There’s a small part of me that thinks the only really good form of journalism(/photography) comes from wars. But then I remember all the other things I like (see Boogie for example). So I think I actually mean that the only good thing to come from wars is journalism(/photography)(?) Who knows. What I do know is that Reuters consistently provide some great work surrounding awful subjects; like the Iraq War.

So, after half a decade of fighting in this current version of the war, Reuters have put together this site illustrating the work of their photographers, correspondents and staff during the conflict. Regardless of what you think about the war, the efforts these people go through to bring this type of stuff to a worldwide audience surely has to be acknowledged.. and I think the site does a great job of that. Some really brilliant photos in terrifying situations. I’d love to have a job doing that type of thing but I know I’d be really bad at it. I still find it weird trying to take photos of people in normal everyday locations, let alone in a war zone. Leave it to the professionals I reckon..

Bearing Witness: 5 Years Of The Iraq War

I passed. Kinda.

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

‘sunset over the river nile‘ by Matt Northam (me )

A couple of months ago, I went to Egypt and had fun. It was nice. I also took a couple of thousand pictures, most of which aren’t anything special. They’re holiday photos - you know what they’re like. However, I did take a few that I thought came out rather well, and you can see them in a ‘egypt’ set on flickr. I also submitted one of them to the Guardian Unlimted (The Guardian Online) travel section (Been There) and now, many moons later, I’ve been awarded the ‘February 2008 Photo Of The Month‘. Awesome!

I’m still fairly surprised and genuinely stoked to have won because it puts me in fairly illustrious company. It’s an honour and all that.. I’ve been smiling all week.

My winning photo is recreated above in all it’s glory but you can also see a larger version on flickr, or the individual photo page on ‘been there’, or the rest of the months entries.. Whatever takes your fancy.

Ranjit Dhaliwal, the Guardian’s assistant picture editor, says:

“This is a wonderfully evocative travel image, it oozes atmosphere. The use of an architectural feature to frame the subject shows that the photographer has a good eye for composition.”

I says:

Oooooh yeah!

Apparently I win a canvas print of the photo so we’ll see how that goes..

Schwepps: Burst

This Schweppes advert is niiice. Makes me wish I had a highspeed camera. And some water balloons. So I could rip it off and watch the results repeatedly with a gormless look on my face. It would be the most beautiful thing anybody would’ve ever filmed. Even beautifuller than this.

I rarely have time to play games online these days but when I do, it’s uberfun and always make me wish I was a student again, without a job and with broadband. And then after getting slaughtered several times in a row, I’m glad that I actually have other things to do, because it’s really not healthy to spend so much time shooting at people online is it(?)

Anyway. So I don’t spend too much time playing games nowadays, but I do have an Xbox 360. And Halo 3. In the first few months, I’d only played about 20 matches online and I felt bad about that because really, what’s the point of having Halo if you’re not playing online? So I thought I’d give Xbox Live a whirl for a bit and see if it’s worth it longterm. I played a bit last night and quickly realised that I’m not actually very good. Thanks to the amazing (and really, it IS amazing and probably deserves a whole ‘nother post) level of information that Bungie record about your games, you too can see how bad I currently am at Halo. I believe that some people might say that I get ‘pwned!!!!!’ frequently. I wouldn’t say that. That’s not how I roll. Ph33r |\/|y 1337 sk1llz! n00b.

I also played a bit on FIFA 08, which I appear to be better at (see here) but still, the long periods of having not played any games at all have taken their toll. I swear I used to be good at this type of thing. Blah.

So yeah. Feel free to step to me on Xbox Live see if you can hang with the big dogs. Word the fuck up.

(Or just add me as friend and let me win a few times..)

Tagging is not an art form or about expressing oneself. It is vandalism and the destruction of private and public property. Tagging is any unauthorized marking, etching, scratching, drawing, painting or defacing of any surface of public, private, real or personal property.

Brilliant. You couldn’t make this up. I actually agree with some of the criticisms of tagging but really, is this the best way of clamping down on it(?) I know my parents wouldn’t've been reading any Plymouth City Council things about graffiti when I was a wee lad for example and I doubt that too many people are bothered about this.

Still; good work.

http://www.ci.santa-ana.ca.us/pd/Graffiti.asp

via Wooster

Video for the remix/re-release of ‘Something Good (08)’ by Utah Saints. I like it. Though why they dropped the intro from the original, I don’t know.

It was the freshest move I’ve ever seen; it’s like he was floating on air..

http://www.glossyinc.com/sleeper/utahsaints.html