Computers!

OK, so after some backtracking and some stuff I tried and didn't work and losing my DVD drive for a while altogether, I'm back to where I was before - well, sort of. For some reason I can't explain I can burn from Media Player now! Computers eh?!

It's Almost The Weekend!

I've taken yesterday and today as holiday days off work. It's just typical that my cold has gotten worse over the past couple of days and I spent most of yesterday in a trance. Maybe my state of mind contributed to my experimentation with a free copy of Magix Music Maker 11 Silver I got from a magazine. This software lets you arrange samples very easily allowing you to build a piece of music. Unfortunately, as my copy was a special lite edition I only got about 300 samples but this is probably more than enough to create bits of music - that will probably end up all sounding the same :-( Oh, I'm so cynical at times!

Anyway, the one thing I'm pleased with about yesterday was that I arranged a piece I'd like to share with you guys. the only prob is that I haven't figured out how yet. I can create a WMV file but I really want to turn it into an MP3 or something I can put on the web. If there is a guru out there who can help, I'd be grateful for some advice.

Also, yesterday evening I spent a few frustrating hours trying to get Windows Media Player 10 to burn a comp CD from some of my MP3 tracks. It would not recognise my CD burner and still doesn't. I poured over forums and tried registry hacks and everything. I've given up for the time being, very frustrated!

I went mad and splashed out on CDs yesterday, I'm definitely in a changed state due to my head cold and fever. Here's what I picked up:
Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway (yeah well, I liked the single)
Mariah Carey - The emancipation of Mimi (my first Mariah, you gotta start somewhere)
Lil' Kim - Hard Core (wanted to hear this for a long time)
Eminem - The Slim ShadyLP (ditto)

Right, now to have a bath and get ready for another thrilling day ahead!

Interview Time

Imagine if you will a smoky lounge in a bar. In a corner two men sit at a small table, one old and one young. The old man has a big square ring on this finger and a cigarette. The young man has a black leather jacket, long hair and a leather lace strung with wooden beads around his neck. The old man has a notepad and a stubby pencil, he makes a few scratches on the pad as they talk. After 10 minutes or an hour, it's difficult to tell but the young man chuckles, takes a drink of his beer and the scrapes his chair back as he gets up and walks off patting the old man on the back as he does so. Alone again, the old man shakes his head, folds over the front of the pad, slips it into his pocket and struggles up onto his feet. He ambles out of the bar. What follows is a transcript of their conversation.


1) What were you doing 10 Years Ago?
I had just met a girl I wanted to be more than friends with. I didn't know then that she would become my wife in just over three years.

2) 5 Years Ago?
I'd be washing milk bottles and loading the steriliser. Getting up at unusual hours, being tired and irritable all day long.

3) 1 Year Ago?
I'd be at a boot sale, scanning through bits of crap for books and videogames.

4) Five snacks you enjoy:
Sausage rolls, potato crisps, toast, Malteasers and buttered scones.

5) Five songs I know by heart but wish I didn’t:
(a) (Is this the way to) Amarillo - Tony Christie
(b) Save Your Love - Renee and Renato
(c) Fast Food Song - Fast Food Rockers
(d) Annie's Song - John Denver
(e) Barbie Girl - Aqua


6) Five things I would do with a LOT of money:
(a) Buy a massive house
(b) Buy a holiday home somewhere near the sea
(c) Buy a big luxury car
(d) Set up a charitable trust to support local artists
(e) Take my wife and kids on a long holiday

7) Five things I would never wear:
(a) Rubber
(b) Earrings (or any other piercings)
(c) A pin striped suit
(d) A monocle
(e) A parrot (Ah, Jim lad!)

8) Five things I should never have worn:
(a) A Mickey Mouse tie
(b) Dungarees
(c) My sixth form suit
(d) Most stuff my mom bought for me, especially the Christmas sweaters
(e) Band patches

9) Five things I enjoy doing:
(a) Driving
(b) Going new places
(c) Meeting people and observing them
(d) Writing, reading, listening, thinking (they're all connected)
(e) Running

10) Five bad habits:
(a) Eating too much of the wrong foods
(b) Biting and picking my fingers
(c) Getting stressed
(d) Being too lazy
(e) Being indecisive

Tagged from Tara's blog.

A Cold

Well, it's finally happened. I have been living on borrowed time for a while. But yesterday I definitely can say I got the cold I've been holding at bay. One of my nostrils was blocked the whole day. I've been spraying it with Vicks Sinus spray (which I realised this morning should have been thrown away in 2004!) to no avail. Also, I had to make a train trip to another office to go and watch a presentation/briefing from this OD guy. Well, it WAS as boring as it sounds. I hadn't slept well on Monday night, at around 2am my kids started crying because one of them had wet the bed - unfortunately they had crept into the same bed. I got up at 5am and read some blogs downstairs. So my lack of sleep, the unusually warm office, the drone drone of the man's voice and because it was DULL and non-interactive it happened......I struggled hard to fight it......like when you're driving a long distance and you have to open the window or pull contorted faces to try and stay awake.....except I could do neither of those things......yes.....you guessed it.......I fellll asssssslllllpzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ASLEEP! Oh! I mean, asleep, yes I fell asleep, sorry! In and out of sleep I fell during the middle of the presentation. I don't think anybody realised but I'm just not 100% sure. I joked about my snoring with someone who was there and he didn't laugh much, so that's my main indicator
that they didn't realise I was in the Land of Nod. Oh boy! What a long way to go to then fall asleep during the most important bit of the presentation. But what a crap way to inform employees of the changes: give them a 2 hour non-interactive session that puts them under.

MY GOD! I just realised, how do I know we weren't all put to sleep while moulds were taken of our teeth. We could all have been cloned, Jeez man WTF???

Spring finally gets here: British Summer Time begins

I've been surprised at how quickly the weather has changed recently. I know that the 20th was supposed to have been the first day of Spring but last week it was still very cold here. But since Friday the weather does seem to have changed and I especially noticed it last night as I walked a friend back to her car down the street at 10:30pm. Yesterday morning the clocks went forward for British Summer Time, I always hate losing that hour - it's a much better feeling when you wake up realising you've gained an extra hour. Actually, scratch that! Since we've had kids I think the reverse is true, you're happy when the clocks go forward because you put them to bed an hour earlier and when the clocks go backwards you have another hour with them to sap your remaining energy! Bitter you say? There's no bitterness there, I don't know what you mean ;-)

I took the kids to visit my mother yesterday, leaving my wife at home. You might think that was strange since it was Mother's Day but she's been encouraging me to take them out on my own for the day for ages. A few other mums at my daughter's school were a little surprised but when they thought about it, they all said that really they wish they could get a day on their own. If it was me, I might have gone shopping or spent some quality time on my Playstation 2 but my wife decided to clear and tidy the kids bedroom. Not my idea of fun! But then who knows how a mother's mind works, especially being male - I have no idea.

Going back in time to Saturday evening, I was reading my book in bed while my wife watched the film Eraser on TV lying next to me. Occasionally my eye went to the screen and I watched a few seconds - enough to catch some of the action. I have to say that some scenes were just so completely over the top that they were laughable. The plane sequence was my favourite but I won't spoil it now.

Getting back to today, I'm a little disappointed that my order for 24 series two on DVD was cancelled by CD-Wow because it's out of stock at the supplier. It didn't say that on the website when I ordered it and I got a dispatch email the same day as having my money returned and an email to say my order had been cancelled. More CD-Ouch than CD-Wow.

Surfin' Safari

I've tried other blog promotion sites but I've never really understood what I was doing before. Lots of people have been raving about Blog Mad so I'm giving it a go. I have received more hits since signing up, so I guess it is working. I'll need to check my site statistics properly and do some more surfin' using Blog Mad to earn some more credits - I seem to be underperforming at the moment!

One Red Paperclip

This is a really interesting site, it called One Red Paperclip and it started through a man trading a red paperclip for a pen. He has traded the stuff he gets gradually and is now trading a recording contract! It's an example of how a really simple idea can become an engaging web attraction.

Spanish Rally 2006

This weekend its the Spanish Rally. So far this year I have not managed to watch any rallying on TV, mainly due to very poor scheduling on the part of the TV companies.

The good news is that Grey's Anatomy starts in the UK on 6th April. I can't wait to check it out.

Train Passenger

I took my PDA with me today on the train today. I did this quick sketch of a man sitting a few rows ahead of me. It's definitely a strange medium with drawing on the glass screen, I don't know if I like it or not. The drawings certainly come out differently than they would on paper. I'll have to do more sketches to experiment further. It did make me think that it might be an easy way I could translate my ideas for cartoons from my head to my computer, I don't know. I haven't manipulated this image yet, my next step might be to see what I can do with the image once I've captured it on my PC. I'm quite excited by the possibilities.

The Shield

I drew this tonight, a little challenge. Haven't quite got it right. Room for improvement you might say. Oh well, not enough hours in the day are there?

A News Story

So, I was checking my Bloglines and came across this news story that I thought was quite bizarre. Just imagine what his kid would have to make up about his dad's death, so that people didn't rip into him about. What would it say on his grave?

---

Coke man's rubber hell

By VICTORIA RAYMOND
Sun Online (www.thesun.co.uk)

A MAN took cocaine and died from excessive overheating - because he was wearing a rubber body suit.

Robert James Mauleverer Garnett, 35, was found by police lying dead on his bed after he failed to turn up for work, an inquest heard.

The McDonald's store manager was dressed in a rubber body suit and officers found "two sealable bags on the floor containing a white powdery residue", according to a police report.

A third bag was found on the bedside table.

A post-mortem examination revealed his brain was swollen and there was a potentially fatal concentration of cocaine his body.

It showed that "the presence of the rubber clothing caused excessive overheating".

Mr John Sampson, coroner at Southwark Coroner's court, South London, today recorded the death as accidental, concluding that Mr Garnett died from "cerebral and pulmonary oedema" (fluid accumulation and swelling in the brain and lungs) "and cocaine intoxication".

Police broke into Mr Garnett's home in Kennington, South London, on December 11, 2005 after anxious colleagues raised the alarm.

Pc Lee Clement entered the house at 6.15am and found "the lights in the bedroom were off and the curtains were drawn".

His statement read: "On the bed I could see a motionless body, the knees were raised and the feet were on the bed."

He was last seen by his McDonald's colleague Antonella Mazzoni two days earlier.

Dr Peter Jerreat, who carried out the post-mortem at Greenwich public mortuary, said: "No natural disease was present. In my opinion, the presence of the rubber clothing caused excessive overheating leading to cerebral oedema and respiratory failure. Cocaine was a contributory factor."

A toxicology report revealed a potentially lethal concentration of cocaine and traces of ketamine in the body, and morphine was detected in the urine.

Detective Sergeant Paul Byrne of Kennington CID who gave evidence at today's inquest said: "There was no suggestion of third-party involvement."

Mr Garnett was separated and had a four-year-old child.

What would you do?

Here's the scenario, you're over at someone's house visiting them. You go to the bathroom, use the loo and wash your hands. Do you:

a) shake and then wipe your hands down your jeans
b) use one of their handtowels that looks a bit dirty and might have germs on it you'd rather not touch
c) use a pristine towel that looks nicely folded for use after a bath

I'm a clean person, I'm certainly not fanatical about cleanliness. I do like to wash my hands after using the loo (after both a no.1 and no.2). But sometimes, when I know a visitor has been in our bathroom to use the loo and I can tell they have used a towel I'll put it into the wash after they've gone.

Would you say this was strange? I hate it when you visit someone and there are no towels at all in the bathroom - what are you meant to do? The worst is when there is only a horrible looking towel that is all thin and got holes in it. Or even worse, in a public loo and it has no hand driers or paper towels and only one of those thin towel-on-a-roll things you have to pull down to get to a clean part. Sometimes those things get jammed and there's only a dirty damp bit to use, in those circumstances I just wipe my hands on my clothes somewhere. I try not to use public loos if I can avoid it.

In the scenario I outlined above, I'd probably just check that the handtowel isn't too dirty and use the cleanest part of it - probably not rubbing too hard and rub my hands on my sweater or something to get rid of any excess. I'd feel guilty about wetting a clean bathtowel.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This was one of those thoughts I had this morning - I thought it would make an interesting blog post but instantly forgot it and just now I tried really really hard to remember what it was and I did! Most of the time, I have a great idea away from the computer and simply forget it until I'm away from the computer again.

Virtual pets 3

Lucy has decided to wear a costume. Very nice Lucy!

Virtual pets 2

A friend has bought Lucy a Power Ranger to play with - I don't think she's that keen!

Virtual pets

It is the role of the parent to look after our sibling's Tamagotchi's while they are at school. This happy little critter is called Lucy, my son named her. This is his Tamagotchi. There are 3 of these in my home at the moment, bleeping, chirping, and generally making themselves know. Today, I was looking after Lucy here and my daughter's Tamagotchi (whose name I have forgotten). There are some interesting things about these Tamagotchi's - you can connect them up using an IR beam between them and they visit each other, both appearing in the same Tamagotchi for a few seconds. You can then add them into a friends list and buy and exchange presents for each other. Currency is earned through playing a small variety of games. Lucy above is wearing a new pair of boots bought for her. I think she likes them ;-)

First Day of Spring (er.... tomorrow)

(Well, tomorrow actually but as I'm going to be in London tomorrow I thought I'd just welcome the new season the night before).

I'd like to welcome anyone who arrives here from Ecelectic Spaghetti, Tara has done me the very nice honour of making March 20 a holiday in praise of me. Sorry I won't be at home most of tomorrow!

I for one am glad that Spring has come. It's been a cold, dry winter here in the UK. Our water company is threatening hose pipe bans because the reservoirs are low. The pollen count is going to go up and on top of all the colds and flu we'll have hayfever making our eyes weep soon too. Don't you just love it!

I have been busy lately with models and my website project. Before anyone who's curious checks it out, I have to apologise for not being very technical with this kind of stuff - so I've just dropped stuff into a template and I don't know if I'll ever have enough time to do anything more. I thought I'd try and update it with a new project of some sort every month < at this point a small green man jumps onto my shoulder and starts sniggering "Yeah right, you won't touch that again. You won't have time. You're spent already ha ha ha" >.

Infact, I am spent - I'm dead on my feet. So, I'll just leave here with one more thought before I retire to bed. It's amazing, remarkable really, just how satisfying a cup of hot tea and a walnut whip is. And on that bombshell, g'night!

Shenanigans

I was trying to find a post or comment from Tara in which she mentions the word shenanigans, nothing unusual in that except it's the name of a boxed game in one of my cartoons. Ahem, the cartoons thatI still haven't put on computer or the web - I had two more ideas today by the way! Well, I did try and do the helmet I had in mind for my game Shenanigans.
Basically, the idea is this: it's a game called Shenanigans and it comes with the helmet depicted here. The person who's playing their turn wears the helmet and is asked a question, if they get it right the helmet can be taken off but if they get it wrong it decapitates them. Only kidding! It just locks into place on their head forever! Do you think it's marketable?

Sound Recorder

I've been playing around with a tool I don't think I've ever used before and I do believe I've underrated the little gem. It's a small program that ships with Windows called Sound Recorder. I realise I've just alienated readers out there on Apple computers, sorry but I've always been a Windows user. Although I would like a Mac, I just have too much Windows software to go out and get one now. Although, in future who knows with Intel chips in Apple Macs. Anyways, I digress, but if you have a Windows PC and want to see an excellent example of what can be done with this little program you really have to check this site out. It was all done with Sound Recorder and standard Windows sounds.
This wasn't what I was doing. I was interested in embedding sounds in Word documents. My kids have a few books that have those sound buttons down the side that make a particular noise - for example we have a Scooby Doo book and one button has Shaggy shouting "Yoiks Scoob!". I want to try taking a standard kids story and put it into Word with coloured text and pictures and the sound of my kids shouting or doing sound effects. I thought it was a cool idea that I'd not heard anyone doing before. And I could send it to my mom and she would love it.
I also thought I could use it in conjunction with Audacity to create an audio message to go in my Blogger profile, well I haven't done this yet. It needs more thought.

Profile picture change

Time for a new profile picture I think.

Night Watch

I've read a couple of things here and here about this film and I have to say that I'm quite interested in seeing it now. Short post tonight, I'm exhausted and so glad it is the weekend!

The Da Vinci Code

I see Dan Brown's books everywhere, they're plastered all over the bookshops I go into. Even non-bookshops that sell books, you can bet there's a Dan Brown novel. Even we own a copy of The Da Vinci Code for fucksake and we haven't even read it! My wife gave up after the second page because there were too many difficult names to remember in it and I've watched a documentary on TV about it, like that makes me qualified to talk about it! I'm completely ignorant on these matters but it is a juicy conspiracy, you have to give it that. I think we only bought the book because there is a film coming out based on it and we wanted to read it before seeing the film.
Gayla's asking for comments on the subject. My opinion is that there are some things we will never know for sure about the story of Jesus and it's probably better left that way. The Da Vinci Code is a good conspiracy story but it doesn't demolish what has been written in the bible. For me, the actual historical facts are less important than being a good person and a good Christian. By that I don't mean going to church and supporting an organised religion, I just mean living a good life, being kind to others and respecting the rest of humanity. The story of Jesus helps people to do that, it gives hope to the hopeless and allows people to become reborn with a new vigour and purpose to their lives and that's not something I'd want to mess with.
How much church organisations really contribute to making the world better probably varies a lot. They are run by people who are only human afterall. There are some reforms that need to happen, like allowing birth control, gay marriage, women priests etc. Perhaps church organisations are not challenged enough on these issues. Who knows, maybe the Da Vinci Code might throw some of the mysteries about how the church has become so powerful into the light. Perhaps it just muddies the water.

Commonwealth Games 2006

I just watched the opening ceremony of these games in Melbourne. It strikes me that opening ceremonies are a visual feast and must take a massive amount of organisation and coordination. They are a national triumph when they work well. However, the fireworks ceremony at the end has become a bit of a cliche and although they are spectacular, I think that they are overdone now. I look forward to watching some great physical performances and wish Australia well in all events but particularly swimming, in which I think they truly excel.

Lightning Pool

This is a very addictive game I've been enjoying the last couple of days. It can be found here , and I found it through a browse of this excellent site that lists lots of other interesting sounding games that I will have to explore at some point. In the game above, there is a variety of mini-games that you can play - in the one depicted I'm trying to hit clocks with white faces for bonus time, if you hit a clock with a black face you get time deducted.

Blake's 7

In the early 80s there was a sci-fi drama serial called Blake's 7. Led by a resistance fighter (Blake), who lost his memory, and a small group of criminals also fleeing from the dark and evil Federation escape while being transported to a prison planet by stealing an advanced spaceship from an unknown world. The pic is of the spaceship, known as the Liberator. I loved the programme as a kid and I have some on video in the loft that I think I'll get down and watch at the weekend. Thinking about this has cheered me up!

Money, so they say....

We seem to be down on our luck with money at the moment. There seem to be bills coming from all quarters, preventing us from doing stuff we want to do like go on holiday and spend some time together away from home. In December our boiler needed fixing, in January we had a big water bill and a big bill for my car, we also had a bill for sorting out my wife's car and last night our tumble dryer broke - so we have another big bill to pay. The tumble dryer annoys me because it's only 3 years old, we couldn't afford the warranty package and knowing our luck it would have broke the day after it expired anyway. They don't build things to last more than a few years and it is wrong, they should build to higher standards.
Money doesn't make you happy, I know that. But a friend in a similar position found a nice caravan website for a holiday near Scarborough, good value, but because they spent a year saving for a trip abroad this summer they couldn't afford to go. So, knowing that we haven't planned anything, they shared it with us. I phoned today and they don't have anything for the summer without our daughter missing school and we don't want her to do that. So it looks like we're stuffed. The prices are so high too during the holidays that it would be cheaper to holiday in Europe. Sorry to go on about money but we're finding it difficult just to stay afloat, it's not like I'm earning a pauper's wage. The cost of living for the average family is just outrageous. How people on low incomes survive is really beyond me. Everyone seems out to screw everyone else.

Mmm, perhaps the wine tonight was a mistake - it's made me feel bitter and twisted.

Lunchtime chat

We're sitting around the dining table eating lunch. It's a Saturday lunchtime and the song Free Nelson Mandela is playing because we have the PC on and iTunes running. My 5 year old daughter knows the song but doesn't know who Nelson Mandela is, and being 5 years old why would she right? OK, so my wife and I explain to her who he was and what happened to him. And it occurs to me how the world changes during our lifetime but also why history is important and what an incredible life and story that of Nelson Mandela's is. To go on to be the head of State after 25 years in prison is like just mindblowing isn't it? I just thought I had to post this mini-episode of my life.

Model Mania

I've been working really hard on a new model this week, it's taking a long time and I've got my daughter drawing things to add bits of detail to it. I've also been creating a website too, that's taking a while, mainly because I have no real idea what I'm doing but I've done a few models and I think it might be cool to share them. Anyway, the new model is of Tracy Island of Thunderbirds fame. So, I've also been watching a lot of Thunderbirds with my son. He loves them, that is my inspiration behind the model. I'm thinking of either writing a short story or a comic strip based on Thunderbirds too. It's becoming a bit of an obsession. I think this is just because I'm doing the model, I'm sure the obsession will wither as quickly as it has come on. Anyway, I plan to post stuff either here or on the website when it's up and running.
Also this week, I've started watching 24. My wife has been into this recently, so much! She watched the first three seasons in just under three weeks, that's a lot of TV! I think 24 is very good, the pacing is just spot on.
My listening this week has been N*E*R*D - Fly r die, Angie Stone - Mahogany Stone, Missy Elliott - The Cookbook and Ms Dynamite - Judgement Days.

Read the Blog, Wear the T-shirt

I like the sound of this service, Snapshirts analyses your blog and produces a word cloud, I've done it for this blog. You can then change some colours or replace some words. But when you're done you can order printed T shirts with your word cloud on: how cool is that?

Too Scared!!

What films can't you watch when you're at home alone at night? Here are mine:

• Blairwitch Project
• The Omen
• The Exorcist
• Carrie
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
  
• Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer
  

These particular films get under my skin and make me put lights on before entering a room. I just can't stand to be creeped out when I'm alone. I used to enjoy horror films once but I tend not to watch many these days. I had the opportunity to go and see Wolf Creek recently but I'd heard the second half was hard to watch and I just thought why put myself through that?

The silhouette is, of course, the statue of Sherlock Holmes outside of Baker Street tube station. I changed the orientation of this picture and to my surprise the cameraphone automatically changed the resolution so unfortunately I can't make it any bigger. 

This building project fascinates me: redeveloping the body of the building while leaving the frontage and clock tower held up by scaffolding. 

A wet afternoon in London. After the rain, there was sunshine so I thought I'd capture the moment of blinding whiteness reflected off the pavement on film!

I felt I should qualify my last post with a photo. the scary part is that up-close and face-to-face his presence is so powerful that you probably don't even think about the hair! That's true power indeed! 

The Apprentice

Alan Sugar from the programme called The Apprentice. The US equivalent is fronted by Donald Trump. If you have to look like either of these dudes to get the top, I'm glad that I'm where I am! What is that with Trump's hair?

Over the weekend, I finally painted the model I've been building for my kids' cars. I have mentioned making it before here. I'm onto the next project now, it's going quite well - I'll post the picture when it's finished.

Planet Earth

I don't watch too many documentaries at the moment but a new series is starting tonight called Planet Earth and it looks like a good one.

The F1 season begins next Sunday, I'm looking forward to catching some of the races if I can. The season calendar is here. 

I felt so guilty that our kids missed their pancakes on Tuesday that I cooked them today for breakfast. We got some mix left, so we'll have them for breakfast tomorrow too. The guilt of being a parent sometimes! 

A Favour...

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

Happy Birthday Miranda

Miranda Richardson's birthday today. She is a great actress. I thought she was so funny as Queenie (Queen Elizabeth 1st) in Blackadder. But her portrayal of Ruth Ellis in Dance with a Stranger is gripping, she plays a woman who develops an obsessional love for a man who seems to toy with her. It is painful to watch because another man does truly love her and her child but she is blind to it. It is ultimately a sad story but the performances of the three central characters are so incredibly strong it is compelling viewing.

Faulty Goods

Somehow, I didn't pay too much notice before but there is a screen on my new little MP3 player made of glass - thin glass. Glass so thin it can easily crack. And that's just what it has done. It's only been in my possession since Monday I think. It developed a crack overnight, it was on my desk and wasn't being dropped or anything, the kids didn't get in and sit on it or anything like that. So, either it was a faulty one off or the nice shiny new replacement I have will be fine. I'm hoping the latter and nothing to do with poor build quality. Functionally, I'm very pleased with what it can do but I have my fears about robustness.

Rally Mexico this weekend, I hope I can catch some of the coverage - it's on at times I'm rarely awake. Rally is one of my favourite motorsports. 

This morning, early start for me. I'm on the train while my wife uses my car until we can get to fix her door.