Penol

Another day that was much the same in work, however enlivened by it being Fat Friday. However the bacon butties were late so I consumed my bacon and sausage bap only half an hour or so to meet Rob and Steve for lunch, who were on a geocaching trip. We headed out for lunch and I thought I'd be safe with a couple of Welsh cakes. Except they came with jam and LOTS of cream so I felt rather bloated and full for the rest of the day.

Didn't do much this evening. Finished watching X-Men First Class after I didn't finish it the other day. Really like that film.

Off to my Dad's tomorrow with bike in tow to sort the gears out and give it a clean, just in time for it to get dirty around the Alwen again on Sunday, unless the weather is too grim.

I feel that I've put on weight again, confirmed by the scales. Definitely need to sort out my horrific diet and approach to food, and get some more exercise in the week.

The new shower is nearly done - looks great! Should be ready to use by the beginning of next week.

Gobbynobbin

Yesterday was not a good day. I damaged my hand by punching a wall in blind rage.

Today was better. Work was much the same, nursing the backup system through the trauma of migrating 10tb of data. Lunch was good though, three of us went and had chips in the park, somehow managing to miss the ludicrous downpour that happened only a few minutes after we got back to the office.

This evening was having a look at some old files and found loads of crazy audio samples and 'music' that I used to create. Since it was copied from a Mac, there were loads of files with no extensions but Audacity isn't phased by that. Some of the stuff is downright odd, but the backwards talking stuff we used to do is pretty funny. The tracks made from a circuit bent Speak & Spell demanding you spell DEAD and me making chicken noises are possible highlights, as well as backwards farting, Rob's insane laugh and other strange things. Very weird.

Extended cut

Sunday was a good day. We headed up to Alwen again and did a circuit. I didn't have to get off and push as much this time and was told I did it in a decent time. The bike still had derrailieur issues though, so need to get that sorted out. Otherwise I'm still really pleased with it.

In the afternoon went and hung out with Rob and took the opportunity to have a shower at theirs as ours is still being sorted out. Then played quite a bit of LA Noire, which is actually pretty good. Rob calls it Grand Theft Fedora, but it's actually quite refreshing to play a sandbox game where you're a good guy and it takes itself seriously, after the bipolar GTA IV and the lunatic Saints Row 2 and 3. After Em came back we had a curious combination of takeaway pizza and Indian kebabs for supper before watching Quantum of Solace, which was actually quite watchable - antihype in full effect for it I guess.

Yesterday was unremarkable in work and at home. Migration of 10tb of data takes time and all the stuff I need to do on it is on hold until it finishes.

Today was much the same except I got the Prelude added to my main car insurance for a day and took it to the auctions. I drove it to work, washing it on the way, and then took it to the place. It felt rather odd to be driving it again, probably not helped by it being stood for a month and a half. It reminded me of how comfortable it is though and how nicely it handles. Steve very kindly gave me a lift back from the auction place although we had to meet in the gigantic Asda, where it took some time to find each other. I'm not sure how much the Prelude will go for, if it goes at all, but I need to get rid of it now while it still has some tax and a decent chunk of MOT.

The new extended cut content for ME3 came out today. I watched the updated endings on YouTube. I'm actually reasonably OK with them now as I think it adds a lot of context to the choices and what happens. I like the new refuse option too, even if it is a giant fuck you to the people who complained. I tried to download the new content this evening but the Xbox wouldn't have it, probably too many people trying to do it as well.

Started listing stuff on Ebay again. Need to get rid of some more crap and have a damn good clearout, although at this point it would probably be easier to remove all the stuff I do want to keep and chuck the rest. Difficult to do that though.

Bah

It's been a long and curious week. Work has been OK. We had a guy come in on Monday and Tuesday to look at the backup system and we did a lot of work on it. It's currently migrating 10tb of data and then I'll need to reconfigure it some more. Happy days. Also I managed to install the backup system on a Linux machine, which isn't easy as it needs some libraries to be tweaked and stuff, but it did eventually work. It was only in a Virtualbox machine on my laptop though. What I want to do is set up a proper test system to try stuff out on. The guy who came in was quite shocked that we didn't have one.

Badminton was good on Thursday but we had to play with the dreadful woman, who was a real pain as usual. Somehow I've managed to not play with her for quite some time so it was something of a shock to realise how spiteful and nasty she is on the court. The meal beforehand was ginger themed, with a ginger curry, ginger cake and cans of ginger beer. Very nice indeed.

Rob invited everyone to the new Indian in town yesterday which everyone I know who has been says is amazing. It really is as well. I was torn between having something new and something familiar to compare but I ended up with a nice safe korma. And it was pretty damn epic, one of the best kormas I've ever had and the peshwari naan was great too. Will try something new next time.

After the old shower tried to electrocute me last week, our neighbour is installing a new one by ripping out the bath that nobody uses but the dog, and putting one there instead, so the house is a bit of a mess and I can't get out.

The car went in to get a new temperature sensor fitted so the gauge works properly, and to see why it was needing the coolant topping up a couple of times a week. They sorted the sensor OK but couldn't find a leak so they put some of that sealant stuff in and said to keep an eye on it. At least they said they didn't think it was a head gasket since the oil is OK.

ME3 extended cut next week. I'm not going to be burned again though, I'll wait until everyone else has played it and find out exactly what it is before I download 1.9gb. Also I've finally decided the multplayer is bollocks. It's mindlessly boring and repetitive and just downright tedious. I've only ever played it with Rob and Steve. I'd much rather they had never bothered with it and made the actual game better.

Megasnax

Yesterday had a lazy morning playing Rayman until it was time to head down to town for a geek fest with a couple of guys from work. In preparation for the next Dark Knight film, we watched Batman and the Mask of the Phantasm, Batman Begins and the Dark Knight. It was a really good day but we went massively overboard on snacks again. We had dicussed this but we failed to control it and it ended up just as bad as last time. An interesting event was the cat, who came and sat on my knee, which is impressive because originally he was terrified of strangers.

This morning it was off to the reservoir at a thoroughly ridiculous hour for a bike ride again, as I'd been invited by Rob P and Steve to join them on their run. On the way there it absolutely pissed it down but fortunately it held off while we were going round. I kept up with them for a while but I lost time because my legs cried out for mercy several times so I had to get off and push for a minute or so to give them a rest. And of course the horrible hill at the far end is impassable by me on bike, even in granny gears. Also the paths were wet and the bike has no mudguards so I got sprayed with muddy water quite a lot. Still, it was fun, and I didn't finish all that far behind them.

The rest of the day has been spent feeling like my legs were made out of pasta, but I had a clearout of some crap, a bonfire, and watched Paul again as I hadn't seen it in a while. I really liked it. Also finally logged the caches from the Skeg to Ness a couple of weeks ago, bring my total up to over 300.

A long day

Work went on forever today, but was relatively uneventful.

After work was Em and Vicky's birthday meal, which was in a local place called The Forum. Really good food and a good time was had by all. There were about 14 people there, the usual gang with a couple of people from work. The place was pretty good, a nice room and plenty of space for people to hang out and chat. I'd never been upstairs in there before and I can see why it gets good ratings.

Afterwards we went to a nearby pub, where we were warned/informed by the barmaid that there was a hen party present and there would be strippers. Shortly afterward loud screams and whoops announced the arrival of said strippers. However it was rather odd since there was both a female and a male, both clad rather unimaginatively in police uniforms and it escalated rather quickly to quite a surreal scene.

Otherwise not much to report. Really tired but not sure why.

Misanthropy

Yesterday and today were OK in work. Not much going on really. The backup system I think is OK but it might still be taunting me. Not sure.

D&D last night for the first time in ages, which was really good fun. First was a skills check which we won epically, followed by a friendly fight with goblins which was interesting and again we kicked arse. Really fun evening.

Today was badminton, which was the usual food at Rob and Em's and then to badminton. It was fun as usual.

Been in a really misanthropic mood the last couple of days. Not sure why, but really tetchy and quick to anger. Not at things in particular but just really reacting to strangers being twatty, especially while driving. Not a good feeling since I think it's my own insecurities lashing out at my own mind.

The new MacBook Pro is what I've been expecting from Apple for a while. A totally sealed, unrepairable, unupgradable unit with no optical drive and barely any ports. Reading the reaction to this has been interesting. Some people think that it's the right direction, others don't. Is it really worth sacrificing so much so it can be thin and pretty?  It's a step too far towards form over function for me and making the whole computer a disposable item.

I could kind of understand it with the MacBook Air, which is designed to be ultraportable but something that's supposedly a 'Pro' machine? I don't think Apple gives a fuck about that market any more, it's all about the consumer market now.

I wouldn't mind all that much, but when Apple does something, everyone else copies it so I fully expect to see PC makers doing the same thing. The pretentiously named Retina display is interesting though - that I wouldn't mind seeing in PC laptops.

Vita?

Yesterday and today the backup system seems to have got it's arse in gear and started moving tapes around properly - I hope it's going to stay this way and it's not just found another way to torment me. However, the signs are promising.

I went insane last week and bought a used PS Vita. I swore to myself I wouldn't, but I succumbed after thinking back to my old PSP and how I enjoyed a lot of the games on it. I regretted it almost immediately but now I've actually used the device, I'm quite impressed with it. Basically it's a big fat PSP with two little analogue sticks and a touch screen and a weird touch panel on the back. The system software is rather odd and things like the browser and map applications are slow and strange but the actual games are pretty good and the ergonomics of it are great.

So far I've played Rayman Origins, which is absolutely stunning, and the strangeness that is Touch my Katamari. I played the one on the PSP and it was camp and weird enough then, but this version takes the campness level up to 11. The King of All Cosmos is a rather strange person, that's all I'm saying, and drops innuendo like there's no tomorrow.

The 3DS might be doing OK after a rough start but I'm not sure about the Vita, at least not until they drop the price. The market seems to have moved on from dedicated games machines to the crappy little 99p games on the various phones. I can see why people like them, but I think touch based controls can only go so far and you end up with something like GTA III on the iPad - impressive but unplayable. I don't know if they will drop the price of the Vita though, since they can't be making any money on it as it is - it costs £220 and has the same hardware has a phone that costs three times that.

Another thing I like about the Vita that probably nobody else will ever care about is that it's nicely assembled with a modular construction and standard screws, so if they break they should be pretty easy to repair. Here's a nice detailed teardown of one on iFixit.

Bad things are of course the stupid non-standard memory cards and non-standard charging port. Typical Sony in that regard really. Sony is quite a bipolar company in some ways, making nice devices but then crippling them with proprietary standards.
 
Right now the last thing I need is another games machine after I swore to cut down on the Xbox, but at least the Vita is easier to play in small doses, and is less likely to lead to long snack consuming sessions in the armchair. At least I hope so.

Some guy played  Civilisation II for ten years to see what would happen - the answer is basically 1984. Interesting discussion about it here.

I was thinking about the triathlon we saw in Blackpool. It would be great to be able to do something like that, but I can't swim, can't run very far and would probably have trouble with the bike part. But they do a duathlon where you do a 5k run, 10k on the bike and another 5k run.

Blackpool

Went up to visit my cousin Pauline on Friday evening. We had a pretty good weekend, and it was fun hanging out. We didn't eat very well although she managed a 2.5 mile run while I was snoring the morning away.

We explored Blackpool a lot more this time and I thought it was OK. I've never thought of it as a place I'd specifically want to go before but I enjoyed it a lot. It's very British somehow. We went up the Tower and had a look down through the scary glass floor, and had a ride on one of the posh new Flexity trams, which was good. Pauline had done neither of these things, despite living in the area for quite some time. I do wonder if Blackpool was improved by the bright sunshine and ice cream, much like Skegness was last week. Interesting how I've been to two major seaside resorts on either side of the country a week apart.

While going up the Tower we saw the ballroom, which despite it being midday was in full swing with music and couples dancing around. It was somewhat strange but also interesting to watch. We also saw the Comedy Carpet on the promenade which turned out to be unexpectedly brilliant. It was great going round reading all the quotes. I was particularly fond of the Monty Python section, and even spotted some Hitch-hiker's on there. Examining it was made interesting by the Blackpool Triathlon, which was going up and down the prom and then they finished by running over the Comedy Carpet. We actually saw the winner finish with a time of 2:21 I think it was, and he looked terrifyingly fit. Then saw him later on nearly driving his car into one of the new trams, perhaps due to tiredness. Oops.

I don't know what Blackpool is like later on but I suspect the evening and nightime probably turns into alcohol fueled carnage like Cardiff does so it's probably less fun around that time. Also we were there on a Sunday and not in the height of summer, so that probably meant it was quieter than normal. But I was still surprised at how much I enjoyed visiting it. Like Skegness, it's what Rhyl wants so hard to be.

78 today

Another similar day in work, but made some progress, which is good.

Went round to my Dad's after work as it is birthday, somewhat scarily he is 78 today. Wow. It was a nice evening,

Not much to say today for some reason.

Oh well.

Arse

The backup system had many and myriad problems over the weekend again but I think I made some progress in finding out the root cause of them. I'm getting tired of it now. The damn thing takes up all my time in work and nobody seems to give a shit about it.

Otherwise an uneventful day. Not in a good mood on the whole. Tired of my current existence but can't do anything about it. Feels like I'm trapped in a ghastly prison of my own making.

Busy long weekend

It's been a busy weekend.

Saturday was off to Skegness for the first day of the Skeg to Ness geocaching run. We set off very early and made it to Skegness reasonably uneventfully except for the satnav having a moment and taking us on a random route through Spilsby. This wasn't so bad though as it was a very pretty little place.

Skegness was OK. We didn't see much of it but it reminded me of Rhyl or Blackpool done right, but it was relatively quiet, and bright sunshine and a big ice cream helps make anywhere look nice. After that it was on the road for the geocaching. Not much to say about it really except it was a lot of driving through country roads in the sunshine, stopping pretty often to find a cache. We did really well the first day. There was a distinct point though when suddenly everyone had had enough, and we headed to the Travelodge in Lincoln. We had a pretty good meal at a Fayre and Square place, where Steve and I had a cookie dough pizza, which is basically a gigantic cookie with chocolate sauce, marshmallows and chunks of chocolate brownie all over it. Absolutely delicious.

Sunday didn't start well, at least not for me. I dropped my toothbrush in the toilet, unfortunately while it was occupied, so it had to go in the bin. Then I had a massive nosebleed while I was showering but didn't notice until I smeared a massive load of blood across the towel. Also it was raining and I hadn't brought a coat, and had to borrow Andrea's Mum's coat, which is a sort of salmon pink colour.

That day didn't go so well. The weather was a definite hindrance and we were all pretty soaked through for most of the day but fortunately it wasn't all that cold. The rain did ease up every now and again but on the whole it was foggy, grey and grim. Morale was low, and a fair few unfound caches didn't help. However, we had a debate and decided to stay in the Holiday Inn at Nottingham so we could carry on the next day. We got massively lost on the way there, and somehow ended up in Derby, but we made it and after the day of being soggy, the rooms were like paradise. There's a Hungry Horse next to the canal, so we had another decent meal there, made slightly odd by them playing retro 90's chart music the whole time, accompanied by a mute TV with Gary Barlow. Odd.

The next day was much better weatherwise, so we made good progress. We started out by visiting the Games Workshop main office where they have Warhammer World and giant space marines, which was pretty cool. After that I drove us until the insurance ran out at midday, and we covered a lot of good ground until one of the GPSs lost a load of caches, causing a delay while we reprogrammed the other one. There were a few DNFs but not enough to break our spirit, but while we were on the Peak District, morale began to flag slightly. We knew we had a long way to get home and the car was low on diesel, but we had come far enough to make the remainder doable in another single day trip. We headed down to Buxton, filled up, and headed home.

We might not have done all the caches, but it was a great experience. There was plenty of beautiful English countryside to be seen and it was really good fun. Despite the horrible weather on Sunday we remained largely in good spirits.

Today I met up with my Dad and sister to go and see my brother who is over from Berlin for an international retreat in Whitchurch. It was a bit of a trek as we got lost, but we picked him up and we headed into Ellesmere because it was close. We sat around in a cafe having coffee and cake and then ended up having fish and chips because he hadn't had some in a while. It was a good day and it's always great to see him.

Work tomorrow. I wonder how the backup system held up over the long weekend.

Idiocy

A week with ups and downs. Generally the downs being in work, and the ups in the evening. I finally got my two extra tape drives, which is nice, and the IBM guy who came to install them somehow found out about my trips to Berlin, and it turned out he'd been in April and loved it, so we had a nice chat about that.

We haven't been able to do D&D for a while due to one of the party being in a Dracula play in Wrexham. We went to see it on Tuesday and it was pretty decent. The theatre was small, but they made really good use of the space, and the sets were creative. The acting was pretty good although some of the cast members were a little hammy. Also there was *gasp* nudity in it.

Thursday was badminton again, this time was a bit more sensible than last week, and we didn't quite overeat so dramatically, so our gameplay was a lot better.

Tomorrow is the ultra mega geocaching trip - the Skeg to Ness. Driving from Skegness to Neston on the wirral, taking in 202 caches along the way. This is what the Wirral trip a couple of weeks ago was a warm up for, and I think it's going to be interesting. Ah well.

Not much else to report. Fountain pens are fun, but ink is annoying if you get it on your fingers. The Vaio UX is behaving better with the wireless now so I'm not sure if the wifi is as bad as I thought. Need to sit down and test it thoroughly.

Was thinking back to how much fun Saints Row 3 was. Might do a replay of it, but to be quite honest I've barely touched the Xbox in a couple of weeks and I'd rather spend the time trying to exercise. So far I've failed pretty badly at that, but if I start on something on the Xbox again it makes it all the more unlikely. Also I want to replay BioShock and give Bioshock 2 another go at some point.

How is it June already?!