CreamyGoodness

PippinImage

Wheelbeero Sound Build

Wheelbeero 2010 is approaching, and we've started early design and planning. First up is the sound system. Last year our sound system was adequate, so the plan for this year is for it to be excessive. Initial test setup has been constructed - see photo on right. What we have is a Sony MP3 CD head unit rated a 52W x 4 channels. This is driving two Infinity speakers and two Alpine 6x9 speakers. One of the head unit pre-outs is driving a separate Alpine amp rated at 90W x 2 channels. This is driving a further pair of 6x9 speakers. Finally, the other head unit pre-out is driving a separate subwoofer with integrated amp. This amp is rated at 900W.

So what we have is almost 1300W of power (peak - works out about 500W RMS). To power this we've had to parallel up two 70Ah car batteries. Seems to work. Very loud, and no acid explosions yet. The wheelbarrow installation starts this weekend.

02/09/10

Thomas's Birthday

Went to London for Thomas's birthday. Saw Parakeets - hiding in the trees on a grey day, so tricky to photograph.

22/08/10

Mushrooms

Found a new mushroom field close to the house. There were loads this morning - and proper field mushrooms too, rather than the horse mushrooms I've found in previous years from a different field.

21/08/10

Bokeh

Have bought a new lens for general purpose photos. It's the Canon EF-S 17-55mm lens here. Important thing is that it can maintain a constant f2.8 aperture for all its range. Very nice, very sharp, very heavy. Also, very good in low light, plus the diaphragm is nicely done so gives good bokeh. I believe this is a good thing.

First test photo on the right. Pippin with maximum aperture. Nice shallow depth of field. And nice bokeh.

20/08/10

Some Tunes

Been listening to various stuff based upon groups I heard at Cambridge, but also things I saw on the Glastonbury highlights this year. Quite liking some of the Pet Shop Boys songs on their Yes album - for example All Over the World. Thinkng I'll be buying that PSB album. Also, some of Lissie's songs. Particularly some of her covers, such as her version of Kid Cudi's song Pursuit of Happiness.

Visitors to my site fluctuating, but in general on the up. Almost hit 6000 unique visits in July. Graph on right. I need longer months, or more interesting content.

07/08/10

Cambridge Folk Festival 2010

Another year at Cambridge. Arguably one of the best in my opinion. No mud, we had a bigger tent, and some good groups playing. Highlights were Lissie, The Wonderstuff and Show of Hands. A couple of photos on the right, with a few more on My Cambridge 2010 page here

As usual we went up to Cambridge a day early. But this time we went out for dinner at Midsummer House - a 2 star Michelin restaurant. Very nice food, and easy to understand why it costs so much, but probably not the sort of thing you'd want to do on a weekly basis. Still, 9 courses and some pretty decent wine...

02/08/10

CreamyGoodness.co.uk -

The world population is roughly 6,800,000,000. According to website stats, my website is ranked at 3,089,302 in terms of global traffic ranking (and at 73,228 in the UK). So, according to my calculations, this places me in the top 0.045% of important people of the world. Or in other words, 99.95% of the worlds population have nothing more interesting to say than I do.

This revelation led me to do some internet digging to discover how my inspirational work benefits wider society. And here's just one example. The Division of Biological Sciences at the Univeristy Of Montana have used images from my website to support some of their ground breaking work in torturing birds. Check out this presentation here - you'll find my photos on the first and last pages.

People are more than welcome to use my photos for whatever they want. But seriously, use them to support some proper research. Proving that birds that live on the ground have more efficient legs than ones that don't is pretty much a no brainer. I would question whether the Univeristy of Montana is even a real university.

13/07/10