Filtration

Yay, the filters I ordered last Friday from Jessops arrived last night. Two little boxes, wrapped in a bundle of air-bubbles and cardboard about 8 times the size of the filters. Never let it be said they’re shoddy with packaging. Stupid maybe, but not shoddy. So anyway, now I’ve just got to experiment with them a bit and see what I can come up with.

In the meantime, I’ve ordered a selection of prints from Photobox, mainly of some of my macro shots of flowers. I’ve no idea what it is I like about doing these shots, but I find them to be extremely satisfying, and the results can be spectacular. (I’m probably going to add some more to that macros page in the next couple of days, too) It’ll be interesting to see how they turn out as 7″x5″ prints, anyway. What’s really impressive with Photobox is that I uploaded and ordered the photos at 3pm today, and by 4pm I’d been told they’d been not just printed, but dispatched. So far as I’m concerned, that’s absolutely superb service.

Security

On a regular basis, we get emails about “security” and being aware of security risks. In theory, I assume it would be nasty to get a bomb in a council office, or whatever.

So it was a bit of a surprise yesterday when I saw a satchel-type bag abandoned on one of the main stair entrances to the offices. I’ll be honest, I didn’t give enough of a shit while leaving the office to go back to reception and point it out.

Far more of a concern was when I ambled in this morning and the bloody thing was still there though. So much for awareness, and letting people know. Bear in mind that probably the best part of 500 or so people have gone past the flaming thing. (Well, it wasn’t flaming, but you know what I mean) And yet when I checked with reception, not bloody one of them had reported it, or even mentioned it. It’s gone now, the security nork just walked up and opened it. Not the best idea should it be a device, but there we go – that’s training (or lack of it) for you, I suppose. But all the same, I find it amazing that in mind of the constant reminders and general media hysteria about terrorism and yadda, yadda, yadda no-one said a bloody thing for nearly 24 hours.

Ouchie

Thank you, Virgin Trains for this.

Ouch.

No, No, No

According to various sources, Richard Branson wants to make spaceflight more commercially viable for passengers. Now OK, it’s a nice idea, and it’s what the X-Prize and so on is all about.

But there’s one massive problem with this. Virgin poxing Trains can’t even sort out making a three-hour journey across the country on time (as commented on in MANY places on d4d) and even today’s launch of the ’tilting train’ service was a cock-up with trains breaking down or not even starting.

They can’t manage a train service – so I ask you this. Would YOU trust them with getting you into orbit?

And so it begins

Eek blimey. Because of the move in January, I’m looking at work and job ads in the area. I wasn’t planning on sorting out any applications and so on for another couple of weeks, but today’s paper contained a couple that looked interesting, so tonight I’m going to be spiffing up the CV and getting it sent off. It’s all beginning to happen…

Crap Towns

Apparently, Luton has come top of a list of crap towns. There’s a flaw in this list (well, there’s several) but the main one is simply this – how come Coventry hasn’t come anywhere in the top ten? Nor Slough?

In order, the top ten is : Luton, Windsor, Sunderland, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Clapham, Bath, Nottingham, Corby, and Middlesbrough.

Chuff only knows how “Glasgow and Edinburgh” got linked together, and Bath’s not THAT bad (well, in comparison to such dungholes as Coventry, Bedford, Bradford, Leeds, and Slough, anyway) so really I suspect that this list is just an utter sack of shit.

Arse

Not content with simply being left in a miasma of smells today, I’ve also been an utter, utter twadge, and left my phone in Reading. It now has to be entrusted to Royal Snail.

Arses.