Speed Dating

Nope, not the sort where you have a 5 minute chat with a bunch of desperate women (not that I've tried it, I've been *told* that it's actually quite fun) the type of speed-date-ing that happens when you write a blog post to cover April to October!

Well, I went on my travels, thru Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. Amazing places, lots of sites, really enjoyed the temples and countryside, Chichen Itza was impressive but touristy, some of the other sites, e.g. Tikal, are equally as impressive and you're far less likely to be stuck behind a tour group. Our group was great, myself, Lori, our tour leader Caroline and 3 other ppl. I took about 1 zillion photos, even taking my camera on an expedition to Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Caves in Belize, 45 mins hike thru the jungle, then a 2 hour caving expedition in water up to your chest (or your neck, in Lori's case) - check out the photo's here (if you make it thru all 60 pages of photos, drop me a comment, you may win a prize!)

After hols back to the daily grind, summer seemed to pass quickly, but did make it out to a bunch of stuff:
Glade Festival - an electronic dance music festival held in a field at a secret location somewhere near Newbury. Cracking weather and choons, lots of dancy and smiley happy people all dressed up to dance the night, and day, and next night... away ;-)

Wroughton Classic Car Show - was so local (and free) we thought it would be rude *not* to go. I still feel that one day I will own a Morris Minor 1000, or a Traveller.

Westonbirt Festival of the Tree - despite the new politically correct name (I'm guessing they god bored of my annual sniggering at Westonbirt Festival of Wood) this seemed to have expanded this year, with not only the amazing wood carvings, but a whole tent of Bonsai, which were fascinating. They raised a ton of money selling the sculptures by auction, and we had our customary stroll thru the Arboretum.

Come to think of it, we had a pretty decent summer weather-wise. Which was especially good for our Alton Towers trip (no photos... even I'm not stupid enough to take an SLR on nemesis... tho one day I intend to ride it with my bulletcam strapped to my wrist, so that we can re-live the 60s of being hurled about. Despite air and rita, Nemesis remains my all-time favourite coaster, I
could seriously ride it all day. Oh, and unless you're 5, don't bother with the new Charlie & The Chocolate factory ride...

Summer officially ended when my good friend Stu left Sonus and Swindon for the sunnier climes (and cosier bed) of Barcelona. The emigration to live with his gf put an end to almost 7 years at different companies where we have sat in the same cube. A proper send-off was called for, so we all dressed up in a Top-Gun theme and headed out on the town... nuff said about that ;-) Luckily he's been back a few times, and I'm heading to Barcelona for a long weekend next month. Look for more photos appearing soon in the gallery.

Visited brum for the 2nd Nokia-sponsored (thanks guys) - UK Pinball Show. It was even bigger and better than the previous year. *So* much hard work is put in to get 170 machines set up and playable for 2 days. I didn't see anyone leave without a smile on their face. (I also got very drunk and tried to take muttman the dog for a run about 1am around the hotel grounds... rather, he took me for a run... but I'm sure it was an amusing site for the onlookers.

Had a wedding and a stag weekend. No, not mine, though I am *still* moving into Lori's... Chris and Kim had a great day at Malmesbury Abbey and then later at an old haunt from my previous job, the Rosie pub down the road.

And here we are in October, planning Christmas already, how time flies. I did a bunch of other crapola, but none that anyone would be interested in (really, ice-skating, getting promoted, spamalot the musical, survived without a haircut, dressed up as a cow superhero... if you really care, comment and I'll elaborate) not that you're interested in the above really, I mean, only Jishot is gonna read it (or he damned well better after nagging me to update!). On the update front, I've fixed/added some links over there ===> be sure and visit them. Mr mcawilliams.com has a new camera, his creative powers are now unbounded by technology, who knows what he'll create. Inside the mind of an idiot needs a new tea-cosy... I'm pimping this one, if you can knit, get to it! Oh, and props to Cutielis for discovering the Cuddle Party - sounds not unlike the morning after the night before at the Glade festival...


Listen to: Shpongle / Younger Brother
Watch: Clerks II, A Scanner Darkly
Do: Something different.

Until next year ;-)

malc. xx

Time flies by...

When you're the driver of a train.... (name that tune ;-)

It also flies by when you're me, apparently... no excuses for the lack of updates nothing interesting to report, really...

January was Snowboarding - a week in a Chalet in Alpe d'Huez - excellent fun, and my home-made snowboard repairs held up well to the abuse. Here's Stu, Me, Lori and Muppet (the gay skiing one..) on top of a mountain.



After that most of Feb was spent in detox... it's a wonder any of us survived a week of free wine in the chalet, and Desperados on tap in the local (by the pint!)

The Ides of March passed by once more, and I made it to the ripe (old) age of 31 on St Patrick's Day. Which I celebrated with mexican food, margaritas, desperados, much real ale, tequilla, and a solo rendition of 'The Wild Rover', performed with a (drink induced) swagger akin to the scruffy Gallagher, strolling thru the pub tables, mic in hand, like a glorified lounge singer. I followed up with a Guinness (or 2) and claimed my (now customary) hat.

April is upon us - and thoughts of holidays - booked to go to Mexico for 3 weeks, on a Mayan Adventure :D We'll travel thru the country taking in beaches, volcanoes, cities and Mayan ruins... should be enough material there for me to start posting some interesting pictures again.

Gig-wise it's been quiet - caught Jerry Bewley (guitarist with Kangaroo Moon) in the 'hive for an entertaining evening. Next up is Anna Page an old school freind of a mate of mine - scheduled neatly for the pre-easter Thursday booze up - should be a messy night ;) Oh - and got tickets for the glade festival - can't wait.

Multiplicity

So, 2 weeks since the last update (well I started one - but never posted it - consider this a bumper update), in that time I've:

i) Had my photo on page 3 of the newspaper ;-)
ii) Attended the highly successful UK Pinball Show
iii) Failed to do any Christmas shopping.
iv) Started work on the Super Mario Pinball...

So newspaper article was suitably embarrassing - luckily they don't archive the photo they published. Horribly misquoted and ribbed the whole weekend of the show about 'playing all the machines from Swindon to Brighton'.

The show was a great success, with 143 machines for people to play, for free, for a mere 5quid entry. Had a great weekend and the event raised ~3grand for MENCAP. (As of writing you can still buy t-shirts in aid of mencap here.)

I've made one attempt brave town for Christmas shopping - managed to buy myself the ludicrously expensive remote for my camera (15 quid for a 1 button IR trigger...) but it means I can have fun like this:



Using the tripod and multiple shots rather than extensive photoshop post-processing is pretty cool. I plan to experiment with this some more... the remote allows you to do really long exposure shots (like 'bulb' setting), but without the need to keep a finger one the shutter release, thus shaking the tripod (click once to open shutter, then again to close.) Lots of fun to be had creatively there too - so far limited to shooting a darkened empty room, whilst I figure out exposure...

Super Mario is gonna be a long-time work in progress - it basically lights the general illumination and not much else - I've started work on the cpu board, having ordered the motherload of spare parts which arrived the other day.

Most of the rest is the mundane work/drink cycle that is too dull to report - mostly work.

Oh, and I haven't forgotten I owe one of you a post with details of my digital photo-frame project. It's coming... and so's Christmas :D

Pinballers Anonymous!

So I finished the TZ shopout - and Nick came to collect that and Addams for the show in Brum on Saturday. If you're in the area and fancy a game of pinball, the Holte Suite at Aston Villa leisure centre is the place to be - more info here. I'm off there tommorrow, all the pinball you can eat for a fiver - bargain.

In order to promote the show, your shy and retiring (ha!) author has been interviewed and photographed for the local rag... I posed (clothed :P) in a number of random and uncomfortable positions around the machine. I'll post a scan for your delectation and delight if it gets printed.

Other than that - not much happening.

Keep flippin'
malc.

Filth!

Nope, no pr0n... more pinball...


Got the tricky bits off, gumball machine, mini-playfield, plastic/metal ramps, metal lane guides and troughs, the list goes on... The machine is filthy, it's probably never had a decent clean in it's lifetime, as you can see in the next pics.



Next up is cleaning/polishing duty, gonna take a while.

Halloween party was a blast, everyone made such efforts with their costumes, some were more scary than others...


I think the prize for 'most effort' had to go to 'The Corpse Brides'


Head on over to my gallery for the full rundown of the preparations and the party itself. (Warning! Completely unedited snap-happy drunken rubbish can be found there ;)

Stay tuned!
- malc

Twiglet Zone

In progress...



I've practically run out of tubs already...



So some way to go (all the complicated bits), but I guess I'm about halfway (I already did some under-playfield parts too).

I finally finished my digital photo-frame project. Bastardized an old laptop, removed unnecessary components and pcbs... seems to be working quite well despite a small mishap where the heatsink fell off (it's passively cooled, and totally silent once booted from cd into ram.)

Oh, and hallowe'en is coming, we're costume-partying on Saturday... expect scary photos sometime over the weekend once I sober up.

Back to the pin-grime I go, take it easy.

KT Tunstall and the Twilight Zone...

Saw KT Tunstall in Bristol last night. Surpisingly good (although it had to be, her parents were in the audience..., she quipped that she had to prove that the fortune they'd spent on piano lessons was a worthwhile investment, I'd say 500,000 sales of her album proves this!)

What a talented, yet surprisingly diminutive, individual, not only does she have an amazing voice to accompany her guitar playing skills, but the also hit's the ivories pretty good, and gave us some impressive beats on the drum-kit. Her band were pretty acomplished too, not often you see a double-bass and a cello at these gigs... (Except maybe when Lemon Jelly's Fred Deakin takes up the Cello on-stage.), by the end, the drummer was drumming with a pair of maracas, I sight which caused us great amusement for some reason... maybe it was the Grolsch.

Decided to rip up the Twilight Zone pin at the weekend, it's fairly grimy... expect pics when I run out of nature ones from my recent trip.

I love this rock, the colourful lichen, and the pitted holes, LJ crouched down to look thru at me laying on the floor trying to get a good angle. (As an aside: I have been reading a book called "learning to see creatively", so far, from what I can gather, I need to crawl around on the floor in the dirt... I think I need to read more chapters... :) Anyhow, she peeped thru at me and I had to take a pic.


I love trees, so hard to take an interesting photo of something everyone sees all the time, I've taken some before at Westonbirt Arboretum, laid on my back, trying to emphasize the scale. This one's beautifully twisted, all the way up, like some force was tweaking it as it grew up.


Those of you who know me of old, will know that I used (ha!) to be a maths nerd, well into my chaos theory and other stuff - I still love to see mathematical shapes in nature - so heres an example of subdivision/recursion and of spiral.




I'll go full circle back from nature to KT Tunstall, by pointing out that she's a great beleiver in carbon neutrality. At it's simplest level, planting trees to offset the CO2 emmissions made by creating the album and flying around the world to promote it. I'm not gonna go off on a green-rant here, though I urge you to google if you're interested.

I'm off to hug a tree... Peace Out
- Hippy-Malc ;)