Day 1051 – 8th February 2010

It’s 100% confirmed now. I am living in the twilight zone.

What kind of supermarket puts shampoo in security boxes? Expensive booze, DVDs, computer games, perfume and big boxes of cigars are all candidates for the bulletproof treatment. Hell, even razor blades make sense to some extent, although that annoys me.

This does more than annoy me though, it freaks me out. What the fuck is this place?

Am I going to have to get my cheese unlocked next? Will I need a key for the carrots? A password for the pizzas? I don’t want a battle for my baguette, thank you very much.

Alliteration aside (I don’t want to tempt fate), about ten yards over in a different aisle you can pick up a meat cleaver the size of your head without so much as a sniff in your direction. I’m sure the irony isn’t lost on you.

If you’re into stocks and shares, I would invest heavily in shampoo – it seems to have become a precious commodity.

Day 1050 – 7th February 2010

The birds woke me up today which was nice. They stayed there for most of the day until they were chased off by the psycho who was back to his old antics again. You can hear the audio slightly further down the page.

He’s still there now. The police have been and gone. People have argued with him all afternoon but he’s not shutting up. At this conjecture, if someone sets about smacking him in the face, quietly, then I’ll turn a blind eye. It’s gotten so bad that I’ll go on the record as having said that.

The Psycho Returns

Posted via email from Ben's Picture of the Day

Day 1049 – 6th February 2010

Good day for sports – Stoke beat Blackburn 3-0 then England beat Wales 30-17.

Yes it’s the start of the six nations – the whole tournament began with Ireland defeating Italy in a lacklustre performance from both sides. England’s match was similar, but when your side wins by a convincing margin anything else quickly goes out the window!

Here Jonny Wilkinson has assumed his stance preparing to send the ball between the posts to score the last three points of the match. I might add that to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Twickenham, the side wore replica shirts from back in the days of the first matches there – looked good I thought.

Day 1048 – 5th February 2010

OK OK OK I’m a sucker for contrails. What can I say?

Day 1047 – 4th February 2010

I just found out my keyboard lights up in the dark. That. is. cool.

New Technology

So, as with everything new, there was a hiccup with the new way of posting via email with posterous. The problem is, the picture is too small when it gets to the site!

You can click on it to see it full size, but it just doesn't look too good on the front page.

The system works on all other fronts, I can post quick messages like this one hassle free, and I've found a workaround for the time being, so all is not lost.

What this means is that when I DO post by email, which right now shouldn't be very often, the picture might look a little smaller on the page. Oh well, that's the price you pay I guess.

Posted via email from Ben's Picture of the Day

Day 1046 – 3rd February 2010

O the times, they are a changin'.

I've decided to try new ways of posting the picture of the day - I'm currently typing this as an email. With a bit of luck, it'll magically work and you won't be able to tell the difference from before.

Thanks to posterous, the new system, it'll obviously be easy to send this from anything that does email - a definite step forward, since before I could only really do it from my computer. What posterous also does is simultaneously send things to other sites, so the picture would also go to flickr and facebook, as well as the whole thing going to the main picture of the day site. It also posts to loads of other accounts I have set up all over the place, including twitter.

This also brings about another change for the site - from now on, once in a while, I'll be posting more than just the picture of the day. It's so easy to just send in bits of audio, video, PDFs, quick messages etc... that I'd be a fool not to make the most of it.

I'm looking forwards to perhaps being able to talk about something earlier in the day then just send the picture without any text, or put a video actually on the site rather than just referencing it. As I type, I realise that the possibilities are endless - this is what the internet should be like.

After all that, all you need to know as the reader is that there might be a little more than just the picture of the day posts coming up once in a while!

First things first though, I have to hit send and hope for the best. Fingers crossed...

Day 1045 – 2nd February 2010

Today has just been problem upon problem upon problem, and it’s left me slightly bleary eyed. I won’t go any further into it than that, but I will say that it’s had a lot to do with cables - ‘technical difficulties’.

People mock me for my hatred of cables, what they don’t understand is the sheer amount there are that clutter the whole place up – this picture is just a small portion of what I’m packing in cable length, and this is the ‘organised’ part.

Anyway I’m tired and slightly frustrated so I think I’ll sleep on any technical issues I’m having, I’ve got the day off tomorrow and it’ll probably be all sorted in ten minutes in the morning. I dunno, right now I can’t quite think straight.

Day 1044 – 1st February 2010

I took a bit of a stroll today, see what’s going on in town. Nothing, as it happens.

One thing did strike me was the sheer number of hotels and resorts here. I knew there were lots, but you can walk for an hour and see nothing else – I thought there were tens, turns out there are hundreds. All shut in the winter – bit creepy really.

This town also has two more lagoons than your average place… there are two lagoons. I’ve been to one – thought it was perhaps time to go and see the other. This is it. It’s a tenth of the size of the first one, and it is also adorned with hotels. I also noticed that there were a few more bars cashing in on the piratey connotation of a lagoon.

All this stuff was built quite a long time ago, so I took this dull picture and made it look like it might have been taken ‘back in the day’ on an old camera. I find it just gives the illusion that it might actually be filled with people – why else would someone be taking a picture back then, when film was at a premium?

Day 1043 – 31st January 2010

Let me start by saying this: arse.

Yes, it’s the news that Andy Murray lost the Australian Open final this morning. I actually managed to go through the VPN at uni and watch it. It was, as ever, very tense. This was probably worse than watching Henman, because Murray is actually very capable of beating Roger Federer.

Sadly it wasn’t to be, it only took three sets for the Swiss to overcome the plucky Brit – didn’t go out without a fight, but he was outclassed pretty much on all fronts.

Now, there was something else I was going to mention, but it’s slipped my mind so it can’t have been that interesting – not that anything I prattle on about really is.

Oh yeah, it’s the last day of January – one twelfth of the year gone. Not really got a point to make here, probably why I initially forgot about it.

Day 1042 – 30th January 2010

Today was quite a contrast from yesterday, weather-wise and otherwise. It’s the weekend, so I tend to do very little. I did very little.

The psycho guy is back in the corridor, but all he’s doing is shouting again so I can’t be arsed to get another recording – I’ll only do that if it gets worse, there’s already enough audio of a mad man screaming to last us a lifetime.

Day 1041 – 29th January 2010

I now have a keyboard – which is nice. I feel like I can type again now – there’s little use in a massive screen if you still have to sit at your laptop to use the computer!

It’s been a strange day – the sun beaming over everywhere this morning then quickly making a disappearance, plunging us all into a greyness only surpassed by the UK. This evening I could see the remains of a wonderful sunset in the distance, but it was just that – in the distance. It seems a giant cloud has settled on this town. Judging by recent activity, it’s probably smokes from fires in the street.

People here seem to shift into some kind of strange ‘bad weather’ mode, or should I say ‘sun’s not shining’ mode. Not a drop of water has fallen from the skies today, yet I saw two people walking around with umbrellas over their heads, and they weren’t together. If I see someone in a sowester anytime I’ll try and get a picture.

Day 1040 – 28th January 2010

Some guy downstairs has decided to try his hand at DIY. Early this afternoon, I heard a large crack then a bang. That smoke you see all the way down on the ground floor is concrete dust. Whatever happened, it’s left a thin film of grey powder everywhere.

I’m sure this wouldn’t have happened if it were easier to find a builder here.