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« Weblog: Currently on my mind… »

October


Hallowe'en





 Updates …
Replaced the Forum, but it needs integrating properly, as does the photo-gallery. New sites I am working on include:




27th October: !


Sorry for the lack of updates, but …

Just spend 3 weeks in hospital with my son after a road traffic accident!

My fault, really, I'd foolishly assumed that being on a zebra crossing - with the pelican lights in our favour - allowed us to cross safely. That and the two large signs saying, 'No left turn' that the driver apparently ignored.
*Mutter*

Nice to know that the seconds saved in taking an (illegal) shortcut and shooting a red light are more valuable than a child's life, eh.

There are a number of other issues which I believe attributed to the accident, suffice to say it wasn't the first accident at the pedestrian crossing, nor the last - especially given a bus hit an old man on the exact same stop barely a week later. Needless to say I will sue, and indeed campaign. I'll let you know how it goes.

Observation:
Intensive Care beds cost £1,000 a day to maintain.
That's before you are sued for reckless driving…
So, next time 'you' get into a car, ask yourself just much that distraction* is worth, eh!
*(Be it a mobile call, speeding, shooting a light, turning round to shout at the kids…)

My head is messed up enough as it is, so I refuse point blank to go down the If… route, but in case you are wandering I escaped with bruised muscles and a bad leg, while Ryan had multiple bruises, a gash, a fractured skull and needed a tracheostomy. I will be doing another site dedicated to support and such for road traffic accident victims.

Registered 'icu-ouch.info' to run a forum on the topic. I ran the idea though several doctors and nurses in hospital and I think it will prove helpful. Basically I hope it will be a gathering point for patients, family and medical staff. Should be up and running by Monday, all being well. I'll let you know.


Sunday 9th


Passive smoking? What peril!?
I have requested permission to reprint the article, but the author in question appears to be of the opinion that passive smokers are hysterical and over-emotional

I won't type up the letter from the local paper without permission, but here's the sarcastic reply I send in:

'Dear Star' Editor,

Just based on the fact you even published that ridiculous letter on passive smoking I can only assume you too are a smoker with the same selfish and frankly uneducated views!

Yes, I am a (lifelong) non-smoker but, genuine health concern aside, I have been so for two reasons:

Firstly, like most addictions, it is and always has been ridiculously expensive. According to Saturday's 'Daily Mail' the average smoker (on 15 a day) will spend £91,832.43 on cigarettes in their lifetime! (£1,493.22 a year).

Secondly, it stinks! Cigarette smoke permeates almost everything and lingers for ages.

As for all these young girls taking up smoking - whether to appear 'cool' or to follow the crowd - here's a little test: Look closely at a half full ashtray, then imagine passionately running your tongue around it; if that thought doesn't revolt you enough, by all means go ahead and try it! Nice, isn't it? By a curious coincidence, that's what it seems like for a non-smoker to kiss a typical 20 a day person.

As for the harmful nature of cigarette, I can barely even lower myself to comment on the writers viewpoint. The only people who really argue against their carcinogenic nature are nicotine addicts lacking the willpower to stop and the cigarette companies protecting their profits and frankly terrified of losing even one lawsuit. Oh, and governments softly-softly stance which has rather more to do with tax revenues and such.

Nevertheless, quoting one government web site (chosen at random from Google), Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 different chemicals including noxious gases and tiny droplets of tar and nicotine.
When you take a puff on a fag you are inhaling smoke that contains chemicals found in insecticide, explosives and floor cleaner!
[ source: http://www.lifebytes.gov.uk/smoking/smo_cig.html ]

Hmmm, the smoker in question, apparently, would rather sit next to another nicotine addict than an alcoholic or a drug addict. Funnily enough, I have never in my life heard of a druggie casually sharing his stash of crack cocaine with complete strangers in a bus queue, nor a boozer offer everyone around the cafe a measure of his Glen Glenfiddich. Strange that these social pariahs won't share, yet this self-righteous smoker - and countless like him/her - not only share, but thoughtlessly, selfishly force it down the throats of everyone around them. Given the same question, there is only one I would make a point of moving away from - and that would be the one who wrote in with this diatribe.

One has to have to wonder what Roy Castle's widow would have to say about the stance of 'Live and let live'.





Saturday 8th


Put this in y' pipe and smoke it!
Never smoked myself and, to be honest, from the earliest age I've never understand it. I'm 43 now and I still don't get it! It's expensive, off-putting to others around you, it stinks…

Did I mention it's expensive?

Compliments of today's Daily Mail are these figures compiled by Clerical Medical. Based on just 15 cigarettes a day, on average British smoker:

Naturally, if you smoke twice as many a day, the figures rise in proportion…

Hmmmm. £200,000 house, or a my first fag, then a lifelong addiction to cigarettes?
Decisions, decisions!
I know, I'll smoke, that way I'll look trendy to me mates. Smiley Boggle!

Smokers, eh!   D'oh! Smiley gagged


Friday 7th


Added a photo gallery
Only a selection of photographed added so far as it's terminally slow uploading the files, still, early days. It's a straight install of Gallery 2.0, but when I get a chance I will fully integrate it with the rest of the site. Anyway, if you are interested, here's a selection of my favourite pictures.


X-Fi revisited
Tried the patches etc, like you do, and I swear that it sounds noticeably worse with the updated drivers! Mostly I'll wait for the next update, but I shall have another tinker with the settings to see if it's anything I've altered. The biggest problem I have so far is balancing the noise. Depending on the recording levels of the media, I now have the volume hovering round 15%. Time was, I'd have it reasonably loud, with the slide pushed right up. Now, between Windows own volume slide, the break-out box on the X-Fi and the control unit for the S750 speakers... Smiley Boggle!

When I find the right media to play with I'll have a play racking the volume up, but I haven't pushed the boat out because I value my hearing. I imagine that if I put everything to 90% and tried with the troll scene from Lord of the Rings DVD I would clearly hear the goblins attacking - a full city block away! Hmmm, got to get me some of the Creative stands for the speakers to position them just 'so'. Oh yes!!!



Tuesday 4th


WooHoo... Ah crud!
First thing this morning my SoundBlaster Elite Pro arrived. Woot!
Am I ever looking forward to installing this.
Second thing still morning, my monitor went on the blink. Looks like the tube is on the way out! Smiley sad
Sighed miserably, turned it of, looked for the warranty card. January 2002, wouldn't you know it, a few months out.
Tries one more time, still twitchy
*Mutter*
Hang on, I never paid THAT much for it…
Phew, that was the 2060u, the 2070u is still in warranty, what a relief!
Turns it back on to pop over to Mitsubishi and see about a returns note - and the things fine now. If that doesn't make you believe in gremlins I don't know what will. Anyway, I'm keeping my eye on it anyway.

Now to photograph and install my new soundcard. *Drool*


First look at the Audigy X-Fi Elite
OK, first snag: Apparently there is a known issue with Apple Quicktime and InstallShield. I need to uninstall Quicktime to put the SoundBlaster software and drivers in. Hardly Creative's fault. Anyway, off I go again.

Haven't got it, but for those that do, the install includes an X-Fi support update for Doom 3.

Mutter. No serial number on the sleeve for the Steinberg software. That's a bit off. One point against Creative, one email to be fired off to support later! That said, there is a serial number for the Amplitude LE - but it isn't asked for on installation.

OK, jobs a good 'un, everything is plugged in, setup, etc. Final analysis:

Played a few songs and it's so good I could cry!!!

OK, yes, we are talking silly money, especially with the Creative Labs GigaWorks S750, but I haven't even installed the updates yet, nor tried games, CD's, DVD's or recording music, but even for media files, the jump in improvement over the original Audigy (with the same speakers) is so good it that even from this brief look I'd say it is worth every penny!

I don't go for all this 9/10 award fanfare, but I will say that if you can afford one, buy one, the grass really is greener sometimes!



Monday 3rd


Time to experiment…
Given there's vague light at the end of the tunnel for renovating our house, I've decided to get out of the rut I'm in and try and concentrate more on my sites again. One of this the I am looking at it increasing the number of visitors, and, while I'm at it, the visibility of the GoogleAds, while keeping my style and layout.

Basically, I more or less cover the cost of hosting each year. After I got round to talking to a few folk in specialist forums it seems I'm doing marginally worse than I should. Basically, all things being equal, I should be making over 100 times what I am at present. Looking at the reference pages at Google, I'd only put their adverts in (statistically) the worst places possible. D'oh!   Smiley Boggle!   Absolutely I don't do this for the money, but put in terms like that, dang, I could justify to myself getting a Nikon D2X and a shed load of software and hardware to really, really enhance this place!

Soooo, for the next month, while I tidy up the place - this and home - I'm going to try and go all out to promote us, see if I can't get 100,000 new visitors this month. We shall see.


Sunday 2nd


At the movies…
Went to see 'Land of the Dead' earlier in the week, if you haven't seen it yet, it is worth seeing. Needless to say the guy sent to watch the empty docks had a big red target saying 'eat me'. A few parts made me jump, other laugh like crazy, all in all, one to see on the big screen!

So, what else had I pencilled in as recommended viewing this month:

Serentity (15) - from the trailers, this will be great

Domino (tbc) - looks like an 18 from the content, but I'll probably see it.

Wallace And Gromit In The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (U) - Oh come on, a MUST SEE!

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (PG) - The original was great, I expect more of the same.

Doom (tbc) - Likely a 15. Doom, as in the game… come on, they are going to be queuing round the block for it for weeks!

Pencilled in for November are the 'Brothers Grimm' and 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', with 'King Kong and, possibly, 'Aeon Flux' lined up for December and the eagerly awaited sequel 'Underworld: Evolution' set for the big screen on the 20th of January, 2006.


Saturday 1st


Home front
Right, barring a slightly dripping radiator, the builders are all done, finally. Took almost a year, but in truth seven months of that was wasted as shower manufacturer Kubex continually strung us along with the production date for their Silhouette Cubicle. Essentially it is a large [2,000 x 705 x 925mm], all in one unit. Unfortunately, despite having a demonstration model and glossy product brochures, they had all manner of production problems and, ultimately, admitted they can't overcome the development issues for a full run.
*Mutter*.

That said, some of the contractors the building company used, I feel, would have been quite at home in the 'Wild West'.   Ruddy cowboys….   A so-called carpenter without the proper tools of the trade, a fag hanging out his mouth and the entire time here* sat on his backside badmouthing just about everyone who had ever employed him and, incidentally, dragging his toolbox around, wrecking stuff. I reckon I could do a better job and I'm useless at woodwork. *Needless to say after one day I made it perfectly clear I never wanted that particular bone idle git again.

The electricians - when they finally turned up - when hardly better, leaving one socket dead and the wires in another double wall socket hanging free. They did come and sort it properly though.

Getting there now. Personally I'd like the attic turning into a study area and the 'shed' into a study but I was outvoted.
*SIGH*.
Anyway, now we 'just' have to get the decorating done and look at new carpets, furniture etc. Ho hum.



Time served?
I know one thing, if I ever get a spare £300,000 or so I'm starting up a building company! Time served grumpy old codgers dragged out of retirement as PROPER tradesmen and apprentices that will happily go to college to learn and can take a thick ear from the gaffer when they deserve one for not learning… Smiley Boggle!
Six week courses to be a 'time served tradesmen' my Smiley gagged. Never heard anything so stupid in all my born days. Five year apprenticeships cramped into a few days in college. Sheesh!



The evil box in the corner!
The Daily Mail had a good article on the adverse affect of watching too much television. I won't duplicate the content, so it you want to read the meat of his article and my own commentary here's my link to The Dark Side of Television.