Sleepypete's Pillow

People have been mentioning the annual Movember thing again …

It’s making me remember back just one year. Last year, I had a head start on the whole Movember thing. Because my skin condition had pretty much torn up one side of my jawline, I hadn’t shaved for a fortnight on the run in. So I had something starting to grow ready for the start of Movember.

It was about this time last year that I gave up protesting and sought treatment, which made a good start on repairing the damage. And there was a lot of damage all over. I can’t remember the precise details but I can remember getting through the cricket season last year pretty much intact. It was the rainy conditions that drew participation last year to a close, whereas this year it was my knee getting torn up. I think it was the diet change that initiated the condition getting much, much worse. Instead of it being just on my legs, it spread to arms, shoulders, back, bum, hips, face, ears and more of my legs.

Yep. Lots of damage and I was probably underestimating things (as I do) when I reckon it affected over 30% of me.

The condition now is so much better, although I’m not counting my chickens just yet. And I have to keep exerting that discipline (I’m not doing so good at it actually) to stop worrying the bad bits cos that makes them much worse.

Oh, as well as diet, there was a definite stress trigger as end of summer last year was one of the most stressful periods at work that I can remember. There’s two that come close but not actually this bad. Or are they ? One of those periods had me actively considering driving the car off the road at high speed and what stopped me was what family would think. (This is from a long time ago and before I had a bunch of friends in Bristol I can go to for support).

Incidentally, this is one reason why I’m sensitive about people I know who are struggling. Cos I’ve been there, know how it feels and would do anything I could to help them away from that very dark place.

I wonder if that incident is why I’m so uptight about workplace discrimination ? Because discrimination was at the heart of why I was so low in that bad time.

But enough of that. Too much depression posting makes me start to get low and I don’t want that. What I do want to do is think about going forward.

I wouldn’t pass myself ready (on the outside) to run around just yet. There’s still damage on my arms and the skin is very easily made worse. So when I’d throw myself around and get cuts and scrapes, there’s a good chance those will hang around for a while. However :

Ears – are now perfect, outside of the soreness I’ve always got where my glasses rub.
Face – no Zombiepatch ! And I can shave properly. Still doing Movember this year, although as usual for me and charity – awareness only because I feel bad taking money from people for doing nothing.
Bum – smoooooth.
Hips – there’s still some damage but it’s almost mended.
Arms – hopefully under control, they’re my worst bit and the “hopefully” comes from knowing I’m still being helped by drugs.
Legs – are almost perfect again. Again, smoooth where a few months ago I could split the skin by running.

So – still some damage but it’s repairing nicely. I even have a perverse wish to show off those legs again. Although preferably when they’re in pasty-white mode because they still like to go red occasionally.

And now I’m thinking of a way to close !

I’m improving but there’s a sense of loneliness that being addicted to WoW (again) can’t cover. Now that I’m more intact, I think on a subconscious level I’d like to be getting out more again. There’s a few chances for that coming up with work but I’d kinda like something more intimate. That’s one of my inhibitions though. Or is it knowing who I’d like to treat to a dinner and a movie but being scared of the answer if I asked ?

And on that exposure of stuff strangely more candid for my norm, time to run back into that addiction !

See you later in the week for more of that Top 40. At the moment, the random track of choice is Queen’s Radio Ga Ga. Always an anthem worth listening to.

I’m starting to make a dent in listening to all that 11,000 track library again, although it’s going to take Ages ! to listen to it all again. (I’ve listened to just 399 of them so far and am having a Strictly break because I just had one of those WoW sessions where it goes dark outside without you noticing).

So what were the ones I listened to most of all on the old library ?

Before I kick off, bear in mind that some of the newer discoveries (Rachel Sermanni, Hannah Peel) and releases (Arctic Monkeys AM, Bat For Lashes Haunted Man) have a handicap because they haven’t been in the library as long as the Cardigans, Alisha’s Attic and All About Eves.

As per usual, I’m putting the occasional link in (I may do this later, I have 20 minutes before the dinner bell goes ! And smoke alarms are not my friend) and it’ll be to Youtube videos. As per tradition, they’re in reverse order. It’s 40 to 21 today (cos top 40 would be a Monsta!) :

40 – The xx – Stars. The xx burst on the scene a couple of years ago and were an immediate hit. They’re good but hopefully they’ll find another direction to go because they were also very samey.
39 – Weird Al – Star Trekkin’. Can’t forget that video with the Pizza-Enterprise.
38 – Tori Amos – I Can’t See New York. This has to be one of my most favourite songs of all time.
37 – T’Pau – Taking Time Out. This is from their Rage album. Not bad. But not quite China In Your Hand.
36 – Snow Patrol – Set Down Your Glass. Another who were in danger of getting samey but they keep coming up with something new.

35 – Simon and Garfunkel – The Sound of Silence. Come on ! You know this one, it’d be in anyone’s Top 40 if they thought of it 🙂
34 – Shivaree – Goodnight Moon. This one’s from the Kill Bill soundtrack, which is brimfull of classic tracks.
33 – River City People – Home and Dry. This one closes out their brilliant first album.
32 – Paramore – The Only Exception. Flowing, bouncing melody, lyrics you would die to have sung to you.
31 – Doctor’s Theme from Series 4 – I’ve been a lifelong Doctor Who fan and the music from Murray Gold since the return has been stellar.

30 – Michelle Shocked – Vx Fx Dx. Love the humour in this one and it’s backed up by Michelle Shocked’s distinctive voice.
29 – Fossiles – Carnival of the Animals. This whole album is full of music that’s been robbed for many adverts and bits of incidental music and this one puts that picture of skeletons dancing into the head.
28 – Lene Marlin – Unforgiveable Sinner. Not her best but it’s the one that started it off. It’s from her first album, it shows off her voice in a modern enough track to pull the attention. Ms Marlin is on my list of people I buy albums for immediately … and there’s not many on that list.
27 – Katie Melua – Nine Million Bicycles. I honestly prefer Shy Boy but this track has that soft melody and perfect voice that I love to croak along to.
26 – Forever Autumn from War of the Worlds, sung by Justin Haywood. Singing like this doesn’t come along every day. And it comes at a place in the War of the Worlds that makes it all the more poignant. I’m avoiding the new generation of WotW but this original takes some beating.

(and oh no ! I’m running out of adjectives !)

25 – Goldfrapp – Eat Yourself. After hearing their cover of It’s Not Over Yet, this is from the Seventh Tree album. Goldfrapp either do soft or disco and their soft is absolutely gorgeous. This is their soft at their best. Almost …
24 – Goldfrapp – Road to Somewhere. There’s a lot of incredible tracks on Road to Somewhere (still their best album) and this is the pick of the lot. I feel an early listen coming on.
23 – Edie Brickell – One Last Time. Edie’s been around for a very long time, this is one of the more recent. She’s been consistently interesting to listen to over her whole career, this is no exception.
22 – Edie Brickell – Lost in the Moment. And going back to nearer the start, this track stands out because it tells a story as it goes through. True, it’s a sad story but so oh so beautifully sung.
21 – Duffy – I’m Scared. Sadly Duffy seems to be burning out early. She’s got a strange, distinctive voice, it matches this song extremely well.

That’s it for now, dinner bell is about to go off, shortly followed by the smoke alarm.

Wait … where’s the Cardigans, the Alisha’s Attic, the Kate Bush and the All About Eve ? That’ll start in Parts 2 and 3 😉 Along with a few more too.

PS I may revisit and add Youtube links later when I have more time …

Accessorise !

First blog post on the new Macbook 🙂

I thought I’d say a few things about the migration process. I have to be honest and say that in some ways, it’s actually easier than going from one Windows PC to another Windows PC. As part of the first time setup, there’s a Migration Tool that runs which can grab all of your info from your old machine and will copy it across to the new one. So, all my documents and pictures have come across without me having to do much. My email accounts are set up, although they needed the passwords putting back in (this is not a Bad Thing).

I’m quietly impressed with Firefox too, it has a facility called Firefox Sync which transfers bookmarks, history and addons across to any other machine. So I’m back to a reasonably familiar browser and tab set up (VR forum, Blogger, Facebook!) and the others that I look through like once a day (Register, Tomshardware and a few others) are there through the history.

One thing about the Migration wizard however – it takes time (can be lots of hours) and you only get the option to do it once (it may still be available, not gone looking !). It’s worth preparing ahead of time, deleting stuff you don’t want from the old machine before you start the process.

The Macbook (which desperately needs a name to join Nighthawk and Pumpkin) was pretty good about be taking off Itunes 11 and replacing it with the superior iTunes 10.7 (the removal of DJ was a crime). I’m just finishing off transferring the library (yep – it’s taken a couple of evenings!) using a feature called Homeshare. If you’ve not used it before, this is an exceptional tool built into iTunes that allows you to back up your library simply.

Applications wise, I have no complaints. There’s a built in Mail client which appears superior to the very weak Windows equivalent (the Windows one was cripple-ware). And MS Office will not be touching this system, even though I can still get it cheap from work. Don’t know what’s happening there, we got an announcement a couple of weeks ago saying that the arrangement was coming to a close, that we were no longer permitted to use it and could we kindly uninstall it ? (Ha ! Likely ? Not) But anyway, MS Office turned into an unusable piece of trash a few versions ago and has been digging downwards since. I’ll look at an opensource alternative.

Keyboard … Hmm. It’s an Ultrabook, which means it’s missing a bunch of keys. Apple also use just one button, there’s supposed to be a context menu like the right-click but I’ve not intentionally found how to get it yet. For the context commands, it’s off you go to the menus and that means a lot of mouse movement which can be bad for an RSI sufferer. Things like page-up/page-down and using the cursors to move and select word by word are different and take some getting used to.

It’s early days so far but I’m definitely appreciating the change. It’s a lot more responsive, which has a lot to do with the SSD hard disc that it’s built on. These devices will speed up any machine because they remove all the wait time.

Hold on.

Accessories ????

I need ’em.

My old laptop travelled in a fairly big bag that could hold its 17″, 4.5kg frame. If I put the Macbook in there, it’ll rattle and disappear into the void. However … I will also need space for :
Airport Express (want to upgrade)
HDMI cable – need an adaptor
Monitor cable – need an adaptor
Audio cable – to plug into the Airport Express
Power cable – 12 hours battery life is great but it’s not infinite
Cables for iPhone and iPod Nano

I also need to play with apps. I’ve made a little selection which I will need to check out but any ideas ? Drop in a comment 🙂

Ok,

Finally done it – instead of hanging around for a refurb model to appear I’ve taken the plunge and spent the cash.

What’s the Shininess ?

It’s a Macbook Air 13.3″ model with the 256GB hard disc. I’m not mentioning the cost (cos it’s enough for me to hope I’ll not be buying any more pooter hardware for 5 years) but I will give a special mention to my darling Snow Queen who pointed me towards the work discount. Works in store too 🙂

The real catalyst is being banned from taking my car into the car park at work again. Yep. Banned from work due to discrimination by post code. I live 2.86 miles away (in a straight line, it’s 4 miles walking) from work, which is just inside a 3 mile exclusion zone. Why am I banned ? Because the Powers That Be have allowed too many people to be squeezed into the site. It’s not just the parking, it’s the desk allocation too. We simply don’t have enough space on the site. So I’m a subject of workplace discrimination.

(This is why I don’t say who I work for, so I can bitch about them when I really need to !)

Anyway – not actually that big a deal, as I have a very valid bus route that I can use instead of the car which :
1 – means I’m not stressing out driving in Bristol traffic (it turns the hair white)
2 – keeps my legs in better condition inside
The drawback – loss of flexibility and it’s £4 a day.

Shinies !!!

I can’t play with it yet. It’s busy transferring data across from my old laptop. I’ve been a bit silly there as I’ve told it to copy all of the downloads folder. I should have deleted a bunch of stuff there before the copy.

After that, I’ll be cracking open iTunes and copying across the old library. All 11,000 tracks and 60+GB of it … That might be tomorrow’s job as :
The migration is currently saying 4 hours 23 minutes to go
I … need … more … sleep … (actually had a good sleep last night but have a lot of catching up to do)
I’m anticipating needing to “downgrade” back to iTunes 10.7 in order to get iTunes DJ back.

Isn’t it funny ? I could have easily slept in the car on the way back from Birmingham on Saturday but when I tried sleep after reaching my bed ? Nope. I ended up rewriting one of our key documents in my head (do I remember what ? Hell no – that’s not the way it works) and adding new scratches on top of the old ones. Slept much better last night.

I’ll let people know about how the migration works when I get to play. Be prepared for a few “Getting used to the Mac” segments of posts ;-). Oh – I’m also going to re-rate that whole library too, which will be curious. How long before I can listen to the whole thing ? MONTHS ! Lol.

Hopefully it’ll finish before I retreat for sleep tonight.

What’s left for tonight ?

I’m going to resist the WoW addiction. Too much of that and it’ll kill my shoulder and my wrist. And my wrist is already suffering enough with the work posture (tried a vertical mouse, nice but it didn’t fix the problem – it’s the angling that causes the damage, trackpads are ok but not big enough at work). I’m in my woolly fingerless gloves already – they’re great, the woolly is thick enough to support the wrist and also keeps it warm.

Lovely. Well recommended, just don’t whatever you do buy ones with the attached pouch. The pouch is no use for storage and ridiculously gets in the way.

I’m watching the Youtube vids instead 🙂 Totalbiscuit’s news roundup at the moment followed by Scott Manley blowing up Kerbals. Yep. Chill out time. No Azeroth time. Please. That game is ridiculously addictive. I do need to log on my old Bashara sometime soon though so she can retire wielding her legendary hammer.

I’ve been mostly enjoying my time back in Warcraft. Sure, the Icecrown questing was boring (it just dragged on far too long) but I raced through Hyjal (two highish level zones) and I’m chuckling through Uldum (land of the eternal cutscene … with pyramids) on I think my 4th time through it. It’s a shame Warcraft is a game of two halves, there’s some awesome content in there that you tend to see Just Once while levelling and then never again. The other half is the repetitive, fiddly, uninteresting raid content at maximum level that turned me off.

Must … avoid … Azeroth … temptation …

3 Hours 26 minutes remaining ! (I’ve not spent that long tapping, it’s just speeding up)

PS I’m going to do some music posts too from the old laptop – a top 40 of what I ended up listening to most.

Had a day out yesterday.

It was the latest in a series of PHO meet ups, this time in Birmingham at the Great Barr Hotel. It’s a chance for people suffering our particular condition to catch up with how we’ve all been doing. And it’s a good bunch to catch up with too.

I won’t mention too many of them (inspiration for codenames and all that !) but it was great to meet them. And our organiser is even more gorgeous in real life than the photo’s suggest. What photo’s don’t capture well is the vital spark a person possesses … let’s just say that if someone had managed to slip her the Red Bull (other energy drinks … may have similar effects) as threatened, the results could have been highly amusing ;-).

Oh – what was amusing … Oh myyyy.

As well as the meal (which scored high marks, I was genuinely sad to finish it), there was a tribute act called Forgery … This is kind of a double act, with a bloke and lady taking turns to do songs from Michael Buble, Beyonce, Robbie Williams and Rihanna. They don’t sing together so not a true double act, just one after the other. Really enjoyed that.

(Although, as happens way too often – way too loud, our poor Rihonce had her voice distorted horribly by the audio and it took some of the gloss off a great voice and performance).

Shall I say that our Rihonce was definitely into a bit of audience participation ? I have to admit, I put a little possibly cruel comment on FB which I need to mention – when she came out, I thought she was one of those girls who you throw cheeseburgers at to get them healthy. Think – tall, very thin, verrrrry long legs. And – as I was about to find out : a very healthy sized bum.

Yep. I was the audience participation.

And I enjoyed every second. Well – after figuring out what was going on. (I can be a bit slow). Oh and I milked it for all I could think of too 🙂

About the size thing – I don’t have a problem with people being overweight. Britain is a land of (relative) plenty, we should have enough to adequately feed ourselves. Although I don’t like it when people are so big that they’re causing themselves health problems. Where I do have a problem is where people seem half starved. Eating disorders are a serious problem, they cause so many issues all coming from a desire to conform with a body image which is unnatural.

Curves are awesome. Bony is not. And the jibes that push girls into starving themselves are the height of cruelty.

Anyway – the cheeseburger comment was a bit cruel on our Rihonce. Yep. Thin – but built on a tall frame which made her look thinner than she actually was. I’ll have that image in my mind for quite some time :-).

Actually – there’s another image I’d like to have retained, it’s from the end of project dinner that we had last year and it’s of the girls in that last project in their party gear. I’m usually good at remembering pictures but that dinner came 1 day after I got my marbles scrambled again by a bump on the head by a cricket ball, so those memories are damaged.

Thoroughly enjoyed it last night and I’ll be back for more at the next one. I didn’t join in with the dancing for a couple of reasons :

I’m hopeless at dancing – my power legs are a curse there. I can dodge and react but getting them to behave with timing ? LOL. It takes too much to get them moving to have any chance of being in sync or time.
And I was suffering on the inside too – My outsides have improved over the last couple of days since the latest doctor visit but my insides are still compromised by my levels being all askew. Basically, if I look too long off to the side or twist too much, there’s a big chance of something going bang and me going OW.
I also have a few too many inhibitions for my liking that I’ll need to dump at some point.

I’m hoping that sorts itself out. Can’t close without mentioning the raffle – I think my prize (the Pendennis Dwagon) was the Most Wanted and he’s gone to a good home. I won a tin of Roses which will keep me going for a little while :-).

Oh – I also have a new nickname that I like and am going to keep. In true Robert Downey Jr film style :

I am Dwagon Man.

I’m torn at the moment.

When I make a decision to do something, I like to dive in head first and execute it. Ok, I may procrastinate a little more and hunt out the best deal but I do like to make the change when it’s time to do so.

The latest is the laptop … (says he writing this post with 7.3lbs, 3.3kg of laptop between knees and tummy – it could be a short post).

I’ve decided what I want to do, it’s the execution that’s going to be frustrating now. I know what laptop I’ll get :

Macbook Air, 13.3″, 256GB drive, latest generation. That’s what I want, it meets the spec I’m interested in and the hard disc is big enough to hold my iTunes library with tonnes of space left over. Not convinced that a 128GB drive would have enough room left after the library (which is now 11169 tracks, 62GB).

The frustration now is how I want to buy it. I.e. spending the minimum possible to get what I want. I have a number of options :

Buy refurbished – this depends on stock and would cost £959.
Yes – that’s a lot of money ! But I target having this puppy for 5 years at least.
Buy different – a Macbook Pro costs more for less capability. Not an option.
Buy from a reseller – they’re cheaper but they’re last generation. Meh.
Use the work discount – cost £1060.
(Refurb wins there)
Go by the Apple Store price – £1129.

You can probably tell that I’d like to go by the refurbished price and guess what – there was one on sale until … Monday night. Why did I hold off before making the decision ? Because I was booked in for a tyre change appointment on Tuesday evening and didn’t want the deliveries to clash.

Ho hum. Procrastination sometimes doesn’t pay.

A Windows laptop is still a possible alternative. However … none of the ones at PC World meet an acceptable spec (either they’re Windows 8 or the screens/keyboard don’t measure up). A potential gamble would be PCSpecialist.com, although that’s a gamble because I’ve never used them before so I have no idea as to their quality. But :

A spec equivalent to the Macbook Air would be a 13.3″ Optimus V :
Intel i5-4200, 8GB RAM (more but Windows needs it), 240GB SSD – £833

What I would buy – 15″ Cosmos II :
IPS* 1080p screen, Intel i5-4200, 8GB, 500B hybrid HD – £761

*If you’re buying a monitor and have a choice, go for an IPS screen. I dunno what the acronym stands for (I’m techie but I read stuff, pick up the key points and forget the acronyms) but IPS screens are the best on the market. And considering that the screen is how you interact with the laptop, it’s the most vital thing out there.

Both of those are with Windows 7. However, you’re still stuck with Microsoft software there and an uncertain keyboard, trackpad and screen. I tried out the Macbook keyboard and my fingers definitely appreciated the feel.

So – I’m torn.

I WANT SHINIES !!!!! NOW !!!! (lol)

But – I don’t actually have to buy it now. I can wait. Which is what I will do. The thing that makes things cost more is rushing into things and being hasty.

Although if you don’t act with enough speed, you can miss out on a good thing. I’ve done that a few times in the past … and I’m not talking about computers 😉 Mind you, I’ve also rushed in and scared people off.

Let’s see … WoW is queueing, this Body of Proof episode is almost done … time to close !

The credit card is going to hate me by the end of the week.

I have two expensive things (technically 3) on the extraordinary shopping list … The first is actually quite mundane. The car needs new front tyres. One disadvantage to having a relatively high performance car is that the bits cost a lot and for the tyres, it’s £100 a corner.

It could be more but I’m avoiding the big name people in favour of Hankook, who score well on the economy, wet driving and noise thingys. Do I believe the economy, wet driving and noise thingys ? Nope – but in the absence of better info, they’re all I have to go on. I’ve never used Hankook before, I’m curious as to how they work out. Hopefully better than Continental, which have been universally useless in all the cars that I’ve owned which have had those inflicted upon them.

Before the next bit – how about me ?

My legs are in far better shape now. They’re actually normalising … I know … that’s taken a lot of time. My arms on the other hand (oops – didn’t mean that pun but it was inevitable) need me to leave them alone more so they can heal. It’s just so easy to damage bits. And I’m not mentioning the two places that I really want to have healing happen on them.

I’ve been warcrafting again. A little too much to be honest. I have a feeling that the swelling in my legs was actually protecting the joints – lol. Warcraft hits me in the wrist and shoulder because I tunnel into it a little too much. That’s not to say I wouldn’t get safe (easier now that you can fly) and have a good natter to someone if messages popped up but if left to my own devices, I’ll easily sink 3-4 hours into it straight. That’s not really healthy and I’ve been using iTunes and dinner times as a marker for breaks. Plus I’m getting better at recognizing the signs of being in the game too long and take breaks.

I think after the initial rush wears off, I’ll get back to normal again but I have sunk an obscene amount of my spare home time into it over the past week. And I’ve a) enjoyed it, b) been glad to be back in the guild (they’re a good bunch) and c) the tunneling has given my fingers something to do which does not involve self damage.

So what’s this thing that’s going to break the credit card if it’s more than the tyres ?

I’m going to make the jump to Macbooks …

Every time I do a blog post on this laptop, I’m reminded about how bad the keyboard has got. I’m continually going back over to retype where random key didn’t get recognied. See what I mean ? That’s acually light for what it tends to miss ;-). But it’s not just the keyboard, it’s been suffering for power too although that could be the Firefox web browser and Flash being horribly inefficient. So it’s time for the laptop to be traded in for something different.

It’ll be a Macbook because I’ve had enough of Microsoft software (it’s been steadily getting more and more hostile) and Windows laptops don’t offer a spec I like at a price I’m prepared to pay. So I’m jumping ship to something that will be very shiny indeed. It’ll be a bit of an effort migrating though :

Screen size – the resolution is similar but I’ll be going from 17″ down to 13.3″. However … it’ll also be about a quarter of the weight. And with me occasionally tapping out a blog post with the laptop on my knees, that’ll be appreciated.
Itunes – I might be able to copy over my library and keep the data but to be honest, I’m quite tempted to reset it all anyway. Of course it’ll take me literally 6 months to re-rate all the music again but there we go :-). I wonder how long it would be before I’d start seeing repeat tracks.
Digiguide – is the one piece of Windows software that I use that I would miss from the laptop. But to be honest, it’s a tv guide application and there are ways around it being gone.
Interface – my fingers dance on the keyboard. Tis nice.

But the rest of it – Skype (which I rarely use now since Microsoft forced us off the perfectly good Messenger), web browsing, email is done equally good or better on the Mac. And for the stuff that doesn’t play nicely with Mac, I have my desktop. I’m not likely to put many games on the Macbook, gaming on a laptop is somewhat cruel for the laptop.

The one I’ll get will be a 13.3″ Macbook Air with a 256 GB hard disc. I’ll be going for a refurb model for £££ off the price. It’s still a lot of money but I’m hoping that it’ll last long enough to wear out in … a longer time than this laptop at least (almost 4 years)

We shall see !

I’m almost done with catchup on the Youtube videos so it’s time to join that Draenor Warcraft queue again …

I’ve reactivated the Warcraft …

I dunno. I’d convinced myself that I wasn’t going to go back in and the only thing that’s really changed that is the price of the expansion going down. It is still one of the best games out there though, from a pure gameplay point of view. There’s an immense amount of content in there.

One sad thing is that they’ve dumbed it down so much and sped up the progression so much that individual characters are almost forced to skip parts of the content because they race past its relevance so quickly. When that happens, the character gets minimal experience and there’s no challenge. You can have multiple characters, so that’s not as big an issue as it could be.

Yep. Back in Warcraft. It’s partly medicinal, for my skin problem (honest – it just happens to work out that way). A lot of the cause for my skin issues is self inflicted. Idle hands can’t resist scratching and making it worse. Warcraft gets me in a tightly focused mode where I can zone out and zone in to the game. So instead of my fingers attacking my arms and leg, they’re tapping the keys.

There’s a couple of other changes I’ve made too to manage the condition and it’s having a good positive effect. It’s a hell of a lot better than it was a few weeks ago.

It’s still a long way from healed but it’s getting there. My legs are definitely less angry with me although it’s not all done yet. It’s something I’m going to need to continually work on. I’m also hoping it doesn’t come back now that I’ve finished the latest round of drugs.

It has had an impact though. I think it’s fairly well trashed this laptop. The keyboard is getting less and less responsive. The next machine is going to be a Macbook Air for a number of reasons :

Windows laptops come with Windows 8 (ok, I could get one from Novatech or PCSpecialist with Windows 7 but that’s hassle) and Windows 8 is an abomination
All Microsoft software lately seems to be an abomination actually, it’s only through mass protest that the Xbox One had all its u-turns on spec. I think someone told Microsoft that if they’d followed through on the original plan, the market share would have been something like 10 to 1 in favour of the Playstation 4.
Windows laptops don’t have acceptable specs. They’re either last generation processors (or older!) and it cost £600 to get a 17″ with a decent screen. The prices of Windows laptops have steadily gone up, making them less economic to acquire.

Ok – that’s the anti-Microsoft … I’ve also eliminated Linux as a choice because it doesn’t allow support (it can be done but I’d expect problems) for iTunes and the hardware support would be patchy at best. I’d get a Macbook Air 13.3″ with a 256GB hard disc and it has a number of advantages :

The keyboard and trackpad felt lush when I tried tapping out a sentence on one. I suffer from wrist problems too, so when it’s harder to type, it literally hurts.
The Macbook Air has the latest generation Intel cpu, which is a serious amount of power.
It has a solid state device drive – it’s tough to say why these are good but you would notice the difference
Proper hardware support – ok it may be locked down but it has a development team looking out for the bugs, the alternative is Linux which can only be described as anarchic with its development
Unix based so (allegedly – I don’t believe the claim here) no virus or malware trouble
Proper legacy operating system support – Microsoft don’t want you to have this, Apple make it easy

Am I going to buy one now ? I have to admit, since I noticed an evening delivery option it’s got a lot more tempting. That means I could abuse the flexi a little, get home from work early and in time for the delivery. Daytime deliveries are far more awkward to manage.

However. The golden rule of buying anything is – don’t rush into it. I could get a refurb Macbook for 15% off but I get the feeling there may be more offers around the corner …

We shall see ! It’ll definitely feel weird transferring over from Windows to Mac but to be honest, Microsoft only have themselves to blame for an inevitable loss in market share as people like me migrate to other platforms (Mac, PS4, Linux) due to the Microsoft offerings being hostile to the people who are forced to buy them through a lack of competition.

Just spotted on the Facebook feed :

Firefly was always an incredible series, well worth watching if you missed out. It’s very sad that it only got 14 episodes plus a movie.

Very shiny.

I’m getting my attention drawn to new shinies. I think I’ll forget about changing the car, although the new IS300h is Very Shiny. It’s just not something I need. My Lexus CT already does everything very well with a sense of style there too. The IS is faster but that’s probably the only major advantage that would see me change. It’s bigger (not necessarily a good thing) and costs more.

So I think I’ll be resisting the temptation to change what is the best car I’ve owned and aim for a few years of payment holiday.

What shinies am I looking at then ? I’m seriously considering buying a Macbook.

I’m getting much closer to requiring a laptop change. The keyboard on this one is the major bugbear. It’s suffered greatly due to my skin condition. But at least it’s still chugging along, the HP I had before ate something which killed the fan and the design of the HP means that it would have needed a full strip and rebuild to change a £10 part.

The current laptop is an Acer and they are pretty solid on the build and design. That’s despite what one reviewer I spotted said, he described Acer as “cheap”. Yes, you can combine “cheap” with “solid” if you’re smart about the design. I’d have another Acer laptop if they supplied them with an adequate resolution. (720p doesn’t cut it for me – I want closer to HD)

The laptop target has steadily gone up and up in terms of the price I’d need to look at. Originally, I’d thought that £500 was too much, seems like inflation (and perhaps fashion) has affected the cheap value laptop market. Anyway, the prices have shifted that much that it puts the likely price in Macbook range … And I’m tempted. I could get a refurb Macbook Air 13.3inch with a 256GB SSD for just under £1000.

That’s still a lot of cash but – Oooooo shiny. And it’s not Windows 8.

We shall see on the laptop. But – closing out with more Shininess :

First day back at work today and it was a hectic one. I had barely enough time to catch my breath and check for super urgent emails before disappearing into a meeting from 10am to almost 2pm. But. I did get the chance to check in with someone very special before that.

And I got cake. And a grin as I was walking back to my desk. And, even though I had to neglect my cake to disappear off to that meeting, a little taste of awesome when I escaped for lunch.

And I now have that memory of the taste coming back – absolutely lush. The cakes were made for a birthday – I passed a message over on Facebook but those cakes earn another : “HAPPY BIRTHDAY !” for someone who turned 21 again last Monday.

Good day today. I think it was productive, hopefully we’ll get a chance to buy what we were talking about. Combined with a chance to have a little catch up with someone special and polish it off with truly awesome cake.

Yep – good day, if only all the leaky bits of me would stop being leaky !

Back home again now after a sojourn away in Cornwall.

Decent week 🙂 Lots of chilling out with a couple of special friends. To be honest, I’m still not back to what I should be but it’s either getting closer or I’m getting a false picture because of the antibiotics. I was still leaking for the first few days, had trouble sleeping for all of it (I don’t sleep well in unfamiliar conditions) but on the whole, I’m a hell of a lot better than I was a fortnight ago.

So what did we get up to ? Firstly :

Yep. There was an escapee who came back with me. He’ll be my avatar for the next little while, although he’ll be escaping again to be a raffle prize in a couple of weeks.

Here’s the town where we stayed :

It’s a place called Looe. Our cottage was on the hill up above. Good place – clean air, lots of quiet. Having sporadic internet access was a downer, although to be honest I probably spend too much time on the interwebs anyway. Oh – the Tom Sawyer pub was in easily walking distance and I think all 3 of us would happily recommend it, although the bright and breezy Kianna from the hotel next door wins the waitress of the week prize.

Sunday saw chill out and a walk into Looe, Monday was supposed to be a bit of an indulgence for me seeing a ship but I wasn’t feeling too great. I joined the others for a walk around Polperro instead. I was soooo close to buying a few trinkets to bring back with me but that not feeling great caught up with me. Meh.

Crash time … I can go into a kind of survival mode, where my energy ends up at its lowest level. I guess the lack of sleep catches up. I’m still capable of doing stuff in survival mode but I clamp down and shuffle my resources into keeping going. I go quiet and desensitize. But I’m still able to concentrate on what I’m doing, even if the ability to make decisions like “Shiny !!! Buy now” is fuzzy.

Ok – Polperro Monday, chillout at Looe on Tuesday. We had a look at more of the town on Tuesday and came away with more loot.

Wednesday, Wednesday, what was Wednesday … (Quick peek on Facebook !) Ah ha ! Plymouth.

We got away with it on the weather fronts for most of the week but Wednesday in Plymouth was a tad different. Very wet. We hid in the National Aquarium for a while before paying a visit to the Hoe Memorial. While we were there, HMS Somerset swept by while doing a boat transfer :

(Ship name brought to you by the magic of the AIS device!)

Thursday was more chill out. I’m not the only one of us who’s suffering at the moment. I appreciate the chill out days. Friday saw us heading to the tip of Falmouth for a look at Pendennis Castle. When you go to see castles in the UK, it’s rare to see them in as good condition as Pendennis. It started as a fort in the 1600s to protect the coastal approaches from foes like the Spanish Armada and saw life in World War 2 as a coastal battery.

It’s well worth a look if you find yourself nearby.

So – that’s my week. I’m sure I’m leaving lots out. Like the books I read through and how the car handled the roads (lots of hills).

I’m in a lot better condition now than I was, a lot of the damage has repaired and some of my skin is now ridiculously smooth, despite me not using the recommended moisturiser. I’m still needing to be very careful though because I have a bad habit of damaging it myself. I urgently need to ditch that habit. I’m also hoping that it’s not yet another false dawn, where the antibiotics hold the infection at bay until they run out.

Back to work tomorrow – which means banter with the canteen staff over teacakes and cookies. Catch up with the work people. And hopefully a chance to catch up with some very special friends.