Ok, so over the past few years, Ive taken on a variety of new interests, and always keen to learn something about my newly aquired hoby, as usual these days I have turned to the internet. Interesting as it may seem, contrary to the many differences between each hoby, there is always a few things to be found in common. Experts.
With the rise of the internet, there came the chat room, then when everyone realized that it would be more fun to discuss things of common interest came the forum. Web forums are the home to what I would classify as ‘the expert’. The one who poses silly questions, so they can get a little buzz when they receive a reply. the one who answers a question – not because actually know or care about the answer, but because they can repeat off the answer that was given on the same topic just a few weeks earlier.
Then there are the topics of conversation – the usual rhetoric, as it were. When I was heavily into French cars, it was always the idea of creating a 205 Mi16, with mountain biking it was always about what it takes in terms of training and commitment to make the national team, and with photography, its all about mastering Rodinal for your tri-x negatives shot on a leica III.
You know what all these things have in common? They all posses a somewhat elusive and unobtainable nature that allures our ‘experts’ to spend hours attached to the computer perpetuating the myth and propagating misinformation from other ‘experts’. But at the end of the day, what have they achieved? Have they actually started to build a car, trained for real, or shot a few rolls of film? No, they probably have spent their days scourering ebay and the like for the perceived necessary tools to become a real ‘pro’ and impress their online buddies with there new found interests.
So I guess my message is this.! If your into cars, go and learn to drive, if you’re an aspiring mtb rider go and spend the consistent miles (its not rocket science you know!), and if your into photography, go and shoot (You know it wasn’t the camera responsible for the most famous images ). Stop talking about doing it, get off your arse and do something; If you have something useful, then share it! And to everyone else, as usual beware of what you are reading, be critical in this age of 'the expert'.
Thursday 31 December 2009
Tuesday 15 December 2009
You’ll never get parts for it!
Well it’s the age old rhetoric the constantly plagues Australians when it comes to the pursuit of owning Foreign cars. I’ve never really given the topic much thought recently, unitl it was brought to the fore once again the other day. You see a friend of mine had his VW van broken into, and when he enquired about getting a few spares, the response was “ it will have to come from Germany……. And that’s a very long way away!” Guess this maneuver backfired in his face a little bit, given that my friend is German!
But this is not new. Another friend of mine snapped the accessory belt in his Peugeot – sensibly enough he managed to get the car to a garage in the country. The owner’s response “oh we have all makes and models” – super my friend thought. Wrong – upon telling the man that he had a Peugeot, he was met with the usual response “you’ll never get parts for one of those” .
But the attitude does not stop or end there. Say you were interested in actually buying something European to drive. A typical conversation down the pub goes a little like this “yeah I reckon they go alright, but they would be a nightmare to fix, and you would never get parts for them!”. Well ive come to wonder if there is actually any substance behind this. Sure parts are at times a little more difficult to get a hold of, and things are a little ‘different’. under the bonnet. But is all this “difficulty” simply perpetuated by the classic aussie attitude of tall poppy syndrome? Of course, we should refuse European products, simply on the basis that they are more advanced than ours! On the other hand maybe its perpetuated by the fact that Australians are simply too lazy to understand concepts that are not straight forward, or passed on in an apprenticeship done on a VN commodore.
Well the next argument commonly put forward (once the parts argument has worn out that is) is that “these cars are not designed for Australian conditions”. But what exactly are Australian conditions. And seriously are you going to be driving your car in the desert everyday.? Taking a closer look, say at a the car I currently drive - a Peugeot 405 – against the humble Aussie classic - the commodore. While it was designed and built in France / the UK respectively - I suspect a vehicle such as this; with a lager design budget, production run, and larger company backing, and more stringent design laws (emissions and safety) IS going to somehow come out on top when compared with the commodore as far as a successful design is concerned. And as far as Australian conditions are concerned – have a look where the 405 is still being built and used today – yep in Iran and Egypt – pretty similar to your stereotype “Australian conditions” if you ask me. So back to the commodore – and to the much reviled VE – lets take a closer look at where this thing comes from – yep the new found handling ability in the commodore comes from the last generation (E39) 5- series BMW! Not so much Australian design there to be proud of!
If I’m to progress beyond the design bigotry stage and take two steps back to the parts section again; we come back to the age old sourcing problem. Its my guess, that while parts are a bit more difficult to get a hold of, its simply a case of the well perpetuated ‘parts myth’ working in the flavor of wreckers and dealers alike; If for example you couldn’t source the part here, you might be faced with ordering from overseas, just like my German friend, and paying some sky high fictitious price that the guy wants to name. Interestingly this attitude is not something that’s just limited to cars. – its part of a wider import problem in Australia it would seem. The thing is, when something is imported by only one company, the market is closed – everyone who has a lick In it is happy 10% here 10% there - everyone has a slice of pie, and RRP – what’s that you say? Gone. One of the better examples I am familiar with lies in the high-end bike market –not so long ago it took a mere 600 buck purchase price to off set the full-freight shipping from the UK. But that’s because places like the UK and the US support competition between businesses – and they say we are capitalist!
So I guess the point is this; just because people do things differently, doesn’t mean its wrong – its time Australia started to pull its head out of its arse on a lot of things (climate change anyone?) and see what the rest of the developed world is up to. On that note I’m going to keep driving my 405, despite the parts being “difficult to source” and despite the fact that being French means according to Clarkson “it’s made with all the care of a 3rd world plumbing system” - He isn’t wrong, and while all the electric switches have long since given up, the significantly larger design budget is still shining through.
But this is not new. Another friend of mine snapped the accessory belt in his Peugeot – sensibly enough he managed to get the car to a garage in the country. The owner’s response “oh we have all makes and models” – super my friend thought. Wrong – upon telling the man that he had a Peugeot, he was met with the usual response “you’ll never get parts for one of those” .
But the attitude does not stop or end there. Say you were interested in actually buying something European to drive. A typical conversation down the pub goes a little like this “yeah I reckon they go alright, but they would be a nightmare to fix, and you would never get parts for them!”. Well ive come to wonder if there is actually any substance behind this. Sure parts are at times a little more difficult to get a hold of, and things are a little ‘different’. under the bonnet. But is all this “difficulty” simply perpetuated by the classic aussie attitude of tall poppy syndrome? Of course, we should refuse European products, simply on the basis that they are more advanced than ours! On the other hand maybe its perpetuated by the fact that Australians are simply too lazy to understand concepts that are not straight forward, or passed on in an apprenticeship done on a VN commodore.
Well the next argument commonly put forward (once the parts argument has worn out that is) is that “these cars are not designed for Australian conditions”. But what exactly are Australian conditions. And seriously are you going to be driving your car in the desert everyday.? Taking a closer look, say at a the car I currently drive - a Peugeot 405 – against the humble Aussie classic - the commodore. While it was designed and built in France / the UK respectively - I suspect a vehicle such as this; with a lager design budget, production run, and larger company backing, and more stringent design laws (emissions and safety) IS going to somehow come out on top when compared with the commodore as far as a successful design is concerned. And as far as Australian conditions are concerned – have a look where the 405 is still being built and used today – yep in Iran and Egypt – pretty similar to your stereotype “Australian conditions” if you ask me. So back to the commodore – and to the much reviled VE – lets take a closer look at where this thing comes from – yep the new found handling ability in the commodore comes from the last generation (E39) 5- series BMW! Not so much Australian design there to be proud of!
If I’m to progress beyond the design bigotry stage and take two steps back to the parts section again; we come back to the age old sourcing problem. Its my guess, that while parts are a bit more difficult to get a hold of, its simply a case of the well perpetuated ‘parts myth’ working in the flavor of wreckers and dealers alike; If for example you couldn’t source the part here, you might be faced with ordering from overseas, just like my German friend, and paying some sky high fictitious price that the guy wants to name. Interestingly this attitude is not something that’s just limited to cars. – its part of a wider import problem in Australia it would seem. The thing is, when something is imported by only one company, the market is closed – everyone who has a lick In it is happy 10% here 10% there - everyone has a slice of pie, and RRP – what’s that you say? Gone. One of the better examples I am familiar with lies in the high-end bike market –not so long ago it took a mere 600 buck purchase price to off set the full-freight shipping from the UK. But that’s because places like the UK and the US support competition between businesses – and they say we are capitalist!
So I guess the point is this; just because people do things differently, doesn’t mean its wrong – its time Australia started to pull its head out of its arse on a lot of things (climate change anyone?) and see what the rest of the developed world is up to. On that note I’m going to keep driving my 405, despite the parts being “difficult to source” and despite the fact that being French means according to Clarkson “it’s made with all the care of a 3rd world plumbing system” - He isn’t wrong, and while all the electric switches have long since given up, the significantly larger design budget is still shining through.
Wednesday 9 December 2009
Is France advanced?
Well im going to put it out there that the majority of Australians are under this belief that Europe is at the cutting edge of technology and is simply more advanced than we are, but is this really so? Well since im in france for the next few weeks (and have spent the odd few weeks there in the past) I think it might be time to add a bit to this debate.
First cab off the rank is university. Like a lot of things in France (since it is practically communist – sometimes in a good way), uni is practically free, but is this really a good thing? Well I have always believed uni should be free, so im going to tentatively answer yes, but take a look a bit further, you see what we take for granted is far from guaranteed here. Simple things like signing on for classes, timetables, class notifications etc are often given in class or via a notice board – pretty silly in a day where the internet has simplified things so much. Further to the poor organization, it is common practice for students to learn things by wrote, classes to be given by dictation, or the whole thing could be brought down by a strike (the French love to strike!), and you would be obliged to sit exams despite never having attended class that semester! I guess we in Australia do get what we pay for sometimes.
Another personal hate of mine that must be mentioned with regard to university in france is the use of abbreviations for degrees, places, institutes etc. they all seem to have some kind of catchy acronym – with the constituent words chosen simply so the acronyn sounds cool. I guess its because in English we have in general more specific words – the French prefer to explain what it is they are referring to – for example, a school where one learns French is not called simpy “a French school” it is called “école de français langue étrangére” or otherwise abbreviated to “école de FLE”. Crazy. We really do have it easy as English speakers.
Next thing about the French that remains in the dark ages is their attachment to cheques. Perhaps that lies in their distrust of anything new or fangled like the internet, where someone could pinch your money? Not only are the French attached to the simple personal cheque - oh no, that’s far to simple. They have even invented things such as the chéque déjeuner (meal cheque) and chéque vacances (holiday cheque). As absurd as these things appear to an aussie, somehow they make sense, in that they can guarantee for an employer where an employee’s allowance is being spent. My only gripe is they are managed by a private instituition, not the govenment - someone is making some cash off this nifty idea! However while these other cheques are cool in principle, I can offer no such defence for the common personal cheque - the debit card is obviously far more appropriate for any task in this day and age!
Another thing bizarre about France, being an ‘advanced’ European country and all, is the complete lack of public toilets. I’m going to hazard a guess behind the logic, that they believe that having public toilets would create a habitat for drug addicts to inject or homosexual men to engage in ‘other activities’, or simply pose a too great a problem to maintain. Or maybe the culture has evolved without them? Anyhow enough evidence for the humble public toilet can be found simply by walking any back-street of Paris. Tune your nose in and you will get the hint! Or maybe this is just french culture?
Dining is another interesting thing in France. First curiosity to note is that its common practice to eat bread off the table, not only that, but to drink tea out of a bowl, really are these people advanced? Oh and they are still using pressure cookers, or is that a sign that we are too incompetent to use such a device without blowing apart the kitchen?
Well after all this negative crap that ive got on the French, you would thing that I was one of those flanny wearing bogans (well I am enjoying my flanny right now!) who would rather spend their time in a south east queensland, but there are a lot of things this place has going for it. Sure Italian cuisine is world renowned, but the French are a close match. The French are artisians, and take great pride in crafts and creations –and lets face I, how satisfying are those little things in life? To augment this passion, the French also play host to some of the worlds most awesome markets – what could be cooler? Perhaps a high-speed rail network? And who can argue with the worlds best health care system?
I guess to sum up, im going to quote a phrase that was once said to me – “the quality of life in a country is directly proportional to the quality of coffee” – well ive got news for you , the coffee is shit in France and shit in Australia. Why? Well in Australia we have a nasty habit of ordering the stuff take-away in shitty little foam cups with way too much milk, while in France they manage to stuff it up equally as well, but via different means. You see France has coffee culture, just like in Italy, no take-away’s here! But somewhere along the line, something went awry – I don’t know whether its he roasting grinding, or the excess of hot water, but the French don’t have a clue how to make a tasty coffee. So back to the point, I guess we as aussies have to revise our opinion a little – yes Europe is probably a lot more advanced on political ideas , lifestyle, transport and all that, but if your sitting in your flash new apartment on the gold coast, your way more advanced than 90% of euro’s could hope to be, but is that such a good thing? Heck at the end of the day its just different, and perhaps more so than one would expect!
First cab off the rank is university. Like a lot of things in France (since it is practically communist – sometimes in a good way), uni is practically free, but is this really a good thing? Well I have always believed uni should be free, so im going to tentatively answer yes, but take a look a bit further, you see what we take for granted is far from guaranteed here. Simple things like signing on for classes, timetables, class notifications etc are often given in class or via a notice board – pretty silly in a day where the internet has simplified things so much. Further to the poor organization, it is common practice for students to learn things by wrote, classes to be given by dictation, or the whole thing could be brought down by a strike (the French love to strike!), and you would be obliged to sit exams despite never having attended class that semester! I guess we in Australia do get what we pay for sometimes.
Another personal hate of mine that must be mentioned with regard to university in france is the use of abbreviations for degrees, places, institutes etc. they all seem to have some kind of catchy acronym – with the constituent words chosen simply so the acronyn sounds cool. I guess its because in English we have in general more specific words – the French prefer to explain what it is they are referring to – for example, a school where one learns French is not called simpy “a French school” it is called “école de français langue étrangére” or otherwise abbreviated to “école de FLE”. Crazy. We really do have it easy as English speakers.
Next thing about the French that remains in the dark ages is their attachment to cheques. Perhaps that lies in their distrust of anything new or fangled like the internet, where someone could pinch your money? Not only are the French attached to the simple personal cheque - oh no, that’s far to simple. They have even invented things such as the chéque déjeuner (meal cheque) and chéque vacances (holiday cheque). As absurd as these things appear to an aussie, somehow they make sense, in that they can guarantee for an employer where an employee’s allowance is being spent. My only gripe is they are managed by a private instituition, not the govenment - someone is making some cash off this nifty idea! However while these other cheques are cool in principle, I can offer no such defence for the common personal cheque - the debit card is obviously far more appropriate for any task in this day and age!
Another thing bizarre about France, being an ‘advanced’ European country and all, is the complete lack of public toilets. I’m going to hazard a guess behind the logic, that they believe that having public toilets would create a habitat for drug addicts to inject or homosexual men to engage in ‘other activities’, or simply pose a too great a problem to maintain. Or maybe the culture has evolved without them? Anyhow enough evidence for the humble public toilet can be found simply by walking any back-street of Paris. Tune your nose in and you will get the hint! Or maybe this is just french culture?
Dining is another interesting thing in France. First curiosity to note is that its common practice to eat bread off the table, not only that, but to drink tea out of a bowl, really are these people advanced? Oh and they are still using pressure cookers, or is that a sign that we are too incompetent to use such a device without blowing apart the kitchen?
Well after all this negative crap that ive got on the French, you would thing that I was one of those flanny wearing bogans (well I am enjoying my flanny right now!) who would rather spend their time in a south east queensland, but there are a lot of things this place has going for it. Sure Italian cuisine is world renowned, but the French are a close match. The French are artisians, and take great pride in crafts and creations –and lets face I, how satisfying are those little things in life? To augment this passion, the French also play host to some of the worlds most awesome markets – what could be cooler? Perhaps a high-speed rail network? And who can argue with the worlds best health care system?
I guess to sum up, im going to quote a phrase that was once said to me – “the quality of life in a country is directly proportional to the quality of coffee” – well ive got news for you , the coffee is shit in France and shit in Australia. Why? Well in Australia we have a nasty habit of ordering the stuff take-away in shitty little foam cups with way too much milk, while in France they manage to stuff it up equally as well, but via different means. You see France has coffee culture, just like in Italy, no take-away’s here! But somewhere along the line, something went awry – I don’t know whether its he roasting grinding, or the excess of hot water, but the French don’t have a clue how to make a tasty coffee. So back to the point, I guess we as aussies have to revise our opinion a little – yes Europe is probably a lot more advanced on political ideas , lifestyle, transport and all that, but if your sitting in your flash new apartment on the gold coast, your way more advanced than 90% of euro’s could hope to be, but is that such a good thing? Heck at the end of the day its just different, and perhaps more so than one would expect!
Monday 30 November 2009
Developing at home
Well I guess I haven’t mentioned it, but im quite a fan of photography, mainly the cool old film stuff. Sure ive dabbled in the digital realm, but it really doesn’t cut it for me. I guess ive been spoilt, using the beautiful Olympus OM system for the past year or so. What more could someone taking photos ask for though, simple, small, robust, cheap and a real pleasure to work with – probably the main reasons im having trouble shaking the film habit. You see I can get myself a full pro-level camera that operates independent of batteries and the size of a digi cross-over for the order of 50 bucks.. Don’t get me started on the lenses, which are both ridiculously small and super sharp., and equally as cost savvy as the camera. So im sitting here with somewhere near 500 bucks invested in kit, which leaves me 2 professional bodies and 6 or so lenses to play with. Not bad given that to take similar images id be looking at a canon 5d.
I guess the one flaw in my image taking process that was casing my wallet to bleed was developing and film costs – something like 25 bucks per film for the develop and scan alone. Well a few weeks ago, I decided the buck stops here, selling my trusty OM4 (that started the whole obsession), to free up some cash for some chemicals and a whole host of old dark room ‘junk’, not to mention the cheaper replacement of the om4 with it’s older brother – another om1.
With developing most pro lab’s would have you believe that developing is a black art acquired over many years, and that by entrusting your films to them, your going to get the best results possible. Not so ive just found out. Most of the labs in Brisbane im lead to believe are using only the basic Kodak D-76 / Ilford ID-11 developers for everything – what about those films for push processing? Or those that are shot for extra detail, or where grain would add something?
So a few weeks ago, when my ebay purchases arrived, I took the opportunity to turn my kitchen into an alchemy lab. Now given it was Australian summer – a few things were a bit awry – air tep - 35 degrees, water - 28. Normal developing temp? 15-24 degrees - time to cool things down with a home made ice bath in the sink. After all the pissing about guessing, punting, and filling in the details where you simply haven’t thought about what’s next, my first film emerged perfectly developed, shot with the new untested dodgy om1 with the fired metering circuit. Some days things just work, or is it that developing istn that hard?
Next on the menu was push processing – an absolute dark art if you believe the pro lab hype. Not really – its simply uprating the films ISO at the shooting stage, then increasing development accordingly. So that’s it – set the meter on the camera differently, then put the film in the soup for a couple extra minutes? Dead easy. Well I guess to say im happy with developing at home would be an understatement. Its definitely something that’s helped me to fight off the digital realm for a little while longer.
Oh and the results
APX 400 - nice and contrasty
APX in rodianl - classic toanlity
HP5 @1600 in microphen
I guess the one flaw in my image taking process that was casing my wallet to bleed was developing and film costs – something like 25 bucks per film for the develop and scan alone. Well a few weeks ago, I decided the buck stops here, selling my trusty OM4 (that started the whole obsession), to free up some cash for some chemicals and a whole host of old dark room ‘junk’, not to mention the cheaper replacement of the om4 with it’s older brother – another om1.
With developing most pro lab’s would have you believe that developing is a black art acquired over many years, and that by entrusting your films to them, your going to get the best results possible. Not so ive just found out. Most of the labs in Brisbane im lead to believe are using only the basic Kodak D-76 / Ilford ID-11 developers for everything – what about those films for push processing? Or those that are shot for extra detail, or where grain would add something?
So a few weeks ago, when my ebay purchases arrived, I took the opportunity to turn my kitchen into an alchemy lab. Now given it was Australian summer – a few things were a bit awry – air tep - 35 degrees, water - 28. Normal developing temp? 15-24 degrees - time to cool things down with a home made ice bath in the sink. After all the pissing about guessing, punting, and filling in the details where you simply haven’t thought about what’s next, my first film emerged perfectly developed, shot with the new untested dodgy om1 with the fired metering circuit. Some days things just work, or is it that developing istn that hard?
Next on the menu was push processing – an absolute dark art if you believe the pro lab hype. Not really – its simply uprating the films ISO at the shooting stage, then increasing development accordingly. So that’s it – set the meter on the camera differently, then put the film in the soup for a couple extra minutes? Dead easy. Well I guess to say im happy with developing at home would be an understatement. Its definitely something that’s helped me to fight off the digital realm for a little while longer.
Oh and the results
APX 400 - nice and contrasty
APX in rodianl - classic toanlity
HP5 @1600 in microphen
Friday 13 November 2009
It’s my right, not a privilege
Well I guess this is probably not the best note to start a blog on, but here goes; Australians and road rage; the two seem to fit like hand in glove.
So this morning I’m out for the stock-standard Brisbane river-loop ride, not exactly prime time for a car-bike incident, or was it? Well some middle aged woman driving a Chelsea tractor decided otherwise.
So upon getting blatantly cut up at a slow point on the road, my friend and I catch the driver up to have a bit of a talking to. Well it went a little like this – the classic Australian motorists argument against cyclists “you don’t pay rego, so why are you complaining?”. Well sorry love, but just because you drive 2 tones of crap doesn’t make it your god given right to mow down anything smaller in your way, what kind of skewed logic is that at the end of the day! Besides, rego doesn’t pay for roads, that’s from income tax, and even if it wasn’t, who is to say we don’t own cars as well? I guess you really cannot argue with attitudes such as that. Thing is, its certainly not the first time this has happened – 2 road rage incidents involving contact (on the same day no less!)and many more near misses in the last 2 years in Brisbane. Seriously people!
I guess the whole issue stems back to the point of Australians and driving. Licenses are cheap, and the tests hardly rigorous – driving is something we take for granted, wait no no, it’s our god damn right! Well lets face it, despite the fact that licensing has become a little more ‘rigorous’ in the past few years, its still cheap compared with Europe (a few hundred bucks vs 1500 Euro or so), and to pass the test, you could be a complete potato just as long as you check those mirrors! Motorway driving, what’s that? You mean pass on the left, keep left unless passing, No way!
Next must be the insane attitude that is possessed by many Brisbane locals – the type that seem to want it all, the big house, the nice car, and the big city job. Ultimately these things tend to be mutually exclusive in most places, not in south-east Queensland! Yep, that usually means a stress yourself to the eye-balls commute everyday on roads that were typically not designed for such traffic, and the complaint – “we need better roads” – really? How about a simpler solution, like living in near the city a bit, or maybe even show some respect for others in the traffic if you really must do it! God help you if you were to think about riding a bike past these fools as they are stopped in peak hour!
So this morning I’m out for the stock-standard Brisbane river-loop ride, not exactly prime time for a car-bike incident, or was it? Well some middle aged woman driving a Chelsea tractor decided otherwise.
So upon getting blatantly cut up at a slow point on the road, my friend and I catch the driver up to have a bit of a talking to. Well it went a little like this – the classic Australian motorists argument against cyclists “you don’t pay rego, so why are you complaining?”. Well sorry love, but just because you drive 2 tones of crap doesn’t make it your god given right to mow down anything smaller in your way, what kind of skewed logic is that at the end of the day! Besides, rego doesn’t pay for roads, that’s from income tax, and even if it wasn’t, who is to say we don’t own cars as well? I guess you really cannot argue with attitudes such as that. Thing is, its certainly not the first time this has happened – 2 road rage incidents involving contact (on the same day no less!)and many more near misses in the last 2 years in Brisbane. Seriously people!
I guess the whole issue stems back to the point of Australians and driving. Licenses are cheap, and the tests hardly rigorous – driving is something we take for granted, wait no no, it’s our god damn right! Well lets face it, despite the fact that licensing has become a little more ‘rigorous’ in the past few years, its still cheap compared with Europe (a few hundred bucks vs 1500 Euro or so), and to pass the test, you could be a complete potato just as long as you check those mirrors! Motorway driving, what’s that? You mean pass on the left, keep left unless passing, No way!
Next must be the insane attitude that is possessed by many Brisbane locals – the type that seem to want it all, the big house, the nice car, and the big city job. Ultimately these things tend to be mutually exclusive in most places, not in south-east Queensland! Yep, that usually means a stress yourself to the eye-balls commute everyday on roads that were typically not designed for such traffic, and the complaint – “we need better roads” – really? How about a simpler solution, like living in near the city a bit, or maybe even show some respect for others in the traffic if you really must do it! God help you if you were to think about riding a bike past these fools as they are stopped in peak hour!
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