Autumn turns, and the moon is born again

The blog title isn't leading to anything, I just thought it'd be nice to write.

In September I was down at head office doing a course in winter forecasting, which was pretty good. Like most of the training we get, it can feel that we're being overtrained, but I had a think about it and I realised that they could just tell us "if you see this, then you put this into your forecasts" but rather than do that, they teach "if you see this, then this is happening, which means this might happen." We get taught the background reasoning and systems at work, rather than just the effects. When you think about it this is probably why our training takes longer and is more expensive than other places.
I had a big hire car when I was down there, with an electric handbrake, but I did NOT like it, I can see it working with an automatic, but not safely with a manual.

Bit later, I was back south for Dad's 65th, for which mum and Becky had arranged a surprise party. Keeping a surprise from Dad is not easy but we managed it, when he walked into the room he was expecting to go in and have a half price pizza, not for there to be 50 odd friends and family from all over, grouped together for him. Which was brilliant.
I managed to see Pippa, Sara and Andi, and Sian and Matt while I was south, which was awesome, and when I got back it was Oktoberfest, again awesome.

We had the station Friends and Family day, bit like an airshow but small scale. Typhoon came round and did a very impressive display - that thing just has buckets of power! I was working for the start of the day, and did the weather brief for the Red Arrows, also got to watch them doing their pre-flight brief, where they dissected their last performance, and they are REALLY strict with each themselves and each other. Have a few photos:



Apart from that, not too much has been happening. I'm going to be moving next year, a friend is buying a house and I'm going to be renting a room from her; I've been working a lot over the road at the other station, mainly at a level above what I'm supposed to be working. I'm looking at potential job development, but have nothing concrete yet.
I've almost got used to that moment when you think "oh good, it's half two and I start work at half five." But I still don't like that thought.

Language

Kate sent something to me that I feel I must share, it's a little poem about the English language..

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead -
For goodness sake don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose -
Just look them up - and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart -
Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I'd mastered it when I was five!

(some sources add a final couplet)

And yet to write it, the more I sigh,

I'll not learn how 'til the day I die.

Hope she doesn't mind me reposting it here. There's an American reading it here, but up here "dead" can indeed be pronounced "deed", and don't get me started on the Welsh year, here and ear, all of which are said "ur" or saucepan in the Townhill dialect.

One of the sources gives the following:

The poem...is attributed to T.S.Watt (1954) and appeared in the Guardian...

However, in the following publication it is attributed to Richard Krough, 
see: O'Grady, W., Dobrovolsky, W. and Katamba, F.1997. 
"Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction_, London: Longman, p.614"

Interestingly, following one of the links trying to find an author with whom to credit the work, I came across a version on the West Cumbria Dyslexic Association, which has an option at the top to very quickly change the background of the page. I'm wondering if this would be a quicker way to test if anyone does find particular backgrounds easier to read from. Or, in the case of Mac Cmd+Opt+Ctrl+8 to invert the page, although I personally have issues reading white text on a black background (persistence of vision is a bugger) it does make the text stand out better.

Right, last bit of packing listening to Tori Amos on the radio before the hire car turns up, drive to Inverness via work, fly to Bristol, pick up another hire car, drive to Exeter for a course in winter forecasting/explosive cyclogenesis/polar lows then home in time for the last night of the Proms!

Right, been a while but here we go with a catch up. The little story thing pretty much went as I’d thought it would, thanks for the feedback though Rich! I’m sure I’ll have missed something that’s happened in the time since my last full post, but the main things since I passed my IAM (still woohoo about that!) are that I applied for a new job at work and did some walking.


Ok, maybe it’s a bit more complicated than that.

The new job wasn’t actually a new job but a 3 months secondment to a place called Rothera. To say that I was rather keen to go would be an understatement and pretty much all the indications were that I had a good shot at it. The position had been massively undersubscribed in previous years and I had Southern Hemisphere experience, winter experience and could put a tick in all the boxes on the application form.
But alas, it was not to be. Once the sift date had gone past and then a bit of extra time had lapsed I gave HR a call and was told that it wasn’t their department. Next day (hmmmmm, bit suspicious about the timing) I got the email saying that I had been unsuccessful in my application. I asked for some feedback but so far haven’t received any; there’s almost no point asking HR about it at the moment as we’re in the middle of a pay offer so they are all busy telling people that they’re not really getting a £5000 pay cut, it just looks that way.

So, one disappointment down, but now I may get the chance to spend Christmas with my girlfriend and some mates in Switzerland. So, not all bad.

Tash and Chris came up again for the Summer Ball, which had waltzers, a surfing simulator, laser clay pigeon shooting, FOOD, drink, more food and other posh entertainments (but not of the “masked ball” variety).

Chris and Tasha on the surf simulator. Yes, I did go on it, and did quite well, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that. Shame.
Week later we met up again, this time at a camping site in the Cairngorms, in preparation for the big walk – the Wolftrek 45 mile jaunt from Forres to Cairngorm. In the end I had to bin first, partly due to feet but mainly my knee was about to collapse; so I stacked at 17 miles, Tasha made 32 and Chris and Venora managed the whole 45 miles, swearing never to do anything as silly EVER AGAIN.
The time for their 45 miles was 19 hr 15 minutes, which was pretty damn good, but a bit longer than the fastest guy, who completed the route in 6 hr 52 min. ^-^
We had started out at a decent pace for the route, about 3 miles an hour, which we felt we could sustain, and which was about the right pace to get a time on par with the average from the last year’s pack. Problem was that everyone started off in a big bunch, mainly at the pace of the people who were only planning to do the first section. Pretty soon we were at the back, which isn’t a problem really, just a bit disheartening.
By the end some 40% had dropped out. Our team was the last to reach the first, second and third/last checkpoints but Chris and Venora finished in the middle of the pack, mainly as they didn’t get caught out by stopping in the comfy chairs at Glenmore Lodge.
Three days later I get a message from Chris asking if I was up for trying to beat the time next year. Ha! So much for never again!

Kate is up visiting, and we’re trying to successfully use the bread maker that Tasha and Chris got for me, but my first attempt was less than brilliant.

We also went to see Coraline over the weekend, a Neil Gaiman film that you can tell is one of his stories for children by the way it’s dark and quite disturbing. Good though, especially the cat.

I'm going to try something a bit silly

Well actually I've got a few silly things planned. For one in less than two weeks some friends and myself are doing the Wolftrek - a 45 mile walk ending up at the top of Cairngorm, within 24 hours. Another is below.
I don't know if I can write in a way that is readable but this little short has been buzzing around my head for the past couple of days so I thought I'd try to get it down and one I'd written it I figured I'd ask for your comments. Good or bad but please be constructive, if not necessarily nice...

So here it is, a story about first contact.
.........................................................

Assessing record – first contact:

“…We turn to our special correspondent on the scene of this, humanity’s first contact with another species! Janet, can you hear me?”

“Thank you Tim, yes, here we are less than ten years after the first messages were detected by the LISA observatory, and now we are waiting for the representative of the species known as the ‘Pa’adu’ to leave their craft and be welcomed by the UN delegation.
“There seems to be a small delay while the translation equipment is set up, and I am sure everyone watching will remember how the newly commissioned LISA orbiting gravitational wave interferometer picked up patterns in the background gravitational field, and the scientific furore surrounding the discovery that these patterns corresponded to the prime numbers in binary. It has been called the ‘defining moment of our generation’ by the world’s leaders; and yet even today some religious factions have decried the development of the Gravitational Communication Wave, or GCroW, as an affront to the divine plan for humanity, although of course the major religious leaders have distanced themselves from this view.
“We are still not sure what to expect when the emissary leaves the ship, as no visual transmission was been possible but all contact has led to the belief that the first life discovered outside of our own planet is peaceful. We know that the home-world of the Pa’adu is slightly smaller than Earth with a similar atmosphere, some 30 light years from our sun.
“Communication based on the mathematical system of the GCroW has led to what is now recognised as the decade of fastest development in computing, transport and engineering and there are great hopes for the fu… Hang on Tim, there seems to be something happening!”

“We’re getting a bit of interference here Janet, what can you see?”

“The vessel, transported by the Pa’adu to the prepared site, has changed! The once smooth shell is now folding back on itself and there is light coming from the inside. Two figures are emerging towards the waiting diplomatic party, they look to be wearing some kind of protective covering with what appears to be a life support system attached.
“I…I’m not sure if I can do justice to a description Tim but they look to be slightly smaller than a horse, with six legs and two arm like forelimbs, each ending in two pairs of pincers. They seem to have some kind of sensory centre like a head, at the front of their bodies. Of course as yet we don’t know if they have male and female genders, if they speak as we do or indeed anything except what has been released by the UN Extra-Terrestrial Research Alliance. Speaking at a press conference earlier, Dr Petra Davros of UNETRA told us to expect the delegates to speak through the translation equipment developed from discussion via the GCroW; and it looks like the first Pa’adu is approaching the translator.
“There seems to be something wrong, both Pa’adu are moving around, they’re saying something but the UNETRA feed has been disabled so we can’t hear anything. I’m trying to get closer but the security fence is preventing me moving any further.
“It looks like there is some discussion happening with the UN group. They seem upset and the alien pair are, yes, they are returning to their craft! I don’t know what is occurring but the UN delegates seem confused and rather angry. The Pa’adu craft is, I don’t believe it, it is leaving.
“I can see Dr Davros, she is coming over, Dr Davros, what happened?”

“Janet, hi, I… I am not sure. The visitors looked around, looked at us, said some things that we are not sure we translated correctly then left. The translation should have been accurate but it does not make any sense.”

“What did they say?”

“The parts we are most certain of were that we had not told them of our aggressive nature, of the fact we were hunters and hunters could not be trusted. The last phrase, I’m not sure, but it seems as though they found something wrong with the way we look. They have left now and I am not sure if we can recover from this diplomatic mess.
“We are seeking a better translation of the last phrase, as soon as we have it confirmed we will release a full press pack but if you will excuse me I have to get back.”

“Well Tim, I’m not sure what to say about the events of today….”

Record complete.
As you can see, class, this first meeting between humans and a non-Terran race went badly and it took thirty years before we managed to convince any other race that we were not as violent as they assumed. We worried at first that they had witnessed our history and were judging us by how we acted but eventually we found out that the Pa’adu and other were basing their assessment on our heritage and the final comments would be a sign of how so many other races would see us. These words show, possibly more than any others, that in all of the diversity in the universe, some rules of evolution and natural selection are indeed universal.
“How can we trust you? You are hunters, we will always be prey to such as you. You have eyes in the front of your head.”

.....................................

I'll be honest, I would expect most people's first reaction to be "wha?" but hey, I've written drivel on the blog before, why not this? Like I said, please feel free to tell me what you think. ;-D

Music, friends for the creation of.

A couple of my friends make music, me, I tend to just pretend to be able to play instruments.
Rich does his under Alpha Test Pilot, which I think I've linked to before, I certainly should have. Let's get some buzz going shall we?
In addition Julie, one of the guys from Blacks, has been gigging in the Cheltenham area for a while now and sounds pretty great. She's touring as Juey, with the ubiquitous Myspace page. I'd recommend anyone in the area have a listen online and if you like it then pop over and say hi. You could say that I sent you, but I'm not sure how that will really be received.
One thing I do know is that when I left Blacks we had a bit of a do and it ended up with Jon, myself, Julie, Kim, Rach and a slack handfull of others having a whale of a time. Was the best send off I could imagine.

If I've missed anyone else off the list of friends that make music please leave a note in the comments.

Sudden realisation.

Arse.

I'm 29.


I'll write more soon.

Tests, results and things that make you go wow.

Morning all,
I'm not a fan of paying for things, as a general rule, but sometimes it's necessary, and the TV licence is one of these. I'll go through periods of thinking "why pay if I spend most of my time watching advert funded TV?" then I catch something like "Planet Earth" or one of the BBC things that has no obvious market but is done to educate, inform and entertain; and I'll think "OK, it's fair."
Anyway, what's been happening? Possibly the biggest news for myself is that I took and passed my Advanced Driving Test!



I was a bit disappointed with a few bits, mainly my acceleration sense and cornering, but I was really chuffed that to be rated highly on observation and commentary. From what some of the Advanced Driving UK folks have said, it's pretty unusual to get a 1 on commentary so I must have been pretty good. :D
I've also taken the first module of my ECDL, passed that as well. I'd be somewhat embarrassed if I hadn't passed it. I'm going to try to get at least a module done each week, depending on work and when the assessment centre can fit me in.
Still waiting to see if I'll be able to get any money off my car insurance, but I did the course to be a better driver, not to save money.
Aside from that we're still waiting for our pay deal to be approved by the Treasury, this is the deal from July last year and includes our new role profiling, which is also delaying us finding out how we can progress in the job.
Went to see Star Trek last weekend with a mate from the mess and it was FANTASTIC!!!!11!!one!! I went squee and w00t (difficult to pronounce zero but I did it!) and had many geek joy moments (which I call geek-gasms). I'm tempted to use some of my budget to see Angels and Demons, purely for scientific curiousity of course, but I think that can wait.
Made it into the mess on Friday, it was a families happy hour so the rowdy behaviour was delayed until later on in the evening and ended up making sure a mate got back safely to their room before crashing on the sofa. I think there should be a rule that any and all sofas must be comfortable to sleep on, or if not, a sleep-able one must be provided! Woke up with one hell of a crick in my neck.
Chatted to Kev in the US for a bit last night and he told me about a little something he and Beth put together:



Which made I laugh!

The Planet Earth program has just started to feature Ascension Island, and it's a bit weird to think, "I've been there." Not for long, I think I've spent about 4 hours there in total, but even so, it's an odd sort of thought. I'd like to go back, but not for too long, the routine there would probably numb me after a while. Maybe a couple of weeks before heading back south.
If anyone is on Facebook please find me and join my Viking clan! PLEASE! I've only got a few chieftains on it and I'm getting picked on! You don't have to do anything after joining. Wow I sound lame.
Anyway, last night I was watching Eurovision at times, while flicking over to NCIS and a few other channels, and realised that I didn't know where the hash key is on the Mac, turns out I'm not alone, it's alt+3 which gives # but it's not shown on the keyboard and the "easy" way to find out that was suggested involved going through half a dozen menus, none of which was exactly obvious. And yet that still makes it more logical than some of the bits on the new system we're using at work.
I did find myself twittering the contest, reading other tweets, texting a friend in the Lakes, using the interactive services (sing-a-long-a-eurovision, the translations were brilliant!), chatting with a mate in the US and generally being an interactive sort of guy. We're not friendless, it's just most of them are hundreds of miles away.
Well there's a Green Day special about to start on TV so I'm going to slap the surround system on loud and enjoy it!

Friends, girlfriends and driving. Not all at the same time.

Earlier this month my friend Swiral came to visit, which was brilliant, then a couple of weeks later my girlfriend Kate finally made it up to visit, which goes without saying as superb.
While she was visiting we went up Cairngorm - taking the train as there was still too much snow on the ground and Kate didn't have winter kit with her. That and it was blowing about 40 mph and was -2 C in the carpark, let alone 1000 FT higher up the mountain. We did wander outside the doors at the top, but it was gusting around 60 mph and dang cold there, so rather than walking up to the summit we went to have some (somewhat over priced but rather good) food.
Kate told me that she loves castles so I told her that we were going to go for a drive, without telling her where we were heading. Our destination, the most photographed castle in Scotland, Eilean Donan. Featured in Highlander, The World Is Not Enough and almost every other film made in Scotland in the last 50 years. And no, it's not on Loch Ness - that's Urquhart Castle.

Worth a visit if you're up here. Worth a trip if you're not, but I think next time I'm going to either get a bigger car beforehand or hire one for the duration.
It was more wonderful than I can say to see Kate again, and it felt like she went home far too soon, but hopefully she'll be back soon.
Just afterwards there was an IAM (local advanced motoring ground) fun day at the local skid pan and driver training centre. We did a bit of skid pan work (as I'd done some a few months before the instructor skipped the instruction part and went straight to the "I'm not going to tell you what sort of skid I'm going to use, just correct it." part. Great fun actually), a bit of HGV work and driving and reversing a trailer.

As I got my licence after 1997 (about 7 years after 1997..) I can't legally drive with a trailer so I have no experience of driving or reversing one. Turns out, I'm not bad at it. Or at least in the situation we were using I did OK. All I need now is to get someone to cough up the £300 for a trailer licence for me. One of the things that made the day a bit more difficult was the presence of a herd of cattle, wandering all across the driving area and generally licking the other cars.

So, apart from some great cartoons and some "stuff" at work, that's been about it. I might be posting more about what's going on there, but for now let's just say that I'm not a big fan of the government, especially the treasury...
In closing, I'd recommend the New York Times best seller Turn Coat, but do read the rest of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher first. And listen to Invaders Must Die by the Prodigy. No, I'm not on commission. Yet.

April, fool.

Yesterday being the first of April there was a fair bit of pressure on us to try to do something "funny" at some point. This was a problem. I was trying to think of something that I could do but nothing presented itself.
I was running out of time.
I drove over to give a brief at one of the squadrons, got ready with the usual banter. They asked what April fools joke I'd be doing and I responded with the usual "I would but as a corporation we have no sense of humour" (Men in Black misquote FTW!)
Got to the end of the presentation and on the last slide it came to me.
"For Friday we've got a front moving in from the west; and next week we've got the TV weather girls coming up for their routine defence rotation."

I managed to dead-pan the entire thing and the pure joy on the faces of the guys was beautiful. They started planning to re-arrange time off and asking me details such as which girls, how long they were staying and would they be visiting the mess?

After a few seconds I looked up, smiled and simply said, "Gotcha!"

Much good natured verbal abuse ensued and as I left the briefing room I heard someone (might have been the boss) clearly enunciate, with a hint of begrudging respect, "Bastard!"
(Today the squadron boss admitted he had been hooked nicely.)

Didn't quite work as well with the other squadron, but then again I'm not sure if they realise it was a joke...
I'm not going to say which squadrons were involved but I think it's fair to say that I am pretty dang happy with that one.

Identity

We had another directive at work telling us that we shouldn't put any information on the web that could allow anyone to identify who we are or where we work.
OK, fine, I can see why, but given the work we do, and who we work for, sometimes this rule doesn't make sense.
Take my mate Simon for example, he's on the BBC at times and has a photo profile on the BBC homepage. I've been on "national" radio - admittedly it was Falkland Islands radio but was still broadcast across the Islands. It did result in my being recognised by voice in Stanley (woohoo, I'm famous!!!!) but back here I'm much more anonymous.
I don't think anyone would mistake me for an official viewpoint about anything, in fact I'm pretty sure I said as much in one of the early entries, but I'm not going to blatantly state who I work for. Besides, I'm sure I've been oh-so-subtle and no one could possibly guess... ;)

Terror, it's about 3 foot high!

Today, I learned a new type of terror.
I had to give a talk about the weather (and my job) to a group of Primary 2 children - ages 5-6. 25 of them. I'm not really that good with kids, so trying to aim the talk at the right level was hard enough, working with the teacher to control the children was even worse and I made the usual mistake - open questions! Ah, I'm a fool!
I was told, "never ask questions with more than two answers," and "never ask any question that could lead to a story about the weekend," but I ended up doing exactly that... Not horrifically but I guess I'm just not cut out to work with sprogs very much.
Having said all of that, I actually think it went quite well. I've got no idea what a good lesson is with kids that age (should have asked Kate for advice!) but their teacher seemed pretty pleased. I'd taken a load of the old school met kit that we have as back-ups, sunshine recorder (looks like a crystal ball on a stand), an "aspirated psychrometer" (two thermometers with a clockwork fan attached), hand-held anemometer (wind measuring thingy in black Bakelite - very 50s retro), small Stevenson Screen, satellite images and charts.
I had a few print outs of my favourite images such as a global map with nothing on it then ask the kids how many lightning strikes they thought would have happened in half an hour world wide (they thought 31) and then show them. In this case I'd printed out another chart with the strikes shown, and there were a few hundred at least. Certainly impressed the teacher, and I think the kids liked it.
So, although not a full win, I think I came out ahead. If nothing else when the children came in and saw all the kit laid out one of the lads said , "he's got cool stuff!" I liked that kid then.

Well, apart from that, I've had a couple of chances to get some pictures from work, and I think a few of them were alright. Comments welcome.
Firstly a Pax (passenger) transport that popped up:

Then a Merlin:

Then a Hawk (in this case from the centre of aviation medicene):

And finally some of our guys in the sun:

I need to use a bit of a faster shutter speed but had dropped it to get a bit of blur on the blades.

The new marketing slogan for the north of Scotland

Randomly at work we were discussing press-gangs and one of the guys was saying that they were very active in the local area for the Navy. He pointed out that you needed experienced sailors and couldn't just grab people whilly-nilly in London, rather you had to come up to places like this where "the streets were awash with seamen."
At that point the conversation descended into fits of laughter...

Broadband, or how I learned to stop worrying and love t'interweb

Either today or tomorrow my parents should be getting connected to broadband. We've been working at getting them to do this for a while and they've finally decided it might be worth while. Principally for mum's studies, but I think they're going to find some of the wondrous things online. Thing is, I'm pretty sure that my long list of webcomics and blogs won't be exactly what my parents are looking for, so I'm going to list a few sites I visit lots or find useful and if anyone else can think of some sites that might interest people a of a slightly older persuasion that are interested in theology, search and rescue (dad's getting more and more involved with the Severn Area Rescue Association), or things like that; please stick the tube addresses in the comments.
So here are a few I think my parents will like/use:
The BBC news site.
The Met Office site (OK, obvious, but should be improved soon).
My Flickr photo page.
Bad Science - Ben Goldacre's excellent blog.
The ever marvellous Snopes.
The AA (useful for route planning).
Google - obvious but still good, and I think mum may find this search useful.
For dad, a Facebook link for SARA.
Some lovely Satellite images from NOAA.
Some bits about the Archbishop of Canterbury.
I couldn't find an address for the theological college but I think mum already has the link for that one.

Of course there's more and I think they should have a list of their own bookmards, but using dial up I don't think they will have found the wonders of the net just yet. So if any of you can think of other sites like these that might be of interest, please drop the links! Cheers all.

**edited to add**
By the way, one week in and I've kept off all booze and got in some exercise each day. This weekend will be the first big test though...

Lent

It's Shrove Tuesday and I'm not having any pancakes.
I'm sure everyone knows the traditions behind today and tomorrow (Ash Wednesday) and some know more traditions than others but the clearing of the fat from the house to allow easier fasting is similar to what I'm doing with a vodka martini right now. A LARGE vodka martini.
I suffer from a few problems, an excess of body and a lack of funds and will power (actually these three are the same thing) but I realised quite a while back that the ability to change these is within me, and not doing anything about it is my own fault as well.
So.
Booze is my biggest excess so I'm giving it up for the 40 days (and Sundays - see, people forget that Sundays don't count, especially Refreshment or Mothering Sunday) but as a priest I used to know once said, Lent is also a chance to start something.
With this in mind, as well as not drinking from tomorrow until Easter I'm going to finally get off my arse and start exercising properly. I should probably keep a track online of what I'm doing, what with this now being in the public domain and my friends being likely the best thing to keep me on track.
I've got a copy of the RAF fitness test downloaded - well, I say that, I mean I've got a copy of the beep test that the RAF use - so all I need now is will power.
Nuts.
Which is pretty much where if I'm not careful it's all going to go wrong. 40 days (+ Sundays) isn't that long and I should be able to see some results in that time but (as I just realised from the Simpson's) when I look back on Lent this year I want to feel like I've accomplished something. Admittedly I want to be able to look back on every year, and one day every day, with satisfaction that I've done everything I can with the time I've had, but one step at a time.
If this sounds a bit fluffy and touchy-feely, it is, but I blame Snopes, and in particular this Snopes article and , for that. Steve Jobs' comments on the old expression about living every day as if it was your last made me realise what that actually meant hit home; but maybe not enough to make me act on it yet. That can change. Again, the ability to change or to not rests in myself and I can't blame anyone except myself for me not changing.

Anyway, apart from that, enjoy some steampunk stuff: case mods, monitors and keyboards (Dear Santa).

Oh, four tuna!

One of the blogs I watch is Amanda Bauer's Astropixie, and from there Phil Plait at Bad astronomy pulled the alternative lyrics to Carmena Burana. Well worth a look, laughter is almost guaranteed.

Sunday Driver

As I've previously posted, I signed up with the local IAM group and we've got weekly lectures with observed drives every Saturday. Think of it as like taking your driving test every week for two and a half months. Yeah, that much fun.
Parallel parking, reversing round corners and turning in the road, well I'll get better at them. I've been getting good advice and am developing nicely but we're supposed to get as much practice as we can during the week and I normally cycle to work. I can easily do a week without driving under normal circumstances but now have to get more "wheel time."
With that in mind after last Saturday's drive I went for a bit of a spin on Sunday. My plan was to pootle through the Highlands and maybe find myself on a certain road I know. We've had, as you might have noticed, a bit of snow but I couldn't afford to hit the slopes (which is a shame as the guys on XV said they've never seen better snow in Scotland - gits) and the mountains were covered in a lovely layer.
Just south of Elgin I noticed something that made me stop and get out my camera (brought with me for just this reason):

Highlan' Coos!

At Cromdale there is a narrow bridge with traffic lights to stop people smashing into each other on the bridge, there was no one coming but the lights were just changing to red. I stopped (smoothly and controlled), waiting for the lights and then noticed that right in front of me was a tiny little rabbit that crossed in front of me. For the life of me it looked like the lights had changed to let a tiny little rabbit cross the road. Made I laugh it did!

Scooting through the Highlands (oh it was lovely!) I did make it to the road I'd been aiming for - the B9007. It's quite possibly the best road in the UK. Smooth corners and wonderful scenery. Don't believe me, well here we go:

In the summer it's a truly epic road, in the winter it's epic and snowy. The view is spectacular and the road curves and rolls and flows wonderfully. If anyone wants to try it, from Carrbridge (just north or Aviemore) head east and take the Forres road marked "B9007 - not gritted in evening." I think I might have another go on the road with the video camera mounted on the front of the car, any excuse basically.
And that's how I spent my weekend. This Sunday I've got work. So not so much chance to drive, but there's always Saturday.
Shame about the rugby though...

After too long a time, THEY"RE BACK!!!!!

The Prodigy's new single, The Omen, is out for download today.
I caught the video on channel 4 a few weeks back, thinking, "it's been a while since their last new stuff, can they still make me want to shout loudly and jump all over the shop?"
Oh yes.
Oh yeah gods yes.
You can catch the video at a few places, including the MTV Two Video chart, where we can all click to vote and get some gratuitous hard dance back in the video charts! Or the Prodigy official site, which is full of angry sounding shouty goodness.

Course, knowledge and ignorance.

This last week I've been on a two day first aid course specialising in outdoors first aid. It ends up covering all of the Appointed Person standard but there are differences. For example, the current thing is that after checking for Danger, Response, (shout for help) Airway, Check for breathing, you then go for help. In the situations we're looking at help may be 4 or more hours away so we have to adjust things slightly.
On Thursday I went (through the snow) so the first lecture for the local Advanced Motoring group and realised I've forgotten LOTS since Yorkshire and got into far too many bad habits. We had the first observed drive today and the local group seem to do things slightly differently so the previous ones, but there are certain things that are common. I'll be adding to the Student Room AD thread to cover some of the things I've picked up.
Today the six nations starts (WOOHOO!) and there's a double bill of Firefly on Sci Fi as well (Double WOOHOO!). Following a link I came upon Rock, Paper, Cynic, and in particular, this comic. Lots of the comics made me laugh, some made me think, that one did both.
And finally, following another link, a way to see minimalist Flickr photo streams, type the browser address ihardlyknowher.com/mountainmetman or replace the last with the Flickr name of who ever's stream you want to see. Or your user name, whatever's good.

Sunday morning grin

Just had to share this one from UserFriendly.org.
I may well put up something about how ill informed (trying not to say stupid there) the worries of strangelets and rogue black holes are, but right now I'll let it slide.

Aside from that, it's a Sunday morning and while I'd rather be asleep for another couple of hours various doorbells rang earlier, none of them mine. But it's still a lie in from my normal 5 am wake up (or start to wake up). With me being such a morning person, it's probably a good thing that no one sees me until almost an hour later...
Well, time for the Lie In on Radio 1, probably the best two hours they do.

Less drained, now just slightly culverted.

Much shorter day at work today.
Feeling better and wondering who'll be called in to cover the night shift tonight.

That's it. So to stop this from being the shortest entry ever (after the talk like a pirate day one), have a few youtube clips:







Thanks to Sian and Matt for pointing out the "Torn" one.

Drained

At work, regional guy went sick so I stepped up and took over the regional desk. Means I was working "above my level" again covering pretty much everything happening in Scotland. Actually not as bad a deal as it sounds, I've done a shift on the desk before, but this time I was also looking after the local stuff as well. Partly, this was a great challenge; partly this was a pain in the arse.
I like work that stretches me, which is part of the reason I went down to the Falklands, but conditions were grim. I ended up playing that plate balancing game of watching the weather, doing everything I could to keep the guys informed and try to find options for them. Isn't exactly difficult, it's just tiring.
I've just got home after a shift that lasted 12 and a half hours without proper break (my choice, so doesn't break the European time directive) and I'm on early shift tomorrow (which does). Again, my choice to do the early start, the other station forecaster offered to swap start times but I felt like holding the moral high ground.
Ended up riding home in a shower with wet roads kicking water all over, which wasn't all that much fun - the showers were due to finish an hour before I left but the low pressure went a bit too far north (gave us the stronger wind as well) and they continue now.
Doesn't help to get back to calls from banks, insurance agents and the like. There's a limit to how often I can say "no, I don't want to insure my house with you," or "yes, I sorted that out ten days ago, yes, with your company, yes it's on your records. Have a look, yes I'll wait.....yes, that's right, ten days ago. Yes. Goodbye."
On the plus side, it sounds like Obama is using Barlett's speech writer and the Prodigy are playing Rockness this year. Don't know if I'll be able to get tickets, or if Mr Obama will be able to carry out his plans, but I think he's got a chance.
But with the lack of better things to say I'll grab a bite to eat and hit the sack. Night all.

Painfully true

I was thinking about Twitter, I mean Obama, Neil Gaiman and Schlock use it, but I think Ctrl+Alt+Del has hit the nail on the head for me. Okay, Mr Obama only updated until he won, and that does somewhat reek of plugging into the zeitgeist, but none the less...
Also on the "painfully true" side of life, we've been receiving some odd faxes at work, a pressure and a correction (getting the value that you read corrected to sea level) on a blank bit of paper. We thought it was from Garvie range as we were expecting observations from them, faxed across every hour. I had a thought, prompted by Dilbert, and yes, the guys at range head had been faxing the observations the wrong way round on the fax.

On a different note, one of the blogs I follow has had some brilliant posts recently, Amanda Bauer's AstroPixie blog had this to say. And I can't top that really.

Well, almost.
Head over to Schlock Mercenary soon (especially if you are eligible to vote in the Hugo Awards!), Howard Taylor has put up a pdf of a Schlock book up for consideration for a category in the Hugos and we lucky people can benefit from his largess by getting our grubby mitts on a book of comics in handy pdf format.
If that's not cool then I don't know cool. Now please excuse me while I listen to Mantovani and crochet a cardigan in beige!
Or, as it's Wednesday, check out Girl Genius, xkcd, Penny Arcade and Kimono's Townhouse.

New Years Eve Eve.

Last year we (Tash, Chris and a few of Chris' relatives) were up around Loch Ness doing stuff. This year we thought we would head up to North Wales and do a two or three day jaunt on Calder Idris or something of the ilk. Just after Christmas Tash and Chris popped over and they (Chris especially) were looking grim. So we decided to bin the big walk but had plans to try a smaller hill for fun. We settled on Pen Y Fan, the highest hill in southern Wales. Neither Chris or myself had made it up, I'd almost got to the top with a Duke Of Edinburgh's group from uni but we (the supervisors) decided it was too windy to push right to the summit so we stacked early.
As it was, Chris was still too ill to join us so Tash, myself and her dad started off at 7 (which, given my love for mornings, is remarkable in itself), drove to the hill and walked up, starting boots wet at just gone 9.
It was cold and we were in cloud almost from the get go with about 50 m visibility, people heading down told us that the top was clagged in and frozen. I knew we were in an high pressure situation and was hoping that the inversion (where the temperature increases, the air dries out radically and the cloud is capped) would have been below the summit but ahh well. One fell runner passed us (still don't understand them) and many, many people, often with dogs.

It was cold enough that the dogs had ice eyebrows and my eyelashes froze together. We stopped for a break at the subsidiary top then carried on to the summit, at which point, things changed.
Just as we got to the summit the inversion dropped to our level, the temperature started to increase, the visibility increased to about 60 km and the cloud cleared. I'd never managed to be above the clouds like this before and the beauty was just sodding jaw dropping!

Apart from a "little" navigational mistake involving two paths and 20 minutes extra walking we made it down comfortably although there were SOOOO many people on the hill. Seriously, there must have been a couple of hundred people on the paths that day. Chris would have absolutely hated that part of the walk.
Next day being NYE I drove up to Tash and Chris', about 320 miles including about 1.5 or 2 hours stationary in a traffic jam on the M6. They were both still ill so I saw in the New Year with the cats and a few beers. Shame I couldn't make it down to London when Tris called, that would have been epic! I think next year I'll hit a city/biggish town for the parties. Might be working for Christmas, but if I am I'm going to bounce over to Inverness for Hogmany. Might be elsewhere, but we'll see what happens, neh?
So now I'm back home, with at least one of the viruses I've been exposed to making life less than pleasant at the moment and my bank still being a general arse and it's back to work tomorrow on an early shift. Still need to sort out a new bed (falling onto the bed while drunk shouldn't lead to a collapse of such disastrous proportions!) and still some unpacking to do but it's good to be home. And the fish survived, which is nice.