Scents of Direction
  
 

   
 
This is what I think...
  
 
 
   
 

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Tuesday, February 28, 2006
 
I tried not to laugh out loud but eventually settled for the old "pretending I was coughing" routine...

I had to attend a safety briefing this morning, part of the brief was concerning rats*

Him: Rats are by nature Neophobic
Her: Does that mean they don't like bright orange and stuff?
Him: Er, no. It means they don't like going to new places.

A classic.

* It's a big civil engineering project involving bridges over rivers and streams, in one place there is a huge infestation of rats which is not being helped by some old nutter who has been feeding them for years. I'm told that these rats are bigger than most cats and number in the hundreds. Weils Disease is the main concern, I used to work with a chap who caught that, he convinced me that I really don't want it.
- Steve, 12:35 PM,
Saturday, February 25, 2006
 
Flickr set of photos from this morning in Oxford is up
- Steve, 3:17 PM,
Friday, February 24, 2006
 
Should be an interesting day in Oxford tomorrow as the Animal Rights bunch protest at the same time as Pro-Test. I think I'll go for a wander through town and take in the sights.

I'm not a fan of animal testing (who is?) but if my child was ill I would poke the eyes out of fluffy kittens if it made her better. So, I'm probably somewhere near neutral on the whole debate but what I absolutely despise are the bullying tactics of the ALF, they are the reason I'll be in Oxford tomorrow.
- Steve, 8:21 PM,
 
You know that server I was talking about? turns out it's not a server, it's a 1000va UPS made by Liebert... thought it was a bit heavy!
- Steve, 7:48 PM,
 
Of course, now I remember the main reason I don't travel by train more often: I don't like people all that much.

The woman who kept hitting me on the shoulder as she read a newspaper, even though she was sat the other side of the aisle: If your paper is so big that you have to sit sideways in your seat and you're still in my space you shouldn't be reading it.

The bloke in the quiet carriage with ipod on so loud that I can't hear the Today Program through my in ear headphones: You are an arsehole.

The couple in front of me discussing the ipod arsehole: Shut up! you're making even more noise than he is! Quiet Coach = Shuddup.

That little thug walking through a crowd at New Street Station deliberately colliding with people: I saw you coming, that hurt you when you got to me didn't it? 120kg doing 6 mph Vs. 70kg doing 4mph = I win.

The rest of you: do you brush your teeth in the morning? Seriously...
- Steve, 10:56 AM,
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
 
I shall be going to work on the train tomorrow, partly as an experiment, but mostly because it's almost pay day and shortness of cash has coincided with shortness of a tank full of diesel.

Because of the line of work I find myself in, the offices I work at tend to be near (or sometimes in) railway stations. You may wonder why I don't take the train all the time, the answer is that it's going to take almost three times as long to get to the office than it would by trusty VW, I'm sure it will also cost a lot more (company credit card to the rescue).

Still, despite having to get up at stupid o'clock in the morning (and I should really think about going to bed) traveling by train is actually a break from the normal routine. If I can get a seat there is even a chance that I can get some work done on the way which would be a bonus.

The reason I started this post is that I'm trying to fill my phone with some podcasty goodness, unfortunately I'm up-to-date with my regular listens so I've been hunting for fresh entertainment. Firstly I've gone for the world service "Go Digital" podcast because it's quite interesting and not too techy. Then I was at a bit of a loss.

I've stumbled across Podcast Bunker which seems to list podcasts with listener submitted reviews and 30 second sample clips, all good stuff. Through it I've found Librivox (been meaning to check this out for a while) which is a collection of books read out podcast style. This appeals to me so I have a few chapters of Notes from the Underground by Dostoevsky Bluetoothing their way to the Nokia. I really enjoyed reading Crime and Punishment so I'm hoping this will be OK too.

- Steve, 11:23 PM,
 
Unlost, but not quite found.
- Steve, 9:54 AM,
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
 
Working in Lichfield is starting to get on my nerves a little bit, it's just that bit too far to make for a comfortable commute every day. It's not so much the distance (70 miles) it's just the location, just past that busy M6>M42>M6 Toll junction where you can get stuck for ages (bit better now they have introduced that variable speed limit on the M42 though).

The journey to work is much better than the journey home, I can get up there in about an hour but it can be double that coming home sometimes. When I'm there the job is actually going quite well, big project and very busy but it does feel like we are getting somewhere. It looks like there is a good chance I'll be working closer to home at some point.

Oh, took a step towards replacing the car: I've asked for a quote for something pretty damn sensible, a Honda FR-V. Couple of things appeal; it has the best diesel engine around (more than 50 mpg 140bhp and low emissions), plenty of space for working in the car (seats that fold into tables, draws under seats), it can fit 3 people in the front and 3 in the back and I can probably stretch to having a few extras fitted (Sat Nav, Leather, DVD player etc). We'll see how it goes.
- Steve, 8:58 PM,
Sunday, February 19, 2006
 
I have finally set up a bluetooth connection between both laptops and my mobile, it's taken me ages because I couldn't find the USB Dongle thing and even when that was found I didn't have any of the software/drivers for it.

Still it's working now, I can't say I'm that impressed with it to be honest. It is handy not to have the mobile in line of sight when transferring files, but I had hoped for a bit more speed.

I've sent about 80mb to the phone so far, it's worked out OK so I shouldn't complain. I still think I need to get a card reader/writer for the MMC or get the data cable, we'll see.
- Steve, 5:36 PM,
 

Server
Originally uploaded by Saturner.
A neighbour who moved out a good few months back left some stuff in our garage, one of the items is this server here.

Now, I'm not convinced she'll ever be collecting this stuff and even if she did, I can't imagine her using this (it wasn't hers and she was using it as a seat!).

I'm tempted to have a look inside, I have never had anything to do with servers (or networks generally) so I'm not sure what I'll find...

What I want to do is set up some large storage for media files, maybe investigate making a simple PVR for recording TV progs.

The important thing is to satisy my inner geek and to not spend any money.
- Steve, 5:34 PM,
Friday, February 17, 2006
 

Sunny at last
Originally uploaded by Saturner.
It seems like it's been a long time since we had a sunny day, it's not springtime yet but we're getting there.

The view from my livingroom window
- Steve, 3:18 PM,
Thursday, February 16, 2006
 
The photos in the HDR Pool on Flickr are blowing my mind, a perfect example here.

More about HDR on Wikipedia
- Steve, 10:50 PM,
 
That's a real shame but surely there is a way to bar these phones from making calls to mobiles/international calls? If the phones are being used to receive calls, as the article suggests, then a ban on all outgoing calls would be more appropriate I would think.
- Steve, 10:31 PM,
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
 
I love the idea of Talkr, it reads out text entries from blogs as audio.

I want to look into this some more because it might be helpful for a little project of mine: As I spend so long commuting/traveling by car every day I'd like to be able to check my email while on the move. Telephone is all handled by the hands free kit but it would be so useful to have an application check for mail using the GPRS connection and, if there is new mail, read the contents out over the cars speaker system (or laptop speaker if I can't figure that out).
- Steve, 1:21 AM,
 
I keep getting visitors (search engine referals) here looking for directions to Ikea in Birmingham, let me help you out:

Look for Wednesbury rather than Birmingham generally.
Junction 9 of the M6
Down the sliproad, turn left (if you're Northbound)
left again
follow the road under the bridge
right (ish) at the roundabout
It's a bit further up on the right.

Have a meatball for me.
- Steve, 1:10 AM,
 
Just had a bit of a tidy-up (and cull) of the Blogroll over on the left, I've deleted all the ones that I no longer read* and added ones that I do read but were not on the list. I can now say that I regularly visit, or I'm subscribed to the feed, of all sites listed.

There are a couple of new additions that I have been reading for years, possibly over three years actually...

I still think there are probably some missing, I'll probably add others in time.

*because they are no longer updated mainly. The first blog I ever read was at http://bitch.org.uk/, it moved to Livejournal and has recently become friends only, an end of an era!
- Steve, 12:43 AM,
Monday, February 13, 2006
 
Have you ever picked up a hitch hiker? Have you ever been a hitch hiker?

It's one of those things I keep meaning to do, I pass loads of them on my travels (especially the ones with trade plates) and I'm often tempted to give them a lift, I've never done it though.

I like the idea of meeting someone new and having a chat, of course I'm not keen on being the next victim of a axe wielding serial killer though... swings and roundabouts...
- Steve, 5:00 PM,
 
It's half-term this week and as Clare is working I've booked the week off, the problem is that things are so busy at work at the moment that there is no way I can be away from it for a whole week.

Georgia has a bit of a bad cold so she's been dozing on the sofa, it's given me a chance to get a bit of work done, still lots to do but Mummy will be home at 3ish and that will leave me a couple of spare hours.

One day I shall have time off work and actually have a proper day off, probably when we go to Florida in August.
- Steve, 1:27 PM,
Sunday, February 12, 2006
 
I'm quite pleased that the recent protests by Muslims (London and Birmingham) have happened and have been peaceful. It's a shame that the extremists (of every religion) are the ones that get all the attention and the public perception of what the religion is all about is shifted by them.

I'm not a follower of any religion, but I do have some some respect for people who are. The more I listen to the normal, moderate Muslims the more sense it all makes to me.

Those cartoons were offensive to followers of Islam so they shouldn't have been printed. It's not an issue of free speech - I'm free to walk in to any pub and insult the biggest thug in there... there will be repercussions to that and I will have been the one to incite it.
- Steve, 2:31 PM,
Sunday, February 05, 2006
 

IS250 SEL
Originally uploaded by Saturner.
I think we have found the replacement for the Passat when it goes back in the summer.

I've always liked the Lexus IS but I didn't go for the old model because there was no diesel version, there is now...
- Steve, 7:43 PM,
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
 
What would you say if I told you I'd just done a work-out to The Jordan Workout DVD ?

I bet you would.

See, I didn't buy it but it's in the house and I need more exercise, so what the hell. It's actually pretty good and it's not even particularly girlie as it's a lot of boxing etc.

The main thing is that I got a decent work-out, I'm sweating like Gary Glitter in a playground and I'm feeling pretty good about it.
- Steve, 9:07 PM,

 

  
 
   
 
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