Key Inmarsat rocket flight from Kazakhstan 'a success'

Congrats to UK based Inmarsat for their rock launch... all those hours playing Kerbal Space Program paid off then eh? ;)

Rewind Festival #4

During the Rewind Festival we went to a Silent Disco, it was basically a large marquee full of drunk people all wearing headphones, all singing along to one of two channels of music two attendant DJ's were playing out wirelessly to each headphone (which is selectable via a switch on one of the cans). They are lit green for one channel and red for the other, more colours seen means that one of the DJs is playing the catchiest song!

It's quite bizarre really when observing whilst not wearing headphones, no music heard, just dozens and dozens of yelling voices...



Imagine if they had this back in the eighties? Everyone would be weighted down with heavy headphones and tripping over each other's wires!!

Rewind Festival #3

More content from Rewind 2015, this one is my recording of Midge Ure's Vienna, I think it was safe to say that at this point during the day I'd imbibed enough alcohol to cause a small army to collectively stagger into a ravine during a drunken forced march... hence the swaying camera work ;)



Midge Ure was awesome by the way, a brilliant songwriter, musician and a great showman, I am surprised that he didn't headline.

Random Thought #238

I think it's important that you eat the unheated contents of a processed food tin occasionally so that, if an apocalypse happens and you have the luxury of one to eat, it won't be as much as a shock...

Other food tins are available ;)

Beginning to feel human again...

After 48 hours of dancing and alcoholism I am finally beginning to feel normal again... what a weekend though! Will definitely be doing that again...

I have to sort through all my pics and videos and will post some soon...

Here's a taster:

It's Pimms O'Click at Rewind 2015!

Rewind Festival #2

I'm off to the Rewind Festival today... 3 days of beer, 80's music and dancing with thousands of other drunken like-minded forty to fiftysomethings, with perhaps a smattering of bewildered-looking teenagers and twentysomethings mixed in :)

We're going in a camper van so that should increase the comfort level somewhat plus I've purchased a wristband for access to the posh loos so I can have a crap in relative clean comfort.

Aside from that there'll be queueing, probably some mud, expensive beer and gut busting fast food to contend with but it's all worth it to see Belinda Carlisle live :p

Now off to get my funk on!

Rewind Festival

Wellies - check

Imodium tablets - check

That's me sorted for the Rewind Festival :)

Thanks Tesco

"Every little helps..."

My arse.

The days before the Web

Ah I remember those days:

When, in conversation with someone, they took what you said as gospel instead of 'Googling' it and correcting you.

When people actually talked to each other in the pub, rather than gawping at their smartphones to check their failbook wall updates or responses to their Favourited entries in twatter.

When we could remember place names, phone numbers or shopping lists, instead of relying on the 'cloud'.

We were all so much more 'genuine' in those days, it's hard to explain what that means but the closest explanation I can come up with is we were less like drones slaved to a huge network of computers like we are today. I mean if I need to find my way around I go to TomTom on my smartphone, or if I need a friend's phone number I look it up in my address book on my smartphone/computer etc. The fact that I can look up my personal information anywhere at anytime is pretty awesome but somewhat lame at the same time because I really should be able to recall most of it without help. The Web is giving us collective lazy brains.

I know, I know, I'm sounding like some old fogey - complaining about 'new fangled computers' and 'when I were a lad...' etc. etc. but I feel qualified enough to speak up for the forty somethings in this world who knew what the modern world was like before the Web but sufficiently after gas lamps in the streets lighting the way for carts and horses. Where it was sophisticated enough for us to enjoy our leisure time but not so sophisticated in our working lives, forcing us to be proactive in order to get stuff done.

Now I'm off to download another book onto my Kindle.

Mike Tindall - Rugby Legend

Mike Tindall is a Rugby legend, he has the scars to prove it, is married into royalty and is a thoroughly all round great dude... and every time I see him the OS X logo pops into my head...

'I've had enough of the Kardashians!' - US news anchor walked off set during live broadcast in protest at Kylie Jenner's 18th birthday coverage

BAHAHAHAHA!!

This man should be given an honorary knighthood...

Elder Scrolls Online

I've been hitting ESO hard this weekend because I moved all my gaming PC's components into a brand new case - a Corsair Obsidian 450D. The old case didn't have good enough heat dissipation because the PSU and graphics card were too close to each other... every time I played ESO the top and back would be red hot, I'm not surprised the PC didn't transform into a molten mass sooner!

Anyway this case is bigger and channels air movement much better so now I can continue my marathon ESO sessions :)

As usual, Zenimax continue to outdo themselves for graphics:

I spent ages staring at this waterfall, even got surprise attacked because of that!

Sunset over Bankorai

and a good morning to you sir...!

Whilst headed toward work on my daily morning commute I noticed a guy walking towards me, he was dressed in typical builder's garb - hardhat, hi-vis jacket, paint-splattered cargo pants and hobnail workbooks. He had a roll-up ciggy in his mouth and carried a cup of Greggs coffee, as he passed me he said 'morning' quite loudly.

I was surprised but recovered quickly enough to mumble 'm-morning' in response before he got too far away.

I have to say that it cheered me up somewhat because usually everyone around me silently shuffles off the train looking miserable, then head en-masse through the ticket gates and disperse to their various workplaces continuing to look miserable and nary a word of how well the morning was fairing is ever spoken from anyone. Mind you it would probably get a bit grating having loads of people say 'good morning' to me every day.

This guy though, probably without a care in the world, had his nicotine and caffeine fixes and was off to go and build stuff, fair play to him! I just wish I could be like that in the morning.

Photography #101

This is an example of using a slow shutter speed and water is a great subject matter for this type of photography. Taken at a lovely seaside village called Sennen Cove, I've been there twice for holidays and had a great time there.

Photography #101

Here's another pic of a Long Tailed Tit, I took it from a bird hide at Centre Parcs Longleat... yet another great example via a telephoto lens.

Soo cute!

Is our universe FAKE? Physicists claim we could all be the playthings of an advanced civilisation

Typical Daily Fail article...

However if we are indeed part of a huge video game, then the alien controlling me has probably fallen asleep from sheer boredom...

Yawn...

Note to Google...

Stop asking me to add my mobile phone number to my account for so-called security reasons... I know that you only really want to so you can sell it to a bunch of marketeers so they can bother me with unsolicited phone calls.

This is the thing that pissing me off about social media, they just want to be ultra nosey and poke deeper into our lives in order to fine-tune targeted advertising, they couldn't give a fuck about us personally, it's all about making money for the shareholders... we're just cattle to be milked.

That's why I don't go on facebook, Mark Zuckerberg can fuck off.

A question of immigration...

You know, it's just occurred to me that if I travelled to France right now I wouldn't get in because my passport is out of date, they'd stop me at passport control and strong-arm me back to Blighty.

So my question is this, why the fuck is it so easy for thousands of immigrants to wander into France and cause such chaos in Calais? I mean, if I went to France I would go there with no intention whatsoever of causing trouble yet they would not let me in because of a small piece of documentation that has a past date on it.

Just goes to show how fucked-up this world really is.