PSc (in full Red Dwarf tradition) stands for Pink Swimming Certificate.

Yes, tonight my eldest son, who for years hated to even get his face wet and would beg me to let him stop swimming lessons, got his 10m badge! We’re all very proud.

He can even do that clever head side-turn thing to breathe when he’s swimming – I can’t even do that!

This is the last one, I promise. Well, until I accidentally go and buy some more apps.

I have no idea why each of my three categories has 9 applications – it wasn’t intentional. I was obviously very balanced in my app hunt.

Anyway, I categorise these as “frivolous” apps – they don’t really have a useful application, and they’re not immersive like a game. They’re clever… or pretty… or just show off the interface well.

Bubbles – Free

A fun little app where you can create bubbles by touching the screen, watch them fall or pop them. It was designed to keep the creator’s toddler amused and serves its purpose well!

iBonsai – £0.59

Not a terribly interactive application – it “grows” a unique digital bonsai tree. You’re supposed to be able to influence the growth by touching the screen, but I can’t see that it makes that much difference. At the end, a shake of the iPhone/iPod Touch will shake the leaves off the tree.

It is a beautifully designed application though and is very therapeutic and relaxing to watch.

iLuvBubbles – £0.59

Another bubble application, this one released for Valentine’s day. Placing your fingers on the screen changes the nature of the bubbles, sometimes changing them into little hearts, other times changing them into mini globes. It’s quite cute, but not something I’m going to keep coming back to.

iPint – Free

A brilliant app which still makes me smile! Designed as an advert for Carling, you have to manoeuvre a pint along various obstacles along the bar before you’re rewarded with a “pint” of your own which you can pretend to drink and watch it disappear out of the glass as you tip the device. Very clever and a great “show off” application to demo to friends.

Koi Pond – £0.59

Finally, I get to share with you the best app I bought. It’s very simple, but very elegant and is fascinating to interact with.

It’s a pond, with koi carp in it. You can specify what colour to have the pond, how many fish and plants you want in it and what ambient sounds you would like. You can have a thunderstorm with raindrops making ripples on the pond.

Touching the screen has the effect of “dabbling” your fingers, and it sounds and looks exactly like you just put your fingers in water. Initially this scares the fish, but leave your finger there and they’ll come to investigate, “nudging” your finger. You can also feed them by shaking the iPhone/iPod Touch to add food into the water.

I can play with this for ages, it’s very relaxing. Best 59p I’ve ever spent!

Lightsaber Unleashed – Free

Very silly, but who doesn’t want their own lightsaber? Realistic sounds of lightsaber clashes, and you can even have Star Wars music to accompany your epic battles.

MiniPiano – Free

Just as you’d expect by the name – it turns the screen into a mini piano – a single octave, to be precise! Fun little application, if a little limited. Is nice to be able to pick out a tune though!

Zen of Snow – Free

This is technically a Christmas application, but I like snow. In particular, I like those big old fashioned snow globes, and this app gives you a Christmassy scene which you can shake to create a flurry of sparkly snow. It’s lovely!

Virtual Zippo Lighter – Free

Ever been in a concert and wanted to join in with swaying lighters but then realised you don’t own a lighter? No, me neither. But in case you’re ever in that situation, this is essential. Fun little lighter – you have a choice of designs that you can customise with text.

Continuing my trip through the iTunes App Store, this time I’m giving you a run down of the games I downloaded. I am always grateful for other recommends, so if you have played an iPhone / iPod Touch game you think I would like, please feel free to let me know in the comments!

Aurora Feint II: Lite – Free

I don’t normally like “line up the blocks” type games, but this is beautifully done. It’s sort of a cross between Bejewelled and an RPG – clearing levels gives you XP to gain different abilities.

But mostly, it’s the way its animated which brings you back to play it again. The blocks feel like they have weight. Tilting the screen affects the direction of gravity and is a vital part of gameplay strategy. Worth downloading.

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D – £3.49

We’re all addicted to Mario Kart on the Wii within just a few days here, and the boys have had Mario Kart on their DSes since Christmas. I was reliably informed that Crash Bandicoot was the closest equivalent for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

And yes, gameplay is very similar. It also makes good use of the iPhone/iPod Touch tilt controls. But… it’s just not as good as Mario Kart. Sorry. It’s a pale imitation and I dislike playing it simply because it’s almost but not quite as good.

Crayon Physics Deluxe – £2.99

This is such a beautifully simple game. The idea is that you have to knock a little crayon scribbled ball into a star on the page. This is done by adding shapes by ‘drawing’ with your finger on the screen. Each puzzle requires a different solution and can be quite challenging at times.

It gets a bit tedious over a long play session, but for the odd five minute time-waster it’s perfect.

Enigmo – £1.19

Another physics-related puzzle game, this time your task is to get a steady flow of water droplets into a bottle using various different components. Think of The Incredible Machine without the balloons, cats or mice…

Fieldrunners – £2.99

I had so many people recommend this game to me when I mentioned I had an iPod Touch, that it was the very first thing I went on iTunes to buy.

If you have EVER lost hours of your life to a Desktop Tower Defence style game, then you need to buy this application.

Fish Tycoon – £1.19

I used to have the PC version of this game and loved it then, so seemed a natural one to buy for the iPod Touch. It’s still as brilliant.

The idea is that you keep an aquarium and breed your fish, selling some off in your shop to make money to unlock better equipment and research. The ultimate goal is to find the 7 Magic Fish, but to be honest, it’s just as fun to ignore all that and just enjoy having a little aquarium on your iPhone/iPod Touch.

If I had one criticism it would be that, as what seems to be a direct port from the PC Game, the buttons are really teeny tiny and hard to click the right one with your finger.

Super Monkey Ball – £4.99

Doesn’t everyone get this game as soon as they get their iPhone/iPod Touch? It does seem to be the classic one that makes good use of the tilt system.

It is insanely difficult though, and also does the job of reminding me at how bad I am at the balance games on the Wii Fit too – I am terrible at over-compensating and can’t seem to do the tiny movements these games require.

It is addictive though so I’m going to keep trying and ignore the fact that my 7 year old is better at it than me.

TanZen Lite – Free

Another puzzle game which should be instantly recognisable if you ever had a Tangram puzzle as a kid. The idea is that you manipulate some very basic geometric shapes to fit a picture – a jigsaw puzzle where the images vary but the pieces stay the same.

This implementation is very easy to use and is also very relaxing. I’m enjoying it so much that once I’ve finished the puzzles in this version, I will almost certainly upgrade to the full version – it’s only 59p and has 423 puzzles as opposed to the 27 that come with the free version.

Tap Tap Revenge – Free

This is a rhythm/music game in the “tradition of Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution”. I’m not very good at it, but it’s suitably diverting and I was amazed at how many songs you can download free for it.

Akra bought me an iPod Touch for my birthday, and I absolutely love it. The interface is beautiful and in just a few days it’s become so much more than just a device to listen to music/podcasts or watch a video.

I accidentally went a bit mad in the iTunes App store, so I thought it’d be a good idea to post about what applications I got and what I think of them. However, there’s so many I’m having to split this into several blog posts!

1Password – Free

I can’t make up my mind about this app. I use the Mac OS X version on my iMac which is brilliant, but it is a pain to have ultra secure passwords if (when using a mobile device to use the internet) you can’t remember them.

The problem is, the iPhone/iPod Touch OS doesn’t have cut/paste or the ability to have multiple applications open at the same time. This app tries to resolve the problem by being its own browser as well.

I had no problems syncing my passwords from the iMac to the iPod Touch. The problem is, it’s just not intuitive to navigate round the mobile version, and 3 out of 4 sites I tried it with didn’t even manage to login correctly. I really want to like this app, but I guess I’m just going to have to wait for some improvements to the software before it becomes remotely practical.

Facebook – Free

I love this application. It’s 100 times easier and more enjoyable to navigate the Facebook site using this than it is to use a browser on my main computer.

Essential if you have a Facebook account.

IM+ Lite – Free

This is an IM client for most of the main IM services. Was very easy to set up and is pretty usable for the occasional IM conversation.

Not earth shatteringly brilliant, but does the job nicely, and it’s free. Can’t complain at that.

NetNewsWire – Free

Just an awesome RSS reader. I already have a NewsGator account (I use the MacOS X version of NetNewsWire on my iMac) so whether I check my RSS feeds on my iMac or on the iPod Touch it syncs with my online account so I don’t end up reading the same posts.

It’s a beautiful interface and easy to navigate. I actually find it easier to catch up on my RSS feeds via this than on the iMac – I think it’s something about reading a small screen in your hand, but also because navigating through is much more immediate with finger scrolling and one touch to the next unread post.

Romance – £1.19

This is a collection of 10 classic romances for Valentine’s Day – using the iPhone/iPod Touch as an e-book reader. The text scrolls at differing speeds depending on what angle you hold the device which is supposed to make it very intuitive and easy to read but I just found it annoying. Much prefer to scroll with my finger when I’ve reached the end of a page.

All the books in the collection are in the public domain, and as there are other free e-book readers for the iPhone/iPod Touch, I regret buying this now.

Shakespeare – Free

Okay, it’s another e-book collection and yes, you could just get an e-book reader and download the plays and sonnets individually, but it’s rather nice having the complete works at your fingertips.

The interface is basic and doesn’t get in the way of reading. I like it.

Stanza – Free

A free e-book reader with a very extensive selection of free books to download. You can also purchase books through their online catalogue.

Instead of scrolling, you tap to turn the page (a tap on the left of the screen takes you to the previous page, a tap to the right the next page) rather than scroll – it felt a bit odd at first, but soon became quite natural.

Most importantly, the interface is nice, clean and free of distractions.

TwitterFon – Free

There are a whole host of Twitter clients out there for the iPhone/iPod Touch but I’ve stuck with the first one I tried as it’s free!

It’s a great interface and a pleasure to use. Can’t see the point of trying any of the others.

Wikipanion – Free

This is essentially just a browser for the Wikipedia site – you could just use a Safari bookmark to the front page, but it’s rather nice to have it as a stand-alone application and makes it much easier to quickly look something up.

It looks like Ma.gnolia’s problems are unlikely to be solved very quickly, and highly likely that all links gathered on there are lost permanently.

I don’t mind about the links, after all, I published them to this blog via a feed, so they’re not lost – just the site thumbnails that were generated, and while they make the blog entry less pretty, it’s still functional. But I really miss the service – it was so superior to del.icio.us in many ways, and I think a lot of us switched over to them because of that.

I’m still hanging on… not wanting to switch back or look for alternatives quite yet. Just wish they’d bring back the service even if none of the links can be retrieved, but then I guess they’ve lost the actual site as well?

Such a shame.

Today is my birthday (I’m 35… eep… ). For some reason, I’d ended up with loads of appointments today so it was going to be busy and not particularly exciting.

Except it snowed overnight. The local school was closed. The people I had appointments with phoned to cancel. I had a whole unexpected day before me with no plans and no commitments. Bliss.

First we went out in the snow. I managed to take a few photos and got to chat to some of the neighbours’ older children who I hadn’t seen in a while. I came in once I got cold, and my kids came back inside about a half hour later so we all had hot Ribena to warm ourselves up.

For most of the rest of the day, the boys thoroughly play tested my new Mario Kart game for the Wii (and generously let me have a go from time to time!) while I set up the iPod Touch Akra bought me for my birthday. Went a bit wild in the iTunes App Store (that’s a whole other blog post, though).

Once Akra got home from work we went out for a family meal at our local Beefeater – a fab place which is genuinely friendly towards children and has a good range of food we all enjoy for not too much money. I have eaten until I’m completely stuffed.

And now, the kids are in bed and I’m sat at my computer with a glass of cold white wine contemplating what to do with my evening, and I honestly couldn’t think of a nicer way to have spent the day.

I love Snow Days. Best birthday present ever.

I haven’t baked anything for a long time – made plans to a few times, but then not quite got around to it. However, once the kids had got off to school this morning I felt the sudden urge to get all the non-healthy recipe books out and spend a morning pottering about the kitchen.

In the end I chose Nigella’s Butter Cut-Out Biscuits from How To Be A Domestic Goddess – one of the best “I want something of no nutritional value, minimal effort, maximum effect and loads of calories” cookbooks I own.

As is traditional, I made a right mess of the kitchen while decorating them – I’ll be finding escaped hundreds and thousands for weeks. Still, it was fun, I got loads of appreciation from the family and they tasted divine too.

Must plan to be spontaneous more often.

Or something.

The Amaz!ng Meeting is finally coming to the UK – 3rd/4th October 2009 with a venue in Central London.

For those that haven’t heard of TAM before, it’s a conference geared around science, critical thinking and the sceptical movement with a fantastic variety of speakers and workshops. It’s something I’ve wanted to go to for the last couple of years, but realistically I wasn’t going to be able to fly over to the US to attend.

They haven’t announced exact location, speaker list or released tickets yet, but you can join the facebook group or twitter feed to get the latest information.

It’s marked on my calendar and I’m going to do everything in my power to get there. Anyone else thinking of attending?

The joy of researching the family tree isn’t really about the bulk of the work you do gathering documents and double checking identities. It’s not even about the unexpected turns and the participation of ancestors in big moments of history (although that is, admittedly, rather exciting).

It’s the small unexpected stuff. It’s the dragging out of old boxes of photos because “you’ll be interested in this”. It’s not necessarily interesting to anyone else and there’s as many similar stories as there are people on this Earth. But it is … the whole point.

I’ve discovered that my mother used to be a sophisticated fashionista with a perfected sultry film-star look whenever a camera was turned in her direction (a million miles from me who has lived in jeans all my life and is still not quite sure how to use make-up!).

I’ve seen grainy black and white photographs of both my grandfathers while they were still in their prime of health. I’ve had my memory jogged of long forgotten homes and significant places.

But the most valuable are pictures of my father. Relaxed, confident, seldom without a cigarette in his mouth, ever the joker (he is usually acting up for the camera). It’s odd. I can see glimpses of the personality of the person he became, of course, but at the same time they are images of a man I never knew.

It’s poignant because he died just shortly after I got married – just at the point where I was starting to get to know him more as a person… an adult-to-adult relationship rather than a father-to-daughter one.

But thanks to some faded snapshots kept in a cardboard box in the back of a wardrobe, a sort of two-dimensional frozen-in-time machine, I can take little peeks through to the past.

And that makes it all worthwhile.