Busyness!

It has been a busy day - well, it's been a busy week, to be honest.  This week I'm doing a training course which I am enjoying, but it does come with two exams and a fair chunk of revision each night, so I am a bit tired.  That said, I did enjoy seeing this page in the revision material:

If it isn't clear, it says "This is a blank page", hence making the page not... blank.

Another picture I thought that I'd share with you was from a train station the other day.  At the train station there is a stall selling cards and flowers.  Nothing wrong with that, I can quite imagine going to jump on a train to see someone, and needing to grab a card and/or fauna en route.

All that stood out to me was the blue sign visible above the stall that advertised their wares.  It starts off with "Flowers for any occasion", which is fair enough - they sell flowers, and I'm sure that many occasions indeed would be positively impacted by the inclusion of flowers.  No argument there.

They then decided to list some of the events that flowers could be suitable for - again, perfectly sensible.

Now, how did they start off this list of events?  Well, let's think, they're in a rail station so you're likely to be buying them either to take on a train, or, and probably more likely (because I wouldn't want to carry fragile flowers on a train) they are for giving to people that get off trains - your loving partner who has been away on business, your aunt who has travelled from somewhere to visit - so, bearing this in mind, the very first event listed on the sign is:

"FUNERALS"

The sign in the picture again is a little small, but "FUNERALS" absolutely stands out.

It just seemed a little pessimistic somehow.

If you haven't already taken part in Wiki Loves Monuments, this is the time!  If you're in the US go to http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org/ (or if not search on Google for your countries relevant website - for example the UK one is http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org.uk/) and upload some photos of a local monument or listed building, especially those that Wikimedia don't have yet.  I've been down to a Whiting Mill on the bank of the river Humber for photos - I should say that I walked around and around the mill for about ten minutes because it wasn't where I thought it ought to be, according to the description, but I got there in the end!

Finally, the good people at find.com have let me loose on their website, if you would like some tips on losing weight then check my blog out - I might even follow them myself one day!

Now, I'm off to sleep - night!

Wiki Loves Monuments UK competition

Wikimedia UK is supporting the Wiki Loves Monuments competition, where across the globe (and in the UK for the first time this year) in September people take photos of the world's historic monuments and upload them to Wikimedia UK.  Wikimedia UK, if you're not aware, exists to help collect and distribute freely available knowledge, and is linked with Wikipedia.

The competition is really straightforward, on the website they give you a very short guide as to what to do and what monuments they accept photos of, and then you go off, get some decent photos, and upload them with a bit of a description!  Nice and simple.  If you do have a go do read the guide, common photo errors, and the rules, I fell foul of not reading the photo errors before I went out and a lot of the photos I took had a lovely big church sign in it, with lots of phone numbers and information on there which causes problems. Must try harder in future!

My first uploaded picture is available at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Andrews_Church,_Kirk_Ella.JPG - to get this picture it was a bit tricky, as St Andrews Church in Kirk Ella is surrounded by lovely trees, which are great but get in the way when taking photographs.  The only way I could get a shot was by laying on the path in front of the church, taking the photo there, and breathing in so that my belly didn't get in the way!  (Bit of a subtle hint for myself to get some exercise - which the Pedometer Challenge I'm doing shortly should help with!)

Anyhow, that's my first picture, but I hope to be getting a lot more up before the end of September!  If you're getting involved do let me know what photos you're getting!