Canon Power

Came into some money today. Did what I usually do in the circumstances - shot of up town and spent most of it on a gadget. But what a gadget. When I was younger, and even more handsome, I had a Single Lens Relex camera. These are great to use because you view the scene through the lens which is used to take the photograph. This means that you see exactly what the film sees and can use some nice camera trickery to make the results something special.

When I moved over to digital I had to forgo this because there was no such thing as a digital SLR. Then they were introduced, but at a price a mortal like me could not afford. But today I managed to afford one. They are giving me a free memory card and 100 pounds cash back. How could I resist. I got a Canon one, the EOS 300D if you really want to know. And it is like coming home. Only better. The SLR I bought around 30 years ago was very simple and manual. Select ths shutter speed, line up two needles, focus and shoot. This camera has lots of modes, buttons options and all sorts - as well as the all important manual mode. And you can see just what you have taken. This will really unlock my potential as a creative photographer. Or let me take bad pictures in an even more expensive way. I'll post some of the results when I get some worth posting....

Coming on Stong

I was wondering if I've not been a bit harsh on "Strictly Come Dancing". After all, the actual effort involved in doing it properly is quite high, unlike things like Rap Music, and so perhaps I should be more charitable.

I think my aversion goes back to awfull "Dance Lessons" at school when conditions were too horrid to go outside and play rugby in the mud and so we got paired off with members of the opposite sex who were approximately the same height and taught how to foxtrot by the female gymn teacher who always wanted to lead. As there was nobody even approximately my height they used to find the smallest girl in the place (so that the averages made sense I guess) and then play wobbly records at us while we crashed around the gymn bouncing off the walls and hacking each others shins. Lovely.

So, kudos I guess to the ones that can actually do it properly.

Name In Vain

I found this in a toyshop in York today. We at Hull University may not have the worldwide profile of Cambridge, but I reckon that this is probably not all a bad thing. At least we only give our name to quality degrees, not plastic science toys as well....

Strictly Come Dancing

Some things I like. Others I hate. At the moment they are showing the kind of program that I loathe on Saturday nights. Nothing new there I suppose, for many years now Saturday night has been a kind of entertainment wasteland as far as I am concerned. I think it is a conspiracy between the BBC, pub owners and DVD rental shops. Every time I hear the TV executives moaning about how few people watch the telly on Saturday night and how they are going to correct this with a new, dynamic, schedule I have to brace myself for another round of drivel.

At the moment we have "Strictly Come Dancing", which is a gruesome combination of Bruce Forsythe, B list celebrities and a ballroom which has all the attraction for me of having my wisdom teeth removed via the back of my head. The format is that C list celebrities are teamed up with ballroom dancers to compete each week in a knockout dance competition. They have rather cunningly added a charity angle in that money from the audience telephone voting is donated somewhere, rather neatly taking the programme above rational criticism.

But the even worse thing is that during the week, at 6:30 they have "Strictly Come Dancing Take 2" or somesuch, which is drivel piled on drivel. Nonentities are interviewed by a nonentity commenting on the dancing of another nonentity and then taking phone calls from viewer nonentities. So you have someone who can't dance talking to someone who can't dance about someone else who can't dance.

At times like this I wonder if I am the only sane person left alive in this world. Suffice it to say that if I got into the studio I would consider it my civic duty to roll a few ball bearings across the dance floor as the couples prepared to foxtrot or pas a double or whatever. Now that would be entertainment.

Serendipity Rules!

Serendipity is my favourite word. And I only found it by accident. Had some today. I've been searching desperately for the registration document for Ye Olde Fiesta for a few days now. I've found all kinds of useful and interesting stuff. MOT documents from way back, school reports, you name it. But no registration document. The thing is that you never need these things. I put them somewhere safe and that is it. Thing is, I seem to have overdone the safety on this one. I've looked in all the sensible places and quite a few daft ones and still not turned up the crucial piece of paper.

I'd just about resigned myself to confessing to the folks next door that I'm an incompetent idiot where these things are concerned and then sending 19 quid off for another copy when a letter arrived today holding a new style registration form for the very same car. The vehicle people are changing the form and so the one that I have lost is now useless, and the new, posher one is now to be used. So I can post of my bit and give the other part to Dave and away we go.

Sometimes you can't beat dumb luck...