Broooom!

Work was fairly uninteresting, had to rebuild two relatively old CAD workstations. They were originally specced up with SCSI interfaces and hard drives but I couldn't get the drivers to work properly for them, so ripped them out and put spare SATA drives. For what they're used for the SCSI doesn't make much difference. Otherwise quiet.

The MacBook didn't arrive today so I went for a ride on the bike. Headed into Denbigh to fill it up and practice more on junctions and for the first time, roundabouts. Did OK, getting more confident. Things like changing through the gears, cancelling the indicators, and stuff like that is becoming second nature, which is good. People keep saying I'll get tired of the 125 but for now it's plenty powerful, and it's a four stroke. The more powerful two stroke 125s must be great fun, like the Aprilia RS125.

I popped in to see Andy and Maz and had a nice long chat with them, before heading back home. By that time it was getting towards dusk which gave me an idea what the headlight is like. There was one moment where I went round a bend near the village and heard a pattering sound. It was almost like rain, but it was in fact a swarm of mayflies splatting on the visor. Fortunately I had it fully closed but one still made it through the vents and went up my nose, but I was able to huff it out without having to stop.

I'm having no luck with the key for the damn thing. In Morrisons when I got petrol, I dropped it under the bike and spent minutes hunting through my pockets, and then when I went to the Spar, I left it on the counter and some guy came hurrying out with it as again I was going through my pockets. At least this one hasn't snapped yet!

I reckon I've done 110-120 miles since I last filled it up, and it cost £7.20 to fill it to the brim again, so that's not bad at all. Also today at lunchtime I picked up some chain cleaner and lubricant as it looks like it needs doing.

Back to the Mac?

Not really. Well, slightly.

Last weekend I went up to Kirkham to visit my cousin Pauline who is going through chemotherapy after surgery for breast cancer. Just one more chemo session to go, which is good news as she's been through rather a lot with it. We didn't really do much apart from go to a dog show on Saturday which was good fun. Other than that it was pretty much a lot of sitting around and chatting and enjoying the nice weather. I admire the way she is coping more than I can say, maintaining a positive outlook and looking forward can't be easy when going through that.

Not much else to report. The bike is still going OK. I thought that it would only run with the choke full on, but turns out I had the lever positions backwards - nothing wrong at all. I took it out last night in the nearly rain and also dusk, which was quite an interesting experience. Also went around Denbigh a little to make myself go through junctions and traffic lights on it, to get used to doing that. Also practiced low speed maneuvering with the clutch. Scary stuff but gettting used to it.

The Mac thing, well, Apple originally lost me when they went to Intel. I've written before that now the hardware is basically the same as a PC, it's difficult to justify the extra cost even with the nice build quality and Mac OS X. I did look into creating a Hackintosh but getting OS X running on a PC is pretty painful. But after rebuilding six MacBooks in work for a school and digging out my old iBook I found a cheap MacBook on Fleabay. Cheap because it was used by an artist who didn't really clean it very often so it'll eventually need a new keyboard and top case but it works fine. So I'm looking forward to getting my hands on an Intel Mac for the first time. It's one of the early MacBooks but that's fairly similar to the PC machines I'm using now, so it'll be interesting to compare.

I've been using Windows XP in work and at home for several years now, and Windows 7 more recently. As a result I'm pretty happy with how they work, the quirks of the platform and how to make it run well. As I've not used a Mac properly for so long, it'll be nice to get myself more familiar with it again.

Not very happy with Apple though, the company is becoming increasingly arrogant and I don't like the iPhone platform. I think it's too closed off and censored, and it bothers me that this closed down walled garden approach seems to be such a success. Also the hype for the iPad is bonkers. 'A magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price.' Magical? Really?

I sold the E90. I had to do it, but it was a shame to get rid of it. What a great phone it was. The N97 is still going OK although I really need to get a new lense for the camera and install the new keyguard switch.

Downloaded the latest Eisbrecher album which came out in April. Definitely one of my favourite bands.

Tired

Tired today, had a disturbed nights sleep. I was watching Red Dwarf last night and so I had a weird dream where Red Dwarf was happening, I was in it, and the whole thing was set on a canal boat. Very weird, but in the way of dreams like that, it made perfect sense at the time.

Booked the hotel for Berlin in August, so the deal is that I'll stay with my brother for half of the visit, and then move into the hotel on the weekend when he and his girlfriend go to their garden in Luckenwalde. Should be fun.

Not much else to report. Watched the James May Toy Stories series on DVD as I hadn't seen it before. Pretty good. The best one was definitely the Scalextric one though, that was really good.

The E90 has bids on Ebay. I'll be glad for the money but sad to see it go, a really good phone that lived up to all my expectations.

Nearly finished Unseen Academicals, the latest Discworld book. Given the way Terry Pratchett is deteriorating though, it's also probably the last one other than a Tiffany Aching book out in September, and those don't really count as 'proper' Discworld books.

Boo

Back to work tomorrow after a long weekend, boo.

It's been relatively quiet other than the bike, which I didn't take out today due to tiredness and just general grumpiness. Next step is to see how it is for commuting to work sometime.

The Mac Portable sold for £45 in the end, not bad as I think I only paid £10 for it originally. Good though as I need the cash, the bike was cheap but still enough to throw my finances a little this month. Still plenty more old stuff like that to go too.

Decided I'm going to keep the N97 as my main phone. It definitely needs some work, namely the rear cover and the keylock switch at the least, but I really like it. As much as I like the good old E90 though, I'm listing it on Ebay. It might be battered to hell but it's still probably worth £100 or so, and that would be really useful right now.

Had a kind of weird dream last night, one of those annoying ones that really sticks in your head all day.

Easy Rider?

In a move that will probably surprise a few people, I've bought a motorbike. I did my CBT in May to see what it would be like and and really enjoyed it. This combined with the cheap running costs of a 125cc motorbike led me to keep an eye out for a reasonably affordable one, ideally a Honda CG125 like we did the CBT on. They are supposedly indestructible, reliable, fun to ride and capable of 100mpg+. However, because of these qualities, they are hard to get hold of.

So I ended up with a Gilera Coguar 125 which I picked up on Friday. Yes, that is the correct spelling for some reason. It was owned by a guy who was doing it up as a project and so it isn't perfect. The most obvious issue is that the speedo broke a while back and now it has a cycle computer fitted instead, which actually works pretty well. It does have a working odometer though. It's had new tyres, new chain and sprockets and been serviced though, so that's handy.

Typically, given my luck with vehicles, the cover for the battery on the right side fell off on the way home from picking it up and smashed to pieces, and when I went to put petrol in it on Saturday, the one key I had for it snapped off in the petrol cap. The cover is impossible to get hold of so not sure what to do about that, but fortunately there is a skilled key cutter in Denbigh who was able to make two new keys from the snapped off bit.

It goes OK. It is apparently the same engine as a Honda CG125 and will hit 60mph on the flat even with my lardy arse on board. It feels more comfy than the CG125 on the CBT due to the bigger seat and fatter tyres. I took it for a long ride yesterday and it went fine, the only slightly alarming bit was meeting a bellowing Ferrari on a narrow road in the back of Ruthin.

Anyway, it's a fun thing, something different. It costs £10 to fill the tank, £15 to tax for a year and £11 a month for insurance so it's not too expensive to run.

Red Dead Hilarity

So Will and I just spent ages playing Red Dead Redemption multiplayer. It was a public game with a few people who seemed to be quite happy doing the actual missions and things.

Will and I however, first spent some time throwing dynamite at bears and each other with hilarious results, then had a fist fight in the middle of a curious lake that was shallow all the way across, before pushing horses off a tall railway bridge. Then I got shot in the head by some player called Snoop Doggy Puppy Plops or something and we spent 20 minutes tracking him down and mercilessly shooting him every time he respawned. The best bit was when the guys horse got mauled by a bear, and he managed to kill the bear only to get shot in the back of the head by Will. It's easy to imagine some guy sat screaming at his TV somewhere out there and as when we play Halo online, it's me doing that, it was nice to be on the other side.

Fun fun. Listed my old Mac Portable for sale. Quite a rare machine and one I rather liked, but this one never worked and is in pretty crappy condition.

Mood slightly better

Sunday = the last day of sloth and greed. After Em's birthday meal in the Semaphore all you can eat buffet (which was excellent), that was it. Since then I've been eating better and walking the dog properly so I don't feel too bad.

Not much else to report. The N97 is working out OK, although I really need to sort out the keyguard switch and the camera lense as they are quite annoying. Parts are cheap enough although I need to find the tiny Torx bit to undo the screws. The scratches on the front are also a bit of a pain, although they are only really annoying when outside.

Got a stack of MacBooks on my desk in work from a school. They need rebuilding but the disks have been lost and so I called up Apple about it. After giving them the serial number they said they'll send the appropriate disks to me, which is nice. Feeling slightly nostalgic about Macs again, but still can't make myself spend much to get one.

Enough

Tired of being lazy and fat but just can't get motivated, which is really annoying me now.

After seeing Andy's 5800 and being quite impressed by it, I was idly looking up how much they were going for on Ebay recently when I spotted a battered N97 going for very cheap. So I picked it up. It's not that different from the 5800, just has more features and storage, and a flip out QWERTY keyboard. It was supposed to be the absolute flagship of Nokias range.

Unfortunately the general consensus is that they fucked it up by skimping on the CPU and RAM even though the rest of the hardware was pretty good. The result is that it sometimes struggles if you try to run too many applications at the same time. This one was cheap due to a hell of a lot of wear including some noticable scratches on the front and on the camera lense (a design fault with the cover that slides over it). However both these parts are easily obtainable and so the plan is to fix it up as and when funds permit. The other part that is broken is the keylock switch, which is annoying as the only way to unlock it is to open up the keyboard. Given the abuse this phone has had, the rather complex hinge is actually completely solid. It reminds me of the old Psion PDAs except they broke a lot.

I've wiped it and upgraded the firmware, although the Nokia software only updated it to the v20 version and not the v21 for some reason, but it's still a big improvement. So far I rather like it, although I think it's because I'm so familiar with the Series 60 platform. Compared to the iPhone or the newer Android handsets, it is quite complicated and can be sluggish. One thing I do like is that it has 32gb storage onboard, and a MicroSD slot, so in theory you could add another 32gb and have 64gb total. Which is quite frankly bonkers. It uses the same battery as the E90 which is a bonus. Despite the rumours of sluggishness, it does feel snappier than the E90.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines

I don't know what it is about Airplane!, but it never gets old.

Lazy fucktard

I don't know why I can't get motivated to do any exercise at the moment, it's infuriating.

Bah

Having major problems motivating myself to do any exercise at the moment, which is stupid given that the weather (until today) has been perfect for going out and doing it. It's really pissing me off.

Just finished Wintersmith, quite good.

Headache.

A patchy day

Ebay still has the capacity to surprise. A big batch of Psion SSDs went for £71, considerably more than I expected, which was nice.

Went for a meal with my Dad, his wife and my Mum for his birthday tomorrow, which was good.

Didn't do much else the rest of the day, mainly fooled about in the Sims 3 and watched a couple of DVDs.

Arse

Folding at home can fuck off.

The build quality of the official Xbox 360 headsets is absolutely appalling.

Holidays

Not yet, but I have booked flights to Berlin in August, hurrah! Can afford it, just, but needed to do it now as the prices had already gone up from when I last looked. Finances a bit shaky now, bring on payday...

Took my wrath about the car incident out on the garden with the strimmer, felt much better after that. It's still going strong after I pulled it to bits and repaired it a few months ago which is quite amazing.

Today was possibly the slowest Friday ever, every time you looked at a clock thinking 15 minutes must have passed, it was about 5. Frustrating and annoying, given the weather outside was nice too. Oh well. Bet the weekend will simply fly by - where's the justice in that?

Sold two more Psions. Still a few left to go though. Not getting much for these ones as they aren't particularly rare or interesting. I don't really feel like I've got rid of much yet though, although I really have. Paypal shut down my account for a few hours the other day because I had received more than £1700 into it and they needed to check it in case I was doing anything illegal.

The Folding@Home virtual machine has completed 29 work units and my username is now ranked 345295 of 1420669. Not too bad. At least it's doing something useful. I used to have it running SETI@Home but while it's the biggest (or it used to be) distributing computing project, F@H just seemed more sensible.

Tired now.

Argh!

People suck. Just got run off the road by some idiot bitch who came charging up the middle of the relatively narrow road, not looking because she was lighting a cigarette. Fucking stupid cow. Then I took a couple of thousand miles off my front tyres by wheelspinning in anger. Bah.

Water

We have water again, woohoo! Not flowing as well as before but enough to wash and everything.

Fairly dull week but badminton today was fun. Had a couple of entertaining matches again and then had another one with the Poison Woman after Rob and Em left. We did quite well against her until about half way through, but I did manage to hit her with the shuttle at least twice and once return one of her smashes which she thought I wouldn't.

My thumb burst today. Flexed it and it suddenly went pop and spurted horrible fluid. It was messy and painful but now feels much better.

Not much else to report. Families are complicated.

Cars and thumbs

The Focus now has a nice shiny MOT due for 13 months. It needed a front exhaust section, back box and antiroll bar link to pass the MOT, plus a few bits and bobs. Amazing how quiet it is now, when things gradually get worse you can miss how bad they are getting.

They took it out for a drive and experienced the mysterious vibration under acceleration and the knocking when turning right at low speeds but have no clue as to the cause. That's the second time a mechanic has told me they have no idea and that it will have to get worse before it can be truly diagnosed. Annoying. The whole lot cost £354. Ouch. So that ruled out any idea of getting the service done before next payday.

My thumb is really hurting. At some point recently I knocked a chunk of skin off the inside where it flexes, and after I had a shower the other day the scab fell off and I think it might now be infected. It's really quite painful.

Eeew

Over the last few days I've become aware of a growing smell in the car that was a bit unpleasant, and couldn't think why. Then I found a chicken and stuffing sandwich on the floor which I vaguely remember buying but can't remember when. Anyway, it put up quite a fight but I did eventually manage to restrain it and throw it away. Minging. Washed the car too as it's going into the garage tomorrow. Found a bit of surface rust by the rear end of the left sill, will need to sort that out before it gets any worse.

The E90 battery has deteriorated, not holding a good charge any more, and it did cross my mind that it might be an excuse to possibly look at a new phone. The Nokia X6 looks quite interesting, or the N97, but not convinced about how solid they are, as the E90 is pretty solid. So I just got a new battery for the E90.