Radderz’ Randomness

Hey everyone, I’ve just included the leaflet campaign I am running and spamming to everyone on route. Inspired by a Simpsons episode with the wanted posters for Lisa Simpson..

≈FREE BEER/WINE≈

Okay, now that I have your attention… I’m known as Radderz; I hope you don’t mind me spamming you with this leaflet, if nothing else it can be a causal read for a moment or two.

I’m involved in a cause which means a great deal to me; both friends and family of mine have been affected one way or another by domestic violence. I’m trying to help repay the invaluable support received through Woman’s Aid by running the Hastings Half Marathon, ensuring money remains available for others who require that same delicate support in escaping the dangerous situations they face, in many cases keeping their kids out of harms way too.

Before you grumble at another person asking for yet more money out of your wallet (actually, no, grumble away, I don’t really like them either!), I’m not insisting that you help me out, I’m quite happy if you just chuck this away like most people, however a small donation of a pound or two would be enormously appreciated. You seriously would have no idea how grateful the received support is unless you’ve been in situations of similar consequence, and hopefully by poking random peeps for tiny amounts while keeping up my training, I can raise the targets required to help out people where it’s needed. (More info can be found on my blog below, I’ll keep this up to date with my progress. Again, if it’s used for nothing else, it is a light read. Feel free to post comments though!

I started training this side of Christmas having never been a runner before; exercise wasn’t my thing in any form except good intentions and pointless gym bills. However I’m doing quite well for the minute, running in excess of 10 miles every couple of days without experiencing that tired/shattered/nauseous/leg falling off feeling the next day; I thought that was a big milestone personally!

Whenever I can, I can be found doing a lap around Bewl Water, for the moment it’s left to weekends, but am going to try for the dreaded mornings before work in the weeks leading up. It’s currently 13 miles of muddiness this time of year, and quite often involves rain at some point. Why on earth don’t they host marathons in the summer/autumn?!?

Anyway, I’ve run out of room now, but thanks for listening!
If you can donate: (I’m after small gifts but lots of them, so plz don’t feel stingy giving small)
Either visit my ‘Just Giving’ page
Or via my blog if you want more info, progress updates or just to chat

≈P.S. This leaflet is independent of Women’s Aid≈
≈And there is no free beer or wine≈

Hasting Half Marathon for Womens Aid Running

With the Hastings half marathon only 4 weeks away now (Sunday 21st March 2010), it’s time to seriously start thinking about getting some serious amounts of donations in.

I’m at a stage where I know I can do it as I have been running 10-14 miles every few days, and the risk of me breaking a leg from skiing and boarding has now vanished for another year (I got food poisoning instead, coupled with a rather lack of snow, how annoying! I did get to pick up a new board, even though I did only get 2 hours of play time with it), so it’s safe and fresh enough in everyone’s minds to start collecting. It gives me something to do on my runs as well - not that I need anything else to do, running and putting my mind in free fall mode is more than enough entertainment.

Seeing as I’m going public, I wouldn’t mind aiming for my original target of £1,000 which is roughly the amount it costs to relocate a woman with their kids out of a dangerous situation. I think it’s completely doable, I have had friends and family giving or promising generous donations which has greatly helped, but also if I can get a wide audience to donate the minimum amount that ‘Just Giving’ allows (that’s £2, equivalent to £2.56 with the government gift aid box ticked), I should be able to get close to this target.. Hopefully.. If not, the money will still be of good use to the charity.

So here goes.. If you have got to this page from an evil leaflet spam, sorry! But I’m grateful it worked and that your interested in what I’m doing. It’s for the greater good, or something anyway

Hasting Half Marathon for Womens Aid Personal, Running

This year I am finally getting around to running my first (half) marathon in Hastings. I have chosen to use it as an excuse to raise money for Women’s Aid, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, a dear friend of mine and her children have been affected by domestic violence and have had a tough time the past few months trying to rebuild their lives. The second reason is that my sister adopted some children just over a year ago now, their birth mother had also been through a rough life, but wasn’t as fortunate.

I don’t publicly raise money for charities, but this is an exception as it is close to my heart, and hence anything you can give will be appreciated far more than usual. The monies will help repay the invaluable support my friend has received in protecting & relocating her and the kids, and make sure that it remains available for other people in need.

Donations can be sent via my ‘Just Giving’ page.

Also please keep up to date with my progress - Remember to look/make comments too!

Hasting Half Marathon for Womens Aid Personal, Running

Mars could be seen as the brightest star in the sky, starting quite faint at the beginning of August, and becoming its brightest mid to late August.

I managed to get these shots of it with my camera. Although it’s far too far to focus, you can make out the red hue of the planet. I was stunned, I didn’t think I would get more then a small dot, but to get a red blur seemed pretty amazing.

Personal Camera

Back in September, I tried to take a few detailed shots of the Moon. I was impressed at what my new camera could do, you can make out quite clearly craters on the edge of the moon that can’t really been seen with the naked eye.

However, a few weeks later I tried to get some different shots, but during photographing, I noticed a weird black speck on the view finder. Slightly concerned that I had something on my lense or a dead pixel, I began moving my camera around, however the black speck remained relative to the Moon whichever direction or rotation my camera was in.

Furthermore, this black speck seemed to move over the space of 5-10 minutes, eventually moving outside of the Moons glow which was how I could see it.

Having ruled out the possibility of ‘dirt on lens’, the next viable option was that it was an object, and the blackness was the effect of it being somewhere between me and the Moon, blocking the light being reflected back. However, this speck seemed quite big in comparison to the moon, so either it had to be close, or it was a huge object. I would have thought that it would have been a satellite drifting past, however even if the object was in low orbit I would guess the object would be of far greater size to be one. Space station perhaps? Or maybe a passing meteor? However, it would have been too big to miss at least some media attention to alert people when where to look out for it - maybe.. Nothing on any news sites I spotted.

Anyway, I think this will remain a mystery, unless anyone else has some ideas

Personal Camera