouldn’t choose it all, and certainly not with his mother away.
Anyway, the ambulance crew turned up, closely followed by mum (who had been on her way home). The paramedic assessed the situation, and took his temperature, and decided that he’d had a febrile convulsion, had gone off to sleep (!!), but needed to go into hospital to be checked over.
These convulsions are pretty common (something like 1 in 20 kids), have no long term effect, no particular increased risk of reoccurance. It may or may not be temperature related – although it seems to coincide with high temperatures (and his was raging).
Hospital checked him over, all fine, and was back home that evening. A bit tired and groggy, but no worse for wear. In retrospect, not a ‘touch-and-go’ situation at all, but it felt like it at the time.
The Olympic Torch made is making its way through Yorkshire, and yesterday came through Knaresborough, Starbeck, and Harrogate.
I took the afternoon off work in order to line the route with No. 1 Son, and cheer it (and the team) on their way past. It was really exciting – while there weren’t HUGE crowds on the particular bit where I was, it was 2 or 3 people deep for as far as I could see in both directions. I tried to take some photos of the general environment (as well as the actual Torch Bearer herself), and have popped them up on my photo website, photo.eutony.net/2012-06-19-followtheflame. Views up and down the road and the torch passing also shown below (I’m too good to you):
It was the Cancer Research 2012 Harrogate Race for Life this morning. Going on 3,000 ladies of all ages taking to the Stray to walk, jog, or run to raise money and awareness.
To list my top photos is impossible, but it seems like a poor show not to try and collate some sort of summary, so here are ten that I quite like, and which probably reflect the project as a whole!
Unbelievably I’m in the last week of my 365 project.
While I haven’t reached a final conclusion, it’s hard to imagine stopping taking a photo every day – I certainly haven’t run out of inspiration. The opposite really; there are still masses of types of photos I want to take, and there is significant room for improvement in my landscapes, portraits, and wildlife.
I plan to do some analysis of the sort of pictures I’ve taken over the last year. I reckon my photography has improved technically, and I’ve certainly tried things I wouldn’t have tried otherwise.
I think the biggest changes have been in my “eye” (in terms of seeing pictures), and in my creativity though. I also understand my camera better than ever before, and am very comfortable switching between the modes to achieve my ends, and using the flash. I haven’t fully got to grips with RAW or White Balance – the first because I can’t be bothered to add another step to my workflow, the second because I fix it up Paint Shop afterwards.
I’m also about to submit my entry for this year’s photo competition at St Robert’s. I won last year with my “Drop in time”, and hope to make it two in a row with my “Window of the Soul”.
