Al Scott Live

Well you wait months for a video to come along (umm OK, maybe not) then two come along on the same day! This is a video of my brother Alastair - AKA Al Scott - and his band performing recently in a north London pub. He's the shadowy figure tinkling the ivories.

Check him out at www.alscott.co.uk or here on MySpace.

Rat Race

I realised the other day that my compact digital camera can shoot and store up to 30 minutes of low-res video. So I recorded my journey to work. And made it into a sort of 90s-style dance music video. Shaky camera warning!



Music: Underground Resistance – Jupiter Jazz

Digg this video

My world: update

I was chatting to Tom yesterday, whilst sitting outside BRB in Camberwell enjoying (as best possible, between sneezes) the afternoon sun. We got onto the subject of blogs and it occurred to me that my enthusiasm for writing posts seems to have waned somewhat recently. That's not to say (as you can clearly see) that I've not written any entries, but the content of these entries has been mostly me providing a tertiary source of geek-news. Flickr website changes and the like.

Checking back, I've not made a personal-diary-type-entry since 17th April, so I'm going to have a go right here. If you're looking for geek-news, stop reading now.

So what's new? Well currently my body seems to have taken up sneezing as its favourite pastime, (completely without my consent of course). Or, to be more precise, I'm feeling like I'm about to sneeze, 24/7. And this feeling is only interrupted by the relatively enjoyable act of sneezing itself, about once every minute on average. Pollen allergies, hayfever, whatever - I hate it. Various types of antihistamine tablets and nasal sprays seem to have had little effect.

So poor, poor me basically. I need to get myself a GP. Either that or wage war on all pollinating plants.


So what else is new (and more interesting) ?

Well I'm still taking lots of photos, and enjoying it more than ever. I'm getting better at it too. I recently bought a 50mm (prime) lens which is helping me to explore different types of photography.



I'm still listening to the same old music, though it's not looking any more likely that I'll be producing any more any time soon. My initial enthusiasm for Abelton Live proved temporary. I think there comes a time when you have to decide what things to stick at and which to allow to fall by the wayside. I have the ability to write tunes (and with a little practice I'm sure I could come up with some good stuff), but right now it's photography that's getting me excited. And I don't have time for both.

I need to make more time for my Flashteroids project too, and if there's one thing that stresses me out it's leaving a trail of unfinished work behind me.

I'd rather do fewer things, but do them properly than do lots of things, and do them badly.


Barcelona



This is hardly hot off the press (see this Eyechild Post) but Duncan, my brother, has left Camberwell and moved to Barcelona. He's doing one of those TEFL courses for one month and aims to start teaching in September.

I went out there with him when he left (along with our friend Vic) and stayed for six days. It's a lovely city. We mostly did tourist stuff – bus tours, sitting on the beach, eating out, exploring, et cetera – so there's not an awful lot to report. ‘The ideal summer city break’, to summarise. I highly recommend it if you've not been there before. My Barcelona photos are here.

Going home was quite strange because Vic and I left early for the airport and had to leave Dunc in the hotel room. He got out of bed for goodbye hugs. I hate goodbyes at the best of times but I'm really going to miss him living down the road so I sort of lost the ability to speak properly, and ended up feeling like I'd not said enough. I sat quietly in the back of the cab to the airport. Good luck to you Dunc, and take care!

I think it's a good move for him though. If you're not enjoying it somewhere, move. And I can think of many many worse places to go and live in summer than Barcelona. If the worst comes to the worst you can always move back anyway. I look forward to visiting him later in the year.


Tomorrow

Time to wrap up this rant anyway. Tomorrow at work I'm taking a photo for an advert we're running later in the week in a magazine. I'm getting to do more and more photography at work which is great because I'm learning loads and getting paid to do what I enjoy best (yes, it seems to have overtaken designing, in my ratings). I took some photos of our creative directors recently too, and the one they pick is destined to be a fairly large full colour print in a magazine. Who knows where it will lead. It's all good for the portfolio anyway.

Whilst writing this post my sneezing seems to have calmed down a little so as soon as I've published it I'm going to shut the laptop lid, turn over and go to sleep. Who knows, maybe I'll write another ‘human’ post soon...

Good night.

Images of the Sun taken by the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer

From Digg.com. Impressive images. Looks toasty!

"""
As of May, 1999 TRACE has taken over 1.5 million images of various solar features in coordination with SOHO and other solar observatories around the world. Detector degradation has been unexpectedly light providing scientists with the hope of several more years of good seeing.
"""

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