Blinded By The Sun

This should, perhaps, have made it to the internet long ago - but the clocks changed recently and it thoroughly disoriented me.

I survived the March 20th Solar Eclipse, without blinding myself in either eye. Opinion and interest regarding said event is no doubt split. It was a minor inconvenience in that it reduced natural brightness by some factor of lumens and decreased the ambient temperature somewhat, and if you have little to no interest in the goings on of the celestial bodies - this would likely have irked you; especially with all the media hype.

However, I maintain some degree of interest in the event and built up enough courage to leave the safe confines of indoors to venture 'outdoors', camera kit in tow.

I shan't bore you with the ins and outs of how one might go about taking photos of the sun, or indeed an eclipse, but long story short - the same factors that can lead to you going blind, can lead to the camera going blind - and I have two eyes, but only one camera!

Auto was clearly not the right setting

That's more like it

After seeing numerous articles pertaining to the potential blinding of anywhere up to the entire population, I was a little skeptical, and naturally wanted to avoid actually going blind. I opted not to use the viewfinder on the camera as this would be equivalent to getting out a telescope and looking directly at the sun - probably not a good idea to be magnifying the burning ball of gas. Sticking with the 'live view' on the camera's display I managed to snap a few semi-decent pictures whilst not burning out my retinae or the image sensor. Job well done.

Roughly the 'peak' of the apoc-eclipse

I don't mean to brag, but even Nikon were impressed at what I'd managed to achieve...

Great in-camera shots from @oddbod92 MT "The trusty @UKNikon has done a stellar job this morning #eclipse2015" pic.twitter.com/K3OzDutNBA”
— Nikon UK & Ireland (@UKNikon) March 20, 2015

For those of you interested enough, here's the 'full' album - https://flic.kr/s/aHsk5Vz9pX

Hot on the heels of my vision still being retained, I was fortunate enough to snap up some tickets to see Muse at Manchester Academy. Such a gig had not occurred since around 2001 and was, in fact, a sensational experience. Still feeling the photography bug, but somewhat distracted by the inconvenient presence of other people and loud noises, I managed to take very few decent pictures - and at least half were somehow upside down. Less than triumphant.

My phone clearly wasn't feeling the orientation detection

Other exciting March-based events included the Jaguar XE preview event - which was thoroughly enjoyable. Sadly there was no test driving involved, and the LASER HUD was not available on the pre-production model on display, but I did sit in the car and my head only just touches the roof; which seems safe enough.

Photo of the engine, to make it seem like I know what I'm looking at

The front of the car looking... car-y

Thus concludes a quick whistle-stop tour of March ranging all the way from the 18th to the 21st. Thanks for coming!

"You know you've found what you're supposed to do in life when you'd rather do it then[sic] check your Instagram, FB, Twitter, snapchat or email."

Ben

The Social Network

Even if you didn't know their name, we've all come across a CAPTCHA in one form or another. It's what stops the robots taking over the internet.

There are many alternatives out there, some using pictures, drag-and-drop, and all kinds of fancy features. They're pretty great at stopping the majority of spam or automated access, but where they really fall down is in weeding out people. I don't know if this would be better placed as part of the registration process to certain sites, or immediately before posting, but I'd welcome something along the lines of this...

The suggested use is before allowing access to the internet

Ladies and gentlemen, the Internet Access CAPTCHA. That's what we need - and here's why!

Let me take you on a journey across some of the wonderment one might find on social media. We'll meet three lovely people, discover their trials and tribulations, and hopefully we'll see where CAPTCHA could come in just that little bit handier.

Now, for the general purpose of protecting identities, the names are, naturally, not divulged; nor is any discernable personal details that could lead to any kind of identification. Strap yourselves in, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

There are lots of things I wouldn't post online. Things that are personal. Falling out with a family member, for example. Some people choose to plaster such events all over the internet and, in fact, Article 10 of the Human Rights Act exists to ensure such people can do so. Good for them. If you're comfortable enough sharing things I'm not, I applaud you. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I have anything to hide, I just prefer to keep the vast majority of my private life, private. By accepting 'you' as a 'friend' on various outlets I accept that this means we are now privy to whatever either party chooses to share. I would, however, prefer it if you put at least a little thought into your posts. I'm a stickler for SPAG, for example - this would not only please me, but you might find that (much like the disruptive child in a class) your infrequent correct behaviour will be rewarded.

Meet Poppy. I don't know her too well and I've absolutely no qualms with her. For whatever reason, her child had missed a (presumably) significant number of days at school and resultantly failed to qualify for some school event. This didn't sit all too well with Poppy and she resolved it the only way one could possibly do so - through the power of social media!

In my opinion, this is something that falls into the 'maybe' column. Personally, I'd have dealt with the situation by liaising with the school and ascertaining all the facts, first. Were it to come to no resolution or, in fact, were it to come to a gleefully triumphant resolution, I may well have shared this with my friends and family - maybe even via social media. I wouldn't, however, direct the anger at the school for what could well have been a perfectly justified decision or an innocent mistake.

Meet Phil. Disenfranchised by the social media world, he's just about had enough of all the liars and trouble-makers. Phil is so done that this will be his last post online - he will be gone come the morn.

Much like a pigeon trapped in your living room, poor old Phil just couldn't work out why he could see the outside world, but couldn't get to it - and, bless him, he just kept hitting that window head-first. Not for all the chocolate in Wonka's factory could poor Phil work out how to follow through on his intention. This lead to a further tirade of statuses in which Phil would get more and more worked up over how difficult it was to leave and he went to new levels of 'done'.

For me, this is a firm 'no'. Not only would I have taken sufficient steps to ensure that my encounters with 'friends' (with the inverted commas) was kept to a minimum, I would hope it would never come to a time in which my only course of action was to threaten to leave - and then have to fumble my way around in order to close my account.

Meet Matt. Poor old Matt has been innocently looking forward to his birthday for months - twelve, in fact. Opening his 'main' present like the child who so desperately wants to unwrap the bike, but must dig through all the other presents first ("Look, mummy - a helment and gloves! What do I need those for - I haven't got a bike!"), Matt tore off his aesthetically-pleasing wrapping paper to discover a box. Not just any box, this was the box for which Matt had longed, for he knew that within it was a shiny new device that wouldn't work with gloves on or in the rain. Imagine the poor chap's face when he discovered that his 'big present' was the wrong colour! Now more disappointed than that time he wanted Harry Potter, but someone got him the book - which didn't have any of the Blu-Ray exclusive additional features he was looking forward to; Matt took to social media and, not being confronted with any form of CAPTCHA, was able to air his grievance with the world.

Now, don't get me wrong. Were I not to receive anything for my birthday, there'd be a part of me that would be disappointed; but I didn't earn anything. I'm not entitled to anything. Save for remembering to breathe, drink, and eat (which to be honest, I probably do too much of if anything), I have done very little to contribute to my being here for another year. What I definitely wouldn't do, is post my annoyance on the internet - to each their own, Matt. Another 'no' from me.

We need to treat the internet and its quirks such as social media with a great deal of respect. With them comes a great deal of power - and many a man has fought for your right to say even that with which he does not agree. In times like these, I look to Uncle Ben.

(Ben, Uncle)

"Distracted from distraction by distraction"

(Not Uncle) Ben

Tomorrow is a Long Time

If you haven't already read my review of 2014, I implore you to do so. I'll wait.

Excellent. Now we've got that out of the way, let's move promptly on...

So, what's been happening these past few weeks? Straight off the bat we had (what I can only assume was) an homage to Kirk Douglas as the majority of the world all proclaimed "Je suis Charlie!" - "Non! Je suis Charlie!". It wasn't as good as the original, but then again, the book's always better anyway.

The act sparked some pretty admirable responses and intellectual debates on various freedoms and injustices - but it also rolled out the first bandwagon for the social media generation to hop right on board; in turn prompting some less than educated opinions and, of course, creating an "us and them" divide between all manner of people.

Can't sleep tonight, thoughts with my French cartooning colleagues, their families and loved ones #CharlieHebdo pic.twitter.com/LqIMRCHPgK
— David Pope (@davpope) January 7, 2015

It's safe to say, though, that none of us dropped the metaphoric ball quite as well as our buddies at Fox News. #smh

January oft brings out the worst in people. It's a chance for a fresh start and for us to lie to ourselves anew. Since nobody has the self-confidence to stand up and say "I know neither the lyrics nor the purpose for this!", the first real lie is when we all link arms and pretend to sing Auld Lang Syne. I remember one year, when a supermarket had the foresight to print the lyrics on the back of their receipts for the whole of December, so whomever had most recently bought 'bread and milk' was able to triumphantly lead us through a garbled recount of a poem set to the music of Cliff Richard's Millenium Prayer.

I digress. Those of us who committed to 'bettering themselves' or 'going to the gym' (or, heaven forbid, 'dry January') will have, inevitably, already broken this (doing twice as much 'tomorrow' or extending a day or two into February still counts as breaking it). Fear not though - Pancake Day is almost upon us, and we can kid ourselves into giving up/taking up things for 40 days (until we realise that 40 days is more than a month - and that's a long time!).

Every cloud does, however, have a silver lining - a beautiful, shimmering, glittery, rainbow lining. Some hero across the pond has, finally, released the product I've been longing for... Ship Someone Glitter! Now I can finally send glitter to those who pose a mild or infrequent annoyance. There's been a backlog since its comprehensible boom in popularity, but rest assured - yours is on its way just as soon as they clear it up!

Speaking of our feathery-hatted neighbours, there was a controversy in American HandFootball as they found that the balls had been less inflated than they should have been. In an epidemic that's been named "deflate-gate", American sportsmen failed to notice their balls weren't as big as they should have been, and a whole host of other blue, off the cuff, remarks. It might not be true though, because a fortunately named "Gay-Lussacs Law" may mean that the balls were innocently deflated because they went outside into the cold and shrivelled up. Ah, the 21st Century.

This segues rather nicely into the annual ultimate owl competition, in which I'm lead to believe somebody who didn't pass, should have? I don't understand much of the rules, but I have a very basic grounding and in the last half an hour of the game (which only spanned five actual game seconds), the losing team failed to score enough to make them the winning team - and in that ever-present sportsmanship fashion, the focus was on how the losing team were abysmal and absolutely no credit was given to the winners. In fact, I don't even know who won - just that the Seattle Seahawks lost this year's #SuperbOwl competition.

Left Shark was the real MVP anyway

For those who know me, I'm not a huge fan of theme parks or any derivative, and I'd rather catch measles than go to Disneyland - which must be why they now offer that as standard; creating two further bandwagons for us all to jump on... pro-/anti-vaccine.

Oh, so that's what those spots are...

As a poignant closing paragraph, I'd like to question the sanity of a world in which this product exists...

200ft./60m. Optical Thunderbolt cable

For a meagre £999 (that's right - pay with a £1000 note and get a pound back for your trolley!) you can buy a cable that is not only almost worth more than the devices you connect it to, but allows you to have said devices up to 60m away from one another.

Who's connecting these together?! Why does enough demand exist to stoke the supply fire?!

"Who are you people?!"

Ben

Out of the Past

2014: The Year of the Horse. Ironic, considering the whole horse meat debacle of the previous year. I don't know about you, but my year bore almost no relation to anything of the equestrian variety. As I began to write my next post, after what can only be described as "too long", I looked back through various forms of social media and trawled through streams of search engine pages to find something exciting to write about. Imagine the ecstaticism as I learnt about how 2014's Trending Topics were (in order):

1. World Cup 2014
2. iPhone 6
3. Peaches Geldof
4. Robin Williams
5. Rik Mayall

I'm lead to believe that Germany took the trophy out of England's grasp as we* triumphantly fell at the first hurdle, which sums up Trending Topic number one.

The second item displeases me as I'm not a particularly great fan of all things Apple. Maybe it's the cult mentality, maybe it's the overpriced sub-par hardware, or maybe I'm just one of the few who see no appeal in having a part-eaten fruit emblazoned all over every little bit of technology in my futuristic household; watching Lethal Weapon 8 in glorious 10k 4D with the room illuminated only by the cacophony of pixels and dimensions, and partially digested fruity backlights holds, sadly, no appeal for me.

It's safe to say that the remaining top five are late celebrities (or derivations of the word thereof). I'll play it safe and leave that there.

Distinctly dissatisfied with the search engine route, I'll have to rely on personal experiences. So, without much further ado about nothing, here's my 2014.

*I use the word "we" in its loosest sense. I, in fact, played absolutely no personal part in England's World Cup journey; I happen to share the same passport issuer.

Bon Anniversaire

Every year, as far back as I remember, seems to start in much the same fashion. Following the customary counting down from 10 - which assures us we can all, in fact, still remember all single digit numbers - someone in London ignites enough gunpowder to give Guy Fawkes a heart attack. Not long after, just as the Hootenanny withdrawal kicks in, it's time to celebrate the incrementation of my age.

Unfortunately, January also walks hand in hand with university exam season - which lead to procrastination, revision, and exams on repeat. Much of the procrastination was simply futile attempts to beat a machine at chess and the occasionally victory at digital solitaire - with some admirable high scores and speed runs, I might add! However, one aspect that particularly stands out is the discussion on 11 dimensions, which was sparked by a TED Talk I encourage you to watch (if you're that way out). The video came courtesy of the Breakfast Learning Club, who also held a rather contentious discussion of macro-/micro-evolution, straight out of the chicken/egg conundrum. If you're interested - the egg came first unless your definition of egg explicitly states it must be laid by a chicken, in which case it was the chicken... but your chicken hatched out of an egg, so... #EggFirst

Also, O2 raised some tariffs by 72p - and I'm still outraged, even if not on O2 myself.

#WishYouWereHere

The next few weeks saw me rack up numerous LSU Media credits (yeah, I'm on the internet somewhere other than I page I write myself now!). I attended a conference and ran a stand promoting the South Africa Challenge which featured prestigious autographed postcards.

Limited edition, I heard

Something I didn't know was missing from my life until I saw it, was Goat Simulator. Enough said.

Fail Forward

The first Fail Forward conference was held and, as well as running around doing various odd jobs, I was demonstrating the wonders of Makey Makey and how one could play Pac-Man using oranges and a banana.

You can just about see the fruit laid before the screen

I have a particular interest in having abuse shouted at me and constantly being told I'm wrong, I started training as an FA football referee. Taking great pride in quoting "The Laws of Football" whenever an amourous decision in seen on TV, with the default response to the question "why is that a free kick, Ben?" being "...because the referee said so.".

Finale

As the academic year drew to a close, many things happened. Lectures, exams, reports. The most poignant was the final year report I printed. It cost me 20 of the queen's and is, to date, the most expensive thing I've ever abandoned in a box for someone to read later.

So expensive, I took a photo

Draco Dormiens

In May, I ran my first 10k - in the Great Manchester Run - for Cancer Research UK. I completed it in 1hr 10min, but the mere fact I survived the ordeal (and raised money for a good cause) was enough for me.

A suitable period of recovery later...

Not long after, I was part of a team who won various accolades in the Loughborough Think BIG awards. We won for South Africa Challenge, EventCatch, and Fail Forward. EventCatch won the "Dragon's Innovation Award", which was particularly noteworthy as it was the idea I had most involvement with.

Golf

June brought about the retention of the annual Golf Weekend trophy, as the Southern Team once again reigned victorious over the northerners. The biggest thing I took from the event is that a putter should remain firmly in your bag unless you're on the green - it is definitely not a good idea to play it on any part of the fairway.

All the gear and no idea

#Challenge14

Monday 21st July 2014, London City Airport - the start of a six week long adventure to South Africa. The first four weeks would see Team Rhino and Team Giraffe out on the South Africa Challenge. Lead by Ice Man and supported by Goose and Maverick, five aspiring young leaders from the UK would head out to Durban, SA, for a two week leadership and development programme.

Day one, challenge one, we were straight into the deep end with one of the team pitching at a entrepreneurial event and the pace didn't really slow much afterwards. There's much too much to cram into the short space I've "allocated" here, but needless to say it was an incredible experience, with some inspirational people, and a great step in my own personal development.

Straight from the airport to pitching

#IcedGoose

On the back of Challenge 14, Ice Man and I (Goose), set off on a spectacular two week road trip aiming to cover the perimeter of South Africa. The trip was dubbed "#IcedGoose" and even sported its own official t-shirts.

Rush-printed seconds before departure

Again, there's much to much to cram in here and maybe at some point I'll write it up here, but as an overview, we travelled around 2,200 miles in two weeks and our rough route is wonderfully outlined below.

As well as innumerable encounters with dangerous wild animals, we visited the southern-most tip of, not just South Africa, but the whole of Africa. It was a pretty cool experience and we also saw where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. On the "back 9" of our journey, we stopped off in the Kalahari Desert to partake in the, at the time, custom of pouring ice water over one another. In the Kalahari.

Beitrag von Ben Oddie.

Back to Life

Back to reality. Nothing much really seems to come close to the feeling of freedom and enjoyment of roaming around a beautiful country such as South Africa, much less standing in the rain being shouted out because "I never did nothing, ref!" - you used a double negative and were it up to me, you'd be banned on that basis alone. At least Ebola didn't catch me.

The year so far had been fairly action-packed and amongst the glamour of travelling, it wasn't without its stresses. Finishing a degree has never been a walk in the park, least of all juggling all the extra-curricular involvements. There were many times where it felt the number of pies I metaphorically had my fingers in greatly exceeded the fingers available, and the lull of "normal life" was just about the R&R I needed.

Amongst all the other yearly goings-on, I'd qualified in British Sign Language at Level 2 which meant I could now pretty much watch reruns of Cash in the Attic and Homes Under the Hammer at 3am with the sound off whilst feeling a strange sense of comradery with the poor man, trapped in the television and forced to not only watch daytime TV over and over, but repeat every last word of "banter".

Germany

When I was in school, we learnt German. I'm not sure why, but we did. We learnt it for three years and then had the option to continue to GCSE. I did, and even took it to A Level. By now, I'd spent seven years learning a language which, in all honesty, wasn't much use in my day-to-day life. This was to be the year which it would actually come in handy. I was fortunate enough, even after South Africa, to manage to visit Germany twice.

In November, I flew to Berlin with some friends to "check out the startup scene". It was an interesting trip and we managed to make a few decent contacts on the startup scene. As much as I tried to speak German at every opportunity that presented itself, the Germans have a rather irritating knack of being able to speak better English that most of the British population (see "I never did nothing"). Consequently, whenever I paused for thought or to check something with one of the other guys, people would take this as my inability to hold a German conversation, and we'd default to English. I tried. I tried.

Electric scooter on an abandoned airstrip, Berlin

December took the family to Frankfurt to check out the "Christmas Market scene". This time, the lack of business-oriented events made for much more of an opportunity to speak German (with business events being conducted mainly in English, even between locals). It's safe to say I remembered a lot more German than I thought I would and didn't do too bad - I even managed to keep us away from things containing nuts (a worry of a particular allergist prior to landing). All in all, it was a nice wind-down before Christmas and set a nice pace moving forward into the new year.

Allegedly the largest Christmas Tree in the world

 2014 was an incredible year. I met some incredible new friends in South Africa. I survived numerous near-misses of the Ebola virus. I developed a lot both personally and professionally - although not covered in any real detail here. That about sums up my year and I look forward to the challenges and opportunities of 2015 - in particular, I look forward to the year of the Wood Sheep (and finding out what a Wood Sheep is). All the best for this year, dear reader, and hopefully we'll stay in much more regular contact!

"Oh Cliff / Sometimes it must be difficult not to feel as if / You really are a cliff / when fascists keep trying to push you over it! / Are they the lemmings / Or are you, Cliff? / Or are you, Cliff?"

Ben