I went into work, and expected it to be quiet and empty. Not a bit of it. The building was packed, it was just like a normal working day. There were five people picketing at the entrance to the car park who were largely ignored and they seemed to get bored and go away before lunchtime. Mind you I don't know what it was like in the other council buildings. It seemed rather strange after seeing all the stuff going on in the news.
Didn't sleep well last night, woke up at 3am and didn't get back to sleep so I left work a bit early and came home and had a nap, something I very rarely do.
Had a retro computer chat with a guy in work, reminiscing of the old PC days and the old Acorn machines. Inspired me to fire up the emulator I've got of my old Archimedes. I'm always amazed at the letters I wrote to my brother in the mid 90's, great long things with rambling details of whatever computers or basses were interesting me at the time, almost autistic in nature. Very weird to look back at them.
Also found my attempts at making raytraced drawings using the Acorn port of POVRay. It was so frustrating as rendering even tiny images was horrendously slow and waiting an hour for an image the size of a playing card to render and then find there was something wrong with it was so annoying. I had some prerendered images and there was one of a geodesic dome which I was always amazed by. I just googled it and found the original creator and an ultra high resolution version of it. It's weird how now I've got machines lying around as scrap that have more computing power that I could even dream of back then, but today somehow I lack the drive to try things out that I had back then. Hmm, that's given me something to think about actually.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Monday, 28 November 2011
Defeat the bitch-queen from hell
After a week off I was worried about work. I went in, opened a login prompt to the backup system and logged in. Surprisingly it responded, and it turned out to have behaved tolerably well while I was away.
D&D was fun this evening, the final battle of this campaign, marking the end of James's tenure as DM for the time being. I went on a diplomatic rampage to avoid having to fight the castle guards. Having earned 600,000 gold pieces all of a sudden, I bought them out by waving their leader's decapitated head at them and paying them what they were owed. I then took advantage of our new mini army and asked them to help us defeat the evil priest who had occupied the chapel. They agreed to do it, for a price. But they all died so when we took over and killed the evil priest, I was able to loot their dead bodies and get all the money back. Success!
It was a dark rainy drive home and two miles from home the wipers on the 306 failed. Both front and rear and the washers stopped working so I think it's a fuse. Fortunately I was on a deserted single track road at that point so I was able to get home OK by peering through the water on the windscreen and taking it slowly. Still, I've had the car for five months and that's the first thing to break on it and that's got to be a record for me!
D&D was fun this evening, the final battle of this campaign, marking the end of James's tenure as DM for the time being. I went on a diplomatic rampage to avoid having to fight the castle guards. Having earned 600,000 gold pieces all of a sudden, I bought them out by waving their leader's decapitated head at them and paying them what they were owed. I then took advantage of our new mini army and asked them to help us defeat the evil priest who had occupied the chapel. They agreed to do it, for a price. But they all died so when we took over and killed the evil priest, I was able to loot their dead bodies and get all the money back. Success!
It was a dark rainy drive home and two miles from home the wipers on the 306 failed. Both front and rear and the washers stopped working so I think it's a fuse. Fortunately I was on a deserted single track road at that point so I was able to get home OK by peering through the water on the windscreen and taking it slowly. Still, I've had the car for five months and that's the first thing to break on it and that's got to be a record for me!
Sunday, 27 November 2011
Holiday fail or win, depends
My week off consisted of doing absolutely nothing useful whatsoever. The days have been filled with little more than Saints Row 3 and Deep Space 9 in varying quantities. I failed dismally in my promise to myself that if I was going to spent the days in front of the Xbox then exercise would be a requirement. Today marks the end of DS9 season 6, which has been fairly decent but unfortunately contains the worst episode so far in my opinion - the one where Quark has a sex change. Absolute cabbage.
Saints Row 3 has been fun. Despite reports of it being really buggy, it's behaved fine for me. It is structured quite differently from 2 so that took some getting used to, but it's good fun and is even more OTT. The plot is as silly as before but it does have some really funny moments although some of the 'novelty' missions were a bit annoying. Still not sure why I like Saints Row though.
Last night came down with a sore throat which meant I didn't sleep very well and so feel tired and rough today. Throat isn't too bad though.
Work tomorrow. Oh well.
Yesterday my Dad and I finished putting the flip paint bike back together. The plan to use a mountain bike rear wheel the wrong way round with a cog attached to the disk mount works fine. The only spare front wheel that would fit was the original 27" wheel from the Puch, which worked but made it look quite ridiculous. Unfortunately the headset bearings are completely shot so that will need to be sorted before it's properly rideable.
Fired up the rebuilt M9o to see if it still works, and it does although the spare hard drive I put in it appears to have bad sectors, annoyingly. Since I don't really need it, I'll probably end up chucking it back on Ebay as a power supply and battery would be quite pricy to source.
Saints Row 3 has been fun. Despite reports of it being really buggy, it's behaved fine for me. It is structured quite differently from 2 so that took some getting used to, but it's good fun and is even more OTT. The plot is as silly as before but it does have some really funny moments although some of the 'novelty' missions were a bit annoying. Still not sure why I like Saints Row though.
Last night came down with a sore throat which meant I didn't sleep very well and so feel tired and rough today. Throat isn't too bad though.
Work tomorrow. Oh well.
Yesterday my Dad and I finished putting the flip paint bike back together. The plan to use a mountain bike rear wheel the wrong way round with a cog attached to the disk mount works fine. The only spare front wheel that would fit was the original 27" wheel from the Puch, which worked but made it look quite ridiculous. Unfortunately the headset bearings are completely shot so that will need to be sorted before it's properly rideable.
Fired up the rebuilt M9o to see if it still works, and it does although the spare hard drive I put in it appears to have bad sectors, annoyingly. Since I don't really need it, I'll probably end up chucking it back on Ebay as a power supply and battery would be quite pricy to source.
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Achievement Unlocked: Lazy Day
Went to town to pick up some more hardcore stuff for the track from Rob and Em and did a bit at the gym before coming home. I settled down in front of the Xbox and mingled DS9 season 6 and Saints Row 3 with pleasing results.
Saints Row 3 is a litle weird but I think that's just because I'm so used to 2. I think I confused it because I went around buying properties and making money before the actual tutorial missions that tell you how to do it. I've barely touched the missions really, just building up the cash and levelling up the character which is now a bit RPG like. And there's still a cockney voice option, although with a different voice actor that sounds really familiar.
Trying to print out the postage label for the bass body I sold on Ebay but Paypal appears to be broken, bah.
Saints Row 3 is a litle weird but I think that's just because I'm so used to 2. I think I confused it because I went around buying properties and making money before the actual tutorial missions that tell you how to do it. I've barely touched the missions really, just building up the cash and levelling up the character which is now a bit RPG like. And there's still a cockney voice option, although with a different voice actor that sounds really familiar.
Trying to print out the postage label for the bass body I sold on Ebay but Paypal appears to be broken, bah.
Saturday, 19 November 2011
HOLIDAY
The rest of the week was unremarkable. No badminton on Thursday due to people not feeling well. Then on Friday I was on leave for the first time in months. Fantastic. Except the backup system crashed hard literally as I was about to take an early finish on Thursday night.
Yesterday and today have been spent chilling with my cousin who was down from Preston way. We didn't do much yesterday but went out for a Chinese in the evening which was fantastic. Today we hung out and my Dad and I put some bits back on the flip paint bike. The bottom bracket was an absolute sod to do though. We've also got a solution for the rear wheel. It's going to have a mountain bike wheel, mounted the wrong way round with a cog where the disk brake would go. Otherwise it's going to be a pain getting a 135mm 700c wheel with a fixed gear. This means no brake on the bike but that's OK.
Not much else to report. Saints Row 3 turned up on Thursday night. I haven't done much in it yet except charge around trying to build up respect and cash, but it looks good so far. And they kept the cockney bastard voice, although it's a different voice actor. Saints Row is worthless without cockney. It's even more ridiculous than before to be honest, so we'll see.
Yesterday and today have been spent chilling with my cousin who was down from Preston way. We didn't do much yesterday but went out for a Chinese in the evening which was fantastic. Today we hung out and my Dad and I put some bits back on the flip paint bike. The bottom bracket was an absolute sod to do though. We've also got a solution for the rear wheel. It's going to have a mountain bike wheel, mounted the wrong way round with a cog where the disk brake would go. Otherwise it's going to be a pain getting a 135mm 700c wheel with a fixed gear. This means no brake on the bike but that's OK.
Not much else to report. Saints Row 3 turned up on Thursday night. I haven't done much in it yet except charge around trying to build up respect and cash, but it looks good so far. And they kept the cockney bastard voice, although it's a different voice actor. Saints Row is worthless without cockney. It's even more ridiculous than before to be honest, so we'll see.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Lost cause?
Work was OK today. The backup system was still shit but behaved itself more than it has done. Had training for the shift around we're having so I can handle being on the front line of the helpdesk. Should be interesting, not been in that role since my last job that I got made redundant from almost exactly seven years ago.
Went to the gym after work. Had a really good session. Got really into it and threw myself into all the exercises so I felt great afterwards.
I sourced a working motherboard for the project Precision M90. Given that the motherboard was utterly destroyed with actual burn marks where it had shorted out from liquid, I was sceptical that the CPU and graphics card would have survived. But much to my astonishment, once it was rebuilt with the new board, it fired up fine. It complained about the power supply since it needs a 130w one but after I hooked up the 240w PSU from the M17x it was happy. It booted up from a Linux live CD perfectly. So now it just needs a hard drive caddy, battery and power supply and it's good to go. The graphics card is a 512mb Quadro 2500M that costs about £150-200 to buy used so it's great that it works.
Went to the gym after work. Had a really good session. Got really into it and threw myself into all the exercises so I felt great afterwards.
I sourced a working motherboard for the project Precision M90. Given that the motherboard was utterly destroyed with actual burn marks where it had shorted out from liquid, I was sceptical that the CPU and graphics card would have survived. But much to my astonishment, once it was rebuilt with the new board, it fired up fine. It complained about the power supply since it needs a 130w one but after I hooked up the 240w PSU from the M17x it was happy. It booted up from a Linux live CD perfectly. So now it just needs a hard drive caddy, battery and power supply and it's good to go. The graphics card is a 512mb Quadro 2500M that costs about £150-200 to buy used so it's great that it works.
Monday, 14 November 2011
Meh
Last week didn't really get any better. Badminton on Thursday was OK.
Saturday was a Wii night with the old work gang, which was fun as always. We didn't actually play any video games, instead we chatted and caught up with Simon who is back from Gibraltar.
Sunday was lazy and I started the sixth season of DS9, which I barely remember, so that's good. It's entertaining.
Today has been work and D&D. D&D was interesting as it one of the ones without a board and instead it was a skill test and then some stealthy stealthy. We failed the skill test almost instantly which was my fault since it depended on me being diplomatic - it didn't work. So then we had to fight our way out of a cell. It was fun and James had made the most delicious curry ever.
The weekend was also the War of Mice. I hate killing them but have reluctantly come to the conclusion that humane traps suck balls and when you release them into the wild they die anyway. So I got some traps. I've already caught four in my room alone and one downstairs, but I know there is more. Need more traps.
In a fit of madness picked up a project laptop. A Dell Precision M90 which is largely in good shape but needs a motherboard and possibly other parts. Need to strip it down and evaluate it. It has the same chassis as the old Inspiron 9400 that I was so fond of but with a more professional colour scheme.
Not much else to report.
Saturday was a Wii night with the old work gang, which was fun as always. We didn't actually play any video games, instead we chatted and caught up with Simon who is back from Gibraltar.
Sunday was lazy and I started the sixth season of DS9, which I barely remember, so that's good. It's entertaining.
Today has been work and D&D. D&D was interesting as it one of the ones without a board and instead it was a skill test and then some stealthy stealthy. We failed the skill test almost instantly which was my fault since it depended on me being diplomatic - it didn't work. So then we had to fight our way out of a cell. It was fun and James had made the most delicious curry ever.
The weekend was also the War of Mice. I hate killing them but have reluctantly come to the conclusion that humane traps suck balls and when you release them into the wild they die anyway. So I got some traps. I've already caught four in my room alone and one downstairs, but I know there is more. Need more traps.
In a fit of madness picked up a project laptop. A Dell Precision M90 which is largely in good shape but needs a motherboard and possibly other parts. Need to strip it down and evaluate it. It has the same chassis as the old Inspiron 9400 that I was so fond of but with a more professional colour scheme.
Not much else to report.
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Not a good day
Too traumatised to write more. Nothing serious, just work.
Fat. No gym. Fail.
Tired.
I hate mice.
Took out rage from today by playing Iron Maiden on the 6-string bass. Hard but fun.
Not looking forward to tomorrow.
Fat. No gym. Fail.
Tired.
I hate mice.
Took out rage from today by playing Iron Maiden on the 6-string bass. Hard but fun.
Not looking forward to tomorrow.
Monday, 7 November 2011
I like fish, under certain conditions
I went in today to find the backup system in a complete shambles, having broken in an entirely new and unexpected way. Also the office was bloody freezing so everyone was sat around in hats and coats. The computer room was actually warmer, and I spent a couple of minutes warming myself from the output vents of an IBM BladeCenter.
This evening it was down to the Plough in St Asaph to have a meal with Steve's friend Jeremy from the US. It was really good, and nice to be back in the Plough when it's not full of prats. It's a really nice place when it's quiet. The food was absolutely amazing and I took a risk and had fish & chips, but it was really good. I've decided I like fish if it's not strongly flavoured, which this wasn't and the batter was really nicely done. We had a good evening chatting about stuff and it was great to meet Jeremy who was coping well despite not having slept in over a day or so.
Noticed how much better my face is these days. Not drinking Coke except for the occasional treat has really made a difference, and also using the old style double edged razor seems to be helping, now that I've got used to it. It wasn't that I'd cut myself, more that I'd put too much pressure and cause razor burn. I still use the Fusion for the tricky bits and my head when I do that though.
This evening it was down to the Plough in St Asaph to have a meal with Steve's friend Jeremy from the US. It was really good, and nice to be back in the Plough when it's not full of prats. It's a really nice place when it's quiet. The food was absolutely amazing and I took a risk and had fish & chips, but it was really good. I've decided I like fish if it's not strongly flavoured, which this wasn't and the batter was really nicely done. We had a good evening chatting about stuff and it was great to meet Jeremy who was coping well despite not having slept in over a day or so.
Noticed how much better my face is these days. Not drinking Coke except for the occasional treat has really made a difference, and also using the old style double edged razor seems to be helping, now that I've got used to it. It wasn't that I'd cut myself, more that I'd put too much pressure and cause razor burn. I still use the Fusion for the tricky bits and my head when I do that though.
Sunday, 6 November 2011
But...it's purple.
Yesterday went to my Dad's. I took the painted bike frame over now that it has had a chance to dry and we had a look at putting it back together. We got a couple of bits for it but it needs a pair of wheels and a crank and a chain. But it can wait. It does look OK although I think the colour coat is a little bit patchy. Didn't do any fireworks, was too chilled at my Dad's.
Today made some vegatable soup for work after I realised how easy it was. The first batch had a load of things in it and turned out really nice, but the second batch is a bit weird because I thought it would be interesting to put beetroot in it and as a result it turned out purple. It was all good however.
Today made some vegatable soup for work after I realised how easy it was. The first batch had a load of things in it and turned out really nice, but the second batch is a bit weird because I thought it would be interesting to put beetroot in it and as a result it turned out purple. It was all good however.
Saturday, 5 November 2011
Lazy days
Thursday and Friday were unmemorable. The backup system in work frustrated me because I had been asked to get a low level trace file to see exactly why one of the processes was failing. But did it fail on either Thursday or Friday? No. Bah.
Spent today at my Dad's. We got some bits for the flip paint bike so it can start being put back together. West End Cycles in Colwyn Bay has a big new showroom in Llandudno Junction that used to be the Mercedes dealer. Some seriously tasty bikes in there including several Specialized cyclocross bikes that were exactly what I'd like. Shame they're £750 upwards.
Spent today at my Dad's. We got some bits for the flip paint bike so it can start being put back together. West End Cycles in Colwyn Bay has a big new showroom in Llandudno Junction that used to be the Mercedes dealer. Some seriously tasty bikes in there including several Specialized cyclocross bikes that were exactly what I'd like. Shame they're £750 upwards.
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Soup
Work was frustrating but got most of the issues sorted by the end of the day.
I had the desire to make soup so I got stuff to make the stilton and broccoli soup after the gym. They didn't have stilton so I got some Italian blue cheese instead, which was actually nicer I think, and it came out very well. Nice. There was some left over which I'll take into work tomorrow and get some bread or something to eat with it.
I had a dodgy chair in work that kept gradually sinking to the lowest level, but so subtly that I didn't realise it was doing it until I couldn't reach my laptop. So I changed it. One of my colleagues asked me why I'd changed chairs, and I replied 'because it kept going down on me'. We looked at each other for a moment and then had hysterics for a good ten minutes.
Forgot about my stalling incident the other week. I'd had to park my 306 on the street and wanted to move into the spare car park behind the town hall. I'd just reversed it about 3o metres up the road then went to drive into the car park. Except the engine was cold and I stalled it. But what an epic stall, the car lurched wildly and because I was totally unprepared for it, I was thrown violently forward and up and smacked my head on the sun visor. It was hideously embarrassing because this was right in front of a packed bus stop and they'd all watched me reversing up the street.
I had the desire to make soup so I got stuff to make the stilton and broccoli soup after the gym. They didn't have stilton so I got some Italian blue cheese instead, which was actually nicer I think, and it came out very well. Nice. There was some left over which I'll take into work tomorrow and get some bread or something to eat with it.
I had a dodgy chair in work that kept gradually sinking to the lowest level, but so subtly that I didn't realise it was doing it until I couldn't reach my laptop. So I changed it. One of my colleagues asked me why I'd changed chairs, and I replied 'because it kept going down on me'. We looked at each other for a moment and then had hysterics for a good ten minutes.
Forgot about my stalling incident the other week. I'd had to park my 306 on the street and wanted to move into the spare car park behind the town hall. I'd just reversed it about 3o metres up the road then went to drive into the car park. Except the engine was cold and I stalled it. But what an epic stall, the car lurched wildly and because I was totally unprepared for it, I was thrown violently forward and up and smacked my head on the sun visor. It was hideously embarrassing because this was right in front of a packed bus stop and they'd all watched me reversing up the street.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
A great weekend
Saturday was a quiet day until the evening when I headed down to Andy and Maz's to indulge in a Chinese. Steve was there too, so we had a nice evening of food and chat. It rained like anything when Andy and I went to get the Chinese though, and we got pretty wet. Also I accidentally drenched someone when I didn't realise where the water was on the road, oops.
Sunday was the D&D marathon, which was really good fun. We had a skill test to start with and then three encounters. The first one went really well, the second one...not so much. We all suffered severe damage and I spent several rounds dying in a field. Rob made epic 3-cheese lasagna and it was a fantastic day all round. Also my attempt at making a time-lapse movie of the day turned out really well, although a bit small and blurry due to the webcam.
Yesterday and today have been OK. Went to the gym after work with Andy and Rob, but it was heaving from people presumably avoiding the gangs of trick or treaters. But it was good to go.
The trailer for GTA V is out. It looks like a return to San Andreas, which would be good if they do it right. Back to the proper GTA formula with fun and colourful graphics, not the dismal brown fest that was GTA IV.
Sunday was the D&D marathon, which was really good fun. We had a skill test to start with and then three encounters. The first one went really well, the second one...not so much. We all suffered severe damage and I spent several rounds dying in a field. Rob made epic 3-cheese lasagna and it was a fantastic day all round. Also my attempt at making a time-lapse movie of the day turned out really well, although a bit small and blurry due to the webcam.
Yesterday and today have been OK. Went to the gym after work with Andy and Rob, but it was heaving from people presumably avoiding the gangs of trick or treaters. But it was good to go.
The trailer for GTA V is out. It looks like a return to San Andreas, which would be good if they do it right. Back to the proper GTA formula with fun and colourful graphics, not the dismal brown fest that was GTA IV.
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