Avoiding The Shops

While I do have stuff to do this weekend, my primary goal is simple. Avoiding any need to visit shops and shopping centres. It’s obvious really – this is the final weekend pre-Festering-Season, and they’re going to be rammed. So for me they’re best avoided.

I’m pretty sure I’m all sorted – the worst I’m going to need to do is pop up the road to get the weekend paper, and collect a couple of things from the local Post Office.

• Cards etc. have been sorted, written and posted – ✔
• The presents for family etc. are all sorted – ✔
• I’ve got the stuff for wrapping presents, and plan to do that this weekend – ✔
• I’ve done the food shop for whatever stuff I needed in the next few days – ✔
• I’m all sorted for reading material, stuff on TV and the like, so not even a library visit required – ✔
• There’s nothing outstanding that I can think of – ✔

So yes, I think I’m all done, and won’t need to go anywhere near a store at all. This is definitely A Good Thing.

Ikea-bound

Yesterday, I went – for the first time in years – to an Ikea store. (This time, the one in Milton Keynes, which I’ve never been to before) Now bear in mind, I hate Ikea stores in general, although to be fair I’ve only ever seemed to end up in them when they’re ridiculously busy.

There’s a couple of things I’ve been thinking about getting, and basically I wanted to check those things out, and ask some questions. As a result, this one was more a research trip than a buying trip, which was fine with me.

This time – despite it being school holidays – it was pretty empty. Most people apparently had better things to do than look at furniture. Can’t say as I blame them, but it worked pretty well for me.

Mind you, even then there still seem to be a much larger proportion of brain-dead drifters in the store than in most shopping environments. I don’t know why, but even when virtually empty the idiots are still there, drifting across the walkways, stopping dead, and generally having no clue.

In short, I’ll buy the things I want there – but shopping there still makes my knuckles itch with the desire to punch some people in the back of the head.

All Change

Here Chez Lyle it’s been an interesting week, and one that should be a gateway into whatever’s next.

The basic thing is that this week, my employer made me redundant. There’s a lot I can’t say legally, but that’s the crux of it. There’s a lot more underlying it, but that’s the basic headline. Redundant, with effect from Friday.

There was no real warning, just a ‘chat’ on Tuesday that turned out to be The Big Event, and then getting things organised, handed over, and finished off. In that time I’ve also taken legal advice, which answered quite a few questions in my own head and showed that perhaps I’m not quite the paranoid lunatic I was beginning to feel like I might be.

I’ve done OK out of the process, and it means I’m also immediately available for new contracts. I think I might take a week out – particularly considering the glorious weather – before I really start applying myself, but things will kick up a gear from today anyway.

All told, I’ve been surprised by the speed with which it’s all happened – and to some degree that it’s happened at all – but I truly don’t feel anything other than positive about the entire thing. That may change if I haven’t got anything new to go to by the start of September or so, but I don’t currently feel like that’s likely to be the case. I’ve spoken to some agencies already, and things are generally pretty positive.

Shit happens, and having happened, moves on.  (Or something along those lines)

Driving Day

Today is the real ‘shake-down’ run for the new Saab, one of my classic “Devon and back in a day” jobs.

Only time will tell how well the run goes, but well, it’ll be interesting, regardless.

Parked Up

In many ways, my most recent neighbours on one side are a bit of a mystery to me. Not only socially (I don’t know their names, they don’t know mine) but also behaviourally.

I don’t mind (too much) that they go out on various evenings, leaving their yappy fuckpot pooch to howl, whine and scrape on the stairgate they use to keep it in the kitchen while out. It’s annoying when you’re having a quiet evening, but well, that’s life.

The one that does really annoy me though, and leaves me utterly bemused, is what happens when the bloke next door comes home. Every night, every damn night, he parks up outside, and then stays in his car, engine running, for at least quarter of an hour – and usually 20-30 minutes. I don’t know why, I’ve not yet – yet! – got pissed off enough to stomp outside and ask him what the shit he’s playing at.

It does leave me bemused though – I just don’t get what on earth would make someone sit in their car, engine running, outside their own home every damn night for half an hour. Weird.

500 Days

It’s now 500 days ’til my 41st birthday.

I’ve got some stuff that I want to have active by then, so this is just a reminder to me.

Pass it on

Excellent story in the BBC today about Good Samaritans etc.

Well worth the read.

20:10 20/10/2010

Another geeky date/time combination…

8.10pm on 20th October 2010 – 20:10 20/10/2010

I am so sad…

1 Month Today

One month today, I’m going to be 39.

Now that’s a scary concept…

Alterations

Lots of stuff changing at the moment chez Lyle, so updates may be a bit thin on the ground.

Watch this space.

Stupid date 2

Another of my stupid date posts.

Done at 08/09/10 11:12 .

I so need to get out more.

Stupid Date

Today has two potentially stupid date/time things.

This is the first-  written for 05:06:07 on 08/09/10

Toy Story 3

Yesterday we went to see Toy Story 3, in 3D.

And it was pretty good. I’m not a hardcore fan of the Toy Story movies, never have been – for one major thing, Tom Hanks’ voice just grates on me as being a whiny pain-in-the-ass, and that always detracts from a film. Ah well.

But it’s a good film – Pixar are stunning at telling the story, and the 3D works really nicely. I prefer 3D when it’s a subtle thing, when you only realise afterwards the sheer depth of some of the scenes, rather than the standard “Woooah, look, it’s 3D! Stuff’s coming out of the screen at you!” type thing.

For example, the credits – they’re all done in 3D, with the role ‘further back’ than the name of the person doing the job. It’s beautifully done. The same applies throughout the film – Herself was unimpressed with the 3D, expecting more “coming out of the screen” stuff, until we talked about it, and realised just how much of the depth was just assumed, taken for granted, and not done as a gimmick.

Personally, I wouldn’t go and see it again, which I suppose is always my benchmark – do I want to go and see the bits I missed, or just enjoy the film again? In the case of Toy Story 3, it’s a good film, but not one I’d repeat.

Up On The Roof

Not a great photo – the iPhone was the only camera I had with me – but I saw this and it amused me.

Duck on the roof of a house in the village

Yep, a duck sat on the roof ridge of one of the houses in the village.

Made me chuckle, anyway.

I Am Such A Tit

Yesterday I saw that one of my favourite authors, John Connolly is doing some book readings/signings in the UK in May in support of his new novel, “The Whisperers“.  The nearest event to me was in Bishop’s Stortford on Thursday May 13th.

By a happy coincidence, Alabama 3 are playing a gig in Norwich also on May 13th, so I thought I’d get a ticket to that as well.

Coming in to work this morning I’ve planned to book the entire day off, which’ll make it a good day out all told.

Except I can’t book it. Because I’m on  holiday that week already. In Malvern.

Arseing cock.

Potential Downtime

At some point over the next week, D4D is going to be offline for a while.

I’ve had an email from my hosting company, and they’re going to be moving my account over from the current server to a new one.

With luck it’ll all run smoothly and with no hassles at all. But it might be that things go tits up for a while ’til I fix them.

We’ll see.

Due Care and Attention

The A11, one of the main Norfolk roads near us, was closed for about four hours today. Fortunately neither of us were affected by it this time.

The accident was noteworthy for the sheer gobsmacking stupidity of it – a police car had stopped on the A11 to warn other drivers about a broken-down car a bit further on. Another car carrying five people ploughed into the police car, injuring the policeman as well as the five people in the second car.

Now seriously, how the hell do you manage to not see a police car – with, one assumes, lights flashing to warn other drivers – at that kind of speed? That sounds like they weren’t even braking at the time – or at least not with enough effort/time.  After all, if they’d had time, they’d have been slowing down even if the outside lane were solid traffic, and would be at a stop before they get to the police car.

Really the mind boggles about how an accident like this can happen. It certainly sounds like a case of “driving without due care and attention”, rather than just a run-of-the-mill accident.

Scary stuff, knowing there’s twerds like that on the roads.

Fixed It

One of my guilty pleasures this year has been the site There, I Fixed It, which showcases some of the most awesome bodges and hacks around.

It’s also a spectacular showcase of the inventiveness (if occasional stupidity/weirdness) that people exhibit towards fixing problems.

More Shit on the News

via Failblog

Rain

It’s absolutely chucking it down outside – and I’m really pleased to see it.

Where we live, I don’t think there’s been a decent dollop of rain in about two months. The water-butts certainly haven’t filled up in that time.

So yes, I’m happy to see that it’s raining here today. The animals aren’t overly happy about it of course – Psycho Cat was outside and is currently soaked and lying on the bed, and Hound is also deeply soggy having been chucked out while I cleaned up the dollops of puke she’d scattered in the hallway.

Yes, it’s seriously glamorous, being back at home for a few days…

Getting Arty

Taken while out with Sevitz and Dragon on Wednesday…

Hayward Gallery

Taken while we were sat outside the Concrete bar – I just liked the imagery.

Frogfest

In general, I really don’t mind frogs and toads – we have loads of them in the garden, and they’re fine. Sure, they make me jump on occasion when they bounce around just as you’re walking through the grass. But OK, that’s what they do.

However, this just makes me shudder.

Not just the video of the frenzy of tadpoles eating unfertilised frog eggs, but the sheer size of the frog in the photo…

They run up to about 1kg in weight (Image (C) BBC)

Bleh.

Local Elections

The BBC has a piece on “All you need to know about today’s Elections“.

In fairness, I’d say that the main pointer should be “Just don’t vote for the BNP. Ever.”

Other than that, just make sure you vote. Don’t waste it by not bothering, make the effort and put your vote in.

Don’t know what each party’s policies are? Take a look here.

Garden Work – Again

Another quiet weekend here at D4D although that doesn’t mean it was quiet all told.

As we had Saturday available again as a result of Depeche Mode postponing their concert at the O2, we did some work in the house and garden instead – including trolling off to one of the local garden centres, and buying some new plants (a bamboo and a spectacular lilac for the bit round the pond) as well as various other odds and sods.

In addition, our nice gardener man came round on the Saturday morning to finally fill in the potholes and craters left behind by compressing earth in the part that had been dug out to replace the water pipe (which we had expected to happen, and had plenty of spare earth to use for it) and then recovered the entire driveway with some two tons of grit.

On the Sunday, the mower came out with a vengeance (yet again – it’s a regular occurrence) as well as lots of planting going on, taking stuff from out of the greenhouse and getting it potted up properly. Oh, and getting rid of a poxy big honeysuckle plant that’d died off, and has now been burned in the garden incinerator.

Lots of progress all told – culminating in the first barbecue of the year.

Not a bad weekend at all, allbeit one that didn’t result in many updates here on D4d.

Tag Team

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear our animals are in league against us. It’s a fucking plot, I tell you.

Over the last few nights, Hound has been a restless pain in the arse – up at regular intervals during the night, drinking, mooching about, scratching the floor while she tries to get back to sleep. Sometimes it can be fixed by putting her in her cage (where she seems to relax, for some godforsaken reason) but sometimes the only thing that actually works is for one of us to give in and go to sleep in the spare room, accompanied by Hound in her basket.

It’s a pain – and I’m quite sure that certain uninformed people will come up with the normal “Hound needs more discipline” shit in the comments (to which I’ll just say now –  We’ve lived with this, it’s not behavioural, it’s related to her megaoesophagus and OCD issues) – but sometimes it happens anyway.

So we’d had a couple of nights of this, which is always wearing.

Last night though, Hound was fine. It was Psycho Cat instead who took up the “wake the two-legs up every few hours” challenge – this time by puking his guts up in the bedroom. Twice. Followed by yelling and scratching for water.

Hound, on the other hand, woke up and got up each time to check what Psycho Cat was doing, and once the cat-puke (still-warm) had been cleaned up, she went straight back to bed. On each bloody occasion.

I don’t know what the hell I’ve done in previous lives to deserve this current set of animals. But whatever it was, I’m pretty sure I’ve made amends for it now. Haven’t I?

Shattering

Another dollop of my luck with the car occurred this afternoon.

Coming home, I went past a field where a tractor was towing a grass-mowing implement.

Something (I assume a stone) must have flicked up from the grass-mowing thing, and shattered one of the back side windows completely.

Luckily, I went straight in to the place that owned the field/tractor, and they’ll pay the excess that I’ve got to pay for the replacement glass.

So it could be worse – but it would be better if it hadn’t happened at all.

Ongoing Projects

Thankfully, in light of the previous post, I still have stuff of my own that I can be getting on with. In fact at the moment I’ve got five or six projects ongoing still, which include…

• Three websites for different clients
• At least one writing project
• Two websites I’m writing myself.

So that should keep me out of trouble. That’s the theory, anyway…

No Fools

Just so you know, as per usual, I’m not going to be posting anything “special” for April Fools Day.

I just can’t be arsed.

Post-Holiday Fitness

Once we come back from our break, one of my plans is (yet again) to get back to going to the gym. Yeah yeah, I know, you’ve heard it all before.

Over the last couple of months, while the intention to go has been there, getting round to it has been another thing entirely.

The difference between now and January is that I now want to go – and know I really should be going – it’s just that getting the time to go has been lacking, with house work, work work, and work on dealing with hindrances like [insert epic sweary phrase here] accountants who go bankrupt.

But things should now be calming down a bit more, so with luck I’ll be able to get back into going again.

I need to really – I don’t want to keep on pissing money up the wall when it comes to the gym…

Comedian Blasphemy

If you listen to the media, the writing/acting partnership of James Corden and Matt Horne is some kind of comedy genius.

For once – and I know this’ll come as a shock to regular readers – I disagree. For me, I just don’t find their stuff to be even vaguely amusing, let alone funny.

Gavin and Stacey? Not funny. Not an awful series, but really not funny.

Horne and Corden? Not even in the same country as funny. I’m not sure it’s even in the same continent as funny.

Appearances on Comic Relief? Frankly, I’ve had funnier enemas. Although they produced a similar amount of shit.

And their new film, Lesbian Vampire Killers? I’ll pass, thanks.

I know, in theory there’s the response of “Well, think you can do something better?”. And the answer is no, I don’t really think I can do anything better than their stuff. But the thing is, I don’t claim to be a writer of comedy anyway. If I did, I’d try to have something to show as an example of “this is better”. But I don’t, so I won’t.

Scalzi on Uwe Boll

via his blog “Whatever“, I got to John Scalzi’s column on AMC about why films based on video games are always abysmal.

As he says, “The answer is not just ‘Because Uwe Boll makes them’ although truthfully that is a large part of the answer.”

Scalzi sums it up really in one paragraph.

This was a nice set-up for Boll, since he’s been able to make a nice living playing filmmaker. It wasn’t nice for us, because Uwe Boll makes movies like monkeys drive trucks. Through Boll, the world is saddled with flicks like House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark and Bloodrayne, which all make you want to bleed from the eyeballs.

Spelin Misteaks

I saw this last weekend, and just had to get the photo…

Premisis

The quality’s not great, due to digital zoom rather than decent zoom (bloody camphones) but I think it conveys the problem pretty well.

And no, I haven’t called the estate agents/surveyors to complain about the sign.

Yet.

YELLOW!

Wow.  Via Smashing, I’ve come across a site even more yellow than D4D™ used to be.

You have been warned…

Ring Main

Yesterday, we had the electrician out again to the house to install some lights and new plug sockets in the kitchen.

As part of that work, he discovered that the house’s ring-main for the electrics was actually not a ring-main at all, in that it wasn’t a complete circle.

I don’t profess to understand the details of ring-mains etc. – that’s why we have an electrician to do these things – but it’s also something that the previous electrician we had really should have checked at the same time we had all the other work done. Only he didn’t, because he was an idiotic cock-end.

So we’ve not had a proper ring-main for the last two years. Fortunately we don’t run anything that could’ve buggered the wiring or caused a problem – but all the same, the house is noticeably safer on that score now than it was on Monday, for example.

We’ve had a mixture of luck with electricians – the guy we now use is fantastic, and was recommended by the builder. The previous bunch of clowns we used were a nightmare – we’ve since found a number of things that should’ve been done when they were here, but that weren’t.

And as always, it’s worth noting that we tell lots of people about the electricians to avoid, then recommend the one we like…

New Door/Window

After two days with no back door (it got taken out on Wednesday, and boards put up to keep it weather-tight) we’ve now got a replacement door and window.

When we moved in here, we weren’t keen on the sliding back-door (think sliding patio door, but that also tilts back from the top) but could live with it ’til the time came to replace it. There were other improvements and alterations that took precedence but now we’ve got round to the kitchen.

The door’s now changed – and it’s a massive difference.

There’s still a bundle of work to be done on the kitchen – replacement cabinet doors, worktops, and sink, new wall and floor tiles, so on and so forth. But at least the structure’s back to being intact, and the building work is complete.

Little victories, and all that guff.

Demographics and Commercial Radio – Revisit

Following on from yesterday’s post, Ed made some further points, so I’m going to go and have another dollop of thought about it. Some of the post below has been posted as a comment on his site, but then I’m going to expand on it here.

I agree with most of what Ed says – and particularly about bloody Newsbeat, which is horrific. Might as well call it “News for Spanners” and be done with it.

2) Yes, it would seem that commercial radio is far too structured, but it has to be that way to maintain advertising income. And it has to maintain advertising income to pay big salaries. And it has to pay big salaries because the BBC, on its own initiative and with our money, pays way over the odds for big names. The BBC has to take at least some of the blame for commercial radio being so rigid
(from Ed’s post)

In this, I disagree – I would suggest that commercial radio is formulaic because it’s the format that is currently seen to “work”. If there were a commercial station that did things differently to all the others, had a decent national *and* local news (including local travel) without being brain-dead and banal, then I’d almost certainly listen to it instead of R1.

Just because most stations fit the mould, that doesn’t mean that *all* of them have to. And if someone did a different format, I suspect a lot of listeners would go to it, thus promoting that new format via listenership figures.

As an idea (and going back to the days of Laser 558) you could have a 5- or 10-second blipvert at the end of every other track, rather than a splodge every ten/fifteen minutes. “Those tracks were sponsored by [department store]” – high repetition, and thus high brand-name retention in the audience, but without being fucking annoying four or five times an hour. I listen to Radio 1 (hey, let’s widen that to BBC Radio) because I don’t want to be swamped by shitty banal little adverts. Make them different, make them interesting, make them less intrusive, I could be persuaded. I pay a licence fee in order to not be advertised to. (That might not be grammatical, but you get the idea)

Having presenters with a personality – regardless of whether everyone actually *likes* that personality, so long as most do – also helps. Commercial Radio presenters at the moment feel like an identikit “built from modules” thing, and that’s Not Good. In R1’s example, I suspect Moyles is an utter c**t, but at least he’s got personality. Chris Evans, ditto.

At the end of the day, yes, put on a presenter with personality and you’ll lose some listeners who can’t abide them, but you’ll gain far more listeners who agree, and/or who just listen in order to be offended. (Daily Mail readers, f’rinstance)

Or why not do the advertising in a completely different way? Have shows where listeners send a text message in to the show, and get an advert by return text ? Run tie-in competitions, and let the advertising be a part of that? Have show tags/sponsors in the same way that commercial TV (by which I again mean ‘non-BBC’) does?

There are any number of possible options for commercial radio – they don’t all have to follow the same format, but they do so because it’s “easier” than being original. And if a station were brave enough to go with something out of the ordinary, and original, I’d most certainly give them a fair crack of the whip.

Quizzage

Tonight, it’s our village’s Halloween quiz. Which, bizarrely, is run by the local church – and involves voluntary fancy dress. (although I probably won’t bother – the face is enough without needing a mask!) We went last year, and came second, but won the Spring one, so we’ll have to see how we do this time.

It should be fun, anyway.

Signed Up

Following on from the visit to the gym last week, I’m now signed up for a six month stint.

My first day there, and the induction and initial checkout etc. will be on Wednesday 3rd September – and I must admit, I’m actually quite looking forward to it.

Prisons? Criminals? Who’d Have Thought

So an inquiry into a jail at the time when one prisoner was killed by two others has concluded that the prison had “a criminal subculture“.

A criminal subculture. In prison. What a shocker.

New Contract

So today I start a new contract – new town, new company, new everything.

It’s only for a month initially, to see how things go. But the timing has worked out just about perfectly – I’ve been able to work from home while the bathroom was being redone, and now that’s completed I’m back in an office again. If things work out for the better, the contract will be extended and at that point I’ll be able to work from home for a fair proportion of time as well, which will also be a considerable bonus.

So we’ll just have to see how it goes, but it’s all progress and makes things look considerably better for 2008…

Hush-Hush

Spot the mistake in the following sentence from this story…

Nine other people were wounded, one critically, in the blast in Dimona, a remote town that is home to Israel’s top-secret nuclear reactor, but never before the target of a militant attack.

It might not be quite as “top-secret” as they think…

2008

Happy New Year, and all that guff.

Now, can 2008 be better than 2007, please? Not that 2007’s been entirely bad – just fraught with hassle, and massively overworked in some sectors. So if 2008 could be a bit calmer, and not quite so strained, that’d be really nice.

Not much chance of it really, but hey, I can hope.

Writing Changes

In some ways my writing life is currently getting very complicated. As well as the normal D4D™ posts, a few recently have become multi-use posts, getting duplicated (or edited and used, anyway) on either my photography blog, or the one on my company website. Although in fairness the one on the company site isn’t so much a blog as a series of articles and more coherent pieces instead of a daily/weekly updating thing with just braindump thoughts and news. However, they all combine to mean that I’m thinking in several ‘tones of voice’ at the same time, although I do aim to get the multi-use posts into a vaguely consistent and coherent tone that works cross-site in general.

In fact, that’s probably why I now swear far less on D4D™ than I used to. (Well, for the most part, anyway) I don’t know whether that’s a good or bad thing – D4D™ was always meant to be the personal site where I could let rip, vent, and generally be vile. Only I’ve kind of stopped doing that a lot of the time at the moment – maybe I’m just growing up? Nah, can’t be. Well, maybe…

Anyway, maybe as I progress with the other two blog-type writing areas, D4D™ will go back to being more of a venting pot than a thought-bouncing wall. Maybe.

Away from the blog-type areas, I’m also still working in CeltX on the two main ‘commercial’ writing ideas. I’ve been dumping the ideas, characters, and plot/storyline bits into two different projects on CeltX, and now I “just” need to start figuring out how the hell everything hangs together – I’ve got the (very) rough theme sketched out, but I still have some gaping holes where I need to figure out not just the where and the why, but also the how and the who. Not much work really – honest.

So all told at the moment I’ve got four big writing areas on the go, as well as the website writing/creation/programming, and the usual bey bevy of letters on the go.

All in all, it makes me wonder whether I can keep all those balls in the air at the same time, and particularly whether I can keep them all fresh. I don’t want any of the blog bits to turn into a tumbleweed-ridden ghost town, but I’ll close them down if I have to. Thing is, I’ve a feeling they’re going to start getting some interest – and then I’m knackered.

Thankfully, the ideas do keep on flowing. Braindumping the two big ‘commercial’ ones onto the laptop has meant that there’s now headspace for other ideas to come in – not just blog stuff, but other potential commercial bits, depending on how the first two do. Polymath, me? Possibly.

Promotional

It occurred to me yesterday that I own a few domain names where I’m working on ideas in the background, but haven’t yet done anything on the sites themselves. Well, obviously that wasn’t what occurred to me yesterday, but the thought was connected.

Anyway, the thought that occurred was that when it comes to my business, and promoting it along the way, I was missing a thing – and it’s something I should’ve realised way before now.

So I spent half an hour last night knocking up a holding page to put on those domains, along with a link to the main business site. It should add some extra references via Google and the like which is never a bad thing – I just can’t believe I missed out on some free advertising for so long.

I’m such a dork sometimes.

Twenty Years On

It’s hard to believe that it’s twenty years today that the “Great Storm” hit the UK.

The BBC also has an interesting piece about the efforts to save trees should the same happen again at the Sheffield Park Garden.

You can still see the effects, when you visit gardens in the area – although you have to know now what you’re looking at (or were looking for, if that makes sense) – and to me it’s still surprising just how long-lasting the effects of that one night are. I know I shouldn’t be surprised by such things, but well, I am. Hey ho.

Two Years On

Blimey, I’ve been driving two years now.

Time flies, when you’re having fun. Well, that’s what people tell me, anyway…

Impressive

You know, there’s something that always impresses me.

And that’s when I get an email from an IT agency, and they can’t even use linebreaks.

Something like this, in fact.

Good Morning!!I hope this email finds you well. Please find below details of a new role in which I was hoping that you may have an interest:My Client requires a Web Developer with the following skill set:[blah blah blah].The work required will normally be client side and although this role is a development role, the ideal candidate would also have excellent visual skills and an ability to pay close attention to detail – basically a good eye for design!!!N.B., You will be required to provide some sample URL’SStart: ASAPDuration 6 Weeks – 3 Months

Impressive, isn’t it?

The Meeting

Well, that all seemed pretty interesting.

I’ve got to knock up a little document about the costs and necessary work, as well as some other odds and sods, which they want by the end of the week. Hardly a challenge.

I should know next week whether I’ve got the work, though. All a bit promising, really.

Phone History

Inspired by Lori’s post on the subject, and following on from my comment there, I thought I’d do a list of the mobile phones I’ve owned over the years along with (where possible) the years. Once you click on more, it’s going to be a very sad post…
Read the rest of this entry »

Bleurgh

(via Gordon)

I have to say that Marmite Guinness (or Guinness Marmite, whichever) manages to combine two of my least favourite things into one convenient jar.

Blech³.

Dock Green

As a matter of course, I try to avoid buying anything from Dixons, Currys, PC World and the like – mainly because of their insistence on getting your postcode for every purchase, and sending out shite product insurance and warranty extensions etc. all the time.

There’s a couple of other reasons as well, to do with preferring to use stores where the staff actually know what they’re talking about, and don’t charge top whack for their products. (Yeah, yeah, price guarantees etc., but still, I find them in general to be damn expensive)

During the week, I ordered a new ‘carry all the time’ camera via Amazon from Pixmania – a wee Panasonic Lumix TZ1, which should fulfil all my requirements. Anyway, it normally retails for about £270, but Pixmania had it listed for £155. All well and good. I know the TZ1 is being phased out and replaced with the TZ-2 and -3, but this one will be more than sufficient, so I figure I might as well take the discount.

Anyway – what I didn’t know is that Pixmania is actually owned by – you guessed it – Dixons Stores Group. *sob*

Brithday

Oh, and Happy Birthday to Mr Dragon.

It’s obviously not a good day to be him – he’s feeling Old. Heh.

Self-Promotion – revisited

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about starting to do more work to promote my own stuff, and I’m pleased to say that it’s all going quite well at the moment.

I’ve been accepted in to the Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS) and my UK Webdesigners Association (UKWDA) profile has been updated, my Linked In network is slowly growing, and the portfolio website is beginning to look pretty good (in my own humble opinion, of course) although I’m not going to link to it just yet, as there’s some basic stuff that needs to be reconsidered/redone before it goes live. I’ve also hoyed out some letters to various places in order to see whether I can get permission to do photos’n’stuff at them

I do, however, still find that this is the thing I hate the most. Hard as it may sometimes be to believe, I’m really not good at just standing up and saying “Me? I’m bloody great, I am”. It’s still extremely rare to hear (see, read, whatever) me saying something like that, although I’m kind of getting better at it. Gradually.

Backing Up

Way back before Christmas, I bought myself a 320Gb Western Digital ‘MyBook’ external hard drive, mainly as a backup dumping ground for data, but also to hold backups of the important stuff that I have and do.

And I did do a manual back-up every so often. But then I read the Lifehacker feature about automatically backing up your hard-drive, and figured that an automated back-up is far better than just ‘when I remember’.

So last night I went through and did it all – downloaded the SyncBack software – a whole £15 all told! – and now all the important stuff on the PC gets backed up regularly, and automatically. Oh yes, and then I do FTP it off to an off-site place as well, just in case. All very useful.

Festerous

To quote a great sage (and friend of mine)..

Merry Christmarse to all the readers of D4D™

Finishing Off

Amazingly, I’ve now been working in Cambidge for three months. Today is the last day of my initial contract, and it’s the last day of 2006 that I’ll be working.

Yes, after 1pm today, I’m finished ’til January 2nd.

Of course, because I’m a contractor, it means ten days without pay – which works out (if I just count the ‘working’ days) as costing me about £1000 or so. Still, once I’m back at work, the Festering Season will be over for another year.

And if nothing else, that’s cause for celebration…

24-Hour

Just while I’m away, and nothing’s happening here (well, except the nascent starts of a redesign which may or may not come to fruition)…

I went to the local 24-hour store last night, and found the owner locking the doors to go home.
“I thought this was a 24-hour store?”
“Not all in one chunk” he replied

© Steven (not Steve) Wright

Norfolk in Chance

So, we’re now Norfolkians.

Oh dear, oh dear – there’s just no hope for us, is there?

New Location

Oh yeah.

Our new location? Attleborough, in Norfolk

Alarm Systems

I came across this piece via Bruce Schneier’s CryptoGram email, but thought it was quite interesting:

Why millions of home burglar alarms are useless.

Turning Back

So – have you remembered to turn all your clocks back?

I’m sure we’ve still got a couple to do – but all the main ones have been done.

And lo, ’twas the run-up to the Festering Season once more.

Wheeeeeeeee

I so want to try these!

Hand and Foot

One thing that’s very odd at the moment is that because I’m staying in a B&B , and having meals every night, I’m not actually doing any cooking or really anything for myself. And that, to me, is very strange – I’m not used to it, and I’ve never been overly keen on the entire “being served” concept in life.

Obviously I don’t mind on occasion, or when an event requires it. I don’t object to restaurants and waiters, for example. But I’m just not used to not doing stuff for myself on a regular basis. I wake up, get breakfast done for me. The room at the B&B gets cleaned up, hoovered etc. while I’m away at work, and then when I get “home” to the B&B, I then go out and have a meal somewhere. Yeah, it’s great for purposes of Wheres Good, but on a personal basis it’s bloody weird.

I think a lot of people would say that’d be their ideal lifestyle – always being looked after and cleaned-up after. For me, I’m too independent to be comfortable with it, I suspect. All very strange.

To Be Continued

I’ll blither about a few things later.

First, though, I’ve got to send a highly pissed-off email.

So I’ll write more in a bit.

Wimbledon

How can you tell that today is the start of Wimbledon 2006?

Because it’s pissing it down with rain, that’s how.

And just when do we expect wet-fart Henman to fall out of the contest?

“What a ride”

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow – What a ride!'”
— Peter Sage.

Sequential

01:02:03 04/05/06 .

What a great date/time…

Blacklight Tattoos

(via Gordon)

I wonder if this tattoo ink is available in the UK? I really like the idea of a tattoo that doesn’t show up except under UV light…

Lent

So, today’s the first day of Lent, and we’re all supposed to give something up.

Me? I’m giving up on giving up. Seems like the best option.

Making Me Laugh

“Falling” isn’t something I think I’ve done, when it comes to love. I’m not even sure I’ve even riccocheted or sashayed.

It’s just something I’ve come to and found myself in.

Like IKEA.

Thank you, Anna for that comment on this Pandemian post. Brilliant.

Final Day

Today is the final day of the bathroom suite replacement. Our nice plumbers sorted out the majority of the stuff yesterday, so again we were left with working toilet etc. – always a good thing! Of course, if they hadn’t, it also would’ve meant I’d have been far more reticent about drinking beer last night.

Today he should just be here for a couple of hours, doing the finishing bits. And lo, we’ll have a complete new suite. Happy Day.

Fours

Another memey thing from Pix…
Four jobs I’ve had in my life

1. Shop Manager
2. Pub/ Hotel Manager
3. Self Employed IT Contractor
4. Web Designer/Programmer

Four movies I can watch over and over

1. Tootsie (sad, but true)
2. Split Second
3. Memento
4. Delicatessen

Four places I have lived (picked from a list of many)

1. Oxfordshire
2. Woburn
3. Rugby
4. Manchester

Four TV shows I love to watch

1. West Wing
2. CSI (Las Vegas)
3. House
4. Scrapheap Challenge

Four places I have been on vacation

1. Ireland
2. Canary Islands
3. Scotland
4. Somerset

Four of my favourite dishes

1. Thai Curry
2. Lasagne
3. Pasta in general
4. Scallops

Four websites I visit daily

1. Gordon
2. Slashdot
3. BBC News
4. Userfriendly

Four places I would rather be right now

1. Scotland
2. Somewhere Sunny
3. In Bed
4. Not Here

Snowy

Despite being closed, it’s fun to see that, apparently, it’s snowing in Uborka-land. Wintry cucumbers ahoy…

Faithless

Off tonight to see Faithless at Brixton Academy. Second time we’ll have seen them this year, so let’s hope it’s good.

And no, I’m not taking my camera, not after the farce last time I went to Brixton Academy…

Children In Need

I was going to write a small rant about Children In Need and the like today, but what with one thing and another, just never got round to it.

So add your own swearwords in here for the moment about the pox-ridden event, and I’ll probably write something more about it over the weekend, or on Monday. It all depends how I feel, really.

400 years on

Four hundred years ago today, Guy Fawkes entered the Houses of Parliament with the intention of blowing it up. Some would say he was probably the last person to enter Parliament with honest intent.

If the plot had succeeded, life today would almost certainly be very different. (although on a cynical note it’s worth pointing out that that article was published on the April First)

Sorkin’s Back

According to the Media Guardian, creator of the West Wing Aaron Sorkin is coming back – unfortunately, not to the West Wing.

NBC has committed to 13 episodes of Studio 7, a behind-the-scenes satire set in a Saturday Night Live-style late-night comedy show, which is shaping up to be one of the hottest new properties coming out of the US next year.

“This project is a noisy, compelling combination of bold drama and laugh-out-loud comedy,” the NBC entertainment president, Kevin Reilly, said.

However, Studio 7 may prove a little close to bone for NBC bosses. The pilot opens with an executive producer of the fictitious late night comedy show launching into a tirade about the current state of TV, with people eating worms on screen – which is regarded as a clear reference to NBC reality show Fear Factor.

© Guardian Newspapers 2005

Well hallelujah – it’ll be good to see what Sorkin comes up with.

La Brand

Tonight we’re off to see Jo Brand at the Reading Hexagon. I’m sure I’ll have some thoughts to post about it later – or more likely tomorrow.

Have fun!

Dubious

Why is this news?

Sometimes the sheer triviality of the cult of “celebrity” leaves me utterly cold, and more than slightly befuddled.

Oh Bugger

I hate forgetting friend’s birthdays – it’s a silly thing, but it really annoys me wen I realise I’ve done it.

Mind you, “Sorry, I was in Amsterdam” is, as these things go, a bit of a better excuse than just “Bollocks, sorry, I forgot”. Well, I think so, anyway. No idea whether they’ll feel the same though.

Yowch

I saw this a while back, but thought I’d delay the post, just for the hell of it really.

I defy any male to read this story about a controversial “anti-rape” female condom without wimpering slightly. The picture in the story doesn’t help much either.

The device, concealed inside a woman’s body, hooks onto a rapist during penetration and must be surgically removed.
Ms Ehlers said the rape trap would be so painful for a rapist that it would disable him immediately, enabling his victim to escape; but would cause no long-term physical damage and could not injure the woman.

Personally I think it’s a good idea, but all the same, ouchy.

Slashing and Summary

Well, today is truly not a summer’s day. It’s chucking it down – not quite a thunderstorm, but equally not far off. Still, at least I can just sit in the office and watch other people get wet. Much more fun.

The weekend was actually fairly busy in the end – failure to find the other two car dealerships resulted in us ending up just going for the car we were 98% certain to be getting anyway. Well, I say failure to find, but it actually amounts to “could see on the other side of the dual carriageway, and when we tried turning round there was no feasible way to do so without travelling round another four miles of Reading’s inescapable one-way system, so we thought ‘fuck this’ and went home”

So on Thursday we become the owners of a slate-grey Focus 1.6. It’ll do all we want, and should be a lot more fun.

Other than that, I finally got out and had a proper drivbe on my own. A lot of people had warned me that it was weird doing the first bit of proper driving without an instructor burbling “slow down, turn right, change gear, blah blah blah“, but to be honest I didn’t have any real issue with it at all. Still, it was fun.

I’m sure I’ll burble on more about these things later, but for now for some reason I’m just not in the mood…

Mr Big

Caution: Criminal Mastermind at work.

Funniest thing all day.

Cashing In

I see that the government is already trying to help party contributors advertisers and corporate entities by introducing the ‘2012 Act’ or (more properly) the Olympics Bill, which (among other things) would “make it illegal to combine words like “games”, “medals”, “gold”, “2012”, “sponsor” or “summer” in any form of advertising”.

Technically, this would also mean that you could get fined for using the sentence “We do not sponsor any of the medals in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games”.

Again, I wittled on about this last year for the 2004 Athens Games, where they had a very specific and detailed policy for ‘all’ hyperlinks relating to the games. But this legislation is whole orders of magnitude worse. With luck, it’ll get changed and amended in the meantime.

Content Management

In my spare time, as well as working on a couple of websites and so on (Yes, Si, I know, yours is one of them – no excuses other than just generally being crap, though) I’m slowly working on the concept and initial code for a photographic content management system so I can do a photoblog as well as the stuff within WordPress. It probably won’t site on d4d™, because I do want to keep them seperate (and I’ve a buttload of webspace just sitting around doing sod-all) but the ideas are slowly coming together for how it’ll all work.

However, I think I really do need to get out more, rather than working on geeky stuff like this all the time. Ah well, maybe one day…

Lunchhour

In the last hour while I’ve been on lunch, I’ve managed the following :

• Booking two places on part-time education courses for September
• Booking tickets to see Dan Cruickshank and Jo Brand (on different days, I should add)
• Ordered a new Switch card, as my current one is heading for Bendsville and Crack City
• Bought and eaten lunch (best to not forget that one)
• Bought two cards, one for Brother’s birthday and one as a good luck thing for a friend starting a new job on Monday

and

• read another 50 pages of my current book

Lazing on a Friday afternoon indeed.

All Change

The weekend’s involved a lot of moving around – the office at home has moved into the second bedroom, so that we’ve both now got desks and the like. Of course this has also meant moving computers, and the bed out of the bedroom and in to the garage for a while ’til we get a decent second bed for the (smaller) new second bedroom.

All fun – and of course sorting out a wireless network etc. as well as everything else really made life fun.

Still, it’s all done now, and everything seems to be (so far) running smoothly. No-one is more amazed than me. *grin*

Racial Tolerance

I’ve kept on forgetting about this – I think my brain’s trying to eliminate it from memory – but when we went down to London on July 10th for the christening (and I still have problems believing I’m actually a godfather, too) the service came up with an utter gem. The poor woman next to me couldn’t stop giggling.

In the middle of a prayer regarding the bombings in London, and preaching religious tolerance came the line :

For all people, whether they be white, black, khaki, or yellow

I think everyone who heard it (i.e. all those who weren’t comatose/ braindead by that point) just thought “What the hell?”

No such thing as failure

I’m sorry, but I just can’t resist.

Teachers are now saying that there should be no such thing as “failure”. Instead it should be called “deferred success”.

I’m not going to do it tonight, but worrieth not, a rant will be forthcoming on this one, you can be sure.

Deferred success, my aching ringpiece.

Utterly Knackered

The fete went fine – the balloon race was a nightmare to handle, but was successful all the same. Lucky Dip and Candyfloss are always big sellers though, so we did pretty well.

Father’s birthday meal at The Old Fisherman was great, and all went well.

We got back at midnight, and then had to be in London for the Christening by 9.45, so we’d left the house by 8.30.

In short, we’re knackered. Utterly, totally knackered. So don’t expect much today, and instead there’ll be stuff tomorrow. Probably.

Official TD Mascot

Blimey – apparently I’m Troubled Diva’s most stereotypical reader. Who’d have thought it?

As such, the very nice man is going to send me a TD mug for my typicality.

And as for Anna‘s superb attempts to win the mug, they’re brilliant too – particularly the awful poetry!

Hot

Fuck it’s warm.

Yesterday involved one of the bizarrest weddings I’ve yet attended – more of a garden party and village hall affair than anything else. Still, it was quite fun – although perhaps chocolates weren’t the best idea for a “thank you” present from the happy couple…

I just hope that next weekend when we’re down in Norfolk will be similar weather. Perhaps slightly cooler, but not by much.

2,700

This post is my 2,700th post on d4d™, according to WordPress. That’s a pretty scary number.

I’ve not yet been writing d4d™ for three years – that anniversary comes at the start of August. By that time I guess I’ll be well over the 2,800 mark – at the moment I’m averaging about 3 posts per day, although that’s including the sparse times where I’d be away for weeks or weekends with access, and with no way to forward post. But now I’ve got those abilities, and I’d reckon I probably average about 4 or 5 posts per day for the most part. That’s a lot of words.

I can’t be arsed to figure out how many words I’ve typed. I could do – and I might do it as a mini-project for when I get to the start of Year Four. We’ll see. It’s in the ideas list, anyway.

Checklist

Ah, the joys of the holiday checklist…

• House being looked after, garden watered, and animals fed/ kennelled – check
• Clothes – check
• Suit – It’s a wedding we’re going to, after all – check
• Euros – check
• E111 and travel insurance – check(just)
• Booking confirmations…
  • Flight
  • Car
  • Hotel / B&B bookings
  • Thiefrow airport carparking

  – check

• Guidebook / Maps – check
• Hand-luggage
  • Passport/ ID
  • Reading material
  • Change of clothes – spot who’s seen the effects of lost luggage
  • Soft Drink
  • Anti-travelsickness things for Herself
  • Laptop
  • Camera

  – check

• Batteries / Chargers / USB Cable – check

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something – Gawd knows what, but I’ll probably remember it at half five tomorrow morning once we’re checked in.

Final Stages

Ah, joy. Notice written, ready to hand in.

Today is – already – a good day.

Reminiscence

Earlier this week, Pix wrote a post about the events that had happened in her life since she started writing/ blogging/ whatever we’re calling it this week. Anyway, it made me think back, and wonder what I was doing when I started d4d™ back in August ’02. And I couldn’t actually think where I’d been at the time.

I haven’t yet done the full count, but in that time I reckon I’ve worked for about ten different companies, as well as working for myself and having a whole bundle of different clients for websites etc. That’s kind of scary – particularly when I’ve got another new one coming up!

At some point I think I may come up with a list similar to Pix’s. That might make for a semi-interesting post while I’m away next week…

Little Fuckers

We woke up this morning to find that the car was minus its rear windscreen. Not broken, not smashed, just gone. From the looks of it, some little fucker had cut round the window seals, and just taken out the entire piece of glass. Nothing else stolen, no damage to the car, just the rear windscreen gone. No idea exactly when, because we didn’t hear a thing.

Of course, the Hound, who barks at random bits of silence and noise on occasion made absolutely sod-all sound last night. As a guard-dog, she’s fucking useless.

So anyway, out comes Yellow Pages, followed (about thirty minutes later) by a man from AutoGlass. On a job to a different car. But he has a quick check on ours too, as he’ll be back later to sort it.

Oh, there’s no seals on the window. I’m not sure we’ll be able to do that today.
Well, we explained that when we spoke to the 0800 number, and they said it’d be fine.
Oh, I’m not sure I’ve got the seal. You’d best check with them…

So we get back on to the 0800 number, and after a while it turns out it’ll be OK, they’ll get the guy to pick up the seals at the same time.

Another hourish later, Mr Autoglass comes back – with seals and window, no worries.

“We’ll just tap this in, it’ll be a dead quick job.”
*tap, tap, tap*
*smash*

The entire thing had shattered, and Mr Autoglass had put his hand through it. Ooops. Luckily he’s not hurt – a small cut, nowt else – but there’s now glass every-fucking-where, and he’s got to go to Slough to get a new rear windscreen.

It’s going to be one of those days…

Charitable

At long last, the charity work is coming together.

We’ve finally put together the first newsletter of ’05, and are distributing it. The press release is ready to go, and will be sent out over the weekend. And everything’s ready to go for the balloon race at the start of June, which should be fun.

It’s taken a fair amount of time to sort out, and there’s still bits to be done, but we’re getting there for sure. And that’s a good feeling.

Blah

Feeling fairly crap today, for some reason. I’ve taken the day off from work, and I suspect I really just need to recuperate a bit.

However, it has also given me the chance to do some odds and sods that needed sorting. Press releases, domestic stuff, and looking through for some websites to organise and hopefully get sorted. So still productive, just quiet at the same time!

Packages

Oooh, coming back from Center Parcs we had a package waiting from Amazon.

In it was Season 5 of the West Wing on DVD, and the new book by John Connolly, “The Black Angel“. So, it looks like I’ll be a happy bunny for a while…

Puntastic

Apparently, one of the cardinals up for selection was a cardinal named Sicola.

He was voted out because they didn’t want a Pope Sicola.

Kerboom, and indeed tish.

Getting Sorted

The Cat is now at the vets, having successfully been unfed, caught, boxed, and delivered.

He will now be going under heavy sedation, and they’ll be pretty much shaving him, except for head, tail, and paws. So yeah, kind of like a poodle. I can’t wait.

And yes, photos will be posted.

Jug-Ears vs. Horseface

Hallelujah, Jug Ears has finally tied the knot with HorseFace.

Now can we all shut the fuck up about it and move on?

Good.

Display

Bugger. After less than a week, the display on my new phone has a scratch on it.

Entirely my own fault – I have a nasty habit of just shoving my phone in a trouser pocket, along with keys, change, whatever. Of course, this does mean there’s a tendency for metal to interact with glass phone display in a way that’s not complimentary to the phone.

So, in a fit of protective glory, I’ve bought a case for the phone. I normally don’t bother, but well, the display’s kind of useful on the phone, and I’ve got it for another 11 months or so, so I’d best take a bit of care of it.

Hyperactive

This week is one that can only be filed under either “Insane” or “Running Round Like a Fuckwit”. I haven’t decided which, yet.

Yesterday was mentally busy. Tonight involves going out with Herself for a meal and cinema. Wednesday is The Last Lesson Before The Test (eek), Thursday I’m seeing Dead Can Dance at London Forum (which used to be the Town and Country Club, back in the days), and Friday may just involve collapsing and doing nowt. Alternatively, it may involve something I simply haven’t remembered about yet.

The weekend’s not looking much better – another journey to sort out someone else’s video (their old knackered one is being replaced by one of our old working ones that’s been outmoded by TiVo and Sky+) which if I’d had a brain-cell I’d have done yesterday, only I forgot. *sigh*

Wrapped up in there too is seeing a friend who’s just had a new baby, churning out a newsletter and press-release for the charity, and a bundle of other things too.

Posts may be somewhat less than usual this week. Or they may be more prolific. It’s a toss-up.

Birthday

Today is the birthday of Herself.

So Happy Birthday from me – although she’s already had the pressies and so on.

Yesterday

Yesterday was a “day off”. For those not in the know, a “day off” involves far more running round like a silly bastard than anything else yet discovered.

Yesterday involved :

• Picking up the van we’d hired for the day
• Back to the house, load up, and go to the dump with the first load
• Dump run complete,back to the house, and load :
  • Sofa
  • Rocking chair
  • Double bed mattress plus two divan bases
  • 3 75l bags of Compost
  • two tables
  • Electric fire
  • two or three other bags of stuff
  • fridge
  • freezer
• Deliver the double bed to friends in Reading
• Drive to the parents, and deliver the fridge
• Drive to Herself’s grandfather’s place, and deliver the rest
• Having unloaded, load up two single beds plus divan bases
• Drive to local “house clearance” place, and drop off the beds and bases
• Back to grandfather’s place
• Drive back to Bracknell

Nice easy day off, as you can see.

AF

Nice to see some timely spoofs on certain sites. Diamond Geezer has truly entered into the spirit of things, as has Troubled Diva.

Obviously these links will only work for today.

Me? Can’t be arsed to do much for April 1st. So there.

UPDATED : Mike has pointed out Anna’s Little Red Boot feels much the same, but Big’n’Juicy has entered into the spirit.

It’s Summer

I forgot to say earlier in the week – I’ve seen my first indication that Summer is definitely on the way.

No, not first cuckoos of Spring, first Daffodils, nothing like that. The first sign that it’s getting warmer again is my old bugbear – white leggings with a black thong underneath. At least this one didn’t also have VSTL, which is a bonus.

Happiness is…

Well, in this case happiness is multiple. The first part is having the new book by Richard Morgan, titled “Woken Furies. I’ve loved two of the previous three books he’s written (the only exception being Market Forces, which was OK, but I need to re-read in order to firm up my feelings about it) and this one involved a return of the major characters from Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, so I’m optimistic.

Second happiness is – sad to say – geeky. The PC I wasn’t looking forward to sorting out is now sorted. It’s not quite as bad as I thought – at least it runs Windows 95 – but it’s still pretty bad. MS Office 6, 15Mb of RAM, and an 800Mb hard disk. Older than the ark…

Now there’s garden stuff to be done, it’s sunny, and there’s lunch out in the offing.

Have a good one, one and all.

Off

Good Friday? Bloody Brilliant Friday more like. A day off – and another one on Monday.

And even better, at the moment I even get paid for them. Can’t be bad.

In the meantime, go and look at the website for Banksy, one of the more renowned “graffiti” artists in the UK. I love a lot of his stuff, and the site is well worth looking through – especially the outdoors section.

Wooden It Be Nice

via Slashdot, a guy has made a wooden laptop. Not just wood-covered, but the entire case is made from wood. Quite, quite barmy – but nicely different to the black and silver plastic that seems to be everywhere.

The world needs more barmpots like this, I think.

Charity Work

Yes, it’s “all for charidee, mate!”. Over the weekend I’ve been working more on organising fun stuff like balloon races for the charity I do some work with. I’m getting more involved in the fund-raising side, as well as the publicity and website bits I already do, and it’s pretty interesting.

This is all stuff I’ve not really been involved in before, so it’s fun, and makes for some interesting challenges. I’m thinking that I may even start doing a website (and/or a business sideline) in advice on these things for other people as I’m having the devil’s own job getting relevant information so far.

Still, all fun and games. And I’m sure I’ll write more about the various ideas and challenges as I go on with the process.

Ideal Home

Today, we’re off down to the Ideal Home Show. I’ve never been before, so it should be quite fun.

No idea what to expect – open mind, booted feet, ready for most things.

Reports/Photos later/tomorrow.