Confessions of a Wildlife Biologist

A bit more snow

2012-02-11T08:25:00.001Z

So, I think we’ve got all the snow we’re gonna get this year… About a cm worth.. It did blow into some good little drifts, but not enough to go sledging.

It was all very pretty.

Yea… Think that’s about it.. Just pretty snow, and hard work!

-Skipper out.

Oops I broke my blog…

2012-02-10T20:41:00.001Z

So, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged…. I went on today to write something, and discovered to my horror that I’ve managed to break my blog…. For some reason the picture is now a thumbnail, and the whole background is now messed up….

See!

So, now I’ve got a few hours of figuring to do to try and make it work properly again… It being a few hours as I’m using terrible internet at the moment…

My solution, in my head at least, is to delete the image, reset the theme back to a boring blue or something, then re do the themes and see if it fixes it… Right now though the computer is taking it’s sweet time to upload the background image again…

When it has done so I shall write something worth while, maybe.

Well, we shall see!

-Skip

Mr Skippy the engineer… Again…

2012-01-25T22:58:00.001Z

So, I’ve recently been doing some overhaul/repair work on bits of farm machinery that have been lying around the place since the last ice age. Most of the work is simply trying to get old imperial bolts off, and replacing them with metric, because I do love metric and those freaking 16ths and stupid fractions of inches were annoying me. I am not a fan of imperial, stupid measuring system.

This was my first one, a cultivator thingy. I initially had to weld one of the supports that goes to the top link back in place, but the only welding experience I’ve got is some introduction stuff from when I did Aerospace… Long time ago… So I took it up to the Farm Workshop and let them weld it on. Next I had to thin out the tines a bit, giving the current 3 at the front, centre and in line with the tyres, two in the gaps, then 3 in the same as the front, then 1 in the centre at the back. These were all fitted with shiny M10 bolts… You have no idea how annoyed I was with the dumbass imperial bolts on it before……….

Oh it’s beautiful…… Mmmmmm M10s…

Next up was another cultivator that has been missing a tine for a long time… It has been a door wedge in the root store for quite some time.

Simply job of reattaching it…

Happy days!

This is a little bit of a boring one

Smokey!

2012-01-17T21:49:00.001Z

Now then.

So, it is winter/spring time. Technically it is winter, though with recent weather it’s seeming more and more like spring is here. The other day it went up to 13^oC, pretty toasty for a January day!

I’ve just come off the back of a week of morning milking on High Farm. This entails getting up at 5am, walking to High Farm, about 15 minutes away, having 1st breakfast, then making a big pot of coffee (Actually I’ve been experimenting, and discovered that 50/50 coffee and hot chocolate is amazing. Very tasty…Sorta a mocha).

Then it’s off to the barn, to chase some cows into the milking parlour and the rest is kind of self evident. Now, a 5am start does sound simply unpleasant, but it does have some nice side effects.

First of all you see the sun rise, and usually, the moon set. This was taken just before breakfast I think. The moon was just dipping below the horizon, as the sun came up on the other side, giving the moon a lovely yellow/golden colour.

The downside being that I get a distinct lack of sleep and then have to work hard all day…

But anyways! With Winter, the rangers usually burn areas of the moors around Yorkshire. In the summer the moorland is too dry and can just spiral out of control, and around now gives the heather just enough time to grow shoots which the grouse love.

The smoke often blows over the valley, which in the evening gives some very nice silhouettes against the sun.

What else… Oh, I went to York recently and got a rather nice photograph of the sunset:

I’ve got some more, but they’re still on my camera, which is not currently with me!

Anyways, sleep time! Skipper out.

Gingerbread things!

2011-12-18T16:51:00.001Z

So, last night I made little gingerbread things. I started out with a plan to make a gingerbread log cabin, cutting a large tray of gingerbread into strips and then overlapping them to make a log cabin. In the end there wasn’t enough gingerbread so I made these things instead:

So, the recipe:

175g of Butter

175g of Sugar

4 tablespoons of golden syrup (Pretty much just emptied the pot in…)

700g of plain white flour

2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda

3 teaspoons of ginger

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

2 eggs

If you want to make a gingerbread house, double or even triple the ingredients, this is nowhere near enough for 1 house…

Stick the sugar, flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon together.

Melt the butter in a pan, then pour it, and the eggs, and the golden syrup together with the rest…

So everything is together. Mix it like crazy so it makes a paste, sometimes it’s thick, sometimes it’s runny… Doesn't massively matter as it’s going in the oven anyway.

Leave the ball of dough in a bag in the fridge for half an hour, it’ll get cooler and expand a fair bit.

While it is doing this, grease a tray, the one I used was too big, but just choose one you think will fit, if not, make 2. Then put the dough in the trays. Roll it out with a rolling pin till it’s about 1cm thick, can be as thick as you want really. The thicker the longer you’ll have to cook it for, the thinner the shorter…. Still with me?

Great! Pop it in the oven. 180C or gas mark 6. If it is about 1cm, leave it for 15 minutes and then check it. If you prod it with a knife and some comes out still on the knife, you need to leave it for another 5 minutes or so. It’ll look nice and brown, but not dark brown… then you’ve messed up and burned it, but light brown… Sort of… coffee coloured.

Then, bring it out of the oven, and while it is still warm, cut it with a knife into what ever shape or size you want it, can turn it into a gingerbread house or just make little biscuit things like I did, they taste nice as hell if you like gingerbread….

Happy… Last week of advent?

-Skipper

Birdhouse with someone….

2011-12-14T22:58:00.001Z

Okay, apparently I’m not even allowed to refer to people by their initials anymore… So… I now work with a Mr X, a Mr Y and a Mr Z in the afternoons, as well as Gilberto and Tom… because they’re not vulnerable adults and I can call them by their names…
So, Mr X and I were building a birdhouse. It is meant for a present for his brother, and instead of buying one for £10, we decided to make one instead.
So I spent a good morning designing a birdhouse in Google Sketchup. Making all the dimensions nice, and working out how many pieces we needed to cut etc.

These I then drew out on paper, cut out and used to mark off onto pieces of wood. These were then cut out:

Somehow my precision engineering from my plans, translated into plywood resulted in non symmetrical parts… and pieces that no longer fit… But no matter! We shall prevail!

I didn't realise how freaking big this is...

First Snow!

2011-12-10T19:08:00.001Z

So, a few days ago we had our first snow fall. I can’t really call it a real snow fall as it looked little more than frost, but it was actual real snow!

Didn’t last for very long, but it is certainly getting colder. Was around –1 this morning, with the bull’s drinking trough being completely iced over. When I took the ice out it begun to refreeze almost immediately. Warmed up to +4 during the day though… Well, I saw warmed…..

Yesterday the sky at about 7 in the morning was really amazing, such cool colours:

The light on the ground was really golden, was very odd. Cool, but odd…

What else… Oh, Honey Bee Nest have woolly pigs:

And no, they’re not a cross between a sheep and a pig, that’s not biologically possible.. Or at least I doubt it is…

Muck Heaps

2011-12-10T18:57:00.001Z

No I have not posted in a long time, I am sorry.

So, what have we been up to? Well, a while ago I mentioned that I had taken the muck pile from the barn into the field. In order for the muck to break down properly it needs to be kept warm and moist. Too much water and it’ll wash the nutrients away, which kind of defeats the point of muck spreading. The muck heap is finally complete, and the other day we added the biodynamic compost preparations. These are 502-507.

502: Yarrow
503: Chamomile
504: Nettle
505: Oak Bark
506: Dandelion
507: Valerian, which is the only one that is sprayed around the edges of the muck

502-506 are incorporated into a small ball of mud or muck and put into the centre of the muck heap, each one separated by around a metre from the last in the order above. My job was to make the little balls and pass them to people to put inside the heap. I think we made around 50 balls in total.

The muck heap, before the fleece

We added the fleece during really high winds, which made moving a 25m long, 4m wide fleece into position under 40mph gales was rather challenging. Finally we got it on and weighed it down with tyres:

Completed muck heap. Oooh look at all those tractor marks though… Luckily we’re ploughing it soon!

Looks rather good too!

Free shower….Clearing out the liquid manure system

2011-12-03T22:48:00.001Z

Okay, here is a little map of High Farm, where I work. The point on it is a field, which according to Google Earth is 30m below the level of the farm in altitude. The point is at the approximate position of a liquid manure hydrant.

So, attached to these hydrants are sprayers, like these two:

and attached to the other end is a pump dipped in the liquid manure tank. For the past couple of months it has been draining out about 120000 litres of liquid manure… Or about that… onto the fields. The tank is now empty, and with winter here, and frost on the way, we need to drain the system and bring everything in, which was my job (I stupidly rejected the offer of Tom doing that and I doing the pigs….). So, to begin with the pump went into the moors water storage tank, and was switched on, this pressurised the top with fresh water, which we let out through two sprayers in the top fields. To drain the system the lower hydrant needed to be opened. Figuring that the two sprayers and the distance down hill to the hydrant, I thought there would be at least a second between opening the hydrant tap and the liquid coming out.

The hydrant is designed like this. There is a hole dug in the ground, about half a metre deep, with a pipe coming up through it. At the bottom of the hole is the tap as well to open the flow. To get to the tap you need to reach down, and in doing so your face passes in front of the hydrant.

My calculations of how long it would take the liquid manure to travel down to the hydrant, and the pressure drop from the 2nd hydrant open were not exactly spot on….. I got the full force of the pump, 30 metres of gravitational potential energy and about 10L of liquid manure squarely in the face. Oh the life of a farmer.

Still, could be worse… At least there was running water in the hosepipe to wash everything in Oh 4 degrees of temperature outside too.. Chilly when you’re wet…

Paper Stars and Advent time

2011-12-03T08:51:00.001Z

I love this time of the year. The traditions and festivals in Botton and in all other Anthroposiohical communities, like Michael Hall when I was there, have been a part of my life since… Forever. So it is now this time of year again, and we’re all busy making things for it. Amongst these is my favourite, mainly because I can make them… Paper stars:

In other news… I’ve killed both my dive camera, which I was using for everyday snaps, and my phone camera as it fell off the back of the tractor… Oh dear…. The last photograph my phone ever took:

What else.. Oh, it’s quite pretty at the moment, but then again, it always has been:

And I think that is about it for now! Have a good day y’all!

Morning Milking and finding a wagon for Pokey the goat

2011-11-25T22:26:00.001Z

24th November 2011
Oh my dear friend Ulrike… I don’t know how you talked me into this.. surprisingly easily in fact.. But this morning I found myself doing morning milking on a farm that is no longer mine…So, good old Botton Farm herd….Oh how I missed you girls. Cherry, Damson, Rose, Belle, Lady, Laura, Queenie, Royal, Maypole, Ruby and Socks! But I digress, E.U. (As I now have to refer to the villagers..)was serving at the Church, so someone had to stand in for him in morning milking and I stood up to the mark. Had a rather good cup of coffee made by Ulrike, payment for getting me out of bed at JEZUS o clock, and breakfast in New Botton Farm, very nice to be “home” or what still feels a little like my adopted home.
After breakfast it is work as usual. Tom found a wooden hand trailer cart thing behind the barn, and we had a good clean of it, pumped up the tyres and oiled it all up and decided it was too heavy for our initial plan of making Pokey, the resident goat on the farm, pull the wagon. With no other purpose for it two of the villagers pulled each other around the yard during tea break time… And then we popped it back in the barn. I do have photographs, but am not allowed to post them for obvious reasons as you can recognise who they are. I tried masking their identity, but then it looks like a Special Ops photograph….So I shall not post it.
Instead, the cat, Ninja, brought a dead rabbit into the boot lobby:

25th November 2011
Sadly I didnt take any pictures today as some of them would’ve been purty! We were down in the lower fields by the beck cutting down overhanging trees and loading them up onto the trailer. The sun was just setting over the back of the dale, and casting beautiful shadows, and with the blue clear sky it was really nice. Very cold though. Evening I had my scarf, bookmark and dog tags stolen and hidden under the kitchen table by a very cute kid. The dog tags got slightly chewed as well, just as well they’re metal eh… And then I had a great conversation with Miss De Boer .

Been a bit lax of late…

2011-11-23T09:11:00.001Z

So, the last thing that happened was that we had a new calf on the 18th of November (2011). It’s been nearly a week since then, and what a lot has happened! A lot of stuff is going down here in Botton with the new manager, but I am not at liberty to discuss any of it, so last weekend was a bit of a “Oh your god is this really happening” weekend. Always nice to know I came home to a battlefield.

But, what has been going on on the farm (Would you put 2 “on”s there?)

17th November 2011

So, on the afternoon of the 17th we shifted a bunch of reeds that were cut in one of the fields. The aim of this was simply to clear it all off so the grass could grow underneath. They’ve been lying there for so long now that some of the grass is dying under. We were supposed to be clearing it by hand, around 2 tonnes of the stuff… Maybe 1.5T… And initially that’s what we were doing. The farm trainee, Tom, went and asked a guy working on the drains in the field, “Steve” if we could borrow his dumper truck on tank tracks, but he said no, so we carried on. After lunch, the main farmer (Gilberto) came down to the field, up came Steve and offered his dumper truck Tom was not best pleased.

So, we shifted the piles in one afternoon, rather than a few days, and got them all squared away by the walls to pick up with the tractor later. During milking I found out how to make the bull do this rather amusing thing with his nose:

I did know the name of this as I did a project on cattle behaviour in my 2nd year of International Wildlife Biology, might post it up at some point….

18th November 2011

In the morning I figured out how to upload blog posts from my phone… Hence the calf post, which was actually written on the 14th of November 2011.

We shifted all the reeds from the wall where Steve had stacked them with the dumper, and we picked them up on the trailer. Steve gave us a hand again with the digger to get them into the trailer…Little bit of overkill… Tom had his first go with driving the trailer, though not officially….

19th November 2011

Farmers market! Didn’t take many pictures here as I was kind of busy. In true farmers market tradition (As the ones I’ve been to before were in the summer….) I had an ice cream… It was about 4 degrees C… Still, tasty ice cream…

In the afternoon Ulrike and I went for a walk up onto the moors to eat chocolate and take photographs:

These were all taken with my dive camera, so I’m rather pleased with the results

20th November 2011

Just a normal Sunday… Relaxed, had lunch, played with bows and arrows in the forest with Ulrike…

I wish they’d put my LG Viewty camera in an Android phone…

21st November 2011

Didn’t really take that many pictures, just one where all the cows were sleeping in the same way:

Even the calves:

I think it must be inate.

22nd November 2011

Mucked out the barn using the front loader, the field was so slippy, so when I was emptying it onto the muck heap I really tore the field up….

So, and now it is the 23rd….

New calf - another one!

2011-11-18T07:45:00.001Z

Last cow of this year, furrow, had her calf, another heifer, got about 7 now, excellent!

Game released: The Elder Scrolls Skyrim

2011-11-11T08:45:00.001Z

So, today is the 11th of November, 2011 (11/11/11, in Day Day/ Month Month, Year Year, not Month Month Day Day Year Year… Nothing goes big, small, big it’s silly… Stop using that system USA…) and on 11/11/11 Skyrim was released. I’ve been preloading it for a couple days now from STEAM, and this morning I got up at 6 to play for a couple hours before work. And may I say, what a couple of hours it was! OOOOOOhhh my I love The Elder Scrolls games, and so far Skyrim is no exception. DRAGONS!

But yes, I am looking forward to playing this game properly on the weekend. Gonna close everything running and slam the settings up to max
Anyways, enjoy your day,
Skipper

The carrots are done!

2011-11-10T08:53:00.001Z

So, we moved the last box of carrots into the cold store yesterday. This isn’t actually it… I moved it in with a fork lift truck, this is one of the first to come of the field last night, with Hans driving the front loader. But yes, we got a very decent haul from the field, not sure exactly how many boxes there were, I heard 18 half tonne boxes, but I think there were more.

Another thing we did last night was peppers. I dont claim to know what it’s all about, but peppers seem to be burned seeds of weeds and thing, these are then sprayed on the field, and apparently stop weed growth… Not sure how… Maybe they ask nicely. But ours is not to reason why….

So, I made a pretty awesome fire I have to admit, and they put the seeds in an aluminium tray. This went onto the hot coals and the seeds burned. Though the aluminium tray also melted… And half the seeds fell into the fire. Ah nuts.

Gilberto, my Workmaster, went to find something else and came back with a coal bucket, which is meant to hold cold, unburned coal next to a fire, and put it in the fire…

….The paint caught fire and made some nasty fumes…..

Oops again…. Anyways, was an overall success. So, today I have a first aid course, and in the evening I’m going to see Johnny English with New Botton Farm in Middlesbrough. Should be fun!

Carrots!

2011-11-07T21:08:00.001Z

This is a slightly better quality than my phone

This was a little weird, saw it while taking the cows out, all the walls and muck heaps were covered in spider webs, which were themselves covered in dew. Looked very cool.

Anyway, in the afternoon we were harvesting carrots again. Got 4 full half tonne boxes, and 4 partially full ones, not a bad haul. Anyways, I got the forklift job, unloading them from the trailer and stacking them in the cold store. Oh I do like heavy machinery.

Didn’t do a bad job of stacking them either.

Fireworks! And shopping

2011-11-06T17:57:00.001Z

So, on Saturday evening (5th of November) it was Bonfire Night in the UK, and High Farm went on a house outing to Helmsley to see the firework display.

Fireworks! Yes… my phone camera sucks… I wish they would put the LG Viewty camera into other cameras… That was the best phone camera I’ve ever had, it was awesome! And an actual Xenon flash! I digress! But yes, LG Viewty, my favourite old phone, if it ran Android… I’d go back in a flash… Geddit? Oh dear…

Fireworks! Yes! Anyways, it was good, love the really deep “BOOM” ones, the slightly higher pitch common bangs were a little too much like rifle fire, not that that’s a bad thing, I just wanted something bigger, artillery, 120mm cannon shells.. that kinda thing! Was good though, enjoyed it. The food left something to be desired, was hot dogs with MRM sausages, or Mechanically Recovered Meat, which, when you’re used to high quality organic meat in Botton….. Well, it left something to be desired.

But, before that we had a normal morning on the farm, a normal morning is basically:

First off, if the cows are out in the fields (They’ll be coming into the barn soon for Winter) we take them out to the field.

Then we come back and clean the barn, the yard gets scraped down and all the muck collected. The standings, where the cows stand when they’re eating (I’ll make a drawing of this at some point to show what it looks like… Or just take a photograph) also get scraped down. Soiled bedding is taken out and fresh straw put down. The feed passage is cleaned and fresh hay put down. The bull pen also gets mucked out and bedded down.

After this, if we have time any other odd jobs get done, tools are washed and cleaned, and the place is basically tidied up in time for the next week.

After lunch in High Farm I headed back home and introduced one of the young coworkers to an Xbox 360, not sure she was very impressed… Especially by my rather limited choice in games…. Halo mostly….

And in the evening, yea, I went to watch fireworks!

On the Sunday, currently my day off doing much work, I took someone to the train station in Middlesbrough, and then went shopping, spending far too much money on 2 fleeces and a cup of very expensive, but tasty coffee… White Chocolate Mocha from Neros… Ohhhhhh you need to try it, so good! With whipped cream… mmmmmmmm

Yes, anyways, that’s all from me today, tomorrow we’ll probably be harvesting carrots again, so goodnight!

-Skip

New Calf on High Farm

2011-11-03T20:18:00.001Z

So, one of our cows, Rose gave birth to a beautiful heifer.

Though sadly my phone camera sucks!

Anyways, I seem to be going down with some kind of cold again… Something that has been going through Botton recently, kinda a cough and a sore throat.

So, this morning after we took the cows out into the fields……

….

We had to switch all wood around in half ton boxes as they were in the smaller vegetable half ton boxes, so we switched them over to the log boxes, which have larger gaps, so they’re unsuitable for carrots, but fine for logs.

After lunch one of the calves got it’s head stuck in a fence, and was really really stuck, so we head to cut away the fence to get it out. It has bruised around it’s eye and was looking pretty poorly, but in the evening it perked up and was much more like its self.

We then moved around carrots in the root storage shed with the fork lift and a little pushy around thing… There are like 26 half ton boxes in the root store, so it was rather a lot of manual labour. When the villagers went to get the cows in they reported that Rose had had her calf, so I drove out in the little blue tractor above and we put the calf in the link box on the back. I then drove it back to the barn from the field in the pouring rain with Rose running along behind, and sometimes in front of the tractor.

Aside from feeling rough, an overall good day!

-Skip

First 2 days on High Farm

2011-11-02T21:50:00.001Z

So, this summer I was working on Botton Farm, but when I dropped out of my Masters Degree (Msc Marine Biology) and applied to Botton they did not have space on Botton Farm, sadly. So, I got posted to High Farm, see map:

View BottonFarmAndHighFarm in a larger map

It is a very different farm than Botton Farm. Smaller, but a newer building. The milking parlour is very small, still a 4 cow stall, but the stalls are at floor level, so you’ve got to sit on the floor to milk, compared to Botton Farm where the cows climb up a step and stand with the udders at elbow height when you’re sitting on the step, which is more comfortable. At the moment there are only 2 buckets, so when you milk with two clusters you’ve got to detach the entire set up to take the churn into the dairy to weigh… Little things like this make me mildly apprehensive to start milking. That and I’ve got to learn the names of an entirely new herd.

On the bright side, the cows are very friendly! Definitely the friendliest in Botton!

Anyway! What have I been up to?

Day 1: My first day on the farm, a full day this one. The morning I spent moving young stock, walking up HUGE ASS HILLS, and mucking out the barn.
Aww Pretty trees

In the afternoon we harvested around 1 and a half tonnes of carrots over at Honey Bee Nest, which was cool. In the evening was a supper for all the Young Co-workers, of which I am now one of, and following this was a craft group. I was in the pottery group as most of the others were full, and I didnt fancy making gnomes…

Played with clay for about 30 minutes, until it was totally dry, and useless, annoying the guy who was running the group. I then asked to have a go on the wheel to which he said “Well, just in case you achieve anything…” Why thank you good sir! Your faith in me is unbelievable!

Day 2:

The morning was the foundation course, which this time was Eurythmy, which I have come to the conclusion of being very weird, followed by a health and safety meeting on lifting heavy things…. Oh joy! But the lady in the video they showed was rather amusing as her eyebrow were so high it looked like she was constantly surprised…

In the afternoon we returned to the carrot field, and filled 6 Half Tonne boxes, which is rather impressive as the grand total they’ve harvested is like 2 tonnes over their expected yield, and we’re not even finished yet!

Anyways, it’s late and I’m tired, so

Goodnight all!

New Dive Computer: Suunto D4i

2011-10-31T14:31:00.001Z

So, after a button fell off my trusty Suunto Mosquito, and I was quoted at around £80 to put it back on again, I decided it was time to just get a new dive computer. So, I settled on the Suunto D4i. I got it from SDS Watersports (Here) at the Dive Show (DIVE 2011 Birmingham NEC). I just thought I’d post some photographs of it here:

^Shiny box!

^ Oooooooo… Shiny computer

I do rather like it

But at the moment it is going to be a little while till I dive, so I’m not going to be able to do any sort of reviews on it for a while.

-Skip

Songs I can’t currently get enough of: Freelancer by Sonic Syndicate

2011-10-27T21:21:00.001+01:00

Thought I’d start something new on here. Songs I can’t get enough of. Time changes ones taste in music, and you can find songs that you really enjoy, then forget about them, so I thought I’d write them down somewhere so as never to forget, and to share them with anyone who is interested… That’s you by the way.

So, to start off with, Freelancer by Sonic Syndicate. Not entirely sure why I like this song so much at the moment, I think it’s probably the chorus…

“If you gave me the power to turn back time, [random screaming]

I would shape it the way it was meant to be”

It’s just singable… And since I’m heading back up to Yorkshire in a couple of days, this is definitely going to be on the CD player, and I’m definitely going to be singing loudly, safe in the knowledge that no one can hear me, or at least if they can they have no idea who I am and will never see me again.

ROCK ON!

-Skipper

STALKER Patches!

2011-10-27T15:24:00.001+01:00

So, I ordered some patches from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shop.

^ The Loner faction

^ Freedom faction

^ The Ecologists/Scientist Faction

Very cool looking, though I’m not entirely sure what I'm going to stick them on… We shall see!

-Skip

Metro 2033 Completed

2011-10-13T19:16:00.001+01:00

So, on Monday I bought Metro 2033, it was on sale on Steam, for £3.71. Bargain, loaf of bread and a couple pints of milk worth, organic bread and milk mind, but still, cheapish. I wasn’t sure when I would be able to play it, seeing as I’m on a new course. Turns out I was in luck, or not so, I got ill. This gave me a couple days of being unable to walk about, or do anything, so I thought I should just haul my ass over to the computer and complete it.
So, it took me 9 hours, with a couple of rage quits, to complete. Overall, my impressions of this game are good though it is creepy as hell in places! Really eerie. I think it was made by some people who used to work on the original STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl.
==Possible Spoilers ==
This STALKER connection does seem to show in places, and I don't mean the simple fact that they’re both set around Russia and the Eastern Bloc. The first one I noticed was the fact that when you ascend to the surface with “Bourbon” he refers to “Stalkers” and “stashes”…. Got to be a reference to STALKER?
The second, was not so much to STALKER, but to the scene and the community, a reference to Arkady and Boris Strugatsky and their famous (in STALKER communities) book, Roadside Picnic.

With regards to the storyline, something I care most about, overall I did like it. No real twists, I could’ve seen how the story would've played out if given the main points: Big bad monsters you never really see, a home place, main character, and some missiles… Pretty much sums it up… Make some friends, friends die, monsters die… The end. Not to say I didn't enjoy it! Despite a mildly predictable storyline, it was well executed. The characters were well voiced and likable. Ulman was a legend, made some amusing jokes. Khan was a very cool character, he would be a very useful companion if STALKER was real, or Metro 2033 for that matter. The level Ghosts was really quite eerie, and very cool, has the atmosphere of the original STALKER, SOC.
Graphics are very good, well, grimy and nice. I do like it. There is always something out there with better graphics than something else, but hey, I’m a storyline over graphics person.

So for me, graphics were top notch. Storyline was very enjoyable, and that is all that counts. So overall, I’d give this game an 8 or 9 out of 10. Lets say:
8.5/10
Would I play it again? Yea, I think I would. There are achievements for this game that are worth a go at trying to get. Creepy game

Accepted!

2011-10-07T22:11:00.001+01:00

So, little while ago I told you about my latest model submitted to 3d Warehouse. After a few weeks, it finally got accepted! So, in Google Earth, switch the 3D Buildings thing on and go to: 53°13'36.84"N 4° 9'32.21"W

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=277fdbce09b9a04ddd49019832b1e707

So, what to make next?

New Google Earth Model (Hopefully...)

2011-10-04T23:02:00.001+01:00

During the first couple days in Bangor University there was very little work happening, so I found time to make a model of this boathouse I found myself rather attracted to, there is something about it in a very weathered state that is very... cool.
An Old Boathouse in Menai Bridge:

3D model bySkipper

Photomatched 3d building of an old boathouse in Menai Bridge

I recommend actually looking at it in the 3d Warehouse rather than that picture... doesnt give much of an impression..
I'm still waiting for the review to come through on whether it is acceptable in the Google Earth Layer, but here is hoping!
It is based on the buiding here:

Anyways, fingers crossed!

New Product! Carnation Coral Print

2011-09-24T20:34:00.001+01:00

Carnation Coral Print by Skipper_is

Olá Amigos! How do? So, I’m back from Egypt, and I’ve got a new print available. Really like this one, it’s two Carnation Corals in the Red Sea, near Sharm el Sheikh.

Sharm el Sheikh Day 6: Last day

2011-09-17T21:01:00.000+01:00

Location: Shark’s Bay

32% O₂ Nitrox at 200 Bar

MOD: 33.75m

Max Depth 29.7m, Dive Time 63 minutes
EAD: 24.1m for 63 Mins (PPO₂=1.27) O₂Exposure 35%

This was a totally planned dive. From the start to finish we planned the dive, then dived the plan, using the wheel.

This was the plan.

Drop down to 30m, our max time here was 20 minutes, We planned for 15. After this we ascend to 20m, where our maximum time is 15 minutes, with a planned time of 12 minutes. Then we ascend up to 12m to use the remainder of our gas, maximum time 55 minutes.

This was then converted to use 32% Nitrox, giving us greater maximum times. This was done simply for safety, we’re still diving to Air times, but the Nitrox gives us an extra margin of safety. Then we dived what we’d planned.

This was the actual dive profile, with nitrox pressure groups, not bad eh?

Overall a very good dive, did enjoy the technical side of it.

Naw, sweet puffer fish.

An urchin with a polychetae fan worm.

Our last dive, back to sunny England, and my Masters degree

Sharm el Sheikh Day 5

2011-09-16T20:37:00.000+01:00

First Dive:
Location: Jackfish Ally

32% O₂ Nitrox at 200 Bar
MOD: 33.75m
Max Depth 18.3m, Dive Time 71 minutes
EAD: 14.35m for 36 mins (PPO₂=0.90) O₂Exposure 20%

Excellent dive.

Love the swim through at the beginning. It then flattens out to a decent reef, with some lush corals:

I love this coral, it’s a Carnation Coral. Dendronephthya spp.

Oops I just pood out a broccoli coral.

Second Dive:
Location: Ras Ghazalani

32% O₂ Nitrox at 200 Bar
MOD: 33.75
Max Depth 18m , Dive Time 43minutes
EAD: 14.1m for 46 Mins (PPO₂= 0.896) O₂Exposure 35% Total

Another nice, relaxing dive.

Not much to say about this one. Was nice, relaxing, shallow, but good! But coming out with 100 bar is getting old.

Sharm el Sheikh Day 4

2011-09-15T20:13:00.000+01:00

First Dive:
Location: Shark’s Bay

32% O₂ Nitrox at 200 Bar
MOD: 33.75m
Max Depth 29.6m, Dive Time 36 minutes
EAD: 24m for 36 mins (PPO₂=1.26) O₂Exposure 20%

First dive I lead, though not especially well. I didn’t really plan the dive, and just dived it on a computer. However, it turns out it was okay, and the wheel confirms it. We descended down to ≈30m. For the table I set our dive time to 16mins (Max time is 20minutes at 30m). We then ascended up to 20m for 8 minutes, then up to 10m for the last 12 minutes. I came out with 100 bar, but my buddy was getting a little anxious and came out with 60 bar, we could’ve managed an extra 10 minutes or so, but no matter.

WE SAW AN EAGLE RAY! VERY VERY COOL! Sorry, I was a little excited. I made little squeaking noises in my regulator.

Second Dive:
Location: Sharks’ Bay
31% O₂ Nitrox at 200 Bar
MOD: 35.1
Max Depth 17.4m, Dive Time 45 minutes
EAD: 13.8m for 45 mins (PPO₂= 0.84) O₂Exposure 35% Total

Out at 100 bar again! Woo love it.

Didn't take any pictures on this dive, not sure why.

Sharm El Sheikh Day 3

2011-09-14T22:23:00.000+01:00

My first dive of the day was aborted at 9 minutes. During the setup for the dive my octopus broke, it was an old oceanic thingy, and it must’ve been dropped or banged during the loading of the boat. When I switched the air on it blew the rocker arm off the valve, snapping the joint. Since the octopus is an old model there is no way of repairing it, or rather, no point. But with my octo leaking air at an alarming rate, I had to take my gear off the cylinder. The initial aim was to simply remove the octo and dive without it. There were plenty of other people there so one person not having a backup air source wouldn’t have been a major problem. Unfortunately there wasn’t a port plug available. So I had to switch it for a backup regulator set from another dive boat, something I wasn’t very keen on doing as I’d no idea what it’s history is. Turns out my fears were well founded. The regs I got had a taste of ammonia, but I was under pressure to dive. So I begun the dive, but then I found the regulators breathed really weirdly, very resistive. That coupled with the constant taste of urine, I decided I didn’t want to continue the dive. So I ascended to 5m, did a 3m safety stop and left the water.
This dive was not logged as it was 9 minutes long….
So, the first dive of the day was 2 hours later:
First Dive:
Location: Gordon Reef
32% O₂ Nitrox at 200 Bar
MOD: 33.75m
Max Depth 25.6m, Dive Time 43 minutes
EAD: 20.64 for 43 mins (PPO₂=1.1) O₂Exposure 20%

This was a really rubbish dive, we headed out along the reef to an extent, but then we dropped down and levelled out for a bit. We were supposed to be going to find some sharks, but to do so we had to swim out from the reef, against a current for quite a distance. The depth was about 40m, and since my buddy had come off the deeper dive previously, we had to stay at a reasonable depth. Benson, one of the other people on the dive was left behind by his buddy and joined me and my buddy Frazer. Frazer and I use air at pretty much the same rate, but Benson used his up a lot faster trying to catch up with his buddy, so we had to cut the dive at 43 minutes.

We saw some Gorgonian Sea fans, though this is a terrible picture! Could’ve used some more lighting.

There was a wreck, or something similar, at the end of the dive. But since we were low on air, and beginning our safety stop we couldn’t go down and have a closer look at the girders and tyres.

And then we got picked up by the boat!
Second Dive:
Location: Sharks’ Bay
32% O₂ Nitrox at 200 Bar
MOD: 33.75
Max Depth 16.5m , Dive Time 46 minutes
EAD: 12.81m for 46 Mins (PPO₂= 0.84) O₂Exposure 35% Total

The last dive of the day was a night dive.

We did see some very cool things, such as this toxic leather sea urchin, and these highly annoying feather stars. Whenever I got close to them to take a picture, they curled up:

Subsequently all the pictures I have of them are like this…

This was really cool. A Banded Boxer Shrimp. Very cool little fella. I wish I could’ve stayed to take more pictures of him.

This is my 2nd night dive, and the first I did with my current torch. From both of these I learned something.
Firstly, my torch, a Princeton Tec Shockwave LED, is a very nice torch. I like a lot. Nice white light, very good on battery use, and a very bright light.
Secondly, with regards to experience. When diving with a camera on a night dive, you really need a buddy to work with you. When you go in with the camera to get a shot, unless you have a strobe, it goes dark because you cannot handle the camera and use the torch at the same time… simply not enough hands. So, something I need to do when diving with a buddy is to get them to light up the target when you go in with the camera, allowing you to focus and compose the shot, then using the built in flash to get a decent shot.

Have a sleepy pufferfish

Sharm El Sheikh Day 2

2011-09-13T18:10:00.000+01:00

First Dive:
Location: Sharks’ Bay
31% O₂ Nitrox at 200 Bar

MOD: 35.1m
Max Depth 20.7m, Dive Time 53 minutes
EAD: 16.81 for 75 Mins (PPO₂=0.95) O₂Exposure 25%

Another dive in Shark’s Bay, saw a masked puffer fish.

And some fire coral

Second Dive:
Location: Sharks’ Bay
31% O₂ Nitrox at 200 Bar

MOD: 35.1m
Max Depth 16.4m, Dive Time 56 minutes
EAD: 16.81 for 56 Mins (PPO₂= 0.81) O₂Exposure 45%

We saw a Moray Eel,

With fearsome teeth!

Sharm El Sheikh Day 1

2011-09-12T12:35:00.000+01:00

First Dive:
Location: Sharks’ Bay
32% O₂ Nitrox at 200 Bar (Though I think my SPG is bust as it reads 210 for every full cylinder…)
MOD: 33.75
Max Depth 30.5, Dive Time 53 minutes
EAD: 24.4m for 53 Mins (PPO₂=1.28) O₂Exposure 30%

We saw a couple of cool things, like this Giant Moray Eel;

And this Blue Spotted Ray (BSR) feeding in the sand:

After a surface interval of 2hours 24 minutes we headed back in for the 2nd dive, in Sharks’ Bay.
Second Dive:
Location: Sharks’ Bay
30% Nitrox (I know… I know… Smack on the wrists for me… But we didnt get the gas prior to the first dive)
MOD: 36.6m
Max Depth: 14.6m, Dive Time 54 minutes
EAD: 11.79m for 54 minutes (PPO₂ = 0.78) O₂ exposure for this dive: 15%, total for the day: 45%

Saw a cool Networked Pipefish:

And took a nice shot of the sun, casting nice rays in the water:

MRSA Even came along for this dive:

And I discovered there is a bit of grease or something under the lens cap of my dive camera, so after a certain number of turning it off and on again, it puts an annoying blur in the centre of the pictures… Not entirely sure how to get rid of it….

Sharm El Sheikh Day 0

2011-09-11T22:33:00.000+01:00

So! On the 11th September 2011 I flew out from Birmingham International Airport to Egypt’s Sharm El Sheikh International Airport, but let’s rewind to what led up to this… On the 10th, Saturday, I arrived in Birmingham by train:
(With MRSA of course!) and stayed overnight at a family friend’s house, who had an awesome picture in his bathroom:

Very cool.
Then, at unpleasant o’clock in the morning I headed to the Airport for 5 hours or so of waiting… This holiday involved a lot of that.
Coffee at Birmingham International is expensive as hell! And they have NO FREE WIFI! So I stole their electricity to charge my phone:

That’ll teach them.
We finally got on the plane and flew over to Egypt… And got to bed at around 12pm I think… Not sure to be honest!

Random amusing

2011-09-11T10:16:00.001+01:00

Before I became a biologist I was studying a BSc in Aircraft Maintainance in the International Centre for Aerospace Training (ICAT) in Cardiff Airport. Some mates and I were in cardiff after lectures, going to the Somali consolate or embassy or similar (one was Somalian). We were in the lift and these 2 guys got in, one said to the other "meet Skipper, he's studying in ICAT." I was like how the crap does he know that? Have I met him before? Then I realised I was still wearing my ID card :)

Back to Yorkshire

2011-09-08T22:17:00.030+01:00

So, today I headed back up to Yorkshire. I was due to stay until tomorrow, and use this day to orient myself around the area while i still had the car. But I was feeling homesick already and decided that I'd just ship out.
But, I did take one last tour up through Llanberis, through the Llanberis Pass to Nant Peris

^^ The view up the valley to the Llanberis Pass

An old Slate mine overlooking Llanberis, inside is a Hydroelectric Power Station, called Electric Mountain, which sounds amusing in a North Wales accent... Eletrrrik Mmmounten!

^^ Another view up the Llanberis Pass

^^ Some moorland! On the way to Capel Curig

^^ Clouds! And more Clouds

After Nant Peris I headed towards Capel Curig, and from there to Betws-y-Coed. From here I got a little bit lost as I was relying on my GPS kicking in at this point, but it failed to do so, so I ended up VFRing it to Denbigh. (That's Visual Flight Rules.. It's an aviation term, but it translates easily enough to going by eye)
And from there it was back towards Liverpool, Manchester and the big motorways... where I was very naughty and snapped a picture, unless you're the police, in which someone else took it.

So glad to be home! Went and stared at cows for a bit, and begun packing for Egypt!

Egypt here I come!

In North Wales

2011-09-07T10:12:00.000+01:00

So, after a 5 or so hour drive from Yorkshire, I arrived in Bangor. My house is pretty nice, with a view of a hedge out of the front window, and the sea from the two side windows, though when I arrived it was foggy and raining and I couldn’t really see anything.

I took a trip up to Snowdonia National Park in the afternoon, and went over the Llanberis Pass, (Where I think Dr Tim Johnson did some work with a drainage channel allowing fish to migrate through this pass they built… Not sure… )

Anyways, it’s pretty spectacular up there, but chances are, when I start my course I’ll be pretty full on and not have the time, or ability to get back up there with my bike, or by foot…

It’s all very pretty up there, so I’ll try and go back up tomorrow on my way back to Yorkshire.

Although the area here is really nice, I do miss Yorkshire already, and instead of going home on Friday as I was supposed to, I’m going to head back on the Thursday.

Heading back down to Wales with all my gear

2011-09-06T14:41:00.001+01:00

So, I’m heading back down to Wales with all my gear… This is in advance of my new course I’m doing, MSc in Marine Biology at Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences. Really looking forward to it, and hopefully will have some interesting things to share on here. For the next 3 days I’ll be in Wales, or on the road in between, so will hopefully have something amusing to share after… After I return I’m heading off to Sharm El Sheikh for a week to go diving with Silent Diver and the dive club, should get some awesome photographs which I’ll post ASAP.
Anyways, that’s all from me for the moment,
Skipper out.

Rain!

2011-09-02T13:50:00.001+01:00

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain… But in Botton it falls everywhere….

An idea of mine was to create a biogas digester. I did make one a few years ago, in an old 50 gallon oil drum. But there was only 2 little tiny holes in the lid. Since I was fuelling it with cow manure, the 2 little holes made it very difficult to load, and impossible to unload.

It lasted for a couple of weeks, producing quite a bit of gas, but a lot of a very stinky liquid that we gave a rather inappropriate nick name. Since then I’ve been interested in trying to create a reusable biogas digester. This 55Gal/220L blue plastic barrel seemed ideal as the large lid, and sealable top made unloading and loading it easy.

The idea was to drill a hole in the lid, fit it with a pipe, and attach a hose to that pipe. This would then go to fill a reservoir, which would likely be an upturned barrel or something placed in water, so as the barrel filled up with gas, the water would be pushed out.

The only problem is that I’ve sort of run out of time. I only just got the barrel out of the skip the otherday, and I’m leaving Botton on the Wednesday (The 7th September 2011), so this project will have to be scrapped until I’ve completed my masters degree… Roll on MSc Marine Biology!

Left Over From June

2011-09-02T13:44:00.001+01:00

Finally got around to uploading this video Wendy and I made in June while we were driving up from Wales to Yorkshire.

The song is from Portal 2, called Want You Gone, I give no spoilers as to the ending

:edit: Due to PicasaWeb not having an “embed” feature… I’ve got to just give you the link:

From 2011-06 Driving from Wales

Tuesday! 23rd August

2011-08-23T20:02:00.000+01:00

This is actually from yesterday… but it rained all today so I didn't get any pictures really… Apart from this one:

Monday the 22nd

2011-08-23T06:04:00.001+01:00

Ja, so another time-lapse today! This one is of making leaf hay!

We did have it in the tractor as well, but the batteries ran out

Spraying again! AGAIN!? Oh yes….

2011-08-20T22:00:00.001+01:00

So, the life of a farmer is glamorous as ever.

Tractor fashion accessories. Two brand new top link pins make oh so beautiful earings….
After a long hard days work, during afternoon tea break, we all sort of got a little silly, and with some new tractor parts, such as link pins and top link pins, decided how best they could be used.
A trailer link pin became a wind chime, that made a similar noise to the bull banging against the barn door, not sure who would want that ambiance around their house…. but you never know….

Stirring 500! And looking about 15… what on earth… For the record, I am 22….

And this one needs no explaining…. But I shall anyway.. We decided to try and see if you could get your head inside the vortex… Phillip tried and succeeded…

How to change the keyboard on the Dell Vostro 1500 (And possibly others… Who knows what standardised systems dell have!)

2011-08-20T21:41:00.001+01:00

Olé! I spilled a large amount of hot chocolate over my laptop the other day, and the E button stopped working, I popped the keyboard out and cleaned it to no avail, so I had to replace it. If you find yourself in a similar situation, I would recommend getting a new keyboard…It is so nice to work on really nice responsive keys etc etc… Dunno, just feels like having a new laptop again. Anyways, here is how to switch the old out, and the new in:

First of all, you need to order a replacement keyboard, these can be found by looking on ebay for Dell Vostro 1500 keyboard, or by searching the model number and getting an official dell version from somewhere. I am not going to say which I did….But I got a keyboard that works.

So, once you have your shiny keyboard, you need to get the old one out. First of all, you need a small posidrive screwdriver (positive one… with a + end) and a larger flat head screwdriver.

With the larger flat head screwdriver, locate the slight hole in the top right corner of the laptop, on a panel containing the power button. Put the flat head here and wedge the panel upwards. (I used a knife as that was all I had around me… farmer remember…)

The whole panel should come up, with some slightly unnerving cracks and crunches.. but all in one piece:

Dethatch this to expose the innards of that section… You should see 2 + screws, at the location of the red arrows in the below image:

Remove these!

Pull the keyboard back, away from the screen, and pull it up at the same time, it should come away, but be careful, it is still attached!!

There is a small connector above the trackpad, with a blue tab, lift this tab and it should allow you to pull the keyboard wire tape clear of it’s little plug thing.

The old keyboard should come free now, so just remove it. The new keyboard now needs attaching. First try and get the wire tape into the little clip you just got the old one out of. Keep the blue tab lifted, and try and force the tape into the bottom. There are 2 little lugs on the side of the tape, these should go inside the clip, and prevent you from pulling the wires out again. When this is clipped on, push the blue tab back down, clip the keyboard back in and pop the 2 screws back in the top.

Then, reattach the plastic panel with the power switch, starting from the left side, where there are 2 lugs that need to clip into holes in the main body. Then push the rest of the panel down with your hand

And you’re ready to rock!

Enjoy

-Skip

Time Lapses! Wooooo!

2011-08-17T21:41:00.000+01:00

Yar, so I bought an Android app called TimeLapse, quite a fun little app, which I’ve been using to make some time lapse films of assorted things on the farm, the first of these is Spraying and milking on Wednesday:

Wednesday Time Lapse Fim

I am snoozing a lot as it is 5 in the morning…

Tuesday

2011-08-16T08:48:00.000+01:00

Today we were back on Falcon Farm to help finish the Onions off, and get the last ones in the boxes, but no boxes arrived… So we rendered assistance again with weeding….

After this Tom, the “Farm Manager”… or just the farmer… and I fixed a broken Silage bale, which had torn on the road, by rewrapping it in this agricultural grade Clingfilm stuff… weird stuff!

Bit of a catch-up: Monday

2011-08-15T08:46:00.000+01:00

So! When I last left off I’d just moved into New Botton Farm on the Sunday. Since then we’ve all been busy!

On Monday afternoon we were sent to Falcon Farm, a nearby farm, to help pick Onions and box them up. Not entirely sure how many there were in total, probably around 800+ onions we harvested before we ran out of boxes.

From here, whilst waiting for new boxes to arrive from Stormy Hall Farm, we helped weed some Chicory, which looks surprisingly like a dandelion, making weeding very difficult.

For Tea break Phillip brought his camera, and we just played around with that:
Picture by Phillip Mg(White T-Shirt)
Picture by Phillip Mg

The above 2 photographs copyright to Phillip Mg.

After tea break we put up an electric fence to strip graze a field, a process where the cows consume all the grass available in one region, before we move them on to the next, more efficient than just letting them go wild in the whole field.

Turfed Out–Sort of…

2011-08-14T08:53:00.000+01:00

Yes… So I’ve been moved out of my house in Thorn as my grandfather and his wife are staying… But I’ve been moved into New Botton Farm, the farm house for where I work, Botton farm… and it is a very very nice house!

Spraying again

2011-08-12T20:26:00.001+01:00

Ja, so we were out in the fields again spraying “500” preparations today. I had a junk sprayer pack, emptied itself far quicker, which had the upside of me carrying less, but meant I had to pump out 15L of water just to cover half a field, and topping it back up and pumping it out again. But hey! at least it wasn’t stiff as hell..

And here is a picture of a chicken being a sniper and using cover effectively:

Mobile blog test and prep spraying

2011-08-11T18:32:00.001+01:00

Ole!
Just installed the Blogger Android app on my shiny HTC wildfire s.
So, today I wad spraying what they call "preparations" on the fields. Preparations are a homeopathic ...thingy for the fields, and while I don't believe in it doing anything, there are people who do. But whatever my opinion on its effectiveness, it is good fun to make and spray it with a group of people, you have a good laugh and some good excersise, so in the end, it doesn't really matter whether it works or not. But jokingly we were spraying the left overs on cars, walls, trees and the tractor...if I come down tomorrow and there is a huge tractor in place of our old one....mind blown

Sheep Sheering in Stormy Hall

2011-08-09T20:16:00.002+01:00

This is old news actually, but my phone refused to upload it as it was in an “I hate Skipper” mood, then I lost it in a field, and have only just replaced it and been able to get the pictures off with my shiny new HTC Wildfire S…. more on that later
So, on the 17th of June (Yes, it’s very out of date) we moved our sheep flock up from Botton Farm up to Stormy Hall Farm, about a mile away on the other side of the valley. We have about 35 sheep (It’s either 34 or 36, I never remember), a mixture of lambs and mothers, and one “tup” or male sheep. The purpose of the move was for the sheep to be sheared.

We moved the entire flock by hand, a few in front, and a few behind, but we sort of lost the flock as they all split up and ran. A couple ended up in a leek field, some ran the right way to Stormy Hall…. in the end, with the help of the neighbouring farmer, Mr Tate, and his well placed quad bike, we managed to chase them out of the fields back up the road and into the Stormy Hall barn.
In there the farmer, Colum, demonstrated hand sheering, manhandling the sheep and using clippers rather than an electric cutter to remove the wool. I took one of the last sheep to be done, and begun to cut the wool off, first from the brisket, then down the hind leg. After a while, Jana, a garden trainee, came along and wanted a go, so we both took part in sheering this sheep….. I think the average time for the experts is about 3-5 minutes… I am pleased to say ours took 2 hours to sheer one sheep…… Though we didn’t cut it once!

Morning Milking and stacking bales

2011-08-04T20:39:00.000+01:00

Morning milking has some obvious drawbacks, it starts at 5:30, so you’ve got to get up and get the cows in at 5:00AM in the morning… IN THE MORNING DAMNIT! But it has some distinct advantages. The above picture is one of them… When you’re awake at 5:00 you see amazing mist patterns in the valley, the morning sun coming over the hills, and when the sun starts to shine, and you’re taking the cows out at 7:30 to the fields it can be spectacular:

These are some pictures I found on my phone after I did an import of all the pictures. One of the neighbouring farms, Stormy Hall, uses a bale barn, instead of the hay barn set up that we have on Botton Farm. This means after mowing and drying, they bale up the hay and bring it in on a tractor. To bring it in they stack it up into… stacks… which they can pick up with a bale clamp on the back of the tractor. This was my best piece of work:

Look at it! It’s so square! I was proud of this one. Just showing that Botton Farm leads the way! Ooorah!

Mr Skipper BSc (Hons) woot!

2011-07-12T21:59:00.001+01:00

After 4 years of university, and 3 years on this course, I have finally graduated with a 2:1 BSc in International Wildlife Biology (With honours) from the University of Glamorgan! Woot woot! So next step, MSc Marine Biology at Bangor University in September 2011. Slightly apprehensive, but I’m sure it’ll be grand!
So, the plans for the summer include working on the farm in Botton Village (North Yorkshire), a bit of scuba diving, and hopefully a trip to the Red Sea. Should be good!
Anyways, gnite all,
Skipper

Sounds of a Playground Fading

2011-06-22T21:23:00.000+01:00

I’m not the kind of guy to accuse a band of selling out and changing. When Blinded Colony changed to The Blinded a lot of fans were really angry, and felt let down. The new Sonic Syndicate album had a very different sound, and a lot of fans were really up in arms against it. I’ve always been one to embrace a new direction of a band. I love the old Sonic Syndicate stuff, but I’ve got that now, so I’m open to whatever they feel they want to play.

In Flames…. I think they’re my favourite band… With Before the Dawn coming in a close 2nd…. But in 2010 or so the guitarist, Jesper Stromblad left the band on good terms. Big disappointment for me as it meant they pulled out of their UK tour…And I missed seeing them in Cardiff…. But I digress. I was thinking we’d heard the last of In Flames when they did their collaborative track with Pendulum (Self Vs. Self), but I was pleasantly surprised when I learned of the impending new album “Sounds of a Playground Fading.” I eagerly preordered my copy and awaited the delivery…. It still hasn’t arrived… And Spotify beat me to it. So, it is in Spotify now!

(This has been sitting in my drafts folder for a very long time.. I really need to finish and publish it)

So, on the 22nd of June (Dispite me writing this on the 27th of October, 2011 I still remember the date, it was the same date that I got my degree results) the CD finally arrived. And as it turned out, to my luck, I was working alone in the Inner Garden, so I could slam on the iPod and listen to the album profusely. The Album stuck, and I really enjoyed it, so it was my soundtrack of my summer (*fading):

^ Kept me company during hay making… Yarrr in the tractor!

^ Driving down to Wales…. A very depressing journey leaving behind a very good summer… But made bearable by Sounds of A Playground Fading (Or just 01 Sounds Of A as the dashboard seems to think)

After a lot of listening, I came to some conclusions. Like much of In Flames there are tracks I love, and others that I just skip…

So, here’s the listing:

Sounds of a Playground Fading
Deliver Us
All For Me
The Puzzle
Fear Is The Weakness
Where The Dead Ships Dwell
The Attic
Darker Times
Ropes
Enter Tragedy
Jester’s Door
A New Dawn
Liberation

Sounds Of A Playground Fading, Track 1, a very good introduction, and while this isn’t one of my top rated tracks, it is certainly one I will listen to and not skip over. The chorus is very singable, though the theme is a little dark.

Deliver Us, Track 2. This was released as a single before the album was released, and I listened to it a lot… It’s still a good track, and one I’m not likely to skip over in a hurry. Nothing stands out particularly, but it’s still a good track.

All For Me, Track 3. This is one of those tracks that doesn’t really make an impression on me… It’s a skipable one… There is nothing really.. wrong with it, it’s just not one I really want to listen to that much…

The Puzzle, Track 4. At first this was one of those tracks that I skipped… The introduction is a little too chaotic, and I never really heard it out properly. But, when I did… This has become one of my favourites. The chorus…..Oh it’s one of those awesome epic ones… And the instrumental section at 1:40 or so is awesome…. And the section from 3:10, though very simple, is very epic… And lead to some erratic driving while I was listening to it. It’s just a shame the song ends….

Fear Is The Weakness, Track 5. This was an instant hit with e. Love love love it. Very epic.. Not much more I can say on that.. Just love singing loudly and badly along

Where The Dead Ships Dwell, Track 6. Similar to The Puzzle, not an instant hit with me, but it’s one without too much screaming and therefore I can sort of sing along with it in the car/tractor/shower. Very nice guitar solos, good all round track

The Attic, Track 7. This is one I nearly always skip over….The lyrics are just too dark and weird…. Don’t really have anything more to say on the matter……

Darker Times, Track 8. Like the Puzzle it was was one I skipped over initially, too chaotic, but when the chorus kicks in at 1:00, I decided I liked the song. It is one of those epic ones…. Though I usually just hum the bass….

Ropes, Track 9. I think this is my favourite song on the album. The intro is awesome, and it remains that way throughout.

“If this would be your last breath, would you change a thing?”

Oh I do like this track

Enter Tragedy, Track 10. Kind of neutral on this one… There are parts I like, the instrumental I do quite like…. But it’s not really one of my top songs on the album….

Jester’s Door, Track 11. This seems to be a goodbye to Jesper. So goodbye Jesper!

A New Dawn, Track 12. Locates straight after Jester’s Door, this does seem to be a look to the future. And the future looks good! Good song, not a skipable one.

“ And I can’t wait to see the sunrise again”

Was listening to it as I drove through these mountains in North Wales:

It seemed very apt.

Liberation, Track 13. The last track on the album! It is quite a slow moving song, but with some epic moments. Overall, a good track.. Definitely worth a listen.

Yea, so my overall impressions of the CD…. Very good. Well worth a listen! Go out and buy it! Available in HMV!

-Skip

New T-shirt!

2011-05-22T23:15:00.000+01:00

New T-shirt available! Someone on DeviantArt suggested a STALKER Exoskeleton T-shirt. Your wish is my command!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Exo Skeleton Character by Skipper_is
Browse zazzle for a different shirtzazzle

I’m With Genius T-shirt

2011-05-08T09:37:00.001+01:00

For anyone who loves Stargate Atlantis :

I'm with Genius Stargate Atlantis McKay by Skipper_is
View more Stargate T-Shirts

This is basically a replica of the “I’m with genius” T-shirt that Dr Rodney McKay wears in the episode of Stargate Atlantis “Home”. (As seen below)

See, I wore it when I went to see Apophis!

Oh dear
Anyways, buy it from here
For the rest of my products, see my Products page, link at the top of the page to the right

Universe Sandbox - Review

2011-05-01T11:44:00.003+01:00

Snazzy little program came onto the Steam marketplace a couple of days ago, called Universe Sandbox. Basically, the premise of the game is you’ve got complete control over all aspects of the universe. You can take our solar system, see what would happen if you dialled the mass of the sun up, or try and set up a Geosynchronous orbit around the earth.
^ In this one I tried to see what would happen if the earth had a set of rings like Neptune, Saturn, etc etc, at the same point as the moon. The gravity of the moon caused some really cool twists and turns in the rings, and a bunch of asteroids broke orbit and crashed into the planet.
Dialling the gravity up a couple of notches is a fun one too, if you get the gravity high enough the sun turns into a black hole, and everything slowly collapses in on its self. Before then though, some of the planets do a slingshot around the sun and end up reaching the escape velocity and buggering off into space.
Using timing and changes to speed and changing the semi major axis I tried to dock a “teapot” with the ISS (the teapot is one of the random weird objects you can use as they didn't have a shuttle…) It was going quite well, I got the closing velocity down really nice and slow, but when the teapot finally got to the ISS (represented by a piece of rock…) the collision engine picked it up as a crash and smashed my teapot… Doh!

This is quite a fun little game, especially for those who are white and nerdy enough to get out the calculator to figure out all the velocities, forces and radii needed to get objects in certain places, it is still very buggy and has crashed on me a number of times, so hopefully in time they’ll release a patch and fix that all up, also I’m hoping for more models,spacecraft, satellites, gas clouds etc etc. But we shall see.
If you like astronomy, astrophysics and anything else to do with stars and SPAAAACE (Portal 2 reference for you there), I’d strongly recommend this, it’s only a few quid at the moment, so get it!
-Skip

Stripe Scanner

2011-04-23T11:11:00.001+01:00

Stripe Spotter: Available Here

Hello there, time for another review.

The stripes on zebras are unique to each animal, and realising that, the development team behind Stripe Scanner set out to create a program to recognise individuals from their stripes.

Now, this is not my area of expertise, I’m a diatoms man rather than a big game man, but I have done a module in African Biodiversity, so I do know a little bit.

Using photographs I’ve taken in South Africa and Kenya, I set out to create my own database of animals using their program. Here are my thoughts:

The UI is very simple, identifying animals is pretty easy, select the body part and press Identify Animal….

Now, here is where I ran into some difficulty.The images I took are from 2007 and 2009, so I have no idea which animal is which… To create the database you need to have a base population of identified zebras, with which to compare the later photographs. I lack this, so my database consists of guess work as to which are new animals.

Due to this, when I came to adding an individual from thousands of kilometres away, from Kenya, what should’ve been distinctively different stripes, the similarity is much higher than it should be. (0.46)

All in all, I think this is a valuable program for those who need to process a large local herd of individuals if you have a base number of photographs of identified individuals to work from. My example has a poor collection of disorganised photographs, of quality too low for a proper identification, so this test of the software was not really sound.

But all in all, worth checking out if you’ve got a lot of zebras to identify!

Download Here

Before the Dawn–Deathstar Rising

2011-04-18T12:16:00.002+01:00

The playlist is available here, or by searching Deathstar Rising or Before the Dawn in Spotify.. or you know.. buying the CD! I think it’s on Itunes…

Okie dokie, another little review. This s a music review of what is probably my current favourite Melodic Death Metal album.

The first 2 tracks, The First Snow and Winter Within really give a feel to the rest of the album. Very epic guitar, nice mix of clean vocals and growling, (I got stuck there.. what’s the opposite of clean vocals? I was going to say filthy vocals! but that suggests inappropriate language) Unlike a lot of the Death Metal out there, the singer can actually sing clean vocals well.

Deathstar, the 3rd album on the track has a very catchy guitar part, which I often find myself humming along to, and the chorus I’ll often burst out into growls “ONE BY ONE!” ..then forget the rest of the chorus and wonder why everyone is staring at me.

Another of my favourite tracks on this album is Butterfly Effect, another great example of very catchy melodies, and an awesome mix of harsh (AHA! that’s the term for it!) vocals and clean. I think the whole album has an interesting change to the usual Before the Dawn format. Most other songs have quite harsh choruses, and clean vocals in between, like one of my other favourites by Before the Dawn: End of Day from the album “Decade of Darkness.”

Overall, Butterfly Effect is an awesome song, I’ve no idea what the harsh vocals are saying but the chorus is awesome: “Can’t define, what has caused this chain reaction. Wings of a butterfly, brought the storm to my direction” - It’s an awesome chorus!

The bonus tracks, available on the later commercial release of the CD include an acoustic version of “My Room,” which is another one of my favourites by this band. I’m not sure about the live bonus tracks…. I prefer the studio recorded ones, they’re more… polished.

I ordered the CD on preorder, and got it a couple days before it was released with a rather nice T-shirt.

Overall impressions of this album are very good, I do love it, and it has helped me get through writing my dissertation, so that’s always a bonus! So yea, check it out, link is ^^^ Up there for Spotify.

A couple of their songs are on their facebook page:

BOOK OF FACES!

Enjoy!

Skippy, signing out 1216 Zulu.

Bzeek!

2011-04-18T11:53:00.001+01:00

I feel I should share this little discovery of mine with the class. But I should preface it with some back story first. I live in Botton Village in North Yorkshire, it’s in the middle of nowhere, and the buildings are made of mahusive bits of rock. The internet that we do have had to be forged from the raw… CAT5 cables… It’s wired basically is what I’m getting at. Now, I have a phone, it’s a shiny Android, a HTC Hero to be precise. It uses WIFI, something that we lack with all the… stone, it’s just not a practical method of connecting to the internet. So I have a slight problem with updating everything and synchronising all my music off Spotify onto my phone. (BTW, Spotify is awesome… just to let you know. I’d highly recommend it if you live in Europe, if you dont live in Europe…. MOVE TO EUROPE! We’ve got… rain, and…. land, and shops and stuff, it’s amazing!) But I am getting side tracked.

So, the problem is I need wifi to sync Spotify on my phone. Survival basics, what do I have, and what do I need?

I have: Laptop, wired internet and a data hungry phone

I need: Wifi…

Solution: Bzeek

What this little rascal does is creates a local Wifi network around your computer, which you can then use to access the internet with all your little devices.

There is a slight downside of this in that the WIFI is available to anyone else who is near, but the upshot is that if anyone uses your internet, you get paid. So all in all, it’s not too bad! It’s all secure and tight, and when you’ve finished synching your phone, you can just turn it off.

So far it does seem a little slow, but that is partially due to the slow internet here…. I’m trying to sync 9 songs up, started 10 minutes ago.. and it’s still on 9 songs left to sync… but I have every faith in the technology!

Diatom Diagram

2011-04-09T12:36:00.003+01:00

Diatom Diagram by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART
Just a quick little diagram I drew in Illustrator for my dissertation. I've got a couple of weeks left now before it's got to be finished... Slightly concerned that I'm going to screw this one up completely.. but we shall see.
I'll put the PDF up here when it's all finished and marked... just in case someone wants to steal my work :)

Skipper’s YS Pack

2011-03-22T18:34:00.002Z

May I redirect you to here: http://skipper-blog.blogspot.com/p/skippers-mods.html

Halo: ODST–My favourite character–Virgil

2011-02-24T10:24:00.001Z

Everyone knows Halo.. Its one of the greatest games of the 21st century. The 4th (Actually the 5th, but Halo Wars doesnt count) instalment of the game was Halo ODST, which took the timeline between Halo 2 and Halo 3, as an ODST, or Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (Mouthful huh?). You have to fight through the city of New Mombasa against the combined forces of the Covenant… death and hilarity ensues. Anyway, there is a character, that is the cities Artificial intelligence, known as the superintendent, or Virgil. You dont really see much of Virgil in the game, except in cutscenes, load screens and at the end.. but he’s quality and so cute!

Anyways, here are his little faces from the load screens and cut scenes:

ODST Virgil: Alert by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

His default, alert face

ODST Virgil: Angry by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

Angry face! You blew up that building! GRRR!

ODST Virgil: Happy by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

Happy cute face! N’awww you!

ODST Virgil: O Rly by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

O Rly? What more can I say?

ODST Virgil: Sad by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

Aww no! sad face…

ODST Virgil: Suspicious by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

Suspicious… I know you did something, I just don't know what….

And that’s it for now folks!

Kenyan Blog

2010-09-27T20:31:00.004+01:00

Found this while offloading my mums Hard Drive onto my external, thought i should stick it somewhere! So yea… here it is. This is from summer of 2007

People:
Skipper- Me!
Susan- Teacher from Ireland
Jo- From Gurnsey
Fay- From Birmingham
Sonia- Also From Birmingham
Jen- Works in Ikea in Newcastle, doesnt like it
Hollie- Cop from Cornwal
Kellie- Jr Dr from Ireland (Sister of Tina)
Louise - Teacher in Ireland
Ryan- Graduated medicine with Kellie, Jr Dr in Ireland
Hellena- Leader
Rachael- Psyc grad from Scotland… someware
Fiona- From Scotland.. not entirely sure where…
Rebecca- Also Scotland
Gemma- From Gurnsey
Mona- Undergrad in medicine.
Tina- Student Nurse in Ireland- Kellie’s Sister.
Claire- Paramedic
Nikki- Jr Leader (2CO)
Getting ready to go

My bag packed before going!
Day 1-
Left Botton with Duty Driving and caught the 8- something train to Middlesbrough. then to Kings Cross, London. We then took the underground to Heathrow. Not very interesting except I nearly got pickpocketed by some random guy… weird. Arrived at the airport about 2h before check in, so chilled for a bit… fun fun fun for all the family! So I finished reading “First Light” for the 2nd time… Then spotted Alpha Team, though I didn’t know it was Alpha Team at the time. Met with my team, Bravo team, and checked in with all our stuff. After scaring Clare, a Paramedic in our team, who had never been on a plane before, we boarded the plane, a Qatar A-340, which was cool because it had switchable TV in the seats, and it even had a cool little phone on the reverse, so I spent 30 minutes calling nearly every seat on the plane, but I think I was the only one who had discovered it, so no one picked theirs up.
After 7h we landed in Doha, it was really warm for early morning. ( 38 deg) After a little wait inside Doha’s lush airport (oil money going to good use there..) we boarded the tiny A-319 to Nairobi. Pretty uneventful flight, apart from the landing, after 5 missed approaches the pilot finally slammed the poor plane onto the tarmac. Phone worked, so I texted home (50p a text!!!! what!) We then remet with Alpha team and got visas, luggage etc and loaded everything onto the waiting green safari bus thing.. Bravo team didn’t fit into the truck/bus so we got a Matatu… ( google it..) It was meant for 14 passengers, we got 25 onto it… We then drove though the Nairobi slums to the ‘campsite.
Day 2- Longest 7h in the world.
After taking down the tents we loaded up a “Mololine” coach with all our gear for the trek up to the Orphanage. We were told it would be a 7h trip…. The first section was the bumpiest 5h of my life as we went over the world’s bumpiest road. After the 5h we stopped for lunch.. half way point… good lunch of pineapple and other stuff and we continued on our trek, another 5h and we arrived at “Mega City” in Kisumu. Restocked with stuff here and continued… 1h later, 11h after we started, we arrived at the Ulamba Orphanage. This was my first experience of Kenyan time. Mathematically equivalent to:
T(k)=T(m)+K
Where T(k) is Kenyan Time, T(m) is Mazungu time, and K is a constant to the person who is telling you the time.
First impressions of the Orphanage, very little, very tired, but the kids were really friendly and welcoming. 2h after arrival food was ready. It was good, but at that time I didn’t really want food.. (1am day 3…) so Ryan (my tent mate, and Jr Dr) and I went to sleep.
Day 3-
After breakfast of Sausages, Kenyan Style Tea, (90%milk, 10% sugar… tea? what?!) and bread we were taken, by the Orphans to Sunday School. We didn’t realise as donation was required and all we had on us was 1000/- notes.. (£10) so 1 person donated that for all of us.
We then RTBed (returned to base) to meet our scouts. We are to be running a week long camp for a scout unit on the area.
When they arrived they wasted no time in setting up a load of tables, chairs and other assorted items from bamboo and string. Was very ingenious and very good! After this was done we chilled with the kids and played rounders on the field.

Dont leave your camera around or it'll have about 50 shots of the underside of the truck, or some kids doing jakie chan style poses. Dont leave your camera around if it had as many functions as mine, ie multi shot, or you'll get 100 plus shots each part of the bottom of the truck and a full memory card... Dinner was ready at the usual time of about 12 ish pm.. After that, flaking out was an order.
Got to go, eating time! see everyone in Mombassa!
Day 4-
Bravo team’s first trip in the Safari truck! Before this only Alpha team had ridden in it. It was brilliant fun, and not long before everyone, including the Mazungus (Mazungu meaning White Person) were singing away at the top of our lungs with the scouts.
We stopped for the loo at a little town called Luanda, my first experience of a Long Drop. a typical Kenyan toilet. Imagine a small garden hut, dig a 200ft hole under it, drill a hole in the floor of the shed, then fill the 200ft hole with 50 years of excrement…. Nice!…
The loo at the back of the dale is an absolute palace compared with this…
After the loo break we were off on the road again, till we got stopped by police with an interesting assortment of guns.. (FNC, Kilashnikovs, MP5s, Uzis, G-3s,you name it….) After spotting the Mazungus in the back we were allowed to pass, and the rest of the journey was uneventful. We stopped at the shores of Lake Victoria, in a town named Kisumu, at the shores we took a boat and went out in search of hippos.

We did find a couple, but our boat broke down on the way back… After this we took the safari bus to OT’s (our bus driver/AA staff) mother’s restaurant.
Never ask for fish.. it is just that.. a fish, nothing added, nothing taken away…The fruit salad after was amazing! Fruit here tastes so good!
Didn’t really remember much else of that day.. I’m writing this up from my diary, which I wrote at McKinder’s Camp, Mt Kenya, 4600m above sea level.. That’s 4.6KM!!!! Day 4 seems a long way away..
Day 5-
Heat, Mortar, cement, dust. Started work on the building project. We’re building a nursery for the Kayaya School. Sampled the Kenyan Staple diet.. Ugali… imagine… no there is nothing that quite compares.. but I can still feel it in my stomach 2 weeks later..

Day 6, games with the kids,
was good fun
Mona and one of the scouts:

Day 7 Building.. see Day 5..
Day 8 Ditto..
Day 9
Olympic games with the scouts and orphans. Went into Siaya for the afternoon, had real western food!!!!! CHIPS! could die for them now on Mt Kenya…Siaya is a pretty cool little town. Its a typical Kenyan farming town, no tourists at all.

The main street.

The market place. Selling all sorts of things, from second hand clothes to pots and chickens... and designer coffins
Day 10- Very sad. The scouts returned top their homes and everyone was sad, we’d made great friends with the kids in the time they were there, it was sad to see them go…
Day 11- a bit of a non day. Don’t really remember what happened to be honest..
Day 12- Shopping-got mountain food and things..
Day 13- Mololine coach!!!! great fun!Moving to the Blueline hotel. I use the term hotel very loosely! We went via Thompson’s falls, massive water fall! Was very cool!

Found a brilliant tactic to stop the peddlers selling you stuff,…. speak French! It’s very funny!
Finished our trip to the hotel, food, tents, bed.
Day 14-Going on Safari!
We packed our bags and got the green safari truck, going to the Samburu National Park. Long journey, but a good game drive when we arrived. On the road there we passed though a very Muslim town, all the women were wearing head shalls and there was a big mosque. We stopped at some traffic lights and all the pedlers came up to us as usual, however the one that came to my window was selling an RPG-7 Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher. Just the launcher, not the warhead, but still! Though out the rest of the town all the kids at the side of the road yelled "Give me sweet!" as we drove past... evidently some people before us had given them some sweets and given mzungu's a good reputation for giving away sweets. On the game drive we saw zebra, elephant
,
and lionesses.

But the monkeys stole my bottle of Fanta…and 5 paintings… still bitter about that…They are still cute though:

Day 15-Safari again
Morning game drive, saw a male lion! But didnt get any good pictures...
5 star hotel after lunch for a swim, aww lovely! Monkey stole Ryan’s glass of coke!
In the evening we returned to watch some crocs being baited.. felt very sorry for them relying on humans for their food. N.B., I do not count myself as a real tourist, since our work at Ulamba we’ve all considered ourselves as members of the community. We were all slightly envious of the meat the crocs were fed, it was better than the meat we got at Ulamba... stupid 5 star hotel fed crocodiles!
After watching the crocs we were escorted back to the camp site, this time without man with gun, we had man with stick…. bah.. We lived though!
Day 16-
Last game drive. Not sure if it just me, but we've kind of lost interest now, we've seen everything there is and now when the call comes "Elephant! 2 o' clock!" Everyone just sort of sits there... first day it was WOA! where! CAMERAS! We went to a tourist village, never felt so uncomfortable before. Glad I left my camera in the safari bus, so I was less touristy.. They made us do a local dance, with the 'locals' and then we had a look in a typical house around there, only it wasn't really typical anymore since everyone else had discovered rocks and cement. The house was quite interesting though, it was made from cow dung covered with general litter, like plastic bags and things. All this was formed over a wooden pattern inside. There was 1 room for sleeping the entire family, and 1 room for cooking and keeping the goats in. All in all the house was about 6m x 6m and about 1-2m high.
We drive back to Blueline and prepare for the Mountain. Dont give us much of a gap eh?
Day 17- Mountain trek Day 1.

Big Breakfast, its designed to last us till met station.
Start on our ascent to the summit. We are going from the bottom to Met Station, at 3000m. Got filmed for a Kenyan TV show on tourism, they did have an actor who would get out of her air conditioned jeep, walk 20m, get back in and drive on a bit.. bah! The vegetation was lush, it was semi-jungle. There were large clumps of bamboo with old man's beard moss attached to it, and huge trees with the same attached, this picture sort of shows what it was like in the open sections:

Though my resizer seems to have got the bug since its made my pictures go wierd... hmm..
We arrived at camp 4h later.. easy as pie....
Me, Alan and Clair at Met Station.
Supper was a tasty morsel of some pasta..

over the course of the mountain i learned to hate pasta. If we have it now it gives me the shivers just thinking back to those days on the mountain, in the cold, wearing gloves and eating some pasta out of a cooking pot with a broken plastic spoon, with some sort of pasta sauce on top which has a wierd taste to it because we carried it up in a 7-up bottle to cut down on weight, with some joker wearing pink lobster shorts sat next to me talking in swedish or something... urgh!
I gotta go eat again, c ya later folks! (Nairobi- Nakumatt)
Day 18- The longest day in my life! (so far)
We begin our ascent to McKinders Camp Mt Kenya, passing though the Vertical Bog, very boggy, very vertical. Nice! Stop off for lunch at picnic rocks, which gives a nice impression of like some rocks and a pagoda or something with a barbicue or something.. haha in your dreams, i was lighting the stove with some wet matches, trying to cover the stove with my jacket to stop the rain putting it out, hiding in a crevice from the howling wind which threatened to dislodge anyone who was not kept low and had stable footing.
(this picture is digitally enhanced, before you struggled to see the people since it was really quite dark, and i point blank refuse to use my flash, ever. )
After lunch I am physically drained and don’t seem to be able to talk, let alone think, Engage Zombie Mode- Mind Blank to Camp. Arrive disorientated and confused, didn’t know where I was… 5 mins and I was back to normal. So far I’m not affected by altitude, and just really tired!
Day 19- Rest Day.
A rest day… relax… go for a 2h strenuous hike… After lunch relax for real this time, in tent relaxing, writing this… Summit day tomorrow, need to be fit for that. Bring on one 18h day….

On our 2h climb/altitude acclimatisation trip we walked along base of the valley (still at 4000m!) Ended up in a corrie/tarn for a bit, nice and relaxing! ’ Looking back from McKinder’s campsite on Mt Kenya, 4000m+ above sea level it was absolute bliss… its cold here, and there are rock Hyrax eating our tent… Rock Hyrax: Oversized guinea pigs, eat everything, loads of them here… cute, but a bit weird.

Day 20- Summit Day. (The longest day in my life #2.. probably longer though)
Kellie on Summit day:

Woke up at 11.45 on Day 19. Had tea and biscuits at McKinders Camp, In the dark… bags packed, and all systems check we started walking at 1am. Had to switch off my head torch to save batteries, so walking up a 500m scree slope is a little hard… We took our first break at a glacial melt river, had a drink there, then moved onto yet more scree.. nearly vertical this time.. well 45 deg at least.. We “lost” 1 of bravo team on this section.- she was not feeling well.
After this section it was “bouldering” for 10 or so minutes. We were down 1 porter on this section,- he had fallen in a hole and sprained his ankle. We then arrived at Austrian Hut. Here we had a rest for half an hour then scrambled the last hour in growing light. We reached the summit just as day was breaking. It was a beautiful sight to see the sun rising over the whole of Africa. It was really wonderful- but cold. I’ve got to go now as I need to take down my tent…. bye.
Back in Mombassa now. Its warm, and I’m sitting in a bookshop eating a “You and Me” bar, its like a twix, but with different chocolate.. mm lovely.. anyway, back on with the write up! Here is a picture of me, Alan and Steve, at the summit, Alan and Steve are Kenyans working for AA.

After 10 minutes of stomping around to keep warm we started the decent. A few km of scree slope at 45 degrees going up is bad enough, going down is another story! I managed to sun burn my nose, not badly, but still, and I was walking away from the sun! not sure how that happened.
When we arrived at McKinders camp we had 1h of rest… then we had to do the longest day in reverse… hell on earth.. 18h on the go. I was in the “Advanced Scout Party” ie the group at the front, which was basically running.. that’s running, down the vertical bog.. running… down the vertical bog…… yea…. :sigh:
We made it alive, then had to put everyone’s tents up as they might be tired when they came down.,… THEY MIGHT BE TIRED! bah…
Then we came under assault from monkeys.. woo…
Tango bearing 120, vector 80 climb to FL 3 to intercept!

Day 21:RTB!
Yea! we are returning to base! 2yh walk down from the camp, with “Super Steve” Advance Scout party again… waited 1h for the main group to come down- but it was a good break.We had a cover story that we saw an elephant, which then grew to be an entire herd of elephant, and then to the entire herd being followed by 2 lions... Though it never did get used. Then we got matatus back to Blueline.Hotel
Back at blueline hotel, lovely lunch of pure junk food! so glad not to be eating pasta again! Spending afternoon… doing nothing really…. relaxing!
Evening, we slaughtered a goat named Bradley. Wasn’t pleasant since the knives they used were, well, blunter than spoons. Finally the goat was dead and so it was cooked for supper. It's head got stuck in a tree after, and someone put a cigarette in its mouth, was very funny. Not many people ate it actually. Apparently it was a Kikuyu Tradition. They believe their god lives in the mountain, so us climbing it was a great honour.
Christina arrived back from working in a hospital in Nairobi in a massive rainstorm. Kellie, Rach and I were putting the tent up at the time the storm started. We'd only got the main part up when the storm struck so we all evaced to the tent, which promptly started to leak profusely. I was brave and ventured out, getting soaking wet in doing so, and put all the pegs in and guy ropes so the tent was secure and didnt leak. Perfect.. now what do i do with these clothes that would've been dryer if i'd fallen into a river?
Day 22- Into Nairobi
After a Brunch of eggs, sausage and bread we got 4 matatus into Nairobi. Long, dusty and slightly dull journey followed.. We stopped off at the equator and ran a little experiment with a jug and a match, apparantlone side of the equator the vortex of escaping water goes one way, and on the other side the vortex goes the otherw. In the end we sucessfully managed to get the little experiment to work. Then we came under fire from the shop sellers, so i hid behind Andy the tour leader, well not literally, i claimed to be a member of staff and so i'd been here before, and thankfully Andy backed up my claim. :-) In the end i went to look for someone and got intercepted by a shopkeeper to look at their shop.I used a cunning technique to escape, say i had no money and needed to borrow some from my friends, then ran. Moving on from there passed a sign that said AAA Growers, which i found hilarious, but couldnt quite explain that AAA for me means Anti-Aircraft Artillery. Then we moved on down the highway for about 2h till we got to Nairobi. Massive hold up in Nairobi due to a graduation there…

We arrived at the campsite at around 4ish, put up tents for a bit and then played pool till suppertime. Which was burgers and chips!!! After food we had another pool game and went to bed. My tent mate for the mountain, a Jr. Dr. called Kelly from N Ireland and her sister Christina were my tent mates for this leg as well. Kelly had to get up at 4 am to get a plane back home- which was delayed and so she missed her connection in London…
Day 23- Nairobi Trip
After breakfast we journeyed into Nairobi centre and went to look at the projects we would’ve been working on if it were not for the riots. We visited the biggest slum in Africa called… nah the names gone… but it was a huge contrast to.. well.. pretty much anything in the west.

Even homeless people in the UK have better living conditions (in terms of general health and cleanliness. After this we went to Nakumatt, which is a super market.. another huge contrast, to stock up for our overnight trip to Mombassa. I popped into the internet cafe to write up to ay 20 on the blog, checked my e-mails (210 new… thats gonna take a long time! apparently Tomo is coming back! nice!) We then had lunch of pizza and chips and headed home for the night bus.
The overnight bus was pretty uneventful. We were driving though bandit territory, so we weren’t allowed to stop, or we would’ve been shot…. so if you needed a wee.. you just had to wait, or do it in a bag! We arrived at the Mombassa campsite at 5 am on day 24. Kibera! thats the name of the slum!
Day 24-
After arriving in Mombassa we slept for a while. it was a pretty leisurely day, spent most of the time in the sea, and along the beach. We are the only mazungus at the hotel/campsite, and it is a little off putting… but never mind. Spent most of the day in the sea, drinking mango juice in the bar, and figuring out why my camera had deleted 3/4 of the pictures on the card.... VERY annoying! Had a shower and put on a nice clean shirt and felt very swarve...got hassled by some drunk guy who dribbled on my shirt… so I had a shower, wearing the said shirt… feel clean again now…The drunk guy was telling me about him being a Utopian (Swahili for Illigal Imigrant basically.) and how he was part of some UN program. He was also telling me how how Princess Diana was a great person and how she loved Africa.
Day 25- Snorkelling
We went out in a glass-bottomed boat to a coral reef.

There we snorkelled a bit and then looked for interesting sea creatures. It was really good fun! Alan found a sea cucumber and poked a piece of coral in what we thought was its mouth.. till it pooed all over the boat... I managed to cut my hand on a clam, trying to dig it out and it promptly shut, slicing my hand with its razor sharp shell edge. After lunch we went to Nakumat again, and this is where I am now. It’s so nice just to be camping right on the beach.
Day 26-
Its day 26 in the big AA tent, Clare, Holly, Gemma, and Skipper are sitting around the table doing very little. Today we went into Mombassa City. We were going to go shopping but there weren’t that many shops worth looking at. In the end we went to a curio market and I got a painting and some wooden, hand carved animals. Everyone also bought “Tusker” t-shirts. Tusker is a Kenyan beer, and we’re gonna try and get everyone to wear them on the way back, on the plane. I also managed to fall into the gutter 3 times. That is the LAST time i'm wearing flipflops shopping......
Huge metal tusks in Mombasa.
On the way back Tina and I got off at Nakumatt and went for an ice cream milk shake, life is good!
When we got back it was suppertime and after supper we went to the bar for a bit and played pool. Jo and I were winning by a mile till Jo missed potting the 8-ball and then Niki potted it and so won.. Never mind, it’s only a game…
Day 27- Chillin’ at the beach
About it really…
Huge number of people in the sea:

There were especially big breakers there, and there were about 100 people body surfing them.. or trying. Managed to get a good few runs in.
We chilled, went to Nakumatt, used computers, went swimming.. etc….
That is basically it…rubbish weather though, it was cloudy, but warm.. wierd..
Had a territorial tickling contest with Tina, although she denies it I won over the entire tent, including her mat, and banished her to a small corner of the tent, however I was feeling nice so I gave her the mat back. The rest of that night was spent sporadically fighting for space, but mostly just back to back, defending our hard won bed space.
Day 28- RTB!!
After a camp tidy up, all bags packed etc. Was pretty good since the sun came out and it was warm. Took a final swim in the sea, at 6 ish pm we got 2 matatus to Mombassa train station. We boarded our train and at 7pm we started off. No sooner than we’d started off but some Masai man came into our bunk room and started talking to us. Seemed okay to start with, till he started telling us about his mazungu sister. We thought that was a little odd since he was definitely not the slightest bit mazungu. Then he started saying he didn’t have any money for the journey and could we give him some. Everyone in the bunk yelled, in unison, “ALAN!!!!” (who is one of the Kenyans.) The Masi man apologised for disturbing us and ran off. Alan finally came running down the corridor and was in our bunkroom looking for this guy. He seemed to think we were hiding him, bless! After this we chatted for a bit and went to sleep…Pretty bumpy night, but the best bed i'd had the whole month.
Here is Tina testing out the on board safety systems- a weird thing to stop you rolling out of bed at night:

Day 29-RTB day 2.
Woke up at 6am ish, the train was not moving, and on further inspection we were in the middle of nowhere. Someone said we were in Embu, which was a little strange since all that could be seen was a field, a mud hut… and.. some sky… and that was it. At 9am the train was fixed and we continued to Kiboko station. At this station we were told that we would be disembarking at the next stop. And be ready to jump off, as they don’t stop for very long.
At the next station we all managed to get off whilst the train was not moving and waited around while Stevo went and tried to find a matatu, a little tricky when the nearest road is about a mile away…. finally we got a matatu…. 5h later… a long time after the train got to Nairobi… we arrived at Magadi road campsite. Put up tents, chilled in the bar for a bit…. We then went out to the Carnivore restaurant. Amazing place, here are some pictures:
< Me outside the Carnivore.
< Tina, Halima and Janice at Carnivor
< Halima, Janice and me at the Carnivore.
< Some kinda pizza thing
There is a massive charcoal pit with all sorts of meat cooking over it, its like stepping into hell or something its so hot in there…
That night it rained…. our tent wasn’t put up properly, it leaked. I slept the entire night in a wet sleeping bag. Thankfully Tina lent me her liner. Love you Tina, thanks so much! (N.B.-: that’s a sisterly love type thing.)
I’m writing this on a Qatar A-320 somewhere over the Indian Ocean. There is a very smelly man in front of me, I don’t think he’s discovered deodorant, and there
is a screaming baby behind me… I’m near breaking point…….
Day 30- Over and Out!
I realise that doesn’t make sense…Last day… damn it! After packing bags:

we went out to the Nairobi Hilton, there is a shop there that sells loads of cool stuff really cheap. I got loads of batiks. Brill place! Then got a lot of U & Me bars from Nakumatt.. mmmmm! Got a very wierd look from both the casheer and the person behind me when i put all the U&Me bars on the counter (all 10 of them!) Im guessing they were wondering why i wasnt fat.After this we visited another school supported by moving mountains:

And then we went into the nearby slum to look around one of the Kenyan’s houses:
Another part of Kibera
The walk way to one of their houses.
After this we headed back for lunch and then got a mini bus to the airport for our flight. We were stopped at the airport for being over loaded, we had 5 people on a 4 person seat, but 500 /- back hand to the cops was plenty to let us off this time… Only in Kenya!
We got our flight successfully and so began a really long night!
5 hours on the A-320 then we landed at Doha. Really warm again! Managed to sleep for a bit on an Anti-tramp bench. as in a bench with arm rests so you cant sleep on it. And then we caught the A-340 to Heathrow. How is it that I always manage to sit behind or in front of a screaming baby… BOTH FLIGHTS! There should be a minimum age of at least 5 on planes!….
Day-31 The UK!
At 2 in the morning I boarded a Airbus A-340 to London Heathrow.
7h flight…. Pretty uneventful really… screaming babies driving me to distraction though…. almost enough to take up heavy drinking… well… kinda…
Touched down in Heathrow 8 somat am GMT. Collected bags then said a sad goodbye to all the team. It was so strange to be leaving them, after all this time we’re all like one big family. There are some of them I know better than others of course, like my new big sisters Tina and Kellie, and some I’ll miss more than others, but I will miss them all so much.
Got a lift to Victoria Coach Station for a long coach trip back home more screaming kids on the coach... stay calm... read new scientist magazine... concentrate on the Nutrinos! … and there ends my Kenya Adventure.
To Africamp July 5th Bravo Team. Miss you.

click for larger size-with names

Second Windows 7 theme

2010-09-06T15:47:00.001+01:00

Hoka, this is the 2nd installment of my themes. This one is of the theme “Oceans.” Well, primarily coral and plants of the Red Sea

Anyways: sample as always:

||Download Here||

Spare a thought for me, I uploaded that whilst on the train over my tethered mobile phone… I dont want to look at this months bill…its gonna be a mile long…..

Kalula Airlines: Rather awesome livery

2010-08-31T13:19:00.002+01:00

I was sent this by my mother and thought it was rather amusing:

Blinded Colony: New Release

2010-08-30T22:42:00.001+01:00

I’m not sure what kind of music your into, but Blinded Colony is one of my favourite bands at the moment. They recently released an MP3 of their newest, preview song, called “Out Of Line”. Its a lot cleaner than their usual work, vocals wise, there is much less “ROAAAAAAAR!” and more actual singing, giving a rather nice sound.

Available Here!

Really loving it. I was going though their videos on their facebook page (:cough:) and was inspired to once again try and play the guitar.. it ended very badly with my realising I need professional lessons rather than looking at tabs and going “Uhh, wait… what?” Anyways! Loving the new sound from Blinded Colony, cant wait for the CD release!

On CD release related topic, Sonic Syndicate’s new album “We Rule The Night” is due to be released on the 1st. Bring on my Pre-Order!

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Vector

2010-08-27T23:47:00.002+01:00

This is taken from a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl Screenshot. Quick 5 hour job.

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

Snork on a spike

2010-08-24T01:04:00.000+01:00

Another bit of vector work... Just because I got bored.

Snork on a spike by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

Quick 1 hour job.

Rodger's House - My House!

2010-08-23T10:56:00.000+01:00

Another random vector. Time to complete: 8h 38minutes. This is my house!

Rodger's House by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

Thought I’d go though my Steam games and give mini reviews to them…

2010-08-19T23:50:00.001+01:00

688(I) Hunter/Killer

0.3 hrs on record

Was basically a more limited version of Dangerous Waters… Just the one submarine and worse graphics…

Rating: 3/10

All Points Bulletin

6.8 hrs on record

I was pissed off with this game… I spent the above time.. 6.8 hours downloading it.. and it just lagged like an absolute mother bitch… was unplayable.. annoyed..

Raing: 0/10… I couldnt even walk forwards..

America's Army 3

0.1 hrs on record

Another game that really pissed me off…I couldnt even complete the basic training mission where you have to run the course in a certain time… I guess its a fair estimation of how I’d do in actual basic selection…

Rating 0/10

ARMA 2

6.3 hrs on record

I was hoping for a lot from ArmA 2. I loved some parts of ArmA 1 and in those respects 2 didnt disapoint, there are loads of weapons, vehicles, etc, and the mission editor is nearly identical which are all pluses.. but the same old stupid interface and awkward aiming and shooting…I mostly played it for making a mission with 1 tank and one harrier, then bombing the tank.. hours of fun.

Rating: 3/10 …. Stupid GUI..

ARMA: Combat Operations

13.4 hrs on record

This is the STEAM version only.. I think it would be up there in the 100h range if it recorded my old version. Despite its clunky interface and stupid aiming, I loved this game. Especially the Sahrani Life RPG element

Rating 7/10 Although I loved it, the interface was really dumb.

Armored Fist 3

I’ve yet to try this.. I got it with the Novalogic pack..

Audiosurf

1 hrs on record

An interesting concept… Fun to play when your bored… But hardly ground breaking in terms of story telling… well, there isnt a story.. thats not the point of this game! Its something to dip into when you feel like listning to some music and doing something at the same time (that doesnt include working..)

6/10

Battlefield 2

2.6 hrs on record

Meh… BF1942 was amazing, loved the COOP element. BF2 disappointed on that front. The AI behaved like the dicks you find online, jumping up and down…. SOLDIERS DONT JUMP UP AND DOWN IN REAL BATTLE! You dont dodge incoming fire by hopping up and down… You get into cover and give return fire..

4/10

BioShock

Ah, I played it for that short a time it didnt even record. Stupid game…. if there were mods I would consider playing it… Pack a G36 and I’d jump straight in.

2/10

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

4.7 hrs on record

Grrr…….. Yea… £40 for 5h of game play.. I was very pissed off… But its Call of Duty… its for the multiplayer… Which I detest… Not worth it..

2/10

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Multiplayer

0.1 hrs on record

..Meh, better on the Xbox, but hardly ground breaking..

1/10

Comanche 4

Got with Novalogic pack.. never played… Looks graphically challenged..

Counter-Strike: Source

0.1 hrs on record

If you want to be shot in the face repeatedly by a 8 year old…. play this game! Idiotic game… But Gmod needed it..

0/10

Counter-Strike: Source Beta

Crash Time II

0.2 hrs on record

It looked quite good fun… But I suck at driving…

1/10

Dangerous Waters

148.5 hrs on record

..I think this is the game I’ve played on longest… Great fun, nothing beats sitting in a darkened room with headphones pressed tightly to one ear whilst listening to a BQQ-5. Had just read Red Storm Rising, so was totally into all the OHP class frigates, and 688s.

Rating 9/10

Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45

1.6 hrs on record

Played it online for a bit, but the graphics were rubbish… Game play was okay I guess… but not something I’ll play again..

2/10

Day of Defeat: Source

0.3 hrs on record

Damn the guns have some serious recoil! But yea, meh.. got because Gmod wanted the files..

1/10

Delta Force

Delta Force 2

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down

Although it doesnt say it here, I’ve completed BHD a few times. Awesome game. Looks a bit like an old version of Joint Operations.. which I suppose it is… Brilliant storyline Love it. But no Coop! And the multiplayer sucked….

Rating 8/10

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down - Team Sabre

Similar in game play to BHD, but without the familiar storyline. Good, but the original was better. Some good missions though, dont get me wrong.

7/10

Delta Force: Land Warrior

Delta Force: Task Force Dagger

Delta Force: Xtreme

Started playing it.. but its just a cheap version of Joint Operations.. Meh.

4/10

Delta Force: Xtreme 2

4.5 hrs on record

Completed it in 4.5h… There is a full review here: No! here!

Better graphics than BHD, but rubbish weapons.. Missed the whole ranging in from Joint Operations

6/10

DiRT 2

1.6 hrs on record

I suck at driving, so sucked at this..

2/10

F-16 Multirole Fighter

F-22 Lightning 3

Fallout 3

22.1 hrs on record

The first version I got! Thought it was pretty good.. but nothing special..

6/10

Fallout 3 - Game of the Year Edition

64.4 hrs on record

The 2nd time I got it i really got into it. This was the GOTY version, so all the addons. And I loved it! awesome game! Got all the achievements!

8.5/10

Far Cry 2

19.9 hrs on record

I got quite far though this, but my PC crashed and I lost the save game. It wasnt untill recently (August 2010) that i actually completed it on the Xbox. Was a good game with regards to Storyline. And I looooved the scenery. Its set in Africa, which is a country close to my heart, really beautiful scenes in the grasslands. Really nice. But some gameplay aspects sucked.. No Coop for one.. Whats the point in a jeep you can drive, but have to switch seats to gun if you cant have someone else on the gun? meh..

8/10 anyway… was a good game

Far Cry 2: Fortunes Pack

Fleet Command

Frontlines: Fuel of War

5.1 hrs on record

I got this for like 2 quid.. BARGAIN! Loved the game too. The storyline was really good and thought provoking. I just got it for the Xbox too, but not been able to play it much yet.

Garry's Mod

158.8 hrs on record

158h says it all. I freaking love this game. Game? …Sandbox. Its amazing fun. I spent about 50 hours just building assorted space ships and flying them around the gooniverse map. Amazing fun! Class game! I can actually find no flaws.. Apart from perhaps when you’ve built everything there isnt much left to do…

9.5/10 … because I cant give 10/10 to any game….

Grand Theft Auto IV

16.3 hrs on record

I turned Nikko Belic away from a life of crime… but the game lost whatever storyline it had when I did… Plus the storyline sort of ended when I refused to date some random girl I didnt know. Thats not how I roll.

Meh/10… thats not a number.. eer 6/10.

Half-Life 2

13.4 hrs on record

Played mostly over Synergy mod. Excelent game.

8/10

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

Half-Life 2: Episode One (See Synergy)

Half-Life 2: Episode Two (See Synergy)

0.3 hrs on record

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

0.3 hrs on record

Joint Operations: Escalation

14.9 hrs on record

GOTTA LOVE JOINT OPS! Though with the new edition none of the stats recorders work.. and I cant install mods on the STEAM version of Jops…. But yea, its an amazing game! LOVE IT!

9/10

Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising

Killing Floor

63.5 hrs on record

Nothing like extreme gore and violence when your in a bad mood. So grab your M9 and blow some zombies heads off. Great fun! And I’ll definitely be playing more of this as soon as I get new internet, instead of this inter-нет that I currently have…нет is russian for No. Its pronounced “Niet” ..Inter Niet…. Oh nvm…

9/10

Killing Floor Mod: Defence Alliance 2

1.2 hrs on record

The shite cousin of Killing Floor.

2/10

Left 4 Dead

I did like this to start with, but once you’ve completed it once or twice its just so repetative. Shite replay value.

3/10 ..Just because I’m feeling generous.

Left 4 Dead 2

2.9 hrs on record

Its a once though game… Although its meant to be “great replay value” … Once you know the story the only difference will be where the zombies are…. meh

3/10

Mare Nostrum

0.4 hrs on record

Junk graphics, clunky gameplay..

2/10

MiG-29 Fulcrum

Portal

PORTAL! Amazing game! Its class! You’ve got to play it!

9.5/10

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45

Rhythm Zone

0.2 hrs on record

I got this thinking it would be like a custom Guitar Hero. But was disapointed to find there was no strumming… Meant I sucked at it since I’m used to holding down the note, then strumming when it passes. But its okay when you get used to it. But unlikely to play again.

3/10

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

73.8 hrs on record

OMG. STALKER! 3rd in the series. The 2nd best I’d say. Full review here: TADA!

Really love the STALKER series. My favorite game series of all time. Love it sums it up.

9/10 A-MAZING!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

4.8 hrs on record

:Cough: This game was a mistake. lets be honest. Its the worst of the STALKER series. I think they just rushed it though developement…. I’m playing it again with the STALKER Complete mod by ArtistPavel (Available here) so we shall see… maybe its better with that mod..

One memorable moment only really from that game, the battle for the bridge at Limansk, and the battles though Limansk itself, they were the best thing about this game. Its worth getting if you’ve completed Shadow of Chernobyl, just for the storyline, dont play Call of Pripyat without playing this first.

6/10… yea.. it sucked.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

69.7 hrs on record

MY FAVORITE GAME OF ALL TIME! Love it love it love it! A short review doesnt do it justice. This game is like an old jumper, you really love it, its got so many good memories, but its also really uncool and you would never be seen in public with it as its not as cool as all your MW2s and Battlefields. GSC a its finest.

9.8/10. Just because it doesnt have COOP, and the artefacts are too easy to find… Otherwise it’d be a 10/10 for sure! 11/10!

Stargate Resistance

0.5 hrs on record

I was tricked… I thought this was the Stargate Worlds under a new name… But it turned out to be CounterStrike in the SGC, with Zat guns and P90s… meh.

2/10

Sub Command

Synergy

40.8 hrs on record

I’ve completed Halflife 2 on Synergy….3 times I think.. and am on my 4th play though with Wendy. Its a Coop mod for Half life 2, so instead of going though the campaign on your own, you’ve got someone backing you up. Tis a great mod

9/10

Tachyon: The Fringe

Team Fortress 2

0.3 hrs on record

Weird looking, deathmatch shite… meh

2/10

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

77.3 hrs on record

Gasp… Oblivion. BEAUTIFUL! Love this game so much! I’m not even going to say anymore… Play it.

9/10

Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon

0.1 hrs on record

I’m wishing I’d played this a long time ago, when I was playing Rainbow Six.. The controls are the same, but I now find them really hard to use after all the newer games… Was gutted as I loved these old Tom Clancy games..

6/10

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

4.9 hrs on record

s’ difficult! Even on easy! I gave up…

5/10

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Desert Siege

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder

TrackMania United

12.3 hrs on record

I suck at driving… But its an awesome game..

7/10

X3: Reunion

81.3 hrs on record

Haha oh I love this game! There are some awesome mods for it too, the Stargate mod is my favorite. Flying around in a BC-304 Daedalus class ship is amazing fun, especially when you have a fleet of F-302s onboard. CLAAAAS! But never completed it… The tangos just get too difficult later on.. I’d take a few hits and just blow up… annoying…

7/10

X3: Terran Conflict

0.3 hrs on record

Figured I shouldnt play this till I’d completed Reunion… so cant really comment..

The Sanctuary

2010-08-16T21:37:00.003+01:00

Son of a..... its finally done! 10 hours (and 3 minutes) of work.... and its finally wrapped up!
So, may I present to you, The Sanctuary:

The Sanctuary - Background by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Exoskeleton Completed

2010-08-14T15:50:00.000+01:00

Finally! Completed my S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Exoskeleton! 6 hours and 44 minutes total time!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Exoskeleton V2 by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

Rather proud of it!
There is full blurb on the Deviantart page itself.. Enjoy!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Exoskeleton line art

2010-08-13T20:17:00.001+01:00

This is a 3hours so far job. I say so far as its not complete! Still requires colouring in.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Exoskeleton by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART
So, what is it? Well, its the Exoskeletal armour from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat (Although it does feature in Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky) Happning!

Portrait of a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

2010-08-09T23:11:00.001+01:00

This is my favourite vector of all time so far. The Portrait of a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

If your unfamilier with the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I suggest you look it up, epic doesnt do it justice. Amazing game, my favourite game of all time.

Anyways, this is the portrait of a STALKER. Found him outside the Skadovsk shipwreck in Creek (STALKER Call of Pripyat)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Portrait by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

Total work time: 3Hours 33 Minutes!

...And these boots were made for skating

2010-08-09T11:02:00.002+01:00

My latest one.. Still on Shoes.. But I've now finished all my pairs of shoes... all 2 of them!
Sketchers Stand By Skate Shoes by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

These boots were made for Walking

2010-08-08T17:24:00.000+01:00

Another one... Pair of boots this time! 3H or so on this one.

Karrimor KSB Tour Event Boots by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

The Shemagh

2010-08-05T23:25:00.001+01:00

After 3Hours and 1 minute exactly I perfected my masterpiece, “The Shemagh”

The Shemagh by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

Enjoy!

Vectoring again… Self Portrait

2010-08-05T16:00:00.001+01:00

Yea.. I've been avoiding doing work AGAIN.. I'm sorry.

Still, I think it came out rather well.

Vectored Self Portrait by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

New Shoes!

2010-08-02T16:07:00.000+01:00

I seem to be going all camouflage... I've got camo deuvet cover and now... camo shoes...

Rather like them.

P90 Complete

2010-08-02T13:35:00.001+01:00

My Complete P90, Vector art done in Adobe Illustrator

P90 Complete Trace by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

Line Art, first attempt: FN P90

2010-08-01T23:14:00.001+01:00

I’ve tried line art a while ago. And, well, to be fair, I sucked at it. So, I’ve just had another go and this is the result:

P90 Initial trace by ~Skipperthepilot on deviant ART

It needs shading etc etc, but apart from that, I’m quite proud of it.

Kodak Playsport Zx3

2010-08-01T15:50:00.001+01:00

Just bought the new Kodak Zx3 Playsport. It shoots 720p, 1080p and 5mp stills. The specs for it state that its waterproof to 3m, making it mud proof, dust proof etc etc. I’ve not had a chance to take it into a pond or anything, so don't know what its like underwater.

It is a nice shape and size, fits perfectly in a pocket. Its designed for people with an outdoors lifestyle.

Now, my initial thoughts were very good. For its price I thought it was a bargain.

I’ve had it for a couple of days now, and my attitude has changed a little. The first problem is with the battery. I fully charged it 2 days ago, and this morning it wouldn't turn on, apparently the batteries were dead already, and I hadn't even been using it. The 2nd is with the quality.

The Stills quality is okay for long distance, doesnt quite match my Nikon D80, but its okay for snaps. The video quality is a little limited. There aren’t many settings at all, it only does Normal, Vivid and Black and White, no White Balance or saturation or anything. The default settings though are not good. The sharpness is far to much, the edges over defined and basically the resulting video looks naff.

This image, above, shows the very odd quality of the video. Everything is… just wierd!

Here is the example, click to view:

Sanctuary Season 3 Trailer

2010-07-29T11:13:00.000+01:00

Oh man am I looking forward to season 3!

Going to be epic!

New Domain!

2010-07-24T20:33:00.001+01:00

For the past 4 years or so I’ve owned the www.ysflight.co.uk domain. That domain has forwarded to a variety of different sites. First of all on a very simple site hosting my mods. This was then changed into a squad web page for 22 squadron and the Delta Rangers in 07. The YSPilots Mod Database was also hosted from here for a while, before moving to Yspilots.com. From here the site went back to being a single page forwarding to a variety of diffent sites, including the Delta Ranger’s site, 22 squadron’s pages, my mods page, YSPilots, etc.
In 2009 I switched my whole modding host over to google sites, just to get it out of the way and into something permanent. My Google sites site had all the squad things, stats page, mods etc but was easier to manage, and looked better (Wasnt made by me using PHP)
in mid 2010 I stopped support for my YSFLIGHT mods, and retracted the download file. The reason for this is that nearly all my models have been replaced by far superior models done by other people, so the pack had no point in being. With no more mod support, Delta Rangers and 22 squadron finally shut down for good, my Google sites site had no need to continue existing. Since my blog has remained active all this time, I redirected ysflight.co.uk to my blog (:cough: the thing your reading now)
Since my blog has nothing to do with ysflight I felt this was a little misleading. My YSFLIGHT.co.uk lease expired August 2010, so I simply did not renew it, opting instead for a new domain. And here it is:

www.skipper-iwb.co.uk

Bookmark it! I’ve also pimped the blog out a lil bit, there is a share button below each post, so feel free to share anything you find interesting or amusing on facebook, twitter, google reader email, etc etc. Also added a subscribe button thingy, so you can subscribe via google reader and all sorts of good things.
I’m going to be branching out a little bit more into the blog on more than one topic than just Biology. There’ll be reviews for various things, from software to food, and other random things. (Like my Windows 7 theme, check it out! Its like 2 posts down)
Aye… so, Watch this space!

Newport (Ymerodraeth State of Mind)

2010-07-24T12:35:00.000+01:00

Ah, I love this video. Very well done. Yea, Watch it peeps!

Skipper’s Windows 7 Desktop Nature Theme

2010-07-20T23:48:00.002+01:00

Awrite!? Was just collecting some of my best pictures into a lil’ Windows 7 theme package, and figured why not just let the general public have it? So, without further a-do, here is Skipper’s Windows 7 Nature Theme. All images copyright to David Caplin (..thats me!), so dont go selling them or anything, or I will hunt you down and eat your babies.
So, enjoy!

|Download Link|

Sample image:

Warning, may contain images that some viewers may find disturbing.. if they are afraid of spiders...or plants...

Microsoft ICE review

2010-07-13T23:32:00.000+01:00

As promised, the Microsoft Image Composite Editor/ICE review.

Link to the download here: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ICE/
I'm also giving a plug for Autopano Pro (And their even better one, Autopano Giga)
Its amazing (..I havnt actually checked it out) http://www.autopano.net/en/
(Yes, I'm hoping they'll send me a free copy to review and plug.)

Move…. Pretty much complete!

2010-07-10T20:02:00.001+01:00

Aye! So, my move is nearly complete!

New House vlog

I’ve still got a couple boxes and some under bed draws to bring over, but I think this is about as messy as my room is going to get! Well… that's the optimistic view anyway! So I figured I’d take the opportunity to shoot a quick panoramic shot of the room and stitch it up in the new Microsoft ICE (I’ll do a blog post on it at some other point…. but here is the link)

Clicky on the image to get a full size view. So… let me talk you though it.

From the left hand side… Thats my bin in front of my roll mat… The one I…. procured… I left in Heathfield Villas… Then comes my desktop. Twin monitors for the win! (Blog on one, and Spotify on the other… Tegan and Sara’s “The Con.” Excellent album.) Moving on.. Xbox 360, Surround sub-woofer, and desktop tower… the “Rat’s Nest” cable pile… Laser printer (soon hopefully to be relocated…) Bed..still without covers… Camera bag (minus D80… as its taking the picture!) …and gas mask… The picture went a bit weird at the end as I moved the camera position. Bunnies! So, thats my new house. Added bonus it is opposite Wendy’s house (Blog link in the side bar). So yea.. I see great opportunities!

:NB: Seems there is also a poltergeist as my door just opened randomly. Sweet!

Well! Its been a while since I’ve done one of these!

2010-07-09T22:33:00.001+01:00

Yes its true. It has indeed been a while since I’ve done a written one of these! So, what’s been happening? Well… If you honestly dont know, then watch the videos below If, however, you dont feel like watching them, let me explain. I’m currently working on my dissertation. The topic is diatoms in the River Taff. Diatoms are small unicellular algae, with silica frustules (shell like structures surrounding the actual cell) I havnt had that much success photographing them down the microscope. This is one of the better ones:

Basically, I need to identify each one in each sample down to species level. Thats a pretty impossible task though, so I’ll be doing a representative selection of each sample (Most likely to be 30 or 25, something that will make nice percentages) and identify them to the nearest possible unit (species, genera, family etc…) These percentages will hopefully indicate any changes in water quality over the sample area (The River Taff, from source to Radyr)

Work aside! I’ve converted my D80 DSLR into a pinhole camera by drilling a small hole in a spare lens cap. The results have been pretty sweet:

The only downer is that i have dust on my sensor. I’ve tried to clean as much off using a blower, but there is still some on it, as can be seen from the dust specks on the above image. Gutted…

Also, got my new house. Though there was a slight mold problem on one wall.. See below…

However, (gotta love Detol…) with a bit of work, I got it looking way better:

I’m pretty proud if it myself

So! Thats pretty much it. Will post some more stuff when I get it!

-Skipper out.

Dissertation: Day off: New T-shirt!

2010-07-03T22:12:00.000+01:00

Dissertation: Lab Day 3: New Iphone?

2010-07-03T22:11:00.000+01:00

Dissertation: Day 23: In the lab!

2010-06-28T21:13:00.000+01:00

Dissertation: Day 17: Biohazard due to cooking

2010-06-22T20:38:00.000+01:00

Dissertation: Day 11: Killing stuff and broken washing machines

2010-06-16T17:46:00.000+01:00

Dissertation: Day 10

2010-06-15T23:48:00.000+01:00

Skipper's rant on dinosaur evolution from the BBC Explore video "Dinosau...

2010-06-15T21:22:00.000+01:00

Dissertation: Day 9: Andy Goldsworthy

2010-06-14T17:30:00.000+01:00

Dissertation Description

2010-06-12T16:22:00.000+01:00

The description of my dissertation:

Dissertation: Day 6: Still going...

2010-06-12T01:01:00.000+01:00

Yup... still awake!

Video:

Dissertation: Day 6: Busted by the authorities

2010-06-11T19:37:00.001+01:00

Day 6: