Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Salvaging the cliff-wrecked car


Salvaging the cliff-wrecked car
Originally uploaded by redwelly.

Several weeks ago I heard the news-cum-hearsay that a car had been pushed off Consti. Apparently a Ford dealership had been broken into and five cars systematically joy-ridden and returned, before this Mondeo was taken to the top of Constitution Hill and pushed over the edge.

Despite a couple of half-hearted attempts to see the remains, I never spotted more than a piece of non-descript bumper on the cliffs.

But this evening the sound of a helicopter was heard, flying very low around the beach area. Natrally the response is to run outside with one's camera handy.

The insurance company (we suppose) has at last hired a helicopter salvage firm to remove the car wreckage from the base of the cliffs. So there, for all (around fifty more curious souls on the windswept prom) to see, was a curiously beautiful sight: A brand new, never-been-owned car, reduced by the sea to a bundle of rust, dangling forlornly below a small helicopter, over the beach of Aberystwyth.

It's still there (as of 11pm). Any takers?

Thursday, April 20, 2006

He is not here...

He has risen.

This depends on whether you consider changing from Blogger to Wordpress to be an improvement. You'd be a bit silly not to really.

What this really means, to anyone who's still none the wiser, is that I have a new blog, getting towards being fully integrated into redwelly. From now on you can read it there.

In other words: click here to go to my blog in future.

If you have 'favourites' bookmarks to this blog, please update them.

Thank you.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Bank holiday


View on Flickr

As it was bank holiday monday, I resisted the urge to do some DIY about the house. Instead I went for a walk around my local area. It seemed bright and sunny at about 9am this morning, but was fairly cloudy most of the day, which made it feel less warm.

Still, I found this interesting biological feature.

Back to the grindstone tomorrow... trying to get some work done!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

The Road Goes Ever On


The Road Goes Ever On
Originally uploaded by redwelly.
Give or take a few days, it has now been one single, rounded, whole year since I first posted on this blog.

Over the course of the year I seem to have significantly toned down the flowery prose, and slackened off from the flowery pictures too. I have not monitored the traffic too closely, but seem to get a fairly steady flow of about 30 hits per week. And I know who you are... mostly.

This photo was from the beginning of my return trip, unicycling back across Exmoor from Lee Abbey to Bath. The ride down on Monday was a great strain, and at 107 miles, is also my longest one-day-ride... with devastatingly frequent hills towards the end.

It inspired my first ever hitch-hiking experience, on concluding that I just couldn't trudge any further up this last(ish) hill into Lynton. A very nice man with a large estate car took me the half mile or so up to Lynton, and all ended well.

For the return trip I decided not to foolishly try to avoid the coastal hills, at the expense of all the other inland hills, so I went via Porlock and Minehead. It seemed vastly easier, and turned out to be only 93 miles too.

In between silly unicycle rides, I had a very pleasant couple of days visiting Tim, seeing Lee Abbey people/places and doing a spot of Celebrity Worship Leader Ogling with Stuart Townend.

Public Notice: There should be no sudden jolts, but you'd better fasten your seatbelts just in case. I have, at long last, got around to registering my own web hosting. Thus I can now install a 'proper' WordPress blogging solution website. For now at least, you shouldn't feel a thing...

Monday, April 03, 2006

So far, so good...

To keep you updated (don't worry, I won't be doing this every day), I have so far achieved four of my points. They are numbered for reference, rather than priority.

Number 5 - There is some evidence of spring, notably blossom on trees. I took a few photos of this, and scarcely need a list to tell me to take some more.

Number 13 - I got some rather worryingly grown up brown leather shoes, on sale. After a brief walk to the post box (see point 17), I haven't become convinced that they are the most comfortable ever, but hopefully I will get used to them.

Number 18 - last night it was on deserts. Very interesting. The bedrock of the program's graphic appeal seems to be new time-lapse steadying techniques - some incredible panning time-lapse sequences.

Number 12 - While I was in the shoe shop, working on number 13, a couple of lads with outlandishly 'alternative' styles came in, and excitedly examined the range of pink Converse Allstars trainers. The combination of blonde mop hair, ripped jeans and huge brown 'aviator' sunglasses was enough already! One of them turned out to be Dave, from school. He said his band, Oedipus (yes indeed) are playing in town on Saturday, which would be an ideal chance to bump into (perhaps literally) my old friends. Ace!

Number 17 - After buying a bottle of Quink (that's ink with added je-ne-ce-'qu'), I did this point just after last post today. D'oh! The sealing wax also stayed a-flame on the envelope for a while, so I hope it didn't damage the letter inside. My handwriting looks both surprisingly 'old fashioned', and less neat than usual. Very nice using a dip pen though.

Other points which have had progress on them are 14 - I bought a train ticket, 4 - I got four small canvasses and 19 - see the above post!

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Things to do this holiday

I have now got three weeks stretching out before me, all termable 'vacation'. There are also many things which I wish to do during these weeks. Some I will do, some I will do in part, while there are sure to be some which I do not do.

Here are some of the things which I will try to do...

  1. Complete my programming assignment before the end of the time allowed.
  2. Read through my notes and the lecture slides for my modules which will be examined.
  3. Set up a website which I can publicise to offer prints of my best photos and paintings for sale.
  4. Produce three or more new paintings.
  5. Take some good photos with my new (to me) second-hand old film camera.
  6. Write a post on this blog once a week or more.
  7. Write a post on this blog entitled "Seventeen Things Which My Portable Telephone Device Does Not Do".
  8. Write up an illustrated account of our epic cycle ride of six months ago.
  9. Sleep a reasonable amount.
  10. Unicycle an excessive amount, preferably 100 miles per week.
  11. Achieve the '100 miles in 10 hours on 1 wheel' unicycle challenge.
  12. Meet some of my school friends which I have not seen since 6th Form.
  13. Buy some shoes which do not make my feet wetter than the ground on which they walk.
  14. Perform as a drummer in a rock band in a distant town.
  15. Appreciate the meaning of life more than previously.
  16. Write lyrics for a song.
  17. Write a letter to the one I love, using a dipping ink pen and sealed with red sealing wax.
  18. Watch an entire episode of the beautiful BBC's Planet Earth program.
  19. Spend less of my time thinking about 'things I will do some day when I have time', and do them.

Nineteen things. That should keep me busy for a bit.

Now, as it's sunny and bright outside, I am going to start on number five, progressively nineteen, and possibly fifteen.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Why should men be allowed to be ordained?

Top Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained.

10. A man's place is in the army.

9. For men who have children, their duties might distract them from the responsibilities of being a parent.

8. Their physical build indicates that men are more suited to tasks such as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be "unnatural" for them to do other forms of work.

7. Man was created before woman. It is therefore obvious that man was a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment, rather than the crowning achievement of creation.

6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. This is easily demonstrated by their conduct at football games and watching basketball tournaments.

5. Some men are handsome; they will distract women worshipers.

4. To be ordained pastor is to nurture the congregation. But this is not a traditional male role. Rather, throughout history, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more frequently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

3. Men are overly prone to violence. No really manly man wants to settle disputes by any means other than by fighting about it. Thus, they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.

2. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep paths, repair the church roof, and maybe even lead the singing on Father's Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the Church.

1. In the New Testament account, the person who betrayed Jesus was a man. Thus, his lack of faith and ensuing punishment stands as a symbol of the subordinated position that all men should take.


I found this on Dave's blog (though cannot now find how), where I think he was linking it to maggie dawn's blog, but I have followed it as far as here so far.

Ordained women having wit, wisdom and insight...? Who'd have thought it?

And two posts on my blog in one day. You can tell I have a computing assignment to do urgently, can't you?

For those who may not know, I am in fact a Computer Science student. That means that in exceptional circumstances, when the wind is in the right direction and the moon is full, I am forced (by institutional and societal obligation) to do computing work.

Note: this post may contain the following: irony, satire, sarcasm, hyperbole and/or rubbish. This is usually the case.

Walk...

cartoon from www.weblogcartoons.com

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Slightly larger elucidation at its source.

I'm stuck somewhere in the whole quandary between the merits of expanding one's horizons, experiencing as much as possible of this wonderful world and preventing a dangerously introspective 'the-world-within-our-borders' view... and the blindingly obvious chronic effects of aeroplanes.

  • They are cheap. And being cheap is (or should be) never a good enough reason for anything. But then we always have limits.
  • They are fast. But also having/doing everything fast is eroding our life, making us less appreciative of anything, let alone anything we have to go to greater effort to achieve. But we only have so many opportunities.
  • They are exciting! Yes, well, nothing wrong with that. Does augment the dismissal of the problems though.
  • ...etc

With all this talk of aeroplane pollution, and having a rough figure of cars being a tenth of the emmisions (despite trains being something like a tenth of that again), I feel slightly more willing to think about learning to drive. Doesn't mean I don't still cultivate occasional dreams of a [insert clean fuel here] powered Morris Minor for journeys when walking, cycling or trains are not options.