Day 737 – 31st March 2009

Today, it’s very difficult to think of anything interesting to say.

I guess it’s good news that Skype’s been stuck on the iPhone – although it won’t use the 3G for obvious reasons. Fortunately it works on my iPod touch too – when I get my grubby hands on a microphone, it’ll be free calls for me. Well, in those parts with free wifi, which is pretty much nowhere…

Anyway, I should mention that the England footballers face a qualifier versus the Ukraine – following two 4-0 victories of late on our part, things look good for the three lions.

Day 736 – 30th March 2009

I realise that there’s not much to look at in today’s picture, but if you look closely at the bottom of the screen – there’s a bunch of goats. How quaint.

The goats were all over the road though, so I had to slowly drive through them to get home. I couldn’t help thinking back to that Father Ted episode where they announce at the fair that “There’s a child stuck in the tunnel of goats.” Still tickles me.

Day 735 – 29th March 2009

Yesterday I spoke of the F1 – I don’t want to go on about it today then, but this morning in Australia, history was made.

The brand new team on the block, Brawn GP, managed to win the race, Button first! What’s more is, Hamilton came from way back to finish fourth. He was then promoted to third ‘cos Trulli overtook him on yellow flags. What a day for the sport – finally proof that the underdogs can win!

I hope Button and Brawn keep it up – it’ll only bring more fans to the sport!

Day 734 – 28th March 2009

Qualifying has started the new F1 season with a bang.

Brawn GP, who spawned only in the past few months after Honda pulled out, have grabbed the first two places with Brit driver Jenson Button snatching the first pole position of the year in Australia.

The cars have changed, with many of the aerodynamic parts now banned and slick tyres back in to compensate, they look cooler, smoother, sleeker, slicker – better.

Current world champion Lewis Hamilton is at the back of the grid – almost exactly the opposite of what happened last year. Needless to say I’ll be watching tomorrow morning…

Day 733 – 27th March 2009

As promised – I went to Camargue today.

For people who might not have visited, I’d probably describe it as a salty version of the fens full of horses and bulls.

It is slightly more interesting than the fens though, and makes for way better pictures. I’m not sure I chose the right one, I must say that there were quite a few to work with today including stuff like flamingos and salt mountains, but I just had to go for that cracked ground leading up to the sea.

I’ve been here before but always in the summer - for such a flat place, absolutely shocking amount of tourists come to visit despite the fact it’s one of the hottest places in Europe.

This time of year is a great time to come, it’s cool, the flamingos are in, and nobody’s around. I like cities because there are loads of people, I don’t want the same thing going on out in the countryside, and nobody’s around here over springtime – perfect.

So, there’s little all else to mention – the F1 starts tomorrow, there’s been some big rule changes, so it’ll be an interesting weekend.

Day 732 – 26th March 2009

It’s the first day of a new year for picture of the day, and I thought I’d start with a look into the future.

Technically it’s not the future, the technology is already here, but it definitely seems futuristic. Basically, a couple of years ago Microsoft released this software which runs online called photosynth. Back then, it didn’t really work on my PC, but it’s much improved since, and now a version for iPhone and iPod touch has been released, called iSynth –and it’s bloody impressive.

People take thousands of pictures of the same thing, all from different angles and at different proximities to the subject. What this program does is it analyses all of these pictures and arranges them in a 3D ‘space’ in the shape of the original scene, giving an impression of depth and texture. All of this whilst maintaining the quality of a normal picture.

The software extracts ‘colour points’ from the images, and adds them to the scene. This helps you get a sense of everything being in 3D, and allows you to define key objects and shapes quickly.

The best ‘synths’ (i.e. the ones whose pictures cover the most angles) create so many of these points that when you remove the pictures from the space leaving just the points you can still clearly see the object or scene in question. That’s what today’s picture is of, although this usually works best with the pictures turned on, showing just the dots made for a cooler photo.

Anyway, I’ve been spinning stuff around and exploring places on my iPod all day, tomorrow I think we’re going to Camargue – probably a slightly less nerdy day!

Day 731 – 25th March 2009

It’s been another day of just trying to fix my laptop really.

Everything is pretty much back to normal with it now, although the problems I had with the wifi card have not been solved.

Tomorrow marks the start of the third year for picture of the day. I suppose I should be doing some sort of retrospective, but I can’t really be bothered and frankly, March 25th isn’t a particularly significant date for that kind of thing. Maybe when I get to day 1000 or something…

I’m fairly proud of it so far though, and some fairly good pictures have come out of it, even if I say so myself.

So, I hope the ‘new year’ starts on a good grounding. March 26th 2007 was Day 1 – two years on times have changed, and long may they keep changing.

Day 730 – 24th March 2009

Yesterday I was overcome by a brief, unusually nasty illness.

Anyway, it’s needless to say that computer problems didn’t help, and I have since had to format my hard drive.

It’s nice to have a ‘fresh’ pc, although I’ve been spending the day trying to get it to how it was before – not an easy task.

As fast and efficient as my laptop is now, restoring it to factory settings has not at all helped my wifi problems, which leads me to believe that it’s a hardware problem – balls.

Anyway, I’ve been fixing this and trying to get some sort of work done all day, so I could only get a shot of what was outside my window.

Day 729 – 23rd March 2009

My computer’s broken, and I actually feel like I might just die in my sleep tonight.

Great holiday so far.

Day 728 – 22nd March 2009

It’s Bond – French style.

Haven’t been up to much today, so I thought I’d talk a bit about TV over the channel (no pun intended).

More precisely, I just want to express my intense dislike for the crappy voiceovers they stick on absolutely bloody everything on TV that isn’t in French. You just can’t help but notice the lips moving weirdly out of time with everything, and the odd sounding, borderline cartoon voices plastered over the top of the actors.

That’s why, as I’m watching a Bond film that happens to be on, it seemed a good idea to draw a comedy ‘French’ moustache on Brosnan. That way you can see how the film sounds. Does that make sense?

Day 727 – 21st March 2009

 For some curious reason I feel like typing a lot tonight, but I don’t have much to talk about.

Took the plane this morning from Manchester to Gatwick, then on to Marseilles. We (my brother and I) flew with BA, which, in these times of easyjet and ryanair, was surprisingly the cheapest option.

BA no low budget company and to be honest, you get what you pay for. We had a quick boarding, we chose our seats before the flight on the plane (the emergency exits of course, for leg room reasons) and we got through the whole shenanigans of having to take a flight fairly peacefully.

The food on the plane was quite edible, and free, and once we landed, we were off the flight and out of the airport in fifteen minutes – well under half the time it takes on a low budget flight.

However, it cost £85 one-way. When I was young (and at 20, I wouldn’t count myself that old just yet…), that was a great deal. Times have changed in a very quickly. Now, for example, the return journey cost £10 on ryanair – taxes included. The choice is fairly easy to make when it comes to flying – quality nearly always comes at too high a price, and it’s a crying shame.

Anyway, I’m in France now, just got back from a meal out in fact – good to catch up with various folks. I think I’m so stuffed I’m about to die.

Got back in to find my dad had got me a present from Vietnam, the national side’s football shirt. Those of you who know me will have never seen me in a football shirt before, and for good reason, I look absolutely fucking terrible. It’s the thought that counts though, and it’s a gift gracefully received (I also found out that he’s started reading this, so I’d better pipe down!).

The internet is still broken on my laptop, so I’m using my iPod touch to try and find answers – so far unsuccessfully. I hope tomorrow I can get this fixed, as the internet plays a pivotal role in what I have to do over this holiday. Things aren’t looking up.

Day 726 – 20th March 2009

It’s been a very, very long day indeed.

More interviews. More tests. More essays. It’s all over now though, and I’m on holiday.

It’s very late indeed and I’ve got an early start in the morning – I’ve just found out that the wireless internet seems to have broken on my laptop. Not the best start to the Easter break then…

Day 725 – 19th March 2009

The built in lens cap on my camera didn’t quite open when I got today’s picture – I wanted a bright, flash-lit picture of some daffodils. Instead, I got one peeking through – perhaps a more accurate representation of Spring starting to show its face.

I wanted to show that because today and yesterday were what you might call Spring days. Lovely. There are bunnies everywhere, the sun is shining and the daffodils are out. It’s still bloody freezing at night and in the shade though…

Day 724 – 18th March 2009

I made some biscuits last night – and I didn’t like them then. Now I can’t stop eating the bloody things.

It’s the end of term and as usual, everyone, myself included, is reluctant to buy any extra food before the holiday. This generally prompts me to make biscuits, and thanks to an abundance of icing sugar – I iced them.

Do they put crack in icing sugar? Who knows, but I really have to make some more biscuits…now!

Day 723 – 17th March 2009

I am not Irish. I do not do anything for St. Patrick’s day, ever.

However, there was little all else to talk about.

It was indeed a lovely day. Ireland’s national festival makes Guinness more widely available than usual, so I thought my poster illustrated a fairly weak point.

I find it rather annoying when people not from Ireland go crazy about today, so roll on St. George’s day.

Day 722 – 16th March 2009

Along with two colleagues, I gave a little talk today about a film, Isalia.

As a bit of background I should say that it’s a Mexican student documentary about a cleaner who’s making the best of very hard consequences. It’s a short film, but interesting nonetheless.

Two things I think I should mention. First of all, a group presentation is just about the biggest time vacuum I have ever seen. There were three of us who met up several times and did hours of research – between us the work was substantial. All for what? A ten minute talk. Ten minutes.

When I go it alone, presentations take no time at all to put together – I find it easy to memorise the facts, and not a talk with the facts in it, so I just read up on the topic, try to grasp it, then make up the talk on the day. As far as I’m concerned, power point is only good for a title screen and massive pictures – nothing else.

This is impossible when it comes to group work. Unless you’re some kind of fucking genius double-act, you have to split the work, write stuff down, use bullet points (bullet points!), get together etc… Fun and productive as that may be – for a ten minute product it’s a massive waste of time.

There were a couple of other talks aside from ours, on different documentaries from the same film school. I sat through many of these, but today was a first. The group, a couple of people, started corpsing as the talk started.

Never before have I seen someone completely lose control during their own presentation – they pretty much died laughing. It wasn’t a funny topic, poverty in Mexico City, and in the room some were grinning, some chortling politely; in reality it was extremely awkward. It was all so surreal, I’m sure there’s a sketch in there somewhere…

Day 721 – 15th March 2009

On this day, England showed the French how to play six nations rugby.

I was expecting a tight game, eventually to be narrowly won by the (on paper, superior) French. That was right up until we scored in the first minute of play. Then again shortly after. Then again, and again and again until half time where we were 29-0 up. Not one point scored by the others.

The second half, many, myself included were awaiting the French comeback to make the photo finish we are all so used to. That lasted until the first minute of the second half when we scored again. A fifteen minute lapse got the French two tries, but they stupidly did not play a kicker, so only scored 10 points instead of 14.

Final score then, 34-10. Goodness knows how it happened – but it’s the best I’ve seen England play for a long time. Sadly it’s too late in the six nations to make a difference, but long live this current form!

Day 720 – 14th March 2009

The other day, I won’t blame you if you’ve forgotten, I was going on about how I was growing bored of Twitter – the latest ‘social networking’ trend.

That was the case, right up until I discovered a site call ‘twitterfall’. Twitterfall does what it sounds like, it presents the posts, or ‘tweets’ in a waterfall style. The newer ones cascading down from the top, older ones disappearing.

The real genius comes in when you realise that you can filter what you see based on what people are saying. This applies to people you don’t follow too – for example today I was watching the rugby, so I asked it to show me any public tweet (which is most of them) in the whole wide world with the words ‘6nations’ or ‘wales’ in them. This gave me a running commentary – almost like tapping into the vein of the social consciousness.

So, instead of hearing just about what people you follow are doing, you can pick up on what everyone is saying on one subject – brilliant. Finally, I think I’ve found a use for it all! Sports games, news events, tv shows – everyone has something to say, and, unlike most of the internet, it’s usually a valid point and often interesting.

From this, you can get a real idea of public opinion on one topic – if not by what people say, by the sheer quantity of correspondence. I’m impressed, and I shall carry on.

You can find twitterfall here (you don’t have to be on twitter to use it, you can simply observe without making comment).

Day 719 – 13th March 2009

It’s Friday the 13th – again.

I’m not sure how often two of these cursed days fall in the same year as it is, but this year things went one step further – we’ve had them one month after the other. Not being a superstitious man I haven’t bothered doing much research into when it happens – but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Who can forget that it’s also Red Nose Day – the bi-annual national get together to raise money for Africa and the UK. I can’t stand the TV show, but I’m all for stuff that brings the nation together – and this is just one of those.

Today’s picture was intended to show the weird sky colour at midnight (it was actually that colour by the way), but as I was getting the shot a few drunk students walked past brandishing mobiles and glow sticks, resulting in the streaks on the image. Oh the joys of university life…

Day 718 – 12th March 2009

I thought it’d be a good idea to get a ‘proper’ picture of that sculpture I was talking about the other day. Might not have been a good idea getting that shot in the dark. Oh well…

Two tests tomorrow – Easter holidays in a week; feels like I’m going abroad because it’s the only place they can’t test me!

Day 717 – 11th March 2009

It’s been a hectic day, like all the others this week, and it’s been rather dull weather-wise too, so I was left with no choice than to get another night shot. There’s not been one for a week or so, so it’s not too bad I suppose…

Anyhow, once again I’m keeping this short – various exams and tests are limiting the amount I can stay up and write before I go to bed!

Day 716 – 10th March 2009

I went for continuity over beauty with today’s picture. It’s been a beautiful day, with that magic half an hour just before sunset bathing us all in a pool of golden light – haven’t seen that for a very long time indeed…

Anyway, that’s just to say that I passed up better, nicer looking pictures to show what yesterday’s object was all about – turn out it’s a floating work of art. I don’t know if you can make it out here, it’s at the top of the pond, towards the left – looks like a little castle.

I can’t remember what it’s for – something to do with raising awareness in Bangladesh I think. It adds a nice touch to the place, although I have to say that the pond was already nice enough as it was…

Day 715 – 9th March 2009

I have no idea what today’s picture is of. It seems to be a chair with a hat perched on it, and a glass of wine sitting on a small table next to the chair. All of this is surround by a small garden fence and potted plants. The ensemble sat in a trailer being pulled along by a tractor.

I wouldn’t normally have taken a picture of this, but there were a lot of people (around 50) crowded around this, some of them even filming it. I was in a bit of a rush so I couldn’t stop to ask about it.

It’s nearly 1am now, and I’ve been working very hard for the last 2 days, on various things. I’ve finished now and I’m shattered, but I was more than shattered, I was destroyed in fact, when I found out that about 2/3 of my work was only due in next week.

Somehow I have gotten a week ahead of myself, and I only just realised! Oh well, at least it means that I won’t have much to do this coming week…

If you’re interested in seeing a bigger picture, then check it out at the flickr stream (where you can see them all bigger in fact).

Day 714 – 8th March 2009

Just to prove that I’m in the north – here’s a picture of a silk mill.

Ee – there’s trouble at t‘mill!

I’ve actually been working away quite hard – upcoming deadlines and exams have left me with little choice. Grammar test first thing tomorrow – off to bed with me!

Day 713 – 7th March 2009

Today’s picture has a genuine cinematic feel.

The ‘discs’ of light in the frame are perfectly real, as at the time it was pissing down with rain. I got wet, but I got a half decent picture. The railing could have been more in focus, and had I faked the picture it would have been, but the wind and rain put things beyond my control. All I did was make it black and white (there was very little colour in the first place) and some adjustment to the white balance, a process which I subject almost every picture of the day to.

Anyway, technicalities and pedantry aside – it’s been a very dull day indeed. I like to think of Saturdays as my day off – a nice thing to have but not the greatest idea if you’re trying to get a picture of something every day.

Right now, I’ve got Handel’s Messiah on, a bit of quiet with a single malt before bed time never hurt anyone. Goodnight to you, good sir.

Day 712 – 6th March 2009

Thank heavens my new earphones have arrived. My old pair broke about two weeks ago, so I went back to using the original Apple ones. They hurt my ears, a bit at first, then in the last few days, my right ear got so sore I couldn’t put the damned thing in! I find I struggle much less with in-ear ones; the feeling is a bit weird at first, like being underwater, but they block the sound out, people around me can’t hear what I’m listening to (a particular annoyance on trains and buses etc…) and, best of all, they don’t make my ears bleed.

Just got back from the uni showing of Madagascar 2; I didn’t laugh once. Everyone else loved it though, and said it was way better than the first one. I thought it was much more slapstick than the first, with no one joke standing out amongst the others. The characters had become shallow and unoriginal and the whole thing was rather dull for anyone over 12 – not often the case for films like this, which often incorporate jokes for ‘adults’ to make them feel as though they’re not wasting their time.

Anyway, I won’t go into it anymore – goodnight!

Day 711 – 5th March 2009

On my walk tonight, it felt the right time to get a picture of the sports ground – a veritable beacon in the darkness.

I’ve thought about doing a shot like this for a while now, but either the weather’s been all wrong, or something else had come up. Here it is anyway.

Got an oral exam tomorrow – it’s a French one, although it adopts a similarly illogical ‘group talk’ format like the Spanish one, and the Italian one still to come. The key word here is ‘similar’. Similar, meaning not quite the same. It’s those subtle differences in the exam style that drive anyone who happens to do more than one language completely up the wall.

If they were identical, differing only in language, it’d be simple. If they were radically different from each other, it would also be relatively painless – but that’s just too easy…

Day 710 – 4th March 2009

It snowed today! Snow snow snow snow snow snow!

It was heavy, but not long enough to get a decent picture of anything. Hopefully it’ll happen again tomorrow. Snow in March; how very British.

Day 709 – 3rd March 2009

As far as I’m know, the burnt glove in the picture has nothing to do with me, it’s just the first thing I saw when I stepped out of the front door tonight.

Times are getting tough from a work point of view – various tests and essays are approaching at a speed of knots. Better get an early night then…

Day 708 – 2nd March 2009

I can’t say if it’s been particularly dark here over the past few days, but ever since I mentioned the fact that all my pictures were dark of late due to the season, light has struck us.

Honest to God, it was light at 7am this morning – that’s not been the case for a long time. Coming home from my 5-6 lecture was light, the first time in months. I was out at 6pm yesterday, and it was dark – not today.

Sounds strange that it should change all of a sudden, and I’d normally put it down to just being a strange way of thinking, but everyone agrees with me here, what’s more, everyone’s been talking about it without me bringing it up!

So, as we bask we ask ourselves, why was the change so sudden? Is it here to stay? Has it been light for weeks already and the weather has just blocked out the sun? Who knows, but I hope it lasts.

I can’t quite remember whether or not I’ve mentioned Benescotia before. It’s a long story, but in short, circumstances last year during Spanish oral classes led me to inventing my own country, the aforementioned Benescotia.

Looking through an old notebook of mine today, and what do I see? Why, if it isn’t a map of my nation! Located somewhere between Scotland and Canada, capital Funkytown, this map shows all aspects of the island.

On the right there you can see the useless railway, on the north side of the island lies the fudge quarry, complete with it’s own state of the art fudge packing plant. If you’re into water, take a ride along the river Phoenix, or hop over to Greg lake.

Into hiking? Why not take a break and head for the Mandies, Benescotia’s most beautiful mountain range! Are you a fan of Gary Glitter? Then why not take a stroll down to the local jail? It’s fun for most of the family! Whilst you’re there, you might as well visit the stars of High School Musical, or even our main prison attraction, Mick Hucknall!

There’s more for everyone in Benescotia, but even the prime minister of such a great nation needs to sleep sometimes.

Day 707 – 1st March 2009

There seems to be a small debate as to when spring actually starts.

Today is a good time, people are getting fed up of winter and apparently it’s when the weather men starts calling it spring. However, there has been much word on the street, and tradition states, that the actual start of spring is later this month, around the 20th.

Who knows what’s true. Who cares? It’s only a name. All I know is that sooner rather than later the pictures of the day are going to be getting lighter and lighter – although perhaps somewhat wetter.

Stoke came back from 2-0 down at Villa park today to pull a draw – only their 4th away point of the season so far. I felt quite sorry for villa really, they were winning all the way and we scored both goals in the last three minutes. Still, points are points, and villa are champions league contenders this year, so it’s a good result for the potters!

I should also mention that England lost to Ireland in the six nations yesterday, by a measly point. It’s been fairly disappointing so far – I hope it perks up for them…