Month: April 2012

PS One of those signature hits seems to typically appear about 5 seconds after I've hit the "post" button !

I think the cabin fever and restlessness is starting to strike …

I have been outside the house – and for more than just putting the bin out (that’ll be tonight’s job). Truth is that the outside the house was to pick up more margarine today, which was my flimsy excuse for raiding the local shop for cut price Easter eggs.

I now have enough Mini Eggs to quite possibly last me until next year.

Actually, I think I may keep them in reserve for cricket in the summer. Cricket’s a game of two halves :

(one I prepared earlier, I have it hanging on my wall)

Depending on what order we do stuff in, I usually have a chance to lounge around for a bit between innings. That’s either after I’ve batted or before I go in. But it’s not just lounging, it’s topping up like what tennis players will do between games. I usually take a bottle or two of water with me, plus something high energy to munch on.

Bananas would be awesome for that, I hear that they are amazing for being quickly digestable to get that energy into the system. So they’d be ideal for putting in the cricket bag for a crafty gobble between innings. Just one slight problem – bananas. Can’t stand ’em. Oh well. And that goes beyond the usual “healthy stuff detected” aversions.

Mini Eggs may actually fit the bill quite well, as the colourings in the shells activate my hyperactivity. Worth a shot at least.

I’m also getting my mind right in that gap. It’s nigh on impossible to concentrate on anything for (theory says) more than 45 minutes at a time. That’s why school lessons are timed for about that long. Kids lose concentration, mayhem ensues. Cricketers develop a skill where they can switch on or off in a heartbeat. I do it when I’m batting, with the concentration reserved for when the bowler’s about to fling the ball down at me.

But hey – that’s enough about the cricket.

Yep. The cabin fever’s kicking in somewhat. I just like being around people. Definitely missing a few people. A great picture memory is no substitute for actually seeing someone smile. And one reason for that is that if someone smiles at you, it’s usually in response to something. It’s an awesome feeling knowing that you’ve made someone smile.

Facebook has that with the “like” button, where you can’t really add something in the form of words in a comment but want to show you really appreciated a post. Blogger doesn’t really have that (although that G+ button might be it) and it’s another one where you’d struggle to think of an appropriate /grin comment with more characters than just “lol”.

But we do have hit counters … There’s actually two on this blog and I’ll natter about those sometime in the future (it’ll be called “Lies, Damned Lies and Stats” because each counter reports differently). Every time I see a familiar signature come in from one of those hits, it’s saying someone’s come back to check up to see how I’m doing. Be that if it’s a signature from work, certain ISPs or other patterns. Recognising the hits is as good as seeing a “+1” or a “/like” on Facebook.

And it makes my day to see certain signatures appear 🙂

Muahaha

Yum.

Still happy with the diet actually (it has a minimal amount of bunny). I’ve been going between 13st dead and 13st 2 over the past few days. So despite (or perhaps being able to) doing a bit of the snacking again, I’ve maintained or lost a little. That 13st is actually one of my target weights but for a different shape than I am now :

Target 11 st – for my current upper body strength
Target 13 st – for a stronger upper body
Actually, 11st would probably be a little too light with my legs, they’re already losing a bit of their mass. Still, those power legs are still conditioned for me being a stone heavier than I now am which means happy days as I’m more nimble than I’ve been for ages. And they’re behaving themselves too, with much less tendency to cramp than I had a couple of months ago so my minerals are more in balance.

Yep – happy with how that diet’s going at the moment. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a washboard stomach* but this diet is all about keeping the discipline together on trying to settle into a new pattern of munching centred around “only eat while hungry”. With Easter Eggs, I used to just demolish them immediately. Now I’m gobbling up a third or a quarter and then putting it back in the fridge for later. Progress !

*Washboard stomach – last time I had one of these was at uni. I’d been living off campus, biking in every day. By the time nets started up for cricket, I actually had stomach muscles. I’d never had them before ! So there I go into bowling practice, first ball goes down and those stomach muscles start firing … At random. Like totally uncontrollable and the ball was going Everywhere :-).

I figured it out after a few sessions but didn’t get the chance to try it in a match that year as that was the year when I killed my shoulder. The injury I got seemed minor at the time but 3 weeks later I found out I’d actually dislocated it (I don’t feel pain right, so the signals I had only came when I tried picking things up with my right arm) and after half a season of cricket I found I had a torn rotator cuff. I shrugged, thought that doesn’t mean much but then saw some baseball commentary where a pitcher with the same injury was scrubbed for 18 months, if he could come back at all.

Scary.

And it was the end of me playing cricket at uni (except for a staff vs students game where I kept wicket and dislocated both thumbs temporarily). After that, cricket opportunities were hard to come by as I was bouncing around the country on different placements for a couple of years. But I did get the chance to earn another trophy (actually a picture) with a team in Farnborough who I pushed from perennial 3rd/4th to winning their cup.

And I’ve Wall Of Texted again on something completely unrelated to the original theme.

Supply shopping soon – spookily around the time when the Easter eggs are reduced to clear. I’ll have to go in to pick up more Flora and bear absolutely no responsibility for any Easter eggs that may escape the shop in my bags …

As part of my daily hunt around various news sites, spotted this one again from Tomshardware :

DIY Sentry Gun Blasts Intruders with Paintballs.

Putting aside the question of how much you’d get sued if you had something like this … What would a Mad Scientist software/computer/electronic engineer do for putting one of these together ? Let’s call the Sleepypete system Hoplite (no trademark infringement intended, no way am I likely to sell this !) after the Phalanx gun that’s used on ships.

You’ve got a few things to include :

Turret and gun
Control mechanics
Targeting system

For something like this, it’s always best to follow a thread through logically. Like : Target -> Aim -> FIRE. So let’s start with that targeting system. They use a webcam on that site but that’s got a few shortcomings (like no night vision). So what does Hoplite need :

Webcam – aye. It’s simple, cheap and interfaces well. Hook it up to image processing software to detect differences between reference pic and “what’s there now” pic (trees don’t move, so that’s your reference). You’d want a fixed camera to designate targets (what to shoot at) and I’d look for a camera that moves with the gun to allow for aiming.

But I’d also want to have a thermal imager going for night time. A thermal imager is actually easier to get targeting info from too, just aim for the centre of the Warm Blob. But … you have to do that motion detect thing again so you don’t have false positives from the sun warming stuff or people tricking the system with flares.

There should also be a lockout so that if the turret is pointing at something in the reference, it shouldn’t paint your tree.

Hoplite Control mechanics – this is the fun part.

The key reason why I went into Electronic & Electrical Engineering is because I was predicting that the influence on electronics on what we use was increasing daily. Silicon chips are everywhere. Every button you press is likely to have software triggering off behind it. My first car had barely any transistors in it, my latest car is wholly software driven even down to drive-by-wire pedals. And the thing that links software to the bits that move is the electronic engineering.

They use a laptop for control in that link, which is fair enough. You could also use the laptop as a display for CCTV, plus software on it provides the brain. What’s the brain need to do ?

Lead the target – this is aiming in the right place to tag ’em when they run
Let you control and monitor stuff
Set the rules for how ruthless it is

The control is the most interesting bit and it’s where the geeky people can really come out to play. The trick is to start simple and then add the clever bits. That’s called Integration Engineering. Start with something that forms a foundation and make sure that works. If you start at a more ambitious level, then if you have a problem you have to go back to that simple foundation anyway to figure out what the problem is. Engineering is all about taking a concept and taking away everything that doesn’t matter until you have something clean, efficient and elegant.

And there’s all sorts of really complicated control theory behind that foundation. Let’s just say it’s dead simple to make something point roughly where you intend it to but it’s much tougher to tune a negative feedback control system to make it point precisely where you want while still following things that move.

They do a pretty decent job on the one in the video, the ballistics look good and most of the time it’s pointing in the right direction. It does jump off beam occasionally though (a control system issue that should have it stop firing when it jumps) and there seems to be a little stickiness.

Hoplite turret system :

This is where I might need a little help as I’m very rusty on the mechanical side of things. You’d want :
Weatherproofing,
Access to reload the system
Mounting sturdy enough to manage the rifle and recoil, plus cameras
Reliable motors to steer the turret (2 axis rotate + tilt would cover it)

It’s one thing to do the geeky thing and cobble something together that does a job. It’s another thing entirely to engineer something solid that you can put outside and forget about until you hear that “Rat-Tat-Tat- OUCH” of a gotcha.

PS Just need a suitable location to put a Hoplite, this place is too small.

Yey 🙂 First class postage pays off for a change 🙂

Thanks for the book. I think I'll be enjoying that bit of reading… [grin]

Yep.

In the tradition started by Daleks*, I’m considering hiding behind the sofa while watching the delayed coverage of the cricket.

*(incidentally, this post has made my car the top result for a non-box shaped vehicle on google searches for “tardis blue”, although it has slipped down the page a little)

I’ve really enjoyed having the chance to chill out over the last couple of days. Definitely needed it. But cricket can be a far more tense game to watch than most people appreciate.

In football or rugby if the other team scores, it’s not something irrevocable. Your side can march up the other side of the pitch and even it out. Not so in cricket, with every ball something can happen. And if it’s your side that’s lost a wicket, that’s not something that can be got back in the game. If it’s your star player, that’s it for him.

Even at a target of under 100 and a decent batting side, it’s not a dead cert that England will win. (They may have got the result by now but I’m 3 hours behind live). England have been rediscovering that talent for clutching defeat from the jaws of victory. Hell, I’ve been solely responsible for smashing through a tail and turning results around inside one over so I’ve seen it happen on a few occasions. Not any more though because my shoulder is too weak.

Or is it … A little bit of shadow bowling, turning my arm over at about 60%, suggested that the mechanical hitch that destroyed my bowling action may have gone away … Promising. But I need to bowl with a cricket ball to see what I might have available. I had lots of options with my bowling :

Long run or short run – I preferred bowling off the long run as it was less strain on the shoulder (and this was before I bust it). But the long run meant I had too much momentum to control more than just a couple of variations.

Short run – I could bowl every variation of finger spin (badly!) and even a bit of wristspin. Wrist spin is supposed to be legspin but mine always came in to the right hander instead of going away like they were supposed to. But yeah, if I bowled spin in a match I had huge variation to choose from, every ball in the over could be different and not just spin variation. I even had a doosra that was the only thing I could bowl for a while, never a carom ball though. But I had to put so much effort in I couldn’t sustain it for long.

Long run – your momentum supplies the effort
Short run – your arm is sole source of the effort

And the longer run was far more effective anyway. Can’t argue with figures like 10 overs for 9 runs (1 wicket but it was sooo tight I remember it), 9.4 overs for 6 wickets to win a game by 6 runs taking 3 wickets in my last over or what I did in my first game for the men’s team : 4 overs 9 runs 4 wickets to win a game.

Good times. Definitely good times. I won the bowling trophy that year, getting more wickets than anyone else even though I played just 3 quarters of the season and hurt my back with several games to go. And my efforts helped push us towards runners up spot in the league that year. Batting is my strength now but I’ve never won a game with my own efforts with the bat. Saved them yeah (highlight being the second game I got hit on the head) but not been the star.

Yes – I’ve substituted “laptop and blogging” for “sofa” for my thing to hide behind. Cook and Trott are batting well at the moment but Strauss let it slip about 1 ball before I started writing this post.

What else ?

Mirror Mirror is a seriously cool film. By the power of late text messages, I ended up rapidly getting ready to sprint to the Mall on Thursday evening to meet up with Craziequeen, where I had my second pizza in 2 days (don’t look at me like that ! The scales still say I’m SlinkyPete 🙂 ) before going on to watch a bit of magic. Let’s just say there will be 2 copies of Mirror Mirror being bought by the Crazies who went to see this one. It’s not the best film out there but it’s huge fun and entertaining. Hopefully Hunger Games is as good, although that’ll be an entirely different film.

Meh – Trott’s gone, which has evaporated a bit of superstition from the other day.

And with that, it’s about time to properly retreat behind that sofa before the cricket gets reaaaally tense.

But not before wishing my neighbour Cyberkitten a happy birthday 🙂

Right – the delayed cricket has hit that point where I’ve switched to half watching it (despite Pietersen getting in and looking to dominate) although I am quite happily chortling away at the commentary. Beefy and Greiggy are on form having fun with Lamby “that crab was bigger than ‘im !!!”

And since I’ve started this post, soporific cricket in the morning has turned into BOOMBOOMKP cricket 🙂 Ball’s flying everywhere and the crowd are donning the hard hats.

That’s enough of the Boys of Summer, on with the music (that’s Don Henley’s signature tune by the way)

Letting myself switch off from work over the next week or so makes it feel like a Brand New Day (Lisa Miskovsky). She’s got a fantastic voice but is let down a little by the songwriting being a little generic. Still, with a voice like that, she can Sing To Me any time. (And it’s in a range I can mostly sing along to!)

How’s the Weather With You (Crowded House and still a favourite) around the world at the moment ? After our summer last week, it’s back to dark skies here and snow in Scotland. America has tornados.

I’m not so sure that we’re moving to a Warmer Climate (Snow Patrol), just a more energetic one. The winters are still cold, the summers aren’t hotter than I can remember from baking all day on a cricket field. But the storms are definitely more intense.

The clocks changed here very recently and one thing that guarantees is Here Comes The Sun (George Harrison). You can’t help but raise a smile at “Here comes the sun, it’s allllright”.

Still grey skies at the moment here but I’m hoping Mr Blue Sky (sung by Lily Allen there) comes out again soon. I have a back that would really appreciate me lying on the bed with a book, getting a baking from warm sun through the window.

Yep, Sunshine After The Rain (Elkie Brooks) would be good. Although a drought threatened England could do with at least some rain to make sure those cricket pitches are good for the summer.

And if the sun’s out, then it’s far easier to Rise And Shine (early happy Cardigans).

Here’s to some Good Times (Edie Brickell) this summer and hoping my legs let me pull out the Moves Like Jagger (Maroon5) on the cricket field. Ok, maybe not the dancing but fast feet are a real blessing in cricket.

Crikey I must have been tired.

Can barely keep the eyes open at the moment, although I know that if I went to bed right now I’d not likely get to sleep anyway. Not a good idea to do that right now anyway cos :

6.45pm – finished up at work for the Easter break
(problems at the contractors meant something I needed to do Stuff didn’t arrive until late)
Off to Dominos to pick up essentials,
Pizza + movie + popcorn

So I’m full of pizza and popcorn at the moment, which is why I need to stay up for another couple of hours (actually another hour now with the amount of time spent on this post!). Bed on full tummy is not a good idea (figuring that is one reason why the diet is going well !)

The movie was Book Of Eli. It’s a post apocalyptic movie starring Denzil Washington. It’s a star performance too. Well worth catching if you’ve not seen it.

I’m kinda surprised at how big the movie collection has got now. I’ve been collecting since I added a dvd player to my PC in 1998, so you can probably imagine how many I have cluttering up the bookshelves. Curious to know how long it would take to watch them all. There’s no easy way to count like in iTunes (5412 songs, 14.9 days to listen to them all).

Wonder how long it would actually take for someone to go through my movie collection. Any volunteers ? I have popcorn …

I also appear to have picked up 12 cupcakes and all sorts of other stuff due to going shopping yesterday while hungry. Multibuy offers can be insanely dangerous.

Really tired right now though. I can keep myself going through just sheer bloodymindedness. I’ve been hyperactive at work (with the cost of missing some attention to detail) but flaking out at home due to running on empty. I’m close to flaking out now but that’s because I know I don’t have to get my brain active tomorrow morning. It’ll be bed until I get bored of trying to sleep (not been sleeping well lately), followed by falling asleep in front of as-live cricket on telly.

It probably shows how tired I am right now by how disconnected this post is ?

Definitely looking forward to regenerating some energy over this next week. It won’t take me long either until I’m bored of my own company. I like being around people, even if I have some difficulty in overcoming the isolation. I’ll definitely miss :

Real Boss – cos I pick up on his professionalism, which sparks off mine too. We both like to get stuff done and we like to get it done right. We do have trouble communicating sometimes though as we have to translate into each other’s mindset. He’s orthodox chaotic, I’m unorthodox order and we both OCD. Spot the clash potential ! 🙂

The Boss – been leaning on her empathy lately more than she’s been leaning on my tech skills. And I think she has a secret plan to spoil me with Creme Eggs.

My Scottish Go To Girl – she’s my counterpart in the Scotland office. We both try and keep up with what our bosses are up to and manage to anticipate their need for info by staying a step or two ahead. We compare notes and keep each other laughing. Can’t do much in this world without information and me and the Go To Girl conspire to get the right info out there.

Canteen Mob – I get the feeling these girls are getting near the end of their tether with management interference but they still manage the playfulness when they’re dealing with the lunchtime queue.

The Old Team – it’s a little sad how I’m more connected with the team I used to be a part of before migrating into Requirements than I am with the team we got parachuted into. I still go round there a fair bit cos that’s where the milk is and cos of project-y liaison Stuff. I’m a central point for info and process because I’ve been there so long I Know Too Much.

And lastly but most of all –

The Snow Queen ! Cos she’s a legend and one of very few people who can follow me when my brain starts flying off at tangents. And because the reward for succeeding with the “must make Snow Queen laugh” quest is an ear to ear angelic smile breaking out beneath eyes whos sparkle promises devilry and mischief.

PS Cricket on telly tomorrow means I’ll hopefully be in the right frame of mind to do that Summer Music post 🙂

Feeling much better today and that has to do with a few things :

An absolute darling of a little lady who spotted last night’s post and immediately popped up on Facebook chat to cheer me up,
Cake ! today,
Getting stuff done – I’m almost clear on stuff that Has to be done before the break,
Feeling good – apart from the old groin tear I’m in good shape.

I think I’m struggling mentally due to tiredness but I’ve also been reliving and remembering stuff that’s caused me a fair bit of emotional trauma in the past. I’d forgotten or did selective amnesia on how unpleasant my last major break up got. I reread one or two of the old emails today and they are scary …

Not really scary for the content, that’s quite tame. It’s just the mindset behind the communications. I must have been incredibly angry to go that deep into cold anger. That’s like going straight past my hot passion anger stage and into a cold steel anger. I really don’t want to be in a place like that again. And the reasons for that anger won’t be getting put here, it’s history and should really stay there although I will say that circumstances justified it …

It’s not just the relationship stuff I’ve been remembering though, there’s been other reminders lately too. Some things can catch me unawares, something someone said last week just made my legs go out from underneath me like a ghost from the past tripping me up. Saying that though, I’ve been feeling lately that some of the armour I’ve been wearing for the past 20+ years is fading away. I don’t think I need it any more. But as part of getting rid of the armour, I’m remembering and reliving the reasons why it’s there.

To happier times. And those start from being able to talk through your problems with people you trust.

Problems shared always seem easier. It gives a chance to think through your ideas and plans with someone who can give you an honest opinion on whether they’re sensible or wishful thinking. (I indulge in the wishful thinking a bit too much I think!)

I’m doing it again aren’t I ? Starting with one theme, Wall Of Texting on another. Holiday plans :

Chilling out as much as possible 🙂
Fixing that darn loo – need to get compatible bits and if my arms are up to the heavy lifting 🙂
Getting the car serviced – been procrastinating again …
Investigating getting a washing machine
Tidying the house up
Giving someone a chance to escape into joining the chill out ?

I was doing ok there until the wishful thinking hit on the last one 🙂

I have a few domesticy things to sort out – the loo has been the longest running one. But I also need to replace a couple of things in the kitchen. The hot water tap has stiffened up and needs a towel to turn it off. The washing machine works but I’m not convinced it’s all that effective. And while I’m doing that hot tap, I might as well be replacing the sink.

This house has done pretty good 🙂 There’s been a minimal amount of maintenance needed on it over the years. Just things like a boiler thermocouple, ballcock adjustment, minor stuff. It’s the surroundings that drag it down, I live very close to a collection of shops and the people in those use our road as their car park. The neighbour that isn’t CK also causes his own problems. I have to borrow CK’s drive far too often these days because of lack of consideration from the non-residents and no51, makes me feel bad.

One day to go until chillout – and there’s going to be pizza when I escape too 🙂