The Most Interesting Rocks at Kinder Downfall

Rocks at Kinder Downfall
Originally uploaded by Stuart Davies.

I now have two images on the interestingness page...oh the headiness. Although when i discovered that Rocks at Kinder Downfall had made it on to the list it had already droped 82 places from 123.

One of these days I will figure out what is actually involved in this interestingness business but for the moment i will not worry about my rankings.......well not a lot anyway.

So while I am not worrying about I will crow a bit. So thats two images in the interestiness pages Grimescar Brook and the Kinder Downfal pictures.

Busking Devil

Busking Devil
Originally uploaded by Stuart Davies.

I have always envied those who do 'street' photography. There are several great exponents of it on Flickr such as Stoneth. I on the other hand have always been to cowardly to do it. But today I plucked up the courage to take some photos of the busker in town. His dancing devil made me smile.

The best shot i think is this one. I was lucky in that the little devil turned just at the right time.

What i really wanted to do was get right down in fron and get both the devil and busker together, and with the devil in focus and the busker out of focus.....but i didnt have the balls. Ho hum, may be next time.

I have Interestingness

Grimescar Brook
Originally uploaded by Stuart Davies.

I have mentioned before that Flikr has a thingy called Intrestingness. For certain photos that score highly on the intrestingness stakes get elevated to the Explore page. This is supposed to be the best (or most interesting if you like) photos. The rules on how Flickr selects them is a mystery to most i think. It seems to boil down to a relationship between the number of people looking at the image, time between views,number of groups its in and the number of tags. Oh and a little bit of voodo black magic.

My photo of Grimescar Brook is the first of mine to make it there. I think it is rated at number 244 of those uploaded on the 19th of November. From what i can gather it got rated becuase i added to the 1-2-3 group and it subsequently got a lot of interest in a short amout of time - hence it was considered interetsing.

Ok so I know that at number 244 on one day we are not talking preimer league here but personally for me its enough to make me chuffed, for now.

If you want to see the other photos on the explore page for that day you can click here. To see my other photos click on any of the photos on this page.

Match Point

Last night I went to see Match Point, the latest offering from Woody Allen. What can I say? Every one knows Woody Allen can be hit and miss. If you see one great Woody Allen film its a sign that you should possibly skip the next one. Match Point on the other hand manages this in one film.

Before the obvious trigger point in the story this was a film I could have happily walked out off. The first, what felt like 4 hours, was the most boring, banal, irritating and stilted film that you could imagine. There are no characters in this film who you would not want to kill in real life. The exposition of the main characters tells you nothing about them. They all have veneer thin motives. No that's a lie they have no motives.

As a display of the English upper class I would hope that this would make most people run to the barricades and start the revolution yesterday.

The incidental conversation was laughable, so badly written and badly acted that I wanted to ask for my money back. People have banal and inconsequential conversations daily, I assume that is what was it was trying to represent, but a 14 year old could have written this.

Then i went to the toilet. When i came back i swear this was a different film. All of a sudden there was tension, there was drama, things happened.

Take my advice go see this film, but skip the first hour. All you need to know is social climbing twat has no morals. Gets involved with rich family of tossers. Then has to make a choice.....then there is a film.

The Abysmal State of British Politics

I have been an observer of politics since I was knee high to medium sized midget. I remember the day the that Mrs Thatcher entered number ten I was 14 at the time and I knew from that moment that I hated the women. For 18 years I was on the side that argued, rioted, protested and partied to get rid of them.

We thought at the time that they were an aberration and that all we needed was to evict them. I'm older and wiser now and I realise that if you want rid of some thing you need something to replace it with.

We now have in this country a Labour party whose leadership has taken us into what many think is an illegal war in pursuit of the American Business Interest. This same government seems intent on chipping away at our civil liberties on a daily basis.

The Conservatives have been a spent force in this country since being chucked out. Led by non-entity after non-entity. They behaved like an abusive partner who didn't get it. They didn't understand why they were thought of as the nasty party.

The liberal party, were for those left of center, one last hope to return the government of this country to principles that were worth fighting for. If you had asked me two years ago if any party was going to implode I would have said the conservatives

But even with an unpopular war, a conservative party out for the count and increasing threat to civil liberties the liberals managed a small rally. No more no less. There was no killer blow from them against the conservatives and so the status quo remains.

And now?

2 Days ago after months of back bench rumbling's, after several times where the leader was incapacitated and after the backbenchers made the displeasure clear Charles Kennedy the leader of the liberals goes on national TV to say that he has 'had' a drink problem but its alright now. He then offered the party a leadership election.

None of the serious candidates wanted to stand against him, they wanted him to resign - he refused.

After 2 days of denying the reality of what was required by his party he final went. He was a very very talented leader but the manner of his going has fatally wounded the Liberals. The fact that the MP's could not dispose of him earlier shows them to be lacking what is required in leaders. By refusing to go he has publicly humiliated any future leaders.

This leaves many with no natural party to vote for. When people have no one to vote for the nutters, racists, Stalinist and general despots come out to play. They promise everything and deliver nothing. I have increasing thought that democracy is ill in this country and today has only made me fear the worse.

New Years Eve and New Years Day

Went to a friends house for a party, took camera, made sure that I had spare battery, much fun was had by all.........Forgot to take a memory card for camera. Bugger!