Castlerock to Downhill

Anyone who can stand the excitement of following my blog will be aware of my plans to walk around the coast from Castlerock Beach to Downhill Beach tomorrow. Today being the day before the optimum time, I decided to go for a trial run. The tidal data shows the Low Tide today at 0.1m above chart datum, only 100mm above where it is expected to be tomorrow.

And I wasn't disappointed! I got the whole way around the coast, although due to the timing I wasn't there early enough to go as far as I would have liked onto Downhill beach, but nevertheless I managed the walk from Castlerock to Downhill and back, mostly on dry land. There were two places I had to cross water about 12-15 inches deep.

I met two old men on the way round, one said that he had been walking the beach for 60 years, and had ever before witnessed the water receeded so far!

You can see the route we took here : http://routebuilder.org/m2 (Pretty cool tool!). 1.2 miles in total according to that, so a 2.4 mile round trip, that'll help in planning for tomorrows repeat attempt so we can arrive at the optimum time for the tides!

See todays photos here : http://picasaweb.google.com/simonmcc/20060908CastlerockToDownhill

Code like this shouldn't compile

I have just found this code in a code review I am conducting, methods should not be written like this. I have posted it here for your reference. If you find yourself writing code like this, turn your PC off and go home. Compilers should have an extra check to ensure tokens do not consist of check, test, etc and a class name.

    /**
     * @param obj1
     *            Object
     * @param obj2
     *            Object
     * @return boolean
     */
    public static boolean checkObject(Object obj1, Object obj2) {
        boolean matches = true;

        if (obj1 == null) {
            matches = (obj2 == null);
        } else {
            matches = obj1.equals(obj2);
        }
        return matches;
    }

In the dark

I set out for a walk to Mussenden Temple last night to try to get a few snaps of the sunset. It was very poor in the end, and I didn't get anything worthwhile. However on the walk back to the car I looked over to the East to see the Full Moon rising spectacurarly over the horizon. It was beautiful, but unfortunately partly obscured by cloud. See all

The hours around midnight again saw me outside well wrapped, and wielding my camera. As forecast it was a perfect night for the sky, hardly a cloud to be seen.

Again, I was aimed at the moon, but my favorite picture of the night was the one at the top of this post. You'll have to click to get the full effect, but basically it is a 15 second exposure of the night sky, picking up the view towards the sea from our house, and The Plough (The seven brightest stars of the constellation Ursa Major) in the sky.

Best moon picts of the evening below, or click here to see them all

Lunacy!

Anyone who knows me will be aware that I will point a camera at anything. Usually the results are poor, but I compensate by taking loads of photos.

Tonight I decided the moon would be a suitable subject, given its recent popularity. After many overexposed shots, and noting my clear lack of a camera suitable for these types of shots, I managed to get this shot, which I have to say is poor, but nevertheless much better than I expected.

Anyhoo, thanks to AF for the pointers that led to me standing outside, freezing waiting for the cloud to clear!

File EXIF information (for anyone vaguely interested :)

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   ComponentConfiguration : YCbCr
   CompressedBitsPerPixel : 34/10 (bit/pixel)
          BrightnessValue : EV7.8
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                MakerNote : Unknown Format :
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2006 Perigean Spring Tide

This week sees a rather unusual tidal event. Since my recent interest in boating, and continued fascination with the coast I have read a little about tides, and the science behind them.

As you may know, tides are believed to be caused by the moon's gravity pulling on the water that makes up 2/3 of the Earths surface. As the Moon moves around the Earth it attracts the water towards it. This creates two bulges, one at the side of the Earth adjacent to the Moon, and another at the opposite side of the Earth. The Moon orbits round the Earth about once a day.

Another interesting factor in this complex system is the momentum the massive body of the sea, meaning the Moon has a similar effect to pushing someone on a swing, so that the highest tides actually lag a few days behind the new/full Moon. Just as with pushing a swing, it is important that the water is pulled at the correct time and the Moon does this well.

The Sun adds further complication to the equation by itself providing a weak pull on the seas. When the Sun, Moon and Earth are aligned twice a month at New Moon and Full Moon the combined force brings a a "Spring Tide", when the ranges between high water and low water are greatest. The Moon is full this month on Sep 7 2006 at 18:44.

The Earth's cycles provide a further input to the tides, with stronger tides being felt at the Equinoxes, in March and September. These tides are referred to as equinoctial tides, and will occur this year on Sep 23 2006 at 04:03.

Due to the eccentric orbit of the Moon, sometimes it is closer and sometimes it is further away from Earth, and therefore tides vary in magnitude. The point at which it is closest to the Earth is called the Perigee. This week it is closer than it has been in the last 413 day cycle. The Perigee will occur on Sep 8 2006 at 3:08 when the Moon will be a distance of 357174 km from the Earth. This month also sees the Northernmost Moon of the century on Sep 15 2006, at 1:27 a.m., and a Lunar Eclipse on Sep 7th

Although the combination of Full Moon, Equinox, and Perigee is not simultaneous, they are sufficiently close together to have a measurable combined effect leading to the largest tidal range for a quarter of a century.

The tide table for Coleraine presented below shows the lowest tide being on Saturday Sep 9 at 14:57 BST, conveniently in the middle of the afternoon.

Apparently when the tide is low it is possible to walk around the coast from Castlerock beach to Downhill beach, so come rain or shine I'll be out around with camera in hand to attempt the walk. Of course a storm with an onshore wind at sea could rise the low tide sufficiently to make it no different to a normal tide, so lets hope that the weather remains temperate. If there are no further posts to this blog please assume that I have drowned.


References :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide
http://www.idialstars.com/pst.htm
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/moon_ap_per.html
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/scenario/tides101.htm

StaxRip - convert to AVI

After being used to AutoGk for ages, and its temperamental behavior, it was a great relief to find StaxRip - from the website :

"With StaxRip you can easily convert your DVD's, DVB captures and many more formats into MPEG-4"

Just tried it last night, managed to compress Ice Age from 3 VOB files to a 1GB AVI file, including the AC3 soundtrack, and the quality looks fine(certainly good enough for kids movies)The one pass mode seemed to work in almost real time... I didn't time it exactly, but usually these things take an age - good stuff

Thanks for the recommendation uknova!

The Red Arrows

Today the peace and tranquility of the North Coast was shattered by the roar of 9 Hawk T. Mk.1 jet planes screaming across the sky. The Red Arrows\ provided the finale for the fifth annual international air show hosted in Portrush in a spectacular fashion. Needless to say the entire coast was lined with cars and people wielding cameras, and I believe the coastline pretty much came to a stand still for the twenty minute show.

We hadn't really put a lot of effort into getting there on time, and so only managed to pull up on a kerb between Portstewart and Portrush, and therefore missed the centre of the action, but nevertheless it was a super viewing spot. Next year we will endevour to get to the West Bay area to get the full effect.




See more pictures here

Crash [2004]

While renting a couple of movies for the kids, I also picked up a copy of Crash, which is one of those annoying films - I think I didn't like it. See, what I mean is, well, it was slow, dull, perhaps not the action packed genre of film I really like. Thought provoking in parts, certainly packed with diverse charactors, all racist in one form or another, all mixed up about life. Certainly not one I'd wish to see again shortly.

IMDB for Crash

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my other half!

This is the twelth birthday she has celebrated since I met her; soon I'll have known her for half of her life (isn't getting older fun?), and every year just keeps getting better! Thanks SWMBO for everything, and have a great day!

Birthday present pictured :) Happy bouncing!

Auld Lamas Fair and Barrys

With the bank holiday we decided to make a day of it, and so we got packed up and headed over to Ballycastle where the Auld Lamas Fair was in progress. We attempted to park in the harbour car park, but this year it seems to have been taken over by "travellers" and a huge ferris wheel.

Anyhow, we walked round the stalls, avoiding the showers, picking up a couple of little things for the kids, and in all had a nice time.

Afterwards we went home for some lunch, and then set sail for Barrys in Portrush, the traditional amusements of the triangle area. Again it was fun, the kids had a great time, they noticed the "ghost train" for the first time, and felt suitably scared after an unaccompanied ride through.

In the evening the wind was wild, so we got the kite and headed to the beach where SWMBO had a go for the first time. After several excuses she gave up, although I have to say the wind was strong, and it was pretty tough.

A Grand Day Out.

Announcing : Sunday

Sunday morning is normally busy for us - getting up, getting the kids ready and heading out to church, getting to church and the normal little tasks I do there (winding the clock, unlocking the doors etc)

Today was special, however, because I had managed to get another task. Last week the minister had joked about getting me to do the announcements, but when he discovered the person he was going to ask was working he reverted to me! The last time I had the focus in church I was about 15-16, I felt so nervous, and read so badly (in my opinion) I had point blankly refused to do anything like that since. This time I decided to give it a go.

The minister arrived at my house on Friday evening with the announcement sheet, which I had a quick skim over, and then left to the side until this morning.

I practiced it about a brazillion times before we left for church.

In the end it all went OK, or so I am informed. I started out well, welcoming the visiting minister, pausing to look over and everything, although as time passed I could feel my heart getting faster. By the end I was looking for words or sentences or paragraphs to leave out, but I struggled, and got there, with my quivering voice - or so I thought.

I was assured afterwards by people who I trust to tell me the absolute truth that my nervous state was undetectable from my voice! Unbelievable!

Later that afternoon we headed to Benevenagh, where we went for a walk to the cliff edge, so perhaps it was just as well it all went well beforehand :)

Saturday Fun

After the customary lie in (actually it was lie in++ today :) we eventually ventured downstairs and got brekkie. Afterwards the girls went to the trampoline, and the boys got the kite. I think it's fair to say we all had equal fun, with both boys having a good turn on the kite.






When we decided the wind had gone away the four of us got on to the trampoline and exercised until we could exercise no longer. In the afternoon we popped out to Mum and Dads to see what was new there. Much to SWMBOs trepidation we decided to go for a canoe on the River Bann in the evening, but first we had to visit SWMBOs parents for our "tea" (read tea = enough food to feed a horse for a week)

After all that food it was time to take to the water and so off we set. We met Dad at Camus picnic area, all piled into the van and left our car there. We had decided to launch at the Agivey Bridge, on the road to Ballymoney and so we parked in the car park there. To the amusement of the gathered fishermen we got the boats ready, and down the banks into the river where we managed a perfect dry launch. I was a little worried about the whole thing, especially the wake of water-skiers, but in the end I had nothing to worry about. The 3.85 miles (according to google earth) took us about 1 hour 10 minutes. Definitely a good first experience on the river, although I think I would prefer slightly faster flowing water - the Bann was like a lake.

Happy Birthday!

So for SWMBOs birthday we decided that a 12' Trampoline would be in order. So we ordered it and after much watching the road for a delivery van it finally arrived, and we got it set up tonight. Everyone had great fun, and quoting one of the participants with this kind of exercise it wouldn't be unusual to lose up to "5 stone"

Girl Escapes After Being Held in Cellar - For 8 Years

Unbelievable story about an Austrian girl held prisoner in a cellar for 8 years.

read more digg story

MOT: Pass!

Today my work offered a medical checkup testing for Cholesterol, blood sugar levels and blood pressure and I am glad to say that my readings were all normal.

I can continue my decadent lifestyle with my mind at ease.

Saturday Fun : Lego House

This afternoon we set about building a lego house, and about an hour later it was completed. Now you too can wonder at our creation.

The nicer side of N Ireland

Surround speakers finally installed

Anyone who has visited us within about the last year will be aware of our surround speakers sitting on the floor, or precariously balanced on the ends of the sofas. Well we are no longer makeshift - I popped over to Argos and bought a set of wall mounts, so the speakers are now exactly where they belong.

This is another credit point for my house of conduit - I was able to pull the cables from the back of the TV, up an unused conduit, and using the tiny access door from one of the bedrooms pull it across the ceiling and drill it down through. I love it when a plan comes together (eventually)

Google Adding Face Recognition Technology to Picasa

This will be useful for organising photos when it eventually comes along:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/better-way-to-organize-photos.html

Friday: Time to leave

7:30 on Friday morning saw us off for another morning walk, or climb as it turned out. We went to a spectacular viewpoint near Birnham, and it should be noted that the "walk" was steeper and longer than I care to remember. But due to the tight time constraints imposed by the Missises we made it up and down in record time. Its good that we both survived.

After much packing and goodbyeing we set off for home. After a 1 hour boat delay, finding a set of keys we forgot to return and multiple games of "Guess Who?" we were returned safely home. It is always nice to get back home after any holiday, but I have to say I could definitely have had another week this time......