Monthly Archives: January 2007

by | January 29, 2007

Bath




Bath Abbey

Originally uploaded by rutty.

I love holidays, especially city trips. You don’t have to go far to have fun, or even spend too long in your destination, but I think it’s very important to have regular breaks away.

This last weekend we spent one night away in Bath. It’s not even very far to Bath, but we managed to get a £26 special at a Travelodge and did some of the tourist thing around this rather beautiful city.

If you’ve never been you really have to visit. The forefathers and current local government have been very clever. They’ve managed to retain much of the charm of the local buildings and traditions even while progress has marched on. Most buildings are still built in the local Bathstone (a type of Limestone that’s very light in colour) and it just makes the whole city look very elegant and stylish.

There’s much to see but you must visit the Abbey (pictured here in an experimental long exposure shot) and the Roman Baths. There are plenty of other places to see too and I took hundreds of photos while I was there. I’m yet to upload many others but I’ll do that over the next couple of days.

It’s a must-visit place though. Get going!

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by | January 29, 2007

While my cornet gently weeps

Things have been very quiet on here for a while. I’ve had loads of stuff going on, mostly related to band, photography and girlfriend (not necessarily in that order) but it’s about time I added something new.

The weekend before last saw me competing in the Butlins Mineworkers’ Contest in Skegness. This isn’t a competition to see who can mine the most coal in a set time period, but rather a brass band contest centred around bands with a history of coal mining. My band, Carlton Brass, doesn’t (we’ve got the railways in our past) but as the collierys have dwindled so have the bands and so the contest entry has widened to encapsulate anyone.

Skegness is a little bit too bracing in January but this doesn’t seem to affect the temperatures in the bar or in the contest venues. We all had a great time despite the overpriced, shitty beer and howling winds. Some of the entertainment was very good (see my photos of the weekend HERE) and we were pleased to finish a very respectable third out of seventeen in our section.

I’ll revise that statement. We were actually initially disappointed with third place. We’d played very well on stage and were hoping for the win. In the end I think that second or third was about right but as we’ve had a lot of success over the years, and even won this contest two years ago, third place starts to disappoint a little bit. We’ll just have to cut out those little mistakes that cost us and win the sodding thing next year.

We’ll be back next year for certain. It’s too much fun to miss.

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Filed under General Chunterings, Musical Notes, Photos and stuff

by | January 18, 2007

The Burning Crusade




The Burning Crusade – Day 26

Originally uploaded by rutty.

World of Warcraft got better this week with the release of the first Expansion, The Burning Crusade.

Expect no end of pale-faced geeks to spending even more time sat in front of their PCs running around in a fantasy world hitting things with swords, maces and other pointy objects. At least, that’s what I’m going to be doing.

The thing is, this isn’t just a geek’s game. Blizzard tell us that there are 8 million people that have subscribed. 8 million! This is a hugely popular game and even though it does stem from the fantasy genre there’s a huge interest in this from “normal” society too.

It’s a social game. OK, you can play solo if you want but there’s a far more rewarding game experience if you group up with other people. In-game chat is integrated into the user-interface and as long as you turn off the General Chat channel then you can usually tune down the many clueless idiots to just background noise.

There’s lots of fighting of course. Much of it is repetitive, true, but if you’re in a good Guild or play with like-minded people then you’ll pass the time rather nicely. It’s not all about shiny loot and gold, although those things are nice too.

So, what of the Burning Crusade? Well, on Tuesday I kept out of the new high-level area on purpose and just started a new Blood Elf Paladin (like so many other people). You can see her in the photo. Yes, she’s a lady Elf but no I’m not planning on stripping her down to her underwear and dancing for cash. Well, not that I’m willing to admit. The new starting area for the Blood Elves is a little too cutesy for me but I enjoyed the first few levels and look forward to questing with her more. I’ve not really played a Paladin before – should be interesting.

Yesterday I went into the Outlands with my level 60 Troll Hunter. I spent the first hour or so just wandering around going “Wow!”. The new world is just stunning. With so much new content to explore I was stuck for the best levelling strategy so I just decided to do a bit here, a bit there and see what was about.

This is going to keep me entertained for months and months. Blizzard have done wonders with this plus they’ve surpassed my expectations with the upgrade – the servers have actually been quite stable and we’ve not seen numerous crashes and unending frustration where people can’t login for days. Top work that company!

It’s going to take me ages to level to 70 but what the hell, I’ll take my time and enjoy the journey.

Here’s to many days of seemingly wasted time in from of my PC!

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Filed under Entertainment, General Chunterings, Photos and stuff

by | January 15, 2007

I miss Toronto




We built this city

Originally uploaded by rutty.

Now that I’m really starting to get into photography I’m finding that I’m thinking back over all places that I’ve been that I’d love to go back and photograph. Right at the top of this list is Toronto.

I’ve got other more compelling reasons to visit – my sister does live there after all – but I really, really want to head back there with my 400D. My old Kodak was OK, but it really didn’t do some of the architecture there any justice at all.

Toronto is one of those new cities. It’s got hardly any ancient history. It has one castle, and that’s really just a large, posh house that’s not even 100 years old. And yet it’s these new buidings, these huge, skyscrapers and condominiums that I want to go back and see.

I love big, bold statements. Don’t get me wrong, subtlety is great and I love that too, but it’s the variety and beauty and sheer size of some of Toronto’s newer buildings that appeals to me. I bloody love them!

I was looking through my old photos and found this one of some rather splendid buildings in Toronto. As I’ve been using the GIMP a lot recently I decided to have a go at converting this one into black and white.

It turns out that my old Kodak Z740 really doesn’t like having the contrast upped on it’s pictures. As soon as I moved the slider I could see loads of noise creeping in. No problem at all though, I just kept on sliding until I got this surreal image. It looks like some sort of space ship!

It looks like I won’t get the chance to go back this year, but I’ll do my level best to get over there in 2008. I’d better make sure that I’ve got a couple of spare memory cards when I do go then…

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Filed under Photos and stuff, Toronto

by | January 11, 2007

links for 2007-01-11

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Filed under The Interweb

by | January 11, 2007

Rubber Face




Rubber Face

Originally uploaded by rutty.

My name is Dave and I’m a Flickrholic.

That’s right, I just can’t help myself. I’ve been a user for a few years now. It just started out as a bit of fun, something to do with your mates when you were bored. I met some nice people and we had a high old time looking at each others’ pictures.

Then I started to use it more and more. I became a “pro” user so that I could upload more often and get more hits. I joined loads of groups and met more people, all like me, all wanting more and more.

Now it’s getting out of hand. I spend all day using Flickr, I just can’t help myself. My other activities are starting to suffer! I stay up all night to see if I’ve had any more hits or garnered some more comments. I can’t stop taking photographs of myself either – click, click, click all the time. I can’t help it!

Oh well, at least it keeps me off the drink and drugs eh?

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by | January 11, 2007

Gimme the money!

Hurrah for the Lottery! It seems that I’ve been one lucky boy this last weekend – without even paying for a ticket I happened to get five numbers plus the bonus ball on Saturday’s UK International Lottery draw. That’s right – I’ve won £118,236!

So says this email:

THE UK INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY
P O BOX 1010
LIVERPOOL, L70 1NL
UNITED KINGDOM
(Customer Services)
Ref No: UK/9420X2/68
Batch No: 074/05/ZY369

WINNING NOTIFICATION

We happily announce to you the draw (#1152) of the UK INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY,online Sweepstakes International program held on Sat 6th Jan, 2007.

Your e-mail address attached to ticket number:56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/06 drew the lucky numbers: 15-25-29-35-39-40 (bonus no.11), which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category i.e match 5 plus bonus. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £118,236 (One Hundred And Eigtheen Thousand Two Hundred And Thirty-Six pound sterling) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03.

Good grief! I’m rich!

Shame it’s a scam eh? Not that it’s obvious or anything. However, it would appear that there are people dim, and greedy, enough to fall for it:

There seems to be lots of scam emails doing the rounds which tell you that you have won a jackpot prize in a fake lottery. Did you enter it (non pc version of this page)?

You’ll find links to examples of these emails (below) published without the writers’ permission, in the hope that awareness will, somewhere along the line, save somebody from being parted with their savings. Users who responded to their emails have been asked to send sums such as £7,000 or €5,625 as a “service fee” to receive their ‘winnings’. If you pay that money you then receive another letter, claiming to be from the Gaming Board of Great Britain, and with a forged signature of a board member, asking for €20,000.

So far, at least 10,000 people have lost their money – please don’t let the next one be you!!

Well done you!

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by | January 4, 2007

Serious face




Serious – Day 12

Originally uploaded by rutty.

I’m having a lot of fun with photography at the moment. I must have taken over 1,000 photos with my Canon EOS 400D over Christmas and New Year, much to the annoyance of all around me, and I’m loving it.

I’ve got loads to learn. I know some basics and I think I have a decent eye for a photo. What I need to learn are the techniques I need to create the images I want and the inspiration and encouragement from other people with the same interest.

This is why Flickr is so great. There are groups aplenty with which to share your lovingly-created images and no end of people willing to comment on them. It takes some effort to create and maintain relationships with these internet people, but like with people you actually know it’s all worth it.

I’m finding it a lot of fun uploading photos to my gallery there and sending them around a number of relevant groups for others to see. One of these groups, 365 Days has been a real inspiration to my photography with my new camera. You have to take one Self Portrait every day for a year and I figured that this would be a good way to try out all sorts of different methods.

I’m 12 days in and not all of my photos have been that great, but I have had a few encouraging comments. I’ve left plenty of comments of my own too, because some of these people are really good. I’ve been most impressed with the image I took today, the one shown here. I was really pleased with the black and white conversion job I did using the GIMP.

I think I’ll be struggling with ideas and motivation before too long, but I’m enjoying this group so far, and loving using my new camera.

I’ll get there eventually

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Filed under General Chunterings, Photos and stuff, The Interweb

by | January 3, 2007

Sad Davey




Sad Davey – Day 11

Originally uploaded by rutty.

Christmas is over and I’m back at work today. That isn’t the saddening thing for me, but the fact that I’ve had to leave my girlfriend to travel back to Nottingham is.

It’s been great seeing her over the festive season and a bit of a wrench to come back here.

The good news is that I’ll see her in 3 days!

In other news, the results are in for Porkathon 2006. I did quite well actually, gaining an impressive 8.8 pounds for charity! I’m a little behind the current lardy leader though, as one porker has somehow managed to gain 15 pounds over the festive season. Fifteen pounds! That’s over a whole stone in two weeks.

I reckon it was the booze that gave me the weight gain this Christmas. That and an unending quantity of pre-packaged Christmas fare plus some rather nice meals. I’ve eaten very well and got the distended stomach to prove it.

Still, it was for a good cause but now it’s time to start eating more vegetables and get some exercise. Tomorrow. Maybe.

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Filed under General Chunterings, I should be fat, Photos and stuff

by | January 1, 2007

Happy New Year




Celebrating with Guinness – Day 9

Originally uploaded by rutty.

Welcome to 2007.

So, how has 2006 been to you? I’ve had a great year all told. So many great things have happened and there’s been only one or two things that have caused me a little distress.

I’ve had some great holidays. In January we went to Rome. I absolutely adore Rome. I’ve visited some great cities over the years but Rome has really made a major impression on me. I could easily live there. The people and the food are just so fantastic, and it has to be one of the most beautiful cities anywhere in the world.

In June we visited Toronto, the third time for me and the first for my Girlfriend. It was wonderful seeing my sister and her family again and I’ll be counting the days until they visit the UK in July this year.

July saw us visiting friends around the North of England. There are so many places in the UK that we have yet to visit and we’re planning on another Tour of the North this year, maybe in June. This time we’ll be heading up into Scotland to see the Highlands, Lochs and wild men in sporrans.

The month of August saw my girlfriend suffer greatly with a serious back problem. Luckily she’s recovered now but it wasn’t so great seeing her in a hospital bed injected with morphine and other strong drugs.

My car cost me a fortune in 2006, the bloody thing. The catalytic converter melted on me while driving down the M1. I needed to replace both that and the exhaust (which was on it’s last legs anyway) plus a few other repairs to get it through it’s MOT. That’s £800 I’m not seeing again, almost as much as the bloody thing is worth in total.

December saw me achieving closure in my marriage – Decree Absolute. 2007 will see the financial settlement which might hurt, but it’ll all be done soon hopefully.

There will be a new car for me in 2007 for certain. Perhaps a nice 2 litre turbo-diesel Seat Leon which seems cheaper and better equipped then it’s rivals (Audi, Golf etc).

I’ve decided to set myself some self-improvement goals for 2007. I might have done the same thing before, perhaps nearly every year, but I made a few steps towards improving my eating habits and fitness levels this year so I’ll be pushing myself to carry that on.

I’ll also be trying to improve my photographic skills and have resolved to practice more on my cornet.

This year is going to be great, one way or another. Fate be damned, I’ll make my own fortune this year. Oh yes I will.

So, happy New year to all. Apart from the arsehole that’s stolen the wing mirror from my car this week. Twat. Hope you catch something nasty from your inevitable crack addict girlfriend. I’m nice like that.

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