Monthly Archives: Oct 2007

Arrow, back on the road.

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16°C, sun & heavy rain. C=45 miles.

Arrow: is back on the road, after three months. The brakes are better than ever as is the handling (after adjusting the headset properly) . Had a decent ride despite being beaten back by the rain. It was warm and sunny otherwise.
Back to work tomorrow….

I don’t know how she’s done it, but Rosie has a Facebook profile. I hope she doesn’t post anything too rude on there, it’s meant for humans really.

Empty handed

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13°C, clouds 100%

Visit Birmingham to buy clothes. No luck , could only find warm thick heavy ones; they would not be suitable for someone who works in a place heated like an old-people’s home. So I returned empty handed.
Artemesia "Powys Castle". Bought one depite the contentious link with Absinthium. I’m not at all sure how close this variety is. It smells right however. The photo below is a wild variety, Artemesia Vulgaris, "Mugwort". Wormwood still eludes me in the wild, it is said to be quite common in the Midlands, especially likes sandy soils, which are common in Birmingham.

Take-off

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13°C, dull & grey. C=35 miles.

FS-X: fixed the Flight simulator. There was a corrupt user-log file that the main game opens on launch.Deleting it removes records of previous flights, but at least it goes now.
Back into cycling, the commuting bike is all but ready. There is  one tiny light-bracket that I can’t find. It’s stored somewhere safe, those things are fragile, but I can’t remember where. That was the last day of the holiday- a mending-things holiday.

Grounded

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10°C, still cloudy.

Suddenly, MS Flight Sim-X stops working today. No apparent reason, no error messages, just a permanent stop in the splash screen.Disappointed. Running "repair" and re-installing the service pack has made no difference.

3DS Max. Updated the Digger animation. Some new textures and a few new components. Once the render has finished, I can post a small version of it here.
http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v411/EssieP/3Dgraphics/BIGdigger_n85.flv

Edukators

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13°C, Cloudy & chilly.

Edukators: Good contemporary German film. Long but worth it in the end. It’s full of almost dated idealism from the characters; plus various themes centering on the generation gap. Acting is all impeccable, as is the filming- the whole thing is vivid bar one distraction. One editing trick is the "drop-cut", it works like a few dropped frames, as if the editor wanted to speed up the scene a bit so took a few frames out here and there. the effect is a rather jarring.
Forks: collected. Rebuild soon.
Kevin Ayers album- on first listen- it sounds terrible.

Shootin’ one-handed

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16°C, lots of cloud, lower humidity today.

64 miles today, see photo. Feeling much recovered, cold over & done with. Other cyclists said that loads of us are grumbling about lost weeks on the bike, all due to pathetic little viruses. I reckon that I’ve lost about 2,000 miles’ worth this year. Taking pictures while riding is a little tricky, a really good way to fall off probably. this camera doesn’t seem wide-angle enough though, it needs a 28mm equiv lens. Also, there is frustratingly little control over shutter speed so motion blur is not as much as ideal for this kind of shot.

Crows. We have a fiery autumn, not actual fires, just the colours of turning trees. Every decent sized tree seemed to be surrounded by large gangs of crows, all cawing.

Fungi are not plants!

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16°C, still, with some cloud.

Fungus: is not a plant, I stand corrected, but I’m left wondering what the term for a single fungus "entity " is. anyway, I suppose it’s inevitable that in a place with hundreds of people passing each day, that someone has destroyed this fungus’ mushrooms. All it would have taken is a quick kick, and then a spectacular explosion of white fleshy hyphae would be seen.There have been seen other mushrooms not far from this on the edge of the tarmac car-park, I thought it would be produced by the same plant. I have been corrected on that misconception. It’s not a plant, fungus don’t belong to the plant kingdom, they have their own kingdom (as I’ve said).

Postal strike

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15°C heavy rain, clearing.

This Strike is great, we’ve not had the door blocked with junk post and our in-trays at work have far less in them.

Car park growth: there is an odd growth in the car-park at work. It’s right in the tarmac next to where I lock my bike. The tarmac had developed a pointy bulge last week and now it has erupted. There are several brownish finger-like growths poking up which clearly have forced through the hard surface. They are soft to the touch and very smooth. Likely suspects are fungus, budlea, or someone’s  hand who has managed to push his fingers through as part of his escape. I’m taking in my camera tomorrow to get a photo, but don’t be surprised if i get a picture of a great beanstalk.
Addendum: here it is below….

Safety warning

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17°C, overcast, breaking.

The Welsh countryside comes with a health warning. Perhaps they are worried that we will sue them if we slip on a hillside. We had a nice day despite the risks of being outside, away from a city. Disturbing to think that we could have slipped on the grass had it been wet,
White chalk: superb quality vinyl, thick disc with no surface noise. Only hitch is is that despite being a 12" album, there is no indication that it plays at 45rpm. Since when is it a good idea to cut a full album at 45rpm?