Yesterday met up with a group of people I used to work with at my last company. We went to a new place in Ewloe called the Running Hare, typical pub food place, but it was very good. Spent a good couple of hours gossiping and eating.
Today went to Andy's to watch the two rugby games. Good fun, and quite entertaining, and then watched the new Doctor Who episode, which was decidedly peculiar.
The car is troubling me. The gearbox has become rather notchy and occasionally it's hard to select a gear and then tonight when I was turning round at home, the reverse lights didn't come on, and the number plate light is unhelpfully shining out behind the rear wheel instead of up through the bumper as it should. Argh! Also I think the suspension and brakes are starting to feel tired. It has an MOT until July so I'm not sure if I should ditch it now while it has some remaining, or spend a load of money on it and hope I can get it through the MOT.
If we are going to move house like I think we need to, something with more space in it might be useful. Not sure what to do.
Saturday 30 March 2013
Thursday 28 March 2013
Back to reality
Finally ventured forth today. The track was something of a bugger to get down due to the snow being quite deep, but the car made it down fine. It was nice to get back to work and see people again.
Badminton after work, which was good fun. Usual food at Steve's and then off to badminton. Had a few good games, which was nice.
I had a really odd dream about going to Russia on holiday last night. It was very vivid and real but I can't remember all of it. I do remember going to a cinema where each screen was basically an ordinary living room with a large plasma TV and beanbags, before getting on a tram that went between two stations ten feet apart. I think what caused this was finding the menu of a Russian restaurant in Berlin and reading it all.
Not much else to report really. I forgot it was a four-day bank holiday until Wednesday, so that was a nice surprise. Tomorrow I have a meetup with old work colleagues, then Saturday going to watch the rugby at Andy's, then going to my Dad's on Sunday, so it'll be pack.
Rob has given me Game of Thrones season 1 and 2 on DVD to watch - can't wait to get going on that. I've also picked up South Park seasons 4,5 and 6.
The M11x was rebuilt with the SSD the other day. Had a little bit of a faff getting all the drivers on again but now it's all good. It boots and runs nicely but the main reason I wanted the SSD is because it gets moved around a lot, so that's one thing I don't need to worry about too much.
Had a go on Duolingo, a free website for learning languages. I've started the German course and I quite like the way it handles it. Only really done the first module so far, but it's fun.
Been playing with the old Organiser IIs again. For some reason I prefer the older 2-line models over the later 4-line models, perhaps because the characters are so much bigger. I just like the way you can pick it up and instantly program it to do what you want. What I'd like to do is get an eraser for the datapaks they use, since they are EPROMs and can only be erased with UV light. That way I can consolidate data across machines and things.
Badminton after work, which was good fun. Usual food at Steve's and then off to badminton. Had a few good games, which was nice.
I had a really odd dream about going to Russia on holiday last night. It was very vivid and real but I can't remember all of it. I do remember going to a cinema where each screen was basically an ordinary living room with a large plasma TV and beanbags, before getting on a tram that went between two stations ten feet apart. I think what caused this was finding the menu of a Russian restaurant in Berlin and reading it all.
Not much else to report really. I forgot it was a four-day bank holiday until Wednesday, so that was a nice surprise. Tomorrow I have a meetup with old work colleagues, then Saturday going to watch the rugby at Andy's, then going to my Dad's on Sunday, so it'll be pack.
Rob has given me Game of Thrones season 1 and 2 on DVD to watch - can't wait to get going on that. I've also picked up South Park seasons 4,5 and 6.
The M11x was rebuilt with the SSD the other day. Had a little bit of a faff getting all the drivers on again but now it's all good. It boots and runs nicely but the main reason I wanted the SSD is because it gets moved around a lot, so that's one thing I don't need to worry about too much.
Had a go on Duolingo, a free website for learning languages. I've started the German course and I quite like the way it handles it. Only really done the first module so far, but it's fun.
Been playing with the old Organiser IIs again. For some reason I prefer the older 2-line models over the later 4-line models, perhaps because the characters are so much bigger. I just like the way you can pick it up and instantly program it to do what you want. What I'd like to do is get an eraser for the datapaks they use, since they are EPROMs and can only be erased with UV light. That way I can consolidate data across machines and things.
Tuesday 26 March 2013
Marooned
Not much to report due to being trapped in the house since Friday. Well, trapped is perhaps a strong word, but there was plenty of snow on Friday and Saturday and despite some sunshine yesterday it hasn't shown any sign of melting. Due to the wind, it formed some pretty large drifts, which means if I want to get my car out it will take a lot of digging. The water pumped up OK on Saturday, but hasn't since then.
Fortunately I can now work from home, which is what I've been doing as supplies are OK for at least a couple more days after our neighbour did a bit of shopping for us. Carrying 8 litres of water up the track wasn't much fun though.
The people who own the field finally came and picked up their annoying ponies yesterday. They kept whinnying and galloping at random across the fields, and one of them would chase the dog as well.
Booked everything now for the Berlin trip next week. Looking forward to it now, just hoping the weather behaves itself.
Fortunately I can now work from home, which is what I've been doing as supplies are OK for at least a couple more days after our neighbour did a bit of shopping for us. Carrying 8 litres of water up the track wasn't much fun though.
The people who own the field finally came and picked up their annoying ponies yesterday. They kept whinnying and galloping at random across the fields, and one of them would chase the dog as well.
Booked everything now for the Berlin trip next week. Looking forward to it now, just hoping the weather behaves itself.
Thursday 21 March 2013
Bored of the white stuff
Monday was payday, which was nice. I was able to put some cash into savings, which are looking healthier now. There wasn't any DnD on Tuesday due to commitments, so I lazed about at home not doing much.
Last night went to see Welcome to the Punch with James McAvoy and Mark Strong. It was a fairly decent film although somewhat predictable, but still fun anyway. Went with Steve, Andy and Robert from work to the cinema in Rhyl. I hadn't been there for years, not even since it was refurbed. It still has mostly flat seating but it was actually pretty decent. The film was listed at starting at 8:40pm but didn't start until 9:10pm at least due to trailers and shit. Oh well. It's been quite some time since I did something like that on a work night and it was rather odd considering we did it pretty often a few years ago.
Badminton tonight. Rob had to go and play a match in Mold, although autocorrect struck again so he told use he had to 'play snatch in Mold',causing much confusion. It was a good evening, and we took the time to head over to see Andrea from work and give her the money for the Hitch-Hiker's show in October. It was good to see her again, as she's now working in Rhyl.
Ebay success, my old server went for a frankly astronishing £325, and I got about £90 for two old bass necks. This combined with some other bits and bobs led to there being £476 in my Paypal account, so most of it went into savings. I have however bought an SSD for the M11x, which is something I've been meaning to do for a while now.
I've booked a trip to Berlin in April to see my brother again. It's the weekend of the half-marathon. I'm flying over and spending a couple of nights staying with him, and then shifting to a hotel. Looking forward to it now. Today there was a nasty accident near the Olympic Stadium - two police helicopters were taking part in a training exercise and collided.
There has been warnings of mad snow tonight, and sadly they were true. By the time we hit Denbigh on the way back home, there was sleet falling. When I got home there was a lot of snow falling and it was sticking, so I got home just in time. Management in work asked us to make sure we took our laptops home.
Last night went to see Welcome to the Punch with James McAvoy and Mark Strong. It was a fairly decent film although somewhat predictable, but still fun anyway. Went with Steve, Andy and Robert from work to the cinema in Rhyl. I hadn't been there for years, not even since it was refurbed. It still has mostly flat seating but it was actually pretty decent. The film was listed at starting at 8:40pm but didn't start until 9:10pm at least due to trailers and shit. Oh well. It's been quite some time since I did something like that on a work night and it was rather odd considering we did it pretty often a few years ago.
Badminton tonight. Rob had to go and play a match in Mold, although autocorrect struck again so he told use he had to 'play snatch in Mold',causing much confusion. It was a good evening, and we took the time to head over to see Andrea from work and give her the money for the Hitch-Hiker's show in October. It was good to see her again, as she's now working in Rhyl.
Ebay success, my old server went for a frankly astronishing £325, and I got about £90 for two old bass necks. This combined with some other bits and bobs led to there being £476 in my Paypal account, so most of it went into savings. I have however bought an SSD for the M11x, which is something I've been meaning to do for a while now.
I've booked a trip to Berlin in April to see my brother again. It's the weekend of the half-marathon. I'm flying over and spending a couple of nights staying with him, and then shifting to a hotel. Looking forward to it now. Today there was a nasty accident near the Olympic Stadium - two police helicopters were taking part in a training exercise and collided.
There has been warnings of mad snow tonight, and sadly they were true. By the time we hit Denbigh on the way back home, there was sleet falling. When I got home there was a lot of snow falling and it was sticking, so I got home just in time. Management in work asked us to make sure we took our laptops home.
Sunday 17 March 2013
Herf
Last week went as expected. No real surprises in work.
D&D on Tuesday was good. Despite constant petty bickering, the group are starting to find their feet. Except when the cleric rolls less religion than the pissed off dwarf. I also scared the crap out of Rob by accidentially doing my war cry too loud while he was reading.
Yesterday was off to Andy's for most of the day rugby. The middle game was the highlight, Wales v England, and much to our surprise Wales absolutely battered them. It was an awesome match. The day went as planned with snacks and drinks and then some really good chilli in the evening. Curious snacks invluded Guiness crisps which I thought were nice but nobody else did.
Today we met up again for breakfast in the biker cafe in Denbigh and then I met up with Andy for another walk around Denbigh which ended up at 5.4 miles, which was good.
Sold my old Squier bass neck on Ebay and one off a broken Cort Curbow. Also after I finally found a scrap box in work that would fit the PowerEdge 1950 I listed that. Somewhat alarmingly it's up to £195, which is a lot more than I expected.
Both of my main pairs of glasses fell apart this weekend, leaving me with my old old pair. Fortunately the prescritpion is pretty much the same but they feel different and don't sit the same on my face so they are taking some getting used to. I need to arrange an eye test and new glasses I think.
Car tax due, bah.
D&D on Tuesday was good. Despite constant petty bickering, the group are starting to find their feet. Except when the cleric rolls less religion than the pissed off dwarf. I also scared the crap out of Rob by accidentially doing my war cry too loud while he was reading.
Yesterday was off to Andy's for most of the day rugby. The middle game was the highlight, Wales v England, and much to our surprise Wales absolutely battered them. It was an awesome match. The day went as planned with snacks and drinks and then some really good chilli in the evening. Curious snacks invluded Guiness crisps which I thought were nice but nobody else did.
Today we met up again for breakfast in the biker cafe in Denbigh and then I met up with Andy for another walk around Denbigh which ended up at 5.4 miles, which was good.
Sold my old Squier bass neck on Ebay and one off a broken Cort Curbow. Also after I finally found a scrap box in work that would fit the PowerEdge 1950 I listed that. Somewhat alarmingly it's up to £195, which is a lot more than I expected.
Both of my main pairs of glasses fell apart this weekend, leaving me with my old old pair. Fortunately the prescritpion is pretty much the same but they feel different and don't sit the same on my face so they are taking some getting used to. I need to arrange an eye test and new glasses I think.
Car tax due, bah.
Monday 11 March 2013
Walkies
Andy and I had thought about going up Moel Famau yesterday but when we saw that it was cold and snowing we decided not to. Instead we took a long walk around Denbigh, which turned out to be a sort of figure of 8. Andy was tracking it on his phone and we were surprised when we discovered we had covered 4.9 miles.
Annoyingly my left hip started to play up though, something that hasn't happened in a while. It stayed quite painful for the rest of the day, although it's OK again today.
Work was OK today. I used an old redundant AIX server to test the viability of the backups of one of the live ones, which led to me spending much of the afternoon sitting cross legged in front of the laptop on a box that was acting as the serial console. Combined with the white noise from all the servers, it felt very zen, since the bloody thing took so long to boot.
It's been a bloody cold day and came home to find the water had stopped pumping. Not good.
I posted my old Squier bass body today and the Atari Portfolio, which was going off to Israel for some reason. Oh well. I have also now got the long boxes I needed to post the various guitar necks I am going to sell. It's just easier to sell guitars in bits if possible I find.
Annoyingly my left hip started to play up though, something that hasn't happened in a while. It stayed quite painful for the rest of the day, although it's OK again today.
Work was OK today. I used an old redundant AIX server to test the viability of the backups of one of the live ones, which led to me spending much of the afternoon sitting cross legged in front of the laptop on a box that was acting as the serial console. Combined with the white noise from all the servers, it felt very zen, since the bloody thing took so long to boot.
It's been a bloody cold day and came home to find the water had stopped pumping. Not good.
I posted my old Squier bass body today and the Atari Portfolio, which was going off to Israel for some reason. Oh well. I have also now got the long boxes I needed to post the various guitar necks I am going to sell. It's just easier to sell guitars in bits if possible I find.
Saturday 9 March 2013
Mega week
Monday was not a good day. After the day of fail I slept like crap so spent Monday feeling really tired and couldn't focus on anything. I came home and was in no fit state to do circuits so I had a lazy one. Fortunately I slept fine again that night and so I was OK for work and DnD on Tuesday. That was good fun again, and I managed to not be quite so crap in battle now that my character has some sensible armour.
Wednesday was a fairly quiet day. I didn't do much in the evening except to play with the beheaded Latittude E4300. I think I mentioned it before. It came with a damaged screen and case damage, so it's been stripped down to just the bottom half and had a spare hard drive put in where the optical drive should go, and is now running Server 2012. It's quite nice actually, quiet and effective. Had some bad news about a woman in work - she fell over playing badmimton and broke her hip, breaking the ball part off. She went in the next morning for an emergency half-hip replacement, very nasty stuff.
Tuesday and Wednesday in work were spent doing AS/400 training. I knew a little bit about them and it was quite helpful. In fact I actually quite like the interface and how it works now.
Thursday was work and then badminton, wihch was great. The troublesome woman has damaged her shoulder due to some incident with a pony, sad for her but at least we get at least several weeks worth of happy badminton. The atmosphere is so completely different when she's not around.
Friday was a decent day in work, spent the day with a consultant again on the backup system. It was a productive day. In the evening it was off to Denbigh badminton, where I haven't been for some time. I nearly didn't go but I'm glad I did as I had some really fun knackering games. All was good until one of the better players, in his last match of the night managed to do his ankle in going for a shot. He somehow dislocated his ankle as he landed, and then as he fell, put it back in again. It was incredibly painful and they had to get an ambulance.
So badminton is not as safe as I thought...
Today I went to my Dad's in the morning, where we had breakfast and lunch and chatted a lot, and then it was off to Steve's. We set out to watch the Wales game, which was OK, and then set out on a giant Android upgrade fest. Steve and I were both tired of the stock Samsung ROMs on our Galaxy SII and Note respectively, and Rob's origina Galaxy S (my old one) was doing very random things. After some time trying to remember how to isntall the Clockworkmod boot loader, we got some ROMs installed. I've got Cyanogenmod 10.1 nightly on mine at the moment - seems OK. I was thinking about trying to get the proper Samsung Jelly Bean ROM, but I'm not really all that keen on what Samsung does to Android. Binx the cat is also now fascinated by my phone because I showed a video of giraffes on it.
Tired now, it's been a long day. It's also gone cold again - was hoping to go for a walk with Andy tomorrow but not sure if the weather will be OK.
Wednesday was a fairly quiet day. I didn't do much in the evening except to play with the beheaded Latittude E4300. I think I mentioned it before. It came with a damaged screen and case damage, so it's been stripped down to just the bottom half and had a spare hard drive put in where the optical drive should go, and is now running Server 2012. It's quite nice actually, quiet and effective. Had some bad news about a woman in work - she fell over playing badmimton and broke her hip, breaking the ball part off. She went in the next morning for an emergency half-hip replacement, very nasty stuff.
Tuesday and Wednesday in work were spent doing AS/400 training. I knew a little bit about them and it was quite helpful. In fact I actually quite like the interface and how it works now.
Thursday was work and then badminton, wihch was great. The troublesome woman has damaged her shoulder due to some incident with a pony, sad for her but at least we get at least several weeks worth of happy badminton. The atmosphere is so completely different when she's not around.
Friday was a decent day in work, spent the day with a consultant again on the backup system. It was a productive day. In the evening it was off to Denbigh badminton, where I haven't been for some time. I nearly didn't go but I'm glad I did as I had some really fun knackering games. All was good until one of the better players, in his last match of the night managed to do his ankle in going for a shot. He somehow dislocated his ankle as he landed, and then as he fell, put it back in again. It was incredibly painful and they had to get an ambulance.
So badminton is not as safe as I thought...
Today I went to my Dad's in the morning, where we had breakfast and lunch and chatted a lot, and then it was off to Steve's. We set out to watch the Wales game, which was OK, and then set out on a giant Android upgrade fest. Steve and I were both tired of the stock Samsung ROMs on our Galaxy SII and Note respectively, and Rob's origina Galaxy S (my old one) was doing very random things. After some time trying to remember how to isntall the Clockworkmod boot loader, we got some ROMs installed. I've got Cyanogenmod 10.1 nightly on mine at the moment - seems OK. I was thinking about trying to get the proper Samsung Jelly Bean ROM, but I'm not really all that keen on what Samsung does to Android. Binx the cat is also now fascinated by my phone because I showed a video of giraffes on it.
Tired now, it's been a long day. It's also gone cold again - was hoping to go for a walk with Andy tomorrow but not sure if the weather will be OK.
Sunday 3 March 2013
Day of fail
Anticipated bike ride didn't happen because Andy was still not well and Rob and Em couldn't make it. Suppose I could have gone by myself but by the time I got out of bed I couldn't be bothered. As the day went on I felt less and less inclined to do any exercise, so I didn't.
Attempted to make brownies again, epic fail, totally unsalvageable.
Attempted to install my own version of the backup system in work on a broken old laptop that I've repurposed as a server and the installation failed for no logical reason that I could see.
Supper was a bowl of Heinz alphabetti spaghetti with cheese on it, depression personified in food form.
Shaved, cut myself on a stupid bump that I have above my mouth, happens too often and I hate it. Hate shaving in general, why can't they invent those force-field based ones or whatever it was in Star Trek.
Stupid cunt on Ebay keeps asking me to accept his offer of £15 for an old IBM Model M keyboard I put on there. I said I was going to let it run but he still keeps sending messages. It's got 18 watchers at the moment.
So now in a pretty shit mood. Can't be arsed with anything, life is miserable and lonely, feel completely helpless as to what to do about it and that nobody gives a shit.
Urgh, hope I feel better tomorrow. Hate feeling like this.
Saturday 2 March 2013
Forgetful
Keep forgetting to update this thing.
Tuesday was DnD night, which was at Robert's place this time. It was really good fun and Robert's home-made cottage pie and brownies were a taste sensation.
Wednesday was a quiet evening in after a day of work on the backup system with a consultant. It was a productive day however.
Thursday was badminton, which wasn't too bad except Em and I were left to our own devices for food, which led to a visit to the chippy and subsequently feeling like we were weighed down on the court. Even though we had split a normal single portion between us.
Last night was a semi-leaving bash for Em and her boss Kelly, who aren't really leaving, just being transferred to another department. We went to Wetherspoons and then separated. Em and I made our way to Wrexham where we were a bit early, so we had a look in the startlingly large Tesco there, which had interesting sights such as 50" plasma TVs for just £387, and more importantly toilets. After enjoying the sight of someone manhandling one of the aforesaid TVs into a normal trolley, we headed to the Sleepy Panda. I have to admit that it was bloody spectacular - one of the best Chineses I have ever had. Exceptional.
Today has been a fairly OK day, spent some time playing around on the computer and trying to complete a game on the CPC that I never managed when I was younger - Knight Tyme. Sort of a graphical adventure type thing that has a clever menu system that works very well. In the evening it was off to my sister's place for her engagement party. It was a nice event but not really my scene so I left a bit early.
Having now decided what instruments I want to keep, I dismantled some of the old basses and things to sell them. The Squier Jazz body I've been using for a few years now has been listed on Ebay. I have a few necks to sell but are tricky to find boxes for, but golf club boxes might do the trick.
Hopefully going for a bike ride tomorrow, if the weather is good.
Tuesday was DnD night, which was at Robert's place this time. It was really good fun and Robert's home-made cottage pie and brownies were a taste sensation.
Wednesday was a quiet evening in after a day of work on the backup system with a consultant. It was a productive day however.
Thursday was badminton, which wasn't too bad except Em and I were left to our own devices for food, which led to a visit to the chippy and subsequently feeling like we were weighed down on the court. Even though we had split a normal single portion between us.
Last night was a semi-leaving bash for Em and her boss Kelly, who aren't really leaving, just being transferred to another department. We went to Wetherspoons and then separated. Em and I made our way to Wrexham where we were a bit early, so we had a look in the startlingly large Tesco there, which had interesting sights such as 50" plasma TVs for just £387, and more importantly toilets. After enjoying the sight of someone manhandling one of the aforesaid TVs into a normal trolley, we headed to the Sleepy Panda. I have to admit that it was bloody spectacular - one of the best Chineses I have ever had. Exceptional.
Today has been a fairly OK day, spent some time playing around on the computer and trying to complete a game on the CPC that I never managed when I was younger - Knight Tyme. Sort of a graphical adventure type thing that has a clever menu system that works very well. In the evening it was off to my sister's place for her engagement party. It was a nice event but not really my scene so I left a bit early.
Having now decided what instruments I want to keep, I dismantled some of the old basses and things to sell them. The Squier Jazz body I've been using for a few years now has been listed on Ebay. I have a few necks to sell but are tricky to find boxes for, but golf club boxes might do the trick.
Hopefully going for a bike ride tomorrow, if the weather is good.
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