My special day
I know a fair few strange people. And some stranger than others. I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way, as a little oddness in a person is always a good thing. It makes people more interesting, and wouldn't it be rather dull if everyone was alike, and even more so if they were alike and boring?
Yesterday I receive my first ever First Communion card. Yeah, came as a shock to me as well to be honest. I checked and double checked my calendar. I phone my parents. They phoned the minister. He phoned ... er ... God? Ok .. so I may be making that but up. But I did receive a First Communion card. Admittedly the sender (and I will not mention who so as to protect the guilty) did say "Ignore the card" ... but still. Anyhow, made me smile which was a bonus after the weekend I had.
Work-wise, today (and yesterday) I pretty much got nothing done, so ended up doing some work this evening. The stuff is not difficult, or to be complexly honest, particularly dull. Don't get me wrong, the whole job is dull, but comparatively it's not that dull. I just seem to have no motivation for it.
So tomorrow I better get my finger out and do a full days work or else the sh*t will be hitting the fan. Metaphorically that is. Can you imagine the mess if it were literal? Eugh, and moo.
No time at all
Again, been far to long since the last one of these, where does the time go? And that leads me neatly onto a rant (feel free to skip the next couple of paragraphs).
Dear Anne, why oh why oh why can't a DateTime object in C# (.net) be null, or have no value? Eh? Answer me that. "But why on earth would you want this?" you may be asking. (Or maybe not, but to be honest I'm gonna tell you anyhow). Well, what if you have user accounts for something, but some of them can be set to expire and others have no expiry date. Grrr.
OK, I'll cut the rant short. In other news I now have a legit copy of Visual Studio 2003 (yes, I am aware the 2005 version is released in November) so my laptop is back to being totally legit (apart from the MP3s). Necessary evil I'm afraid.
Have I mentioned that I hate computers? How I wish I was at Glastonbury right now. Guess I'll have to be cotent with the coverage on the BBC (starts Friday BBC3, 8pm - 2am). Moo.
Sunday, sun-day
Today is a typical example of how all Sundays should be. Getting up late and reading a book with a cup of coffee. A leisurely lunch followed by a bike ride in the glorious sunshine, then back to soak in a bath for a hour or so before a tasty dinner (which I can smell cooking) and eating it while watching the F1.
Can't remember the last day I didn't think about work once. Unfortunately this won't be one of them as I've got stuff to do after dinner. Grr.
Went looking for how to get to Bearsden on the ole 2-wheel transportation device but seemed to miss the turnoff by the canal and ended up in Clydebank. Oh well .. maybe some other time. Still, it was a lovely afternoon, if a little on the hot side.
And I don't even feel guilty for not seeing my Dad on fathers day. Mind you, that's cause he's still on holiday somewhere even hotter than here.
Anyhow .. I'm off to enjoy what's left of Sunday. Moo.
Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting
At least that's what Winamp seems to think. Sometimes the random option is like buying a hamburger from one of those mobile food vans that turn up at concerts and stuff. You may end up with the tastiest hunk of cow flesh you've ever had, or you may get a worst case of the runs since ... well ... let's not go there.
Anyhow ... now it's playing Neighbourhood by Space. Much better. Eyes are sore again today, after being fine right up till about dinner time which naturally means I didn't go to get my eyes tested this week. Hmm ... maybe next week. In fact, I could even go tomorrow, but I won't cause I'm lazy.
Got a miniscule amount of work done today, but on the plus side did get a pile of forms signed at lunchtime, and then had a splendid dinner of curry and then Belgian waffles and ice cream with a nice couple of chaps. Mmmm.
An now we have Helicopters by the Barenaked Ladies. While I remember, if you don't read the Bunny Comics then you bloody well should, as they are the best web comic evar!!1!. Anyhow, here's where I was about to tell you that you could now also get hand drawn/painted bunny comics for your very own wall. However, it seems the artist has been overwhelmed by the response and has asked for no more requests at present. Oh well .. maybe next time.
Right .. pub night tomorrow so I shall go get some sleep now. Moo.
Clients are twats
Yes, I mean it. And no, that's not generalising in the slightest. I can honestly say every client I can remember working with has been a twat. Maybe it's only the bad ones I remember, but such is life.
Been meaning to do one of these blog things for a while now, but the time just seems to have slipped away. Seemed to be working most of the weekend which just plain sucks, apart from when Andy popped over to try and lift my spirits. All he managed to do was drink my beer, eat my crisps and waffle on about ColdFusion. No no .. that's not fair, as he did bring a bottle of malt with him too.
And before I forget! Public Service Announcement: Fathers day is this coming Sunday.
I spend most of today tearing my hair out with a client (would you believe it) trying to come to some sort of agreement about a web design. Well, as of 23:13 I believe some sort of semi-compromise has been reached. Unfortunately it's me that's had to do most of the compromising and as such the site looks ... well .. let's just say not as cool as it had the potential to. Still, there's still one final round of revisions so no doubt he'll be pissing me off for the rest of the week too.
Right .. anyhow .. I'm now off to bed, and plan not getting up till the rest of you are in work (Except Colin, and you USian lot). Bwhahaha. Moo.
A day of two halves
Today started off so well. The sun was streaming through the curtains and a nice cup of coffee got the day kicked off and it really felt like it was going to be a most splendid of days. A trip up to the new Morrisons superstore (after Safeway closed 5 days ago) revealed a much nicer store with a whole host of new goodies. Will take me a while to sample them all, as is my public duty.
After a spot of lunch the blind man came. That's a bloke from Hillarys Blinds rather than a visually challenged member of our society. He measured up the bedroom window for a nice set of blinds which should be with me in about 10 days or so. Was initially wanting a set of wooden Venetian blinds, but my windows are too big (height wise) and the blinds would be too heavy, so instead wood effect aluminium ones were ordered.
And then things take a turn for the worse. Since I did sweet FA yesterday, I decided I really should do some work. At the moment I have absolutely no interest in what needs done, and as a result no motivation to do anything at all. So 1hr30 of painful work resulted in some trivial changes that should have taken no longer than 10 minutes in total.
At this point I then hear from da' boss who delivers some not-very-good* news about work. (*This may be an understatement). I then came very close to flinging my laptop through the window when I got over pissed off with a simple SQL Query that wasn't working.
So now I'm really pissed off, with piles of really dull work to do and absolutely no motivation. From starting off as a good day, it has deteriorated rapidly to a truly shitty day. Moo.
Eye will be brief
Eyes are sore this evening, so I'll be keeping this brief. No doubt I'll be in pain tomorrow too as I was out on the ole bike today, for the first time in a couple of weeks or so. I know I keep harping on about it but I thought I would have much more time when not working full time. More fool me.
Made it over to Paisley the correct way this time. Had the camera with me and snapped some photos, which I will endeavour to put up at some point but don't hold your breath. And I actually fell off today. Woohoo, etc. Stopped (in Pollok park) to take a photo and sorta forgot to unclip .. wobbled for a bit and then came crashing to the ground. Fortunately there was no damage to me nor the camera, and there didn't seem to be anyone about to see me. Bonus.
In other news, I finally got round to fitting the shower rail I bought a while ago and (touch wood) it's not fallen down yet. Now the computer's going off and I am going to do something that doesn't involve focusing. I guess that means listing to some music. Moo.
Wire free pooping bird
If I had a computer category this would go in here, but I don't and I ain't creating one so it's going to have to live in here. Not that you really care, but I thought it was important to mention. In the interests of openess and honesty and what not.
So, tonight I have wireless working under Gentoo (that's Linux BTW). The problem was it was using WPA rather than WEP and the whole thing just wouldn't work .. but now it does. And I am a happy bunny.
And I've probably bored you senseless, but I had to share this wonderful news with someone. And if I tried to share it with anyone IRL then I'd have lost what little credibility I had.
Anyhow, that's enough for now. I shall attempt to rack up a few miles on the ole' bike tomorrow, but that depends on work and stuff. Need to get out on it more. Moo.
Faster than a speeding bullet
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No .. it's ... well ... actually it is a plane. In fact quite a few of them. Flying rather fast, rather close. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for the Red Arrows.
After Friday night's visit to the pub, Saturday morning's dreary start was even less welcome than usual. However, after meeting with the three other blokes we made out way along the coast to Helesburgh for the 2005 Faslane Fair. The main reason for the trip was the aforementioned Red Arrows, and as usual Thomas has some stunning photos (I may try and put up a couple of my own later).
The other highlight of the day was a most tasty fish supper. You really can't beat a chippie from a fishing town where the fish are fresh and tasty as ... er ... something most tasty. Just go try it, ok?
And, with that we're at the end of yet another weekend. Back to the grind for most people tomorrow, but not for me. Bwhahahaa. Working from home does have its advantages, although many disadvantages too. More on that later also no doubt. Moo.
Mechanical mayhem
Last week the postman apparently tried to deliver a parcel but I was not in. I would take the time to debate this fact and generally moan about the quality of the post around these parts, but I shall save that for another day.
Since the PO do not re-deliver, a trip was required down to the sorting office to pick up said package. It's not far off, and it was a reasonable day so I hopped on the ole 2 wheel cycle and toddled off down the road. I was just approaching the depot when the pedals stopped turning, but not because I stopped pedalling. Oh no, it was as if something got jammed in it, and it stopped rather abruptly.
Fortunately the wheels kept turning, giving me a chance of not falling off. Never has it taken so much concentration to un-clip the clippy (clipless grr) pedals but I didn't fall off in the end. On examination it seemed the gear had come totally out of alignment. I twiddled enough to fix it and allow me to get home with the package, but couldn't figure out what was wrong.
Today I decided to try and sort the problem, and started playing with the gears in the kitchen (no garden y'see. Plus it's raining anyhow). Things looked to be getting better when *snap* the gear cable snapped. Grr.
A quick trip to the ye olde bike shoppe and I arrived back £2.00 less well off, and holding a new gear cable. Now, I am one of those people who can look at a practical situation and see exactly what needs done. I can formulate the best way to get it done and usually I'm pretty close to being right. The problems arises when I stop the planning stage and enter the doing stage. That's when 99% of the time things go wrong. I can royally screw up anything DIY or engineering related. And usually I do it with style.
But, and I know you're going to be disappointed, it was incredibly easy and I had it done and working in 10 mins. That's not to say when I ride it that it won't blow up spectacularly, but at the moment, lying upside down in my kitchen, it's working like a charm. Exciting stuff, eh?