Grumpy

Posted on 8th Nov 2012 by essiep

10°C, dry.
Oh dear, that was a grumpy post yesterday. Today feeling better, recovering from a strange virus, Let’s blame that then.
I fear that grumbling can become habit.
Interesting prog on TV last night, old drivers are a little safer than 20 somethings. They are just as annoying too, but it seems that view are often aware of their growing limitations such as judging speed of other drivers. So what they do is to compensate with caution. Perhaps little understanding is required. As for boy racers who react to tricky situations by stamping on the throttle…

Is it all over?

Posted on 7th Nov 2012 by essiep

6°C, clear and starry (including Venus)
Is this trial over yet? Woke up to hear that US voding is complete. There were only two cannidates, they got the same number of votes but somehow Wilhard lost by a wide margin. The map is coloured by each state. Red for the right-wing and blue for the even-more-right-wing, or is that left wing in their currency? The news features centre around a small number do canndidates, and a large number of voders.
Their president, in practice has limited power, so at least when they elect a half-wit nazi (Bush), or an insane war mongerer (Reagan) they can’t do as much harm as they’d like. I don’t argue with Americans’ right to vote, nor that the outcome has an effect on us non-Americans, but that it would have been better to limit election news stories to once a month until this week. It doesn’t seen to matter who they get, whoever wins will still exert economic power (protectionism), world power (mainly by bombing people), environmental (by polluting us all) and general bullying.
British TV has bored and annoyed us with this story since Easter, and will drag it out some more I fear.
Morning news will remain un-watchable for some time.

Silver woods

Posted on 3rd Nov 2012 by essiep

9°C, clear.
Restful: took a restful day. Body said I had to, so dutifully…
Took Rosie to a wood new to us. On a low hilltop near a tall TV transmitter. Initially there is a coniferous wood. But further in Silver birches formed a metallic wall, like bound barbed wire. The trees were all about the same age though the ground is mature, deep, soft and black. This has all the signs of managed woodland. The bedrock is bunta pebble bed, so the quite deep puddles should drain better than these do. Credit to the thick humus for that. I’d like to get know this wood more, something that can takes.

later I watched Kill Bill 1 which is a rather silly film.

Ash.

Posted on 29th Oct 2012 by essiep

9°C. Light rain.
It’s Ash trees under threat this time. Rather like the Oaks, where an aggressive fungus was spread by a beetle, this one has airbourne spores to propogate. The fear this time is the scale, ash trees make ups about 1/3 of our mixed woodlands. But we do have the most fragmented woodlands that cover the smallest proportion of our countryside.

If the worst happens, I shall be saddened.

Ash tree ban may be too late to avert ‘UK tragedy’, says expert (guardian.co.uk)

Red clay roads

Posted on 28th Oct 2012 by essiep

CR:52 Miles. Rain later.
This ride wasn’t too cold but it did rain on the return leg. I could have avoided it but for the roads. The mud was as bad as it can be, the back wheel skitted about alarming me enough to get off and walk. I had to walk a few times on this ride, even that was less than easy in cycling shoes. The shoe-plate is not intended for walking and are treacherous on slippery surfaces. The delay added up enough to allow the rain clouds to build. Now it has started, the rainfall should do a decent job and wash that mud away.
The Racelite bike is definitely the wrong mount for these conditions, the mud built up under the brakes such that I had to stop twice to clear it. Tyre levers are good for flicking mud out to free the wheels.
Now shut up, I need to go out and hose the bike down.

Continue reading →

Maffs an Inglish

Posted on 28th Oct 2012 by essiep

10°C, grey, rain threatens.

Teachers’ entry requirements:BBC they’re “getting tough” on teachers. The Govt. plan to raise the entry requirements to the profession by adjusting the skills tests taken by trainee teachers. The English & Maths tests will be raised to a GCSE grade B equivalent, once source said. For decades, all teachers must have a decent Degree. But wait, we all had to get that GCSE to get on the BA course all those years ago so what’s the problem? I don’t see what this is meant to achieve.
Let’s hope that the Govt. ministers will have to sit a test too. Don’t forget that Ed Balls, the previous Education Minister clearly stated that he wanted most pupils to be “above average”. So there is scope for improvement if a bloke who has such responsibility has not the faintest understanding of basic Year 8 maths. Averages, mean median and mode, we all understand it, why not you?
How did that guy get into Oxford?

Talking tough on teacher standards (theperseschool.wordpress.com)
Teachers are to blame for children’s lack of ambition, claims education minister David Laws (educationviews.org)

Shopping is annoying.

Posted on 23rd Oct 2012 by essiep

13°C, grey.
Fact: shopping is annoying. Shops stock a large range of trousers for guys with a fat arse and bamboo legs. Another shop I tried, sold trousers in only one leg length, that was a short 34″ so alterations are not possible. I hate shopping and I envy those who can go into a shop and choose colour and fabric. My choice is between- buy something that doesn’t fit, or leave the shop.

Tyrannosaur

Posted on 21st Oct 2012 by essiep

8°C, fog.
Thick fog: can’t see the road outside. There is fog dripping off tree’s branches, the washing line and the gutters. It taps irregularly on an upturned bucket.
I shall give it a chance to clear before riding later.
Tyrannosaur: I’ve had this bluray disc for over a month and now, finally, watched it. Stunning film, I highly recommend it to most people. It’s not an easy film to sit through, so be careful who you encourage to watch it. The reviews online are correspondingly varied.

As you can see I have been playing with a bitmap editor called Pixlr. It consists of 3 sets of adjustment layers on three themes- frames, lighting and texture. No doubt there will be more to come from me, especially since it’s an app that can be run on Google Chrome on the computer too.
It’s interesting because it affects the way you take photos. This offsets the accusation that I make of myself that I’m jumping on a bandwagon. And since it’s on your phone, you can get results fairly quickly. This picture is of an abandoned educational institution near my regular dog walk. The place has an interesting garden which is simultaneously entering both Autumn and a period of neglect. This shot shows a fennel plant at near full size.
I now have one for my garden too.

Heavy head, but light heart

Posted on 20th Oct 2012 by essiep

10°C, sunny.
It’s Saturday so it’s headache day. The sun does shine, a week’s holiday lies ahead. No camping though, not much point when daylight is gone so early.

Spent the day planting bulbs. I will have forgotten where I put them by spring, let’s be surprised.
Some over-grown plants had to get cut back. I saw no Ivy, but there are itchy patches on my hands now. Do other plants contain the same chemical that makes ivy poisonous?

Gideon

Posted on 17th Oct 2012 by essiep

12°C, sun.
At work, 11 year olds were issued with Gideon’s bibles today. They looked puzzled, though some said you can use them to help with problems in life. There is a sort of key in the front where problems are listed giving passages to read.
My problem was- can they go into the recycling bin, or should we drop them in the normal land-fill rubbish? It hangs on whether the cover is real leather.
_____
Later: After work was filled with trying to use Excel to decrypt a text string. A nice problem to work on. I didn’t know enough about arithmetic progressions to write the formulae quickly. A good problem to try, I like the feeling when puzzling over things like that.

Micycle

Mike thinks b/hikes

Author Archives: essiep