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I like landscapes and cityscapes mostly. I am particularly impressed with the kind of pictures that are taken with long exposures, but I notice also they you mention smaller aperture sizes and polarised lenses and then it starts to go over my head.
Anyway, back to the exercise portion, I like to have an aim when exercising. At the gym it is easy because the machines are telling me all the time to maintain this and that and keep going for so long and look at how many calories are being burt etc. But I want to go and climb a hill and have something to show for it (other than a slimmer waist line). 
Also, last weekend when I was at my uncles croft in the Highlands the scenery was amazing (and that was just from his living room window).
Does this help?
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
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I was thinking of suggesting the Fuji S5000[^] until I realised you want to do long exposures - the S5000 only takes up to 2 seconds I think.
The step up, the S7000 is about £370 or so, so way over budget. Anyway, I'll have another look around. If there are any HP 850's still around they may be the answer, but I think they're discontinued. I'll get back to you later this afternoon - you've given me an excuse to visit my favourite shop (Jessops) at lunch 
[edit]I've since seen that the HP 850[^] is still available. It's really pretty good for the money - you could experiment up to 15 seconds with it, and get an adapter for filters. Remember Marius? He uses the HP850. Unfortunately he's currently in Europe, but will be back in 6 days and I'm sure he'd be more than happy to give you a demonstration of the camera so you could see if you like it or not, friendly chap that he is [/edit]
Look at the world about you and trust to your own convictions. - Ansel Adams
Meg's World - Blog
Photography
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Megan Forbes wrote:
you've given me an excuse to visit my favourite shop (Jessops) at lunch
 Thanks for the info so far. I think I'm going to see if my parents will give me Jessops (I pass one walking from the train station everyday) gift vouchers for my Birthday and I might be able to stretch things a little further.
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
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Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
I think I'm going to see if my parents will give me Jessops (I pass one walking from the train station everyday) gift vouchers for my Birthday and I might be able to stretch things a little further.
That would make a difference - to be honest I don't think you'll get better than the two I mentioned for £250, but if you can stretch to another £100 on top of that (are your parents generous?  ) there will be quite a difference in what you can get.
Look at the world about you and trust to your own convictions. - Ansel Adams
Meg's World - Blog
Photography
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Megan Forbes wrote:
I don't think you'll get better than the two I mentioned for £250, but if you can stretch to another £100 on top of that (are your parents generous? ) there will be quite a difference in what you can get.
I'll just have to wait and see....
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
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Well done, man! Keep the Faith!
Собой остаться дольше...
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KaЯl wrote:
Well done, man!
Thanks, I'm keeping a good course at the moment - not too slow, not to quick and definitely not backwards.
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way!
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Last night's eXtreme Wednesday session was quite interesting again. We didn't get to a power plug for quite a while so it was looking as if the evening was going to be cut short by laptop batteries dying, but finally someone moved from a near by table allowing us to "borrow" the bar's electricity for the rest of the evening.
The main thing I managed to pick up this week was the idea that you always make the smallest change necessary to make something work and then continually refactor it until it fits better with the story that you are working on.
The Mind Mapping application that we are using as a goal for the learning experience is something that I would have normally sat down and started working out what objects I'm going to need. My though processes would have been along the lines of: Right, a Mind Map is made up of ideas, one central idea and lots of other ideas coming off it. So, I need a Mind Map object to contain all the ideas and then I need some kind of Idea object. Do I create an abstract Idea class then derive a CentralIdea class and a BranchIdea off that, or do I just create one Idea class that has a parent property and for the central idea the parent is just null....
With XP I saw that the Mind Map was initially made up of a circle and some text, then that was refactored into Glyphs, then a CompositeGlyph was created that contained a circle and the text, and that was refactored into an Idea. So the design is evolving at the same time as the coding takes place. By the end of the evening the first story card was almost complete.
There was also a book recommendation for the evening and that is User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development[^] by Mike Cohn. I had a flick through the book and it certainly give some good examples of how to apply senarios in eXtreme Programming. It has now been added to my Amazon wish list (should anyone want to buy me it) as I've already spent nearly £150 on books this month already.
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
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Okay... No progress at all this week. I managed 4 sessions in the gym, then went for a long weekend away to visit relatives and now that I am back I discover that at least I have not put on extra weight after re-discovering oat-cakes and cheese.
Well, if the weather holds up I am planning a nice 5 mile walk and some more sessions in the gym. That at least should put me back on track.
Today I weigh: 92.700kg
Difference since start: - 3.000kg
Difference since last Week: - 0.000kg
Average change (per day): - 0.085kg
Average change (per week): - 0.600kg
Average change (per month): - 2.635kg
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Its an eXtreme Programming group that meets in the Filmhouse Café in Edinburgh. I was there last night and for the first time I actually got a good explanation and demonstration about what XP actually is.
In the past I've heard a lot of fluff about XP what it is what it isn't from various people. People have claimed they are using it but in fact have been deliberately misinterpreting parts of XP to explain away not doing it the right way for any paradigm.
I first read the White Book* by Kent Beck around late 2000 early 2001, but at the time it didn't really click. Sure, the words made sense but without practical examples to firm up in my mind what he was actually on about the information got filed away in the back of my mind. Over the course of the next few years I heard a lot about XP, everyone saying something different, everone appearing to just miss the mark - but I couldn't really place where the mark was myself. This time I actually saw for the first time what Kent Beck has been explaining.
The morning before going for the train I got the White Book* off my bookshelf and I started to re-read it. Now it begins to make sense. I am beginning to really understand the concepts.
* The "White Book" is Extreme Programming Explained - Embrace Change by Kent Beck
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Down a little bit more today. I'm slightly disappointed especially as I weighed in at 92.3 yesterday morning. But I suppose taking the reading at a consistent time each week evens out the daily (and intra-day) fluctuations. Anyway, I'm happy that the overall trend is still downwards.
This week I walked 5 miles (8 km) and I joined a gym and after a fairly easy induction session started the 55 minute programme that they've set me. At the end of it I had them increase the level of difficulty on one of the machines already.
Today I weigh: 92.700kg
Difference since start: - 3.000kg
Difference since last Week: - 0.500kg
Average change (per day): - 0.107kg
Average change (per week): - 0.750kg
Average change (per month): - 3.321kg [predicted to 21st July]
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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![Jig | [Dance]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/jig.gif)
Yes, after about 16 km (10 miles) of walking this week my weight has reduced a little more.
Here's the stats:
Today I weigh: 93.200kg
Difference since start: - 2.500kg
Difference since last Week: - 0.900kg
Average change (per day): - 0.119kg
Average change (per week): - 0.833kg
Average change (per month): - 3.689kg [predicted to 21st July]
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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I'll "race" you. I'm at 82 kg right now (was at 78kg 3 months ago - working out of town does weird things to my diet  ). I'm aiming for 75 before the summer is out (which is kind of optimal weight for me).
--
Ich bin Joachim von Hassel, und ich bin Pilot der Bundeswehr.
Welle: Erdball - F104-G Starfighter
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I'm not really interested in a race, as I've mentioned before[^], as it can be unhealthy to reduce weight too quickly.
Having said that, when you regard "the summer is out"?. Based on a rough average of my reduction, how about saying by September 20th I get to the 86.2kg mark and you get to the 75kg mark? So, 7kg each in 70 days - that's a nice easy 100g per day.
Does that sound okay?
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Ah yes, I meant of course that the race would be offseted. Dropping from 90+ to 70-something in such a small time frame is not recommended (it's probably damaging!)
100g a day should be doable. I've finally managed to take command over my diet, and I've started exercising again. I fear however that I will be complaining about stiffness tomorrow, as I haven't done any weight lifting in months (can you say snap, crackle and pop?  )
Health competition is healthy. 
--
Ich bin Joachim von Hassel, und ich bin Pilot der Bundeswehr.
Welle: Erdball - F104-G Starfighter
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Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote:
I've finally managed to take command over my diet, and I've started exercising again.
That's a good start.
Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote:
I fear however that I will be complaining about stiffness tomorrow
Yes, my legs were quite stiff last week after all that extra walking. Normally I only manage 40 minutes for the whole day (and that is walking too/from the railway station)
Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote:
can you say snap, crackle and pop?
Yes, but if you ask me to say "gouranga" I will not be happy.
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Great Colin!!
I haven't been doing much lately exercise-wise (I'm looking at a house  ), but I have managed to maintain, which I'm very happy for.
Keep it UP down, man!!
BW
The Biggest Loser
"Farm Donkey makes us laugh.
Farm Donkey hauls some ass."
-The Stoves
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brianwelsch wrote:
I haven't been doing much lately exercise-wise
Come on, you've got to do better than that.
Here are a couple of motivational items that might help
First:
You know the human brain is a most remarkable thing. The old (and this is really old because it is in the Bible) saying "Ask and ye shall receive" is quite true. You can ask yourself any question you can think of and your brain will come up with an answer. So, it is good to try and ask yourself positive questions. Here is one for you: How can I find the time to do more exercise? Keep asking this and even if your brain doesn't come up with an answer right away, it will come up with an answer. Here is another one: Where can I exercise more? And: What can I do to exercise more?
Another interesting thing is that the answers to all these questions start with "I can". For example: I can watch less TV. I can combine exersice with another activity. I can do some exercise in spare moments. I can walk an extra stop when getting the bus. I can park the car at the far end of the car park.
You're looking for a new house at the moment. Why not park the car round the corner. Not only will you get a little extra exercise in, you get a chance to see what the neighbourhood is like and you can take a lot more in while walking along the street than you can as you drive up to the house.
Second:
Not only set a goal, which you've already done IIRC, but aim to do something every day to achieve that goal. If you're finding that you're not doing that and you really want to achieve the goal reinforce it by writing down (and I mean with a pen and paper) what you will gain by reaching the goal. If you were to wake up one morning and discover you've achieved your goal you've never actually gained anything. The real gain is in what you become by working towards the goal. So, write down all the positive things you will gain if you work to achieve this goal.
Here is part of what I wrote:
When I achieve my weight target I will be healthier, I will be able to run for the train effortlessly, I will breath easily at all times. I will fit into my kilt* again and wear it with pride. I will enjoy swimming again.
* It was a bit of a tight squeeze the last wedding I was at. Also, they cost upwards of £400 (US$720) for a very cheap one and that is without the Prince Charlie jacket, waist coat, tie, shirt, belt, buckle, sporran, kilt pin, argyle socks, flashes, brogues and skian dubh. All in all the entire package would normally come to over £800 (US$1440)
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Certainly all good ideas, but I haven't so much lost motivation as gotten caught up in the whirlwind of preparing for homeownership.
There have been a few times where I've opted for something when I could have exercised some, and I do need to make a larger effort. I did go running one night and hiking on Sat. morning. Which I suppose is better than what I used to do, but not the 4 days a week I'm aiming for.
I will run tonight and exercise this coming week.
BW
The Biggest Loser
"Farm Donkey makes us laugh.
Farm Donkey hauls some ass."
-The Stoves
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brianwelsch wrote:
There have been a few times where I've opted for something when I could have exercised some
Looks like you need take my second suggestion then everytime you catch yourself doing something instead of exercise is to look at what you wrote and remind yourself what you will achieve by reducing your weight.
I have to admit that the weather here hasn't been so great this past week so I only walked 5 miles extra, while last week I walked 10 miles extra. By extra I mean that I do normally walk about 40 mins a day between my house and the railway station and between my work and the railway station. Anyway, since I realised that the weather is no excuse and the summer in Scotland is quite short, I joined a gym instead - I've got my induction session with one of the trainers tomorrow morning to set up an exercise programme - Then they review me every so often and rework the programme to fit my improving health.
brianwelsch wrote:
I will run tonight
Do you like running?
I only ask because a lot of people see running or jogging as "the way" to lose weight. But that is not necessarily true. I just walk, and it works for me. I enjoy it. I get to see things that I wouldn't notice if I was travelling faster. When I was out for a walk earlier this week it started raining just as I was passing the Dean Gallery[^] so I took the opportunity to visit it as I had never been to see it before. It was great. And after 20 minutes of looking around I wandered back outside to sunshine (Scottish weather is really changable)
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
I've got my induction session with one of the trainers tomorrow morning to set up an exercise programme
best of luck with that. I'm more fortunate in the southern US regarding weather it sounds, I decided to leave the gym because I never felt like going back inside (i'm inside all day for work as it is...).
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
By extra I mean that I do normally walk about 40 mins a day between my house and the railway station
This is not an option for me, as I currently have no public transport that could take me to work, and live 25 miles away. Though that may change with my move, and I could realistically begin riding my bicycle the 7 miles.
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
Do you like running?
I never thought I would, and began my exercising with 1-2 of walking after work, several days per week, or hiking on the weekends. After I improved my fitness a bit I found I just wanted to run. Still not good at it, and when I go for a run it's more half running and half walking, but I do enjoy it. I've actually decided on a bike ride tonight instead to break things up and see some neighborhoods that are more distant. A change of scenary.
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
the Dean Gallery[^]
Looks nice. I'd love to see a Dali exhibit. I've got this[^] Dali hanging in my living room.
BW
The Biggest Loser
"Farm Donkey makes us laugh.
Farm Donkey hauls some ass."
-The Stoves
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brianwelsch wrote:
Though that may change with my move
Good luck with the move. I spent two years looking. (I'm not wanting to put you off so I'll just point out that the housing market here is quite strong). A couple of friends of mine moved house last year and when they put their house on the market on Tuesday morning it was sold by Thursday. The house they themselves bought was on the market for only a few hours.
brianwelsch wrote:
A change of scenary
That's always good. I'm finding that between visiting my parents one evening a week and walking an couple of extra railway stations (both roughly 5 miles from where I work, but different routes) and varying the routes inbetween (like going a bit further west, before turning north, so I can walk past galleries and so on) I can see quite a bit of Edinburgh.
brianwelsch wrote:
I'd love to see a Dali exhibit
There is a museum in Florida that has quite a bit of his work. http://www.salvadordalimuseum.org/[^]
I've also been to the Dalí Theater Museum[^] in Figueres, Catalunya. It is pretty amazing. If you ever go to Barcelona you must see it. It is only a two hour train journey north of Barcelona, near to the French border.
brianwelsch wrote:
I've got this Dali hanging in my living room
Which one? There are three on the page you linked to.
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
I spent two years looking.
yikes. that's patience. I spent about 3-4 months looking through neighborhoods and online, and on a whim visited a few new places last weekend, and found a great deal, and if all goes well will have the keys in 2 weeks.
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
Good luck with the move
Thank you.
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
I can see quite a bit of Edinburgh.
Sounds nice.
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
Which one?
Ooops, sorry. I thought I linked to a unique picture. I have the Invisible Afghan ... Face of Garcia Lorca (2nd Dali, 6th overall picture) Thanks for the additional links.
BW
The Biggest Loser
"Farm Donkey makes us laugh.
Farm Donkey hauls some ass."
-The Stoves
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brianwelsch wrote:
yikes. that's patience.
I managed to secure the house I live in now by minutes. Also, I was travelling a lot at that time so the opportunities were sporadic at best. I was viewing neighbourhoods in commuter towns outside Edinburgh - There is no way I could afford to live in Edinburgh and have the amount of space I have. I saw a showroom and was told that on the following Monday they would be putting a similar style house, but slightly smaller, on the market at 12:30. I wanted to see the actual style first, and was told that if I travelled through to another site they were building on the west coast (remember Scotland is small you can drive coast to coast in 90 minutes at the narrowest point). So, at the next opportunity I had I travelled through. It also happened to be the Monday. Since each site office doesn't open until 12:30 I couldn't see what the layout was going to be until then. As luck would have it the site manager arrived at 12:25 and I got in early to have a look around the show house.
Well, I loved the house so I explained to the site manager that I was actually wanting to buy the same design house in Dunfermline. She was kind enough to phone through to the site manager at Dunfermline to ask them if it was still for sale, it was, and could they hold it for me until I made it through to sign the documents. That was acceptable and I drove back to Dunfermline.
When I got to Dunfermline I was 5 minutes into filling in the forms when a call came in for the site manager from another person who wanted the house too. It was the last one of its type to be built on the Dunfermline site (the remaining houses were going to be much larger and much more expensive). The site manager then mentioned that while I was travelling from the other site she'd received another call too, so I was very lucky.
With all the forms filled in and processed all I had to do was to wait 6 months for them to actually build the house.
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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![Jig | [Dance]](https://codeproject.freetls.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/jig.gif) A little more. Just half a kilo this week, bit it is in the right direction and as the Tesco advert says: Every little helps.
Here's the stats:
Today I weigh: 94.100kg
Difference since start: - 1.600kg
Difference since last Week: - 0.500kg
Average change (per day): - 0.114kg
Average change (per week): - 0.800kg
Average change (per month): - 3.428kg [predicted to 21st July]
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
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