arwen

Aww very cute birdie! Lovely shot of her :-)

Around 85% phone 15% desktop. Even if I'm on a desktop, I still tend to look at emails on my phone. If I need to do a reply that's any more than a few lines, it is usually always on a desktop however.

I'd second this. They are called all sorts of different things, Compact System Cameras, Mirrorless and Interchangeable Lens Cameras to name a few. I have just bought a Panasonic GX7 with a 12-32mm and 35-100mm lenses from ebay (with £70 case(!!!), a massive in-depth manual, a quick tips type book and 3 batteries - £499 in total). I am very impressed with this amazing little camera. I am by no means a pro photographer, but I enjoy playing around with settings and composition to make interesting photos, and this camera can do all that and loads more. I take photos of anything- bugs, parrots, people, flowers, hills, rivers, sweeping landscapes, food, drink, motorcycles, cars, washing up drying on the counter... I've had my eye on Micro Four Thirds cameras for a few years now, as I've always found actual DSLRs massive and unwieldy, probably as I have rather small hands. The kit for them is also smaller, and lighter than DSLR kit, so the camera, a few lenses and spare batteries can be carried comfortably in a reasonably small bag. I can safely say that I am very pleased with my purchase, and as it is so small, the camera comes pretty much everywhere with me. Here is a little photo of it so show just how small it is with the 12-35mm lens on it, I use this lens pretty much all the time. Not all come with viewfinders, the GX7 does however have an EVF, which I've found works rather well. But as it has an amazing touch screen, I tend to use that unless it is so sunny I cannot see it clearly. Edit - Forgot to add - = my flickr account if you want a look at some of the photos I've taken while getting use to this camera. None of them have been processed in any way in Photoshop etc.

I've recently bought myself a little Panasonic GX7 and starting to get back into photography again. Flickr account Here are a few shots from my first week with it. Coffee Time by Anne-Marie, on Flickr My Strawberry by Anne-Marie, on Flickr Leaves in the light by Anne-Marie, on Flickr These shots are something like what I'm looking to start doing. Got a link to the filters you bought at all?

Oh how I loved my PS2... Games I spent my teenage years playing - Final Fantasy X and X-2. Tony Hawks Gitaroo Man Gran Turismo 4 Most of the Konami Dance games. Plus the guitar hero games. Those are the most memorable :-)

Done, echo what X-13 said though.

I am being lazy, this is exactly what I do. Also, since I have an android phone, all pictures taken on my phone are automatically backed up. When on wifi it is pretty much instant, when on mobile network it can be longer, but usually within 30min or so.

I'd open a few up for some IT classes to have a poke around in. Buy some USB caddies and put the drive in (possibly give to teachers?) Put some in a cheap/reused pcs and set up a stand alone server that the kids can play with. Possibly learning about RAID's, backups etc. Sell on ebay as "sold as seen" Buy it now or best offer for £15-£45 depending on sizes and condition. that way you can just mark how many you have on one add, rather than lots of individual adds. Give them to the art department. Cheeky option... - sell a 250GB+ one to me so I can hopefully fix my poorly PS3 ;-)

As others have said, don't take it to heart. I now do not look at sizes on clothes. I simply hold things up and if I think they fit then I will try them on. I have one pair of jeans that are a size 12 short, fit me perfectly. Other pair that also fit me perfectly and they are a size 16. It makes no sense! I've been using MyFitnessPal since Monday to count everything I eat. Have stuck to the 1300cals pretty well (two days around 100cals below, two days 20ish cals over) and I have gained 0.2kg. Was really hoping to have lost something :-( I don't think I could last on much less calories per day. I'm borderline diabetic (have always been since I was a teenager) and get the shakes and can faint if I do not eat enough. So I am going to have to get used to doing proper exercise on as close to 1300cals as I can.

Surely I'm not the only one thinking Archangel? "Vote Saxon"

I am terrible at doing maths in my head. One of the reasons I am so bad at counting calories. I do genuinely miscalculate!

Ok... so I've downloaded MyFitnessApp to count my calories for me. I've to aim for 1300 each day. Went over by 2 yesterday and that was me eating pretty much normally so hoping I can keep it up without feeling too horrible. The weekends will be the test I think. I am now kinda worried since looking at the Nutrition/Nutrients page on the app however. The only things I seem to get even close to their 100% (or slightly over) are Carbohydrates, Protein and Sugar. :-/

Ahh nice. Hope you enjoy the tiger, they look really nice in my opinion. Hoping the wind will calm down and I can bring my bike to work tomorrow rather than bring the car... Grr to Scottish weather!

I lost the will a bit last week. Didn't go too over board, but did go to the gym for the first time in ages. Put on 1.2kg :-/ Back to salads this week for lunch. No more sandwiches/paninis ! Feeling lethargic and lack of energy is not helping matter I feel.

Very nice. Do you ride the three of them equally or do you find yourself always going for the same one? Always do :-)

Finally got my wee bike, having lots of fun with it!

Site wide software roll outs, the more lengthy maintenance of network gear and servers, replace/upgrade hardware, proper clean up of shared drives etc. Depends on the site, the size and how well off the school is if you can justify a 52 week contract or not.

Primary school age - Vet. Then in secondary school I went to a Vets for work experience for a week. Realised I really did not want to be cutting animals open, even it if was for their own good. I'd much rather work with them. So looked into various animal training sectors. Very difficult to get into... Police Dog Handler - 3+ years as a PC then 5+ year waiting list for a dog Army sniffer dog - Either do basic training then specialise or go get a degree and go in as an officer (4+ years) Guide dog trainer - Doable, but lots of volunteering to do to be considered for it first. And only every 3 or 4 years does a job come up for this in the whole of Scotland. TV/Movie animal trainer - Almost all are family businesses. I'll never say never though!

@Ephelyon That is exactly the kind of project I think helps keep a positive feeling in IT. Coming up with useful ideas and putting them into practice. Helping people is always a nice feeling, but when the same people keep coming to you about the same problem that inst a problem it is just them not following instructions. Then it can wear even the happiest of us down! Two councils/local authorities, an independent 5-18 school, a University and a leisure and culture organisation. The position I am in just now (In a science research/Higher education institute) was also advertised as "candidate must have a degree". I usually always ignore this if I think I am capable of doing the job. I have since asked my management (informally) about the degree thing. They they explained that if someone has the knowledge and experience they need, and they think they will fit in with the rest of the team then they hire them. HR apparently as default put in the degree line to reduce the number of applications.

I'm struggling to see any positives to the job now to be honest. I have perks for working where I do (good pay, short commute, lots of holidays, flexi time and nice place to work) But actual job satisfaction? Everywhere I have worked is the same - We are constantly plagued by things that are broken and we rarely get thanks for fixing them. Also frequently end up fixing other stuff, cause it is vaguely connected to some IT equipment (projectors, microscopes, cameras, scanners, flashy lights, usb cup warmers... Our clientèle usually fits into one of 4 categories - 1. IT illiterate, phones at the slightest hint of something not working. - Never off the phone to them. 2. IT illiterate, never complains about anything. - You never know something is broken. 3. IT competent, phones for advice, listens to advise and is a pleasure to deal with. - You smile when their name appears on your phone/email. 4. Thinks they know if all about IT and tinkers with everything they touch. Either runs away when thinks then go wrong, or complains to IT saying everything is always breaking around here. Yes we are a service department, and we are mostly here for when things break down and need fixed. But if all you are ever doing is listening to people saying things are broke, and fixing them then it is a very negative environment to work in. In my opinion every one should have at least one "positive" project on the go to help even this out. Part of the issue is that if we are doing our jobs well, no one notices what we do. Like a very good props department on a film, nothing looks out of place and we are "invisible" to most people. When that happens, management usually think "why do we need all these people in IT, lets save some money!" and either cut jobs or the IT budget. This leads on to - Everything falls apart because of lack of man power to keep things updates (software and documentation wise), people cut corners in implementing fixes as they are stressed and have no time, network grinds to a halt and people complain to IT about the poor service. IT gets diss'ed by the whole place cause we cant to out jobs. Edit: As for getting places in this industry without proper/normal qualifications? I have been repetitively turned down for jobs because I do not have a degree of any kind. They have absolutely no issue interviewing me (some will even rearrange interview for another day/week for me) but it always comes down to that missing bit of paper... Also, advancment through the grades is usually limited to who is going to retire soon.

When I left working in the school last year I had Toshiba Satellite laptop with XP Pro i3 proccessor 4GB RAM 500GD HDD with a flaky motherboard that was replaced 4 times, but still the USB ports would sometimes work, sometimes not and it frequently overheated its graphics chip. Using this I RDC'ed onto a VM on the school server to do school stuff on. Limited its resources to 2 cores, 4GB Ram 200GB HDD Win 7 Using the laptop screen for corporate work (I was employed by the council so did council work as well as school stuff) and 22" monitor for the RDC onto the school VM. I never had any problems using the VM as a school pc for everyday use and testing new software. It would happily edit photos and render small portions of HD video on the odd occasion I had to do that. In my current work (Science research/Higher education institute) I am running 3 year old dell Optiplex 790 Win 7 i7-2600 8GB RAM 350GB HDD Dual 20" wide screen Dell monitors. It was actually due for replacement 2 months ago, but I passed on replacing it since I do not find it struggling to do what I need it to do. The Standard build we use for people here is the same as above but with a new i5 processor. Mine is an i7 as the previous IT tech was running VMs on it for testing Win7 and 8.

I suggest you read this - http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg362.pdf Then tell your employer to find you somewhere else to work, away from noisy servers.

Very cute! Spaniels are fantastic family dogs, some seem as if they are missing a few screws but they are lovely dogs. Always sniffing around for something interesting or wanting to cuddle up with someone on the sofa! Hope the training goes well!

Goat (The Mountain Warehouse sheep) Spongy Sponge Bob Rambo Lambo Lambert Lambsey Lady BaBa Flocky

Well done! My week point seems to be Thursdays and Fridays!