I'm not doing very well at keeping this up to date.
The main things that have happened recently are that the house is had quite a bit of decorating done, which is really good. It's made such a difference, even with the horrible old 70s carpets still in place.
I've also got a new car, finally. I did so much digging and research I ended up going in circles, but I had decided that I would like something nice. Eventually I decided to semi-seriously consider the W203 Mercedes C-class. The early ones were shite - rusty electrical nightmares. But the later ones are highly regarded so I decided to go and have a look at two of them. They were both estates, and pretty much exactly the same, but one was a C270 and the other a C220. The 270 was a bit of a shed cosmetically and didn't feel 100%, although the 5-cylinder engine was stonking once it had warmed up.
The C220 was much nicer and after some thought I went back and put a deposit down on it, picking it up last Friday. It's been pretty good so far but is due a service and needs a couple of little things looking at, so those are being done this coming Friday. It's nice to drive something that is so laid back and comfortable at highway speeds and I'm liking having an automatic transmission again. One downside is the lack of an iPod or Aux connector, however the factory stereo should be capable of it with the right cable added. Fuel economy so far is good, not quite as good as the C3, but acceptably close given that it's a bigger and more powerful car. Perhaps the service will help a bit in that regard.
I finally went to archery again the weekend before last. It was OK - I shot better than I thought I would, but not great really. But to be fair it's been three months since I last went. I had a go on someone's new longbow, which was really good - it was quite a beast though as it is the same poundage as my compound.
Not much else to report really. It was Rob G's birthday this last weekend and his girlfriend arranged a secret party. The boys took him out for a drink at the pub while the girls set up and then we took him back. Somehow he had no clue at all and it was really good fun. It's scary how quickly their golden retriever puppy is growing - for six months old he is truly enormous. I got Rob G the Graphic Superhero book as I have a copy and I knew it would be exactly his thing.
I made the pleasing discovery that Eisbrecher have released a new album, back in January. Somehow I missed that, so I've got hold of it. It's really good and perhaps one of their best ones.
I finally sat down and had a look at my little Trace Elliot bass amp. It's been making a weird crackling sound for ages now. The cause was pretty obvious - there is a tear in the speaker cone, but it was so dusty I hadn't seen it. It's a standard 8" Celestion speaker so I've ordered a replacement one for it.
One project at the moment is that I've had this idea to install a small screen in the front drive bays of my PC tower. These days such screens are quite easy to get hold of so I ended up getting a 5" 800x480 screen which is designed to clip onto a Raspberry Pi. But because it uses HDMI it'll work on anything. My first attempt to get it working was with a USB graphics adapter with a HDMI connector mounted inside the machine but I think I'm going to just hook it up to the main graphics card, although this does mean sending the cable outside of the case which won't be quite as tidy.
Monday 29 June 2015
Monday 1 June 2015
More fun and games
It's been a pretty painful couple of weeks again. Not long I recovered from my chest infection, I was asked to help move some furniture. It was fine, quite heavy, but that evening I noticed my knee was aching. The next morning it was agony and it took ages to get better. After a week I went to the doctor and she made me bend it to the point of agony, but basically just said to keep taking ibuprofen. I was sent for an X-ray though as this isn't the first time this has happened and she thought there might be something wrong, but it came back clear. I'm a bit worried about next week though as there is some server hardware to move in work and I don't want to do it again.
Fortunately it is back to normal now, so I don't have to endure the humilation of hobbling around with my Mum's old walking stick. However I do feel that it might be a symptom of how unfit I've become over the last few months and to do something about it seems to be wise.
I'm also really conscious that I've not been to archery for so long now. I've been thinking about how to integrate it now that my life is changing quite a bit and I think I've come up with a plan, hopefully.
Work has been a bit stressful, due to large system upgrade of the social services system, which has been in the planning for literally years. It was all done last weekend, it took quite some time on the Friday and half of Saturday. Fortunately, apart from a few niggles it has gone well and is working OK. There do seem to be speed issues, but that appears to be because the application servers are only 32-bit and therefore limited to only 4gb RAM. I'm really glad this has gone OK because it was dumped on me after one of my colleagues left, and it's been looming for weeks. There's still plenty of work to do of course, but at least this big upgrade has been done.
In other news, I've not been doing much. I've been idly looking at cars, but was handicapped by my knee - I was hoping to replace the C3 before the tax ran out but I've now taxed it.
I'm still intrigued by smart watches, but have decided that while the Pebble does have decent battery life, it's a bit too far in the stripped down direction so have got rid of it in favour of an LG G Watch R. It's one of the models with a round screen. It's an interesting question whether a square or round screen works better. I think the round screen is aesthetically more pleasing, but of course not as good for displaying information. Anyway I've only got it today so we'll see how it goes.
Had a great night with a few guys from work the other week on a Friday. One of the guys has just got a house so we had a night in with Akira on DVD and pizza, which was great. It was one of the days that my knee was particularly bad though so I ended up embarrassingly being waited on hand and foot. The food was from a kebab shop which is not far from work and is very good, and is a dangerous temptation at lunchtimes.
There was also a DnD session in Rob G's new house a couple of weeks ago. It was good, but not much play went on due to not having seen each other in a while and their 3 month old golden retriever wanting to play with everyone. It was good fun though, although I had to apologise the next day as a combination of my knee hurting and tiredness made for a quite a grouchy DM that night.
Been rewatching some old movies and Star Trek episodes with special person, which has been good fun. Highlights included The Commitments, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which we watched yesterday with large quantities of popcorn.
The work on the house has halted for a little while now that the kitchen is basically done apart from painting. The next step is decorating the hall and living room, which will be quite an undertaking. That is due to start in a fortnight or so.
Fortunately it is back to normal now, so I don't have to endure the humilation of hobbling around with my Mum's old walking stick. However I do feel that it might be a symptom of how unfit I've become over the last few months and to do something about it seems to be wise.
I'm also really conscious that I've not been to archery for so long now. I've been thinking about how to integrate it now that my life is changing quite a bit and I think I've come up with a plan, hopefully.
Work has been a bit stressful, due to large system upgrade of the social services system, which has been in the planning for literally years. It was all done last weekend, it took quite some time on the Friday and half of Saturday. Fortunately, apart from a few niggles it has gone well and is working OK. There do seem to be speed issues, but that appears to be because the application servers are only 32-bit and therefore limited to only 4gb RAM. I'm really glad this has gone OK because it was dumped on me after one of my colleagues left, and it's been looming for weeks. There's still plenty of work to do of course, but at least this big upgrade has been done.
In other news, I've not been doing much. I've been idly looking at cars, but was handicapped by my knee - I was hoping to replace the C3 before the tax ran out but I've now taxed it.
I'm still intrigued by smart watches, but have decided that while the Pebble does have decent battery life, it's a bit too far in the stripped down direction so have got rid of it in favour of an LG G Watch R. It's one of the models with a round screen. It's an interesting question whether a square or round screen works better. I think the round screen is aesthetically more pleasing, but of course not as good for displaying information. Anyway I've only got it today so we'll see how it goes.
Had a great night with a few guys from work the other week on a Friday. One of the guys has just got a house so we had a night in with Akira on DVD and pizza, which was great. It was one of the days that my knee was particularly bad though so I ended up embarrassingly being waited on hand and foot. The food was from a kebab shop which is not far from work and is very good, and is a dangerous temptation at lunchtimes.
There was also a DnD session in Rob G's new house a couple of weeks ago. It was good, but not much play went on due to not having seen each other in a while and their 3 month old golden retriever wanting to play with everyone. It was good fun though, although I had to apologise the next day as a combination of my knee hurting and tiredness made for a quite a grouchy DM that night.
Been rewatching some old movies and Star Trek episodes with special person, which has been good fun. Highlights included The Commitments, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which we watched yesterday with large quantities of popcorn.
The work on the house has halted for a little while now that the kitchen is basically done apart from painting. The next step is decorating the hall and living room, which will be quite an undertaking. That is due to start in a fortnight or so.
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