Midweek Happy

This week started badly for me. A lot of things seemed to be going wrong for me on Monday, I was just glad to be able to get into bed and rest. Tuesday came and I knew I had a list of stuff to do to put right what had happened the previous day. This included taking a new headset back to a shop, it wasn't working on 3 different computers I tried it on and when I was given the choice of trying another or my money back I took the money. At least my old headset works and I'd rather that than a new one that doesn't. My daughter is having a bit of a rough time at school and I had to go and see the teacher about it. I had a lot of stuff to sort out for work but got all of it done. I did some more work for my forthcoming podshow and I'm pretty nearly all set for the new series starting on Monday. Today was fine, I allowed extra time for travelling past some roadworks on my journey but infact I turned up early for my appointment so I went for some breakfast. I was glad I did because it was way past lunchtime before I ate again. I did make myself a tasty sandwich though: ham, tomato, mayo, salad and sweet onion sauce on white bread but its somehow white wholemeal bread - I don't know how they achieve that but it tastes good. So the final bit of today was attending a private viewing of my sister inlaw's art. Some really cool abstract paintings, I like abstract art because there are so many levels to it. I like depth.
I'm also quite pleased it is midweek and that the weekend is coming up. I've also got to book some holiday time before the end of March to use my allocation of days up, I can't carry any unused days over unfortunately - which means I can't store them up. I hope you all are having a good day today too.

Meet Wilbert

My son had first choice and therefore the name of our first goldfish is to be Wilbert. Next weekend we'll get him a partner, they wouldn't sell us two at the same time - I hope Wilbert doesn't get territorial about his fishtank. He seems happy enough on his own but he could use some company.

Remembered Post

This morning I had a good idea for a blog post and I didn't write it down. Now I'm left with a blank space and I just don't know how to fill it.

I just remembered what it was about!

I was pondering that insects and humans don't get on. We squash them or step on them or have zapper lights on walls or sticky papers. What if, one day a giant super insect came into being. Imagine something the size of a car that could multiply extremely fast. Imagine legs as hard as steel rods. Human society and insect society are totally different things. Imagine how hostile it would be to live in insect society. They would be like robots (The Terminator), killing without mercy. I remember as a child being terrified by a black and white science fiction film (it was probably called The Incredible Shrinking Man but I probably never knew the title). In it a man reduces in size every day until eventually his human friends lose him and he has to fend for himself. He has to fight a spider with a pin that, to him, is the size of a lance. It's horrible. Probably the reason I don't like looking at spiders or insects too closely even now. I once wrote a poem about the insect world (that I can't find tonight). If I ever do come across it I'll post it.

Post Pancake Day

Yesterday was Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday. We made some panckes and I also picked up a couple of offer packs of frozen ready-made pancakes. The ready made ones were smaller and not as tasty, not surprising I guess. However, we had the for breakfast today and they were nice and quick and easy. We don't tend to have pancakes for breakfast but I know this is more commonly eaten by some people in the US. We didn't have any Maple Syrup and that is my favourite pancake topping, we made do with squeezing orange juice over them and sprinkling brown sugar.

Yesterday was also very important for us because we received the official letter telling us which school our son was going to start attending from September. To out greatest relief, he got the same school as our daughter. It would have been really really hard for us if he hadn't got in. So I'm heaving a massive sigh of relief!

A new week begins

A new week and I'm posting this from an older PC I have up in the bedroom. Boy is the screen bright, or maybe its just that I'm tired, I can't tell. At the weekend my wife bought a fish tank, so next weekend we'll be buying a Goldfish - poor thing, I hope it lives. We haven't had any pets while the kids have been young and I'm a bit disappointed in that because pets are great but where we live there is no room for a dog and I'd be frightened that a cat would be killed because the cars drive down the road so fast. So, out of the range of available pets my wife chose a fish. I guess she thought it would be relaxing to watch the fish after a stressful day at work and I suppose she might be right. It was just a bit sudden, her coming through the door with a big box like that. She bought me a game called Mancala too, its a wooden board and has glass beads you move from hole to hole. It's good fun, I played it with my daughter. I think several games probably go by the name of Mancala, so I'm not sure which variation we play - I got the rules off the Internet because the rules that came with it were just impossible to understand - there were no pictures and whoever wrote them, well, English was obviously not their first language.

It's been a weird time with the media at the moment, all I seem to notice is news about Anna Nicole Smith or Britney Spears or Robbie Williams. It's all about rehab, going nuts and dying young. What is wrong with everyone these days? It seems like you can't be famous unless your infamous. Sod dying young, its not worth it to put poison into your body. I'm not a practising Christian really but I think religion could definitely play a big role in the lives of people who have enough money that they will never need for anything else the rest of their lives. If I made millions I'd want to put my money to good use, rather than squandering it on drugs or whatever. Maybe I'm being unrealistic, afterall I have no idea what life is like when you can't go anywhere without being recognised. Maybe a Fame City is needed: where just famous people live. There would be no photographers or press and everyone would be treated equally, money wouldn't buy you any dream tickets. Huh! Never gonna happen is it?

Frustration!

It's been a disjointed, unnatural week. The biggest problem with the week has been the lack of Internet access since Tuesday afternoon until this morning. It's been very frustrating not to be able to see what the world is getting up to and not having access to my favourites. I've had some days off with the kids this week too, so I've not had a good chance to sit down and get work done apart from Monday which was business as usual. The problem with the Internet wasn't of my doing either, so its not like I could have done anything about it. I am seriously considering changing ISP now because its happened three times in the last twelve months. My wife and I need Internet for work as well as for home, so its not acceptable to be without it for two and a half days.

Monday Monday

I had quite a good weekend. I did miss my wife and daughter who went to Disneyland Paris for the day on Saturday: pity the weather was wet and miserable. I spent the day on Saturday with my son and we had a great time together shopping, playing, eating, watching TV and reading stories. Saturday night I was in online multiplayer mode on the Playstation 2, had good fun but got shot up many more times than I needed to. My wife and daughter were back really early on Sunday and it was a relaxed day. I went out to see some friends on Sunday night, which was great. Then today I realised I should try and take some leave because my daughter is off school. Luckily, my boss was OK about it and I got Tuesday and Thursday off, so tomorrow it will be great to be off from work. The other piece of news is that I bought a personal DVD player on Friday. It was going to be for my wife to take on the trip to Paris but she didn't take it in the end. This may strike you as odd but my wife and I don't always watch the same stuff, but now I can be close to her in the same room AND watch what I want to, instead of having to sit in another room.
At the weekend I also sorted out the accomodation for our summer holiday, a nice apartment near the beach in Bounemouth where we went at the end of last summer. It's nice to have something to look forward to and this time we're away for seven nights instead of three.

Weekend Ahoy!

It's a Boys Weekend coming up as the women in my household are spending most of the weekend travelling to Disneyland Paris and back. I hope they have a great time while they're there and especially that the snow stays away. It's freezing snow tonight so tomorrow is not going to be good driving first thing.

Not too much to say in this post, it's been a tiring week at work and I haven't slept all that well this week - I think its the cold.

I'm working my way slowly through the first series of Star Trek on DVD. Admitting you are a Star Trek fan is a little risky because some people take it really seriously - doing degrees in Klingon and dressing and living like intergalactic tribes. It's the best series for me and I love the young William Shatner in it as Captain Kirk. It's the series I saw as a kid and I remember being fascinated and scared at the same time while watching it. So many of the gadgets I saw as a kid in Star Trek have actually come true in todays world of technology. Bluetooth earpieces, communicators (3G phones) and the like. There is a sort of camp quality to the stories as well. I love the sets and costumes. And the women were really awesome - not skinny models but women with curves and an attractive shape. What's your favourite version of Star Trek and why?

Weather thoughts

I just noticed the temperature for London at the moment is -6C and given that I live in a rural area some distance outside of London I bet its colder than that. No wonder its so cold in our bathroom this morning. I wonder whether we'll have some snow later?

Everyday Object Photos

I visited my mum's today. Here are a few shots I took of everyday items, including a food label. Tara's blog entry asked for everyday food labels, my mum gave me this bottle of mulled wine as a leftover from Christmas. I'm not sure I could drink a bottle of mulled wine, it's a bit spicy for me.

Online Gaming

I did something this week I've never tried before. I hooked my Playstation 2 up to the internet to try out the world of online gaming. The games are good fun but you join games with people of all different levels and the main problem is that if you don't know the game environment well and all the moves and combos (who has the time?) then you can get turned into toast pretty easily. I tried out the free game military game Hardware and its good shoot 'em up fun, just driving around shooting other players but after a while it is a bit repetitive and there is no story to play out. But that's OK, it was easy to join a game and worked well and the environments and vehicles are pretty cool, which made up for the repetitiveness of the action. I was doing well to turn 5 other vehicles into toast but some players were getting scores into the 20s - probably mostly off charring my vehicle. The other game I tried out was SOCOM a game about Navy SEALS where you play either with a team of SEALS or a team of terrorists. I was a terrorist in the game and I played about 7 games and didn't manage to kill another player. I seemed to be quite good at getting shot up though. I have other games with online modes, I'll check those out over the coming weeks.
I also wore my USB headset naively. It's a bit strange and there isn't really anything to say - I heard a variety of questions that went mostly unanswered, I certainly didn't answer. Any talk was minimal, it was mostly "Nooooo" as someone was blown up. There were a few "Good game" comments and stuff. I heard some swearing and in one game a guy and a girl were chatting constantly in an accent I didn't understand or recognise but they spoke as if they weren't playing the game at all. I don't think they were talking about game, odd really that they would be choose to be chatting in a public game rather than somewhere else more private. I don't think I'll bother wearing my headset again.

A lot of the new game consoles like XBox360, Wii and soon the Playstation 3 seem to emphasize the online side of gameplay. I'm glad I tried it out but I wouldn't say I'm addicted to games online, I just don't play enough to get that good. If I could play games with other newbies it would be better but I think the stigma of any match called "For Newbies" is off-putting, that's why nobody was joining those games.

Computer Nerd

A friend of ours wanted me to look at her computer one evening this week, I get asked now and again by various friends. It was running slow, same problem that my mother in-law had but for a different reason. She had two different security programs running and they were working against each other. She has a teenage boy who likes to play games and do his music on the PC, so it was mainly to help him. He gave me a list of stuff that needed doing but I didn't have much time to do it all, so I removed the security program that they didn't want but couldn't remove themselves - it was a bit complicated but I got it sorted. But then as I rebooted, it wouldn't recognise any internet connection so I left her feeling bad about that even though she tried to reassure me it happens regularly. I refused any payment, as I would for any friend I can help. When I got home, I got a text saying that the internet was OK again and that her son was well impressed with me. Apparently it's much faster now, so I was pleased in the end. So I think the other playground mummies think I'm a computer nerd. My son was even called that by one of his nursery teachers because he likes his computer games so much.

Post 500

Yes it's my 500th post on this blog, that seems quite a lot. Nothing much to report though, it's a funny old week really. The slapped cheek virus is lingering round our household, now that my son has got rid of it the girl has come down. I'm trying to stay good eating-wise even though everyone else in the household is eating pure evil food - chocolate Flake bars galore. Somehow I'm managing to keep on the straight and narrow, well at least to severly limit my intake of intoxicating deliciousness. I am having great lunchtime sandwiches though - crammed with tomato, cucumber and lettuce with Paul Newman's Italian dressing drizzled in. Absolutely gorgeous!

The weather has improved, last week it was bitterly cold and windy but it's just grey and drizzly but not so cold now. Well that was a boring weather report wasn't it?

Is there no way I can liven up my 500th post? I could mention that Shilpa Shetty won Celebrity Big Brother on Sunday. I either wanted her or Dirk Benedict to win. I watched the few episodes and thought it was good but then when Jade Goody and her family went in I turned off, couldn't be less interested in the twiddle twoddle they talk about. From the pieces of footage I've seen I can't believe how someone can get so angry and wound up over something so petty and to be honest I can't quite believe someone so stupid exists. Then again I've not been confined to a house with ego-maniac celebrities before. But the thing that I find most annoying is that they get PAID to go in there! But putting even that aside, I hope C4 have learned their lesson about putting people who haven't really earned their celebrity centre stage like that. Well, that's my tuppence worth on the subject.

A perfect egg morning

Oh yes! I've cracked it on my second attempt at the microwave egg cooker. Here's how:

• use a medium sized egg
• with an 800 watt microwave
• set power to 50%
• set time to 1 and a half minutes
• break egg into one half
• take a cocktail stick and pierce the yolk and white lots of times (but don't mix it up)
  
• add 3 tablespoons of water to the empty half

Wireless and Wired

I've had 3 annoying days where I couldn't log into two of my favourites - Blogger and My Space - and my wife couldn't get her favourite online newspaper. The problem was since installing an adsl wireless modem/router to replace our usb modem. I'm glad to report that things are looking up and I think I've got to the bottom of the trouble - I had to change personal firewall software. It was getting out of date and needed to be changed anyway, I would have liked to have found the answer sooner though. Now though, I can work upstairs and my wife can share the connection downstairs at the same time. I might also try networking my PS2 but I need a rest first! All that troubleshooting and looking on tech forums really does my head in.

Tuesday Telling

Eggs are a great breakfast food aren't they? It's a pity about the cholesterol but they are pretty tasty to have now and again. I like the Egg McMuffin because of the round chunk of egg inside them, I like soft boiled eggs and dipping my toast soldiers into the golden yoke and I like the allure of the poached egg with its yoke veiled in a long white dress. Going back to the McMuffin, how do they get the egg perfect like that everytime? Is it that they buy them frozen like that and just reheat them or are they actually cooked on the premises? I don't know. Well, now you know I like eggs but I also like gadgets. OK, so now put the two together and you have Egg-Gadgets, that's right and I'm up for a cheap gagdet now and then. So here it is: I said to my wife as she left the house recently, "See if they have those egg cookers for the microwave, find out how much they are". Little did I know hours later that I would be blessed with my own microwaveable egg cooker. My wife unsportingly used it first I'm sorry to say and I wasn't around to oversee her (that's my metaphor for her telling me to get out of the kitchen). So I heard about the aftermath - explosions and all. Well, I kept the instruction on the card and put the device away until I required an egg next. Not for several weeks I have to say and by that time (this evening) I'm sorry to say that the instructions were nowhere to be found. "I have it!" I shout, running like a man possessed to the computer "t'net will 'ave it" (for suddenly I've adopted a Northern accent) and into Google I do type "microwave egg poacher instructions" and there I do find some instructions. 4.5 minutes on a 600 watt microwave at 50 per cent power. My stomach is rumbling well bad because last time I ate was lunchtime and it's gone 8pm now - I spent the early evening sorting out my mother in-laws computer around her house. So now I'm well up for some egg to go with the fries I'm cooking in the oven (that are just almost cooked). So I make some quick calculations in my head: we have an 800 watt oven. I have no idea what formula I should use to calculate this but like every good man I authoritatively dial in the first number that comes into my head (3mins 30 sec) pretending there is some scientific pretext. My wife stands back. I stand proud. On goes the light, round goes the turntable and my stomach shouts "FOOD!". I think to get a plate, take the fries out of the oven and arrange them (leaving a nice round shape for my lovely well-formed egg disk to go into). "I think I'll just..." BOOM KAPOW! Oh no! Egg disaster! Egg Alert. Egg Alert. Egg Alert. We have an egg down. Repeat. We have an egg down. Well not so much down as spread, all over the inside of the microwave. I reach into the blast zone and retrieve a fragment of yoke "Do you think it'll be edible?" I ask my wife, who has that raised eyebrow that says "I told you so". I did eat some egg at least. Shame about the timing. I've got to get that right. Many eggs may be lost in the struggle but I'm gonna do it, damn it!

My Dream Holiday

Rachel's post on this got me wandering what my dream holiday would be. I have two versions: on one level, a dream holiday would be where my family are all together on a hot sunny beach enjoying spending the days playing together. Eating great barbecue food and never getting burned by the sun or getting sand in our sandwiches AND never arguing once. There would be a creche to allow me and my wife to go visiting museums and art galleries. In the evening, we'd both be free for Love Duty.

The other version is where we go and visit Iceland and the Scandinavian countries because they always look so beautiful in the photographs I've seen and I've always wondered what they were like. Following that, we'd go to Germany for a beer festival and have a merry old time eating and drinking.
I've never been skiing, so that would be my next 3 destinations: France, Switzerland and Austria.

After that I'd like to visit Russia because of the architecture and the history. Next on my tour would be Turkey where I would indulge in the food and warm up after all of those coler countries. Italy would be next for a bit of clothes shopping and wine drinking.

Japan is a place that intrigues me too, I'd like to visit that country to meditate in a Buddhist temple and experience a completely different culture to the West. I'd probably round off my tour with a trip to New Zealand. I'm sure there are loads of places I'd like to visit that I've missed off this list.

I was looking at jobs in Canada just the other day. I didn't see one but I would consider living near Toronto. It must be beautiful in Canada near all those enormous lakes. I'd live in the USA too, the food is just amazing and so plentiful.

If you've never seen Google Earth, its really fun way to zoom around the world and look at places you've never been to. All of the above countries can be visited in less than 5 minutes and it's probably closer than I'll ever get otherwise.

2 Years Anniversary

This day marks the 2 year anniversary of this blog. I feel like it is in need of a makeover, so I'm going to investigating all of that stuff. Expect to see some changes to the appearance over the coming weeks.
When I started this I didn't really know what I was doing or where it was going. Today, I'm probably still not clear on either of those things but I do know it has allowed me to share some thoughts with people whom I never would have met otherwise, so I think it is a positive thing to be doing. So thanks to every visitor who drops in and leaves a comment, your comments are truly appreciated!

A Mix of Stuff

It's been a very windy day here in the UK and several people had their deaths attributed to the weather. The power of nature is a frightening thing, especially driving on motorways with rain, wind and heavy lorries passing. I always think about what could easily happen to cause my own death...

...maybe death by strange natural forces is on my mind because I've recently seen Final Destination 2 and 3 recently. I'm sure everyone has seen the Final Destination film and there are no big differences between all three films, they are and remain hugely enjoyable shock horror films. Worth a look if you've never seen them. I found myself chuckling while watching because I knew what was coming but first time around I must admit I was a bit scared. They have great replay value and are still entertaining.

The other thing I've got into recently has been re-runs of a TV game show popular at the end of 80s and start of the 90s called The Crystal Maze. It was adults running around a TV studio with four different sets styled as Futuristic, Aztec, Medievil and Industrial. They contained a series of rooms where one contestant from a group of six had to enter and solve a puzzle or perform a task to try and win a crystal that is traded for 10 seconds in the big crystal at the end of the show. This big crystal had a fan that blew gold and silver foil chits and the contestants had to try and capture as many gold chits as they could, any silver chits mixed in with the gold collected are deducted from the final score. I think it's a great show and I really miss this kind of TV.

The other TV game show I really liked was an earlier show called Treasure hunt. It involved two studio contestants talking to a "skyrunner" in outside broadcast who travelled by helicopter to find clues aided by the studio contestants. An adjudicator in the studio made sure everyone played by the rules. I liked the variety of locations and I admit I liked watching Anneka in the tight jumpsuit, the camera viewpoint sort of concentrated on her bottom as she ran infront: at least that's my recollection.

Behind glass

My last post mentioned the scene modes on our new camera. There is a scene mode called Museum and my wife used it recently on a visit to the Museum of London. There is also a mode called Behind Glass. Here are a couple of shots she took, they illustrate how well the behind the glass mode worked (click on the images for a larger version).




Your mission Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to illustrate your blog with a photograph that shows off a feature of your camera (or just post any photo you think is good!). This tape will self destruct in 5 seconds....