'twas the day after Christmas,
and I really felt,
That come Monday morning,
I'd need a new belt.
I've got the kind of feeling that's uniquely linked to the aftermath of eating your own bodyweight of Bombay Mix...
Last week was Kato's office party and, oddly, I was rather looking forward to it because I can be dark and moody in a corner and watch people. Sadly Fate, bitch that she is, decided otherwise. The cold I'd had recently became a nasty, nasty cough and midway into the evening I cried 'Uncle' and went back to the hotel room to cough in peace and read e-books on my Sony Clie. A good time was not had by all.
To make matters worse I found that drinking whisky made the cough about a gazillion times worse and that's just not fair, damnit!
I'm noy mostly over it, but Kato has it. Arse.
On the plus-side, it snowed on Christmas Day! Woohoo! The garden looks really festive and the dogs love it.
In a rather ironic turn of circumstance, my parents have decided to stay over a night at our house(or 'crash at my pad' in Young Person Speak) which means that they're getting to demolish my whisky supplies. I have to admire that, because that's exactly what we do when we stay with them, but I will have to plan some sort of counter-strike.
Toddled on over to here and took the 'What Operating System Are You?' test. Apparently I'm:
which is kind of funky, because I started out with TRS-DOS.
No I didn't fudge the answers. What kind of person do you think I am? Granted I didn't know how to fudge the answers to get the desired result, but even so...
I'm a bit rushed (again, in boring ways) so I'll have to be terse. Saw The Incredibles over the weekend - it's a great film, really funny. I'll probably have to go and see it again because I'm not prepared to wait until it's out on DVD, which will probably be six months I'd guess..
The MAME table is progressing nicely - I'm at the stage where the software is at the 'minimum level required' bit, so I can now order the bits and pieces for the controls. However, the Elder Skoda has to go and see some Lizardmen again as the driver's side rear wheel bearing is making a MMMMMMMRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMM noise. That bearing seems to wear out on a fairly regular basis, so something's not right there. Hopefully this will be the last one before I sell the car.
This means I'll probably order the bits for the controls (from Ultimarc) either just before or just after Christmas. Kato now wants to go to Ikea ('Treating you like sheep since 1978') to find a suitable table to build on.
I hate Ikea, I really do, but needs must I suppose.
I also bought another new toy - a Microsoft Starck Mouse. What's one of those? One of these. It's a three button mouse (not wireless) with an illuminated blue or orange strip down the center. It's the normal 'two buttons + scroll wheel button' design, so there's no surprises there. It's perhaps a little too light for my tastes - my old IntelliMouse had a slightly heavier feel that I prefered. However, it looks great (which is odd for a M$ product) and it works fine with the Macs so I got it. 40 quid.
Sorry about the lack of updates recently but I've been busy in non-interesting ways. Had last Thursday and Friday off work - spent Thursday in the Meadowhall shopping center (near Sheffield) and that was a surprisingly pleasant experience. I've been there loads of times as I prefer it to the Trafford Center (in Manchester) but shopping centers always seem to be crowded to the point that I suffer a terminal Sense Of Humour Failure about an hour in, but this time it wasn't too bad. Busy, yes, but not too busy. Got most of the shopping done that was needed and that's the main thing.
Friday was New Washing Machine Day.
Ooooooh. The fun never starts.
The only really interesting thing is that Kato and I have started a new project: build a MAME cabinet. What's a MAME cabinet? It's a cabinet that allows you to play the old arcade games (like 'Galaga' and 'Asteroids') without having to splash out on buying an actuall old machine, which knowing my luck would then promptly break down.
MAME itself stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator and it essentailly provides a software environment that allows you to run the ROM images of the arcade games themselves. There are versions of this software for just about any machine and OS, even some phones, and you could just download it on your computer, acquire some ROMs (which is a legal minefield because they're still copyrighted in many cases) and play them that way.
A few people, however, go an extra step and build their very own arcade cabinet and install a MAME-running PC in it. Looks authentic, sounds authentic, plays authentically.
This is what I'll be doing. I'm putting an extra wrinkle on it, however, because rather than the upright cabinet that most people build, Kato and I are going to build one that's in 'cocktail cabinet' form, which is essentially a table with a glass top, a screen underneath it and some controls on the side. We want to make the controls 'stowable' so the thing can double as a fairly normal coffee table most of the time.
I think that part could be tricky to be honest, but you never know until you try.
I'm going to get the hardware/software side of things sorted first, because until that's done there's no point in looking for a suitable enclosure. I've been looking at this for about three days now and have almost cancelled the project, on average, once a day so far. Things that should be simple turn out either not to be, or not to be simple in obvious ways. In some ways I've brought on some of the difficulties myself, because I want to use FreeBSD as the underlying OS since I'm familiar with it, but some of the software has been designed more with Linux in mind than FreeBSD and I really, really don't want to get into distro-specific compile issues here. I want this to be as much as possible an 'off the shelf' project.
First up: MAME itself. That turned out to be no problem, as 'xmame' (MAME that runs in the X11 environment) is in the ports tree. Fine. Except I don't want it to boot into X11 first, because I mistakenly thought that meant I had to have it running in a window, which simply wouldn't do for a cabinet. This turned out to be a classic case of jumping to conclusions without doing any reading whatsoever, because xmame supports full screen use perfectly well.
Before I discovered that, I was going down the 'svgalib' route, which is a graphics library that allows easy access to the graphics ability of the PC without all the overhead of something like X11. Trouble is, I can't get it to work with any graphics card I have and have pretty much given up on it.
It's a moot point anyway, as xmame is quite happy in fullscreen mode
First problem over. MAME runs, and runs fine. Having MAME run automatically is also a simple matter of editing the .xinitrc file, so again, no problem.
Next up: the menu.
Hooooo, boy. This one had me stumped. The most popular (or so it seems) menu frontend is called 'AdvanceMenu'. Only problem is, it wan't in the ports collection and when I downloaded the source code I couldn't get the thing to compile.
At all.
Not even a little bit.
Which was a bit of a downer. And then, Googling around for 'AdvanceMenu FreeBSD' I found this site here, done by someone doing what I'm doing, finding the same problems and in this case actually solving it. It turns out (in case you're interested) that you need to ensure that the SDL stuff is installed (it's in ports) and then type this in the AdvanceMenu build directory:
ln -s /usr/local/bin/sdl11-config /usr/local/bin/sdl-config
gmake all
That at least got it to compile, a 'gmake install' appeared to install it, and since that was early this morning I've not had a chance to play with the result yet but I'm sure that the rest will be a simple matter of config files.
I can hear the hollow laughter already...
Well, the Griffin RadioShark has arrived at last. Was it worth the wait? Depends.
RadioShark is a USB powered radio that uses your computer's speakers - effectively it plays through your PC or Mac. There's a little app that takes care of tuning and storing stations - it's simple and it works well. However, it can do more than that. For a start it can be set to record from a particular station at a particular time and day. Even better than that though is the fact that you can set it to pause live transmissions. Essentially, it can be set to continually record the station you're listening to (you decide for how long - 30mins is the default) so you can be listening to, say, a talk show, when you decide you need a drink. You hit SPACE, the sound stops. You go and get your drink, come back up, hit SPACE again and the show restarts exactly where you left off. You could even go back 5 mins, or 25 mins and listen all over again.
Pretty cool.
The only problem is reception - it's a wee bit spotty. It has an internal aerial and, additionally, the USB lead doubles as an external antenna. It also has a headphone jack and anything plugged in there will also act as an external antenna, so you have plenty of reception boosting options.
All in all I'm quite happy with it. Whether I'll actually use the advanced features is debatable but, even so, I like it.
Well, according to my father, AOL won't allow you to use an ADSL ethernet router - it's a USB ADSL modem or nothing. This means one thing: I'm going to have to talk to these muppets myself. I hate talking to AOL - I always get the feeling that I'm talking to people who are so drugged up that they're back to speaking normally again, as long as "normally" means "trying to indoctrinate you into their ways and come and join us it's lovely and cuddly and safe and warm and you know you want to really...". I've just got a nasty feeling that the answer is going to be the same. I guess AOL don't authenticate in quite the same was as every other bloody ISP.
On another note, I've been trying to get "Halo 2" from Asda and failing. I don't think I can blame AOL for this but I'm going to anyway.
Why are you looking at me like that? Yes, ok, I have an X-Box. Yes, I feel dirty. Happy?
Anyway, "Halo 2" is the sequel to, unsurprisingly, "Halo" which in my book is Best Shooter Ever and is currently the only reason to own an X-Box that I can see. X-Box games seem to fall into FPS (First Person Shooters), Driving games, "Tekken"-style thump-'em-ups, a few football and golf games and, for some reason, "The Sims". There doesn't seem to be anything like "Populous" or "Age Of Empires/Mythology/Whatever", which is odd since Microsoft actually publish the "Age Of..." games, so you'd think (well, I'd think) that they would release them on the Black-And-Green One but no.
But anyway, I was under the (obviously innacurate) impression that "Halo 2" was out yesterday or today and have, hence, gone striding into my local Asda searching for it in vain. I've done this for the past two days and I get the impression that if I repeat this tomorrow then the security guards will rugby-tackle me just on general principles.
I'll probably blame AOL for that as well.
I'm facing something of a problem: my father wants to go over to AOL Broadband.
Now, say what you like about AOL but they do actually suit some people very well. Such people (like my father) include those who travel around the world a fair bit and need a common provider to dial in to. In addition to that, they make you use their own (frankly rather horrible) email client which makes you download attachments seperately. This seems to have a positive effect on virus infections, ie you're less like to get them.
However, ADSL is another matter. AOL want you to use a USB ADSL modem that they supply. I have other ideas but I'm finding it difficult to get any info as to whether you can swap this item out and replace it with a proper ethernet NAT router, since there is no sodding way I'm going to have his Windows 98 machine exposed to the 'Net more than it has to be.
This means, however, that I'm going to have to explain to my Dad why I need to do this for him, which will involve some explanations of IP addresses, NAT etc. Best way I can think of is to get him to think of IP addresses as phone numbers and Ports as extension numbers, with NAT being the rather nice receptionist that you have to go through first before you get to speak to someone.
On the other hand I should probably just take the "If I'm supporting it, this is how we're doing it" approach.
"But Jim," I hear you say, "why in the name of sanity is he using a Windows 98 machine? You're a Mac guy, why haven't you got him on a Mac?"
Good question Susan and I'll tell you: when he was looking to get a machine of his own, the state of Apple laptops (he uses a laptop) was a bit iffy. The titaniums had juuuuuuuust come out but MacOS9 was the current state of play (I think X was on 10.1 perhaps - I'm guessing) and I wasn't too happy with it, as I'd had some fun and games with it that gave me a lack of faith in its reliability. On the other hand, Windows 98, while crap, was at least crap in known ways and he was used to using it at work. Nowadays it'd be a no-brainer and he'd be on an Apple laptop of some sort but that's out of my control now.
I get the feeling that this is going to drag on a bit and be a whole load of No Fun for me, but at least I get to buy myself a Shiny New Router, on the pretext of giving him my old one. One that will hopefully have a proper DMZ on it so I can finally get passive ftp working properly or, indeed, at all.
There's always a bright side if you look hard enough.
It was a trap. I turn up at the garage at 8.45 this morning (having eventually found the sodding place - MultiMap's instructions, normally quite good, were dismal this time) to be told "sorry, who are you?"
"Mr. Andrew," I reply cunningly, "sidelight switch replacement on a Skoda Felicia? I spoke to a guy yesterday who asked me to drop it in this morning and it should be a ten minute job?"
"Oh, we can't do it this morning," the female Lizardman replies, "it's a dashboard off-job. Takes at least an hour."
"What?"
"We could do it next week?"
"Yes, but that leaves me without a car for a week."
"Sorry."
"Can I call you later? There's a few other garages I'd like to phone first."
"Sure."
And off I trot. Fuming, it has to be said. First stop was the place that re-bored my engine after the Infamous Cam-Belt Incident. They could probably do it, if they had the parts, if they had the man-power and if they could be bothered which, it has to be said, they weren't. Can't say I blame them but even so, a bit of a downer for me. Next stop was the local AA Garage. "Aha!" thinks I, "they'll be able to do it if anyone can!"
Wrong. They probably could do it, if it wasn't for the fact that they were fully booked until Wednesday. After Wednesday they were closed.
Forever.
Great.
So I phone the original garage back, fully prepared for a week of ferrying Kato to-and-from the local train station while I borrowed her car, only to be told "Can you be here for 11.00am today?"
"Er...yes. Why?"
"If you can be here at 11.00 then we'll fit you in somehow."
"Great! I'll be there shortly after 10.30 - I don't mind waiting."
And so I was. Arrived at about 10.40 and it was done by about 11.10. Not too shabby and they did it at cost as a sort of 'thank you', which they didn't really have to do, so they're up in my books for that. Left there feeling quite happy and I was a good mile down the road before I noticed that the speedometer wasn't working...
...so back we went...
Anyway, it's all fine and dandy now and we're back home, consuming the last of the Lagavulin Double Matured at 1.30pm.
I think we deserve it.
Ok, how weird is this? My drive home is about 40 miles and tends to take me an hour or so. It's dark when I leave at this time of year so it's headlights all the way. On the very last leg of the route (the last mile or so) I start to notice that my headlights are flickering very slightly. "Great", I think to myself, "just what I don't need right now."
Pull up on my drive and just run my fingers over the light switch, without actually pressing much at all. There's a Bzzzzzzt! sound from behind the switch and the headlights go out.
I try the usual things - check the fuses, press the button again, press it harder, stab it repeatedly whilst shouting "bastard!" but none of this works, so it looks like the switch itself has fried.
This is the weird bit. It fails when I'm safely home, rather than half-way down the M6. Not only that but it fails the evening before I have a half-day off! It's like it needed to fail but wanted to do so at the least inconvenient time. Not only that but the first garage I phoned this morning said "Yeah, drop it in tomorrow morning, we'll fix it while you wait."
This isn't normal. It's got to be a trap of some sort.
Well, the deed is done. The magnificent hairdo has been...cut. It's still officially Girly Hippy Locks but only just.
A before and after shot for you:
I think I'm starting to come to my senses over the iPod Colour situation. Looking at it in the cold light of day, it's 50 quid more for a colour screen (nice but not vital), slightly more battery life (nice, granted) and the ability to store pictures and show them on your television. Now, granted, that's a neat facility but it's not one I'd need to use a lot. Put it this way: if I was creating slide-show CDs on a regular basis then it would be a good buy but as I don't, it isn't. So, I'll probably go for the normal 40Gb jobbie instead, probably at the same time as we get the new Powerbook in January.
Well, tomorrow I go for a hair cut - the first in three years. I'm going to get Kato to take some before/after pictures. Should be a hoot. She's insisting on coming with me so I can't just say "trim the ends, my good fellow". She wants it quite short, I'm prepared to go for shoulder length. I'm also slightly tempted to have a colour - dark red - put on the very ends, say the last 10mm or so. I'll probably bottle out of that one but you never know.
The place where I work just sent out a newsletter. On the front cover of this is a group shot of the I.T staff. One of our customers who has just received this has just phoned up, wanting to know 'who the porn star, third in from the left' is...
I ask you. I've been called a few things in my time but never, until today, a porn star.
BAAASTAAAARRRDDDDSSS!!
Apple have just released upgraded iPods. Colour ones. Gits. They know how I feel about Shiny Toys I Don't Yet Own and at 350 quid for the 40Gb model (there's a 60Gb jobbie as well) it's almost within my price range.
Almost.
It occured to me that I never did actually tell you where to get the Griffin RadioShark from, assuming you're in the UK. Well it's from Stormfront Direct. They're currently out of stock (demand must have been quite fierce) but they're expecting new stock in in early November. They're also one of those odd places that actually reply to your emails! which puts them a rung above some of the others, in my book at least.
On a completely unrelated note, I go in today to book...wait for it...a haircut. Yes I'm actually going to get my flowing tresses trimmed a wee bit. Kato (or Delilah as I now know her) is kinda-sorta insisting. Given that it's almost down to my arse the top of my legs I suppose it is due a shortening. Doesn't mean I have to like it though.
I have a weakness. Well to be honest I have several weaknesses, to the extent that they almost appear to be strengths purely by ganging up on each other and making a lot of noise, thus giving the impression of...
What was I talking about?
Oh yes - my (most active) weakness. Gadgets. Electronic gizmos and doohickeries that are either (a) shiny, (b) vaguely useful, or (c) I don't own yet. I've fallen victim to two gadgets this time, vaguely related in kinda-sorta-not really kind of way.
The first of these is an Apple Airport Express. You know: the little wireless basestation that lets you stream iTunes audio straight to your stereo. Quite how I've resisted buying one of these for so long (they've been out for ages now) is a mystery to me but there you go.
The second doofah I ordered was The Griffin RadioShark. This little fella in fact:
It's a USB powered AM/FM radio (not DAB though) that is controlled via your PC or Mac and allows you to record shows at predetermined times and to pause live shows, just like TiVo does for telly.
Both should be here within a week so I'll let you know how they work out.
First days back at work after a two week break can sometimes be a tad stressfull, to the extent that I was actually getting 'back to work' stress on the last day before I actually went away.
That's probably a sign of something. Answers on a postcard to the usual address.
Somewhat to my surprise, when I arrived at work this morning (after, it has to be said, a truly dismal nights sleep) I found that nothing had been blamed on me during my absence and nothing nasty was waiting for me. I was half convinced I was dreaming except that would mean I was asleep and sleep wasn't featured heavily in the last 24hrs.
Pathetic, isn't it? I'm 37 and scared of going back to school work. Still, at least I have a new desktop picture...
Well, I'm back from two, blissful weeks in Scotland. I love Scotland and if my lottery numbers came up today, I'd quit work and move up there just as soon as I possibly could.
Ah, well. One day.
On the plus side it gave me a chance to stock up on various whiskies. I'm a big fan of a good single malt scotch and I'm pleased to say I now have enough in stock to last me for a while. Until November, certainly.
Here's a picture for ye. Click it for a bigger 'un.
The Glenfiddich 21yr old Gran Reserva is the single most expensive of the lot, at roughly 60quid. It also used to be unavailable in the U.S.A because it's matured in Cuban rum barrels. I don't know if that situation is still true or not. It's the best dram of the lot, but only just - the two Edradour whiskies pictured (the purple tube at the far right belongs the the bottle that's third in from the left) are also very fine indeed. Also, they're cask strength (59.5% and 57.2% respectively) so you need less of them. Perhaps 'need' was the wrong word there...
The Mortlach 16yr old is also a very smooth, very heady dram and costs significantly less than the Glenfiddich at 30ish quid. The Ardbeg is the standard 10yr old but is oddly strong - 46% instead of the more normal 40% or 43%. It's the easiest (and cheapest) of the lot to get hold of (Asda in this case), although I'd be eager to try some of Ardbeg's other expressions that are less commonly available.
I'm not good with spiders. I am, in fact, mildy phobic to them. There seems to be a cut-off point around the 5mm mark, below which I can hug them and pet them and call them George. Above 5mm and I go into 'girly-screaming' mode. I'm not proud of it but there you are.
So this morning, this little bastard nearly gave me a heart attack:
It was a common house spider but it was about 2.5inches across and that is well into my 'Aaaaarrrggghhhh!' class of spiders. Taking the photos took more courage than most people think I've got.
Hates them, we do, hates them...
I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of my family:
He's a Tandy TRS-80 Model 16, manufactured somewhere round about 1982. It's an early example of a twin CPU machine, having both a Z80 and and 68000 CPU internally. It could be expanded up to 512K of RAM and, in those days, that was huge.
Currently the poor wee thing doesn't boot, giving 'BOOT ERROR TD', which is Tandy-Speak for 'Boot sector? What boot sector?'. Guess the drives need a clean.
Oh, it uses 8" floppy disks. Sweet.
Haaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Oh dear, dear me. About 3.00pm today we had some torrential rain. Unbeknownst to me there's a storm drain that runs directly underneath our car park. There's also a Tarmac company up the road from us and we suspect they're dumping waste into this drain, because at 3.30pm the drain went a bit critical, with the following results:
This is going to get legal, I think...
Woops. I've been meaning to update here for a while but, frankly, I couldn't be bothered. Aren't I a one, eh?
Well, just two more sleeps and I'll be officially On Holiday for a week. I intend to spend part of this week off in the ancient, traditional Scottish way, ie blind drunk and singing songs about heather. I also intend to get up at about 3.00am to do some telescope time and, you know, I'm not sure about this but it's just possible that the two activities (blind drunkenness + 3.00am verticality) may be incompatible...
We had friends round last night. Much aclcoholo alrahoool beer was drunk. I'm feeling...delicate. Need....coffee...And can someone please tell the birds to shut up? Thank you...
A collegue of Kato (whom I'll call Malcolm, because that's his name - he's the guy you picture when you hear the words "Unix guru" - bearded, very clever, real-ale drinker) has recently loaned her/us the "Sharpe" videos. You remember Sharpe, don't you? Sean Bean? Rifles? Swords? Daragh "OIM OIRISH!!!!!!" O'Malley? "Over the bloody hills and far away"? Ah, it's coming back to you now, isn't it? I remember watching these when they were shown on TV for the first time and I loved them then. Thankfully, this is one of those occasions where my memory (vicious, traitorous bastard that it is) hasn't played me false: these are very enjoyable films, even if the plots are a bit simplistic. They tend to follow similar themes: Pompous officer arrives in camp, doesn't like Sharpe (who rose from the ranks to Officer-hood, which was something of a no-no in those days), tries to get Sharpe killed on some damn-fool mission, ends up making an ass of himself in the process, Sharpe saves the day, blows something up, rescues a girl, goes back to camp. In amongst this Daragh O'Malley will be very, very Irish. Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against the Irish but it's as though the directors went up to him and said "Daragh, I know you're Irish but can you emphasise it a bit?" Who cares, they're great fun to watch.
To that list of films below you can add Van Helsing, Troy and Scooby 2. Where the Hells am I going to find time to see all of this stuff?
There's an awful lot of films coming up that I want to see. For a start there's Kill Bill Vol.2. Then The Day After Tomorrow, the so-cheesy-it's-great-looking Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow. Then Dawn Of The Dead (which I seem to have missed - ah well). Spiderman 2 is a must see. Thunderbirds I was initially looking forward to, until I saw the trailer. Now I'm not too sure. I'd assumed it was going to be a live action version of the cult series, but it seems to be more along the lines of 'the kids save the day' and there's only so much of that that I can take.
Reading the latest SFX Magazine I see that 'Firefly' has been green-lighted for a film! Wahay!. On the off-chance that you've never seen 'Firefly', do yourself a favour and buy the DVDs now. Trust me. This is the best sc-fi ever produced: intelligent, witty characters that hang together perfectly, together with good plot lines. It's a Joss 'Buffy' Whedon series, so what do you expect?
12-04-04 Observing ReportEquipment: Orion Optics Europa 250 on HEQ5 mount
Objects: Jupiter, "The Leo Trio" (M65, M66, NGC 3628)
Got the 'scope set up at about 9.00pm. The sky was still in twilight, but Jupiter was prominent. I'd only let the 'scope cool down for about 20mins, which is a stupidly small amount of time for doing high-mag stuff but I gave it a try anyway - got Jupiter centered and put my 6mm e/p in (200x). There were some tube currents present, but in general the seeing was very good indeed - clear, sharp edges on Jupiter lasting for serveral seconds at a time. Could quite clearly see white ovals in the cloud belts - a first for me. I briefly tried barlowing the 6mm to give 400x and it was much better than I expected, but tube cooldown was obviously putting a limit on magnification of about 200x. Still, a memorable view all the same.
It was now about 9.30pm and the sky had darkened enough to make galaxy hunting possible. Swung the finderscope between Iota and Theta Leo and placed my 32mm e/p in (x37.5). The sky wasn't quite as dark as I'd hoped (partly late twilight, partly skyglow) but I quickly located M65 and M66. Both of these objects are spiral galaxies, appearing as 'thumbprints' of fuzzyness, brightening to tight cores. I could see slightly more detail on M66, although M65 seemed slightly larger. M66 appeared to be slightly mottled.
I was aware that there was a third galaxy in this area, an edge-on spiral designated NGC 3628. It has a magnitude of 10.4 but covers a larger area and is hence quite faint. I deliberately hadn't familiarised myself with its location, as I wanted to 'find it blind'. I shifted the M65/M66 pair to the top of my field of view and relaxed my eyes, trying to 'feel' the backgroud. After some time I began to get the feeling that there was a vague 'something' in the lower (northern) half of the field of view. I couldn't be sure, but it seemed that there was a very, very faint oval of light between two 10th mag stars (GSC 0861-0512 and 1010, identified later). I threw in my 15mm Lanthanum to give me a bit of a contrast boost and the spectre remained. I couldn't hold it with direct vision but it appeared and disappeared when using peripheral vision. I then closed my eyes for about 10mins and looked again - there it was! Could only hold it briefly with direct vision but it was definitely there.
Finished off with another quick peek at Jupiter, then clouds rolled in.
Finshed viewing at approx. 10.30pm. I felt it had been fairly
productive.
I am officially relaxed, for the first time in what feels like forever. The car's fixed, work is still more than two sleeps away, I have nothing to do for the intervening two days except play games and surf the web. And walk the dogs.
Life is good. I'm being a little uninspiring here, but give me a break, eh? I've had a tough time lately.
Well, we are once again officially a two car family. Yay! The Elder Skoda was returned to me yesterday and ended up not costing as much as I'd feared. Don't get me wrong, a five hundred quid bill is something I could do without, but it won't cripple me. Not for too long, anyway. This means that I will be in a position to re-order the UHC filter for the 'scope in about a month. I think I'm officially starting to cheer up. I'm also off work for five days (yesterday being the first day) so I'm actually feeling pretty chipper at the moment. All I need now is another coffee. Think I'll go and get one...
I had the initial estimate for the car repair yesterday. Remember when I said that if I had been lucky there wouldn't be any damage? Guess what? I wasn't lucky. I'm looking at a 500 quid bill minimum which, frankly, I could do without. As a result of this I've had to cancel the order for the UHC filter for the telescope, which put me in a bit of a downer. Many thanks to SCS Astro for understanding and not putting up a fuss. I've decided to book Thursday off work as I really feel the need for a looooong weekend. My luck's got to change soon...
I suppose I could have got up and written this at 4 minutes past 4, thus making the date and time "04:04:04:04:04" but, frankly, I couldn't be arsed.
Well, the Elder Skoda (we have two, you see) is safely with another set of Lizard Men from Tau Auriga (for small and possibly innacurate values of the word 'safely') and I should know tomorrow if I'm going to have to pimp the dogs to pay for this. Wish me luck, eh? You obviously haven't been, because my luck just lately has been dismal. If I won the lottery now, I would probably owe them money through some bizzare legal loophole ("You won on a Saturday with a ticket bought from a supermarket and you own more than two telescopes? Oh, bad luck sir!")
Whilst in the supermarket, tracking down a bottle of Dr Embalmer's Brain Comforter, I was listening to all the conversations going on around me. It's always facinating to do that, even if most of them are along the lines of "You're having sprouts and that's that". Yesterday was slightly different though. Yesterday's conversational snippets went something like:
"...need some more Pepsi..."
"...heard it's quite a good film and Johnny Depp's in..."
"...and she only bit his nose off..."
What?! She only bit his nose off? Who? Who only bit who's nose off? Is this 'she' human or animal? Or some sort of giant Venus Fly Trap, perhaps? This could be important, we need to know damnit! Perhaps Stafford is the center for a world domination plan involving mutated Venus Fly Traps and this woman is a key player?I really wanted to chase her down and demand a fuller explanation but you get such strange looks when you accost people in the aisle and demand "Madam, I insist you repeat what you were just talking about. Ennunciate!"
This just isn't fair, damnit! Had a fairly good day at work yesterday, the first good day I've had in about 3 months. Couldn't last, could it? The God in charge of Giving Jim A Break is obviously asleep, or out getting drunk, because driving home last night my car died. RAC van duly turns up and proclaims the cam belt to have gone The Way Of The Pear. Great. Fabulous. Just what I bloody need right now. And to make matters worse, my car (Skoda Felicia 1.6) is one of those at risk from engine damage. I can only hope that since the belt didn't actually snap, but only stripped, that the damage is minimal or non-existant but the way my luck's going I'm not putting money on it.
As a consequence of this, I had to be towed back home. I don't know if you've ever been solid-bar towed but it's a bloody scary exhilarating experience. We never actually went above 30mph but it felt like we were doing about Mach 4. The important thing to remember is that you must only break when the guy towing you breaks, or Bad Things happen. Trouble is, if you're a good driver (as I'd like to believe I am) all your instincts are screaming "we're too close! Brake, you bastard!". I'd also forgotten that both my steering and, to some extent, my brakes are power assisted (or at least don't work too well with the engine off) so steering and braking became somewhat more challenging than normal. By the time we'd got back home I'd got the hang of it and was actually enjoying it.
Oh well, in an hour or so I'll make The Phone Call and we'll see if this is going to be a trivial or decidedly non-trivial repair job. Wish me luck.
As some of you may have realised by now, I have a penchant for "so bad it's good" type stuff. The B&W Flash Gordons are a good example: they're so cheesy you could spread them on bread. In that same sort of vein I also have "Dark Star", "Krull" and "Legend" and I love 'em all. They are all films that I first watched when I was much slightly younger than I am now (cough) and they're as much for the nostalgic value as anything else. Certainly no one could claim that "Krull" is a good film, now could they? It is, however, a fun film. And "Legend" has Tim Curry being wonderful as Darkness, with that superb line "We are all animals, my Lady". Great stuff, even if it does have a scarily young Tom Cruise in it. And unicorns. Films with unicorns in them had better have a damn good reason for it, otherwise they're just pandering to the "My Little Pony" brigade. And don't start me on 'Blade Runner - Directors Cut', ok? Where was I? Oh yes, bad films.
There are some films, however, for which time has played tricks with my memory. Nasty tricks. Very nasty tricks indeed. For lo! when I was purchasing the last set of Flash Gordon, I weakened and bought something else. A film that my memory claimed was "entertaining" and "a bit of a wheeze".
It lied. And it must pay for that. For this film was none other than "Hawk The Slayer".
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, shite. This passes through the "so bad it's good" area and out the other side, into the realm of "I paid money for this? And I was sober?" Ok, I only paid six quid for it (about 10 US$) but dear Holy Lords Of Reason I wish I hadn't. This isn't even a film I'll rewatch when I am drunk. It's dire.
I want those 90 minutes of my life back. You can keep the six quid.
On a completely seperate note, can you remember your first crush? I can. I must have been about seven. She was a tall, blonde, European woman and very sophisticated. She flew a high-tech jet aircraft from a secret base and you didn't mess with her or you'd find yourself on the wrong end of a missile.
She was also a puppet. Litterally. My first crush (that I can remember) was on Destiny Angel from 'Captain Scarlet'. Once you know that about me, the rest just falls into place...
You can tell when you've been reading too much MegaTokyo when you need to make a small hardware mod to one of your computers and the first thing you do is remove all your clothes in order to minimise the risk of static damage...
I've ordered a new toy for the telescopes - a UHC ('Ultra High Contrast') filter. It should help in getting rid of skyglow and make finding nebulae easier. Just under a hundred quid - can't wait. I've been considering getting one for a while but could never quite make up my mind between an OIII and a UHC. Turns out that the UHC is slightly more versatile, so that's the one I've gone for. Time will tell if this is just another impulse buy on my part.
Currently I'm watching 'Battle Royale'. It's barking. It's like 'Lord of The Flies' on speed. Highly recommended.
Words alone cannot express how happy I am that it's Saturday. I'd have to improvise some sort of freeform dance to express it properly, but since I can't dance I'm not going to. You'll just have to take my word for it that I'm happy.
I suppose I really should sort out the links section. It's titled "Lots of linky goodness" but so far it's flying under a flag of false colours as it's a bit sparse. Thing is, you see, I fad on stuff like this. I need to grab the bull by the horns whilst the iron's hot and get it done.
Maybe tomorrow.
Oh, due to some ongoing 'issues' at my ISP I currently have no idea if anyone's reading this. If you are, drop me an email. Please. I'd like to know, even if you think it's drivel.
I'm still here, just on the off-chance that you were wondering about the lack of updates recently. Thing is, when I get too stressed I tend to clam up, which isn't ideal for blogging. Plus it annoys the snot out of Kato. The good news is I can see light at the end of the tunnel with regards to my work stress. Let's hope it isn't a muzzle flash.
Yesterday was my birthday. I'm now the ripe old age of 37. Hoo-bloody-ray. Never mind, I fully intend to grow old disgracefully. Very disgracefully if I have any say in it.
Mother Nature. Bitch. Yesterday she decided to make life a wee bit more interesting for us by giving us winds that gusted to 70mph. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's hurricane force, isn't it? The result of this little bout of inclemency was that two of our fence panels decided to part company with the rest of the fence. Well, technically only one of them is ours but the net result is the same.
Well, the Lizard Men from Tau Auriga may have minds immeasurably superior to ours but my Skoda bamboozled them. Ha! They need to take another look at it on a later date. A week on Tuesday to be precise. Marvelous. When I asked about the eventual bill, the Lizard Dude told me that they would "hide today's work". In hindsight I should have asked him what he actually meant by that. I'll have to check the final bill carefully, as I suspect it may have VAT at 170%...
While hanging around in town, waiting for the Lizard Men to contact me, we went into HMV. Kato then wandered off down an aisle, leaving me in another aisle. With a credit card.
And an even more severe will-power deficit, brought on through stress
Error.
Which means I now have:
in addition to:
Bet you're envious, eh? Oh.
Work sucks. I'm not going to say any more on this issue, since there's only so much rhetoric along the lines of "I'm having a dismally crap time at work and I hate my job" that even I can spew.
So, what's left? Well, I have the comforting feeling of having helped someone a few thousand miles away from me by the simple act of posting them some disks. Not much outlay from my point of view, (hopefully) huge benefit to them. Nice feeling.
The Skoda goes in this morning to have the Really Secure Bonnet fixed, which means I need to leave it in the hands of mechanics. I don't trust mechanics. I've given this some thought and I think the reason I distrust mechanics is that they are really Lizard Men from Tau Auriga.
Hear me out.
Think about it: they have access to the hidden inner workings of my car. They speak in their own language that sounds like English but contains almost no meaning to mere mortals. They breed hamsters. Ok, I may have made that bit up but it's plausible isn't it? Lastly, and most compellingly, is this: they can say the expression "have you greased the nipples?" and not smirk! That's just not natural. I mean, "have you greased the nipples" is a guaranteed smirk phrase to anyone with an IQ above room temperature and a pulse. You're smirking now, aren't you? Or you thought about it, at least. Anyone who doesn't smirk is obviously not human, and therefore a Lizard Man from Tau Auriga
And that, my friends, is deductive reasoning. Learn.
MacOSX 10.3.3 is out, weighing in at a not inconsiderable 57Mb (give or take a byte). With updates I always face a dilema: do I install now and risk getting bitten by something nasty, or do I wait and watch with envy as all the forums start crowing "It's great! It's fixed all my problems and was directly responsible for me getting a sex life!"? With this one I essentially fired up Software Update, hit the 'go for it' button, placed a hand over my eyes and shouted "What could possibly go wrong?!"
And the answer, surprisingly, seems to be 'nothing'. A few network browsing issues I was having seem to have been resolved, it feels slightly SnappierTM and, thus far, seems like a good egg. It will probably be a day or so before people start claiming it caused their Powerbook to go on a mad drinking binge and got next door's daughter pregnant.
On another note ('cause I'm a two-note kinda guy) RPG introduced me to something called Nationstates where you effectively create a small nation, tell it what its flag looks like, what the currency is called and what the national animal should be. So I created The Federation Of Gnarly (national motto: "We're not happy until you're not happy", national currency is the Phlegm and the national animal is the Lesser Spotted Turbot which, and I quote, "frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests". Given that the turbot is a fish, that's not bad going). For good measure I joined up with RPG's Arbitrary Peninsula region. And essentially what happens now is you, er, vote on stuff. Every day. And maybe join other groups of nations. And vote on more stuff.
I don't quite know what to make of it, frankly. It sort of seems like the fun is about to start and then, er, doesn't. I have this horrible feeling I'm going to keep one eye on it for a week or two, then check the "I'm on vacation" button and run away.
Today was a strange day. As some of you know - well a few of you , anyway - last November the place I worked suffered a "Total Roof Failure Brought On By Combustion". Our roof burned off, basically. The subseqent addition of 800,000 gallons of canal water didn't help the situation and completely ruined the ambience. So we went to (quite nice) temporary premises for a few months.
And now we're back. And it feels weird. It's almost like the first day at a new school, but one where you know everyone. Strange, yet familiar at the same time. I'm feeling a wee bit homesick, but I'm not sure what I' m being home sick for. Like I say, odd.
Faithful viewer PeterD (and you are faithful, aren't you PeterD? You wouldn't betray me again, would you? Not after the Badger Incident...) has pointed out that the Total Clutter Fairy also haunts his house, specifically the bathroom. In his own words:
In a similar vein, I had a flatmate once who would prepare for a night out by arranging to be picked up at 8pm, enter the bathroom at 4pm, emerge at 7:30 pm leaving the paint peeling from the walls, drained the hot and cold water supplies, every towel, handtowel and facecloth in the house drenched and strewn across all horizontal and most vertical surfaces, all manner of creams, potions and powders in splatters and debris mounds everywhere, and her looking like a drowned kitten. About 9pm she would emerge looking stunning, leaving her room in a similar state to the bathroom, smile sweetly at whoever the poor bugger was who was supposed to provide transport and sweep majestically from the house in a cloud of Chanel. If I hadn't had the fortune of living with her, I'd have fallen madly in love and spent the rest of my life in miserable regret.
Isn't that a touching tale?
Oh dear Gods, what have I done? In a moment of madness, fuelled by Stone's Green Ginger Wine (I'm a dandy, it's allowed) I got all nostalgic over the theme music to the old 80's Battlestar Galactica. Fired up a file sharing client (Acquisition if you really must know) and downloaded it.
This means I must accept the fact that I may be a sadder Muppet than even I thought.
Help me.
Actually, I'll help you. Here's the link to a site that has a goodly number of these damnable tunes.
"Here, in the bare dark face of night
A calm unhurried eye draws sight
- We see in what we think we fear
The cloudings of our thoughts made clear."
"A most interesting contribution, we're sure, but can we keep this just a little more focused?"
The General Systems Vehicle Wisdom Like Silence replying to the Limited Systems Vehicle Serious Callers Only, from "Excession", Iain M. Banks.
I just liked the poetry, ok?
"I don't make A to Z plans because I don't have the time, I don't have the information and, in my case, I simply can't be bothered."
"Only Forward", Michael Marshal Smith.
I'm a bit like that myself.
Well, I've got the site passing w3c validation now (only the front page though). A step in the right direction, at least. It should also work in IE for Windows now, insomuch as anything ever does...
Had a good night last night. Had a fairly good meal out with a friend, came back, bought a bottle of Talisker and spent the rest of the evening watching 'Coupling' and the B&W Flash Gordon DVDs. Top night. I've also acquired an old Gateway VX700 17" flatscreen CRT, which is an improvement on my old Dell 17" CRT as it's much more clear and sharp. I can run it at 1280x1024 and still read the text, which is more than the Dell could do.
I'm also starting to suffer from Phone Envy. The mate who came around had recently got a hold of a Motorola V600 and I'm smitten by it. Trouble is, I only want Pay As You Go since I don't use a mobile a great deal - it's more for other people to phone me. My current phone is a Sony Ericson T68i and it suits me down to the ground. It's small, light, clips to my belt in the most unobtrusive way I've yet seen and can connect to MacOSX seamlessly. I can phone home or someone in Australia with it which, when you get right down to it, is all you could really want from a phone. But it doesn't have polyphonic wossnames and I secretly lust after those.
So, let's face it, it's only going to be a matter of time before my ability to resist buying one erodes away to nothing.
On a slightly different note, what is it about some people and their uncanny ability to create a small mountain of dirty dishes? Take Kato for example. If she makes so much as a slice of toast, the sink will contain three mugs, four plates, six knives, a desert spoon, the potato peeler, between one and three skewers, and a side plate.
And, for some reason, the wok.
Someone please explain this to me, because I can't my head around it. It doesn't make sense and, what's more, only happens if I'm not watching. Maybe it's the Dirty Dishes Fairy.
I'm redesigning the site site right now. I'm attempting to make it
a) Work in Internet Exploder, and
b) not make w3c validator laugh itself sick.
Oh, and I got rid of the starry background. Nice but distracting.
I'm off work today as well. Envy me. Envy me!
One of the outcomes of my trip to the blacksmith dentist earlier this week was that she recommended I get an electric toothbrush. I didn't think much of it at the time - after all, Kato's had one for ages now and she really seems to like it. She spends hours in the bathroom, buzzing away. She emerges with a dreamy smile and I have to admit her teeth are shiny. Then I started to give it some more thought and it occured to me: what she (the dentist) is saying is that I don't know how to brush my teeth. How crap is that? I'd crossed that one off my 'must learn how to do' list about three decades ago, but apparently I was being a bit premature.
So I'm now the grudging proud owner of one of these beasties and I find myself faced with a horrible truth: I don't know how to use it. Obviously I know how to switch the blighter on and off, that part is easy, but how are you supposed to move the sodding thing? Do you use them like an ordinary toothbrush, vigously scraping it around, or do you hold it still? I can't believe at 37 I'm getting toothbrush stress...
I like having long hair. I admit that's a bit of a theme change from toothbrush stress but it's my blog, so bite me. Long hair, on the face of it, doesn't have many advantages. For instance it absolutely must be washed every day or it looks like a mop dipped in oil. When it was short I could wash it every other day, because you can get away with it providing it's spiky. Strange but true. Once washed it requires about 3hrs to dry, during which it will drip down my back no matter how vigorously I've towelled it. Leaning over a gas stove now has an extra element of danger that short haired people don't have, unless they've applied illegal levels of hair gel. Despite all this, I love having long hair. It's me, somehow. Short hair looks good on some people - David Borra Boreni Angel looks good with short hair, for instance, but it just isn't me - I look like a geek. Besides, with long hair I have the exciting posibilities of Big Hair Styles, such as pony tails, Viking platts, Dreads, or Kai from Lexx. Admitedly Kato has claimed she'll kill me before she styles my hair like Kai but I live in hope. There's one other, tiny little problem with me having long hair: Kato. She is one of those people who is trying to grow her hair but it just won't cooperate. Naturally, this means that I'm technically not allowed to have long hair, which means that when I see her with a pair of scissors and a speculative look, I know it's time to make myself absent.
Sort of like now, in fact.
Tuesday has to be my least favourite day of the week. Weekends are great, for obvious reasons. Wednesday contains the exciting prospect and morale boosting attribute of being halfway through the week. Thursday you can almost smell the weekend, and Friday practically is the weekend.
Tuesdays, on the other hand, are Limbo. The weekend has faded and you're still faced with the prospect of more working week ahead of you than behind, which is something I find rather depressing.
I use the drive in to work in the mornings as an ideal bit of free time to think about whatever I want to - quality time for the mind, you might say. This morning all I could think for the first 15mins was something like '[eeeeep]'. Then I got to thinking about those Flash Gordon DVDs I bought, which led me to thinking that Larry "Buster" Crabbe also played the original Buck Rogers (if memory serves), which led me in turn to thinking aboput the 80's version of Buck Rogers.
Which means I now have the theme music to Buck Rogers going around my head and there's no shifting it.
Say what you like about the 80's - they may have been a bit of a cultural vacuum but they did at least give us TV shows with blazingly good theme tunes. Knight Rider? Catchy. Buck Rogers? Anoyingly catchy. Airwolf? Wonderful. Battlestar Galactica? Dramatically wonderful. Automan? Well, they can't all be good...
Any day that starts with a trip to the dentist is going to have its own special flavour. This morning was my annual
6 month checkup, nothing unusual. When I'm there I like to play a little game. This game consists of attempting
to tell my rational brain (as opposed to the other 95%) that although I'm feeling some pain here (from the de-scaling),
it's nothing to be concerned about because there's no damage being done. I should be able to prevent myself
wincing, twitching or shouting "AAAAAARRRGGGHHH!!". I suppose it's a bit like that scene in 'Dune'. I actually got closer today, and was able to start looking at the
pain as an interesting sensory input rather than something to be attempting to escape from. Not quite, though. There
was still the occasional twitch and muttered "urgh". Maybe next time.
My boss made a rather interesting observation today. He claims that whenever I get too stressed I go into what he calls 'penguin mode'.
What?
What the hells does 'penguin mode' mean? Do I suddenly acquire a top hat and a cane and start shouting things like "curses, Batman!"? I'm fairly sure I don't, as it's the sort of thing I think I'd remember...
"I would not sleep today, nor tonight. But tomorrow I would dream."
There's something in that quote (from "Only Forward" by Michael Marshall Smith) that just talks to me. At that point in the story, Stark (the character thinking that quote) is grabbing a few minutes rest whilst rescuing someone. He is bemoaning the fact that there always seems to be one last obstacle to overcome, one last hurdle to vault, one last mountain to climb before he can rest. That's sort of how I'm feeling now. The pleasant comfort of the weekend that seemed so reasuring on Friday night has vanished, to be replaced by the prospect of another stressful week ahead of me wth no respite in sight.
Or maybe I'm just tired and a wee bit maudlin.
Oh, now this is a cool one: the SightSaver screen saver. It's another screen saver (for Panther with OpenGL only) that takes input from an iSight camera (or any Firewire graphic input device at a guess) and does this with it:
What you can't see is that the torus is spinning slowly around, all the while getting updated from the camera. Completely pointless. I love it.
I've just discovered the Cavendish Screensaver over at Versiontracker - it's rather pleasant. Would make a good iTunes visual whatsit in my opinion. Apparently it is a "3D gravitational dynamics universe sim". Golly. Looks very nice, whatever it is.
If I ever wanted confirmation that Microsoft and all its products are evil, bletcherous pieces of crud (beyond, you know, using my eyes!) then the fact that this web site works perfectly in all browsers except IE 6 under Windows would be it. I mean, it even works in IE5 on the Mac for pity's sake. There's obviously some IE specific requirements in the CSS files that I need to address, but those are living in a folder way over that way -----> and I just can't be bothered to find them right now. Download a proper browser like Mozilla or Firefox.
Well, I've watched a few more of the Flash Gordon episodes and a few things are starting to form a distinct pattern. The first of these is that Kato has an unnerving habit of shouting "kick 'em in the balls!" every time there's some sort of fight going on.
The second is that Flash and Barin seem to be slightly over fond of dragging unconscious guards around corners and tugging on their helmets.
Ok, that didn't come out quite the way I'd intended it to.
This still remains the best nine quid I've spent today.
Sweet Jesus. I've just watched the first three episodes of the 'Flash Gordon' DVD set I bought today.
Wow.
This stuff is amazing. I hadn't fully appreciated just how much of this stuff I'd watched as a kid - apparently quite a lot. The music, the sound effects all resonated deep within me, producing an almost irresistable urge to shout "hurrah!" everytime Flash came on screen. It's wonderful, wonderful stuff. The way you can almost see the stage direction, the bit part actors ("just step up, say your line, and step back, ok?")...I'm speechless. This may be the single most grooviest thing in my DVD collection. Today, at least. I can now more fully appreciate the more recent efforts of 'Flash Gordon' and 'Barbarella' (although I appreciated that one for a variety of reasons). David Hemmings (RIP) was in that one - he also played Dr. Moffatt in 'Airwolf', you know. He played a character called 'Dildano' in Barbarella. And by a curious coincidence, the rocket ships in the black-and-white Flash Gordon look like dildos. Did you know, incidentally, that you can get vibrators with USB connectors? Came as a bit of a shock, that one, I don't mind admitting.
I'm sorry, I seem to have drifted. Buy this now. Trust me.
Just got back from town. The Skoda now has a non-shiny tyre and my bank account has slightly less money in it than, say, this time yesterday.
Whilst in town waiting for the tyre to be fitted ("It's a tricky one, you see? If we don't match it perfectly then all sorts of ...", "I'll be back in an hour.", "Right-o squire.") Kato (SWMBO) decides to go and powder her nose, leaving me outside HMV.
With a credit card.
And a severe will-power deficit.
Mistake.
Something odd happens to me in HMV stores. I know that, by-and-large, they're a terrible place to buy DVDs from, unless they're having a sale in which case they're ok. Ish. Despite this knowledge, I end up buying stuff that I could get from, say, Play.com for less, sometimes much less.
Today I ended up buying the original, black and white series of Flash Gordon. The one that has a disgustingly fresh-faced Larry "Buster" Crabbe and Carol Hughes in it. Where the heroes had big guns and the heroines had big hats.
In the name of all that's holy, why? Because I love it, I suppose. There's something about those old black-and-white series that just appeals to me, when it didn't matter that the sets were ropey, the special effects were not exactly special and the acting was...slightly over the top. All that mattered was that you has a bloody good story to tell.
That's probably why I like Blake's 7. It has all of the above, plus colour.
This has been a long day, at the end of a long week, at what is starting to look like being not one of the shorter months. I am, not to put too finer point on it, knackered. The last time I had more than two days off together (not counting weekends) was October. I mean that can't be good for you, can it? I'm beginning to feel worn thin, as though my substance is being lost (not physically, obviously - that would be gross).
I need a holiday. Trouble is, April is about the earliest chance I'll get. I just hope I make it to then without cracking up and turning up to work in a tutu shouting "More tea vicar!!??!" I'd rather not go through that again...
The car (have I mentioned it's a Skoda? No? Well, it's a Skoda. Consider yourself told) continues to add just that little extra bit of grief to my life. Remember the non-staying-down bonnet? Well, guess what? I now no longer have that problem. I took the thing in to the local garage (whom I trust not to rip me off more than I can tolorate) and left it there for the day. When I got back in the evening they kindly informed me that although they hadn't been able to cure the problem, they had been able to change the problem. The bonnet stays down now. Rather too well, in fact. The bastard thing now won't release! I mean, come on, this just isn't fair.
They also informed me that, although Shiny Things are indeed very nice, it doesn't apply to tyres. Shiny tyres are, apparently, a Bad Thing. You'd have thought there would have been a memo or something, wouldn't you?
My Word For Tomorrow is 'Juncture'. Try to slip it into conversation in as inappropriate a way as possible. If you can also work the word 'thighs' into the same sentance then you win the Verbal Scrabble Triple Word Score Award, which is worth at least 75 points.
I've also decided to iconise this little lot. I'm going to scrounge up some icons (probably from XIcons.com) to try and categorise things a bit. On the off chance that there's anyone actually reading this, the occasional astronomical observing report will have a icon, in order that you can skip past it and avoid reading terms like 'visual limiting magnitude' and 'that sodding bothersome Moon'. See? Aren't I good to you?
Indications are coming in that MacOSX 10.3.3 is nearing completion. Speculation has it that it will be released this coming week and will weigh in at around 70MB. I certainly hope so, as one of the improvements is to networking. Panther's networking is definitely borken, to the extent that dynamic network browsing:
a) isn't especially dynamic, and
b) won't let you browse half the time.
Come on, Apple, we know you can do better than this.
Cars. Bastards. Some people (mainly, but not exclusively, blokes) can open the bonnet (or 'hood' in Merkin-speak) and see a wonderful interplay of forces, connected in a coherent system.
I open a bonnet and see a frightening, confusing welter of cables, coils, tubes and strange things that go 'boink' when you prod them.
Tried to fill the washer bottle last night. I mean, how hard can it be? In fairness, the filling-up bit went fine. There was a minimum of screaming and blood, the music from The Omen wasn't required. No problem.
Then the bonnet wouldn't shut. Normally there's a trick to this - you drop it from a height of about 6 inches. {THUMP}. Works every time, normally. Not tonight though. {THUMP}{click}. {THUMP}{click}. Bastard wouldn't stay down. {THUMP}{click}{THUMP}{click}{THUMP}{THUMP}BASTARD{THUMP}.......{click}
Driving on the M6 when your bonnet might fly up is an invigorating experience, I'll give it that.
Woke up with a bastard of a headcold this morning. I bloody hate head colds - they drag you down but they're not serious enough to justify a day off work. Overnight you change from being a cool, suave, together kind of guy (yeah, right) into The Grunge Monster. You have to breathe through your mouth, thereby obtaining a slack-jaw'd appearance beloved by those with an I.Q of 70 and an unhealthy liking for Pop Tarts.
And I missed CSI as well. Bah.
On the other hand, it's good news from Mars - the enire crater area appears to show compelling evidence of prolonged exposure to water, indicating that it must have been much more prevelant in Mars' past. The interesting thing about that is that it sort of implies that Mars once had a denser atmosphere than it now does (approx 1% of ours, even at a bad party) and, therefore, may well have supported life. I was kind of hoping that they were going to show a photograph with a flint arrowhead in it, but you can't have everything.
Oh dear Gods, I missed Coupling!
Now I'm going to have to buy it on DVD. It's a sign, I tell you.
Why do the skies always clear on Sunday evenings? When I'm supposed to be getting ready for the working day? Beats me.
Equipment: Orion Optics Europa 250 ('Mini-Hubble') on a HEQ5 mount.
Sometimes when I go out I have no particular plan, prefering to just 'roam' around the sky on a whim. Last night I had a single target in mind:planetary nebula NGC 2392 in Gemini. XEphem reports it as being magnitude 9.90, which is on the faint side for my skies. To find it, I mentally draw a right-angled triangle using Delta Gem, Lambda Gem and NGC 2392 itself, with the nebula being at the right-angle and the Delta-Lambda line being the hypotenuse.
Finding it proved - interesting. It took me 45 minutes, the last 10 of which involved swearing. I also discovered that my gloves are too thin. The mistake I was making (in seeing it, not the gloves) was that I was using too little magnification, given that I didn't know the field stars. I was using x38 which, in hindsight, was a bad idea. Given that you're looking for a star that just won't quite focus, a bit more mag would have been adviseable. Eventually I saw a star that juuuust didn't look quite right. Threw in my 15mm Lanthanum (x80) and there she was.
NGC 2392 has an almost cometary appearance, with a bright core fading
out to the edges. I couldn't see the boundary to the edges, getting the
feeling that there was more 'just out of sight', as it were. It's unlike
M57 in that respect - that object has fairly clearly defined edges. I
was able to detaect some texturing in the nebula together with perhaps a
hint of blue, although that might just have been hypothermia setting in.
Stared at it for about ten mins before deciding that warmth was
required.
Many of you seasoned sky watchers will probably have no trouble finding this object, but for me it was an achievement. Next time it will be easier.
Probably.
