h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Perhaps you should invest in a pair of clogs Ag, they'd keep your toes free from harm when dropping sets of bound journals on them. I once was stopped by a dutch truck driver (wanting to know if he could get up to the factory in the village) who jumped down from the cab wearing a pair of clogs.

There have been a number of moorland fires burning near me over the last week or so. One has been burning for about a week as it is the peat soil that is burning. I do hope the forecast rains do come this weekend to help get them put out and damped down properly.

I've got a thing about good quality scarification. I really do like it.

What I think is a shame with tattoos, is when people get a large number without any coherence (good word Mr D) of style or location. A tribal or celtic one her, a colourful line drawing there, and the whole thing ends up looking a mess.

You can get some really cool glow in UV inks these days.

B

If and when I start getting tattoos I'll be careful to make sure that they all have a stylistic similarity (I'm mostly wanting Pictish stuff with a bit of Celtic thrown in).

Nope I did not say that punks , alternatives can't be pretty, however, from what I have seen of a lot of heavy metal, thrash, punk type bands, particularly American, for some reason, she had the type of tattoo that are worn in those sort of bands, and by some of their followers.
Clearly if you follow that type of music and those sorts of tattoos are common place then it won't matter that much as you get older, but if you don't and are a more conventional person then working in a bank, etc with that sort of tattoo when you are older will not be particularly easy. I knew a manager who had to wear long sleeves in very hot weather to cover up tattoos as he thought it didn't give the right inpression now he is a manager.

You specifically said "she was really pretty, not a punk" so you can see why I made that assumption... but now you've hit upon another niggle of mine which is that punks, metallers, etc. have to look like punks, metallers, etc. and not people who work in a bank.

I am becoming increasingly convinced of the benefit of a tripod when taking pictures of buildings that you want particularly accurately framed. I was using up a roll of film and took some of buildings with a fairly modern design and colour. I wanted the block of flats to be out of focus and just the top of railings at bottom of photo sharp and only in very bottom of pic for a bit of forground interest. It is OK if you can crouch down , lean against something, etc to hold camera steady, but I couldn't and felt camera move when I pushed the shutter release. I knew it wouldn't be right and was last on roll of film. Fortunately an even better one came out OK, one where I could lean on railings, tripods are slow and a pain, but worth it in long run.
.
It has been too hot for photos recently, not just the heat but everything is bleached out in this bright sun, however I did go to a local park to go back to a small man made waterfall of about 6 inches tall and a metre wide. I took my tripod with the idea of tricking camera into giving a slow one second shutter speed, But I made an error of just haveing moving water in photo. These photos of large water falls with water turning into candyfloss, due to slow shutterspeed, work as the rocks show a contrast between their stillness and water movement, but there being no rocks in mine a lot have come out looking like there is camera shake as everything is moving! A couple have come out looking very abstract and good, but 10 or so were just a wast of money, but since there are no rocks there there is little I can do, Don't think sticking a branch in water will do the trick! It is a ahame as the small manmade waterfall is a wonderful symetrical shape , to perfect for nbature really. I have tried flash before, but can't get 100% what I want.....

Tripods are definitely a useful thing... I just wish it wasn't so impractical to use them while taking LARP photos.

The two things I don't like about my new phone is that there isn't a tripod fixing and that they save pictures as jpegs. But what do I expect, really? It's a phone!

Strangely, I'm sorry to see your new name. As someone who has withdrawn from greater hootooland, I appreciate how you feel, but I do hope you don't leave us entirely.

Is it me, or has the site reached and passed a tipping point?

B

I was thinking of buying a mono-pod sure not as steady as a proper tripod, but just enough extra suport to make a differance, but not too expensive and easy to carry around. I can't hold a camera as steady as younger and cameras being ligher as made out of plastic just make it worse. When I have to go digital, I will buy a camera/lens with built in camera shake control, it seems you can get a couple of stops better steadiness, which is quite a lot better when you think it will be 250th of a second shutter speed insteed of one 60th a second, if I remember correctly.

Morning Ben,

I think I've used the pub analogy before with respect to hootoo. Customers and staff come and go. There are some regulars who hang around the bar or the lounge. Regulars and occasional visitors can be interesting, boring or both depending on circumstances.

People use the pub for different reasons: to get drunk, to show off, to meet friends, to relax at the end of the day.

The fittings and furniture can change as can the rules and regulations: no smoking, no chips, no trainers in the lounge and definately no shorts or chain breakers.

Some people like change some prefer the status quo. Those who prefer the status quo will move to different pubs until they find one to their liking.

The important thing is to ensure our local isn't taken over by a conglomerate or worse turned into a block of apartments.

Ben, no it's OK, I was just making a small point, I shall still come here. I don't think we have to really worry about h2g2 until every other thread starts with "Whats yur ASL babe?"
.
As for tripod fixing, true, it is a pain not being able to, there is always a bean bag, but who wants to carry one, and there are never places to put one that is right. Still with digital at least you can just rub out bad ones and do it again. I am constantly surprised that the pic you thought was going to be your all time favourite disapoints, but one that you thought would be an also ran surprises and becomes a favourite. One I took of a building on roll just back has greater potential than I thought, also one at an angle of balconies originally disapointed due to lens not being able to get close enough and showing some brickwork, but on second viewing, I see the bricks give a grounding and relevance to whole pic, showing what the pic is actually about. I know I do advocate getting closer, but perhaps fractionally not too close was better in this case.

A phone on a tripod? I suppose that would be useful during those intense, emotional conversations when you desperately want your voice to remain steady. Ben, you may have struck on something big!

What you mean one of these - http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=45373&doy=28m7

[k]

stompStompSTOMPSTOMPSTOMPStompstomp

Ooh!

Cool! Thank you Phil.

Wassup Kelli?

Ben

Just had an all-hands meeting. Strategy for next year was outlined, I'll be losing my job while on maternity leave. Shit.

Weasley big boss didn't actually say that of course - he said some of the development function will be sent off shore (ie india). I asked him directly if all development was going there and he said no, some would remain. My manager asked him the same question after the meeting, in private, and he said yes, we were all out of a job.

If they think I'm spending the next few months flying to bloody ireland, putting my health at risk, and working long hours under high stress, just so they can be in a position to sack me they can bloody well think again.

Shitshitshit.

Bloody hell. That is NOT good Kelli.

Is it legal?

B

I hate it when managers lie to employees...

I think so, because they will be making the whole team redundat, so it would be difficult to argue that they had singled me out. OTOH, I know someone that got made redundant from here while she was on her Mat leave and she sicced a good lawyer on them who got her a really good package. Will have to do the same if it comes to it.

They may be so incompetent that they don't get it organised until after I'm back, which would be better - but it is still Not Good.