October, 2006:

Lauren sings again

Oct 30th, 2006

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In July last year I posted a link to a video of Lauren singing the song Sister by Sarah Bettens. As I said then that she has a great voice that needs to be heard a lot more. Lauren’s blog, Please Make Rice. I Love You!, is one of my regular reads.

It seems that she’s recently co-written and recorded a song with a few friends. You can watch the video clip they’ve made for ’45′ by clicking the play button on the embedded player in this post. I hope you enjoy her music and her voice as much as I do.

If you do like what you hear, please consider posting a link to her video on your own blog. Let’s help Lauren get the audience she deserves.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Technorati Tags: Music – Video – Original Music

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Hand me a screwdriver

Oct 30th, 2006

by Rodney Olsen.

3 comments

I spent a big chuck of yesterday afternoon tinkering with computers. I’ve been wanting to get my sister’s computer running a little better and so I finally got down to it yesterday.

I got a few old computers from freecycle some time back and so I tried to get one of them running. I got one of them working well by swapping a bunch of parts into it but it still wasn’t quite up to the grade, so I turned my attention to upgrading my sister’s computer a little.

Her machine’s an old Pentium 2 so I can’t expect too much but I did get it to recognize a network card I installed and I put in an old hard drive for some extra storage. I even connected to our home network to see how it would handle broadband. It did pretty well within the limitations of an incredibly old, slow computer. It’s a good short term fix but I’m thinking that I might need to keep an eye out for a slightly faster second hand computer.

I messed around for quite some time inside several old computers yesterday, harvesting parts from the old machines and deciding which bits now need throwing out. I may not have got a lot further ahead, and I’m no technician, but there’s something deeply satisfying about being able to pull things apart and then put them back together and make them work.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Technorati Tags: Computers

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Eight

Oct 30th, 2006

by Rodney Olsen.

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This day 8 years ago was one of the most special days of my life.

8 years ago today we welcomed our son James into the world. Over the past 96 months we’ve seen him grow and develop into the wonderful boy that he’s become and we’ve seen glimpses of the man he’s becoming.

Back then it was hard to imagine that we could love any child as much as we loved Emily, who was just over 2 at that stage. From the moment that he was born we knew that God has given us more than enough love for both children.

It’s been great to see his character reveal itself. There’s so much about James that reminds me of Pauline and lots that remind me of me. But I suppose one of the most amazing parts of his growth is seeing the things that are uniquely James. He certainly does take after us but he’s still absolutely unique, one of a kind.

I have no idea what God has planned out for the rest of his life but I’m just so glad that together with Pauline and Emily, I’m getting to share a part of that life with him.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Technorati Tags: Eight – Birthday – Family

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Bleeding brilliant

Oct 27th, 2006

by Rodney Olsen.

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My right arm is currently strapped with a bandage. I lost a fair bit of blood this afternoon.

Together with a few colleagues from 98.5 Sonshine FM, I took a trip into the city straight after my morning programme to give an armful of blood to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. We were picked up and dropped back later in a Red Cross, 8 seater, VW van.

After filling in the forms and going through the quick interview with a Red Cross staff member I was guided towards a very comfortable reclining seat where it took me around 10 minutes to produce 470 mm of blood. Well, perhaps a little more because they took a few test tubes full for testing.

I’m not keen on needles but considering that I was once very close to someone who required donated blood on a regular basis, I reckon a couple of seconds of discomfort every few months is worth the effort. If you’ve never given blood before due to a fear of needles can I recommend that you go ahead and try it anyway? Your fear really can’t compare to the kind of anguish people face when donated blood isn’t available to save their lives.

Unfortunately I’ve let it go for far too long. It’s been a couple of years since my last donation. The good thing is that we’ll now arrange to give blood together every three months and hopefully a few more staff members will join us each time.

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is currently running a campaign to encourage donors to take a friend to donate. They say that every donation of blood can save three lives. If you take a friend you can save six lives between you. There were four of us from 98.5 Sonshine FM who donated today (it would have been more but one person was ineligible and another couple weren’t fully well) which means that we have the potential of saving 12 lives between us. Not bad for an hour away from work.

After they’d extracted the necessary blood we were ushered to the recovery area where we were served sausage rolls, coffee, cheese & biscuits and even a mini Mars Bar. Mmmm.

Do you donate blood? I know that there are reasons preventing some from giving blood but can I encourage you to consider donating if you don’t already? It feels good to know that someone may be able to live a fuller life, recover from illness or even have their life saved becuase you’ve taken the time to do the right thing.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Technorati Tags: Blood – Red Cross – Saving Lives