August 2005 Archives

My good friend, more commonly known on these pages as JSC, but she knows who she is, went to Austria recently. Excited by this news and thinking what there actually was in Austria, I asked her to take a picture of a goat. She did. And what a picture!

The goat below, since christened Mortimer, is obviously really annoyed that JSC has interrupted his daily chewing/rock surveying by embedding his image onto silver halide crystals via a photochemical reaction... well some digital microchippery at least, I don't know how she took the picture...

Anyway, she received an almost an "eh?" reaction from the Tauern Pied (the Austrian Goat, also known as Tauernschecken). (Actually, Mortimer may well not be a Tauern Pied, make your own mind up at The Goat Farmer Website...)

It's quite possibly my favourite picture ever. You may click the image below to embiggenate and view Mortimer in all his Goaty gloriousness.

From Digital Spy:

Radio 1 have announced a day of gigs in tribute to highly influential DJ John Peel.

October 13 will see the first 'John Peel Day' on which venues staging gigs across the country will be invited to do so under the banner of Peel Day in celebration of his life, broadcasting career and the influence he had over the music world by giving many unknown bands their first break into the big time.

Also being organised is a special concert in London held by the BBC, with details to be announced nearer the time.

Peel died last October at the age of 65.

What a great way to celebrate the life and work of this great man, I'm sure he'd enjoy this even though he'd probably be a little embarrassed by it all!

The Royal Mint is launching a competition to find new designs for the reverses of six out of eight of the United Kingdom's coins. The 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p are all to be redesigned.

This is your chance to influence how the coinage looks, your chance to make your mark on the history of the coinage and your chance to change the face of what millions of people carry in their pockets and purses everyday.

Coins are more than just a means of purchasing. The designs that appear on them are works of art in their own right. They are symbols of the nation and now you have an opportunity to have a hand in creating those symbols for a new generation.

The Royal Mint want a series of six designs and even suggest a number of themes to help you along the way.

Looking to heraldic devices is one approach that could be adopted. Heraldry has long been used as a way of symbolising Britain and heraldic devices have quite naturally featured on British coins. You might also like to consider other ways of representing Britain which could include the flora and fauna of the country, its institutions, its geographic features or its achievements whether social, political or cultural.

I'd love to know someone who takes part! If this grabs you then please let me know and let me see your designs! Oh and did I mention that there's a prize of £30,000? Hopefully not as 60,000 of your newly designed 50p's...

The closing date is Monday, 14th November 2005.

For more information, please visit the Royal Mint's website.

Kev's got a new Bev...

... and I think the two Kevs have done away with the old Bev in a sinister fashion. Possibly stuck her in the boot of the old banger of a Volvo they used to own... "I had a wife like that once!"

Above: Kev with the old Bev before things turned terribly nasty...

[Photo via Google Images}

Well, since the shuttle landed safely a few minutes ago, I thought I'd write my thoughts about the whole set of shenanigans.

The thing is clearly unsafe... and badly designed. All I'm surprised about is that more shuttle disasters haven't happened previously. However, my opinions are based on little more than what I've heard or read from various mainstream sources.

Luckily for you, you don't have to read my half thought through ramblings. I present to you Maciej Ceglowski. He's somebody who has clearly done his homework, and prepared a very good, no, excellent analysis of the shuttle program. Ultimately, he recommends the scrapping of the NASA manned shuttle program and starting from scratch with a real mission definition, newer, better technology, and real protection for the crews. The current NASA unmanned program has been making significant and amazing scientific discoveries for years while the shuttle and International Space Station money-pits continue to falter.

At least one thing can be said about the Space Shuttle crew though: they take some outstanding photographs, including this brilliant self-portrait. (Click for embiggenation)

If I could remember where I found this photos I'd tell you. If anyone knows where they are from please get in touch. I had them posted on my other gallery site, but that has since broken.

The story behind them, if I remember rightly, is that somebody was walking through their local wood and found a digital camera, on which were these photos. Some of them are really spooky, but they are all well taken.

I found these on my hard drive and remembered just how amazing they were. There are 31 photos in total.

Again, I've placed them in my gallery. Enjoy!

(Click the photo above to visit the full gallery)

[Link updated Tuesday, 23rd October 2007 to reflect new hosting]

These photos were originally found at this link. I have placed them into my gallery in order to save his bandwidth! These photos aren't mine. I have no cats. Jumping ones or otherwise. Enjoy!

(Click the photo above to visit the full gallery)

[Link updated Tuesday, 23rd October 2007 to reflect new hosting]

This entry was originally part of a separate, personal blog. I've merged them together now to make life easier.

All the dates that the entries were originally published and posted comments have been preserved.

Have added more photos to the gallery... there are now pictures from my visit to a tram museum, my graduation ball (and from my friend Emma's night) and from my actual graduation... if you wish to see them go here.

I've hardly been posting recently, have been concentrating on other things... namely this site.

I'll try to post more often.

For those who wish to know, I still don't have a job, despite being a fully qualified male primary teacher. That's supposed to be an advantage isn't it?! I think I'll wait until September and see what happens. It's not that I'm not looking, just relaxing my stare at the jobs papers...

What else... I'm in the middle of a nine day stint of shifts at work. Today was day three. Days one and two were both very busy, today was more sedentary so I'm happier... although I could do with a nap around about now!

Later.