Planet TT-Forums

Ameecher: Like Broken Matchsticks on Flickr

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:10:39 +0000

Today I got a 18-200mm Lens for my birthday and it’s pretty neat. Massive focal range without changing lenses and the Vibration Reduction is remarkably effective. It’s a tad heavy but I’ll get used to that, I’m sure.

It ain’t half bad at taking pictures either:

"Like Broken Matchsticks" on Flickr

Lachlan "WhiteHand" Stevens: Hello again.

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:32:30 +0000

Alright Everyone.

After screwing up my wordpress install more than a month ago, I’ve decided finally to fix it. So yeah. Fixed.

Have to redo all the old pages that used to here, and fix my blogroll again. But ah well. Who cares!

welshdragon: Things are happening

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 03:10:00 +0000

I know it's somewhat early, i've had too much sleep recently, and am now going to have to do one of my long days to get my sleeping pattern back into order (bed around midnight, up around 9 am)

Anyway, as the title suggests, things are happening, Firstly, I've moved from Knaresborough to Kingston Upon Hull, as has previously been mentioned here before, I am going to be attending the university here, which I'm getting excited about, my first actual day of being in a class is on Monday, at 16:15 (my timetable is available here) and will last until 17:10, after that I shall head home and prepare for my first speaking lesson of the semester. After that I should get a weekly pattern of things to do, and will be hopefully keeping to the same routine

My holiday is coming up in around 6 day's time, and that is going to be very exciting! More on that when I return.

My darling sister has had a lovely baby girl, and all I'm going to say is that I'm glad I live in hull and she lives in Llandudno.

Also I've had Natalie, my girlfriend, staying over for the last 5 days (she goes home later) to sample the life and city that's going to be mine for a few years to come.

Anyway, I've written enough, time to go and find something else to keep me quietly entertained, seeing as I can't do anything noisy else it wake Natalie.

TTFN :D

Oh, and to clear up my last post: the student finance company have now seen my passport (a trip to Darlington dealt with that) and now i'm just waiting confirmation of it all.

Owen Rudge: I came across a random web site…

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:08:49 +0000

… where the author had written “wierd”, a common spelling mistake, several times. It pains me every time I read this misspelling - it’s just wrong! I wondered how many other people found this annoying. Quite a few, it seems. In fact, I found this blog entry which contains a nice list of mistakes, the majority of which bug me a lot. So next time you’re about to write “wierd”, or mix up your “their”, “there” and “they’re”s, or type “CD’s”, “80’s” or “pizza’s”, please check that site, bang your head against the table, and write the correct thing instead.

Raichase: Raichase

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:18:55 +0000

I sat down today to pen out an article (yet another long overdue…) extolling the virtue of 3801ltd after my recent trip to Bathurst with them a couple of weeks ago, although I find myself being drawn to this subject by various contacts (that, and I’ve not yet processed my photos from the Bathurst trip), so here goes…

Railway Enthusiast. Remaining an unknown commodity, a lot of enthusiasts are normal people who work normal jobs, and their hobby is simply to get out into the fresh air with a couple of mates to enjoy watching trains go past. While this may sound strange to the uninitiated, there is something appealing about the squeal of the steel on steel, the heavy machinery working hard, the clouds of smog blasted into the air by older locomotives, etc. Be it signals, sidings or shunters, all enthusiasts have something that draws them to the hobby, just like car enthusiasts, bushwalkers or stamp collectors. For a lot of people, this is a hobby, and an enjoyable, constructive one.

Some enthusiasts go further than their own enjoyment, giving up many hours into preservation, both restoring and looking after locomotives and rolling stock long since vanished from the commercial world of the railways. These enthusiasts give up days at a time to run tours, acting as carriage attendants, guards, locomotive crew, buffet workers, tour guides, safety officers… the list is endless. They do this to share their hobby with others, as the running of any heritage train requires a lot of work, and often their reward is simply seeing a smile on a small child’s face as his father takes him hand in hand to see the great snorting steam locomotive at the head of the train.

Often the best intending enthusiasts, or “buffs” are treated with suspicion, especially in a post 9/11 world. This is understandable, as a lot of the interesting railway activity is happening around mines, ports, warehouses, and other locations of importance that might, at some point, come under scrutiny from undesirable people looking to cause problems (and this is not just a terrorism issue either, there are extremist environmental groups that are always causing problems to coal trains entering/departing the ports at Newcastle, for example - an issue not restricted to Australia). Sometimes enthusiasts are treated with scorn from those within the industry. Of course, this is the exception to the rule, as most in the industry harbour a secret enjoyment of the railways themselves, as people naturally want to do what they enjoy for a living.

The reasoning behind the suspicion and the scorn is due to a minority of buffs who take things too far, jumping fences and trespassing, standing in dangerous locations, acting foolish around running lines (running along platforms, tripod in hand, near moving trains, for example), bothering railway staff who are trying to do their jobs, and so forth. Sadly, this is a fact of life in any hobby, and it is a shame that all enthusiasts are often tarred with the same brush.

Over the last couple of weeks, I personally have heard/experienced a number of incidents that (should) bring shame to the entire enthusiast community, and I was personally ashamed to be a buff when I heard about some of these incidents.

Seven Steam Locos (in steam) at Zig Zag

On Saturday the 20th of September, The New South Wales Rail Transport Museum (NSWRTM) ran a special train with no less than three steam locomotives on the front, to the tourist railway operating on the old Lithgow Zig Zag. Once at Zig Zag, passengers on the tour train were treated to a triple headed steam tour up the Lithgow Zig Zag and back down again. As well as the regular tourist train (itself steam hauled) for the railways other visitors, there were seven locomotives in steam at Bottom Points at once, no small feat!

Naturally, this attracted a lot of attention, and sadly, not all of the people who went on the tour shared the ideals of the majority, that is to have a good day out with good company. Zig Zag staff went to the trouble of organising a photo stop for the triple headed steam, allowing those on the tour to get photos of their own train storming up The Zig Zag Railway, and this proved to be a nightmare for the volunteers, with photographers hurling verbal (sometimes racist) abuse at the volunteers for “getting in the way of their photo”. It seems that they forgot that without such volunteers, there would not be a Zig Zag Railway for them to visit and enjoy.

Reports have also come in of NSWRTM volunteers who have personal grievances with Zig Zag volunteers making offensive gestures from the train as they departed at the end of the day. Considering the effort that all the NSWRTM volunteers put in to run their train, one would have expected a modicum of respect for their co-fellows that worked so hard at The Zig Zag. Especially as it makes The NSWRTM, and indeed all heritage volunteers look no better than those yelling abuse earlier.

ARHS NSW/3801ltd Bathurst Tour

As I mentioned above, I felt quite privileged to be invited on this tour, which was to celebrate the ARHS NSW divisions 75th birthday. The locomotives, train and crew were all provided by 3801ltd, who (as I will go into detail about in a further article) put on a stellar performance of professionalism and an enjoyable day was had by all.

However, looking out the window of the tour, it continued to amaze me of some of the antics of those chasing the tour. At Springwood, I watched two young men standing on the signal cabling (itself approx 1.5m off the ground, and only a small distance from the running line) in a very dangerous position, taking a photo. Had they fallen, they would have ended up under the wheels of the train without doubt, seriously injuring or resulting in a loss of their lives. The two gentlemen were later seen in the afternoon watching the train return, in a less dangerous position (but still well within the rail corridor), and as the train rolled past, they made offensive gestures at the passengers. It escapes me as to what they hoped to achieve.

After these incidents (and other, isolated incidents, such as watching another enthusiast trying to drive and film a moving train at the same time), I am ashamed to be included in the same category as such people. It is no wonder that people feel ashamed to admit that they are enthusiasts.

Certainly the entire railway enthusiast community should treat this as a wakeup call. We’re all in the same hobby together, and there is no excuse for acting in such a childish fashion. It achieves nothing and just bring disrepute to the hobby.

Melkur: Melkur

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:03:50 +0000

I realise I haven’t been writing much on here lately, that’s mostly because I’ve been beavering away on other things on the internet. Anyway, I have a little story from today. I had arranged to go into a coffee shop where someone I know works and talk to her - and today I did this. This may not seem like very much, in fact to most people it’s just like drinking coffee (hahahahaha); however in my case this is the first time in eleven years I’ve done something like this. It wasn’t easy, in fact it was extremely hard, but I did it. It’s lucky I’m such a single-minded sort of individual, I genuinely actually surprise myself with that at times; it just shows you shouldn’t equate depression with ‘weakness’.

And I must just add, a thousand thanks to my parents, I may not be the easiest of people to live with at times but you have stuck by me in a situation where no-one else has. Indeed my Mum went with me today. In saying this here of course, I’m not intimating I’m OK, I’m not at all, I’ve been having a very rough time in fact and I now feel something like ‘death warmed up’ after all that but I won’t stop trying to improve my situation.

Rel: edrei

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:26:10 +0000

As most of you know, my yellow female parakeet (the one seen in my header looking straight at the camera) laid 5 eggs a couple weeks ago. Although I was afraid the last one may not hatch, it did, and there are now 5 little pink wiggly things in their nest box.

Last I checked (yesterday) the two eldest (for the eggs hatch one at a time) have already opened their eyes, and they’re molting quite nicely.

According to my mum, the eldest is already wiggling about quite actively, while the other sit, snooze and wait to be fed.

I’ve attempted to take some pictures, but it seems the light isn’t strong enough, and I’m afraid to use Flash in case it startles them all. Over the weekend I plan on messing around with my parents’ new camera and figure out the Night setting, and see if that’ll work.

Once I get pictures, I’ll post them up here

weirdy: Putting it out there

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:20:48 +0000

As they say?

Maybe not… Anywho.

Got back from a meal slash meeting with rachel and laura and taste. We went over stuff for Scotland (Sometime soon, ish, maybe… I dunno.) and one of the important things was how people show themselves. Things like Clothing, language used, chain of command and all that. Annoyingly all i could think was “That’s what i’d do anyway”. Common sense innit. Of course, need to go over it, just in case.

weirdy: Platter of Thoughts

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:37:50 +0000

I’ve just, as in five or ten minutes ago, watched half of DVD Six of Heroes and Disc Seven, comment? OH MY GAWD. If you haven’t seen it yet, well, WATCH IT NAOW.

Now that that’s out the way i can get onto the serious stuff. Fo’ rizzle. Or maybe not… No, i think i can keep serious. See, i have alot of thoughts spiralling around in my brain. Too many to be honest. They all just keep whizzing by, i get a flash of one, and then another goes and replaces the flash with something else. So, if i can manage it, over the next few days, weeks, and quite probably, months, I’ll be trying to get some sort of cohesive thought posts out there. I’mma going to try now…

The first thing that occupies alot of my brain (And it’s power) is couples. And being single. I don’t know what it is, but as of, say, two years ago maybe… Lots of stuff has started to get to me. So much stuff on TV, t’internet, games, music… You name it, it seems to have something to do with Couples. And it’s really starting to get annoying. Not because I want to be in a couple, but because so far i haven’t had the chance. All it says to me is “If your not in a relationship with someone, your a loser… olololol”

I say “>:3 RAWR”

I really don’t know where i was going with that. I just get really frustrated sometimes (And not in the way i can see some of you imagining >:| ) Hey ho. Life goes on. It’s starting to annoy me less now anyway, as i know that whatever happens i’ve got a heck of a ride ahead of me. ROLL ON TOMORROW.