Matt & Hannah: Married

Last week on Saturday June 7, my youngest brother Matthew was married to his sweetheart Hannah. It was a wonderful occasion, the weather was really nice and everyone who came seemed to enjoy themselves. As Hannah has only recently joined the Church they will need to wait a year before going to the Temple to be sealed together forever.

In addition to the wedding it was also good for another reason, as my sisters who live away from Bournemouth came, with their families, and stayed for almost a week. It was nice to be with them, spend time with them and catch up on what is happening with them and their children, who are all growing up so quickly.

What Easter Means to Me - The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ

Spring is here, nature is busting into life. The days are getting longer and there is a feeling of hope for the future in everybody. Spring is the season of Easter.

To me Easter is a time to celebrate the life we see all around us by remembering one Man's death - the culmination of His Life's Mission - an atoning sacrifice that conquered death for us all. That Man was no less than the Son of God, The Lord Jesus Christ and it is through His Atonement that He made it possible for us all to Live again (and that is only half the story). He also invites us to Come Unto Him and be made clean so that we can become like Him and dwell with Our Heavenly Father.

A new web site has been produced that helps us learn about His Life and Teachings - JesusChrist.lds.org.

"The site features articles, video clips, artwork, an interactive music page and other sections all focused on the life and ministry of Christ."

I think it has been put together in a such a way that is both respectful to the subject matter and appealing to those seeking the truth, who feel comfortable with new media.

The video embedded below features Elder Russell M. Nelson, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, talking about this new resource JesusChrist.lds.org.

My Exam Results - December 2007

My results for the CIPFA exams I took in December were published today.

Subject	Marks	Result
Accounting for Decision Making (ADM)	47	Fail
Finance & Performance Reporting (FPR)	49	Fail

The pass mark is 50, so to have come so close to passing both is very very frustrating!

I have requested a copy of the exam marking sheets for the two exams and depending on what they show, I will consider requesting an Administrative Check, which may result in the mark being amended. Whatever the outcome I'm not giving up. I will resit both exams in June if needed.

I have now sat the FPR exam four times! My marks have been 33, 45, 28 and now 49 - I can't believe that I've just missed the pass mark.

In the ADM examiner's report he comes right out and says that collectively it was the worst ever performance with only 48% passing and the average mark dropping below 50 for the first time. This he says is in complete contrast to the previous sitting in June when 73% of candidates passed. It's of little comfort to know that most people who took the exam also failed.

Roll on June.

30 years ago

Saturday January 7th, 1978 - It has now been 30 years since I was baptised and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A lot of things have happened since then but my reasons for joining the church remain the same - to follow the example of my Saviour and obey His commandments.

Each week (with the exceptions of illness and various conferences) I have been able to renew my commitment to Him by partaking of the Sacrament.

I can not imagine my life without the Gospel. It gives me real peace and stability. I am truly grateful to my parents and many other teachers who have helped me learn and grow in the knowledge of the Great Plan of Happiness.

My 8 Nieces

Cousins on the Couch
Originally uploaded by Munzerr.

Last weekend was a family occasion. It was Jenna's blessing and all my eight nieces were together for the first time. Aren't they all just lovely.

My Exam Results - June 2007

My results for the CIPFA exams I took in June were published today.

Subject	Marks	Result
Finance & Performance Reporting (FPR)	28	Fail
Taxation (TAX)	52	Pass
Public Finance (PF)	55	Pass

I am disappointed that I still haven't passed FPR! Even more disappointing is that my score has dropped significantly when compared to December. Back then I was only a little short of the pass mark. Where did I go wrong? OK I felt under time pressure again. I know that given more time I would have answered the questions better, but time pressures are all part of the exam. I still need work in my exam technique for this paper. I need be more ruthless when allocating my time to questions, so that I do not get bogged down in one and not leave enough time for the others. I will be sitting down with some of my fellow students, who have passed this module, so that they can help me see where I am going wrong. On reflection, was sitting 3 subjects in June pushing it too much.

On the positive side I have passed two more modules. So I'm continuing to progress. Back in June when I left the exam hall I was unsure that I had done enough to pass TAX, so that result is the one I'm most pleased about. During the last month I really thought I had done enough to pass FPR and my fears were that I had failed TAX.

I'm a little (tiny little) disappointed that my result in PF wasn't higher. I was confident about that paper and thought my result would be into the 60's. But hey, a pass is a pass.

What next? Well I plan to resit FPR (again) and also take the final module to complete the Diploma stage, Accounting for Decision Making (ADM). I will also arrange to sit a mock exam for FPR (which I did not do last term). This will help in my preparation for the exams in December. My next course in London starts on August 8.

Evolution of the Portal

Issac Asimov said

"The only constant is change."

This truism is so relevant to how we use the Internet.

My first interactions with the net was via my first ISP, CompuServe (CIS). They had a closed network of forums covering all manner of subjects. It was like a well resourced, user friendly bulletin board.

Then Netscape came along with their browser for the newest part of the net, the World Wide Web. Being limited to a small subset of the internet from CIS, regardless of the quality, then seemed to be very restrictive. I wanted to find out what individuals were doing with/on the net, not just a corporate view from my ISP. CIS was soon left behind.

With the rapid growth of the WWW, finding what you wanted now required a search engine or a well constructed web directory. Yahoo! became my index of choice. I remember the thrill of getting my site listed on Yahoo!. To me their site became the benchmark of how an internet "portal" should look and feel. When it came to finding things not in Yahoo!'s index I used AltaVista as my main search engine.

My next switch in habits, in how I interacted with the net, came along in the shape of Google with a powerful algorithm which measured the links between pages to gauge the relevancy of any particular website. I quickly dropped AltaVista as my go-to site. Google gradually built upon their dominance in search. I now use their free services for desktop search, email, mailing lists, calendaring, maps, note taking, bookmarks, on-line documents, keeping upto date with feeds and this blog.

Now there is talk of a new shift in the evolution.

This recent article The New Portals: It’s the Bread, Not the Peanut Butter talks about how the new Facebook platform is going to use the leverage of the social network to serve information to users that are relevant based not on a search term, but on the people you are friends with. This change is at a very early stage, but I feel this will be a powerful shift in the way I will interact with the net.



Question: What will be the next phase?