Latest happenings

So what have I been up to lately?

The planning for doing the West Highland Way is under way.  This weekend I'll be booking into two bunkhouses and that should be us sorted.  The training walks are already underway, and have been good so far.

The karate is going well this weather.  I'm averaging three classes a week, which is brilliant.

After the Easter weekend, I'm going to use the bike to commute to work again.  I've not done it since Hurricane Bawbag kicked in and trashed the country.

So, that's my State of the Nation at the moment.  Nothing new, but things are coasting along reasonably nicely.

Northern Lights from the ISS

Stunning.

Journey through a wormhole

So that was Kinross

Spent the weekend in Kinross, at the Green Hotel, and very nice it was too.  We spent most of the time driving round looking at castles and ye olde worlde things.
Total claim for the weekend was 2 castles, 1 round tower (in the Irish style - there's only two like this in Scotland.  The one we visited was in Abernethy), and a really cool pictish stone.

In the wee graveyard in Abernethy, we saw a wildcat, and got talking to a really nice guy from Skye who was visiting his sister who lives in Abernethy.

I'm seriously discovering how much I'm NOT a city person.  I could quite happily live in any of the wee places we visited at the weekend.  I especially loved the wee beach at Burleigh Sands.  (pic below).  So, come the lotterly win, and I'm outta here :-)

More cool science

Lego in the lab.  using Lego Mindstorm to make robots for use in the laboratory.  Seriously cool, and a brilliant excuse to get Lego on the Christmas list again.

Simple harmonic (and non harmonic) motion

A team at Harvard set 15 pendulums of different length in motion at the same time and filmed the result.  The website with the info is here

If you just want to check out the video, here it is below.  It's really pretty cool (from a geek perspective anyway)

.

Play

While not the kind of music people would probably associate me with, I do have a liking for *some* dance/electronic/trance type stuff.  I've just re-discovered what an amazing album Play by Moby is.  It's totally awesome.  I got it when it first came out, and played it to death, and this is probably the first time I've listened to it in years.

It's so good when you go back to something on a whim, and it resonates.

If you've never heard this album (and how could you not have?), then do your ears a favour.  It's dance music for people who don't do dance music.  Remember, this is the guy who's also done hardcore (as in punk) stuff as well (Animal Rights).

So, what are you waiting for?

Buchanan Castle

Yesterday we headed up to Drymen to do a walk starting from the car park on Stirling Road, and heading out into the countryside, before looping back and into Drymen again.

The highlight of the walk is the spectacular ruin of Buchanan Castle.  In castle terms, it's not that old - it was built in 1854, and serves as the seat of the clan Graham.
During the war, the castle served as a hospital, and it's most famous patient was probably Rudolph Hess, as he was treated here for the injuries sustained when he crash landed in Scotland.
After the war, the roof was removed to avoid paying rates on the building, and as a result, the weather took it's tool on the interior, and gave us the stunning ruin that still stands today.

Buchanan Castle

The rest of the walk takes you out into some beautiful countryside.  We found a really nice spot to stop for lunch, next to a small waterfall on the Doghouse burn.

Despite the threat of rain, the weather was really nice, and when there was no shade from the trees, it was actually pretty warm.

I've put a route map up on the Walk Highlands website in case anyone fancies giving it a go.  It's as accurate as any of these "click on a map to plot your route" things is.  Apparently you can download the route for your gps if you want.

Anyway, a really nice 10k walk in a stunning part of the counrty.

My SF collection. The state of the nation.

I need to have a book cull.  Plain and simple.  There’s not enough  room on the shelves any more.

When this realisation finally filtered beyond the barrier in my brain that says,  “No!  You can never get rid of books”,  I started scanning to see just what (potentially) could go, and when I worked out what it was, it came as a bit of a shock.

Charles Stross, come on down.  You’re books and my bookshelf are about to part company.

Why is this a shock?  I’ll tell you.  Charlie’s books are a good read.  In fact, they’re a great read. BUT, will I be re-reading them?  Possibly not, so they’re prime candidates for eBay (unless anyone reading this fancies them, £1.50 each or 5 for £5 (I’ll list them later).  The reasoning behind their imminent demise is quite simple.  Although they are cracking reads – and they cover the whole spectrum of sf, from space opera to cybercrime and virtual worlds – they don’t give me the certain thing that the SF books I love do.  And that is a sense of wonder.  It’s not there.  I’m sorry Charlie, it’s not.  You’re books are very clever, but I can’t help feeling that there’s almost too much going on.  There’s no real sense of awe, and that’s what I loved about SF when I first picked up Asimov* and started reading.

Don’t get me wrong, I will continue to read your books as and when they come out, but as to whether they get permanent residence alongside the Moorcock, Heinlein and Reynolds, that will be decided on a book by book basis.

(* Asimov, for all he was probably the first SF writer I read, and still occasionally read, I don’t collect.  This is purely because, to me at any rate, his books come over as very dated now, whereas, there are others from the same period, who’s stories time has been kinder to.)

The next generation of manned spaceflight

Books of late

Just finished reading The Woman in Black, and really enjoyed it.  Good old fashioned ghost story, of the kind they jsut don't write any more. (well, obviously they do, or I couldn't have read this book, but you know what I mean)
Might have to dig out the M R James soon and give that a re-read.

At lunchtime today, I nipped into the library in GOMA, and took out The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham.  It's just one of a host of classic sf/fantasy/horror, that I should have read but haven't. So.... time to catch up then.

Kindle reading is currently A Game of Thrones.

Cassini mission. Saturn fly-by.

Why is it that classical music is just perfect for scenes like this.  An animation made up of composite images from Cassini.  No cgi involved.

Simply breathtaking.


5.6k Saturn Cassini Photographic Animation - Expanded, Improved from stephen v2 on Vimeo.

Rambling about rambling

There was more ramblings in the countryside again at the weekend.

Saturday saw us heading to Lochwinoch, but taking a detour to Glennifer Braes, when the weather took a turn for the worse.  By the time we reached the Braes, the rain was off, and stayed off until we'd done our walk and were back at the car.  Result.

On Sunday, Simon came over, and the three of us headed to Aberfoyle again, to do another walk that started from the car park, Doon Hill.

From the name, you'd expect a hill, but it's more of a "bump", as it's really not that big, and there's no slog involved getting up it.
At the top, there's a tree that local legend says the spirit of the Rev Robert Kirk is imprisoned in, when it was captured by the faries, when he died at that spot in 1692.  Apparently he incurred their wrath by publishing a book about them (Secret Commonwealth).
The route also passes the remains of the church where he preached, and his grave can be found at the back of the church.  Meanwhile, out front, there's two mort safes, which were used to stop resurectionists from stealing freshly interred bodies.

All in all a great wee walk, and we had a really nice day for it.

An open letter to George Lucas

Dear George.

I hope you don't mind me calling you George, Mr Lucas sounds so formal, especially since I've lived with your magnus opus since I was at school.  Yes, Star Wars changed my life, and is probably one of the reasons I have grown up with a love of science fiction.

I loved the original trilogy.  So you can imagine my delight when I heard that episodes 1 - 3 were actually going to be made.  I was like a little kid again, waiting impatiently for the movies, and when they came......oh dear. What can I say.  Three little words that really spoiled these movies for me. Jar Jar Binks.

Yes, the floppy eared, obviously thick, creature from Naboo was an utter abomonation.  The hate sites sprang up (Jar Jar Binks must Die), and I completely understood where they were coming from.

Binks aside (please lets leave him aside), I didn't think they were bad movies.  I enjoyed watching Anakins' journey to becoming Dark Helme.....Darth Vader.

Then there was the "special editions" of the original trilogy.  Utter travesty.  The races and creatures cgi-ed in, to tie in with the new movies, stuck out like a sore thumb.  I own them, of course I do, but do I watch them?  Nope.  I watch the original editions.

Now the point of this letter George.  You're releasing the movies in 3D.  In fact, as I type this, The Phantom Menace is already out.  Now, I know everyone in the movie business seems to have a hard-on for 3D, but believe me, if it's not been shot on a 3D camera, it pretty much sucks.

You're dry humping the cash cow now George.  Seriously, stop it.  Please.

Now here's the hypocritical part of this letter.  Will I go and see the movies in 3D?  Hell yeah.  You know I will.  I've bought into Star Wars since I was 12, and I'm almost 46.  Like a junkie I'm hooked. (I've managed to avoid the Clone Wars, but only because I hate the style of animation).  There's also the fact that the attack on the Death Star in A New Hope (if the 3D is done well) will be utterly amazing.  Just make sure it doesn't suck like the cgi additions to the special additions. And hey, if I'm going to see one, I may as well see the set.

So there you have it George.  A Star Wars addict pleading with you to please stop messing with my childhood memories.

Thank you and goodnight.

Climb every mountian (come on, sing along)

Yesterday started of with a karate class.  Saturday classes involve bo staffs, and the occasional bruised shins, and are really good.

After karate, there was some film noir, in the shape of Murder My Sweet.  Plots in these movies can be (a) convoluted, and (b) tenuous at best.  But what the hell, they're fun, usually overacted, and are a great way to kill a couple of hours.

Fast forward a couple of hours, and it's off the the Green Chilli Cafe for a really nice meal.  They were even happy to deviate from the set menu to give Karen greater choice (she's coeliac), at no extra charge.  Brownie points for that guys.

Back home, and the night was rounded off with more martial arts, as Wesley Snipes roundhouse kicked vampire ass.  Result.

Today, we headed to Aberfoyle, and went a walk up Craigmore.  It's a nice wee hill, and it's a decent walk.  Just shy of the summit is as wall that used to support a tramway that was there way back in the mists of time. I can't remember off-hand why there was a tramway halfway up a hill (some local industry), but if I find out I'll update this post.

Anyway, from the top of Craigmore, there were some stunning views.  I think this is Ben Ledi.  I checked the direction and looked on a map, and it's in the right direction.  As with the tramway, if I'm wrong, I'll correct when I edit it later.

Fire alarm - This is NOT a test

I was in Strathclyde Uni last night when the fire alarm went off.  We were in the Royal College, but the nearest/quickest exit was in the Weir building.  Through a set of swing doors and down two flights as opposed to walk along a corridor, and down six flights, so it seemed like the obvious way to go.

Down one flight and we were met by fire fighters coming up!  Looks like the alarm that side of the building went off a good bit before the alarm where we were!

When we got outside, fire engines were there with hoses already into hydrants and snaking into the building.  You could smell the smoke.

When we walked round and go to George Square, you could see the smoke coming from the building.

Smoke from the Fire at Strathclyde University

This morning, the fire crews are still there.  Hopefully no-one was hurt.

Fail

When I got in from work last night, K was knackered and bailed from going to karate.  I went from being psyched up to flatlining in about 3 seconds, and replied with "Stuff it, lets have a tv night".  So we did.

The souvenir book for Odyssey 2010 also dropped through the door.  I've only had a quick skim through it, but it looks good.

Today I'm reading in a old-skool-stylee.  ie I've brought a real book out with me instead of the kindle.  Hey, I never said having a kindle would stop me buying dead tree editions now, did I?

*BOING!*

Yup, had a fantastic sleep last night, and after lunchtime karate, I'm totally buzzing.  Great wee adrenaline buzz right after.

Now I'm chilling in the house with a beer, waiting for K to watch her soaps, then we'll stick a movie on.

Tired dammit

I'm just so tired this weather.  It's crap.  I just about have a heart attack in the morning when the alarm goes off at the not horrifically early 6.30am, get up, shower, drink coffee and juice, and get the train at 7.40am.
Once in work (about 8.15), I've got time to grab another coffee before I have to start.

Mid afternoon, I'm feeling lethargic, and by the time I get home at about 5.30pm, I feel like I need a wee sleep.
If I do, it means I can't get to sleep when I do go to bed, and invariably wake up knackered because I haven't got to sleep till about 2.00am.
If I don't have a wee sleep, then I'm out like a light by about 10.30/11.0pm, and sleep like a log till about 5.30/6.00am, when I try and squeeze in that last little (half) hour of sleep, and *bang* wake up when the alarm goes off as described in the first line of this post.

Weirdly, if I'm on holiday, my sleeping routine seems to sort itself out, and I can get up and bounce out of bed at stupid-o'clock.am regardless of how late I went to bed the night before.

It's Scotland's climate that's screwing me up, I'm sure of it.  Oh where's my lottery win so I can emigrate?

Saturday mooch

Yesterday we headed down to Castle Semple at Lochwinnoch, and did a walk through the surrounding countryside, of just under 4 miles.  There was a really nice little pond, that should have had a kelpie living in it (maybe she was just hiding).
Once on top of the hill, there was a great view taking in three lochs.

Probably the highlight was coming across a couple of young deer.  I managed to get the camera out and just get a photo of them.

Before hitting the cycle track that lead back to the car park, there was the ruins of a little 16th century church.  There's a few graves inside the church, and it's in a really nice setting.

A nice day for going out for a wander.

There really should be a selkie in this photo

If you look carefully you can make out a small deer. 

(Hint - look for the white tuft of the tail)

View from the hill overlooking the loch

Ruins of a 16th century church.