Happy 5th birthday to G-Trove!

Would you believe it! Its exactly 5 years since our first blog post on G-Trove. 1050 posts later and we are still going strong. Our blog has brought us much fun over the years and I know the family has greatly enjoyed it too. It's also awoken my passion for photography. It's a wonderful treasure trove of memories for us to cherish in future years. So please join us in wishing G-Trove a happy 5th birthday...

Mind mapping with Mindmanager

I love mind mapping.  Mr Suttle, our Latin teacher, taught us how to do it at school. I used it extensively in both senior school and university. Then at Volvo, I discovered the wonders of MindManager, mind mapping software that took my mind mapping to a whole new level. I used it extensively at Volvo and Blackglass and in my English teaching. Most of all, though, I used it in my own life and it created the start of Compass (My life management system) and Wisdom Trove.  Much of the content in the maps also became parts of Life Trove (this blog).

I don't use mind mapping so much anymore since moving to Evernote, but I'm very thankful for the role it has played in my life.

Purpose 

Vision

Life as an art     View large

Values and Life Pillars

Focus
 

Self-knowledge

Affirmation

Habits

Compass

Taking action

Decision making

Life design

Insights

Humour

My life in review

Life highlights

2005 Highlights

Work experience

Guiding wisdom (that would become Wisdom Trove)

Decision making

English teaching

Happy 1st Birthday, Blog!!

Well, we've been officially blogging now for a year. When I put up the first experimental blog on May 14 2004, we never guessed it would become such a fun part of our lives. We enjoy going back and seeing what we were up to in months gone by - and it will become more fun as time goes on and memories fade: like a great big digital scrap book except it doesn't get fish moths or take up cupboard space. I know the family has enjoyed it too - it's a wondeful way of keeping in contact. I've also enjoyed having a reason to take and post photos - it's been a fun new creative outlet. We're looking forward to our second year of blogging.

My favourite software just got better!!

Picasa is a free photo organising package that is powered by Google. They've just brought out a new upgrade that catapaults the functionality into a new league - especially when it comes to correcting and improving photos. It also allows you to do automatic "collages" and all kinds of other special effects at the touch of a button. The collage above literally took 10 seconds to create. I can't recommend Picasa more. 

Happy Anniversary, dear Blog!

It's 6 months now that we started this blog. It has been lots of fun. In fact, this site is fast becoming our digital scrapbook to look back on in years ahead. So, we're going to keep going! After all, Mum wouldn't forgive us if we didn't!!

A blogging landmark: 20 000 words

Wow, this blog has just reached 20 000 words, as indicated by our blog stats. Also 270 links to other sites and an average of 12 posts per week. Haven't we been prolific! It's been just over three months now that we've been blogging and we'll definitely continue. Both a fun way to keep you up to date with what we're up to - and also a nice archive for us later in life. As Ally says, it's like a big digital scrap book but doesn't take so much space.

Using Dreamweaver to create my first web site

In 2004, I used Macromedia Dreamweaver to create a home page and extended pages for Life Trove. 

Purchasing a Canon IXUS i in Cambridge for blogging

I bought this sublime little camera in 2004 when I started this blog and thought it would be nice to add images of our daily lives in Cambridge. It was my second digital camera. It was a tiny camera with no optical zoom but that limitation gave rise to wonderful creativity. I fell in love with photography in 2004 and 2005 and have been hooked ever since.
 

Mind mapping fun

Wow, this is cool! I've always loved mind mapping. I decided to get with it and find some software that would left me do it on the computer. I found a great program at this site and have been playing with it all afternoon. I did a map to look at my life from all it's angles and am delighted to see i'm getting much more balanced. The software is free for 31 days. Then $60 or something for the liscense. Robyn, you might be interested in this as i know you also love mind mapping. Lots of fun!! And could come in very useful at work too...

Using Blogger to start Life Trove, my online journal

In May 2004, I started this blog using Blogger which was purchased by Google. It's a powerful and free online app that I immediately fell in love with.

My first blog post !

Hi there all

Have you heard of blogging? It allows you to post stuff up on the web quickly and effortlessly. I though I would experiment with it to see how it works. Could be a great way of keeping a travel journey when we go exploring. Or even of keeping you up to date on our news and creating an archive at the same time to go back to for fun...

It's been a good week. I watched some more good movies: The Graduate, Run Lola Run, A Streetcar Named Desire. I've now seen over half of the 250 movies of all time as rated at IMDB. It's become a fantastic passion - I've just bought a "cinema studies" book from Amazon that first year cinema student have in their curricula. Fast learning what terms like Film Noir mean and so on. Soon I'll be very learned and be able to bore everyone silly on the tiny nuances of the great directors...

Ally and I are also busy collecting all the David Attenborough series in DVD format. We've got all the classics like "The Living Planet", "Life of Birds" and "Life on Earth." About 50 hours worth!! We watch it every Sunday night - becoming a wonderful ritual. M&M, you'll certainly have a lot to watch when you visit us - our DVD collection is growing rampantly, it's amazing how cheap they are becoming here. To buy a DVD costs barely twice what it costs to rent - except you then have it to watch over and over..

Work is going fine - and i've been in the office all week so it's been relatively relaxing. I'll be in the UK again next week. Ally starts working from home one day a week next week so that should be fun. She has to work at a running event down South on Sunday though, so it will be a short weekend for her.

My camera hasn't arrived yet - but I'm excited to try it out. I've found Yahoo provides an online photo album so i'll start uploading photos there for you to see. I think you can upload phots to this blog too - I'll have to experiment!

Anyway, I'm going to log off now and see if I can publish what I have written.

Cheers for now