Happy Friday!

Hey hey it's the weekend!

I have been in Nottingham today on business, wet all day, and spray on the motorway but who cares, it's the weekend!  Tonight Matthew, i will mostly be cooking a chilli, washed down with a bottle of Shiraz. 

I said earlier this week that i had again been experimenting with my camera.  So, here's a few more snaps..


My friend from the reserve, the Nuthatch

Ahh..the friendly Robin...at the reserve

he's looking at me..

The Bullfinch..an example of the vast array of different birds at the reserve..

A portrait of a Great Tit.  I like this photo as i caught it half in shadow and half in light...



A rare spot.  I did well to capture this at all..a Tree Creeper

Not the best picture at all but as it is one of the most elusive of all birds to capture on film I thought I'd add this.  I will improve...in the middle of the pic is a Kingfisher!  Snapped on the River Aire by the reserve.

The biggest bird I've photographed yet!  Still unidentified, it was heading straight for me!

Last thing at night I thought I'd chance my arm at some astro photography...my first moon shot!

Check in soon folks...I think i need to vent my spleen at todays shitty Britain and the scum that infest it..:)

Out take

Thought I'd add this..

I like this as it captured a Tree Sparrow getting really stuck into the seeds!
Im sure this could be captioned!



So, we are into the new year..

How's it going for you? Send me an email, with pics would be great, to let me know what you are up to, what you've done, what your planning to do. In fact, send me anything you like. Funnies, You tube clips, web articles..anything. Personal pics would be really good.

What have I been doing? I've been out and about trying out my new camera. Near me in Baildon is the Denzo Marstons nature reserve. It's a great place and being positioned next to the river too it,s perfect to spend a couple of hours or so. I've managed to take some more pics here and captured Nuthatch, Robin, Kingfisher and Treecreeper. I'm pleased that I've seen the Kingfisher on 3 consecutive days and am confident I,ve discovered it's territory, where it feeds and possibly where it's nesting. So, if anyone wants to see a Kingfisher come and see me, the Kingfisher King! My next challenge is to spot and hopefully capture on film the Mink that have taken residence around the river and also (whisper it quietly as it's a well kept secret) Otter that have been reintroduced. I've been shown where the Otter have been spotted and one of the 'friends' of the reserve has shown me where Otter 'beds' have been placed. Watch this space.

Glad to see that Mum and Dad had a good journey home with no dramas, makes a change when things go to plan. Speaking of France plans have been made to revisit Normandy in early June. Accommodation has been booked and I' m looking forward to going back.

I,ve also been modelling! Yup, you heard it correctly, Mr Smith has fulfilled his first male modelling contract. Pictures to follow shortly...

Following my promotion at work I've been offered a position at the new management grade. I'm now in negotiation to iron out some sticking points but could be in post by the end of Feb.

Keep looking into the blog and I'll catch you all soon.

Ady

This weekend

...just had a great weekend down in Bourne.  Went for a suprise trip to see my parents off on their journey back to France.  Ollie and I set off at 5:45pm on Saturday evening and enjoyed a dark journey down the A1 to Bourne.  We chatted all the way and enjoyed a late supper at Burger King where Ollie became king of the burgers and has the crown to prove it!

He was able to completely suprise Grandma and Grandad by jumping out on them shouting 'SUPRISE!' as they returned home to Ed's from an evening meal at the local Tandoori.  A nice evening on the Glenfiddich followed (Ollie was on Fanta lol) before an early morning rise led to most of us watching Star Wars IV 'A new Hope' on Blue Ray as Dad loaded the car for France.

We succesfully saw Mum and Dad on the way to France by waving them off at 11:45am on Sunday morning and after doing some Sunday morning shopping Ollie and I left for home at halftime in the Scum v Man City game gettting home for 4pm.

It was good to hear that Mum and Dad had reached the overnight stop in Calais by 4:30 pm GMT and another weekend was over.

My beautiful boy asleep and oblivious to the world on Saturday night...

The Singularity

Whats that i hear you say...the Singularity, or more specifically the Technological Singularity??

Let me give you the dictionary defination (or at least the wikipedia definition)

"refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means, very probably resulting in explosive superintelligence"Since the capabilities of such intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as an intellectual event horizon, beyond which the future becomes difficult to understand or predict. Proponents of the singularity typically state an "intelligence explosion"^[2][3] is a key factor of the Singularity where superintelligences design successive generations of increasingly powerful minds."

Basically this means as we develop as a human race, we rely further and further on I.T. or 'computer intelligence' to continue the human race development.  Alledgedly by 2050 we will reach the 'SINGULARITY'  which is the point at which the artificial intelligence we have developed, nutured, and taught actually becomes more intelligent than we are.  It will have independent thought, and quicker thought than we have as humans.

Now this is actually earth shattering if you think about it.  Once we reach the singularity there is no turning back.  However as we currently stand on Earth with 'tribal differencies'  always to the fore and the IT and Inteligence war between the EAST v WEST, there will always be the race to be the first to develop this technology.  Because of this, the distrust between nations and cultures, it is inevitable that the singularity will occur. 

So what happens then?  Computers with independent thought....?

If you think i'm the Doomsday soothsayer forget it...it WILL happen.. further reading here..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singularity_Is_Near




The truth is out there..

Bolton Abbey

Went to Bolton Abbey today to try my camera out at some Bird photography...here's a few images I captured..

A pair of Coal Tits sharing seeds..

A Great Tit in profile, ready to fly away..note this one has been tagged

A rare sighting for me..a Nuthatch

A nice shot of a Chaffinch..i think he's looking at me!

The Nuthatch back..

My favourite shot..a pair of Coal Tits

Think i may have found a new hobby!

A few more Christmas pics

Just clearing the scan disk cards on the camera and found a few more pics from over Christmas..

Here's Sophie and Ollie enjoying 3D TV at Ed's house..

 Ollie doing his Dr Who regeneration!

Des, Sharon, Sophie and Chloe enjoying a New Years eve drink..

Ollie Skye-ping his Granny 'Apple' and Uncle Edward

Woke up to someone nibbling at my nuts this morning..

Trying out my new Camera..

Toot Toot Happy New Year Toot Toot!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all had a suitably joyous happy New Years Eve and managed to see in the New Year with a tipple or too.  I did and finally conked out at 2:45am, one of my earlier finishes.  It must be an age thing.

Christmas was great with the highlight being boxing day where i was able to celebrate with my family my parents 50th wedding aniversary.  This year my Christmas was focussed all around my parents 50th and seeing my son.  It was important that mum and dad realised how special they are and what a special achievement they were celebrating - i think we succeeded in this.  Thanks to Eddie and jackie for for hosting the celebrations. 

Ollie and myself had great fun and were able to bond over the little time we spent together.  Ollie is already more accomplished at flying his remote control helicopter than I am and whereas i was destroying poinsetta plants and artex ceiling with errant flying and abortive landing attempts, ollie just plants it down wherever i challange him to land it!

Well here's looking forward to the new year and all that it holds, it could be a good one!

Don't forget to send me messages, items for the blog and general nonsence, photo's are particularly welcome.  Send all items to me at   adymsmith@googlemail.com  and i will post them on the blog on your behalf.

Here's a few pictures of my parents 50th..

Congratulations Mum and Dad!

The original 'Smiths'

3 generations

Nice knife!

Do you know you've a dead animal sat on your head Dad?