::Griffblog::

I’vc been lucky enough to see the International Space Station (ISS) pass over the UK a few times.  Once you know where to look and when it’s quite easy.

But until now I have never photographed it.  I recently upgraded to a Panasonic GF1 Micro 4/3rds camera (more on that later) and so, armed with some advice about the best exposure settings I planned to try a photo.

I follow @twisst on Twitter. They send you a Tweet each time the ISS is scheduled to pass overhead of the location you have set in your Twitter profile and so this evening I was forewarned that it would be visible at 17:33.

So I grabbed my camera and tripod and set up.  Typically I had forgotten to switch off Auto Focus and so, by the time I had the settings correct it was already half way across the skies.  Even so, it turned out OK and I’ll set up earlier and make sure I’m better prepared when it passes over again tomorrow.

In the image below, using a 40s exposure you can just about see the trail of the ISS as it passes behind the tree.

My last blog entry was a few months back. At the time I was struggling with morphine withdrawal and the blog wasn’t high on the to-do list.

I’m glad to report that I did manage to get through it. Given I had thrown away the last of the morphine prescription and I wasn’t about to go out and try and get some illegal drugs it was a foregone conclusion I guess!

But it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do and gives you a whole new perspective on the life of a drug addict. Mine was prescribed and controlled and still I became addicted so it is easy to see how a drug abuser can become hooked all too quickly.

Life is pretty much back to normal now, I’m still on the road to full fitness, knee still quite a way of full mobility but 120º of bend now which is great and means I can now kneel, run and ride a bike.

I’m now a regular gym attendee and am glad I had my leg sorted. So the main issues of life are not the more usual ones, the business, making ends meet and trying not to put too much weight back on!

Those of you who have followed the progress of my operation will know that I was taking morphine, tramadol and voltarol regularly to deal with the pain of the ilizarov fixator device.

Whilst I could never have coped without the help of the pain medications, the downside is of course that, now the procedure is complete I have to go through drug withdrawal.

I had been taking tramadol and morphine at 4hourly intervals for over 6mths. Both are very strong opiate based medications and both have known addictive side effects. So I was somewhat prepared for the fact that my body would have developed an addiction and I would have to suffer the symptoms of withdrawal.

I’ve been here before, when I had the original accident and broke my back I was on strong opiate meds for over a year. And so my GP agreed that I should undertake a slow progressive withdrawal. This involves my reducing the meds by small amounts in gradual stages. Continue reading…

Love the simplicity of this idea, www.passwordcard.org.

If you struggle to come up with secure passwords, and struggle even more to recall them then this site may have the answer. Personally I use the superb 1Password app for Mac/iPhone/iPad but this is a great second best.

The site produces a unique, wallet sized card that contains a random selection of symbols, colours and letters/numbers.

All you need do is remember a symbol and colour. You can then read off a password and recall it easily. If you lose the card it is of zero use to anyone else and it can even be configured with a line of numbers specifically for PIN’s etc.

Simple and effective. And the sample used in the image above is a random example, not one I’m using!

http://www.passwordcard.org/

I’m rarely enraged to such an extent that I feel compelled to write a blog post immediately but this is one of those occasions. As an ex-serviceman it has struck a nerve but I feel certain that it will similarly anger other decent men and women who have no particular connection to the armed forces.

Earlier this morning I read news in a post on The Wandering brit blog about an odious, vile little example of human life who goes by the name of Karl Winn. Winn is the owner of WebEurope, a web design company based in Somerset whose client base I dearly hope will soon disappear.

When Winn was approached by a recruitment company looking to place ex-servicemen in work he chose to vent his narrow minded and particularly disgusting opinions.

he would rather recruit ex-drug dealers, convicts and child molesters’ than employ former servicemen or women.

Winn, 60, said he would rather ‘recruit ex-drug dealers, convicts and child molesters’ than employ former servicemen or women.

Continue reading…