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Nikon have conspired to leak the specs of their next top-line pro DSLR, the D3X. Naturally, I want one. Because, you know, what Nikon user wouldn't?

I've spent most of the week trying to work out the best way to cart camera gear to the states for UDS week. I'll be there all week (try the pasta, folks) and I'll have the Sunday before UDS to be Mr Tourist, so I figured that taking at least some gear with me would be worth it.

Of course, I've got to deal with Virgin Atlantic's stupidly small hand baggage limit of just 6kg (13lbs to our American brethren), so I've spent much of the week trying out various configurations of equipment in the two camera bags that I own to see what I can manage.

As far as I can tell, for 6kg, in my lightest bag (a Kata R-103 backpack) I can take:

• My laptop and its charger.
• The D300
• My 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor (the lightest lens I own)
• and nothing else.

So, I toyed around with a couple of solutions:

• Buy a lighter bag.
• Buy a Nikon 18-200mm lens to replace the 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses

And then I realised something fairly fundamental: I was actively trying to work out how to spend money so as to not fall afoul of Virgin's silly restrictions. Even I, crazy as I am sometimes, am not daft enough to actually thing that that's a smart thing to do.

So on the advice of a friend of mine who travels so much I'm surprised she can ever stop to lick a stamp I'm going to use the strategy known as "you're a man, you've got pockets: use them." Once I've checked in the lenses can go back in the bag for security and everyone will be happy. Hopefully. Well, we'll see anyway.

But all this arsing about with weighing scales and gear configurations brought me to ask myself another question: Why the hell am I trying to take all this stuff with me? What do I actually need?

Looking back over my photos from the last year I've realised that I don't actually use all that many different lenses most of the time. As far as I can tell, my preferred lens is the 10-20mm Sigma, with the 30mm Sigma coming a close second.

So, for San Francisco, then, a challenge: Can I shoot The City with just two lenses? I'm going to take with me the 10-20mm, the 50mm Nikkor and, for insurance purposes only, the 55-200mm. I aim not to use the latter unless I absolutely have to (and if I have to then I've failed in my task, evidently).

I'll let you know how it goes.

Back from Lexington; tired, grumpy, ready to eat brains (though I might have to have diet brains because, as always seems to be when I go away for work - and especially to Americky - I've put weight on again). More on that another time, perhaps.

But I just wanted to say that the Bishop of Lancaster is a fool. Education is bad, apparently:

Bishop O'Donoghue, who has recently published a report on how to renew Catholicism in Britain, argued that mass education has led to "sickness in the Church and wider society".

"What we have witnessed in Western societies since the end of the Second World War is the development of mass education on a scale unprecedented in human history - resulting in economic growth, scientific and technological advances, and the cultural and social enrichment of billions of people's lives," he said.

"However, every human endeavor has a dark side, due to original sin and concupiscence. In the case of education, we can see its distortion through the widespread dissemination of radical scepticism, positivism, utilitarianism and relativism.

A collection of my photos from the Join the Impact protest outside Boston City Hall yesterday. You can see the full set on Flickr.

1. The Course of True Love, 2. Peace over the rainbow, 3. Love is, 4. The Rainbow People, 5. Equal Rights, 6. Consenting Adults, 7. WWBMD?, 8. Rainbow Superhero, 9. A Right, 10. Unequal is Unamerican, 11. MA Got it Right, 12. Still No Apocalypse, 13. Don't Discrimin8

Graham Binns posted a photo:

Three hundred and sixty-odd days of 2008, day 319

A youngster, sat on his mother's shoulders, at the anti Prop8 protest at City Hall in Boston.

Graham Binns posted a photo:

This is appearing late because it never turned up in the feed in the first place (my bad).

100 Strangers #2

This is Raya (thank you to her friend Meowy12 for setting my spelling straight). Zie was attending the Anti Prop8 demonstration outside City Hall in Boston today, which I happend to stumble across whilst making my way back to the T. Even in the midst of many colourful characters Raya's hair and magnificent cape stood out and had to be photographed.

The cape was stitched by a friend, who arrived as I was departing, her first words being "I recognise that cape!"

This picture is the second in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at www.100Strangers.com