It was a slightly later start to the first working day of the year. It started well with a call from Mr Straus for design task. Starting to work back through the e-mails, there was an unusual one from Germany, responding to my Christmas greetings and asking for a meeting out of the blue.
Not being able to find out much from a quick internet search, I replied suggesting the individual call me for a chat for futher information.
This they duly did and it turned out that we had met briefly back in 2006 at the BIK business exhibition in Germany, where I had assisted my sister.
I had stated at the time that I was happy to meet up with people for idea exchanges if my visit costs were covered. My caller was offering just that. There also appeared to be synergies with another of my contacts in NRW and I put them in touch with each other.
In the evening, I could not resist working to finish the flash game that I had begun to design. Completed as “Your Business Startup”, I eventually published it on the StencylWork site, see http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/10438 and have a play! What was most amazing was that within an hour there had been over 40 clicks onto the site.
Showing posts with label Story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Story. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Monday, 2 January 2012
Triops, sunspots, Snowdrops and Stencyl game design
A colder but sunny day led to the cheap refractor telescope being dusted off to project the sun onto the ceiling at around 11 am this morning. One bold and four fainter sunspots were clearly visible and Mrs Thomas attempted to photograph the image on my behalf – pictures still to be uploaded. Seeing the magnified solar globe at about 30cm diameter on the ceiling also brought home the Earth's rotation as the disc could be seen visibly creeping along at a couple of millimetres per second.
Hermione, the Triops seemed a bit slower today when she suddenly turned on her back and started twitching. I dashed to get a camera but by my return she had just moulted, leaving her ghost of a shell behind – collected for microscopic observation. Within an hour, Hermione was actively feeding again, now another millimetre or so larger.
It was such a lovely day and we were in dire need of exercise after all the Christmas feasting, that we drove to Anglesey Abbey for a walk. We took the longer path leading to the wildlife trail. As we were on the return part of the walk we came onto the open lawns where snowdrops were already emerging under the scattered trees. Diverting along the Winter Garden walk, we saw more snowdrops at various stages of emergence and flowering. They had been beaten to it by the dwarf blue Irises that were fully open. Winter cherries were in bloom and several other trees were also flowering.
Late afternoon and evening, I continued with the design of the flash based game that I had started using StencylWorks. I designed a few additional simple characters or actors and ascribed a variety of properties to them. I aimed to have some that would kill my main actor on contact, a number that my character could stomp on and also two items that could be “collected”. Wasted some time trying to get an active scoring system from the available StencylForge library but could not get them to work properly. The game will have to do without scores for the moment.. All characters and functions set, The remaining time was spent designing the maze and location of the different characters that would interact with my character. More work to be done yet.
Hermione, the Triops seemed a bit slower today when she suddenly turned on her back and started twitching. I dashed to get a camera but by my return she had just moulted, leaving her ghost of a shell behind – collected for microscopic observation. Within an hour, Hermione was actively feeding again, now another millimetre or so larger.
It was such a lovely day and we were in dire need of exercise after all the Christmas feasting, that we drove to Anglesey Abbey for a walk. We took the longer path leading to the wildlife trail. As we were on the return part of the walk we came onto the open lawns where snowdrops were already emerging under the scattered trees. Diverting along the Winter Garden walk, we saw more snowdrops at various stages of emergence and flowering. They had been beaten to it by the dwarf blue Irises that were fully open. Winter cherries were in bloom and several other trees were also flowering.
Late afternoon and evening, I continued with the design of the flash based game that I had started using StencylWorks. I designed a few additional simple characters or actors and ascribed a variety of properties to them. I aimed to have some that would kill my main actor on contact, a number that my character could stomp on and also two items that could be “collected”. Wasted some time trying to get an active scoring system from the available StencylForge library but could not get them to work properly. The game will have to do without scores for the moment.. All characters and functions set, The remaining time was spent designing the maze and location of the different characters that would interact with my character. More work to be done yet.
Sunday, 1 January 2012
First battles with Stencyl
The first day of the year was heralded in by firework displays occuring on the hour in a sweep from the first dateline in the Pacific until reaching us here in the UK. Judging from an earlier walk, many could not wait until the allotted hour of midnight, with fireworks going off sporadically in and around Milton and Cambridge. Still, not a patch yet on the explosive mayhem seen in Germany on “Sylvester”.
We took the day gently and I resumed battle with Stencyl – a freely available flash game design software I had heard about on the BBC's Click program. The demonstration/tutorial of designing a simple walking and jumping flash game seemed straightforward enough.
Encouraged, I designed some simple PNG versions of a walking and jumping figure plus an enemy in CorelDraw and then attempted to import them into a new program. What I had not realised, was that for each new game, you had to access a resource that gave you the basic functions. Also, whenever features were changed within the program you were designing, you needed to update the game regularly. My first over ambitious attempt therefore failed in a combination of malfunctioning downloaded elements and lack of regular updating.
Going back to using one of the “kits” with most functionality included finally lead to the first signs of success. By the end of the afternoon, I was more confident of beginning to start a simple game that worked.
This was only the start, and I have to see whether I want to persist.
My Triops is now about 4mm long at the carapace and because of the potential hermaphrodite or even parthenogenic nature has been named “Hermione”.
We took the day gently and I resumed battle with Stencyl – a freely available flash game design software I had heard about on the BBC's Click program. The demonstration/tutorial of designing a simple walking and jumping flash game seemed straightforward enough.
Encouraged, I designed some simple PNG versions of a walking and jumping figure plus an enemy in CorelDraw and then attempted to import them into a new program. What I had not realised, was that for each new game, you had to access a resource that gave you the basic functions. Also, whenever features were changed within the program you were designing, you needed to update the game regularly. My first over ambitious attempt therefore failed in a combination of malfunctioning downloaded elements and lack of regular updating.
Going back to using one of the “kits” with most functionality included finally lead to the first signs of success. By the end of the afternoon, I was more confident of beginning to start a simple game that worked.
This was only the start, and I have to see whether I want to persist.
My Triops is now about 4mm long at the carapace and because of the potential hermaphrodite or even parthenogenic nature has been named “Hermione”.
Saturday, 31 December 2011
Triops, Solar activity and where to buy your meteorites
I've taken a break from work over the Christmas period and one of the fascinations that has gripped me is the living fossil Triops longicaudatus.
I set up a hatch of half a commercial packet of dried soil purporting to contain Triops eggs during the day of Christmas Eve. Whilst the suppliers advice is to use water above 20degC, preferably around 25degC, a trawl through Google Scholar found sufficient reference to Triops longicaudatus being able to hatch and grow at lower temperatures. We have a 20degC/18degC Day/night temperature cycle in the house this winter.
Late night on Christmas Day I thought I could see microscopic hatched life, though it was still too small to identify. By Wednesday it was clear that I had some small freshwater shrimps, a couple of daphnia and one possible Triops. By Thursday, the Triops was approximately 1mm long as measured by its carapace and swimming continuously around the tank.
Friday saw a distinct leap in size to about 2mm and a change in behaviour. For the first time the Triops stopped briefly when it encountered food particles and it also spent a much greater proportion of its time at the bottom of the small tank. Today, it had grown to 3mm carapace length, was highly active and continuing to display the stopping to feed for a couple of seconds behaviour that first occurred yesterday. Since Triops, like all arthropods, have a hard shell exterior, they have to moult to grow by expansion. The continued growth of my Triops indicates that so far these critical moults have not been a problem.
Whilst hidden behind rain clouds, the sun has also been demonstrating a more interesting active phase after an extended quiet period. Checking out the SOHO solar observation site revealed several sunspots again at last, so I may be out with the telescope to try a projection if the sky is clear in the coming days.
Solar activity has also been shown in a recent flare that not only interrupted radio signals but also led to the last Aurorae of the year 2011. Whilst hunting for the solar information, I came across a site offering fragments of meteorites from the asteroid Vest, the moon and Mars for sale – something to bear in mind for future Birthday/Christmas lists. (http://www.shopspaceweather.com/asteroid-vesta-meteorite.aspx).
Alternatively, I might try catching micrometeorites for free later in the year.
I set up a hatch of half a commercial packet of dried soil purporting to contain Triops eggs during the day of Christmas Eve. Whilst the suppliers advice is to use water above 20degC, preferably around 25degC, a trawl through Google Scholar found sufficient reference to Triops longicaudatus being able to hatch and grow at lower temperatures. We have a 20degC/18degC Day/night temperature cycle in the house this winter.
Late night on Christmas Day I thought I could see microscopic hatched life, though it was still too small to identify. By Wednesday it was clear that I had some small freshwater shrimps, a couple of daphnia and one possible Triops. By Thursday, the Triops was approximately 1mm long as measured by its carapace and swimming continuously around the tank.
Friday saw a distinct leap in size to about 2mm and a change in behaviour. For the first time the Triops stopped briefly when it encountered food particles and it also spent a much greater proportion of its time at the bottom of the small tank. Today, it had grown to 3mm carapace length, was highly active and continuing to display the stopping to feed for a couple of seconds behaviour that first occurred yesterday. Since Triops, like all arthropods, have a hard shell exterior, they have to moult to grow by expansion. The continued growth of my Triops indicates that so far these critical moults have not been a problem.
Whilst hidden behind rain clouds, the sun has also been demonstrating a more interesting active phase after an extended quiet period. Checking out the SOHO solar observation site revealed several sunspots again at last, so I may be out with the telescope to try a projection if the sky is clear in the coming days.
Solar activity has also been shown in a recent flare that not only interrupted radio signals but also led to the last Aurorae of the year 2011. Whilst hunting for the solar information, I came across a site offering fragments of meteorites from the asteroid Vest, the moon and Mars for sale – something to bear in mind for future Birthday/Christmas lists. (http://www.shopspaceweather.com/asteroid-vesta-meteorite.aspx).
Alternatively, I might try catching micrometeorites for free later in the year.
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Chancellor’s pronouncements.
Anticipation had been mounting during the day to hear the Chancellor Mr Osborne's comments on the economy and additional measures to stimulate it , without actually spending any more money. One of the most critical elements was the bringing forward of the change to retirement at 67 to 2026, which impacts the baby boomers of the 1960s.
The level of impending doom was outlined by the dire news for one young lady interviewed on Television - she had to look forward to another 45 years of Hairdressing!
Another impending change that would only serve to fuel the anger in the public sector strikes and demonstrations tomorrow – the fact that in addition to plans to change their pension plans, their pay rises after the current 2 year freeze would be limited to 1% per year.
No doubt another consequence would be to push public sector employees to leave the area for private employment – helping to achieve the 0.7 million posts that needed shedding to maintain the books.
Other activities today – learning to paint brachiating monkeys and leaping frogs in Chinese brush painting and met up with author Mrs Lowry on progressing her book. Helped Mrs Thomas install a new webcam on her PC – remotely as over 600 miles apart.
Monday, 28 November 2011
Two headaches – migraine and phone tapping
The morning was lost to a migraine, dozing off the pain to surface at midday and begin the gradual mental climb out of numbness. The remainder of the day catching up on four days of missed e-mails, responding to personal messages and chasing the book printers re the revised proof for author Mr James.
The backdrop entertainment was the Leverson inquiry into phone tapping. And what irony it provided. The celebrities and other well known personalities who appeared before an inquiry that was televised, the newspaper speculation before and after the event, the cascade of subsidiary news items spinning off into different programs.
On the one hand we had the stories of destructive press activities, hounding, prying and following their selected prey. On the other, we have the public, myself included, fascinated by the unfolding inquiry, the news and the witnesses called – precisely the fuel for the activities that we so greatly deplore.
Sunday, 27 November 2011
Innuendo in pictures by Vermeer and other Dutch artists at the Fitzwilliam Museum in “Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence”
Yesterday, we went to the Vermeer exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum “Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence”. A bit of a misnomer as it should really be “An exhibition of 32 pictures by Dutch 17th Century Artists, including four pictures by Vermeer”. However, it prompted me to buy and read “Vermeer: The Complete Paintings”, by Norbert Schneider (a bargain at circa £9) from the museum shop. Consequently, I now want to go back and have another look at the paintings, as there is a more detailed symbolism in the images and finer detail to look at that suggests why Vermeer has gained such importance again.
The fast guide to the images of women in their domestic settings is the constant struggle between chastity and the potential eruption of passion in an age where more conservative values on marriage and chastity were being promoted by the authorities. Two Vermeers with women at the virginal are alternatively; The link between music and love in “The Music Lesson”; Hints of a lover's departure before painting began in “Lady seated at a Virginal”, indicated by the abandoned cello and the picture of “The Procuress” on the wall behind the lady at the virginal.
The contrast is the chaste purity of Vermeer's “The Lacemaker” with her demure gaze downwards on a proper lady's activity, with a very uncluttered composition. This picture is on loan from The Louvre.
Pearls, by the way, represent either vanity or purity – depending on their use. Any picture of that age featuring a woman and wine (in a glass or porcelain decanter) hints at attempted seduction. Onions are erotic symbols and hanging chickens apparently indicate carnal desire! The symbolism of the day was codified, for example in Cesare Ripa's "Iconologia". Items that look innocuous to us had special significance in understanding the underlying message within a painting. A picture within the painting or a bowl of fruit, a gesture or particular posture and dress add meaning (as do the copulating dogs in "The Soldier and the Prostitute" by Frans van Mieris, 1658, though here the message is a bit more obvious).
Vermeer's artistic technique also differs from that of his contemporaries. Here are more aspects to look for.
- The presence of slight visual and perspective distortions, blurring around the edge of the paintings and highlights. These are seen by some as evidence that Vermeer made extensive use of a camera obscura (a lens system that projects an image onto a screen) to aid his painting. Some of you may remember David Hockney's excellent TV program on the evidence for use of camera obscura by classical painters.
- Point 1 and the use of colours and shade enraptured the early expressionists who saw in Vermeer a kindred spirit in the way he viewed and painted the world. In fact, when you visit the Fitwilliam Museum, go in at the main entrance, progress upstairs and wander through the Impressionists gallery on your way to the Vermeer exhibition. Then compare Vermeer's brush strokes and hints at detail to the perfect representations in some of his contemporaries' work.
- Maps. Vermeer regularly and deliberately incorporated representations of real maps in his pictures to make a point. In fact Norbert Schneider uses the pre 1609 map of the Netherlands by Claes Jansz. Visscher and other elements, to re-evaluate the symbolism in Vermeer's painting commonly known as “The Art of Painting”. Where most art critics see the entire imagery as referring to - the Art of Painting, Norbert sees the picture as a political statement. He claims that it plays homage to the re-ascendant House of Orange and recognises the positive change in popular opinion towards the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire; all this in a critical period in the Franco-Dutch war, just before a favourable outcome in 1674. This would date the painting to about 1673, much later than others think.
With my interest in microscopy, an additional fascinating fact was that when Vermeer died, Antoniew van Leeuwenhoek took over the responsibility for managing the estate when Vermeer's wife fell into financial difficulty.
What this ultimately also reveals is that beauty and art is really in the eye of the beholder. When I go back to revisit the exhibition I will be evaluating the pictures in a totally different light.
Friday, 25 November 2011
From international finance to repairing a webcam dropped in tea
I visited Mrs Hales-Tooke, who's two books I had published, after my brush painting class. Her son, photographer, artist and author Mr H Hales-Tooke was visiting from the US and I heard of his narrow escape during the floods in Spring. Our discussion also turned to the merits of printed versus digital books and the different strategies for marketing them.
Wednesday was a day trip to London for a talk on The Future of the international Monetary System, part of the OMFIF Golden Talks series. It was held in the Armourers' Hall, Coleman Street. The talk was illuminating – concentrating on the longer term – there is a blog article on it now, “The International Monetary System is to local crises like the climate is to weather”. It provided a marked contrast to the immediate dramatic fluctuations and contagion in the Eurozone area.
The Armourers' hall itself was worthy of note and I spent some time photographing there (see article “the Armourers' Hall of the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers”) before taking a walk through London from Coleman St to Holborn Station. The route was a slight meander, taking in the stained glass in Wrens rebuilt church of St Lawrence Jewry and the Occupy London tent city still outside St Pauls.
Thursday I visited Mr Woolnough, author of the Understanding and Using the Stereomicroscope. We had worked together closely on the book as I edited the design, layout, redrew some of the illustrations, added extra photographs and the quick start guide. The book is published by the Quekett Microscopical Society.
We were working together on the start of a new exciting project and made a lot of progress on the initial planning.
This morning began with a telephone call to Mr Ebert of Feinkaeserei Zimmermann, a friend from his previous visit to the UK looking for potential distributors of the Product of Designated Origin, the Altenburger Ziegenkaese. Today's call was a social catchup on mutual news.
The annoying and yet amusing immediate aftermath of the conversation involved my accidentally knocking off the web-cam from my PC right into a full cup of tea. Quickly retrieved, I could see the milky tea sloshing behind the lens. A search online gave instructions on how to open up my particular model and I set to flushing out the tea with water and then placing the opened web-cam to dry in a warm place.
Then it was an HBN day where Mrs Burbidge was notable for ensuring that every guest arriving was welcomed to the event.
Returning late afternoon, I set about ensuring that the visible and accessible parts of the webcam were clean before reassembling it.
With great anticipation, I reconnected the webcam and started a video. All seemed to be working well until I saw the picture on screen – the image was as blurry as viewed through cold tea. I had to admit defeat and order a replacement!
Wednesday was a day trip to London for a talk on The Future of the international Monetary System, part of the OMFIF Golden Talks series. It was held in the Armourers' Hall, Coleman Street. The talk was illuminating – concentrating on the longer term – there is a blog article on it now, “The International Monetary System is to local crises like the climate is to weather”. It provided a marked contrast to the immediate dramatic fluctuations and contagion in the Eurozone area.
The Armourers' hall itself was worthy of note and I spent some time photographing there (see article “the Armourers' Hall of the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers”) before taking a walk through London from Coleman St to Holborn Station. The route was a slight meander, taking in the stained glass in Wrens rebuilt church of St Lawrence Jewry and the Occupy London tent city still outside St Pauls.
Thursday I visited Mr Woolnough, author of the Understanding and Using the Stereomicroscope. We had worked together closely on the book as I edited the design, layout, redrew some of the illustrations, added extra photographs and the quick start guide. The book is published by the Quekett Microscopical Society.
We were working together on the start of a new exciting project and made a lot of progress on the initial planning.
This morning began with a telephone call to Mr Ebert of Feinkaeserei Zimmermann, a friend from his previous visit to the UK looking for potential distributors of the Product of Designated Origin, the Altenburger Ziegenkaese. Today's call was a social catchup on mutual news.
The annoying and yet amusing immediate aftermath of the conversation involved my accidentally knocking off the web-cam from my PC right into a full cup of tea. Quickly retrieved, I could see the milky tea sloshing behind the lens. A search online gave instructions on how to open up my particular model and I set to flushing out the tea with water and then placing the opened web-cam to dry in a warm place.
Then it was an HBN day where Mrs Burbidge was notable for ensuring that every guest arriving was welcomed to the event.
Returning late afternoon, I set about ensuring that the visible and accessible parts of the webcam were clean before reassembling it.
With great anticipation, I reconnected the webcam and started a video. All seemed to be working well until I saw the picture on screen – the image was as blurry as viewed through cold tea. I had to admit defeat and order a replacement!
Monday, 21 November 2011
Stained and etched glass in the cloisters of Worcester Cathedral – and King John submitting kingdom to Pope
The drive back to Cambridge from Hereford began in pouring rain. I had contemplated stopping off at Cadbury World, but a phone call in advance established that they were not open today.
Seeing signs to the Royal Worcester factory on the ring road around the city, I decided to visit this instead and started following the erratically placed signs. By the time I was approaching the centre of the city without a clear indication on where to go next, I promptly stopped and parked near the Cathedral and made that my outing.
I spent a couple of hours photographing the stained glass windows in the cloister and then briefly touring the rest of the Cathedral. I came away with the clear intention to visit again. The photography took some time as the light was poor and the hand held camera needed long exposures that really challenged the anti-shake function on the device.
One new fact learnt from the sign by King John's tomb, he submitted the Kingdoms of England and Ireland to the Pope in order to patch up an argument about which Archbishop should be appointed at Canterbury that had led to King John's excommunication.
I edited the images in the evening, as best possible considering the quality, and uploaded them to my Picasa web album collection at http://goo.gl/uMRQn.
Saturday, 19 November 2011
On making videos and writing about them
Was still thinking about the business networking event at the SJIC yesterday. On leaving I introduced myself to another visitor who asked what I did and the conversation turned to my missing out video.
A valid point as I had not generated any videos recently.
So today, I set about putting together a 1 minute video on just this point. The frustration was in achieving a white sheet background. The fun lay in incorporating additional elements in the editing, including the sound of breaking glass to accompany a point on breaking the glass ceiling for women.
Making that 1 minute video took about an hour to publication online. That set me thinking about giving guidance to others on the points that I found important in creating a video.
This resulted in a blog article “Making your own video: 10 points I found useful”. Just finished uploading it and now ready for bed.
A valid point as I had not generated any videos recently.
So today, I set about putting together a 1 minute video on just this point. The frustration was in achieving a white sheet background. The fun lay in incorporating additional elements in the editing, including the sound of breaking glass to accompany a point on breaking the glass ceiling for women.
Making that 1 minute video took about an hour to publication online. That set me thinking about giving guidance to others on the points that I found important in creating a video.
This resulted in a blog article “Making your own video: 10 points I found useful”. Just finished uploading it and now ready for bed.
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Escalating Eurozone Crisis to watching a Magistrate's Court at work
These have been turbulent times economically. Since my last entry a couple of weeks ago we have had a change of Government in Greece. The Eurozone crisis then moved to Italy and resulted in the departure of Berlusconi as Italy's cost of borrowing soared and it was thought that only a change of government would suffice.
Currently the crisis has shifted to Spain. Germany and France, but mainly Germany, are trying to react to the crisis by suggesting further Eurozone political integration – but without much more financial commitment, whilst the UK is diametrically opposed to this policy. Prime Minister Cameron has already been publicly snubbed for his comments by the French Prime Minister. Mr Cameron is heading for a meeting tonight with Mrs Merkel of Germany where warning shots have already been fired across his bow.
The cubs evening treasure hunt based on science using light physics clues went extremely well. This was indicated by the general low level of noise as the cubs got into each activity. There were two activities that surprised us for the interest they generated.
The first was the fascination created by looking through 3D specs, front to back, as a laptop screen whilst rotating the glasses. The fact that suddenly the screen would turn dark (at about 45 degree angle) alone kept them occupied, even before we presented them with plastic film that would reveal colour effects.
The second was making periscopes and trying them out – the children would wander around the room with a periscope just fascinated by the fact that a different view could be seen.
Preparations for the Cambridge Open Studios EGM went well, the event itself being almost an anticlimax. I was complimented for bravery by demonstrating the COS website live. The failure of my first attempt at logging in demonstrating that even supposed experts are human. The key element was that at last the revised COS website went live yesterday.
Mr James' book is now with the printers. We have had a proof returned, the colour of the cover needs adjusting but it is close to completion.
Having helped Mr Heker with his dental technical business, it was now my time to receive some dental treatment for the premolar that had caused me agony in Egypt and that had required a second antibiotic treatment to calm it down again. The result was a full hour of root canal treatment. Strangely painless after the anaesthetic injections, it was still had an effect for the day psychologically.
Today, I had the second part of the treatment, preparation and generatation of an imprint in order to permit the production of a crown. Ironically, this affected me more than the original root canal treatment as the work was at gum level.
After some comfort shopping in Waterstones for two books, I found myself drawn to the Magistrate's court, situated where the city post office used to be. The staff were very helpful when I expressed an interest in the court. Using an empty court, the layout and roles of people within it were explained to me before I went into Court 1 as an observer. Only intending to stay for an hour, I was there for three watching the system at work. Fascinating and a great distraction from the dental treatment earlier that day.
Currently the crisis has shifted to Spain. Germany and France, but mainly Germany, are trying to react to the crisis by suggesting further Eurozone political integration – but without much more financial commitment, whilst the UK is diametrically opposed to this policy. Prime Minister Cameron has already been publicly snubbed for his comments by the French Prime Minister. Mr Cameron is heading for a meeting tonight with Mrs Merkel of Germany where warning shots have already been fired across his bow.
The cubs evening treasure hunt based on science using light physics clues went extremely well. This was indicated by the general low level of noise as the cubs got into each activity. There were two activities that surprised us for the interest they generated.
The first was the fascination created by looking through 3D specs, front to back, as a laptop screen whilst rotating the glasses. The fact that suddenly the screen would turn dark (at about 45 degree angle) alone kept them occupied, even before we presented them with plastic film that would reveal colour effects.
The second was making periscopes and trying them out – the children would wander around the room with a periscope just fascinated by the fact that a different view could be seen.
Preparations for the Cambridge Open Studios EGM went well, the event itself being almost an anticlimax. I was complimented for bravery by demonstrating the COS website live. The failure of my first attempt at logging in demonstrating that even supposed experts are human. The key element was that at last the revised COS website went live yesterday.
Mr James' book is now with the printers. We have had a proof returned, the colour of the cover needs adjusting but it is close to completion.
Having helped Mr Heker with his dental technical business, it was now my time to receive some dental treatment for the premolar that had caused me agony in Egypt and that had required a second antibiotic treatment to calm it down again. The result was a full hour of root canal treatment. Strangely painless after the anaesthetic injections, it was still had an effect for the day psychologically.
Today, I had the second part of the treatment, preparation and generatation of an imprint in order to permit the production of a crown. Ironically, this affected me more than the original root canal treatment as the work was at gum level.
After some comfort shopping in Waterstones for two books, I found myself drawn to the Magistrate's court, situated where the city post office used to be. The staff were very helpful when I expressed an interest in the court. Using an empty court, the layout and roles of people within it were explained to me before I went into Court 1 as an observer. Only intending to stay for an hour, I was there for three watching the system at work. Fascinating and a great distraction from the dental treatment earlier that day.
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
DVD Spectrometer and waiting for EU to make a decision
Work on Mr James's book this morning, getting it print ready before passing it back to the author for a detailed word for word check. Then in the afternoon, start of planning for business presentation to Magdeburg delegation in London on Monday.
A brief but fascinating educational interlude via email from Mr Cooper, who had found a design for a spectrometer using a cardboard box and a DVD or CD (see http://www.scienceinschool.org/2007/issue4/spectrometer).
Rummaging in the kitchen non-food recycling bin, I recovered the tablet box from my antibiotics – a bit small but worth a try, I thought. Then took a DVD and followed the very simple instructions. Using a very thin slit, I could get an excellent spectrum from sunlight – with absorption lines! This is the first time that I've seen this phenomenon that I had only known from textbooks.
The different fluorescent bulbs in the house had their own unique spectra with clear peaks in intensity in the reds, greens and blues of the spectrum. Brilliant.
For once gripped by the news and following it during the day as EU leaders prepared to meet for a crucial meeting to dam the economic crisis. There are clear fracture lines between the Euro and non Euro members and also between the fiscally more prudent states, Germany, France and the UK and those suffering real problems – such as Greece and the threatened domino effect on Italy.
As usual such events bring along their own phrases and terminology. Writing off a proportion of Greece's debt has become “A Haircut”. The trillion is the new measure of financial backing required.
The currently accepted definition in the UK of a trillion is 1000 billion or 1 million Million. This is a considerable shift from the previous use of the word, because a British billion used to be a million million and a trillion was a million million million.
Phrase of the day came from one financial expert questioned about the summit “The EU has been kicking the can down the street for a while now, it's time for a decision.”
A brief but fascinating educational interlude via email from Mr Cooper, who had found a design for a spectrometer using a cardboard box and a DVD or CD (see http://www.scienceinschool.org/2007/issue4/spectrometer).
Rummaging in the kitchen non-food recycling bin, I recovered the tablet box from my antibiotics – a bit small but worth a try, I thought. Then took a DVD and followed the very simple instructions. Using a very thin slit, I could get an excellent spectrum from sunlight – with absorption lines! This is the first time that I've seen this phenomenon that I had only known from textbooks.
The different fluorescent bulbs in the house had their own unique spectra with clear peaks in intensity in the reds, greens and blues of the spectrum. Brilliant.
For once gripped by the news and following it during the day as EU leaders prepared to meet for a crucial meeting to dam the economic crisis. There are clear fracture lines between the Euro and non Euro members and also between the fiscally more prudent states, Germany, France and the UK and those suffering real problems – such as Greece and the threatened domino effect on Italy.
As usual such events bring along their own phrases and terminology. Writing off a proportion of Greece's debt has become “A Haircut”. The trillion is the new measure of financial backing required.
The currently accepted definition in the UK of a trillion is 1000 billion or 1 million Million. This is a considerable shift from the previous use of the word, because a British billion used to be a million million and a trillion was a million million million.
Phrase of the day came from one financial expert questioned about the summit “The EU has been kicking the can down the street for a while now, it's time for a decision.”
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Shubunkin and Light
Mr James has decided on using Optima at 11 point for his book so I reformatted the text and also included drop capitals for the chapter beginnings. The six images to be used in the book were then introduced into a separate word file with the same margins in readiness for insertion.
At Mrs Evan's Chinese Brush Painting class, I battled with fish. Strangely, the normal carp shape was the more difficult to master than that of the rotund Shubunkin. Unencumbered by dental pain this week, as the antibiotic appeared to have achieved its effect, I had more success and time this week to master the fish - at least in part.
Met up with Mr Cooper in the evening to discuss an evenings entertainment and education for the cub scouts. We explored a variety of options to play with light, using ubiquitous materials such as DVD disks.
Gadaffi's body and that of his son were buried at a secret location in the Libyan desert, to avoid his grave becoming a shrine or focal point for followers or opponents.
In Turkey, two days after the Earthquake, people are still being pulled out of the rubble alive. Over 400 dead so far and several hundred still missing.
Am now watching the luscious Joanna Lumley on her Greek Odyssey – Lovely!
At Mrs Evan's Chinese Brush Painting class, I battled with fish. Strangely, the normal carp shape was the more difficult to master than that of the rotund Shubunkin. Unencumbered by dental pain this week, as the antibiotic appeared to have achieved its effect, I had more success and time this week to master the fish - at least in part.
Met up with Mr Cooper in the evening to discuss an evenings entertainment and education for the cub scouts. We explored a variety of options to play with light, using ubiquitous materials such as DVD disks.
Gadaffi's body and that of his son were buried at a secret location in the Libyan desert, to avoid his grave becoming a shrine or focal point for followers or opponents.
In Turkey, two days after the Earthquake, people are still being pulled out of the rubble alive. Over 400 dead so far and several hundred still missing.
Am now watching the luscious Joanna Lumley on her Greek Odyssey – Lovely!
Saturday, 22 October 2011
Last day at the BDTA
Today we were an oiled machine at the BDTA exhibition, which was even busier than the previous days. The weight of free gifts and bags that people had to carry increased during the day – with the more enterprising having brought trolleys to save their backs.
I did manage to continue my search for more photographs during the lunch time lull. Then it was back to the stand until the pace slowed to a drip at around 4pm.
Mr Viesteg had already left for his flight back to Ireland. I stayed till just after close at five, bade my farewells and then took the long walk along NEC corridors to Birmingham International to catch the train home.
Mrs T picked me up and I was back in my own home by 9:30pm
I did manage to continue my search for more photographs during the lunch time lull. Then it was back to the stand until the pace slowed to a drip at around 4pm.
Mr Viesteg had already left for his flight back to Ireland. I stayed till just after close at five, bade my farewells and then took the long walk along NEC corridors to Birmingham International to catch the train home.
Mrs T picked me up and I was back in my own home by 9:30pm
Friday, 21st October. NEC & Birmingham City Centre
I shared a room with Mr Viesteg, our stand's German dentist (who spoke with a delightfully impeccable Irish lilt) a circumstance which on German terms immediately put us on the informal Du. With us both being snorers, it also put us on equal footing for the night – in separate beds of course.
The Elmond guest room we were staying in had the remarkable feature of the bathroom being bigger than the sleeping area. Downstairs, we found that we were the first to breakfast – but soon the others joined us and we returned for the second day at the NEC.
It took a while for the visitors to trickle through from the main entrance and then it back into our routine. It was good that we had practiced yesterday as there was a greater flow and often all five of us would be busy talking to dentists, dental nurses, students, lecturers.
Towards five pm, the masses had disappeared and things became quiet again. I set out with the camera to take pictures of interesting close up details at other stands.
Tonight, we took a taxi to the centre of Birmingham, to the canals by Broad Street for a meal at the Handmade Burger. Afterwards, Mr Heker took us on a tour of the near vicinity, displaying an embarrassing knowledge of the area as a German, compared to myself as the only Englishman of the team.
At 11pm we returned to the agreed pick-up point where the canal crosses Broad St where people were massing for the pubs and clubs. In addition to the police who, in pairs, were keeping an eye on events, there was a patrol of City Pastors. They were there to also offer their own form af human assistance to anyone who needed it.
Both Mr Heker and I tried some photography; with the small camera, I was only really able to photograph two exotically dressed figures outside Walkabout, who were amusing the queue to enter to what they told me was a giant bouncy castle! I almost wanted to go in.
We thought it was busy, but one of the bobbies drily informed me that it would get busier, they were there till five am – and you should be there Saturdays!
Mr Viesteg and I had been moved to another room, which was, sizewise, the antithesis of the previous night's room; it was in the eaves and the bathroom was very much smaller.
We were amused first by a sign: “Notice to all Guests. Please do not take curry meals back to rooms as the sauce destroys the bedding”. Then we we could only fill our kettle for a late night drink from the shower – once we had worked out how to operate it.
The news headline of the day was the capture and death of Colonel Gaddhafi , apparently found hiding in a drain in Sirte.
The Elmond guest room we were staying in had the remarkable feature of the bathroom being bigger than the sleeping area. Downstairs, we found that we were the first to breakfast – but soon the others joined us and we returned for the second day at the NEC.
It took a while for the visitors to trickle through from the main entrance and then it back into our routine. It was good that we had practiced yesterday as there was a greater flow and often all five of us would be busy talking to dentists, dental nurses, students, lecturers.
Towards five pm, the masses had disappeared and things became quiet again. I set out with the camera to take pictures of interesting close up details at other stands.
Tonight, we took a taxi to the centre of Birmingham, to the canals by Broad Street for a meal at the Handmade Burger. Afterwards, Mr Heker took us on a tour of the near vicinity, displaying an embarrassing knowledge of the area as a German, compared to myself as the only Englishman of the team.
At 11pm we returned to the agreed pick-up point where the canal crosses Broad St where people were massing for the pubs and clubs. In addition to the police who, in pairs, were keeping an eye on events, there was a patrol of City Pastors. They were there to also offer their own form af human assistance to anyone who needed it.
Both Mr Heker and I tried some photography; with the small camera, I was only really able to photograph two exotically dressed figures outside Walkabout, who were amusing the queue to enter to what they told me was a giant bouncy castle! I almost wanted to go in.
We thought it was busy, but one of the bobbies drily informed me that it would get busier, they were there till five am – and you should be there Saturdays!
Mr Viesteg and I had been moved to another room, which was, sizewise, the antithesis of the previous night's room; it was in the eaves and the bathroom was very much smaller.
We were amused first by a sign: “Notice to all Guests. Please do not take curry meals back to rooms as the sauce destroys the bedding”. Then we we could only fill our kettle for a late night drink from the shower – once we had worked out how to operate it.
The news headline of the day was the capture and death of Colonel Gaddhafi , apparently found hiding in a drain in Sirte.
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Birmingham NEC with Mr Heker and Friends, from wine to beer
An hour into my train journey from Cambridge to Birmingham saw the sun rise briefly colouring the morning sky gold before a bank of clouds took over. A regular change of passengers sitting beside me occurred, beginning with a cycling student to parents off to Cadbury Worls with three young girls actively crayoning pictures to pass the time.
At the NEC I met up with Mr Heker and party at stand Y06, hall 5, BDTA Exhibtion. Whilst today was a gentle day in terms of visitors to the Hall, we had a sufficient number of dentists, dental students and journalists on whom we gradually honed our pitches on the benefits and examples of double crown attachments. With a dentist, two dental technicians, girl Friday and myself as communicator, we soon worked as a team,
Weary of standing by the end of the day, we checked into our Guest House in Solihull and then went out for a meal in the nearby Harvester.
Our conversation started soberly on Europe and the current crisis, to be enlivened by the arrival of wine in a carafe shaped like the urine waste collectors in hospitals and with a straw coloured liquid that the service assured us he had filled himself.
As the wine and beer flowed, talk migrated around ever increasingly ludicrous tales of travel by air and sea to end on the serious subject of German beer.
The different beers and ales had been served in glasses frosted on the inside base with the mark of the brewer. This raised consternation amongst my merry German friends. Surely this would cause the beer to go flat quicker!
The German beer purity laws were invoked with warnings of dire consequences if such mistreatment of glasses and deflation of beer were attempted there. The outrage segued into a soulful reflection on the true origin of beer - as food for fasting monks - becoming the endnote of the meal and evening's putting the world to rights as we returned to our rooms for the night.
At the NEC I met up with Mr Heker and party at stand Y06, hall 5, BDTA Exhibtion. Whilst today was a gentle day in terms of visitors to the Hall, we had a sufficient number of dentists, dental students and journalists on whom we gradually honed our pitches on the benefits and examples of double crown attachments. With a dentist, two dental technicians, girl Friday and myself as communicator, we soon worked as a team,
Weary of standing by the end of the day, we checked into our Guest House in Solihull and then went out for a meal in the nearby Harvester.
Our conversation started soberly on Europe and the current crisis, to be enlivened by the arrival of wine in a carafe shaped like the urine waste collectors in hospitals and with a straw coloured liquid that the service assured us he had filled himself.
As the wine and beer flowed, talk migrated around ever increasingly ludicrous tales of travel by air and sea to end on the serious subject of German beer.
The different beers and ales had been served in glasses frosted on the inside base with the mark of the brewer. This raised consternation amongst my merry German friends. Surely this would cause the beer to go flat quicker!
The German beer purity laws were invoked with warnings of dire consequences if such mistreatment of glasses and deflation of beer were attempted there. The outrage segued into a soulful reflection on the true origin of beer - as food for fasting monks - becoming the endnote of the meal and evening's putting the world to rights as we returned to our rooms for the night.
Wednesday - Poll and preparation for Birmingham
Mr James came back to me by e-mail, stating that he was undecided between the fonts Optima and Baskerville and could I decide please. Well I am biased strongly in favour of Optima, so had some qualms about choosing it outright.
My solution was to initiate a Linkedin Poll and get some external input. At the end of the day, the votes were 4 to Optima, 1 to Bakerville.
The rest of the day was spent preparing for the trip to Birmingham to support Mr Heker.
In the evening, Mrs T and I went to see the Johnny English Reborn film, which was a hoot for the most part.
The word of the day was "Interlocutor" by Mr Howell - as someone who mediates in communication between two parties.
My solution was to initiate a Linkedin Poll and get some external input. At the end of the day, the votes were 4 to Optima, 1 to Bakerville.
The rest of the day was spent preparing for the trip to Birmingham to support Mr Heker.
In the evening, Mrs T and I went to see the Johnny English Reborn film, which was a hoot for the most part.
The word of the day was "Interlocutor" by Mr Howell - as someone who mediates in communication between two parties.
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
A painful premolar and metronidazole
Awoke with a crescendo of pain in my jaw from the tooth that had already given me problems back at the beginning of September.
It had begun to flare up again over the weekend and yesterday, I'd managed to get an emergency appointment for tomorrow. Today, I did not think I would last that long. Fortunately, after frantic requests for any solution, whether with my dentist or not, I was slotted in today – I just had to last till the afternoon.
Alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen was part of the bridge to get there, the other was distraction by work and a short visit to the first session of the term to the Chinese brush painting classes.
Ms Kenny, my dentist, ushered me in sympathetically and established that the most likely cause was an infection and that the solution would be root canal treatment. Seeing as it was a premolar with three or even four roots, this would be at least an hours treatment – with additional equipment, by one of the other practice dentists – in a fortnights time!
But how to manage the pain? I left with a set of antibiotics (a necessary procedure before root canal treatment) and a recommendation to continue with the painkillers. Rather than amoxixillin, this time it is a course of metronidazole.
So far the pain has been reduced to a bearable level by the constant presence of painkillers, though I am not looking forward to waking up tomorrow after they have worn off and before the effect of a morning pill kicks in.
The advantage of Metronidazole is that it is effective against, amongst other things, anaerobic bacteria, such as those likely to be involved in gum and tooth roots. The list of possible side effects is not reassuring and I'm particularly hoping that convulsions will not arise.
A particular source of macabre amusement is that use of metronidazole in animal feed has been banned in the EU and US as a potential carcinogen. The inconclusive results of human studies suggest that in human's at least, the real benefits outweigh the nebulous risk. Source Wikipedia.
It had begun to flare up again over the weekend and yesterday, I'd managed to get an emergency appointment for tomorrow. Today, I did not think I would last that long. Fortunately, after frantic requests for any solution, whether with my dentist or not, I was slotted in today – I just had to last till the afternoon.
Alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen was part of the bridge to get there, the other was distraction by work and a short visit to the first session of the term to the Chinese brush painting classes.
Ms Kenny, my dentist, ushered me in sympathetically and established that the most likely cause was an infection and that the solution would be root canal treatment. Seeing as it was a premolar with three or even four roots, this would be at least an hours treatment – with additional equipment, by one of the other practice dentists – in a fortnights time!
But how to manage the pain? I left with a set of antibiotics (a necessary procedure before root canal treatment) and a recommendation to continue with the painkillers. Rather than amoxixillin, this time it is a course of metronidazole.
So far the pain has been reduced to a bearable level by the constant presence of painkillers, though I am not looking forward to waking up tomorrow after they have worn off and before the effect of a morning pill kicks in.
The advantage of Metronidazole is that it is effective against, amongst other things, anaerobic bacteria, such as those likely to be involved in gum and tooth roots. The list of possible side effects is not reassuring and I'm particularly hoping that convulsions will not arise.
A particular source of macabre amusement is that use of metronidazole in animal feed has been banned in the EU and US as a potential carcinogen. The inconclusive results of human studies suggest that in human's at least, the real benefits outweigh the nebulous risk. Source Wikipedia.
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Noisy all night party in Country Park disrupts sleep.
Today began before going to sleep, because of a party. By 2 am, thinking about going to bed, the night was still disrupted by the boom, boom, boom of aloud music outside. It sounded as if it might be from Old School Lane, parallel to Fen Lane, so I put on some trainers, a jumper and coat and set out into the night.
The air was remarkably still, the gibbous moon still bright, as I set off up to Cole's Road to reach Old School lane. By the time I reached the junction, it was apparent that the music was coming from further South – the Community Centre.
Yet when I reached it, that too was not the source. It appeared to now be in the Country Park itself. Walking to the Centre buildings now a kilometer from home, I finally found the party in full swing in a Marquee on the decking overlooking the lake. Spanish music was playing loudly, accompanied by full throated singing and the shadows of the dancers played on the screens of the Marquee.
By now it was 2:30am and the fun had gone out of listening to the party – bed was calling. The South Cambs noise abatement site found on my mobile suggested no one was available on the phone and attempts to use the website registration were unsuccessful.
The non-emergency line to the police finally answered – it appeared that my call was the end of a long list of similar reports and that officers were at the scene.
Quiet descended.
But just before satisfaction could set in, the noise erupted again. Back home by 3am, the boom boom boom continued and another call to the police revealed that this was a foreign language school graduation party, expectged to finish in another hour or so – and that the police had no powers to do any more than ask for the party to quiet down.
Finally, sometime after 4am the noise abated.
It was after 5am before I got to sleep.
The air was remarkably still, the gibbous moon still bright, as I set off up to Cole's Road to reach Old School lane. By the time I reached the junction, it was apparent that the music was coming from further South – the Community Centre.
Yet when I reached it, that too was not the source. It appeared to now be in the Country Park itself. Walking to the Centre buildings now a kilometer from home, I finally found the party in full swing in a Marquee on the decking overlooking the lake. Spanish music was playing loudly, accompanied by full throated singing and the shadows of the dancers played on the screens of the Marquee.
By now it was 2:30am and the fun had gone out of listening to the party – bed was calling. The South Cambs noise abatement site found on my mobile suggested no one was available on the phone and attempts to use the website registration were unsuccessful.
The non-emergency line to the police finally answered – it appeared that my call was the end of a long list of similar reports and that officers were at the scene.
Quiet descended.
But just before satisfaction could set in, the noise erupted again. Back home by 3am, the boom boom boom continued and another call to the police revealed that this was a foreign language school graduation party, expectged to finish in another hour or so – and that the police had no powers to do any more than ask for the party to quiet down.
Finally, sometime after 4am the noise abated.
It was after 5am before I got to sleep.
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Battles with Wordfast and the importance of tattoo aftercare
The tribulations of modern technology came to the fore again as I tried to use the translation software Wordfast for the first time on the new computer with an existing file that I had started previously. All seemed to be progressing well until I tried to save the partially translated file back into the Word document as I had been able to before. - A dreaded error message appeared.
An internet search did not come up with a suitable answer, so it was back to the Wordfast site to use their help hotline – except that was not available unless an additional hefty fee of over £60 was paid. Well, it was either that or waste the equivalent in time, so I reluctantly paid. This was a software element I was paying for, so I was very surprised to find that it was not immediately available. Delivery time anywhere between 6h and two days!
Went back to basics and set up a fresh word file on the PC. I started a new Wordfast project with a new translation memory. This worked flawlessly. Eventually, by trial and error, I found that by creating a new project for the existing file and running it from a PC based folder, rather than a dropbox folder as I had done before, I could resume work without problems. Spent the remaining couple of hours working away on the translation.
A short afternoon walk was interrupted by an impromptu haircut at the local salon, which was empty when I passed by. The discussion centred around the cling-filmed arm of my hairdresser, covering a new tattoo to complement the already very aesthetic grayscale ones on his other arm. Apparently this was to ensure that the tattoo set. It turns out that having a tattoo is only half or even a tenth of the job as a good tattoo requires considerable after-care.
A tattoo is effectively a wound and therefore it is important to wear the dressing given to you for at least the time specified by your tattooist. This is followed by a gentle antibacterial wash, drying gently and then applying protective lotion or ointment very thinly.
Initially during the healing process, tattoos may appear cloudy as one develops “onion skin”. The trick is not to scratch or remove peeling skin during the subsequent weeks. Total water immersion such as in a bath or with swimming are also out of the frame for a couple of weeks as healing continues, though a shower can be taken as long as the tattoo does not become too wet.
Tattoos are also photosensitive, i.e. will fade in strong light. So to keep the tattoo pristine and dark as the day it was made, it should be covered up – or protected with factor 30 sunblock. Two excellent links are by Wiki How and About.com.
Early evening I drove to Soham for the first Cambridge Open Studios committee meeting looking towards the next year. Productive but long, I did not return home till just after 11pm.
An internet search did not come up with a suitable answer, so it was back to the Wordfast site to use their help hotline – except that was not available unless an additional hefty fee of over £60 was paid. Well, it was either that or waste the equivalent in time, so I reluctantly paid. This was a software element I was paying for, so I was very surprised to find that it was not immediately available. Delivery time anywhere between 6h and two days!
Went back to basics and set up a fresh word file on the PC. I started a new Wordfast project with a new translation memory. This worked flawlessly. Eventually, by trial and error, I found that by creating a new project for the existing file and running it from a PC based folder, rather than a dropbox folder as I had done before, I could resume work without problems. Spent the remaining couple of hours working away on the translation.
A short afternoon walk was interrupted by an impromptu haircut at the local salon, which was empty when I passed by. The discussion centred around the cling-filmed arm of my hairdresser, covering a new tattoo to complement the already very aesthetic grayscale ones on his other arm. Apparently this was to ensure that the tattoo set. It turns out that having a tattoo is only half or even a tenth of the job as a good tattoo requires considerable after-care.
A tattoo is effectively a wound and therefore it is important to wear the dressing given to you for at least the time specified by your tattooist. This is followed by a gentle antibacterial wash, drying gently and then applying protective lotion or ointment very thinly.
Initially during the healing process, tattoos may appear cloudy as one develops “onion skin”. The trick is not to scratch or remove peeling skin during the subsequent weeks. Total water immersion such as in a bath or with swimming are also out of the frame for a couple of weeks as healing continues, though a shower can be taken as long as the tattoo does not become too wet.
Tattoos are also photosensitive, i.e. will fade in strong light. So to keep the tattoo pristine and dark as the day it was made, it should be covered up – or protected with factor 30 sunblock. Two excellent links are by Wiki How and About.com.
Early evening I drove to Soham for the first Cambridge Open Studios committee meeting looking towards the next year. Productive but long, I did not return home till just after 11pm.
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