Apologies for the 50-in-1 update, but I've got loads of equally important (or, if you're a normal human being, equally boring) things to ramble on about...

Gamel - Pugwash mag editor and graphic designer extraordinaire - has finished the image which will adorn the back of the Pugwash hoodies this year:

I particularly love the dig at my Mac "obsession" - the monkey is typing away on a Banana laptop. In my defence, and as far as I'm concerned, I spend a lot of time on my laptop because I'm doing work - everyone else, however, has christened my laptop "Alex's girlfriend" (much to my better half's amusement) because of the amount of time I spend on it... Cheers... Gits the lot of you! ;o)

It's been a bit cold lately, and I grabbed a shot of the sunset over Biggin Hill while I was home visiting the 'rents. Apologies for the quality of the shot - I blame the camera - but the sky was like cut glass and I could see clearly right across London (about 40 miles) from the back window of the house...

Talking of photos, on my way back to Portsmouth, my carriage stopped next to this frankly ridiculous waste of a sign yesterday:

On the subject of bitching, I don't think I'll ever understand why some people feel the need to rip other people's work apart in a public forum just because they don't understand its purpose; it's like me accusing Aston Martin of selling overpriced rubbish just because their cars cost more than a Ford Fiesta... Meh... Sorry for the oblique rant, but it's frustrating when you pretty much live and breathe your media presence and sometimes the only feedback you receive is complaints!! Still, it could be worse... ;o)

In webgeekery, I've been tweaking our "news wizard" - a (very) basic wizard-style web tool we use to create news articles:

Where we used to be quite limited in terms of what we could do with the images in news articles - you got a 200x150 pixel image in your news article, with or without a caption, and that was it - you had to know a bit of HTML if you wanted to tweak it - now our online news editors have the ability to create news articles which have a widescreen image right across the article:

The main application for this will, I hope, be when we start putting more of Pugwash magazine's features online, as it will allow us to make a bigger feature of the article image, since the magazine is very much a visually-led medium. Unfortunately, with only two more issues of the mag left this year, I can't help feeling time's running out very quickly already!

A quick stop press: Digitially Imported 'net radio - I've been listening to...

Woohoo - my new sub arrived. Bugger - it's been dropped in transit and totally ruined. How many stamps does a 30KG package need to get to Germany? >-( 

In the absense of any time to write more than a couple of sentences, and still not having got my dead hard drive resurrected, here's some pics taking roughly in the last week for you to look at. Or not... ;o)

Ties and scarves at the Copy Shop

Ooh, new clothing!

Ben and Laura in eco-friendly transport endorsement

Ben and Laura went out delivering newspapers. Thankyou both of you :o)

The Portsmouth Uni wall of debt

Students + student loans + interest = big debt. Last week saw a debate and campaigns on the issue.

Fruit & veg market comes to the Union

The Thinkfresh market arrives at the Union, and should be back next Wednesday, too. Awesome :o)

Fairtrade freebies

A very nice chap set up a stall at the Union giving away samples of Fairtrade fruit 'n nut bars and muffins. Yum :o)

Ooh, new toys!

... and it was broken before it even made it out of the box. Back to Germany then... :o(

Pretty...

... sunset. Apparently, there's a whole world out there. I'm doubtful... 

... taking random photos:

Indian Summer at the Union - woo, sunshine!!

Students enjoy the sunshine with a drink outside in the sun. Colder weather is forecast for tomorrow, though :o(

Ideas and photography

Jacob, news editor, drafts ideas for the reorganisation of our online news content.

On screen you can see Aperture displaying one of yesterday's photos of the CopyShop clothing range.

My desk is a busy place during the day...

New toys!

Ooh, new toys for Pure FM! The student radio station's brand new audio recorder arrives on my desk.

The speakers in the background are my desk set-up, running off a decommissioned 700W PA amp from the nightclub venue across the road  - who says work has to be boring?! :o)

Global domination: step 1 - anti-fees campaign

Andrew 'Jaffa' Machin demonstrates part 1 of his plan for global domination: a Top Up Fees debate at the University.

Lovely weather :o)

More people, also enjoying that sunshine. My office is on the ground floor of the building on the right. 

In a fit of domesticity last week I decided to take advantage of the flatmate being away and did some hoovering, tidying and, the cause of my undoing, a little bit of wiping-of-flat-surfaces. With my hands still damp from cleaning the cooker, I lifted - successfully - and tried to move - unsuccessfully - the big bowl full of decorative glass beads (ok, so I'm an Ikea victim - get over it... ;o).

This was the unfortunate result, as my freshly-hoovered floor saw an explosion of hundreds of glass beads and a very broken bowl...

And my favourite...

Bugger! 

Guess I got lucky with this pic - St. Paul's by night from Southbank:

:o)