Azekeil

Hello world

2009-12-08T18:20:50Z

I aten't dead yet.

I was without internet for the 4 days I was with sessifet25 helping her move into her new place. It was tiring but really good fun, and I also enjoyed being without the internet or a computer until towards the end, when we needed to get stuff done.

I set up my old hifi at sessifet25's new place for her to use (Marantz PM-80, Mission 732s with a bit of cosmetic damage and a cheapie Tevion DVD/CD player) and it sounded alright, but not great. I then went and bought some speaker stands and some proper QED speaker cable and it now sounds pretty good :)

Work is being.. weird. And tiring.

Jazz is being pretty lovely. Roleplaying's being fun :)

I am back! Poker?

2009-11-25T14:06:52Z

I am back at home now. I was visiting sessifet25. I will miss her, but we both have exciting things to be getting on with in the mean time.

Such as - poker tonight? It's still on guys, although ev1ldonut and kissycat1000 won't be around. jinx_lbc may be around with J.

Jazz seemed happy to see me, which was nice. I missed the little guy too. Thanks granny_amber for taking care of him while I was away!

In the mean time, games, relaxing, and beer I think :) This is my Sunday, after all ;)

Whut..

2009-11-17T20:00:53Z

So life is busy: Last night I went shopping and tried to fix my boiler. This morning I bought car insurance so I could get to work (and give ev1ldonut a lift); this afternoon I worked from home so my boiler could get fixed (ended up having to pick up a part for it) while having a difficult conference call. Work is busy.

Outside of work is good: sessifet25 came to stay over the weekend, which was lovely :)

Computer games are also good fun: Borderlands, Dragon Age: Origins and Torchlight are my current favourites.

Tonight is beer, Anime with ev1ldonut and ninjagirl and then probably some more Borderlands :)

There is a BadgerLAN soon, and spending more time with sessifet25. Life is still good :)

What to say?

2009-11-07T14:11:39Z

Really rather happy. sessifet25 is wonderful. I am in love :)

This weekend is busy; seeing my mum, then my sister, my dad and some of my dad's family, then roleplaying on the Sunday. Then it's back to work for the week, then sessifet25 is visiting for the weekend.

Work is busy, life is busy. Things are good :)

Back in the 'nham.

2009-10-29T20:59:40Z

Leaving sessifet25 was hard. Driving back, I listened to Tool - 10,000 Days very loudly. It was bittersweet, and I felt quite alive. I made it in to work for 9:10 or so, before any others on my team. Now however I'm feeling quite dead, as it was a hectic day as well. But I don't mind :)

I've had a lovely few days which I hope are the beginning of many more to come :)

GIP

2009-10-28T14:59:43Z

Just realised I haven't updated my icons in.. well a long time. And people I haven't seen for a while don't really know what I look like now. So have an icon borne out of spare time and narcissism. The photo it came from is here:

An update from Bolton

2009-10-28T12:47:27Z

First, hello to all the people I've just added in this neck of the woods! Nice to meet and get to know you all a little :)

Second, I'm staying here another night, so I won't make the poker scheduled for this evening, sorry. I'll drive in straight to work on Thursday morning. Yes, meltie, you can now chuckle.

Third. I might be a bit happy :D

Okay, I concede

2009-10-21T08:41:50Z

I'm resting at home now after a couple of days of going in to work and coming home early. The symptoms of the bug itself aren't particularly acute, but it's meaning I can't sleep well and my ability to cope with people or things has been greatly diminished. This is leaving me feeling quite isolated. So instead of craving what I can't deal with properly at the moment, perhaps I'll indulge in some escapism instead.

My smile muscles are hurting

2009-10-16T21:06:23Z

Just a note - the week from hell is over. Things are still going to be bloody busy at work, but I don't care. I feel like a teenager again.

Hello, life. More of this please. :)

Oof.

2009-10-13T19:14:27Z

So, a great and long weekend and a lack of sleep equals bleurgh at work in the form of DONOTWANT-itus. Still, this shall pass.

If I don't get a reasonable night's sleep tonight though I doubt I'll be going in to work tomorrow.

And now, I think it's time for some escapism.

Urgh the 2nd

2009-10-13T10:38:30Z

Sleep? Apparently I can not has.

Urgh

2009-10-12T09:51:27Z

Damn, I have to actually work? How disappointing.

I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS

2009-10-11T11:34:07Z

I think allowing myself a small undignified 'squee' at this point is appropriate :D

In other news, it was lovely having sessifet25 come to stay.

And to complete the musical clichés: Back to life, back to reality?

Bizarre things I learn about myself

2009-09-28T17:43:48Z

This weekend's experience has taught me something. Something that might be obvious to people who know me well, but something that has only really solidified for me very recently.

In vehicles, all else being roughly equal, I go for sound over everything else. So let's look at the other stuff:

Performance. Well, going fast is fun, but unless I take it to a track it's not particularly legal, and potentially unsafe. Accelerating fast is also fairly meaningless - I can break the national speed limit in around 3 seconds from a standing start on my bike already, and there aren't many things on the road that can give me a run for my money. I'm not interested in particularly good cornering - it would just encourage me to take corners particularly fast.
Looks/Status. Looks are nice, certainly in a vehicle by itself, but you add a driver or rider and then it's also about status and they're posing. No thanks, not for me.
Reliability. Well, clearly the vehicle should be reliable. I don't have the time, patience or skills to run something that requires a lot of maintenance, but I don't believe buying a new vehicle will necessarily get you a reliable vehicle. A little knowledge of the mechanics of cars, plus knowledge on what is a reliable make (and sometimes model) of car are usually sufficient.
Convenience/Versatility. Given I'm a single guy, I don't generally need a great deal of versatility, but I do like convenience. I am lazy. I also like being able to give lifts to my friends.
Safety. I have no dependants, so as long as I'm fully aware of the risks I take in choosing to drive/ride a particular vehicle in a particular manner in particular conditions, it's not a real concern. Plus, you know, I have a motorbike. Yes, I can get horribly maimed, but it's a conscious risk.
Cost. Given I'm not bothered by most of the things most normal people are bothered by - looks/status, performance, safety etc - that means I don't need to spend loads of money on a vehicle. Good thing too, as I powerfully dislike spending money unnecessarily. In fact, one might go as far as to say that because I dislike spending money unnecessarily, the rest of my requirements have been moulded to account for this :)

So what does that leave? Well, I figured that in order to get a car with the sound I wanted, I would either have to do something to this car, or buy a much more expensive car that made the sound I wanted. Given that this car has proven comparatively cheap to run (LPG, pretty reliable now I've had the brakes, engine, bushes and exhaust looked at) to the alternative, I decided the cheapest way to get what I want was to modify this car. So that's what I did - not for performance, looks, status or anything else, but just for sound.

I've been this way with HiFi too - it's some sort of primeval need to have a powerful sound. It's exciting and exhilarating.

Unfortunately, my desire for a powerful sound comes into direct conflict with the idea of getting an electric vehicle (otherwise ideal in terms of reliability and cost to run etc). Phooey.

I've also, for some time, been considering getting a cruiser, not so much because of the look (although it will probably suit me better than the Blackbird) but because of the noise. I wonder if I should consider 'auditioning' bikes, and just do it with my eyes closed to begin with? ;)

A good day

2009-09-26T22:54:21Z

Today I woke up at 7:30am (okay, I woke at 6:30; I got up at 7:30) and drove to Walsall just north of Birmingham to MIJ Exhaust to get my Lexus' exhaust fixed. That's a little way to just get it fixed, so I got it.. 'fixed'. It sounds more like a Maserati rather than a Mustang or a TVR, which I suppose I should have expected, but I'm fairly happy with the result, and it did make me drive the longer way back home so I could play with the car and listen to the exhaust note some more ;)

While I was waiting for the exhaust work to be done, I walked 2 miles to the local cinema which was like stepping back in time. The cinema's advertising board was one that you had to physically change the letters on, and so were all the boards internally and for each screen. When I asked what each film was about I was handed a folder with sheets of paper inside plastic sheaths to read. How quaint! Still, it all worked. The floor was sticky, which just made me smirk with nostalgia.. and put my bag on the next seat. The place was deserted. Surrogates is a fairly good watch :) Then I walked 2 miles back and picked up the car and drove home.

This afternoon I arranged for a local bicycle shop to order me in one of these and the right seat post to go with it, which should give me even less excuse not to cycle more locally and even cycle more to/from work. This will go hand-in-hand with my re-new no-sugar-in-tea policy (or anything other than milk, for that matter), which I started a few weeks ago. I still miss it in tea, but I'm happy enough I guess.

This evening I managed to cycle round to Andy's for an impromptu games evening and socialising.

So all in all, an expensive but successful day :)

Tomorrow: relaxing? Pub? Who can tell?

Today, I have been mostly INCOMPREHENSIBLE RAGE

2009-09-23T16:38:19Z

I think I'm just tired, but today has been full of RAGE. I therefore have tried to avoid sending emails or generally interacting as much as possible.

Which is annoying as I've been going to bed slightly earlier to try and get more sleep to shake off whatever this bug is that's clearly trying to pull me down. All that's happened is I've woken up earlier.

Anyway enough of this, I'm going to go do the metaphorical equivalent of stick my head in the sand.

Update

2009-09-17T22:56:18Z

My mother came to visit yesterday, which was really nice. I took her out for a decent steak at a favourite pub, which she seemed to appreciate. We walked, talked, visited Bourton-on-the-Water just after it shut and had a not-amazingly-overpriced generous portions of tea, and then played poker in the evening with friends, which was nice :)

Boy was I shattered at the end of that day though. In the morning, I'd had my second and final back scan:

It's better than it was previously, and it feels better too, but it's not perfect. I still have to be careful and think about what I'm doing. Apparently it was an injury, which is why exercising wasn't the right thing to do at the time. It's healing up now, and it should return to nearly 100% over 24 months, but I may get the odd relapse every now and again. I shouldn't avoid doing things because of my back though, that causes more harm than good.

Tonight was supposed to be relaxing, but I discovered that behemoth didn't switch on properly. Cue lots of debugging, and also lifting the damned heavy thing out as I suspected (rightly, it turns out) that at least one of the problems was a loose cable somewhere with the hard disk array. There was a second problem as well, which was that the network cable seems rather iffy.. that's wiggled and fixed, for now. Finally, there is some sort of NFS problem, which I've worked around, but that was a PITA. I'll have to leave getting MusicBrainz to scan and reclassify all my music until another night I guess.

I wanted to get this update done before bedtime, and I've done it, but I've stayed up later than I wanted to - these last couple of days have been knackering and I can feel the sore throat warning me not to push it. Roll on the weekend. In fact, roll on three weeks' time :)

Life is good :)

2009-09-13T20:05:58Z

Well, a relaxing weekend (including a siesta on Saturday!) has done me good. A beer, some uplifting interactions, a couple of games, and my rediscovered love for Massive Attack have all come together to make my weekend.

Hope yours has been equally relaxing/fulfilling/etc :)

A new addition to the family

2009-09-03T13:53:46Z

Yesterday after work, ev1ldonut and I went to see and ultimately pick up our new kitten, Jazz. He's just over 4 weeks old, having been rescued from an abandoned pub where he and his two sisters were found by the family we went to pick him up from. He's very young - younger than would be usual but he had been abandoned. He's still taking milk every 4-5 hours during the day, and we're (trying) to start weening him on to solid foods.

Right now however he doesn't like to be alone and uncertainly follows the sound of your voice, but recognises the sight of legs. His current way of informing you he wants to be picked up is to wobble over and climb onto your foot.

I'm home from work today, pretty much exhausted.

Not quite according to plan...

2009-08-28T22:25:53Z

So the day started off well enough, with ev1ldonut taking me out to lunch.. but it started going downhill from there. The nagging headache I had got worse (a combination of not enough sleep, dehydration despite drinking loads and possibly being run down due to not enough sleep) and I was beginning to feel feverish. There was a brief upturn when kissycat1000, jinx_lbc and J popped over to wish me happy birthday and give me a couple of excellent presents - one of which I will be wearing tomorrow and the other of which I may be playing soon :)

I've spent most of the day installing and reinstalling Windows 7 and hunting down ever more obscure problems and solutions as to why it was just ending up at a blank screen with a mouse cursor. Only when I left it alone and it went into standby did I think to re-check the TV (which acts as a second monitor) only to discover the login screen sat there waiting for me... *sigh*.

Unfortunately illness meant I missed going to my friends' house for a BBQ, which was gutting.

Still, it's finished installing now, and there's always tomorrow. I'll go to bed early and get a good night's sleep :)

Totally

2009-08-27T20:01:04Z

I totally have a clean house (thanks ev1ldonut for the help), I totally have tomorrow off which is totally my birthday, and then I totally have a load of people coming around to totally mess up my totally clean house. Damn.

My mojo; I can has?

2009-08-25T09:36:46Z

So I appear to be getting back into making plans for the house and my future and feeling better and stronger in myself. Which is good.

I have been talking about wanting to do blacksmithing for years; well, basically I should book myself a 3 day course sometime soon as a taster session. I did so enjoy the bowmaking course I did a while back.

Based on whether I think I could enjoy blacksmithing and what I think I need to get started and whether it would be possible to do this indoors, this will kind of make my decision on whether to stay in my current house or not. I'm currently in a fixed-rate mortgage until November 2011, so either way it won't mean a move any time soon.

If I need another place, I want a detached place with fewer but bigger rooms, somewhere that people won't mind me making a racket by forging. I had a tentative look online but nothing immediately jumped out within my price range within Gloucestershire. This got me back into thinking about plans for an extension - hearing of chocojon's recent improvements made me less fearful of the undertaking - and if I could factor in a place suitable for forging and ensure the lounge area was detached enough, this would essentially fulfil my detached needs and may be cheaper than moving. I actually quite like my current location - it's convenient, close to others within Cheltenham so they don't feel it's a major trek to get to the house, close to major transport links and also close to open space.

Yesterday I trimmed and tidied the front garden in anticipation of the party this weekend, and my neighbour opposite was trimming her hedge laboriously with a pair of shears. So I offered her the use of my hedgetrimmer which she gladly accepted with a bit of tuition. It felt good to be able to help people.

My next door neighbour came out to shoot the breeze and also offer his services as a gardener. He was keen on doing it regularly which I'm not so keen on, but it comes at a convenient time so I asked him to clear the back garden of weeds today. I'll get him to do the fencing (possibly with me) that I've been meaning to do and swap the stones for turf or at least seed the garden with grass seed when the fence is in.

The next step with the house regardless of what happens next will be to hire a skip and throw away all the crap that I've accumulated through continuing to live like a student. I can certainly use extra manpower and motivation with that so I'll be happy to have the help.

After that, ev1ldonut and I have tentatively agreed to get a cleaner in every so often to help keep the house clean.

Roleplaying last night was an affair loud with laughter for pretty much the entire evening, which was awesome to be a part of. Ensuing hilarity with one of the party starting part-petrified as a direct consequence of choosing to skip a couple of weeks' sessions as she had 'better' things to be doing. We started writing a list of 101 things to do with a part-petrified halfling, which she took great offence at and the rest of us took great delight in teasing her with ;)

Joint birthday party of doom!

2009-08-23T18:54:04Z

ninjagirl, crushonarobot and I are having a triple birthday party from Saturday 2pm onwards at mine and Mat's house. Short notice sucks, but it's what you've got :)

No internet access from home

2009-08-21T16:02:47Z

ev1ldonut and I have no access to the internet at home since midnight. This means our home email address is also out of action and people will be unable to send email to it..

I've finally convinced our ISP that it's a problem with their equipment so they're coming out tomorrow morning to look/replace it.

EDIT: All comments screened on this post as a temporary alternative to email should anyone want it.

EDIT2: I reset the modem and it's back working again...

Does any one else feel..

2009-08-19T21:23:47Z

..that everything we do is ultimately futile? I don't mean in the sense that we die of old age, and the problem that ancient civilisations struggled with in their sense of impermanence, I mean in the sense that the economy is collapsing, peak oil is just around the corner, climate change is practically inevitable, politics seems to only get worse not better, wars, famine and exploitation still exist, each successive generation appears to have access to worse education and that the day-to-day work we do is so abstracted from any of these fundamental issues that it all just seems unreal.

This isn't supposed to be a negative post, I just.. am finding it hard to justify our way of existence given the above. And the biggest irony is that tomorrow I will go in to work, put this all to the back of my mind and continue performing my ultimately futile role.