Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Animal photos of the year 2014:  http://fw.to/AGnlr8Y  

Click to see full-size image.

Animal photos of the year 2014 - Part 2 http://fw.to/MSCLvN  

Top work Tighty, LOVE the annual photo galleries.

We usually get the "Boston Globe" ones, I'll need to go look for them.

Click to see full-size image.

If anyone sees, or is aware of, any other "2104 Photo galleries" (any subject except arty bollox), I'd appreciate it if you posted them please.

[Tal]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/30/worldsport/gallery/what-a-shot-1230/index.html

Some of the captions are simply tremendous.

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/search/events/523981195?editorialproduct=sport

http://uk.businessinsider.com/most-mesmerizing-sports-photos-2014-12

[Tal]

Prepare to set your face to stunned:



Here's an extract from the BBC show Life Story, which features the culprit:



Owing to the joys of YouTube, linked to it was this...

[tikay]

I'm always blown away when I go on the Sky Poker telly show and see how hard everyone works in that 'control room' behind the scenes. Looks a super stressful job.

So I thought you would appreciate this:

Control Room?

No no no. A "control room" is what NASA, or the Police use, surely?

If you wanna be a Telly-Bloke, you gotta use the right lingo Mr C.

It's called a gallery.

The Sky Poker one is fairly relaxed in relative terms, I'd have thought.

I can't begin to imagine the stress in a Gallery during, say, the BBC Open Golf Coverage, with scores of cameras & several commentators on the go, an NFL game, or on an "Election Night Special", with OB's left right & centre.

I went to bed once during an Election Night Special, the crew had been on air for 3 hours, & when I got up the next morning, the same TV faces were still front of camera, &, presumably, the same techie crew in the Gallery.

Generally, TV Shows (& especially commentators) get a proper dissing from Team Armchair, which feels a bit wrong to me.  We is a tough audience, 'innit?

Have you watched any of the World Darts thing? Sheesh, thats a tough gig. Darts is not exactly "deep", & the commentators have to find fresh stuff for hours at a time, it can't be easy, but they get called from a pig to a dog.

To me, this man can say what he likes - he gave me so much pleasure, to watch, for so long, I'd forgive him anything.

[horseplayer]

Betting without Wayne Mardle surely

[Tal]

I'm sure you know this, tikay, but Eric Bristow and Keith Deller now work in the gallery (or some other room behind the cameras), telling the button pushers what the players are aiming at, so the camera can get there before the dart. Obviously, this differs from player to player, as some prefer a double 12 finish in a particular spot, so will go for treble 16 instead of treble 18 or whatever to set it up.

How often does the camera focus on the wrong area? Can't be much more than once an evening on average.

[tikay]

Betting without Wayne Mardle surely

In my case, no, not at all.

But I'm a little ( = a lot) biased, as I spent 2 days with him during a Sky Poker Cash Game, in the Osterley studios, during which time we spent 5 or 6 hours chit chatting.

I found him to be warm & personable, & he gave me some help in a few matters, which makes it a bit awkward for me to be critical of him.

I showed him the Dubai "Fred coup" on the Worlds, he could barely believe his eyes! People BELIEVED that, he said......

Yes sirree, some did.

[tikay]

I'm sure you know this, tikay, but Eric Bristow and Keith Deller now work in the gallery (or some other room behind the cameras), telling the button pushers what the players are aiming at, so the camera can get there before the dart. Obviously, this differs from player to player, as some prefer a double 12 finish in a particular spot, so will go for treble 16 instead of treble 18 or whatever to set it up.

How often does the camera focus on the wrong area? Can't be much more than once an evening on average.

You see tat Barry Carter, Sequin Bloke KNOWS the terminology.

Gallery

But no, I never knew that, I did often wonder how a regular TV Cameraman could be so wised up on Darts.

A fairly simple skill for a Pro Darter, I would guess, but it makes the point that they do more than just sit there gabbing. It's really much harder than we would think, so Team Armchair are a bit ool imo. Not many of those have ever tried it, we can reasonably surmise.

It really is the nut easiest thing to criticise others so readily, but before doing so, we need to ask ourselves if we really know what it takes.

[horseplayer]

Betting without Wayne Mardle surely

In my case, no, not at all.

But I'm a little ( = a lot) biased, as I spent 2 days with him during a Sky Poker Cash Game, in the Osterley studios, during which time we spent 5 or 6 hours chit chatting.

I found him to be warm & personable, & he gave me some help in a few matters, which makes it a bit awkward for me to be critical of him.

I showed him the Dubai "Fred coup" on the Worlds, he could barely believe his eyes! People BELIEVED that, he said......

Yes sirree, some did.

Because I criticise somebody doing a  well paid job does not mean I hate the person. Sure he is a nice guy.

He is writing a column for betfair this week like a tipping column.

The results have been awful which in itself does not mean a lot but he has constantly got bet types wrong suggested a player needs to win 2 sets for a bet to win when its 3 e.t.c.

Having a rough knowledge of what betfair pay the racing trainers for their thoughts I am sure Wayne is getting more than a few quid for this and it reads like he has spent two minutes a day writing it.

Personally I am struggling to watch the darts when he is commentating as put in darts thread I though the itv team including alan.warriner who was very poor to start are now very watchable.

They interviewed warriner during there last coverage and he said he knew he was awful when he started but had spent time learning the skills needed to improve.

[tikay]

I long aqo abandoned Facebook, Barry. Only belatedly realised it was a time sponge, & gave me nothing meaningful back in exchange for my time when I could be doing more useful things. It's fine, whatever takes your fancy, but I'll never go down that road again.

My "tech addiction" is a problem to me though, & I'm trying to address it. Am up to an hour of Nature TV Docs, & an hour of reading, every day without fail, & that's working. I just need to double that now.

It's part of my job, though, so there's a limit.

I know we share a fixation with the psychology of internet use & users, so if time permits, I'll tell you a story shortly, which happened to me 2 or 3 days ago. There was a dreadful, terrible, disaster, the worst thing ever ever - Sky Poker went "down" for an hour. An HOUR. It was like the end of the world. The aftermath was, I thought, really quite interesting, as to how different people react, or even cope with such a tragedy. 

I'll catch up on replies first, then try & tell the tale. The varying reactions, by players & Business alike, were fascinating. 

You and I may be the only ones who find such a story fascinating, please please do share.
Had a funny one over the holidays myself. We drove from Sheffield to Norfolk on Crimbo Day, nice 2.5 hour drive. The missus and I were talking about 80s movies and I could not remember the name of the director of such classics as The Breakfast Club, Home Alone and Planes Trains and Automobiles. I knew it was John, but John Who?

I refused to google it. I've been reading a lot about how the internet has fundamentally changed our memories - we know everything, yet we know nothing. I probably spent eight hours randomly shouting out 'John' and random surnames hoping one would fit. I also kept announcing 'Breakfast Club director John.......' in the hope my unconscious memory would fill in the blank.

Eventually my wife googled it, I asked her 'was it at least John?' and she said yes, and then suddenly I just said 'John Hughes'. Bizarre how that prompted the memory.




[/quote]

Noty forgotten Barry, just letting the mud settle before replying.......

I also want to post some "NYD" stuff before it goes stale, & I lose the urge.

[tikay]

Betting without Wayne Mardle surely

In my case, no, not at all.

But I'm a little ( = a lot) biased, as I spent 2 days with him during a Sky Poker Cash Game, in the Osterley studios, during which time we spent 5 or 6 hours chit chatting.

I found him to be warm & personable, & he gave me some help in a few matters, which makes it a bit awkward for me to be critical of him.

I showed him the Dubai "Fred coup" on the Worlds, he could barely believe his eyes! People BELIEVED that, he said......

Yes sirree, some did.

Because I criticise somebody doing a  well paid job does not mean I hate the person. Sure he is a nice guy.

He is writing a column for betfair this week like a tipping column.

The results have been awful which in itself does not mean a lot but he has constantly got bet types wrong suggested a player needs to win 2 sets for a bet to win when its 3 e.t.c.

Having a rough knowledge of what betfair pay the racing trainers for their thoughts I am sure Wayne is getting more than a few quid for this and it reads like he has spent two minutes a day writing it.

Personally I am struggling to watch the darts when he is commentating as put in darts thread I though the itv team including alan.warriner who was very poor to start are now very watchable.

They interviewed warriner during there last coverage and he said he knew he was awful when he started but had spent time learning the skills needed to improve.

That's fair comment, John, though if you read all the feedback, there's a fair bit of venom in much of it. It's entirely possible to like someone who is not so good at their job, if we are being objective.

It's a bit disliking, say, Traffic Wardens, it's completely illogical.

[tikay]

The 2014 Xmas Edition of the Radio Times cost £3.80.





Pretty sure the Xmas Edition used to be about one & sixpence (7.5p).




There used to be (still is, maybe) a "TV Times", too, which was the ITV Version. It was printed on shiny paper (no good for toilet paper), whereas the Radio Times was great for toiletry matters.

Those old Radio Times were something we had to read cover to cover, full of amazzzzzing stuff, especially the adverts.

[RED-DOG]

4 months written guarantee on an Anglia? They must be mad.

[tikay]

4 months written guarantee on an Anglia? They must be mad.

We just fixed them ourselves when they went wrong.

Think they came in different versions Tom, iirc, 97E, 100E, 103E, 105E.

I had a Ford Popular 97E, same engine as the later Anglia I think.





Later, I had a 100E. Loved that car.