Total eclipse of the heart...?

There was a total eclipse of the moon tonight, and while it started out lamentably overcast and impossible, the skies cleared and I froze my proverbials off to get (oh, 170-odd) photos...















Yay!

Back to school...?

I've decided, right now, that I want to go back to study.

Ok, I've already known I've wanted to, but something has just clicked in my brain, and life's too short to be stuck in a dead-end job doing something that bores you to tears (hypothetically).

I want to get proper web design skills. I can do it blindfolded (almost), but I don't have the qualifications, which means that if I want to change jobs and do something I enjoy, I can't unless I have that bit of paper.

I've found a course, at a campus close to home, that I should be able to do. Part-time will take 3 years; full time, one. Then a Diploma.

It'd be nice...

I might be a qualified technician (look where that took me: a receptionist role!), but I've always been a Web-person at heart. While my uni-mates were programmers and accountants, I was trying to break early versions of Netscape. My first full-time job was in a web-software company, and I've supported my fair share of web-authoring programs over the years. And my website has gone through many, many incarnations as I've taught myself more and more. I'd still like to maintain my support skills, but get that paperwork that says I'm a designer.

Then I can dress funny.

Comet McNaught

What's an amateur photographer do in the middle of the night? Crouch in the neighbours bushes trying to get a shot of a comet, that's what.

I'd forgotten all about Comet McNaught being up there somewhere (a 5-second news-soundbite rarely stays in the forefronts of one's memory), so when we got a knock on the door and were asked if we had our cameras to hand, we were both a little puzzled. "Want a shot of a comet?" he asked, and we scrambled for cameras, big lenses, and tripods.

To block out as much ambient light as possible, we had to lurk in the neighbours shrubs, keeping our voices low so as not to disturb them, and trying not to move much so as not to lose that tiny vague pinprick of light in the viewfinder.

The best shot I got was this, at about 10:30:


handheld, no tripod. (Yes, I'm shocked, too). Doesn't do it justice, but I reckon it's still pretty darn spiffy!

Bicarb soda - stuff of gods

It's official - bicarb soda is not only fizzy and makes scones and cake-things rise, it's also a fantastic wonder-product that is much underrated.

It also seems to get six months worth of smoke (blech) out of mattresses and fabrics in a single evening.

Great stuff, bicarb.