Two weeks, two old school GPSs
Following from last weeks 50, I got a 65 this week. Other than the memory on this one though, it still works!
GPS 65
Another Year Another Boat Show
One weekend at the boat show was enough for me I think. Last year it had the benefit of novelty for me, as despite my many years in Southampton I’d only ever been to the boat show a few times. This year however, working there the second year running, I really wasn’t as fussed by as much of it.
Of course there were still some beautiful boats, both of the ludicrously expensive and the immaculately crafted kinds. Among the ludicrously expensive were the lines of Sunseekers, Princess and Fairline boats which scarily nearly all sold during the show. Even the £13.7 million Sunseeker Predator 130 I’m led to believe sold, which I guess just goes to highlight how the financial situation really is double sided at present.
Of course there is a certain amount of craftsmanship in most of the boats, requiring careful molding and fitting out. However some of the wooden boats must take an amazing amount of work to produce. Even some of the little wooden dinghies show the days of work that have gone into them.
My choice of the boats would probably be one of the Oyster or Hanse yachts. I’m far more partial to the sailing boats than the enormous cruisers like the Sunseekers, the promise of being able to elegantly and efficiently cruise around without the enormous costs of fuel being an amazing draw for me. Of course some of the Oysters are fairly epic boats in themselves (http://www.oystermarine.com/) and an 80ft+ boat must take some serious handling. The Hanses ( http://www.hanseyachts.co.uk/ )are a little more modest really, coming in around 40ft, and I’ll confess I was quite partial to the shade of grey on some of their hulls.
In theory I should be offering some deep comment on electronics from the show, that being what I’m supposed to know about these days. I didn’t really get anything exciting from that side of things though and, if pushed I think the most exciting thing in that regard was the holographic display on the B&G stand which wasn’t actually a product.
All in all very little seems to change between years at the boat shows.
And the excitement for my day at work was….
I got to play with one of these
It’s damn close to 20 years old now ^_^
(Incase you’re wondering these were among the first properly portable GPS units and are rare like hens teeth.)
Oh Jebus, is there a rest after all this
So the mania of Summer slowly draws closer to an end, with a only a few (touch wood) weekends of solid booking remaining. The last four weekends have been spent skirting around all over the place like a manic little thing, rushing from weddings (two in the last month), to festivals (Good Weekend was goooood) to drunken Pie Fairs and Birthdays. I’ve attempted to surf and failed miserably. I’ve been hit in the face by a bride’s bouquet. I’ve even managed to squeeze in some job interviews.
Alas the interviews didn’t really come to anything, but there are some exciting new plans afoot from myself an Nic, both of excitement and intellect…
Glastonbury lookback
eeeuughhh, being ill sucks but it does give me an opportunity to catch up on this thing. There may also be Buffy in the background, so things aren’t all bad. Just kinda wish that my nose didn’t hurt so friggin much.
Glastonbury came or went in all it’s awesomeness and troubles. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, although on the whole I did enjoy myself. On the plus side there were some interesting bands, some interesting stalls and artistic things around. On the other hand I think that the reason Glastonbury is able to have all the things it has is also it’s biggest downfall – it’s size.
By being so large it seems to have drawn a large number of people who I think are there to get drunk and take drugs over everything else. Any political message Glastonbury has is lost on them and they do nothing to help with any political messages that the organisers wish to make being taken seriously. Especially, in mind at least the environmental messages. I’d really love to see an environmental impact assessment for the event, taking into account the litter, damage to the ground, the energy usages and the water pollution.
The smaller stages were where I enjoyed myself most, notably at the Avalon stage. Bands that perhaps aren’t quite so well known, but are also sometimes working a lot harder for their audiences respect. Two of my favourites from the whole thing and possibly the two best examples of the, Katzenjammer and Devotchka. Both were bands new to me who were in their own ways both amazing to watch and exceptionally skilled with the instruments (members in both bands had some awesome switches between instruments). Of course there was also Flogging Molly who were there too which was also an exceptionally good bit of showmanship.
For the future though I think smaller festivals are the way to go. Probably also festivals based around rocky/folky stuff are more suited to what I think I really enjoy. Much as I love dance music, the people that tend to be there most are completely mashed, which is fine up to a certain point. Beyond that point though it starts to simply become annoying.
Glastonbury
I’ve never really been to many music festivals before (except the one last year) and always figured it was something I should make the effort to go to at least once if only to get the full experience of it. This year I’m going to do just that at what is probably the biggest music festival in the UK – Glastonbury.
I’m really quite looking forward to it, although I’m going to have to work out who I want to see where and determine how much time the big acts should get and how much should be spent among the smaller acts. I think overall I’m more bothered about seeing new acts that I perhaps wouldn’t have heard about otherwise, so apart from a few of the big acts (Primal Scream and Chemical Brothers especially) I’d like to spend more time moving between the smaller stages, seeing what I find.
Looking at the other arts at the festival seems to reveal an amazing array of things and not just of the different forms of performing arts. Yes Glastonbury has gone beyond a music festival in the performances, including dancing, poetry, comedy, deabate and more, it has also come to include what is effectively a small craft festival. Quite fancy the idea of being able to mooch around the arts area for a while, including the forge they have in place.
Time will tell how much I’ll enjoy it but unlike last time I don’t think I’ll be quite as universally annoyed with the level of stupidity around.
A Word on Star Trek and it’s place in Sci-Fi
This weekend has seen Film Four (the film TV channel run by the Film producing wing of UK’s Channel 4) doing a long and, for those of attempting to watch it at least, arduous marathon of all the Star Trek Films prior to the new re-invention of the series. This means that everything from way back in the early days of Star Trek: The Motion Picture right through to abismal monstrosity of Star Trek: Nemesis. Its an interesting look in a way as to the way in which the series has changed and it shows some amazing insights into science fiction.
One notable thing at least for me is that the Science Fiction element (or what I often call the hard sci-fi to avoid conflict of meaning with people) becomes progressively less and less important to the films as you go on. The first one is the purest of them all in the sense of being an exploration of an idea that has been expanded into a story. It’s shots and aesthetics are very reminiscent of films such as 2001, with sweeping panoramas of space showing the scale and enormity of it all. The fact that Gene Rodenberry himself was pushing for the bigger scale on this from everything that had appeared on the original series.
Films 2,3 and 4 or rather The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home, in a way need top be considered almost like a mini-series of their own rather than separate films. Especially in the latter two films where Leonard Nemoy directed, there is a distinct feeling that the scientific ideals are still the central remit despite everything else.
The then there was star trek 5 where Shatner took over as director. This brought god to the equation and was kind of a religious exploration, questioning what god is. While in some respects this can be seen as a bad thing to do, it is still a nice exploration of an idea. It’s a shame that the directing lacked something and meant that the film was a little lacking in coherence. Star Trek 6 was the last of the old crew, before the TNG cast took over the role of appearing in films. This dropped the exploration of ideas for politics.
Beyond this we descend into the realms of the realms of politics and soap operas wrapped up in little bubbles of space porn. I don’t believe that the science in these is that big a consideration and the prevalence of Science mumbo jumbo solutions to any problems that are encountered doesn’t exactly scream scientific solutions. One could argue that these aren’t sci-fi, they’re just drama in space, although I’m not sure this is entirely a fair way to them. Instead, bringing me back to the one of my earlier comments, I think it’s better to phrase this as the phase out of the hard sci-fi and consider it instead as a shift in focus.
The magic problem solving though still bugs me, however fortunately the TNG films don’t suffer from the same preachiness as the TV series so we’ll just let it slide for now.
I kind of miss the older contemplative styles of the first film. It was a thinking film, not rushed, and for its time the effects were given front stage emphasising the awe.
Laments and a catch up
Wow, the all too familiar lamentations of the slacking blog writer who doesn’t write for his blog. A tale I’ve told before and so I’ll skip anymore of it before I bore you catatonic.
So the last few weeks since Creamfields, There have been a few interesting odds and sods going on that may have brightened the days and brought mystery and intrigue (ok I’m getting carried away with the flowery english teacher grade language now). So, in summary
August the 6th and 7th
With tickets for talks at the british Library in the evenings on both days I spent the days in London exploring and mooching the lands to the north of the river before visiting the talks in the evening.
Monday was a day largely spent in the British museum and wandering the surrounding streets. UCL has some very nice little leafy squares around it, it just a shame that most of the UCL museums I was looking for were closed due renovations/cleaning etc. I guess it’s the wrong time of year when there are no students to populate or run the place as cheap labour.
Two surprising little highlights that were unexpected. First was a little exhibition at the NLA (New London Architecture) showing all the major development and construction plans across London. There are some really nice looking buildings going up all over the place, showing a real development and diversification amongst the buildings that the city of London has. Slightly amused though by the comments about Phallicism in regards to the rising skyline though.
Tuesday found me visiting two museums that I think must now rank amongst my favourites. Firstly was the Hunterian Museum, located above the London School of Surgery (a very fancy building by itself anyway) and housing an amazing selection of anatomical specimens, both human and animal. There’s just shelf after shelf of formaldehyde filled jars, illustrating various kinds of biological mechanism, disease and healing process. Some look really quite grotesque and I guess at least part of the fascinating nature of the museum is the morbidity of it all.
The second of the awesome museums of Tuesday was the House of Sir John Soane. Only some of the house is accessible to the public and I guess at least some of the rest is filled with administrative areas now, but the lower floors are spectacular in their own way. Sir John Soane was a royal architect and the lower floors are filled with the collected bits and pieces of his time designing and collecting little architectural bits of interest to him. There are painting of favourite buildings and buildings that could have been, casts of bits of architecture that took his fancy and in the centre of it all is an egyptian sarcophagus.
The British Library talks were the primary reason for my being here though and they were both very interesting in their discussion of mapping from very different angles. Monday saw the discussion of the ideas of how politics shapes the maps that are produced and how sometimes the mapping data is influenced by the current politics in play. A subject always worth considering, especially in some of the current depictions of the world. I should always try and remember the lecturers final note though – the limitations of the medium are sometimes as responsible for the depictions as any political idea – never automatically assume that it’s a severe bias against a particular side.
The second talk on the Tuesday was far more focused on the mapping of today and the way in which the maps that we now see and produce online are shaping lives and conversely how we are shaping them. Google’s representative was quite focused on how maps are personalised to allow a person to see the information for them as quickly as possible, with shared geographical dat being mapped to allow users to locate each other as easily as possible.
The contrast from the OpenStreetmaps.org representative was a very interesting one to follow it though. He instead focused on the openness of projects on the internet was being put to use to quickly accumulate and share new data and the ways in which people were leveraging the facilities available on the internet to better share information with each other.
Ideologically there were a few points where the two differed although really I think that’s to be expected when you compare an academic who’s in it almost as something of an oversized hobby to someone who is there as a representative of a commercial entity.
August 10th
This was a really good evening initially, however it really didn’t end well, with one my friends apparently just crumpling on the dance floor part way through the evening. In our naivete we thought was just a sprained ankle and so shuffles her home in a taxi and left her with some ice cold stuff out the freezer wrapped around her ankle. Turned out that somehow her leg was actually broken lengthways, in possibly one of the most awkward things that I think you could do.
August 11th
Just a little trip up to Thorpe Park with some friends. Never been before as when as when I was much younger I always viewed it as the weaker of the available theme park choices. Then it went and got some really good coasters which makes it the hub of awesome it is today.
Stealth was fucking cool.
August 25th and 26th
A little journey out to the Southeast of the country, visiting friends and exploring the world of Eastbourne and Hastings. Well, exploration might be pushing it a bit as we spent most of the time sat in their living room with a hyperactive puppy, but still. There was a pub of awesome, a farm shop with epic quantities of cider and games on the Saturday and then an evening of learning to play Agricola. It was good but I suspect is more fun if you’ve had the time to learn what you’re actually doing, so if I ever actually end up playing it again then it is possible I’ll have a lot more fun.
Sunday was visit to Hastings Aquarium day and there we met Inka. Having our own tour of the Aquarium I think added a lot to it, however it did make me want to get back to diving more. Really want to get back into that, swimming amongst the fishes. Anyway we also met some of the rays, who I really enjoy just watching swim.
Creamfields
God, can you really believe that last weekend was my first ever true music festival? Well first ever stay away camping affair. I mean I’ve been to one day events and The Hobbit has it’s Real Ale and Blues thing every year but they’re not really quite the same. I mean it all seems a whole different animal when you start to have to camp out.
Anyway how was it? Well the music was amazing, sitting up there with some of the best Dance music I think I’ve seen. Surprise performances from Gareth Wyn and Eddie Halliwell, both of whom I really enjoyed despite never really having heard of them before. A really good bit of fun from David Guetta and Laidback Luke, the latter of which descended into the realms of randomness and the former being a little overshadowed by his own lightshow. Then it was all topped off with Tiesto.
Tiesto has to be one of the most amazing performances I think I’ve seen, he was simply really really good at what he was doing and was so obviously enjoying it. He spent the entire set with the most enormous shit eating grin on his face, beaming at the crowd. Nice mix of known big tracks and selections from his own back catalogue too.
Calvin Harris had the potential to be really good, but he was hampered just a little by the sound quality. The volume could have done with being just a little bit louder really as the sounds was distinctly distant from where we were stood which was only about halfway back. The mid-tones were definitely lost in there.
Other than that not really much in the way of gripes. I could have done with there being fewer drunk chavy northerners and possibly better organisation of the big names, so that there was less choosing who you wanted from the big names that overlapped each other.
A few tracks really stuck from the weekend though. Notably Duck Sauce’s Barbara Streisand which is insanely good at sticking in your head after a few plays. I can also safely say that Pendulum’s The Island part 1 is well and truly logged as a good track now. All doubts I had about initially are definitely gone.
So looking forward to next year I may continue the Music festival thing to experience more of it from different angles, in what could almost be described as a very anthropological view. I like to get places to experience new things. I don’t believe Creamfields is under consideration for next year (at least not by me at present), however I am sorely tempted by the idea of Glastonbury, if for no other reason than that it’s like the great grandaddy of festivals. I note from their website that they no longer call themselves a music festival but are instead a Festival of performing arts.
I may also be tempted by the idea of Cropredy. Again it’s another very different animal from both the festivals above, but the very different pace could be interesting and the fact that there will be music there that I just wouldn’t hear otherwise could be very cool.
