moving sunflowers >> moving wallpaper?

continuing on from the theme of yesterday I found another photo taken from a moving vehicle, I meant to post this nearer time I took it. (july of this year in southern france). 

for some reason however this picture means so much more today on a wet, (getting colder) autumn day in south east cornwall than it did at the time. as simply looking at it makes me feel warm. perhaps it is my background in textile design that leads me to the idea of mood changing surface texture. perhaps that could be the next line in an occasional series. surfaces and textures that make you feel different. I will work on it.

rainbow

I just liked the look of this rainbow with a roundabout at the end of it as I was on my way back from a productive meeting in west cornwall.

the big draw | starts tomorrow

I know that I am a day early and I mentioned it last year, but thought the big draw worthy of another mention this year.

the ninth big draw runs from 1 to 31 October 2008, with a special focus on saturday 11 october.

locally (to me I mean) this might be worth a visit

Venue: ACD&C Architecture Centre Devon and Cornwall @ The University of Plymouth
Address: Crosspoint / Atrium, University of Plymouth, Roland Levinsky Building Plymouth, Devon PL1 2JYTel: 07791 138012
Event title: A Creative Urban Landscape
Description: The Architecture Centre Devon and Cornwall in collaboration with The University of Plymouth, will host this years Big Draw at the 2008 RIBA award winning Roland Levinsky Building in the heart of the city. Be inspired by the building that features so prominently in Plymouth and help us make a giant creative landscape. Materials will be provided.
Audience: All ages
Date/Time: 11 October, 10.30am - 4pm
Cost: No admission charge
Event: Free

lucky

every now and again I find myself getting stressed with stuff (especially, but not solely with work) and have to make a concerted effort to get down to the beach. so on saturday after a good day, even considering I had just watched my favourite professional rugby team loose. I remembered that I hadn't see the sea for a while even though I live less than a mile from the ocean and that I had been running around after myself for a few days being very unproductive. 

so I just took a tiny detour on the drive home to spend some time at the beach at sunset. It doesn't take much to make me realise just how lucky I am to live where I do.

tere >> estonia

I had no idea until first thing this morning when a colleague stuck a speech bubble on me with the word 'tere' on it (tere, a greeting hello or hi in estonian). that it was european day of languages today. so I went to the web site of the national centre for languages to find out more.

The European Day of Languages is:
A Europe-wide celebration of all the world’s languages A day to kick-start language learning A chance to raise awareness about the value of language skills

so as the language I had been given was estonian, I thought I would have a look at some estonian web sites, I was drawn to a particular site for no real reason other that I like the way it looked and worked. I have just spent a while looking at homeart.

live lounge >> one day like this

I have to be honest I am not a regular listener to bbc radio 1. much as I love music I prefer to have more control over the music I choose to listen to. so its an ipod for me with range of music that I usually listen to shortly before I go to sleep each night. I normally find my radio at home and in the car tuned to bbc radio 4. 

but yesterday my wife emailed me (while I was at work) with a link to the radio 1 (jo wiley's) live lounge because a band that I have much time for, snow patrol were performing a version of another band I also have lots of time for elbow's song 'one day like this'.

Any way I was very pleased to recieve the link and had a look and listen and was very peased with what I saw and heard, if you haven't already visit this page and click on the one day like this video link

does too much information really help?

I had some time today to get together an explanation of a new qualification that will be offered this time next year. it is all very exciting. but I have realised that the way in which I have started to gather, process and present information (over the last few years) is incredibly long winded and counter productive.

instead of reading something, hopefully understanding it, quietly thinking about it for a while then writing the presentation testing it then making any changes or additions then either presenting it or passing it on to some-one else to to it in which ever format suits the idea best. lately more especially today I have found myself reading and scanning through many different .pdf files websites, looking at other opinions, even 'legally' using sections of official comment to reinforce the work I am trying to champion. so in short spending hours on the internet for no reason.

so today I am in the position of having 40 or 50 pages of information (text) some of it very good, some complete nonsense all to produce a 5-10 max minute presentation. is this the information overload that we have heard of or just a form of laziness. we are so geared to finding stuff from wikipedia (as I have for the overload description), using other people web sites and search engines in the belief that others know better.(they often don't). but I, as many others use the internet as our first port of call for everything even the things were are supposed to be specialists in, not a great idea.

luckily I had an enforced break today (I had to teach!) during that time I was able to consider. by watching the way some students process information only listening to the stuff they need, using the software programmes they think fit the purpose, getting rid of stuff that is superfluous. as well as students who were absolutely stuck with more information than they will every be able to process never mind get into an order. it made me think 'forget the many differing internet opinions/text simply present the information clearly'. shame this seems to be the way I find out the bleedin' obvious!

best laid plans

for ages now I have been meaning to re-brand my surf forecast site surf98 because it is something I run pretty much on my own. with a bit of help as far as eye-ball forecasts (wind/weather checks) and photos. but all the design work/web scripting is done my me. luckily the site continues to be pretty well visited but its visitors are really only looking for the surf/wave size and the weather conditions so I simply continue to update those details every day but that is about it. I really would/should like to find the time to move it on but I have so many other things to get done first.

I have never put aside enough time to 're-brand' properly. as with many things that are not money driven, or commissioned by some one else it has been left, as have the ideas to change it. they come and go before even seeing the light of web (never mind day). it is a shame but a reality of the way/system I have chosen to be part of.

I now realise that the next re-design will be a while away but as least I managed to start on the last one. even this one shown above is just good enough, so it's on to the next re-design (in my mind any way).