While they’re doing this do you think they could force cat owners to insure against their cats pooping on my garden?

This week’s photo challenge is Plug And Play. A couple of things came together for this one. Firstly, I’ve been experimenting greatly with my speedlite – I’ve been trying to come up with things that work in locations without proper power. I am aware of the strobists and I think I might have to start paying more attention (though I only have one light).

The other thing that influenced this shot was the use of oblique strategies. There’s quite a nice online version if you don’t want to buy a set of cards. Anyway, the strategy for this challenge was:

Everything comes from its opposite

Hmm… plug and play… my first idea was to have a playstation unplugged in the foreground with a couple of kids playing with a beach ball in the background. Unfortunately, free willing models are hard to come by so I went for another plan… plug/unplug… play/work… ah yes… so, what about when work becomes play? Oh yes… it is definitely playtime when the circular saw comes out!

Shot TTL with a speedlite through a softbox (you can see its reflection in the window). High-speed sync to subdue the daylight outside.

…can be a good thing. I think it has driven my photography in a good direction. I’ve started taking photos now where instead of saying “Oh dear Lord, that’s rubbish” to saying “It could be better, but that’s a pretty good job actually”.

Likewise in my Japanese studies, I’ve been pretty harsh on myself. I’m frustrated that I still can’t pick up a Japanese book or newspaper and just read it. Last night I was working on my latest assignment, a 400 word essay about a recent event, and struggling once again.

This morning, however, it dawned on me as I looked at last night’s work in progress…

That’s really not your average every-day level of skill is it? I’m actually doing alright! I think I just need a little patience to go with my hard work.

I’ve been with Demon Internet for… um… 14 years but their declining standards have just annoyed me to the point of needing to look elsewhere. Firstly, since their upgrade to extra fast broadband I have a) not been able to connect to the extra fast broadband (despite buying a brand new router to do so), and b) the original speed broadband (G.dmt for the techies) has become incredibly unreliable.

The straw that broke the camel’s back is their new ‘e-bill’. I actually can’t get onto their “simple, easy to use system for our customers to store, manage and pay their invoices electronically and enjoy the simplicity and convenience of online billing.” The error messages aren’t very useful either.

I thought I’d check if there were any hints on the net, and came across this article:

Demon Internet has sent out a spreadsheet containing the personal details of thousands of customers with one of its new ebills.

The spreadsheet – which has been forwarded to PC Pro – contains email addresses, telephone numbers and what appears to be usernames and passwords for the ebilling system.

[...]

Demon is refusing to disclose how many customers have received the spreadsheet, although it says it’s less than a few thousand.

Just not acceptable.

BUT, since I do all my own hosting, I could do with finding an ISP who will give me a static IP address and unlimited access from the outside world. Anyone know of any decent companies that fit the bill? It doesn’t even have to be super-cheap – I’ve been paying quite a lot for my broadband for the last many years because the benefits outweighed all the problems I’d been hearing about on other ISPs.

Last week, I received a nice newsletter from my nice MP saying:

As you have probably heard, Britain is now coming out of recession.

I’m pretty sure this will be comforting for the 2% of the population of Loughborough who have just lost their job.

Ok… it’s not really Lego, but it has to be the ultimate customisable movie camera…

The Red Epic Scarlet.

Now… who do the Falkland Islands belong to?

Let’s look at some comparisons:

Geography

Distance from Britain to Falklands: 8000 miles
Distance from Argentina to Falklands: 300 miles
Closest country to Falklands: Argentina.

History

1833: Britain seizes control of the Falklands by force from the Argentinian governer there.

Am I over simplifying things here?

Even if the full historical perspective gives the opposite story, you still have the following argument:

Geography

Distance from Britain to Falklands: 8000 miles
Distance from Argentina to Falklands: 300 miles

(Pssssst… Don’t mention the oil)

I know that I’m a little prone to ranting about Edexcel and the dumbing of standards in GCSEs and so on. But something that really worries me is the header on their Scheme of Work for Year 10 GCSE Japanese. It’s says “Japanese Language” in Japanese. But it’s only sodding well upside down, isn’t it?

A t-shirt manufacturer, I can just about forgive for getting Kanji upside down, but a booklet intended to help teachers guiding our young and impressionable future citizens? Not really on.

Marketing Exec 1: Guys, we’re going to launch a Teriyaki pizza.
ME2: A what?
ME1: Teriyaki, it’s Japanese isn’t it?
ME2: Sweet! Have you thought about the advertising?
ME1: Yes… we want a nice oriental feel…
ME3: Like sliding paper screens?
ME4: And some nice bamboo sillhouettes?
ME1: Yes, that sort of thing.
ME2: Sweet! And can we draw* a Japanese letter on it too?
ME1: Definitely! Who knows any Japanese?
ME2&4: *tilt heads and suck teeth* swswswswswwwwwww…
ME3: Well Feng Shui is Japanese, isn’t it? And that has Japanese picture letters.
ME4: Oh yeah! *shows laptop with google image search* Look…
ME2: Sweet! I think the one on the right looks best.
ME4: I prefer the one on the left.
ME1: ME3? What about you?
ME3: Left.
ME1: Left it is. Yeah… that looks great!

(*’draw’ is a good verb to use instead of ‘write’ if you really want to wind Japanese people up about their writing)

Result:

“Give your pizza some wind! (cry of last desperate military charge)”