Its got to be:

A chimpanzee with a flick knife

A Polar Bear

Id give it a damn good go! take out the mushrooms and black pudding and Id be in there…

1. The Dutch Rudder
2. Ridden Spuds off road
3. Revise for an exam

I know you can be a very healthy vegetarian, but at the same time I dont think she is. Ill admit, my eating habits are far from perfect but I wanted to get more opinions to maybe coax her into changing a little, mixing it up and putting in some alternatives.

My point is, that surely if I cut out the sugary foods and carry on with a reasonabley healthy diet, its going to be better overall than her restricted eating? I am actually worried about her but in debate, she shrugs it off so I wanted to get other opinions.

Nikon compacts are worse than Fuji’s!!! I work in Jessops and 90% of the time a Canon compact will kick the ass off any of the compacts. The only ones that seem to come similar are top end Sony’s, like the W270/290. Alternatively, Panasonics are not bad but their ultra wide angle lenses can cause lots of distortion and they arnt sharp in the corners. Very easy to use, great looking, slightly noisier than Canons in low light but nothing amazingly bad.Image stabilization is very good on Panasonics.

The Ixus 90 is an old camera now. Go for something like the Ixus 85 I.S. (or if you can get hold of it, the Ixus 82, EXACTLY the same but in Jessops blue and exclusive to Jessops, and £20 cheaper)

Alternatively, the new Ixus 100 is a lovely little camera, but expensive. 720 unlimited HD video recording that is actually pretty good and looks amazing.

As Geforce Junky says, the lenses are the weak parts, so just make sure it dosent get covered in sand/chocolate/whatever and its not knocked, and itll carry on. I see alot of it happening to the earlier Ixuses but not the latter ones.

Whats wrong with getting leathered and tieing the groom to a lamppost on a dual carriageway with just his boxers and shoes on?

I like the look of them. They remind me of mini bmx bars and also of the old Xlite DHR-80 bars back when 3 inch risers and over the top designs were in fashion.

I personally wouldnt pay £200 for them, but I am a student/soon to be graduate so my Sunlines are better suited at less than a quarter of the price….

Remember, its now the law to not discriminate against people with Dyslexia! Alternatively, they could just have been hungover and had their mind on a whole heap of other things?

Peter, yeh I would agree with you on most of that. I havent been in that many times but havent got that much amazing stuff to compare it too. They paid £10.5k and would never spend over double that on a car! Personally, Id go for a second hand A4 2.7 TDi estate…

Peterpoddy, My parents have just bought a second hand Eos with 60k on the clock, and it dosent clang or creak whatsoever. It holds the road very well for a convertible! Its rated as one of the better handling convertibles because its built on a chassis and floorplan that designed for that car only rather than bodge-ified from a saloon/small family car.

TDi lump is heavy,but has plenty of torque and power. It seems to hold its own against most things on the road. Roof can be expensive when electrics go, but being German they are all pretty reliable. Trim is not bad, better than my dads work Astra. There will always be small little bits on a car with so many moving parts, but my parents has seemed to be pretty good so far.

They will always be a little ghey, purely down to the fact its a convertible. But its the better one of the lot!

And you can fit a Bike rack on it easily!

50 all the way, especially for bright sunshine.

Black and white, I always liked Delta 100.

Thats gotta smart a bit. Exactly why they have a rollcage though!

the Fuji’s not bad, ment to have an increased dynamic range and better coping with low light. In truth, when tested out instore I wasent convinced. Saying that, Im a Canon man and I hate the new SX200 they’ve just released. Panasonic TZ6 beat it in sharpness, even if the colour was poor…..

Anyway, bottom line is I havent tested it properly. It looks a good camera, spec is good, price is good. I would imagine it would cope well as a snappy compact, probably outperforming that Ixus 90.

Another camera to consider is Sony’s W270 and W290. Both are very nice to use, built well, work well and look great.

The original Saw, The Shining and 28 Days Later are all good films.

Everything seems so cliched now, theres very little decent new material. Maybe not so much in terms of characters and situations but general storyline.

Although I would class it as a thriller rather than a horror, Eden Lake is another film on the cards that I fancy seeing.

As Mrs Flash says, making lists is a good step. Doing things right and thinking personally when things go right is the first step. However, if things go wrong, dont scauld yourself by saying it always happens to me. If you get annoyed, go out for a jog. When I was depressed last year, I didnt see one doctor (Maybe not the best way of doing it) but I battled it out by a network of good friends, burying myself in my work and jogging every evening, listening to screamy heavy thrash metal! Thinking about all the problems whilst jogging and pushing myself would lead me to get home and cry, but in a way that was great as it was two outputs.

I found that lists, no matter how small, helped.
I found doing something new, no matter whether it be going into a new shop, or saying hi to someone in the street helped. Mix it up.
thidly, jogging and crying. Maybe not all in that order.
Fourthly, catching up with old friends helps give a new perspective on things.

I have never had CBT, but it certainly has helped alot of people on here.

Most of all, you need to figure out whats put you in this. Whether its repression of something, losing your job or stuck in a rut, its important to figure out, and to keep thinking about it. It may make you iniatially lower to think about it, but it will also help you figure out how to get around it.

And to add to that Simon, aparently true EXIF data dosent really exist for RAW files either!

Dosent Exif and Metadata also contain the exact time/camera and other settings? I also thought it recorded the serial number of the camera as a way of proof, though I might be talking out of my bum!

(I wasent, though its not as easy as I thought!)

good old Wikipedia! – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXIF Check out the problems section at the bottom and you will see that the serial number is stored in the MakerNote details, though this is almost impossible to view according to Wikipedia.

Desf, whos your neighbour? Sequel sounds good…

Oh I loved Rear Window by Hitchcock, what a classic!

Ill check out those Jap horrors. Ive seen the obvious ones but havent heard of some of the above.

I liked The Abandoned too. Based in Russia, it had a decent amount of n your face fright and psychological presence. A bit like The Dark but much better.

Has anyone seen a film called Seed? I was recommended it by a friend as a balls-out gore fest but I havent got around to watching it yet.

Ive seen Rec (the Spanish version of Quarantine), Ive seen the Ring (Jap and American) and the Grudge (Jap and American) and thought the American Grudge was still scarier than the Jap version as the storyline worked fluidly, whereas I found the Jap version jump from person to person as small stories.

I love The Devils Rejects but its definately not a classic horror. The Descent is probably one of my favourite, as its a true low budget UK horror flick. Just enough darkness, simple story line and lots of jumpy bits.

Creep is great until you see the twisted bloke who is doing it all, and then it goes to pot.

Let the right one in is definately on the watch list for me, as its had great reviews from mates.

In terms of a dark dark movie, I love Pathology too, and can wholly recommend it as a get under your skin/it could happen to you scenario based film.

For me, I reckon a good horror wouldnt show the evil thing in full until the very very last person dies (or dosent) I dont think Horror’s nowadays are subtle enough to be scary, too much in your face stuff that dosent get you into the film as much as a clever storyline.

£300-£400 I’d say, as an estimated guess.

Cheers ladies and gents, Ill try those methods.

I think the turning off method would work with easy pasta, but fettucine and the like probably not.

In my student house its quicker to blow hot air on jacket potatos to cook them than stick them in the so called microwave. Although Ill try that tip with pasta.

What I always have trouble with is rice. I always find no matter what I do, change water volume, chuck in a bit of salt, oil, etc I still get stodgy rice. Ive countered it by draining it two to three times to get rid of the starch, rinsing the rice through with hot water and chucking back on heat but its a faff. I dont buy cheap rice either and I dont boil the hell out of it, just a small simmer. Any suggestions Mrsflash?

learning composition is a valuable trait. Fair enough, it is how it all interacts in the frame but 90% of the time you want a photo that attracts your attention.

What I will say is composition is like humans; the basic idea of compositonal rules hasent moved on in years. the rule of thirds/golden ratio/golden spiral was being taught in education in the 50’s and 60’s but is derived from a theorum devised before christ was born…

that Canon F1.8 is not a particularly well built lens, but the quality to price ratio is very good, so I would say go for that and have a play at that kind of money.

On a serious note, it would be something like a Karpiel with twin shocks and he would beat most XC jeyboys uphill on it!

My 50mm F1.4 was £150 2nd hand, which considering is only £50 more than the F1.8 new meant I jumped on it quicker than M.J. on a lil kiddy. Build quality is so much better! its faster, quieter, and has 8 aperture blades instead of 5 on the F1.8.

Prime lenses are the way forward. Best to look through the photos you’ve taken and check the focal length in the Metadata. I would think a 35mm would be perfect.

Traditionally at that price range a fixed focal length lens (Prime lens) will give you a sharper image, less distortion, better colours, less fringing and more contrast. My Canon £300 50mm F1.4 still outperforms my £1000 24-70 F2.8 on sharpness!

As IGM was saying, in terms of natural perspective a 35mm would be be the nearest you would get. However, if you have an 18-70mm already it might not be worth going for a prime lens if you are wanting to try other focal lengths.

Sigma 10-20mm opens a new form of creative seeing on any Digi-SLR’s and most can be got for a shy under £400.

Alternatively, you could replace your standard kit lens with something like the 16-80mm Sony.

If you want to buy a fixed focal length lens, the 20mm, 28mm and 50mm F1.4 are all very well priced around your budget.

Mute Math
Hilltop Hoods
Andy Mckee
Colin Hay
Dirty Vegas
Eve 6
Simian
Lazlo Bane
Maylene and the sons of disaster
My Vitriol
Nerina Pallot
Regina Spektor
Team Waterpolo
The Tossers
Mad Dog Mcrea
Tycho
White Buffalo

And probably more but thats all that springs to mind.

for a decent one Jessops do one (Might be that Microtek one above) that used to be £170. It could scan to higher resolutions and produce TIFF files rather than just JPEGS like the cheap ones meaning you are getting as good a quality as you could. It came with basic adjustment software I think.

You mean a large aperture, as in large hole to let light through, so a low F number. Sigma were doing their standard 70-300mm to fit the Sigma for £160 before Xmas in Jessops, look on Ebay and Warehouse Express for good prices though.

Richpips, I love that 70-200mm non IS F4. One of the best telephoto lenses for the price Ive had a go on. How much would you be looking at when you get rid of it?

Billybob, I have a 35mm F2 for sale is you’re a Canon man….

hard choice. I mainly use a 24-70 F2.8 on a 40D but I always have my 12-24mm Sigma, 17-40mm F4 and 50mm F1.4 with me. Ive heard good things about the 18-200mm Canon, which comes fitted to the 50D.

Depending how deep and where it is just get some scalpels and vodka as above. Or keep wiggling/fiddling and it will make its way up to the surface.

Its not just a problem with foreigners, but I cant imagine it being anything do with the pound. If anything, they will be doing better because the Euro is much higher against the pound than last year.

Tell him he has to pay the designated price, collect it himself or get a refund. If its set out its set out for your piece of mind. Like a shop, you have every right to refuse the sale.

You tend to find more expensive/named brands tend to be better at coping with dodgy discs than others. I didnt like Lovefilm. I just wait a few months and get it off Amazon/Play/Ebay for £4/5 each. Once Im done, trade them in against other cds and dvds in my local Cex. You pay a little more, but theres alot less hassle!

Im am average toned 6 foot guy and Ive been started on a few occasions. Ive never been punched, often just keeping my cool. One time when walking through a park with a few mates these chavs started throwing glass bottles trying to be hard. I shouted a few expletives back but carried on walking. Next thing I know is this guy came up behind me and is pushing me. He pushed me three times winding me up and then I snapped when he kicked my bike wheel. I dropped the bike and spun around so fast I just swung and punched him in the side of the head, just catching his temple and ear sending him down. Up comes his mate running at me so I just bent over covering my head and he went straight across me with too much momentum.

They then got up and walked away, while I stood there shaking. In the midst of this my ‘mates’ (4 of them, about 4 chavs) just stood there, their excuse were they were guarding the bikes! Thats as close to a fight as Ive had and it was over in 20 seconds. Id stick up for mates though, to the point of a fight but you never know what these idiots are going to be carrying in the back pocket.

Lammy, my dad always said his gun metal grey sabb 900 turbo with those later aero alloys was his most favourite car.

I thought most forks lowers are Magnesium? Wouldnt powdercoating weaken them due to the heat involved?

If you get a dodgy one it can be a pain in the arse. My dad picked up a ‘project’ car that all it really needed was a new fuel pump. one new fuel pump later, and this, and that, and wiring and it still dosent run. Most of all its rotted away quickly to show cracks in the ‘respray’, basically alot of filler. It was a duff one bought of ebay for a couple of hundred, but check it all carefully as although they are easy to work on they are tedious little cars.