Ho, ho ,oh!

Merry Christmas to anyone still lurking.
I have taken a lo-o-o-o-ong break from posting.

Posting will now be sporadic at best.

Wake up!

"You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."

I musta taken the red one. Damn. Rabbits everywhere.

Netbook

I read about these little computers and then found out that one in particular could run OS X.
Oooh, I thought, that would be really cool and I could just shove it in my camera bag with a portable drive saving me lugging about my considerably larger laptop.

I bought a Dell Mini 9, a few days before they stopped manufacturing them - obviously not an early adopter, eh?
Still, a very nice little machine running XP at present but 2GB RAM and a 32GB SSD to be installed and then it's OS X here we come.

It is very handy to read the news at breakfast...it's main use so far. Free wifi about the urban areas will be a boon when I am out and about!

The dell outlet have plenty of refurbs on offer (you think I stumped up for a new one? Pah! They even had a 100 quid off offer on which, of course, I took full advantage of.)

Blogging on the move also. Kewl.

Kodachrome RIP

How photography has changed, most professional colour work is now digital. With the end of production of Kodachrome we see the end of something special. It was the de-facto standard for professional colour photography for decades, even if it had a greenish tinge or a magneta tinge depending on it's age.

My interaction with it was short, in the early nineties. I much preferred the saturated colours of Fujichrome products. I blame youth. Now I would use Kodachrome.

I'm sure I can aquire a plugin for photoshop.....not the same at all really.
A projected slide is something to behold, especially one with the fine detail of Kodachrome. I suppose I could get my digital files written to film and project those if I wanted. I think I'll add that to my "to do sometime" list.

Litha

Happy Solstice people.

Peace and happiness to all.

Poison

Just say no to fluoridation.

I haven't used fluoride toothpaste in over 10 years and have only had one filling needed in that time. I used fluoride toothpaste up until then and have numerous fillings. Not a scientific argument but if I want to use a product with fluoride I can go and purchase it.

I do not want it in my drinking water.

There was a fluoride trial here in NI many years ago and it was let lapse and the area concerned never informed. They were never told as the powers that be thought the people might go public with their indignation.

We in NI are fluoride free at present even though dosing stations were built at many large reservoirs. The one thing added to our drinking water at present, that I do not agree with, is ortho-phosphoric acid. This is only added to ,ahem, protect those householders who have lead pipes. It is supposed to form a coating of lead phosphate on the pipes and thus prevent leaching of lead into the drinking water of the said individuals who have lead pipes leading into their homes. This happens because NIW are responsible for the water as it leaves the tap, even though they aren't responsible for the pipe work inside your property. So our drinking water has an acid added to it to protect the few at the expense of the many. Madness.

Sunday rant over.

I'm back.

Offline

I've been away but skirting around the edges here and there.

Bereavement in the family.

Fake normality has kicked in.

Expect something pithy sometime soon.

Go Greece

Greece has proper privacy laws for their citizens.

We should too.

Life begins at 40

I've turned 40. It didn't hurt.

I realise I didn't post for over a month.....no excuses, just didn't feel the urge.

I have taken up my favourite instrument, the saxophone.

I dearly hope I can release my inner Charlie Parker though it may take me a few years (one lives in hope).

Hopefully the weather will stay pleasant for some gardening this weekend.

I'm off to get saxy.