Personal blog
Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
Me and my occasional posts, mostly about the town of Gosport and occasionally my thoughts. So stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
Today, it was the turn of the u3a Interest Groups Online – Astronomy to grab my attention. There were a good 12 or 15 people on the Zoom call. Whilst I didn’t know much about the backgrounds of any of the people, I’m sure there was at least one member of the Royal Astronomical Society present.
We had a really interesting discussion about various topics, from interstellar invaders into the solar system to the use of telescopes like the Square Kilometre Array and what they can do for the subject.
Towards the end of the session, the group leader went down the usual route of asking about individual contributions. Well, like all the other topics I follow on the u3a, I really would like to do something. But the distinct impression I got from the group was that their real focus is deep space. I’m happy to watch The Sky at Night, even read Astronomy Now, which I can get free on BorrowBox (although, I’d prefer to have the actual magazine), so to a reasonable degree, especially as Colin has realised where I volunteer, and so will doubtless be giving me the third degree on the latest activities of the likes of NASA, resurrecting a situation that exist in the office 10 years ago (which I don’t really mind).
Anyhow, I got sidetracked there. The group leader went around all of us individually asking us what we thought, and I confessed my inability to contribute meaningfully to discussions on deep space, but that I was a member of our local U3A stargazing group, and mostly enjoyed naked-eye observing with some use of binoculars, especially the ones in the header photo, which are called constellation binos. The magnification isn’t huge, but they do capture a lot of light. For example, I have seen satellites that are not visible to the naked eye with them. I haven’t really used them much, as the long days have made it a bit harder to stay up late.
With the nights drawing in now, evening observations are becoming a practical possibility again, so I am hoping to get out and watch the sky a bit more. When I mentioned this on the call, quite a number of people said they would be interested both in hearing about the group and also in a bit of a report on using binoculars, especially the new ones. So it seems I do potentially have something good to report on. Good.
Today was the first real session of the u3a Creative Writing group that I managed to set up. We had 15 attendees, a number that gratifies me massively. Luckily, I had put a bit of effort into preparing a fairly detailed plan that really only went wrong once. I planned for a two-hour session, rather than the 90 minutes we actually did. I’ll have to adjust that slightly, but that’s OK.
From there, we went on to Exploring art where I did a short presentation on what is a portrait, and when you include things liike Tracy Emin’s bed which showed both her comfort space, and by the way it was cluttered illustrated her period of poor mental health, the argument was “That’s not a portrait, you can’t see her face” and other sicussions, so I had at least cause a bit of a controversy, but made them laugh at the end, when I showed my equivalent to her bed;
The talk actually went down well, I’m pleased to say.
I also got to re-take the civil war video, this one is a bit better.
Have to publish, or I’me going to miss the midnight deadline.
Apart from doing some jobs around the house, and watering Elaynes plants (luckily, no hose ban under Portsmouth Water – at the moment), I have been re-working the Gosport CDivil War cards.
When I did the bit of filming on Friday, I said I would post the video provided it wasn’t too bad. Well, I’m kind of in between. If I’m prepared to show to the u3a creative writing group, then really I don’t have any excuse to not put it on YouTube.
Why is the video so bad (don’t get me wrong, I’m not apologising for it being bad) is mainly because of practice. Actually, the story isn’t so complex, but as soon as I get in front of the camera, I can’t remember anything, so I resort to reading the cards. So it’s no issue with the quality of the video. It’s the quality of the presentation that needs some work.
How did I get it down to two cards? Well, I know the story, and if it is on the cards, why do I need to remember it? Taking the story off the cards means I have to remember what happened. What the cards then give me is the who and the what. I have the names of the main people involved on the cards, as I would forget them or get them wrong.
So I’m all set up to have another go. If I can’t do it tomorrow evening, it’ll be the weekend.
Gilbert’s letter xxii, first paragraph, was a bit of a departure, commenting on the lack of church spires or steeples in West Sussex and Hampshire. I knew he was a vicar, so his religious work would naturally impact his life. As we go around the countryside, it’s always interesting to see the different styles of church towers.
Gilbert talks of the goat-sucker, a bird that I have never heard of. Known as the Nightjar today. I don’t know the bird at all.
Gilbert carries on about sitting for frequent half-hour sessions watching the birds’ behaviour, and it hits me that we sit down at the bottom of the garden and watch the starlings as they dive bomb and squabble over the feeders. The sparrows that flash across the garden into the bush where they perch before deciding if it’s safe enough to approach the feeder. The magpies on next door’s rooftops are bouncing, chattering and prancing around like they own the place. How I wish they’d come into our garden whilst we are there, they’d be perfectly safe. Meanwhile, the pigeons are waiting on the roofs, determined to get to the feeders. We also have fairly frequent observation periods. It really is lovely.
Do people really keep bats, caged?
Disappointingly, I don’t have any weather stats to offer. We’ve had some exceptionally hot days. I try to avoid going out in the sun, unlike the mad dogs.
I did something this week that people might think of as being “Very Gilbert”. The front hedge between the neighbour and us, to the east of us, is a passion fruit bush, which is a prodigious producer of flowers and seed pods. I found a seed pod that had fallen to the ground, but was in very good condition. I thought, “I know, I’ll cut it open to see what’s happening inside”. Nature really is amazing, isn’t it? The delicacy of the seeds inside and the level to which the plant goes to protect them is amazing. I’m not sure how many individual seed pods there were inside, possibly 20. – 30, each individually connected to the wall of the pod by a thin stalk. A beautifully neat arrangement. I was reminded of something slightly similar from a few weeks ago. I had been eating a corn cob, and had been thinking how neat nature worked cupping the individual corns on the cop, that was as I was eating it, of course. Yummy!
All The Best
Bill
I volunteer, normally on a Friday afternoon, in a local charity shop. I got asked if I would do today, Saturday, as well. I said yes to help out (I don’t know how to say that without making me sound noble for doing that), but it’s not. I made it quite clear that my offering extra help does not establish a precedent.
It’s the first time I’ve done a Saturday, and I have to say, I quite enjoyed it. Yesterday and today, I’ve seen a couple of old friends from work, and because it’s Saturday, it felt like there were more families out. Oh, that reminds me, yesterday’s friend reminds me that I need to resume watching the sky at night
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b006mk7h/the-sky-at-night
as he has a bit of a tendency to ask me about the recent episode.
I had a few opportunities to show where the use of AI could be useful. One was with a customer asking what a particular stone was in a small collection, I was able to confirm that it was Malachite and Azurite. The customer bought the stones so that was good.
On another occasion, the shop had been given a camera lens, but it wasn’t clear what the mount was. I suspected that it was a Nikon Mount, and luckily, we were able to confirm that (the lens was a non-marque manufacturer, so it wasn’t clear by just looking at it.)
And finally (to be honest, the one that I am most interested in) I was able to show how by taking a photograph of a bookshelf, AI was able to identify, categorise and value the books, Also, by comparing a bookshelf in the shop by taking a picture a week apart, AI would be able to identify what books had been sold. What would be the most popular?
I also suggested that they stop putting non-fiction on the bottom shelf, where it is most inaccessible to people who are more likely to be interested in them.
Apart from being an enjoyable afternoon, it was also useful for me.
It’s coming up to 7PM, and I had decided yesterday that this evening, I was going to go to the Falklands Gardens to vlog about Gosports role in the civil war in the 1640’s.
Luckily a bus came as I was about to pass the bus stop opposite Royal Arms. As I was carrying two bags, I didn’t fancy the idea of walking to the waterfront.
The Falkland Gardens were mostly empty; there were maybe half a dozen people spread out across the area, so I got set up and went for it.
OK, so there’s a trick I have to learn, and that is how to work with the cue cards. The story they tell is actually not bad. Translating that into me talking on camera is an entirely different kettle of fish. I have, I think, 6 or seven clips to bring together. Once I’ve done that, I will post it, no matter how bad it is, unless I judge it to be completely horrible, but my thought is that no matter how bad, it’s there as a lesson.
One delightful little episode afterwards, when I finished, a chap who was sat about 20 yards away stuck his thumb up and said it was good (I think he’d been drinking), but we did have a bit of a chat, and he was very complimentary, more I think that i had made the effort to get out and do something.
The other thing, the decision to film in the evening was the correct one. The sun didn’t feature in any of the shots, whereas had I gone in the mornigng it would have dominated every shot.
I think it will be the other way around when I go over to film the Portsmouth part. The sun will hopefully be behind us for most of the shots.
On Tuesday evening, I went across to Portsmouth to do some videoing for a story I want to tell. To help me with the video, I had prepared some cue cards.
It wasn’t until I went to use the cards that I realised that they were almost as bad as not having cards, and not knowing what I wanted to say.
The trouble with the cards was that they had questions on them to which I did not know the answer. As you can probably imagine, it was extremely frustrating for me, and that blew my confidence out of the water.
Since Tuesday, I’ve spent a bit of time re-working the cards, I think I have a story now, not a script mind you, but the facts, laidd out in such a way that I think they made sense. I did the same thing for Gosport, and had a read-out-loud session with them, and they worked really well. I need to do the same for portsmouth, after which, I will have no excuse not to film.
Plus, hopefully, because I will know what I am going to say, I won’t be bothered if there are people around, or even if they listen to what I say, what might be even better, is if they were to ask a question, then I could invite them to the camera to ask them.
I feel that once again I need to apologise for last nights post, which looks like I gave up typing halfway into a sentence. I was just so tired that I couldn’t concentrate at all. Tonight, I am buzzing a bit.
I don’t think I normally comment on the previous night’s post, unless there is a good reason to. I certainly tend not to comment on videos where I’ve not posted anything other than I’m not posting tonight. Last night’s post is a bit of an exception.
It’s not often that I call a stop whilst writing a post. Last nights post took me almost an hour to write. Because I kep falling asleep, and to be honest, today is going the same way.
Our car had gone into the garage to fix a couple of problems. I also wanted to get home for an u3a Interest Group Online presentation, that I was doing. The presentation went OK, and sparked a serious discussion that lasted for most of the rest of the session.
Anyhow, back to last night’s post. What there is of it took me almost an hour to write because I kept falling asleep. Like I say, tonight is going the same way. At least things are
One of the Camera Club members had arranged for us to go over to Portsmouth to visit Old Portsmouth with a model. I had been burning to get over to Portsmouth to record some video about the Civil War from this side of the water.
I did feel slightly guilty splitting off from everybody else to do some vlogging.
It didn’t take me long to realise that I had got something very wrong. cue cards I had were telling my what happened, I knew this for the most part, but what was missing was the detail. For example, I know there was an action where a number of parliamentarians had taken to the water, to take over a ship. What I didn’t have was the date – beyond 1642, who is the leader of the team? What was the name of the ship. Things like that,
I’m sorry. I’m really fading. I’ll try and conplete this tomorrow.
It’s 6 months and 11 days since I retired. Before retiring, I did what I like to do, and that is draft a retirement plan. I think at the 6-month point it’s reasonable to have a review, and do the usual thing of looking at what has and hasn’t gone well. I think what I’ll do is just work quickly through each. section and look at the high and low points.
Anchor & Morning Activity
It looks like i stopped doing the swing trading thing around mid-April. I was running a tracker against Robbie’s (The Naked Trader) criteria, and only 6 firms kept coming up. There was a danger that I could start random trading, so I decided to stop altogether. I’m not saying I’ll never go back to it, but at the moment, it is totally off my radar, and this activity is very likely to get deleted in the next version of the plan.
Even Facebook isn’t looking to healthy, I’ve had a couple of false starts that have petered out. I’m not by anymeans going to give it up, I just don’t know what to do with it at the moment.
Organising & Systems
It appears I live by systems, I like having them, and I like analysing them. The tools, though, are different. Google Sheets and Obsidian are both available, and I have (am ) using Obsidian, just not very coherently.
I had to go and remind myself what the anti-TikTok project was. It’s my normal stuff. I spend way too much time scrolling through videos that I found fascinating, I say found, as there are some that I am becoming bored with.
I’m not sure what the digital workspace relates to. This?
Evening Wind down
Writing is going very well; I’m doing it every day. (Holding back for the next panel)
Photo editing, some partial success, using Photoshop and Affinity. I’ve done a little bit with it; I need to do a lot more. Reading is OK, but I really do need to do more. I’m also holding back comments on planning vlog & blog. The TikTok plans are in disarray, only because some of them comes to me very quickly,
Creative Work
Part of this is a shocker, the other half an abject failure. On the creative writing front, I submitted a suggestion for a creative writing group in the Gosport u3a. It was accepted, we’ve had the startup session, and it went incredibly well. The first real session is next week, and it does look promising, with a potential 15-18 members.
Vlogging is another of those areas where initially I was very much “what can I vlog”? But now, I think it’s. When can I vlog that? I have two parts of the same vlog on. historical project, listed and ready. I’ve become a compost bin nutcase and am driving Elayne up the wall. Photography is going well, no major successes but some nice scores and a highly commended in a competition.
The one failure is the radio side of things. I was going to sign up to The Bath programme, but I just haven’t got around to it (that sounds like procrastination, and to an extent, it probably is).
Outdoors & Activities
Apart from the fact that about 6 weeks ago, something happened to my knee, everything here has been quite successful.
Walks are mainly around town, with the occasional trip out.
Field Research, I haven’t done an awful lot of. But I do have a project brewing that will change that. Plus, the granddaughter is of an age where she likes to play in the park, so we are outdoors with her.
Cloud watching, we can just do it anytime we are out.
Exploring local areas – I could do a bit more here, very focused on the walks that I know.
The Gosport Shed is good. Some lovely trips out; The Fleet Air Arm Museum, The Greenwich Naval Museum, and the Great Western Railway Museum, all excellent. Then there is the Shed Breakfast, which I thoroughly enjoy.
Council Activities
Are a bit of a damp squib (perhaps a bit unfair there is a good reason why activity is low). I haven’t been to a meeting in quite a while, although I do read through the meeting packs and minutes.
Intellectual Projects (I’m sorry that sounds really pretentious)
Ley line research, apart from the acquisition of a set of dowsing rods and a couple of failed attempts to buy cheap photo equipment that would allow me to position the camera so that I could film myself dowsing, which, because of my tremors, would be ridiculously ineffective, I’ve done nothing with this activity.
u3a – in my view, has been an outstanding success. I’m a member of seven groups, and have done several presentations on various topics, and have three more lined up, and am having so much fun it’s unreal. I’m just really enjoying it, and can’t recommend it enough to people. Two of the three topics on the chart (Local history and Astronomy) are covered under u3a. Earth Mysteries was going to be proposed as a group, but is on hold at the moment.
Slow Media
I’m not too sure what I meant by this now. I suspect it partially involved keeping up with the news, which at the moment is so horrible that I prefer to bury my head in a bucket of sand. I may remove this group.
Goals
Write a book – Well, you should never say never.
Become famous on TikTok & YouTube – well, I think I’ll tone that down a bit, to just have a presence on YouTube at the moment.
Start a newspaper – a nice aspiration, still at that level.
Live as long as I can – I need to get fitter, eat less, and walk more.
Get a PhD – I’d love to, but no chance.
Well I’m quite surprised actually. Well, not really – I did the plan as a bit of fun, and I have barely referred to it since last year, but it is hung there in full view. Where I’ve been successful, I’m really pleased. There are some things to do, and the plan does need tweaking, but overall, I’m pretty pleased with it.
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