Thursday, July 29, 2004

Chuffing Useful!

No doubt this will be utterly illuminating to any non UK readers for ficuring out the colloquialisms I often use... English slang and colloquialisms used in the United Kingdom

Posted by Dio Bach at 12:28 | 0 comments | links to this post

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Cardiff Bay Trip

Behind again this week! We were out down the bay on Saturday for a meal. It was me father-in-law's Birthday so we had a tasty lunch in the Waterguard by the lightship. Of course I had my camera and took some snaps. Firstly a couple of Elis outside where we had lunch. He was very interested in the daisies.

I wasn't really concentrating on the snapping, I had to let a lot of pictures go, but I took a few of the generel scenery that I'm quite happy about, so here are a few from around the place.

We ended up in town. One day I want to go and get some shops of the building tops on St Mary St and Queen St. There are a wide range of styles stuck on top of the modern shops. Whilst waiting for Mrs Dio I was admiring the top of WH Smith's in Queen St. I'd never noticed the carvings on it, lots of faces, so I took a few snaps as I waited.

One day I'll go in and snap a lot more of them, I've wanted to for years but never got around to it.

Posted by Dio Bach at 19:47 | 0 comments | links to this post

Saturday, July 24, 2004

At long last

I'm getting lazy, I haven't been out taking photos of a lunchtime for a couple of weeks. Me arse has just been glued to the PC of a lunchtime. Had to drop of a parcel at the post office so I took the opportunity to get some snaps around the garden side of the Cathedral.

As I left the bottom gardens I caught what must have been a well expensive wedding leaving the Cathedral. For some reason there was a chimney sweep stood outside? Tradition or something? I don't know...

Then a few shots up around the top of the Dean's steps and Bridge Street.

I don't know why but I seem to like going out less in the Summer. Its been a mixture of close, hot and greyness recently. I should get out more. I should go to Insole court as well, but now the kids are off, I bet its pointless.

Posted by Dio Bach at 00:23 | 0 comments | links to this post

Friday, July 23, 2004

More Doctor Who

All the latest on the new series and location shoots with Cardiff (once again) doing a good impersonation of London.

Posted by Dio Bach at 13:44 | 0 comments | links to this post

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

The Neu Dr Who

We haven't heard the end of this in the office, the whole project is surrounded by secrecy, rumours and unnecessary panics. We can see the production office from here, and I'm sure if they could cover that up they would!

Here (Pop up Real Player unfortunately...) for the Doctor Who fans abroad is an exclusive peek into the production of the new series and an interview with a 21st century Doctor Who in the shape of Christopher Eccleston, broadcast last night on Wales Today.

Posted by Dio Bach at 09:01 | 0 comments | links to this post

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Vote For The Memo

Watched Restoration tonight on BBC 2 as it was the Welsh heat and I was interested in seein the bit about the Newbridge Miner's Institute and Memorial Hall. Those with a long memory for useless info may recallthis post about the film shot locally called "House!". The Memo is the building they used for the Bingo Hall interiors in the film and its up to be voted for tonight.

There are [DEAD LINK] swizzy interior shots and a panoramic here as well as what to do to vote.

It would be nice to see The Memo win as 1. it ain't stuffy and historical and 2. the interior is lush in a gaudy working man's club way.

A lot of the other buildings are middle-class and stiff upper lip, but this beautiful building is one that will speak to generations who lived through its hay day and to a present generation who have little preserved from a fairly modern (but fading) age.

Posted by Dio Bach at 21:14 | 0 comments | links to this post

Monday, July 19, 2004

New Painting

Flaming 'ell its been hectic. Grandparent visit and birthday party next door over the weekend - lots of missed sleep last night as Elis is teething again and lots of web stuff going on.

Somewhere in amongst all that I managed to finish one of the paintings I started alongside the Spires pictures a couple of weeks ago. I've named a new series with this piece as well (as there will be more of them if the demand is there.) Its called 'Silver Song (Cherry Blossoms 1') and looks like this:

and there is a detail here:

It went up for sale yesterday and already has 5 bids, all be it by the same person - if you fancy a bid it has a low reserve of £55. I quite liked doing this one, it didn't end up as I intended, but I do like the finished piece, there are loads of subtle bits of texture and layering when viewed close up. I have one more of this size and subject on the go and then I'm planning another figurative piece and maybe some montage pieces. I will see how it goes.

Posted by Dio Bach at 14:13 | 0 comments | links to this post

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

IMDB Is Short For

The idiots movie database. However - unsurprisingly given its main demographic, the skew towards Hollywood blockbusters and violent male fantasy flicks is apparent. Badly Dubbed Boy posted this 'how many of the top 100 on the IMDB top 100 have you seen?' thingy. It's a shame there's not a bit more thought gone into it - what exactly does finished it mean? Nothing in real terms. Here's mine anyway:

IMDB's Top 100 Best Movies of All Time
generate this HTML for your own page at ObeytheFist.com

Rank	Movie	Didn't See It/ Started It/ Finished It/ Hated It!
1	Godfather, The (1972)	Finished It
2	Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)	Finished It
3	Godfather: Part II, The (1974)	Finished It
4	Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003)	Finished It
5	Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002)	Finished It
6	Casablanca (1942)	Finished It
7	Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001)	Finished It
8	Schindler's List (1993)	Finished It
9	Shichinin no samurai (1954)	Finished It
10	Star Wars (1977)	Finished It
11	Citizen Kane (1941)	Finished It
12	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)	Finished It
13	Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)	Finished It
14	Rear Window (1954)	Finished It
15	Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)	Finished It
16	Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)	Finished It
17	Memento (2000)	Finished It
18	Usual Suspects, The (1995)	Finished It
19	Pulp Fiction (1994)	Finished It
20	North by Northwest (1959)	Finished It
21	12 Angry Men (1957)
22	Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001)	Finished It
23	Psycho (1960)	Finished It
24	Lawrence of Arabia (1962)	Finished It
25	Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)	Finished It
26	Silence of the Lambs, The (1991)	Finished It
27	It's a Wonderful Life (1946)	Finished It
28	Goodfellas (1990)	Finished It
29	American Beauty (1999)	Hated It!
30	Vertigo (1958)	Finished It
31	Sunset Blvd. (1950)
32	Matrix, The (1999)	Hated It!
33	Apocalypse Now (1979)	Finished It
34	Pianist, The (2002)
35	To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)	Started It
36	C'era una volta il West (1968)	Finished It
37	Some Like It Hot (1959)	Finished It
38	Third Man, The (1949)
39	Taxi Driver (1976)	Finished It
40	Paths of Glory (1957)
41	Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)
42	Fight Club (1999)	Finished It
43	Boot, Das (1981)	Finished It
44	Double Indemnity (1944)	Finished It
45	L.A. Confidential (1997)	Finished It
46	Chinatown (1974)
47	Singin' in the Rain (1952)	Finished It
48	Maltese Falcon, The (1941)	Finished It
49	M (1931)
50	Requiem for a Dream (2000)
51	Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)	Finished It
52	All About Eve (1950)
53	Se7en (1995)	Finished It
54	Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)	Finished It
55	Saving Private Ryan (1998)	Finished It
56	Cidade de Deus (2002)
57	Raging Bull (1980)	Finished It
58	Rashômon (1950)
59	Wizard of Oz, The (1939)	Finished It
60	Sting, The (1973)	Finished It
61	Alien (1979)	Finished It
62	American History X (1998)	Finished It
63	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)	Finished It
64	Léon (1994)	Finished It
65	Vita è bella, La (1997)	Started It
66	Touch of Evil (1958)
67	Manchurian Candidate, The (1962)
68	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)	Finished It
69	Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)	Finished It
70	Great Escape, The (1963)
71	Wo hu cang long (2000)	Finished It
72	Reservoir Dogs (1992)	Finished It
73	Clockwork Orange, A (1971)	Finished It
74	Amadeus (1984)	Finished It
75	Modern Times (1936)	Started It
76	Ran (1985)	Finished It
77	Annie Hall (1977)	Finished It
78	Jaws (1975)	Finished It
79	On the Waterfront (1954)
80	Braveheart (1995)	Finished It
81	High Noon (1952)	Finished It
82	Apartment, The (1960)
83	Fargo (1996)	Finished It
84	Sixth Sense, The (1999)	Hated It!
85	Aliens (1986)	Finished It
86	Shining, The (1980)	Finished It
87	Strangers on a Train (1951)	Finished It
88	Blade Runner (1982)	Finished It
89	Metropolis (1927)	Finished It
90	Duck Soup (1933)	Finished It
91	Finding Nemo (2003)
92	Donnie Darko (2001)	Finished It
93	General, The (1927)
94	City Lights (1931)	Finished It
95	Princess Bride, The (1987)	Finished It
96	Toy Story 2 (1999)	Finished It
97	Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)	Finished It
98	Great Dictator, The (1940)
99	Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)	Finished It
100	Lola rennt (1998)

Which movies have you seen?

Posted by Dio Bach at 09:12 | 0 comments | links to this post

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Sorry To Bore You

I'm not much into surfing, but the Severn Bore is something I'd like to see as a spectator. Basically the Severn pours too much tidal water into the smaller end of the river causing a twice daily tidal wave. A surfing colleague sent us a link to look at, full of interesting info, photographs and videos about it.

Posted by Dio Bach at 14:37 | 0 comments | links to this post

Saturday, July 10, 2004

Monthly Gallery Update

I feel like I've been ill for the best part of a fortnight. The cold I had before I finished for my holiday lingers on. I've gone through a week of a sore throat and cough and now tonight I find myself filling up with a resurgent head cold. I give in...

Anyways, I finally got around to update the June Galleries at my Digital Galleries site. Another quiet month, only 3 galleries this time around - here are a selection of so far unseen items from them. You can see the rest here [DEAD SITE].

Posted by Dio Bach at 22:13 | 0 comments | links to this post

Friday, July 09, 2004

And Finally... Desktop Derek

Finally, the latest work project is finished and live... Desktop Derek is one of those desktop toys that people like to have sit on the desktop to entertain them (personally - I don't). For those of you who don't know Derek, he is the weatherman on Wales Today and has his own TV series. He is well loved by a large Welsh audience. Now they can have him on there desktops all day long.

Its the first project like this I've worked on - I did the initial mock-ups of what he should do and could do. Unfortunately due to time restraints and budgets a lot of the more innovative stuff went by the wayside (things like chatroom and message board interaction.)

This stripped down version is nice and fun, very simple - and now we have done it once we can use the basic technique for a whole range of toys. I helped with the initial animation graphics and photo shoot, but all the really complicated stuff was done by our tech and design guys.

We haven't used this process before - these kind of things are normally made in Director or Visual Basic (so I'm told.) This one was made in Flash, the flash file was then added to a programme called Jugglor by Flash Jestor to make it into an .exe. Its so easy I think I could produce a very simple toy myself using flash and Jugglor.

Still a few little rough ends to tie up, but all in all I'm quite pleased in how its worked out.

Posted by Dio Bach at 16:04 | 0 comments | links to this post

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Sun Shine Before The Storm

Well, as my weatherman project is dragging its heels into tomorrow, here are a few snaps I took this lunchtime. Bright lights and contrasts and some flash fill in. On the whole a bit bland, but these are worth sharing IMO.

Apparently there's some very big storms on the way in tonight. Let's see how that pans out over the next couple of days with all the trees in full leaf.

Posted by Dio Bach at 22:00 | 0 comments | links to this post

Monday, July 05, 2004

Welsh Weather Photos

I was watching Derek's Welsh Weather earlier, and they featured this guy, a weather chaser in Wales and mentioned his site of weather photos. Its not as exciting weather to chase as his American counterparts in Tornado Alley I'm sure, but none the less there are some nice shots there, including funnel clouds and real hairy stuff.

Coincidentally there will be more about Derek tomorrow, as my new work project goes live, but more on that then.

Posted by Dio Bach at 19:50 | 0 comments | links to this post

Saturday, July 03, 2004

New Quay Photos

We spent most of the week in the caravan due to everyone's illnesses, so we only managed to get out for the odd hour here and there. We didn't do half the things we wanted and didn't get very far. I was nicely impressed with New Quay, just the right balance of peace and seaside cheese. The town itself is based on the side of a steep hill and its about half a mile down to the water level from the top of the town.

We stayed at Quay West, a mile up the coast from the town. There was a beach under that, which I assume is Quay West beach - it was about 2 minutes from our caravan, which was nice as you could hear the sea from the caravan. Anyway - we didn't get out much, but you know me - when we did the camera was at hand. Here are some of my favourites.

Firstly, views of New Quay itself. The light was crappy and flat but I there was some interesting colourful Victorian buildings and picture postcard views.

The harbour looked smashing but unfortunately we didn't get a chance to go down on it, which is a shame. Here are some views from the caravan park and the beach below it. Nice old wooden struts on the beach and plenty of interesting beach debris. All bar the last one were taken just as the sunset or just after, hence the low light and flash usage.

And Elis was nice enough to pose for a couple of snaps, looking suitably pissed off…

Posted by Dio Bach at 15:10 | 0 comments | links to this post

Dio's Curse

Well, bit of enforced break there. Been a long while since my last post and a lot has happened. Work wise I've been mental trying to tread water doing my regular tasks as well as finish off the latest project I've been working on, a desktop toy that tells you the latest weather conditions in Wales.

That goes some way to explaining the lack of postings. On top of that has been the fact I had a cold the end of the week before last, prophetic as this last week has been a week off work to go on holiday.

Recent years has seen each and every holiday I have had marred by illness or catastrophe. In a way the fact I had a cold at the start of my holiday had such a grim inevitability that I could but smile. It even got to the point that a work colleague said - "You off next week? Have you been taking some vitamin C In preparation?"

Recent holidays included - the insect in ear fiasco, cancelled trip to Torquay, either myself, Mrs Dio or Elis ill, more flu, even more flu. I swear my body waits for a chance to relax to bring all the illness to the surface.

Anyway - we returned yesterday from 4 nights in New Quay, Cardiganshire. I've been pretty much fine other than some underlying tiredness - but for the first 3 days Elis had a teething related fever and cold and at the end Mrs Dio also had a cold. The weather was cold and the caravan was damp. It didn't bother me, but I think Mrs Dio and Elis would never set foot in a caravan again if you paid them.

Anyway, catching up now. I've got bit of a sore throat and don't feel like I've had a holiday. Mrs Dio and Elis are still suffering (which means by default I also suffer) and the weekend is almost up. Bah, friggin' humbug. Stay tuned for some photos.

Posted by Dio Bach at 14:45 | 0 comments | links to this post

Web Fun Sections & Bits

Dio Bach's Updates

Blogging Friends & Contacts

Previous Posts

Dio Bach's Web Fun Archive