Long Time No Blog

Oh well, time to take down the tree remove the festive web picture etc. etc.
Not much blogging since christmas, the days just seem to have sped by and now I find myself psyching up for work on Monday (actually I did a few hours to day to let myself in gently).
Nothing too exciting has been happening. Planned to do a bit of skiing, but it didn't happen as there is no snow to speak of! What is the world coming to?


Between us in the family, however, we had enough new toys to keep us busy:
My youngest has a new Chemistry set, and like his father before him it did not take long until he was looking for forms of gentle explosions to play with (accompanied by adults of course). This took me back to my entry into the world of invention and the converted coal cellar I used to use to invent the latest world saving device along with all my chemical concoctions (the noisier the better). I think my greatest "invention" at the grand old age of 11 was "broadcast power". Little did I know that Microwaves were already in use, and that they had some kind of nasty side effects when used on a global scale (community cooking takes on a whole other meaning).


My eldest is into fitness nowadays, so we added a bike to the garage and a boxing bag to the cellar. I hope I haven't caused any structural damage with the drill. The wife also got a new stepper to keep those buttocks trim (no complaints there).


My midlester got a new bed and a ton of peripheral items, can't imagine what a 17 year old would want with such a large bed?


But my new toys are the best (of course). I already mentioned the iPod, and there isn't much more to say except that it is the best MP3 player at the moment, even when paired with a PC. Only thing I prefer on my old Hango is that is was possible to navigate without looking (great for bedtime listening or blind user).
The other new toy is an Epson perfection scanner which I intend to use for scanning all those old analogue negatives I have from the past 30 year of non-digital photography. First impressions are very good and when paired with the excellent Photoshop Elements (which is included) I think the scanner is a little wonder. No doubt I'll have more on this later.


WARNING: Nobody should think there is a really simple method of just showing a scanner all your old negatives and they instantly become perfect digital images. The process is time consuming and I reckon on dribs and drabs over a couple of years to get my 3000 or so photos in (and that is a small collection by many peoples standards). And not to mention with todays tools there are always "improvements" to be made to the originals :-)