matbro1984

What kit are you using benbobjr?

The forest scene is a belter! Agreed that it ultimately only matters if you like your photos

To anyone uploading photos - I just took the direct image link from my Facebook photo page to add the photo above. Bit quicker than using Flickr/Tinypic/Imageshack/etc if you'd already put the photo on your Facebook

I recently got into digital SLR photography and figured UKFF could do with a spot for like-minded folks to post their photos from time to time, discuss kit and techniques, and so on. The only rule I propose is that if you post photos, you have to have taken them yourself, rather than posting stuff you find cool. There's already an awesome thread for that.

I'll get the ball rolling with this effort from a few nights ago. This is 250 x 15 second exposures averaged using the Startrails astrophotography freeware application.

(I hope this thread doesn't now die on its arse...)

Duane

When one expresses

I have a friend who is very much into his conspiracy theories but does so indiscriminately without even questioning the "facts" that are presented. I am referring of course to the endless parade of Youtube "documentaries" about the Illuminati, 9/11 inside job, and such. Our meetings in the pub often degenerate into slanging matches (or worse) because he, like you, cannot argue logically about why his beliefs are correct. Then you backpeddle and blanket-cover any/all criticism and counterpoints with platitudes like "not everyone is meant to understand".

Your arguments do not stand up to even the most rudimentary scrutiny and I think it is time you came to terms with that.

I am a firm believer that dreams are far more important then we think they are. I spend a lot of my time taking various supplements so that I will dream more vividly and bizarrely, but most importantly more lucidly, so I am not unwilling to believe that somebody could have some sort of premonition. But coincidence should never be overlooked.

I agree with you, but in relation to my story I wasn't dreaming, I was walking about when the thought popped into my head and the fact my wife immediately switched the conversation to premonitions was very jarring. If my dreams were a premonition, sadly I'd be spending most of my days dodging flying bananas or suddenly finding myself in a public venue sans clothes, and so on.

Having said this and divulged the previous story, another instance comes to mind although I don't think this was a premonition or anything, I guess more a sort of demonstration of how the subconscious mind works beyond what we can comprehend. On my wedding night (or rather, in the early hours of the following morning) I awoke with a profound sense of sadness that my uncle had died. Except, as far as I'd have known at the time he hadn't. So, the next day when I was told (my uncle's immediate family kept the news from us until after the wedding), the news came as no shock to me whatsoever because I'd already accepted it. He was very ill (hence not being at the wedding) and I did know that he would not have long left, but it was a bit odd that I had such a strong sense that he'd gone that day which turned out to be correct. My timing was off by a couple of hours though, so it's not especially astounding I guess.

What are people's thoughts about premonitions?

If you think about it rationally, statistically in your life time there are bound to be several times when you 'daydream' about something and that ends up happening. (i.e. the classic one where you're thinking about someone and they call you) This is what happened last month to me.

I was walking the dog with the wife and I started daydreaming about a holiday we were about to take in Cuba, and quite vividly started picturing us sitting next to each other on a plane that was going down. I'm not a nervous traveller - in fact I'd been abroad 7 other times this year - so it was odd enough that this thought would enter my mind. The thought was interrupted by my wife asking "do you believe in premonitions?" then reeling off a pretty compelling anecdote on the subject from a colleague at work. I dismissed this as coincidence and carried on preparing for the holiday as planned

A week later however a tropical storm/hurricane had formed and was potentially going to give the east of Cuba some shitty weather while we we there. (It was a guided tour of Cuba starting in the east, ending in Havana). So, we decided to fly into Holguin, stay the night and follow our guided tour to Santiago de Cuba, then catch an internal flight from there to Havana. On the morning we were due to drive up to Gatwick, with the weather in Cuba worsening we decided we weren't going to go at all.

If we had gone and stuck to our plan, we'd have had a choice of two flights from Santiago.

Flight #1 was with an airline called Cubana, which officially has the worst safety record of any airline. We knew this ahead of time, so would have chosen the alternative...

Flight #2 was with Aerocaribbean. And it crashed and killed everyone on board.

I appreciate there are plenty of 'ifs' here - maybe our car would have broken down and we'd missed our flight, maybe I'd have lost my money/passport and wouldn't be able to book the flight, maybe I'd have tripped and ended up in hospital, and so on - but if we'd stuck to the plan there's a strong chance we'd have ended up on that flight.

Flame away, call bullshit, refer me to the film Final Destination, etc. My friends who I've told about this seem pretty evenly split - half thinking I'm reading too much into it and/or going mental; half thinking I was given a sign. I don't know what to make of it, if indeed I should read anything into it. I hope though that this might stimulate some sensible debate and/or encourage people on here with similar experiences to speak up.

Scotland showed some proper grit today, what a morale booster. It's going to be an interesting Six Nations. As it stands presently, I'd rank them as follows

 

1. England

2. = Ireland/Scotland

4. France

5 = Wales/Italy

 

Went to watch Scotland / SA in Murray Field yesterday and have to say Scotland showed nothing it was just an average game with neither side showing anything and there were some shocking Ref Decisions. Saying that a win over the world champs is a win. With their current form expect England to trounce all over SA next week.

Watched the Ireland game after and the score really didnt represent how well they were playing, some great plays from them. Cant see anyone but the all Blacks winning the World Cup next year.

If Scotland had a better attacking game they'd be pretty darn good IMO. Perhaps ranking them equal to Ireland was a little generous, but I stand by my opinion they're ahead of the other 3.

England, much as it pains me to say it, are coming together very nicely.

As for the World Cup, New Zealand always look tremendous in the buildup, then somehow fail to win it. I don't buy into the "NZ are chokers at the world cup" BS because it's not like they lose to shit teams, but they have failed to meet their massive potential. If they don't win next year though, it's not going to go down well because they bloody well expect to win, and anything less would be a huge disappointment. In fact not winning the last one was a disappointment for most of them, none more than this guy... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby-world-cup-...jectid=10468742

Scotland showed some proper grit today, what a morale booster. It's going to be an interesting Six Nations. As it stands presently, I'd rank them as follows

1. England

2. = Ireland/Scotland

4. France

5 = Wales/Italy

It's too late in the day to sack Gatland now as well. I think he'll resign after the WC.

 

I'm really worried about a lack of options at outside half other than Stephen Jones. It's now clear that Gatland doesn';t consider Hook a 10, fair enough, but is there anyone else? I don't think Biggar is up to scratch personally. Mind you, Henson looks like he'll be playing at Outside Half for Saracens, but his attitude means that he should never get in a Wales squad again as far as I'm concerned. And after Biggar, who is there? Nicky Robinson? Ceri Sweeney? Dai Flanagan? Nick MacLeod? We're really going to struggle there if Jones gets crocked.

Henson, if he returns to form, will be back in the squad whether he deserves it or not. Gatland has a hardon for the guy and has made many public statements pretty much saying he's looking forward to having Gav back in the fold. I can't say I think it would be a bad thing either, because on form he really was incredible.

Gatland has a contract lasting until 2015, and he's on a pretty handsome contract too. He made some noise about wanting the New Zealand job one day, but you could argue his tenure with Wales will have ruled that out. I can't see him going willingly.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Rob Howley fall on his sword though.

Absolutely fucking awful last night. Huw Bennett really is the shits. Has anyone seen him have a good game in a Wales shirt? Lineout is always in pieces when he's playing. Scrummaging was great again though, and Jones and Phillips put some real zip into us when they came on.

 

And I said it 3 years ago, I'll reiterate now. Aled Brew is nowhere near international standard.

Gatland's wholesale changes at the 48 minute mark were necessary (albeit not game-saving) but embarrassing and a massive indictment on the quality of Wales' second string. Or lack thereof. There are so many faults with Wales at the moment it's hard to know where to begin

1. Stephen Jones, great rugby mind but his kicking's not great at the moment save for the one that set up North's 2nd try last week. Biggar, sadly, is not an adequate understudy.

2. Ryan Jones' workrate doesn't even merit a place in the squad.

3. He's not been too hot as captain either

4. Shane Williams (based on the other matches - i know he is injured now) has really not been great. Partly because he's marked and his try-making potential is stifled, but mostly because his decision making is wrong 80% of the time it seems.

5. LINE OUTS!

6. Fuck all strength in depth. We have a good 1st squad, and I maintain that a full-strength first choice team is capable of beating anyone BUT if any of our first choices are injured or otherwise off the pitch, their replacements are inadequate.

7. James Hook coughing up the ball in contact on every other hit. I concede that the game he plays requires risk, and it's that risk which translates into losing the ball in contact periodically, but the frequency of this is far too regular.

8. Not playing to the ref. Far too often Wales are victim to marginal calls by the ref that the top tier sides are able to adapt to within the course of the game.

9. Player attitude. According to this http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_unio...lsh/9199223.stm Ryan Jones has accepted blame for the penalty that gave Fiji a draw, and apparently apologised to the team in the dressing room. The whole team put in a shameful performance that led to him being in that position. No one man cost them that match, and if finger pointing is how they deal with it they're never going to get anywhere. Furthermore, Wales were lucky to have gotten away from that onslaught with just a penalty, and just as lucky that Fiji took the easy points.

There are few positives at the moment

1. George North an excellent prospect at wing

2. Scrum is excellent; can't wait to have Gethin back.

3. Mike Phillips is lightning at scrum half.

If they don't put in a good performance against the kiwis next week then I think there will be people calling for Gatland's head. Statistics don't favour him - we've lost more matches than we've won; we've gone 10 matches without a loss, only secured one win over a southern hemisphere team (an understrength Australia), and we have now drawn with Fiji at home. Fiji was a team which had only been training together for a matter of days. It is a complete humiliation. Considering Gatland was targeting at least a semi-final at the world cup, I truthfully think we'd be fortunate to even get past the group stage, seeing as doing so would have to mean beating Fiji (who we have now failed to beat twice in a row) and Samoa (who gave England a rough time of it today, we struggled to beat last year, and historically have beaten us in 2 prior world cup games)

I just had to resist nominating about 20 players for the "Who Should Be On Our List Of National Treasures" thread here: http://ukff.com/index.php?showtopic=122974

My choices were Neil Jenkins, Jonny Wilkinson and Shane Williams. I figured this would be a better forum to expand upon some of the other potential choices. Since the National Treasures thread is not solely based on performance on a sports pitch, I'd say that precludes the likes of Guscott, Dean Richards, Dallaglio and Matt Dawson because they are such complete arseholes off the field. And before I'm accused of being shamelessly anti-English/pro-Welsh, I'd lump JPR Williams onto that list too, thank to this act of idiocy - he's a DOCTOR ffs, should he not know better than this?!

That is just...

...

wow.

Steve Walsh has absolutely no place reffing an international rugby match. He's woeful. I'm not saying he lost the game for Wales. Just that he missed a lot of stuff that any other big time refs would have spotted.

George North had an incredible game. Long may it continue, and we'll need good wingers with Shane out for several months.

Wales never have the killer instinct to seal off a game. Even with a healthy lead, you still knew SA would equalise and ultimately lead the game to win. 4 minutes of solid defence by them at the end, superb work. Wales of course to often leave games to a last throw of the dice like that. Rarely it'll work (i.e. Scotland 2010), but like today usually it doesn't.

Nevermind.

There are some, like some of those involved with 9/11 who have become that way out of grief, confusion and anger. Those are the ones I feel sorry for. Then there's the attention seekers and the plain old mentals, who I have no time for.

Jesse Ventura must fall into this category now, no?

Also, why the fuck is June Sarpong his sidekick on his show? Conspiracy theories regarding that decision welcomed...

From what I've seen of it, London and Kendrick's looks excellent

Stop getting sidetracked. There's unrequited nutter love to take the piss out of.

Unrequited love is the best sort of love though. It's the love that inspires poety, music, works of art, great acts of heroism, and well as the odd bout of wanking into a pink vest of course.

 

I think everyone should have to go through the emotions of being desperate to nail a good friend, it's happened to us all. It makes actually falling in love and having it reciprocal all the more meaningful. In my case, the girl in question was in my band, and so I had to share hotel rooms with her, have her parade around in front of me in her undies asking my opinion, lots of hugs and kisses of course, and be a shoulder to cry on when her arsehole of a boyfriend treated her like shit. She was, of course, fucking gorgeous.

 

I wrote some of my best material out of that, plus had a few incredibly fantastic wanks off the back of it. Still do

That's very true. I think that's why this strikes a chord with everyone. We've all gone through this bullshit and recognise Midas's behaviour as far from the norm. Back in the day I fancied a few of my friends at some point or other but never felt compelled to post photos somewhere or otherwise infer I'm with them, nor to suggest I've ventured outside of the friend zone if I hadn't. And I didn't save photos of them with the filename "mmmmmm.jpg" either. For fucks sake man, that is creepy as hell.

This thread needs to be put into UKFF Gold by the way.

Some questions for Midas

What is her preferred pubic do?

Is she long or short sighted? Did she go to Specsavers?

Do you own a pair of binoculars?

Do you possess a pair of her underwear? If so, when did you steal them, where from, and do they smell nice?

How many kisses does she put at the end of her texts?

and of course

Would you let her shit on your chin?

i could've been with any chick

Wrong.

My thoughts having gone through this thread are as follows:

That is a seriously tragic hairline for a 26 year old. And I'm ginger FFS.

Also, someone re-post a pic of the girl in question.

I recently bought 2 boxes of UFO/paranormal books at a boot sale and getting through them at a fair speed. I highly recommend the series of books by Timothy Good and Nick Pope, albeit as time goes on their theories get evermore strange.

The best book I've read on the subject to date is Left At East Gate, which documents the Rendlesham Forest UFO sightings in the UK in 1980. It's not the best written book, which in a way is comforting because you get the sense that the author is just trying to document what happened rather than sensationalise it for the sake of a larger royalty cheque.

Just because I'm interested in this stuff though doesn't mean I believe it all. There are clearly authors who are exploiting the public's interest for financial gain, and fabricating (or at least grossly overstating) incidents in the process.

Wales are unbelievably shit. Italy to win on Saturday. Hopefully it will be the kick up the arse they need.

To be fair L!VE TV was only there to get you ready for the '10 Minute TVX Freeview Challenge' at midnight (or the consolatory 1am 5 Minute Challenge).

 

Although I've got to say it's always a good one when you find some hardcore stuff of a girl you remember from L!VE TV.

THIS

Powell is the man.