Let me be clear on this. I am not in a union, never have been, never needed to be.

So on to how a Union can screw it up for workers.
In the last few weeks management at two major airlines – Aer Lingus & British Airways – have come to the fore in the papers as guys who will not bow to the ever baying cries from Unions that it “could be better” for their members.

Case 1:
Aer Lingus

So we have several different Unions in Aer Lingus. Aer Lingus needs to cut costs, no doubt about it. This requires redundancies, this requires pay cuts…. these are two things you never let a Union hear. After the plan was battered out and shown to the Unions – battered a bit more, all but one Union (Cabin Crew) agreed to the plan. Now you can’t go firing people from the other areas and leave one untouched because they didn’t agree, you still need to make those cuts in that area.
So Aer Lingus management went the smart way about it. All the other areas get to do voluntary redundancies, I presume some good redundancy package and so on and so forth. The Cabin Crew guys get mandatory redundancies (of the amount of people the airline wanted) and just the basic government redundancy package.

My did the cabin crews Union get hot and bothered that they had pushed too far and found themselves with no recourse… suddenly we were hearing cries of “We will re-ballot our members!”. “No!” said the airline management.
Fine you’re a union and you keep pushing to get something nice for your members, only so they will keep paying you membership, but that action, pushing & pushing, is what is ruining and tying the hands of companies. But when you go to far you look like idiots to be seen crawling backwards! You make your bed, you sleep in it lads! is what I have to say.

Case 2:
British Airways (BA)

Well I’m not so up on their situation other than they decided to go on strike last weekend and next. All these lovely staff who decided to go strike, because their Union told them they could hold to company to ransom, got a nice shock. BA gives it’s staff a nice, non-contractual, bonus of cheaper flights on BA flights. Well when you nip at the hand that feeds you – DO NOT be surprised if it pulls away. All the staff who went on strike have had that privilege rescinded… and the Union(UNITE)?  Unite condemned the move as “vindictive” and has argued that staff discounts, which vary with length of service, are now standard practice rather than a perk”. Uh huh… just because you have had it for a few years does not mean it is concrete. It’s not squatters rights we are talking about here. Silly Union, bet the staff feel stupid for following you down that road now!
I have to fully agree with BA when they gave their reason: “The industrial action impacted on our operation and our customers and we will undoubtedly suffer additional costs and further losses as a result.” BA also did something interesting during the first strike – they hired 3 planes off RyanAir to cover some of the customers, and for that they get Michael ‘motormouth’ O’Leary saying good things, well not great but not bad things as usual, and lambasting the strike, even though he was gaining from it (did I mention O’Leary hates unions for what they are ‘The Opposition’ who wouldn’t know how to agree with what the management decide).

So to wrap up: Unions should cop on to themselves. Stop blocking ideas that are needed. Start thinking about the companies, though by being seen to disagree you are looking after your ‘company’. How about you all just bugger off as you are not helping anyone by constantly disagreeing.

As I said at the top, not part of a Union, never have been.

[/end rant]

Oh it’s-a lonesome away from your kindred and all By the campfire at night we’ll hear the wild dingoes call But there’s-a nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer ~ Dubliners

Passport to misery

So last week – Friday – the people working in the passport office went on strike because they feel they are been hard done by when the government cut their wages (they are public servants). Now I’m not going to go into my views on them and their actions. Instead I am going to comment on what I deem to be a great stupidity.
On Friday there were people queuing to get passports sorted – passports for a trip they were taking that evening/over the weekend/early this week – and then the office closed at 12pm as they promised. Then people started to get cranky and staged a sit in. The only people I heard/heard of on the news that night was the idiots who failed to plan their impending trip and then proceed to moan when this glitch happens. Hands up those who ever got a sudden present of a trip and needed to sort out your passport in a day? My hand’s not up! 99% of people know well ahead of time that they need to get a passport renewed. SO DO IT NOW! Not in the last few days.
This just showed to me that we still have a healthy population of stupid people, who also turn out to be moaners, in this country. What would they be saying if the power lines got dug up by mistake and no electricity? Moaning at some other angle. Now I am not blind enough not to notice that the media deliberately went out and found these people, but counting at least 4 ‘urgent’ cases on Fri and at least another woman on today mentioning something about her/her daughter being arrested if she didn’t get to her daughter, off foreign somewhere, I am assured that there were enough stupid people out there on the streets of Dublin and that I should avoid Molesworth street in case it is contagious.

Tag it!

This my motto for the next few days. Because I just don’t tag enough things, photos/blogs etc., and this does not help to get them noticed. I was made aware of this during a discussion on most viewed pictures in peoples flickr/pix.ie accounts. One guy had a picture of what looks like a pickled penis in a jar and as such had tagged it ‘penis’, along with other tags, this had got him 25k hits. I think this might work the same for posts – not that I am just going to mention ‘penis’ or ‘nipples’ and then tag it as such to get traffic, though I will just this once – and so I should go back and tag my posts in the hope of other people viewing my posts, commenting and then me looking at theirs. BTW I do look at others, follow 4, not just blab on as if I am the most important thing in my world. I am always looking for new people/thoughts.

Experiment with failure!

Yes my ‘artistic idea’, I saw in London, fell flat. Not giving up on it yet but will have to think long and hard about how to get it to work…. watch this space.

More misery!

And there was more disappointment in the Rugby part of my life on Sat. Well it started good, my mother, her S.O., my sis, my S.O. and myself drove up to Dublin to watch the first 2 matches in the Porterhouse – enjoy a few drinks and good food – thanks Sis!
Then it all went shit, well ok not that fast – Wales v Italy… meh – we were taking on Scotland, beat them and we would win the Triple Crown. Now we should have been able to do that. Were we? Were we *^*^! Ok step back, 6 teams with Italy and Scotland generally being the worst teams, so we should have been able to beat them shouldn’t we? Grrr. And it was made worse by the 3 Scots standing behind us, becoming more and more delirious as the match went on, should point out we only lost by 3 points, but at the end of it all we lost and all I could think was “What the *^*^ were we at making such stupid mistakes?” But now it comes out as ‘Meh!’ Will worry about it next year!

London Calling

So I go off to London, laptop in tow, forever thinking I will be using it for this or that…. Nope, never found the time. I had a great time in the Capital seeing prisons, operating theatres, movie museums, the Ireland/Wales match – gotta be done, we won – and generally just enjoying their beer and food. I so enjoy knowing that I can have a beer at lunchtime without worrying about when I will be driving.

Went on a free tour – yes FREE – whereby your guide does the tour and you give tips at the end, so if it is crap you walk away. This is the second one I have done – did Dublin – and must say this is the best idea I have come across in a long time. It makes the guide work harder at making the tour enjoyable and informative.

Check them out here :- http://www.neweuropetours.eu/

Another thing I did while over there was browse a few markets, Camden Town – Covent Gardens – Spittlefield, and while browsing through some of the photographic stuff they were selling I came across an image which just set off a tangent in my head because it is something being discussed on a constant basis in the photographic circles in which I involve myself.

Copyright/Watermarking/Ownership

Two main things came together to start this tangent:

A guy was made to feel stupid for watermarking a great shot of Custom House in Dublin – “do you think someone is going to steal it?”

I found a photo of the Ha’Penny Bridge – Dublin – in the photo stall in London.

Now what do you think the chances are that the stall owner took the photo seen as they were willing to pass it off as been in the U.K. It only said Ha’Penny Bridge on it and as pointed out to me by my S.O. all the photos – 100+ – were taken in different ways, signalling different photographers. I believe that this sort of photo, 6×8, is being sourced online and printed by people who have no morals about stealing what is a photographer’s property. Therefore I feel that the guy with the shot of Custom House should watermark his photos and that I should continue to be protective of my own photos. They may not be the best photos but they are made by me, and therefore are my property and should be paid for their use.

This is the problem I was having with my website initially – how to stop people robbing my photos without putting in an intrusive watermark, ruining the photo – but I was creative and nearly had it down – was not able to work out flash player BTW – but now my site – www.foreverfaithless.com – is up and running with flash and is hopefully protecting my photos from those that steal.

New Idea

Came back from England with an artistic idea that might see me creating a new job for myself and slowly get me off this Dole, so it’s trial and error for the next short while to see if it can be done and whether it will provide enough money for me.

St. Patrick’s Day

Well I hope you all had a good St. Patrick’s Day, also known as St. Paddy’s Day but never St. Patty’s Day. I say this because I am sure I can find half the American population that will say “Happy St. Patty’s Day”. Patrick – also known as Padraic – was a very common name in Ireland and so when guys emigrated to England and the likes, and used the shortened name of Paddy, soon we all became Paddy’s. This was used in a derogatory fashion by other nationalities. So it is St. Patrick/St. Paddy but never St. Patty.

I have seen time fly!

I have seen time fly!

I have seen Glendalough at sunrise!

I have seen Two Door Cinema Club!

I have seen my website take a form I like!

I have seen many weird tweets on Twitter!

I have seen the sun shining in Ireland for more than two days in a row!

So where to start? At the top I suppose.

Was typing up a post when I left to go do something and from there I forgot all about the blog – did I mention I have a terrible memory? Wouldn’t remember if I did – and time flew by! But I am back, I hope. Going to London for a few days starting Thursday but will have my laptop with me so will hopefully blog about that.

I have seen Glendalough at sunrise!

Glendalough is ‘one of’ (hate that phrase when adverts use it) Ireland’s tourist attractions that isn’t commercialised. Plenty of coaches/buses go to it from Dublin City Centre but there is very little shops out there, very little you can spend your money on.

“So why go there?” says you. Because it is a stunning nature park, with lakes, waterfalls, walks and hikes. You can even have a BBQ there – I think this is a rarity in Ireland. All round this is a place you go with the family to enjoy some fresh air and as I said, with little oportunity to spend your money.

Anyway, I organised/instigated a photowalk to get some sunrise landscape photographs of the park on Sunday morning. Got up at 3:15am, left the house at 3:50am, got to Glendalough at 5am and got up to the top at 6am… just an hour to wait for sunrise! Sunrise was nice to look at – bit of red sky – but not so good on the photography. Went back down to the bigger lake and got some good shots. Off to the Monastic Village in the park after that to see what we could get with the morning light.
See it all here: http://pix.ie/sinisterdexter/album/370780

My calves are still in pain 2 days later!

I have seen Two Door Cinema Club!

Got a tweet – Twitter message – from someone with 3 tickets, for anybody who wanted them, to see Two Door Cinema Club – “Who?” you say, Exactly! – in The Button Factory. The tweet said they were for that night and seen as I had nothing planned I replied that if she (@sharononeill) didn’t find somebody to come back to me and I wouldn’t say no to seeing a new band. Turns out, when we got to her to pick up the tickets they were for the next night – no problem to a guy with no plans!

Well Two Door Cinema Club are an Indie/pop band from Bangor and I must say have some nice music – I had enlisted the SO and her friend into the troupe and we found a seat at the back. Was by far the most relaxing gig I have been at… definitely allowed us to appreciate the music more.

Check them out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJDCMth8poM

I have seen my website take a form I like!

Well I have a bit of web-design in my brain and have 3 websites on the go – 1 personal, 1 professional (if I ever take professional photos) and 1 static product site – but I am rarely happy for long when it comes to my sites and so have been trying to get my personal site working in a way I am happy with for the past 3 weeks – drop-down menu was my only issue (after I worked out how to stop people robbing my pics) – but last week I decided to see if I could get a free template type thingy and very quickly found one I like – thanks to www.wix.com – and had the basic site up within a day and added more photos from there. It is amazing how happy I felt after I got it sorted. Will run it for a month and then work on putting my professional site up in the same way – never trust free things to stay working.

So here it is: www.foreverfaithless.com

I have seen many weird tweets on Twitter!

Twitter is a system that runs like Yahoo/MSN messenger but whereby you see what all the people you are following are saying EVEN if they are not saying it to you. As said above @sharononeill tweeted to the world – people following her – that she had free tickets and I responded. Twitter allows me to follow celebrities – Bill Bailey, Stephen Fry, Jeff Dunham – radio presenters, other photographers and random funny people I see talking to those I already follow. Off hand I can’t remember the weird tweets – bad memory and all that – except for the religious one this morning. I tend not to go out to insult people, each to there own, so I won’t repeat it. Anyway since starting tweeting I have helped atleast 10 people, whether it be on computers, directions, things to do, and that makes me content.

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GenLeeSpecific

I have seen the sun shining in Ireland for more than two days in a row!

Yes, for all ye living outside Ireland this might seem like a strange thing to be saying/worrying about but, BUT, it is rare to have so many good days in a row – forgot to mention Sunday morning was stunning – and I think it makes people happier! Can’t say that it is warm but the sun is shining in a clear blue sky and so I am happy!

After reading all that…. if you still feel like reading more can I suggest looking in on this crazy lady – Nadia Williams Blog!

When the world belongs to distant dogs and the air is dark and still
And drunken conversations pass beneath the window sill
And there’s someone singing Elvis songs as they make their way back home
and all your fears and worries attack when you’re alone ~ Saw Doctors

Well the gig was great last night…. interesting enough there were older folk there, about 20 in all, along with the much larger group of younger people – by younger I mean university students…. those that would have been young wan’s when the Saw Doctors hit the charts in 90/91. And now I remember the bad points of gigs, and my defenses to stop moshers coming at me, though nothing stops flying beer.

Anyway the lads were great, thoroughly enjoying themselves as were the crowd. Played a blinding set, best part was the last song lasting 15mins and everybody hollering!

Sacre Bleu!

Yes we take them on tomorrow in the Rugby. I will be enjoying US beating THEM…. I hope… in the Porterhouse… few Erdinger and a burger is the order of the day. Hope we get the same shitty French team that was out last week…. though wonder if we are being led into a false sense of security… those crafty French are not to be trusted!

Then onto Neil Delemere afterwards… hmm don’t know what to make of it/him, will have to come back to you on that.

Forgot to say I went out on a Night-walk around the docks on Monday night with a few others…. was bloody cold I tell ya! Not many ‘keepers’, though it was not a wasted night as we have half planned to meet up in Glendalough for an early morn photo shoot – early morn means before sunrise, which means getting there before 7am, which means leaving here before 6am, which means getting up before 6am… uggghhh why did I agree?

There is a photo/art competition coming up where I could enter in one of my animal photos – think having loads would help? only makes it harder to choose which goes in… hmmm something to do on Sunday!

Anyway off to do the washing up – meatballs were good as always!

Young and Cute!

There’s a princess on the floor all night
She can fairly throw them shapes alright
Howya Madge are you on you own?
How’re ya fixed far a seat back home ~ Saw Doctors

Two days ’til I eventually get to see the Saw Doctors live…. hopefully there will be some people throwing shapes – I can’t anymore, I ehh have a bad back… yeah thats it. If you haven’t heard them before please check out their songs

on youtube – http://www.youtube.com/user/sawdoctorsofficial

or Facebook http://www.facebook.com/sawdoctors /

on Twitter http://twitter.com/sawdoctors

They have been around for years and between them and Christy Moore they are great at reminding you of the eighties in Ireland. I must suggest checking out ‘Galway & Mayo’. Anyway, really looking forward to it – thinking about it I haven’t been to a gig since…… can’t remember, must have been in ’08 or maybe even ’07…. I was at a gig last December but that was as a photographer – thanks to Gigsmart.

Marinated Chicken didn’t go so well last night Frickin breasts shrunk… somebody said they were a bit dry….. then I dumped the oil onto the laptop… yes there was a guteral scream… but all is good.

Asian Chicken Broth tonight…. done it enough times that there won’t be a screw-ups… I hope, dropped an egg earlier when making lunch… two drops in the last 24 hrs…hmmm.

Australians…. not even Grrrr, not ‘You frickin’ tits’.

I’ve not got much interest in sport – Rugby, Gaa & WRC is about it – but it turns out they Australian Olympic counsel want to take another countries place in the bob-sleigh competition. Why? Because there should be one team from each Continent (they see 5 continents – 5 olympic rings) they say. Who can name the continents?… tell me when you get to Australia… yes Australia is a continent all by itself – turns out the continent includes Papua New Guinea and Indonesia… nobody else. So Australia thinks it can bully it’s way into competitions it hasn’t been good enough to qualify for.

Yes the team in question is Ireland (Ireland beat Australia for their place), but the issue I have is that it is low and I would hope shameful for a country to go that way about getting into a competition. Believe me I am, and would have been more, ashamed in the way the FAI tried to get Ireland into the World Cup as the 31st/33rd team due to Theirry Henry robbing us.

Well gotta go shopping – gotta make a list first… ginger, noodles…

Oh nearly forgot to add a pic – and my new widget from Pix.ie

See the bright new moon is rising,
Above the land of black and green.
Hear the rebels voices calling,
I will not die ’till you bury me. ~ Shane Mac Gowan

Land of Black and green is right, black sky and green grass…. dull weather makes me a dull boy!

I will have to venture out though, planning marinated chicken for dinner today… need veg, need to eat more veg, need to lose some weight…. grrr… dull weather makes me dull

Was marking up my calender with things happening that I want to see this year. At least two Hot Air balloon events, medieval festivals, skate/BMX festivals and a wedding…. busy busy!

Rugby: Six-Nations update

Ireland beat Italy – Italians did a good job keeping us at bay.
England beat Wales – Welsh not to be brushed aside, gotta watch them.
France beat Scotland – 18-9 Is France ok?

We know we should be alot better than the Italians but there they were blocking us at every turn. The papers were placing Wales as being second last in the competition – they would have been contenders for the title a few years ago – but they took it to England on Saturday, sure they were beaten but they should not be brushed aside as beatable. France poor France, only beating Scotland by 9 points, only scoring 18 points against Scotland…this says either the Scottish have become better or this is the bad French team we are hoping for! Bad French team please !

Flicking back over my posts – as I do – I noticed that I hadn’t actually described what a pin-hole camera does.

Basic camera works on the ‘shutter’ opening and letting light in onto the film. The longer you leave the shutter open the more light gets onto the film. If there is more light in the space you are in (outside = sunshine / inside = darker(if no flash)) then you need to leave it open a shorter time.

Anyway, so the shutter needs to open to let in the light. The focus/zoom is another part of the lense.

Pin-Hole cameras have a pin-hole (imagine that ) in replacement of the lense, with a shutter between the pin-hole and the film. By shutter I mean a piece of cardboard that slides back and forward blocking the light. See it on the bottom of the lense (big bit at the front of the camera). That black tab says ‘OFF’.

The pin-hole replaces the focus in a normal camera and so your photo will be fuzzy/artistic. Anyway I have to pull the tab between ‘ON & OFF’ for as long as I think I need to get the photo right. Being a film camera I will have to shoot 24 photos and then get them processed before I know if I got it right.

The Hole-On Ex product came with a gauge of how much time you should leave the shutter open. Might be useful for others making their own Pin-Hole camera.

Day = D / Night = N / Indoor = I

Short Distance:- D 3-10Seconds / N 20-60Seconds / I 10-30Seconds

Long Distance:- D 5-15Seconds / N 30-120Seconds / I 10-30Seconds

Anyway, off to go shopping for those elusive veg!

Well it’s going ‘OK’. I must say the Italians are holding us…. and that frickin slow play… grrrr.

That was a nice block in the 38th min, Italy deserved the try.

Here’s hoping for a better second half.

Lesson one when putting together a pin-hole camera or anything involving glue – DON’T GLUE YOUR FINGERS TO THE OBJECT! I’m sure all ye parents out there are aware of this lesson, but I was not and it seemed the object of the project was to stick as many fingers to the camera as possible. One finger from each hand survived not getting stuck…. they are now outcasts! And if ever the cops needed my prints they would just have to pick up this camera!

Anyway took me all day to do it, have it stuck together now and am wondering how to get a second use out of it.

Anyway onto the  RUGBY! Come on Ireland! Yes folks Six Nations is starting again! We start slow against Italy today but have France next week! Will we win it again? We live in hope!

Going to get the paper and then watch the match…. will most likely be back on later ranting about the rugby!

A busy life keeps a body busy, With so many same old things to do, So why not stop a while and take a good look around? Maybe you will find out something new to you ~ Kirsty MacColl

Stop a while and take a good look around? This, I find, is very helpful when out taking photos. I was at a talk by a great photographer who said he had set up his shot, was just waiting on the sun to light up the mountain in the right way and looked behind to see that the rising sun had added a great colour to the trees behind him – no doubt he got out his second camera and took a shot of that as well. I am forever looking around and finding unusual images. Check out http://pix.ie/sinisterdexter/album/366939 for one of my days, I took time to stop and looked around.
In life I am a bit different, trundling along without stopping for too long and just accepting the way life is going… got to stop for a bit I think.

Went to see Edge of Darkness last night and I must say Mel Gibson is best suited to the old guy out for revenge. Couldn’t see Pachino/Ford/Willis/Nickelson pulling it off. The movie kept me thinking all the way through, which is hard in this day and age as I have seen so many movies and plot twists can be seen a mile off, and I must say I was happy to have spent my little cash watching it. Going back to seeing plot twists before they happen: I am fed up spending my money watching a movie that  just regurgitates the same plot twists from other movies, just with different characters. Can directors/writters get their head out of their proverbial and show me something new. Sherlock Holmes I must say hits the spot! That movie kept me guessing all the way through, well interested in what was going to happen next.

Well today I am going to try and put together a Pin-Hole Camera I got as a present… hopefully report on that later.

Other big question for today…. whats for dinner? Hmm.

Mah thunghhe isshh shhtuck!