May 29, 2010 | snap!
is that a handkerchief I see before me?
I’m still on a snuffle come-down with a slightly thick head (nothing new there) and a tendency to cough explosively at random moments.
I have been passing my time in various ways. I have the concentration to read again and am working my way through John Markoff’s What The Doormouse Said which looks at the roots of personal computing in the counter-culture of the late fifties and sixties. This isn’t as dry as it sounds and is worth a dip if you’re interested.
I have also been listening to a wonderful internet radio station –Tight Like That Radio which broadcasts only pre-ww2 blues, hokum, swing and jazz tunes. It’s great and what’s more because all the tracks are limited by the time available on a 78rpm record you are never more than 3 minutes away from the next tune if the current one doesn’t grab your attention.
The current playlist is here.
I have also been messing further with Vignette (which I have now paid for) and have put quite a lot of shots in the gallery. Here is a further short selection.
“I’m a chiropractic tenor: I sing in all the joints” – Sid Silvers
May 27, 2010 | snap!
I mentioned yesterday that I have been playing with a photo. app for my Android phone called Vignette. It is a neat application and probably capable of great subtlety. I have, so far, not gone for subtlety but I will probably move to the paid app shortly. Here are some examples of just messin’ around….
That particular setting could obviously be overused, but I do quite like it in a strange way. I should add that none of the above have had any processing but are exactly as they came out of the camera. I’ll be adding more to the gallery (click link up at top right of page)
May 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
Mr Mysterioso
I’m taking a break from snuffling and snoozing for a short entry here.
Who would think that one stuffed up head could require so many paper hankies? It is a truism but the problem with not being at work because of illness is that you can’t enjoy it: the best you can hope for is to sleep through the worst of it and not get too depressed by daytime TV. I am old enough these days, though, to know when to take a day off and when not to. I have in the past been caught out by forcing myself to go into work because it was “only a cold” and ended up being off for longer than if I’d just bowed to the inevitable in the first place.
Meanwhile I haven’t the concentration to read anything complicated or the motivation to pick up a guitar. Endless re-runs of Buffy on cable TV are my only hope.
Of course one can also fiddle around with applications on an Android phone – in the case of the photo here, using the demo version of Vignette and some post processing on the computer.
May 25, 2010 | Dance!
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
A largely quiet week at Cosmic Mansions which ended well with the warmest weekend of the year so far which meant mowing the lawn and a certain amount of reading of newspapers on a lounger in the sun.
Friday saw the final episode of Ashes to Ashes on BBC. I stuck with A2A through three series and enjoyed it, but the final series was the best of the three and the final episode was beautifully judged. Although the show stood on its own feet, in some respects it reminded me of the best of Twin Peaks in that it was not afraid to get weird and especially it did not patronise its audience by trying to be too expository. It told a story and, for the most part, left it to the audience’s intelligence and imagination to work out what was going on.
And A2A and its predecessor Life on Mars gave rise to some great characters, especially the iconic Gene Hunt about whom both series revolved.
On Saturday Mons Meg toured Rose Street. Thanks to a tweak to my neck a couple of weeks ago which still hasn’t quite settled down I was Tommying rather than dancing. It was a lovely night to be out too and as you might expect the place was heaving with nights out, Stag Nights and Hen Parties which all added to the jollity of the occasion.
It was a good night but not, for me, as good as other we have done even though we completed nine dances during the evening. On a really good tour I have a feeling that we build a kind of momentum and the the tour takes on a life of its own in a strange bubble which describes an eccentric orbit around the real world (a bit life Ashes to Ashes now I come to think of it). I didn’t get that feeling on Saturday. There are a number of reasons for that which need to be looked at, but the early part of the evening didn’t get into its stride because so many pubs had football on the telly (European Champions’ League final).
Has there ever, incidentally, been a worse notion than to have TVs in pubs showing continuous sports? They completely kill atmosphere stone dead as conversation and relationships take a back seat to glassy eyed staring at the box of tricks on the wall.
Last night things took a turn for the worse: I left work feeling that I had a sore throat coming on but kept it together to cycle down to Trina’s where we were practicing last night. Unfortunately, part way there I moved in towards the kerb to keep out of the way of cars and in the process the front wheel clipped the kerb, throwing me off the bike. Aside from some bumps and bruises, I have a particularly unpleasant graze on my left side just above my waist band from which gravel had to be cleaned. And by the time I got home later the sore throat had emerged as a really heavy cold – stinging eyes, stuffed up nose and general crappy feeling was the order of the night.
So this morning I was sore, stuffed up and very tired. Oh Joy.
May 16, 2010 | Uncategorized
garden fox
I spent a pleasant hour yesterday morning watching this fellow relaxing in our back garden. He must have felt pretty secure because he was quite content to stretch out and sleep, or at least snooze, in plain sight.
Algthough widely regarded as a nuisance I like the idea of this handsome creature thriving in the suburban wilds. When I was young, even in the nineteen seventies, the fox was still a firmly rural creature and sightings in towns and cities would be cause for excited comment. We have three, I think, which regularly wander through our garden. They are still wild and keep their distance, but there is certainly peaceful co-existence between us. And I admire their survival through a cold and long winter – other creatures have not been so lucky: there is a distinct shortage of the usual garden birds this year.
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