Flash's Journal
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Pictures at an exhibition
Fri, 3rd Jul 2009 @ 4:48 pm
Here are some photos of the gallery: http://www.gorge.org/images/gallery
Come on down! 877 High Road Leytonstone (next to Star of India), E11 1HR.
We are open on Thursdays from 11am - 3pm and again from 5pm - 9pm, on Fridays from 3pm - 7pm, and all day Saturday from 10am - 6pm. Also by appointment if you fancy a chat and a drink.
I invigilate on Thursdays from 11-3 and 5-6, and will be there from 10-whenever Imogen turns up on Saturdays 11 and 18 July.
Last day is Saturday 18 July!
From you, I get the story
Wed, 1st Jul 2009 @ 7:36 pm
Local press: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/w
Warning: Contains photo of me, and I'm even looking happy.
Tue, 30th Jun 2009 @ 11:12 pm
Music: Steeleye Span - Gamble Gold (Robin Hood) | Powered by Last.fm
Poll #1423467 If I made a podcast, would you listen?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All
What length would you prefer?
Up to 5 minutes
3 (27.3%)
Up to 15 minutes 2 (18.2%)
Up to 30 minutes 0 (0.0%)
I don't listen to podcasts 6 (54.5%)
I would appreciate it if you could pick the nearest option to your preference.
Also if you have any comments regarding frequency, format, or anything else, please leave them! 1 Comment | Comment on this
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Sun, 28th Jun 2009 @ 4:21 pm
Can I have some sympathy please? On Friday I somehow injured my shin and it really hurts! The lump has gone down now, though. 
E2A: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
nou agrees it looks much worse in the flesh than in the photo. Ow!
london calling
Fri, 26th Jun 2009 @ 11:48 pm
Art exhibition private view went very well! Happy.
Mike was a rock (again! as ever! I am so lucky!)
After our show closed we went to Leytonstone Arts Trail opening party at the Pick 'n' Mix show, which was in the Independent today.
My only regret is that I wasn't able to spend much time with my friends who came - even at Pick 'n' Mix I was talking to local artists / musicians / councillors etc. which meant I didn't chat long with those who had come specially to see me and my work.
More at some point soon - tired and need my bed.
I didn't mean to let them take away my soul
Mon, 22nd Jun 2009 @ 5:59 pm
Done:
Desk sourced
Flyers arrived
Wine bought and glasses hired
Photos arrived, a few reprints ordered (expected tomorrow am)
Private view invites out
Posters for show and A boards ordered (expected Wednesday)
Received keys to gallery, got them copied
To do:
Mount photos (tomorrow)
Buy padlock for front desk (tomorrow)
Make catalogue for sales (tonight?)
Find somewhere that sells white-tack and test it for strength (asap! everywhere's out!)
Edit videos to make a time lapse film (tomorrow)
Create "flags" for map of the route from cocktail sticks and labels (tomorrow)
Start taking everything to gallery and setting up (Wed onwards)
Then on Friday - chill drinks, wash hired glasses and take along to party.
We WILL be ready... somehow!
Poster girl
Sun, 21st Jun 2009 @ 8:08 pm
( Clicky clicky! )
2 Comments | Comment on thislook at this photograph
Sat, 20th Jun 2009 @ 8:24 am
Being on a budget, I ordered my prints for the show from Photobox this time, not Fotopic.
I like the fact that Photobox generally have them with you 48 hours from ordering, and that it's reliable in that sense; I don't need the worry about when the photos will turn up.
On the other hand, some of them are far too dark. A few photos were meant to be dark - some grungy underpasses - and that's fine. But one turned up today that is meant to show an orange gasometer with a green field in front of it - and it was all very dark, no vibrant colours at all.
So I will complain.
Now I am a bit concerned - do I risk letting them try again, or just go for a refund and go elsewhere for certain pictures?
I need to get them all mounted and into the gallery by Friday lunchtime.
Advice welcome - who do you recommend for being fast AND good?
My moment... I'm not going to let go of it..
Fri, 12th Jun 2009 @ 9:41 pm
Not sure if I blogged about this, but I probably should have done!
I've been exceptionally busy lately, because I'm on the organising committee for Leytonstone Arts Trail. I know I mentioned my own photography show[1] but I'm actually part of something much bigger.
Today, we received the keys to a large disused Woolworths store, which is going to host a huge group show for the three weeks of the trail. We think this is the first such use of a disused Woolies in the UK; it's certainly quite a coup, achieved with the assistance of Waltham Forest council. Fantastic to see a closed eyesore start to turn into a real focus for arts. The show is called Pick 'n' Mix. It includes something of everything, including some site-specific installations that are responses to the building.
In total there are more than 120 artists exhibiting in 31 events at 21 locations across the Trail - and most of them are wheelchair accessible which is rather good. So if you fancy a day of culture between 27 June and 19 July, come to Leytonstone. From 4 July the Leytonstone Festival will also be running (this is for performing arts, mostly music, whereas the Trail is visual arts) so there is plenty to see and do especially over weekends. On Sat 11 July there is music on Wanstead Park and on Sat 18 July the Arts Trail and Festival are both celebrating Leytonstone Day.The whole thing culminates in the What's Cookin' picnic on 19 July where there is plenty of free music and a craft fair as well.
I know E11 isn't somewhere you'd normally see as a venue nor an arts hub but there will be a lot going on, we have good transport connections, and there are some nice little places to eat [3]. Come for a day out here, and reset your expectations! There is also a lot of green space as we are on the edge of Epping Forest. If it's too far for a single day there are loads of places to stay in nearby Stratford[2], which is less than half an hour from the West End and central London.
Leytonstone Arts Trail Programme (27 June - 19 July)
Leytonstone Festival Programme (4-19 July)
Come along if you can (and drop in to see my show!) and tell your friends. It's rare that a community comes together to create something in this way - and this is why I love the area in which I live.
[1] click for flyer - and if you think you might be around Leytonstone on the early evening of 26 June let me know and I'll see if I can get you into the Private View party.
[2] Ibis, Holiday Inn, and there's a Hilton in Docklands.
[3] I can recommend the Golden Orient (just past the railway bridge) for good Bangladeshi food, or Meze (Church Lane) and Horizon (High Road near Woolies) cafés for lighter meals during the day.
that's the way (ahuh ahuh) I like it...
Tue, 9th Jun 2009 @ 3:05 pm
It's a year since aardvark179 told me about Last.fm. I've found it very interesting to go back and analyse my listening habits - it seems there are two stand out bands and the rest are in little groups below that.
Looking at the list, can anyone recommend some more artists I might enjoy? Are there any glaring omissions?
( List of musicians below the cut... )
think I'm turning Japanese
Tue, 9th Jun 2009 @ 2:06 pm
Here's the flyer for my photography exhibition - I'll be showing pictures of the North Circular Road (and hopefully a time-lapse film of the journey but I'm still working on that). Mine's the image in the middle of the flyer. The other artists are showing images of Kings Cross area, front doors, and living with asthma. 
If you're going to be near Leytonstone when we're open, please come and have a look. I will be there on Thursday mornings, and most of the Saturdays.
Other nice touches in Sims 3
Fri, 5th Jun 2009 @ 3:27 pm
"Do X indefinitely" "Sleep until X time". Nice to be clear about how long things will last (until they've achieved a need or a want, or until you tell them to stop).
I had a few problems with the inventory - for example Sigi carried the guitar around with him rather than leaving it in the house for others, Marisa read the paper and then carried it around with her, and I spent a few minutes trying to work out how to get caught fish into the fridge rather than simply naming them (!) or spending money to have them mounted.
Once you've got to grips with the inventory it's actually rather effective. Open the fridge, then drag and drop from inventory to fridge contents. Look in a child's inventory for homework rather than searching the house for it. Play the guitar anywhere you like! It's an improvement, and to new players it would probably be intuitive, but of course I was looking for things in the same places that I would have found them in Sims 2.
One thing hasn't changed: the school bus or work carpool will wait outside your house for an hour before work time. However, you can now cycle to school or even work from home if you miss it.
Pop into a game shop on your way home and buy Sims 3... but don't blame me if your weekend is very unproductive!
More about Sims 3
Fri, 5th Jun 2009 @ 2:13 pm
If you're not interested in Sims 3, please don't bother with this post...
This game is obviously more complex than Sims 2. There are more levels of depth to everything (for example deciding how hard to work at school or work, and dealing with the aftereffects) and it's initially a lot harder to keep up with everything - wants, needs, wishes, career...
On the one hand it's great that there's more depth; kids can catch up on homework at school, or even get detention. "Moodlets" let you see exactly how each need (e.g. hunger, energy, hygiene) is affecting that Sim and how much longer they will remain full / refreshed / clean etc. There are lots of nice touches like that which make the game far more detailed and more playable. Also, I've learnt how to customise all my furniture by creating styles. On the other hand, some of the additional depth means there's much more nitty gritty - for example, you now have to write a shopping list for your Sim and send them off to the shops. I hate writing my own shopping lists, and as I play Sims 3 for fun and relaxation it's a bit annoying to be taken back to the real world in that way. Great that I can get my child Sim to focus on making new friends at school, but there's no longer any element of surprise! Plus as the game is now more in-depth, it takes longer to play - it's not so easy to set them off with a chain of actions and hit the fast-forward button.
Still, the Sims are generally less demanding. They have wishes, but you can now promise to help them achieve their desire, or skip to their next request. Therefore there's less chance of getting stuck with a grumpy Sim. They are definitely more "human" which I think was the whole point of Sims 3.
Skills are less clearly defined. There is no longer a list of 9 skills which your Sim needs in order to progress, and a set of equipment to help them achieve. Now there are clearly far more skills, and each Sim only lists the skill as they acquire it; Sigimund wanted to learn guitar, and his progress now shows up under his skills tab. I have no idea which skills my Sims - or future Sims in different career paths - will want or need to acquire. That aspect is more realistic and definitely more fun.
Lifetime rewards are different, but arguably more useful. Instead of things like a Love Tub, rewards are characteristics such as fast metabolism or speedy cleaner. Hopefully when my Sims have earned a few of these it will enable me to speed up gameplay.
Tutorials are still proving useful; as you do something for the first time you are offered a very quick tutorial which amounts to 4 - 8 click-through pages about how that aspect works. I have got stuck into the game without even opening the manual, and that's a real advantage.
Two nice touches: Activities now have a meter on them showing how far through they are - for example when taking a bath. Also, each Sim has their own cellphone - at last! Hooray!
Finally - what's with all the silly pixellation? Has anyone got a naked patch out yet? ;-)
Sims 3 early review
Fri, 5th Jun 2009 @ 12:39 pm
Coming up for breath, well ok, lunch. Quick first impressions - 30m to install, 2m to load, easy and quick tutorials. Sims look so much more realistic and there's a lot to do with them - attending to all their wishes and needs, which are slightly differently organised. I'm still finding my way around it but I suspect I'll find it easier than Sims 2 once I'm used to it.
The options do feel a bit bare, since I'm used to Sims 2 with loads of expansions and "stuff packs" - not many choices of furniture etc. but I'm sure this will come with expansions.
Sims now get up to five traits - you can pick from a very long list including hydrophobe, perfectionist, dislikes children, light sleeper, computer whizz etc. Once you've done this, you are offered a limited choice of lifetime wants based on their character (this is great because it always annoyed me in Sims 2 when my favourite sim would then develop a lifetime want such as "have 20 grandchildren").
You can customise clothes to whatever colour you like, skin tone and body shape are now on sliding scales rather than a few fixed options, and furniture comes with a randomise button which will give it a different colour or pattern each time - all these things help to make the game more interesting and each family and house a little more distinctive (particularly with the limited furniture options).
Really like the way that furniture can be placed more precisely now - within fractions of a "square" or on the diagonal - but this caused problems with the chess set when I didn't quite get the seat close enough to it until I finally worked out why you could only watch the game and not join from a certain seat.
There are lots more things for them to do in town (or perhaps it's just more intuitive now) - I never used to take my sims to community lots, but now it's easy to look at the town and send the sim to a particular location to ask for a job, watch a show or take a class. They will come back to the house when they're done so you can just leave them to it and forget about them for a while.
The ability to pop between house/lot and town without waiting for one or the other to load is brilliant; it's far more integrated.
The only thing I dislike is that it took me a long time to work out how to scroll off the screen left and right; you can still use arrow keys but if you want to do it with the mouse you need to hold down the right button, which I keep forgetting to do. I guess I'll get used to that.
End of lunch - back to it!
Strange eyes fill strange rooms
Tue, 2nd Jun 2009 @ 6:58 pm
SUCH a strange day. I don't know where to begin.
I went to a funeral in Amersham, which is pretty much as far from my house as you can get on the Underground network. I planned to travel most of the way on the Jubilee line, and then it would just be one cross-platform change at Finchley Road. As I arrived in Stratford I realised I'd forgotten my Freedom Pass and asked the gate staff whether it was like buses, where wheelchair users travel free, or whether I should buy a ticket. I don't mind buying a ticket - I just didn't know the answer! She said it would be fine, she'd let me through and they would at Amersham too. And indeed they did, both there and back.
However, as I passed through the ticket barrier there were announcements of severe delays on the Jubilee line, so I made a quick change of plan but now had to get four trains instead of two. I was lucky; trains to Amersham only go 4 times an hour, but I caught my planned train at Finchley Road with a minute to spare. It was due to arrive at Amersham at 11.25, so I called the crematorium, determined that it would only take a few minutes by taxi to get there, and I should just about make the 1130 funeral.
For a "fast" service, my train didn't half dawdle. It stopped for ages at every station we served, and many times in between. It arrived at Amersham at 11.50, and the station turned out not to be as accessible as advertised; the other platform was fine, but I had to go up and over from where I was. Luckily a kind man carried my wheelchair while I took the steps one at a time. I made it to the crematorium just in time to meet the mourners leaving the service.
It was quite sad - my friend was only 52 and died of liver problems, in fact the description sounded horribly similar to the way my dad's illness has progressed (and my dad's only in his 50s too). Both my dad and my late friend share the same name: Ian.
I spoke to his widow and gave her a card and donation from the Glastonbury Messageboarders, which will go to the ITU which cared for Ian. I didn't know anyone else there, apart from their autistic son, who kept shaking my hand, giving thumbs up, smiling, and wandering around. I really felt for Ian's family.
They invited me back to have food and drink at their local, and having missed the service I felt I should go, to catch up and pay my respects. A lift was rustled up for me and off we went.
It was strange - I knew nobody, but everyone knew who I was. Even the landlady at the pub said "you must be Flash". Apparently Ian often talked about me - something I found touching and unnerving at the same time. If anything was going to make me sad, it was that. He was always offering for me to join him if I was passing, but I've never been to High Wycombe before and certainly don't happen to be passing by. Now I sort of wish I had done.
We had a minute's silence, and then a toast to Ian. Then for the buffet, and meeting Ian's friends and family. It's so strange how the threads of someone's life only seem to meet at their funeral, and then you may learn more about them but it's all too late.
I got a lift back to the station, and once on the train pulled out my phone to reveal TEN missed calls. A mobile had called me repeatedly; I called back and left a message, but still don't know who it was. Another was from the BBC, asking if I could go on the Chris Evans Drivetime show to talk about pylons, and of course I agreed - but the show would have started by the time I returned home, so it was going to be close. I rushed home, walked the dog, and just made it back in time!
In the end all was well, and I have just spent five minutes talking to Chris, trying to stifle giggles at his silly questions and upbeat manner. Much my favourite of all the pylon-related radio interviews I've done. And already we have two new members of the Pylon Appreciation Society.
So today has been decidedly strange: highs, lows, and 5 hours on public transport.
on the radiooooo
Tue, 2nd Jun 2009 @ 5:55 pm
For those who don't follow me on Twitter and who tell me off after I've been on the radio without mentioning it...
I'll be on Radio 2 in about 15 mins (6.10pm) talking about pylons on the Chris Evans Drivetime show.
convenient parking is way back (revisited)
Sat, 30th May 2009 @ 4:15 pm
I contacted the police who patrol the trading estate where B&Q is situated and spoke to a lovely PC who gave me the management company's address.
He rang back later to say he'd spoken to B&Q and they had removed plants from three of the bays, and were going to free up another two over the weekend (theoretically leaving just one disabled bay full of stock, and eleven available for parking).
The good news is that they have indeed removed plants from some of the disabled parking bays.
The bad news is that they have replaced them with a gazebo containing a woman selling trampolines.
I despair. 
Larger version
Convenient parking is way back
Tue, 26th May 2009 @ 6:18 pm
Here's a fun game - Spot the Disabled Parking Bay!
There are 4.5 spaces in this photo, can you see them all? 
Larger version here.
In fact 6 spaces were affected. B&Q - a letter's in the post.
where there's life there's generally a bar
Fri, 22nd May 2009 @ 9:28 pm
It's been a funny old week.
Last night I heard of a death - a friend, Ian Tabor, better known to Glastonbury Messageboarders as HGM. Conflicting emotions, because we used to get along very well, but hadn't spoken much since I resigned as a mod on the messageboard earlier this year. Among his family he leaves an autistic son, who he doted on. I'm making plans to go to his funeral.
This morning my friend ryk became a dad - he and his partner Anna have a little girl, Nadine. I could not be more pleased for them because this is what they really wanted. Ryk sounded so happy when we spoke earlier.
I'm just waiting for a marriage to complete the set... having said that, a friend is becoming Civilly Partnered this week, and I'm going to her commitment party next weekend.
All boxes are ticked!
Have a great weekend.
Sweet dreams are made of this...
Mon, 18th May 2009 @ 6:10 pm
I can haz Dreamwidth!
Haven't decided how to use it yet, but if you're on there please add me to your circle, and let me know so I can reciprocate.
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