Skuds’ Sister’s Brother

Thats putting it mildly.  The story of the murder of a pregnant woman called Kia Johnson in America plumbed new depths.  It still has to go to court so mentally insert “allegedly” wherever possible here but the way it is being presented is that an obviously disturbed woman with a history of baby-snatching offences befriended a heavily pregnant woman, invited her home, and then cut the baby out of her, killing the mother in the process. She then turned up at hospital with the baby trying to pretend it was hers. [Read more →]

I knew that my intention to do my bit for the planet and recycle song titles for blog posts was not original - I have seen it done before.  What I did not realise is the the esteemed Bob Piper has been quietly doing it for some time now.  I always keep an eye on his site but never cottoned on that he was consistently slipping in song titles. Just look at these recent post titles: [Read more →]

I have just seen the sport edition of Mastermind with Des Lynam occupying the Magnus Magnusson/John Humphrys seat and I still can’t believe it.  I have never seen a TV presenter looking less relaxed.  I stumbled across a review of this the other day which said the same thing at great length and I thought it must have been an exaggeration but if anything it was understating the sheer uncomfortableness of Des. [Read more →]

This evening I shaved off the beard I have had for about ten years.  I just felt like a change.  Jayne isn’t happy so I will probably grow it back when I take my holidays from work, thought I still don’t know when that wil be.  Soon I hope - It feels weird and its like a stranger looking back at me from the mirror.

BTW This post marks the start of my plan to have at least 50% of posts here carry a title that is vaguely relevent to the content but is taken from a song title.  100% would be good - but I know my limitations.¹  No real reason, just a bit of fun and a small mental challenge resulting from an artificial constraint.  I may have to resort to some fairly obscure songs so extra smug points for anyone who recognises which posts carry a song title without resorting to Google or similar.

1. A man’s gotta know his limitations, as Dirty Harry said [↩]

Only yesterday I was remarking on people using Flickr photos for all sorts of websites and books.  By coincidence I received a mail today from one of them.  A couple of my pictures have been on the Schmap website for a while, but they are now available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  I don’t have one, and wouldn’t want one, but if I did have one this is what it would look like

Amazon are selling Jerry Springer - The Opera for £3.97.   Mine should arrive tomorrow

I had a bit of a breakthrough today.  For the first time I got all the way home without getting off the bike and pushing at any point.  Its more of a psychological breakthrough than a physical one, I suspect.   The last 50 metres before getting home is a hill that just psychs me out.  I would rather cycle 10 miles somewhere else than up that last stretch of my own road.  If I started 51 metres away, that last 50 metres would still be a killer.

I think I shall celebrate by taking the car in tomorrow.

It was announced on the Flickr blog on July 8th but I only knew about it from this story in the Guardian’s media section today (so score one for the ‘dead tree media’ I suppose).   The plan is that Getty Images will trawl through the photos on Flickr to look for ones they think are marketable, which they will then buy off you for the same rates they pay established journalists.   Darryn Lyons and his Big Picture are also soliciting photos through their Mr Paparazzi website. [Read more →]

One downside to visiting Farnborough yesterday was the expected terminal case of camera envy.  Everywhere you looked there were people carrying great big Canon and Nikon DSLRs or even the Olympus and Sony ones.  Some of them had the bloody great paparazzi-style lenses.  I knew it would make me feel bad about my little compact model.  Compared to some of the kit being used there I might as well have been taking snaps on a mobile phone. [Read more →]

To answer Danivon’s question about whether the overgrown-ness at Broadfield Park is really that bad, here are two photos of the same place: the ornamental arch.  Admittedly they are from different ends.  The first picture was taken in April 2007 and the second was taken today. [Read more →]