Online Photos

Well I said there would be another entry in a short time and for a change here it is on time - well relatively on time anyway *8)

Anyhow for the last wee while (perhaps about 10 months) I have been talking about putting some of the photos that we have taken online. Anyway this is one of those things that I had said I would do and it just did not seem to get done. I had signed up to a free service offered by a company called flickr following some recommendations from friends but I had not really done anything until recently.

So having managed to get round to sorting out the photos I have now started to look at getting them online. It is going slowly but surely but the reason that I am writing about this because I have been really impressed with the way the flickr has worked and just how easy it is to use. If you have no experience of it and working on uploading things online you will be really impressed with just how easy it is to use.

Anyway I would recommend this if you are looking to put your stuff on line then check out www.flickr.com

Back again

Yeah it has been a while and I have had to take some stick from people about not updating the blog (even if it is only from family) so here is an update as promised and if it is more dull than normal .......well that’s what happens.

Anyhow a fair bit has been going on here and we are now in the run up to Christmas so there will be more things to sort out again for that. I quite like Christmas - especially the lights and trees - they are really nice to see. There are some houses near us that go all out every year to decorate the outside of their houses. It looks really swish - this year I may take some photos as it is cool to have a record of such things. Come to think of it I may do the same thing for a couple of other places that I have seen that look great now that they have the lights up.

Both Rob and I are both trying to improve our general health by training hard and watching what we eat. So far we are doing pretty good though it is hard work and there is always the temptation to go back to eating junk. It will only get harder as we hit Christmas and there is loads of tasty and lardey food about the place. We are trying to not do the full out diet thing but rather go for changing the way we eat long term so that we can sustain the change rather than just stopping the diet and rocketing back up again.

We have been re-watching the Ultimate Fighter Series One prior to the new season starting this weekend on Bravo. I really enjoyed season one but there does seem to have been some controversy around series two and the attitudes of some of the coaches. I guess people had decided in their heads the way that they thought Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin would be and they were a bit disappointed in what they saw. At the last UFC (54 I think) they announced the coaches for season 3 as Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock. As soon as Shamrock was announced you knew they had brought back Ortiz - if for no other reason than the fact that then genuinely seem to dislike each other. Following the announcement we had the whole - who would you rather train with conversion. As I am sitting here typing this we have just replayed the conversation.

In series one the coaches were Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell. I chose Randy as did Rob. From what I have seen he seems like a good patient trainer who takes the time to explain things. Rob went for Randy as well citing the fact that he seemed more skilled.

In series two the coaches were Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin. I chose Matt Hughes. I like his fighting style, it is a bit more defensive which suits me a bit better. Rob went for Rich Franklin due to his background in teaching and the fact it is no just natural talent that he has. I think a part of it may also be that he has a little more of an aggressive fighting style that Rob seems to like. As Rob has just pointed out people have been quoted as saying Matt Hughes is a genetic freak - seems a bit harsh to me - I mean he works out but his day job is as a farmer and I guess that means you get to work out 24/7

In series three the coaches will be Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock. This time we both went for Ken Shamrock. The man is legendary in terms of how tough a trainer he can be and the Lions Den Gym has churned out some pretty good fighters in its time. There is also the fact that I am not sure I could deal with Ortiz' personality.

Well I guess it is getting late and I still need to go out and train on the bag for tonight as I did not make it to the gym tonight....ah well no pain, no gain. I will update about some other things that I have been up to in a wee while include the online photo book thing.

Goram Dang It!...Not as shiny as I hoped

I am a fan of pap telly - always have been.

Personally I really liked Buffy, and then Angel and then Firefly. Firefly was Joss Whedons new series and was basically a space western. I know that does not sound cool and really does not do it justice but it was top.

I have a favourite episode - Jaynestown. I do not think I have laughed so much at a telly episode for a long time

It was humorous, characters that you should not have liked you had a strong affinity for and you were intrigued by the multiple stories that were played out on screen. Not to mention the fact that is had a cool theme tune (You can burn the land, boil the sea, you cant take the sky from meeeee)

Unfortunately is did not do well and was cancelled and I was mighty sad

Then came the news - they were going to make a film called Serenity, it would have the cast of the original series and would be set after the series. I was excited. I wanted to know what would happen to Jane, Malcolm, Wash, Anara, River, Simon, Kaylee and Zoe.

So this weekend I went to the picture house to see the film. I have to say - I hoped for more than I got. It tied up all the lose ends and left you feeling like at least you knew kinda what would have happened.....and that was a good thing, but something happened to some of the characters and they were just not....as shiny I guess.

For me I think that the camaraderie that was shown in the dialogue of the telly series was missing - via bad editing perhaps - who knows, but it just was not quite there and I think had you not watched the series then you would not really understand what was happening with the characters and why they were behaving as they were.

I will not spoil it by saying what happened to whom and how but I felt a little sad at the end...I had hoped for a wee bit more.

Killer Dolphins, Exploding Pythons and Giant Squid

Truth is always stranger than fiction - or so they say - I think these articles may back that up

Ninja Dolphins

Ok so dolphins are cool right ? - Not at all scary. I mean come on they are flipper, you know saving little Timmy from sharks and all that

It seems that this may now not be the case - perhaps because of killer ninja dolphins

Dolphins

This is like as not a hoax - but still entertaining

Exploding snakes

I saw a strange article today - and not strange in a good way.

It turns out that there are a heap of people who have been purchasing Pythons, and then when discovering that they can become somewhat large pets they have been getting rid of them by setting them free in the bayous.

Not so smart really if you read this article

Pythons

You should enlarge the picture it is really odd - and strangely not a hoax

Giant Squid

So they now have footage of a giant squid in the wild. It was taken by some Japanese researchers (I could make a joke about that - but I wont). Apparently they can gown up to 13m (that’s pretty big) and they are preyed on by Sperm Whales. Kinda strange to think that no one has seen one in the wild before - makes you wonder what else is out there.

Anyhow they still have no footage of the Colossal squid (not a very inventive name) but they are on the lookout for it - don’t think you will miss it at over 15m!

Giant squid

In other animal news a great white shark called Nicole (who the hell names these creatures - Nicole - what kind of name is that for a Great White Shark for gods sake!) swam the Indian ocean from South Africa, to Australia and back again in nine months - pretty impressive really

And Finally........

Sometimes you wonder how people get funding for these projects Penguin Poo

An Intersting weekend

Well that is another weekend over (they just do not seem to last long enough really) and the wind and rain outside seems to reflect my mood when considering that I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Anyhow this weekend has been another relaxing one - which is really nice as work is kinda busy and it is good to just sit and chill for a while. Anyhow since my last blogging session I have been on a massive readathon and have chewed through a large number of books, some good and others not so good. Currently I am reading the new Neil Gainman one - Anansi boys and it is good if not a little slow. I will let you know what I think when I have finished it.

Old friends

Anyhow last weekend we had an unexpected outing. Friends of mine who I had not seen in about 5 years, were up here in Glasgow and we all met up for dinner. It was wierd and cool all at the same time. There was that whole getting to know them thing that you have to do - but we soon slipped into the same old routine which was cool. I have decided to endeavour to keep in touch more - though I am not always so good at that - but I shall try my best.

We ended up going for diner at Oko, one of the many Japanese eateries that are in Glasgow. I had never been there before - preferring ichiban and wagamamas but they were pretty good and they have a sushi train which is always interesting. Check out their website if you are interested OKO

Learning something new

This weekend we decided to use one of Roberts Christmas present - a half day of falconry. We drove up to Braco and were met by Adrain Hallgarth - our tutor for the afternoon who then drove us onto the estate to meet the birds. Adrian, as it turns out is the only master falconer in Scotland, so we were learning from one of the best.

We were in a group of 10 people all of whom had not done this before so we were not too nervous. After seeing the birds as we came in we went into the office to begin our training which started with how to tie the falconers knot. Now I have issues with keeping my shoes laces tied and so was more than a little nervous, especially when I realised that I had to be able to tied it one handed, with a bird on the other one. Adrian was cool and was really patient as we all tried to grasp what it was we had to do, and in 10 minutes I had is sussed (more or less). By this stage we were all used to wearing our gauntlets and tying the knots (and had large stickers with out names on them displayed in prominent places - makes it easier for them to tell you when to duck) so we went out to meet our first birds - the Harris Hawks.

Harris hawks are one of the few birds of prey that hunt in packs, and that are somewhat daunting to look at what with the large prominent beaks and scary looking talons. This is not helped when later we are told that (a) that they can exert enough pressure with their talons to kill a man (b) the one that I was holding had attempted to take a dog one day. It emerges that the birds like humans as that is where they get their food from, however small children who hold hands look like humans holding food for them, and dogs on leads look like food on a lure. Anyhow, test one was go to you hawk, get them onto you glove, untie the jess from the perch, tie to your glove (trying not to scare the bird or trip them upside down) then walk with them around the area. This was somewhat nerve wracking but was actually not as hard as you may think. It all went smoothly and my biggest concern was to not let go because the birds will kill each other and they are very precious. Anyhow there were no such incidents, though I think we looked at Adrian like he was mad when he said to try and kiss them on the beak to demonstrate the fact that they will not peck or bite you (most of the time) - again we managed to escape unscathed.

The rest of the afternoon we spent flying different birds to the glove. We started with a juvenile Harris Hawk called Ajax (who at one stage decided myt head was a good place to land - it being the highest vantage point to the food) and then progressed though an owl and a Battleur eagle. Adrian also flew a couple of other falcons to demonstrate the different types of birds but as they required lures - we could not, though having a falcon scream past your head at eye level at about 90 miles an hour is pretty exhilarating I can tell you.

The hardest part of the day was not touching their feathers (it removes the waterproof coating from them) as they are so soft and beautiful. Learning that owls have offset ears above and blow their eyes, hawks dribble and falcons are one of the most intelligent and fast animals on the earth are only some of the highlights. Also having the opportunity to touch and interact with these wonderful animals was totally priceless. Even the Battleur eagle was happy enough to have its beak touched. The day was a total blast and I can well recommend it to anyone. Check them out at Pheonix Falconry

Oh and in case you are wondering - we did not get pooed on even once (which is a good thing as they can shoot it for about6ft - and I do not care what anyone says - it is not lucky)