Ian

Recently I have not seen so many people for one reason or another so it was good to meet upwith Ian last night, he has been away in Spain for the last couple of weeks, hwe was well Zanshin Mobile Bars seems to be growing which is a bonus for him. Apparently Dannys carpet shop is opening on Tuesday so I might go down and chck it out.
It was really nice to have a chat and catch up hopefully wont be so long until I see him next.
He was impressed by the increase in performance of my Saab now that Ive got the mass airflow sensor replaced, to be honest I am still enjoying the massivly improved acceleration :-D

TV Output

Last night Bruce and I stayed in to watch the latest episodes of lost on channel 4 and E4 but being as Bruce had managed to aquire som hidef stuff we also tried out outputting video content from my laptop to my TV. After much messing about and annoyance we finally managed it, all I am going to say is intel graphics drivers leave a LOT to be desired.
Ive tried twice this wek to concentrate on doing the stats recording for the LAN but have so far failed in my efforts I must concentrate this weekend and not be sidetracked by other issues.
I spoke to Nikkie on Tuesday we were suppose to go out this week but to be honest with her moving and her lack of desire to see me I have pretty much given up now. Given as we were only seeing each other in the loosest sense I guess its no real loss.
I was looking at houses today to be honest I must finally admit defeat there is no way I can afford anything halfway decent on my own and its going to take years to save up a big enough deposit to make any sort of difference so have to hold off and try and save more. On which note I have increased my monthly payments into my saving account by 40% and so long as I am careful this month will pay off my credit cards in full. My overall debt level is still dropping and I am very much now a net saver rather than debitor which is great but Id like to keep to my new years resolution of being debt free (although than my studend loan but thats an entirly diferent matter).

Meat + Death

This weekend was fairly good as it goes after having a relaxing night on Friday Saturday Martin myself and Bruce went to meet up with a fellow Slayradio listener Driller.
We had a few drink;s at various bars in Manchester and got the last bus home. I must better getting old or something I felt so tired by 10 I needed my bed. At least Bruce and Martin were in the same boat I blame being busy at work.
It was the first time I had caught a bus in ages; I must say although it was a bit slow taking a really long route £1.80 return is excellent value on the 157 Bullocks bus from Woodford to Manchester.
Sunday I went to the gym completing a rather hard session (for me anyway) 50 minutes on the treadmill I managed to cover about 6.5km. Eventually I want to try and build up to 10-15KM but that's going to take sometime. I also completed a full weights workout using the men's health trainer.
In order to undo all that good work at the gym I then went round to Martins with Bruce and Phil (Simon joined us later) for a BBQ so much meat was consumed it was a lovely sunny afternoon and all enjoyed ourselves.
Afterwards we had a mini lan bash killing each other for a couple of hours on Unreal 2004 and Quake 3, couldn't get Flatout to run :-( The idea of the evening had been to try and organise things for the next lan bash (terminal tournaments IV) but that somehow dropped by the wayside after a beer and food oh well hopefully we will sort it out before the next tournament.

Lazy

Lulu told me im lazy so I guess its time to write another post. To be honext not much has happened in the last week thats worth mentioning. I have been more tired than usual this week thanks to a hectic work schedual and me starting my own training plan thanks to the mens health online personal trainer. The trainer is pretty slick you put in details of when you ant to train and some information about yourself including weight height and it draws up a training program. You take the program to the gym work out record what you actually do then enter it on the pc and it adjusts your next workout accordingly pretty cool eh! Thanks the the program I went Monday, Wednesday and for a jog on Thursday. Ill be honest being ill and having time off has had a significant impact on my fitness im not as strong or fit as before. Hopefully I can quickly regain some strength.
I watched another episode of lost with Bruce on Wednesday and we did some more work on the server trying to get an xoops gallery progra working as usual it proved more difficult thanks to a lack of manuals and the almost sadistic method of getting things working.
I got work to buy my a copy of oxygen xml which is by the far the best xml editor ive ever used even if I didnt understand how the debugger worked without RTFMing.
Bought a couple of games this week which we might use for the lan Doom 3 and Warcraft 3 they were are both good might make good additions.
Today I need to go and find some blinds for my room my parents are going to help hopfully it wont end in arguments.

Lost

I am in work early (7am) so whilst waiting for some programs to transfer though I would update my blog. I finally finished painting the walls and ceiling only got to paint the woodwith gloss and get myself a new wardrobe then I have finished with my room wahoo.
Went on slayradio last night was nice to chat albiet breifly with the guys.
Caught the first three episodes of the new big us tv hit lost its being show on channel four and E4 I must say for once it seems the hype is justified I really enjoyed it the characters actually have development and the story interesting. The only worring thing is the jurassic park subplot going on.
Bruce watched he show with me and we did (a little) work on his website
I feel tired this morning well actually I have been feeilng tired even since I started decorating my room and was ill a couple of weeks ago.
Nikkie sent me a funny star wars thingy

Investments

Arghhhhhhh why cant anything ever be simple, there is too much misunderstanding and problems. My car is still not fixed I had to stay late at work missed out on lunch and had an argument about it all with my parents.
At least I managed to go for a run (well jog, I am pretty unfit after not training for several weeks thanks to illness and decorating). Otherwise I am totally knackered and generally pissed off.
I also received saving statements for my ISA my legal and general index tracker is doing well should be a decent long term investment. Whereas my New Star technology fund lost money again even the glossy brochure didn't cheer me up if it was worth selling I would.
Had an early night.

Fish

Finally today was the day to mve the Oscars into their new home, I moved the catfish first to give them a chance to get used to the tank first no it was time to move the oscars two. They struggled a lot drowning the stack of books next to the tank. After their intial shock at being moved they started exploring the new tank, swimming p and down and round the catfish seems fairly pleasedto see them Mike was swimming around the Ocars. Tiger is mostly quiet hiding out in the plants.
Did somemore paintning its starting to get me down there no matter how much I do there always seems to be loads left to do ho hum its looking fairly white now.
Went to the Unicorn with Nick and Becky tonight which was really good, except for Nick being on the defensive about money all the time. Becky isjust as lovely a ever I just wish one day I could meet somne that nice oh well.
Liz has been messaging me a lot she see seems very keen maybe a little too keen. Im still not sure how I feel about Nikie shes good to be with but also can be quite a handful and she is moving off to the Blackburn.

Terminal Tournaments III

After last night I was abit tired so found it dificult loading up the car to go to the lan.
Setup went well apart form one minor hitch with the gigabit card.
We played quake counte stike unal flatout ate pizza and had a few beers all without any major hitches which is a real achievement. I think we can tabl in another one possibly two games next time. From speaking to David (aka Cool Hand Luke) he enjoyed himself as did Bruces Friend Steven. I think its a rea triumph there ill be pictures going up on the website soon.

Sandbox Live

I had the day off today but as there is no rest for the wicked was up early painting my room. Managed to get a coat on the ceiling, its looking a lot nicer now, on balance blue was a bad choice/
I bought a few more plants to brighten the tank up and a net from Wilmslow Garden centre (they have a really nice aquatics centre). I decided the new tank has bedded in now so I decided to move the catfish across. They seem to be quiet disturbed but soon started exploring their new home.

The afternoon was taken up with Bruce and myself doing some changes to the server in Manchester. It was a complete pain a lot of time sat around waiting for things to finish.

The evening though proved to be good fun, Martin, Phil and I met up with Paul, Ian Lisa, Faye and Danny to watch Sandbox at academy 3. It was a really good night sandbox were excellent and it was great to see Paul, Lisa, Ian and Faye. Danny was in a bad mood thanks to his relationship breakdown with Lyn. Whilst I feel for him I really think he needs to move on its far too up and down, does he really want to take on someone else child?

Amiga demos

Another fun day at work still working on early redemption figures how can everyone use the same equation and yet apply it in sightly different ways eh :-S

Oh well did a spot more painting only the area behind the fish tank and the ceiling to do now. Also had a bit of a tidy up cleaned my mums car it was filthy.

Getting close to being able to move the fish now I hope they survive the move. They should be a lot happier in the new tank at east I hope so given the effort I have gone to. I ordereda load of new filters from aquacare they seem pretty cheap Icould have save £20 buying my tank from them. Oh well stillsavedd over £200 from what my local store would have charged.

Went round to Martin ostensiblyly to chat about the lan wendeded up playing the old amiga demos for Martin O. I forgot just how funny fraxion wasand the old acid house demos scene.

Car Woes and nights in

Some people think that cars are a symbol of our freedoms personally I think they are a milestone around our necks. THey cost a fortune to buy run insure and maintain. There is constant pressure to get a newer greater model.
Since buying mny car over a year ago second hand I have had to get the brakes replaced have services and now a problem with the turbo sytem meant a £119 charge for a diagnostic and a replacement rubber hose (the hose itself is a £10 item) I also need to get a sensor (mass airflow sensor cost £240 :'( ) replaced before the cars performance returns to normal. Its so expensive not like I do the sort of mileage I used to either, I could ride my bike to work except I have to wear a suit and tie and there are no changing facilities or shower here.

In order to save some money to afford my car repairs and the money Ive spent on decorating I am going to have to spend a lot of nights in over the next two months. Tonight I rented a flim called hide and seek. Its a twisty turning psycholical thriller with a twist similar to the sixth sense. It was quiet enjoyable though had the usual crap Hollywood ending and I found it pretty predictable.

My parents are away are the Taunten Flower Show my dad took over my Wildflower software and sold it to them I dont think it works that well I always wanted to rewrite it ut never quiet foud the time. My dad just gives it away for free he isnt very good with money and seems to let people take advantage of him I dont want to end up like that.

Bad Day

Some days just don't seem to pan out no matter how hard one tries, unfortunately today was one of them.
On the face of it today should have been a fun and exciting one, the plan was to go to Huddersfield and visit Cybernet gaming to see if we could pick up any tips for the lan bash. So I set off picked up Martin and headed to Bergers, the problems started almost straight away; I recently upgraded to TomTom 5 from version 3 if you care contemplating this DON'T! Version 5 has crashed twice in the first time I used it and each time it crashed I had to reset my Palm T5 and each time I reset I had to re-authenticate the maps :-S this meant phoning my dad ad having to talk him through the website registration. This is just appalling anti piracy that punishes users it not acceptable to be honest I an emailing to complain its just awful.
Anyway I digress, we headed to Huddersfield and found the place easily which was thankful as I had no TomTom. Berger, Martin and Myself then had a half hour of Counter Strike Source before we were told that we had to get off the internet because they were playing a tournament. Cheers for that guys we had paid our money and you didn't bother to warn us. The whole setup was fairly amateurish ad we didn't really learn a lot except how not to do things.
Next we went for a Chinese then headed home, it was then when things started really getting bad on the way back my car played up it had reduced power and the warning light kept coming on so Ill have to get it checked out with will no doubt be expensive.
When I got home I realized my phone was missing gah I rung it no answer Cybernet hadn't got it neither :-S Must have dropped out of my pocket :'(
I managed to clean fuel and fix my passenge door (bolt needed tightening) before heading out to meet Liz at Ra!n Bar. It was an enjoyable enough evening though I felt tired and upset at my stupidity for losing my phone.
I dropped her off and had a nosy at her house it verynice not far at all from Bergers pad then got home just in time for m stomach to rebel from the Chinese food think its still a bit fragile from last week.
All in all I was happy to finally curl up in bed and for a terrible day to be over.

Big tank

Well after a rather long day working, then painting, filling gravel (30kg of it which had to be washed and scalded) my new fish tank is finally set up. I feel very tired but it's good to see it all set up. Its a lot quieter than my small one which is a bonus. At the moment it look a bit forlorn with no fish or plants, I need to leave it running for a week to get rid of the chlorine and allow the filtration to activate before I can move the fish over. There is a photo gallery on my photo site check it out here.

The tanks filtration system is really complex using lots of different filters which is great but it means I need to replace them regularly which is a pain and will significantly increase the running costs which is a bit unforeseen. I guess I will need to stay in one night a month to pay for it!

I was working out my student loan repayments today. Based on the governments revised threshold the monthly payment has reduced. Whilst I like having extra money a month its drastically increased the repayment time to about 17 years!!! Oh well I could make over-payments but it dosn't make sense given that a=they will be out of my net wage and that the interest charged is only 3.2% so it would make more sense for me to put any overpayment money into savings account on which I can earn 5% tax free if I add to my ISA.

Today I spent trying to understand one of my colleagues programs. It is quiet a challenge as he has taken a totally different approach to Business Basic XML integration. I think its a bit of a hash however hopefully I will be able to make the required changes next week.

Got a text from Liz she seems really nice I hope we can be friends regardless of how things go on our meeting on Sunday.

I think its pretty much fizzled out with Nikkie she will be moving soon which is a shame I enjoyed the time we spent together it just I don't think it was right for either of us.

Paint

My fish tank arrived today hurrah, it really does look quiet big sat in its box on a pallet. Unfortunately my mother has pointed out that once the fish tank goes in I will be difficult to paint behind and oh wouldn't it be lovely to get rid o the awful blue paint. After what three years of living with it I must confess the blue is a little dark. So after a long trip looking around B&Q (my god how many shades of neutral colours are there) I choose a crown Monaco paint.

So rather than setting up my new fish tank I spent the evening painting my room. Its gong to take at least two coats to cover the blue as well so there is going to be a delay getting the tank running.

When it is set up I will have to run it for about a week before I move the fish into it this will allow the chlorine to evaporate out and for some bacterial to start to grow. Here's a handy hint for those of you who don't like the taste of tap water; Chlorine is almost certainly the bad thing you can taste to get rid of it simple pour some water into a jug and leave in the fridge for 2 or so hours, volia nice tasting tap water.

Congratulations to Nikkie on getting her new job!

Got an email from Alison today it was really good to hear she wasn't hurt in the Sharm bombings. She is went working as a dive instructor after leaving Australia.

Back at work

Going back to work after a absence is always a pain but its a lot worse when your still not feeling well. That said fortunately yesterday wasn't too bad and I managed to get through the day just about.

I spend last night working with Phil organising all our diving photos for uploading onto the website, even with the duplicates removed there 700mb, however it should look excellent once all the photos are on there.

I was also chatting to Cassy last night it seems like such a long time since we lived in Moseley road interesting how peoples lives diverge. She introduced me (on-line) to her doctor friend Liz a junior doctor no less, personally I think it would end up like Bex she proved far to nice for the likes of me however Ill meet up with them when I am feeling better.
I hope everyone likes the new photo album . In time I intend to move all the pictures onto there.

Oh well I best get back to work I am having a meeting to catch up with the PSD at 10.30 .

Rainy Sunday

I haven't written a post for a few days so I am going to have to try and cram a lot into this I will try and keep it chronological but if things get screwy its because I'm still taking codeine for my stomach pain.

I was still really quite ill on Friday so in an attempt to cheer myself up I've ordered myself a new fish tank. The Oscars have totally outgrown my current tank, I feel cruel restricting their space. I have been meaning to get one for ages so today I finally bit the bullet and bought a Jewel 300 litre tank. It comes with a rather snazzy beach cabinet/stand and should look really nice. Its going to be a squeeze getting it into my room. I think it will require some major reorganization but it should be worth it in the long run. Only slight downside is Mum wants me to repaint my room and apparently this is a good opportunity :-/

It all makes m wish I could afford a place of my own but there's nowhere within my budget and I am still stuck into a debt cycle in which stupid purchases of fish tanks and holidays to Sweden rather drain my resources. Though I wonder if deep down I am just scared to committee to buying somewhere and being tied down it is easy living at home perhaps I am get myself into a position where I cant get away so it gives me an excuse not to?

The debt situation is getting much better I'm clearing my credit card each month and I haven't dipped into my overdraft for months. Also my savings accounts are starting to look a bit more healthy I think I well on my way to hitting my new years resolution of clearing my personal debts. I just need to learn a bit more self control and not go so mad buying things.

Saturday I spent most of the day trying to fix up the games server in time for the next Lan bash on the 6th. Steam still proved a complete pain I finally managed after much effort to get it running. I was also working on my Sweden holiday gallery I think I will have to give up on XML/XSL Picasa outputs tiny rubbish thumbnails and xsl doesn't always render correctly in Firefox I think I will look for an alternate product rather than try and reinvent the wheel myself.

Saturday night was Jo Berger's house-warming, his place is really nice especially now he and Holly have tidied it up and given it some more homely touches. I went down with Martin and Bruce and Phil met up with use, no Ian or Danny though. Haven't seen Ian for a long time.
Spent some of the evening watching the happy tree friends such a funny violent cartoons they crack me up completely. The juxtaposition between the cute cuddly animals and the ultra violence (the level of which would make Alex DeLarge smile) is excellently handled. Although I pretty much hate flash on the web some of the cartoons are excellent.

Spoke to Paul this morning it was really good to hear from him again, hopefully I can go down and visit him and Lisa soon.

Its raining outside and my stomach is still unsettled I'm pretty worried about going back to work tomorrow sometimes after missing so much I have a lot to catch up with. I hope I can make it through the day aright.

Still Ill :-(

Well days have past and yet Im not getting much better, so today I decided to fight my fears and head to the doctors. One examination later and I find I have either got a dose of food poisoning or a gastric bug either way he gave me some pills to help with the pain and other effects.
Work were pretty understanding about me having time off which was really good of them.
Though I have been at home I have been in no fit state to work on anything even as a casual project its really not much fun at all :-(
I hope to improve in time for Bergers house-warming on Saturday else I really will be upset.
I have managed to spend a few minute getting some of my personal tools for the next lan , namely a headset so I wont have to borrow one from Phil (Cheers for last time matey) I've gone for a pretty top of the line one though I bought it from eBay rather than a shop. I also treated myself to a new gaming mouse. Its called razor dimondback from razor (see razors website). There's a rather nice review of them here. I have been really impressed so far its been much more precise than my logitec mouseman dual hopfully it will net me a few more frags ;-)
The only thing I need now is a new PC to go with them then Phil can give his old one to Berger and we will all be happy. It wont be in time for the next Lan though I still need to pay off my Swedish trip and save up for a new fish tank they are the top priorities at the moment.
I've pretty much given up with buying a house for the time being its going to take years to save up a worthwhile deposit I am certainly no Nick when it comes to money.

Ill

I didn't make it into work today was up all night with terrible stomach pains. It wasn't as bad as food poisoning I got in France but still I don't feel groovy.
One good thing about having a day off was I got to finish Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, it was a good book though not on a par with Goblet of Fire or the Order of Phonenix.
I watched Jamies school dinners repeats this evening, strange to see such passion for his work and another example of corporations exchanging the externalities which is our kids existence health for profits. Scary really is it possible that we have all become such a part of the machine that no one really noticed the corporations taking over replacing knowledge for advertising, health and the environment for profit? I worry but what can I do drop out join a commune that's hardly me is it? I just wish I could find Jamies passion and use it to change the world myself. Is that just arrogance on my part or is my apathy part of the problem even as I sit here the TV is on spewing yet my advertisements trying to create a desire for things I don't even need.

Lazy Sunday

After working with Martin yesterday I dont have my usual Sunday refreshed feeling, so think its time to have a lazy day. It was strange to do moonlighting putting up projectors screens in a big ops centre. It was alsmot surreal all these people sat around behind screens like me on a weekday.
Its midday and I am still sat in my dressing gown chatting to Lulu on the internet whilst trying to work out a nice way to present my Swedish photos, after the amount of effort Makke Boz and the others put in I dont want to just shove them up with webalbum generator.
Oh just got a message from Martin he wants to go to the gym later, oh well I can rest until then. My parents are away this weekend I think my cat is missing them he keeps moping about and meowing for no reason.

End of the Week

This week has felt like a long one, not sure if I am still tired from Sweden or what but I certainly feel like a couple of days off.
However tomorrow I agreed to help Martin with a small job oh well the cash will come in handy towards the credit card bill.

Watched the film Constantine tonight, a epic based on the helplessly series it was quiet religious with the usual themes of redemption dogma and of course good versus evil. I have been thinking about religion a lot recently especially with the bombings in London I am so unsure about the existence of god, like most people I would love to believe there is something more than this world. Yet so many bad things seem to be perpetrated in the name of god.

Sometimes this sort of thinking nearly drive me insane laid alone late into the night, is religion just heroin for the masses or is there really some big plan. If there is a god are we simply a pet project gathering dust while working on the next thing?

The new Harry potter is released at one minute past midnight unfortunately the internet has already tainted it slightly for me, I was reading /. when I saw a link that like a car crash I didn't want to read but couldn't turn away. I wont ruin it for anyone that knows but I know which character is going to die :-S