The Chronicles of The LazyKnight

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:44:14 GMT

This makes me sad:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/22/kodak_retires_kodachrome_film/

Well, there's one that immediately springs to mind....

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:12:49 GMT

If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

*grins*

And the odd one out was...

Mon, 11 May 2009 07:08:17 GMT

Cutting the ponytail off! The tail is still there and I have no plans to lose it. Sorry if the suggestion that one of the four wasn't true wasn't clear enough.

So yes, I've got a new car, a mondeo estate, ideal for diving and towing boats. My battered old astra is currently being sorted out before I try to sell it.

My new phone is the HTC Dream on Vodafone, the new android phone. No physical keyboard, and a lot sleeker than the G1. Battery life could be better though...

The Lj app on here is fairly basic, but better for posting than the webpage. Whilst at Praxis, I tended to post from work, but that's not an option here, and I tend to collapse when I get home and vegetate. Hopefully with the new phone, I will be posting more often during my commute...

Odd one out...

Thu, 07 May 2009 18:02:15 GMT

So far this year, I've experienced a variety of changes that I really wasn't expecting at the start:

I have an awesome girlfriend
I have a new car
I have a new phone
I have cut my ponytail off

One of these is not like the others though... can you tell what it is?

I wonder what the rest of the year may bring?

Small World Syndrome, DIY and other stories.

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:39:01 GMT

Apparently, I need to post more often, or so I have been told...

A couple of weekends ago, I went round to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum with taldragpn and pfy. It was only after a few beers afterwards that pfy and I figured out that:

He used to live about 300 yards from me in Bath.
He is the current house-mate of mirrorshard, whom I used to be in some RPGs with whilst at Uni. And I only found out that he was in LJ-land at owlfish's recent house warming party...
That I'd actually read some of his LJ entries via another mutual friend, elmyra...

This caused much, much amusement for taldragon as we went off in gales of reminiscence about Bath and discussed bizarre links and so on.

On the 13th February, I briefly popped into the dive club to pick up some keys and, well, have a quick pint. Many people were there, busily preparing for a Chamber Opera perfomance for the following evening in celebration of one of the club member's 60th birthday. (Video snippet of said performance here, by the way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hy4k-g3gyE).

Well, a couple of their friends had come down to stay and celebrate with Pete and Felicity. I thought I recognised one of them, and gradually moved the topic onto that of University. The person I was speaking to was one of my *very* first lecturers from York, Alan Wood, who was really rather embarrased at not remembering me at all. Not surprising, really, I was one of a hundred or so students he taught for all of 12 weeks in 1995.

I added another Billy bookcase to my furniture collection recently, with the idea of using it to ease some of the severe overcrowding on my existing two bookcases and dvd-racks. As part of this, I'd intended to buy one of the cd/dvd shelf inserts from Ikea. However, they stopped making them last september, apparently.

However, I had a few spare shelves from the CD towers, and had a spare shelf from the new bookcase... so I decided to make one myself! The addition of a couple of laminate floorboards, a few screws, a jigsaw and most of a Sunday, and the results look pretty impressive, even for someone as fumble fingered at DIY as me. I intend to send a write-up through to the Ikea Hacks website...

Also, power putty is frickin amazing! The door lock on my front door has been loose and getting looser for quite a while. Trying to tighten it up just makes the screws spin. So, drilled out the holes a bit more and stuck some of this epoxy-resin based putty in and screwed the lock back on. One hour later, it was solid, and it hasn't shifted since.

Elsewhere... I saw two cars today with big cameras on poles stuck on top of them. One was a tiny smart car with NCP emblazoned on the side, so I assume it was for enforcing parking restrictions...

The other was just outside my flat, with me walking along peering at it, trying to figure out what it was.

It was, of course, the Google Streetview car. I suspect that in a few months, searching for my postcode will show you, well, me.

So.

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:55:15 GMT

Um. Yeah :-)

That is all.

blows the dust off

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:35:49 GMT

Wow. Not posted since the end of august. 5 months, must be pretty much a record even for me...

Needless to say, the snow has been pretty impressive today. Got up about 4am last night to get a glass of water and was seriously impressed that the reflected light from the snow in the back yard was enough to light up my main room. Went to back to bed, expecting it to have mostly disappeared this morning. Nope, still there. About six inches of it.

Made my ay to the train station and waited for a train. And waited. And waited. My normal commute is 30-40 minutes. Today, I added another hour onto that... On arriving home (earlier than normal, in case the weather detiorated and the few running trains were cancelled) I found 8 inches of snow on the bonnet of my car...

Can't face the carnage of the trains tomorrow, so I'm going to work from home :-)

Babylon A.D

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:21:50 GMT

What a pointless film. It's not often I deliberately post spoilers but, seriously, I'm doing you a favour.

It's not simply bad -- the direction is quite tight and there's some excellent photography. But the budget holders obviously decided that seeing Vin Diesel destroying stuff was a better idea than a film that has a plot or, well, any kind of resolution.

There's a backdrop of a postapocalyptic wasteland that seems to be pretty much all the world apart from the glittering consumerist nirvana of America, strange neo-religions seeking legitimacy, dead men walking round and suggestions of some undefined miracle that would do... something.

Then Vin Diesel blows stuff up, Vin gets a new silicone and aluminium hand, people die, other people live, and Vin lives happily ever after with two twin girls.

And to be quite honest, that is the ENTIRE plot. We're not even given the satisfaction of seeing the nominal bad-guy (someone who, to be fair, seems to be far less ruthless and dislikeable than Vin Diesel) get blown to smithereens.

It's crap.

Isawlionsantigersancheetahsanhipposanwolvesanbearsannellyphantsan

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:15:32 GMT

I took myself off to Whipsnade Zoo today for an amble round. It's only 20 minutes away and is considerably larger than I was expecting. So lare that I barely managed to get all the way around during the day, and that was with showing up before the gates opened. Lots of really cool critters, including grey wolves -- the first time I've ever seen a wolf...

All in all, a very cool day, but my feet are now walked off. I'm also now a Friend of the ZSL, so I get free admission to both Whipsnade and London Zoo... so I think I might go there tomorrow...

Bad things and good things about thunderstorms

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:19:00 GMT

Well, the bad side was being sat in the plane for three hours waiting for the baggage handlers to scurry out and do a bit more between bursts of lightening activity. I'm *very* glad that I wasn't in economy...

The good thing was, once airborne, watching the thunderclouds below us light up. So very, very cool...

I picked up a few more books over there -- depressingly, at a ratio of 1 USD : 1 GBP, making them about half the price of books over there.

Oh, and debitha, just thinking about your comment on Rachel Morgan, you'd tear your hair out at the heroine in he "Cast in ..." series of books. Even I'm getting rather annoyed by her.

Strange chores...

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:32:45 GMT

I've been having a productive couple of weekends. Had I actually put any serious effort into them, I'd've had everything I wanted to do sorted last weekend, but that wouldn't have left an time for any fun... however, in amongst the normal chores such as taking the recycling to the tip, finally breaking the back of the laundry beast (three loads out and air drying, and another in the washer waiting to be put out, but NO laundry waiting) I actually came across something that, with the backlog and everything, really comes ito the category of a chore.

Reading.

Yes, you've heard that right (or read that write) -- I can actually consider reading to be a chore. Not that I've not been getting through my normal slew of novels (Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill is excellent, by the way) but I've uncovered a stack of diving and CAMRA related magazines that I'd completely forgotten about. So I've spent the last couple of hours working away at that chore.

Yes, there's still a stack of ironing, 6 months worth of accounts ad the bathroom floor still to do, but getting the excess reading out of the way seems like a far more reasonable sunday afternoon chore...

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:50:33 GMT

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Ouch

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:53:12 GMT

I just tried to access Schlock Mercenary, to get the following message:

"The data center at which Blank Label Comics is housed had a catastrophic failure early this evening, blowing out three walls of their power room. They are anticipating that systems will begin coming back online Sunday afternoon, but until then, temporary sites will be put together to give you additional information. Troy C. Belding Bookworm Computing with Blank Label Comics"

*THREE* walls? I'd love to know exactly what happened...

Crappy domain registrars

Sat, 03 May 2008 15:54:31 GMT

So, got home from NYC, went to check my email, with no luck. Fine when I left last sunday, not fine today.

Turns out that my domains had expired two weeks ago. My contact details with them were buggered, so the reminder they send through never got to me. So I've just had to jump through several hoops to get my domains re-registered, and will have several more before I finally get the DNS information back to what it used to be. If I can remember it...

Grr. not happy.

RIP: Peter Amey

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:00:25 GMT

http://ccgi.peteramey.plus.com/MyBlog/

I joined Praxis in October 99. Peter has had, over the years, a strong influence over my development as a software engineer. I'll miss him.

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:57:29 GMT

So, last night in this flat. Aside from a camp bed, a hoover, the router, laptop and me, it's empty. I don't think I've ever been in the flat when it is this empty. Everything echoes oddly.

Last night should've been my last night, but a party ending at 4am kinda put the kibosh on my early morning cleaning session. Still, pretty much everything has been done that can be done, upto and including washing all the woodwork down with sugar-soap. This place hasn't been this clean since significantly before I moved in... There are a few bits and pieces that the landlord will need to sort out, but it's pretty much done.

So, up early tomorrow to load remaining few items into the car, take meter readings and head off to St Albans.

This is wierd.

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:27:10 GMT

So, I'm pretty much moved in now. Phone has been connected, broadband ordered. All I need to do now is unpack stuff... and there's rather a lot of stuff to unpack!

A rather moving update...

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:57:35 GMT

Sorry to all who have asked recently regarding the flat-hunt. I've been kindof busy...

Everything regarding the contractual side of the flat has been sorted, leases signed, standing order mandates set-up etc. etc.

Last Friday was my last day at Praxis, and, although I left with my to-do list unemptied, I was actually quite impressed with just how far I managed to get through it. In a shift from the normal leaving speeches, I was grilled -- the whole thing turned itno "An Audience with MJW" kind of thing. Which was quite cool, as I got to throw a few more insults around prior to departing. 32 people turned up for the meal in the evening, with more in the pub before hand.

Saturday, and a farewell to the dive club. I kind of re-purposed a birthday party for one of the club member's girlfrends into a good-bya party, and was really touched when I had a presentation from the dive club as well. I got home from the party at 4, and slept through sunday rather than packing as I'd intended.

Monday, and the van I hired was dropped off at 8am sharp. An hour and a half later, my assistant turned up to help me pack everything into the van. The first thing we loaded was my futon mattress, which ended up being moved time and time again as we reshuffled stuff. Still, we were on the road at 12.30, in St Albans by 2.30, keys picked up and fed by 3.30, and the van unloaded by 5. Back on the road to Bath, and home by 8.30.

Tuesday, and despite me being quite plain when I ordered the van, there was no prompt pickup at 8am. I live in a residents parking zone, so was rather annoyed to be baby-sitting a van for several hours until they finally deigned to turn up... but only after I'd phoned to complain.

Still, managed to get everything else packed on tuesday, but too late to make a return trip. So, wednesday comes around and I'm still in Bath. Slow start, as I couldn't really summon the enthusiasm to do any moving. Still, I eventually get underway around 1.30, having replaced the wing mirrors on the car (don't ask).

And I'm driving up the A46 towards the motorway, listening to an article about The Prisoner on Radio 4, when there's a bit of a rattle and, in my rear-view mirror, I see the rear half of an exhaust. And cars swerving madly to avoid it.

5 minutes later, and that would've been on the M4. NOT something I would have enjoyed.

So, I'm now sat in The Bell, having a small drink (non-alcoholic, of course!) waiting for Kwikfit to put a new exhaust on the car... Maybe I'll get to the flat tomorrow...

Now that feels weird...

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:32:43 GMT

So. Last day. Last hour, even, of this job.

I joined in October 1999, straight out of university, and am now moving to a new job, in a new area. I'll have an entirely new set of people and problems to get used to.

Truth be known, it still doesn't feel entirely real.

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:50:25 GMT

And a happy birthday to suslikuk

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:54:42 GMT

For anyone who's ever role-played, you might like to head over to Websnark and check out the following article regarding a recent death...

http://www.websnark.com/archives/2008/03/lower_the_flags.html

No, really, trust me!

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:18:53 GMT

I've just installed some more Perl modules on this macbook. Including Mac::Carbon.

Part of this test suite includes checking the sound interface, including the voice synthesis, and one of the phrases it says is "It is good to see that you are using Mac Carbon"

Followed a couple of beats later with "No, really, trust me"

This amuses me :-)

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:54:50 GMT

Note to self: having spent hours over the past few days whittling inbox down from 5000+ messages to a mere 1300, accidentally deleting the remainder is not a good thing. Particularly if you then ask IT to recover them for you, and you get pretty much the full 5000 back again.

More on flats...

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:24:04 GMT

I seem to be paralleling owlfish at the moment, although with less good news...

The landlord of Choice 1 from monday accepted the third offer he had on the place, from someone who had seen it weeks before me but not put an offer in till later. The agent thinks that mine was the better offer and that I appeared to be the better tenant on paper, so has no idea why the landlord accepted an offer from someone who has already caused him some grief. Then again, that might be just agents playing diplomat...

The landlord of Choice 2 from monday are also contemplating selling the property for £240k, and have two second viewings this weekend. They won't make a decision to rent until after those viewings.

Choice 3 has gone.

Choice 1 from saturday which had gone is back, but the landlord wants the house back in January, which would mean moving in December. Not something I'd want to do.

So, looks like I'll be back there on Saturday.

(Oh, and my drysuit apparantly has a leak on the main seam. Which is covered under the guarantee of the suit, but is just bloody annoying and means I may only get some dives in on Easter weekend, rather than a couple before as well.)

More flats...

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:31:45 GMT

Possibly the oddest layout of a flat I saw yesterday was a two bedroom flat in a relatively recent modern block of flats. Why was this one odd? It had two bathrooms. Not just a bathroom and en-suite shower/toilet to the master. Two complete bathrooms.

The nicest flat I saw yesterday is ridiculously close to the station. So close that my on-foot commute to the office would be shorter than my current one. But the flat is really cool, and includes a loft-conversion and loads of wooden floors... unfortunately, someone else has also put an offer in on the flat, so I won't know till tomorrow as to whether or not I have it :-(

And I've just finished a 10-11hr day with the client, most of which was discussing completely differnt stuff than that which they were down for.

I'm knackered, but off to the pub for more client entertainment... (AKA beer)