Took some photos at an Aikido training and grading session this evening in a church. Light levels pretty low but flash was just too harsh so I took most without on ISO 1600. Lots of motion blur, as you'd expect, but some decent shots at least.

Sky News demonstrates it cutting edge research abilities this evening, announcing the death of TV presenter and British 'institution' Jeremy Beadle by showing The Sun's web page. Nice to know they really pull out all the stops when it comes to finding the facts behind a story...

OU Firsts won through to the semi finals of the Berks and Bucks Intermediate Cup with a 1-0 win against 9-man Belmont today.

Built a new computer this week. Couldn't find a machine with a close enough spec so I bought a bunch of parts from overclockers.co.uk who I have used in the past (and recommend).

I went for:

• Antec NSK 6580 Super Midi Tower case with 430W Earth Watts power supply
  
• Abit IP35 motherboard
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.40GHz processor
  
• 2GB of Corsair XMS2-6400C4 DDR2 RAM
  
  ...and most importantly, since this was to be a machine specifically for gaming:
  
• Leadtek GeForce 8800 GT 256MB GDDR3
  

Together with a 250Gb SATA HD and SATA DVD writer, the total was just under £640 - saving I reckon only about £40 over a pre-built machine.

It took about an hour to put the hardware together, an hour to format the HD, an hour to install Windows XP Home, then another hour to do about 96 Windows updates.

"Japan PM forces navy bill through
The Japanese government has invoked a rarely-used power to force through a controversial naval bill. The ruling party used its lower house majority to override opposition lawmakers, who had voted down the bill in the upper house hours earlier. It was the first such move in more than 50 years, and followed months of deadlock over the proposed legislation.

The bill will allow Japanese ships to resume a refuelling mission supporting US-led operations in Afghanistan. The deployment, which Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda says is vital to Japan's standing in the international community, could now be resumed as early as next month. But the opposition argues it violates the post-war pacifist constitution and lacks a mandate from the United Nations."

Sad, isn't it, that Japan feels it has to suck up to the Bush administration, and show tacit support for its illegal war in Iraq, in order to improve its "standing in the international community". I would suggest that not supporting them would do exactly that.

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Japan PM forces navy bill through

Krispy Kreme boss to step down

"Krispy Kreme boss to step down
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts boss Daryl Brewster has resigned for personal reasons after less than two years on the job. His decision to step down comes as efforts to turn around the struggling snack food chain have stalled".

Perhaps the fact their doughnuts are ten times more expensive than supermarket brand doughnuts sold in the same stores is the reason no one is buying them?

BBC NEWS | Business | Krispy Kreme boss to step down

Darling 'seeks energy cost talks'
Chancellor Alistair Darling has asked to meet with energy regulator Ofgem to discuss last week's gas and electricity price rises by Npower, a report says. In a letter to Ofgem, obtained by the Times, Mr Darling is said to want to review the reasons behind the price hikes and their implications. Npower, which has increased average gas prices by 17.2% and electricity by 12.7%, expects rivals to follow suit.

Perhaps he's concerned because such big rises draw attention to what a load of tosh the Government's official inflation figure is?

BBC NEWS | Business | Darling 'seeks energy cost talks'

OU Reserves team gave Fenny Lock a 7-1 pasting in an away game at Rickly Park in Bletchley today.