Author Archives: essiep

Ofsted away

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9°C, rain

IWM, Manchester: Trip with school to visit the Imperial War Museum, Manchester. There’s a good way to avoid ofstead. It is indeed an excellent place, but are we facing loads of Video capture ( there were 8 cameras issued to the group). Below is a photogrph from the Shard Tower, since it was such a dull day, turning it black & White is an obvious thing to do.
 
Just think: I can play video games again, paint pictures again and look forward to my new mp3 player. I decided it was worth getting an upgraded one, it’s light, holds plenty and will be useful for shutting out distractions while working. I distract easily, not to mention procrastinate.
 

Today: Llanbedr

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2°C, strong winds, hail & some snow.

Continuing the story from last night as it happens with the drive from Bewys-y-Coed. The sun set and the rain got heavier as I drove towards Harlech. Most of my clothes were wet, the car heater set to 23°C. Eventually I got to the caravana and set up- ma..an it was cold. The rain beat on the caravan and it shook, quivered and creaked all night against the storms arriving down the northerly approaches.
 
This morning, I woke at sunrise and decided to go home as soon as possible. The rain had eased but the temperature dropped during my sleep. After coffee and cerial, there was time to grab a quick visit to the beech. White foamy waves crashed just behind the dunes, unheard because of the wind blasting everything with sand. No flat beech  was visible there.
 
After setting off south I called in at Barmouth, in the summer months a very busy town that has all the kitch of British seaside resorts. In the winter- it’s worth a stop. There must have been some money here in late victorian times, there are fascinating houses on the hillside. The wind was able to lift the sand higher here, it filled everything, got everywhere. My scalp had a layer of sand, my ears and under my eyelids. That still stings when you look in some directions.
 
Home to worry about work, and fix the fence that blew down in the gales before it gets dark. Not enough time.

Yesterday: Climb Snowdon

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9 to 2°C, wind, sun and hailshowers.

3 Peaks: we climbed Mt. Snowdon yesterday, what an adventure!
After 3 hours driving from home, we met up at Pen-y-pass which was full- that made parking tricky. Anyway, we took the Miner’s track to the summit which was an easy way to start, but once past the last lake (Glaslyn) the terrain got far more tricky. It was steep and heavily obstructed with bolders and other rocks that were very angular (and colourful I may add). The last 300m of altitiude was covered in cloud and reaching the final ridge was an extrodinary experience. Both sides were a sea of light grey cloud that concealed enormous drops- the thought of them takes your breath away- think of that Victorian notion of the “sublime”.
We had to contend with strong winds from the NW but loads of people were also there- from the other 3 main routes no doubt.
The plan was to take some photos at the summit and then climb back down a short way to a sheltered corner to eat our lunchpacks. By the time we got there the cloud had gone down so we continued. Sitting still in cloud eating is a quick way to get cold and below the cloud layer, there was rain. The rain got heavier the further we descended. Somehow, I didn’t mind that, at one point my comment was
“I wonder if I would be enjoying this as much if the weather was good?”- I was not being facetious.
The return route was along the Pyg track. We all agreed that though this was shallower it was far more difficult, there were few runs of smooth path that you could set a pace on. The rain got heavier too.
The whole walk took five hours, too long really so we’ll stick to the Miner’s track both ways even with that very steep descent to Glaslyn.
Later we met up for shopping at Betws-y-Coed for a bit of shopping and a cafe stop. There is a nice bizz in that town, not like other parts of Wales which can seem rather run-down. I got a better rain-coat and a drinking bladder thing for my rucksac. There we all parted, most going home while I went west to my Mum’s caravan near Harlech. That was an adventure in itself, more possibly on that later, for now, there is a photo of rough seas taken from my overnight stay.

WMDs

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11°C, clear

Trident: latest news: the UK labour Govt have decided to buy new weapons of mass destruction. It’s not clear who they will be aimed at, or what the Gov’t will say to Iran , or Nth Korea on the matter. Something bad seem to happen to parties that get into power in the UK. The plans made during electioneering seem to get shelved along with Britain’s independance. Could there be some secret binding reason why our Prime Ministers, one after another, drop independant thinking after gaining power and meeting with the US president?
It pays not to look to long at governments as it erodes your faith in human nature.
 
Snowdon: climb on Saturday, that will be fun. I may even stay overnight and make the cliumb again on Sunday. Umm… what to do?

Sprung, starting today

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13°C, sun & light clouds. C=52 miles

It’s now spring. I know you’re thinking "equinox " but today I swallowed the first fly of the year- that makes it spring now.
 
Little camera: cycling has come full circle so to speak. In the mid-ninties, I started cycling to take my camera places out of town, beyond my normal range. Now I have bought a camera to take out cycling in case I see something. For today, checking out the camera’s functions and quality was the aim. For 70 quid it is ok, all I expected really. But in absolute terms; there is colour bleeding, the image is over-sharpened and it lacks detail in textures. It could be more user-friendly; there is no direct control over shutter speed/aperture, the power switch is tricky to use – especially with cold hands and it sufferes the problem all digital compacts seem to have these days- automation.
 
Cycling: a shorter ride today, but the first of the year on the racing bike. That is significant. Note a picture of cows with their calves. They all stood up when I pulled over ant took the camera out. Cows have a keen sense of curiosity.

Caught by the thought police

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9°C,

Army speak: this story looks like a guy has been sacked for commiting thought-crime. It pays not to state the obvious sometimes.
 
Decadent consumerism– this time, me! It’s about a 2 weeks until I place that order for the new computer. The CPU choice is settled (Intel P.IV E6600), starting with 2GB of corsair RAM @ 800Mhz and Asus or Freecom motherboard plus 1 or maybe 2 Seagate barracauda hard drives. I really don’t want to make the same mistake as last time and buy RAM of inadequate quality. That causes occasional crashes and lockups, preventing the addition of more RAM due to timing mis-matches. The headline componant is a 640mb Geforce 8800 GTS. Possibly more onboard RAM than I really need, but there is furture-proofing to consider.
Other choices are mitigated by upgradability. I can’t do the step-by-step componant change as I have in the past because so many hardware standards have changed. Graphics card uses a new kind of connector as does the hard-drives.
Trouble is- I hate spending money, I’m inherantly mean.

Hearing

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9°C, showers and very windy.

1/ Tall trees make the most fascinating sound against the stronger winds. A soft, deep roar, with smaller flutters, bows and groans. Looking up at the dark orange sky, there are long branches springing with the gusts, their ends waving frantically on the top end of majestic boughs. those slender branches were twice my height, and must have weighed as much as I do- but to see them flung around…
That sound really did stop me during the dog-walk, enough to keep me there until the cold took a bite.
 
2/ Headphones: been thinking about this after reading: Trashing Modernity by Colin McDowell in the Sunday Times. he’s been called a luddite – which I suppose is inevitable, but he did say one thing that stood out for me. After a passage debunking the mobile phone, he went on:
"The iPod is just as bad….
…How anyone of sane mind can think that having music shot through your lughole at close quaters can equate with listening to music, I can’t imagine"
It’s a shame he didn’t go further with that thought. Over 10 years ago I spend £75 on a pair of headphones because I’d moved in with a family who ate into my precious listening time. that turned out to be a notable waste of money. They were a carefully chosen pair, plugged into a much better than average hifi. there is something fundmentally wrong with listening to music on phones. It just doesn’t work as a way of communicating music. The sounds are clearer, textures more explicitly portrayed, but something was so wrong that these qualities were offset. I still can’t put my finger on what it is that phones do that change the hifi’s output into something that sounds like music but just is not.
I’m considering buying an iPod clone, also giving serious consideration to not buying one. It will be used to shut out the distractions while marking, sitting on a train or similar. There’s no point pretending that the sound those machines make is music- it simply isn’t. the magic of music doesn’t some out, partly to do with headphones and the rest is the effect of mp3 conversion (or wma) removing the spirit of performance. All is left is a shadow, a reminder of what it might sound like.
 
Open the window so you can listen to the gales.