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Today I went to see London Wasps play Leicester Tigers, at Wasp’s home ground in High Wycombe. Wasps had a great game, with Danny Cipriani returning to number 10 after playing for the national team. Wasps took the lead early in the first half but Leicester battled until very end, scoring a converted try in the last phase of the game. It was close game and great to watch.

Overall I was struck by how low-key the Rugby match felt compared to premier league football games. Considering Wasps and Leicester are perhaps the two of the biggest teams in the league, I did not expect to casually walk past Danny Cipriani as he made his way to the ground. Or find myself standing less than 2 meters from the manager’s area during the game. At just under 10,000 spectators in attendance Rugby league matches are a much smaller affair than the England international matches, which regularly fill Twickenham with over 80,000 people. Premier league football matches, for the top 5 sides at least, will have over 50,000 people in attendance.

There was very little of the glitz and glamour so often associated with sporting events these days. It was all excellent fun and really refreshing. Just some great Rugby played in level headed surroundings. It’s defiantly something I hope to be seeing a lot more of.

London Wasps Official Site

BBC Match Report

I brought a Wii about two months before Christmas with Wii sports and Zelda - and it's been great fun. Zelda is possibly the longest game I have ever played - with 30 hours play time under my belt, I think I'm only about 1/2 way through! This post however is about Super Mario Galaxy, which I received as a Christmas gift. Its easily the best game that I have played on Nintendo's Wii todate - moreover possibly one the best games of 2007?

I have just completed "Sweet Sweet Galaxy" - which is fiendishly difficult. The video of the level below was not created by me. I have to say who ever is playing in the video did a much better job than me!

Playing this level over and over, when I was so to end was incredibly frustrating! It reminded me of playing Mario Kart on the SNES when I was young. I can still remember shouting at the TV as Luigi nocks you off that 1st place spot, with a green shell on the last straight, for the 15th time. They were good days!

I have recently gained access to the a Nexstar telescope. This telescope has been kicking around for a while without being used, yesterday I decided that it was about time we used it. After about an hour of reading intrusions (there are a lot) and brushing up on my space terminology, I was ready to make my first star gazing outing.

Setting up 'the observatory' in the back garden I went through the tricky process of getting the telescope aligned to well know orientation stars. This process would have most likely been simpler if when it asked me to locate the star (fill in some abstract name) I knew which one of many I could see it was. However I did persevere and after a few confusing moments the telescope was set up and ready to go.

Starting simple I decided to take a look at the moon. The images of the telescope were great showing all the creates and contours of the moons surface. Enjoying the view I remember reading something many moons ago (I know...) about taking photos from telescopes just my placing the camera at the eyepiece and focusing to infinity.

Allays willing to tinker with things I set to work. I did not have any adaptors or mountings of any kind to hold the camera so I literally held the camera over the eyepiece. The emitted image from the telescope is actually focused on a narrow beam so you need very steady hand and a lot of pacence to get a good shot. However on the whole the photos did not come out bad at all. The end results can be viewed in my gallery.


As you can see from the sample above some of the photos have visible areas of over exposure whilst others are sharp. I am not entirely sure what has caused this effect as when taking the photos I turned the exposure down as low as I could. I think it could be because I was holding the camera by hand and therefore wobbling it a little when taking photos. With such a narrow beam of light projecting the image onto the camera even the slightest movement creates a enormous effect when taking the photos. After some research one other possible explanation is that the moon is only a few days from being a full moon. This is an important factor because when completely un-obstructed the moon is at its brightest due to fact that all reflect light from the face is directed at earth. I believe this happens to such an effect that taking a photo of the moon is just like trying to take a photo of the sun, just too bright.

I am not entirely convinced that ever of the reasons above is the root cause of the problem. I will however try using a camera tripod of some kind to aid in the lining up, and the holding steady, of the camera. By this time the moons cycle should have moved away from the full moon too. I will post the results...

If any readers should know why some of the images are over exposed, or can offer some advice on how to get clearer sharper pictures then please post a comment or mail me.

Cheers, Matt

The following is a video of Mike Ly and I flying a 7m Felxifoil bullet in light winds. The location if the Parkwood playing field at the University of Kent. It's just a simple video with a few kite skills, more ground breaking material might take a little longer to perfect...

I have recently been listening the new OK Go album "Oh No". The album sees quite a change in style from the last and debut album. This album is very much a step away from 'pop punk' and is more Indy styled music. However this is a good sound, and one that suites the band well. The best track on the album has to be "A Million Ways", the video for which is a cracker.

The video (with permission) is shown bellow. The guys dancing in this video are the actual band members. When was the last time you sore four Indy rockers move like that? Good Show!

"A Million Ways" by OK Go

It's raining again in the UK, not that I mind because I am revising. I managed to get a small thunder sample using my ipod and italk recorder. Now this is a sound seen blog entry as its still going on...

Night, Matt

The storm sample is available here.

I have a dream, a simple dream. Somewhere, sometime I would like to make my dream come true. I imagine a clear countryside, blue skies and smooth moderate winds. I am in an isolated region, be it field, desert or beach, quietly unwinding four strings from handles, taking care to remove the twists and turns of life from the rapping threads. Attaching the killers to my wrist I grip the handles in my hand and take one last look at the swaying grass and moving clouds. Pulling the strings tort I watch wind breathe life into an otherwise normal sheet of material. Then with a sharp tug the sound of rippling canvas ceases, and like a bird soars into the sky, free once more.

My kite in hand the motion around me becomes still, as I watch the strings cut the air with a whistling speed. In that moment, when the wind lifts the kite off the ground and into the air, I too feel a sense of freedom. As the kite moves gracefully through the air I too feel my soul lift free from the strains of life. During this one simple moment I am awash with calm.

My dream is a simple one; to take my simple pleasure to a place of simple beauty and bask in the simpleness of life.