We now left the wild north shore of Islay and...
...set off across the broad mouth of Loch Gruinart. On the far side of the loch low lying Ardnave Point stretched out below the bold headland of Ton Mor. We hoped to round it in the morning when we would be well on the way to the west coast of the Rhinns of Islay.
We were bound for Nave Island which floated on a sparkling sea.
Our crossing was
Archeology and the passage of time on the north shore of Islay.
The coast of Islay that lay ahead looked so fascinating that we decided to move in...
...for a closer look and we were certainly not disappointed. We came across a number of stacks and caves then...
...some amazing arches.
We tried to get through this one but it was low tide and dry beyond.
The water was crystal clear and we seemed to be suspended in both space and time as we drifted
...for a closer look and we were certainly not disappointed. We came across a number of stacks and caves then...
...some amazing arches.
We tried to get through this one but it was low tide and dry beyond.
The water was crystal clear and we seemed to be suspended in both space and time as we drifted
Sea lions and elephants on Islay's north coast...it's like Jura on steroids!
Leaving Port an t-Sruthain we continued our exploration...
...of Islay's north coast in mirror calm conditions.
We were paddling within the shelter of the extensive reef system at the base of Rubha Bholsa. In the distance beyond the reefs, lay low lying Oronsay and Colonsay. Something wasn't quite right though. This was when the first niggle of doubt entered my head. Even at 10km away, the
...of Islay's north coast in mirror calm conditions.
We were paddling within the shelter of the extensive reef system at the base of Rubha Bholsa. In the distance beyond the reefs, lay low lying Oronsay and Colonsay. Something wasn't quite right though. This was when the first niggle of doubt entered my head. Even at 10km away, the
Daycraft Decoder Sketchbook
Fourth in this series of reviews of Daycraft products, this is the Decoder Sketchbook. This one, the Semaphore, is one of a range of four A5-size wire-bound sketchbooks, the others being Braille, Morse Code and Sign Language. This comes with a handsome board cover in dark chocolate brown which has UV-spot printed semaphore symbols on the front in glossy paint, and an elastic band closure. Being wire-bound it will lie flat for drawing and it has 100 pages of 120gsm art paper.
I have not been able to test the paper, because as you can see in the picture below, it is made in the same dark brown as the covers, so it is clearly meant for people who sketch white-on-dark with coloured pencils or chalk, which I do not do. The paper has a matte finish, with enough tooth in it for pencil drawing. I can imagine someone rendering lunar craters or maria, or perhaps a cathedral spire, using this sketchbook. Despite my inability to use it, I can still see that this is another high-quality book. I had problems photographing it properly, as these photos do not do it justice. In reality, this is a darker brown than illustrated - think Bournville or Hershey's chocolate for an approximation of the colour.
There is a key to the different symbols on the back cover, and a blurb on the inside, on the first sheet, describing what semaphore is and how it could be used: according to this, it is still acceptable internationally to use semaphore for telecommunication.This is a fine, if unorthodox, sketchbook.
Thanks to Daycraft for the review sample.
Data:
Dimensions: 148mm x 210mm
Pages: 100
Cover: Wire-O bound paper
Content: Plain brown paper
Other: UV spot semaphore cover
4.2 Raid Nerfs
Yesterday Blizzard revealed that with patch 4.2, Tier 11 normal raid content will be nerfed into puggability.
(Yes, I just made up that word right now. But I think it's a fair description of what the difficulty of T11 content will look like after 4.2 hits.)
In any case, there's a lot of angst running around the blogosphere and forums. But the thing is that the raid paradigm has changed, and there's not a lot of use in holding on to the old paradigm. We've discussed this before, but raiding has switched from a "progression" paradigm to a "focus on the current tier" mentality.
This nerf fits right in with that idea. Come 4.2, the current tier will be Firelands, and all guilds will jump into that. T11 will become the province of pickup groups and individuals gearing up for Firelands.
And T11 does need a nerf in that case. Right now, it is not forgiving enough for most pickup groups to complete successfully.
It is also silly to expect that gear from T12 will make pugging T11 easier, as I've seen proposed. The people who will need to pug T11 are the people who need to gear up so they can join their groups in T12, not the other way around.
In my view, the "progression" paradigm is dead and gone. It's not worthwhile to protest changes from the point of view of "progression across tiers" raiding anymore. In the new world of raiding, only the current tier really matters.
(Yes, I just made up that word right now. But I think it's a fair description of what the difficulty of T11 content will look like after 4.2 hits.)
In any case, there's a lot of angst running around the blogosphere and forums. But the thing is that the raid paradigm has changed, and there's not a lot of use in holding on to the old paradigm. We've discussed this before, but raiding has switched from a "progression" paradigm to a "focus on the current tier" mentality.
This nerf fits right in with that idea. Come 4.2, the current tier will be Firelands, and all guilds will jump into that. T11 will become the province of pickup groups and individuals gearing up for Firelands.
And T11 does need a nerf in that case. Right now, it is not forgiving enough for most pickup groups to complete successfully.
It is also silly to expect that gear from T12 will make pugging T11 easier, as I've seen proposed. The people who will need to pug T11 are the people who need to gear up so they can join their groups in T12, not the other way around.
In my view, the "progression" paradigm is dead and gone. It's not worthwhile to protest changes from the point of view of "progression across tiers" raiding anymore. In the new world of raiding, only the current tier really matters.
A lonely sheiling on the north coast of Islay.
Above the beach at Port an t-Sruthain on the North coast of Islay, we found a natural amphitheatre surrounded by the cliff line of the raised beach. At the focal point are the remains of an old sheiling. The tinkling of a stream, cascading down the cliffs, explained the Gaelic name of the beach, “Port of the Stream”.
It would have been a hard life eking out a living here. In the distance, low
It would have been a hard life eking out a living here. In the distance, low
PASS North: Ramstrom repeats at Star
For Immediate Release: Media, contact Norm Desjardins @ (603) 539-3368 Photo Credits: Norm Marx PASS North: Ramstrom repeats at Star Dearborn dominates, late cautions set up wild finish EPPING NH (5/14) – Derek Ramstrom returned to the site of his first Pro All Stars Series super late model win and claimed the lead on lap 148 of the 150 lap feature to capture his first PASS North win since July of 2009. Ben Rowe raced home in second with Joey Polewarczyk third. |
Richie Dearborn dominated ninety percent of the night. Dearborn started on the front row and fought off a handful of restart challenges, opening up a comfortable lead each time. But late in the race his ride went off song and Scott Chubbuck ate away at his lead and took control with eight laps to go. But on lap 144 the yellow flag flew, setting up one of the wildest finishes in the Pro All Star's 200-plus feature race history. Chubbuck was now in control with Johnny Clark to his outside and Joey Pole on his bumper with Dearborn back to fourth. When the green waved the top three were beating and banging to the extent that Chubbuck, Clark and Polewarczyk wound up parked on top of turn two. Dearborn shot under them all to reclaim the lead with Lonnie Sommerville second. Ramstrom to third and Joey Doiron fourth t when the caution flew. The next green didn't stay out for long. Dearborn spun out of the lead with a tire that finally went flat and Derek Ramstrom threaded the needle to capture the top spot. Doiron made it all the way to second with Ben Rowe now third for the green-white-checker finish Ramstrom shot into the lead when the final green flag flew and Rowe was looking under Doiron for second. Doiron's great run ended with the checkered flag in sight when the 2010 PASS North Rookie of the Year took a trip into the front stretch wall. When the dust settled Ramstrom had his third PASS North career win, Ben Rowe crossed the line in second on a flat right rear and Joey Pole came back to where he started when the late race melee began, in third. Lonnie Sommerville crossed the stripe in fourth and Scott Chubbuck recovered to salvage a top five. Point leader Johnny Clark came home eighth. Ramstrom's margin of victory was .974 seconds; nine of the twenty two starters finished on the lead lap. Heat race wins went to Polewarczyk, Dearborn and Doiron. The Pro All Stars are back in New Hampshire for another quarter mile throw down at North Woodstock's White Mountain Motorsports Park on Saturday May 21. PASS super late model qualifying goes green at 4:00 PM. For more information visit the home of the Pro All Stars Series on line at www.proallstarsseries.com . White Mountain Motorsports Park's web address is www.whitemtnmotorsports.com . Unnofficial Finish: PASS North Star 150 – Star Speedway, Epping NH 5/14/2011 1 35 Derek Ramstrom 2 4 Ben Rowe 3 97 Joey Pole 4 48 Lonnie Sommerville 5 77 Scott Chubbuck 6 14M Matt Frahm 7 12 John Dabrowski 8 54 Johnny Clark 9 33 Richie Dearborn 10 73 Joey Doiron 11 17 Travis Benjamin 12 7 Donnie Whitten 13 Matt Matheson 14 21 David Oliver 15 27Qc Alex Gingras 16 24 Mike Rowe 17 00 Bryan Cruczek 18 10 Scott Dragon 19 88 Kyle DeSouza 20 11NH Steve Johnson 21 11 Austin Brehio 22 17A Scott Alexander |
The dykes of the north coast of Islay.
All too soon, the tidal assistance came to an end when we rounded the point below the Rhuvaal lighthouse.
Sadly, the original lantern and rotating lens of this beautiful lighthouse has been replaced by what looks like a 100 Watt bulb on the end of a pole! However, the stonework of the tower has recently been painted and it was looking very well maintained.
From Rhuvaal we turned westwards
Sadly, the original lantern and rotating lens of this beautiful lighthouse has been replaced by what looks like a 100 Watt bulb on the end of a pole! However, the stonework of the tower has recently been painted and it was looking very well maintained.
From Rhuvaal we turned westwards
Trends
A reader asks:
To some extent it's probably a combination of the two. WoW has been out for six years now. That's a long time to be a phenomenon.
But a lot more is probably due just to the blogs you read. People stop blogging and new ones start all the time. (I wonder if any of my readers remember Psyae.) When you're an avid player, there's a lot more incentive to search out new blogs. But searching out new blogs is a lot of work, and after a while it becomes easier and more comfortable to stick with the blogs you know.
I've always found that it's really hard to generalize the whole game from your personal perspective. Sometimes it becomes really easy to think of your situation and the people around you as "normal". Theres a lot of self-selection bias.
I really noticed this when I was following Elitist Jerks. A lot of the people who hang out there think of their experience as the normal one, when we all know that it isn't. But all their friends have the same experience, as do the people they hang out online, so they don't see everyone else.
As well, we're moving into summer, and there's always summer lulls.
So I don't really know if there's a general trend. That would require access to better data than I have. If I took my experience as normal, then there wouldn't be a decrease at all. For some reason, a lot of older players who quit have been coming back to us. But, as I said above, personal experience is often misleading.
As a back drop let me tell you that I played wow from vanilla to wraith..quit..then came back for cata then quit again. But putting in those five or so years has left a mark on me (for better or worse I haven't figured out yet). I doubt I will ever return for numerous reasons not the least of which is not knowing anyone from the early days that are still playing...but none of this either here nor there. I active/ casually follow a handful of blogs concerning WoW (and other games) and have started to notice a disturbing trend of people not posting anymore. Whether because they quit the game, moved on, or just got tired of blogging who knows but here is my question.
Is the phenomenon of WoW starting to wear off? Is the community of gamers shrinking, moving on to other games, or other forms of entertainment? Or is it just the blogs I follow are shutting down?
To some extent it's probably a combination of the two. WoW has been out for six years now. That's a long time to be a phenomenon.
But a lot more is probably due just to the blogs you read. People stop blogging and new ones start all the time. (I wonder if any of my readers remember Psyae.) When you're an avid player, there's a lot more incentive to search out new blogs. But searching out new blogs is a lot of work, and after a while it becomes easier and more comfortable to stick with the blogs you know.
I've always found that it's really hard to generalize the whole game from your personal perspective. Sometimes it becomes really easy to think of your situation and the people around you as "normal". Theres a lot of self-selection bias.
I really noticed this when I was following Elitist Jerks. A lot of the people who hang out there think of their experience as the normal one, when we all know that it isn't. But all their friends have the same experience, as do the people they hang out online, so they don't see everyone else.
As well, we're moving into summer, and there's always summer lulls.
So I don't really know if there's a general trend. That would require access to better data than I have. If I took my experience as normal, then there wouldn't be a decrease at all. For some reason, a lot of older players who quit have been coming back to us. But, as I said above, personal experience is often misleading.
The start of another Islay adventure.
It was with considerable anticipation that Phil and I viewed Port Ellen as the ferry from Kintyre...
...approached the terminal on Islay's southern coast. Islay's characteristic whitewashed buildings with black painted windows crowded round the bays on either side of the jetty.
We then drove north to Islay's second terminal, Port Askaig. As we launched from the little harbour, the flood tide
...approached the terminal on Islay's southern coast. Islay's characteristic whitewashed buildings with black painted windows crowded round the bays on either side of the jetty.
We then drove north to Islay's second terminal, Port Askaig. As we launched from the little harbour, the flood tide
Daycraft Cookie Bookie Notebook
This isn't just any old cheese cracker, this is the Daycraft Cookie Bookie Notebook.It seems blatantly obvious now, that someone should make a notebook based on a biscuit. (Note to anyone from the USA: here in England we use the French name - biscuit or bis cuit - twice cooked - rather than the Dutch name koekje to describe small, hard, sweet wheat-based products.) The cream filling you see below, is in fact the case-binding of the Cookie-Bookie, which is exposed for all to see...yum...
In common with the previous Daycraft products, the covers are made from "Fine Italian PU", in this case with the fine pigskin-texture of the Animal Pals notebook but with added upholstery-stitching to suggest the shape and texture of a baked biscuit. Underneath, the board used is rigid, just like a biscuit, in fact.This notebook is 125mm x 125mm in size, ie about 5 inches by 5 inches. It feels a bit strange using a perfectly-square notebook, but this is so well-made that it doesn't matter. On to the paper, which is a lovely, bright and cheerful pumpkin-orange:
This paper is as good as any, anywhere. I found almost no bleedthrough with my fountain pens:
The edging is darker than the rest of the paper, which I suppose is the result of the manufacturing process. This notebook is great fun, and forms part of a small range which includes an Oreo clone and a lemon waffle (or wafer, as we would call it here). There are 144 pages to play with, which should be enough for anyone.Highly recommended. (I'm keeping mine.)
Data:
Dimensions: 125mm x 125mm
Pages: 144 pages, 6.5mm ruled, orange paper in this case
Cover: Italian PU
Binding: Case-bound
Thanks again to Daycraft for the samples.