Found a bit of my M208 mojo’s returned with the final Analysis section. Hopefully it’ll show through in the TMA as well.
I’d not really been paying attention to the OU’s fee announcements as I’d not really twigged how much they’d be affected by the current government decision to dumb down the UK population. Like most people I can’t really afford £2500 a year to do a course for ‘fun’ and improvement. Luckily I can still get the ‘cheap’ current prices as I’m already studying and have ticked the box saying ‘working towards qualification’. But it means I have to study every year, which blows my plan of taking next year off to have a break. Though I suppose I could always find something ‘simple’ in a 20 credit point size that won’t actually occupy much time.
It’s a sad sad day when one of the greatest things to come out of the UK Higher Education system (the ability for anyone anywhere to study a HE course at any time without previous experience) is being ripped up by a purely ideological attempt to reshape the HE market by a bunch of idiots who don’t understand it. Also makes me laugh when our PM talks about building a Knowledge economy, where’s this knowledge coming from if we’re not educating our population?
It started off with wanting to do Super Randonneur series but not being able to make it any of the AUK calendar 600s as they were all pushed forward by Paris-Brest-Brest. The foundations were really laid with an off hand comment on my abortive attempt at the Moors and Wolds 400 about trying a DIY on the London-Edinburgh-London 2013 route. And then yesterday it was cemented when the brevet card turned up in the post.
The plan is to use the main controls to give a route Nottingham-Spalding-Market Rasen-Pocklington-Thirsk-Scotch Corner-Barnard Castle-Brampton-Moffat-Edinburgh at just a touch over 600k, with a room booked at Scotch corner for a couple of hours rest.
So since then there’s been the planning of routes, booking of rooms and train tickets and pleading for time off. All of which takes a fair amount of time. And then suddenly you realise that there’s only 2 weeks till you should be slogging past York on a bike. Hopefully there’s been enough ‘training’ in the last couple of weeks as it’s a bit late now. Couple of weeks of 100+ miles of commuting should help. And this weekend’s plans should add another 150 miles in to the pot. Not sure if going to the Rock+Bike next weekend should really feature in a taper, but it should be nice and relaxing.
After having got the iPhone 4 I thought I’d give Runkeeper Pro another go after having got fed up with it previously. Also given that my old Forerunner 301 is pretty much dead (knackered USB port) and I’ve bought the Edge 800 for the bike I thought I’d better find a decent way of tracking runs and running pace that wasn’t going to cost too much more
Not really played with any of the new features yet. But it’s a lot better on the iPhone 4 than it ever was on the 3G. Most of this is probably down to the improved GPS reciever in the 4 which improves all the GPS apps on the phone. There also seems to be less insanity in the tracking, though wether this is down to the GPS reciever or better error checking in the app is unknown.
So far the only extra feature I’d like is a simple method to connect the data to my dailymile profile where I pull everything together.
My iPhone 3G was gradually becoming more unusable. Modern apps were running too slow, and the touch screen seemed to be on it’s way out. It’s not had a bad innings, just over 3 years with 2 geeky owners who’ve probably hammered it quite a bit. So decided it was time to bite the bullet and fork out some money for an iPhone 4.
So far so good. Certainly a lot faster, which makes it so much nicer to use.
The only slight fly in the ointment at the moment is that I can’t jailbreak it. Which means no scrobbl, so all my lovely music plays are going unscrobbled. I’ve tried various suggestions to get it working via iTunes when syncing, but no joy yet. On an old ipod I used to use a batch file to load them up, but I’d rather not have to do anything that requires me remembering to take extra steps, just lazy like that.
Hopefully there’ll be a jailbreak soon so I can back to normal. Or Last.fm could just add scrobbling functionality to their own app, as far as I knew it was the lack of official ‘backgrounding’ that was the problem, which isn’t an issue any more is it?
So it’s the start of another solar revolution, so time to think about what to achieve over the next 12 months.
Cycling:
Think this is going to be the main focus for the year. Didn’t really achieve much over christmas with the weather, illness and lots of travel. Though I did see 2010 out with a 48 mile trundle round Nottinghamshire yesterday. So to encourage myself to get some decent mileages in I’ve sent of a couple of Audax entry forms. So my first goal is the 100k “Rutland and Beyond” one from Leicester in February (route plot here. Quite fun sitting down stamping SAEs and writing cheques (thought finding my cheque book wasn’t quite so much fun). In fact so much fun I seem to also have entered 2 starting from Alfreton (100k and 200k).
Plus I’m going to go and check the car’s mileage, and record all my cycling mileage. Hopefully I can get a decent ratio between the 2.
Running:
Going to try and keep this up along with the cycling, though with the niggley pains I went through last year I don’t think I’m going to try to push for anything longer or faster than last year. Though saying that a sub 1:45 half or sub 45 10k would be quite nice ;)
Maths:
Just keep on ploughing through the OU stuff. Really keen to try and get distinctions on as much stuff as I can after seeing that I managed in on MS221. I’d originally thought “I’ll just do it for the knowledge”, but now a little element of pride is starting to creep in ;)
Photography:
Just to keep on snapping. Pretty happy with 2010 on that score. Been asked to provide photos for various magazine articles, BBC website and been asked to take baby photos for some friends. So some people like what I’m doing :).
Oh, and somewhere in amongst all that lot; recertify as RHCE, qualify as OCP and help plan a wedding to a beautiful young lady.
So I’ve decided that I really want to up my photo game. Sounds simple really doesn’t it, but then I started thinking about what I actually want to do and realised just how much I need to learn and how long it’s going to take.
Step 1 is just to look at more photos. Sounds stupid, but I realised I was mainly looking at photos just on Flickr or when they were attached to articles. So a multi-pronged approach here:
Visit more exhibitions/galleries
Buy more large photo books (starting with Anton Corbijn‘s Star Trak thanks to a wonderful anniversary present)
Be more critical when I’m looking at. I need to start thinking about what I actually like about the photo and how the photographer achieved it
Join one of the Nottingham photographers groups, they all seem to run ‘criticism’ nights and I think that could really help.
Thankfully there’ll also be some fun stuff with the camera. I really need to hone some techniques so I spend more time taking quality shots rather than hunting through hundreds for the couple of good ones. So there’ll be plenty of time just taking shots to test things (like the 16 frames of film I took to do a Zone system comparison).
Some of it’s already paying off a little, as I’m getting a much better idea of what makes a good portrait (something I suck at). Now just to put it into action, which leads onto:
And I need to make sure I keep taking photos, practice making perfect and all that :).
Just a tad loud last night at the Old Angel, and I can still barely hear. Going to have to make sure I stash plenty of earplugs in each of my camera bags.
Another tip I forgot was to mark which speed I shot each film at. I mean, how do you tell the difference between a full casette of HP5+ @ 800 from one @1600? Thankfully I managed to remember that the ISO 1600 roll had been followed by a roll of DX3200, so if I’m right the 1600 ISO HP5 roll is in the Delta cannister. Hopefully…….
Good gig though. Absolutely knackered as I’d walked up to the Angel after getting the train back from Nottingham to Luton (which was redirected via Toton yard, cool if you like looking at old railway hardware). Necrocest had cancelled so Merciless Terror got to headline, pretty energetic so just hoping the autofocus kept up this time. Did end up cheating and getting the flash out, be interesting to see how that works with film.
In need of another culture fix we wandered over to the Nottingham Contemporary to catch the Star City exhibit before it closed. Billed as an exhibition about the “The Future Under Communism” and the “Race for Space” I had visions of lots of space geekery. Turns out I was wrong, but not in a bad way.
We started out in “The Space” with Mother, Earth, Sister, Moon by Tomaszewski and Malinowska. “The Space” appears to be a large almost performance space in the bowels of the contemporary, certainly tending towards the utilitarian, though I don’t necessarily mind ‘naked’ building spaces, and in this case the cold bare concrete walls worked well. The installation was a tribute to the first woman in space, though as it consists of a large fabric construction of a cosmonaut, this isn’t immediately apparent until you read the display notes. All very nice, but it did feel like it was missing something. Throughout the exhibition there have been fashion shows staged within the ‘Cosmonaut’, and for something like that it’d work well.
Moving back upstairs it was nice to see that someone’s got better with both the paintbrush and the floor brush :). On the upper floor there were a mix of arists works on display. Can’t say I was hugely bothered by most of the Video installs but that’s just my taste. I did like Tobias Putrih’s Solaris, a small cinema constructed from cardboard tubes and plywood offcuts which was right up my particular alley. Also taken by Micol Assaël’s, Elsewhere, which appeared to be an installed minimalist glitch sound system constructed from rusting electronics sat in a pool of water, I could have sat there listening for a good long time.
So a bit hit and miss, but it was a nice way to spend an hour.
Treated myself to an ‘Origami Space ships’ kit in the shop on the way out.
So today was the second celebration of Record Store Day in the UK (or at least the second as far as I know). Celebrating this in Nottingham were the good folks at The Heavy Sounds, who’d got the East Midlands allocation of the limited edition singles. So in the hope of getting hold of the Bruce Springsteen 10″ I decided to start queueing at 09:30, only to find I was 30 back in the queue (number 1 had arrived about 6ish, and number 9 had turned up at 8, I’m not quite that keen).
Don’t know if the other traders in the West End Arcade knew what was happening as the queue kept building up and up (I reckong there must have been at least a 100 people or more in the queue). 10 o’clock turned up and we all started filing in in an orderly fashion (don’t think we were going to be allowed to do anything else). Took a fair while for everyone to filter in (think I got in about 11:10), but this left plenty of time to chat in the queue. Seemed to be lots of genuine music fans taking the time out to make sure they grab something so there was plenty of far ranging conversation.
Got the Bruce EP, the Nick Cave 12″ and the JAMC 7″. Plus I couldn’t resist the Surfer Blood 7″ after seeing it had an Allen Blickle (Baroness) remix on the b-side, and also this wonderful cover:
Surfer Blood - Swim 7" cover
The saddest part of the day was standing in the queue and a group of us all discussing all the independent music shops that have shut down in Nottingham over the years. But the good bit was supporting the one that’s still there (none of us could think of any others in Nottingham open atm).
Hopefully we’ll be back next year. And hopefully the Creperie will have worked out that they could make a fortune delivering cups of tea and coffee to the queuers :).
So buying a film camera was the start of a slippery slope. I’m really enjoying the relative simplicity of it, and the hands on developing technique and the lack of pressure to photoshop it 7 ways to sunday to get it to look right.
But, I’m starting to crave more cameras. After some frustration while trying to take photos of Twilight’s Embrace and Sorrow’s Fall at the old Angel last Friday I’m really craving a film body with a much better AF system. And having seen some of the interesting metering decision the 300 makes I think I’d like a better set of metering options. So I think I’m going to be on the lookout for a 30 or a 3 in the very near future.
And for something slightly more obscure I really have a hankering for a 120 film based pinhole of some sorts. I just see things that would good in a nice wide format and the slightly more contemplative mood appeals as well. So need to start thinking about whether I want something fancy, a holga or go the whole hog and build one from some nice offcuts of wood.
Though I’ve got to admit it was fun at the weekend to breakout the 30D at Kedleston hall. Though that might just have been using a better camera, which only makes me want a 3/30 that little bit more :).
Well it appears that either the Arts Council or Nottingham Contemporary have decided that blog spam is the best way to advertise the The Nottingham Contemporary (aka “The Fag Packet”).
They seem to have decided to use the following google query – http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=leave+a+reply+nottingham+contemporary – to get a list of sites where they could dump a vague advertisment with a link to a site of adverts and poor photos of the Fag Packet. A quick whizz through the google results shows a fairly standard boilerplate reposted by ‘Andy’. ‘Andy’ also appears to be posting from the BBC, which is an interesting stitch up of public bodies.
Quite amusing how the photos they use manage to not show just how badly the building fits in with the area. And also how they’ve not managed to capture what is the only redeeming feature , which is the lace cut steel, by not using a high enough resolution.
Will still probably toddle down at some point in the next couple of weeks to have a look at the Star City exhibition before it closes.
Wonder if they’ll rerun the idea at some point and this post will get a response?
These images are taken from the Iconic Photos blog (which is well worth reading).
The first is an iconic photo of Lisa Fonssagrives posing on the Eiffel Tower:
And from this interview it appears that she was actually there dancing on the edge. Now compare that with a modern ‘inspired’1 version:
Which is Marion Cotillard going absolutely nowhere near the Eiffel Tower except in a Photoshop layer. It’s not even a convincing shop either, the photo’s cropped to hide the fact she’s stood on the floor, her left hand is obviously leaning on a vertical support rather than the angled girder she’s meant to be and the backdrop looks awful. Even leaving aside the technical complaints the newer photo just doesn’t have the energy or ‘Joie de vivre’ of the original.
Just goes to show that combining famous people, dramatic scenery and technical photography doesn’t mean you’ll actually get a good photograph.
After enjoying last year’s event my girlfriend and I decided that we”d head up to York again this year for the Viking festival. The festival runs over the entire week, but due to work we only went up for a long weekend (Friday to Sunday).
Friday we went for a poke around the Trader’s tent. Always fun this with lots of traders travelling quite some distance to show there wares. A lot of it is specialist re-enactor equipment (period buttons or needles?), but there’s also a good range of jewelery and other items that appeal to everyone (we got a nice drinking bowl, and I was (as always) tempted by a sword or spear for the wall).
We also went to 2 lectures held in the Council hall (very nicely decorated, lovely carved wood panels and everything. Just a shame that York councillors seem to be shorter than me, the back rests did nothing). The first was on the Scar Viking Boat Burial presented by Anne Brundle of the Orkney Museum. This was a fascinating description of a dig on an accidentally found viking boat burial. Anne was a marvellous speaker, making the talk very informative and passionate with plenty of humour injected. Some of the pictures just increased my wishes to vist Orkney at some point.
Next up was Barry Ager of the British Museum talking about the Vale of York Hoard (Pictures). We were lucky enough to have seen the Hoard at the Yorkshire Museum when we came up for the festival in 2009. This was a much drier factual talk (not that Anne’s wasn’t full of facts) but still interesting to hear the possible history of the individual pieces.
The rest of Saturday was taken up by dinner and a couple of pints in the Last Drop Inn
On Saturday we went to watch the re-enactors in the Museum park and also watch an impressive Birds of Prey display (all the more impressive due to the small area they shoehorned it into, though thankfully they’d stopped the archery during the display). Had a poke around the Minster and paid the extra to go down into the Undercroft. Very impressive down there, nicely laid out to show the growth/change in the building over the years. And a good use of the space created by the shoring up of the foundations. Followed by more mooching around the trader’s tent.
Also spent the weekend playing around with the new camera, they seem to have come out alright. Though with the standard Boots processing comment.
So the fucking BBC have made Paxman fucking apologise for saying “fucking” while quoting from a fucking book that alleges to be a fucking quote from the fucking Prime Minister. How fucking unbelievable
Fucking craven fucking BBC – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8529956.stm
Well, I’ve decided to take the plunge and now own my first film camera since a 10 year old me broke his little 126 point and shoot.
While walking around York at the weekend I came across a little stall in Newgate Market selling secondhand film bodys. Had a pretty good chat with the owner, had a play with some Canon bodies and a drool over a nice Mamiya and then gave in and got the wallet out. So I’m now the proud owner of a Canon EOS 300, for which I paid the bargain price of £40.
Luckily there was a camera shop just round the corner so I aquired some Ilford XP2 to have a play with and I’d bought the DSLR with me so I had a 50mm lens to play with.
So there’s about 48 shots of badly exposed portraits, blurry vikings and highlight blown metals sat in 2 film tubs needing developing. Just need to find somewhere in Nottingham to drop them off.
So Google’s Buzz went live this morning. Got to admit I’m completely underwhelmed so far. Unusable on the iPhone, even when running over wifi. And not much better running on a full laptop, when they eventually managed to release it into Gmail many hours after the announcement.
As far as I can see the only use is as an aggregator for all the sites I like to track. But until I can pull in Myspace and facebook stuff as well it’s just another thing to check, rather than a useful site in itself.
That said, let’s see if this does something to buzz now it’s a linked feed.
So we decided to head down to the Nottingham Contemporary to have a look at the David Hockney exhibit. Not a huge fan of Hockney’s, so can’t say too much about that other than that I still find the earlier stuff a little too abstract/primitve for my tastes, and the later colour stuff just doesn’t do anything for me.
The venue though, well. It still looks awful from the outside and doesn’t do anything for the area it’s stood in, surely someone could have come up with a design that fitted into that area? I know Broadmarsh is just across the way, but even that blends in better than this. The inside though is a nice viewing area with good lighting and plenty of space. But, it could do with a clean already. there was huge amounts of dust/crud floating on the floor below pictures. And someone realy wants to mask the floor off next time they paint the walls. And some of the hanging was a bit strange, “A Bigger Splash” (probably the most famous painting there) was hung right by the exit door, and due to the restrictions on the number of people in and out of the rooms meant there was nearly always a queue in front of it. Plus the etchings for a Rake’s progress were hung in 2 rows running left to right, and then left to right again, so to follow them along you had to walk the board twice. But the bucket made famous by Private Eye at least appears to have vanished (though the warning signs appeared to be ready for quick deployment behind the shop counter).
So a bit of a mixed experience. Nice to have a quality display space in nottingham, just a slight shame about the implementation.
Had my first hit on the site from someone searching for “mst121 tma 10 2010 answers” on google. Searching for that on the 1st Febuary for a 3rd Feb submission means someone’s left it a bit late to get it handed in. That said it could be a tutor checking that the answers haven’t appeared anywhere online.
Just for the record I’m planning to never post up results from TMAs/CMAs, what’s the point of letting other people grab the work. Just devalues the qualification I’m hoping to get
Just wish I knew if mine’s arrived safely with my tutor. More nervous about the submission mechanism that I am about the actual TMA :)
After my run in with DHL I now have 2 impressive cardboard boxes of course materials to start looking through. First impressions are good, there seems to be lots in there and the initial view looks like they’re well produced.
In the package were:
Some general Course information (Guide, Handbook and a guide to the computer software (MathCad))
A revision pack.
Texts for Block A (4 glossy work books, an exercise book and a computer book)
Texts for Block B (3 glossy work books, an exercise book and a computer book)
DVD containing the MathCad software
Audio CDs for the course
DVDs for the course
DVDs of ‘enrichment’ material (I’m guessing this is ‘inspirational’ material to show how the topics in the course fit in with the real world
MathCad software
That’s a pretty impressive amount of material (I’ve had to clear a reasonable section of bookshelf to hold it all), and that’s only the first half of the course. So on a value for money basis it’s looking good already.
Now I just need to start reading through it all. I’ve already jumped into the revision pack, though the course guide would probably have been a better starting point.
The only slight worry is wether MathCad will run on a Mac. I’m hoping it will run under Parrallels as I don’t fancy having to reboot every time I want to use it. Not the end of the world as I do have access to a windows machine, but annoying all the same.
Now this is obviously a limited edition high priced drink, which they’ve made to prove they could do it (I always thought the only way to get that high was with distillation, but that would mean it wouldn’t be a beer). And good luck to them I say. I’ve tried many of the ‘strongest’ beers at beer festivals over the years, and they’re all normally OK for a small shot sized glass of them, but that’s what Whisky’s for, Beer comes in pints.
And the name is wonderful as well, Tactical Nuclear Penguin. If I see this available for a taster I’ll certainly give it a go. But for £30 I’d still rather have a bottle of Laphroaig
But predictably someone’s moaning about it (Jack Law, of Alcohol Focus Scotland). What’s the point? If they were banging this stuff out by the litre for a £1 then yes there’s a problem. But at £30 a bottle you’ll get a lot more bang for your buck from any cheap £5 bottle of gin/vodka/’whisky’ from the local off license. So once again a rent-a-gob has been found to have a go at someone who’s actually trying to do something interesting without actually engaging their brain.
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