The Sky Today

by Madman2 Posted on January 2, 2012

The Sky Today is a photographic project I have started for 2012. It’s or rather my aim is to photograph the sky overhead once a day and every day for the next 12 months. It’s designed to be a record of where I am and what I was doing as well as the weather. It’s NOT supposed to be from the same place every day as that would be impossible. Nor is it going to be recorded at the same time every day, that too would be too difficult and constraining. However I have set myself one or two other constraints, although I reserve the right to modify these as I go along. The main one of these is that I can only take one photo per day, i.e. the first one I take. I’d welcome any suggestions, hints or comments as well as criticism.

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New Look and Feel

by Madman2 Posted on November 30, 2011
WP Touch PRO screenshot from iPhone
WPtouch Pro

The website has a new look and feel and colour scheme, or lack of it. Why? Well most of the reasons are to do with experimentation, particularly around the use of mobile devices to read and author content for the site. The theme I have been using and adapting is Brunelleschi by Kit MacAllister. It uses HTML5 Boilerplate framework and displays well on it’s own across a number of devices and browsers. In addition I’m experimenting with the WP-Touch PRO interface and theme switchers in general. So if you have an iPad, iPhone or any iOS or android device you may see things differently. I’d love to hear your comments and experiences with these changes. MM2.

 

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Counterfeit Response

by Madman2 Posted on October 27, 2011

Well it wasn’t quite the reaction I expected, ‘we’ll warn everyone’.
To start at the beginning I’d ordered a pair of stretchy soft shell trousers from Amazon the other day and they duly arrived within just a few hours it seems. Great stuff this Internet shopping and with Amazon’ “prime” membership it’s downright addictive. However after getting them out and trying them on it’s apparent that there’re the wrong size and 6″ to trim off the leg is just not going to work. I’d no option but to send them back for a refund, as they didn’t stock any alternative sizes.

Stretch

Bugger, but GO Outdoors has them in stock at the right size and even though they’re nearly 10 quid more expensive I ordered a pair. They too came really promptly next day.
Now I’d chosen these trousers on the basis of the advertising and the technical specs. They appeared to offer the same kind of two-way-stretch that the more expensive brands, Haglof, Montane etc., offered but at half the price. The glossies, the articles and the company’s own marketing displayed very technical looking diagrams showing the actual stretchyness. I thought, I’ll have some of that.. thinking that on the previous week’s outing how my trusty Rohan trousers grabbed at the knees.

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Wainwright The Hard Way

by Madman2 Posted on June 29, 2011

P1010167

Tynedale Harriers Coast to Coast Relay

Over the past weekend a small team of runners from Tynedale Harriers crossed from St. Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay in Yorkshire, running in relay fashion in just over 41 hours following as close as possible the route of A Wainwright’s Coast to Coast route.

While that sounds like a fairly eccentric idea the reality was much worse. Setting off from the beach at St. Bees, the most westerly point on the Cumbrian Coast, at 4:00 am on Saturday morning in a howling gale and lashing rain set the scene for the remainder of the day. The three intrepid runners charged with leading off on the first leg soon disappeared into the fog, darkness and rain with the pebble from the beach and my GPS to record the whole event.

With a brief stop for a cup of tea and to pack up the tent we started out in the minibus to meet team at the first changeover point. This turned out to be the order of the day repeated at almost hourly intervals, jump in the minibus increasingly cramped, damp and sweaty, drive at high speed many more miles than the runners run, park up in a car park at the end of some dead-end road in the middle of nowhere, stare at the rain for what seems ages, then peer through the rain/cloud for the runners to appear. Stare the map several times to make sure we are in the right per approved place then just as we’re about to give up the soaked, bedraggled team members lurk out of the gloom.

Passing the baton (the stone and GPS) from runner to runner, check on coordinates for the next change over and with a cheer the next pair are off into the clouds again….

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Met Office Weather

by Madman2 Posted on June 10, 2011

This Weather Widget by the Met Office

Lake District Weather

Another attempt a producing a reasonable weather widget that’s useful specifically for walkers and fell runners in the North and Lake District. I must admit this is no where near as pretty or functional as it should be from the home of weather forecasting.

UPDATE

The BBC Weather pages have been updated recently and they look absolutely brilliant, functional too. I’m looking into embedding the new content more thoroughly into this site when they have sorted to the tools out properly. That last time I looked the RSS/EMBED stuff wasn’t there. No doubt it wil be soon (hope that it’s not part of the cuts!).

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Tessa Smith

by Madman2 Posted on June 5, 2011
Tessa Smith

The Tessa Smith Quartet

Jazz at The Exchange Cafe

Hexham, last Saturday evening. The venue deserved to be packed out rather than the pathetic half full state. The Tessa Smith Quartet played an hour long set with a mix of her own work and a number of covers, one by Thelonious Monk. An outstanding vocalist backed by some real talent on bass, piano and drums, Tessa came across very well and deserved a bigger audience. She plays somewhere in Leeds regularly, I’ve a mind to seek that out next time I’m there.


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