It's been an OK week, frustrating in work, but otherwise not too bad. Unhealthy due to my Mum's birthday, which involved a Chinese takeaway, and lack of exercise so far.
GTA V has continued to impress. I'm still really enjoying it, except for the announced bug where cars can disappear. But that's only minor.
It has been suggested that we do the Berlin half-marathon next year. I'm in two minds about it - that I really want to do it and it would be great to do in a group, but then also I balk at the training through the winter and if I'm actually capable of doing it. Not sure, but it's certainly a thought.
Bass developments. I decided that while I liked the Ibanez BTB07LTD I picked up a few months ago, I wasn't keen on the 35" scale. I've ordered a new Squier Jazz Bass to replace it, which is the nice natural 70's model. It would have arrived today except they failed to deliver it. The idea is that I fund it by selling off the various other ones I have. I offered the Ibanez to a couple of people including someone in one of the buildings I used to support in work, and he suggested a swap with his Jackson 5-string bass. The intention was to cut down on the number of basses but a 5-string might be useful...
Not sure what's happening over the weekend or early next week as my Dad's wife has family coming over from Norway, but they seem hopelessly disorganised.
The Cookie Clicker is odd, but fun.
Thursday 26 September 2013
Friday 20 September 2013
Return to San Andreas
Last weekend was the overtime. It was a busy couple of days. On Saturday we were in the office from 9am to 9pm. There was a LOT of ripping up floor tiles, shifting old servers and storage arrays, etc, and replacement of all the old orange fibre cables with nice new aqua ones. It was a remarkable faff. The Sunday was spent finishing it all off and trying to work out why two of my AIX machines wouldn't see their storage. Got them working in the end and finally it was all sorted.
Monday was frustrating in work and I was very glad when it came to Tuesday since it was the beginning of my three days off work. I went to the gym first thing to get some exercise in before coming home and finding a shiny copy of GTA V in the post box. The rest of the time until Thursday evening basically revolved solely around playing it.
Except for Wednesday, which was the Tour of Britain. I went to Andy's and we went down to the bottom of Vale Street in Denbigh and watched it go past, and then back to his house to watch it live. It was interesting watching them going along such familiar roads, and then the finish was awesome. I got a good video of them going past, but wish I'd taken my decent camera.
Back in work today, and it was an utterly wasted day given that it was originally going to be another day off. There were three things I went in to do. The AS/400 was to be migrated to a new Bladecenter, but this couldn't be done due to incorrect hardware again. The tape library had a faulty drive, but while the new drive had turned up, the engineer couldn't make it, and then the final shutdown of a rapidly becoming obsolete AIX box didn't happen, so I could have had another day off. Oh well.
I wasn't too sure about pre-ordering GTA V, but I'm glad I did. After the brown depressing experience with unlikable characters which was GTA IV, this one is back to the feel of San Andreas and I've really enjoyed it so far. It's got loads of stuff to do outside of the main missions. The environment is good as well, it looks amazing and there's loads of places to explore. So far I'm about 38% into it and really enjoying it. The multi-character thing is good too, works really well.
Monday was frustrating in work and I was very glad when it came to Tuesday since it was the beginning of my three days off work. I went to the gym first thing to get some exercise in before coming home and finding a shiny copy of GTA V in the post box. The rest of the time until Thursday evening basically revolved solely around playing it.
Except for Wednesday, which was the Tour of Britain. I went to Andy's and we went down to the bottom of Vale Street in Denbigh and watched it go past, and then back to his house to watch it live. It was interesting watching them going along such familiar roads, and then the finish was awesome. I got a good video of them going past, but wish I'd taken my decent camera.
Back in work today, and it was an utterly wasted day given that it was originally going to be another day off. There were three things I went in to do. The AS/400 was to be migrated to a new Bladecenter, but this couldn't be done due to incorrect hardware again. The tape library had a faulty drive, but while the new drive had turned up, the engineer couldn't make it, and then the final shutdown of a rapidly becoming obsolete AIX box didn't happen, so I could have had another day off. Oh well.
I wasn't too sure about pre-ordering GTA V, but I'm glad I did. After the brown depressing experience with unlikable characters which was GTA IV, this one is back to the feel of San Andreas and I've really enjoyed it so far. It's got loads of stuff to do outside of the main missions. The environment is good as well, it looks amazing and there's loads of places to explore. So far I'm about 38% into it and really enjoying it. The multi-character thing is good too, works really well.
Thursday 12 September 2013
What's the point.
It's been an OK week. On Monday went running. Em and I did our own route and clocked up about 2.1 miles which was nearly all running, surprising both of us. Not bad after a few weeks of neglect.
Tuesday wasn't DnD due to Steve not being able to make it, so we played Super Munchkin instead. Like Magic the week before, it seems to bring the vindictive side out in people, although it could be said this is the whole point of the game.
Didn't do much Wednesday. Had good intentions to go to the gym but failed.
Today I took a flexi day as I had loads saved up and we're working over the weekend. I ended up taking the dog for a walk, which he enjoyed but struggled towards the end. He's happier pootling around the field now I think with his bad leg. After that I spent ages digging out a ditch and getting properly filthy, and then picked some apples from the mutant tree.
After that I read for a bit and then it was off to badminton for the first time in ages. We had some delicious thai green curry round at Steve's and then went to get new wiper blades for Rob's car before heading over. I haven't played in ages and the last time I did play I fucked up my knee, so between being out of practice and being cautious I played like shite.
Discovered that Eisbrecher are playing in Berlin on the 30th November. Quite tempted to go and see them but then it probably wouldn't be any fun going by myself and nobody else I know likes them. Flights are awkward around then as well, so there isn't much point thinking about it
Everything seems so pointless at the moment. Spending all day at work doing pointless shit with fuck all to look forward to when I come home. I've got three days of annual leave next week. Originally it was a single day to watch the Tour of Britain, but the other two are just for the sake of taking leave. I'll probably just end up sitting around playing GTA V since that comes out on the Tuesday. I'm assuming that I'll end up with shitloads of leave to use up by the end of the holiday period next year. I'd like to go away somewhere but it's pointless and depressing going by yourself.
I just have this worsening feeling that I've fucked my life up somewhere and I don't know what to do about it. Or if I can do anything about it.
Tuesday wasn't DnD due to Steve not being able to make it, so we played Super Munchkin instead. Like Magic the week before, it seems to bring the vindictive side out in people, although it could be said this is the whole point of the game.
Didn't do much Wednesday. Had good intentions to go to the gym but failed.
Today I took a flexi day as I had loads saved up and we're working over the weekend. I ended up taking the dog for a walk, which he enjoyed but struggled towards the end. He's happier pootling around the field now I think with his bad leg. After that I spent ages digging out a ditch and getting properly filthy, and then picked some apples from the mutant tree.
After that I read for a bit and then it was off to badminton for the first time in ages. We had some delicious thai green curry round at Steve's and then went to get new wiper blades for Rob's car before heading over. I haven't played in ages and the last time I did play I fucked up my knee, so between being out of practice and being cautious I played like shite.
Discovered that Eisbrecher are playing in Berlin on the 30th November. Quite tempted to go and see them but then it probably wouldn't be any fun going by myself and nobody else I know likes them. Flights are awkward around then as well, so there isn't much point thinking about it
Everything seems so pointless at the moment. Spending all day at work doing pointless shit with fuck all to look forward to when I come home. I've got three days of annual leave next week. Originally it was a single day to watch the Tour of Britain, but the other two are just for the sake of taking leave. I'll probably just end up sitting around playing GTA V since that comes out on the Tuesday. I'm assuming that I'll end up with shitloads of leave to use up by the end of the holiday period next year. I'd like to go away somewhere but it's pointless and depressing going by yourself.
I just have this worsening feeling that I've fucked my life up somewhere and I don't know what to do about it. Or if I can do anything about it.
Sunday 8 September 2013
Language fun
So far since the middle of the week it's been quiet. I spent Thursday evening taking a shedload of boxes over to Andrea's place after they have to move quite quickly and she sent a distress call out on Facebook asking for boxes. I managed to fill up the 206 almost completely with boxes and bubblewrap. It was good to see them and little James again, who has grown hugely.
Went for a solo bike ride yesterday. I set off from home doing a loop down to Denbigh and back up. The idea was to tackle some hills since from Denbigh to the Brenig is pretty much one giant hill. I'm a bit worried that the mountain bike isn't helping though, as the gearing is very low and it's much harder to stand up on the pedals properly, so it's easier just to pootle up them in bottom gear at walking pace.
After that I had a go on Fallout 3 which Will lent me and I haven't had a chance to try yet. I thought it was OK but found it a bit difficult to get into the storyline and some of the mechanics seemed quite complex.
Today has been a lazy day. I popped into town to get the stuff to make the Canadian comfort food, Poutine, although getting cheese curds is hard so I had to substitute mozarella. Anyway, it came out really nice although it's probably hard to fuck up chips with cheese and gravy. First time I've tried to make chips though and they came out nice.
The rest of the day I played around with language things and watched Star Trek and also cleaned up the 6-string bass, which despite regular use had gone all manky around the gold hardware. I'm still not sure if I like it or not because it's so heavy and the wide neck. I flip between wanting to get rid of it and rewiring it with new pickups, can never decide.
Duolingo is fun and was made easier by having an old Latitude E4300 laptop with a German keyboard. However it was running stupidly hot, so I took it apart to have a look at it and replace the thermal paste. Now Windows 8 refuses to boot on it, although I'm not sure if that's an issue with the machine or Windows has just borked itself. Seems to be Windows since it passed all the built in diagnstics. In the end I couldn't be bothered faffing with it so I put it aside for a rainy day. German is a fun language but a bit fiddly. Also looked up some Mandarin lessons for fun. Fascinating to listen to it but it's very hard.
Hopefully going to get back into running again next week. I've been really hesitant about it after my knee troubles a couple of weeks ago, but they seem fine again now.
Went for a solo bike ride yesterday. I set off from home doing a loop down to Denbigh and back up. The idea was to tackle some hills since from Denbigh to the Brenig is pretty much one giant hill. I'm a bit worried that the mountain bike isn't helping though, as the gearing is very low and it's much harder to stand up on the pedals properly, so it's easier just to pootle up them in bottom gear at walking pace.
After that I had a go on Fallout 3 which Will lent me and I haven't had a chance to try yet. I thought it was OK but found it a bit difficult to get into the storyline and some of the mechanics seemed quite complex.
Today has been a lazy day. I popped into town to get the stuff to make the Canadian comfort food, Poutine, although getting cheese curds is hard so I had to substitute mozarella. Anyway, it came out really nice although it's probably hard to fuck up chips with cheese and gravy. First time I've tried to make chips though and they came out nice.
The rest of the day I played around with language things and watched Star Trek and also cleaned up the 6-string bass, which despite regular use had gone all manky around the gold hardware. I'm still not sure if I like it or not because it's so heavy and the wide neck. I flip between wanting to get rid of it and rewiring it with new pickups, can never decide.
Duolingo is fun and was made easier by having an old Latitude E4300 laptop with a German keyboard. However it was running stupidly hot, so I took it apart to have a look at it and replace the thermal paste. Now Windows 8 refuses to boot on it, although I'm not sure if that's an issue with the machine or Windows has just borked itself. Seems to be Windows since it passed all the built in diagnstics. In the end I couldn't be bothered faffing with it so I put it aside for a rainy day. German is a fun language but a bit fiddly. Also looked up some Mandarin lessons for fun. Fascinating to listen to it but it's very hard.
Hopefully going to get back into running again next week. I've been really hesitant about it after my knee troubles a couple of weeks ago, but they seem fine again now.
Wednesday 4 September 2013
Cycling and ghosts
Last weekend it was all about the cycling. Andy and I went for a 15 mile warm up ride on the Saturday, which was good. The mountain bike behaved fine, and the new tyres really do help it on the road. After that was off to Rhyl to catch the part of the airshow that had the Vulcan bomber, that was truly incredible to see. Amazing to think it's the only one left, and then the day after it was grounded due to a fuel leak.
After the air show we headed to Anglesey to register for the Tour de Mon. It was a long way to go for what amounted to literally a couple of minutes, but it was good to get it done and ready.
The ride itself on Sunday was great. It was really well organised with a fantastic atmosphere. The route was clearly marked and easy to follow, and the food stations were good. The automatic timing system worked as expected and within a minute of finishing I got a text with my time on it, which was impressive. The ride itself was quite hard in places and again I struggled with hills, especially on the last few miles which were against the wind. The bike was OK but I wonder if I'd have managed better on a road bike.
This week has been reasonable. Work has been OK. Monday evening was spent resting my legs. Last night wasn't DnD because Sarah couldn't make it so Steve busted out his Magic the Gathering cards, which neither Rob, Rob or I had played. It was interesting but I think it lacked the story and characterisation element that makes DnD compelling.
Tonight was going to be running but Em couldn't make it and I chickened out of going with Andy and Rob G due to my lack of speed, and so I went to the gym instead, which went well as it was nice and quiet.
Nintendo have announced the 2DS. It's been met with a variety of reactions. I actually quite like it in the end, it reminds me of the old Gameboys and it looks quite comfortable to hold. All the debate about it led me to dig out my 3DS XL and have another go on Luigi's Mansion 2, which I've really enjoyed picking up again. Good game. The 3D is used well in the cutscenes but I turn it off in the game itself as it gets in the way and my eyes don't like it. It's nice to play a game that's just fun and not 'RAH GUNS KILL'.
The car had another bit of work done. The suspension was knocking and the garage found the suspension arm bushes were so worn the arm was actually hitting the chassis. All fixed now and the tracking is spot on.
After the air show we headed to Anglesey to register for the Tour de Mon. It was a long way to go for what amounted to literally a couple of minutes, but it was good to get it done and ready.
The ride itself on Sunday was great. It was really well organised with a fantastic atmosphere. The route was clearly marked and easy to follow, and the food stations were good. The automatic timing system worked as expected and within a minute of finishing I got a text with my time on it, which was impressive. The ride itself was quite hard in places and again I struggled with hills, especially on the last few miles which were against the wind. The bike was OK but I wonder if I'd have managed better on a road bike.
This week has been reasonable. Work has been OK. Monday evening was spent resting my legs. Last night wasn't DnD because Sarah couldn't make it so Steve busted out his Magic the Gathering cards, which neither Rob, Rob or I had played. It was interesting but I think it lacked the story and characterisation element that makes DnD compelling.
Tonight was going to be running but Em couldn't make it and I chickened out of going with Andy and Rob G due to my lack of speed, and so I went to the gym instead, which went well as it was nice and quiet.
Nintendo have announced the 2DS. It's been met with a variety of reactions. I actually quite like it in the end, it reminds me of the old Gameboys and it looks quite comfortable to hold. All the debate about it led me to dig out my 3DS XL and have another go on Luigi's Mansion 2, which I've really enjoyed picking up again. Good game. The 3D is used well in the cutscenes but I turn it off in the game itself as it gets in the way and my eyes don't like it. It's nice to play a game that's just fun and not 'RAH GUNS KILL'.
The car had another bit of work done. The suspension was knocking and the garage found the suspension arm bushes were so worn the arm was actually hitting the chassis. All fixed now and the tracking is spot on.
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