Test.
Test.
Ah ha, it works. Blogs back up by the way. Going to get some major changes coming your way. Firstly you will notice that is now blue. Its a start anyway.
I’m now getting into twitter a bit more, hit me up here.
More soon……
Deary me. Its been a while. I seem to be doing nothing at the moment. I finaly decided to get up and go flyign today. Picked up the kites, got to the front door, and bang. Hail! Hail! Its March! Oh well. I should be hitting some fields on Sunday with my father. Will hopefully get back on the board again after too long. Speaking of kites I’m selling the 3 and 4.9m Blade II’s if anyone is interested.
House has started again in the UK this week, and quite frankly it was frickin awesome. With the lack of team I feared the show would have lost something. It was my opinion that Cameron, Chase and Foremen where almost more important than House himself. I was relieved to find that Hugh Laurie is more than capable of holding the thought himself. I also appreciate when a program can acknowledge its fans and indeed the related jokes. Within the 1st ten minutes I’m laughing my socks off. Brilliant.
The 2nd series of Skins is hotting up nicely. I’m really liking what there doing with this series. They could of gone down the crazy party new rave route which the main characters often stereotype as. However, whilst cleverly referencing this in the episodes, as ever the main vocal point is on the lives of these young adults outside of that. Also, its getting fucking weird at the moment which I love. Hopefully the next few episodes will continue you this awesome trend.
Lost has stopped today after 8 episodes. I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life now. It was pretty amazing ending as well. Lets hope Autumn finally brings answers. (Ha, I wish)
Photography wise I’m still pressing on with the Lomo. Got 2 Medium Formats and one Fisheye to process this easter, plus whatever else I take. Results on DeviantArt soon!
Right thats enough for another month. Maybe soon I’ll post about something important and useful.
Todays quote comes from James Harvey, currently studying in Texas. Good on him to. He has balls bigger than mine. On a slightly different note its film review time!
Cloverfield! Finally got round to seeing this last night with Conor. I had a lot of reservation’s when going to see this. With a film that had been hyped so much, I do tend to get stupidly excited about seeing it. The same happened with this. I was sure It was going to be amazing, the best film I had ever seen, until about two weeks ago when I suddenly realised that hype is never a good thing, and likelihood was it wasn’t going to be as good as I hoped. With this my expectations lowered and It took me a over a week to finally go and see it.
WARNING! VERY SMALL SORT OF SPOILERS. THOUGH NOT REALLY.
Well, I’m very happy to report I really enjoyed it. The concept of doing it from protagonists physical point of view worked wonderfully. I did find there where a lot of convenient camera angles to see the monster, eg Helicopter, top of an apartment block, right under it a lot of the time. Though I do appreciate these are important in making the film what it is, and without them there would be a very large part of the film missing. I really enjoyed all the characters to. I imagine filming this way could be very difficult for the cast of unknowns, but they all do really well. I especially enjoyed the comedy that “Hud†brings to it. A little light refreshment goes a long way. But yes my advice is to go watch it.
Time for some personal news. As many may know already, I’ve had my hair cut. Right off. For the first time in 6 years I have short hair. Frankly, I should of done it much sooner. I’m still experimenting with styles etc. At the moment its in with the wax stuff and mess until half decent. Also working on sideburns again. Though, I may lose them if they don’t bulk up a little. Still no luck on the beard front however. Never mind.
I have 3 films worth of lomo (fisheye, 120 Holga and action sampler) to get developed. Must try and do this soon. A visit to Fuji and Nobin whilst I am home may come in handy. I must try the photo shop in Bristol. Ill do the next film there. I think Ill also be upgrading the tired old 350D to a new 450D come March. Very much looking forward to this as I need something to get me interested in doing digital stuff again. Might waste some more student loan on a new lens too. Ohh the fun.
Right I think that’s enough for now. I’m planning some changes around these parts, so more news on that as soon as its ready. But for now, enjoy.
This Posts Recommendations:
Watch: Cloverfield
Listen: Meet me in St. Louis (RIP – This is the worst news of 2008 by far)
Read: Information Architecture (the only text book I’ve enjoyed reading)
A list of things that made my year. Most of them are likely to be recent as I don’t really remember January – June. I’ve no idea why this is. I guess nothing eventful happened.
Film
This for me is going to be Transformers. Namely because it’s the only feel I really remember seeing in the cinema this year, and it was amazing. I got slightly annoyed with the story in places, and I dislike Michael Bay in every interview I see/hear/read, but still loved the film.
Book
Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey – Chuck Palahniuk. Pretty much the only new book I read this year, and it was again amazing. I’m a big fan of his as many may know. I urge you all to read it.
Dinner
My Christmas Day Curry. Perfect.
TV Show
I’m not sure about this. There has been a lot on this year I’ve watched. House Season 3, Lost Season 3, Neighbours, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Top Gear, The Mighty Boosh Season 3, Life on Mars. The winner might be Skins. Nice to have something home grown in my top spot. Season 2 starts in February. Eyes open people.
TV Channel
Dave. The home of witty banter. This makes my life worth living.
Game
Halo 3. Hands down. Good work Bungie.
Music
My big discoveries this year have been:
Dan le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip
Battles
Dananananaykroyd
Album
Variations on Swing – Meet Me in St. Louis. I love this album. Its perfect. The only problem is it’s a to short. I would of liked more. I need more.
Gig
This may very well be Reading Festival. Even though I hated it. But Battles, le Sac Vs. Pip, Gallows, Hold Steady, Smashing Pumpkins. I’m sure I watched some others. All good stuff.
Event
Latitude Festival. Had a really good time, was really different from the normal festival I go to. Oh, and the Skins Secret Party was pretty awesome. And I was on TV.
Hobby
Discovering Kiting in a big way was cool. I really enjoy it. And spent a fortune on it. I just hope to get out a bit more than I do now, As at the moment I’m rubbish. Lomo is a close second for this I feel. That is the other thing I really want to get into.
T-shirt
My two Blest T-shirts may very well be the best from this year. Very good work.
I may add to this if I think of some more.
Ive been meaning to write something for sometime, but I’ve been very busy doing endless amounts of coursework. However, since I’m recovering from a massive hangover I’ve taken the day of to do nothing other than nap, read blog posts and listen to music. Todays new discover has been Lady and the Lost Boys, ironically my friends band that I forgot to check out until now. Frankly, their stunning.
In an effort to become more cultured I trucked of to Waterstones on Wednesday and spent money I really shouldn’t off. I brought James Joyce’s Ulysses and Banksy’s Bristol by Steve Wright.
I’ve been trying to think of a new project to keep me occupied during the long days I should be doing work. I used to do Ultimate Sound, then the fairly flawed from the outset zine, and then Live Music Soc, but now I’ve not got much going on that interests me. I see the type writer and my camera staring at me, and I feel a cross between the two coming on. That could be good…. Kinda like the caption competition on Have I Got News For You. I like this plan a lot.
Could be that excuse to sign up to flickr I’ve been looking for….
Nothing exciting to report on todays post other than me being rather sad. Firstly, I finaly managed to get my hands on one of these:
As yo may be able to tell I’m rather chuffed. Kieron did take a photo of me rubbing said Wispa on my face, if I ever get it Ill upload. I also managed to have another play on the iPhone today. This time with working internet, so I quickly did the predictable:
I know its sad, but I really geeky at heart. I also now own House Season 3, So my next few days will be spent watching that. Also trying to get into lomography more at the moment. Though my first attempt at a 35mm though a Holga didn’t go so well. My 2nd attempt will be processed. There are some Action Sampler shots on my DeviantArt if you fancy a look. Ill soon have my lomohome set up as well.
Listen to Marvin’s Revolt, Gay for Johnny Depp and James May.
Cheers.
So, as many my know Cadbury have brought back the Wispa. And good on them. I was always a fan of the Wispa, and looked forward to having one. Now, the SU Shop didnt have any in, neither did my local Tesco Metro, Sainsburys Local or Texaco Garage. Never mind I thought, Ill pop on into town and pick one up from Wollworths. Big shop, loads of stock…
Clearly, they are far to popular. And I’ve still yet to have one. I may venture into town again tomorrow to try my luck with the Sunday shoppers.
Apple faithful dial M for mutiny - The Guardian reflecting my thoughts on apple, though more iPhone specific.
I’m afraid todays title will only make sense if you watched todays episode of Top Gear. It was cracking.
These are my second day thoughts on Leopard, and my view as somewhat changed, and I’m really rather annoyed at Apple. Ive been a Mac user for a year and a half now. Ive had 2 now and had no major problems other than breaking my Macbook Pro when trying to install XP (The irony). That is until today when it all went up shit creek, thanks to the new operating system.
Today, I tried to do some serious work on Lacing Lilith (a site I’m developing for a client). Firstly I installed a copy of the text app skEdit from a CD I got from Pratical Web Developer Magazine ages ago. Turns out the new version works in Leopard fine, so I will have to purchase that sometime soon. After a little fiddling its all working and good to go.
Next I open up the server on my mac in the browser though the normal localhost/~username. Im sat staring at a 403 forbidden error. But I’ve turned web sharing on. “What the Hell?” was my exact quote. Having spent the entire day cursing the ground Jobs walks on, I finally stumble across the greatest blog post I’ve ever read. And I quote:
“…the default configuration in Leopard, unlike in Tiger, does not allow Apache to serve documents from home directories.”
And, if you don’t mind my asking, why the hell not? Its the only thing I ever want it to do. Admittedly the problem was easy enough to fix, but its really pissed me off. I feel my apple bubble has finally burst. I’m no where near as happy with leopard as Id thought I be. I think the realisation that apple are just another computer company is coming into focus. Its still better than any windows system I’ve used, but I will not speak so highly of them without careful consideration.
IÂ realise this in reality is a nothing issue, and I should get over it. But its been a bad day, and I’m venting.
After a few delays in retrieving my relatively illegal copy of Leopard Ive finally got it up and running on the iMac. So, here are my thoughts thus far.
Upgrading and Installing:
Now, on first look this was going well. Made a backup of all my files and programs etc, wacked the disc in and of it went. I had read it would only take half an hour and to my surprise turned out it was true. Quite excitedly I went to log in, and bugger. For some reason it wouldn’t login. No idea why. So re-installed and still no luck. So, for some reason I decided to erase and install with Tiger, then upgraded from that. This time, worked a treat. No idea why it didn’t work originally. The only thing I come up with is either the illegal nature of my copy, or something on my machine which it didn’t like. I guess I’ll never know.
New Features:
Spaces is wonderful. I had used virtual desktops before and didn’t like the interface. How it all worked etc. Spaces is very simple, and drag and drop between each space is a lovely feature. New dock looks good so cant complain. Not a huge fan of stacks. Maybe I need more files to look at. Time machine is still making the first backup. 7 million files, 110gb. So far been running for 4 hours transferring to my external HD, but looks good so far.
New Looks:
Now, this is where me and apple start to fall out. I was never a fan of the Grey line thing they had going on, so I’m glad to see it gone, but there are still a few issues they need to fix in my humble opinion.
Now, I really like the transparency here. It looks alright and works well, where as in Vista the same effect seems to ruin the whole thing for me. What I hate here is that blue highlight. It looks horrible in my opinion. They should of done that a lot better. Spotlight uses the same colour, and I hate it.
I think thats all I have to say for now. Ill update when I’ve been using it for a bit longer. But first impressions are good.
