The one night of the week I looked forward to, almost without realizing it.  Thursday night was the night when we went over to Granny and Grandas’ house while mum and dad went to a meeting at church.  We would arrive during the evening news, and this was a time that defined the phrase, ‘children should be seen and not heard’.  We would sit quietly – or as quietly as an eleven year old can during the news – until the ad break, when my granda would mute the TV and would ask us about school.  We would talk for a few minutes and then take our positions, mine usually on the floor at my grandas’ feet, while we watched Emmerdale.

Again, during the ad break granda would mute the TV and we would talk some more.  My granny would make us warm bread and warm milk, although she liked to think of it as tea and toast. We would hear stories of when my mum was a little girl.  We laughed at the time when she brought home a white rabbit without her parents knowing and hid it in the coalbunker so they wouldn’t find out.  My granda would tell us about the places he and my granny used to go on his motorbike and sidecar.

We watched The Bill, or as granda would call it, ‘The Duck’, and after, my granny would sing to us while we waited on our parents coming to pick us up.

Last night, Monday 17^th January 2011, at 95 years of age my granda went home to be with his Lord.  He was a man of honour and integrity, devoted to serving Jesus faithfully.  He was a loving husband, father, granda, great-granda and a true inspiration to the many lives he touched throughout his life.

The quote above is from one of the hymns we used to sing together on a Thursday night.  I can’t think of a better way to describe how my granda lived his life.  You could never have met a more content man.

A few months ago as I sat and talked with him while my granny was in hospital he showed me a promise book he keeps with his bible.  He said, ‘God has always been faithful’, but he said it in a way I had never heard it said before.  He believed it with his whole heart.

I’m going to miss granda so much.  I’m greatful for all of the memories I have and it is a comfort to know that he lived his whole life for this moment, when he can meet Jesus face to face.

I love you granda

Craig

First week of uni.  IMD at UU Jordanstown, and I’m pretty excited to get some learn on!  Over the next few days I will be putting together an online portfolio of the work I am going to be involved in as part of the course, and I will be sure to put a link on here so you can check some of it out.

So, what have I been up to since we last spoke? Well, summer was a pretty relaxed one.  No holidays unfortunately.  I was part of the FRESH Digital Design and Development in Processing Creativity course at BMC, which was a fantastic week of accidental learning and working on some exciting new projects linked to the new BMC e3 Campus.  To find out more, follow them on twitter @e3_belfastmet.

Another interesting occurrence – I arrived safe and sound at the good age of 24 on Sunday.  To celebrate this achievement, of which I am most proud, I had a meal with my family, a night out with friends, and among some great presents, Aisleagh bought me a Flip Ultra HD.  Nothing short of EPIC.  Maybe we might move this ‘blog’ to a ‘vlog’ in the coming months, what d’ya thing?

I will keep this one short and sweet, and hopefully get back to you with something more soon.

Live, Laugh and Love

Craig

The thing is, I grew up in the transition era. I spent the first half of my teenage years with no mobile phone, no Internet access and a computer that was good for not much more than a daily dose of Minesweeper. Had I been inclined to want a pen-pal, I most likely would have bought a book of stamps and an envelope and sharpened my best pencil.

Gradually, I set down the pen and paper for an email account (I still didn’t have Internet access at home, but the novelty was enough for me to want one). Next, a mobile phone – and imagine my surprise when I discovered it had another – somewhat futuristic – feature, text messages.

Now, my morning checklist involves making sure I have a charged phone in my pocket, a laptop in my bag and have responded to any emails I may have received since the night before.

Every now and then, though – even with technology playing a big part in my day – I am impressed with just how much things have changed in the past 10 years. I look forward to the day when kids are walking about with some weird gadget that makes toast on demand and allows you to change the colour of your t-shirt depending on your current mood or surroundings – and I look on, thinking, “whatever happened to…”

Aside from all the implications technological advance has had on society, education, business and almost everything else, the way it has enabled us to live is nothing short of impressive.

Live, Love and Die happy

Craig

p.s. thought this was funny

Strangford Lough

It’s funny how, even with the best of intentions, things never quite work out the way you expected.  I must say, it’s not always a bad thing.

Friday morning, 8am, the Apple Store in Victoria Square, Belfast opened its doors to unveil the new iPad.  Queues of people waited, (not quite patiently), in the ‘purchase queue’ outside to get their hands on the new Apple gadget.  All I wanted was a look.

I walked in, picked one up, and everything changed.  iNeed…

So, I left, went to work and got on with the rest of my weekend.  Sunday came, however, and I just had to go and buy one.  It just made sense.  Web browsing, emails, video, games, all sorts of apps for all sorts of things and on a device that feels like the part of your body that’s been missing this whole time – Why wouldn’t I buy one.

The journey from Friday’s initial iPad experience to Sundays purchase was an ironic one.  A weekend away from anything that had a plug.  Mobile phone signal and 3G coverage were only available if you managed to locate that square inch of ground in the middle of the field where you hold your phone high above your head until you see the little bar at the bottom flicker to life. Then when you bring your phone back down to a usable height – gone!

I spend the weekend with a friend of Aisleaghs in Strangford.  We took the kids out horse riding, we played in the garden, set up a swing ball set and listened to the tale of Fantastic Mr. Fox each night before bed. Bliss!

I never grew up in the country; this has been very new to me this past number of years.  It’s amazing just how dark it gets at night; the sound of ‘real’ silence is ecstasy. Going to bed before 11pm and actually being ready to sleep was an odd feeling.  No computer to keep me occupied, no phone signal at all, just the great outdoors and a couple of kids that don’t have the ability to sit still for more than 3 minutes.  It was a great weekend.

Maybe I was supposed to rediscover life without such extravagances as an iPad and iPhone 3Gs but I’d say that the weekend of the iPad launch is not the best time to teach any tech-head a life lesson.

I do love a weekend in the country, and dare I say it, it probably does me good to be away from things for a while.  Like ‘they’ say, “It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.”

Live, Love and Die Happy

Craig

It’s interesting to look back and see the journey you have taken to get to where you are (understandably, for some that journey may be considerably longer than others). Often, it’s the seemingly insignificant things that make the profound impacts in our lives and determine the direction we take.

When I was in school, I knew what I wanted to do with my life, I knew where I wanted to be by the time I was 25, and I knew how everything would work out.  Now though, a lot closer to 25 than I was then, and things are somewhat different.

Did I fail? No. Did I give up? No. Did I chance my mind? No.

So what happened? Well, apparently I grew up.  Not that my ambitions and goals were foolish, but I didn’t fully know myself back then – as most 17 year olds don’t fully know themselves.

I now find myself in a job, doing a degree and having prospects that I wouldn’t have thought of 6 years ago, and even if I had, wouldn’t have wanted them. Now though, it seems just right.

Interesting how, as we grow up, our dreams and ambitions change. Still though, there are some dreams that never change.  Those are often the ones that remain as dreams for the remainder of our lives as common sense and responsibility take over and we set them aside – branding them as foolish and childish. We never really have the chance to live them.

The mid 1970s saw the end of the American Publication, ‘Whole Earth Catalogue’. On the back page of this final issue was their ‘sign off message’, which read, “stay hungry, stay foolish”.

In the middle of all that we find ourselves right now, would you be willing to take a risk and live out those dreams? Would you be willing to “stay young, stay foolish”?

Live, Love and Die Happy

Craig

Something funny happened however – of all the posts I have made so far, this one has had the most views – and it gathered more views than any other single post to date in under 1 hour!!!

I really couldn’t understand this.  Why would people want to read a post about me not posting? Although they wouldn’t know what it was about until they read it, so what was so special about this one??

And then I figured it out!

Entitled, “Explain Yourself”, you were probably all thinking I was going to confess something terrible. Or shine a light on another scandal asking someone else to make their confessions. How disappointed must you have been??

It made me laugh. Of course I wouldn’t confess all my sins on something as public as a blog. I leave that for my website (www.craigmcconnell.org) where it is much more private. (or am I just trying to get more page views there too???).

Hope y’all are having a great week.

More to come soon

Live, Love and Die Happy

Just thought I’d throw something up quick and hopefully i will have something more by the end of the week.

Live, Love and Die Happy

Craig

With the introduction of the Internet you can shop, bank, and even order a take-away without having to leave the comfort of your armchair.

We have drive through restaurants, self service check-outs and cash dispensers in the wall – all to enable us to live our own lives without having to endure interruption from anyone along the way.

In fact, we could live a perfectly ordinary day without having to leave the house at all. Simply wake up, reach for the nearest laptop and you’re set up for the rest of the day.

You can send and receive emails, arrange meetings, conduct video conferences, do the weekly food shop, buy a birthday present for a loved one, check up on local, national and world news and weather, catch up with old friends via social networking, get a degree, watch a video podcast of Sundays church service and finally order dinner and download a movie for a quiet night in.

Bliss!

Or is it?

“It is not good for man to be alone”

God

The thing is, we weren’t created to live a solo existence. We were never supposed to stay in our own little bubble.
We were created with an inbuilt longing to connect. To engage with the world around us, learn from each other, help each other, laugh and cry together and enjoy the journey as a community.

Just like a baby who wants for nothing can often cry simply because they want held, we can have all the success, power and money we can find – but there will always be an unfulfilled desire to connect.

Lets begin to share life. Allow someone to interrupt your day with a smile, join the crowd at the supermarket, go to the cinema, and engage with the world God has created for us. Be part of the journey.

We might even bump into each other in a queue somewhere down the line.

Live, Love and Die Happy

Craig

With more than 400million active users – 50% of which log in on any given day – Facebook has given the opportunity to reconnect with people we met back in school, worked with many years ago, and old friends we lost contact with over time.

The question is, if we are connecting with more and more people than ever before, are the strengths of the connections with our nearest and dearest suffering as a consequence?

Malcolm Gladwell encourages us to consider how many people we can really connect with on a ‘personal’ level?

“if you belong to a group of five people, you have to keep track of ten separate relationships: your relationship with the four others in your circle and the six other two-way relationships between the others.”

Malcolm Gladwell – The Tipping Point

In order to keep up with 300 friends on Facebook, or 300 IM contacts, we have made a few alterations in the way we socialize… I’d say without even noticing.

When we used to say, ‘lets grab a coffee and catch up’, we now say, ‘will you be on Facebook chat later?’

Hyperconnectivity is a great thing.  That said, I would challenge you that it is even more important to make an extra effort to nurture those connections that are most special. Friends, family, partners…

Make a conscious effort to phone a friend this week – not text – but phone.  Wait until you get home, boil the kettle, open a packet of Hob Nobs and make a call.  Intend on spending some time on the phone, catching up on the latest news, sharing stories of old times, laugh and cry together, and even arrange to meet up and ‘do this again sometime’.   The reason? Does it make you feel any different inside? Would you have got the same feeling if you’d texted them, or emailed them, or even talked on Facebook chat?

Live, Love and Die Happy

Craig

p.s. I understand the irony of posting such a topic on a blog…

Well, it’s Monday again.  Here comes another week…

Its funny how at all the different stages of life, everything changes – priorities change, motives change, relationships change.

I remember when I was a kid I saved up all my spare pocket money, any money grown-ups gave me for ‘ice-cream’ and any other money I managed to find in my moneybox.  It seemed like it took forever, but one day I went to my mum with a money box full of 20p’s, 50p’s and coppers, as well as a couple of gold coins – eventually adding up to £10 – and she exchanged it for a crisp fresh £10 note, the first one I ever owned.

That afternoon, we went for our usual family shopping trip down the Cregagh Road.  As always, we would be dragged around – bored – while the shopping was bought, things that didn’t fit were returned or exchanged from birthdays or Christmasses and finally if we were good, we would get to pick some sweets for Saturday night telly – 90’s style.

This week was different though – I had a tenner!!

We went into Wyse Byse, I looked at every toy, every game, every sharp dangerous thing I could find – but I couldn’t pick just the right thing.  So I walked back over to my mum and dad, they were with my brother.  I can’t remember exactly what age he was, but he couldn’t have been any older than 4 or 5.  He was playing with a plastic tool set.  He didn’t have a tool set, but I could tell he really wanted one – and the price? £10 – So I bought it for him.  He was delighted, I was delighted, and that was that! (he’s now 18, at BMC and training to become a joiner).

This morning, I lifted £10 from the cash machine, bought a bus ticket, bought a train ticket and bought a bottle of coke. And I think I’ll need another trip to the cash machine if I expect lunch. Not as much of a story this time round, eh?

Things change as we get older, but there is one thing we can always rely on – eh?

MONDAY MORNINGS!!!

Live, Love and Die Happy

Craig