Insight's Ramblings

Cool animation

2006-08-11T10:03:00.000Z

I don't know how long this has been kicking about but I saw this today and thought it is superb..

Thought I would share it with anyone who reads my blog (if anyone does)

Last night's show

2006-08-01T13:13:00.000Z

Last night was Monday night again which meant me playing my show for a couple of hours :)

As always it can be downloaded from links on the right or

Right click save as

Last Night's Show

2006-07-25T09:03:00.000Z

Last night my good friend DJ ID came over to my house to join me on the show for a back to back mix up. We both managed to chug a beer or 2 and had a pretty good laugh mixing up the tunes.

As always the set is available for download, last night's was approximately 60MB. The link is on the right or you can simply Right click and save as

Got myself a new motorbike!

2006-07-22T22:12:00.000Z

So,

It all started several months ago when a piece of spamvertising fell through my letter box..

This wasn't just any piece of spamvertising though I hasten to add... this told of lands of 0% finance, 2 wheels and 600cc motorcycles. It was a land I wanted to go to but felt I shouldn't, so I kept the advertisement to look at once in a while to day dream.

Then one day I went to my local Honda/Yamaha motorcycle dealer to ask about some motorbiking boots Becky wanted. There stood many of these 2 wheeled 600cc machines of 0% finance goodness, beckoning me like some sort of in line 4 fuel injected sirens.

Now I have one.. doh! But, in my defence, it would have been rude not to have taken up the 0% finance for the duration of the loan... honest!

Its loverly, so loverly in fact I took some pictures of it in the sun :) I put about 65 miles on it today so the tires have started scrubbing in and the brakes seem tobe working now. It is a very different animal to my Fazer 600, very different indeed. It is fuel injected rather than carborated (spelling?), it is a much more aggressive sitting position than the Fazer but not overly so. This will take some getting used to and some aching wrists (from riding not spanking my monkey over it, that is a separate issue :-P )..

Anyways, I have posted some photos over at my google web album, enjoy:

Honda CBR600 F

Vasovagal Episode

2006-07-18T09:21:00.000Z

Which was interesting..

not the weekend just gone but the weekend before (8th of July) I woke up with incredibly painful cramp in my right leg.. like normal cramp * 20...

I leapt up and had to straighten my leg out until it subsided at which point I started feeling extremely sick, as a result I promptly got up and went to the bathroom in case I was sick.

Having stood there for a minute or so I thought "nah not gonna be sick" so as you invariably do first thing in the morning relieved my bladder. At this point my ears started ringing really loudly .....

Next thing I know I am laying on the floor crumpled in the corner next to the loo staring at the floor - it was a very weird feeling, I knew I was on the floor but it didn't occur to me that I was and that I shouldn't be there...

Then I became aware that Becky was shouting at me so I tried to turn my head but couldn't - i moved my eyes over to her and she was in tears shouting "JAMES!" - then i came to a bit and my body started to function again.. I realised my face felt numb.. this is when i turned to Becky and asked "What the hell are you crying for?!"

"You just had a fit!"

"oh.. really? huh"

Apparently she had seen me crash into the wall and stare at her without looking (if you know what I mean) and then my eyes rolled up into my head and I slid to the floor and started convulsing.. excellent...

So, after 4 hours at A&E it turns out there is nothing wrong with me, I just had a vasovagal episode which was most likely brought on by waking up to cramp..

Here is a wiki article on vaso vagal

So, if you start to get any of those symptoms.. sit down fast - you don't know what you will bash your head on when you fall down.

Met with an old friend last week

2006-07-13T08:53:00.000Z

And he is old too :)

Friday evening I managed to meet up with an old gaming pal of mine from the other end of the country (Scotland for the geographically challenged); Online alias Joe90.

We met up and had a drink in Watford at a nice little pub and caught up on what we had been up to as we haven't been so good at keeping in touch lately. I also got to meet with his Sister, her husband (who kindly gave us a lift to the pub) and one of her recently born twins and also met Russell's (Joe90) youngest son Cameron.

It is always nice catching up with friends you haven't seen for ages especially when it is accompanied by good food and a bit of beer!

Later that evening I went to collect Becky on the back of the motorbike from her best friend's place in Enfield. I was very pleased with myself having managed to write directions large enough to read from under the clear plastic cover on my tank bag yet concise enough to actually to get me to 2 locations without getting lost!!! Who needs a GPS?!

Last Night's Show & MySpace

2006-06-27T08:46:00.000Z

Last night's show went pretty well ( I thought) and I have uploaded it for download, I also update the links section with last week's show - which I previously forgot to do.. doh!

The file can be downloaded from the links on the right or from this link:

Right click and save as

Hope you all enjoy it, keep tuning in - Monday nights 9 - 11 at www.breakpirates.com.

I thought I would mention as well I finally gave in to the dark side and signed up for a MySpace account for my DJing, feel free to add me: My.. errr.. MySpace

Wibble

Old friends and stuff

2006-06-13T11:02:00.000Z

Last night I phoned my friend Dee from the US to wish her a happy birthday as I haven't spoken to her in a long time. It was good to catch up with what is going on as we haven't been in touch as much as we should have really.

I discovered she has a MySpace (evil die die die) site which is good and hopefully this will enable some online contact as phoning the US can become pricey.

Recently the weather has been bloody hot, especially when you ride a motorbike! Still, its better than rain or snow as the roads are lovely and dry meaning corners can be taken with more confidence.

I have recently discovered a service at a site called www.streamload.com which boasts a huge amount of storage space for your files. I have a $10 a month account and I have unlimited file storage with 25GB per month of download bandwidth.

I am giving them a try to see how good they are as a potential data backup solution (all my pictures and music etc). I had a frustrating start with them but I seem to have had a minor success today and I am now able to upload files again.

Last night's Break Pirates set went pretty well despite the heat, I was sweating my nuts off in my spare room. The set can be downloaded as usual from the menu on the right or from here: Right click and Save As

Download and enjoy :)

Breakpirates set last night

2006-06-06T08:21:00.001Z

Is now available for download. It was a fun set as I haven't played the stuff I played in the first hour or so for years.

It was bloody hot in my room as usual and I was late in so I was eating my dinner while mixing which was interesting :)

Right click the link below and to the right or right click and save as here.

Back to the decks

2006-05-23T09:17:00.000Z

I played my first set on Break Pirates last night and had an absolute blast...

I managed to secure a 9 - 11pm slot every Monday after playing back to back with a good friend of mine DJ ID a couple of weeks ago. It has been the first time I have played a set this long in a few years I think but I seemed to manage ok.

I had spamvertised forums I whore frequently and many of my friends turned up giving me a peak listener count of 19! Thanks to you guys for coming along and showing your support, it is greatly appreciated.

The set can be downloaded from the link on the right, I will be uploading each set I do for people to download if they so wish. You can also grab the mix from the post (for ease to find) just right click and save as.

I am looking forward to next week's set and will be having to look at getting myself some more tunes so I can try and play something a bit different each week.

Update and Happy Birthday to meee

2006-05-03T08:30:00.000Z

I haven't posted for what seems like yonks and quite a few things have gone on since i managed to pop that little spawn of satan out of my John Thomas so I thought I had better write an update.

Becky is now moved in and has been since the beginning of April.. wow, which it has just dawned on me means she has been in a month!

Psy (her cat) and Munky (mine) aren't scrapping as much as we thought they might although there is still a long way to go with them.

Most of Becky's stuff went into the loft and we are still awaiting selection of a new wardrobe to go in the main bedroom... space is not a commodity we have much of in this house so furniture selection is being done incredibly carefully. Once all the storage is sorted more of Becky's clothes will be able to be fully unpacked and made more available to her.

I wasn't too sure how I would get on with have someone living with me again, after all I have been living on my own for 4 years or so now and while it is a bit of a shock to the system - it has turned out to be a pleasant one. Becky is such a kind and generous person and has such a "good fun" personality, I am still bemused to this day as to why she is with such a stubborn, grumpy, opinionated old git as myself - but hey, i'm not complaining!

In other news, I turned 28 today ...... yup - another step closer to 30.. gah! This is not good I tell you .. ah well.

Becky bought me an Autocom for my birthday which is a magical system for my motorbike that allows both rider and pillion to talk to each other and also listen to music and take phone calls while riding on the motorbike! She had given it to me a bit early so I have been enjoying riding to work for the last week and a bit to various sound tracks.

This is all I can think of to write for now, I should really start updating this thing more frequently but I tell you, I am doing a better job than Paul and Becky, and even a better job than Hygelac (Dave)!

So, goodbye for now, Becky and I are off to Warwick on the bike today!

A sad day for Hip Hop

2006-04-20T10:03:00.000Z

I was a bit behind but picked up on this today. It transpires that a guy called Proof who rapped for D12 (not a band I think a tremendous amount of) was shot dead in an arguement in a club a couple of weeks ago.

Proof was a superb rapper and freestyler and it is a shame another talented rapper has fallen foul to the violence inherent in this style of music.

More can be read about it on the BBC

I am not a fan of all hip hop, but am of particular artists at certain points in time.

Eminem (first 2 albums were superb, not liking his latest stuff much)
Nas
Method Man
Ol' Dirty Bastard [RIP]

It is a shame that the violence that rappers have been involved in and brought up with seems to, more often than not, consume them before their time. I suppose the way of living they rap about many others live too though in the various gangs that exist in the US.

How can the poverty that causes these upbringings and gangs still be rife in a country as large, as wealthy and as influencial in the world balance? Why is the minimum wage not increased at the rate of inflation and has been left the same as when it was first introduced? (This may not still be true but I read that it was fairly recently at the least)

bah

Day of the Stone pt IV

2006-04-10T09:01:00.000Z

*music singing etc * HALLEUJAH!!!!

Its out... by hell did it hurt... the think is huge and went *CLANK* as it hit the pan... I retrieved it for some pics to remember this day!

My bits are in quite a lot of pain as it has aggrevated the inside of it a bit as you will see.

Here are 2 pics with a twenty pence piece for scale..

Top View

Blurry this one, I am not too steady of hand atm..

Side View

owwww... I can't believe that came out of where it did.....

Still, it is over now - need to rest a bit to allow things to return to normal.

Day of the Stone pt III

2006-04-10T08:32:00.000Z

Holeee bananassss

09:30 Current Status - It burns IT BURNS!!!

Last attempt at toilet may have shifted it i think, i felt a very odd sensation and suddenley i saw the pain at the end of the tunnel...

Stinging alot atm.. hope its gone :( gahhh

Day of the Stone pt II

2006-04-10T07:55:00.000Z

08:53 Current Status - eep!

Just attempted going to the loo again, sweet jeebus!!!!! the pain!

Upon further manual inspection there is a definate area of acute pain where i think the little blighter must be, I am not convinced he moved at all just now despite how much it hurt.. maybe he moved a little?

I have discovered possibly the only time when a man will be heard audibly saying "I wish my dongle was shorter" :(

Day of the Stone

2006-04-10T07:37:00.000Z

I am writing this with bleary eyed boredom.

Here I sit, in a fairly low level but constant state of pain. Ladies and gentlemen - the moment we have all been dreading (well I have) is upon us, i think my kidney stone has started its final journey into the unknown (toilet).

I am trying to take my mind off the pain so thought I would document my thoughts on here for all to see.

Approx 08:30 GMT I was sat on my toilet minding my own business when suddenley I felt as if a bear trap had shut on my manhood... further timid attempts to produce additional urine repeated the pain experienced. A manual inspection was carried out and I can confirm that there is something near the hilt of my manhood that is the source of my woes... by f**k does it hurt!

08:39 Current Status
Drinking lots of water
Taken pain killers
Commenced Wimpering

I will update you shortly (or not) ... gah i'm scared!

Computer games similar to sex?

2006-03-24T14:58:00.000Z

Computer games are often thought of on how good their graphics are, whether or not / how well they will run on your machine and if they support online and multiplayer... immersion and realism are key factors too.

Sex can be rated or considered with the same attributes:

I am somewhat politically incorrect and insensitive in referring to your coital partner as a machine but it serves the purpose of visualising the comparison with computer games.

How good the graphics are is dependant on the spec of your machine, only the minimum requirements are set by your personal taste rather than that of the game itself.

The obvious exception is that there are certain mini games your machine may or may not be able to perform dependant on how flexible your particular model is.

As for multiplayer - this has an interesting twist and depends on the preferences of your machine, some machines readily accept interfacing with multiple players more than others, also the type of the other machine may vary, although from the game players perspective (when male) there is an obvious preference to experience multiplay with a machine of the same type as your current one.

Online play can be achieved as long as your machine supports webcam but on the whole it doesn't involve any direct stimulating interaction. To achieve this the stimulation has to come from a peripheral device that is commonly sold under the name "right hand" or, for those with a slightly more obsolete configuration "left hand". This mode of play though does somewhat reduce the immersion and realism of the whole experience.

As can be seen by my banner ^^ The graphics are pretty darn good for me :-D

*Waits to get punched by Becky

Current Mood: Bored @ Work
Current Task: Bug fixing

DIY Land

2006-03-19T20:45:00.000Z

After taking a few days off last week (and squandering one of them by waking up late and doing other stuff) I have completed the boarding of the loft with much help from my brother.

Many boards have been cut and the score is something along the lines of the following:

50+ x loft boarding boards
3 x 3mm Wood Drill Bits
3 x Wasp Nests
200+ x No 8 Screws
2 x very sore knees
1 x Damaged thumb
2 x 100W lights
20 metres of power cable
2 x Saws

:-D

In other news, I was told last Wednesday I have a Hernia... ffs, so a surgeon will be calling to make an appointment for me to go see about having an operation to get it sorted, this year doesn't look to be a good hospital year...

Anyway, I can smell dinner progressing downstairs so I had better check on it, I seem to be getting into this cooking malarkey, which is good.

Current Mood: Tired and satisfied
Current amusing website: www.engrish.com

Just F*cking Google It!!!!

2006-03-01T00:27:00.000Z

A colleague and friend of mine informed me about this site today.. superb. I know a few people I am gonna be slamming with this:

www.justfuckinggoogleit.com

Motorbike and Renal Colic

2006-02-25T11:08:00.000Z

Its been a while since I posted anything other than a couple of quick links so thought I had better give an update to anyone that reads this (if anyone does).

The motorbike is great still, gradually getting more and more used to it all the time and I have done nearly 500 miles on it already I think. The commuting has been mostly during wet weather so all my rides have been very softly softly to avoid any slipping over... it still gets me to work faster but you just have to be so careful round bends and whatnot, one patch of diesel on the tarmac when going round a bend and your down so keeping the speed down round anything that resembles a bend is very important.

1 particular ride into work I found about 3 miles of diesel over the entire lane, I was pootling round roundabouts at 10mph or less and STILL my wheels were sliding everywhere, I certainly didn't enjoy that ride. But, drier weather is on its way which means I can go round the corners the same speed those on 4 wheels do :)

As for the Renal Colic, well, I was lucky enough to suffer this horrible thing on the evening of Mon 20th Feb... it is very very VERY painful, one minute i'm in the office with a dull ache in my lower left back feeling a bit worried, next I am rolling around on the floor with acute pain in said spot and pain running round the front just over the top of my leg and down into my nuts....

I have been kicked in the nuts before full on, it didn't hurt anywhere near as much as this did - my colleague and friend Paul was being very helpful and another colleague took him and myself to the A&E department at the Royal Berkshire hospital in Reading.

The woman at the desk decided it was more important to finish the figures she was typing into a computer than book in the only person in the waiting area who appeared to be in any degree of pain at all.... so I had to sit around in front of probably 10 or 15 people moaning and squirming like a crazy man.

Once booked in I then had to wait for about 4 people to walk in in front of me, these people could very well have been skipping into the triage nurse or going off on a stroll down a footpath on a Sunday afternoon, I wasn't very impressed and Paul went and asked if they could possibly see me soon.

A few minutes later the nurse took me in, I got put in a cubicle and proceeded to fill about 4 of those cardboard bowls with sick in double time, I got given a jab and an anti-inflammatory and things started to settle down a bit after a while.

An IVU (xray visible dye in my arm), 3 or 4 xrays and a shot of morphine later I ended up on the ward about 5 hours later on.

Bleh

Well, I am still sore now - kidney stones rip your insides up a bit and leave everything very tender for a while I guess... hopefully better soon, I want to get out on my new and improved Mountain bike.. more about which I will write another time :(

Sorry for the long post people!

Angry Alien - An Animation Site

2006-02-17T16:20:00.000Z

These are brilliant - various movies, re-enacted in 30 seconds each by little animated bunnies with squeaky voices.

Angry Alien

Star Wars is superb, as is alien

Mood: Amused but tired

(I was at work until 1am fixing a very big problem last night... gah)

Small child scared by Maze joke

2006-02-13T14:10:00.000Z

Lol,

the joke maze thing is as old as the hills but man this is funny:

Linkeh

Woohooo! Got me new motor bike!

2006-02-03T16:19:00.000Z

I picked it up today at lunch time.

When i got to the shop they had a power cut and couldn't process my debit card so I had to go and draw the cash from the bank...

I rode to the bank nearby and tried to draw the money "We cannot give you that much money without your photocard license or passport"....

Erm, my licence is at the DVLA being upgraded and i don't carry my passport! Shit!

I managed to chat the lady behind the counter up a bit and told them all sorts of info about my bank account including account numbers, bills, sort codes etc and she decided to give me my money!

So, I picked it up and set off very VERY gingerly down the rode, riding a strange bike that is nearly 9 times more powerful than my old little 125cc bike was a bit scary!!!

Anyway, here is a pic taken in the company car park.

Link

:-D

Mood: Very happy

Motorcycle training day 2 and the test!

2006-01-30T22:21:00.000Z

Ok, so this is a bit late but what the hell!

Day 2 was another long tiring and cold one spent on the bike driving endlessly around Aylesbury's roundabouts and residential areas.

I cracked the U-turn on day 2 when i decided to try one from a standing start rather than a rolling start... first one i tried i nailed and I didn't look back!

Day 3 saw the day of the test which was booked at 9:37 in the morning leaving me somewhat worried about ice and having to get up rather early in the morning..

I went out on the test with the examiner who was a very nice lady named Sue - she was really well mannered and seemed human which was a somewhat stark contrast to my memory of my car driving examiner!

She made me feel at ease and we had a bit of a joke before heading off for the test. For the first 5 or 10 minutes i was worrying about my U-turn but managed to not let it show in my riding too much and did ok. Then came the emergency stop... from my training with Jason the instructor I knew there was a good chance of doing my u-turn immediately afterwards!

I performed the Emergency stop ok although I was worried about having pulled the clutch in too soon and was then asked to do my u-turn. Sue said to me "take all the time you need and put the bike exactly where you want it to be to start, wheel it back and forwards until you are happy" which I duely did. Then, i took a deep breath, looked at the sky briefly and then did my checks and set off. i made it!!! as she walked back to her bike i was whisper shouting "YES YES YES YES" to myself knowing this was my biggest concern.

Then we went to ride the country road section and my confidence was soaring.

We got back to the test centre about 30 mins later where I was not only told that I had passed, but that I had done so without any minor faults at all! Apparently this isn't a very common occurence... I was dead chuffed with myself.

Anyway, I went out that weekend and found a bike to put a deposit on and test rode another.. I pick up my 2001 Yamaha Fazer 600cc this Friday lunch time :) Pictures will be posted when I have them :-D

Motorcycle training Day 1

2006-01-25T17:35:00.000Z

Yesterday was a very very tiring day indeed.

Basically the best part of 7 hours spent riding around endless roundabouts and junctions honing the various procedures down to a tee.

The only thing I am worried about is my U turns which I seem to be struggling with a bit annoyingly :-(

Still, test is Friday and I have another days training tomorrow before then so hopefully I will crack them then.

If I have time on Friday afternoon the process of transferring my components across from my old frame to the new frame begins on my mountain bike.. dun dun DUN

:-D

Mood: tired but cheerful

A Clean Oven and Good Food!

2006-01-21T22:01:00.000Z

Today Becky spent an age cleaning my oven for me with some stuff she bought called "Oven Pride" which is somewhat dubiously indorsed by CHarlie Dimmock of Ground Force fame... none the less the stuff was fantastic and my oven is now cleaner than I have ever known it (I have never cleaned it once). I can even see the food cooking through the little window that previously I had assumed was just a really rusty thing bit of the oven door you could see through a bit if you squinted!

I have been unwell again with groin related issues and I think I might have pulled something whilst trying to keep up with my more youthful girlfriend :-D Seriously though, I think I pulled something at the bike ride last week. * cough * honest :-D

It was also my turn this week in our bid to eat something a bit different every week and to cook more stuff from scratch!

I decided to make Baked Salmon Salad with Citrus Mint Mayonnaise which, whilst easy to make, was a culinary revelation for me given I struggle with Beans on Toast.

I didn't burn anything at all and it really tasted nice - i even managed to adjust some of the quantities by eye and by some miracle for the better as I felt the amount of lemon juice and mayonnaise seemed a bit wrong.. turned out very very nice !!!

As Hygelac would say "Go me!"

W00t

Mood: Pleased with myself

Photos of the transparent VW factory in Dresden

2006-01-20T11:25:00.000Z

Thought I would share this with you all (3 people? :-D) as i thought the building was pretty cool.

It's basically photos of the factory where they build some uber expensive VW car:

Click Here

Amusing google video clip

2006-01-17T17:28:00.000Z

Saw this in someones MSN name today and thought it was superb.

Click Me

Enjoy :)

Not feeling great :(

2006-01-17T00:40:00.000Z

I went on the first Mountain bike ride on Sunday that I hated throughout.

My legs had given up before I got to the top of the first hill, I didn't feel confident clipped in, I nearly fell down several times due to not being able to clip out despite trying to, and I didn't drink anything for some strange reason.

Ah well.

I started the task of boarding the loft with my Bro and Dad helping to start off (much much easier with someone downstairs cutting boards and 2 people upstairs; drilling, countersinking and screwing the boards down. The reason I am doing this, in case I haven't told anyone who reads this already - Becky is moving in with me in April and I need a load of extra storage space for her stuff. :-D

Updated with loft image as promised:

I have very bad stomach pain at the moment, feels a bit like wind but it hasn't gone at all really - spent the morning feeling extremely uncomfortable and eventually came home from work and slept for several hours. Alas I am still in pain :(

Motor Cycle Theory Test

2006-01-12T11:57:00.000Z

W00000000000000000t

Passed my theory test today for my motorbike!!!

Will be ringing the company soon who does the training for the practical and getting something organised!

Busy at work so this is a short post but I am feeling quite pleased with myself now :-D

A Meme

2006-01-11T18:53:00.000Z

Fill this in and copy it into my comments and post it :-D

1. Name:
2. Birthday:
3. Place of residence:
4. What makes you happy:
5. What are you listening to now/have listened to last:
6. Do you read my blog:
7. If you do, what is particularly good/bad about it:
8. An interesting fact about you:
9. Are you in love/have a crush at the moment:
10. Favorite place to be:
11. Favorite lyric:
12. Best time of the year:

RECOMMEND
1. A film:
2. A book:
3. A band, a song and an album:

PLUS
1. One thing you like about me:
2. Two things you like about yourself:
3. Put this in your blog so I can tell you what I think of you.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-02T12:21:00.000Z

I find myself writing another catch up post.

I have been slack lately keeping this up to date but it has been a busy time of year so I hope you can all forgive me! :-)

So, things that have happened since my last entry are:

Christmas
New Year's Eve
Missed a Bike Ride
Went on a Bike Ride

I think thats the lot, so. I will start with

Christmas

This is a time of year that I pretty much hate, there are many reasons I dislike this time of year and the main reason is fading with time so, year by year, each one gets a bit easier to cope with. This doesn't of course stop the plethora of idiots that have to be endured while attempting to shop for my family coming ever closer to a brutal and bloody death at my extremely annoyed hands on the squeaky floor of the shopping centre, its like they lose all sence of situational awareness and spend their entire time mumbling incoherently and bumping into one another. Shopping on the internet is therefore, definately the way forward!

This Christmas, idiots aside and the theft of my new jacket likewise, wasn't actually that bad i am surprised and pleased to report.

I got some fantastic stuff, I might as well present my gifts received in a list for ease of reading:

Atac Clipless Pedals
Shimano MT40 Shoes
Crud Catchers
Endura Weather Pants
George Foreman Lean Mean (oh good god) Fat Grilling Machine (more about this one later)
A New Jacket!!!!
A 1,000,000 Candle Power Torch
2 Calendars from Becky (1 large one for my bedroom and a small one for my desk at work)
A GForce Watch

First things first, I have to say how utterly fantastic Becky is, as a surprise (which I understand Paul knew about!) she searched all over the place for the jacket that was stolen, she managed to find one at one of the shops in Stansted - this must have taken ages but she got me my jacket none the less and her parents shared the cost to replace it. I couldn't believe it when i opened it, I was so very pleased it was untrue. I will still bash the guy who stole my old one if I see him however, cos lets face it - he deserves it!

All the bike stuff I got fitted on Boxing Day and fitted some of Becky's presents to her bike (which I am sure she will be blogging about) too.

The George Foreman grill, is something I would never ever have bought myself due to its appalling marketing techniques and its questionable selling point of how it reduces fat by letting it run off down the fancy angled plate into a little fat tray... I don't know if anyone else noticed but most grilling trays do this anyway as the fat drops out to the tray beneath! bah. None the less, the grill is actually really really good as my oven is rubbish and it means I can now grill and cook stuff at the same time in the oven! It is also damned easy to clean which is a bonus.

Anyways, thats enough about Christmas, it was shockingly good this year!

Bike Rides

Well, a bunch of us were supposed to be going for a ride on the 30th in the North Downs at a place called Shalford, unfortunately we did not make it, Becky and I woke up too late for starters, this could have been recovered from however had the weather not been appalling. It snowed quite hard in the morning and then promptly poured down with rain creating heaps of slushy crap everywhere. It took us about 20 minutes to drive the 6 miles to my parent's house where my pre-packed car was stored (for security reasons) stuffed full of bikes and kit. By the time we were ready to set off it was 9:20 and as the ride was supposed to start at 10am we didn't think it fair to make everyone wait for us to get there. As it happens everyone else bar Paul and Reg had bailed on the ride and they decided it wasn't worthwhile which was a real shame.

Becky and I did manage a ride on New Years eve to try out the new gear and even managed to drag my brother along. It was great fun and I fell off twice, the first was due to the need to put my foot down quickly when my tyre slid and was unable to as I was attached to the bike:

I then fell off at a swoopy section after explaining to Becky and Mark to be careful as it was a slippy trail - I set off with much vim to find myself losing my front wheel about 10 metres later on the first corner and ploughing into the floor:

We came across an incredibly steep looking section which we weren't going up but I told Mark he couldn't make it up, so dutifully he had a go, I then managed to get about 2 metres further than him :-D

New Year's Eve

Was spent at a pub in Wycombe named The Half Moon as we have done every year for the last 2 or 3 years with my good friend Simon and his girlfriend Helen. This was an excellent night with Mark, Simon and myself getting incredibly drunk and bouncing about to old tunes that we used to bounce about to whem much younger. Here is a pic of my brother showing us he isn't hiding any drugs in his mouth and the ever glorious Becky on his right looking stunning as ever:

I had a stonking hang over and after getting to bed at 4am was feeling pretty crappy all of New Years day, was sick in the morning and slept for ages at my parent's place in one of the guest rooms to avoid having to put up with my headache and feeling sick.

So, good times and much fun!

A long ass post for which I apologise. I shall mention my addiction to Su Doku in a later entry :-)

What a shit weekend!

2005-12-18T11:14:00.000Z

It was our office Christmas party on Friday evening and it all started off really well, some fantastic food at a restaurant called "The Italian Job" in Reading and followed by a walk to town to the pub which is where it all went downhill...

Now, I am including in my shit weekend the discovery that 1GB of the RAM in my pc has gone to shite and I have to send it back - it has nothing to do with any of the other reasons so I thought I would mention it now.

When at this pub I took my jacket off and put it on a shelf next to all the jackets of my work colleagues, they were all sat next to them after-all.

When I went to check my coat was ok later on, it wasn't... it had gone... some mother f**ker had took my spanky new jacket I bought when Becky and I went to Paris!!!!

I knew what the blokes who had been sat there looked like as I had chatted to one or 2 of them and I think they may have been locals to the pub... this means I will be visiting the pub a few times in the coming week on the off chance the guy who took it is stupid enough to walk in there with it on.

Now, this is just a jacket you might think, why get so upset? Well, that jacket had my car keys in it AND my house keys... fine, how are they going to use them? Ah, I had forgotten to take my last payslip out of my pocket, which not only has my office address, has my home address too.. and my national insurance number, how much I get paid etc :(

I have changed the locks I have been able to on my house but I have lost (first time I have ever lost a car key) my spare key to the car... my car is still sat at the office and will be until I can get new keys sorted somehow.

I am of course blaming this bout of bad luck entirely on the shitty time of year we like to call Christmas! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Excellent xBox 360 Advert

2005-12-13T16:34:00.000Z

Got sent this today, superb.. I think it has been banned though.

Right click and save as

I know I haven't posted in a while and will be doing soon, my PC at home is playing up though and a re-install looks to be on the cards :(

Dagnammit!

Ventriloquist In Wales

2005-12-08T18:17:00.000Z

A ventriloquist visiting Wales walks into a small village and sees a local sitting on his porch patting his dog. He figures he'll have some fun, so he says to the Welshman "Can I talk to your dog?"

Villager: "The dog doesn't talk, you stupid git"

Ventriloquist: "Hello dog, how's it going mate?

Dog: "Doin' alright"

Villager: (Look of extreme shock)

Ventriloquist: "Is this villager your owner?" (Pointing at the villager)

Dog: "Yep"

Ventriloquist: "How does he treat you?"

Dog: "Real good. He walks me twice a day, feeds me great food and takes me to the lake once a week to play"

Villager: (Look of disbelief)

Ventriloquist: "Mind if I talk to your horse?"

Villager: "Uh, the horse doesn't talk either. I think"

Ventriloquist: "Hey horse, how's it going?"

Horse: "Cool"

Villager: (Absolutely dumfounded)

Ventriloquist: "Is this your owner?" (Pointing to the villager)

Horse: "Yep"

Ventriloquist: "How does he treat you?"

Horse: "Pretty good, thanks for asking. He rides me regularly, brushes me down often and keeps me in the barn to protect me from the elements"

Villager: (Total look of amazement)

Ventriloquist: "Mind if I talk to your sheep?"

Villager: (in a panic) "The sheep's a f*ckin' liar!! "

A legend who flew THE legend has passed

2005-12-06T18:48:00.000Z

It was with great sadness I read yesterday that Ray Hanna, the legendary display pilot of the Spitfire Mk IX MH434.

For the last 2 years I have been to Flying Legends and his displays have been truely amazing to watch. I have a real soft spot for the Spitfire, it is by far my favourite aircraft. So much so in fact that seeing them roaring about at Flying Legends puts a lump in my throat every time - they are so amazing to watch and listen too.

It is amazing to think that he was still displaying his Spitfire in his 70's and still flying it like a 20 year old.

Ray Hanna had an amazing life, here is an article on the man himself.

I am told that it was Mr Hanna flying during this absolutely crazy prank (right click and save as) he played on a TV presenter. Asking an ex Red Arrows and Spitfire display pilot "Can you do a really low pass to the camera?" is clearly a bad idea indeed!

The loss of his son was also a very sad one when he crashed his Me 109 :(

This is a link to a video of Mark Hannah flying in MH434 some years ago.

Essex Accents and The Clone Army

2005-12-04T22:59:00.000Z

Right

I went to Becky's this weekend as we had to look after her parent's dogs, which you can read all about courtesy of my lovely girlfriend on her blog).

On Saturday, Becky took us to Lakeside with the dillusional misconception that we would get all of our christmas shopping done.

So, to see how well this went, lets look at some of my pet hates:

1. Girls with Essex accents
2. Christmas
3. Clone boy fashion lemmings

1. Ok, so this isn't looking good, Lakeside is like... the Essex Girl enclosure at the "United Kingdom Zoo".. gah! I don't know how they do it - but these girls seem to be able to strike some chord in my body that makes me want to reach out and grab one as they pass and smash their empty little spotty, fucking makeup ridden, hideously screechy little faces into the back of their skulls with the face of another of the little hideous wastes of oxygen and minerals.

Wanna stop soldiers being killed in Iraq? Send these little slagbags out there to provide a distraction for the insurgent twats intent on blowing up people and tell them there is a huge shopping centre in the middle of Baghdad / Fallujah that is top secret and if they find it they can shop for free. One of 2 things will happen, either everyone will abandon Baghdad / Fallujah after realising how incredibly noisy and obnoxious they are or we will never see them again after they get captured and beheaded with bread knives like that first poor chap from the US did.. I would buy the DVD collectors edition tbh and mount it in a frame on my wall tbh.

I was waiting outside a changing room for Becky when one girl, she must have been 15 or so, came out wearing some tiny shorts with her nasty fucking belly hanging way out over them for all to see and walked up to what could easily have been Waynetta from the Harry Enfield show (i think 'it' was her mum) and said something akin to "wotya fink?! I fink i don't like it, makes me look like a slay-g! hehehehehehehehehe!!!" and skipped off back into the changing room... I then overheard her equally hideous and assumed mother exclaiming how pretty her daughter looked????!!!! to a wobbly looking object sat next to her, I am not sure if it was alive or not but it looked pretty vacant. It was all i could do to not stand up and slap her right in the face right there and then. This little tart appeared another 2 or 3 times looking equally hideous, much to the amusement of a couple of bystanders who must have not been from Essex.

2. Its Christmas and apart from all the god awful tacky bullshit decorations every-fuckin-where, nearly every store I went into was playing utterly terrible christmas songs that have been around for fucking years and really should have been consigned to a space capsule and fired off into space at some distant planet by now (probably to have massive intergalactic repercussions for the remains of human kind many many years down the line.. tbh, allowing shit like that to EVER get onto any kind of music format.. the human race deserves everything it gets).

3. The idiotic sheep that, absent of the shred of intelligence required to read a Bible to blindly follow its fictional stories, merely copy what everyone else on our island looks like to be part of the 'in crowd'. Thats right, I am talking about these fucking retards that look like they are stuck in 3 different hairstyles.. mullet at the back, spikey on top and a fringe at the front.. whats more to make it worse, these twats dye their hair with ridiculous highlights and don't wonder to themselves why they cannot distinguish themselves from every other twat walking about.

They all wear the same silly-ass jeans that look like they have been worn by Vic Reeves for 30 years while constantly rubbing his thighs vigorously with his hands in the direction of .. whats more, all the shops are so busy trying to help assimilate the male population of the UK between 16 and 24 that you can't buy any other type of fucking jeans!!! I mean for crying out loud, they are actually forcing people to wear this shit now! Its a conspiracy I tell you!

Its like a template or something, all these blokes look the same! Put these people in a fucking hall of mirrors and tell them unless they can point out which one they are that they are all going to be para-dropped into the middle of nowhere somewhere near the Amazon in nothing but their pink fucking hooded tank tops and given only a multi pack of shock waves gel and a spoon to survive.

...1.....2.....3....4....5.....6....7.....8....9....10 and breathe...

Other than that we had a jolly nice time and sorted out our shoes and clipless pedals for our mountain bikes, had a great meal at a Harvester and went for a walk with 3 smelly bags of wet fur (whilst the dog's personalities are fantastic.. good god they stink and dribble).

Ho hum, on late shift tomorrow.. so I had better get Call Of Duty 2 installed for a whirl before bed :)

Maybe I can get a mod for it to turn all the axis demons into these clone monkey idiots :)

Random shit and some bad stuff

2005-12-02T12:58:00.000Z

Seeing as I have managed to do no posts for some time and Paul is capable of 5 in an evening I felt I should probably post, even if I have nothing in particular to report, so, forgive me if this post seems to wander about aimlessly as it is very likely to.

I was sent a link to "The JCB Song" which I quite enjoyed the lyrics to. The animated video is good too. Apparently this is tipped for xmas number 1, but seeing as I don't watch much telly / listen to the radio ever I have no idea if this rumour has any substance or not.

People often seem surprised by this, but the sad truth is I spend most of my time in the week glued to my PC at home, shooting people / blowing things up in various forms. My most played game recently is definately Day Of Defeat Source which is the new version of a mod that was written for the original Half Life engine and also a mod that I have played since its first Alpha version was released.

Its bloody good fun and its leap into the Half Life 2 engine has added so much depth and more importantly comedy to the game. Explosions + Rag Doll Physics = people blown about across maps, over buildings and into walls in various highly amusing ways frequently coming to rest in painful / compromising looking positions. Oddly I am better at this game while I am a bit drunk - which has meant I have spent a large portion of this week, and last week come to think of it fairly pished in the evening, this can only lead to bad things.

Still, I am managing to remain interested in Mountain Biking, even though it is the winter. I always worry when I buy something that it will be a phase and that I will waste my money. This seems to have made it past the 'phase' period though and looks to have become a hobby, which is good as I have spent rather alot of money on it and managed to pursuade Becky to follow suit.

Oh yes, before I go.. 2 bad things have happened today.

I rode to work on my motorbike and it pissed it down with rain, my motorbike "waterproof" trousers proceeded to let me down in an unfortunate spot and I spent much of the morning with a dubious wet patch on my crotch...

The 2nd bad thing happened as I went to pop to the loo before going to lunch, i walked to the door as normal and thought "hmm, light is on.. but people always leave that on when its empty, i will try the handle, if its locked its locked". SO i tried the handle, it wasn't locked... but it wasn't empty either. I was presented with my line manager squatted on the bog having a crap saying 'sorry!'

All i could utter as i walked away in shock was "Fucking Hell". You know how you look at the sun? everywhere you look you see it? Gah.. GAH!!! MY EYES! STOP IT!!!!

Team Blogging and getting muddy

2005-11-27T23:30:00.000Z

Given the recent group meetings for bike rides and the interest shown in them, a team blog has been started at mudmunkys.munkyweb.com.

This is to help us organise meeting up at these events in a better way as our communication is extremely limited at the moment, its also a good place to record our efforts at the events in question :-)

I managed to fall off properly this time and elbow dropped a fence, w00t! :)

I also had probably the highlight of my mountain biking so far, an insane dash across muddy grassy fields - scaring the hell out of 2 walkers as i whizzed past them and getting a good sized portion of air at the bottom of the somewhat scarey descent! The only thing now, is I wished I had gone down it faster :)

The mud was crazy - very very gloopy and chalky and it covered everything!

Still, bloody good fun and blogged in detail at the Mud Munkys site.

PostCardWare!

2005-11-24T23:54:00.000Z

When I saw this, my instant reaction was - "How cool is this?" and I showed it to Paul.

This guy writes a piece of software for MS Flight Sim 2004 for hosting online sessions for people to fly on named FSHost, someone recently pointed out he also has a FSHostSpy which is more useful to me as I just want to fly on people's servers not host them.

I downloaded host spy and took a quick look, as its late I didn't attempt to join any servers and shut it down when this window popped up which i expected to be the usual "this is free but if you would like to donate ..." etc etc... it wasn't:

Click the pic for the full size version.

How refreshing is this?

From the whatis.com quote at the top, its clearly not his idea but I have never seen it before and think its great!

I will strive to find him a postcard of my grotty area, if I can't I shall take a pic of something picturesque near here, probably the Golden Ball and send it off to him.

Amazing Christmas Lights

2005-11-20T17:32:00.000Z

Now,

Lets not forget how much I dislike christmas and all the bollocks that goes along with it, but the reason I like this guy's xmas lights is not because they're christmassy.

Check this out!!

Right Click Save As

Becky got a new bike!

2005-11-20T17:25:00.000Z

After much badgering and desperately trying to convince her myself, the Navigator Race from last week convinced her for me... and this weekend we purchased a new bike for Becky!

After much umming and ahhing with Paul on the phone re the spec we settled on the Giant XTC Se which Becky has blogged about in detail.

After I washed 2 bikes, fought the wheels and tyres off her old bike and put the tyres on her new bike (putting some other old tyres back on her old bike) and a fight to get her pedals from her old bike (which we bought recently and she loves) during which I nearly ripped myself in half, we didn't have time for a proper ride today. Instead we went to the top of the biggest local hill, the Golden Ball.

Here are some pics (apologies on the blurry one but I had sprinted ahead in oreder to get the pic and was out of breath - Paul will have you believe this is why his photos last week were so terrible, but he is super fit and shouldn't get out of breath :D)

New and old:

Old is gone :) :

Climbing first hill on the new bike:

At the top in the sunset:

And, Becky claims her bum looks big in these with the padding, i think she looks just fine :)

Met up with Mr. Sinkovich

2005-11-20T17:00:00.000Z

Thought I would mention an evening of note this week.. I decided to leave the house for pretty much the first time this week on Thursday evening to meet up with the world famous Mike Sinkovich for a few drinks at a little pub called "The Ship" in Marlow.

Mike was late, but surprisingly I was on time, so I decided to kill some by finding an off license to grab some beers to take home with me... this turned out to be more difficult than you would think. I walked up to the first people I saw that hadn't already run away screaming and said "Do you know where the nearest off license is please?"....... a simple question, except I had found probably the only 2 people in the Marlow area that spoke NO english.. arse!

After an aborted attempt to get into the oddbins I found (given the door was locked at 8pm!!!!) I asked some kids who pointed out Threshers who satisfied my malt and hops based requirements.

I then grabbed some chips from next door to the pub which were ace and Mike promptly arrived, although assuring me I could take them in the pub.

So, we sat there and talked shit for an amusing few hours until we got booted out, at which point I defrosted my car and drove back to drink my sweet sweet beers mmmmmm :)

Good night out and good to meet up with Mike again after what must be 4 years or so!

Religious Maniac

2005-11-18T19:35:00.000Z

People like this truely disgust me at how incredibly narrow minded and completely insane they are..

They look down on anyone that doesn't believe in what they do as they are simply to stupid to comprehend anything else..

look what this women puts her family though ffs

Click Here

w00t! BEcky's pics arrived

2005-11-16T13:18:00.000Z

Becky's photo shoot pics arrived yesterday.

I have put a few of my favourites into a gallery to show everyone how lucky I am :)

Click here for the gallery

:D

NTL and the tech support representative of doom

2005-11-16T11:04:00.000Z

So, i was having issues browsing websites, in that I couldn't. Yet - I could login to MSN ?!

I call NTL, press the buttons that get me through the automated robot doom women and direct myself towards "press 2 if you have a fault with your broadband"

#2

Instantly I hear a "Hello you are through to NTL how may I help you?" in a very strong Indian accent... uh oh, this can't be good - normally I have to wait at least 45 minutes and I get through to someone Welsh...

10 minutes later, i had managed to give the man my post code....... i shit you not, 10 minutes for the post code.. and I am expecting this man to fix my internet!

idiot: What lights are showing on your cable modem?

Me: Power, Cable and PC

idiot: What is the "online" light doing?

Me: It doesn't have an "online" light

idiot: Oh, is it plugged into the USB port?

Me: No, its on an ethernet connection

idiot: Please plug it into the USB port

Me: No

idiot: why not?

Me: Because its on an ethernet connection, which works fine

idiot: ok, is it plugged into your pc with a blue cable?

Me: What?

idiot: is it plugged in with a blue cable?

Me: Look, its just plugged in, cable colour here really isn't the issue

idiot: ok, is it plugged into your machine, or into a router?

Me: into a router

idiot: is it a wireless one?

Me: the router is hard wired to my machine

idiot: turn off the router and see if you can see the web pages

Me: er, no.. because then it will not work, because the router is switched off

idiot: oh, i am not trained in routers

Me: no shit

idiot: please do not swear sir

Me *sigh*

And so it went on, amazingly he got my MAC address right when I read it to him although, as I finished he said "that is correct" to which I replied, "so you know my MAC address then?"..... "yes"... "then why the hell did I have to get down under my desk to read it to you? to make sure the sticker on my modem with it on hadn't magically changed?"

In the end, while talking to the guy and trying not to just flip out and start hurling abuse at him i was doing various restart actions, checked some connections and rebooted the modem a few times and eventually things worked again... whether or not this had anything to do with the boy wonder on the other end I do not know.

Ah well, at least I can browse again!

Fat Tyres Navigator Race 13 Nov

2005-11-16T10:48:00.000Z

I was supposed to blog about this already but I just didn't get round to it.. So here goes.

Becky and I, the day after we returned from Paris, had arranged to go navigator racing with Paul who we went to the trail breaks trail ride with a week ago.

So, we hauled ourselves out of bed at a silly time in order to be in Kintbury in time to be allowed to go out on the day's riding (this being more strict on start times than the trail ride).

A navigator 'race' is basically orienteering, on a bike. You can enter as a 2 person team, mixed or single sex, or as an individual. You are given a map with many checkpoints marked on it and a little widget that records when you got to each checkpoint. You check in as having started, and you are given a piece of paper indicating how many points each checkpoint represents. Some are 0 points, some are up to 50. I guess this is to stop you pre planning a route before having officially started.

Paul brought along his 'double' brother in law (which sounds dodgy to me); Steve and 2 other friends; Darren and Steve neither of whom had ridden a bike since days of black and white telly as far as I was told.

We planned a route and headed out starting with a bit of a road section around some really nice country lanes and soon moved to off road, some of which was extremely tricky riding and i had an embarassing slow motion involuntary dismount from my bike which was most amusing.

I won't go into the details of the ride as both Paul and Becky already have.

I will go into one section however, Sheepless Hill... 2 words etched into my memory as a most horrible and miserable climb that didn't even live up to its name and had sheep!! it wasn't a pleasant climb, on squishy grass that seemed to be trying to drag your bike underground and take you with it... i was very very pleased that I managed to make it all the way to the top without stopping - even if it was bloody slowly! Naturally Paul breezed up it as he does every hill.

The gallery of pics from the ride can be found here

An extremely lazy blog entry but what the hell, i am tired and grumpy as I had to take my motorbike in for a "recall" this morning ... bleh

Window Cave In

2005-11-15T15:35:00.000Z

Window Cave In

Just found this, thought it was funny.. needs sound :)

Paris Trip!

2005-11-15T13:48:00.000Z

We got back a few days ago now but things have been a bit hectic since then so I haven't had a chance to blog about Paris.

Firstly, we had an absolutely superb time - even if it was very tiring doing all the walking about :)

Tuesday

We dragged ourselves out of bed pretty early on Tuesday the 8th and got ready to head off for Waterloo. My parents kindly gave us a lift to the train station at High Wycombe and 1 hour later and 1 change onto the Bakerloo line we arrived at our initial destination.

Popped ourselves through check in with no issues and bought ourselves a 5 day pass for the Metro from the desk in the departure lounge. Anyone going to Paris, I highly recommend doing this! Saved us so much hassle while we were there!

We arrived and got dragged about Gare Du Nord by some weird French guy who seemed intent on helping people - despite me knowing exactly where we wanted to go and on which line he lead us about muttering things in half English and French so we humoured him in case I was incorrect about where to go.. I wasn't incorrect and fortunately he got distracted by another lost looking couple, so we legged it off in the right direction quick smart!

The hotel was superb! A 4 star place on the Saint Germain Du Pres that had really good staff and even a bell boy type person who ran off with our bags! (I had checked he actually worked there ;) )

The room was nice and they had a really nice buffet breakfast area which had Croissants galore, fruit salad - all sorts of individual fresh fruit, sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs, cheeses, fresh cold meats, cereals.... everything you could possibly want!

As it was late afternoon already on our first day we walked to the Seinne (5 mins away) and strolled along it towards Notre Dame which is an amazing place, photos are in the gallery amongst others.

This was where we spotted our first weird thing in Paris... mad people, with birds all over them, being interviewed for the telly...

After walking about for a bit and having dinner at a restaurant run by completely insane people we headed back and got some sleep *cough* nothing else.. just sleep :)

Wednesday

This was the day I decided it would be a good idea to take Becky (who, being a girl, loves shopping) to the Galleries Lafeyette (spelling)....

This was the place where we saw our 2nd odd thing happening in Paris, and this was the sort of odd thing I approved of, now - you must understand that while this shot is disappointing due to the incredibly bad timing of a certain member of public - I risked life and limb to get this photo and even got told off for taking it. At which point I played my "wtf? i don't understand - I'm from the UK" card..

A pole dancer... in the underwear section of the shop... superb

I will take this opportunity to point out this shop has about 7 floors, in 2 buildings 1 building almost exclusively for women (and a silly great big xmas tree in the middle of one building)

So... 4 hours later we emerged, tired - drained and on our last legs. Becky in this astonishing amount of time managed to buy.......... 1 thing, and that was some foxy underwear which is pretty much for me. I managed to buy a pair of jeans... gah

The best remedy for this of course was to immediately consume a large beer, which I successfully completed in spectacular fashion (note very tired look).

We also found it in us to have a look at the Opera building which is more or less next door to the huge shop and even managed to stagger up the Champs Elsyee as night drew in to check out the Arc De Triumph.

After this we somewhat boringly went to Planet Hollywood for some food on the Champs Elysee and did a bit of shopping (again, i bought stuff... but this time Becky bought nothing... ?!?!?!)

Thursday

Was Eiffel Tower day, we zipped along the Metro and got there to find the world's largest queue at the north pillar which is the pillar with the lifts for the public in... The south pillar had steps to the 2nd floor which we decided to go for as not one person was in the queue.

700 and something steps later we got to the 2nd floor, did a lap, and got in the queue for the lift to the top (the stairs werent open... not that we would of taken them).

It is not the first time I have been up the Eiffel Tower but it is the first time I have been to the top, what a view!

After dodging kids darting about and flocks of Japanese tourists charging around like lemmings with cameras we decided it was time to head back down, lift half way, steps the rest (another silly queue for the lifts down).

In the evening we went on the Bateau Parisien which is an hour long tour down the Seinne and back again and was a pleasant break for the feet!

Friday

This was to be our day of rest before having to pack and get ready to leave.. so we walked to the Louvre which is 10 minutes away from the hotel to go and look at some of the artwork, I was especially interested in seeing the Egyptian artefacts which included a mummified chap whose name is long and hard to remember.

We also paid the obligatory visit to the Mona Lisa which in comparison to alot of the other paintings is tiny.

To do this however I had to walk past a myriad of nonsense religious artworks that to be honest make me sick. Religion is so full of hypocrisy and contradiction that it really does annoy me. The endless pictures of angels, people being tortured, graphic images of some poor guy being stabbed on a cross (what was his name again? :) ) displayed for all to see as if they are some sort of picture diary and factual documentation as to what happened during the famous "bullshit years" that so many of our population feel the need to believe in as their lives are so empty they have to or they would implode. *big breath* rant over.. sorry about that.

After the Louvre we decided to ... walk pretty much everywhere we had been in the last few days without use of the Metro at all!!!

Had a coffee at a Starbucks, walked near the Bastille, went to the Champs Elysee again to get a jacket I was unsure about buying, walked back to the Louvre.. over towards Notre Dame and saw some cool guy hurling fireballs about until he was told off by the police.

Saw about 20 people trying to sit on one bench for a photo, which was amusing to watch and ended up at some point in a nice little bar where 3 lads were playing live music, there was a rhythm guiatarist / singer, lead guitarist and bass guitarist.. all bar the bassist on acoustic guitars. They were playing cover songs and were really good... so we got back to the hotel at 1 am....

Saturday

Was a morning of packing and checking out by 12... then we wandered about a bit before the journey home, which was uneventful except we had to listen to some German guy (i think) waffle on to this girl he had met about how incredibly worldly he was, how London "isn't London anymore, as all the British have moved to the countryside" ??!?!?! all of this the American woman seemed to be quite bored buy, especially as soon as she started to speak on a topic - he would interrupt to display how knowledgeable he was on the subject.. hehe wanker

On one of the days ( I forget which) we went to a Haagen Daas place and got served ice cream... with..... a knife and fork ?! Which was a bit odd...

ALso, at our Hotel when I ordered a beer at the bar i also got all this stuff with it ?

Anyways, there is a gallery here to check out with many pictures in if you can be bothered to have a look :)

Bloody Hell, I'm in Paris!

2005-11-08T17:04:00.000Z

At this swanky hotel, courtesy of Becky's lovely parents who paid for a few days away for us!

We arrived here this afternon at 14:17 local time after getting up a bit early this morning to get to Waterloo in time.

We arrived at Le Gare Du Nord bang on time pretty much and soon found our way to Saint Germain Du Pres (missing accents, I just finished a beer and can't be arsed to find them). The Metro journey wasn't very long and for the last station we had some bonkers guy doing a puppet show on the train, which was fun!

The hotel has a complimentary internet service in the lobby and as I type I have just munched some sort of salmon thing and all the peanuts that came with my beer! (Will post pics another time).

This place really is very posh but at nearly 5 quid for a bottle of heineken (I know i got fancy stuff on a rectangular plate and olives) I won't be buying many more here.

Becky just came down having finished her shower so I had better sign off so we can go out for some dinner.

Bye for now!

Trail Breaks MTB Event - Letcombe Regis

2005-11-05T21:44:00.000Z

Wow, what a day!

I am completely shattered and Becky is already fast asleep...

Firstly, sorry for the long post - but it was a great day and I thought it was worth documenting thoroughly - for my own memory in the future if nothing else.

After going out with a work colleague for his leaving do and drinking a bit too much I found myself waking this morning before my alarm had even gone off..

Bleary eyed I stumbled downstairs and started making some Ready Brek (Ready Brek 4tw!) to try and give me some form of sustinance for the morning.

Becky got up shortly afterwards and started sterlising the camel baks and my parents dropped down their 4x4 which had the fittings for the bike rack we needed.

Shortly after this I received a text message from Hygelac "I have achieved train!" - this was about 7:30... after a brief exchange of silly texts I was in full swing faffing about trying to get things sorted out.

I picked a very tired looking Hygelac up at 8:05 as expected and we set off for my house with him grumbling about having woken up at 4am! (This ride was his idea i hasten to add!)

After some degree of faffing and giving Becky and I's bikes a quick chain cleaning we strapped the bikes to the back of the 4 x 4 and set off in search of Letcombe Regis!!

We got lost a bit, as expected and were late for the sign up, fortunately Paul was at the site already (as he lives about 30 seconds down the road) who managed to fill in our forms and bring us into the village and get us to the village hall.

Off with the bikes, on with the jackets, gloves, glasses, camel baks and bike helmets and we were ready to head out! We had a quick briefing by one of the trail breaks chaps who was very useful by pointing out areas of slippyness and spikyness and he gave us our maps and punch cards for the checkpoints and we were off!

At first we had a bit of a road ride which very quickly turned into a bloody steep hill which we all dutifully struggled up bar Paul who left us for dust and waited at the top patient as ever..

After a brief stop about half way up we moved on to conquer the next stage which brought us up onto the "Ridgeway" and this is where the first pictures of the were taken (as always click for larger images).

The view at the top:

Various group shots;

After taking pics and celebrating the taking of the first hill we set off on our merry way along the ridgeway which at this stage was pretty flat giving us all a well earned rest.

After some time we came across 2 guys that had passed us earlier, one with bike upside down - as we approached one of them said to me the somewhat bemusing words (given we are on a mountain biking ride through off road areas) "have you got a pump mate?" - we jumped off and helped these chaps who really should know better (and had a spare inner tube?!) get the wheel sorted and pumped up and we exchanged thanks and wishes of good luck and set off again.

The next bit was all a bit of a blur as we enjoyed gritty up hills across gloopy super glue mud and downhills that you had to pedal down due to the aforementioned gloop.

The next significant part followed a particularly tough section of many divots and mud pots that turned into impassable sludge before too long - i had a crack anyway and while edging round the side of the sludge i got my climbing bars all tangled in a bush wibbled a bit screwed up and dropped a foot into mud that more or less covered it - slipped and fell backwards hand first into it.. sweet :)

I leapt up before Paul could get a picture and helped Becky across it with her bike:

The next stretch was fairly uneventful - here are some pics taken on a bit of a road section

Hygelac also risked life and limb to get this slightly blurred picture, while riding his bike!

We also passed this worrying sign at some point! Only Minimal mind!:

A climb or 2 later on and Hygelac had his .. ejection moment - I didn't see it but as far as I was told, his front wheel slipped at a bad moment and he did his best "Superman" into a hedge bit with "stingers" in...

I got this snap shortly after the incident catching Becky having stopped and submerged her entire foot in the middle of what can only be described as a small lake: ( I have been asked by Becky to point out she was the only one still actually riding her bike in this shot.. this speaks volumes about her sanity!)

Shortly after this section we reached another checkpoint and while we were stood with some other riders stamping our cards I heard "Bloody hell Dave whats wrong with your leg" or similar from behind me.. well, this is what was wrong:

This is what the "stingers" or, aka "Barbed Wire" did to his leg... out came the first aid kit.. no, actually - cameras first, then first aid and he cleaned himself up a bit.

The section after that was a bastard - on a downhill slope but still hard work and very very sticky mud.. and a huge section of many many puddles... these puddles proved to be trouble - as when Hygelac stopped I could hear air rushing out of his tyre (he "couldn't hear it") but sure enough he had ripped his tyre a little and flattened it... kits out, new inner tube and out with the pump...

Some of the puddles of doom:

So, the rest of the journey was cool (after realising we had missed a checkpoint which when we passed near it again Paul and I went to to stamp our cards which was hard as Paul is incredibly fit and hard to keep up with).

Saw some nice views, found a cool momument in the middle of nowhere and enjoyed the last section which was more or less exclusively downhill and got to the end to enjoy a bowl or 2 of Beef chilli which tasted absolutely glorious..

We packed up and said our goodbyes and we all went home happy and muddy.. here are a few more pics:

Some shocking photos and morbid thoughts

2005-10-27T08:13:00.000Z

I made it in at 8:50 am this morning!!! I think this is possibly the first time I have made it to work before 9 for the first time this year!

A friend of mine posted this link to some shocking, thought provoking and in some cases amusing photos mostly from WWII and one or 2 from WWI as far as I can tell.

Whenever looking at pictures like these I always find myself looking into the eyes of the people in the pictures and wondering about what they were like, did they survive the war etc.. I find it fascinating that these men were able to cope at all with the horrifying things they must have seen and experienced.

It makes me think about death too, somewhat morbidly - i find it hard to comprehend that when it comes, you don't get to think "shit - i'm dead". You're just gone.. nothing...

I don't know about anyone else but I find that thought odd.. I guess its probably because I'm from a generation of gamers who when they 'die' just respawn :)

I don't think I am particularly scared of death as such, more of how I will die...

Huh, getting to work so early clearly isn't good for my thought process although I do find myself thinking about this shit fairly frequently these days and I have no idea why.

Anyways, here is the link to the images

Linkeh

FS2004 and the DC-3

2005-10-25T23:34:00.000Z

Recently I have been getting back into my flying again, mostly on M$ Flight Sim 2004 in a Douglas DC-3.

There is a great community supporting FS2004 of people with varied interests from wannabe commercial airline / general aviation pc pilots to retired real life pilots re-living their flying days. One such good source is Fly Away Simulation which is a treasure trove of knowledge and download goodness after you have paid the one off $5 life membership fee (more than worth it if you're into the game).

One of the chaps on the forum recently did me a new repaint for a DC-3 with "Insight Cargo" on the side of it so I have something a little more personalised to fly about in, transporting imaginary cargos of chickens, gherkins, goats and assorted narcotics to all sorts of destinations.

While this may sound boring, unless something goes horribly wrong - this is actually a very relaxing pass-time which I do need at the moment to chill me out.

Here are a couple of shots of 'my' DC-3 anyway (click thumbnails for bigger images as usual):

Anyways, off to bed... lots of shit sandwiches to be had at work tomorrow :(

Is Hell Exothermic?

2005-10-21T14:25:00.000Z

Someone sent this to me at work today, I assume some will already have seen it but I have not before now. I enjoyed reading it so thought I would post here to share:

The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so ''profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which

souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls

in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.

The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct ... leaving only Heaven thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh, my God."

This student received the only "A"

Bike Ride at Last!

2005-10-16T16:37:00.000Z

After many weekends of not feeling up to it and being ill finally today Becky and I managed to get out on the bikes again.

As Hygelac manages to document his rides (and crashes mua haha) so well I thought I would take the new phone along so that I could get some pics whilst out and about.

It wasn't as hard going as I thought it would be but i am still a bit sore now.

Bottom woods is our first offroad part of the journey - its a bit boggy but tough to ride through which gives the legs a good working.

Here is the view as you emerge from Bottom Woods, this is a fairly well drained bit of track which gives your tyres a chance to clear the mud before you get to the road and a nasty hill.

Grange Woods (i think its called) presents a long and gentle yet challenging climb as it is fairly bogged down with mud but is very pleasant to ride through - its fun to come down too :)

All in all a bloody good ride and I was really glad to be out again.. looks like Hygelac might be coming out of London to go for a ride early November and hopefully we will get Becky along too, by the sounds of things I might be able to get Paul to join us and show us all up too :)

Now, off to sit on the sofa for a bit and then make a nice big plate of Spaghetti Bolognese each.

Becky's Photo Shoot!

2005-10-15T10:04:00.000Z

It was a great day yesterday!

I managed to getup somewhere around the time required to get into London to meet Becky for the red letter days gift I had bought her last Christmas.

We went to Farringdon and headed straight for food as both of us were starving and one of us was extremely nervous (Becky btw).

Here is one of Becky trying to grin off the nervousness:

We had a good meal and a good laugh while we killed some time before heading round to the photo place, I managed to pursuade Becky to spare me the shame of carrying around her baby pink mini suitcase for at least this part of the journey. It took us a while to find the place but evetnually an extremely camp looking guy wearing a sleeveless top and 3/4 length trousers showed us where to go, he turned out to be one of the makeup artists!

After filling in some forms I hunkered down on the sofa and got comfortable for the coming 3 hours of waiting about - fortunately I got a new phone recently that has some cool games on it.

Becky started off having a facial thingy done and a hand massage and I managed to sneak a quick picture much to her annoyance and much to my amusement (come on, i needed something to do).

Here is one of Becky having her hair done

This is before the pics were taken looking a bit nervous just after her makeup was done

After the pics sipping a champagne cocktail (Becky never drinks hence the already slightly sloshed look on her face)

After the whole thing was done we had to go and pick out which ones we liked... she looks fantastic in all of them which made this harder work, but by stitching up 21 friends / family and colleagues we secured ourselves a good deal (as good as deals get at companies like this) and managed to get all of the pics printed 12 x 8 and a CD with them all on (which gives us the copyright on them too so we can do what we like with them).

It ended up being quite expensive but hell, you don't do this every week do you!

When the pics arrive I will doubtlessly posting some of them for all to see just how lucky I am :)

New Phone and something amusing

2005-10-10T17:08:00.000Z

Still been feeling a bit shit, as I have had a heacache now for the best part of a week. I think I need to go and see my doctors to get my sinuses sorted out again!

I got a new phone this week, I was assured by Vodafone that it would cost me to upgrade to the phone I got, I pointed out I had been their customer for 10 years and had spent rather a lot of money with them during that time and pointed out that I would not indeed be paying a penny... they folded and I got it for nothing, also I got 3 months insurance thrown in AND my insurance monthly cost goes down after those 3 months are up! Winner!

The phone I got is a Sony Ericsson k750i, it seems to be pretty cool and do all I need it to.

I also saw this that was posted by someone on one of the many forums I frequent, I thought it was hilarious - it is a bit of a read, so if you have a spare 15 minutes, check out www.p-p-p-powerbook.com. A tale of eBay and scammers getting scammed.

It is quite old so I apologise for being behind on this but I thought it was funny and thought I would share it with the rest of you.

ah well... I am still at work and it is time to go home, I bought a game at the weekend called Sniper Elite, which, could of been better in a few areas but I still find bloody good fun!

Sticky Sheets!!!

2005-10-05T15:32:00.000Z

Ok,

So the net has dealt me another random wildcard

www.stickysheets.com

Is safe for work viewing, requires sound and is great.. still not sure if they are for real :)

I seem to be better now by the way, although my head feels like it is in a vice still. Damned sinuses will take a while to recover.

Stupid Illness

2005-10-03T09:36:00.000Z

I am feckin ill..

first time I have had a cold in over 2 years at least, I have never had one since Becky has known me anyways and I have been going out with her for 2 years and 2 months now (blimey, time flies when you're having fun! :D)

So, no bike ride again this weekend which was a bit disappointing - all I did was sit in bed / on the sofa watchin telly / being unable to sleep.

I have the unfortunate problem that the roots of my top teeth go into my sinal cavity, so when it is all bunged up it feels like someone is tugging on each tooth with a pair of pliers.

This probably explains the extremely limited amount of sleep I have had this weekend, most of my nights have been spent staring at the ceiling.

Bah

Ah well.. i expect I will be better in a day or 2.

What animal thing are you quiz weirdness thing

2005-09-30T13:11:00.000Z

My good friend Hygelac (Dave) did this on his blog so I thought I would too for a laugh..

Apparently :

You Are A: Duck!

Found in many lakes and ponds, ducks are a common site the world over. Known for their famous quack, ducks tend to congregate in flocks or go off on their own in pairs. As a duck, you may seem friendly at times but will not hesitate to bite if someone is bothering you. Your ability to swim and your your short temper are some reasons why you are a duck.

You were almost a: Monkey or a Frog
You are least like a: Chipmunk or a Bunny Cute Animals Quiz

DoD: Source and tiredness

2005-09-28T23:33:00.000Z

Well, the 2 are most probably linked.

But I am sure even before the game was released on Monday I was noticing myself becoming more and more tired and I have no idea why :(

that aside, i have still played way too much Day of Defeat Source.. i played the original game from its first alpha release and have played it on or off ever since.

they certainly did the game justice and it is just superb with Half Life 2's engine!

Thats about all I can be arsed to write for now.. too tired, meh.. going to bed :(

Mine Mine Mine Mine Mine!!!!!!

2005-09-24T11:44:00.000Z

A friend from 40 Commando posted a link to this video... had me in stitches:

Right Click and Save As

Fond memories of druggier times

2005-09-24T11:07:00.000Z

I have been harassing my m8 Lee (now of Diverted fame) for some pictures he had of a gig we played some 9 years ago.

I was at Henley College at the time and they were having an end of summer term party.

I submitted a mix tape and we got the 2 hour closing slot from 12am - 2am at a club in Reading called Alleycats (since closed and possibly now a pub).

After a somewhat mad day driving to london a little worse for wear after having a bong or 2 to retrieve 1 tune (yes... 1 :) ) from a record shop in Camden. We drove around Camden about 4 times in a big circle I think before we managed to find our way out of our stoned never ending loop of doom we had found ourselves in... so, to Reading!!!

We got to Reading at about (something like 4 hours after we left london!) 3pm to help setup the club and so on and get some food in etc - we managed to somehow kill many many hours until the night started.

The 2 DJ's before us (there were 3 sets in total at 2 hours each) were both playing trancey / techno style music (very different to what we were intending to play) and I remember being nervous about whether or not anyone would like our music, we were playing (ashamed face) Happy Hardcore of the time, which was somewhat of an acquired taste.

I had started winding the crowd up a bit towards the end of the previous DJ's set on the mic (as I masqueraded as an MC as well) and when he finished up his set I got them to show their appreciation appropriately :)

Some friends of mine arrived with a portion or 2 of speed (as i said, druggier times... misspent youth etc) that were taken as soon as possible.

It was time for our set... were they gonna like it? Were we going to get boo'd off the stage? We really didn't know... so - to help our plight we decided the best tune to drop first would be one they all knew (or at least the original of) so we dropped the On A Ragga Tip '97 remix which started with its familiar riff....

They fookin loved it, as did Lee and I, we had a whole bunch of people dancing on the stage and the main room was pretty much rammed with people - what a top night!

Here are a few pictures of a very VERY skinny Lee and I (i am the one intermittently on the mic look at the size of the phone clipped on my belt! I think I still have that in my drawer of junk) and a couple of friends who came to give us some support... note person dancing on table in background and various people totally covered in sweat!

Becky has informed me she wouldn't have gone out with me... cos I look too weedy lol, ah well, some benefits to getting chunkier then!

Most amusing moment in the evening - Lee rolling up in the sound booth tripping over the power supply for all the lights and sound system and ripping it out of the wall (it was one of those huge industrial plug things but the clamp to keep it in place was broken) and plunging the whole party into darkness for a minute until the soundman managed to get it plugged back in :D

good memories, i want to be young again!

The Interweb and it's Oddness

2005-09-22T12:43:00.000Z

Now,

Like most people, I am sure I find myself seeing odd things on the internet and not really thinking much of it - I mean, it's the internet after all..

Then, along comes a site like BeeDogs...

I can't really think of any way to say how astonished I am that this website actually exists... dogs..in...bee costumes?

wtf?

I am so stunned by it, that is all I can think of to write.

Feeling a bit meh and very bloody busy

2005-09-20T18:26:00.000Z

I haven't written anything here for a few days...

Mostly I have been busy trying to get all the little bits and bobs installed on my new machine that you only realise you haven't sorted out when you try to use them and they aren't there..

Bit annoyed with my bike ride at the weekend, for some reason on the way back (last 1/4 of the ride probably) I was feeling totally shit. This was also the first week that I was unable to get a ride in, in the week for some time now and I am wondering if this contributed towards my generally crap feeling.

Good weekend though! I cooked Becky a full english breakfast in bed the morning of the ride (bike!) and managed to cook dinner the same evening! Not bad for me really, being the lazy ass that I am.

Just copied my old TrackIR and Saitek X52 profiles onto this PC which should enable me to go flying again which I haven't done in a while now!

I was meaning to take a few pictures of my new machine before it gets all dusty but I can't be bothered to unplug it all to get it out and the side off to pose for the pics, so i'm not going to.. :P

Ah, bloody hell - just realised i think i missed the air show I was wanting to go to at Duxford!!! arse

On that note I shall go and check the Duxford site to confirm my self annoyance... [edit] having just read the site it looks like the weather was appalling and they were unable to fly, so I am glad I didn't go now!

New PC! Sweet!

2005-09-16T09:18:00.000Z

Well,

Yesterday at about 4pm my new PC arrived in pieces.

I promptly got it all in the car and set off to work so that my m8 Dave could help me build it. The reason for requiring help is simple, I have never done a PC build before and I would have been hopelessly lost had I attempted it on my own.

After much unpacking and fiddling about with screwdrivers and plugging a variety of bizarrely shaped plugs into other plugs on the motherboard and having to apply scary amounts of pressure to the CPU fan and heatsink to get it clamped on the PC was built... and it was good...

Next job was windows, after realising that, even in the day and age of trying desperately to get rid of floppy drives - windows buggers the whole thing up by demanding a floppy disk with the RAID adapter drivers on... where is the logic??

I decided to setup the 2 255GB SATA-II drives as RAID 0 with some advice from a couple of friends at work. Primarily this will give me speed at the risk of losing all my data if either of the drives fail... but this PC isn't really designed for storage. However, I do now have an effective 500GB's of space... bloody hell, what will I do with that? Bloody hell! if I do find something to do with it, how will I back it up?!

The GFX card is a beast, the BFG Geforce 7800 GTX 256MB PCE Express - box clocked to 460mhz clock speed.

After getting windows installed and SP2 in place I installed 3d Mark 05 and achieved a respectable 7796.

The only thing I was thinking of doing to the PC now was perhaps getting another GB of crucial Ballistix Dual Channel RAM in a few months to bolster the PC.

Having said that it runs well, really well, frighteningly well in fact... HL2 is a dream, Pacific Assault doesn't slow down (the game isn't amazing graphically but with it all turned up when it kicks off its a bit of a card caner)

So.. happier man, and now I am at work - having stayed up playing with my new toy until 3am

Still lots to install though... and I have to get my old PC setup with a wireless network card and put it next to my decks, then I can use it for storage and recording my mixes and hopefully, streaming to play sets on internet radio stations if I manage to get any gigs.

Bloody hell, long post...

Nooooo eBay got me!

2005-09-14T12:36:00.000Z

Argh!

I have discovered a wealth of old skool vinyl for sale on eBay....

I have always sworn against using eBay but now it seems I have found something I want on it... lets hope I manage not to become one of these people who go mental when someone outbids me in the last 20 seconds and steals my purchase...

Good way to pick up specific tunes I have been after though I hope !

Bah, back to work :(

Annoyed today for various reasons, usually the fact that one of the many numpties in the team I am in has bollocksed something up and I have to fix it ><

Overclockers Have Redeemed Themselves

2005-09-13T13:44:00.000Z

I managed to phone them up today having discovered that the other website I was going to order through only deliver to home addresses...

The guy was good on the phone, we went through the order and he pointed out some stuff and helped me tweak the list slightly... we went through the order and the payment has gone through!

So, hopefully tomorrow I will take delivery of the following at my workplace :)

Coolermaster Wave Master - Silver
Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939)
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX Sound Card
Pioneer DVR-110D 16 x 16 DVD?W Dual Layer ReWriter
Enermax Noisetaker 535W EG565AX-VE(W) SFMA ATX2.0 SLI Compliant PSU
Crucial 1GB (2x512MB) DDR PC3200 Ballistix Dual Channel Kit
Akasa Rounded Ultra ATA133/100/66 IDE Cable (0.45m)
OcUK Value Floppy Drive
Akasa Rounded Floppy Cable (0.45m)
Maxtor MaxLine III NCQ 250GB 7L250S0 SATA 16MB Cache (2 of)
Akasa Serial ATA 60cm Silver Data Cable
BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

hehe

sweeeeet

OverClockers.co.uk Are Sh*te!

2005-09-12T22:08:00.000Z

Well,

I attempted to spec up and buy all the bits for my new PC today..

All was going well, tripled checked the list and went to the checkout...

Mint, decided that me wanting to use my card seemed unreasonable and that I must be a fraudster!!!! They stopped the payment but a quick phone call to them (and some trickery to dupe their automated robot phone people to allow me to speak to a human) and they had it sorted and ready to go..

Back to overclockers.co.uk - into the checkout and "error processing card, this card has been rejected once before - please use a different card" ........

So i decide to phone them... busy tone, busy tone, busy tone etc etc

I used my trusty auto redial on my mobile and after 10 minutes i got it ringing, and ringing... ringing for so long in fact my phone got bored and hung up telling me to wake up and that no one was there!!!

So, use the email button on their site I thought... i hover over it.. ah - we are clearly dealing with cretins... i see in my browser on the bottom left "mailto:https://contact.overclockers.co.uk"

so I type in the URL that these people couldn't manage to create a simple link with and got a form.... that only lets you mail them IF YOU HAVE AN ORDER NUMBER!!!!!!!

I tried putting in all zero's

got a mail back "that is an invalid order number, do not reply to this message"

so overclockers someone else can have my £1300 !

Mailinator! No more spam!

2005-09-11T21:12:00.000Z

A colleague of mine just sent me a link to a very very cool site that has a fantastic idea..

http://www.mailinator.com

Basically - any site that asks you for a mail address to confirm a subscription / anyone you need to give an address, you make one up on the spot....

sendme_amail_butnospam_youarse@mailinator.com

for example :)

Then the site lets you log in, get the one mail you want - and then walk away and never use the account again... cool!

New PC before too long!!!!

2005-09-10T11:07:00.000Z

Well,

Finally my balance has transferred from my Egg card to my new fancy Mint card (no i didn't get one of those daft gimmick curved edge cards..pfft) so I will be able to look at getting myself a new PC that will last me for a few years as my current trusty (*cough* yeh right) companion has, with a bit of help and a new gfx card...

So, a new uber pc i feel is on the cards - I don't need to worry about a monitor as I have 2 of those! So I can concentrate on the PC itself.

I am hoping to get a dual core AMD processor of some sort and one of the nVidia 7800 series gfx cards.

This will enable me to slap my wireless network card in this pc and move it downstairs next to my decks! This will be very useful should I manage to get a set on an internet radio station as I plan to and will also make my life considerably easier to record my mixes (no more faffing about with mini discs).

Then I will just need to hook my current pc into the TV so I can operate it from down there and jobs a gooden!!!

Sweet :)

Hopefully off for a bike ride today despite the evil weather and Becky's parents are coming over with her little brother tomorrow :| hopefully the weather will pick up a bit and hopefully I will be able to get the house looking respectable for them.

Anyways, Becky is out the bath and needs rubbing down :P

Amazing CGI video of various war birds

2005-09-09T13:04:00.000Z

Check out the link provided below and prepare to be amazed by some stunning CGI footage of Mosquitos, Spitfires, Japanese Zeros and BF109's

This footage in places (particularly the one titled "Merlins") is hard to tell that it actually is CGI!!!

Amazing stuff by a guy with far too much time on his hands apparently :)

Click me

I can't Believe it!

2005-09-07T21:39:00.000Z

Well... for those of you who scoffed at my mutterings regarding going for an early morning ride....

...

I did!! haha!

I went out at 6:30am and got back at 7:45 having travelled about 7 or 8 miles on a beautiful morning.. bloody good ride!

I am knackered now mind you and had an absolute nightmare getting into work afterwords.

While I am posting, I have finished my site banner after much buggering about ^^

I added some links to the side bar on the right, some to my old skool mixes, some to friend's blogs and a few internet radio stations for those who like their old skool and their breaks.

At work, I was asked if i would mind working on the Hungarian project until the end of the month.... this time last year I was being asked the same question only to find myself on the project indefinately... fortunately this time my boss said no! huzzah! I will be helping them fixing bugs part time (which is a good thing as it keeps my job more varied anyway).

Anyways, nearly bed time for me!

A covert mission behind enemy lines to...... Hungary!!!

2005-09-06T22:29:00.000Z

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!

cue mood relevant music

I have been recalled out of retirement back into active duty for a mission of most importance to be carried out covertly in the Hungarian domain..

I have been tasked with several bugs of which 4 have been fixed already ready (by myself of course) for testing... I still have about 5 to work on but 2 of my targets are particularly tricky to deal with..

Despite how much I wanted to get out of the Hungarian situation several months ago this is a welcome break from my current and very dull routine in my existing job so I don't mind...

As it is covert I don't actually have to speak with any of the Hungarians, which can only be a good thing :)

Well, I have to get some sleep shortly as I am hoping to TRY and get a bike ride in tomorrow morning before work (I can hear you all laughing from here :) ) but I haven't had, and mostly likely won't have a chance to get out until the weekend if I don't :(

I also just completed a supply cut mission in Belgium somewhere in WWII Online, we managed to stop supplies getting through to the town the allies were attacking for a few hours and managed to destroy a total of 4 Panzers a Half Track and an 88 (who died to my grenades after trying to run me over)

Random Fact:

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

Microsoft vs Google

2005-09-05T12:37:00.000Z

In my recent subscription to how great Google is I was chatting to a colleague of mine who sent me a link to this somewhat amusing story over at The Register

Steve Ballmer Goes Nuts (again)

Having seen his antics on the video of him leaping about at a big MS meeting I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is true

"You stole my f**king cloudsong!"

2005-09-05T00:04:00.000Z

hahahah,

This is superb!

Someone clearly takes their games wayyyyy too seriously

You stole my fucking cloudsong!

don't listen to in public or on speaker unless you are ok with screaming and swearing :)

20 miles, cats and elastic and catching up with an old mate

2005-09-04T22:43:00.000Z

Well,

It has been another good weekend!

Friday night I sat about generally lounging awaiting the arrival of Becky who turned up looking gorgeous as usual :)

Saturday we went into town and bought her some of the ass padded shorts for cycling that I got (except she got the women's version :) ) and grabbed a bite to eat before a trip to Staples and the WhSmith's in search for the never ending supply of stationary that my girlfriend requires.

How do women manage to use it all? How do they find a use for it all? I must admit buying stationary with the promise of organisation and the best intentions to turn yourself into a well filed person always make buying it seem like a good idea, but, it always turns to rat shit when you get it home and discover that you can't actually be arsed.

I went out Saturday as previously mentioned to see an old DJing buddy of mine, as expected i got lost on the way there as I have discovered something i think Google are bad at... directions on Google Maps! After meeting some of his mates I sampled some ganja for the first time in 2 years... i got a buzz almost immediately but I didn't like smoking it so was content with my minor buzz and chatting and laughing about old times... all in all a good evening (and I didn't get lost on the way back).

Whilst I was out apparently Munky my cat was attempting to make a toy out of Becky's filing and was pinging the elastic band holding her paperwork together, dutifully Becky took a picture or 2 of her, the below being my favourite.

Munky - elastic fan..

Today saw a new record for Becky and I on our bikes as we completed a 20 mile off and on road ride, mostly off road after some tweaking of routes and exploring some previously unknown (to us) trails... found some glorious downhills (which we were pedalling up...route backwards next time me thinks!) and some nice new climbs too.. good stuff. First time out on my new tyres too, they felt a bit odd at first but I soon got used to them, they seem to be more grippy on corners than my old ones, which is a good thing.

Anyways... thunder about tonight lighting stuff up and banging away.. got to love thunder - I shall stop boring you :)

DJing, New Orleans and Flying

2005-09-03T11:20:00.000Z

I am off to see an old friend of mine this evening.

We used to go out DJing alot together and have played various clubs and pirate and internet radio stations.

This has spurred me to get back into my mixing and possibly by the sounds of things I will be getting into a new genre of music known as breaks.

It is basically like old skool but new material with a more modern style.

My friends go by the name Diverted and are currently releasing tunes and plays / hosts an internet radio station called iBreaks

So... hopefully I will be starting to lay down more mix mp3's and maybe buying some new tunes... also I have the host to keep them on :) superb :D

Before that today I also fitted my new tyres on my bike, gave it a good clean and degreased and re lube'd my chain... was quite nice and relaxing actually and didn't feel like a chore as the weather is great today.

The whole New Orleans situation continues to mystify me... there is a blog from a guy staying in a city who works at a web hosts there which has been quite an entertaining and sometimes shocking read with lots of photos and a cam stream... the guy calls himself The Interdictor, go check it out.

I also went flying not too long ago which was bloody good fun, I got to fly in a Chipmunk which was used as the RAF's primary trainer just after the war... what an amazing aircraft to fly in!

I was surprised (as it was a trial lesson I was bought for a gift) that I was allowed to actually fly the aircraft nearly the entire time! Whether or not this has to do with me being ok with the controls (I thought) due to all my time on flight sims I don't know but I would like to think so :)

I even got to pull myself through some 3 G turns which were a fantastic experience and really gave an idea of what it must have been like to pull a 6 G turn to get out of harms way back in the war (i'm a WWII war flight nut btw). I have tested out this "Hello" thing from Google for posting my pictures and its a bit annoying in that it won't let you make a post with more than one picture in it :( Hopefully this is something they will sort out, if they do it will be a fantastic tool!

Anyways, here are a few pictures from the day:

Me in the Chipmunk G-BXGL !

Me being shown the controls and strapping in.

Me sitting in the back as the Pilot, Pete, gets clearance to taxi from the tower.

Pete with his hands up to demonstrate that he actually let me taxi all the way up to the runway once we were on the grass!

First post on a new blog!

2005-09-02T16:04:00.000Z

Well,

I have moved my blog over to blogger as I can edit my template and customise it as I like free of charge which I couldn't do at my previous hosts. I can also host the blog on my own webspace which means my own URL :) much better :D

I will leave my old one online still here. should anyone feel they wish to read about my struggle with the Hungarians... should anyone want to read my blog at all that is...

So, hopefully this site will do me proud and hopefully I will start writing in the damned thing a bit more :)