Well made it to the gym again for a cadrio only sesion my shoulder is still sore I must admit its really starting to annoy me now I just want to start training again.
My blinds are now up so my room is finally finshed yay! So last night I got to sleep in my own bed again its so much more comfortable. Its strange really compared to some of e hostels I stayed in when I was travelling round OZ the spare room is excellent yet somehow knowing I have a lovely warm comfy bed in thesame house made it less habitable. Well that and being surrunded my my dads horded crap wasnt any fun.
Phil came round lt night to draw on m linux knowledge, it made me realise that since working for Tbred I have done a lot less basic neworking it took me half an hour out work out the correct routing commands. Using a Suse Linux 9.3 computer as a router with two network cards and routed running on one side was a windows client on the other my apple mac. Each seperate side had its own gateway, so the metric had to work that traffic travelling between the neworks was least cost but for each side its own gateway had a lower cost than routing across the network.
It was a bit confsing but we managed in the end SuSE is even a pretty good Linux when you turn KDE off and Phil bough me some beers for m trouble :-D
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Where is my life
Some days I wonder where the time goes, I look back on my uni days where I had so much free time, it waseasy to have a lie in easy to reorgnise. Whereas these day by the time Ive been to work and the gym I feel almost too tired to think.
I often wake up with my body sreaming for me to stay in bed on a weekday but on the weekend I feel like I have to getup early so as not to waste that precious time.
I guess I am just feeling down at the minute given that thing with Nikkie turned so sour so quickly, and then Liz. Nikkie even had the gall to say I as a boring sad geek which is pretty funny/ironic from a girl so badly in debt she cant afford to go out and yet she continues buying games for her xbox. Critising me for going to bit lite,well I was out drinking beer and having fun listening to music and meeting new people whilst you were sat at home on our own, so who exactly is a loser? Oh well plenty more women out there I am sure one day Ill meet someone who is intellgent and will love me for who I am. I am not going to conform, I am not going to be one of the lads am going to be me.
I often wake up with my body sreaming for me to stay in bed on a weekday but on the weekend I feel like I have to getup early so as not to waste that precious time.
I guess I am just feeling down at the minute given that thing with Nikkie turned so sour so quickly, and then Liz. Nikkie even had the gall to say I as a boring sad geek which is pretty funny/ironic from a girl so badly in debt she cant afford to go out and yet she continues buying games for her xbox. Critising me for going to bit lite,
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Stock Dove
Its been another long day full of different but fun things, the second day of c64remix / retrovision was fun though it ended at 3 and left me a lot of the day left to play with. Saw this ace wizzball animation
In the evening I managed to catch up with Paul, I dont get to see him very much these days but I always find it interesting talking to him. I guess he is a connection to a more colourful creative world he is actually a musitian so it was good to be able to chat to him about the remix music I had listened to I know it wasnt really his think but Im pretty sure he could appriciate it on some levels. Unfortunatly he has been havng some problem between himself and Lisa I wont go into the details but we had a long chat I tried to listen and not advise but help him come to his own conlusions I always find its better for people to make up there own minds rather than try and lead them.
It is always a good experience for me talking for Paul I think he can be so positive and brings out the best in people generally a top bloke to have around its a same our lives have seperated over the years him followinf his dreams of becoming a musian and me going into the corporate world. One day I hope both our career paths will reward us though both in different field we are looking for direction, I think we both want to find something to focus on.
In the evening I managed to catch up with Paul, I dont get to see him very much these days but I always find it interesting talking to him. I guess he is a connection to a more colourful creative world he is actually a musitian so it was good to be able to chat to him about the remix music I had listened to I know it wasnt really his think but Im pretty sure he could appriciate it on some levels. Unfortunatly he has been havng some problem between himself and Lisa I wont go into the details but we had a long chat I tried to listen and not advise but help him come to his own conlusions I always find its better for people to make up there own minds rather than try and lead them.
It is always a good experience for me talking for Paul I think he can be so positive and brings out the best in people generally a top bloke to have around its a same our lives have seperated over the years him followinf his dreams of becoming a musian and me going into the corporate world. One day I hope both our career paths will reward us though both in different field we are looking for direction, I think we both want to find something to focus on.
Geekend
Oh where to start what a day, last night after a shit day at work I found myself in Failsworth talking to some fiendish people about computer games from the past.
I think the highlight was listening to Phil trying to give tips about cannon fodder to the fucking guy that programmied it!!! Phil hadnt got a clue there was a guy playing Cannon Fodder emulated on a PSP, he turned out to be Senible Softwares programmer.
Today was a whole day playing games on retro consoles including bomber man (which bruce kicked arse on, any fighting game which I pretty much rocked on). Then in the evening it was a show including Ron Hubbard whoo who rocked a bands who came up with the brillient "16K where does it get you today" and Sid Back to 80s who were excellent.
I cant really explain other than if you owned a Commador 64 or Spectrum but once upon a time you loaded games from tape waite half an hour and sometimes the loading sequence was better than the game. Today modile phones are more powerful!
I bought Makkes album and some Galways stuff to listen too which is Ace. Martin might take his pinbal table down tommorrw,
I think we should deinfatly try and get into expanding the lan by putting on some of these demos and music as sie events see if anyone else is interested. Quite apart from anything else I think the range of talents from Martin with his av to my organisational skills I think we could be a big help and together build something good.
Other funny things included Bruce spiloling kebab all over himself so he sat there for the rest of the evening with his t-shirt on inside out to hide the orange kebab sauce stains.
I think the highlight was listening to Phil trying to give tips about cannon fodder to the fucking guy that programmied it!!! Phil hadnt got a clue there was a guy playing Cannon Fodder emulated on a PSP, he turned out to be Senible Softwares programmer.
Today was a whole day playing games on retro consoles including bomber man (which bruce kicked arse on, any fighting game which I pretty much rocked on). Then in the evening it was a show including Ron Hubbard whoo who rocked a bands who came up with the brillient "16K where does it get you today" and Sid Back to 80s who were excellent.
I cant really explain other than if you owned a Commador 64 or Spectrum but once upon a time you loaded games from tape waite half an hour and sometimes the loading sequence was better than the game. Today modile phones are more powerful!
I bought Makkes album and some Galways stuff to listen too which is Ace. Martin might take his pinbal table down tommorrw,
I think we should deinfatly try and get into expanding the lan by putting on some of these demos and music as sie events see if anyone else is interested. Quite apart from anything else I think the range of talents from Martin with his av to my organisational skills I think we could be a big help and together build something good.
Other funny things included Bruce spiloling kebab all over himself so he sat there for the rest of the evening with his t-shirt on inside out to hide the orange kebab sauce stains.
Friday, September 09, 2005
DWD
I thought I would write a bit of a different blog today and bore you all with my finances. Its basically how I DWD (dealt/dealing with debt), for the last year or so I have been doing my best to try and get out of debt, I would like to now write a bit of a statement of affairs.
Looking back to this time last year, I owed close to £2700 on my Credit card, about £1000 in an overdraft and I had just purchased an Apple Powerbook using a line of credit from the Apple store. Add to this my about 12,000 of student loan (though that's handled differently so Ill discount that for the moment).
Ouch how did I get here?
Whilst at uni I was bad with money despite getting some money off my parents and having a part time job at the council and doing a years paid work for Wilmslow High School I graduated with an overdraft and a big student loan. Then I decided to go to Australia for three months it was the trip of lifetime (see some of the pictures here) I had savings of £4000 up to that point on the trip I basically spent all of this and then some whoops.
To make matters worse I found it difficult to get a job on returning spending nearly 4 months on jobseekers allowance and still using my credit card double oops.
What was worse once I started earning a wage rather than pay off my debts I borrowed more.
So what is the big deal?
"the borrower becomes the lender's slave."
-Solomon in Proverbs 22:7
Well in a way the wasn't one, I could have taken a loan consolidated my debts and worried about it tomorrow. The only thing is I started to think how much money the banks were making out of me, it might only be costing a few pounds a week but it all starts to add up and I started to think maybe I should keep some of this money for myself. I also read a number of books thanks to Nicks badgering "The Richest Man in Babylon" and "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and they really showed me that I didn't want to be a slave to debt.
So where am I today?
Credit Cards
Well thanks to using a series of 0% interest credit cards my current credit card balance is £257 and over the last few months I have switched to a cashback card use my credit card to earn cashback and pay the balance each month earning me money in two ways firstly I get to leave my money in the bank for longer earning interest and secondly for each purchase I earn 0.5% cashback.
Student Loan
A funny debt really its the usual government mess of means testing and brocracy. I currently pay about £50 a month (used to be 80-100 before the government change the threshled). I could start to make overpayments be what would be the point? Interest on student loans is pegged to inflation, so I would make more money be saving any overpayments in a deposit account. Also payments out of my wage are taken before tax any extra payment would be made after tax.
Overdraft
My overdraft level is down to £450 well inside my £500 graduate account' interest free allowance.
Savings
Well pretty much for the first time in my life I have a reasonable amount of savings building up. I set up a number of direct debits to make regular payments into my savings accounts the day after payday, I found after a couple of months I hardly missed the money. I have two savings account one is a long term emergency fund (eventually Ill save the equivalent of 6 months wages as a kind of self insurance against the unexpected.) the other newer account is meant to be way of saving up to pay the big bills like my car insurance and gym membership. Although I don't put much in about £50 I don't see the point of saving whilst in debt this time next year I expect it to be an important money pot. I save into an Abbey Postal ISA 5.5% tax free emergency fund and use ING Direct 4.8% taxable for my day to day pot.
Investments
I actually started putting money into investments some time ago. My first investment was a disaster putting £1200 into a technology ISA about a month before the DOT com bubble burst in 2000 was a pretty stupid way to spend my student loan. Anyway after doing some research I found that over long periods 80% of funds failed to beat the market averages, so rather than try to find a fund in the 20% decided hey why not invest in the market February 2004 I started investing £90 a month into Legal and Generals low cost UK all share index(costs are important as they seriously affect the performance of your money over the long term). So far thanks to a recovery in equities I am already well ahead of cash savings and I expect that this will be the case over an extended period 5 - 10 years. When I paid off my Apple loan I increased my monthly savings to £200 per month.
Pension
OK pensions are boring and if your like my dad pensions are heart breaking (his was with Equitable Life) however I guess its better to do something than nothing. Unfortunately my company doesn't have a pension scheme they have though arranged a salary sacrifice scheme whereby some of my wages is chopped off and paid, the bonus of this its done on gross wage (before tax or national insurance) so it works out a pretty tax efficient £250 a month (about 12% of my gross wage) will apparently buy me about £8000 (in today's money) when I retire its not great buy hopefully along with my other investments it will be enough to get by.
Overall
Well discounting my student loan I am now a net saver rather than debtor which is great news. My main goals now have shifted from paying off my debts to building up a sizeable asset column and saving a deposit for a house. I am hoping next year to fully use my ISA allowance investment £4000 in stocks and £3000 in cash. Plus saving and paying off my bills in a more sensible manner so that I don't feel squeezed form month to month.
If you want to stay out of debt and be finacially secure there are only two things you need to do,
1. Spend less then you earn, this miht seem like a no brainer because it is however on average people in the UK spend £11 for each £10 they earn. Youll always be in debt if you live this way.
2. Pay Yourself, for each paycheck keep a portion of the money for yourself this money is your to have an hold dont spend it keep it and let it earn more money. If you spend everything you earn and dont pay yourself will always be on the edge of financial meltdown hat happens if something goes wrong?
Looking back to this time last year, I owed close to £2700 on my Credit card, about £1000 in an overdraft and I had just purchased an Apple Powerbook using a line of credit from the Apple store. Add to this my about 12,000 of student loan (though that's handled differently so Ill discount that for the moment).
Ouch how did I get here?
Whilst at uni I was bad with money despite getting some money off my parents and having a part time job at the council and doing a years paid work for Wilmslow High School I graduated with an overdraft and a big student loan. Then I decided to go to Australia for three months it was the trip of lifetime (see some of the pictures here) I had savings of £4000 up to that point on the trip I basically spent all of this and then some whoops.
To make matters worse I found it difficult to get a job on returning spending nearly 4 months on jobseekers allowance and still using my credit card double oops.
What was worse once I started earning a wage rather than pay off my debts I borrowed more.
So what is the big deal?
"the borrower becomes the lender's slave."
-Solomon in Proverbs 22:7
Well in a way the wasn't one, I could have taken a loan consolidated my debts and worried about it tomorrow. The only thing is I started to think how much money the banks were making out of me, it might only be costing a few pounds a week but it all starts to add up and I started to think maybe I should keep some of this money for myself. I also read a number of books thanks to Nicks badgering "The Richest Man in Babylon" and "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and they really showed me that I didn't want to be a slave to debt.
So where am I today?
Credit Cards
Well thanks to using a series of 0% interest credit cards my current credit card balance is £257 and over the last few months I have switched to a cashback card use my credit card to earn cashback and pay the balance each month earning me money in two ways firstly I get to leave my money in the bank for longer earning interest and secondly for each purchase I earn 0.5% cashback.
Student Loan
A funny debt really its the usual government mess of means testing and brocracy. I currently pay about £50 a month (used to be 80-100 before the government change the threshled). I could start to make overpayments be what would be the point? Interest on student loans is pegged to inflation, so I would make more money be saving any overpayments in a deposit account. Also payments out of my wage are taken before tax any extra payment would be made after tax.
Overdraft
My overdraft level is down to £450 well inside my £500 graduate account' interest free allowance.
Savings
Well pretty much for the first time in my life I have a reasonable amount of savings building up. I set up a number of direct debits to make regular payments into my savings accounts the day after payday, I found after a couple of months I hardly missed the money. I have two savings account one is a long term emergency fund (eventually Ill save the equivalent of 6 months wages as a kind of self insurance against the unexpected.) the other newer account is meant to be way of saving up to pay the big bills like my car insurance and gym membership. Although I don't put much in about £50 I don't see the point of saving whilst in debt this time next year I expect it to be an important money pot. I save into an Abbey Postal ISA 5.5% tax free emergency fund and use ING Direct 4.8% taxable for my day to day pot.
Investments
I actually started putting money into investments some time ago. My first investment was a disaster putting £1200 into a technology ISA about a month before the DOT com bubble burst in 2000 was a pretty stupid way to spend my student loan. Anyway after doing some research I found that over long periods 80% of funds failed to beat the market averages, so rather than try to find a fund in the 20% decided hey why not invest in the market February 2004 I started investing £90 a month into Legal and Generals low cost UK all share index(costs are important as they seriously affect the performance of your money over the long term). So far thanks to a recovery in equities I am already well ahead of cash savings and I expect that this will be the case over an extended period 5 - 10 years. When I paid off my Apple loan I increased my monthly savings to £200 per month.
Pension
OK pensions are boring and if your like my dad pensions are heart breaking (his was with Equitable Life) however I guess its better to do something than nothing. Unfortunately my company doesn't have a pension scheme they have though arranged a salary sacrifice scheme whereby some of my wages is chopped off and paid, the bonus of this its done on gross wage (before tax or national insurance) so it works out a pretty tax efficient £250 a month (about 12% of my gross wage) will apparently buy me about £8000 (in today's money) when I retire its not great buy hopefully along with my other investments it will be enough to get by.
Overall
Well discounting my student loan I am now a net saver rather than debtor which is great news. My main goals now have shifted from paying off my debts to building up a sizeable asset column and saving a deposit for a house. I am hoping next year to fully use my ISA allowance investment £4000 in stocks and £3000 in cash. Plus saving and paying off my bills in a more sensible manner so that I don't feel squeezed form month to month.
If you want to stay out of debt and be finacially secure there are only two things you need to do,
1. Spend less then you earn, this miht seem like a no brainer because it is however on average people in the UK spend £11 for each £10 they earn. Youll always be in debt if you live this way.
2. Pay Yourself, for each paycheck keep a portion of the money for yourself this money is your to have an hold dont spend it keep it and let it earn more money. If you spend everything you earn and dont pay yourself will always be on the edge of financial meltdown hat happens if something goes wrong?
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
One Story
Well after talking last night Liz clearly went to bed and got up pissed with me from the sound of the text messages I got today, I must say she caught me at pretty much the worst time possible so my reply was none too friendly. I cant believe how badly things have gone falling out with two girls in two days is a record even for me.
Work was foul lots of spaghetti to dig through too many questions as to why on earth things have been done the way they have, but hey none listens to me anyway im just the trainee. My main gripe today is the way the database is structured nothing is normalized the tables are huge and for some very bizarre reason we have three separate tables for each of the three types of loan rather than have a flag to say which type of loan it is. So it means you have to programatically decide which type of loan it is which is not always an easy feat for various reasons like it the loan has been transferred from one to the other it will have a record in multiple files witht he same key, just so poor.
This evening Martin and I went to see his ex workmate Aaron at the Night and Day Cafe in Manchester, the guy didn't endear himself to me asking if I was gay :-S his music was ok a bit like Damien Rice only without the passion. One Story were pretty good though they had a lot of intensity and a couple of stand out songs though the lead could do with getting a better mike couldn't hear some the vocals through the hiss.
Saturday is bit light which is something good to look forward too
Work was foul lots of spaghetti to dig through too many questions as to why on earth things have been done the way they have, but hey none listens to me anyway im just the trainee. My main gripe today is the way the database is structured nothing is normalized the tables are huge and for some very bizarre reason we have three separate tables for each of the three types of loan rather than have a flag to say which type of loan it is. So it means you have to programatically decide which type of loan it is which is not always an easy feat for various reasons like it the loan has been transferred from one to the other it will have a record in multiple files witht he same key, just so poor.
This evening Martin and I went to see his ex workmate Aaron at the Night and Day Cafe in Manchester, the guy didn't endear himself to me asking if I was gay :-S his music was ok a bit like Damien Rice only without the passion. One Story were pretty good though they had a lot of intensity and a couple of stand out songs though the lead could do with getting a better mike couldn't hear some the vocals through the hiss.
Saturday is bit light which is something good to look forward too
Lies damn lies and blogs
I must admit at times I am a terrible liar, I lie at work so I can be lazy, I lie to people about where Ive been or am going to, usually its just a case of me protecting my private life (I guess pretty much an odd thing for someone who runs a blog but hey I never claimed t be a simple person). I guess the person I lie most often to is myself, I have pretty strong belifes that sometimes just to get through the day I need to justify things to myself. Once upon a time I was convinced I could do something with my life be positive but somewhere on the way after many compromises I sit here and well I havent and the sa fact is I probably nver will.
You might at this point dear reader be slightly confused about this post why should I be talking about lies, well the reason is one of my lies became undone because of this very blog!
Over the last few weeks I have been seeing in a casual sense two women Liz and Nikkie, neither was serious in fact Nikkie very much didnt want anything serious, I did however quiet like Nikkie enough to want to see what happened well if you read the last post you know what that was. I digress however in a nutshell I had lied to Liz about what I was doing this weekend in order to have a free schedual I justified this that hey we werent serious it wont matter (see what I mean about lieing to myself, ifs not a character trait I like). Anyway the long and short of it is she read my blog and cofronted me and well I had no excuses.
I should have been honest but I wasnt in fact today I wa completing a survey about morality it asked what I would do if I saw people committing an illegal act whether I would respond, I longed to say would but in my heart I knew that I am a coward and although I like to talk about doing great deeds I would probably walk on by.
The only positives things from day were actully being honest with Liz and going for a cycle, my shouldr hurt during the night though so maybe I even overdid that.
You might at this point dear reader be slightly confused about this post why should I be talking about lies, well the reason is one of my lies became undone because of this very blog!
Over the last few weeks I have been seeing in a casual sense two women Liz and Nikkie, neither was serious in fact Nikkie very much didnt want anything serious, I did however quiet like Nikkie enough to want to see what happened well if you read the last post you know what that was. I digress however in a nutshell I had lied to Liz about what I was doing this weekend in order to have a free schedual I justified this that hey we werent serious it wont matter (see what I mean about lieing to myself, ifs not a character trait I like). Anyway the long and short of it is she read my blog and cofronted me and well I had no excuses.
I should have been honest but I wasnt in fact today I wa completing a survey about morality it asked what I would do if I saw people committing an illegal act whether I would respond, I longed to say would but in my heart I knew that I am a coward and although I like to talk about doing great deeds I would probably walk on by.
The only positives things from day were actully being honest with Liz and going for a cycle, my shouldr hurt during the night though so maybe I even overdid that.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Another Monday
Well I felt completly terrible going into work today that will teach me to drink on a chool night. It was good though so that cheered me up.
Unfortunaly I was soon grounded back to earthby Nikkie she didnt seem to understand my annoyance with what happened and finished with me. Not that we were actually together in a meaningful way this was afterall the girl who kept telling me she had her own life and didnt want monogamy. Anyway the usually recriminations via text, I was less than pleasent with reason I feel, but thats it over. Realistically she could have simply been nice but as usual it was all accusations straight away, i guess it would never work with her in Blackburn anyway oh well, another on to experience.
Work was as painful as usual more bugs more bad planning sometimes I dispair at the lack of direction and planning.
At least mr happness was at another site so I didnt have the entire will to live stripped away. I got a crazy and random job offer to be a senior novell person, did the agent even look at my cv? Quiet funny especially as its based in Paris France I dont speak French. Oh well managed a meet Bruce for a pint at the unicorn and had a chat to Cassy which lifted my spirets a bit.
Unfortunaly I was soon grounded back to earthby Nikkie she didnt seem to understand my annoyance with what happened and finished with me. Not that we were actually together in a meaningful way this was afterall the girl who kept telling me she had her own life and didnt want monogamy. Anyway the usually recriminations via text, I was less than pleasent with reason I feel, but thats it over. Realistically she could have simply been nice but as usual it was all accusations straight away, i guess it would never work with her in Blackburn anyway oh well, another on to experience.
Work was as painful as usual more bugs more bad planning sometimes I dispair at the lack of direction and planning.
At least mr happness was at another site so I didnt have the entire will to live stripped away. I got a crazy and random job offer to be a senior novell person, did the agent even look at my cv? Quiet funny especially as its based in Paris France I dont speak French. Oh well managed a meet Bruce for a pint at the unicorn and had a chat to Cassy which lifted my spirets a bit.
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Today was meant to be a good day I was ging to Nikkies for her sisters wedding it would be a chance for us to spend some time together and to eat bbq etc. The first let down had been ork cancelling my holiday so I couldnt stay over (though as it panned out this might not have been such a bad thing).
The first bad sign was getting lost, maybe this was the universe trying to put me off, maybe just me being inept.
Anyway finally arrived and to start with things were cool satting chatting playing criket then all of a sudden im alone I try and mingle but everyone seems very cliquey after serveral hours of bascially hanging alone I made my excuses and left. I dont think I have every felt more like a spare part, its like the sort of parties i went to as a kid trying to fit in I promised myself I would never be exploited like that again and yet there I was bored as hell watchig Nikkie mingling with people I didnt know. I was glad to get away and to brighten my day I met up with Ian Bruce Faye and Ian for drinks at the Davenport Arms. It was great fun chatting and laughing about lost and life. Eventually ended up back at Ians smoking some weed and chatting about the old days it wa like being 17 again chasing after Laura Fairhurst. In fact there was a conisidence as Nikkies house is on Fairhurst lane, almost some sort of sick karma. I came back from Ians totally trashed I am surpirsed I have been able to type this, Night
The first bad sign was getting lost, maybe this was the universe trying to put me off, maybe just me being inept.
Anyway finally arrived and to start with things were cool satting chatting playing criket then all of a sudden im alone I try and mingle but everyone seems very cliquey after serveral hours of bascially hanging alone I made my excuses and left. I dont think I have every felt more like a spare part, its like the sort of parties i went to as a kid trying to fit in I promised myself I would never be exploited like that again and yet there I was bored as hell watchig Nikkie mingling with people I didnt know. I was glad to get away and to brighten my day I met up with Ian Bruce Faye and Ian for drinks at the Davenport Arms. It was great fun chatting and laughing about lost and life. Eventually ended up back at Ians smoking some weed and chatting about the old days it wa like being 17 again chasing after Laura Fairhurst. In fact there was a conisidence as Nikkies house is on Fairhurst lane, almost some sort of sick karma. I came back from Ians totally trashed I am surpirsed I have been able to type this, Night
Saturday, September 03, 2005
CD Storage
After spending Friday night watching the last 6 episodes of Lost whilst enjoying a bottle of vodka. It ends on a cliffhanger I just can't wait for the next series to start. They really know how to build the interest just relieving enough or taking you away on a tangent in every episode.
Thanks to the vodka and late night I was feeling pretty tired on this morning. In spite of this I decided to try and get some things done, my arms still sore from over-lifting at the gym so instead I cleaned my car even did a bit inside. Then I finally went out and sorted my CD storage problems. Since getting rid of the unit my old fish tank sat on I have had all the stuff that was held in it scattered in piles all over my room. It was mostly CD's and DVD's so I decided it might be a good idea to get a storage rack. I had tried whilst I was at Ikea a few week's ago but the only suitable one proved to be 3cm too tall. Living in a converted garage mean having a low ceiling. John Lewis had what I wanted but it was too expensive.
I finally found what I needed at Argos. They sell a media rack which can hold upto 780 CD's or a combination of CD's and DVDs. Its was a little pricey at £70 for a chipboard unit however its looks pretty nice stocked full of my music CD's (well not full yet have to buy some more CD's :-) Phil and I must have looked pretty funny lugging a 2 metre long box up Hillgate.
In the evening myself Ian and Phil went for a few drinks at the farmer's arms in Poynton. Ian is another Lost addict and was really interested to hear I had the whole series. I might even let him watch it if he asks nicely...
With my parents away my cat has being keeping my up all night. Meowing for food, or to come in or go out, I don't know how they put up with it.
Thanks to the vodka and late night I was feeling pretty tired on this morning. In spite of this I decided to try and get some things done, my arms still sore from over-lifting at the gym so instead I cleaned my car even did a bit inside. Then I finally went out and sorted my CD storage problems. Since getting rid of the unit my old fish tank sat on I have had all the stuff that was held in it scattered in piles all over my room. It was mostly CD's and DVD's so I decided it might be a good idea to get a storage rack. I had tried whilst I was at Ikea a few week's ago but the only suitable one proved to be 3cm too tall. Living in a converted garage mean having a low ceiling. John Lewis had what I wanted but it was too expensive.
I finally found what I needed at Argos. They sell a media rack which can hold upto 780 CD's or a combination of CD's and DVDs. Its was a little pricey at £70 for a chipboard unit however its looks pretty nice stocked full of my music CD's (well not full yet have to buy some more CD's :-) Phil and I must have looked pretty funny lugging a 2 metre long box up Hillgate.
In the evening myself Ian and Phil went for a few drinks at the farmer's arms in Poynton. Ian is another Lost addict and was really interested to hear I had the whole series. I might even let him watch it if he asks nicely...
With my parents away my cat has being keeping my up all night. Meowing for food, or to come in or go out, I don't know how they put up with it.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
:-S
Yesterday was pretty damn annoying for me, bascially our new member of staff is one of the most negative and downright antisocial I have ever met, I have been finding it increasingly difficult to get on with him. Added to this he seems unwilling to help me learn anything which given I am meant to be a trainee makes my life very difficult coupled with the fact that my other collegue is increasingly busy so unable to help I have begun to feel more and more a useless.
To add insult to injury I asked for next monday off through the normal channels which was give an ok. Then about an hour later after I informed my client I received another email this time from the head of the company asking me not to take the day off and worse questioning why I would request time off when the company are planning a software rollout at another site, well the reason would be that NOBODY BOTHERED TO TELL ME given I am not a mind reader and wsnt CC'ed into any of the emails or told by Tony it was pretty difficult for me to know. Apparently Kevin didnt know either as he didnt bother to mention it in the reply he sent to me.
I was so pissed off by the close of business I went straight to the gym and did a two hour workout in order to get rid of some stress. This was a slight mistake as in my anger I tried to lift too much and nearly torn a musle in my shoulder. Oh well at least 45minutes on the cross trainer should have burned a few calories.
Later I went for a drink with Phil we have decided to go diving in Sharm El Shek for my birthday by which time hopefully I will have saved enough money for a holiday. Though I think I will need a diving refresher course beforehand.
To add insult to injury I asked for next monday off through the normal channels which was give an ok. Then about an hour later after I informed my client I received another email this time from the head of the company asking me not to take the day off and worse questioning why I would request time off when the company are planning a software rollout at another site, well the reason would be that NOBODY BOTHERED TO TELL ME given I am not a mind reader and wsnt CC'ed into any of the emails or told by Tony it was pretty difficult for me to know. Apparently Kevin didnt know either as he didnt bother to mention it in the reply he sent to me.
I was so pissed off by the close of business I went straight to the gym and did a two hour workout in order to get rid of some stress. This was a slight mistake as in my anger I tried to lift too much and nearly torn a musle in my shoulder. Oh well at least 45minutes on the cross trainer should have burned a few calories.
Later I went for a drink with Phil we have decided to go diving in Sharm El Shek for my birthday by which time hopefully I will have saved enough money for a holiday. Though I think I will need a diving refresher course beforehand.
Friday, August 26, 2005
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
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
Thursday, August 25, 2005
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).
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).
Sunday, August 21, 2005
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.
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.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
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.
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.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
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
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
Monday, August 08, 2005
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.
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.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
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?
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?
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