First snow of the season

With one week to go before Christmas, we've just had our first snowfall. It snowed late last night - not a blizzard, but more a light dusting.

Then this morning between 7 and 10am, it snowed some more, so now everything is a little bit white.

Here's what I saw earlier out of my office window:

I wrapped up warm when leaving the house for work this morning, with a hat, scarf and gloves to keep me from freezing. Unfortunately, I didn't think about footwear and wore my almost grip-less shoes. Not a good idea with lots of slippy snow around. Just about made it to the office without falling flat on my face!

Hoping the snow stops now so I can walk home without looking like Bambi on ice.

The Best Knitting Ever

I saw this on an advertising billboard this morning on my walk to work and was quite taken aback.


It is sheer brilliance - in all the history of knitting, nothing has ever been this cool:

I want one for Christmas! I've already sent it to my sister for her approval as she's a knitter (check out her blog here).

McDonalds - is there any limit to their abilities?

Grab those videos!

I've often felt a bit annoyed that YouTube doesn't allow us to download videos from their website. It's frustrating because some of them deserve repeat viewing, and you don't always want to connect to the Internet to do so (would also be great to email some of the videos as well).

This weekend I was making a mock up video of the CSI Miami intro with my daughter appearing at the end, basically because she I had a bit of film of her removing sunglasses in the same way as Horatio does in the series and thought it would be funny. I found the intro clip on YouTube, and knew I wouldn't be able to download it so I attempted to film the clip showing on my laptop using first my iPhone and then my digital camera, but the results for both were very disappointing (poor quality image with light reflected in the laptop screen).

I then did a bit of Google searching to see if I could find the intro clip anywhere on the Internet available for download (for free, of course). After browsing for a while, I came across a website that can download videos from the URL you give it, usually with a choice of file types as well. It required downloading a piece of software, but my anti-virus download scanner said it was safe so I went ahead to see if it would work.

After executing the software, I entered the intro clip URL from YouTube and hit download. The movie file was created in about 10 seconds. I opened it up in Windows Movie Maker and was able to watch and edit the intro clip exactly as I wanted to. Perfect!

I was fairly satisfied with the end result. It probably would have come out a lot better if I was using a better video editing software - Windows Movie Maker is quite limited in it's editing capabilities, particularly when it comes to graphics and titles. I had to make do with the standard tools to produce my little movie, but it still came out more or less as I had imagined it.

Anyway, the website (and software) I found for downloading videos is called "save vid" - I would recommend this to anyone who wants to do the same as I did. The software itself is free and as mentioned above it passed a virus scan so hopefully it's fairly legit. Works well for grabbing those videos!

Not sure if this link will work (I posted the vid to my Facebook profile), but here's the video.

If it doesn't work I'll upload my video to YouTube and put the URL to that on here. That would actually be quite ironic...

 

Random sunset photos

Summertime means more sunlight during the day, and it doesn't normally get dark until later in the evening.

Now that we're getting closer to winter, the days are getting shorter, which means the sun is setting earlier.

I was taking a quick break at work between meetings at work yesterday and noticed that the sun had already started to set:

So I took a picture of it. Nice clear sky, some (possibly) stratus clouds showing yellow and pink hues from the disappearing sun. Not bad at all.

I've taken a few sunset photos over the last couple of years but never really gave them a second thought until now.

Here are some examples:

Can't remember exactly where I took the photo above, but that's definitely Lac Leman in Switzerland, looking towards Geneva. Think it might be a view from the Lavaux region.

The sunset above was taken during a quick toilet break during a long taxi ride on a business trip in Morocco (going from Fes to Marrakech). I have no idea where precisely this was, but it was somewhere between those two cities. The taxi ride lasted about 9 hours, so Morocco is quite a big country.

This photo was taken in Vidy near Lausanne, Switzerland, looking out over Lac Leman. That's the Jura mountains in the background.

I'll have a look for more sunset photos as I've suddenly decided that I quite like them.

Still suffering

Day two of my current battle with Empty Mind Syndrome.

I'm not sure if this is caused by my work, where I have been stuck in meetings for the last two days, but that probably isn't helping.

I speculated yesterday that writing an article on my blog might help me out. It seemed to work but not how I expected - I had a very active mind last night when I didn't need it. Giving a bath and a bottle to a seven month old baby, followed by watching a football match, doesn't really require a great deal of thought. Then this morning I'm back at work and my mind empties again.

I even struggled to read some basic English this morning. Almost as if my brain is unable to link words together into something meaningful, which is not the most useful state of mind when one is attempting to work productively.

I've reverted to using coffee as a stimulant this morning. It isn't working.

There must be a miracle cure out there somewhere for EMS?

Empty mind syndrome

Ever had one of those days where your brain doesn't seem to be in gear?

Imagine you're at work, staring hard at your computer, trying to put together a plan for something. You concentrate on the task at hand, knowing that everything you need to complete your goal is available to you (how to do it, what the required outcomeis, where you can find the information you need, etc.).

Suddenly, your mind goes blank. The things that usually come as second nature are no longer there, as though they have vanished in an instant.

It's not that you don't want to do the piece of work in question. It's not a question of motivation or a lack of capability to do it. It's simply that your brain refuses to function as it does normally.

I'm having one of those days today. Unfortunately I have a deadline to meet, which throws an extra helping of stress on top of the sticky pudding that is my brain. Not helping.

I don't have any miracle cures for when this kind of "empty mind syndrome" occurs, sadly. I will have to try to get through it as best as I can. Usually drinking copious amounts of coffee helps a bit, but even that is failing me today.

Oh woe is me, I hath been foresaken, etc... Guess it'll be a late one at work today. Ho hum.

The daily grind is much more sufferable when my brain works.

I wrote this article in the hope that emptying this onto the web might free up some brain function and get a few synapses firing.

It's a vain hope, I know, but right now it's all I have.

Hey, if it works then maybe I can become some kind of self-help guru and give seminars about the mental benefits of blogging. Watch this space!

Freeze! Police!

Who out there watches all those detective and police shows on TV? There are thousands of them, and I'm probably not exaggerating when I say that.

Here in Switzerland it seems that every channel has at least one cop show per day, from the various CSI programs to Law & Order to Cold Case. I'm pretty sure that you could slump in front of the TV and watch nothing but police dramas constantly for a full 24 hours.

It's not that I'm necessarily against police dramas; some of them can be quite entertaining. I saw an episode of Criminal Minds last night that actually kept me interested until the credits rolled. Unfortunately, the majority of detective dramas tend to be fairly forgettable, especially the one with the over-dramatic ginger man who pauses for an eterntiy before saying something in a forced, gravelly voice, usually after slowly removing his sunglasses and doing a pose that an aftershave model would be proud of.

What is missing for me in this world of monotonous sleuthing is comedy. I know that the producers of these programs want to make sure the harsh reality of policing comes across in their gritty dramas, but the actors should be able to crack a joke every now and then, even if it's just a quick bit of toilet humour.

What we need is more shows like The Thin Blue Line. Ah, now that was a classic show. It only ran for two series back in the 1990s, with a total of 14 episodes, but it was a welcome injection of laughter in the fight against crime. Of course, the main reason why it was so funny was because it featured the irreplacable Rowan Atkinson, a true comedy genius. Every episode had at least one laugh-out-loud moment, and I think this could be ported over to a show like Criminal Minds:

Hotch is hot on the trail of a brutal serial killer. He is standing in front of a white board with various files and photos pinned up, interconnected with lines and scribbles showing the links between victims. Concentrating hard on tracking down the madman, he turns to Rossi for advice. Rossi sympathises with Hotch and attempts to help him find the killer, drawing on his wealth of experience in the Behavioural Analysis Unit. He tells Hotch in his hushed, gravelly voice that the situation reminds him of a case he had a few years back when a man complained that his neighbour had purposely trimmed his garden hedge to look like a bottom.

I would certainly watch that show.

Musical Mind

Does anyone else ever find themselves humming (or singing) a tune that they have not heard played or even mentioned recently?

Why is this?

Is it our brain subconsciously associating a particular piece of music or song to a thought we have had during the day at some point? For example, I found myself humming Shoot the Runner by Kasabian (an excellent, very catchy song, if you haven't heard it) on the way to walk this morning, despite the fact that I haven't heard that song in ages.

Nobody mentioned it to me and I hadn't seen it written anywhere either. Nobody even said the word "shoot" to me, as that might have been a trigger for it.

The only answer I can think of is that I saw someone jogging past me this morning while I was walking to the bus stop. They could technically have been classified as a runner, and although I had no intention or desire to shoot them perhaps my brain came up with this link all by itself?

The mind is a wonderful thing, but sometimes I really wonder how it works.

Letter to Joe Public

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to find your way to my blog. If you are reading this then you have either clicked on a link that I have probably posted myself on Facebook, Twitter or a message board somewhere in the great big wilderness that is the Internet.

Random photo of me holding a fish

Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Paul Reed-Peck, I'm in my late twenties and I live in Switzerland. Nothing remarkable to add really, apart from the fact that I am married with one daughter and no pets, and I moved to Switzerland to be with my new wife leaving all my family and friends behind in England and attempting to start a new life. Oh yes, I also met my wife whilst backpacking around Australia and proposed to her in Thailand before finally getting married in Switzerland. So, like I said, nothing remarkable.

I am the author of three blogs, including this one. "Why do you need three blogs?", I hear you ask. Well, the truth is I don't need three blogs. No one does. It would be far more sensible - and easier - to have one single blog to concentrate on as an outlet to the world. That would be far too easy though, so I decided to complicate things a bit and give myself more of a challenge.

This blog is designed to be a place for me to share my thoughts and feelings with the world, as well as giving my two cents on any topical news items that either inspire, bore or irk me. Like Kim Kardashian, for example - why is she famous? Why do I see her picture in every single trashy celeb gossip magazine? (note that these magazines belong to my wife, I just leaf through them to pass the time whilst on the toilet)

Anyway, I digress. From this day forth a new blog is born. A simple, honest means for me to share my pointless musings with anyone who is unfortunate enough to stumble upon it, such as you, dear reader.

Thank you once again for your attention. You may now return to your daily life.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Reed-Peck
AKA Ernie McPeck