Bills Posts

The picture was an accident, but once again it’s one I like, the thing about it is the background would normally involve views of Portchester, but because it was misty, the background is almost the same colour as the sea, it’s not the mono aspect, I think it’s more the minimalism.

Over the last few days I’ve been giving you a run down on things that interest me;

• Astronomy
• Photography
• Pylons
• Clouds
• Meteorology
• Geology
• Writing
• Trains
• Railways
• Technology (context dependent)
• Microscopy
• Micrometeorites
• Locality

So, I’m interested in Astronomy, or Geology or trains. It’s good that I’m interested. But what does that mean; that I’m “Interested”? Do I want to get a PhD inn each of the subjects that I’m interested in? That would be nice but just a little bit impossible.

What I need then are a series of mini-projects, a goal something to aim for in each interest. For example, in Astronomy, I am ashamed to confess that I do not recognise all of the constellations. I think learning the constellations, one at a time – do I need to say that is northern hemisphere?

I’ll have to think about the other interests!

A couple of weeks back, I had another go at doing a Vlog. The intention was to do five minutes on Fort Gilkicker. I’d done a little bit of historical research and knew roughly what I wanted to say. Of course, when I started recording it didn’t come out the way I wanted.

I am working through the mistakes, not least of which are not being prepared with the material (more a case of being over-confident with what I think I wanted to say), talking to the camera, rather than letting the camera see the location, which is admittedly, with the construction barricades is not in its best light, but I shouldn’t use that as an excuse for a poor video, rather use it to be part of the story.

I produced a lot of material, mostly me talking to the camera, and some of the setting. When after a bit of editing I played it through – 20 minutes. Now, this really surprised me. I wanted only to do 5 minutes. It’s good that I’ve got more material than I need, I need to go through it to see what I can take out – I suspect that might be easier said than done.

I am not in the least bit upset or annoyed about this. It is all good experience. Several things jump out at me;

• Fix my habit of looking away from the camera. This is because I am self conscious about speaking to the camera, and yet I am not with talking to the radio.
• Know what I am going to say. This doesn’t mean a script, but it does mean notes, bullet points, that kind of thing.
• Don’t talk to the camera if there is something you want to show.
• Whilst the stability of the GoPro and the phone is excellent. There is still a valid reason to use a tripod.

There will be quite a few more things that I got wrong. I watched a YouTube video last night the 15 mistakes of doing a video. I thought I had made notes but I can’t find them! I haven’t given up, I am still working on it.

When I finish work, we like to sit and watch a programme on TV, at the moment we are watching Grey’s Anatomy using a streaming service. We have been having a frustrating issue, in that the device keeps losing network connectivity. It seems like this mostly happens when we are using our phones or tablets. In which case it’s a bandwidth issue.

When I do a bandwidth availability check, we should have more than enough for the streamer to work, and usually be doing something like checking email, doing this blog or playing word with friends. But, it’s not happening. The cut outs definitely increase when we are using these devices.

We have a mesh network, which appears to be good, but we loose a lot from the hubs location to the nodes. What is 200+ in the office, becomes 35 in the lounge. I’d suggest this is down to the placement of the mesh nodes and is not helped by the thick brick walls that some of my signals have to go through.

I am working on this.

I have hand written reporters note books, and hand written journals, almost literally going back decades. I’ve just been reading about things that I haven’t actually put a date on, but it relates to an event that happened (a nice event, a holiday) in 2007. That’s 14 years ago. In the mean time, I have kept writing. One of the things I fairly consistently wrote about was starting a blog. I had a big blockage inside me that prevented me from doing a blog – I could write about it, but do it? Oh No.

Why? Who knows, I was obviously inhibited, perhaps it was a fear of exposing myself to the internet. I’ve been on Facebook that long, and Twitter not much after that. Not very active mind you, but there. I also have snapchat and instagram accounts – I like to explore these things. But I’m not very active on the last two.

Once again, the thing that changed it all was Covid. What I wanted to do originally was to wean people, mainly my family, off Facebook. It hasn’t happened though, so I have been running both. In the morning I do my FB entry, usually commenting on my morning walk, a comment about our cats, and the wildlife in general, and then the Fantasy Holiday. What’s that you might ask? Well…

We were due to go on a BIG holiday last year, the visit of a lifetime. It obviously didn’t happen, but I had time to fill so I decided that although we couldn’t leave the house, we could go where we wanted in Fantasy Land – so we did, areas of the world, places I have always wanted to visit we went to on a 180 day long world cruise.

It came to an end just in time for Christmas, in the meantime I had started doing this (the 366) exercise in the evening. Because, purely and simply, I like to write, and until now I have never had the courage (well, I know it’s not really courageous, but it took a bit of effort) or the focus. The morning walks, the fantasy holiday, reading the books all added to my focus.

The end of 366 is approaching. We are still exploring the scope of my interests. I think they will exist beyond the project – I hope they will anyway.

I had a thing at one time, where the only books I would read were Science Fiction. I wouldn’t look at anything else. I think things might have been beginning to change but Covid definitely did something.

I have many books on the book shelves that I bought with the intention of reading, and some have been on the shelf for years. It’s not that I suddenly had more time to read those books. But I used time a little bit more efficiently and took the time to read books that otherwise I would probably never have gotten around to reading.

I don’t think I’m really into reading biographies, but when I found out that David Suchet was in to photography, I thought it would be a good one to start with, and I did enjoy reading it, but I have to confess that it hasn’t inspired me to read even more biographies, but if I should find one I like the sound of then I may be more inclined to read it.

I’ve enjoyed reading books about trains and science, but I think the category of book that has had the biggest impact on me is undoubtedly history. I’ve read several history books (not least of which was Gombach’s History of Art), this has definitively re-kindled my interest in the topic. I’ve got several books lined up. I know what I want to read, the only problem I have is the order – sometimes, I can switch order on a whim. I have to be a bit more disciplined!

In 1976 My friend and I looked in to getting our Amateur Radio Operator Licence. For a whole variety of reasons, we didn’t take it any further. It all went away until 2016. In between times, the methods of gaining a radio operators licence became a little bit easier. Please don’t think of this as dumbing down in any way it isn’t. There are now three levels of exam, with each level of increasing complexity and greater rights of operating. Achieving the third level give the same rights as someone who passed their exam in 1976.

The three levels are Foundation, Intermediate and Full. Having taken my Foundation exam in 2016, I achieved my intermediate in 2018. I may go for my full, but not just yet.

I just like being able to use the radio, and being an intermediate has not really been a hindrance, it opened more doors, and I can see the benefits of going for a full, but I’m not ready yet.

As hobby, it’s amazingly diversified, there are so many different directions that you can go. I like events, we things that are “On the Air” railways on the air, museums, parks, lighthouses, almost anything. We set up a station, make contacts and talk to the public. Then there is RAYNET.

There is a history to the Radio Amateur Emergency Network that back to 1933, when the suggested instution of an emergency network was suggested and rejected. In 1953 we saw the East Coast Flood over 100 lives were lost. Through circumstances the value of the amateur radio operators was recognised and an early version of RAYNET was formed.

Today, we had a fairly typical event; The Purbrook Ladies Five Mile Run, I was on the water point. It’s my responsibility top pass any messages that the Marshallers may need communicated with my control. You meet people, they ask what you are doing, I love that. Also the feeling of helping is excellent.

Then there are the nets, These are groups of people on the radio have a chat – which doesn’t always have to be about radio stuff. Nets are fun.

There is always the question; with everything that the Internet does, why bother with Radio? The best responses I can give are because right I can, and because it’s fun. There are more serious answers, but you don’t need them.

At last, a picture that is at least partially related to the topic. How many times have laid on a patch of cool grass and just watched the clouds? Do you look for shapes in them? I quite often see dogs, especially Scottish terriers, and spaceships, I see a lot of them. Otherwise, I just enjoy the shapes of them, and watching these small clumps of white fluff floating through the air.

An update added on the Sunday, I was in a position to get a picture of some pylons. I don’t normally retrospectively come back to a post to make changes. I thought it worthwhile in this case.

Then of course, there are the angry clouds, the ones that are getting more and more grey, and end up dumping water on you. Douglas Adams (of Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy fame) wrote of the Rain God;

“And as he drove on, the rainclouds dragged down the sky after him, for, though he did not know it, Rob McKenna was a Rain God. All he knew was that his working days were miserable and he had a succession of lousy holidays. All the clouds knew was that they loved him and wanted to be near him, to cherish him, and to water him.”

I can remember standing in the bookshop and reading that for the first time laughing. Sometimes, something you read sticks with you and that did. Sometimes, I think the rain clouds love me. I know I love them.

The other word in the title is Pylons. Now, why on earth would I be interested in Pylons? I bet you don’t even think about them. There was a lady, she was very ill, and she has gone now. Her name was Flash Bristow. I heard her on Radio 4 one day, quite a few years ago she was talking about a thing she had started; The Pylon Appreciation Society. As soon as I heard about it, I knew I had to join it.

When I was a kid, I used to read the usual comics. I remember a story in I’m convinced it was the Beezer, but it may have been something else, a story about aliens invading earth, only to be stopped when they ran in to the cables between the pylons – for the first time, I became aware of them, and saw them for a good thing.

Have you ever looked at a line of pylons and wonder where the lines they carry have come from, or to where they are carrying their energy? The gracefulness of the runs, especially as they disappear in to the distance. OK, OK, I know it’s bonkers. But that’s what I think.

People laugh when I tell them about the PAS, but then a few weeks later they’ll come to me and tell me about a pylon they had seen, or send me a picture, or even on one case, a little model. It makes them think.

Out for my lunchtime walk, rain was threatening, but didn’t arrive. The sky looks very angry though, but it was OK, I enjoyed the walk.

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted a model railway layout. It doesn’t have to be a big one, I keep on having ideas about what I would like. There are two things; It must be N-Gauge, this allows for a small space layout, and it must have Digital Command Control – computer control. I like semaphore signals, I’d want to be able to control them. Because it’s a small layout. I quite like the idea of shunting puzzles, it doesn’t involve a large layout, plenty of points, some signals.

I think I’d like a switching panel, that looks like the real layout, with buttons to press to set points and signals, with the train(s) being controlled from the computer. If I use shunting puzzles, it’s be a bit like a game of chess, set the puzzle up, and then take as long as I want to solve it.

Gosport has an American model railway society. I could go to that to learn construction techniques, in particular, the power and control wiring set ups. Then of course, there is scenery and setting. I quite like the Idea of an industrial scene, with containers and container cranes that work, but this is getting a bit too big. Reign back on my planning.

At one point, I started thinking about the film Welcome to Marwen, the lead character was making stories out of the models he had and become involved in the stories, I wanted to create some of those stories myself. But that is an entirely different story.

Tomorrow, I think Clouds and Pylons.

When I was at school, history was one of my favourite subjects. I suppose because it was easy to study, not like physics or chemistry, where you actually had to do things to find out stuff. After I finished school, I went to college and pleased to have history as a subject was not happy at encountering probably the most boring history teacher in the world. That really kind of blew it for me.

There are though, different kinds of history, that from the long past which is interesting to learn about. Then there is the history that you are part of, where you always remember where you were. I cite as two very recent examples, the fall of theBerlin Wall and 9/11. Both of these events, one remembered with affection, the other with absolute horror – where were you, and what were you doing? You are a part of that history.

More recently, especially living in Gosport, a town, which I never tire of saying is absolutely stuffed with history. My interest in history has been resurrected. Partly that came about through my reading of Gombach’s History of Art, I’d never really associated art with history, but periods such as the Reformation and Renaissance had significant effects on the work of artists. But then I can walk down almost any street in the town and find some historical reference.

When you live in a place like this, you can easily pick up that interest. It’s excellent, because you can get really into it. Fascinating stuff.

Once again, the picture doesn’t bear any relationship to the topic. THe subject, a shopping trolley is in that position as the result of an act of vandalism. Why does it end up in a picture that I really like. That is incredibly frustrating.

With the membership of a committee comes responsibilities. Now, I quite enjoy committees, I’m on two at the moment. I was on a third. I gave the third committee up. Of the three, it was probably the easiest to do, but the level of responsibility was to much for me. It wasn’t the workload, none of them were hard. I’ve been a School Governor in the past, I only gave that up because of circumstances, not the level of responsibility.

I have / had aspirations to be a councillor, possibly Parish or Town/Borough, I’m not sure about that now. I don’t think it’s the responsibility. So I’m thinking about it.

The two committees in which I am involved are both clubs, so in theory I can walk away at any time. I’m not of a mind to do that though. The thing is, I joined the clubs for specific reasons. That was fine, then I became involved and ended up volunteering – I can’t seem to help it.

The thing is I enjoy it. I suspect that I would enjoy being a councillor (assuming I could get elected of course). I wonder if they Co-opt. That’s what they scan do with Governors. But not yet. And yes, I still think about it.

These are my obsessions, I’m working my way through them. Every day brings 366 closer to the end. What am I going to do?