Swashbuckling For Beginners
A little bit of yours truly's history here, way back in 1984 when I was a wee lad at Larkfields Junior School, I was part of the cast of the school play "Swashbuckling For Beginners" :D The play was videoed by one of the dads and I got one of the few copies of that VHS tape. So when I upgraded the video card in my PC a while back to one that had video capture facilities, I decided to do exactly that and captured the video.
I've split the play up into 4 parts, just so you don't have to download it in one 600Mb chunk, but it's otherwise unedited, I did have to downgrade the quality somewhat to get it to fit in my web space but it's still definitely watchable. I am working through the video to grab some stills with a view to making up a cast list, when I've got that done i'll put it up here as well, in the mean time I hope you enjoy the play....
P.s. I'll tell you which character I play later when I get the cast list up, you'll just have to guess for now ;)
2006-07-12 More helicopter video
For your viewing pleasure, I've finally compiled the video of my 7th flight with the helicopter.. definitely my best so far... and the bext thing is.. the weather says that the horrid gusty wind we've been having will die off for the next few days, so i'll be able to fly again instead of just watching my vids :D
2006-07-12 Zen Bondage :D
Oh My God!!! I might as well just pack up my stuff and quit the Ph.D. now, this game is most certainly going to eat up every waking moment of my life for quite some time.
The basic idea of the game is to take a virtual block of wood and wrap it in rope, then the rope colours in the wood near it, with the goal being to colour in the entire surface of the block using as little rope as possible. Its simple but like all simple ideas it is fantasticaly addictive and satisfying when you do it. And best of all its completely FREE :D
My best score.. well my only score as i've only played it once, is completing the Lure block with 58.4m of rope left, Nige on the opposite desk did it with 50.8m left.. so I'm currently winning in the office. :D
You can download Zen Bondage here, and also take a look at the developers "Moppiproductions" they have some really good demo stuff on there.
2006-07-11 More Helicopter Videos
After a long delay while I was writing my second year Ph.D. progress report (and the less said about that the better!!) I've finally got back into the flow of editing the really bad bits out of my helicopter flying videos... and yes.. that does mean these are the good bits!
So below we've go 3 new videos that hopefully show me getting a little bit better. Enjoy :D
18-06-2006 Less AirWolf, more a SoggyCat!
Well, no i've not quite made it to the level of Stringfellow Hawke from Airwolf yet, but i'm definitly getting there. :D
Last week after Kathleen's... hang on I need to explain this.. The helicopter has been christened "Kathleen" by two of the guys from uni after Kathleen de Leon from Hi-5, a Kids TV program which is on at some ungodly hour on channel 5 in the mornings. Anyway, back to the point, after Kathleen's run in with the fence last week, I tried to order some new rotor blades, but the shop was out of stock, so, as I didnt know how long they would be and I really wanted to have another go soon, I had to improvise. I decided to have a go at chopping down the blades to remove the chipped section, the results, below, are a fab set of slightly shorter "Sports" blades :D
With the new leaner, meaner, blades attached a break in the rain last saturdya evening signaled the moment to go forth a fly!!!.. So thats what i did. However, having learned from last week that I could'nt quite contain my flying within the bounds of the back garden, I walked over to a small field near the house.
15-06-2006 Up up and awayyyyy.. or not!
Well after a busy week i've finaly completed the video of the seconds days... errr. flying
I've been getting a little advice from people who have had helicopters before and apparently the reason I couldn't control it on the first day was because of a turbulant cushion of air between the main rotors and the ground. One of them suggested that it would be easier to fly the thing if it were 1m, or higher, above the ground. So that was my plan.. lets get some air!!!
Well as you can see, my first jaunt up to the heady heights of 2m were quite as successful as I'd wanted, but at least I did better than Steve, who while trying to figure out the control, caused his helicopter to leap off the kitchen table, land up side then proceed to smash off the main rotor blades on the kitchen table.. a total flight time of about 2s... Doh!
12-06-2006 Mr Greatheads Photo Emporium
A friend of mine at the playgroup we like to call "university" has got his own website and it is about time I got round to linking to it.
He's a keen amateur photographer so its worth a look to see piccies of sheep, cats, bits of Hadrian's wall, lots of Japanese people and more fun stuff.
In fact the only downside to him is that he is beating me in Battlefield 2, here is a link to our stats. And just so it makes more sense.. I'm "CarlosTheCactus" and he's "GolemDeluven".. (yes perhaps gentlemen of our age shouldnt have nick names for playing games, but it keeps us happy :D)
11-06-2006 Chocks Away!
YAY.. after wanting one for about 20 years I have finally got myself an R/C helicopter :D
Ok, well the above isnt completely accurate.. I got a little one, called a "Bladerunner" for x-mas 2004. It was pretty good fun for a £30 heli (they seem to be much more expensive now.. twice the price for adding a couple of LEDs ... good value..not!) but it soon suffered terminal engine failure when one of the motors burned out after about a week :(.
Anyway, to the point, a friend told me a month or two ago about Heliguy.com where he had got an electric heli from.. So I took a look and found this little gem of a deal, a Walkera Dragonfly 4 for just over £70. Well it turns out that i'm not the only one who wants one, so last weekend, myself and my (soon to be) brother in law (in law) ordered a pair of them, which arrived last wednesday night.
My first nights flying was not entirely impressive it has to be said, these things are much trickier to fly than i expected (and I had already been told that they were hard) as you can see for yourself below.
There is more, but i've got to go out for dinner now, so i'll try and get it up monday or tuesday.. Carlos.
11-01-2006 1098016 Gnr. W. Shelton MM
Right, for those that don't know my Gran's Boyfriend (for want of a better word) has had his war memoirs published and I had to tell you all about it.
The book is called "War: Through the Eyes of a Raw Recruit" and it tells the story of Bill's early days, recruitment into the army and the campaigns he served in in Africa and Europe. It serves as a reminder to us all of what these men went through, yet is written in exactly the same way as when Bill talks to you so it's more like being told a story than just a lecture on the events.
I personaly really enjoyed reading it and think that everyone should give it a look!
After that glowing response from Sir Alan, you are no doubt itching to get your hands on a copy, so you'll be pleased that I've already got links to where you can buy it below.
- War Through the Eyes of a Raw Recruit from BestBooksOnline - This is where I would get it from, £5.99 for the book or £3.50 for the PDF version.
- War Through the Eyes of a Raw Recruit from Amazon - Amazon also stock it if you prefer, also £5.99 but theres also a £1.99 sourcing fee.
And for those that get excited about such things, its ISBN number is : 1-904502-86-5
Get it, you will enjoy it!
9-12-2005 More New Stuff!!!
Its official.. I must have some deadlines looming as I am actually getting some stuff on my webby instead of working for it! :D (Actually, thats not entirly a joke.. i've got my second thesis committee meeting on tuesday and some marking to do for the software architectures module I help with... oh well never mind!!)
First off we have my good buddy Nev's website, which is once again working.. its got some good music to download, some embarressing pics some people wont want you to see, some funny stuff and some forums to chat on... give it a look.
Next... well... if you thought your neighbours christmas lights were bright and over twinkly.. then spare a thought for this guys neighbours.... and its all real.
It does take quite a while to download, and its all buffered so it dosent look like its downloading.. but its worth the wait!
8-12-2005 Advent Calendar Norwegian Style
A an advent calendar, alas without chocolates but with funnies :D
I have to warn you now.. I havent seen all the things it links to, so i have no idea what is after the first few days, but so far it has been all been good clean fun!
Enjoy!!!
5-12-2005 Fantacular New Net Radiostation
A very good friend of mine has been involved in setting up a new net radio station called IChannel.com. I've been listening to them and honesty IT ROCKS!!!!
So what I say is do yourself a favour, stop reading my drivel, click on the banner below and let some of the best unsigned bands around rock your cares away!
What.. .... you're still here... you obviously want to know what kind of guy could build such a pillar of music goodness... well ok, i'll show you...
Ok, so now you know the man, get clicking on the IChannel banner and get to know the music.... go on.... .now..... no not after a nice cup of tea now!!!
The Truth About PhDs
For those that don't know, I am currently working towards my PhD in Computing Science. So this usualy leads to one of two comments from my friends and family these are :
- "So, how is your work going?" or,
- "Pah, we know you students just play games all day and get all summer off!"
Now both of the above might, to the casual observer (or more precisely, anyone that has not endured a PhD!), seem like perfectly normal things to ask or joke about... but believe me they most certainly are not... but how to tell everyone this? Well it seems that I no longer need to figure out how to explain just what life feels like in research land, there is an online comic that does it for me its called.....
Piled Higher and Deeper
I have listed a few of the funnier / most accurate ones i've found so far below.. Enjoy!
28-09-2005 - nuts, Main PC has died
Well it had to happen at some time, my main pc currently wont boot up.. it wont even boot in safe mode, it just goes to a blue screen about 10 s into booting. Why did this happen you might ask, well I was being very productive as always (Alright I was playing Battlefield 2) and it was just loading the next map. At this point Emma said it was time to make the tea, so even though I clearly wear the trousers in my house and would never take orders from Emma, I promptly jumped up, pressed escape (to stop the map loading) and went in the kitchen. When I came back out a few minutes later the screen was still stuck on the "unloading resources" view of the game.......hmmm i thought and hit ctrl-alt-delete. A few mins later the PC was still there, so with it was time for the big reset switch to do its thang. Back into the kitchen I went, and came back to... you guessed it, the blue screen..... hmmm.... off went the PC while i had a thought.... and then it turned itself back on.... how weird is that!! Off it went again .... a few seconds passed and it turned itself on again.
Well to cut a long and very dull story short, it just would not come back to life no matter which way i tried to boot it / meddled with the BIOS. The net result is that it will take me a day or so of playing to get it all back up to scratch (with my shiny new MSDN version of XP courtesy of University) and then ~I will crack on with the Canada trip.
Sorry, Carlos
20-09-2005 : Hot Decorating Update
This just in from the decorating office, We've been stripping out the spare room, and we've got some hot footage of the work in progress.
These were specialy produced as a charitable act to save John from a boring day at work... Chin up John!
07-09-2005 : Two Lumps have moved
My fave online comic two lumps have moved to a new site. Don't forget to change your bookmark to Two Lumps new site. Phew that was close, i nearly lost them forever :D
30-08-2005 : Canada Hols Day 1
I've got to start putting up some pics and stuff from the summer holiday and the first day seemed to be as good a place to start as any so that's where I started.
I hope you enjoy reading about our trip to Canada
26-08-2005 : New Sofa Shananigans
In the words of Andy "What a cafuffle!". Today we had our new sofas delivered, we ordered a 2 seater and a 3 seater to replace the current 2 chairs and a 3 seater, thinking that this would fit in no bother... how wrong were we. To cut a long story short, the 2 seater went in the living room door .. just, but would the 3 seater fit through, would it bugger.... so after Steve, Greg and I tried to lift, twist and push it in any number of ways we resigned outselves to having to remove the banister from the stairs to get it in, what joy!
21-08-2005 : First Pic from Canadialand
For those that don't know, I've just been to Canadialand with my good lady wife. I am going to put a small selection of the 3500 or so photos I took (this does not include the 2041 taken by Steve) on the webby soon(ish).
To give you an idea of what we saw though, below is the first ever panoramic picture I've gotten round to sticking together, it is of the the view from the top of Whistler Mountain in British Columbia. Hope you like it.
05-08-2005 : Happy in Canada
For those that don't know we are currently in Deepest Canadialand touring round for a while. To show how happy we are Emma and I did a little dance which is yours to download in animated gif format :D
There's no music on them, but feel free to add whatever tunes make your boogie bones tingle
11-07-2005 : Work-a-holics beware
This is a little tooooo much like my life for my liking, but the warning needs sharing!
06-07-2005 : 2012 Olympic Japes
The result was announced about 3 hours ago, and i've already seen 4 spoofs mocking 2012... no wonder the rest of the world does not respect us.
03-07-2005 : Emma Strips :)..... the living room wall :(
Her Royal Queeneyness Emma has decreed that we shall decorate the living room, and just so there is no argument on the matter she tool it upon herself to strip a small part of the wall paper the other day and today she cracked on with the back wall of the living room.
The good thing is it has provided another treat for all you time lapse fans out there, the animation below represents about 5 hours of work, with 10 minutes between each frame.
30-06-2005 : June Rain
Just to prove to everyone that appeared to miss it, it absolutly wazzed it down this afternoon, to the point that the street managed to flood again, and then some lightning knocked out the power for 15 minutes... cripes!
If you're inclined i've got some rain imagery up for your pleasure, first we have a short video which shows the road flooded, a car driving through it and no, its not a drowned poodle in the middle of the road, thats the rain water coming up out of a man hole cover. Can't wait for Northumbrain water to finish improving the drains!
Next we have the photos, just photos... nothing exciting really.
Finaly, during one of my many breaks while "working at home" today, i figure out how to do time lapse photos automaticaly using my pc and camera... the result is below (its 30 frames at 30s intervals for all you time lapse fans out there!). If you click on it you can get a larger clearer version. Oh yeah, I knew i'd forgotten something, its of the big puddle near the house draining.
07-06-2005 : Store Wars - No Added Jar Jar Binks!
Amusing AND educational (well a little) .... does content on the web get any better than this??
"I laughed so much my head fell off" - said a man in the street, yesterday.
19-05-2005 : Episode III.... ROCKS!
Well it finally arrived, seemingly from a galaxy and far away judging by how long it took to come, but it was certainly more worth the wait than the other two!!!
I don't want to spoil the film for anyone (well I do really, I want to tell everyone all the bits that I thought rocked, but there is still some good in me so I shal'nt) so i'll stick to telling you that I thought it was well worth stayin up till 12:35 am, watching it till just gone 3am then going home, sleeping for 3 hours before the alarm woke me up to go make Emma a cup of tea and then having to invigilate an exam for another 3 and a half hours!
Go and see it.. thats what I say
And just in case i needed to prove how geeky I can be, below is a scan of my ticket. For no apparent reason other then I could.
12-05-2005 : Want one
I think that soon my dinnertimes will never be the same again... This is something that is just tooo big to keep to myself. Its Octodog . All I can say is, go to the site, view the "So how does it work" and prepare to be amazed!
08-04-2005 : Pressure of Life and Fans
As you may have noticed, i've not been putting any stuff up on the webby for a few weeks (certainly Kirsty - who appears to be my websites biggest fan - noticed). So here is a little something to tide you over while we finalise moving house after which i'll be able to do something more interesting.
The first banner below is to the "Happy Tree Friends" cartoon website. If you're thinking Mickey Mouse then you're way off track here, for that matter even Itchy and Scratchy is tame copmared to these cartoons. Well they make me laugh anyway!
The second is a new comic strip that Matt introduced me to the other day, its "Alien Loves Predator". Do you see what they did there? They took Alien Vs Predator and turned it around to Alien Loves Predators.....ahh yes..... very good. Anway, its a little strange most of the time (and coming from someone with my quirky sense of humour that is saying something!), but have a look anyway.
24-02-2005 : Working Life
I just found this on some policeman's blog. It's quite an apt description of just about every meeting I ever attended during that silly time in my life a few years ago when I "worked" for a living. It was especially true, as I recall, of the productivity meetings.
16-02-2005 : Masters of Science
I've pulled my finger out and put the pics up from my MSc Graduation. I think I look pretty smart for a change so its worth a look for that that reason alone. Either click on the link below or go to "Carl's MSc Stuff" in the site links to see em!
03-02-2005 : Two Lumps
If you like cats or even if you don't (which should include most of you) then you will love this online comic chronicling the adventures of Ebenezer and Snooch.
Here is a photograph (it is a photograph...... humour me) of snooch after getting pickled on Vodka (cats do this, they just don't tell many people... did you never wonder why they sleep all day and get really annoyed if you disturb them????) and declaring his newly acquired naval rank.
Go visit the site today for some moggytastic fun.
27-01-2005 : Hey Disco-Daddy!!
If, unlike me, you're not a Groovey DiscoNaught from planet Funky in the system of Beatnik then you'll be needing this handy disco tutorial
I do however suggest that you do not under any circumstances try to emulate any of the outfits or hairstyles you see in the following video, they are worn by trained professionals under strict supervision and surrounded by large anti static devices.... You have been warned!!
38Mb of Disco Madness, you dial-up types have been warned!
27-01-2005 : Chav Toooooooons
Chavs are going to take over the world one day.....FACT!
I therefore suggest you study these educational videos to better help you understand the needs and motivations of our soon to be rulers!
They were made by Cecimoz.... I think... or perhaps Cecimoz is some hip trendy charva word... I have no idea... either way if you like these then follow the banner below to the authors site. "Its a bit wrong" .... apparently
20-01-2005 : Golf-a-rooney
Stress management in the modern workplace is very important, therefore i suggest you stop what you're doing.... right now.... yes now and play mini golf.
20-01-2005 : Test of Concentration
This should help you refocus your minds on the tasks at hand after a long,dark and cold January. Its an online test of concentration that is really rather tricky.
13-11-2004 : Master of Science
For those that don't know, I graduated the other day and so can now officialy call my self a Master of Science. The univeristy have decided in their wisdom that this might me something the whole world might want to see so you can watch my graduation ceremony online.
To save you much boredom, I actualy graduate just after 31 minutes into the video.... so watch and enjoy. It is also worth listening to the "music" played on the organ at the start of the ceremony, it sounds rather like it should be in a Hammer Horror movie to me.
13-11-2004 : American Jedi
Its a bit like "American Pie", its a bit like "star wars" its "American Jedi.... The Movie!" Its 14Mb(ish), but worth it.
15-11-2004 : CS the Song
This is mainly for Joey's benefit, its the little know Counter Strike cover of the Gloria Gaynor hit "I will survive"... although it was never quite so succesful....... or tuneful for that matter, any way listen to it you might just be glad you did.
11-10-2004 : Funky Chickens
Tonight we were taking pictures for Millennium Balloons new range of fancy dress costumes.... here are some = quick samples
6-10-2004 : Mt St. Helens
Below is a live picture of Mount St. Helens, which may or may not be erupting. You need to click on refresh every so often to see the new images... there is no provision made for lazy people on this site!!
If you like this image you can go to the Mount St. Helens Volcano Cam web site where i'm sure they will have lots of interesting volcano related things to read about.
5-10-2004 : Whoops
Well as you can guess, this chap wont make this mistake twice!
Oh Cluck!. I don't know how long this link will live for, so look soon.
30-9-2004 : Emma's Leeds Hen Night Pictures
Its taken a while, but the pictures of Emmas Hen night in Leeds are finally up.
Have a look at the on the Leeds Hen night pages
20-9-2004 : My Wife and I
I had to scan in a couple of the wedding pics to send to the dress maker, so I thought I'd put copies up on here.
09-09-2004 : Time wasting
Ever wondered what a brand new glass kettle boiling actualy looks like? Well i had but i wonder no more...and i have video evidence.
See the glass kettle boil but only if you are very bored or you agree that kettle rhymes with snettle!
28-7-2004 : Would you???
Here are two views of a public toilet in Switzerland, one from the inside and one from the outside. The unit is made entirely of one way glass so that no one can see in from the outside, but inside it looks like you are sitting in a glass box.
The question is.... would you use it????
Childish Humour
Swallow any pill that stops your nose from working and enter The Fartrix, let's see how low humour can go.
Turbo Tanks
Yes you read that right, tanks do have turbos...and guns... and what a fun combination that is. I suggest you go and play the game now
T-shirt Folding
Back by popular demand and my desire to have something else on the site... it's the amazing T-Shirt folding vid
Carls Stag Night
Hopefuly by the time you will have read this I will have put at least the day time paintballing pics up on the webby.... woo hoo!
Emma's Hen Night
None of it is up yet, but it will be soon
Its Born Again
Yes folks, i've finaly got round to rebuilding the my webby, and now it does not break in any of the browsers i've tested it in.... Well there are a few things that don't work in IE, but then what's new!
I've not yet built the content management system but I just can't wait anymore as i'm already one holiday and two nights out behind in getting the blurb up so it'll just have to doe for now.
Carlos.
