Category: Thoughtful

It’s the weekend, I fancy some time travel please!

It’s the weekend tomorrow and as it looks like being the 1st sunny and dry weekend for what seem like 6 months I’m planning to head into London town with my fair maiden and stroll around a free museum or 2, have some lunch and take in the sights, sounds and smells… but which museum?

Spoilt for choice!

The Great Court of the British Museum, with th...
The Great Court of the British Museum, with the new tessellated roof designed by Foster and Partners arching around the original, circular, Reading Room of the British Library. The sculpture on the pedestal on the right hand foreground is A youth on horseback from 1st century AD Rome. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. The British Museum
The world’s oldest and greatest public museum. It has a spectacular great court and circular reading room (where Karl Marx studied).  The Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, the Egyptian mummies, the Benin treasure, the Assyrian Friezes and the Sutton Hoo treasure. Should keep us busy!

2. The Tate Modern
One of the world’s greatest modern art collections housed in a marvellous converted power station. Top attractions include works by Dali, Rothko, Matisse, Cezanne, Degas, Jackson Pollock, Stanley Spencer and Modigliani.

3. The Victoria and Albert
Quite simply, the world’s greatest collection of applied art. Be sure to see the Raphael cartoons, the Cast Courts, Tippoo’s Tiger, the Morris room, the great bed of Ware and the Bollinger Jewellery gallery.

4. Sir John Soane’s Museum
A small and little-known museum packed with wonderful items. It consists of three adjoining Georgian houses containing a collection of art and antiquities. Highlights include the sarcophagus of Seti I, Hogarth paintings, and a clutter of ancient statues and artifacts.

5. The Imperial War Museum
A former madhouse now containing a fantastic collection of items from military history and a permanent holocaust exhibition which is very moving. Walk through a recreation of World War Itrenches and London in the Blitz.

6. The National Gallery
One of the world’s greatest art galleries containing works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Raphael, Veronese, Titian, El Greco, Velazquez, Goya, Rubens, Rembrandt and many other great masters. It is located on the North side of Trafalgar Square and next door is the National Portrait gallery containing magnificent portraits of many famous figures.

So which one? I think I will let fate decide tomorrow, but I do know my route to it will not be the most direct, I love to wander off the beaten track! Expect some photo’s tomorrow!

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Tonight is Supermoon Saturday!

The biggest and brightest moon of the year will be seen  tonight as it passes closer to the Earth than usual.

Due to the elliptical nature of the Moon’s orbit it’s sometimes closer to the Earth than the majority of the time. Tonight is such a night.

Saturday’s event is a “supermoon”, the closest and therefore the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. The moon will come within about 221,802 miles (357,000km) of Earth, which is about 15,300 miles closer than average.

Full Moon too!

What makes this event that little more intriguing is that it falls on a Full Moon night.  Combing the Full and Supermoon should lead to a very bright evening, with the moon appearing to be 14% larger than normal. So take a moment this evening to look up into the night sky and enjoy this offering from nature.

Don’t Panic!

The supermoon will bring higher tides because of its closeness and its alignment with the sun and Earth, but the effect is predicted to be modest, however please be on guard for extra Werewolf activity!

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My Headspace update

I’ve now completed 24 daily Headspace sessions, my journey into guided mediation. The previous sessions have been called ‘Take 10′ and ‘Take 15’, which were guided mediations lasting 10 minutes and then progressing 15 minutes.

Take 20

So tomorrow the new sessions will last 20 minutes… 20 minutes of doing nothing except being mindful of my breath. 20 minutes each day! Not that long ago the thought of building 20 minutes into my day for this purpose would of been insane, but now, I really look forward to the quiet time. (I say quiet, but only in the sense of my mind being quiet, I actually practice most often on my commute on the train!)

 

Well, How you doin?

I feeling good thanks, I feel the meditation sessions are having a positive effect on my well being, in ways that I didn’t really expect. Its still early days in my journey but the small positive things I’m feeling so far have given me extra impetus to continue.

 

Things to work on.

Im almost into a habit of daily meditations, except on weekends! I therefore commit myself to completing some morning meditations on weekends too!

 

Happy B’day ZX Spectrum!

It’s St Georges day and also the birthday of the ZX Spectrum.

Ahhhh the ZX Spectrum, the largest factor in my obsession with Tech celebrates its 30th Birthday today! I still remember going to view one in the Tamworth Co-op, I also remember watching someone shop lift it a few minutes later, chased out of the store by a shop assistant! LOL, funny how things come back to you!

My ZX Spectrum 48k was amazing at the time, the things I learnt with it include;

  • Video Gaming is fun.
  • Video Gaming is time-consuming. (Football manager you owe me!)
  • How to swear at inanimate objects whenever a 10 minute loading from cassette tape failed at the very end.
  • My 1st steps at programming.
  • My 1st steps at hacking!
  • The value of saving your work often, after knocking the power lead after a mammoth 5 hour programming spree and loosing all my work!
  • I became a FanBoi for the 1st time. (I spit on your C64′s!!)
  • I wrote a song! (Thankfully now lost! See below)
  • Computers do not attract girls.

The ZX Spectrum will always have a place in my heart,  I am the person I am now due in part to that fateful day when a friend (You know who you are!) asked me had I heard about home computing and the ZX Spectrum as we walked back from playing football. In fact I’d probably have been a professional footballer if I walked home another way that night!!

That single moment changed my life… amazing. Thanks Smod! ;)

Why Facebook is good for Instagram and YOU!

I’ve read a lot of late about Instagram’s supposed ‘sell out’ to Facebook and have decided to add my 2 pennies to the debate.

Im very pleased for Instagram now that it’s been sold as I see that it’s future is much more secure due to this. Instagram has been a free product since launch, free to download, free to user and free from adverts. In fact it’s been free thanks only to Instagrams investors investing cash into the company at an alarming rate.

I know we all love something for nothing, but running Instagram costs!

Instagram spent $57,500,000 in 24 months

How long could this of continued we have no way of knowing, but you can be sure that eventually the owners would have looked at ways of monetizing Instagram through ads or subscriptions some how. In steps Facebook and offers their expertise.

Facebook will of course need to monetize Instagram in the future just as it needs to monetize Facebook itself somehow, hopefully in a tasteful way!

The one worry I did have was, Facebook would change Instagram in some way, maybe make it a Facebook only application, however they announced that it intends on keeping Instagram’s cross posting ability (Twitter/Flickr/Facebook and Instagram) intact, actually stating that it’s a fundamental part of Instagram. To me, Instagram’s heart is not about to be ripped out and stamped on by Facebook, it’s purchase of Instagram was one of the better options that would have faced Instagram in the coming months.

I don’t see what the negative reaction is for, I for one will continue to use Instagram as one of my tools for iPhone photography.

One last thing….

Oh and now Instagram is available on Android I can see what poor people eat and do as well as iPhone owners… That was a joke my friends, well it is from me at least, the guys below may not agree!

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Who says ‘Nice Guys finish last?’, its not true!

I’ve never believed the myth that ‘Nice guys finish last’ and I’m really pleased that the myth took another hammer blow today! A friend of mine, lets call him ‘Jon’ (Not his real name!) was offered a new job today and it’s richly deserved and guess what? ‘Jon’ is a nice guy!

So tonight were all out for a small meal to celebrate his new job and to raise a glass to ‘Nice guys’ around the world, who play by the rules and finish 1st from time to time!