Today is a good day!

Over the hill

2008-03-15T15:04:00.006Z

Went for a quick bike ride up the hill past Hastoe and right the back of Wigo - VERY hard going through the woods....the track was 6 inches deep with mud!!

Got back just before the rain. According to SportsDo I burned 1912 calories. Hmmm - not entirely convinced about that.

Offshore yacht racing

2008-03-15T11:40:00.003Z

I was invited recently to make a presentation on my experience as a crew member on Team Samsung's boat in the 2005 Round Britain and Ireland Challenge offshore yacht race.

It was good to dig out old photos and videos.
I used the following two as part of the introduction - just to give the audeince a sense of the range of conditions we encountered:

What offshore yacht racing is *supposed* to be like! from GoodDay on Vimeo.

What offshore yacht racing is *really* like! from GoodDay on Vimeo.

The strange movements of the fates!

2008-03-02T21:02:00.002Z

Only just last week I clearly recall looking at Flickr's blog and thinking "it would be great to have one of my photos featured on this - but that's not likley to happen!".
Then - lo and behold - my leaping bride and groom shot is selected for their 29th Feb posting!
I'm pretty chuffed about that.
Now.....if I could just be equally sure that I'm not likley to win the lottery!!

Armageddon? Arm a geddon out of here!!!

2008-02-24T20:48:00.006Z

Worms Armagedon - the famous "CONCRETE DONKEY"!! from GoodDay on Vimeo
To continue on a theme introduced earlier - namely me getting thrashed by my kids at video games! For many years I've managed to hold my own in those wonderful (now classic?) games - Worms 2 and the newer Worms Armageddon.

Today my youngest boy - suffering from jet lag as he was - beat me two out of three times to claim the crown of household "Worm Master". He will be beaten soundly with a large stick later though!

Not that I wish to distract from his obvious (and increasingly strategic) skills - but he *did* manage to secure one of the most destructive weapons known to wormkind. The weapon of mass worm destruction to end all weapons of errr worm mass destruction.....the rarely seen "CONCRETE DONKEY". We just had to capture that one on video!!! Enjoy

Bike Ride 2

2008-02-24T06:53:00.002Z

Bike Ride from GoodDay on Vimeo
.

Bike ride

2008-02-23T18:43:00.002Z

Four weeks in a row, in winter, with no gloves!

Good day for a bike ride

2008-02-10T21:35:00.000Z

Today felt more like May than the start of February! The sun was bright and warm, there were no clouds, and so for the second week in a row we headed out on our bikes wearing sun glasses (and no gloves!). It was a beautiful, uplifting afternoon. Shredded my rear tire on some thorns - but what the heck. It was worth it! I traced our route using the GPS in my cell phone and beamed back the results to SportsDo.Net. Jonathan Greenfield and his team there have a great website and so as well as enjoying a cold beer as soon as we got back - we were able to see what a pathetic pace we made going up Tom's hill and also that we were only going at 31km/hr coming down off the Ridgeway (felt faster!).

Amazing!

2008-01-20T17:54:00.000Z

When Ellen MacArthur beat Francis Joyon's solo round the world sailing record three years ago it was deemed almost miraculous! All the way round in just 71 days!!

Francis however has just won his record back and smashed Ellen's by 14 days!!!! In total he took 57 days 13 hours 34 minutes 6 seconds!! (There is a very cool animation comparing their journies here).

In 1969 Robin Knox Johnston completed the first solo not stop voyage and it took him 313 days!!

Francis (if my sums are right) averaged almost 16 knots for the whole journey in his awesome 97 foot multihull. 16 knots is as fast as we ever sailed when we raced round Britain a couple of years ago!!

The man is amazing. And well done IDEC for sponsoring this and making it happen.

The final frontier

2008-01-10T16:17:00.000Z

It is the case that every single video game - from SuperMario Land 2 on the gameboy right through to clever stuff on Playstations etc - has seen my boys beat me in a more than convincing manner.

Wind the clock back a little bit to 1979 and the world's first fully colour arcade game Galaxian and there is a different story!

We got a box of tricks that plugs straight into the television - Galaxian reborn!!

The boys have not got a clue!!! I can thrash the living daylights out of them. They struggle to hit five figures!!! In the arcade game I was good for 60-70,000. Not quite back at that level yet, as you can see. But I'm happy!!!

Brings back memories of an old buddy Dave Gilbert. He had an amazing ability to defy death by zapping an alien right on top of his "ship". When asked how he did it, he replied "Look - if you're going to go for it - go for it!!!" Sound advice indeed! :-)

The "Story of Kevi's Trekkers"

2008-01-05T12:00:00.000Z

The Internet has now made it so easy for people to create, good quality, self-published books. There are a lot of service out there and one of the best is Blurb . It allows the creation of hard or softcover books with good quality photos - for a really great prices (especially if you order more than ten copies).

You can see the official book of our charity trek in China (TrekChina0907) below.

You can buy the book online here:

TrekChina0907

The story of "Kevi...

By Ken Douglas

Book Preview

Drawing a line under a great experience

2007-12-23T15:51:00.000Z

On the 21st - at the Metropole in Brighton we celebrated TrekChina0907 and presented cheques for £95,000 to the charities we supported.

Olympic gold medalist Sally Gunnell - who kindly let us use her house as starting point for our training and also our planning meetings - presented the cheques. It was wonderful to have her support.

We had a great time. Most of the Trekkers were able to attend, and we set up a live video hook up to Mike and Anurag in the USA.

So that's it! Job done. I'm sure that the "brothers and sisters" will stick together in the years ahead. But for now we have a great feeling of a job well done and some amazing and enduring memories of that stunning week in China in September.

Drive

2007-10-18T20:17:00.001+01:00

A short time-lapse movie of my drive home from work! 50 minutes compressed into 7 and a bit seconds!

What a sad life! :-)
I need to start doing more on my ideas that we should all stop travelling to work and find something more local. A few years ago when my local office closed down - forcing the "round the M25" journey - a few of us looked at creating a local community office in an old barn. The powers the be took a dim view at the time, but I think they'd be open to it now.

Watch this space.

A new favourite blog

2007-10-02T14:58:00.001+01:00

Oh! Is it really that long since I last made a blog posting?

Well - much of that can be blamed on TrekChina. I'm still in catch up mode at work and at home too. And during that catch up I had the great pleasure of discovering not just that Stephen Fry has a blog but that his first post was a "geek posting" - on the pros and cons of the iPhone. And of course it was the best posting on the topic that I have yet read.

I've only touched an iPhone twice now and I was, for various complex reasons, determined not to like it. I failed miserably in that respect. It really is a wonderful example of design. Not perfect, it has niggles, but still in a class of its own. I'm wondering why the same level of thought can't go into more products and objects around us?

EDIT: November 12th 2007. I take back what I said! Fry is obviously in the employ of Apple or besotted by the iPhone's designer. He keeps on about it - and has nothing else to say. Oh well - first impressions and all that!!!

The Chukie Embra Honour Guard

2007-07-13T13:48:00.000+01:00

I will leave my buddy Joe to tell the story. He found this image in which you can just make out our faces!

Apparently "How y'doing' Phil" is not the correct address for the Queen's husband!

Underground

2007-07-10T16:40:00.001+01:00

Underground 1
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day

Two posts in one day!
Good grief.

Decided to post this as it's the latest image to break the 100 faves barrier!

:-)

Turn it on again - Phil

2007-07-10T15:50:00.001+01:00

Turn it on again - Phil
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day

Went to see Genesis on Sunday. A blast from the past if ever there was one!

I last saw them 25 years ago in Aberdeen...when I (along with several hundred other people) stood in line all night in sub-zero conditions to secure a good ticket!! I maybe wouldn't go that far now.....as it was my buddy Joe Little stood in a virtual line waiting for the tickets to go on sale on the Internet!!!

I heard Genesis described as "music for dads"....I think Jimmy Carr said that, and so is now a marked man - even though he might well be right!

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Sporran wearers may need licence

2007-06-24T21:58:00.000+01:00

BBC NEWS Scotland Sporran wearers may need licence
This was drawn to my attention by someone who wants to use one of my kilt photos on Flickr as an image to cover a news story on this!!
I'm amazed!
It's not even close to April 1st!

Sail Training

2007-06-22T17:40:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I spend a couple of days teaching sailing up at Great Moor Sailing Club. I took a GPS unit with me to see how well it would track our movements - it did not bad! In fact I quite like the pattern left by the track on the lake - the image here is a screen shot from Google Earth. The sailors among you will probably be able to tell what level the course was from the number of "figures of eight". :-)

Would Google have done this?

2007-06-15T17:18:00.001+01:00

restricted bunny
Originally uploaded by bettermo

I've neglected this blog for a little too long. This topic however demands that I write something. The image is from one of my good contacts - the lovely Mo. As a Flickr user in Germany she finds herself subject to unanounced "censorship" by Flickr!! Basically they have no option to access materials that someone else has deemed (often incorrectly) as inappropriate. Flickr don't like the word "censorship" to be associated with them (see here)- but what they have done amounts to the same thing. And the way they have done it is amazing. It's sad to see a once very customer focused organisation be slowly erroded and made another grey Internet offering but what I guess are Yahoo's lawyers and Accountants.

I feel sorry for the old Flickr hands who worked so hard to make Flickr a special place on the Internet - it must be sad to see the anger around this and I'm sure a few must be thinking "would this have happened if Google bought Flickr and not Yahoo?" Personally I think not!!

Fill in!

2007-04-12T10:38:00.001+01:00

Ostrich
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

I've not posted anything for a while - so I'm taking an expedient approach. On Easter Friday last week I went to Whipsnade zoo with my youngest boy. Haven't been there for an age....and we had a great day. Needless to say I took a stack of photos, and this is probably the best.

What I do at the weekends

2007-04-01T19:18:00.001+01:00

Today is a good day !
Originally uploaded by Upper Dunsley.

Now I'm sure that the photographer could have got a better facial expression (and perhaps some speed blur - because, to be honest, I was really "on the honk") but I'm still happy.

What I was less happy about is that I retired before the end of this race because I capsized too many times - and went off to play instead!

Good job he didn't take any of those!

When a Japanese sunset is in Tring

2007-03-30T10:57:00.001+01:00

Japanese sunset
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

I took this on a walk one evening this week round the wildlife park at Tring Reservoirs not far from where I live. It looked exactly like this - straight out of the camera! The title Japanese Sunset seemed appropriate.
Yesterday I was testing Google Maps ability to handle geoRSS feeds - by taking my Flickr RSS stream - and feeding it to geonames and then to Google (see my tech blog for more in this). See here. It seems that geonames got too hung up on the title and has placed this image near Tokyo. So although computers can be smart - they've still not that intelligent!

Impressions of Ibn Battuta

2007-03-24T19:25:00.001Z

In-flight magazines seem to be much better these days. In particular I always look forward to reading “Impressions” by BMED (when I go to Azerbaijan). It’s one of the few freebie magazines I routinely take away with me to read afterwards. So I was really pleased to learn that the content is available online.

BMED serves destinations in Africa, Middle East and former USSR – and the articles in the magazine always shed light on interesting stories and hidden “treasures” about geography, history, culture and present-day of these places. One downside is that every time I read it I add something to the now impossibly large list of places I’d like to visit (like the Krak des Chevaliers in Syria).

One really great journey would be to follow in the footsteps of Ibn Battuta - a traveller that I had not heard of, who travelled over 117,000km over 29 years in the Islamic world of the 14th century. The article is here.

Upwind in Gale Force 8

2007-03-23T18:33:00.001Z

Upwind in Gale Force 8 on Vimeo
Tomorrow I'm going to the wedding of a fellow crew member (Doug Morton) from Team Samsung during the Round Britain and Ireland race in October 2005. I was thinking back to the race itself and some of the video clips I loaded on the internet. I was amazed to see that this one has been watched 1600 times. And it's not even on YouTube!
Later that day, and in the dark, the weather got worse and Doug was twacked by a big wave and washed right to the back of the boat. I guess that his wife to be (Paula) has his safety line to thank for him being here!

This clip is about a minute long but gets much more interesting about 30 seconds in!

Happy Novruz

2007-03-16T17:07:00.001Z

Happy Novruz
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

I travel a lot with work – and I know that to many this sounds “glamorous”. It’s not! More often than not it’s a case of “fly-in, go to hotel, go to office, work late, eat, sleep, repeat process, fly out”.

This week I spent two days in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan. I’ve visited a few times previously and am fascinated by the changes in the city brought about by the development of oil reserves in the Caspian Sea. I don’t think all the changes good, but overall I hope that the impact is positive.

I’m always struck by how pleasant the people there are. And also by how smart and particularly well educated the people I have the opportunity to work with are (a higher standard than I’m used to in the “west”). And it is always interesting (and important) to me to learn more about different cultures. This week I was struck the preparations for Novrus – the biggest annual holiday in Azerbaijan and many of the surrounding countries such as Iran, Georgia etc.

This trip was so short that I had no time to explore and take photographs – such a pity as the city is such a rich store of images. What views I had were restricted to looking out of a bus or Land cruiser window. There are so many things that I’d like to spend time capturing visually.

Little old ladies in headscarves out at dawn sweeping doorways and pavements with twig brooms.
Old soviet trucks with huge leaf springs trundling everywhere
Ladas competing for road space with BMW police cars
Groups of dark grey suited men peering into the engines of broken down Ladas!!
Little shops and stalls selling fruit, motor oil etc at the roadside
Big satellite dishes betraying dwellings in the most unlikely of places
Pictures of the president (or the old president – I’m not sure) everywhere
Pipelines – a legacy from soviet days – crisscrossing the land above ground
Manic driving (you don’t dare risk crossings – they get ignored)
Smiling, well dressed and shiny clean kids leaving schools

I hope I get back soon.

(you can see more photos of baku here - I can't say I'm too impressed with any of them though!)

Words of Wisdom

2007-03-14T11:35:00.000Z

I very much enjoy Euan Semple's blog "the Obvious?". And today he reminded me of a quote I was once very well aware of from Peter Drucker in his My favourite Drucker quote ... posting.

This might go some way to explaining why a lot of older managers struggle with the way younger people - who have grown up with the web - work.

Sign of the times

2007-03-12T22:54:00.001Z

Sign of the times
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

Beware of the natural world!

The comments on this one are telling (click on the picture to go to my Flickr pages)

I took this at the entrance to a Paintballing park at the weekend. No mention of paintballs flying about at 200 miles an hour! But watch out for floppsy bunny and tree roots!!!

Where are all the time travellers?

2007-03-08T20:40:00.001Z

On a visit to MIT in Boston i picked up a copy of one of the Uni newspapers. A letter in the paper refered back to a conference organised there in 2005 - a conference for time travellers. The idea was that if time travel is invented in the future - they could come pop back to this conference and explain how they did it!!

No one turned up (well - not from the future anyway).

Several possible explainations were put forward - the most obvious being that "time travel is not possibe"! Sounds reasonable! Another is that it is possible but clearly we wipe ourselves off the face of the planet before we make it happen. Sounds scary! Yet another reason was all about multiple universes. Hmmm! The best answer: "in the future they knew about this and thought it sounded terribly dull!" That one gets my vote!!

More here

My online conversation with a hacker

2007-03-08T19:43:00.001Z

American icons
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

This image made me a target for extreme Islamic hacking! Not me alone, but me as one of many on Flickr who posted images that were seen to be glorifying the USA.

I got a message from a legitimate (but hacked) account inviting me to look at similar shots hosted by Flickr's new download tool. Of course there was no such tool - and the link directed me to a phishing page and a link to download an executable package. Uh oh!!!

So I sent an email to the account that left the message to whinge a bit! I got a reply straight back from the hacker himself- who was still logged onto the hacked account! Quite interesting!! He (she?) was from a group claiming to be the Moroccan Islamic Hackers Front (or something like that) and he seemed to think that because I'd posted a very American image I must be supporting the war in Iraq! Of course the fact that I was fervently against this from the outset was a model that he couldn't get his head around. After a couple more exchanges - during which I expressed that I was a tad pissed off - he said "so what?" and that "they'd" never catch him and that was that!!

Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome

2007-03-06T14:20:00.000Z

I was checking out the home page of Seth Teller - from the Computer Science and Artifical IntelligtenceLab at MIT, who I met with last week.

At the top of his home page he had this great quote from Samuel Johnson.

A very great man and I do forgive him for his first exchange with Boswell...

Boswell: Mr Johnson, I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it.

Johnson: That, Sir, I find, is what a very great many of your countrymen cannot help.

Radio Paradise Zoob Tube

2007-03-05T21:38:00.000Z

A few years ago I "discovered" Internet Radio - a World War 2 radio channel that I used for background music when we had a "murder mystery" dinner with some good friends! Since then I've probably listened more to podcasts.
Then last week a colleague - Bob Waring - pointed me to Radio Paradise. I wish I'd found it sooner. Unlike most other Internet stations the music they play is not limited to any specific genre but instead represents great variety - pop, rock music and everything from jazz to classical to electronicaworld music. Just like my iPod!!!

He also pointed me to Radio Paradise Zoob Tube which streams Flickr photos and YouTube videos according to the characteristics of the track being played. A really interesting and effective experiment!

Give it a try!

Strange message

2007-02-27T14:08:00.001Z

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Boston, USA and just tried to call Baku in Azerbaijan. After a long pause a recorded message announced that "your call cannot be completed at this time - in the country you called". Hmmm - I wonder if that means there was an option to complete it in a different country???

I don't know about you - but it scares me!!

2007-02-23T15:25:00.000Z

I found an article about this on CNET news! Apparently the new symbol is a result of a five-year study - funded by International Atomic Energy Agency - in 11 countries around the world to develop a symbol that will scare people of all ages, nationalities and education levels!!

Photographing Squirrels Photographing...

2007-02-21T20:55:00.001Z

Buddy and his Argus 75 --------
Originally uploaded by SQUIRREL400.

Sometimes I marvel at not just the whacky ideas people come up with but also their amazing capacity to carry those ideas through!!!

Scott Alan Johnson - a nature photographer from Ohio - has the most amazing set of images of real squirrels with real cameras!! 86 images in total - and each is excellent!!!

Now why didn't I think of this??

It begins!

2007-02-21T09:57:00.001Z

It begins!
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

I'm not quite sure where winter went this year - but I was delighted to look out my window this morning (working from home) to see a Robin starting to make a nest in our old Yew tree.
:-)

Ca' canny cheels!

2007-02-20T21:04:00.001Z

Ca' canny cheels!
Originally uploaded by Looby lou.

This brings back memories!!
I was brought up with the Doric dialect spoken all around me.
I never heard "ca' canny" being used if someone was drinking too much - but my grandfather (known to everyone as "Pop") once advised me, in no uncertain terms, to "ca' canny" with the handle of the "neep masher" (used to mash up "neeps" for the cows)!!!

Amazing!

2007-02-09T17:26:00.001Z

DSCF8361-int-p
Originally uploaded by Cyrus khamak.

Every now and again I get pointed to someone on Flickr who doesn't realise just how good they are. Enter Cyrus Khamak - brought to my attention by Barbara. Cyrus takes amazing colourful macro nature photographs. Given that I was appealing for more more colour earlier today I decided to hit the "blog this" button.

First impressions can deceive!

2007-02-09T08:25:00.001Z

Aberdeen, Fittie - the boat
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

I took this two days ago on my way to a meeting in Aberdeen, Scotland. The temperature was zero – but it looks like it could be taken in the Caribbean! We should paint more things bright!!

Speedbandits

2007-02-08T22:56:00.001Z

Speedbandits
Originally uploaded by Voetmann.

Years ago on the tube an evil looking bugger sat down across from me....shaved head, with a spider’s web tattooed across his face and neck. When he stood up to leave I saw there was a message picked out in silver studs on the back of his leather jacket; “only stupid bastards use heroin”. I recall being really impressed and thinking that his message probably carried more weight than any poncey government funded advert. He was credible!

So why wouldn’t we put him and his message on tv? Even thought it might be effective in reaching the target audience, it would offend too many people!!

Along similar lines the Speedbandits video (thanks to Jesper for bringing to my attention) created by a Danish road safety group has had people complaining (well – it’s had the Swedes, of all people, complaining) – but I know it made me think about speeding in a different way! The word credible comes to mind again – although deliberately viral – it appeals to a certain group in a way that respectable adverts can’t no matter how gory or what “shock” value they carry. I doubt that the bandits are for real - which is a shame!

Well done evil looking bugger, well done Danish road safety enthusiasts.

Bugger!

2007-02-04T14:42:00.001Z

Oh dear!
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

Took a bit of a thumping!

It was still a good day though!

You can see more photos I took at the game here

Let battle Commence!

2007-02-03T10:28:00.003Z

There is a thin line between nationalism and extremism. And today I tread the tightrope between the two!! Scotland play England at Twickenham in six hours!!

Sportsmanship is important in rugby. BUT, but........you don't have to look deep beneath the surface to realise that we dearly and desperately (please god!) want to thrash the living daylights out of the nasty English!

Victories in enemy territory are rare - but oh so sweet!!! So I need to get in the right frame of mind......resilience should England get lucky (!!) and cocky, unbearable, nationalistic, chest-beating pride should we (please god again) secure a rightful victory!

I know just the thing.......total immersion in the music of Clann An Drumma played loud!!!! Played VERY LOUD!!

They are a "tribal" Scottish pipe and drum band. I've had the pleasure of meeting them. On the pitch at Murrayfield, they rallied the faithful at last year's England Scotland encounter - stirring, stirring stuff.

Tubardh Stormcrow Wilson formed the band some years ago. He deserves a medal for his name alone! Brian Cartwright plays pipes - the rest of the band can number between 2 and half a dozen more.,

So that you can begin to tune in to what it means to be a Scot - click on any of the images here to link to YouTube videos of the boys in action. (The last one gets going about a minute and a half in).

Just five and a half hours to go - leave me to my battle preparations!!!!
:-)

The music of Lens Gamma Crystallin

2007-02-02T19:03:00.001Z

This weeks New Scientist had an item about transforming "things" into music. In this particular case it was music derived from protein sequences. (More here at "the music of protein sequences"). The explaination......

"In each piece, pitch is determined by amino acid identity. The structural features of the protein are emphasized by choosing instrumentation according to protein folding pattern, with different instruments representing regions of alpha-helix, beta-strands and turns. In some pieces, different instruments may identify functional domains of the protein" So fairly straightforward then!

Now had this not come hard on the heels of a posting by Euan Semple that contains a remarkable video make by an autistic woman (she illustrates beautifully the patterns and connections she "sees" and interacts with in the world around her), and also a pointer to the book "Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" ("this book shows you, more clearly than most any other, what it means to see symbols and patterns where others see only the universe") I might not have paid this so much attention. But I'm struck by how some people "see" such patterns and symbols - whether in a mathematical formula, a pieces of music and image or picture or even in the sequence of events around them.
To get back to the title of this posting - click here to "listen" the music of Gamma Lens Crystallin - one of many crystalline proteins found in lens cells of the vertebrate eye. It really is amazingly melodic.

Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow?

2007-02-01T09:07:00.001Z

Low
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

We had a new Financial Controller introduced at work (by email - because she's based in the USA). The message said "she has an MBA so ask her tough questions". Being ever professional I asked her what the velocity of an unladen swallow was!

She sent back a brilliant reply and included a link to this excellent site that talks about "Strouhal equations for cruising flight" and such like. Apparently the answer (at least for the "European" variety) is is roughly 11 meters per second, or 24 miles an hour!

Of course this is for normal cruising flight. When they are hunting they go at roughly mach2.5 as testified by the difficulty I've had in various attempts to take a photograph of them!!

God's Abacus

2007-01-31T11:30:00.001Z

God's Abacus
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

This image on Flickr has recently become (again) my "most interesting" shot - at least according to Flickr's "magic donkey" algorithim.

There was a recent burst of views and a enough extra "faves" to boost this image over the magic "300 big ones" count!.

What more interested me, though, was undersatnding why there was that burst of activity? It turns out that the image had been blogged (which I should have guessed).

I checked and according to Technorati my images have been blogged many times. More than I'd imagined. I was quite impressed by the high readership of many, and clearly a fraction of these are clicking-through and either "faving" a shot or leaving a comment.

30 seconds to spare!

2007-01-30T23:32:00.001Z

30 seconds to spare!
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

I went to a photography presentation tonight in London - given by travel photographer and photojournalist Juliet Coombe and organised by the wonderful people at Intrepid Travel

"Be creative" she said. "Try something new".
So I took this as I ran to catch my train home!!!
Her advice is working already!!

There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

2007-01-27T10:51:00.000Z

Quote of the week!
So true!!!
From Napoleon Bonaparte. I have to confess I didn't realise he is attributed to so many quotes I like.
See more Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes.

The New Generation

2007-01-26T13:13:00.001Z

I was delighted to get a message saying that one of my photographs had been used to illustrate how a new generation - growing up with video games and other advnaced technology - actually think differently!! (Especially given my last post)

Lynette- who used the image - has added a whole bunch of really interesting notes below (click on the image to see).

gamers generation have......
Originally uploaded by lynetter.

Not only that but she has a whole stack more of these interesting snippets of how technology is shaping our lives - which is perfect for a project we are doing at work, and also a rich pool of content for my Tech Blog!!

How to beat your kids at computer games

2007-01-25T18:42:00.000Z

I still hold out valiantly at Galaxian! (They don't get it - too few buttons!!)
I do just (and only just) hold my own playing Worms2 or Worms Armageddon (although they completely waste me when it comes to bits that need fast finger work - like ropes and jet packs!!!)

In every other game - I'm toast!!

I was doing OK at Final Fantasy X in the PlayStation (which I bought myself) - then reached a brick wall!! Alexander had to finish the game for me. I can recall standing in awe as the closing sequence played on screen. The little sod is in a different league!

And so I was particulary delighted to have Joe Little (that famous dinosaur) bring this VideoJug clip to my attention! (Click on the image - for some reason the embedded code is bombing!) This is sure to bring solace to many a miserable, defeated dad!!!

Gone

2007-01-22T23:34:00.001Z

Fire Wood
Originally uploaded by bruiach1.

I've long admired Colin Campbell's wonderful images of this tree.

So I was sad to see, in his latest version, that he reported the recent storms had blown it over.

It is no more!!!

I find my self strangely depressed by that news!

On the edge

2007-01-21T15:42:00.001Z

I couldn't get up to the sailing club early enough today - had rugby duty to do in the morning.

So I arrived too late and had to watch the fun. Only four boats were left for the afternoon race - everyone else was too dead from the morning's exertions.

From Great Moor Sailing Club

So I took a few photos (I'm really enjoying that new 70-300 VR lens!!).
This one is of Steve on the receiving end of a large gust - he was really flying too!

I though's post this because it shows part of what I love about of Laser sailing. Out in a good breeze, spray in your face, blasting along powered by nothing more than the wind. And every now and again a big gust that has you right on the edge. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon (except for it maybe being in a warm place!!!

Next week!!

Today really IS a good day!!

2007-01-19T11:35:00.001Z

Today really IS a good day!!
Originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

This morning - I'm very happy.

Not just because the sun is out again, after the yesterday's storm, but because the postman brought "Life's Rich Tapestry" to my door.

And it's my photography inside and out!!!! :-)

Steve Fenton who is the producer and leads the musical collective "the Feltpeople" found my images on Flickr - and now they're on the cover of their second album.

Although my photos have been used several times before in books, travel guides etc - this is my first CD cover. And I'm especially delighted!

And I *really* like their music too!!!!

You can find out more about the Feltpeople here

My thanks to Steve and also to Haze for doing such a great job on the artwork

2007 - A Fresh start

2007-01-05T12:01:00.001Z

I deleted all my previous posts - bar a couple!
New year resolution!!!

New stuff to follow

:-)

United States slips again on press freedom

2006-10-29T18:45:00.000Z

Steadily over the last few years I've noticed marked changes in US news coverage. Not positive changes it has to be said. Other friends who work and travel there have also noticed a growing lack of impartiality and a remarkably different slant on news (not just on the Iraq war but on many other subjects too) when compared to what we read, see and listen to in just about every other country.

I've met a few Americans who now make deliberate efforts to tune into other countries news sources to get an unbiased view of world affairs. They shouldn't have to do this. It makes my nervous that a country that I admire, that has achieved so much and has often made (perhaps not entirely altruistically) a stand for freedom is showing signs of being on a slippery slope to extremism.

So I was particulaly interested to stumble on this index http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19388 of world press freedom. Out of 168 countries the USA are placed a very poor 53rd (equal with Croatia and Botswana). The UK ranks 27th - which frankly isn't all that brilliant either.

The accompanying text notes:
"The United States (53rd) has fallen nine places since last year, after being in 17th position in the first year of the Index, in 2002. Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of “national security” to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his “war on terrorism.” The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 US states, refuse to recognise the media’s right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism."

I hadn't heard of "Reporters without Borders" but what I've read so far impresses me. I'll have to delve into what they do a little more.

Visualize Being Towed

2005-05-11T16:58:00.000+01:00

Visualize Being Towed
Originally uploaded by Ross Mayfield.

I love this!

We live in an sophisticated world of advertising and imagery and "NO PARKING" just doesn't cut it anymore!