Ageing (dis)gracefully!
Archive for March, 2009
Off To Holland!
Mar 19th
I’m off to Holland in the morning … Amsterdam for one night and then onto Ouddorp for the 2009 Marillion Weekend.
I’ll be posting the occasional Facebook update and also twittering and twitpiccing!
- Facebook – if you’re my friend, you’ll see my updates & photo’s
- Twitter – http://twitter.com/BinarySlave – anyone is free to follow me!
- Twitpic – http://www.twitpic.com/photos/BinarySlave – again, anyone can view this .. all photo’s will also appear on Twitter simultaneously
So .. bring on the beer!!! 
Kicked In The Face!
Mar 10th
It’s pretty rare anyone is going to be pleased that they have been kicked in the face, but I have been and I am well chuffed!
I spent a few minutes earlier this evening with my hands, and then my face, pressed against Lucys stomach as she lay on the bed. A bout of fetishness?! …. err ..no …. The baby was moving! Pretty quickly I was able to feel it and just couldn’t resist pressing my head against the area of attack. Such a great feeling to be pummelled in the face by your unborn child.
Lucy has been feeling it moving around for a good few weeks now and I thought I had felt it in the past, and maybe I have. We have generally differed in when we think it’s moved though and this could be because I was pressing my hand too hard and diluting what Lucy could feel. Tonight, I was gentle as can be and for every movement/kick we both looked straight at each other knowing that we had both felt it. Such an amazing feeling!
New Camcorder – A Sample Video
Mar 9th
As promised, here’s a sample video from my new camcorder. Make sure you select HD quality to see the proper quality and not the default quality youtube has converted it to.
For this test I put the camera on the dashboard of my car and drove down the road. The audio is a bit bass heavy and dodgy in general, I had the music up quite loud in the car ..plus it was picking up a lot of vibration from the position I had it balanced. I don’t think it is a true reflection on the audio capabilites of the camera in general. Picture quality is pretty good, its recorded in 720p HD.
Any jerkiness has been introduced by youtube, the original video isn’t jerky at all.
Don’t forget to Watch it in HD for the HD quality!
Camcorder – My Poor Unborn Child!
Mar 8th
I’d had it in my mind that it would be great to have a Camcorder for when the baby is born. That it would be great to film it’s first moments in the world, it’s first steps, it’s first words … the first time it craps on my carpet.. etc
The other day I was sent a link by a friend for a Camcorder at a very attractive price. £99 ! It was a Toshiba Camileo HD PRO. I checked out the specs and it even recorded in High Definition (HD) .. I thought about it for a bit and then decided it was too good a deal to pass up and just went for it.
I presumed I’d have to tackle Lucy about it as she hates me spending money on techy stuff but to my surprise she thought it was a great idea. Result!
It arrived on Friday morning and after a quick charge I set about playing with it.
My first impressions were not great, but I think I was expecting far too much from it. Without realising, I had the expectation that it would record the same quality of HD picture you might see on TV or on a movie. A daft thing to think, but it was my subconscious thinking afterall!
Thats not to say it records in bad quality though. It’s great quality, it’s just, well ..camcorder quality! Modern day quality mind! This is still digital and HD at that so infinitely better than the old ‘You’ve Been Framed’ days.
I tried it in a number of scenarios. Inside the house it was good but not great. If the room was well lit it seemed fine, but the moment it got a bit dim then the picture suffered a little. However, outside it was another story. Much better in all the conditions. I sat it on my dashboard and went for a drive down the road and back and it picked up the passing scenery admirably well. When I was close to other cars it picked them up in vibrant detail. It’s where I first appreciated the HD quality and thought ‘Very impressive! ‘ to myself!.
It’s definately very small. Compact enough to fit into your pocket which is ideal as it also doubles up as an 8 megapixel digital camera! So it’s definately going to get a lot of use in both departments.
It has outputs and the required leads to connect it up to a HD TV, which is great if you film something and immediately want to view it back on a big HD screen. Alternatively, you can watch your footage back via the 2.4inch flip-out display ..the same display you use to film. This itself rotates 270 degrees so you can actually film yourself if you want to. Baby being born video diary ? …hmmm
It is also capable of recording in lower qualities, such as DVD, which is ideal if storage becomes an issue. Of storage, it utilises SD memory cards to record to. I picked up a 16gb SDHC memory card to go with it, which will record about 8 hours of HD footage.
As an added bonus I am also going to take it to Holland with me in just over a week! I want to make a road trip type documentary of my last hurrah before baby comes along.
Once i’ve played with it a bit more i’ll upload some footage so the quality can be seen for itself.
Speed Choice Course
Mar 8th
As blogged about a few weeks back, I was clocked speeding @ 38mph in a 30mph zone recently. I had the option to accept 3 points on my (clean) licence and a £60 fine, or just pay £60 to attend a ‘Speedchoice’ course and have no points or fine. I ended up choosing the latter and went on the course last Thursday morning.
Lucy had done the very same course herself a few months previously after being clocked doing 36 in a 30 and she had briefed me on what to expect. It wasn’t that bad apparently. That said, I still wasn’t overly keen.
However, the course was very good. It was an eye opener in more ways than one. Seeing different peoples reaction to being caught speeding was strange. A few people clearly were not happy to admit they had been caught out and one woman in particular was so far up her own arse that she couldn’t see the problem with the speed she was doing. She also protested vigorously that the police should spend their time catching real criminals. What she failed to realise, until it was pointed out to her, was that the police didn’t actually catch us speeding!! it was the council and their mobile safety camera vans.
It was also surprising to see the demograpic present. It was 70% middle aged women! The same awkward woman from above even commented on it in disbelief ..it was as if she thought Jeremy Beadle was going to rise from his grave, walk through the door and tell her she had been setup …cos there was no possible way women would speed… oh no …
We watched a few videos, had some group discussions and did a quiz. It was all straightforward, but it was staggering how little some people there knew about the rules of the road. In that respect, I think it would be a damn fine idea to make this course compulsory and to enforce attendance to everyone who has a British driving licence every 5 years.
Stupid Bitch!
Mar 4th
I need euros for my trip to holland in two weeks time and yesterday had a scout around online to see what the best rates were. I found that the Post Office did a better rate online than in a branch, so I ordered my currency online. However, not wishing to put my faith in the Royal Mail being able to deliver such a large wad of cash I elected to have it delivered to the Post Office in town. This was an option presented to me when confirming my order, seemed like a great idea.
So! – Today I nip into the Post Office in town, go to the Foreign Currency counter and hand the lady a printout of my order details (as requested when I placed the order). She gives it a quick glance and looks totally perplexed. I then tell her what it’s for and she then seems to have a vague idea of what I want. Not so unusual, I should have said straight away what it was. I’ll let the stupid bitch have that one.
She shuffles around for a couple of minutes as if searching for something, before pulling an envelope with my name on it from under the counter. That’ll be my order then … took me all of 1 second to register that, but oh no!! 2 more minutes of shuffling before she realises!
I then get asked for I.D. .. fair enough, lets make sure I am the person who ordered this large amount of currency. I present my photocard driving licence …but oh no! Thats not good enough, she wants my bank card instead (bank card is I.D now then is it?!!). She then spends several minutes double, triple & quadruple checking the printout of my order as she is not convinced I have actually paid for the order. I tell her I have paid, she completely ignores me. I am starting to feel a little agitated.
She then calls her supervisor over and asks them for advice, she doesn’t think I have paid. The supervisor clearly doesn’t know either. I again advise that I have paid, I am again completely ignored. I am starting to feel like a criminal.
Eventually, they decide I probably have paid and to give me my money.
All very annoying, they should surely know their own system and policies?
The icing on the cake is a little too much for me to bear though. I am told by the lady behind the counter that it would be far easier for me to come into the branch and pay for currency directly. It would seem I have been far too much hassle for her over the last ten minutes. I tell her I get a cheaper rate online so why would I want to buy in the branch? She then gets arsey and tells me that is wrong … so I point out on my order the actual rate I got yesterday. She only then realises I am right. Why does she not know this already?!!!
I made my feelings on her inadequecies very clear before leaving. I managed to not swear too! Miracle!
