Monday, 30 January 2012

Flambled

Saturday started out with posting some stuff in Denbigh and getting stuff to make soup with but then turned into a random movie marathon which was background noise to fooling about with laptops. Weird.

Sunday morning was a Saints Row 3 fest with Rob on Xbox, which was really good fun. My character works well as a zombie superhero with his eyes gouged out, but I had to change the dialogue back to normal English since all the cut-scenes being played as 'Blarrgh-blargh-BLARRRRGH-BlarGH' became rapidly annoying and meant you had no idea what was going on. After that I decided to have a quick play on Mass Effect, starting a new character and having a quick play through the first part. But as these things go, the quick play left me suddenly realising five hours had passed. Argh. Ah well. Good fun though, the Mass Effect universe is so well designed and involving and I think the first game has a certain element of exploration and freedom that didn't make it into the second game where the plot is more well established.

Today was D&D and it was great fun to get going again, but I did pretty badly, managing to roll a 1 twice in a row, which was embarrassing and did quite a lot of damage to myself. Fortunately we rallied around and got the encounter done, which was interesting with a whole new kind of enemy.

Car is going into the garage tomorrow to have the washer pump sorted and the rear axle examined, which will determine if I keep or replace it.

Friday, 27 January 2012

Circling the pit

The week has progressed as expected. Other than left over snot I feel better now, other than being digustingly obese and horrible. God knows what I weigh now, I haven't yet had the courage to stand on the scales.

Financial situation the best it's been for years, however I had some bad news about the car that could cause problems. The garage reckons that the knocking and banging from the rear could be a seized rear axle, which means replacement. They said it would be a huge job and difficult to find one that's not also knackered and given the car is basically a shed it's just not worth it. They're looking at it properly on Tuesday and then I'll know. If it needs an axle, it's going on Ebay and I'll get something else. After all the 306 was only ever meant to be a cheap stopgap while I got the finances sorted out and it's done that. I hate cars so much.

Hacked off with work, still expected to do two people's jobs and I'm too nice to tell them to fuck off although I think my patience is wearing thin. I've had no training at all since March 2008, and not more than a single day off (sickness doesn't count) since July due to the fragility of the backup system I'm supporting. Got annoyed when I was remote controlled onto a woman's computer, and as I was fixing the problem, she said 'I'd hate your job'. But she way she said it came across so badly, it was as if she was criticising my choice of job and had sheer contempt that anyone would be interested in working with computers.

I've got pain in my fingers, particularly my index ones, which I think is from typing. I've scrounged an ergonomic keyboard in work and have been using that but I don't think it's helping, although it's quite old and worn. I need to do something as it's getting annoying and further typing can't be helping. I normaly prefer laptop keyboards but the work ones aren't good and even the nice Alienware ones at home aren't ideal although a bit better.

I really need a holiday.

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Screw January

I've not bothered updating this because it would have just been whinging about feeling like crap. Suffice to say I coughed my way through the rest of last week, then went all crappy and feverish on Saturday, full of snot again on Sunday and only feeling human again today but still snotting a bit.

Highlights include food at Rob and Em's last Thursday but I couldn't go to badminton. Saturday was Maz's birthday meal which was at the Prosperity in Rhuddlan. It was a great meal and we all had a good time but I was not feeling good so I sorted of faded in and out a bit (only way I can describe it). Sunday was spent largely in bed alternately read, watching YouTube and snotting everywhere.

I shouldn't have gone into work yesterday but I realised it too late. In the evening I watched Sherlock Holmes, the one with Robert Downey Jr, which I wasn't sure if I'd like, but I actually really enjoyed it. It was long, but I didn't really notice too much. Steve lent it me ages ago but it's been in the car for goodness knows how long, oops. It was gutting to miss D&D but I really don't think I could have coped with the journey there feeling the way I did after a full day in work.

Feeling more human today although still sneezing and snotting a bit but I feel almost properly better for the first time. However since I've been ill pretty much continuously since the beginning of the year, I've decided that January can fuck off, it never happened and 2012 will begin for real on the 1st February.

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

New adventures in Unix

Monday was the first D&D session this year, with a new chapter of the story and a whole new DM (Rob). It was really good fun, with a very different city-based scenario and everything. Really good to get going again. Also snacks. I think the close association between D&D and snacks is worrying and needs to be examined.

Work has been a bit different. Yesterday and today I've been working on sorting out how to migrate two of the AIX systems from the old server, which now has prohibitively high maintenance costs, onto the new shiny blade servers. Since I've not had any training on the blades, their enclosure, the SAN disks they're connected to, or the new 6.1 version of AIX that they will need to be upgraded to, and there's 100gb of data to transfer, there's rather a lot of Googling, scouring of the IBM website and a fair bit of frustration and panic going on. Fun. But an external consultant on a different job today was kind enough to drop some hints and I guess we can get people in if it comes down to it.

Other than that not done much else. Played around a bit in Saints Row 3, and found that a man in a pink dress with matching makeup can still look relatively badass if he is holding a huge sniper rifle and has a VTOL jet parked behind him. Just. It's a real shame it doesn't have the cutscene and mission replay option of the previous game.

Feel basically better today but still coughing slightly, and the hot stale air in the office doesn't help at all.

Weird to have Wikipedia and Reddit shut down because of the SOPA thing, although I understand and support why. The Internet is far too valuable to be fucked up like that.

Sunday, 15 January 2012

It never ends...

Today was the first day in ages that I felt decent when I woke up, although still had a bit of a cough.

First thing was more Saints Row 3 with Rob, which was really good fun. I loaded my oldest save so my character wasn't quite so ridiculously overpowered, and it made it a bit more fair. The cutscenes and missions are a little weird because it varies between which player speaks. Also later on I replayed the last couple of missions in the game to get the 'bad' ending, which was interesting since it's totally different.

The weather was amazing today so I did a bit outside, and also had a proper go on the fixed gear flip paint bike for the first time, which was pretty interesting.

Made some vegetable soup for work since now I'm feeling better it's time I started eating better. But since it's D&D tomorrow, it's probably not the best day to start eating well.

In the evening fired up Dragon Age for the first time in months after I got stuck in the dwarf city bit where there is a huge rotating four headed statue thing with evil spirits. I did it after two goes and carried on.

I was pretty sure I was getting near the end but it's gone and done an AI on me and it looks like a whole new section has opened up. Not a bad thing though as it's a bloody good game which I've really enjoyed even though I've been playing it since May.

Saturday, 14 January 2012

Gradual recovery

Yesterday went much the same as before but with slightly less coughing except for a massive coughing fit at about midday. After work went to visit my sister and brother who is over from Berlin. We were meeting up today anyway but it was nice to hang out, even if by the evening I didn't feel very well at all.

First thing this morning was Saints Row 3 online with Rob as he now has his own copy but he had to buy an online pass to play it online as the one in the box had been used. It's an attempt to make money from used game sales I think. Annoying. But once that was sorted out Rob started a new game. However it imported my character with all his guns, weapons and vehicles, which meant that Rob was at level 1 and therefore rather wimpy while my level 50 character was a walking death machine of destruction although the effect was a bit ruined by him wearing a rather fetching cocktail dress. But it was still really good fun. We only had time to do the first mission and faff about for a bit though.

Today headed over to my Dad's for a meetup with them and my brother and sister. We had coffee and home made scones in the morning and then fish and chips for lunch, before spending the rest of the afternoon chatting and stuff. I felt reasonable for most of the day but after lunchtime began to fail again, not good, although now I'm back at home and safely in bed I feel slightly better.

Interesting development in the Sims 3. My evil guy and his ghost wife randomly had a set of twin girls with the quirk that one is solid and has his skin colour and the other is a fiery ghost like her mother. Weird.

That cruise ship capsizing in Italy seems bonkers for something like that to happen in this day and age.

Thursday, 12 January 2012

Ultra bleh

I went into work on Tuesday only to be sent home by my supervisor since after lunch I wasn't capable of anything more than sneezing and coughing and gazing incomprehendingly at my keyboard. Good thing too as I came home and slept the rest of the day and all night.

Yesterday I couldn't go in since I was coughing so much and felt wretched, but I did go the doctor as I started coughing up horrible stuff. She said my lungs were clear and my throat was OK so I'd have to live with it. In the evening Skyped Andy and we sorted out Berlin flights for April, can't wait.

I was in work today and coped mostly OK until the end of the day when I started to feel rough again. Got curious pasta and stinky cheese for dinner at Rob and Em's which was great but no way I was up to badminton. By the time I got home I was coughing again and I feel quite grotty again.

I spent yesterday in bed playing the Sims 3 on the laptop to try and keep my mind off my coughing. I made a guy who was evil but flirty and charismatic. He promptly worked his way up to the Emperor of Evil, shagged his way through half the town and then invited all his lovers to the same party and revelled in the resultant chaos. Some of them were sealed up in the walls of his dungeon like house to starve, then he got married, only to set his wife on fire so he could bring her back from the dead as a ghost and have ghost babies. It made sense at the time...

Monday, 9 January 2012

Urgh

Yesterday and today have not been good. Spent basically the entire time coughing and felt really feverish today in work. Not good.

I'm sure I had some stuff to put on here but I can't remember what.

It was supposed to be the first D&D of the year today but Rob has come down with the same thing.

Bleh.

Saturday, 7 January 2012

Alles klar

Work was OK yesterday, although didn't feel quite right. Today wasn't great either, I thought I was OK but when I had to go out to get some stuff I started to cough and it hurt, so I came home and settled down.

Also caught up with the episodes of the Walking Dead season 2. It seems to be one of those things that has really polarised people, they either love it or hate it. I think it's pretty good although having read the graphic novel it's not really the same. Apparently some people don't like it because there isn't enough zombies, but I think that's one of the things that makes it interesting.

I watched Super 8 this afternoon after getting it for Christmas. I really enjoyed it, it's a real throwback to how films used to be.

It's weird watching familiar films with a foreign language soundtrack, but fun.

Hope the cough clears up soon, need to get some exercise.

Thursday, 5 January 2012

Multi-Mega

The first day back in work was quieter than expected but there was still qutie a few expected password resets.

My head didn't feel quite right in the morning and by the end of the day I was feeling pretty rough. Yesterday I woke up feeling awful so I spent the day in bed shivering a cold sweat and generating a ridiculous amount of snot. Strangely though, in the evening I needed something to eat and so I ate a Chow Mein Pot Noodle which seemed to have miraculous powers as I felt better almost immediately.

Back in work today although not quite 100% and my voice went all weird and husky which made the phones a bit of a trial. Was very relieved when it was hometime as I was rather tired by then.

Not really much else to report. I went looking for stuff in the spare room and found the Sega Multi-Mega that I got at a car boot sale years ago for I think a tenner. Remembering they were quite rare I had a look online and was rather astonished to see them selling for something like £200-300. I hooked it up to a TV and found that while it loaded cartridges OK, the CD drive didn't spin up disks. But I stuck it on Ebay anyway, someone will probably want it. Somewhere down there is a Spectrum 48k which probably isn't worth much as they made quite a lot of them, but I think also there is a Spectrum +3. That's the one with the disk drive and is probably a bit more rare. Plus a NES and a SNES and some more Megadrive stuff and I think there's an Atari ST too.

Not much else to report. My sense of the week is all messed up with the bank holiday and being ill yesterday, doesn't seem right that it's Friday tomorrow.

Due to being ill my attempts to eat healthily didn't really work out and I haven't done any exercise. Bah.

Thought of a use for the now working Precision M90. It can become a retro emulation machine. It's got plenty of power to run emulators for everything up to and include the N64 and possibly PS1 too, so that can be something to do when I'm bored. After firing up the Multi-Mega and playing a bit of Gods, there is definitely something to be said for running the original hardware. But these days emulators can even simulate old TVs, and modern controllers are a definite plus - Mario 64 with a 360 controller is an absolute joy.

My Dad used to listen to a tape of Variations an awful lot when I was about 10, weird to hear it and see it played live. I've just realised this is why I like the sound of a cello so much. This guy playing an electric one is quite epic - The Cellonator, even if he does seem to be enjoying it a little too much.

Monday, 2 January 2012

Last day of fun

Despite my good intentions for today, it didn't really feature any exercise. Spent some time building up the M90, which is now dual booting XP and Linux. Cleared out some rubbish and had a bit of a bonfire. Nipped to town to pick up an Indian, the last one for a while if I can control myself.

My hips are hurting even though I have not done much today, which is a bit worrying.

Increasingly frustrated with the iPod touch since iOS 5 went on it. It seems slow and glitchy and Safari in particular is laggy and crashes all the time. I put Opera Mobile on my Galaxy S and it's really good, loads faster than the stock browser andd smoother too.

Work tomorrow. I'm on the helpdesk, cue the deluge of password resets.

Sunday, 1 January 2012

Hello 2012

Last night was brilliant. Rob and Em's house was stuffed with people, the usual crowd enhanced by a sizable continent from the south, so it was really heaving. Lots of great food, drink, conversation, cigars and general hilarity. Unfortunately in nearly all the pictures of me I look like I'm having a go at basically everyone, which I suppose I was, but in jest. Fun.

Also a rather alarming picture of Andy and I posing next to a very pregnant Jane and the three of us looking worryingly similar. Definitely need to start going to the gym. I didn't intend to drink much and only had a standard sized bottle of WKD but then the shots of chilli and raspberry vodka, blueberry gin and lime and strawberry vodka jelly started flying around. Steve and I were crashing at Andy's and we headed off at about 2am.

Left Andy's at about midday and came home, feeling a little fragile but mostly tired, and spent the rest of the day chilling out in front of a few DVDs. Hunger didn't really return until the evening when I dug out some leftover chilli from the freezer and had that...mmmm.

Not sure what to do tomorrow, we were hoping to do some D&D stuff but Rob has family stuff with his brother. If the weather is nice, might look into taking the bike out somewhere and going for a ride or something. It's the last day of the holidays so I don't want to just piss it away. We'll see.

Listed the Apple Newton 120 I picked up in December on Ebay. It was sold as untested but I put some batteries in it and it fired right up, and has lasted a good few weeks. It's pretty interesting to play around with what is the iPads very distant ancestor. But I don't have a use for it, and now that I've tested it I'll hopefully get some more cash back than I paid for it.

Still enjoying the 3DS although for now I've given up on the 3D. My eyes have to be in the right mood for it which doesn't seem to happen a lot, so I save it for when it's needed. Certain moments in Mario 3D are easier with it on. The extra power and higher resolution are quite noticable, should be interesting to see what they come up with for the platform.

My weight today: 15 stone dead on, or 210lbs or 95kg.