mike hawkins - thinking out loud

Occasionally you stumble on a website which has high quality information, which deserves further investigation, and regular visits to see what has been added.  The Western Front Association site is a perfect, understated, example.  

In my opinion World War I is not as well covered by TV, Publishers or indeed web historians.  The WFA attempt to fill the void in many respects.  Dig around and you will find a lot of well written articles, and facts that you would have difficulty finding elsewhere.  For research or even just passing interest the site is worth a visit.

Western Front Association

Okay, so yet again I have re-thought the mike hawkins – images site which attempts to be a photo-blog that captures life as seen by a middle-aged englishman (who is a bit of a geek) living in the Charente region of south-west France.

Just to underline the nerdiness, and for those who are interested, a quick word on how this site has been put together.

I have become increasingly frustrated with the various options for creating image display ’systems’.  Coppermine and Gallery, to name the main two players, both have strengths and weaknesses.  Eminently configurable with masses of features they have, unfortunately, become overly complex in some aspects and too restrictive in others.  JAlbum a different, non-database approach to creating on line image pages, does a good job – but tends to turn out sites which all look the same.

I cannot, and would not, ever claim to be a photographer.  Capturing images is simply a hobby, in danger of becoming a passion but the results that I produce are never more than photographic records – not professional, not art, not meaningful.

I stress this, because there is a lot of stuff on the internet, that seriously purports to be one (or more) of the three – but in reality  represents nothing more than mine.  As with text and some blog sites – where everyone has become a writer and publisher – image sites are, increasingly, now by “photographers” and are “galleries” and we all know that, like here, they’re created by sad geeks with a hobby.

The photographs here are varied in subject and style.  They range from family snaps to landscapes and from macro nature to car rallies.  They are simply pictures of where I am at the time or on occasions, simply, experiments.

Having come to photography later in life I am an absolute novice in many respects, and this site will help me chronologically track any hint of improvement in my technique and style.

Perish the thought that there is no improvement  – I would like to put some worthwhile content here at some point.

This last problem is the case then with all the lesser players in the arena.  Eventually I came up with this approach – which bizarrely is based on Wordpress and the excellent NextGen gallery plug-in by Alex Rabe.  I was struggling to find a solution that enabled me to organise images in a way that I found logical, usable and, importantly to me, blend in with the overall “look and feel” of the rest of my site.

I hope that you enjoy the site – have a look around.

Most of us have an infrequent need to edit .htaccess, and as a consequence it is easy to forget the syntax and capabilities of this very powerful and essential file.

When is a crime, not a crime?

Apparently, when Leicester police decide it is not someone 'over-reacting' - not to my mind a fantastic way to interpret the law. 

This story covered on the BBC News website is almost too tragic to bear.  Take a family who have enough problems to begin with, add a group of teenagers, who have so little in their lives that fun involves finding someone less fortunate than themselves and tormenting them, relentlessly.  Then find an agency who, are responsible for the safety of the community but, in reality, couldn't give a damn - if it might involve getting out of their cars or doing a bit of paperwork.

This really is dreadful - the end result of continuous (and reported) harassment, torment, abuse and intimidation has lead to two tragic and needless deaths.

Well done Leicester Police and this family's tormentors - I hope hope you feel suitably proud of your actions, or inaction - whichever camp you are in.

Murder mother's abuse 'ignored'

It is, seemingly, on an almost weekly basis that I find myself reading about another inhumane, or overly draconian, law being introduced in some part of the world or another - the so called "modern world".  It is almost as though the news agencies are reporting 2000 years behind the times.

Today the BBC report on Aceh - an Indonesian province where, within 30 days, adultery will be punishable by 'stoning to death'.  I remember laughing when I saw Monty Python's "Life of Brian" scene, where false beard wearing women blag their way past the Roman soldiers to have a chance to hurl their rocks.  It was comic - because everyone knew it was a cruelty from an age long since past.

Adultery is not a good thing - I don't condone it - immoral some would say.  But anymore immoral than state condoned murder - I don't thinks so.  To suggest that this is barbarism is understating the matter.

BBC News report - Aceh passes adultery stoning law