Sleepypete's Pillow

Have fun with the games!
Michele sent me.

Ok – the World of Warcraft break didn’t last all that long, although I’ve not gone back into the murky world of the politics that’s on my old server. I’m on a different one now with all new characters. So that’s most of what my weekend was, I reactivated on Thursday evening and have probably racked up a day and a half of real time play … That’s not particularly healthy but hopefully I’ll be able to settle into a reasonable pattern there.

Oops 😉

The badminton on Wednesday went a lot better than I thought it would, seems like the muscle memory is still there. Which would be a good thing if my body was still the shape it remembers ! I’m very similar in weight but inactivity has caused the muscles to decay a bit. That didn’t stop me diving around the court like a mad thing though 🙂 I put in about 5 dives and a similar number of pirouette spin shots.

The wonderful thing was that my muscles behaved themselves this week and allowed me to get on with the game. In the first week, within 5-10 minutes they felt like they’d had lead injected into them. The sandbag around the middle wasn’t really noticeable either. Good signs 🙂 Just like not having any real muscle soreness the next day was a very good sign. There is a lesson though :

1st week, I failed to warm up before starting, 2nd week I did warm up fully. 1st week I had lots of soreness, 2nd week I was clear of it. Lesson ?

The next stage will be the cricket season. Badminton can be a very energetic game and it’s a good way for me to lead my way back in. Cricket’s up another level though. Badminton’s played in very controlled conditions whereas cricket is out on an open field with bumps, slippy bits and hollows. Not to mention people doing unspeakable things to a small leather cricket ball. My knees and hips aren’t really up to that just yet. Will have to give it a few more weeks to see if they strengthen up. The timings are awkward too, most of the games are on Mondays and Wednesdays which are clashing with other things.

Things are looking up physically. Hopefully I’ll be able to maintain it without breaking anything.

Badminton went great 🙂 The muscle memory still thinks I’m a couple of stones lighter but I’m getting closer … The other players all think I’m a bit nuts now, cos of how much I tend to dive around 🙂

Very little soreness too, think I got it all out of my system the week before.

Lots of grip from the shoes, gave me the confidence to do that diving around 🙂

well? how did it go?? fast enough to flip your hair upwards off your head from your comment on my blog! 🙂

they do look very very shiny and efficient 😉

d (I think I want new shoes now too)

Lol Dianne 🙂 I like my shiny shoes. They have far more grip than the last pair, which led to me convincing all the other players that I’m nuts by diving 6 times and pulling out the pirouette shot 5 times 🙂

the entire time I was reading this I thought you were saying IraqTV and I couldn’t figure out what the hell you were doing!!

then I went back past your shiny shoes and now I feel so much better – much less confused.

Awww, thanks SO much for linking my post Sleepypete. It means a lot to me that you’ve done this for her, and I’ll be sure to pass on everyone’s good wishes to her when we speak on Sunday.

Firstly, please wish Dawn’s Mom well, see here for more info.

No Thursday Thirteen this week, although I have one planned … Not got my 13 myths to put in my 13 myths just yet, working on it 🙂

Ipaq TV is on the air, which means I’ve been successful in :

Hooking up webcam to laptop – trivial 🙂
Getting the streaming video thing going – almost trivial
(issues with getting the software from Microsoft)
Ipaq connected to network – hassle … grr … wifi … grr
Ipaq looking at video stream – sorted 🙂

I probably won’t go for the 100% solution, which would be to make it available via the internet, I don’t have a use for that plus I’d have to hook it up via my desktop, which isn’t exactly reliable …

Just one slight problem, which might put a downer on using IpaqTV to fix the Skydish … I was testing it while watching a Dresden Files episode. The image came up ok but when I waved at the camera, nothing happened. And then I start hearing voices … I’m not going nuts, it was Dresden Files voices. I listened a little harder and realised – “they said that a minute ago !”

And you’ve probably just realised what the problem might be 😉 (need to tinker with da buffers)

I have a Secret Weapon for the badminton tonight ! They’re shiny …

I have a new Crazy Project lined up. It’s aimed at fixing my Sky dish, which I think has been pushed back against the wall by the wind we’ve had. It’s now about 20-30 degrees out of alignment. The aim of the new Crazy Project is to get the Sky dish pointing back in the right direction. I have 3 options there :

This will involve me on a ladder outside moving the dish and a mate telling me when the signal strength and quality are nice and high again.

There’s a Skydish across the road that I could peek at to see what compass direction it’s pointing in. One problem – I don’t have a compass handy.

This would take a few steps to set up :
1 – Webcam connected to laptop again. Not used my webcam for ages.
2 – Laptop has streaming video software installed to get the webcam piccys on to the network.
3 – Ipaq (currently my satnav machine) gets connected to the wi-fi.
4 – Ipaq gets pointed to the video from the laptop.
5 – Telly and Skybox are set to the signal strength/quality page, webcam points at telly.
6 – I go up ladder with Ipaq and wiggle the dish until the meters are high again.

The telly is out of line of sight for where I’d be standing on the ladder, which is why I’d need a remote view of it …

I’m discounting Option 1 cos it’s just plain boring. Plus CK’s away for a week so I’d have to pressgang a different person. Option 2 goes because it involves lurking suspiciously around someone else’s Skydish and the dish next door to the one I have in mind is broken.

It has to be Option 3 really. That involves poking new pieces of software, crazy positioning of a webcam, abuse of 4 different pieces of electronics and precarious perching on a ladder. It’s nuts enough that it just has to be done.

Pictures will follow if it works but not today – going out soon.

PS Pain free today for the first time since last Wednesday 🙂 Although my knees are still persuading me that it’ll be a good idea for me to acquire new knee supports tomorrow.
PS2 Having the webcam wired in like that would let me view it over the internet if I chose to make that happen …