Like Indiana Jones, yet potentially more action-packed, Multipack’s Geek In The Park 2008 makes a welcome return this year, and will be pitching camp in Royal Leamington Spa on Saturday 9th August.

The format will be the same as last time; an afternoon picnic in the wonderful Jepheson Park (friends and families welcome) will be followed later in the evening by a discussion based event, with some top-notch speakers. We’re not disclosing the line up yet, but rest assured, you won’t be disappointed.

And of course, there is one other reason why GITP is always worth a look in; once again it’s free of charge.

For those wondering how to get to Leamington Spa, it’s easily accessible from the motorway and regular, direct trains run from London Marylebone and Birmingham.

For more details and to sign up for a reminder, visit the Geek In The Park 2008 website, put together so masterfully by Trev and Lloydy.

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Last weekend I headed to my second motor sport event this season. I was mainly there for the Formula Renault, but of course the BTCC meet was also on, and some pretty spectacular collisions made a morning for good spectating. I went over with Will, Henry and Alan, but later in the afternoon, Dan, Psycho, Yaz, Chicken and Charlotte arrived to watch the final races, and an unexpected Spitfire fly past. The weather stayed pretty dry, so there was no soaked-to-the-bones repeat of Brands Hatch; just as well really.

On Wednesday I met up with George and Will again for what is becoming a semi-regular comedy fixture. After probably the most disappointing pub meal I’ve had, we went to see Perrier-nomintated Daniel Kitson in his new two-hour standup show at the Wolves Civic. I’ve seen some interesting comedy routines over the years, but Kitson’s was certainly the most intense I’ve ever witnessed. It was delivered with no interval and no bar-access once it started, plus the themes were mainly societal. When it was all finished and I felt like I’d just been to a lecture or talk - that’s not to say it wasn’t funny - Kitson mixes humour with poignancy brilliantly, but it was hard to keep up sometimes because of the speed and complexity, and it certainly wasn’t a relaxing experience. I think I’ll need some time to wind down before I’m ready see him again.

Saturday brought good weather and May’s Multipack meet. We ended up on the Waters Edge at Brindley Place enjoying the sunshine until impromptu rain forced us inside for food. Once again a good turnout and plenty to catch up on.

I still feel like I’m juggling finances, paperwork and car, but things are looking brighter, and the summer appears to have started (at least for the meantime) so roll on next week.

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I thought I’d managed to kick the habit getting too busy with stuff to not write for over a week, but it turns out I was wrong.

Last weekend was Multipack once more, and as well as the usual faces there were some new ones too - Sam finally made it down, but I’m unsure how much he had reckoned on debating the correct height of a building you need to throw a cat off (don’t worry - it was all theoretical - but the answer is 7 stories). Si bought along Flickr stash which naturally went down well, and Tim bought along Site Doctor stash too, so my bag was packed full off goodies by the time I got home.

En route I had an opportunity to also see Tim’s ridiculously large media system, complete with (and I think I get this right) a 96” screen. It is vast and completely stunning in full HD.

Aside from collecting things and watching home cinema, I spent most of the rest of the week filling out forms, in the bank and asking questions about insurance and accountancy. Not what I would consider truly gripping, but a necessity unfortunately.

On the flip side I got to have a few drinks earlier in the week, and a new book of Moo stickers arrived which can’t do anything but put you in a good mood. Not even a up-until-four-in-the-morning work stint for an emergency brief managed to really dampen my spirits, although I’m really hoping I get a chance to see some people I’ve not seen in a while soon. It occurred to me that my travels to London have not been so frequent of recent, so I want to correct this.

Mike got in the paper.

If you are looking for something to amuse yourself for a while today - check out this awesome site by Uni-Qlo. I generally don’t do these sorts of things, but this one is just so ridiculously catchy…

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Last weekend was the largest Multipack meetup that we’ve had for a good while. As well as a good turn out of regular faces, there were also a large assortment of new ones, and despite some awkward seating arrangements and the lack of rugby being shown (the projector was broken) it was a very good afternoon.

Talking of rugby, I can only be pleased at the final England game in the Six Nations, however the disappointment at our general/earlier performance doesn’t inspire confidence. I’m prepared to be a bit more optimistic, but really, how did we manage to go and lose the Calcutta cup? Come to think of it, I’m glad the projector was broken.

I’ve got a mountain of forms to be filled out this week. With what can only be described as a marathon event of bureaucratic gymnastics ahead of me, changing one or two details with Companies House is clearly not as simple as I had hoped.

A client invited me to a business seminar earlier this week, and so I asked Will if he wanted to come along. We had to get over to Villa Park, but it was a good evening, and it provoked some in depth discussions about the types of work we are both involved in. I’m not one for schemes and things, but the psychology and profiling techniques were fascinating and I definitely was able to gain some perspective on my own situation right now.

I’ve made a couple of gem-like discoveries this week on the software front. BluePhone Elite has solved my problem of writing text messages quickly while working. I believe it can also allow me to take calls through the iMac too, but I’ve yet to figure out how to do that. It does pop up and tell me who is calling though. If there is one thing about phone communication that inspires a rage in me, it’s txting, especially when speaking is a more effective method of communication. Admittedly, there are times when a text works - a time, a number, a two word confirmation, but my inclination to create an essay or use long words make predictive text and tiny keys only confirm that these are the tools of Beelzebub. I bet he uses text messaging for every piece of communication.

The second piece of software that has solved a problem that until now I couldn’t explain fixes a niggling problem with my Macbook. I didn’t realise, but the having to wait up to thirty seconds for my laptop to go to sleep isn’t a consequence of age - it turns out that it has to save all the memory to disc at the moment. As a matter of course I put in the full amount of memory possible into all my computers, and didn’t realise this is why the process has become agonisingly slow of recent - it’s moving 2GB to hard disc every time I close the lid.

Well as a person who’s laptop spends more time on his desk than on the road, this is something I’m prepared to cut out, and with the SmartSleep preference pane the Mac now (once again) sleeps the instant I close the lid. Of course, on the move it’s more important to use the hibernate feature, so when the battery power drops below 20% it automatically turns it back on for safety reasons, but it’s bliss once again being able to flip the thing closed and put it directly into the carry case without having to wait for it to brace itself for some kind of nuclear disaster.

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It’s very odd for me to be championing something that appears on the ITV schedules as in recent years I’ve found very little worth watching on the network. However, there appears to have been a coup de grace in the form of a new comedy improv show which is apparently an Australian import.

I spotted about 10 seconds of the show last weekend while getting ready for to go out, and mainly attracted by the presence of Paul Merton doing something different, I took the time to setup ITVs ridiculously complicated Catch Up system on Windows (Mac not supported) and watched all the back catalogue of episodes still on offer from this first series (I think I’ve only missed the first one).

The programme is called Thank God You’re Here and seems to me like a slightly more accessible and up-to-date successor to Who’s Line Is It Anyway?

Like I mentioned before, Merton was the big draw for me, and it’s really good to see him back in an impro role, even if it isn’t his performance that makes this show good. In fact, if you like to watch for new comedy talent, it supplies a really good selection (Michael Macintyre, Marcus Brigstocke, Rufus Hound, Lee Mack etc etc), although there have been one or two guests whose inclusion seemed a little strange (Corrie actors), but then again that’s probably just because I can’t help comparing it to the WLIIA? format.

So that’s my current recommendation if you want some good quality improvised TV comedy.

This was another Multipack Saturday and there was a good collection of familiar faces at the meet on the balcony of the Old Joint Stock. Good news from One Black Bear who have just won a very important contract and Paul’s stories from MacWorld gave some insight into the new Macbook Air.

Aside from the local geekery, I spent three days with Rattle this week working on a couple of projects and took some time to visit Chris whilst I was up there. I know some of my friends think it’s odd to insist on visiting people everytime you go anywhere out of your usual territory, but I can’t help it - surely it’s better to stay in touch anyway?

Rugby-wise, I’ve only seen the England games due to some poor scheduling, but can’t say I’m feeling particularly pleased with our current form. I mean, we’ve done the same thing two weeks running (luckily this time it didn’t have such strong repercussions) but how do we let our game play fall apart so easily in the space of 25 minutes? At least it looks like we’re consistent.

Finally, and probably most surprisingly from the past week, I noticed quite plainly that in the new series of Lost, Bromsgrove (yes, like the local Bromsgrove) gets a mention. There’s clearly nothing more mysterious than Bromsgrove.

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I’m really pleased to write about some exciting changes for the Midlands based web group, The Multipack.

The ‘Pack have been going strong for over two years now, and being a collection of web developers it seemed only right that after all that time we might be able to muster up an update to the logo, website, forum and set out a new direction for 2008.

Kudos to Paul Lloyd & Gareth Brown for the artwork and Trevor Morris & Ross Riley for the hardstuff. The new site is really refreshing and looks fantastic.

There have been some other changes too. Our key venue is now the Victorian splendour of The Old Joint Stock on the edge of Birmingham’s St. Philip’s Square, right between (and no more than one minute walk from) Snow Hill and (3 minute walk from) New Street stations.

There will be some more opportunities to meet with us further out in the West Midlands, as we are hoping to start venturing outwards once more.

Meetings are (as they have always been) open and free to anyone who wants to informally discuss, learn or network with other local developers, designers, experts and non-experts. We meet on the second Saturday of every month at 2.00pm over a few beers and a even occasionally a late lunch.

For more details about Multipack events (including our next meeting on Saturday 9th February), check out our new website and forum, or feel free to ask questions of any of the regulars such as myself - we’re always looking forward to meet and join up with others who want to learn, share and engage with other web professionals.

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Last weekend proved to be more work orientated than I’d normally like; not to say I didn’t enjoy it, just it wasn’t much of a break from the web.

On Saturday was the first Multipack of the new year and a good turn out. There were discussions of magnitude going on, and I think we made some important decisions. Either way, there has been a flurry of activity this week. Expect some announcements soon.

Sunday started badly at 4am when I finally drifted off to sleep. At 10am I was running a training event with some clients, which of course, was well planned except for the venue. In the end we found some big armchairs and sockets in The Talbot hotel and had four hours playing in HTML/CSS wonderland. It’s not the most riveting way to spend a Sunday, but at least it was painless. Unfortunately the odd schedule meant I didn’t manage to get over to the pool, which was probably the day’s biggest disappointment.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were full of the extraordinary. I’ve been pushing the limits of my knowledge of servers recently, and also trying to break the back of a body of work that has been mostly enjoyable yet time-consuming. Anyway, most of that is under control now and I’ve had a string of new projects float over the horizon, so I’m feeling good at the moment.

Midweek I ventured down to London for a meeting and afterwards met up with Swanny who I managed to prise out of his office at 7pm. After a couple of drinks in a place where it was too expensive to buy bar snacks, I left for home.

Finally the post-new year social activity is taking off again and I’ve come out of the haze that surrounded the beginning of 2008 to establish some firm plans about what I want to achieve in the next few months. I’m looking forward to the challenges. I can’t believe it, but I’ve just realised that what I’m talking about are really just New Year Resolutions. I thought I didn’t do New Year Resolutions. Looks like I’ve been deluding myself.

Oh, and the Macbook Air looks interesting…

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