Author: Sleepypete

Internet spaceships !

And pretty pilot pics too.

Been back in the game today. Which in one way is a sign that I’m getting a little bit of mental energy back again :-). They’ve just updated Elite with 3 new ships and a whole new political metagame thingy.

I’m going to avoid the metagame for a while (it would restrict me too much and the benefits are not clear) but I have acquired one of the new ships. Sooo …

The old Sidewinder is in my garage in one of the old systems called Zaonce (it could probably fit into the Python’s holds). It’s joined the Python and the Clipper. I’ll go back to it after two Plans :

Explore.
Trade.

There are two community goals going at the moment where you get handy bonuses but most of all, a direction to go in. You can get lost in open world / galaxy games like this. There’s literally so much you could do, you end up doing nothing. The Eve people call it Ship Spinning. However, in Eve it’s a bit different. That game has gone towards it being essential that you go multi player. If you venture out on your own, it’s very easy for player-griefers or just the local player security force to come get you. Elite is very different, the biggest player group you can have is 3 (Eve is essentially unlimited) and you can avoid even that by using the Solo mode. You’re still connected to the online servers and the partly player driven economy but you’re not fighting players.

Pretty pilot pics ?

That’s one of the new ships, it’s called a Diamondback Explorer. And it’s very yellow indeed.

It has replaced an Asp :

The Asp is a bigger ship. Both ships have the same job, to go out into the black and see what’s out there. I might well do a bit of that this week – the trading community goal is a bit far away from that Zaonce garage.

The explore mission would involve heading off to the galactic core for the pilgrimage that quite a few Elite players are doing.

There’s 220 lightyears between the blue diamond (current location) and the red spaceship (Zaonce garage) and another 27000 light years to the galactic core. What’s there ? A supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. And lots more on the way.

I plan to go west for maybe 1000 light years (this is the max distance you can set up a route for) and then go pretty much straight in. So I’ll do a box pattern coming back to the blue diamond.

We’ll see. Judging how the other pilots report their trip, it might actually take a month to do the run. I don’t plan to be buried in the game that much this week.

Wait – there hasn’t been a glamour shot yet … Here we go :

The original was too dark, that’s been Gimp-i-fied for extra brightness. Looks awesome doesn’t it ? If yellow.

I’ve been ignoring the Grand Prix while tapping this out. At least it’s been better than the football was earlier. I actually turned that off midway through the second half because it was so boring. Plus the cricket was starting on the other side.

One last pic ?

Go go Pilot Dragon !

Not done one of these before.

The Throwback Thursday is a meme that I’ve seen running around the net for a good few months now and you know me with memes …

Here we go – this Throwback Thursday goes back maybe 5 years now. Could be 4. And a pic ?

Apologies for the blurriness, this is an excerpt from a scanned in old style camera pic. It was my last game (and one of very few!) as a wicket keeper, where I played for one of the work teams against the other work team. It was the last game of that season too before the rains set in. I can’t remember much of it (it was a bit of a blur !) but I can remember :

Being under the helmet for 19 out of our 20 fielding overs.

Getting the captain irritable for standing up to the stumps to him*
*(he was bowling up slope and anything that came to me standing back was coming to my feet, which is … awkward. Better to up the required skill and stand up than risk having stuff go through)

I got a catch ! It was a fine nick down the legside, which is one of the tougher catches to take because you only see the ball coming after it has passed the bat. I didn’t have to dive much but did the roll anyway 🙂 And then checked the glove to make sure I’d actually caught the ball. Confidence hey ?

I played the switch hit in the game ! This is a new novelty innovation, it isn’t played much now but I liked doing it and was getting decent with it in the nets. As a right hand batsman, my right hand is normally on the shoulder of the bat with the left hand above at the top of the handle. When you play the switch hit, you swap the hands over as late as possible. I did that too early this time and the bowler was able to put the ball in a really awkward spot, so the ball barely got 10 yards. A shame because the shot was on, there were no fielders in the shot’s hitting zone and the ball would have run away down hill.

I think I did pretty good in this game as keeper but … if you’re not used to it, the keeping takes its toll. I was shattered by the end of the game, from the keeping as well as having the helmet on for over an hour. Sweaty noggin = ugh.

We won ! Hence the celebratory picture. The other side legged it fairly quickly. I think this is one of those games where the fella who goes out with my last partner, Ravenwolf, was playing and chatting to me. I still treat him like a mate, which I suspect freaks him out. But there are boundaries where he quickly realises he should stop talking about the subject he’s gone on to. (Lesson – there’s too much hate around, if a break up happens treat it as a learning experience, don’t carry malicious thoughts around, life is too short for that).

Mentioning “life is too short” sentiments … Why the Pink Hat ?

This goes back a few years. Our team was merging with another team as the start of an initiative to change the way we support our kit. The other group didn’t really integrate that well, there were a few blockers in there who were being obstructive. One is still there actually. But one of the people that helped bring us together was The Rose.

She was a beautiful lady who always caught my grin and answered with a little smile of her own. I can still remember her face.

However. She was one of too many who are struck down by breast cancer. She started treatment the season before the Pink Hat season and died not long before the start of the season. We were devastated. It was a terrible shock to lose one so beautiful, so kind, so early.

My original idea was to raise cash for a cancer charity on a form of performance incentive thingy. However, I knew I was approaching the end of the time I could support running around like a mad thing and didn’t organise the charity collection thing. I knew that if I did, I would put too much pressure on myself to play games when I should be resting torn muscles and abused bones. I played 8 games that year, I’d normally play double that.

I did do a form of performance based donation though. I got two catches and a run out and for each of those, I put in an extra donation to other people’s charity collecting efforts. I would have donated anyway but this was a nice little bonus for them. In the end, the only performance benefits were those catches and the run out, I didn’t score any significant runs that year (wonder if it was the year I got hit for the second time ?) and my shoulder was past the point where I could bowl with it.

What I did do was raise awareness. Whenever people questioned the Pink Hat, I would tell them about The Rose. We went quiet for a little while after that and if you’ve seen me around a cricket field, you’ll know I’m pretty gobby with giving encouragement to the team. I saw that as part of my role, to make noise. A quiet team is a sleeping, drifting team and you have to attack in cricket to win. I shed a few tears under that Pink Hat too. I did miss that Pretty Lady smile.

So that’s my first Throwback Thursday post !

I hope your screens didn’t crack with the picture of me. I hope you don’t tear up too much with the story about The Rose. I think she’d want to be remembered for that wonderful smile rather than for sad reasons.

I never like to end on a sad note though.

That’s from my last ever game, hope you don’t get blinded by the sun glinting off the skipper’s head.

Remember the bad but don’t be defined by it. Live for the good.

Almost holiday time !

Really feeling the need for it.

When I get really tired, I start losing track of days, which is affected by times when I’m not in that regular Monday to Friday work schedule (Monday was an away day). What day is it today ? Yep. Wednesday but it’s a tiredness sign for me when I have to actively think about that. Bins tonight too !

Whinge time – the hurty bits have got more noticeable this week. My sleep has been compromised and I’ve been in awkward positions (stop sniggering ! ok, I admit it, I chuckled) to stop damage to my broken outsides. But that doesn’t help poorly back or shoulders. My legs have also been a bit strange, they’ve bulked up again. It’s not the swelling that I had before, my knees are ok so I don’t have the protective swelling keeping my knees happy. No, it’s like I’ve been building up the muscles in the legs again which makes them more prone to my greatest enemy, cramp.

Yep. Pain level is … noticeable. It’s not quite at “send me painkillers” but for the first time in I dunno how long, I’m considering that. Yep. Ouchies.

But I don’t want to dwell about that and you don’t really want to hear it. It’s like a call for sympathy and that’s not me. I’d do things in the past like warn the cricket people that I wasn’t up to par. And then play anyway. Daft thing is that when I was suffering from a bad back one season, playing was actually what I needed and it freed itself up pretty much as I was running on the field.

Perhaps exercise is the key ?

Two more days at work to go though. I can do that. I draw strength from lovely people who chat to me (although today the pooter nearly went out the window, our Win7 Enterprise is wobbly as jelly). It’s like giving a happy response or trying to get a response that’ll make them chuckle will rub off on me and make me a little bit happier to.

It won’t work for everyone but if you have those depressive tendencies, talk to people. Even if it’s taking advantage of accepting that offer of a 10 minute insanity break to get a coffee. If you try and hold it in, the bad thoughts become self reinforcing. And if you think a 10 minute insanity break loses you 10 minutes of work, think of how more productive you’ll be if you exorcise those bad thoughts. 10 minutes away could lead to 30 minutes less being dominated by the bad thoughts at the desk.

Happy thoughts.

But watch out for that insanity break if you have fiends who would actively consider time bomb sodas for amusement. Yes. I mean you. You know exactly who I mean.

Yep. I’ve been getting through the stretch to this week off by borrowing a little strength from all those people who chat, who give that pat on the back for Good Things, people who smile, people who let me help them out.

Plans for the time off ?

Lots of cricket watching. There should be Twenty20 games on most of the days and there will be England vs New Zealand one day games on too. I think we’ll get hammered in those, the changes made have involved dropping our two best bowlers (who are admittedly ineffectual in one day games) while the dodgy batting is allowed to stay immune to the axe. We’re also ignoring our most promising spin bowler, Adil Rashid, who spun Yorkshire to another county championship crown on a home pitch that doesn’t suit spin. Get him in the side !

Le Mans is the weekend of the 13th and 14th. I try and watch that every year. This will be my pizza opportunity. If I try to watch the whole 24 hours, making too much acid due to pizza cheese will be irrelevant because I won’t be attempting sleep. That’s the plan at least. I’ve not managed to do an all nighter since uni.

Still need to see Mad Max ! The obvious time is Friday after work, although the first showing would be about half 6. Any readers wanna join me ?

I fully expect that me and the boys will watch San Andreas too, plus Jurassic World is out next week as well. Beware the dinosaur with tools :

And coming full circle, there is the Interservices Twenty20 tournament at Lords on Thursday 11th. I’m having strange thoughts here. To get there by car is 2 hours to the underground station, then 1 hour on the underground and the same to get back. The train would be 1 hour 15 to Paddington and then a little less underground time to Lords. I’m tempted, although to get a much cheaper offpeak ticket would see me missing an hour at the start.

Of course if there is anyone who’d like to do the trip with me from Bristol ? There’s room in the car for 3 more.

It might be a fairly full week. Hopefully I can get some healing in and not too many steps backwards this time. If I can keep my posture right too and have the right kind of food and drink intake, that should help out my insides. They’re compromised at the moment by my body trying to repair the outsides and getting confused.

2 more days to go though. And despite the tired, I can see me adopting Bounce Off The Walls Get Caged Up And Chained To Desk hyperactivity on the last day to clear all the work to be done before disappearing.

And I was swearing today – the work machine was being very obnoxious.

Message to work people – hide the drums ! Don’t let me see them.

Cya !

I apologise in advance, this post might bring out the inner geek :

But I’ll try to keep that under control. If not, leave a comment and I’ll come back and do what I rarely do … fix my mistakes !

People with PCs will have seen a new icon today … it’s a bit of adware installed (without your permission, although permission is implied by the update settings) by Microsoft to beg you to go sheepishly to Windows 10.

Are you detecting my reluctance to fix something that’s not quite broken ?

It’s a free offer but it’s time limited. I think you have to register your interest by the end of July and you can choose when to install. The blurby app tells me it’s a 3GB download which will arrive … sometime. You should read the various news outlets for better detail on when the bomb drops.

For me, Windows 10, if I decide to adopt it, will require some hardware to go with the software. My desktop PC Pumpkin (so called because it was built on October 31st) has a primary drive which is only 60GB. That’s barely enough for Windows 7, with just 7GB spare after some nasty space saving measures were taken. The Windows 10 download will absorb 3GB of that and you can bet that when it’s installed, it’ll gobble up more than what’s remaining.

Where do the games go ? There’s a couple more drives installed with loads of space. But they’re slow conventional drives.

Aside – there are 2 types of drive. Slow and fast. Slow drives are the old spinny platter things, fast ones (SSDs) are memory devices. The reason we are so frustrated with our work machines now is because they are built on the old spinny platter drives, which take ages to find all the bits and pieces of Windows that are scattered all over it. A reader arm has to physically reach over the platter to find the data and the platter has to spin at the right rate to pull the data off in order. The more scattered the data, the more those physical limits slow everything down. The SSDs aren’t tethered to those physical limits.

Too geeky ?

Conventional drives = slow to pull the data off, very slow to find the data, bigger capacity
Solid State Device drive (SSD) = fast to find the data and to send it round the system. Much smaller.

As part of my upgrade, I’ll acquire a 250GB drive that’ll cost me around £80. You could get a 2TB (8 times bigger) conventional drive for £75. But you’d be looking at the Whirly Waity Wheel a hell of a lot if you put Windows on that.

But you’re not interested in the hardware bits.

Windows 10 or not to Windows 10 ?

Microsoft have had a sketchy record, ever since Windows 3.11. But that’s history, although we have learned more recently to be very scared of what they come out with.

Me ? I’ll be holding off on committing to Windows 10 until the early adopters have had their say. This is after dodging the unholy abomination which was Windows 8 and 8.1. There are curious features in there, there are useless features in there. Having a peek at the blurb app :

Start menu is back – it should never have been removed.
Touch interfaces – curious but … they make fingerprints on the screen. I’ll stick to mouse+k/b.
Start fast, resume fast – how about operate fast ? I only start my work machine once a day and that time is irrelevant. What is relevant is how much time is wasted between click and response, partly due to unnecessary shinies built in (the animations) and mostly due to broken disc algorithms.

Work with current hardware and software – I’ll believe that when I see it. I can’t use my favourite flightstick any more (a Microsoft FF Pro) because they don’t do drivers (bigger problem – it doesn’t plug in on new hardware). And my Windows 7 desktop cannot talk to my camera and is unreliable talking to my printer. That’s just one example. Although … Mac isn’t blameless there, my Macbook Air can’t talk to my old Airport Express because Apple did their thing with not supporting older components.

Beware the dependency between hardware and software.

Cortana – keep it away. It’s bloatware that soaks up memory and slows things down. Anyone had the Stickykeys pop up when they’re in a game, only for it to kill you in the game ? I see Cortana as a similar threat.
Stream from Xbox to PC – Why would you do this ??? Games are crippled at the moment by the publishers need to have them on consoles which are vastly inferior to the modern gaming PC. Even an older gaming PC like mine (mostly 4 years old, 2 year old graphics) is vastly superior to a console.

New software – “browser, Photos, Maps, Messaging, Music and Video” you mean the stuff we had already … However, a new browser will be welcome. Internet Explorer needs to be taken out back, shot and buried in a lead lined coffin.

Windows store – scary. App stores are the first step towards fixing the software that will run on a machine. Beware.

But the big final “Don’t upgrade yet!!!” nail in the coffin is that the current Windows 10 is not ready. It’s not complete. And they’re looking to deploy in under 2 months.

I’ll be holding off on the change for now. There will be plenty of keen people out there who will happily throw themselves into the Next Big Thing. My advice ? Don’t be one of them, let them test it out (and find some of the bugs) for you.

Perhaps the next time I end up in Portsmouth (my IT component supplier is now only based there) I’ll pick up one of those bigger newer SSDs. That way, I can use Acronis TrueImage (used it before, I’d recommend the time limited free version) to copy this Windows 7 over to the new drive. And then I’ll have a backup to go back to in case Windows 10 is a horrible mess.

It’s weird actually. When I built this machine, I knew that Windows 7 would likely be the last Microsoft product I would buy. My laptop went Mac, Linux is competent but not quite there yet in terms of supporting all the games. But now I’m considering falling for Windows 10. It shows how much of a stranglehold the software companies have on us, we feel compelled to have the latest software in order to be : safe, secure, interoperable with new devices, in with the crowd.

Baa.

Whichever way you go – be careful. Our software companies are a shadow of what they used to be.

Beware what might be in the tasty goodie offered to you.

And on that cynical note … cya ! Need to fish a Happy Post idea out of that Bonza Post Ideas magic hat next time.

I think I got home just about in time today !

I had another away trip today. Just 100 miles there, 100 miles back this time which is a bit more distance than it needs (can do it in 80 miles but it’s quicker to go around the houses on the motorway).

I got home just before Noah signalled All Aboard on the ark. It’s gone even grimmer since.

That’s from ages and 1 car ago but it pretty much sums up how things are today. Also add in wind that was strong enough to blow the hat off between me exiting the car and getting in the house. And that’s maybe just 12 feet !

Someone said on Twitter that it might be her fault seeing as she’s just come back from holidays. No I don’t think you’ve chased the sun away Kim ! Maybe it’s the cricket. Besides, those Kim-videos are just what we need on a grim rainy day to banish the darkness. It has no chance against that innate sense of fun that you bring to the gaming videos.

(I do hope she has a peek and reads that !)

That’s it for me and work travel until after I get back from a week off. 4 more days in office, 3.5 really because I have a heap of flexi credit now and fully intend to spend some of it watching Mad Max on Friday. Anyone care to join me ?

Hmm. Gone chilly. Which means an excuse to pull out one of my favourite pics :

Wow – that’s 2 cars ago now and I haven’t looked back at that horrid Focus at all. It was a 52 plate ST170 which had a failing 3rd gear (compromised design made the 3rd gear very weak), amongst other problems. It guzzled the petrol and didn’t have the chassis to back up the limited power it had. It was a little faster than the Puma but was slower from A to B because you just couldn’t throw it through corners with any confidence. Whereas the Puma would get airborne at 70mph on my favourite roundabout exit bump, I’d rarely go past 50 in the Focus because it was still wobbling around from the last corner.

I do like a car that handles well. It’s what drew me to the Lexus CT, although that didn’t have enough power to keep me happy. The IS has more power but hasn’t truly convinced me about it’s handling. Perhaps it’s too big and heavy ? It does do well on that B road I love (look up Colsterworth by the A1 around Stamford, south of Grantham – lovely bit of rally track road)

I digress.

It may be nasty and horrible out there (and I got in just as the spray on the motorway was approaching white-out conditions) but … Keep a smile on there.

Shut those curtains, batten down the hatches, ignore that howling wind (hopefully you secured all potentially flying objects !) and enjoy your evening, however you intend to spend it.

Me ? I have the music on, I’m listening to a Hannah video in the background, there’s another Hannah video queued up (she’s a funny lady) and I’ll queue up a few more videos after too. Not really in the mood to watch dvd’s (I need to watch Jurassic Park 3 again before watching Jurassic World!) and my brain is still a bit too fried to do gaming tonight. (Out the door at 7am, back home at 5pm, 220 miles travelled and having to act sensible most of the day)

If a little chill out still fails to keep out the apocalypse that seems to be happening outside, there’s always :

(thx Thumper!)

Goodnight and if you’re a small person* who chooses to venture out in this, may you either have an anchor in your bag** or a friendly person to offer their hand to hold to stop you blowing away.

*(just saying cos I know a few very special small people !)
**(the rumours that ladies have everything in their handbags is … yet to be disproved … and is quite possibly the original idea behind the D and D Bag of Holding)

You know I like the games …

I probably don’t play them as much as people think. Often, I’ve expended so much mental energy at work, that when I get home I don’t want to burn any more mental energy on the games. Or I’ll fall back into the games where I’ve already well and truly learned the template for playing it and succeeding at it.

There is an exception – when those messages come in, my brain will go “YEY!” as it tries to think of something that’ll make the other person chuckle.

I’ve been writing more here too. Appreciation leads to more scribbles !

Now if I only had a magic hat with “Bonza Post Ideas” hidden in all this clutter.

About that gaming … I mentioned I wasn’t enjoying Elite as much as I had been in the earlier days of me playing it. There’s that psychological gratification that comes with upgrading the ship or even going up to the next ship. Milestones if you will. And that psychological reward response that comes from that little win of reaching that next rung.

And I’d hit a point where the next rung was pretty high up and I wasn’t wanting to go into the game to work my way up to it. That’s the indicative word … “work”. If a game feels like work and not play, it’s time to find something else that’s more enjoyable for leisure/fun times.

Some may say – why not get out more and see things with people ? Hell yeah ! If it rains in the cricket tomorrow, I’ll go see Mad Max. (It can wait a bit). We’ll see San Andreas sometime this week with the movie mob. I’ll hopefully persuade someone special that she really wants to see Jurassic Park 4 with me. I don’t see her often enough and I miss that bubbly chuckle. Or another amazing person who I’ve only come to know recently might like to accompany one to the IST20 day at Lords :-).

Yep. Options. It’s not all about staying indoors.

However – game time ? I’ve done what I’ve called a soft reset. I bought enough upgrades for the Python in order to soak up the available capital. Then I bought the starter ship and was left with maybe 50k. Enough to start with, bit more than you do start with but … hey … To give you a sense of scale, the starter Sidewinder costs 32k and can carry 10 tonnes the way I have it set up. The Python would cost 56m to buy now and set up costs add quite a bit to that. It’s like buying a car only to realise you need to buy the seats extra.

What’s a Sidewinder ?

There we go. Something small, paper thin and like a little box. There’s about enough room in there for the pilot and an engine … But to give it credit, it’s super manoeuvrable. The Segway of the Elite world ? (if the pilot is carrying the cargo in a backpack perhaps)

While the cricket’s been on in the background, I’ve been going from place to place carrying cargo for the best trades. And running from the one fight I ended up in. It’s not worth putting guns on this tiny ship, you wouldn’t get to fire them much if you did use them.

From a start of maybe 60k, I’m now up to a ship worth 90k (upgrades!) and have 90k in the bank. And I had fun flying the little thing around too. It’s a bit more hands on because you don’t have the space to put a docking computer in. That would take 2t of the 10t space and make it that much slower to get the money in.

Yep. Had fun.

Something else I intend to do is have a decent run through a couple of old games, Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate 2. These are old style role playing games where your character is caught up in a much more epic story. My guy is a Kensai fighter (isn’t allowed armour, waves a Big Sword) and I’ve lucky with some awesome stats. The game isn’t nearly as much fun as playing the Dungeons and Dragons game it’s based on with other people but … there’s still chuckles to be had.

There’s that theme again – would rather play with others than be on my own. Although … would you think this is true ?

Yep. There’s dragons in that there Baldur’s Gate game …

Hmm. Random thought – why these games and not others like League of Legends, Warcraft or Counterstrike ? I liked the levelling aspect in Warcraft and the interplay with Guildlink and Violence Reborn. Not so much the repetition. There would be an aspect of improving the character but to all intents and purposes, all 3 games are just plain repetition. That doesn’t interest me. The story is what interests me.

So with Baldur’s Gate, there is the legendary developer Bioware’a ability to spin an excellent tale. With Elite, it’s that progression from humble beginnings to the bigger, more capable ships.

Back to heading out – I think that’s one excellent sign. There’s still damage on my arms and legs that’s proving difficult to heal but … it’s steadily getting better, when I allow it. The damage is still incredibly easy to inflict and takes a while to repair. But it’s getting there.

And it’s at that point where I may be able to show those arms off in public without being suspected of being the harbinger of the next Zombie invasion. The legs need a little more time.

I think there’s a few people out there that think of me like that.

I have my flaws, inside and out. But to know that a few people are able to look past those flaws and like Me. That’s golden.

I’d like to pass that message on to you all. Don’t try to change yourself because of an impression that someone would like you to be different. If they are attracted to you, they were drawn to how you were instead of how you think you should be. And I know a few people who I whole heartedly believe are amazing. They’re all different, which makes them more interesting than anything.

And I’m rambling … One last pic !

I may be heading back into those clouds soon. I have that next ship in my sights.

Chase your goals ! Even if they are internet spaceships. Although real life stuff is always better than internet spaceships.

I had a couple of potential plans today.

I’m building up quite a respectable reserve of flexi credit, plus I try and avoid working Friday pm’s if I can help it. I do 37 hours over the week, so longer days in the week, short day Friday but if there’s stuff to be done, I’ll make sure it’s done right.

These guys make plans too :

Watch out for the black cat.

Plans today ?

Leg it early (translation – lunchtime) and watch Mad Max … or watch the cricket. I thought it might be the film because whites and red balls were spawning rain clouds again.

And the insanity of Mad Max would have been perfect considering I’d been talking assumptions and risk all morning (and most of the afternoon). Mad Max will wait and the cricket actually happened. If you have a choice between live entertainment (yep. I’m weird. I count cricket as entertainment.) and recorded stuff, then you should really choose the live stuff.

So that’s today. I’ll have the cricket on for the rest of the weekend, although the weather reports say that I may well be watching rain on Sunday instead of cricket (in which case … MAD MAX !)

Only a week now until I have a week off. I’ve been hanging in there but am still burning that exhaustion candle down to the N. It manifests in things like me not wanting to expend the mental effort to play the computer games in the evening. And if you know me, I do like my pooter games. I also like nattering to people and LTK and Cupid’s Gift have been awesome lately in putting up with all the crazy messages that go their way.

And there’s another little lady at work who I’m hoping can put the bad times behind her too. She looks out for me and I like to return the favour. If a little crazy can help her to remember her smile, that’s awesome.

The away trip yesterday was pretty good too. I got to see a few people that I rarely see, including one lovely lady who gave me the big wave from across the office, another who was wondering if I’d be helping out her meeting instead of the one I was going to (must think I know Stuff !) and a few others who broke out in that smile when they caught my eyes.

There must be some secret there. If you find out, let me know cos it’s a mystery to me why people who barely know me smile at me like that. (I’m not complaining, it leads to me getting the choice bits at takeaway places, amongst other benefits)

Uhoh. Ramble detector is going off.

Enjoy your weekends ! Pray for good weather :

Hope it doesn’t turn contrary :

And if you have an unhappy moment, I know someone with the solution.

Here’s one I knew from a while ago :

Yep. Hug pooch. Get slurped. That’s an old one … The pooch is Goldie in his prime, he’s been gone a long time now. I miss him and especially his ability to Run Very Fast as well. Goldie would find you and he would very definitely lick you.

Lovely pooch ! Enjoy your weekends 🙂

Well.

Probably not that hard. Just gotta learn. Or get someone in who has already learned.

If in doubt, call in the pros.

The plumbing jobs are steadily piling up.

I need to find a wingnut removing tool for one;
The hot water tank has a drippy feed tap;
I need to seal up the join between bath and wall tiles;
The washing machine cold feed has a leaky washer;
The heating still has that WHACKTHUMP and I think the boost pump is broke.

The heating is the big one, although I’ve been able to get by with it. The heating doesn’t work but the house is kept warm by computers and a portable heater. The boiler can still make sufficient hot enough water to give me steamy showers and for washing up. So it’s a problem that’s been able to wait.

Pretty sure I’ve isolated the leak in the bathroom thanks to something LTK said (ah ha ! Lover of Tea Kettles – perfect). I’m not telling you what that really means. Gives away too much. Anyway. That bathroom leak is almost certainly a failure of the sealant between bath and the wall tiles and I’ve picked something up that’ll sort that out. Next step, to actually take it out of the boot of the car and use it.

The drippy feed tap is something I don’t think I should fix on my own. I think the ballcock assembly needs to be changed. The temporary kludge is to turn the house water off when I’m not using it as it takes a direct feed from the mains. Needs fixing.

The washing machine pipe just needs me to get new pipes. I re-used the pipes when I last bought a washing machine … donkeys years ago and the washer has died. The weird thing is that it leaks more in the winter than spring/summer. This one is an easy fix but needs the washing machine to be pulled out from the wall and possibly an extra pair of hands to feed the pipes through when you put the washing machine back. Awkward.

It’s great to have your own place but …

It’s a lot of work to keep up with the maintenance, the cleaning, the odd jobs, the fixing of broken bits and all the other stuff. But it’s worth it to have your own castle of peace.

It’s good when it is that castle of peace. We have the usual door to door botherers, worst of all is an Irish fella who touts for garden/outdoor work. He’ll make up stuff about what he’s hearing from the neighbours in order to try and shame you into getting work done. He’ll get upset that you’re not using your scarce resource (repeatedly saying “I have no more money” didn’t get him to bugger off) to give him work he’s demanding.

Honestly, I should be doing the garden/yard clearing myself. Perhaps I will now that my health seems to be improving. On the outsides at least. Inside, I’m struggling with a poorly back and legs that have lost their old strength. But I could do without the rude Irishbloke tapping me up for work whenever he’s short of cash.

That’s actually one thing about potential narrowboat life. Most of the time, you’d be in that marina behind a gate shutting out the outside world. Tempting.

Or perhaps I need a sign :

That dog knows what’s important.

I had a call from the garage people again today.

They want me to get another new car ! Cor. Only had this one 16 months so far (I think the computer time ticker has triggered on my first Lexus, which I got just under 4 years ago). Yep. They’re being a bit keen.

I’ve meant to talk about this car for a little while now. It’s the best car I’ve owned, following on from … the best car I’ve owned. Ok, the Puma I had for 7 years was right up there too but the two Lexus take it to a whole new level for a combination of quality, toys, performance and mpgs I’ve not seen since before the catalytic convertor strangled our engines.

The next would have had complementary leather seats with heaters … but it would have cost me the satnav.

Opinions ?

The built in satnav is very handy. Not so much for the navigation, you can probably do better from a phone with Google maps getting traffic updates from radio and internet. No – it’s good in the Lexus because you don’t need to change your driving position to use it because there is a mouse like control within easy arm-on-the-console reach.

Leather seats – are nice, I’ll admit but they’re also very prone to Burnt Bum Syndrome. Otherwise known as scorchio induced by the sun beating down on the seats all day. Besides, the leather seats in the CT were so smooth, people were being thrown around in the back even on fairly gentle cornering.

Heated seats – are a curious novelty. It is nice to have that warmth on your back when it’s stiff and cold but … the common impression of heated seats is that you start thinking you’ve had an accident in the car … Ooopsies (literally).

Picture ? Here we go :

Shiny car is shiny.

I’m not going to do the silly thing of changing it this early into me owning it. The car is nigh on perfect, the only negative points are … the seats could be better (I have a nagging suspicion that my stiffening back is due to the car seats) and it doesn’t have a flat loading floor like the CT did. But … it’s a saloon and not a medium hatch. The drive by wire software could also be a little more refined : I use Eco to tame it in town and it shouldn’t charge the battery to the 80% hold when you’re cruising at motorway speeds, it should leave reserve for when you slow down.

Those are minor issues though and are consistent with all cars. Every car has its issues and ideosyncracies. Very few cars are as easy to drive as the hybrids at the same time as having their flexibility and all around performance.

This is sounding like an advert isn’t it …

I would thoroughly recommend the two Lexus I’ve had but … you do have to buy into them. The IS300h has only been out just under 2 years now and the CT will stay at a relatively high price point even after depreciation. The garages will also be a little higher in price than your local neighbourhood grease monkey but you’re paying for service that you’ll never see at Audi, Merc or VW (from what I hear of those places).

Enough about cars !

One thing about our roads, as we’re going from A to B, they’ve gradually taken the enjoyment away from driving. We’re limited by fear to lower speeds, although I cruise at a much slower than average 70mph on the 70 limit roads (yep, you read that right) because it’s a more chilled out speed and I don’t believe speeding gains you any significant time compared to the stress it induces. Our roads have been neutered by lower speed limits and cameras hidden in naughty places. Speed bumps rattle your teeth. Slow people hog the middle lane, slow everyone down and cause accidents by not moving over.

Nope.

There’s a more fun way of getting from A to B (game time !)

I’m thinking about resetting my Elite game … The sad thing about the current Elite is that you can’t have multiple save games. So if I reset my data, I won’t get it back. I would have to work my way back up to the Cookie Clipper :

And the various other ships I have.

The want to reset is something I felt in the original game. The signs of progress in the original were your combat ranking and how well fitted your ship was. When you got the best fitting for your ship, the only progress to be made was in getting to the fabled Elite rating. The most I ever got before getting bored and resetting was Deadly (one step off the top). After that, the challenge went from the game and with that, the interest (a similar tale can be read for me and Warcraft).

That feeling of a ceiling has hit again with Elite. I’ve got my Python now, the Cookie Clipper is in the Zaonce garage and with it, an Asp ship I could happily go exploring in. But the motivation to use them isn’t there.

No – it’s not the end point that’s important or fun. It’s the getting there. Same with the Warcraft days, I enjoyed the levelling more than the hollow repetition at the end of the game. Although saying that, the end of the game was where the multiplayer lit up.

The journey is more fun than the end point. We keep evolving, changing, becoming different. I like that. Always keep looking out for new things. Fresh things.

Keep an eye open for new opportunities. Go forward. Not back.

I’ll pass up the car opportunity (because I think it’s a backward step) but I have my eyes on a few other opportunities. Possibilities that I didn’t believe were possibilities.

I’m still feeling the tired but have that positive outlook. I think there’s a little one of these (pic below) inside looking for that open gate :

Cya !

I’m not quite sure why we sit through Eurovision every year. It’s like one of those tragicomedies. At least, that’s the way the Brits see it. The rest of Europe curiously sometimes take it rather seriously.

There’s a few silly things about Eurovision.

There’s the partisan neighbourly voting, where Serbia votes 12 for Montenegro and Montenegro votes 12 for Serbia. The Scandinavian countries vote for each other. Greece votes for Cyprus and each of them never vote for Turkey. The Balkan States have joined this trend by voting for each other.

And then there’s the musak. Don’t get me started on the musak.

Ok, some of it is ok. I liked the Polish entry this year, it made up for their infamous milkmaid vignette from last year. This year’s infamy on the stage was reserved for Austria who burned a piano which mysteriously still kept on playing despite being : on fire … and the pianist walking away from it.

I did like the stage show which won but … isn’t this about the song, not the show ?

I thought I’d remove the corruption from my ears by doing my own Eurovision song contest. Yep. It’s another dive into that big music library to see what I can find on Youtube … The rule for this one is to have only one song per country. Let’s go !

First up, I applaud Ireland’s choice to approve same sex marriages. Good on ya ! And there’s a pop pixie from over there who posted a very happy twitter message about it. It’s Lisa Hannigan, here with Lille and a wonderful pop up book.

What a wonderful start and so much better than anything that we heard yesterday. Next is following the French theme from Lille, it’s a band I’m keeping my eye on called The Plastiscines. They’ve done one fantastic song and a number of mediocre songs. But I still think they’re worth a listen and I’ll pick up their albums when they get cheap. The wonderful song is Barcelona. Very catchy.

Have I got anything from the Spanish ? I don’t think I do …

I do have a delightful bit of crazy from Iceland. Yep. Bjork – delightfully barmy, Possibly Maybe ?

Over to the Scandinavians. I did love the stage show for the winner yesterday but I say again … song contest ? Here’s a wonderful song from Sweden, you’d have to be a Frequent Flyer to visit all these countries. It’s Nina Persson’s post-Cardigans project – A Camp.

Norway have a couple of contenders here. There’s A-Ha and then there’s Lene Marlin. I pick Lene because … yep. I love that female voice (and you’ve probably already familiar with A-Ha), especially when it’s singing songs like How Would It Be (from the Lost In The Moment album)

One from a few places is the Swedish-Finnish-Czech singer Lisa Miskovsky. Another who I’ll end up collecting her albums because there’s another wonderful voice here. Perhaps it’s a bit too polished in the production though. But with songs like Midnight Sun, I’ll be singing along.

Over to the mainland of the continent again and it’s Caro Emerald. Another wonderful voice and catchy jazzy songs too like A Night Like This.

Australia were invited along this year and played along with the spirit of it but … It didn’t have nearly the power of Untouched by The Veronicas. Certain songs grab me and I end up buying everything that a group comes out with. Untouched is one of those songs. Wow, just wow. They’re too fast for me to sing along to but that doesn’t stop me bopping away to it in my chair.

To close out, we have to have something quintessentially UK. Something only we could come out with. It’s gotta be the Wurzels with The Combine Harvester.

Wait.

I think I hear screaming and running.

Ok. Ok. I’ll spare you the Wurzels. Here’s someone far more tuneful. It’s Kate Bush with Oh England My Lionheart.

Cya ! And listen to good things.