roryosullivan.co.uk

The company I work for treated all it’s staff to a special present at Christmas. We got the choice to pick one of several options for free as a present. From the traditional Christmas hamper to a variety of activity days, theatre tickets and spa sessions there was plenty to chose from. As I read through all the options one stood out as looking like a lot of fun and son on Tuesday I jumped on the internet and booked my session at Airkix in Milton Keynes.

The Airkix Building in Milton Keynes

So this morning after a restless nights sleep, I made my way down the road and onto the train across town before jumping on another train to Milton Keynes. Airkix is situated on the mind boggling squared block about a mile or so from the train station at the back of the Xscape. To reach it you either enter the Xscape complex which is full of fast food outlets and shops, you then head to the snozone (where you can ski and snowboard), through the snozone you will find the Airkix entrance.

The Airkix Entrance at Xscape in Milton Keynes

After arriving slightly early I signed in and made my way to the viewing gallery to see some ohers, it was clear it was going to be fun but it also looked difficult. I made my way back downstairs and got ready for the briefing which was clear and concise and went through the basic hand signals and what would be expected of us. Once briefed we dropped our belongings into the lockers and got kitted up with suit, goggles and helmet. We made our way into the tower and after watching the last couple of flights from the group before us we sat down in the holding area. It was time to fly. How well did I do you ask, well you’ll have to judge for yourself. And you can. Here, now.

Rory - Airkix at Milton Keynes from Rory O’Sullivan on Vimeo.

Alternative youtube version - http://www.youtube.com/v/9VTVasaEFZM

Well? what did you think, I sort of flew for a bit, I needed some help a couple of times but on the second run I managed to twig what the instructor was telling me about how to go up and down and understood the very basics. Would I do it again? Hell yeah, it was great, thoroughly recommended, it can be a little pricey but it’s cheaper and safer than skydiving (according to their information). I spent the train journey home thinking about how I could have controlled my movements better, how my arm and legs made me turn, or go forward, or how even the heavy belly I have could make me go upwards!

I even got a few ticks on the certificate to show what I did, so all that flailing around you saw apparently means: I have attended the introductory class and flew in he tunnel; Can follow instructions and and fly in a basic flying position with little assistance; can hold a still and controlled body position, can move forwards and backwards with reasonable control and I can move up and down the air column. What do you mean I didn’t do all of them? It says so here!

My Airkix certificate and DVD

I woke up around 6, then 6:30, then 7, then, well you get the idea, I finally surfaces around 11am this morning, the severity of my hangover was amazing, I slept on and off from about 5pm, the sleep was punctated with waking up feeling awful or coughing or both, occasionally I had a full sweat on. I tried watching a film (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) which took my mind of the hangover successfully for 2 hours (it’s a very good film, soundtrack amazing, predictable ending though) but as soon as I tried to crash out I felt bad again.  After watching the film it was time to go for one last cigarette, at abut 11:40pm  I smoked that last cigarette. It was a nice cigarette. I miss it already.

I then proceeded to head back to bed were I lay awake and thought about a few things for a while before putting on the Paul McKenna Relaxation/Quit smoking MP3. That certainly did it’s job, I relaxed and I dozed off to the sounds of McKenna’s voice, I woke up about an hour later, the mp3 had finished and I twisted and turned and attempted to sleep again.

At around 6 when I clearly had got a couple of hours sleep, I woke up quickly.  I coughed up a lungful and went back to sleep, I can vaguely remember words and phrases from the audio saying things like “your lungs are relaxing” so maybe they relaxed enough to losen some of the debris that no doubt fills them up.

Today itself has been purely about doing as little as possible, especially anything that is part of my monday routine. I’ve not been at work today so there are no temptations there and i’ve hardly eaten which helps me stop having the after meal cigarette. I had to call into a conference call this afternoon but apart from watching episodes of Two and a Half Men, The Sarah Silverman show and what was the best waste of a couple of hours, Shoot ‘Em Up,  I’ve done nothing, on purpose, to resist temptation.

I have definitely felt like smoking several times today but i’ve not resorted to playing the MP3 again, or giving in. I will be strong, I’ve typed this up about 10 times to make my fingers do things and I’m now rambling, time to treat myself to a Pizza and and attempt to beat the temptation of a post meal cigarette.

On Tuesday (24/02/09) I headed down to Tiger Tiger on Haymarket or the Amplified 09 event, The “Network Of Networks”. For those in attendance and for those that weren’t I thought I’d put down a few bullet points of what I picked up from the sessions and a bit of feedback about the event that hopefully will prove useful.

From session #01 - The Future of Online Video

• Budgets are smaller than people imagine for short form content but expect broadcast quality
• Whilst equipment costs are down for the general public it’s still early adopters that are making use of higher quality equipment, this will change
• There will be further increase in UGC in News and events which Broadcasters need to embrace more. Video equivalent of Twitpic?
• Content appears in different silos dependent on what audience the producer wants to attract, there is no site for everything and that should continue. Whilst it would be nice for a centralised point of video (Kangaroo?) there are far too many rights/companies/producers etc involved
• Producers need to be made aware of curators of content to help push use on niche sites rather than just upload content to YouTube
• Studios/Broadcasters/Producers need to loosen rights restrictions to enable everyone to see content. We are becoming more unified as people regardless of geography.
• Monetizing amateur video is difficult and needs to be adressed

From #37 - Socialising Media - A spinoff from the Future of the Book and Online Video topics - how can we read/watch/listen together, even if we’re not necessarily in the same place or at the same time?

• Potential for Online video services to offer Premieres of content with chat services (like used in Blu-Ray Live) to feature Q&A’s with cast/directors etc.
• Virtual Book Groups - Based on Locations in books (possibly using something like Get London Reading, book groups without having to physically be there.
• Commenting/Chat on E-Readers (deals with providers?)

Other points that came up in discussions

• News Vs UGC - Users always go back  to Trusted sources, UGC helps get information out from an individuals POV
• Technology isn’t there yet for the masses to fully embrace and understand Social Media, we need to educate and show how it can benefit small businesses.

Thoughts on the event itself:

• Venue was too dark in places
• An hour was about right for each session
• Topics should have been set to pre-assigned tables as it was difficult to find appropriate sessions
• Should have allowed more time for more sessions, a whole day rather than an afternoon start
• A non-bar venue would be better, people seemed distracted by the time the third session was on and a separate after event drinks venue.
• More virtual tables

I want to say thanks to everyone who set up the event, overall I think it was great

I’ve never really been great at networking, I’ve not purposely avoided it but it in the digital Industry I work in it is essential for bouncing ideas, getting inspiration and learning more about what can be done. I’ve attended a couple of small pub based events where I can grab a pint and settle my nerves but having a lack of belief in what I can do, my skills, and general self confidence a daytime event could prove to be difficult for me. I’ve come to Amplified 09 to overcome these nerves and apprehensions.

Amplified runs as a “Network of Networks” bringing a variety of people from different meetups like Creative Coffee Club and Social Media Cafe as well as lots of other interested parties together to discuss important issues in social media. THe usefulness of networking with like minded, industry related people and people from within other industries that can help increase innovation seemed to me like a great idea. Connecting people is important.

Connections are important, incredibly useful things. They stop us drifting, provide anchors, but also form new points for us to push off from

http://www.amplified09.com/about/

I’ve chatted via email and twitter, via messageboards and IM to plenty of people in the past, it’s the face to face element of events like these that worry me. On friday I made my way to the Friday Social Media Cafe Event, aka Tuttle [http://londonsocialmediacafe.pbwiki.com/] for the first time on my own. Having only been once before with @jemimah_knight and only there for an hour or so listening in to conversations it was hopefully going to be a toes in the water session for me before coming to Amplified 09.

I did what I always do when meeting new people, stand quietly at the back with a drink until an appropriate moment, at Tuttle that moment was after being there after about an hour and 2 cups of tea. It wasn’t me who made the approach to chat, a lovely American woman, new to Tuttle as well, came over and we had a chat, discussing sharing mechanics for digital media. After that I took a break and  I settled back into my reclusive self hiding by the stairs.

Thats when I took the decision to speak to someone, after spotting someone I recognized from a brief chat In a pub at a small Social Media event before christmas I went over to say Hello and became involved in a discussion on Wedding Photographers and the digital enthusiast photographer.  My nerves were still a bit shakey but it felt good to talk to someone about somethig I had an interest in.

So now it’s tuesday afternoon and It’s 2:30, I’m sat here at Tiger Tiger in Haymarket and people are starting to fill the place up for Amplified 09. It’s time to overcome the nerves and get off the laptop and start speaking to people as small groups are already forming of people who have clearly met each other several times before.

Straight from closing the laptop lid I break for fresh air outside for 5 minutes then come back inside and head to the bar to order a coke. Clearly avoidance on talking to people by my brain. I go to stand by a pillar and within a couple of minutes I’m approached by a young woman from a publishers introducing herself to me and another guy stood by me. At least I think she was and I may have just butted into her introduction to this other guy. My nerves are stil a bit flakey and I start talking, it’s all a bit of a blur and fairly soon we are called into the downstairs bar for the opening introduction.

Once the introduction is over I make my way back upstairs to find the talk on the future on online video and find myself at a table with about 6 or seven strangers. My intention was to listen in and take notes but I found my nerves started to make me spout words and I was feeling the nerves showed and made me come across as not showing any knowledge in the area but soon I settled into the conversations.

For the second session and the on my nerves disappeared slightly and I began to talk to more and more people. my fears and nerves faded as I realised these are all people who I shouldn’t be afraid of for having greater knowledge than me, they are there to share and to help people learn as well as learn themselves. I learnt, I shared and overcame some small fears.

From the back of this I will be off to Tuttle again this friday and hopefully several more similar events in the future and that can only be good for my career progression and self confidence.

I paid a visit with some friends to the Imperial War Museum this weekend. I’ve not been since a child, it’s one of the many places in London that whilst its so close to home that I forget it’s there. Luckily for me a friend needed to visit for a University project so a few of us got together and went along. As with most of my trips these days I took my camera and my camera bag.

After taking a couple of shots of the big guns outside we made our way into the building. As with a lot of museums there are bag checks. As I already had my camera out I placed my bag and the camera on the table and opened the top zip pocket to reveal my personal bits and pieces, keys and the like, and then the camera section which had my additional lens and other related items in it.

Imperial War Museum - Guests

On spotting my camera the security guard, without hesitation, piped up saying that photography was fine in the museum. Having been to museums and galleries before that haven’t allowed photography it was really nice that they made it clear that it was ok. Whilst I wasn’t trying to push my luck or anything and because I wanted clarification I said to the guard that I presumed that it didn’t include flash photography which I thought would have been fair, but no he said it was OK around most of the museum. Whilst I didn’t see any “no flash photography” signs in the areas I saw, the fact that a lot of the exhibits were in glass cabinets in dark areas which would have been difficult to shoot without a flash because of low light and with a flash because of reflections made me think this is what he was referring to. The same guard also mentioned that photography was fine to a friend in the group when his bag was checked as well.

It’s nice to see a museum being photographer friendly and their staff clued up on it all.

There is something magical about Kew Gardens for me, everytime I’ve been over the last couple of years I’ve visited with different people and at different times of the year so have had lots of different experiences there. Everything changes each time you visit, some work is always being done to improve the views, the plants, the information everything.

On this visit the new thing for me was the tree-top walkway After a first failed attempt to take a 3 year old round, he wanted to go up but didn’t like it when we got up there, I went back up and wandered around. The view was good but not amazing, mainly due to the cloudy weather. It was nice to get up close to the trees and see things from their point of view. I reccomened a trip to Kew for anyone living in or visiting London and you should make a point of getting up the tree-top walkway if you don’t mind heights, just don’t forget the green houses, other buldings in the grounds and the large pond.

Silhouette view from the Tree-Top walkway

Flickr Set - Photos from February trip to Kew Gardens

I’ve decided to keep track of the amount i’m eating. I know I eat a fair amount of food and the majority of it not particularly healthy. I’m hoping that by tracking what I’m eating I’ll get a good idea of the amoutn of rubbish I’m sticking in my and can hopefully cut down.

I’m using the Calourie Count site at about .com - http://caloriecount.about.com to track what I’m eating, hopefully over the course of the next two weeks i’ll get an idea about how much I should be eatign and what I can do to help lose a bit of weight and curb my bad eating. Wether or not I have the will power is another thing!

Whilst browsing the About.com site I took at diet peronality type test, i’ve copied in the result below and basically the only thing to say is it accurately describes my eating habits.

“Excessive Eater

You tend to overeat, which is very common in our society. As published in the Journal of Nutrition, Education, and Behavior, the amount of food we consume is proportional to the amount of food we get served. Unfortunately, the portions in restaurants and the size of products in supermarkets have both grown tremendously over the years. Super size, anyone?

Your Eating Habits

Despite the amount of food that you consume, your diet is most likely not nutritionally balanced and does not meet your daily values of essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals. There is commonly a link between satiety and health - foods rich in fiber and that tend to fill you up quickly are usually better than foods that you can eat a lot of.

The Solution
Calorie counting and food journals are an effective method against overeating. They help you understand where your calories come from, and which foods you should be careful with. To find out how many calories you should be eating, try our Expenditure Calculator. Also, it’s a good idea to add some exercise to your daily routine. This will not only increase your calorie allowance, but it will improve your health and make you feel great!”

My response to reading that was simply, No shit sherlock!

January is a tough month for a lot of people, budgets have to stretch further for several reasons, the money has to last that little bit longer as people get paid earlier and they forget that with the traditional over indulgence at this time of year that they end up spending more on food, drink and presents for the friends and family you haven’t seen in a while.

Without proper care people find themselves on a very tight budget once the New Year’s celebrations have died down. This is the situation I find myself in.

Photo By Jeff Keen - http://www.flickr.com/photos/spiderpop/

I’ve got a very tight budget for food and travel this month. So I’m trying a few things to make a boring and tight budget more interesting. To start with, I have my own adjustments:

• I’m eschewing drink completely so there’s a considerable cost cut back.
• I’ve switched to smoking roll-ups rather than my normal brand of cigarette. Yes I know I should give up, but I fear that won’t help my appetite or the money situation. I’ve tried going cold turkey before and the cost of nicotine replacements is expensive.
• I’m avoiding as many temptations as possible to stop me spending which essentially means apart from work and home I’m not going anywhere this month.

I was chatting to a @Jemimah_Knight yesterday about the situation I’m in. As well as a kind offer of cooking me dinner she also bought about an idea that I know has been done before but I thought I’d give a try. It’s based a simple premise - “Will Work For Food”. This time though I will swap and trade food for favours, and you can stop sniggering at the back I don’t mean those kind of favours!

Kudos, praise, whatever you want to call it, can be more valuable than cold hard cash to people. In the modern free work environment where movie reviews, news images and various other media are created by an ever expanding social media base, a small thank you, some recognition, can mean even more. This could mean all sorts of things that can be exchanged instead of money online.

Recently, through a work offer, I helped friends get half price Sky+ for a year. I got a note through the message board we frequent that it was all installed and running and they were pleased. I got a thank you for something I had done that whilst It wasn’t a lot of effort to arrange for me, meant a large saving for them.

It was the thank you that made me happy, something that in these days when I get a glare at holding open a door or sidestepping away from the tube doors to allow people off, that really meant something. The bonus was when they extended that thank you to a great gift of some photography books the next time I saw them. The thank you meant a hell of a lot and the books were the cherry on top.

With that in mind I’m experimenting this month to see if I can make the days go by using my skills and friendliness. Simply put – ask me for what you need, knowledge, skills whatever I can do and in return maybe I can get a nice email or better – a nice slap up meal to talk terms and say thanks.

So – what can I offer? You may well ask.

I’m not a master of any particular trade and I’m not a jack of all, just some.

I’ve got some areas of knowledge that might be useful to people, I can code HTML, and order a server and domain name, and install Wordpress (well that’s what I did here!), I know my way around the web and I am used to researching and shopping for people online.  I can stitch video together and have published pod casts. I’m also fairly handy with a camera and a little digital processing. So there are some web skills for start.

There not the only things I can do though, whilst I don’t have a car at the moment I do have a clean driving license so maybe you need someone to drive a van with your belongings in it if you are having a reshuffle or moving house and I can help move things around. If you just fancy someone to chat with in the pub with or need a partner for a class to learn with then maybe I can help.

Basicaly, if there is small job you need doing that you think I might be able to help with, advice on online shops or how to find things, if you need some things photographing or just want to ask me some questions and get some advice, then I might be able to help. You never know until you ask and you know what? Neither do I!

In return all I need is a thank you and permission to write it all up here as I go along. It might be quite a journey, depending on what you all think you need.

Hell, if you fancy taking me out for dinner for no reason at all then I probably wouldn’t say no! But no kissing on the first date – i’m not that sort of guy.

I grew up out in the suburbs but London was always about, when my Dad started working in town the appeal of the big city grew on me more and the small trips on the trains and tubes to the tourist spots with my parents excited me. One thing that was always a constant, especially when I began to work in town and live closer towards the centre of town, was that everything I saw of London was from ground level.

The Offices I’ve worked in and flats lived in have all been no more then two or three floors up and whilst some had nice views of the river others had just other buildings and dirty high streets. I’ve been up the London Eye once and took in the view of the main tourist sites you can see from there. The weather wasn’t especially great but you could see quite a few things.

This weekend the impact of London on me changed, I knew London was big, I’ve travelled through most stops on the tubes to nearly all the ends of the lines, and headed further out on the mainline trains but nothing prepared me for the view I got Saturday afternoon.

I’d spent the early afternoon walking through town, I strolled from Bond Street, across Oxford Street and down to Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue to look for Christmas presents for friends and family. Whilst the shopping trip wasn’t fruitful for presents it was for me (DMZ vol 1, 100 Bullets Vol 3 and Firefly - Better Days). After leaving the shop I placed a quick call to a friend to see if the arrangements they had said they would be able to sort were still on and they were, and with that I made my way to the junction of Charing Cross Road, Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road.

This is where the fun began. I made my way into Centrepoint and met my friend who spoke to th receptionist who let us through. Standing waiting for the lift nervous excitement was beginning to bubble up and once in the lift a small smile took over my face. We zoomed up missing floor after floro before quickly reaching our destination. I walked out and stepped into Paramount’s bar and dining area taking in the beautiful brass bar and the swish seating, but this wasn’t why I was here. we walked back out and up a short set of stairs. I was here, the viewing gallery. The view took my breath away and the small smile was now a massive grin.

Sunset Over London

The viewing gallery goes round 360 degrees with various armchairs and seating all the way around the middle and it was on one of these chairs I placed my bag and took in the view across West London. The sun was starting to fade and the sky was clear, I’d luckily got good weather and thats whwen I began to get to work. I ended up spending an hour going in circles around the gallery with the light quickly fading to being really quite dark and the city lighting up. Using my tripod and remote I managed to grab plenty of long exposures over the course of the hour trying to fit in the main landmarks and roads.

New Oxford Street

It was great to experience London from a view I had never seen before and my luck with the weather and light made it so much more amazing. To see the rest of the photos from the top of Centrepoint take a look at View From Paramount / Centrepoint - A Flickr Set

I’m writing this as the left side of my jaw is finally getting it’s feeling back after having a tooth removed this afternoon. I’l spare you the gory details of the procedure and how they had to pull the tooth out in bits. but I just want to remind people that yes there are needles involved, yes there can be drilling and all sorts of tools to pull your teeth out. HOWEVER. Thats will only be the case if, like me, you haven’t really looked after your teeth.

I’ve had a phobia/fear about going to the dentist and there was a 10 year period where I didn’t go, mainly due to a bad experience at a previous Dentist. However I was lucky enough to find a good surgery and the two Dentists I’ve had there have been amazing at re-assuring me and keeping me sane whilst I’ve had work done, including root canal work and now an extraction.

Whilst I know i’m to blame for the damage i’ve done so far to my teeth and that they will never be perfect, basically what I’m saying is, Dentists aren’t all that bad, get yourself a bit of trust in a professional and get regular appointments other wise you’ll end up with a big hole in you gum and a list of things you can’t do for ages:

No Alcohol
No Smoking
No really hot food or drinks
No really cold food or drinks
No hard food etc etc