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November 28, 2003
I Hate Drivers!
I tried to update the drivers for my Radeon 9600 as I wondered if it might cure the non-shiny Sith in Knights Of The Old Republic, but it sent the PC :angrydoolally:angry, and the only way to get back was to reformat the main drive... and guess what? The drivers still won't install on an empty PC... Ah well - all is fine now, but not up to date - works though!
This week has been busy at work, and busy at nigt since Wednesday working on getting Ayumi back up and running, and I had to redo a Powerpoint presentation I was giving at Burnley Football Club today... yes, I say the hallowed ground, so to speak... very nice. The presentation (to Burnley & Padiham Housing) went well, and may well lead to something...
Not a week full of interesting stuff, though, sadly - I've had a number of long and serial dreams, but they escaped as I woke up and while I know they were good, and long, I have no idea what they were about, which is a shame. I do remember a dream which had me going to work and finding Barbara (the social worker who sits opposite) off and my boss away in the morning and went in to find that that was just what had happened... but thats hardly evidence of psychic ability!
Oh - I had more training with the woman doing the other side of the area, and she had 5 people to see at the Hyndburn Centre, one every 45 minutes. Not impossible, though she has a tendancy to natter. She didn't, surprisingly, nag much, though she was very tempted to rush off to lunch when the 12.30 appointment hadn't arrived by 12.25... and she was almost out of the door (literally) when the last lady arrived 2.20 for her 2.00 (she had got lost in the one-way system) and nearly shoved the poor woman out of the door at 3.00! And she committed the ultimate sin as she got some toast and a cup of coffee delivered from the kitchen...:biggrin
Other work stuff included a couple of problems - one a social worker getting uppity at my boss about something that I had done ages ago ( called to see what had been 'left in the middle of the floor' but found the poor man had no idea... The second thing was not of my dong - an engineer from a company that fits lop systems turned up late and expected the 84 year-old woman to move the furniture and carpet. Expect a BIG complaint going in to them from me...
Oh - just watching the new-look Top Of The Pops - it seems better - new stuff, stuff that isn't in the charts (yet), and a lot of performing live (I hope Nick didn't miss Kylie singing After Dark...:wink Of course, a new look and a further hour on BBC won't help the quality of the music in the charts! At least there hasn't been any Atomic Kitten yet... (note the word 'yet'!) But there is Westlife - singing live this time - and again, only one seems to have any passion when he sings Mandy... I think one is too busy watching the loveley lady hanging from the studio ceiling doing a routine on those hanging drape things...
By the way, I feel a rant coming on about cover versions...
Ah well - good luck to James who, like me, has had to reformat... there may be an entry from him later as he asked about the login for the server...
Posted by Badgers at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2003
Happy Birthday Doctor/Nick!!!
Well, what else can I call this entry? Last night, due to various pressures, Nick and I went out for a change. Those pressures included an annoying week at work, feeling ill for half the week, Nick's birthday and a certain Anniversary!:biggrin
I won't go into the week, but lets just say that it was annoying (two things I thought finished with ages ago came back to stress me out), and I had to be off on Wednesday as for some reason I didn't get much sleep on Tuesday night and woke up after a couple of hours (if I was lucky) shaking and dizzy - I haven't felt so shaky in years).:sad
The best thing (apart from getting in the car to come home on Friday night!) was getting my bluetooth adaptor (for wi-fi connection to my iPaq) and a firewire case for a HDD I had to take out of Kyoko, my second computer. Why? Because mum and Dad's PC was buggering about, they wanted me to put memory and stuff in from another old PC they have that doesn't work, but it wouldn't work properly, so I decided to sacrifice Kyoko and let them have her (giving them the fast modern PC they want but without paying anything).:sad
So after that kind of week, I wanted to go out, and luckily Nick did (it being his birthday), James wanted to go out (see his blog page) and apparently according to Nick later in the evening, Andrew said he would come (we were watching for pigs going by the window). In the end, it was just me and Nick though as the world wasn't about to end (and that wouldn't pull Andy away from Star Wars Galaxies anyway), in an email I just heard that James couldn't come because his broadband connection went down for a couple of hours... are those two wedded to their PCs or what?
It was a good, if slightly quiet night, probably due to the fact that England didn't lose in the Rubgy yesterday in Oz...! Whoo-hoo!!! Lots of nice girls out (naturally, and some not so natural, if you catch my drift!) I dropped of Nick's card and Kylie calendar and we headed for The Swan, which had lost the Simpsons table and picked up a Junkyard pintable! My second or third (well in the top five) table! Somehow I didn't do as well as normal on the table, though during one game a cover from a light fell off and blocked the drain. leading to balls getting stuck on our last credit... I didn't do anything, I swear!:wink
We then moved onto Walkabout which was fun (espicially two rather incredible ladies (girls really!) dancing (and the rest) on the small dancefloor - it made an old man VERY happy! Me too... Be warned though - the bacardi and coke was in face a bacardi and pepsi. not a bad thing, I suppose - later at Paradise Island it was pepsi too, but at least it didn't taste just of pepsi with no bacardi in there! Sigh. Paradise Island was it's usual busy place - some very nice totty in there and lost of nice views down from the balcony! No live band, but the DJs were having fun so it was another good night (though it buggered my ankle - I danced very briefly with a nice girl (who looked great with her belly button showing, slit pant legs, etc, but somehow looked even sexier with a jumper over it at one point - okay, I'm a pervert as I prefer to see girls with clothes on (as I like to guess what was underneath - of course I knew with this girl!!!):biggrin
Anyway - flyers were being given out for Lava-Ignite which is set for a 5.12.03 opening. Some work was going on there during the night, but not as much as at the church being converted into XS - it's a shell, and it's still due to open in November... looks like a race is going on! Still, reading the flyer, it looks like the music isn't changing - still 60's- present downstairs, which is good as it was one of the big draws to the club. It'll be good to have it back, as long as it isn't too expensive for James to afford a round (:winksponging git!:wink)
Oh - one thing - it was a cold night (the frost was well set in on the way home) and Nick of course went out in a shirt. I went out in a shirt and fleece (and pants - I don't want to be picked up for indecency!). I have one question - how do fleeces know when to keep you warm and when to keep you cool? I didn't take it off all night!
So, Happy Birthday Nick (he couldn't decide if it was his 21st or his 25... lets face it, it was his 34th!!!)
And Happy 40th Anniversary Doctor - here's to another 40 years!
Posted by Badgers at 09:06 AM | Comments (5)
November 17, 2003
CRASH! BANG! WOLLOP!
Well, Saturday flew by, as did much of Sunday! I watched Finding Nemo (excellent movie, Pixar!), and Sunday morning I forced myself to watch Peter Kay Live At The Bolton Albert Halls, which was a mistake considering I had to watch the whole thing again (apart from the start of the video recorder jokes) at Nicks! Yes - an hour and a half of Andrew and Nick not shooting! Pigs did fly past the window, actually!
Of course, things were not all hunky dory... I got my huge case out of the back of Andrew's Polo and sat it on the front seat while I got my bag of stuff out... and it decided to fall out onto the floor, making a loud clang! noise...:sad I picked it up and something was moving... at Nick's I found my Coolermaster Aero7 had come off! I got it back on after nearly breaking a finger and the PC started making a siren-like noise (no doubt James could tell me what it was, but as he is in a mood again (see his blog!) I won't ask... I put the fan back on, checked the cables, etc... wait - actually, I didn't put the fan on, Nick did. First try. Well, nearly! He kept missing putting one end of the clip on the processor mount, but once he did he popped it on like a good 'un. Of course, Me and Andrew sat well back, just in case... I turned it on though, and all was well again! The ease of which he popped the heatsink etc in place is probably down to the fact that his PC has a huge Zalman Flower cooler and it is a complete bugger to put on - practice makes perfect, y'see! I think Jamius has just lost his alpha-male position to Nick, at least as far as computers go!
James, of course, didn't make it due to computer problems (other people's natch), but may pop up tonight, we shall see. I'll just messenger him to leave him the message now...
In other news, I recommend PPC owners to get Pocket C64, which is a wonderful little emulator for my favourite computer ever... I even managed to get a version of the classic Kennedy Approach to run on it, which makes me happy - a great game to play when sitting in the car in the rain at lunchtimes!:biggrin
Today though was'nt too bad for a work day - my boss returned from a few days off, I got to do some work (for a change) on a presentation I'm giving in a few weeks, and even got to buy some new shirts and stuff from Matalan... hey, I can't afford decent stuff yet! Ah well - things can only get worse from now on... as I told James! :biggrin
Oh, and as I now have an ankle that isn't too bad, I can start my exercise and diet regime... no, it's not the Watkins diet, and I won't be blabbing about it in this blog every time... unless I hit my targets, of course...
Finally, Nick's birthday is coming up, and I think a night out is in order... and of course, this Sunday is the 40th Anniversary of a certain Time Lord. I wonder Who...?
Posted by Badgers at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2003
Jehova's Witnesses (And Other Religious Annoyances)
I don't want to sound negative towards religion, but what is it with Jehova's Witnesses? They come to the door to convert you - that I can accept, but you can be walking along and suddenly the person beside you asks if you want to take one of their pamphlets/leaflets - do they have them on their person at all times, just in case? This has happened a number of times over the years, the latest being Wednesday this week. Being a Fortean (follower of the works of Charles Fort) and a kind of Techno-Shinto-Wiccan, My views are likely to be totally opposite to those of most churches (no God, no Heaven and Hell, probably, etc) so what happens when they come calling? I'll tell you - as this happened a year of two ago.
I was alone at home when the knock came at the door, and I opened it to two very tidy and nice suited men. They asked me about my religious views, etc, and I explained mine in simple terms they could understand. And blow me, if the views of their church are along the same lines! S'yeah, right. I give blood when I'm well enough, so that kinda buggers up one of the most fundemental bits for them, doesn't it?
The best religious moment for me was a few years ago in Manchester when two fellas came up and asked me if I went to church. One was obviously a University student, but the other had a monobrow and a forehead that kept his face dry in the rain. They were reaching for their pamphlets when I announced that "...actually, I'm a Wiccan..." and reached to produce a book on the subject that I had just bought... They made hurried goodbyes and ran away, leaving me to smile in an evil way.
Usually they tend to stay away from me, but occasionally they risk it. I don't know why!
Oh - if you want to know my belief, huh? Well, I believe there is one higher force of some kind that binds us together and makes us what we are. Without it we wouldn't exist as more than atoms drifting through space. It is not understood yet, and probably quantum.
No, muppets, not The Force(tm) - gravity!
Its a close to an ineffible power as we'll ever get!
Posted by Badgers at 05:50 PM | Comments (3)
Another Week Done And Dusted!
Well, nearly - I'm at work at the moment but I have a meeting in half an hour, so I may be asleep pretty soon...:yawn
Lets see... Sunday was fun as usual - Call of Duty in multiplayer (especially the Behind Enemy Lines tag mode) seems to be taking up all our time (no Tiger Woods for a while then!), and James may be getting a little indignant that he gets all these games for no recognition... sorry James, no snog - you ain't my type - you'll have to make do with the usual 'thanks'!
The rest of this week has not, in fact, seen me on the computer at home, largely as I've spent almost all day everyday this week on one at work! Looks like everyone, even Nick, will finish COD before me! I've spent most evenings asleep... and after dealing with showing the new woman that will be covering the other half of the area the computer system (she got it in the end, I think, about 4.30 yesterday, but will have forgotten it for next week, especially after the excitement of her doing two visits with me in the background) I've been too knackered and cheesed off.
The week has had some nice stuff in it, though... or funny at least! There has been a van going round with a huge Tescos is Open! sign on the side, and the local Asda has responded, so there has been little war going on with the Tesco one driving past Asda, and the Asda one parked in front of Tesco. Also, I came to the top of Harle Syke and had to giggle as the Tesco van was waiting to go right down the hill, while the double decker bus was waiting to turn right onto that road. Not a problem, you think? Well, since that crossroads is very narrow being made of the old country roads up there, the bus couldn't go round, and was getting unhappy. The Tesco van wouldn't go back, and then when he capitulated (big word) he had lots of cars behind him, so he couldn't go back easily... They did move back a little, though one idiot got out of the passenger side of the car just as the driver reversed like a complete idiot! Chaos! Fun! :rofl Oh - just heard that the new 24hrs Tesco across the way has lost some letters from the large standing signs on the roof... obviously they didn't realise that it is windy in Burnley... and as the signs are just above the height of the canal towpath behind... which is a great place to put large 20ft signs up! Or maybe it was Asda sabotage?!?:biggrin
Other news is that On Saturday while coming back from Manchester (leg aching, and then made worse by having to go into the loft and then deal with the dogs all night while the parents looked after the community fireworks party across the road) I spotted a banner on the side of a couple of the pubs in the town centre announcing that XS would be opening soon. I assumed that this was what was going into the Rock/Works complex, but it seems I was wrong. That site suddenly put up a big banner saying that December would see the opening of Lava and Ignite which looking at the (no doubt not quite like the final club!) renders here, could be quite nice. James thinks XS (hopefully not he same as Club XS, which is just what we need in Burnley, another gay bar!) may be opening in the old church across from Lava/Ignite (possible, but a lot of work will be needed) or in what was (may still be) Afterlife (Heaven & Hell as was, amongst other names!), by the bus station. This club, in all it's various names, of course, is famous for having the horned statue of Moses in front of it... I recently discovered that while it sounds daft to have a statue like that, it is based on a statue by Michelangelo which also has horns... as apparently some reports of Moses state that he had horns on his head... but this is apparently due to a mistranslation from Hebrew - and you thought this site wasn't educational! There are of course some people who have a condition whch does mean you grow some sort of horny protruberence... strange, but true!
Ah well - nights out may get interesting with all this choice (but do we need more clubs here? Discuss.)
I also watched this week's Property Ladder on Channel 4, and laughed my arse off as the guy doing it (who it has to be said, bore a striking resemblance to Nick) had a great idea to turn a house into a flat. For bachelors. Rich bachelors. Poor old Sarah Beeny agreed that opening up the main flat by removing the walls was a good idea, doing stuff in the loft space was okay, and other ideas were fine. His idea of adding the huge plasma screen TV and hi-fi were not (the rich bachelor would buy those themselves, after all). He of course, was a prat! He took the walls down, started putting up girders for the loft conversion, etc, but completely forgot about such things as neighbours and the all-important party wall agreements... delays, mucho overspending (including bribes to the neighbours, £10,000 for the kitchen :blush, and more) and a flood that totally wrecked the flat below meant it was a real Laurel and Hardy job... he hd to sell his sports car (awwww!) and even rent his house out (and take out mortgages, loans, etc) to afford it all. Bought for £195K (!), he hoped to sell for the very highest estimate of £320K. I think he would be lucky to get £250K (considering the area in Battersea) and was likely to make less profit that a team on Bargain Hunt... needless to say, it hadn't sold by the time the show was broadcast... The whole show was worth it for two things - the guy saying he had learned, and though he would still go on to develop another property (OMFG!) he wouldn't fo it like this... and the look on Sarah Beeny's face when he said he would have it ready to show the estate agents by Wednesday (5 days off, and with the walls needing doing, the carpets, the stairs... the everything really!). Well, three things - the estate agent that looked at the windows (the one area the guy wanted to save money in) and said "Ah, UPVC..." was funny too!
Here's some simple advice - if you are a foolish person developing property for the first time after quitting your day job, remember that if you budget £3,000 for the (totally unnecessary!) TV/Stereo system etc, don't spend double that (prat), and £10,000 on that kitchen?!? And when told that the UPVC windows are crap and that the house is in a conservation area so proper sash windows would raise the selling price, don't pick that area to save on by doing nothing. :rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl A message to Nick - DO NOT GO INTO PROPERTY DEVELOPING! I think that idiot only went into it to meet Sarah Beeny... and for Nick that would be cause enough too! :wink
Finally - if you have a Pocket PC and liked Wing Commander, check out Anthelion from PDAMill - a stunning 3D space combat game - no trading (get the PPC version of Elite for that!) so it isn't quite Freelancer, but still excellent.
There, James - that should make up for the lack of updates!
Posted by Badgers at 10:53 AM | Comments (1)
November 05, 2003
Bonfire Night Is Here...
...and of course, this is just the middle of the biggest firework festival this side of Chinese New Year... This weekend sees the local Community Action Group holding their firework party in the park across the road... That'll be fun - I'll have at least two terrified dogs, one that barks a lot at fireworks, another that is too damn lazy to do anything, and one that doesn't know to be scared.
Ah well. Back to the blog, enough advertising! This week hasn't been too bad, excpet for metings every day, and today I went to one visit that would have took 1/2 hour tops, except I had to look at their alarm system (don't ask - I think I have to get the alarm company to come to fit a flashing light inside so the people know it is going off (as they are deaf)). I did get my car back tonight, thankfully - they finally called from the garage yesterday to tell me about the MOT (after I called them 4 times on Friday...). Still, she is finished, and it cost a little (like a little!) less than I had feared... luckily some of the work was done under warranty. She now accelerates, has a few less bumps, and even a nice new rear wiper blade. And is street-legal again, with MOT and Tax...
I've spent some time playing Call Of Duty (Medal Of Honour to the max, basically) and finally tonight I've gotten to see a week's worth of decent flash over at Newgrounds... Lots of good stuff turned up, including a new Doctor Shroud adventure, More You ARe A F*cking Moron (Dubya at last!!!), Megaman Titanium Rhapsody (classic!) lots of halloween stuff, a new animation from INA studios and the Arfenhouse-style :/theintriguingmovietitle... Hmm - I have to get back into Flash (yes, James, I will try the MX you got me this weekend!) to get ...Ish and Butterfly online for the end of the year (no rush!), and then hit I.T. like a mad bugger... Maybe I need some more of those little pills that make you get all de-stressed and happy... or valium. need to get chilled before I can do anything... notice how I didn't mention my job today? Or my ankle?!?
Ah well - I know there is a night out in the offing sometime in the not too distant future (before 2008?), and the night-in (which will no doubt be spoiled by Doof having to go to a LAN party that night)...
By the way - Tesco opened their new open 24 Hours/On stilts (really!) store in Burnley this week, but I'm confused (this will go into the OOPS pages when I get round to them again!) - the sign says open 24 hours, but it has opening times beneath... WTF?
Posted by Badgers at 10:27 PM | Comments (9)
November 01, 2003
It's Been A While...
...so here are few random Baka clips for you all...
The Peugeot 206 SW - Why?
What is it with these small estate cars? The 206 SW courtesy car I'm currently driving is bigger than my 206, sure, but it only means it has the boot space (just) of the Saab 900 I had for a month last year... it doesn't seem worth it... what next, a Smart car estate?
Stick Your Nose Out
Why do some people stick half their car out into a country lane to turn left, blocking the road completely, then not pull out when you stop to let them as they are blocking the entire single-track road?!?
I Wanna Be Elected (Please!)
This one might sound obvious to any sane person, but if you want to win a General Election that may be two short years away, it isn't necessarily a good idea to have a vote of confidence in your leader, and then go into what is likely to be another messy leadership battle... The current Labour government in Britain may not be the best ever, but what makes you think the Conservatives will do better? The fact that they were in power for so long before this government,? Or the fact that they have no coherent policies beyond gainsaying everything Labour says (shades of Monty Python perhaps!), and only a short time to actually formulate some policies? Maybe they should just concentrate on coming third behind the Liberal Democrats!
Your Next Prime Minister
One solution to the above might be to get an actor to lead the party, but we don't have many truly British action heroes beyond Sean Connery... or perhaps this is the role Ross Kemp has been waiting for? Personally they'd be far better with Jim Hacker, but maybe that's just me...
And Finally...
This'll put the cat among the pigeons.. I was watching a programme from the US where some stats were given... according to one survey 50% of gamers are now women... but one PC magazine said that their demographic was 95% men and they couldn't understand it... I can! It's obvious, really - look at the computer mags on sale today - most are close to being 'lads' mags, lets face it. Not many women want to pick up Max Power just because they have a fast car, either. Of course, the real reason for more female gamers nowadays isn't the increase in female characters (as was mooted), but simply because the joypads for consoles all vibrate when almost anything happens... Hence more female console gamers than female PC gamers... so of course the readership of the mag will be almost all men! D'oh!
Posted by Badgers at 04:44 PM | Comments (0)
Life 101
The golden rule of life (and I think that there is only one, at the moment) is simply that it sucks, so you gotta get used to it.
Guess what kind of week this has been?
If you answered that it was a nice cuddly week with cute snuggly bits, you've got to get back on the medication. Immediately. The real answer is a sucky one. Saturday wasn't too bad as I finished Max Payne 2 (just like the last, only darker, and pumped to the Max!), and Sunday was fun (we discovered Konami's Apocalyptica... considering how evil the single player is, I think its that rare example of a game that was designed to be multiplayer and then the single player was added as an afterthought... not bad for a Quake 3 powered game though!) From there, though, things started to slip...
At work, much of Monday (and Wednesday) was hogged by being dragged into my boss's office and nagged about something that, three days later, was left as it is now. Heaven save us from management... I'm starting to live in a Dilbert strip! This is especially annoying as somehow I don't think I am playing the part of Wally... I keep having to control the... fist.. of... death!!! :wink
On Tuesday I got over to Blackburn to book the car in for the work on the engine (which has steadily become more annoying, even when waiting for it to lose revs)... Still, it is now in the shop, so to speak, and I am driving a brand new (literally!) 206 SW, which is basically a Peugeot 206 with an estate bit at the back. And found out that apparently there are no silver-coloured 206 in existence - they are in fact metallic grey. Thats an interesting little tidbit to mull over... Of course, the car hasn't been so simple - they tried to get hold of me on Friday, but when I called they said they would call back, and they haven't yet... still as long as Camille is up and running right on Tuesday, I don't care!
Thursday the woman who was/wasn't was starting started, and I missed two appointments as she was in the boss' office till 10.30 when I was having to go out... and when I finally got out, she turned out to be a nagger - admitedly I expected her to nag a little to find out what had changed in the seven years since she last did the job (for more than a day a week)... the problem came that three of the four afternoon appointments were naggers too...
I survived this, and booked Friday off to take the car into Blackburn and collect the 206 SW, and to rest my foot, which has ached all week, and looks like doing it next week as well. I really wish I'd broken it all those years ago... it'd be much less hassle than tearing the tendon!
Of course, there were some good things from this week - I bought (I can hear Jamius swooning as I type) Jak II for the PS2 and a cheap pre-owned copy of Metroid Prime for my Gamecube (if you haven't played it, do so - its far better than all those scrappy Turok pieces of pap!). And I now have all the Patrick O'Brien Captain Aubrey novels as eBooks, which is nice to have on my iPAQ!
Still, today hasn't been too restful - the plan was to sit/lie down and play Jak II/read books/do nothing much, but as mum is doing a computer word processing course, and has problems putting tabs between words in sentences because the tutor told her to (actually, she is mixing up putting tons of spaces on the page instead of a tab, but thats another story) which means that after all weeek not getting on the computer at work except to show Barbara (the social worker opposite me) how to do the same sort of thing, I get home to do it all over again... Getting up and down all the time on a leg that is supposed to be resting and is still swollen and painful to walk on (and dragging two heavy bags from the car into people's homes to demonstrate equipment) is not going to make it better quickly...
I just know that next week has got to be better.
It has to be, right?
Posted by Badgers at 04:28 PM | Comments (2)