Snap Happy

It’s been a while since I intentionally took out my camera with me to shoot some pictures. I do take photos now and again, but I’m really starting to gain a greater interest in DSLR photography. I’ve always been impressed with the results of the 50mm f/1.8 lens I have on my Nikon D50, but the D50 itself is starting to show its age. I got it about four years ago now, and soon after I bought it the camera was discontinued, replaced with the D40 (!?). Since then, DSLR’s have come on leaps and bounds. Even Nikon’s D90 is boasting a HD movie function!

In an ideal world, i’d get a Canon 5D Mk2, but it costs a few grand, so I can sit and forlornly hope that I’ll win the lottery or something. And in the meantime I’ll check a certain Mr Gaz Liddon’s photostream, as I know he’s got a 5D and is also quite a bit better at photography than me! I’ll probably settle for something between the Nikon D90 and the Canon 5D – whatever the middle ground between those two are. But of course, that’s in the future. I think I might get a 18-200mm lens for the D50, or even a 35mm. It’s good to know that the lenses I buy now would be usable on any future Nikon purchase.

Animals are always a good subject to shoot, so a nature reserve was a good place to go – geese, swans, ducks… Take a shedload of food and they’ll follow you round forever.

And today I was once again able to indulge my not-so-secret love of food photography, as evidenced by previous pictures here and here!

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

Can’t believe he’s really dead!!

Despite what he’s either done or done to himself, Michael Jackson remains one of the childhood heroes/icons that a lot of kids growing up in the eighties had. Most people I know grew up with at least one of his albums on cassette. Me and my brother had Thriller on tape and got Bad copied from our cousins, who were also very much into Jacko. As recently as christmas I bought his ‘King of Pop’ greatest hits, the music still stands up today – especially Beat It, Bad and Billie Jean. Before the media goes overkill on this and makes me sick of hearing tributes, i’d thought i’d give my tiny tribute right here.

When you hear of famous people dying, depending on how much they mean to you depends on how you feel. Michael Jackson obviously meant a lot to me as a kid, but i’m a man now! Obviously it still affects me, as my heart sank a little when I heard the rumours last night. I was on Twitter on the bus home when word came through that he was dead. I suppose he’s so ingrained in pop culture and so many peoples childhoods that it’s proving such a shock. I know at work later on they’ll only be one topic of discussion.

News websites are only now suggesting that the amount of painkillers Jackson was on was the reasons for his heart attack and death – he took so many in order to perform at the O2 that his body just gave up. I always thought something would happen so he wouldn’t perform the gigs, never dreamt it’d be this.

Now, i’ll let the news channels, papers and internets take over the 24 hour non-stop Michael Jackson coverage for you all. I’ve said my bit!

Midsummer Mundanities

Today, June 21st, is the longest day of the year. I always thinks this comes far too early – before we get chance to enjoy the summer, the nights start slowly getting darker again!

Today is also about one month before I fly away on holiday. It’s a well earned break, I must say. In the past month at work things have changed, duties are different, meaning I no longer have the cushy safe job with my mates and instead have a mind-numbingly boring job. Ho hum. That’s also not to mention the fact that my hours on Saturday have changed. I’m not a fan of working on Saturdays anyway, I finished at six but it’d kinda ruin the day, but now my hours have been shifted from 2-6 to 3-7. Perfect.

I’m all for looking for new work, but the severe lack of any decent jobs (the Nottingham Evening Post doesn’t even have a proper jobs paper anymore!) has led me to look at some sort of training in something else. I think I’ve approached the point of sink or swim. I’m 26, I’ve been at Royal Mail for three years and if i do nothing now, i’ll be there in three years time. Problem is, i’m not entirely sure what I want to do, and what I’d be good at. Certainly needs a few days off work (like a holiday!) to think long and hard about it.

I’ve been to London a good few times recently. Until the other day, my brother Iain and his fiancee Aleks lived in a ‘leafy’ north London suburb called Colindale. I say leafy, but a short walk down Edgware Road is enough to convince you other wise. They moved across the north of the capital last Tuesday, to a much larger and more interesting place called Wood Green – or more precisely Turnpike Lane – which involved me and my dad helping them both in about three car journeys to and fro.

Wood Green is automatically nicer, seeing as the high street is literally minutes away, there is a Wetherspoons serving non-London priced beer and they have the Turnpike Lane tube stop down the end of their road. Shame that they aren’t staying there longer (short term let) as i’d like to get to know the area better, plus it’s a few miles north of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium – which I’d like to go gawp at.

Elsewhere, the new iPhone and the iPhone update were released the other day. The change between my iPhone 3G and the new 3GS is minimal, certainly not enough to go out and buy it. Besides, the recently released 3.0 jailbreak has seen to it that a lot of new features brought in on the 3GS can be got on my phone.

It’s called progress…

Always a fan of blowing my own trumpet (so to speak!), here is a before and after of my weight loss.

March ‘09

And this was a few days ago…

Yes, in that picture I do look a bit too happy. But i seem to have got weight loss down to a T. Three stone in three months, coupled with two days a week at the gym seems to be working fine. But until I get down another 4 stone, i won’t be happy. I prefer not to think about how I put on all the weight I lost, but rather on how I’ll manage to keep the weight off – that is the hardest part, no question.

Personally, i’m surprised my body hasn’t given up on me – what with the seemingly constant weight loss/gain. What can I say? I’m a medical marvel!

Doon Toon

A nice big Championship welcome to Newcastle United. The ‘big club’ that ‘couldn’t possibly go down’ has done just that.

From a Forest point of view this is great news, a trip to St. James Park is in order. I’ve been meaning to go to Newcastle (the city) anyway, so combining the two and making a weekend of it will be great. I’ve also noticed over this past weekend that when they talk of the kind of teams that Newcastle will be playing next year, it always comes down to the small clubs that are a marker over how much Newcastle have ‘fallen’. This is so incredibly unfair to the likes of Doncaster, Peterborough, Blackpool etc. who have done amazingly well to get to this level.

I have a feeling that the big club mentality will linger around Newcastle next year, and while they are favourites to win the league, i think they’ll be unprepared for just how competitive this league will be next year. There are a lot of very strong clubs in the championship, and Newcastle need to acclimatize. Leeds never really got around to doing that and look at them now.

It’ll make it harder for us to make an impression on the league next year for sure, but suddenly the Championship looks like it’ll have one of the best seasons in ages!