Daz Digs (Alderaan)
Wed Oct 07 2026
Sunrise time : 07:11
Sunset time : 18:29
Mothers Day
I took Cara and Seth shopping yesterday for presents for Mothers Day and Barbara's birthday. With two weeks until her birthday I'm taking a risk that the kids (especially Cara) will stay quiet.
For Mothers Day the kids bought Barbara chocolates.
We went out for a meal on Mothers Day and the resteraunt had a couple of staff entertaining children. Cara had her face painted and then made a card for her mum.
Seth hasn't been feeling too well recently, he won't come out during the day, he hasn't looked at himself in a mirror and has developed an allergy to garlic bread and steak.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 25th Mar 2001 07:04:32am.
Little Shop Of Horrors
For Christmas my parents bought Barbara an Amaryllis plant. We've put it in the kitchen window and it gets watered every other day. Barbara claims that she doesn't talk to it but I'm sure she does.
As a new project I have set up the digital camera to take a picture every hour of the plant. So far, over the past two days I have taken 73 pictures. Tonight I downloaded the pictures on to the computer and made up a short movie of the combination of the pictures. Although only short the movie shows the Amaryllis growing an the Basil in the pot beside it. I'm going to keep taking pictures, uploading them every couple of days until the plant flowers.
To see a low quality Real Video version of the animation so far follow this link.
Added in 2022
Since Real Video isn't used any more I've converted the short, low quality video to mp4 format and it can be downloaded here or you can watch it bellow
Your browser does not support the video tag.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Friday 2nd Feb 2001 05:12:55am.
3D Me Now
Pic of the day 23rd Jan 2001
Two good reasons for this update:
My brother sent me a link to a program which allows you to create a 3d version of yourself and after a couple of evenings work I've got models of both Barbara and myself.
Barbara has a neat new hair style which her model shows of really well.
Barbara was tired of her hair colour and had low lights put in just before Christmas. This week she decided she wanted to go back to blonde. The first attempt to die her hair made it blonde at the roots and red at the ends, The second attempt made her hair a gold colour with orange at the ends. Barbara cried and cried and cried. Knowing that at this stage most people would pay anything to get this fixed the salons wanted a huge amount of money to fix her hair. Luckily a friend of Barbara's was able to style her hair short enough to get rid of most of the red. I personally think that her new hair style looks very good and in a twisted way I'm glad she messed up her hair in the first place otherwise she probably would not have had it styled this way.
The programme that's been used to make the two 3d models is called 3dMeNow. You can download a player and trial version of the program from www.3dmenow.com (OLD URL) .
Once you've downloaded the viewer you can download my head from
www.dwall.dircon.co.uk/3dmenow/daz2001.bio(OLD URL)
and Barbara's from
www.dwall.dircon.co.uk/3dmenow/babs2001.bio.(OLD URL)
If you use the program to make your own 3d head please send it to me :o)
PS added 2022: A little searching suggests that the technology for 3DMe Now was acquired by www.worldviz.com. The bio files are still available daz2001.bio and babs2001.bio.
I've now found that the WayBack Machine has files related to 3dMe Now. I'm going to see if I can still get the player working.
I do also need to do some more work on the modern version of my own 3D sculpture which I started in Blender for use in VR.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Tuesday 23rd Jan 2001 06:49:30am.
Pic Of The Day Jan 21st 2001
It's been a slow week for pictures so once again we dive in to the archives for this picture.
This is of Seth and I at sports day last year. The "dads race" was an obsticle course where we had to dress in various items of clothing along the route. Being the only dad that put each of the items of clothing on properly rather than just slinging it around my neck, I came last.
The original idea for this web site was to make up and interactive way of storing family photographs and pictures.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 21st Jan 2001 06:14:24am.
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
Pic of the Day 14th January 2001
Barbara has been cutting my hair for the last few months. It saves money in a couple of ways, don't have to pay the hair dresser any more and don't have to rent a movie to keep Barbara entertained.
I'm not sure what happened today other than that Barbara was going through the head fittings for the clippers and found the number one head. "Where are you going to use the number one?" I asked. In reply she ran the clippers along the side of my head then stopped.
"Oops."
I now have a very short hair cut that should mean I don't need another for at least a month.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 14th Jan 2001 03:50:22pm.
Pic of the Day 13th January 2001
Cara's Birthday Party
Cara had a quiet birthday this year. Just her best friend Zoe and two of the children from next door came over. However the house still looked like a tornado had hit it after the party had finished.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Saturday 13th Jan 2001 06:54:58pm.
Moon Glow
On 9th January 2001 the Earth cast it's shadow across the moon. From 6:42pm the shadow started to cover the bright surface. Luckily, although there were clouds there were also plenty of breaks.
I set up my video camera, by adjusting the aperture I was able to get clear pictures when the sky was clear and by using the infra red vision I was able to track the moon when it was cloudy.
Though the moon did glow red it was not that obvious since the street lighting normally makes the sky a similar colour over London.
Events like this and the solar eclipse in 1999 have certainly got me more interested in the skies above us. I'd like a better camera for taking pictures of the moon and stars. Any pictures would of course end up on this page.
Watch this space. (space, get it?)
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Tuesday 9th Jan 2001 06:14:30pm.
Picture Of The Day Jan 1 2001
2K1
Happy new year one and all. The Christmas decorations come down for another year. Since it's been cold and very wet for the past few weeks I don't have any new pictures to show. However there are almost 30 years of pictures to catch up on.
Since this site kicked in to second gear with almost weekly updates several people have pointed out how I don't write much about my wife or show many pictures of her. Well now I'm going to put this right.
Barbara and I met on the Internet in a chat room just before Christmas of 1997. We would meet up at the same place every day and talk. Eventually I started calling her and ran up very high phone bills. After talking and mailing Barbara for six months I went out to the USA to meet with her.
We got on like a house on fire. We took walks by the Mississippi, went to a fireworks display on the forth of July, went for picnics and generally had a great holiday. It was good to go out to America and not visit Disney or some tourist trap resort. I did not want to leave Barbara at the end of the two weeks.
The phone bill went even higher for the next six months. I was loosing sleep staying up to early hours of the morning to talk to Barbara. In the Autumn of 1998 we arranged for Barbara to come visit London.
So rather than sitting at our computers on opposite sides of the world Barbara and I sat side by side at my keyboard browsing and chatting with our regular friends. (As captured on this web cam picture)
Since Barbara enjoyed herself here in London, she got on well with my family and friends and I could not bare to be without her any more, on the bow of HMS Belfast, moored just by Tower Bridge, I proposed to her. She said yes :).
Barbara and I were married in the USA in the summer of 1999.
OK so that was a short recount of 1997-1999. I'll fill in some more details in future pages.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Monday 1st Jan 2001 01:56:41pm.
Pic Of the Day 31st December 2000
I had the web cam pointing out of my window towards Canada Tower on the River Thames. On new years eve the camera caught the firework display over Canary Wharf when the Dome was closed. There were no fireworks in this small patch of sky at the stroke of midnight though the rest of the sky was full of them.
I hope you had a great Christmas and have/had happy and safe new year celebration.
On Thursday 28th December 2000 it snowed. The betting shops were glad that the snow had not fallen three days earlier since a lot of people had put money on snow falling in London on Christmas day.
There was barely enough snow to make a snow ball. I cleaned the snow of the car and threw it at the kids who were sat cozy and warm behind the safety of the living room window.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 31st Dec 2000 07:54:03am.
Pic Of the Day 26th December 2000
My parents gave me a Star Trek pocket watch. The watch has the federation emblem on the front and inside has pictures and schematics of the original Enterprise.
This is the second pocket watch I have gotten. The first is a watch from my grandfather. Apparently the Trek watch is one of a set. This may be the start of a collection.
Barbara bought me Star Trek Elite Force. Since I've been playing a lot of games recently and saw my brother play this just before Christmas I'd been dropping a lot of hints. The game is very good, using the Quake III 3D engine you have to solve maps as well as blasting your favorite Star Trek baddies.
There's even a section where you are walking around the old sixties style federation craft, complete with "woosh beep" doors and female crew in skimpy uniforms and thigh boots.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Tuesday 26th Dec 2000 11:09:23pm.
PIC OF THE DAY 24th December 2000
A traditional meal for Christmas eve, steak and lobster? Despite it being a Sunday and Christmas eve the stores were still open until 4pm this afternoon. We went for a trip out to Sainsburys on the Greenwich Peninsular. One of the days special offers was lobster, how could we resist. This was the first time that Barbara had cooked lobster and the first time the Cara had eaten it. The meal was messy but delicious. We didn't have any nut crackers to break the shells but the handles of a can opener proved suffice. I'm hoping that this is the start of a tradition.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 24th Dec 2000 11:06:19pm.
PIC OF THE DAY 17th December 2000
This picture was originally intended to be on the front of some personalised Christmas cards but the printer didn't want to play. Does anyone want to by forty blank cards?
Cara and Barbara put the Christmas tree up on December 1st and the pictures that make up this image were taken the next morning. Neither Seth or Cara knew what I was doing with the pictures and both loved the results. Barbara made the angel dress and glow since in the original picture of Cara she was simply wearing a t-shirt and jeans.
By December 17th we have almost all the Christmas shopping done, I have still to get Barbara's presents and to take Cara shopping to get presents for the people she wants to buy for, this may mean a trip to Blue Water one evening.
Just in case I don't update this page in the next week (and going by my recent track record this is highly possible) have a good Christmas and I hope to talk/mail/ICQ/see you all in the new year...
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 17th Dec 2000 10:53:20pm.
PIC OF THE DAY 2nd December 2000
Cara wearing her gi. Both Cara and Seth now have their gi and have continued to go to Karate classes each week. I generally watch them for the first few minutes of each session. Cara is now starting to concentrate more on what she should be doing rather than what the others around her are doing. Seth is realising how to use the defencive blocking moves that they are being taught.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Saturday 2nd Dec 2000 07:54:13pm.
PIC OF THE DAY 12th November 2000
Cara and Seth have both been going to Karate for the past three months. Today was the first time that Barbara and I had stayed to watch the whole hour and a half long session. After six lessons both Seth and Cara get a white belt with yellow tip. Since they are enjoying Karate and will be keeping it up I've placed an order for a couple of the proper uniforms (gi).
Some of the children in this group are even smaller than Cara and there are adults in the group too. All are treated equally, It's a good friendly atmosphere with discipline and exercise, If only they would feed the kids too I'd leave them there all weekend!
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 12th Nov 2000 07:41:43am.
PIC OF THE DAY 4th November 2000
We were supposed to be going up to Black Heath tonight to watch the fireworks with a freind of mine and his family, unfortunately they could not come at the last minute. Rather than standing in a cold muddy field having burning embers from fireworks fall in our faces (as happened last year) we decided to go for a meal.
At TGI Fridays in BlueWater they had a magician. He performed a couple of card tricks and entertained us for quite some time. For one trick Cara had to write her name on a card and he made it appear in a wallet which had been in the middle of the table through the whole trick. Cara tried to spoil each of his tricks but this guy was on the ball. Seth was just amazed. Barbara and I were laughing at the expressions on the kids faces.
I always enjoy going to TGI, the staff are always friendly and the food is good too.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Saturday 4th Nov 2000 06:45:45am.
PIC OF THE DAY 31st October 2000
Since Halloween is not something that us British go nuts over I have never before carved a pumpkin. After a quick briefing from Barbara I was left with a sharp knife, three pumpkins, three candles, some markers and two kids.
As Barbara ran out of the kitchen saying "Have fun" I was wondering why she didn't want to play?
First, pumpkin inards are yucky ! Next year I'm letting Cara empty my pumpkin.
Second though they are great artists the kids drew tiny faces that you'd have to use a scalple to cut out and it took them several attempts before drawing big enough faces to cut out.
Third, pumpkin inards are yucky !
Forth, sharp knives, candles and kids who's bright idea was that?
"Daddy can I cut the face out of the pumpkin?"
"No"
"Daddy can I light the candle?"
"No"
"Daddy can I..."
"No, no, no, no, no !!!"
Seth and Cara were both happy in the end with their designs.
Seth's pumpkin is the first one that I've seen with false teeth.
I like the way that Cara's pumpkin has a lop sided mouth.
My pumpkin is apparently "traditional", not bad for a Brit.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Tuesday 31st Oct 2000 08:53:59am.
PIC OF THE DAY 24th October 2000
Seth, Cara and I went for a walk around Willingham near Cambridge. Unfortunately the batteries on the camera were low so I was only able to take a few pictures out on the green by the house we were staying in.
Though we took a two hour walk in the cold morning air neither of the kids were the least bit tired when we got back. However both did go to sleep at about eight o'clock that night which is early for them during the school break.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Tuesday 24th Oct 2000 11:22:30pm.
PIC OF THE DAY 22nd October 2000
It was a wet day in St. Albans. A few freinds and I went to play "paint ball". Running around, diving in to muddy puddles, getting shot at, scrambling through thorn bushes. It was a brilliant day.
Quite often when the battles got to a stale mate with no one advancing and no one shooting I would simply stand up in the middle of the battle field to draw enemy fire and get things going again. This picture shows the hazard of such a manouver, I was hit at the top of my face mask.
I took my minidisc recorder with me and recorded the first couple of hours of the day. The recording here is taken from the second game. Each game was around 15 minutes long or until one team had captured the flag and got it in to the correct base. In this game the teams were fifty yards appart with the flag in the middle of the two teams, in this game you had to get the flag from the middle and put it into the "enemy" base.
The game lasted four minutes and thirty seconds. The recording starts just before the game and is cut about twenty seconds short. (512k about 2minutes loading on a 28k modem)
Your browser does not support the audio tag.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 22nd Oct 2000 04:57:12am.
PIC OF THE DAY 22nd SEPTEMBER 2000
Something I've come to learn since becoming a father is that kids break things, if you ask then it was always the other kid that broke it, if you loose something you blame it on the kids, things become less important.
Through trying to dance while on the phone Cara pulled the phone off of the table. Here you see me cursing under my breath while fixing the phone. I sometimes wonder if so many things would get broken if I stopped fixing them.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Friday 22nd Sep 2000 05:12:16am.
PIC OF THE DAY 16th SEPTEMBER 2000
Not quite Notting Hill. The children from the local schools made masks and costumes for a prossesion through our local area. Barbara and I took Caras friend Zoe, Cara and Seth. All the kids had whistles and some had shakers, most had flags. How the whole thing didn't turn into a riot is a mystery to me.
We didn't know the route in advance so followed blindly. Luckily the rain held off and we all had a good day.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Monday 18th Sep 2000 06:36:49am.