Introduction (Home Page)

Welcome to Dave's Web Pages, one of the places where I share a few random thoughts and the occasional rant with anyone who's willing to listen. The other place is my (new) web log, which is much easier to keep updated.

Almost every personal web page includes a few biographical notes about the author, a summary of his or her interests and hobbies, links to places of interest to the author, and possibly a picture or two. I could be different - but then, who am I to challenge a tradition that has built up over hundreds of weeks?

On this page:
Biographical Notes	A few snippets of information about myself.
Interests and Hobbies	What I enjoy doing.
My other pages:
Links	Some places on the Internet I find interesting.
Computers	My highly idiosyncratic thoughts on computer development through theages.
Rants	Things that annoy me. Although described in what I hope is a humourous manner, there's a serious point behind most of these.
Norfolk	About the county of Norfolk, my native heath.
Living With Your Rabid Iolausian	A certain friend of mine is a very, very dedicated fan of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and of one actor who appears in it. This site describes the trials and tribulations of everyday dealings with such a "rabid" fan.
Aviation	At the moment, a few pictures of aircraft, and discussion of the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford.
Science Fiction	A page in need of much expansion - thoughts on science fiction, favourite books, that sort of thing.
Photographs	My photographic galleries, including:
	Aviation
	The Red Arrows
	Calliope (Cally), a very cute cat
	Smokey, a mature and laid back cat
	Fliss, s young kitten full of mischief
	Smokey and Fliss pose together

Biographical Notes

[Contents]

I was born at a very early age. I'm 39 years old and a compulsive liar. I'm also a native of Norfolk, one of the counties of England, but throughout my late 'teens and my twenties, I wandered around the country before arriving back pretty close to where I started. It's odd how things work out.

I go through life in the fond belief that my hair remains black, although certain friends of mine (and one in particular, who is owned by a pair of black cats) tend to use the word "grey". It's nice to know who your friends are!

In everyday life I'm a working physicist, which means that I spend quite a lot of the day slaving over a hot computer. Then, when I come home, I choose to slave over a hot computer. Is this some kind of obsession?

On the Subject of Photographs

Originally, I put a small picture of myself at the top of this page. It was nothing elaborate, just a spare left over from a photo booth when I needed a couple of photographs for a passport. As such, it was like every other passport photo on the planet, in that it made me look thoroughly miserable. After all, we all know that looking even remotely happy on a passport photograph is not permitted. Anyway, the same friends who make unkind comments about my hair really went to town on that photograph (it's the 1995 one below, in case you were wondering).

In 2000, I needed more passport-style photos, and duly scanned one of those. This one at least had the advantage of not putting odd highlights all over my face, but for some bizarre reason, made me look about five years older than in the 1995 version. I can't imagine why. I used it, despite these issues.

Come 2006, and losing weight seemed like a really good idea, and so that's what I did over the next year or so. At the end of which time, the 2000 picture no longer gave a fair impression, so I replaced it with the current version in 2008. Sadly, this one makes me look even older...

Since my friends will no doubt make witty comments about whatever photo I put up, here's the (almost) complete set of passport photographs. Mock the current version if you wish, but at least see the ones I could have used!

One thing becomes clear straight away - those of us who were around in the 70s certainly had some pretty weird ideas about clothes and hairstyles!

1976	1995	2008
See what I mean?

The Cat's Whiskers?

This photograph was taken over the New Year (1999/2000, that is).

(With thanks to Sue for taking this picture)

Keen observers may have noticed that the top of my head is missing in the picture - that's because someone (who shall remain nameless!) concentrated so thoroughly on Cally (Cally is the cat in this picture!) that I became of secondary importance. OK, so she is cute, but I insist on redressing the balance! So, here's my picture that concentrates on that cute little kitty to the exclusion of all else!

That's the picture of a cat who knows who's boss... she is!

Hobbies and Interests

[Contents]

Hobbies and Interests: Modelling, or Modelmaking

As a youngster, I went through the usual interests of small boys - stamps, cars, trains and planes. From the age of eight or so I became a keen modeller, which is something that's stayed with me until the present. The subjects have varied over the years (cars, trains and planes again) and although I don't get to do as much modelling as I used to (pressures of time), there's usually some project on the go.

When I described this hobby to my school's careers master many years ago, he interpreted "modelling" as standing in front of a camera instead of constructing models. I think this misunderstanding was deliberate and for comic effect. Nonetheless, I'll use the term modelmaking if I think confusion is likely to arise.

Painting a 54mm figure, while not strictly modelmaking, can be very relaxing. When painting the fine details, it can be frustrating too! The human eye is an approximate ellipse measuring around 20mm wide by 10mm high - painting something like that, thirty two times smaller than life, takes a steady hand, a good pair of spectacles, plenty of patience, and (usually) several attempts.

Hobbies and Interests: Photography

This has been another of my interests, ever since I had my first camera (a 126 format Kodak Instamatic for 25 shillings + 2 Corn Flakes box tops in 1969! Note for modern readers - not including the Corn Flakes box tops, that works out at 1.25 Pounds Sterling or a little under 2 US Dollars). This camera had two exposure settings. These were "sunny" and "cloudy", and you toggled between the two by moving a little slider between a cartoon image of the Sun, and a cartoon image of the Sun half covered by a cloud. For indoor photography, there was also flash (in the form of a disposable cube with a flash bulb in each of the four vertical faces.) Despite the slow film speeds of the time, it worked reasonably well, and very few pictures failed to turn out.

Since then, I've had a variety of cameras. The Pentax ME Super that served me for many years has just retired, a few months short of its twentieth birthday. I'm now getting used to a Canon with a much, much easier film loading system, but so many fascinating toys that it's taking ages to learn my way round the manual. After all, the time available to take a photograph may be limited - there isn't usually time to leaf through the manual to remind oneself whether it's possible to take multiple exposures in apeture priority mode.

Hobbies and Interests: Science Fiction

Again, this is an interest that goes back some time, and I'm putting together a separate page on this subject.

Mostly, I'm a reader of sf, but also enjoy several films and TV programmes with science fiction content, and have attended a fair number of conventions over the years - either as a member of the general public, so to speak, or helping out in various capacities. At some of the media (film/tv/radio) related conventions I've been to, I was quite shocked to meet people who claim not to read books. Well, each to their own, but is seems a shame that they're missing out on so much. After all, in a book, the characters are usually better portrayed, the scenery is more convincing, and the special effects far more spectacular!

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