The end of another year/torch of the year.

 

 It's new years eve and another year nearly over.  So whats it been like?  Frankly, crap!

 The usual stress should have got better when my mother went into a care home, it hasnt, if anything it's got worse.  Shes now moaning about everything, constantly, the food, the careres (who seem nice enough) the homes going to fall down.  Her room is bugged to listen to her conversations. WTF would they learn?  My mum was a nurse not a spy, and she spends most of her time alone in her room anyway, nothing to hear.

 Sadly thats not all the stress, my cars electrics are playing up again, noting major, just a PITA just before MOT time, as it does every year.

I've got house problems, thats another drama unfolding, thats a bigger job to get sorted, proably months of work, and cheaper to knock it down and start from scratch, sadly thats not an option.

 

Anyway enough of my whinging, and onto TORCH OF THE YEAR!!!  insert drum roll here.

Waynesworldblogs torch of 2022 is.....   Trraaaa  Raaaa!  the Lumintop EDC AA.

 Yes a cheap, small single AA or 14500 battery torch.  Just about small enough-ish to fit on a keyring, or will slip in a pocket no problem.  It has reasonable battery life, loads of light, especially on a 14500, and it comes with a diffuser to make a mini lantern type torch.

 I have to say with all the other torches I've played with and tested this year, this ones grabbed me, it's the one I reach for to use every time I need a quick light, like yesterday looking for bolts to build a bed.  For it's size it's impressive, if this was my only torch I'd not worry being stuck at the top of pen-y-fan at night, it would get me down no worries.

The Lumintop edc and a AA battery

Lumintop GT Nano torch review.

 

 The Lumintop Nano is a courious torch. In truth a tiny copy of it's bigger brothers (the biggest needs seeing to believe)  this one though is tiny, like a toy almost, it would fit inside a christmas cracker no problem.

 That said it's not a toy, it puts out a whopping 450lms on turbo, ok battery life on high (about 350lm) is only about 20 minutes, but this thing is tiny, and with the power set to around 30lm you might get an hour or two.  It uses the tiny 10180 battery thats 80mha. No thats not a mistake, 80mha. It can be used with a longer tube and a 10440 battery though, these are around 300mha, so you'll get a lot longer run times.

 The beam choice like it's big brothers is a thrower, this tiny torch  lights up at least a 100 metres, my test distance and theres enough spill to see where your going.

 This really is a keyring torch, it's a bit longer and the head is fatter than a AA battery.  It's really light too.  And as batteries are cheap and the 10180s are tiny, three spares would take up about the same space as a AA battery near enough.

 The interface is... well simple and complex.  It has a click for on, hold down the single button to ramp up or down, double click for turbo and double click again for strobe. Oh and four clicks for lockout.  Sadly theres more, the torch is configurable, you can choose the power of various setting and light levels, turn off ramping and have steped light levels, chose your strobe mode and frequency, even alter what temp the torch "steps down" to prevent overheating (I'd suggest you leave that one alone)

 If I'm honest I'm baffled whay they used such a complex interface on a torch thats this small.  And thats it's one real flaw, it's so small it's akward to hold in your hand.

 So whats my take on this, well as an everyday carry, it's battery life is painfully short on full and the throw beam not ideal for a walk around torch, yes it'll work and you'll have no trouble seeing where your going, but not for long.  Personally I'm going to buy the longer tube (cheap enough) and a couple of 10440 batteries, these will give a lot longer runtimes as they have about 4 times the capacity, and frankly the longer length will make it easier to hold.  Ok I'll lose the tiny size, but it still wont be big, and a thrower in the pocket is handy for seeing whats off in the distance.

 Shown here with a AA battery for rough scale.

Some famous people who died this year

 

 This is just some of the well known and famous people we have lost this year.  Normally I post this around new years eve, but this year I dont know if I'll have chance to post again before then so I'll do it now.

So many of these have brought pleasure to many of us, and so many big names.  A sad loss.

 
Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022)

Leslie Phillips

Tom Owen

Robbie Coltrane

Angela Lansbury

Kirsty Alley

Terry Hall

Hilary Mantel

Bill Turnbull

Steve Grimmett

Robert Clary

Darryl Hunt

Bernard Cribbins

David Warner

Stuart Margolin

Paul Ryder

Steve Bronski

Gary Friedkin

Monty Norman

Mona Hammond

Frank Williams

Lester Piggott

Patric Tambay

Andy Fletcher

Alan White

Kay Mellor

Ricky Gardiner

Dennis Waterman

Stuart Margolin

Clarence Gilyard

Luke Perry

Ric Parnell

Stephen Greif

Ann Davies

June Brown

Jason David Frank

Peter Bowles

Lynda Baron

Veronica Carlson

Anna Karen

Ruth Madoc

Gary Brooker

Norma Waterson

Jo Kendall

Barry Cryer

Gary Waldhorn

A very strange Christmas.

 

 

 A very strange Christmas!.   No not the title of a Dickens novel.  Although best remembered for a Christmas Carol, he wrote a lot of books between about 1834 and 1870 when he died.

 No my strange Christmas was because it was very different from the normal Christmas that I've spent for decades.  The norm has been a big family get together at my mothers house, this involves days of food shopping, hours of turkey cooking, and Christmas dinner about 3.30 in the afternoon, usually cold by the time the plating up and arsing about has finished.

 This year was different.  I had the turkey cooked the night before, I had dinner in my own house, piping hot, and dishes washed before 2.00.   And I could have a drink, normally I cant drink at Cristmas before the evening when I get home, this year I sat with a VERY large Mcallans and watched the utter shite that passed fro Christmas day telly.  Seriously who picked this load of tat to watch?  Theres better telly normally FFS.

Merry Christmas everybody. Ho Ho Ho!!!

 

 Yes Merry Christmas everybody.  Many thanks for those of you who have followed or viewed my ramblings over the year.

 Its the time to polish your glittery balls, feed the cat glitter so next doors lawn gets sparkly presents from Tiddles (dont actually do this I like cats) Wrap up lots of presents neatly, Not like my presents which look like the dog packed them, not helped by running out of bloody wrapping paper, and the stuff I had was terrible, thin doesn't come close.

 I put my tree up yesterday, took me about 10 minutes, I threw it up.   I mentioned before my Christmas spirit is lacking, and my body isnt too clever either, my backs knackered, I've had a headache for 4 days, which isn't a good thing.  Mind with the stress this year, thats not really a suprise.

 So onto the photo, it's ME as Santa, mind I look more like evil santa, but I have to work with what I have

May your Christmas be a good one.  Regards and Ho Ho Ho!

Busker 3 black and white picture

 The last of my busker shots, all taken on an old canon 30d with a fixed 35mm lens, this was part of a challenge I was doing.

Busker 2 black and white picture.

 A second busker. Shot on an old Canon 30d and 35mm lens.

Busker 1 black and white pic

 

 Shot today on an old Canon 30d with a Canon 35mm lens.

 

Last day of Christmas shooping for me.

 

 Tadays the last day of my Christmas shopping.  I've only had one day so far and todays the second, I'm not getting much, most are having money anyway so thats sorted.  This is get a replacement card for my mother who wrote the wrong names on my sons card (her grandson)  Get some book tokens as a gift for someone else.  Then it's home and make a cottage pie, which wont take too long.

 The only other thing I'm going to do is take some pictures for a competition, it's about using just one lens, the "nifty fifty" or 50mm lens or equivilent on a crop sensor camera, I'm taking an old Canon 30d and a 35mm canon lens, I'm not leaving good kit in a car during Christmas shopping.

I'm tired of idiots

 

 Yesterday I had to stop my car to avoid a woman and dog walking down the middle of the road, now it wasnt that she didn't see me or that she was crossing the road, no she was just walking down the middle of it.  When she saw me comming she made no attempt to go on the pavement (on both sides of the road) She just stayed there in the middle and waited for me to stop.  If it wasnt for the dog I was tempted not to stop.

 Speaking of dogs, also yesterday in the poor light of dusk I walked past a man with his dog, I couldn't actually see the dog, he was in bushes 15 metres away, neither could I see the thin black string the dog was on.  Luckly there was something about the way he was standing made me suspect a dog.  Had I not been looking for it, I could easily have fallen over the stupid invisible dog lead.  These need to be banned, seriously they do.

 Yesterday I managed to find my Christmas tree decorations.  Truth be told I dont feel very Christmas spirited this year.  Yes I got a few presents, the rest get money.  But I haven't put my tree up, and I've sort of half done my window lights, I say half done because my candle arch has died after many years of service.  I did spend an hour playing with it, with a tester and spare bulbs but the bastards not having any so I've binned it.  It's too late to buy another, and I cant be arsed!

 My cars electrics I've mentioned many times.  Being a Ford the electrics are designed to be crap.  Ford, designed by computer.  Built by robots.  Reapired by mechanics... daily  Well yet again this time of year the electrics start playing silly buggers. Frankly I'm sick of the thing.

How hard can it be?

 I really do wonder how hard can it be to design something properly?

 I've got a new hair clippers thingy, the one I've had for years died.  This one works just fine... well except for the cable to charge it.  You see to plug it into the mains theres a small plug, that will only fit one way around.  Fair enough no built in polarity protection.  But the problem is the plug has to go in at a special angle as well, not just a simple plug it in.  Oh no! It's a challenge from a bloody tv game show to get the plug at exactly the right angle.  Why FFS?

 My cars a bit the same, the first few times I put fuel in it checked half back out, again theres a "special" secret angle.  Again why?  No other vehicle I've owned had this issue... Mind it is a Ford, and they are always weird.

 Then theres energy saving lightbulbs, yes they do use less electric which is a good thing.  Sadly they use a TON more electric to make, cost 20 times the price of a simple old fashioned bulb, and have the lifespan of a mayfly... a very poorly mayfly, one with a cough and chest pains.  So you buy a new "energy saving" bulb every 2 weeks, very energy saving then.

 I've mentioned shampoo bottles before, lets design something intended to stand on the side of an uneven bath and make it top heavy. Sheer genius!  Lets be honest, only a person with the intellect and wit of a tuna in a cat sanctuary could come up with an idea as clever as that.  On the plus side they'll never figure out ho to breed.

 Same with mouth wash, so dangerous it needs a child proof top, unlike whisky or brasso.  obviously much safer to put in your mouth then... mind brasso tastes like shit, and getting a cold one is impossible in the shops...

Flambiant and more ice and leaves

 

 First the flambiant.  Now up to a few weeks ago I'd never heard the term "flambiant" it's a process of exposure blending done in photo editing programs like Photoshop and popular with estate agents.

 Now as I say I'd never heard the term, but I had used the process and similar ones to blend images, although that said I've not done a lot of estate agent work.  Not really my thing.

 The process itself is simple, essentially you take three shots of the room with the camera tripod mounted.  One with just the ambiant room lighting, one shot with flash bounced off the celing, and one shot exposed for the outside of the window view. 

 In photoshop these are stacked as layers with window layer on top, then ambiant layer in the middle and flash layer at the bottom.  Use photoshop align layers to make sure they are all aligned properly. Go to the window layer and add a hide all mask, go to ambiant layer and set blend mode to luminosity and opacity to around %50, now go back to window layer and with the brush tool (on the layer mask) paint the window back in  with a soft edge brush.  Thats more or less it.  Theres plenty of videos on youtube if you want more detail.

 Now the ice and leaves, yes it's shot on the phone again.  I do have to go out with the camera soon though, theres a competition I fancy entering, no prize just a bit of fun.

I've heard it all now!

 

 Yes I've heard it all now, this worlds fucked!  Today I heard people were  physically sick after finding out the story behind the little golden lion on a golden syrup tin.

 It seems Lyle the founder had strong religous beliefs, the lion was meant to be the lion Samson killed to collect honey from the bees that came to the dead lion.

 Seriously?, physically sick after finding out a logo on a tin of syrup is based on a book story.  How bloody mental do you have to be to get affected by that.  How many people even buy bloody golden syrup these days, not many I'll bet.

 If morons get sick from that how the hell will they cope when they lose a close family member?  or their cat dies, will they have to go to rehab, or just a padded bloody room somewhere.  FFS whats wrong with people these days.

Adverts, dont companies think about the message they are sending out?

 Whilst huddled over a pile of buring £50 notes (cheaper than putting the central heating on) I was thinking about some recent adverts.  Some companies have very clever advertising agencies, but no common sense.

 Theres one advert showng a car driving around Cruffs parade ring, very clever, going up a seesaw ect, except whats your advert really saying?  This cars a dog!  That what it says to me.

 Theres the classic Christmas advert with a table creaking under the weight of food and people from every nation in the world gathered around for a traditional family Christmas dinner.... family?   Errr No!  And who can afford that much food anyway.

 My personal favorite in the Virgin airlines advert.  My god, what a plane full of of weird, odd and scary people.  If I got on a plane and saw that lot, I'd get off quickly.  No way am I flying with Virgins dodgy looking bunch of crazies thank you.  I'd rather fly Iran air.

 We have car adverts on deserted roads, where the fuck do they film them, I cant find a deserted road!

 Adverts for electric cars, they way of the future... and the powers that be asking us to cut power usage to avoid power cuts...  Well thats a good reason to buy an electric car then.

 You see the problem with "clever" adverts is they dont sell your product.  When I see an advert for a product with a weird family, I dont associate myself with that product, I dont want to be like them, it's that simple, and if I buy that product, I might be as horrible and weird as them.

 For me the best adverts are simple ones, not because I cant see how clever your advert is, because you tried to hard to sell your shit to me.  If it's that bad you have to wrap it up in crap to sell it, they I dont want it.

 Buy Franks bread, it tastes great!...  Thats all you need, you dont need a baker on a Jamican beach, making bread on a jetski and delivering it by helicopter to a family of 158 nationalities and cultures, in the real world that never happens outside the UN building, and not ofen there are they speaking to each other.  

 Try reality for a change, thats where your customers live....  sadly!

No Christmas spirit this year.

 

 I've got no Christmas spirit this year, haven't even put my decorations up yet, can't be arsed!  I know it's not just me, my brother feels the same and other friends haven't bothered decoration yet either.

 

I've only bought a few presents, yes I know I'm a last minute kind of guy!  But I have left it late, no idea what to get most people.  Hell I haven't got my brothers birthday present yet and his birthday is in november.

Frosty leaves 3

 

 Got a really busy day again today, I'm shattered before I start, still someone has to do it.  Another frosty leaves shot.

 

 

Frosty leaves 2

 

 Taken in very poor light yesterday evening.  Frosty leaves on a wall.

 

 

Frosty leaves

 

 Took this picture on my way out last night, frosty leaves, and jolly cold it was too.

 

 

A few black and white shots

 New to the blog but not recent photos I'm afraid.  I've still not had time to go walkabout with a camera yet.

These were shot at a wedding a while back, they are what I call detail shots, they are handy for backgrounds for album pages and for the bride and groom to remember the day.

Normally they'd be in colour, but I've turned them to black and white, because I'm bored.

B17 crash NTSB early report

 

 The NTSB has released it's early findings on the mid air crash of a B17 and P63.  As I understand it the report says that the bomber stream and fighter stream were instructed to cross over from the 500ft line to the 1000ft line (from the crowd) the bombers were on the 500ft and the fighters on the 1000ft, swopping them over was probably to give the crowd a closer look at the fighters.

 As the two streams of planes crossed it appears the P63 was following a P51 and it's thought the pilot thought the bombers were clear, and from his turn angle he couldn't see the B17 but could see the P51 infront he was following.

 The proper full report will take a lot more time and try to understand more of what happened and who if anybody may be at fault, this early report is just that, the NTSB's early report, their conclusions may change if more data comes to light.

Playground

 

 Walking last night in the mist I spotted this shot of a playground, theres something a bit "off" about seeing it like this.  The mist was actually quite bad in places, but had thined out by the time I took this.