For all the “life” stuff check out http://jazminbrooks.co.uk

For the time being design stuff can be found on my twitter http://twitter.com/#!/jaz_design or on my Masters blog – http://ma.jazdesign.co.uk

Thank you for reading, and I hope you stick around for the next stage of the journey!

It was also our first Christmas at our flat instead of a parents’. Lunch was good and not as much hard work as I thought, but that may be to do with not cooking a whole turkey… I also managed to watch every single Wallace and Gromit short & film over the festive period.

For our Xmassy pics complete with snow, Snoopy, Playmobil advent calendars, check them out on Facebook here.

There’s a slew of 2009 review & 2010 promises in my Google Reader today, but what’s one more eh?

2009

Design

I will pick up some files from work on Monday so I can do a review of my work from the year. Includes the designs and associated work for smtrac and StationeryWise.

Photography

I’d briefly considered 365 again but didn’t get very far this year. You can see the photography I uploaded this year here.

Life in General

Work and home life are pretty much the same. I got a raise which I was pretty pleased with. We’re decorating the bathroom at the moment (same colours, just needed a few things sorting out, it already looks miles better). Love-wise we celebrated 3 very happy years together. Familywise, long story, but I just went from being an only child with one parent for 22 years to having two parents, two (half) sisters and a (half) brother. So that’s been good and interesting.

2010

I am yet again attempting Project 365, you can track my progress on my flickr here. This is my big resolution for the year on a creative level. On a personal level it’s health and eating real food, not just chocolate/caek.

There are plenty of posts about keeping resolutions and such out there, and I’ve read a lot of them over the years. The things that stick out most seem to be about taking small steps so as not to overwhelm yourself and creating new habits so as to make real changes. It’s also good to write these things down, review them regularly and have ways to hold yourself accountable.

I liked Gretchen’s post at the Happiness Project about taking each month for a different “thing”. So I’ve done something similar:

Jan – Work/Money
Feb – Love/Relationships
Mar – Mindfulness/Happiness
Apr – Skin/Teeth (yes that sounds weird, it’s not, I’m rubbish at these routines)
May – Cleaning/Tidying
Jun – Exercise
Jul – Photography
Aug – Social
Sept – Art
Oct – Spirituality
Nov – Writing
Dec – Family

Each month has some kind of event, end goal and reward. I’ll be updating my blog from time to time about these because I think it’s good to check in and talk about what I’ve learnt.

Lastly

Eddyb has redesigned his site and blog, go check it out!

Fortunately for us we live just off the local park where our town’s firework display is held. Our balcony produces an excellent view of the show – and easy access to warmth! I must admit to not being much of a fan of standing outside at night at the beginning of winter, bonfire or no bonfire.

This year I decided to try and take some photographs, having such a good vantage spot.

f/3.5 Exposure 1/8 secs ISO 200 Focal length 18mm

I used my Pentax DA that came with my camera, simply because I couldn’t decide on a different lens. I’d read some articles (listed below) about what to use, but uncertain about where exactly to focus, I went with old faithful. Next time I want to experiment more, I’m sure my prime lens could get some fantastic results.

More pictures and tips after the jump!

f/3.5 Exposure 3 secs ISO 200 Focal length 18mm

I kept my f-stop the same (which I would probably play with next time) and just experimented with shutter speeds. I had the camera on a tripod, in the same position the whole time. I did zoom in at one point, but was unhappy with the results.

Having it on a tripod allowed me to photograph the finale in such a way as to fade it all together in the above slideshow. I wish I’d got the end properly as I feel it ends too abruptly, but another lesson for next time. I probably would have put the camera on continuous shooting mode had I thought of it so I could just hold the shutter while I wanted it to take the pictures. This would have worked much better than taking the picture and then waiting for it to store it.

Exposure - all 1/2 sec except the bottom right which was 6 seconds. I adjusted the contrast slightly to remove light pollution. f/3.5 ISO 200 Focal length 18mm

I really liked these, they don’t look like normal fireworks to me, just weird and pretty explosions.

f/3.5 Exposure 1/6 secs ISO 200 Focal length 18mm

Not so keen on the shorter exposure, would rather have the longer trails, but did like these pictures for the colour.

Exposure - all 1/8 sec except the bottom right which was 1/3 seconds. I adjusted the contrast slightly to remove light pollution. f/3.5 ISO 200 Focal length 18mm

I loved the pictures and can’t wait to experiment again!

Useful Links

• Digital Photography School – How to Photograph Fireworks
• Pioneer Woman – Breaking the Rules: Fireworks the “Wrong” Way
• Just Fireworks flickr Group
• Firework Mutants flickr Group

Now please don’t switch off just yet.

Whether “global warming”, or “climate change” is actually happening, or would happen regardless of us makes no odds. It is no excuse for being wasteful. There’s little to no effort to recycling, so why set such a bad example of values to your kids etc? It’s not good to waste things, just because you can! Odds are, that wastefulness is hurting someone or something somewhere. Like the ocean and it’s inhabitants for example.

So, where does our plastic end up?

Photograph belongs to Chris Jordan - http://www.chrisjordan.com/ It has not been Photoshopped.

Yes folks, that is an albatross. A dead albatross showing the contents of it’s stomach. 2000 miles away from the nearest continent – and there’s many more. Plastic now outweighs plankton 6 to 1 in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (more info).

Taken from Journey to Midway website:

Midway Atoll, one of the remotest islands on earth, is a kaleidoscope of geography, culture, human history, and natural wonder. It also serves as a lens into one of the most profound and symbolic environmental tragedies of our time: the deaths by starvation of thousands of albatrosses who mistake floating plastic trash for food.

See Journey to Midway and Chris Jordan’s photography for more information about this horror.

But, I recycle, I’m not responsible

I find this film particularly striking (check out from about 5:00 onwards) – a collection of objects found in rotting albatross carcasses. If you were thinking “oh this isn’t my doing”, check out how many toothbrushes, pens and lighters there are there and think again.

Now you “they’re just animals” folk can sing and dance all you want, you can’t think this is right, expecting birds and fish to eat our waste and then die, only to put it back in the sea. No one deserves that. No one deserves to swallow an ink cartridge or golf ball thinking it’s food! Especially just so we can continue this “throw-away society”. It’s not worth it.

What can I do?

Recycling is important, but with plastic it’s called “downcycling” and in the end the plastic still isn’t going to biodegrade for a very very long time and may well end up in the sea. I’m not saying don’t recycle. I’m saying use less plastic!

Buying throw-away products costs more in the long run, matches are just as good as lighters, use pencils when you can? I’ve vowed to never buy biros again. The few pens I have can have refills and the rest of the time I’m going to be using pencils. I’ve also given up Kinder Eggs…

Well if you’re so perfect…

Yes, I’m responsible too. Everyone is to some extent. No one can be completely “green”, that’s not a realistic expectation and it’s not about that. It’s doing what you can and it’s NOT hard. Here in Woking the council has actually upped the types of items we can recycle in our bins. In the new year we’ll have food collections too!

When I feel my efforts slipping I find myself checking out Chris’ work.

I’m almost done, I swear

Remember to do what you can with your recycling, and when buying something, ask yourself, do you really REALLY need it? And if so, buy something that’s built to last you, not for you to throw away.

The Links

http://www.midwayjourney.com/
http://www.chrisjordan.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lastchancetosee/ – Worth watching while it’s still on the iPlayer! Beautiful imagery and very interesting information about good being done in the world, and of course showing the effects of our existance. And it has Stephen Fry. Are you not sold with that alone?

I’m a sucker for impulse buys – as the picture of a Shaun the Sheep bath poof will tell you, though to be honest I could be a lot worse. For the record, I’ve had the big Shaun since I was a kid It was just the bath sponge thing that grabbed my eye in Morisons.

When I finished university I dutifully figured out my money, had a heart attack, and then went about my business. I looked at my spreadsheet a couple of times over the last year or so, but things changed drastically when the Mister was able to move down and I’d never figured in that things cost half as much as before, so it was time for a new budget and I decided to refresh my knowledge of budgeting.

Useful Links

• 42 Ways to Radically Simplify Your Financial Life
• Building Your First Budget
• How to Budget Effectively and Also How to Stick to it
• 8 Ways to Make Huge Savings in your Budget
• 10 Ways to Simplify your Budget

My Top Tips

If you’ve figured out a budget, great! If you’re having trouble sticking to it however, I’ve got a few tips which I use myself to prevent “wasted” money.

Put it on a wishlist – I try and hold out for Christmas and birthdays with things that aren’t a true need. Plus putting things on a wishlist means you can go back and delete them when you realise you don’t really need them in the first place. It’s all about priorities, which sounds scary and grown up, but it’s really not that bad.

Show it to the other half/a (frugal) friend - I tend to find that when the Mister asks me “why do you want that?” and I not only have to justify it to myself, but someone else as well, if I struggle, I put it back.

Track your spending – I use an iPhone application called Balance which is free and very simple to use. A lot of people are using Mint which interacts directly with accounts and thing. The act of tracking every purchase as I make it means I’m more likely to rethink it – especially when I see what I’ve already spent that month.

I’ve only just started doing this again, but I did track my spending every day for a month a couple of years ago and the results were astonishing (HOW MUCH on chocolate?!). I cannot for the life of me find the post where I added it all up, so you’ll just have to take my word on the chocolate.

De-clutter regularly – we have a comfortably small flat, with acres of storage, but even with this, I find I’m constantly de-cluttering. This in itself makes it more likely for me to think twice about buying something and the de-cluttering means I really see how much I’ve bought. I guess the real tip here is to live somewhere comfortable but not bigger than what you truly need, people fill the space they live in, it’s just natural.

Wait a week – similar to the wishlist tip, waiting a week can be particularly useful for figuring out if you really need something. When I was trying to decide which phone to get, I waited a month to commit to my iPhone – and yes, it was an extravagance, but that level of deliberation meant it was a carefully considered extravagance that I could have backed out of should something more important/better come along.

There are plenty of other tips out there, these are just what I find works for me!

My birthday this year fell on a Monday, so the weekend was filled with a party with my friends and a party with my family – lots of good food, good conversations. I had a fantastic weekend!

For the actual day it was just the Mister and I, he took me up to London for a trip on the London Eye – having never been.

You can find some of my photographs on flickr. I thought it was a great experience. Would love to go up at night as well! We were fortunate enough for it to be a mild day, with some cloud cover but lots of sun, so the views were clear, but it wasn’t too bright.

I’ve fallen in love with the pseudo tilt-shift effect and so thought I’d try it out with some of them, since I was looking from above and all

I got a ton of presents. I love presents. I can’t help it, everyone loves presents. And I loved everything everyone got me this year. Such great choices! Some things I never knew I needed until I had them (I’m thinking of the book about how to make felt animals – see below)

This is a small selection of my presents, I still have one to cash in (shopping!) and any money I got went on the Great Devon Trip to see Muse. These are the ones I hadn’t found homes for before remembering to take a photo!

In that black box is some incense. I’m halfway through the “Logo Design Workbook” now. The notebook has become my art/design notes book.

Check out the TRADITIONAL SHERBET at the top there. So much better than the plastic packaged stuff. I’m eating it sparingly, trying to make it last as long as possible. I’ll probably keep one forever. The earings were made by my friend Michelle, you can buy more of her excellent jewellery on her Etsy page.

The Cute Book is the felt animal thing. I love sewing. It’s not something I ever make time for, but for some reason I just love it. I took textiles at GCSE as a result. I didn’t know I needed this book until I had it. I’m now in the process of making my first lizard, something more than one person has asked me for. Getting the felt involved a trip to a Hobby Craft and my God was I in heaven there! SO MUCH ART STUFF. I nearly had a heart attack.

And the Mister was so kind as to replace the cheapo Claddagh ring I accidentally put through the wash, with a nicer, more expensive silver one

Last Sunday we headed over to Reading Festival to watch the one and only Radiohead perform. I had no idea what to expect, and was blown away. The other bands were good too, but I’d be lying if I said I’d gone to see them. I was there purely for Radiohead, and some festival fun.

I have to say, hearing that many people sing along to Karma Police, it sends chills down your spine – it really does. I’ve never quite got over that part of the gig experience, people singing along – all those people on the same page. There’s nothing like it.

It was great to just chill out to their interesting and extraordinary music. We had a wonderful time. You can catch the highlights on the BBC website here.

Then we had Muse. Muse and their homecoming gigs in Teignmouth, Devon. (163 miles away…) Somehow, somehow we ended up with tickets for both the gigs. Friday we headed down, checked into our hotel, headed back out to the first gig. Exhausted though I was from the epic driving, it was fantastic. The Den is a small venue, so no matter where you were the view was good.

Saturday, just as awesome. We spent the day exploring Teignmouth town , down on the beach, and eating cream teas… and donut men.

Probably my favourite song from the gigs was Cave. It wasn’t just Cave. It was a “jazz rendition”. The piano was spectacular.  The whole thing was spectacular. See the vid here!

My other favourite is the song which I guess has replaced Butterflies (similar in their epicness) on their live setlist, United States of Eurasia. I’d have been a bit upset if we’d only gone on the Saturday when Matt messed up the Chopin at the end and didn’t finish it

Favourite new song? Easy. Undisclosed Desires.

See my flickr for more pics!

After queueing for three and a half hours, we unfortunately did not get to play with any Lego. We were dedicated to our cause though, despite being told many times we were in the “danger zone” and felt that the organisers did their best – 2000+ people showed up for the 600 places.

You can see a selection of my photos from the day here. There’s some cute pictures of kids with Lego and James here on the Mail website.

More details about James May’s Toy Stories.

If you were one of the ones who queued, regardless of if you got in or not, there’s a Facebook group for you.

I’ll post if I hear of any more news on what build stage it’s at. We’re hoping to go back and view it in all it’s glory!

ETA: It appears to be working! Hi my two subscribers! *waves*

There have been a bunch of changes here (the domain move – remember to update your bookmarks http//blog.jazdesign.co.uk), the feeds and I’ve also rejigged the categories. I’ll probably explain the reasons in the coming weeks. The author page etc still need an update and I want to go through the old posts, remove the crap and categorise what remains.

The view from my balcony, with a very very long lens. You wouldn't know I was in a busy commuter town centre would you?

As it is, our apartment just overlooks the central park, so I see trees from my balcony, and the hills during winter (see photo). There’s still flats directly opposite, but the nature’s there. And, we have a balcony. I was lucky enough to be given some plants, some grown from seed and so all very young. This terrified me somewhat, but I was amazed at how much I enjoy looking after them. I’m not doing brilliantly, but I really enjoy going out to the balcony, watering the plants, checking them, not knowing what to do when I find something wrong… ahem.

If you’re living in a small apartment, don’t have a garden etc I highly recommend just getting one little plant, herbs will gladly live on your windowsil and you can use them! I find tending to my plants very grounding and enjoyable, and I know very little about it.

More pictures of my little plant family, and Fuzz Lightyear (because he’s amazing) after the jump! To note, some of the photos are also on my flickr and you can visit them by clicking on them!

Ignore the dead ones behind, I did “dead head” those, though being a gardening spaz I didn’t really know what that meant…

My boss gave me these a year ago when I moved into the apartment. I really didn’t think this was going to survive – but it did and flowered a second time, though there were three in there before, and whilst those did come up, only one of them truly made it. I’ve since put them in a bigger pot in the hope they’ll keep going. I’m also curious as to where my pictures of it flowering have gone…

This was so exciting, my first tomatoes on my little pearl(?) tomato plant! I hadn’t expected any of them to really do anything…

And then even more appeared!

A tiny cucumber? I must admit this is the one plant I’m having the most trouble with. The leafs are all covered with a white moldish looking fuzz, and from what I’ve read that’s ok. It looks pretty strange though. I also don’t know when to pick the cucumbers, the biggest one is green and yellowy green and doesn’t look how I imagined one to look, so it’s just been sitting there for ages. I’m guessing it’s done? There’s a pic on my twitpic here. This is the plant I was most excited about, so it figures it’s the one doing worst!

More pearls.

They’re so tiny! But ripe. Too ripe in fact, a couple of them split, I don’t know if that’s hugely bad? If I didn’t water them enough? Didn’t pick them soon enough? But I’m trying not to let it happen again. I’ve got a couple of unsplit ones to eat tomorrow

More tiny cucumbers, before the great molding of July.

My trough of various herbs! Thyme, basil, sage or mint (we can’t figure it out), angelica and parsley.

The tiny tomatoes that had split. I’m really clueless, really!

My bigger tomato plants. These were the first tomatoes to appear, now I’ve got quite a lot and am just waiting for them to ripen off. Apparently if I’d cut the plants I would have had more, but I really don’t know which bit of it I was supposed to cut…

They keep going through phases of being really green and happy to really wilted and unhappy. I figure it’s because they’re in their teenage years…

Like someone else I know who never gets out of bed!

In addition to the recipes after the jump, we’ve also had leak and goats cheese tart and souffléd omelette. This weekend we’re having a blue cheese gratin and lemon roulade.

Chocolate Crème Brûlée & Meringues

With the leftover egg whites Ed made meringues which we delicious, and very good for a first attempt. The sugar topping was very crunchy, but delicious all the same.

Soufflé Macaroni Cheese

This really was delicious, a great variation of a classic and a meal I love all too much!

Buttermilk Scones with Raspberry Butter

Beautiful. Although it says it makes 10, it made 8 teeny tiny scones, so I’d bump the recipe somewhat!

Crème Caramel

I love crème caramel, and I loved this. I don’t advise eating half of the whole thing in one evening though…

Buttermilk Pancakes with Maple Syrup

We went the whole hog and got proper Canadian syrup. And they were divine. I’m still a massive English pancake fan, but I wouldn’t mind a batch of these as well come pancake day, or any day!

Spiced Chickpea Cakes

With a dollop of yoghurt and some cucumber. Really yummy, better than I expected. We’ve had trouble in the past with things you have to make into little round cake shapes…

Chocolate Mousse

Made with Green & Blacks dark chocolate. I’m not big on dark chocolate, but my goodness, these were absolutely perfect.

Key Lime Pie

Very yummy. I think it says it serves ten, but I think we only got six servings out of it… and they were small!

Stuffed Jacket Potatoes with Leeks, Cheddar and Bourisn

Definitely kicks the traditional jacket up a notch.

Home-made Pasta with Classic Fresh Tomato Sauce

The pasta recipe wasn’t from the book, but trying home-made pasta was a delicious experience! The sauce was good too. Ed used some of the basil I’ve been growing on the balcony (pictures of all my lovely plants to come soon).

Anyway, I figure this theme will do until I have time to make my own. I quite like it, it’s very customisable. The left just feels a bit cluttered to me. Still much better than the default though.

Also – Jaz Design – I’m going to be rebranding as Jaz Design

I thought I’d check out Microsoft’s actual website… (you can view the full screenshot here)

Visit the website to see for yourself.

This boggles my mind! Standards for everyone eh?

We also likened it to what they do in the weightloss TV shows, where they take all the food a person has eaten in a week and dump it on a table. I imagine looking through my photographs is going to be something like that!

My CC blog for yesterday is up here: http://caloriecount.about.com/users/jaz_desig n/307162.html

I don’t know how successful it will be, but it can’t hurt. More awareness of what one is eating can only be a good thing. I know I tend to mindlessly eat, not enjoy my food and not realise how much I’ve actually eaten. Seeing is believing they say!

In other photography news, I finally finished my black and white film I had in my SLR and now have those to upload when I get a minute (mostly photos from The Great Snow and a day in Brighton). I’m also planning to sit down and sort out my Project 366 photos (though I think this year didn’t start out so well with that as last year).

Week 1. Click to full view!

I love post-its. I use them whenever I can and stick them everywhere! I thought I might try something, really out of curiosity for me, and keep my post-its each week. Some things here might be clues as to what’s on the horizon.

I have to say, there’s nothing I love more on a Sunday than a big mug of tea and PostSecret. Yes it’s been around a while, I’m late to the party. I love art, and I love psychology. PostSecret is these combined, we say art is an expression of a feeling or emotion, these postcards really are just that. Each beautiful in their own way, some very depressing, some uplifting. It’s quite an emotional rollercoaster for a Sunday morning, but I still love it (plus the tea ballances out the really bad stuff, as we all know, a cup of tea is the answer to everything).

For Valentines the Mister got me one of the books. Yes there are more secrets than you could ever want to read on the website, but I still love books, and I love this book. It’s a coffee table book really, one you can go back to. Some artistic inspiration, some things to ponder. If you love the website and it’s message, you’ll love the book. Click here to find out more.

I added in my twitter and my delicious in the sidebar, thinking of adding flickr, but don’t know, I have a photo gallery of my own in the works, so is flickr worth the pro money? (My accounts almost full I think). Hmm. And it’s an arse to have to update two places when I take photos… we’ll see! Follow me on twitter anyway! jaz_design. I just installed Tweetie on my phone so now I’m never going to shut up! I also worked out that there was a wordpress ap so I can blog from my phone too

In other news, we got a hamster yesterday. For no particular reason, weirdest impulse buy ever! He’s very cute though, syrian. Fuzz Lightyear is his name and he sure likes to spin his wheel to fast and go flying out of it! (Falling, with style ) There’s a couple of blurry iPhone photos on my twitpic too.

I’ve had it about a week and a half. I tried to buy one from a real bricks and mortar o2 shop, however the four times I tried it was “we don’t have the sim cards” and that was it! No “we’ll take your number, put one buy for you when we get it and give you a call”. Well anyway, in the time taken to faff about with all this it actually went up in price by £10. Who knows why. I still bought one from the online store in the end.

For the record, do not buy their Belkin screen protectors that they have on there for about £8, you get one tiny one that doesn’t cover the whole screen, and that’s it! My other half bought some for the same price (can’t remember what kind, may have got them from a phones4u), you get two, and they cover the whole front of the phone (aside from the button, and the hole at the top, obviously). I still haven’t bought any new ones and have just been surviving with this one. I haven’t purchased any casing for it either, I figured what’s the point of something shiny if you’re going to cover it with something ugly to protect the shiny and in turn never see the shiny! So no covers for me.

I like it, I really do. The actual features you would find on a phone are a bit lacking, assigning songs as ringtones for instance, you can’t just do, you either have to repurchase the song as an iTunes ringtone, or mess about trying to make your own via some jiggery pokery that I’ve not tried yet.

I really like the text messaging “conversations”, I think that’s an awesome idea, but the one thing that annoys me about texts is that it doesn’t tell you when you’ve strayed into two message terratory. I get 300 free messages a month, so it’s not that big a deal, but it’s standard in all phones, so why is it missing? (Or am I missing something?)

MMS, nuff said, though there is an ap for that.

And yes copy and paste would be nice.

I currently have my aps organised by colour and most used. The first page is the most used.

Aps of note include Evernote, Toodledo, HealthCoach, Balance, CountDown and Bejewelled 2.

Evernote, Google it. Everyone uses it, I’ve not used it much because I quite like the little notes thing on the phone, but Evernote takes it to a whole new level.

Toodledo – chose this over Remember the Milk, people over at lifehacker seemed to think it was more feature-rich and cheaper. I really like it, hardly ever use the web interface, just use the ap on the phone. I’ve not explored how it can do reminders though, and I know RtM can remind you when you’re actually near something, so I don’t know. Will have to research further!

HealthCoach is just a bit of fun while I’m trying to healthy myself up – and it is a bit of fun. I’ve found that the quick entry for the food log (choose between balanced, heavy, light and none on meal and snack types) is actually pretty good – I noticed how it matched up with my actual tracking on Calorie Count (which is sorely lacking in an ap!). I like the little challanges too.

Balance – hey it was free, and Mint doesn’t work over here, or isn’t all Englishified. I’m not fussed about it taking stuff directly from my accounts, I just wanted a quick, simple way to track my monies, and this is it! Offers pin protection too.

CountDown – I just like it because I’m so excited about my holiday to Mallorca in April, and pancake day. Does what it says on the tin. Wish you could set one of your countdowns to be the icon though.

Bejewelled 2 – good way to waste a couple of minutes when you’ve got nothing else to do!

I also think you should all know about NuevaSync. I have my Toodledo stuff syncd with my Google Calendar, and also have other stuff in there. I wanted all this in my iPhone calendar, it took me hours of searching to figure out how. NuevaSync uses an exchange to sync your calendar and some other things that the phone can’t just do (with Windows, the only calendar it lets you sync is in Outlook). I was so happy when I found NuevaSync. Works like a charm! No problems whatsoever.

The one thing I would like to see (and haven’t been able to find) is a good tamagotchi-esque style ap. The free ones I tried were naff, and the one good looking pay one got bad reviews.

I’ve also been choosing my wallpapers from the tons of amazing, inspirational ones featured at Abduzeedo

In other news, I’m working on the theme redesign for the Sporum at the moment, my eyes are going cross eyed from staring at bizarre code, but I’ll get there! I also discovered how to use WordPress as a photo gallery, so when I get chance I’m building it up on my laptop, ready to launch… eventually! I still plan to use flickr and deviantArt as a draw, but I wanted something that was completely mine.

Also hopefully the iPhone is on the way (decided I liked the apps etc too much, had a play with the other half’s, we’re good to go) – I tried to get one at a real store four times and have given up. Internet all the way.

TechRadar – iPhone wins.
TechDigest – comparisons of specs
LordPercy on the N96
LordPercy on the iPhone
Heated debate @ the Student Room

The one thing I’m trying not to let ruin my day is my phone. Messages from last night were coming through  strangely, so I thought I’d switch it off and back on. It won’t turn back on. This is apparently not an uncommon problem and fixes cost money and all the data stored on the phone. Fortunately my pictures and things are on the external memory card, but my contacts,  messages and a few other bits and bobs are not. I’m also generally unhappy with the phone. The OS has had it’s quirks, and the other week it randomly deleted all the default themes shipped with the phone.

It’s still under manufacturer’s warrenty, but part of me stopped trusting the phone a while ago. I’ve only had it 14 months. I want to go back to a Nokia I just bought a new camera though, not really looking to spend precious funds on a new phone. I guess we’ll see.

Anyway, back to new years… 2008 recap! I…

…graduated
…turned 21
…moved into my very own place
…started working fulltime for the very first time
…had a second anniversary
…generally entered the world of the grown up

I have no idea what’s going to happen this year, which is weird after knowing for the last 17 years or so of full time education exactly what would happen each year. I do know what will happen this month though:

Websites, websites, websites. The ones which have been in the works the last few months will launch or get close to launching.
At work work there should be some exciting design stuff happening!
More photography!
I’ll cave and get a new phone

Project 365

I tried it last year and made it to June with a fair few missed days. This year I hope to make it a bit further! I have a new camera, a Pentax Optio S12, which is so dinky it fits in my pocket but still gives a great picture and has plenty of options. Would have loved that digital Leica I saw, but it was 6 times more expensive!

For the time being – until I sort out a photo gallery here on my hosting – I’ll be posting the pictures to my Shuttercal. I don’t want to pay for another flickr subscription and think I’m almost all out of room on there, plus Shuttercal was specifically designed for this I’ll put monthly mosaics on here too! I’ve not taken today’s picture yet, trying to think of something appropriate

Happy new year everyone!

The problem: Trying to take screenshots in Fallout 3 seemingly did nothing at all. Prnt Scrn is all you need, the game says “ScreenShot#.bmp created”, but alas the bmps are nowhere to be found. Fact – I know it works, I’ve managed it on the other half’s PC, and for some reason the very first screenshot I took *did* save.

For reference: The game saves screenshots in your c:/Program Files/Bethesda Softworks/Fallout 3 folder (or wherever you installed the game)

OS: Vista

The solution: Google won, Barrett.50 had the answer. Vista’s file permissions were preventing the files from writing to the folder.

How to fix:

Click to full view

1. Right Click the Fallout 3 folder (wherever you installed it)
2. Choose “Properties”
3. Select the “Security” tab
4. Choose “Edit” (Vista made me authorise this)
5. Select your username from the list, or if you’re the only user it may be just “COMPUTER NAME/Users”
6. Then tick “Write”
7. Make sure you click “Apply”

Test it out – if the game still won’t save them you may not have enabled the write permission for the correct user – have a look and see which ones are missing it and do the above.

Hope that’s helpful. Thanks to Barrett.50 for the heads up. And yes that is Vista in the screenshot, I’ve just got all the visual effects turned off at the moment