Black and or White

So I got the film back from a few weeks ago.

The same caveats as before apply - these are all low quality scans and I haven't touched them in any way.

Here's what turned up on my doorstep this evening:

This is the b/w version of the picture that featured on this blog a couple of weeks ago.  The colour version is also my current mobile phone background.

I love the look of wood in b/w, but this needs more contrast.  In fact, none of these pictures are contrasty enough.  (Something I would edit on the computer if I had access to high quality scans).

This is the floor.  It is a picture.

This looks like arteries or something.  I don't know.

Needs about 50% more contrast.  It's one of the tea houses overlooking the lake in hamarikyu onshi koen.  The whole place is pretty interesting to visit, even if there's not much colour.

These kinds of things are best taken in black and white.  The detail of the crumbly bits stands out so much more when you're not forced to process the colour as well.  This was taken at the end of the day, so the shadows are long and interesting.

IBM vs Akita

So prior to this weekend, IBM were third from bottom which meant not having to play any playoff games at the end of the season (to determine promotion/relegation for next year).

The team below us were Akita, and the team below them were Secom.  We'd beaten Secom a few weeks ago, but now it was time for us to play Akita.

Much like other leagues around the world, scoring 4 tries gives you an extra point in the league table, as does coming within 7 points of the opposition if you happen to lose.

As such, the table was interesting.  Akita were 1 point behind us despite losing all their games.  We had 5 points, they had 4, Secom had 0.  The next match is the last of the season; Akita are playing Secom next week which is one they are likely to win handily.

Basically, the only way to ensure we did not have to play in the relegation match at the end of the year, was to beat Akita, score 4 tries and ensure we won by 8 or more points.

Just a heads up, I didn't get any attacking opportunities as my mission was basically one of defence.  The worlds only defensive winger.  They had a Samoan or Tongan international 13 whom I was tasked to stop, so I just followed him around the field from set piece to set piece.

The referee was also not a fan of me.  I was not a fan of him.  It was a mutual mistrust.

I missed one tackle all game, and it ended up with them scoring a try after a couple of phases from the attack they set up.  In total, it's a game I'd rather forget from a personal perspective.

So, we scored first.  They scored.  We scored.  They scored.  It ended up with them a few points ahead with about twenty minutes to go.  Our scrum-half scored to put us ahead (our kicker nailed all his kicks) so after his double (he scored earlier too) we needed another try in the last ten minutes without letting them score in order to fulfill all the requirements.  They had a scrum around the halfway, they passed it out into the backs where they promptly knocked on, literally handing the ball over to our winger.  He raced away to score the final try we needed under the posts.

The referee blew his whistle, everyone was happy.  Except the referee had blown the whistle because, and I quote, 'there was no advantage to be played from the knock-on.'

This gem, coupled with an earlier penalty for me being off-side (despite the call coming directly from the referee and not a touch judge) and for me high tackling someone (I was chasing the guy from behind, unless I grabbed his head and or neck, it's physically impossible for me to have tackled him high.  For the record, I grabbed his arms.) made me think there might be something slightly dodgy going on.  I forgot to mention earlier that this was an away game.  Very, very away.  We'd flown up the night before and stayed overnight.  (Free food, yay!)  I can only assume the referee was a local.

To be fair, he apologised after the game.

Anyway, with about two minutes left our full-back evaded a tackle and danced over the line to score.

We were 6 points ahead at that point, so our kicker needed to get the extras for us to be clear this year.  It wasn't an easy kick, but he managed it.

So that's that.  There were a few tears, much stress was relieved (last year they had to play in the relegation game, which they won so managed to stay in the league, but it's not an ideal position to be in.)

The upshot is that we are playing Yakult in a couple of weeks, for the chance to end mid-table.  A great result for IBM if it's possible.

I just need to play better and cut my hair or something.

It's an Interesting Thing

Last week I put up some pictures I'd taken of a park.

I thought they were absolutely fantastic, but interestingly enough I didn't get many page views on the particular post, which leads me to believe that they weren't anything special.  It's an interesting thing, taste.

As an aside, I've been given a load of photos from the game against Hino, so here they are!

A few are from training.

It's starting to get really cold so I'm wearing an awful lot of clothes.  It's starting to feel more and more like England.

I've started a few games now so I've got some game fitness, but there's nothing like running some laps to get breathing.

This is the warmup before the Hino game.

As we walked onto the pitch.

The ground was in a park from the 1960 something olympics held in Japan.

You can't see it but the in-goal areas are about 2 metres long, given an extra 2 metres by laying some carpet.  Literally carpet.

The solo effort from a kick our wing and fullback fielded.

You can't really see the carpet from this angle but I made sure to dot down before getting anywhere near it (I was actually tackled and just fell over the line).

The first time I've scored and had such congratulations from the team.  Feels good!

Smiles all round!

This is probably me walking right after the try, attempting to catch my breath.

The Australian guy was playing centre, but switched positions after the try to cover my position.

This is me scoring the second try, pulling a sexy face.

Unfortunately the second try was judged to have a knock on during the build up.

After the game.  Annoyed at the score and extremely tired.  I attempted 12 tackles, the most attempted on our team was 13.  Needless to say it's strange to see a winger trying so many tackles in a game.

This face sums up the game pretty well, I think.

Rikugien

It's Autumn time.  That means the leaves are changing colour and there's a chance you might snap a few reds among the greens.

Before I move onto the pictures; IBM played against Hino this weekend.  We lost, but I scored our only try and made any number of tackles.  I missed one, and in the process broke the vice captains nose.  Not exactly ideal, but we look past the mistake and try to improve.

The try was an absolute beast of a solo effort by the way.  Amazing.  I'm not allowed to upload it for the whole world to see, but it's great.  Honestly!

Anyway, onto the pictures.

As you can see, I took a lot of pictures of the same place.  Apart from the lack of colour elsewhere (it's still a little early for the true Autumn show) this place had a nice combination of light falling through the trees and shades of orange and red.

This one is slightly more contrasty making the reds a little redder.  As a result I think I prefer this one.

This one also looks quite good in black and white, but everyone's had enough of that.  I might go back and deepen the reds a little.

This is the view from the bridge above.

Aha surprise!  Black and white!  I over compensated for the lens I was using, hence why this pillar bends in really awkward ways from the middle third upwards.  It's easy enough to correct if I ever want to come back to this picture; for now it's fine.

This is the view looking back towards the entrance of the place.  It's supposed to look like this all the way around the park at this time of year, but this is the only really pretty stretch at the moment.  I'm sure it'll look good in a couple of weeks, maybe less.  I'm not sure how long it takes for the whole place to change before the leaves start dropping.  If it's like England, you'll only have a relatively short period of time before everything looks drab.

Bloody Interesting Stuff

I'll get round to giving this a write up along with the titles I promised to review earlier this month (last month!).  If I could just stop reading damned books for five minutes I could actually write about them!

It's very interesting to look back at what you've read and try to think about it because if you're like me, it'll end up being a blur that you vaguely remember reading once and never properly digesting.

As such, the idea is to solidify my memory of these books.  An entirely selfish act for your reading pleasure!

The actual interesting point is this:

http://rosetta.esa.int/

The European Space Agency is trying to land a probe on an asteroid.  The thruster that's supposed to push the craft onto the asteroid while its drilling legs and underbelly harpoon activate and secure it to the rock is no longer working, and as such I'm not sure what's going to stop the thing just bouncing back off into space.

The comms delay is roughly 30 minutes (half a light hour,  which makes it what, 3 and a three quater AU from earth?) and the expected landing time is roughly 6.30 GMT.  I'll be in bed when it happens, but you might not be!