31 Jul 2008 (Thursday) 

After last night's hectic attempts to get a machine back up and running when the network died because of the PPP problems, I've been really tired all day. The plan was to go to bed early, but that didn't work out tonight.

My fans arrived for the server - two little fans to go on the case to try to keep the temperature down. I got a little concerned when one of the drives started reporting 62 degrees. Given that the operating temperature has a high of 60, it's probably not good for it. Anyhow, the fans arrived today so it seemed sensible to fit them.

First thing, however, was a reboot into the new kernel. 2.6.26 is now installed and running happily - first go, too, which is quite neat. You might be forgiven for thinking I know what I'm doing. Next came the fans, which were more interesting because ... well, it's a fan. It's got two ways around. One way it sucks and the other it blows. Get it around the wrong way and it won't do a lot of good. After a bit of messing around (read 'ring Chris for suggestion') the solutions of 'try it and see which way it works' and 'try to match the PSU fan' were found and used. Two fans fitted, the machine went on again and all was well still.

Turned the machine off again, disconnected the external case and fitted the new drive there. Now it probably wasn't quite so necessary to turn the machine off, but I wasn't exactly sure how to do that. When I tried before I managed to make the discs safe by unmounting them but the kernel got upset when the drive was disconnected physically. Anyhow, new TB drive installed, and was formatted and is just waiting for data now .

All in all, a very successful day.

Really tired now, though.

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30 Jul 2008 (Wednesday) 

Oh goody, my morning's started with a headache. Why can't it start with a hug ? [ Headache; Me ]

I've got Kernel problems with the server. If the PPP device becomes disconnected somehow (I'm not sure of the exact manner, but I assume it's the other end of the ATM connection dropping somehow and it doesn't happen often) the ppp0 device doesn't get released and parts of the network stack hang. The message 'unregister_netdevice: waiting for ppp0 to become free. Usage count = 1' appears which is unhelpful. Searches indicate that this was fixed for serial devices around 2.6.9. I'm on 2.6.24-rc8 and I'm getting the problem so something's still not right I guess. I little more looking shows that it's a bug introduced in that Kernel version and fixed shortly after. So am upgrade is definitely in order. As it invariably means a reboot it's annoying.

I had a nice chat to Caroline this evening, too. I like chatting to her. She's away all next week and I'll have nobody to talk to .

Got my healthcare stuff from work yesterday, too. I will get around to reading it tomorrow. Honest.

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29 Jul 2008 (Tuesday) 

I've had a pretty sad day today. It's not that work's not interesting, or anything like that but I've really not had much impetus to do much. I have got a reasonable amount done, but... I just don't seem to feel it's worth it.

I keep thinking that I should have a holiday, but I don't really know what to do with myself.

And my nail's going to come off very soon. I managed to knock it and it's cracked a little way on the inside now. I've managed to tidy it up so that it's not going to tear and it's not at a point where it's going to easily come off just yet, but...

I woke up this morning with Angels, by Robbie Williams going around my head.

I got in to bed this evening and got very confused because I couldn't find my light switch.

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27 Jul 2008 (Sunday) 

There's a little story I wrote which I've put on the stories page. It's just a little something I wrote because I was bored on the train to Claire and Justin's and was having intermitent chats with Caroline - it's hard to use Skype when the connection drops out regularly.

I've been in work most of today, sorting out a few problems that we've got at the moment. It's strange being in on a weekend because I need to be, rather than I choose to be. But we got some things done which isn't too bad.

I've been going through the old TODOs in my mail box. There's a lot that are outdated and I meant to do things about but too many other things got in the way. Some, from back in 2006, are highly amusing - I've no idea if they were ever addressed. It's also amusing because there's half finished words, notes, poems and just general thoughts in there which I'd forgotten about. Someday I should collect those together, but that day will be quite a while in the future.

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26 Jul 2008 (Saturday) 

Woke up late-ish today. The day was going quite well until this evening. It doesn't seem all that important but... ok... I went upstairs to get some DVDs and noticed that my washing was done - and had been the last two times I'd been upstairs and was going to take it out. So I went back downstairs with the DVDs intending to go back up again to get it out. A while, I went to take the DVDs back and... the washing's still there. So I'm feeling pretty fed up that I can't remember things.

A while back I said that I was quite pleased that in some small way I'd managed to help Nicola, and that it at least meant that I'd done something worthwhile. Caroline suggested that there must be something else that I've done that's been worthwhile.

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25 Jul 2008 (Friday) 

Today's been quite lovely. The sun has shined. The birds have sung. The cygnets... well, they're big now but they're still lovely and cute.

It was very hot last night so I didn't sleep all that well, but when I did, I woke up from really nice dream.

Today at work was only a little annoying, in that my machine spent most of the day trying to empty the recycle bin. And the last hour and a half of that, it told me there were '5 Seconds Remaining', which is always neat.

Chris apparently got woken up this morning to the sound of his UPS complaining about a power cut, which is never fun early in the morning. However, one thing he asked was... have I got my external drive box on the UPS. Amusingly, I've not - 'cos I just didn't think of it. That's kinda silly.

I had a short chat to mum this evening, and to Simon as well.

I've also had a nice chat with Caroline this evening which whilst very late was still great .

I'm probably in work tomorrow, which is bound to be fun .

It looks like some of the DVDs that I copied to the server don't seem to have the right sync, which is a little annoying. The audio is slightly out, but the DVDs play fine, which means I've probably encoded it wrongly - though I'm not entirely sure how.

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24 Jul 2008 (Thursday) 

Quite tired today, due to staying up till late drawing pictures. Another parcel today, which is quite neat.

Really there's been nothing much today. Spoke to Caroline briefly this evening before she went to bed, and later to Sue.

Not a lot else to say really; I've been just too tired over the last week or so and haven't trusted myself to think sensibly .

For some reason I don't understand, the National Lottery closes at night. Where's the sense in that ?

Please note, when playing Instant Win Games you acknowledge that these are games of chance and the results are predetermined. [ Chance is predetermined; The National Lottery ]

That's an actual sentence on the National Lottery website.

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23 Jul 2008 (Wednesday) 

Not a bad day today. I managed to finish Harry Potter last night, which was quite cool. Caroline rang me at work - she's had new carpets down which is great news. She's also seeming a lot better recently which is incredibly relieving. Work's the usual sort of thing, with quite a few reviews today.

Couple more parcels at work today, of little things. I've just got to find somewhere to store this stuff now, really. I'm not sure at the moment what to do.

As I was reading Potter last night, it got to be quite late - and the reason for reading it was that I couldn't sleep, so it was already late. Tonight, I couldn't sleep so decided to 'quickly' draw out some things I've wanted to do for a while.

It seems that I'm recognised in Shakeaway now. I clearly go there too often!

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21 Jul 2008 (Monday) 

I'm back from my long weekend away. Alex's first birthday, which was lots of fun. Really need to spend more time up there, rather than just going for a couple of days. It's not really all that great to go up on the Friday, and come back on the Monday - it's a lot of travel and not a lot of time there. I think, for Bethany's birthday, I might go up for longer, but it's more awkward to organise that at times.

In any case, it was a nice weekend; I got to see quite a few people I'd not seen in a while, which was nice - and of course Claire, Justin, Alex and Bethany. Bethany's grown so much since I saw her last, too. Makes me a little sad to see them, though.

As I'm on the train, I also managed to read a large portion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It's going well so far, and I've been enjoying it. My main criticism has been that the the beginning really needed to give more introduction. Not everyone is such a huge fan that they know everyone and everything in the Potter world, and just launching in with lots of names and references back to the other books is not at all fun. If it was any other series I'd probably have given up then and gone and re-read the previous book (or just given up), but I hung on. Things weren't made any clearer, but I did remember more slowly. The only other thing is that after about 220-odd pages, there still hadn't been much happening and the pace was being dreadfully slow - sometimes with sections that covered periods of minutes spanning pages and then a paragraph might cover a couple of days or more. It felt quite jumpy anyhow.

I'll get to read more when I'm next travelling, I suppose.

Not a lot else going on really. Claire and Justin are pretty well, except this cold/allergy thing that Claire has had for a bit.

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17 Jul 2008 (Thursday) 

Seems to have been a very busy day today. Simon's had his appointment with a neurologist, after his problems a while back. The general idea is that this was just a migraine, but he's going to have a MRI just in case. Which is kinda exciting.

I'm kinda tired now, though. Packed pretty much for going away. I managed to forget to bring my laptop case home from work, so I had to go back in to get that.

I don't want to talk about it How you broke my heart. If I stay here just a little bit longer, If I stay here, won't you listen to my heart? [ I Don't Want To Talk About It, by Everything But The Girl ]

Got a few tracks floating around my head at the moment which is annoying me a little. I really do prefer the Everything But The Girl version to the Rod Stewart version. I don't appear to have a copy of the original version, which seems to be by Crazy Horse.

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16 Jul 2008 (Wednesday) 

Someone was talking about taking a girl out for dinner a few days ago, today. It's kinda nice to do that. Only, the last time I did it was quite a few years ago. Around 1990, I think.

Quiet day today, compared to yesterday. Can't think of anything interesting to tell about it.

Oh! And I got a letter about my raise today, too. Which is... whee! . It's all very exciting, partly 'cos I've never had one before.

I bought myself a torch today, too. 'cos I don't have one. Only now I do. Yay. Little things please me. Partly 'cos it's only the little things that are good.

Very hot last night, so slept on top of the bed. Probably the same tonight.

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15 Jul 2008 (Tuesday) 

Daniel: (russian) Cameron: What did you say to them ? Daniel: We're americans - shoot the people chasing us! [ Things to say in Russian; Cameron and Daniel; Stargate Continuum ]

I had to fight my way past McFly to go shopping today. That's an exaggeration. I tried to go in to Woolies, skipping past the huge lines of people queueing to get in to the store, and got directed by a bouncer to use a different entrance if I was shopping. A large bouncer. I wasn't going to argue. Anyhow, they were apparently there for a signing. I'm vaguely aware that they're a music group, but I couldn't say that I knew anything by them. I think I might be old .

I say this whilst listening to Howard Jones. I think that proves it.

Can anybody love anyone so much that they will never fear ? Never worry, never be sad ? The answer is they cannot love this much, nobody can This is why I don't mind you doubting [ What Is Love?, from Best Of, by Howard Jones ]

That said, I spent most of Sunday listening to Beautiful South. And being upset at things. That's a little odd. Oh well.

Last few days I've actually spent some money. I let myself spend money rather than just thinking "that seems pretty cool" or "one day I should get that". It's still strange to do, but I'm sort of managing it. I'd like to think that it's just a novelty that'll pass. I like spending money, but I usually quell the urge by doing other things. Or giving some money away - better to do that rather than to spend it frivolously, which I'm liable to do. Being too impulsive is bad.

Although... hmm... today I was a little frivolous. Oh well.

I watched Stargate Continuum tonight as well. Quite fun, only... there's another time machine buried in Egypt, isn't there ? Or am I forgetting something.

I also updated the upstairs XBox today, 'cos of the problems with it not recognising some film files - dunno why that was, but with the new version there's a whole lot of other films there now.

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14 Jul 2008 (Monday) 

Cool clock. Cool Theremin. Cool alarm clock.

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13 Jul 2008 (Sunday) 

You know when you've been reading XKCD too much when you try describing how you feel as an iptables fw rule and only briefly think it's slightly abnormal. [ Only slightly abnormal; drobe ]

I managed to walk into a wall today when I was going in to town. Turned a corner too early and scraped my across the wall. Now, you might think that avoiding stationary objects was pretty easy. I'd be with you in that thought. Except... Ouch. I've got a graze on my side now. Silly. It's just part of the general 'not paying enough attention to walk' which usually leaves me weaving my way down the street.

For some reason the XBox upstairs can't see certain films. The Princess Bride and Gremlins, for example, as unknown to it. Whereas they work fine here. They do have different versions of XMBC installed, but still I was surprised.

My legs ache tonight. Too much pacing whilst on the phone to Caroline and Claire, and Chris. Hmm. I need friends with other initial letters .

I couldn't sleep last night so I decided to get up and do something. Surprisingly I did managed to do stuff for a couple of hours before trying to sleep at about 3:30. Finally got to sleep at 4:30ish. So tonight... it's 2am and I'm going to try the sleeping thing. I'm really quite tired so I hope it works.

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12 Jul 2008 (Saturday) 

I've caught up a little on films today. Today I've watched The Million Pound Note and The Talk Of The Town. 2 down, just another few hundred to go.

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11 Jul 2008 (Friday) 

Pretty fed up today. Not a lot more to tell.

On the plus side, Harry Potter 7 arrived. I'll probably read it on the way up to Claire and Justin's at the end of the month.

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10 Jul 2008 (Thursday) 

It seems to be a day of sighing. And being tired. On the plus side... nope, can't think of much of a plus side today.

Oh, yes there is... I got my Cranberries CD today. That's about the best of today really.

My thumb's a little sore today, too.

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9 Jul 2008 (Wednesday) 

Today rained a lot. It's been a pretty icky. Just one of those days when you want to go home and have a hug and fall asleep. Only now it's after 1am, and I've had neither. I'd like to think I've achieved something this evening but I can't say I have really.

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8 Jul 2008 (Tuesday) 

Very dull day today. Woke up late, and then found that I'd wasted my evening.

Too tired.

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7 Jul 2008 (Monday) 

It's been a very long day today. I'm really tired and I can't sleep. I've now caught up with Dr Who and I still can't sleep. I even tried watching The Core. That didn't put me to sleep, but I couldn't really watch it.

So I wrote a little poem for Caroline and then... hid it away because... well, it's nearly 3am and you really don't want to be writing anything important at 3am. Oh.

Julian suggested I could do with coin sorter. Because I've got a lot of coins. My plan was to just keep collecting them until I have a whole room filled with coins. And then I could swim in them, just like Scrooge McDuck. Now, I know that's not practical and I am completely joking, but it would be kinda cool. But I did always want a little ball pit. Maybe not quite as much as I wanted someone to play with in a ball pit, though . Simon has some ball-pit balls.

I've got Octopus's Garden going around my head. It's been there for a couple of weeks. It's annoying me, not least because I can never remember the words. I'm going away for a break this month. I'm going to see Claire and Justin and Bethany and Alex. But that's at the end of the month. It'll be nice to have a bit of a break. I doubt it'll be much of a rest, but it'll be a break anyhow.

What I'd like to do is have a way of selecting music based on some random selection using last.fm's 'similar' ratings and the chart listings, somehow. I don't think it would be too hard, but it might be fun to try. Got nothing better to be doing. Well, not right now, because it is 3am now and I probably need to be awake for work tomorrow. Probably.

Harry Potter 7's out in paperback soon. It's kinda exciting. I've got Making Money still to read, too. So far behind. I'm never going to catch up. Never know stuff.

What do you want to do ? I know what I want. I don't know how to do it. Although the 'want' at this second is for my head to stop nodding like one of those dogs in cars. I think they're called 'nodding dogs', but saying that "I'd like my head to stop nodding like a nodding dog" just sounded silly in my head.

I remembered to buy Jaffa Cakes this morning. And my reward for that was that I could eat Jaffa Cakes. It's all baby steps.

I think I need sleep.

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6 Jul 2008 (Sunday) 

Julian suggested I should record 'LA Story' yesterday, so I did. I was just watching a section to see how well it'd been recorded, etc and there's some background music that I knew but couldn't recognise. About 6 minutes in, there's a nice section - harp ? - which I knew I knew. A quick search says it's Epona, from The Celts, by Enya. Whee. I knew I knew it .

On the other hand, LA Story looks a bit naff here, because it's been recorded off ITV 2 and so it's at 544x576 (17:18), but should be presented at 16:9 (which would be 1024x576). That's fine, except the Kiss DVD player I use won't actually show anything higher than 720 across - it just rejects it with a strange 'unrecognised FourCC code' error (and it took me ages to work out that it meant 'resolution's too high, mate'). So rescaling video might be a bit more tricky. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do there, to be honest.

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3 Jul 2008 (Thursday) 

I had a nice email from someone today asking about getting LiveTV working with XBMC and MythTV using protocol 40 (the current MythTV protocol version). I've put a copy of the dump of xbmcmythtv on a site so that anyone else can use it. It's broken in a few ways - in particular the settings page is bust. But it does work with LiveTV. It's literally just a snapshot of what's here and I've noticed a lot of bugs in the code since then. Hopefully I'll sort them out soon and put up a new version, but it's extra hassle so I've not fixed things yet.

I woke up this morning from a quite strange dream. Possibly no stranger than usual, but still pretty odd. I found myself at my engagement party, and all my friends and family were there and were really happy for me. Which was great except that I had no idea how I'd got there and didn't really know the guy that I was engaged to. All I wanted to do was just find where Caroline was and why she wasn't there, so I made an excuse that I was going to buy a present and ran away. That's kinda odd, even for me really.

New harddrive arrived today, so I've fitted that to the server. The plan is that it's a dedicated TV disc. It's a little extravagent, but it's still pretty neat and I've not really spent any money on anything recently. Except the XBoxes. Damn. Ian pointed out today that the drive labelled 'Big' is 160G and is actually the smallest of the drives I have installed.

Dad's also shown me some pretty pictures of Joseph (Lucy's son); aww he's so cute .

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2 Jul 2008 (Wednesday) 

Saving up for someday, But what does someday mean? [ Avalanche, from Siren, by Heather Nova ]

I'm a little confused. I almost left the house today without my pass card, phone, glasses cloth, jumper, or keys. For me that's a record really.

I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a better day.

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