I have been trying my hand at video work. I touched on video a few years and realised it was a whole different ballgame. A lot more work involved compared to photography. But it is a medium I wish to tryout (again). With the Canon 5D MKII, it has opened up photography and video into the one camera. With a 21 megapixel sensor and a HD video option, its a real crowd pleaser.
Check out the white shark video to try to determine the location: (a) Guadalupe Island; (b) South Africa; (c) South Australia; (d) Farallon Islands; or (e) none of the above?
The answer is "e."
It's a newly discovered white shark aggregation site and news of its existence is sure to pique the interest of scientists and documentary teams.
An announcement regarding the site will be made this weekend by Shark Divers, a company that used to be in the commercial cage-diving business but now specializes in working with film and television crews.
For now, its code name is Oceana and Shark Divers CEO Patric Douglas, who labels it the most exciting white shark site discovery since Mexico's Guadalupe Island in 2001, would only confirm that it's a very remote island in the Southern Ocean.
Douglas said a limited number of crews will begin visiting the location early next year and that it remains unclear whether a commercial cage-diving operation will be established.
Cage-diving operations are beneficial in that they allow the general public to develop a better understanding and appreciation of the embattled apex predators. But they can also be harmful to sharks--especially those that accidentally get caught between cage bars--and some charge that chumming habituates the sharks.
Because aggregation sites are so few, they do need to be protected and diving operations need to be regulated. "These sites need to be protected with everything we've got," Douglas said. "Now that the site is known, we've got to get the public behind it so the local government can say 'Yes, we need to turn this into a special place.' "
--Pete Thomas
Video courtesy of Shark Divers
I recently had a chance to dive the Zenobia shipwreck in Cyprus. Its pretty well intact as far as ships go...Not much else to see though :-(
Just did the Great Run series 10k on in the Pheonix park here in Dublin. I ran my fastest time for a 10k. Although I didn't think I was running my fastest. Still, a tough run for me :-)
Reviewing times from previous years :
2006 - 10k Time: 00:52:32
2007 - 10k Time: 00:55:36
2008 - 10k Time: 00:52:57
2009 - 10k Time: 00:47:46
Just playing with the new version of Corel Painter 11. A fantastic program for artists and non-artists (like me).
Here is my 1st effort :-) Not sure what my image is trying to say to me :-o I need to get out more ;-)
I came across this photo. Just thought it was very funny.
I am the owner of a new XBOX 360 Elite. It took me some time to decide if I should get this "Micro$oft" box game console.
It has been in the back of my mind for the past year. A couple of recent deciding factors were, games like Fable II, Gears of War 2 and Fallout. All getting top reviews, --I wanted to experience the graphics on the XBOX 360. The xbox360 can be hacked with a custom firmware.
This was definitely a deciding factor. I have the Nintendo Wii and its hacked with a d2pro modchip. The tipping point came when I tried the game 007: Quantum of Solace on the Wii. This was a call of duty 4 game engine. So it should be good, right ? Err, Wrong. I found it not very playable. I am disappointed in the screen resolution of the Wii. Every game is low resolution. Great for party games and all that but it sux for anything serious. So a "Next Generation" console was on the cards. I had a choice of two; the PS3 or the XBOX360. Because the 360 was hackable, I went with that. Maybe it stands good for Micro$oft that it can be hacked ?
I bought it for €299 + a free game of choice. Call of Duty : World at War was my choice. Should have picked Fable II, but I had tunnel vision in the store :) Also a extra game controller costing €44. The next day I went out and bought Fable II €51.
My time was finished spending money on the XBOX360. "TO THE FORUMS!" I shouted in my head. There are a few good sites that give good information. One .pdf file called "Hacking the XBOX360 for NOOBS" by a guy calling himself textbook, was sound information. I ended up on team-xecuter.com going over and over it. I bought what's called a connectivity Kit 3 pro. This hooks the drive in the xbox360 to your computer. Flash the firmware in the drive and presto, it sees backup games in the drive. It is slightly complicated but reading and understanding the process is most of the battle.
Now I have a backup of Call of Duty : World at War and Fable II. Maybe I'll return them to trade for another game. Thanks to the internet, everybody has access to websites like www.mininova.org , www.thepiratebay.com to download files that are made available there.
So the XBOX360 overshadows my poor little Wii now. It barely gets a look in on the TV screen. I guess the Wii has its own unique charachter about it. Its a lot quieter, it has fun games, Wii fit is a revolution and the balance board with beer and Shaun Whites Snowboarding is dangerous like the real thing :)
The XBOX360 seems to be big and bold(ish). Giving you the games and graphics then letting take as much as you want out of it.
My console collection includes DSlite, PSP, Wii, Xbox360. All hacked. Roll on PS3 :-S
I completed the marathon. It took me 3 hours and 51 minutes. Was a hard slog from 13 miles onwards. Posting this a week later I feel much better and may even get out for a 4 mile run tomorrow :-) Run off all the beer I had at the weekend celebrating ;-)
With just one week till the marathon, theres no going back now. I have been training for the last 4/5 months pretty much every second day and a few six days a week. The last long run was 18 miles two weeks ago. I think I tore some muscle in my upper leg. Cant quite get back into the swing of it. Resting mostly the last couple of weeks. I need to get one more long run in. I think anything over 10 miles will be ok.
I don't remember it being this hard when doing the last marathon :-0
And on a totally different note I installed MS Vista 64-bit version on a HP laptop last night. Between initial install, updates, downloads and service packs, it took about 5 hours to complete(ish). Its certainly a hard drive thrasher! This is a dual core 1 gig ram laptop. At the end, it pops up and says some trojan is trying to run from a folder (hidden folder). No, it just wasn't happening. Come back suse linux.....all is forgiven.
I created a new calender for 2009. Beautiful images of sharks I have takem over the past few years. Oh and a lovely widgets script below too. Provided by lulu.com
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