What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[richardmorris]

3 hours ago, cobblers said:

Up until the age of 32 I was like "FUCKING BIRDS THEY CAN ALL FUCKING GET FUCKED, WAKING ME UP AT BASTARD 5AM, SHITTING ALL OVER THE PLACE, I'LL HAPPILY SHOOT THE LOT OF THE NOISY FILTHY BASTARDS!" and 5 years later I have 3 different apps on my phone to identify them from their noises and a pair of binoculars on my bedroom windowsill so I can get a better look at them because now I'm a soft twat.

I’ve got the Cornell labs Merlin app for birds, which is very good.

[EyesWeldedShut]

10 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

I’ve got the Cornell labs Merlin app for birds, which is very good.

Thank you - that's a good looking app - grabbing a copy now (I was going to josh and say that I have the Tinder app for birds but then I remembered I'm not 21 any more....)

[richardmorris]

1 minute ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Thank you - that's a good looking app - grabbing a copy now (I was going to josh and say that I have the Tinder app for birds but then I remembered I'm not 21 any more....)

It was recommended by a local walking / rspb website guy. It’s a large file. But I’ve been happy with it. Identified a lark and Siskin on my last ramble.

[Metal Guru]

7 hours ago, Wack said:

A Welsh council has spent £6000 on a sculpture to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a coastal path 

Locals say it looks like a baked potato in tin foil 

Where do they get the people that make these decisions, the country is falling apart and they're buying £6000 spuds 

More importantly, how do you get the council to pay you money for a sculpture?

[Remspoor]

On 4/23/2023 at 5:13 PM, Wack said:

A Welsh council has spent £6000 on a sculpture to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a coastal path 

Locals say it looks like a baked potato in tin foil 

Where do they get the people that make these decisions, the country is falling apart and they're buying £6000 spuds 

[LightBulbFun]

had a fun one a couple days ago doing an experiment with a couple of my lightbulbs, ballasting a 400W Metal halide HID lamp with a 1500W tungsten  filament GLS lamp, (that is using a regular lightbulb in series with a discharge lamp, where the tungsten lamp acts as the main current limiter and no normal inductive choke is used) I did the calculations a while back and figured it would work and thus finally got round to trying it out, where it does indeed work quite nicely  

but what really makes me grin, is during this, fucking around with using a CD thats shiny and blank on both sides as DIY ND filter as I often do when photographing bright discharge lamps, I managed to grab some photos that I think at least look really quite awesome  

first up is this one, which I think is my favourite of the bunch, I only wish I had managed to get the arc (tube) of the discharge lamp better centralised within the tungsten  filament

I did play around with trying to centralise it, but I could not quite pull off the same ring of light in the glass bulb effect, I think just due to the physical positioning of everything

and then finally, I took the exposure all way down and took this photo which I think looks pretty neat in its own right, especially 

I think if I was to crop it down a bit? it certainly would make for a good profile picture or something such  

but yeah I am really quite pleased with these photos, I quite like the juxtaposition of the metal halide arc in the background with the tungsten filament in the foreground 

 

it has finally inspired me to get a proper ND filter to fuck about with, because the ol CD routine is a right old faff, and is hard to get decent/reproducable results from since I am litreally mushing a CD up against my iPad's camera lens

so I have this thing arriving later today hopefully https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09BKVT4CF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

cheap n nasty, but will be interesting to see how it compares! id hope it works better then a CD at least LOL, but I really do need and want to pick up an actual proper camera to do some actual decent photgraphy with

but I really am not sure what to get, most Camera reviews dont have a section on which is best for lightbulb photography LOL 

[motorpunk]

Haven’t driven this in, sorry to say… maybe 6 months. Battery on, fires up, quick charge around the lanes and home before it rains because I’m terrified of rust. Great little car. No tax, no MOT, £90 insurance and worth easily double what I paid for it. My kinda motoring.

[GeorgeB]

1 hour ago, motorpunk said:

Haven’t driven this in, sorry to say… maybe 6 months. Battery on, fires up, quick charge around the lanes and home before it rains because I’m terrified of rust. Great little car. No tax, no MOT, £90 insurance and worth easily double what I paid for it. My kinda motoring.

Lovely, except for the wheels.

[motorpunk]

1 hour ago, GeorgeB said:

Lovely, except for the wheels.

I like the wheels. I do wonder what it would be like on some period Cromodoros or similar, though. I’m at the Italian Car thing at Brooklands next weekend so might see what’s what.

 

[High Jetter]

4 of the wheels are fine, round, and in the correct locations. The 5th, however, seems misplaced, unless the last pic has been flipped.

[Metal Guru]

Today The Sun has “ driving tip will save THOUSANDS  on fuel - and it’s completely free!”

Wow! I need to know this, so read on. The earth shattering tip?

Drive slower and don’t accelerate hard. At traffic lights , try not race away like Lewis Hamilton. ( presumably a bit slower say like Kevin Magnussen would be ok).

That’s it (apart from use eco mode if fitted).

Seriously? Are there people to whom this is a revelation?

[Stanky]

2 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

Seriously? Are there people to whom this is a revelation?

I've said it before, but Slipknot were bang on the money with this statement

Tell me I'm wrong.

[EyesWeldedShut]

2 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Tell me I'm wrong.

Same author, same paper - you're not wrong.
Mind you - it is The Sun

[myglaren]

17 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

had a fun one a couple days ago doing an experiment with a couple of my lightbulbs, ballasting a 400W Metal halide HID lamp with a 1500W tungsten  filament GLS lamp, (that is using a regular lightbulb in series with a discharge lamp, where the tungsten lamp acts as the main current limiter and no normal inductive choke is used) I did the calculations a while back and figured it would work and thus finally got round to trying it out, where it does indeed work quite nicely  

but what really makes me grin, is during this, fucking around with using a CD thats shiny and blank on both sides as DIY ND filter as I often do when photographing bright discharge lamps, I managed to grab some photos that I think at least look really quite awesome  

first up is this one, which I think is my favourite of the bunch, I only wish I had managed to get the arc (tube) of the discharge lamp better centralised within the tungsten  filament

I did play around with trying to centralise it, but I could not quite pull off the same ring of light in the glass bulb effect, I think just due to the physical positioning of everything

and then finally, I took the exposure all way down and took this photo which I think looks pretty neat in its own right, especially 

I think if I was to crop it down a bit? it certainly would make for a good profile picture or something such  

but yeah I am really quite pleased with these photos, I quite like the juxtaposition of the metal halide arc in the background with the tungsten filament in the foreground 

 

it has finally inspired me to get a proper ND filter to fuck about with, because the ol CD routine is a right old faff, and is hard to get decent/reproducable results from since I am litreally mushing a CD up against my iPad's camera lens

so I have this thing arriving later today hopefully https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09BKVT4CF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

cheap n nasty, but will be interesting to see how it compares! id hope it works better then a CD at least LOL, but I really do need and want to pick up an actual proper camera to do some actual decent photgraphy with

but I really am not sure what to get, most Camera reviews dont have a section on which is best for lightbulb photography LOL 

I was going to suggest a pair of polarising filters that provide stepless ND but the one you have ordered seems to be just that.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Paint job on the Beluga currently over Shrewsbury

[maxxo]

passing an MOT

not just passing, but getting the test for free as i’d seemingly signed up to the halfords motoring club

wasnt pressured into anything either and done in less than an hour

yes quite pleased i’d say

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, myglaren said:

I was going to suggest a pair of polarising filters that provide stepless ND but the one you have ordered seems to be just that.

Yeah! thats exactly picked up the one I did, which arrived the other day, had a play with it, does it says on the box, but does not quite step down low enough for decent HID photography sadly

but one of the things its quite useful for still is allowing me to have the shutter open longer on the iPad to avoid the 50Hz flicker lines I normally have to fight with, (and also because fucking apple, for some reason you cant turn off "Smart HDR" on newer iOS devices, and this Smart HDR, just utterly shits the bed when trying to make a composite image of something on a 50Hz cycle LOL at least my iPad mini 4 I could turn it off, but no such option on my iPad mini 6 sadly)

here it is without the ND filter

and then with the ND filter, as you can see much better, so it will come in quite handy still  

 

but on discharge lamps it still does not step down low enough to get a good image still/avoid 50Hz flicker, but I was stil lable to get some semi-decent resualts at least

amusingly enough sticking the CD in front of the ND filter, allowed me to grab this nice decent shot which shows the arc quite nicely both its hot inner regions and cooler out red regions (but its a bit soft from the CD still LOL)

I think I might need something like an ND1000 filter for shots like this,

 

I also need to dig out some more lamps and see how it fairs with different types  

[myglaren]

Note the Danish policeman's name.  Unusually appropriate.

[Yoss]

19 hours ago, motorpunk said:

I like the wheels. I do wonder what it would be like on some period Cromodoros or similar, though. I’m at the Italian Car thing at Brooklands next weekend so might see what’s what.

 

A set of Cromodoras would be far better than Minilites but would be many pounds more. What you have are fine but any Cromodoras, and there are many different types, would really set it off. You get what you pay for. 

For some reason ebay keeps sending me links to 4x98 alloy wheels because I looked at them a few times. The mk1 Favorit is 4x98, the mk2 went over to 4x100 after the Volkswagen takeover. So I get to see to see a lot of Cromodoras, 4x98 being most Italian stuff, and they really are lovely. Been tempted many times but they usually cost more than the car and are still in Italy but it's nice to look. 

[wuvvum]

At Tesco just now. 

Three little Citybugs, all in a row.

 

Yes, I do need to get out more. 

[Yoss]

29 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

At Tesco just now. 

Three little Citybugs, all in a row.

 

Yes, I do need to get out more. 

One of each make too, that has to be a once in a lifetime thing, well done. 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

I do need to get out more. 

Maybe try Tesco twice a week? Or mix it up with Asda? 🤣

[RoverFolkUs]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

At Tesco just now. 

Three little Citybugs, all in a row.

 

Yes, I do need to get out more. 

I wonder who the wanker is that couldn't park a citybug straight 😆😉

[wuvvum]

I was trying to get it equidistant between the other two.  Didn't work out quite as well as I'd planned but I didn't want to bugger about too much in case one of the other owners came out of the shop and caught me in the middle of my nerdgasm.

[RoverFolkUs]

22 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I was trying to get it equidistant between the other two.  Didn't work out quite as well as I'd planned but I didn't want to bugger about too much in case one of the other owners came out of the shop and caught me in the middle of my nerdgasm.

Was only teasing 🙂 - I can imagine the sense of adrenaline!

[somewhatfoolish]

Pug seems most pleased by this compared to the other two.

[Wack]

People of the south, probably within the M25

The spring www.thombrowne.com catalogue is out 

Fill yer boots 

[Rustybullethole]

On 4/24/2023 at 9:47 PM, motorpunk said:

I like the wheels. I do wonder what it would be like on some period Cromodoros or similar, though. I’m at the Italian Car thing at Brooklands next weekend so might see what’s what.

 

Very nice. Have you thought about painting the wheels white and doing a reverse double yoker look? No I thought probably not. 

[warch]

7 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

I wonder who the wanker is that couldn't park a citybug straight 😆😉

I always struggled to park my (proper) Mini straight, the points of reference aren’t there or get distorted somehow so it ended up on the piss.

It definitely wasn’t because I’m shit at reverse parking.

[Rustybullethole]

Blackwall shit this morning northbound so took what can be an hour and half detour to hit up Rotherhithe. Two hours to journey 7 miles as the crow flies. Shame my van don’t float. 
Why the grin. I guess it’s mostly a frame of mind and maybe a dash of I’m a day rate monkey and much as I like to make progress stress over delays I can do FA about is pointless.

Mainly though I’d forgot how much I like the tiles in Rotherhithe.

pics don’t do them justice and it’s better at night  as they reflect the lights in a very pleasant way. 
Reminds me I have some of these old Victorian tiles I removed from a job a few years back.

Edit to add. Those tiles are in Blackwall too. They just put shit cladding over them many moons ago. 

Edited April 26, 2023 by Rustybullethole