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November 2003

advent photography ideas

here’s an idea for an advent photography project you could try.
take a photo of whatever appears behind the door in your advent calendar each day. this will work especially well with completely random cheap advent calendars.
for example, if the picture is of some holly, go and find a holly tree and get an interesting spikey photo.
if it’s something totally unfindable like a reindeer (if you don’t live in Sweden) then you could take a photo inspired by a picture of a reindeer (like a nice meat pie for example, or someone with a bright red nose).
let me know how you get on. i may have a go at this myself !

advent thought

allow me a Sunday moment …
The run up to Christmas is called Advent. Most people are too busy shopping to bother about the true Christian significance of Christmas.
What if you knew your life would end in a few days time ? Are you prepared ? What do you believe ? We need to think about this stuff, it’s not the kind of thing we can just wing at the last minute !
Christianity, like Christmas, is all about life and freedom. It explains the problem of mankind, but also provides a solution. Don’t miss it because you’re too busy shopping !
here’s a little sign i did for you. an advent advert if you like:
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media review

i don’t watch TV or movies much. but occassionally i will. i’m probably way behind the times on this, but Little Britain on BBC3 is extremely excellent. it’s also about to be shown on BBC2 on Monday nights for those in the UK.
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(photo from BBC website)
last night jane and i hired Being John Malkovich. it only took us 4 years to get round to watching it, but it is completely fantastic, particularly the first quarter when it’s completely random.
as for music, esther discovered she likes the Beta Band today and i rediscovered the Brian Eno’s Nervenet album.
we watched a documentary on Robert Wyatt last night and that was fantastic too.
yeah for music, tv and films.

glove

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x

i’m making good headway on my alphabet. esther spotted this one in a school playing ground when we were out with her friend catherine. they were happy to pose with the letter.
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catherine was cool. she looked at it and said “i suspect there won’t be any treasure under it”. it took me a while to work out what she was on about, but when i did i agreed with her.
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a threatening goodbye ?

i started the day with a trip to the emergency doctors to get some more antibiotics and eardrops for my canal infection. i prefer infections in my ear to where i used to get them, but there can hardly have been a clear two months in the last three or four years when i haven’t been on antibiotics. i’m nuclear kid.
i collected my prescription then popped in to Waitrose to get a paper. whilst i was in there i thought i’d check out their offers on beer as i’d drunk all my honey dew the night before to wash down my pain killers.
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i got talking with a chap at the beer counter who only drank Newcastle Brown Ale. this bloke was definately a biker type so i talked to him for a while then made my excuses.
i said “good bye, hope you have a good day” but he said nothing. as i turned the corner i heard him shout after me “be careful mate”. did he mean this along the same lines as “take care” or did know something i didn’t ? needless to say i took the utmost caution for the rest of the day
(paul daniels lives by and the lovely debbie magee (his wife) is often spotted in this same waitrose. she wasn’t there today though)

all new top of the pops

oh dear. all new top of the pops is as bad i expected it to be. new does definately not equal good in this case. i am gutted. the website is a bit better though
and i’ve got another ear infection. boo !
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update: so what was so wrong with it in my opinion ? well, there was too much messing about, chatting with the stars and general pointless smiling. and all the bands on the program were of the manufactured variety. the only nod towards good music was a short clip of The Darkness on tour in America.
it used to be the case that TOTP would bring you a variety of bands playing back to back with a mix of pop/rap/indie/rock/whatever else so you never knew what was going to pop up next and it made it exciting. for me at least it seemed to have sold out.
i guess the fantastic Later has taken on the role of the muso’s music show in the UK so they can afford to aim the main TOTP show at the teeny market. seems a shame though.
Interesting the second half of the new TOTP on BBC3 (digital) was much better but i think this was because it had better bands on.
i’ll give it a few more weeks and see what happens.

street cameras

we all know about street cameras, but here are some street screens. big brother is watching you, but sometimes he might want to communicate back. this is how it’s done.
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brother edd says

here is more wisdom from Brother Edd:
“i would download the whole world if i could”.
makes you think.

online scams

the dti have an anti-scam site which is quite nice.
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click cup for link
public service blogging at its best

ladder

someone has parked their ladder in the street. to draw attention to it someone else has drawn a massive white arrow. ladder drivers don’t need to park in car parking spaces. they could simply lean their vehicles up against a wall.
how do ladder learn to drive you ask ? obvious. you strap them on to the top of a car (usually an estate car) and drive round for a bit. they soon pick it up.
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a blue hair hat

i said they’d be no more pictures of me, but here i am yet again. this time i’ve managed to secure a blue wig from the same charity shop as everything else i’ve bought this week.
i’ve provided you with a desk shot (with the now ubiquitous cemetry jacket) and a head shot. i need to develop a proper smile for photos. perhaps i need media training.
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the wig is not some novelty item – it’s an actual proper wig with a an actual proper inside bit so you can get it to fit properly. Madonna used to take her stuff round to these local charity shops, so maybe it’s one of hers.
also note the tidyness of my desk in preparation for an office move in two weeks. more about this another day …

street comedy

walking through london has its hazzards. traffic is the main one of course. people trying to sell you stuff comes a close second. have you joined CUP yet ? you should.
this chap tried to sell me a wet Big Issue. he offered a joke a drier alternative. i said i would give him £1 if i could take his photo to put on the website. so i did.
i had just bumped in to an old colleague so he gave him some cash for the joke. i won’t repeat the joke because
1) it’s not very good
2) you might want to buy the joke from him yourself despite point 1.
3) i didn’t buy the joke, my ex-colleauge did, so it’s not right that i pass it on
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he hoped that the photo would bring us all luck. so good luck to you all !

congestion busters

here is another transportation device exempt from the congetion charge
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three seperate worlds

one chap was cleaning the outside, another the inside, and behind them was a giant poster of a lady. the outside bloke’s phone rang and the inside bloke checked his watch. all seemed very bizaare (like my spelling). two people so close and could even see each other, but totally oblivious to each other’s behaviour !
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glove

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selfridges window

bet you can’t guess what this is ? it’s a load of fridge doors covered in baby lotion. as seen in arty selfridges arty window display.
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accelerometer

what’s this you say ?
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it’s the window on my train this morning. the windows are double glazed and about 2 metres wide. this morning my window had water in between the two panes of glass to the depth of about 2 cm. Whenever the train accelerated or slowed down a lovely slow wave of water would ripple along the window and the angle of the water would change. it was really soothing and i watched it for the entire 40 minute journey.
they should fit them as standard.