Keep Grinning

Time off. A great thing. So what better way to spend a Sunday than doing something a little different.

An unfinished project is that of recording replacement sound files for the “Announcer” in the game “Team Fortress 2″. I ran out of steam on this a long while ago. So I’ve been meaning to put the nice condensing microphone my brother got me for Christmas to good use. So I finally got around to ordering a microphone stand last week. Today I’m feeling some what verbose and thought I’d better make a start or trying to make some proper recordings, rather than using the little microphone on the end of my head set. So 170 odd files later and all I’ve got to do now is upload them and let Mode Seven know where they are, he being the co-conspirator in this particular endeavor.

In other news, my friend Earthy is in the process of ordering a lot of computer parts for his upgrade. And in the modern spirit we’re recycling. So that’s Junta’s old motherboard has been brought out of mothballs and Deadly Avenger has a graphics card that will come in handy. So hopefully in a little while Earthy will have a working rig again. As his current rig has decided that no output on the AGP socket is the way forward. Bloody frustrating. But not for long. It’s daft how I can get genuinely excited about a upgrade. And it’s not even mine! Well that’s geek tendencies for you.

The next ten days see another long stretch ahead of me as I enter the ten in a row section of my rota. Although it may not be that bad. The work load has been a lot lighter since the Football world cup came to an end. So the next few days may be fairly straight forward. However as most of the schools in the land have finally broken up, I may find trying to get around becomes a bit of a challenge. Time will tell.

Right, I’d better see how the upload is going.

DIY is a dangerous pass time.

So a day off. YAY! A nice long leisurely lie in and then I found myself tinkering with my PC. I’ve been trying to get TF2 to run over my network. The off-line practice is all well and good, but there are no achievements. So I got around to creating another Steam account and downloading the dedicated server program. All kinds of fun. But my BT home hub keeps resetting it’s self. This drops the connection and causes no end of trouble. if I do manage to get it working, then I end up with no access to the load out option. So I found myself this morning experimenting with a hub. After trying various different things with wires all over the place I came to following conclusion. I’ve no idea what is wrong. Running the game as just a LAN game is all well and good, but the server can’t talk to Valve, so not secure. Or something like that the error message was saying. As soon as a connection to the outside world was established, all would be OK for a couple of minuets then there would be the “click” noise from the home hub and that would be your lot. Something has changed since about two updates ago that my home hub doesn’t like. Sod it, I’ve no idea. Might be time to change to new black home hub.

So with all that teckie debris cleared away it was off to Bristol to run the gauntlet in Ikea. it’s a strange place. i tried using the short cuts through the show rooms, but still managed to get lost and double back on myself. So especially miffed when I got to the self service area and found the shelf I needed was back in the show rooms. I felt like a salmon swiming up stream going against the flow of numerous members of Joe Public. I eventually found what I was looking for the the help of a friendly assistant. Had a random moment of comedy on the way out. A woman with a strong Afrikaans accent was showing her two kids where Johannesburg was on the map, and explaining that is where they lived. One of the little boys than commented that the humongous map would come in handy for Geography home work. he had one of the thickest Bristol accents I’ve heard in ages. Made me smile.

So shopping complet, there was the joys of trying to get a shelf fitted to the wall. A bit of modifications was needed. So this did require a trip to B & Q to get some cutting disks for the dremmil. As is normal for my life, I stopped in on the Doctors to get my eye looked at. Apparently it’s OK, I’ve just got to see if it gets any worse. If it does, then it’s off to the eye specialists. OK, slightly scary.

So cutting disks in hand it was back to hack the shelf down to size and then fit the thing to the wall. I’m slightly prone to over engineering things. So in true style, there is now a shelf capable of supporting a load that will not actually fit on the shelf. May be the fixings I used were a little over kill, but you don’t want the shelf to fall down now do you?

A chilled evening. Chatted to a friend on the phone, seems like his PC has died a death. So I’ll be popping round his in the future to drop off another mother board for him. He’s got most of the bit’s he need for a new rig. Just needs a PCI-E graphics card and a processor for it. The graphics card is kind of sorted out. So it’s down the the triangle. What? Don’t know what I’m on about. There is a triangle for life. It’s got three criteria. Good. Fast. Cheap. You can have two out of three.

So here we are again.

I hadn’t realised it had been so long since I last wrote something in here. The day to day going on activity of my life has become very routine. Nearly stagnant. Work continues at a good pace. The work load is still constant, so that is a good thing. In fact things seem to be getting a little easier, but perhaps that is probably me just getting used to the new way of doing things since the change over from one employer to another. On the surface nothing has changed. I’m still doing the same work for the same customers and talking to the same people. So all that really changed is I’m paid by a different company on a different day. And the dress code has changed. Most of the other changes are purely administrative. But i had a review a couple of months ago and it went well. Looks like I’m keeping up to speed on things. The only saga has been trying to get the company car serviced. Thankfully that’s all sorted now. the complication was down to the fact that I have a temporary hire car until the new feet of vehicles is sorted out. So the would be normal process doesn’t quite apply yet. But with time it will. the end result so far is that the car has had a service and is is in good condition.

Driving has been a little odd of late. It’s probably down to the increasing number of tourists. But I seem to be encountering more and more “Dick Turpin’s” of late. had one today. The stretch of road between Gloucester and Ross On Wye. Found my self behind an elderly couple. Usual thing. Couldn’t maintain a speed. Slowed down at the site of a corner or on coming traffic. Seemed to have difficulty staying in the lane. So when an open stretch of road presented it’s self, I decided to overtake. No on coming traffic. Great visibility and road conditions. An easy overtake maneuver. But some how this really upset the old man driving his little green Korean car. Much flashing of lights and hand gestures. I still can’t figure out what had got his knickers in a twist.

Well summer is definitely here. And with in a couple of months I get to go on my hair brained scheme of traveling in to Europe. The plan is quite simple. Go visit the places that Gloucester is twined with. So that will be Gouda in Holland. Trier in Germany. And Metz in France. I’ve never left England, so this is going to be a bit of a daunting journey. I recon I can easily travel 400 miles or so in a day. So I’ve got 3 weeks of work. So I’ve got plenty of time to take things easy and see the sights. may be pop in o some other places along the way. So sooner or later I’ve got face facts that I really should be getting organised. Book ferry tickets. Sort out accommodation. Figure out a rout and time table. Really looking forward to it.

So I’ve finished a 10 day stretch. Really looking forward to a lie in. Be nice not to wake up to an alarm clock. So some domestic chores and than i think a trip in to Bristol to have a look around Ikea. And then go and see friends over the weekend.

So there you have it. Work is all ok. Alive & well. An adventure awaits.

One of the consequences of shift work is the feeling of being out of sync with the world. After the ten days in a row I tend to feel very frazzled. And then I tend to cram a lot into the following four days off. So what has been so exciting that I’ve neglected writing this?

Well there is the saga of trying to get the company car serviced. I’ve tried on several occasions to get the car serviced. The last attempt was Thursday just gone.  So the first time there was no availability with the particular garage that the hire company uses. The second attempt was done on a Saturday and the single individual from the hire car company wasn’t working, so couldn’t authorise the work. And the third attempt fell in it’s face when the garage chain the hire company uses lost my booking. So I’ve left it to the company that manages the company fleet to sort out. So far haven’t heard anything back. So I’ll make some enquiries on Friday.

On a much happier front, I got to meet up with one of my sisters on Saturday. We met up at a pub on the outskirts of Swindon and had a bloody good chat and a catch up. So that was a really nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Other than that, my time off was spent in the usual manner of catching up on my sleep. Doing one or two domestic chores. And generally taking things easy. Shame the kid from next door but one is proving to be a troublesome teenager. Found two sheets of mirror glass smashed over the car park. No witnesses. All that indicates that it’s him, or at least that the debris originated from his property, is the fact that one the pieces of glass hit the tarmac end on and embedded a bit. So that gives a point of impact and then it’s just a case of looking at the spread of debris. Not a lot you can do really. I can’t legally brain the kid. the police won’t be interested. And the kids Mum, well she doesn’t want the 14 year old. So all I can think of doing is spending out £250 on a private security camera system and getting the relevant data protection act licence. But in all honesty I’d rather spend the £250 on something more fun. But do I want to continue cleaning his crap out of my car park? Oh the joys of dysfunctional teenagers.

Right, I’d better get a wiggle on. Work starts in a few minuets. I wonder where I’ll be sent today.

An unusual day. On the bright side, it was my weekend off. But I did have one errand to do for work, which is get the company car serviced. So due to odd way the car has been sorted out as a temporary measure until my new employer can sort out a new fleet of cars, I’ve got a hire car that has come from Enterprise in a round about way. Now the lovely people of Enterprise have a contract with Kwik Fit, so it was to Kwik Fit I headed. Iwas told it was going to be about 3 hours. So rather than spend 3 hours sat on not particularly comfortable sofas, I decided to go for a walk.

I’ve only been into Gloucester Quays once, and that was while working. So it was nice to have a slow bimble around the place. There are all sorts of shops in there. There is one that sells professional quality cook wear. A couple of cafes. A music shop. The Cadbury’s Chocolate factory shop. And loads of clothing out lets. One in particular seemed to delight in seemingly massive discounts. Apparently this dress started off life at £485, then it went to £30, but could be yours for £20.

Now that kind of discount seemed to good to be true. When faced with a bargain like that, I found my self wondering how a dress could be worth nearly five hundred pounds in the first place. And how the hell was the store making any profit?

I had probably inadvertantly stepped in to another dimention. Because a couple of minuets later I saw this.

“But what am I looking at?” I can hear you cry. Well maybe this will make things a little clearer.

That’s right, a lady’s high heel shoe. How the hell did it get all the way up there. If some one threw it then it must have been one hell of a throw. The roof isn’t overlooked, so I wonder what the hell has been going on. Was Cinderella having a hot air balloon ride over Gloucester? Was there some kind of 007 style roof top chase? I was staring skywards contemplating this. I then realised that I had drawn other people’s attention. So they started looking up, then one or two started pointing. This drew other peoples attention. So what had started out as an unregarded shoe, was now becoming the centre of attention. Feeling happy with myself, I continued to bimble on.

It wasn’t long untill I stumbled across a bizzar little shop. Well with this stod out side wouldn’t you want to go in?

I mean what kind of antique shop has an Orc out the front? I had to take a look inside. There was all kinds of things. Furniture, clocks, clothing, military stuff. Even a trumpet. Very nearly tempted to spend the £120 for it, but thankfully thought better of it. It was certainly a shop of curiosities.

Well time passed and I went to collect my company car. My suspicions were raised when I realised that the car was exactly where I had left it. My forebodings were proved right when the man from Kwik Fit explained that they need to seek authorisation from enterprise before carrying out a major service. and unfortunately they couldn’t get hold of the person listed on the system. It was a mobile number and it was going straight to answer phone. What a waist of time. I had other things I wanted to be doing. I was going to see my friends down in Hampshire and it would have been nice to have spent more time with them. Sod it. If the car goes pop it’s not going to be my fault.

So after that fiasco I headed home, grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to Hampshire to go and see my friends. It was good to catch up with them and chat. A very chilled evening ensued with much good company and entertainment.