Fred Weimer

2011-12-24T10:38:00.001-08:00

I suppose I am a few months behind the times but I've linked my blogger account to Google Plus. This helps me post to my blog and to plus. Buzz was nice in the way it presented a preview of my blog, let's see how this helps.

Battlefield 3 Review

2011-12-04T12:03:00.001-08:00

Battlefield 3 is the long awaited sequel in the Battlefield series. EA and Dice have teamed up and with the new Frostbite 2 engine and I could not wait for it to be released.

I've been playing it for awhile now so this review comes from hours of gameplay. Lots of people have slated the single player in BF3, but there are some great levels worth playing. One such is Going Hunting, it is beautiful and great to play. You take on the role of weapons office of a carrier jet. It's a joy to be in the back seat of a jet responsible for gunning down or launching missiles at baddies. In my own opinion I liked the single player campaign, my only problem was it was too short.

Everyone agrees multiplayer is the best part of Battlefield 3. It's amazing, fast paced awesome FPS. With Frostbite 2 and HD textures the look and feel of multiplayer is breathtaking. The first thing EA and Dice got right with Battlefield 3 are the soldier classes. Assault; The assault class carries a variety of assault weapons and has merged with the medic. It's a great all around kit, and I use it on Operation Metro.
Engineer; Rocket Launchers, Mines, Repair and more types of Rocket Launchers. My favourite weapon for Engineer is the Scar-H with the IRNV (infrared) scope to kill the campers hiding nearby and spot the recon in the buildings. I use Engineer with Damavand Peak, Caspian Border, Operation Firefight, Kharg Island and Nosharh Canal because mines and rockets are so fun. Support; Sometimes I use Support in Operation Metro but I love using Claymores on the Grand Bazaar map. I also use Support on the Seine with the Mortar.

Co-Op play. Well finally game makers have seen the light of Halo and added some Co-Op play.
In Battlefield 3 there are separate Co-Op missions to play either with a friend or in Public mode they will match make a game for you. I enjoy the Co-Op play but it's limited to 2 players. EA and Dice go back and play lots of Halo and realize we should be able to play the whole single player game with 4 of our friends cooperatively.

I've read the Andy McNab got involved with Battlefield 3. You couldn't get a better consultant than
ex SAS. I've read his books which i recommend to everyone. I am glad to see them bring in a real warrior on this game.

If you buy this game purely for the multiplayer then you are guaranteed a great ride in FPS. It's fast and furios. There are the classic big Battlefield maps with tanks, helicopters, jets etc. And their are some amazing close combat maps. I can't wait for back to Karkand. My Xbox live handle is wingdisc, if you see me in game give me a medic pack or some ammo.

PS
For the coolest Battlefield 3 videos on youtube check out http://www.youtube.com/user/fhrope

Is something magical happening at Google?

2011-07-10T03:02:00.000-07:00

Google has been very busy, +1 and Google Plus. Blogger and Gmail have been given a facelift. If only I could update my 59 year old appearance so easily outside of Photoshop.

Google Plus seems to have gone public now. Google products always felt like they were made by engineers for engineers, Plus seems to have some user experience magic to it. I like how Plus uses Circles to organize people. I have set up a circle of people I play games with on Xbox Live. I have some regulars from twitter in another Circle, and a family Circle. Other than that I am playing with learning about Google Plus.

Will Plus l have an effect on Twitter? Google Plus has a FriendFeed feel to it. Yes you have more options than FriendFeed, I can see people sharing things in a more focused, personal way with Plus rather than Twitter.

What about Google Buzz? Google Buzz certainly had it's problems, it invaded our Gmail among other things, which were fixed. At least Plus is part of my Google experience, but it does not dip into my Gmail like Buzz did. What I do like about Buzz and hope they bring into Plus is integration with Blogger. It was great to see my blog titles with the first paragraph automatically show up in Buzz. It worked great. I suppose they will phase out Buzz in the near future, once people adapt to Plus.

Will Plus take out Facebook? No, some of my friends or family members will never ever go to Plus. They are still struggling with Gmail. Plus loads of my friends on Facebook play games together.

Google Plus will be very popular with the Gmail crowd for sure. My friends are excited about it. Let's hope Google doesn't Wave good bye to Plus.

How to opt out of Facebook's facial recognition

2011-06-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

As usual with Facebook you have to opt out of privacy invading features. If you don't want photos of you or ones that look like you automatically tagged as you, follow these simple steps. Go to your account, privacy settings, then customise settings. Under "things others share" look at suggest photos of me to friends, and edit the settings. When you edit the settings you will see the description of the feature "when photos look like me suggest tagging them" Just disable this and good luck till next time on Facebook.

Although I love what Facebook does with helping me stay in touch and friends and family. They really need to announce these kind of new features, educate the user and then allow people to opt in. Facial recognition unknowingly thrust upon the public is scary.

Import your blog into Facebook

2011-04-24T04:36:00.000-07:00

Facebook notes allows you to import your blog or any rss feed into Facebook. Bringing your blog into a personal page is quite easy. But If you have a personal facebook page and a fan or “like” facebook page it can be confusing as to which feed comes into which set of pages, you personal page, or fan page.

Start by importing a blog into you personal facebook page. In facebook search for the notes application.

Motion capture, basic post processing

2011-03-24T02:53:00.000-07:00

Arri Prime Lens

2011-03-24T02:46:00.001-07:00

Arri Prime Lens, a photo by wingdisk on Flickr.

The beautiful Red One with an Arri Prime lents

Stereoscopic Video

2011-01-10T16:16:00.001-08:00

3DRig.jpg
Originally uploaded by wingdisk

Here is our beam splitter rig at Brunel.

The Walking Dead, A Short Review

2010-11-07T02:30:00.000-08:00

The Walking Dead premiered in the UK this week on FX. Wow, this is going to be good.

I am a fan of Zombie films, so of course I was going to watch the first episode. What caught my eye first was the lead actor Andrew Lincoln who plays Rick Grimes. I first saw him in the UK series Teachers. Teachers was a quirky series that worked great with Andrew Lincoln, but fell short when he left the cast.

The second series with Andrew Lincoln was Afterlife. He played a psychology lecturer and sceptic to Lesley Sharp's role as a medium. Afterlife was a brilliant series and Andrew Lincoln played a great straight man to Lesley's gifted medium. Afterlife, which aired for a couple of seasons around 2005 makes Ghost Whisperer look like Sesame Street. It was spooky, scary and very moving at times.

Interesting actors draw me to TV shows. I would have never watched Burn Notice had it not had Bruce Campbell in it. So I had to watch The Walking Dead.

This show pays homage to it's predecessors, 28 Days later, George Romero, and my favourite childhood book "I am Legend" and subsequent film. This show has the look and feel of a film. From cinematography, costumes, music.

After watching the first episode I wanted more.That's the best way I can describe it, my wife said the same thing to me. It was brilliant. Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes character is convincing and sincere so he is the perfect person to take us through the zombie nightmare and all it brings.

Halo Reach

2010-09-15T04:13:00.001-07:00

The first Halo game got me back in to first person shooters. It was fun with large environments great vehicles and a fabulous hero in Master Chief.

Now we are at an end of an era of Halo and Bungie. Bungie flew the Microsoft nest awhile ago and alas now they leave Halo with Reach.

Reach is a worthy good bye from Bungie. It is beautiful, magnificent vistas and their characters are all 21st century. The story works very well through the campaign. All very satisfying. My only complaint, only because the game is so good, is there is no epic all or nothing brutal drive through hell like past Halo games.

Bungie made games before Halo and Microsoft and I look forward to playing what they do next. Meanwhile I am off to Reach multiplayer.

Stop friends' farmville posts showing up in your facebook newsfeed

2010-09-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

Keeping up to date.

2010-07-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

I want to keep more up to date with my blog. June/July are tough months at work, so I seem to disappear. We have 2 shows, Made in Brunel and New Designers. We also have tons of marking to finish off. I spend a lot of time writing comments about student work so my creative writing goes down the drain. I am going to work to keep things up to date. Even if it's short posts, wish me luck.

Where is Paul Jr?

2010-06-22T01:23:00.000-07:00

As you may know I was a fan of American Choppers. That was until Paul Jr was fired. His father, Paul Senior rewrote history and claimed all the success was his. I could talk about addictive personalities in relation to this, but I wont. I was glad Discovery followed Paul Jr in his new ventures JR Design. You can follow Paul Jr on twitter as WhereisPaulJr. His website used to be cool work clothes, now it's hint of things to come. Apparently there is a new show on the works, which will involve Sr. vs Jr. I can't wait, good luck Paul Jr. and co.

shadowplay

2010-04-13T13:08:00.001-07:00

shadowplay
Originally uploaded by wingdisk

Some shadows are going the wrong way.

Black Park, Buckinghamshire

2010-04-10T14:29:00.001-07:00

Black Park, Buckinghampshire
Originally uploaded by wingdisk

Black Park near Pinewood Studios. 2 Harry Potter films shot nearby in the park. Shot with a Nokia N86 in panorama mode.

Portsmouth, UK

2010-04-07T12:30:00.001-07:00

20100319-IMG_9622
Originally uploaded by wingdisk

We took our first year multimedia students on a photo trip to Portsmouth. The weather was lousy for most of the day but there were a few opportunities for photos.

Brunel University

2010-03-02T15:30:00.001-08:00

Brunel University
Originally uploaded by wingdisk

N86 Panorama mode

One World day at Brunel

2010-02-28T05:36:00.001-08:00

one world day at Brunel
Originally uploaded by wingdisk

Brunel University has some interesting days. I wanted to take some images with my N86 to see how the camera performed. Needles to say I am very happy with the results.

Scott Sigler kicks butt

2010-01-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

I have been listening to Scott Sigler's podcast books for awhile now. He never fails to deliver on a great story. I thought I would take a minute and discuss briefly some of his book's I've read.

The Crypt
A great blend of Sci Fi, heavy future military and horror. The Crypt is his current release so I am waiting for new episodes as I write. Well worth a listen. And if your in the Navy and get called up for the PUV James Keeling, run! I am in the midst of listening, join me!

Nocturnal
Scary, eerie, mythical, with a nice dark police/detective touch. Probably my favourite of his podcast books. And you have to meet Pookie. The detectives Bryan and Pookie are on the tracks of some strange murders when their investigation is officially put on hold from the top. The discovery of strange weapons, murders gone without investigation, and it doesn't sit right with the detectives. The deep dank underworld of San Francisco is scarier than you think.

Contagious
(originally posted by me as a review of Contagious on amazon.com)Wow! This is an edge of your seat Sci Fi thriller. I am reluctant to stray beyond my favourite authors but I am glad I decided to start reading Scott Sigler. If you like uber military type thrillers with a Sci Fi edge then this is the book you will want to read. The characters Scott creates feel real, sometimes seriously flawed and sometimes endearing. One thing you can count on his characters will reach out and hold you till the end of the book.

The Rookie
Billed as a young adults book that was released I was hesitant to devote time listening to this. The podcast book is recommended for adults so I thought I would give it a try. Obviously Scott is a huge football (American football) fan. The Rookie is set in the future and centres on a rookie quarterback moving up to big league play with, aliens. It has satisfying dark overtones of underworld, futuristic sci fi, and a nice morality play showing ignorance of racism. It was a good listen.

Earthcore
Heavy duty science wrapped up in nice thriller. With a dose of very scary horror that will give you nightmares. Scott shows you that Utah has more than just missionaries.

More to come on this.

Scottsigler.com

Scott's listings at podiobooks

Also search for him on iTunes

Children of the Gods update

2010-01-18T14:39:00.000-08:00

Still waiting for episode 10-2 from cmack. It's such a good Sci Fi podcast it's still worth the wait. Check out their website for information on the progress of episodes. Check out the status of coming episodes. And while your waiting, listen to the released podcasts.

Children of the Gods

2009-11-30T10:51:00.000-08:00

I listen to a lot of podcasts on my mobile. The podcatcher on my phone is excellent. I started listening to Children of the Gods, which is a Sci Fi podcast/podiobook. Originally only 10 episodes. But wow, 10 great episodes. I never deleted the podcasts from my phone. I lived in hope of maybe a new episode. When I go to check for new episodes of my podcasts, I always update Children of the Gods first. I knew it had been almost a year since the last episode was released. I could not find any info on the net. Then last week I updated COTD and lo and behold a new episode which was a message form the author.

They are in the process of producing new episodes. The production quality with music and sound fx is excellent. So check out cotd on twitter or http://childrenofthegods.net/main/. It's well worth listening to this podcast, you will enjoy it.

Orange Country Choppers

2009-09-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

I have been a fan of American chopper since the series started. As a former biker, I loved the whole environment of the shop, designing and building bikes. The star was Paul Jr. Paul Sr. never realized this, even today. American chopper would have never hit the big time that it did without Paul Jr's designs. It was the Fire Bike and the Black Widow Bike that Paul Jr. designed that brought them real notoriety. Without those bikes American chopper might not have had such a big audience. It was the design of the bikes by Paul Jr, that let to American Choppers meteoric rise and success.

Yes Paul Sr. ran the business side and yelled a lot. Paul Sr. did build the POW/ MIA bike which I love. So I'll give him credit for that. I love the POW/MIA bike and have a model of it on my desk at work. That is a lovely bike.

What else was appealing about the show? The builds. With Vinnie DiMartino and Paul Jr. designing and building bike after bike and having them come out spectacular each time was a big draw for me. I think the nicest bike they produced was the I Robot bike,

Paul Teutul Sr. is the big man of the business. And he has no idea who really brought the business into OCC. The bikes he builds now are designed on a computer (remember I am a 3D artist) and the bikes have lost their soul.

Vinnie was the workhorse of OCC. The Teutul's could all go to the big unvielings and Vinnie would be back at the shop working on the next build. Vinnie left OCC to start his own business V Force Customs.

Rick Petko was another workhorse. Building beautiful gas tanks for the choppers. I am worried about rick now watching whats happening to OCC

Yes the family side of the American Chopper with the arguments and all were great to watch. But I loved the bikes.

I wish Paul Jr. and Vinnie well in their new endeavours.

Last but not least is Mikey Teutul. He is hilarious. Mike, just leave and start your own TV show. I'll watch it.

I've gone back to blogger, for now.

2009-08-25T03:47:00.000-07:00

I have been experimenting with different bloging platforms in the last week. I've come back to blogger where I started my blog. I can't find a blog site that does exactly what I want, yet.

I played around with wordpress.com. It's got a lot of great tools, lots of plugins, widgets etc. I liked wordpress.com but for flexibility of layout I was more comfortable with blogger.

I've spent a few days on vox.com. This comes highly recommened on net at night, a twit net cast. I like twit so I gave it a try. It is a nice system. It has great designs for your blog. It has some really great tools for add books you read. It's linked with Amazon so I though that was a very cool feature. Vox has a really nice privacy and sharing feature. The privacy feature lets you set exactly who sees your blog. You can set it to anyone, neighborhood, friends, friends and family, or hidden. I can see vox has some real potential for the future. One very interesting aspect of Vox.com is a Nokia Nseries link. You can share your mobile life directly to your vox.com blog. As a Nokia fan this holds a lot of interest.

All the blog sites give you access to flickr that works very well. Only Vox did not display my twitter stream very well. Wordpress.com and blogger really make twitter a part of your blog.

Wordpress, Vox and blogger all seem to have good commenting features.

But after experimenting with other blogging platforms I am back at blogger. I know it's not the most talked about blogging platform, but it does give me a lot of freedom to set up the blog design and layout how I want, easily.

More experienced bloggers may have better better reasons than I do for choosing their blog platform. But I find it easy to write, design, layout on blogger for now.

A day in Yorkshire

2009-08-14T05:47:00.001-07:00

12082009245, originally uploaded by wingdisk.

We spent a lovely day at the Lavender farm in Yorkshire.

Flickr

2009-08-14T05:42:00.001-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Battlefield Heroes Part III

2009-07-31T09:07:00.001-07:00

How they can make Battlefield Heroes a great game. Leveling up has to be much more evenly scaled expecially after level 11. To get to level 12 I need 40,000 points. Previous levels were relatively easily attainable.

Balancing of the weapons is important. Commandoes are very powerful. They can blow up a spitfire. I wouldn't mind them sniping me in the cockpit, but able to blow up a spitfire is a bit too much.

The large maps need more vehicles. If you are playing a large map and you spawn in the in the middle, you could have a long long way to walk to the next flag. And tanks are always headed to your flag, It would be nice to put up a proper fight.

More maps is always good, we like choice. If I could change heroes between maps that would be amazing. Some levels are ideal for snipers, others soldiers, gunners etc.

For those interested there is a public test environment at pte.battlefieldheroes.com

Battlefield Heroes Part II

2009-07-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

Now, what I don't like about Battlefield Heroes. When I played Battlefield 2 you could choose a wide range or roles, like a medic and make a lot of game points healing and reviving people during the game. You rose through the ranks and got new weapons along the way. There was a clear path of promotion and obvious advantages to sticking to it.

It takes a long time to level up in Battlefield Heroes and the rewards are there, but not as tangible as Battlefield 2. In Battlefield Heroes you can use points to have new guns for a limited time. You can use hero points to add to your abilities. But it takes a long time.

This lack or rewards and obvious progress forward deters from the game quite a bit. Money buys you extra hero slots and different clothes. Ok I bought a cigar for my character, wow. I don't see new skins for characters as a big draw.

Also the maps are limited. The only map I like is Buccaneer Bay, you can get a lot of points there. Other maps I drudge through to get back to Bucaneer Bay.

The developers said the game would have limited maps because players end up choosing 1 or 2 maps and playing them over and over. Let the players choose the maps. Give us a choice.

It is free and fun to play on and off. But I am not drawn back to play it day after day like I was with Battlefield 2.

Battlefield Heroes Free to Play and Out Now

2009-07-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

I've waited since the summer of 2008 to play Battlefield Heroes (http://tinyurl.com/lsfp67). But now (quietly it seems) it's launched.

Yes it's a cartoon style third person shooter. Yes it is a blast to play. However, there are 16 year olds ready to blow your face off in the game, and you'll be called a noob when you start.

I was lucky enough to receive a Beta code so I have been able to play the game for the last few months. Now it is open to all, yea! There are plenty of faq's and guides available that tell you the details of the game, I just want to give some basic tips and discuss why the game is so fun to play.

There are 2 sides, Nationals and Royals. I have some heroes on both sides. When you create your heroes remember you only have 4 hero slots. So if you use them all and realize you did want to be a commando or something instead, then you have to buy another slot with battlefunds, er eh, a credit card. I now have 6 slots on both teams because when I was just messing around in beta i forgot to add commandoes, dang.

One nice thing about the game is the pace. It's not too fast and furious where new people are gonna feel out of place. But the pacing is fine for even experienced player.

The tanks are fun to drive. I love just hanging outside of an enemy base with a tank and picking enemies off. I really enjoy flying the planes, but commando's can blow up your plane up.

The one hero that bugs me is the Commando. They are extremely irritating. They have sniper rifles for one. And they can go invisible until a certain range and use the knife to do you in. The commando will rob you of flag points. But as a commando you can do the same to others. Remember you'll be irritating other players and they'll be happy to kill you.

You can get better weapons as you earn points. You enhance your heroes abilities through hero points. If you're a commando, you can improve your invisibility range, so you can sneak up on people easier. You can increase your ability to heal etc.

I mentioned Battlefunds . I've used mine to buy extra hero slots. You can use them to get new clothes, get limited edition items etc.

Remember the game is FREE. If you play and you see me in game, don't just drive past me in the jeep, offer me a ride.

What the New Star Trek Movie Means to me

2009-05-20T12:10:00.000-07:00

I am a huge Sci Fi fan. I am especially a fan of Star Trek. I watched the original series and loved it. At the time it was one of the most intelligent interesting sci fi programs on tv. When it was cancelled it had an effect on me that makes me worry about the future of Sci Fi on TV today. Previous to The original star trek there were some cool shows like the Twilight Zone and Outer Limits.

The original Star Trek's demise from television led to a drought of Sci Fi on TV. It wasn't until Star Wars hit the big screen that sci fi on tv got going again. We had to live with Buck Rogers and the original BSG. Then of course Star Trek The Next Generation was great.

I think the milestone television Sci Fi show was Babylon 5, written by J. Michael Straczynski. It had a shaky start due to limited funds but once it got going it was amazing. Stracznski wrote it as a 5 year series. The stories, character and CGI were amazing. More over it was pure science fiction on tv. We had some great seasons of Babylon 5 but again due to lack of money it started wobbling a bit. I stayed true to the end. Crusade, a spin off form Babylon 5 looked to be awesome but again the sci fi and tv were not getting along well at all.

We've been spoiled over the last few years with 1 sereis of Firefly and Star Trek Enterprise. Cancellation of those shows after 1 season started me worrying but then we have had great seasons of Stargate, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica. Those shows are over now. They were amazingly great pure science fiction shows on tv. I know we are going to have a feature length episode of one of the Stargate's each year and there are talks of a prequill to BSG. Please sir I would like some more.

The New Star Trek movie has had as great effect on me. I have hope for intelligent Sci Fi being made in the future. And I have the same hope for tv. The Star Trek movie gave me faith in the universe's abilty to produce fab sci fi. Before the film I was worried we would be left with only cop shows and westerns. I was especailly worried about a serious drought of sci fi on tv happening again. Now I am not, the movie cured me of a worry I've had for a long long time. I'm not saying I don't like a good cop show either. But please save me from Westerns.

I am going to see Star Trek a couple more times. I am going to support film makers and studios who make films I love. And hope that trancends to putting decent sci fi on tv. I know we have fringe. Great show. We have some good spooky shows like Supernatural. And of course we have Dr. Who and Torchwood.

So studios, get to work producing fab sci fi for tv. And for heavens sake if there is a new western series on tv God help us. Joss Whedon save us all.

MagicSymbol is an amazing new 3D visual technology.

2009-03-12T07:21:00.001-07:00

MagicSymbol is a 3D technology that uses a web cam and the MagicSymbol printed on paper or card. You simply show your Symbol to the webcam and you can see yourself and the 3D object or animation tracked to the symbol on screen. Amazing!

Inition's Magic Symbol

Toyota using MagicSymbol

read more | digg story

My Useful Mac Tools

2009-03-03T15:34:00.000-08:00

I am really just writing this post for myself. I had my macbook pro stolen, not nice. I've got a replacement luckily I had most of my essential work backed up. But trying to find those nifty freeware applications or even remember what the actual names of some of them is frustrating. So I've got almost everything set back up and just about got all the cool little freeware apps I can't live without.

Twhirl (http://www.twhirl.org/) my favourite twitter desktop application. If you don't know what twitter is read my previous post about twitter and twhirl.

Camtwist (http://www.allocinit.com/) a quicktime video switcher for your podcasts. I want to sue Camtwist to help teach our motion capture system. There really only needs to be the talent, someone directing the talent (digital choreographer if you like) and the technical monkey, that would be me, running the mocap system, making sure things are calibrated etc. But I long to be the digital choreographer, someday. So I could stream the mocap lessons, so the next group of people would have some idea of what to expect.

Jing (http://www.jingproject.com)Finding decent screencasting software for the mac that records full size full frame is difficult. I like camtwist for general streaming, but when you are trying to create Final Cut Pro tutorials you need a great screencasting software. So after far too long a time searching and thanks to http://www.reviewsaurus.com/ I found the freeware screen recording software I had used before, JING. I know there are some great tools available to purchase like screenflow, but you have to be selective in what software you buy so you don't bust the budget at work.

Audiobookmaker (http://sourceforge.net/projects/audiobookmaker) I listen to a lot of podcasts. The weekly ones that I listen to are easy to down load and listen to with nokia podcatcher. There are some great authors out there publishing audio books via podcasts, or podiobooks. I've taken a number of chapters put them together as an audio book so it's easier to put them on my phone as 1 file.

Handbrake (http://handbrake.fr/) an excellent DVD ripping tool for your mac. I have a decent collection of DVD's. But I like to use certain clips when I am teaching. Say for my 3D class, history of CGI I talk about Jurassic Park, Last Starfighter, Tron etc. Even with bookmarking in the OSX DVD player, It's quicker to have the clips of special features I want to show on my harddrive.

The Dyslexic Blogger

2009-02-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

I am a relevant newcomer to blogging. So why bother? I am dyslexic. I am naturally left handed but was forced to switch to writing with my right hand after 3 years of learning to write with my left hand. That sent my mild dyslexia into over drive.

Computers set my mind free. I found talents and abilities I never thought possible. I bought an Amiga computer in the mid 80's and fell in love with computers. Since 1989 my whole life and livelihood has been based around computers. Working as a 3D artist and Video Editor in games to teaching 3D, video and photography today. Things I love.

It took me a long time to learn to enjoy reading. I used to only read technically based books. They got to a point quickly. I really did not enjoy reading at all, because I literally could not see the forest for the trees. Far too many words on a page with no point in view. It took some friends reading a series of books and raving about them before I forced myself to read on. Eventually I learned to enjoy reading fiction, and especially lots of science fiction.

If reading took awhile to catch on you can imagine how long it took to enjoy writing. I know I am not an elegant writer. But at least I can communicate my thoughts relatively clearly. I remember watching some tv show where I heard, "nothing more creative then putting pen to paper and start writing". As a dyslexic, I've never enjoyed putting pen to paper. But I did enjoy putting my fingers to the keyboard, and hand on mouse.

Getting back to my earlier question, why bother blogging at the late date I started. I've found blogging to be cathartic. I've let out a lot frustrations and shared some ideas. It's helped me process deeper issues even if I was not directly addressing them in a particular blog.

By the way have you ever noticed that dyslexics never misspell the word dyslexia?

Twitter and Twhirl

2009-02-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

How can I describe twitter? It's an amazing place to share thoughts, ideas, everyday events, pose questions and receive answers. It's a place to link up with people you know or you might enjoy hearing from.

With twitter you follow people meaning you receive their updates, and if they follow back, they receive your updates. It's limited to 140 characters, like an sms. It's described as a micro blogging site. But calling twitter just a micro blogging does it an injustice. It's also defined as social networking, but that term will become overused soon enough.

How did I start on twitter? There are some podcasts like this week in tech, windows weekly and macbreak weekly. That's where I heard about twitter and those were the people I followed at first (Leo Laport, Paul Thurott, etc). As I learned more about twitter I sought people with interesting bio's and similar interests.

I love twitter. I am not out there to shamelessly self promote myself (maybe just a bit). But I enjoy communication. Email just does not hold an allure for me any more. At work I receive so much multi recipient email that has no relevance to me it's hard to sift through my inbox to find anything that might be important.

If you or someone is discussing something newsworthy or important you can add a (#) tag (called hash tag). During the Israeli Gaza war you could search for tweets from people on the ground. Rather than wait for the news to report what was going on, you could read it in real time. Obviously there will be some misinformation, but I am intelligent enough to sort it out.

You can access twitter at www.twitter.com. There are also various twitter client applications created. I have tried a number of them but the one I have found with the most useful features and intuitive to use is Twhirl. It runs and macs and pc's.

Why twhirl? Number one it's fast. It's easy to keep up with the real time stream of thoughts that is twitter. In twitter you can send messages that are part of your public time line. You can reply or you can send direct messages to people easily. You might thank someone for following you with a direct message so your public time line is not full of "Thanks for following" over and over. Twitterers tend to get annoyed at seeing that. Twhirl makes it very easy to retweet a post. Retweeting is reposting a very important, interesting relevant or cool post from someone you follow, so your followers can read them and potentially follow whoever originally tweeted it.

I suppose I can best sum up twhirl as the one twitter application that felt the most natural for me to use. What does that mean? I am a long time computer user and if some program does not suit me, I just won't use it at all. I don't care if it's supposed to be the hottest thing out there, if something does not work in a way I like, then forget it.

I am a 3D artist. I have used Alias, Wavefront, Softimage, Maya, 3DS Max, Lightwave and old 3D programs that ran on my Amiga. Even though other programs are popular, the 2 I like the most are Softimage and 3DS Max. The features are easily and intuitively accessible.

So twitter makes sense to me, and I love using twhirl, what can I say. I suppose I could delve further in to the technical issues that make it the one I like, but believe it or not this is not a tech blog. Except lately I happen to be focusing on a lot of tech. The Grandkids have not been puking on the furniture lately (they are older now) so there is no reason to blog my frustrations in that area of my life.

I still have a lot to learn to get the most out of twitter. And sometimes I use the twitter web site for posting and reading replies. But I do enjoy using twhirl. Watching tweets go by till something catches my attention and then continuing the conversation. After all, that is what I like to do, communicate.

Mac vs Windows

2009-01-21T11:28:00.000-08:00

I love computers. Thats it. I have been a big fan of Macs since the 90's. I was even lucky enough to do some sofware testing on a Next machine. I loved the Next system. I have also used Silicon Graphics, and finally my beloved Amiga.

I am also a fan of Windows PC's I used to be a DOS pro. I had image manipulation and video tools that worked fab in DOS. But of course with the advent of windows I became a fan.

I will wear a microsoft windows t-shirt and talk about the virtues of the osx. My mac fanatic friends sigh when I do this. I really do love working on mac. But, I am also a gamer. And I love playing games on a PC. Online first person shooters, real time strategy, etc etc. I am also a Microsoft flight simulator buff.

I played Microsoft flight simulator back on the Amiga. Today Microsoft Flight Simulator X can only be played on a Windows PC. Please correct me if I am wrong. But I love everything from the realistic navigation to just virtually flying. I just need direct x 10, and I will be in heaven. Also I use 3ds Max which so far has not been ported to a Mac. I have used Lightwave on a Mac and a PC and it was better on a PC. Maya I have heard works well on both.

Both platforms have their essential tools that I require. On the Mac it's Final Cut Pro. I love FCP, it's elegant. I came from old school linear editing. I fell in love with non linear editing with FCP. Yes Adobe Premiere is a very good program, but if i have a choice I will use FCP on a mac.

Photoshop, After Effects and Illustrator work perfectly on a Mac or a PC, but for some reason I prefer using them on a Mac. Although I do use them on a PC regularly.

I love 3DS Max, I have used Maya, Wavefront, Alias, etc etc but there is something about 3DS Max that keeps me coming back. It's rock solid as a 3D program.

If I had to choose only one system what would it be? That would have been a very tough decision to make a week ago. But now I know. My PC's power supply blew up and the motherboard cooked on my Windows PC. I have my Macbook Pro to use which I do love using, I am writing my blog right now on it. But dang, I want to go and do some serious first person shooting RIGHT NOW! I want to play on Microsoft Flight Simulator and virtually from Santa Monica to some small airport RIGHT NOW!

If I was forced to have one system it would be a Window PC. Sorry to my Mac fanatic friends, but it's true. It's a difficult realisation to come to because I thought I was always 50/50.

Well writing this has kept my mind off of some serious gaming, what do I do now until I have my PC back?

2009

2009-01-03T11:36:00.001-08:00

Welcome to 2009 everyone. So far it seems much like 08 to me. I am determined to quit smoking this year so any suggestions please let me know. I am hopelessly addicted. And quitting really puts me in a baaaad mood. So what to do. I definately want 2009 to be the last year of smoking for me. I am fed up with it except when I am desperate for a ciggy then it's fabulous. It is starting to effect my health, I am always clearing my throat, getting chest infections and as far as walking up steps forget it.

Roger and Me

2008-11-21T10:52:00.001-08:00

I am glad Obama is reading FDR. He needs help dealing with a troubled economy.

I don't know how I feel about the government and General Motors. Yes it's an important company to America, but what about things like flint Michigan and the job closures? Check out one of Michael Moore's films Roger and Me and then tell me for sure GM should get saved no questions asked.

For the workers sakes yes it should be saved. However GM should be brought to task for past sins.

The Iphone

2008-11-14T17:05:00.000-08:00

Guess what! I don't want an iphone. Why? because I can't use the onscreen keyboard. If you have an iphone, try typing with a sausage. My fingers are not small enough to enjoy an iphone. I can't type on it.

I need a keypad on a phone. At 56 I can text like a madman on my N95. On my friends iphone, I get gibberish cause it can't adapt to my hands and fingers.

My friend is a Mac fanatic. I am a gamer so the pc will always be a superior platform for me. Though I do love macs, especially the mac laptops. I told him if he did not get an iphone I would be dissappointed in him. He got one and he loves it. He even texts me, which he never did before. So the iphone is right for him, the skinny fingered git.

I do love Nokia phones. I've already blogged about some of the features that I like, but they are awesome. Maybe the google android will be cool if it ever gets off t-mobile.

So, do I feel left behind because I won't get an iphone? No! Do I feel bad that they did not design it for my hands and fingers? No! The other reasons I won't buy an iphone is mms. I love sending pictures and videos to friends. If I want to send a picture to my friend with an iphone i can't cause I know he can't send one back and I don't even know if he can recieve them. How could a phone made in the 21st century not do mms? Apple is usually ahead of the curve, but they missed this with the iphone. And what about video? So far you won't see any video clips on youtube done by an iphone owner. Oh for the iphone users mms is multimedia messaging, you know images and videos you can take, send and recieve on your phone. Oops not your phone, my phone.

The Election

2008-11-04T11:22:00.000-08:00

It's 7:19 here in the UK. I hope when I wake up tomorrow Obama is President. I just wish Martin, Jack and Bobby were here to see it.

I love the smell of bookstores

2008-09-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

I walked into the Books Etc the other day and what was I met with? Empty shelves. I know we are in the age of Amazon, but can't society support bookstores any more? Yea I buy off the net, but for me you can't replace the kinaesthetic experience of browsing books. I think it's the smell of books, being able to take books off the shelf, have a quick read, and know you bought just the book you wanted. And having enjoyed the whole experience.

When I lived in L.A. I was within a 10 mile radius there were at least 4 major bookstores plus 3 or more used bookstores. I used to spend my Saturdays browsing used and new books, heaven.

At the Uni I work at there is NO book store. Can you believe that, a campus of 15,000+ students and no book store. Blasphemy if you ask me. They used to have a tiny Waterstones, It had the books for the courses which was good, but beyond that the selection of fiction took up less shelf space than I have in my living room. And the library does not carry enough books for the courses I teach.

Now apparently Waterstones, a big book store in the UK has bought Books etc. Andy they will eventually put a Waterstones where the Books Etc was. But why can't a city like Uxbridge, a city with a University, support 2 bookstores? I would have another place to hang out on the weekend and it would keep my out of trouble (trouble for me is buying pc games).

Don't get the wrong idea about me. I am not a book worm or brainiac. I teach because of my experience in games, 3D and video. I am dyslexic and really did not get into enjoying reading until later (ask any dyslexic about not being able to see the forest for the trees, as far as reading goes). But I do love reading. It takes me a week to read book my wife reads in a day. But I still love reading and I really enjoy bookstores. I like fiction, like Anne Rice, JK Rowling, Patricia Cornwell, Chris Ryan, Andy Mcnab, Tom Clancy etc etc. And of course cool books about tech.

Yes everything is available online, and I don't have a problem buying off Amazon. I have had to buy my last 4 books off of Amazon. I have done so for a long time.. And I could go into central London(1 hour trip, but then I'd be in London). But nothing can replace the smell of a bookstore and the enjoyable experience therein.

ping fm

2008-09-02T06:40:00.001-07:00

Pingfm as I have been going on about is a cool central transmitting point for your blog, facebook and myspace and twitter updates.

My N95

2008-09-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

I feel that mobile imaging could be coming to age. It started with my Nokia N93 cause it had a decent camera. I took a number of ok images. It had a 3.2megapixel camera and a decent lens. It did not perform well in low light or challenging focusing condition, but given good condition you could get a very nice image out of the N93.

Now I have a Nokia N95. It's the older model, not the 8gig model. I have found it to be a reliable phone and the camera now with 5 megapixels works very well. The best thing I did for the phone was upgrade to the latest firmware. That really made the phone super stable. But on to the camera. They have improved not only the size of image that it take but it's less fidegty about non ideal situaltions. It still suffers in low light but not as bad as the N93.

One of the best part of the mobile imaging package is gps and the ability to geotag your photos. With geotagged photos, when you upload them to flickr or picasa, you can locate them on a map.

I had a student whose final year project was about geotagging mobile imagerey, I blame him, I am hooked. Have a look at a google map I created and you'll see why I enjoy this so much.

My N95 Images, geotagged on my google map

So can a mobile phone replace a camera? Yes it can replace most point and shoot digital cameras. No it could not replace a good digital slr. I really enjoy photography. I have had some great cameras in the past. The biggest problem with proper slr's or digital slr's is you don't always have your camera with you, but you always have your phone with you.

Have a look at the above link. As you can see the N95 does a darn good job with the images. I keep running into cloudy days (welcome to England), but overall you can get a decent image. Would I liked to have used a Nikon D80? yes probably, but would I have liked to lug it around with the grandkids all around, no.

The n95 has in built gps and i downloaded an application called location tagger. It does what it says, adds location data to the images in the exif data. Flickr is dead easy to use. Upload your photos and look on the map, Everything is nicely placed on the map in the correct gps position, go nokia n95!!!! Picasa also works once you work out how to upload the photos and keep the location data.

The cool thing about picasa is once you organize your photos, go to view map. While your in map view there is a "view in google earth" option. This exports a kml file. Then if you want to make a google map, , import the kml file and voila you have your photos correctly geotagged and placed in google maps.

Mobile imaging will never replace a good digital slr (will I regret saying that?) There are some things you just can't capture even with a good camera phone. But under the right conditions, you can take interesting, even very good photographs with your camera phone. And if your a nut case like me, enjoy the geotagging side of it

2008-09-01T02:06:00.001-07:00

Now that i have spent a few hours using Ping.fm I have to say that it is very very cool. It allows you, from a dashboard interface, to update any number of social networking/blogging sites. I am writing this blog from ping.fm, and it will automatically post to my blog. I can twitter from it, update myspace and facebook. There are more networks you can post to such as AOL, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger and I am sure there are more planned.

I was desperate to get a beta account and a big thanks go out to those that provided it. I feel a bit more connected now.

Whats the future of Ping.fm? widgets, mobile applications etc, I am sure if they are not there they will be.

2 net apps have really tickled me, twitter and ping.fm. I really like twitter. It's short and sweet, but keeps you in touch. I just have a hard time checking facebook and myspace, but now with Ping.fm I can at least send updates and appear to active on other social networks.

2008-08-31T17:38:00.001-07:00

What do you know. Sitting around and feeling sorry for myself actually worked. I managed to get a beta key for ping.fm. I am happy beyond belief. I now feel like I am on the inside track. Now if only battlefield heroes comes online my life would almost be complete.

ping.fm

2008-08-31T17:14:00.001-07:00

What is this ping.fm and why can't i have a beta code for it. Apparently it allows you to update all your social network sites. I have heard people talk about it, but I can't use it yet, cause all the googled beta codes have become obsolete.

This disappoints me terribly. I was also looking forward to playing battlefield heroes. Stated as being released Summer 2008. Well the summer is almost gone and there is no battlefield heroes, only beta keys which I am really fed up with cause I don't have one.

Why can't I be on the inside track of something like ping.fm or battlefield heroes. I spend so much money on EA games that I am starting to take this personally. I buy sims 2 and all the add-ons for my wife. Command and Conquer and battlefield 2 for me. I want to get the new Battlefield bad company but I might wait, just cause I can't play battlefield heroes.

The only non EA game I have is Microsoft Flight Simulator. If EA come out with an awesome flight sim then I'll probably buy it.

I will have to find some way of getting on the inside track. But until then I suppose I will sit here feeling sorry for myself not being worthy of a beta code of any kind.

Wheel of fate

2008-08-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

I was hoping that Obama would twitter who his running mate was before I went to bed. But I have to go off to bed without knowing who his running mate is. As an American living abroad it's interesting to see the interest in Obama. I think the UK is collectively holding it's breath until Obama chooses a running mate that gets him in the White House, then we can exhale, until the election. We'll be blue in the face waiting for the results, and if Obama does not get in we may not take another breath. Fox news is going to interview Obamas half brother in Nairobi, why not interview McCains ex wife.

What hope does Obama offer? Hope. Hope for the future of America. Hope for peace in the middle east. Hope for a fairer treatment of people at home in the states. I don't know if Obama can fill the whole bill of everything that people hope for, but at least he will try. Will the wheel of fate allow him to have a go at being potus. I hope so.

As my Wife says, hope is a very undervalued commodity in a time of recession, credit crunch and war. Hope gets us through the rough times. If we can but hope, we'll make it.

Obama is intelligent, well spoken and not perfect. Thank heavens for that we don't want a perfect person as a President. My wife and I think he is more to the left than most people think. Since I have moved to the UK, I have seen and heard great left leaning people like Tony Benn. So people in America, don't be afraid of the left. I think that McCarthy still haunts the subconscious of Americans, shouting communist! to anything left of centre. You can be so left as to be socialist, and still be very far from being a communist. Calm that voice of McCarthy inside your heads.

As you can tell I like Obama and I hope he becomes President. I'm tired of the good ole boys getting rich off of oil. They have had their run. Now let's get back to a president who inspires us. And for heavens sake Hillary and Bill please give your full support for his Presidency.

Hello?

2008-07-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

I talked to my step son the other day and he told me he was being made redundant. All the call centre work for the company going to to another country. I know this is a national trend, and I don't begrudge the hard working people who will get the work. I know we live in a global economy.

How much work will go offshore? And when does it become a problem? GM downsized it's car production and left Flint Michigan in shambles. You should watch Michael Moore's film Roger and Me. Many big companies took their manufacturing offshore, and now the service jobs are leaving.

Yes it's probably good for some companies to go offshore, like my step sons company. The problem arises when we reach a point where the people who used to buy those products or services are out of jobs because of off shore labour. And these people can no longer buy these products or services. What happens to company profits then? We need jobs to buy their stuff.

The service sector was going to be the new economic stronghold with so much less manufacturing. What now?

As Harley Shaiken said from News Hour with Jim Leher ""Let me quote a participant in a recent U.N. study about globalization. The participant said, "It doesn't do much good for a father to be able to buy a pair of shoes more cheaply if that father loses his job." And I think that's an underlying principle that's very important here. "

So what do we do? What will the new area of the economy be that provides a job and a future for my step son?

I am an immigrant, I went offshore for heavens sake. But not for a job. I hope my step son finds a new job, I am sure he will. Anyone out there want to hire him?

Photography outlawed?

2008-07-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

Students have been banned from taking photographs or video of anything on the Brunel campus without prior permission. Now they have to get permission via email. So, if they set up a day in advance to take photos, and the weather is bad or something then they have to start over. Some people have had 8 page emails in a response to a request to take photos.

This is driving me mad and I am not going to take it any more (ala broadcast news). Is it right to stop students taking photographs on their own campus? We should have a protest. Lets have a big photography sit in day? Yea!

There is another problem with students taking photographs in London. Some students have been stopped and questioned by the police. One Student was taken to the station and released.

I understand the security concerns. And in a way I am glad the police are on the ball. But what about society in general, is photography inherently dangerous? What about all the camera phones out there. They could be discretely taking pictures all the time. And with wifi and 3g, gps and geo tagging, they can be uploaded to the web in a few minutes, and located on google maps.

What to do? Unless the photographer or videographer is going about in a dangerous way or causing danger to others, let them be. What about the sneaky bastard on his Nokia camera phone taking pictures and uploading them to the web without anybody noticing?

What would Ansel Adams say? Brunel and society in general have to lighten up. Let us take pictures in peace. Let our photos go.

My Head is in the clouds

2008-07-18T05:57:00.000-07:00

Back in high school when computing was a mysterious world of the super geeks, and I was a wanna be super geek, we had access to computers, sort of. What we had was a series of terminals, in which you could execute a program or command, that was sent to a main frame computer somewhere. These terminals, just a display and a keyboard and a connection to a main frame.

There is some talk of going back to this type of computing, again sort of. Applications such as word processors could live on the net, and we would never have to install anything on our own hard drive.

So you would no longer need to purchase Microsoft Office just for a word processor. You could use something like www.acrobat.com, a word processor that is live on the web, no download necessary.

The new buzzword is cloud computing. This is what got me thinking about dumb terminals and net applications. The cloud is your email, calendar, docs etc that don't live on your computer but live on the web. So you have been using cloud computing by using hotmail , gmail and yahoo mail.

I am not writing this blog in Microsoft word. I am writing this on acrobat.com's Buzzword. Wow, an application named after what cloud computing is trying to become. A buzzword.

I think that the idea that you only need a basic computer with web access is a good thought, but for someone like me who is an avid pc gamer, it would not work. I will use the cloud, well google mail and google calendar etc. Lets hope the cloud does not turn dark and start raining on us. Heaven help us if there is lighting in the cloud.

The happening

2008-06-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

This blog contains spoilers for The Happening

I am a big fan of M. Night Shyamalan. Signs, Sixth Sense, The Village, Lady in the Water and Unbreakable were all fabulous films. Intricate plots, great characters, surprise endings, everything worked in his movies.

Signs was incredible, the main plot about alien invasion worked, the sub plots of lost faith found was moving. Joaquin Phoenix was awesome, "Felt wrong not to swing" was amazing to find out why he felt that way and how it worked out.

Sixth Sense was brilliant, I did not know Bruce Willis was dead until the very end. And it's worth watching the film again and again to watch what is really happening, great film.

My favourite movie of Night's is The Village. The tensions throughout the film supplied by the mysterious creatures in the woods, Adrian Brody's great performance and again a superb character created by Joaquin Phoenix. The star in that of course is Bryce Dallas Howard, her quest to get medical supplies was amazing and provided a great surprise ending.

I recently watched The Happening. What happened? The trailers made it look amazing. However actually watching the film was not. I think this was Shyamalan's attempt at a global warming message film. It did not contain an intricate lace of plot and sub plots or any surpise ending. Maybe some of his films did not do as well because they were too intelligent for the general public. Maybe he made this film in a way as answer to his critics, I personally loved his movies, and I feel he may have dumbed this one down. I read some reviews of the film, and most of them missed the point. They focused on the suicide aspect of the film, not the revenge of nature, which I believe is what night was getting at. The suicide scenes were definitely unnerving and left me feeling a bit depressed. They were dramatic, etc but after awhile, they just sort of wore me down. And a bit like my complaints about Spielberg's War of the Worlds, how did the main character survive all the way through and end up in a lovely little city with his family. It was as if Grandpa and Grandma did not know anything was going on and just wondered why Tom was late for dinner.

I can deal with hopeless films. I can watch apocolyptic, vampire, zombie, etc films where there is no hope at the end of the film. I think the most dramatic suicide scene is at the construction yard, bodies just flying off the building. Was this Nights tribute to 9-11? I think the reviewers were wrong and right about the film. It was not about people contemplating suicide, it was about nature getting pissed off and doing something to the people so they would commit suicide, trees 1- people 0. Also the movie lacked pacing and tension, when Night is so good at that. It just sort of droned on with scenes of grass and trees blown by the wind and Marky Mark running with his family. Ok at the end, the same things happen in France. After the film I was sort of glad i live in the city, and don't like going to parks. Just because the trees emitted something to take away the suicide inhibition, why didn't some people fight it?

Note to Night, please please just forget about people who don't get your great films. Go on a holiday, find some inspiration, climb Everest, go on a vision quest or something but get back or go forward to making great films again.

ok so I have not quite smoking yet

2008-06-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

Who among us has suffered at the hands of addiction? Well maybe I shouldn't phrase it quite like that but bloody hell it is so hard to quit smoking this time. Lets get this straight, well maybe not , will power, I used to have it. In the past I could put a 20 a day habit behind me and suffer silently for years. I quit for 5, 2 and 15 years at a time (subconscious mind jibes in "a quitter never wins"). Dammit I am not a quitter, but I really really want to quit smoking soon, not just now. Hmm I think i need a cigarette.

I have cut down though. Aren't you proud of me. Is Aren't a word?

What else is going on? I have been checking my social networking sites more than once a month. I am going to try and keep up and check in 2 or 3 times a week, for as long as I can. I get fed up sometimes. Yea I like all the people who are on my sites but I reach a point where it's ahhhh, I am leaving town, well at least I am not logging into myspace for awhile. Nothing personal to anyone, but I need to be on my own.

Basically I am an urban hermit. Yes I go out to work, am sociable, teach classes, give uni tours and generally try to be outgoing and helpful. But something happens when I get home, it's like it's time to pull up the drawbridge and keep the marauding hordes at bay. Now don't get me wrong, I really enjoy going out, but when I am at home, that's it. I suppose if you have read any of my previous posts, now with just me and my lovely wife at home, it is fabulous. We pushed out the kids, step kids and grand kids, only problem is, like Stephen King said sometimes they come back, but at least it's only a visit, and they go to their own homes... after awhile. Doesn't mean I don't love them to the end of the earth, but grandpa is grumpy and raising the drawbridge, so get going quick, before he turns into a werewolf or something

Cruel aren't I? Maybe, or at 56 I know what I enjoy. I like revving up flight simulator x and flying gatwick to glasgow on my computer, or play console/computer games for hours, and yes occasionally going out with friends, unless it's a full moon that is.

I especillay enjoy doing what I am doing right now, at home, just finished a Terry Pratchett's Making Money, and posting on my blog.

Take care til next time

The day is near

2008-02-16T12:50:00.000-08:00

Did I say I was quitting smoking on the first of February? No thats impossible. Well the month is not over so my resolution stands a chance of happening. We need the money. Someone in their giant carbon footprint SUV backed into our lovely little proton. They said they didn't see the car, well obviously they didn't, maybe they weren't looking.

The proton, a malaysian car can take a licking and keeps on ticking (old timex advert). That car has been the most reliable car I have ever had. Unfortunately it's so old (R Reg) that the damage from bigfoot backing into our car has made it a total write off. So no more proton.

We have driven that car all over the uk, in all kinds of weather, roads, etc and it just keeps going. It's only needed brakes and tires and 1 new radiator, but it never left us stranded. Well we only paid for brakes and tires, cause the poor thing never got serviced. An oil change every 80,000 miles whether it needed it or not.

We packed that thing up till the doors were bending out and the boot was warped and it just kept going and going. And it went well, any speed up the motorway you dialed in, it went. Any amount of heat or cold outside it kept going.

We loved that car, it was not flash, some of you may never have heard of proton cars (www.proton.com). Whatever, they last forever, or until some nunce backs into it.

So we have to save for a car so there go the fags. We spend far too much money on smoking, so it has to go. I think it's going to take me longer to get over the loss of that car (it was sooo dependable) than it took me to get over my ex wife announcing she was leaving.

I have owned 3 protons in all, all rock solid cars. I wish they could have made it as a brand, but maybe someday. Now as much as I would like a flash car if I can find another proton like the last one I will buy it.

Oh and about my resolution, no more smoking after February 27th or no car, so wish me luck. And I hate riding the bus, but I'll leave that to another blog.

Resolutions for 2008

2008-01-13T15:41:00.000-08:00

It's 2008 already. I've been in the UK for 10 years. And no new resolutions for 2008. I suppose I could resolve to quit smoking, but I have been planning on that for a long time. I have successfully quit numerous times in 2007, for at least 8 hours. Maybe this year I will quit smoking for good. It's expensive, smelly, and nowadays it's anti-social.

There's an old song where the chorus goes, watching captain kangaroo and smoking cigarettes now don't tell me, got nothing to do. Well captain kangaroo was a kids presenter ages ago in the states. And it's true it's hard to get bored if you have a pack of fags and tv, well sky tv.

Ok here it is, a resolution for February 2008, I am actually going to quit smoking then. It's easier to plan on quitting in the future and when you have 2 packs of fags on hand, but there it is a resolution, bit late for a new year resolution but a resolution nonetheless.

What I don't like is the how like America, the UK has jumped on the anti smoking bandwagon. Like Eddie Izzard said when they banned smoking in American bars, "no smoking and soon no drinking and talking either". They have banned smoking everywhere indoors, soon you won't be able to smoke in your own house, and they'll start taxing you for the air you breathe. The best program on tv about this was a raging anti smoker confronting a smoker in a bar before the ban. She told him off for polluting the air. He smiled and told her that his cigarette smoke does not have the same impact on pollution that her car does. That pissed her off. She said she needed her car, but he got his point across, her car is making it hard for everyone to breath, his smoke, well there we go.

I've seen it here and in the states where the government makes a big issue the individuals problem. With global warming (that needs discussing) they try to get individuals responsible for a problem that reaches far past the carbon footprint of 1 family. What about industry?

Now, if we actually were causing global warming or not, conserving resources is still a good idea. Breathing is a good idea. If everyone is so worried about our carbon footprint why aren't the car manufacturer producing hydrogen fuel cell engines that have no pollution now! The oil companies, producing nations (including Britain) want us to suck on the tit of oil for as long as possible, make us guilty for it, tax us, and keep it up as long as possible. It's good for the economy. In the mean time blame the small guy for global warming, start wars for oil (also good for economies), and hope no one notices. I need a fag.

U.S. Talk Radio has gone down hill

2007-12-16T18:03:00.000-08:00

I got a new pda. I would have loved to get an iphone, but the price is restrictive. So I got a palm tx. It works great. It has wifi, which I wanted and as an added feature the kinoma player can recieve internet radio station. After browsing the radio stations I found some of my old favourite talk radio stations from Los Angeles. KABC and KFI.

I used to listen to those stations about 10 years ago, when I lived in L.A. The hosts were always interesting and intelligent. There were politico's both left and right, but the hosts seemed to present intelligent arguments for thier side. Many of the hosts really did present both sides of the argument.

Wow, things have changed. I tuned into KFI and the program was about immagrants speaking English. The host was complaining that immigrants from mexico and other places that lived in the U.S. should speak ENGLISH. He kept saying this over and over. He cited references to Teddy Rosevelt, irish, german immigrants etc. It's one thing to ask people to speak english, but you don't have to mock them. Wasn't Texas and parts of California taken from Mexico in the first place? After the 50th "WE SPEAK ENGLISH HERE" I had to turn it off. I'ved lived in England for 10 years mate and you don't actually speak ENLISH.

So I switched over to my other favourite, KABC. They had a republican hard nose on. Now in my day the republican talk radio spokesoman was Rush Limbaugh. I listened to him a few times, he toed the party line, was funny sometimes and that was that. I could not believe my ears, the talk radio was mean spirited conservative talk. Very mean about liberals, telling everyone that if you vote for hilary you'll die waiting for health care like they all die wating in Canada. This host went on and on , very very negative about anything not neo conservative.

Again, living in England for the past 10 years i can tell you the NHS is not perfect, but I don't have to wait to see a doctor. I don't have to wait for emergency care. The americans like to put forward this idea that if they vote for national health, you'll wait 3 months to get help after a car accident. I happen to like the NHS.

After listening to both shows and getting completely fed up a strange thought entered my head. Maybe Fox News really is fair and balanced. Bill O'Rielly is a pussycat compared to the people I heard.

The good, the bad and the ugly hotels

2007-11-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

OH MY HEAVENS!!! I stayed in the worst hotel room I have ever stayed in. And I have stayed in some pretty bad rooms.

We were travelling and stayed in a horrible, dirty, awful, smelly room. It did not need an upgrade it needs an exorcism. I could not sleep very well on the first night because of the strange smell of the room. Ok it was a smoking room, but I think I know what a morgue smells like now. Thats how bad it was. I think the rooms are "sick". I did not feel well at all, and I was in a terrible mood when I woke up, so it must be haunted. And the smell started permeating not just our clothes we were wearing, but the clothes packed at the bottom of our suitcase.

Our second night was worst than the first. How could that be your ask? Let me tell you. Beside the general malaise of the atmosphere, we were greeted on the stairs by teenagers in their underwear. Fabulous. I don't mind teenagers, I was once one myself, back in the 19th century. I went to bed and was rudely woken up past midnight by loud knocking and slamming doors,
and this went on all night. The management did nothing, at all.

The only experience I've had worse than that was the time I booked a room in Mexico next to a roller disco. The room was lovely, the sound from the roller disco was hellish.

We have stayed in some dodgey rooms. Once when we lived in Walsall, my wife, daughter and step son went to London to visit an old workmate of mine. We booked a room on the net, it looked ok. You should never judge a book by it's cover. We should have realized this was not a great place because it was near Kings Cross. The front of the place looked nice. It's when they took us to our room that things went wrong. They took us down a number a flight of stairs into the dungeon. Back in the corner they showed us our room, oh dear. It had a basement window, with a nice view of peoples ankles. We dare not open the wardrobe because the doors were the only thing holding it together. The bathroom was essentially a very small cupboard in the corner of the room that made noise all night. The sheets were dirty.

The worst part was I went out to get some food, McDonald's. It was just past midnight and we were given a key to our room and the front door so I thought no problems. When I got back the font door was locked, bolted and chained. My wife could not open it form the inside, so I started banging on the door to wake someone to let me in. After half an hour, the manager, a crazy woman in her night dress was yelling insanely about why was I out so late, it was half past midnight. She was crazy, I was afraid. My wife convinced her to let us in and and then she laid into me. She was telling me off for staying out too late, for trying to get back in to get to my room, and all sorts of crazy stuff. She still haunts my nightmares.

Be araid, be very afraid!

BBC Cuts

2007-10-22T15:55:00.001-07:00

Oh for goodness sake. I think the labour government must hate the BBC. I think it goes back to the sexed up intelligence report by the BBC. What are we gonna do. The BBC is an important channel in the world today. I hope it stays that way. It sure aint perfect hey it's what we got. Yes there is influence over the BBC and what it broadcasts. However, BBC is not part of any corporate entity. That fact in itself makes the BBC a powerful force in news. I am not saying news owned by major corporations is tainted. But the possibility exists of undo influence from parent companies stopping stories. At least the BBC has been free to report, to make mistakes, except now the government just cut their funds.

And people are complaining about Jonathon Ross's salary. He has a fabulous chat show on Friday nights on the BBC. Ok, so he makes a lot of money. I pay my license fee he makes me laugh. Thats a good deal. So with a 2 billion pound shortfall what is going to be cut from the beeb. I can tell you what won't be cut, soap operas.

I have a solution. One of the best shows the BBC produces is Top Gear. I love that show. They do a great series plus amazing specials. I think Clarkson and company are going to have to start using product placement. Can you imagine the Stig test driving a fast car while drinking Coca Cola, and saying "refreshing anytime." (Coke send me a check.. look product placement in my own blog.

Oh wait a minute. If the Government is cutting 2 Billion from the BBC, will I get a rebate on my tv license?

Rule Brittania

2007-09-29T14:01:00.000-07:00

I have been living in the UK for almost 10 years. It's funny because at work some of my friends talk openly about the immigration issues the UK is facing. When I said I was an immigrant, one said, no your not, you just returned from the colonies. Even though my accent stubbornly stays American I have been accepted by the majority of the people I have met.

I have lived in the South East, Midlands and Scotland. In the U.K. there is a vast difference between people from the South, North, North East, North West, Midlands, Yorkshire etc. The accents are different, personal views, culture etc change from area to area. In some places the idea of driving farther than a few roundabouts is not worth the trouble. In others, commuting from Nottingham to London is common. If your an American wondering what it's like to live in the UK I suggest you read Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island. My wife bought it for me when i first came over and it proved a great read and invaluable.

I have only had trouble with 2 people since I moved here. And thats a heck of a lot less than in America. There is a troubled gentleman I see on the bus. He is convinced I am best friends with George Bush, work for the CIA and could get him a job in the states. Occasionally he gets a bit aggressive about needing a job in the states. Luckily, I moved so I see him less and less. The other person was harassing me in a pub, when I was trying to get drunk btw, for being an American. It's hard to argue about where your from, I suppose I should have told him I was Canadian.

I didn't move to Britain to have the word F Word bleeped

2007-06-22T15:31:00.000-07:00

What is happening to the lovely country I moved to. I am watching Jonathon Ross interview Iggy Pop and the BBC is bleeping Iggy Pop saying Fuck. Whats with that?

When I first started watching tv in Britian I liked the fact that you heard people swear. It's real. I swear, so why not hear it on tv. It was funny to watch various U.S. actors and such, who came on Graham Norton and other shows, and were in total shock when people swore on the show and no one took took any notice. It seemed to be liberating for some of them.

What the fuck are we supposed to do? There seems to be a lot of political correctness creeping into the society here. Or has it fallen on us full tilt like the sky? When I first moved here I experienced a culture that was very free thinking. I believe those people still exist, but they need to have a voice. One of my latest shocks was hearing that they were going to ban an advertisement phrase "Go to work on an Egg". It's a very old advert that was going to be run again but it was deemed wrong becuase the phrase does not represent a balanced diet. Bloody hell.

They want to charge the parents of overweight children as abusive. Does that mean that Coke will be outlawed. What about crisps? What about Pizza? Are any of these things that are less healthy to go to work on than an egg be banned? How far will the political correct police go?

I mentioned to my Wife I thought the society here in Britain has changed. She told me the World has gone down hill in the last 10 years. She asked me if I ever thought the U.S. would ever hold people in Guantanamo Bay. If anything I thought that the U.S. would have proudly upheld the Geneva Convention in it's treament of prisoners of war or even enemy combatants.

We have to feel guilty about driving to work, eating eggs, being overweight (like me), and whatever bugger else they come up with. But now they are bleeping the word fuck on BBC.

Maybe it won't solve all the probelms of the world, but let people swear on TV. It's a small concession to free speech. And who knows, with a bit more swearing in public maybe we can tell the politically correct mob to FUCK OFF!

Social Networking

2007-05-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

Social Networking. Well what else is an urban hermit do to?

Well I can keep in touch with people in other rooms of my house, is that good? And yes I can I can have a place for family and friends. Which is good.

I suppose the whole idea of social networking goes back to ICQ in the late 90's. When i entered the world of chat (which is so last century, btw) ICQ was the coolest way to realy socailly network and find out if friends were online. It was so social of a network then I met my wife via ICQ, Chat and Email. Net life seemed so innocent back then. Although my wifes friends thought I was an axe murderer when I was going to meet her in person. I remember back when yahoo chat was full of interesting peoplem and you could have an intelligent conversation or debate with someone. It was a lot of fun, and I met my wife (writing this 10 years later and still married).

ICQ and chat were great, that was great until the cyber stalkers /crazies came along. These were people who you thought were cool until you found out they were really insane (or axe murderers) or they sent you a picture that was weird or of them 20 years ago or worse. And then everyone logged into ICQ in invisible mode. Even then you had messages come to you cause the stalkers KNEW you were there.

Well, what can i say. I am still fond of ICQ though I dont use it anymore. Now we have windows live messenger etc. Myspace, Yahoo messenger and yahoo chat but no private rooms (where the interesting people were). But now the net is dangerous. The cyber stalkers were wacky, but not dangerous like today. I suppose the democratazation of the net means everyone can have a computer and the network, and that is good. I guess.

I still like to think about the days when ICQ was it. Though I like Windows Messenger and Yahoo messenger etc. Myspace is becoming old news. What is a cyber junkie to do.

The Couch, not the couch!

2007-03-01T17:03:00.000-08:00

I am 54. I have 1 grown child, and married into a family with 5 children. Now when kids grow up they are supposed to leave the nest have grandkids and as grandparents we should get to visit or we get visited. Not in my case. It's like the Stephen King film Sometimes They Come Back. And do they come back with a vengence.

My daughter lived away, got married and had a child. I used to visit, and life was good.

Well that was until she decided it was a good idea to come home, with the baby. My wifes daughter also came home with a daughter. The idea of visiiting the grand kids went out the door. They LIVED with us. Now I love the grandkids, but I am not of an age or of any sort of mood to raise kids again. So the grandkids think I am a bit grumpy from having lived with me.
Man was I grumpy.

After some more shuffling of relationships we had living with us in a small 2 bedroom house, Me, My lovely wife, my daughter, my daughters husband, my daughters daughter, my wifes daughter, her fiance and her daughter. This went on for far too long. And my wife and I spent most of our time in the bedroom because the house was overrun. Oh yea, my daughter brought her dog and cat too.

Just previous to the the onslaught I bought a new couch. What a mistake. I didn't realize I would have young children pissing, shitting, vomiting and whatever other noxious effluent they could think of depositing upon my lovely new dfs couch. The dog and cat were the only things not crapping on my couch.

I loved that couch, it was big, soft and very very comfortable to sit and sleep on. I envisioned my days off lounging on the couch watching tv. But that dream was shattered when I put my head down one day and smelled something awful.

Since that experience we moved into a very small 1 bedroom flat. It's comfortable for people to visit for about 2 days max. Then they look forward to going home.

There is this joke about a jewish man at a restaurant. He says to the waiter, taste my soup. The waiter asks, is it cold, whats wrong, is there a fly in it etc. But the man just says taste the soup. After a while the waiter comes over to taste the soup and asks where the spoon is, the jewish man exclaims AHA!!!!!

Well I want to have a few AHA's in my day. Some day when i am old and incontinent, i plan to visit everyone and SIT on thier furniture, when they complain that I piddled or worse I am just going to say AHA! Will they get it? Who cares. And wait to see the dog I will bring with me, he will be old and incontinent too, double AHA!

So if you see an old man and an old dog driving by your neighborhood practising his AHA's look out.

Diets, What are they good for

2007-02-24T15:33:00.000-08:00

I have dieted on and off for a lot of my life. Extreme low calorie diets, weight watchers, all protein, all carbohydrates, etc etc. You name a diet and I have been on it. I was heavy when I was young. The extra weight and needing to diet sets up a whole lifelong issue with self esteem, but back to diets.

The first diet I did was to restrict my calorie intake to 800 calories a day. I lost 70lbs in 9 months. I went from heavy to skinny. With me there is no in between. Even when I was boxing, running 5 miles a day and working out 2 hours at night, I was a bit heavy. Strong, fast and heavy. But whenever I dieted I just went to skinny. Whats with that?

Back to the 70lbs I lost. I did this diet at about 17. I kept the weight off for a few years. My weight normalized to about 150 for a few years then started creeping back.

Then for awhile I was a vegetarian. I was still heavy. I had a friend who fasted a lot and suggested that I fast to lose weight. Ok so why not. I would go on 5 day fasts, and some weight would come off. But then back to my vegetarian diet and even with a moderate level of activity I was heavy.

My weight crept up to about 190 and I decided to join the weight watchers cult. Has anyone been to weight watchers? Whats with those meetings? Ok so weight watchers works. You measure your food, and you lose weight. But the group weigh ins are a nightmare. I lost the first 20lbs quickly and was so happy at the weigh ins. Then my weight just stuck. I was faithfully following the diet, but my body decided that even with my measured food intake, it was not dropping any weight. This was was due to my previous dieting and the famine response (more on this later). So with my body refusing to drop more weight I got funny looks at the group weigh ins. The "leader" was sure I was breaking my diet". So what do do. Buy light shoes, that's good for a few pounds and 1 meeting. Then another weight plateau for a few weeks. Then careful use of laxatives and diuretics previous to meetings brought about another loss of few pounds, but my body is very resilient and caught on to my tricks and refused to drop any more weight. It's so frustrating to be on the diet, not lose enough weight, people think your pigging out, so you do. If I aint losing more weight then I might as well eat what I want.

If I had been happy with a 20lbs weight loss I might have learned to maintain it without undue pressure I might have just gone on eating thingnormally.

Well frustration sure makes you want to eat, especially frustration with diets.

I have dieted so much now that I can go without very much and maintain my weight. I have massive famine response rebound lasting years. Diets have also messed up my immune response. I was never allergic to anything. Then Bang! shellfish put me in the hospital, then Bang! penicillin put me in the hospital. What else is going to send me to the hospital. I love shrimp and lobster. I suppose I can do without penicillin.

I am tempted to go on a diet now. I am 54 and heavy. My body is too savvy to let me lose any weight even if I starve it. I also have a bad back, so most exercise is painful. I guess swimming is the future exercise.

I am frustrated just thinking of dieting. Quick I need a cheeseburger and a pint of Ben and Jerry's. If I had never dieted I would never had the famine rebound and would probably not be as heavy as I am now. I could at least still eat shellfish.

Lets get back to the self esteem issues I mentioned at the beginning. I suppose that's the real problem. Even when I was thin I thought I was fat, so that set up more frustration. I am happily married, my wife thinks I'm a sexy old fart. So never mind the diets. Forget the frustration. I think this time I will be happy with where I am. Get a bit more active and let all those fad diet authors go on their merry way (straight to hell). But I do miss shellfish.

Stepping across the pond

2007-02-17T18:39:00.000-08:00

I am an immigrant. Who would have thought this was possible. Had you told me even 1 year before I left the states for the UK I would not have believed them. But here I am almost 9 years later living away from my native country.

Someone said that moving is one of the most stressfull events you will experience, just next to death. Try immigrating.

Now I love the UK. I did almost the moment I landed here. However, if you visit you might notice that the English speak fast. My head was spinning trying to understand the accent and the speed at which people talked. My wife said she purposely spoke slower so I would understand what she was saying. I just wonder how dumb I might have looked, while being spoken to in a slow manner. But now armed with speedy talk myself, and knowing more of the nuances of the language I can keep up with everyone here in conversation. Now my friends in the states tell me to slow down. Boy do they sound dumb.

One of the other issues with immigrating is the exchange rate, credit etc etc. When I moved to England the exchange rate was 2 to 1, so for every 2 dollars I brought, I got 1 pound sterling. That was tough. Now with my luck if i want to go back to the states, we'll have switched to the euro or the pound will go way down and I will get screwed coming and going.

Omens to look for. If the housing boom is about to crash, just ask me if I recently bought a house, it will crash. If you want to know which currency is going to go through the roof, ask me, cause I just moved there.

I blog therefore I am

2007-02-17T18:16:00.000-08:00

Well I suppose it's time to start blogging. (sit and think for a few hours....) Since I spend a lot of time on a computer, do I really have time for any kind of life. When did I have a life?

Before moving to the UK I lived and worked in the States. Now talk about no life at all in the States. Working in the states, if I wanted to take time off, I had to look over my shoulder at the people waiting to take over my job, or downsize me or something. The thinking in most places I worked was, if he has time to take a vacation (holiday in the uk) then he is just not busy, essential, needed, enough. So in the states we had personal days, which I used for long weekends, that way i could keep an eye on my desk and at least appear essential. When I left my last job in the states, I had almost a month of vacation days which I never took. Well at least they paid me for the vacation time I didn't take.

I have been in the UK for awhile now and it didn't take long to learn to love Holiday time. Although I still tend to be a workaholic, I will take time off, and relax while taking time off. Who knows whats next?