bloody earwax

Dammit, I have too much wax in my ear and its clogged it up, so I'm effectively deaf in my right ear, which is deeply irritating, added to that the tinitus that causes and I'm officially going crazy.

Tried all kinds of things, ear wax disolving fluid, suction, nose holding swallow/pumping even orderd some corkscrew ear wax digging things to clear it out...arrghhh

Tried to play some guitar and was really fruestrated by my inability to really hear, even with one ear it just sounds horrible, and weak. I think I've mentioned my bandmate Jelmer 1 who is deaf in one ear...I really understand how frustrating it is for him. Mine should be a temporary thing but he has o deal with it all the time. I have a much better appreciation for his issues.


Ahthankyew

I just cant fathom the levels of stupidity

I've said this before, but the levels of stupidity, on Social Media are staggering, and I do mean stupidity, uttter utter mouth breathing, my name is Mr Gumby stupidity.

This isn't opinion, or new "woke" thinking, its just stupidity, a lack of basic understanding of the most basic science that should have been taught in school, social and medical concepts, replaced instead with meme's and confirmation bias from the internet.

It matters not how idiotic your view is, if you state it on the internet, you'll get a dozen people following you and spreading it....and so it quickly gains speed.

Anti vaxx, flat earth, illuninati, 911 truthers, lizard men, covid19 hoax, chemtrails, 5g mind control, Bill Gates bio tracking vaccines,  the works....its utterly amazing.. It dosn't take more than a moments rational thought to go, wait, what? huh, Do you actually understand science, to see the crazy in it?
But its easier to believe a man who says Covid 19 is a hoax because it forces you to stay in to make you compliant and miserable, than consider the fact that same man thinks the queen of England is literally a negative energy feeding lizard..... no I mean it. People BELIEVE this shit??

And whats worse, when it starts to gain some utterly unjustifed momentum it gets picked up by minor celebs who endorse it to their adoring fans, and then to top it all of, some defrocked doctor or other disreputable and discredited scientist will see a chance to sell a book and get on telly to make it a cause celebre and have smart people questioning if they might have a point?

Its fucking insane, it really is.

Ahthankyew

ohhhhh low interest rates is good

I don't always understand the Dutch mortgage system, its beyond me a bit really, since I had to buy the house again when Bina went, it was bloody expensive and has remained so, but I get to reset the intereste rate every so often. last time was 5 years ago and it saved me a couple of hundred, that was back when interest rates were around 2-4% and since the mortgage itself was taken out at about 7 or 8% I save a lot. Dropping down a good 300pm.

Well its that time again, 5 years later I get another chance to change and with interest rates currently being....pretty much 0, I was offered very low rates and chance to lock them in for 10,12,20 years

tempting to go the minimum for the 20years, but I locked in a middle 10 year option they provided, because when all said and done its an endowment based system, so if I don't have enough cash in the pot when its time to cash in, I have to sell up or fork out.

Even so, with the low rates, I'm going to be a whopping 250 euros a month better off... thats awesome....might reduce the credit card debt a bit for a year or 2 with that.

Cant' recall if recessions raise or lower interest rate though, becuase when the ecomomy dies after corona, its going to be uncertain times so that 250 a month will help put some food on the take or take the sting out of any other debts I aquire to stay alive.


Ahthankyew

Its nice when they start to get somewhere

My students are doing their Block C programming assignment which is of course to make a game on RPi

Its an interesting block as it really challenges them, doing something they may never do again but that can produce some really interesting results and show them some of the challenges and skills they have to master. 
Its nice when they start to click and this is a really nice short demo from one student, who's not quite as far ahead as the others but has really taken the time to make a nice looking demo from the start


Their task is to create a solar system and fly around it to reach a space station they have to dock with , then transition to an FPS view. There's a bit of z-fighting on the spacestation to investigate but he's doing really well. Done on a Raspberry Pi3B+ with no overclocking, and only using C++/OpenGLES2.0, no engines of any kind.

Ahthankyew

ohhh thats why there's no input to the grid

I get a notice from the electric company every month, and the last couple I noticed there was not the usual 6 or 7 (winter months) euros reduction in my usage....

I just went up the the roof to clean my panels and found this.





ohhhhh now it makes sense...must have got blown over during one of the big stroms in the last couple of months. Pretty amazed and lucky they never got blown over onto someones head...

They are all ok though, the frames are a bit bent, so not too hard to fix..


Set up them up roughly for now, will scrub them down and see if I can find some bolts to lock the frame with.. Plugged them in and got green lights on the converters, so looks like we're ok...should get some income over the summer, it tends to jump up to 30-40 a month in peak sunshine.



Ahthankyew

it just gets worse...but there's always a bright side, then it gets worse again

Working from home is pretty neat, its hard though, really hard, lots of things to keep up, hard to prep stuff becuase of students asking for help and a sense of ....stress I think. but its ok

NL took another step toward full lockdown today, no gatherings above 3 people and possible fines for people not keeping 1.5m apart its serious now, then UK has also issued slightly more severe advice,
basically don't go out.

In other news...my love life is taking a strange turn.

I've been dating a lovely lady for the last month or so, its early days but she's going to move in with me during the lock down, so I'm picking her up tomorrow. She house shares with a friend who's not taking the lock down seriously so she's stressed out. We're getting prepared for a very interesting getting to know each other phase while making every effort to stay safe. Under normal circumstances this is too soon, and god knows I'm wary of making another daft mistake, but, these are far from normal, so we'll see how this pans out, I might end up with another lodger in the spare room, but at least it will be someone to chat to in the evening.

I worry about my mum, she's a miserable auld bag though, which might actually save her life as no one wants to visit  (joke mum)... but she's old, so so so old...........(you are)... and not in good health so I worry, but she's pretty good at isolating herself and should be able to cope better than  most with the lockdown.

Interesting times for us all, my students are also stressed out, some of them are far from home and unable to go home, we need to try to help them stay on track and get through this..

Stay safe eveyone, stay home, for fuck stack stay home

Ahthankyew

Getting a bit paranoid

Im sure I'm not alone in this, but I am feeling genuinely afraid. Corona is escalating at an alarming rate and even though I have almost no contact with the outside world. I can't wrap myself in plastic. I had to let in a boiler repair man on Friday and I got a parcel delivered, and at least once a week I will need to pop to the shop for fresh fruit and veg...though I am investigating AH's delivery systems.

Even with such limited contact, its only a matter of time before I get it, then its a gamble if I'm going to die or not.... actually DIE...this is a scary scary situation.

I've never been afraid of the colds, chest infections even the occasional flu which has really laid me low, at no time did I ever fear for my life.

The lack of respect people are giving to the lock down is only going to make things worse in the long term, we all need to stay home, stay away from people for at least a couple of weeks. It won't stop us getting it, but we might have more hospital beds available if we need them if we can spread it out.

Phew, interesting times, scary times, re-defining times. We have to wait and see how this plays out.



Ahthankyew

Isolation,...well thats not too bad

Apart from a short trip to a very empty store to get milk and veg, I've been in isolation along with the rest of NL all week

We've pretty much got the working at home thing sorted now, its hard work, more time consuming than you might exept and much more tiring, but I'm getting into it now.

Not sure I can keep this up for 3-4-5 however many weeks though, but also have to be very aware Im not in the best of fitness and have a bit of a reduced lymphatic system so if I'm going to get it, I don't want to get left on a trolly in a corridor...

I've got enough food and booze, and the all important bog roll (I still have plenty from my last 2 for 1 buy befoe the madness) . I've got neflex and Prime all set up ready, and KPN have made extra film channels available for free during the lockdown, so I think I should be able to entertain myself.



Ahthankyew

Dis town, is coming like a ghost town

Went to Rotterdam yesterday, after being cooped up with the cold for the week, it was nice to get out, even though my (now very old) cough had people starting at me,  but man, I've never ever seen Rotterdam so empty, at lunchtime it was just totally sparse...it got a little busier as the day went on but the lock down is certainly taking shape

Today walking down to the station Breda was an equally sparce place, I don't think I have ever seen the station so empty, even on a Sunday.

The lockdown is set to get much stricter too, cafe's are being urged to close and only a matter of time before shops and all offices do to.

Home delivery curry isn't such a bad idea now is it??


Ahthankyew

Lockdown in 3,2.....

Well Corona is having quite an impact. I've been working from home this week since I still have a cough since christmas, so not corona, but then I get a mild cold and people start stressing out when I sneeze.. So following works guidence I self isolated and worked from home all week.. Not too bad actually I got a lot done, with no distractions and did my first ever livestream lecture. 2 in fact, 2nd one had some issues but it did work out.

But now BUAS is closing the campus to students and all class based teaching is on hold, we're shifting to online only for at least 2 weeks. Its only a matter of time before the Netherlands goes into full lockdown.

Very interesting times, I've never known anything like this, the sense of panic and fear is very genuine. We're pretty sure our next band gig is going to be canned as all public gathers are being banned. I may not leave the house for weeks.....though I do need milk in my coffee, and maybe some fresh veg.....

interesting times indeed.


Ahthankyew

oh great

Im sick, just a little bit, don't panic, (I'm not panicking, are you panicking?) pretty sure its just a cold again, rather than the dreaded CV
But the advice from work is to stay home and/or work from home if you have any cold/flu symptoms and clearly I have at the moment

if it gets worse, I'll go to the docs....or die.....watch this space.


Ahthankyew

awww bugger y'all

I was all set to go to San Fransisco on the 13th March to attend GDC and meet up with lots of old friends and new contacts. It was going to be a good experience and I was buzzing.

but its been "postponed" though in truth that means cancelled, meh, I guess its a sensible move, the Corona virus is currently high on everyones fear list and thats caused a lot of the main exhibitors to pull out, so we have to wait till the danger passes and see what happens.

I really was looking forward to it, so many old friends lined up, but its understandable..,...disappointing, but understandable.


Ahthankyew

memories

I was doing what you're supposed to do when you keep blogs/diaries and looking back on some of my earlier posts, trying to remember some specific dates for things, but falling into a rabbit hole of memories.

Its interesting how things change you, make you angry or happy or sad at the time, and you look back with a certain degree of meh...

Not for everything though, I still feel an bit of inner rage at the way some people have treated me, also a sense of wtf was I thinking on others and the loss of some lovley people through death or neglect...but over time, even the biggest heartaches and cock ups just become memories, and today I need to focus on the fact I'm turning into a fat grumpy old man.

Probably won't be a problem in 4 years from now though.

Ahthankyew

finally got this worked out, well no, not really!!

Really just posting this here so I can link it to my forums, but this is an interesting thing. Its a model I downloaded from Turbo squid with the full intention of including it as a usable model in my book examples.

Sadly I just wasn't able to get it to render properly at the time and instead I used a simpler model of a lamborghini, which is a shame.
I recently went back to it though and tinkered about a bit and managed to get it to render.

Though not quite perfect yet, I have not done any normal or bump mapping on it, but thats something I will play with, also the transparency has been hard coded into it, isolating the canopy section and rendering it with a blue tinge....still its a good step forward, and will serve as a good example for a short lesson in how to do transparency in rendering...when I get it finished.

This week is carnival week, so I'm about to have a well earned rest (didnt you just have christmas...yes,, and I need a rest again), and finally putting in the last 40 hours needed for the colecovision project, it has to go.

I really do like this model though, its a shame it didn't go in the book, its very Batman like, might be quite cool if I made it black and matt

Ahthankyew

No longer a European.

Well brexit happened, the single most stupid, pointless, wasteful,idiotic, misguided and unneccessery piece of political bullshit on record.

Of course today I woke up nothing has changed, apart from the fact the letter I got from the Dutch government making it clear that at some point I will need to apply for a residency permit, which, though unlikely, could be refused. The sun rose (kinda) and the day continued. It will continue, for me, but I'll have to watch the UK slowly sink into degredation and waste as it refuses to accept that its just jumped off a political and economic cliff.

I can't honestly express in words, other than a page full of swear words and rants at the stupidity of people who embraced this, how angry and despairing this nonsense makes me.

I have been hoping that sense would prevail or that some kind offer from the Dutch government to give us citizenship would happen. It hasn't.  I've been explaining to people for 3 years why all their reasons are false, lies, or outright ignorance, the lure of blue passports and no more nameless beaurocracts was just too strong. I give up.

The UK will be crowing for about 6 months until 1 by 1 the benefits they enjoy suddenly are no longer there, and the twats who engineered this mess will find it harder and harder to blame the EU for their incompetance (or will they, who knows, I'm overestimating the voters intelligence I suspect). As prices rise and choices fall, and there's no one left to blame, will they finally see sense and get rid of these chancers? Probably not, the reality is Brexit has exposed the utter gullability of people to believe any old bullshit papers and TV serve them and defend it with not one single thought about the harm they will do themselves.

I'd like to think one good thing is that Farage and his delinquent cronies are now out of a job, but fuckwits like them will be cashing in on this for years to come..I really hope, that in 20,30,40 years or so when this mistake is finally rectified, that they are still around to be fully punished for their misanthropy.

I can't really take it though, I refuse to be a second class citizen here, so even though I have been saying this for years, but kept putting it off. This year, I will apply for full Dutch citizenship, and in the process re-instate my full dutch name, Van Den Beuken... I'm done with petty UK mentality, it gives me nothing to be proud of.





Ahthankyew

New sounds....

We tried out our busking gear last night and were really really impressed by the range and depth of the sound we can now produce. The clarity of what we play is now much more evident and Rose's voice really comes out rich and full with some added reverb, which we of course get at gigs but never at rehearsals so nice to push that a bit more

Just a small example of how much cleaner the guitars sound here

We're still very much going to remain an acoustic trio, but it will be nice when we start to make use of some of the toys I have for different sounds and loops


Ahthankyew

Can't wait for that cushion

I'll give it a go when it arrives but I've been trying to work at my desk on this shit chair for a couple of days and just not comfy, with constant back age... So brought the big sigma chair down from upstairs and the difference is immense.

Hopefully can focus on some work now instead of constant fidgeting and excuses to go walk it off.


Ahthankyew

A-Busking we will go...

We've been trying really hard to reduce our dependancy on PA's and power systems, but the fact is even as an acoustic trio we do need to use some amplification to balance our sound, to deal with the fact we have 2 quiet male voices and a powerful female voice. Also Ed's playing style is much louder than my usual finger picking and twiddles style so I can get drowned out playing pure acoustic.

So Ed and I have both invested in some Roland Battery power amps, quite the bee's knees. On their own these solve 90% of the issues, but...

I wanted a little bit extra though since I like to use my TC VoiceLive3 unit for my guitar and vocal boosts when doing solo's and so on. Also I really would like to try to introduce a bit of looper fun into our set. But we can't do that without an easy to transport power system.

I've tried to find a few but honestly failed miserably as most units don't provide the 12v power the TC unit needs.
But I did have an awesome 5v unit, also designed to power some laptops and even boost a car battery if needed. But it didn't have a 12v out plug, only 5v and 15/16/19v..the 12v was limited to a jump cable system and no cable output which was a bit of a bummer...I felt for a while I'd just bought a really massive Iphone charger and it went in the drawer.

Fortunately I found a simple USB 5v > 12v gadget on line for pennies, which does exactly that.. takes 5vUSB and bumps it up to 12v. I was worried about ampage but its managing fine, been running for an hour now and still showing 5 bars on the power levels.  It looks like this will do fine.
I did also have to add a polarity swap as the TC has + center unlike every other unit under the sun :D but I had one lying around anyway.. Also pennies. It does get a bit warm, at the business end, so I'm ordering a few others as possible spares just in case but I think as long as it is in the open air it will be fine.

I now have a viable portable busking solution, with our 2 roland amps, (Ed has an AC33 I have a Street EX) and this little power unit to drive my main fx pedal..

Busking and lighter loads for small gigs...here we come

Ahthankyew

owww again...

I've pulled a muscle in my groin, it fucking hurts.. I've had a nasty cough for a couple of weeks since xmas, and during one particularly enjoyable lung expulsion I must have sat badly and pulled the muscle, didn't feel it at the time but am feeling it now for a few days.

Fuck its sore, not all the time though, just sometimes when I move or brush against something just above my left hip, it reminds me of what real pain is.

I genuinely was going to do a bit more excercise, and cycle to work etc now that we're back at our renovated offices within cycling distance, but until this heals up, no cycling..


Anywa, 2020, I'm not big on resolutions but for sure I'm going to try to make some fresh starts, 2019 was not a great year for me on many levels and the only way to avoid repeating that is to have a different approach, so some life changes have to be put into place. The Diet of course is back on..and I'll try to be a little more methodical in my work as well. So many things were allowed to slide as I drifted in and out of variosu illnesses and depressions. Time to get back on track and be a bit more single minded about doing things that need done.

So I made a list of the top ten reasons I procrastinate in an effort to overcome them.

1.




Ahthankyew

good money after bad?

Oh dear
the new chair is now just terrible, after finally fixing the basic seating position so it wasn't giving me constant back strain, the seat cushion itself has now basically smooshed into the frame of the chair so that my arse bones are now sitting on some kind of metal struts...the foam has just totally collapsed and provides no support at all.

I've ordered a memory foam cushion to put down on the seat but if it doesn't work, I'll have to junk it and pop up to Macro for another of my nice Sigma chairs, sadly with no massage or recliner functions (1st world problems)

What a shame, in many ways its quite a nice chair, but the cost cutting in its manufacture makes it useless after less than 2-3 months use.

In other news...don't get attached to emotionally damaged people, the emotional invesment you need to make them open up to you just doesn't get a return (ohhh cryptic)...

Ahthankyew

Good Riddance to 2019

Wasn't a good year at all

lost dear friends, lost harvey, fucked up a lot of shit and got fucked over by a lot of people... 2019 can go fuck itself

2020... be warned.. I'm taking no fucking prisoners this time.

Ahthankyew

Ahhh thats better

Well the chair got worse and worse as I was using it, leaning further and further back in the seat as the washers bedded in, which is not good when you are in a forward facing typing position. After only a few minutes use I had massive pain and was disrtacted when working by the need to go walk it off every 20 mins or so..

The idea with the washers didn't work, or didn't work well enough to correct the base back tilt so a more dramatic reversing of the main fitting was called for, at 1st I feared this would not work as the chairs raise/lower/tilt/lock bar was directly in line with the recliner spring arm.. But after taking off the base and trying it, backward, it did just clear the spring arm, so they don't interfere.

Built up again and yes, the base of the chair now points a bit forward exactly as it should.. Its still not the most comfortable of chairs, there's just not enough padding in the seat really but at least its not killing my back just sitting it in, and the massage feature is still pretty cool.

I'll probably swap my main office chair into the office again and move this up to the vr/gamesystem in the attic.

But the chair is at least now usable for slightly longer than 20 mins at a time.


Ahthankyew

hmmm

In spite of the rather nice buzzy massage, my new chair isn't actually that comfy, it has a sit back rather than a sit level/forward feel to it, and that isn't terribly comfortable when I am typing at my computer..Also the seat itself isn't very well padded so when I try to perch on the end I am feeling the metal supports on my butt bones.

But I think a few washers at the back end of the chair's attachment to the base might be enough to fix that... I'll get to it when I have finished my colecovision project which finally is seeing its end.. a few more run throughs so find and fix bugs, and then I can send it for test.


Ahthankyew

new chair buzzes :D

Got another new chair, 2nd this year I think, for the office the other one is nice but now lives upstairs with the VR/Games system.

This one has a massage setting, and....its not bad, currently it leans back a little too much so I think I need to put a few washers on the back base, but it's cosey and the vibes do refresh the old butt tocks when you've been sat for a while. Wan't expensive, one of those ebay get rid of the stock sales for 70quid, and not really as sturdy as my upstairs proper office chair, but am happy with it for now...Anything to try to push me into getting on with some work and avoiding doing code by building chairs and writing blo.....oh...



Ahthankyew

Exit polls don't look good.

I can't stay up to watch this, but I may not sleep worrying about it. It is just incredible that one of the most incompetant and self serving governments in history looks like its going to be voted back in to implement one of the most damaging polticial acts in history and in the process risk the very foundations of a country that deserves much better..


Ranting won't change it, people don't vote for good reasons any more, they vote for causes, and for preferences regardless of the facts behind them. 
I will wake up tomorrow knowing that all hope for the UK is lost for at least 5 years...and all hope to stop brexit (though it will rumble much longer than Boris wants it to) is lost.

A collegue of mine posted this on FB, an astonishing list of this Tory goverments failures which somehow it claims its going to put right shaking a magic money tree, that if it does exist is going to be half dead after brexit..

The national debt has risen from £850bn to £2.25 trillion

The student nurse bursary was abolished and there are 43,000 unfilled NHS student nurses.
There are 21,000 fewer front-line police
There are 20,000 fewer prison officers
There are 10,000 fewer border officials
There are 10,000 fewer firefighters
36,000 teachers have left the profession

Food bank use is up 2,400%
Homelessness is up 1,000%
More than one in three children in the UK live in poverty – more than 4 million.

Student fees up 300%

780 libraries closed
25-30% cuts to all govt departments

50% increase in hate crimes
150% increase in knife crime to 22,000 per year

ZERO starter homes built, despite it being a Tory flagship programme.

The country really did deserve bettter, yet it opted for more of the same...its wrong to call people stupid, but I don't have another word that fits..

Time to become Dutch...



Ahthankyew

sniff, cough, ugghhh, eughhh

Been quite lucky with the colds this year, not had too many major ones.

How nice that it decided to pop up just before christmas.  On the plus side I have a gig on Sunday, and we now do a version of Johnny Cash's Hurt, so the croaky voice I am certain to have, will work well :D

Its the wee mans birthday today, the big 04, he's out of his toddler years :D Hope he likes the little pressie I got him, (and hope his mum won't go mad :D)


Ahthankyew

oops got date wrong, but adjustments made

Lets see how well the new gnashers perform after a bit of buzzing and filling down.. I do feel less pressure now when I bit, and if needed I can take a dremel to them myself and file them down a bit more, but we will have to see how this goes..


Ahthankyew

Start again.....

Well with all the personal shit going on, my diet went for a burton, no amount of dieting is going to survive a bottle of rum a week as well as the wine, and other things....oh and cake..lots of cake

I have to get back into it, it was working really well before I fell off the wagon and started comfort eating/drinking...Shocking how quickly you can put 5 kg back on.

So back to it, a variation on the 16:8 system with a sub 1500 cal intake cut back on the booze and more walking/cycling daily.

Also need to get back into coding again, its been really hard to focus my mind on what I have to do, as soon as I stop, my thoughts wander and the procrastination kicks in...like making a blog entry :D..Time to get my shit together and be a lean mean coding machine. I have things to finish and decks to clear so I can have a chance at balancing work/life again in 2020.



Ahthankyew

yeah, more than a few adjustments

Really bad jaw and tooth pain as a result of the falsies... took a day for that to subside, not putting them in again till they are adjusted to suit. They are slightly too far forward on one side, causing me to bite down on them at rest and in turn put pressure on the anchor teeth at the side, causing deep rooted pain in the tooth and the jaw...no really, fucking major neuralga type pain still feeling it on my chin now.... not putting up with that.. will make an appointment on Monday to see what they can be done.

Ahthankyew

hmm adjustments needed

I know I have to persevere with the new teeth but really I am having some major issues, giving me a lot of jaw pain, and impacting on my bite.. Going to have to go back for a few twiddles.


Ahthankyew

I have a smile

well more accurately I have new false teeth....odd....but it is nice not to see the gap when I'm talking/singing... I just hope they don't go flying out in the middle of a spirited argument or song.

I'm also lisping a bit as my tongue gets used to less space, but I'll take the lisp over the whistle I've been having since the last dentist visit took out an incisor.

Still they seem to fit, pretty well, so far, a little wobbly but I got a couple of complementary tubes of fixodent to take me on my geriatric path.


sigh....false teeth....oh well.

Ahthankyew

Very tired of people.

More specifically people on the internet. Its staggering how people become entrenched and sit in echo chambers to avoid their own cognative dissonance.

There's lots of good reasons to vote for or against a party, but rather than actually examine them they vote with their tribes. But not just that, conspiracy theories, false beliefs and lies are so easy to spread its almost painful to watch. When just once person posts a nonsense link to a psuedoscience website and gets another person to agree, the lie is spread...anti vaxxers are born, flat earthers find others who are as stupid as they are and the band wagon rolls.

A truely great example is the current crucificixon of Prince Andrew... who is clearly guilty of...everything, becuase he was called Randy Andy, and was friends with a paedo.

Well sorry but, regardless of the mans moral standards, or lack of them, or feelings for his old friend, there is 0 proof he has done anything wrong apart from hang out with another multi-millionaire friend, living a multi-millionaire lifestyle. But once that bandwagon starts the utterly crazy links like being called Randy, like being in New York, like being at a party getting photographed......its fucked up...but the harm is done. Guilty by association is all the proof people need.

Same for politics, The whole Corbyn is an anti semite is blatently a smear campaign, because of his frequent condemnation of Israel, which allows a lot of right wing groups to push that bandwagon on its way...taking supposedly clever people along with them to push it along with no evidence but a shit load of coincidence and association, he once had dinner with a muslim.....clearly he hates all jews and wants them dead.....I genuinely have read that and worse from some people.

And then the whole get brexit done...people are actually willing to vote for one of the most corrupt, incompetant PM's the UK has ever seen, so that he will somehow, manage to force through a legislation that will cripple the UK's economy for decades, while lining his and his mates pockets....and thats a good thing?? Cos...we're all fed up with it? Lets just book flights to Jonestown and be done with it.

fucking hell, how can people be so gullable and unwilling to actully do any kind of rational research to realise they are being manipulated, lied to, coerced....
And lets not ever get started on the Religious nutters..

The internet has truely made the world a wide open place, but sadly people only want to live in their own little corners fueling their ignorance instead of expanding their minds..

I'm really considering dropping out of all social media, I don't think I can contain my anger at some of the shite I read.


Ahthankyew

And now for the cheesy bit.

I got his ashes back now, not sure I am totally happy with the bamboo container but...

Now when I walk in and say I'm home, I'm not quite so crazy as I was yesterday.

trying to close a chapter

I went to pick up Harveys ashes today, they were in a nice bamboo stick container.. quite sweet, I don't think he was that tall :D

but very annoyingly when I tried to pay with my credit card,  they couldn't accept it. I dont' have enough cash in the account with all the bills that have gone out this month, so the credit card was the best way to pay.
Anyway they suggested I go into the town (its just outside Breda) and got to a cash machine at the Jumbo or at a Rabobank and gave me the address.

Well I put it into my sat nav, and went to the bank address, only to find no bank....hmmm ok well the Jumbo then.. I went there, but no cash machine...argghhh

How irritating.. I just wanted to bring Harvey home, give him a little space in the cabinet to himself and move on..and circumstances screw it up...

I'll try again tomorrow, I'll go to my local cash point and get cash out on the credti card to pay for it.



Ahthankyew

fuck this is hard

Been keeping myself busy to avoid thinking about things, I clean when I'm upset...I'v done a lot of cleaning. Also went to school band practice which was nice and diverting but coming home an empty silent house.....boom.
Coming into the house, and no greeting, or snoring, or mess to clean....I really can't explain how much I miss that, it comes in waves of incredible sadness. Can't quite get my head around how much the grief is hitting me. I've lost a few human friends this year, and been deeply affected by that, I just didn't expect to have the same intense feelings for Harvey, but he was indeed my dearest and closest friend and I miss him.

Harvey's ashes will be available early next week....not sure exactly what I am going to do, keep them in an urn or scatter them around my backyard tree....can't decide, there's no rush.


Ahthankyew

He's at peace, I'm in bits

No miracles, the vet agreed he was shutting down, and he'd had an amazing long run, he went to sleep in my arms with a big yawn with the 1st dose, before the second dose, then I felt his heart stop, it was very quick, very peaceful....I lost my shit in front of the vet and her nurse, who left me alone for a few mins to bawl my eyes out.  They're arranging for his cremation and I'll get his ashes back. I want to keep him around.

Can't tell you how much I will miss that little puppy, he's been a constant in my life for nearly 20 years, through all the good and bad and shit and happy times, he was always there just looking for a cuddle.

The sense of emptiness in the house is palpable...I will need a while to process this.

Last pic of my lovely old man

but this is how I will always remember him cheeky, funny, smart and incredibly loving... yes everyone says that about their dogs. But Harvey really was a one off...irreplacable.

Ahthankyew

Its time

The spark has finally gone, he's not responding much to anything now, he's given up.

I've made the appointment for tomorrow...

I might not post for a few days, unless the vet can work a miracle.


Ahthankyew

Noodles today

yup, he's had a bowlfull of supernoodles...I slipped some shredded chicken in, but he managed to leave that in the bowl...oh well... its all calories if he keeps it down.

Better get some salmon and fois gras, see if it tickles his fancy.


Ahthankyew

oh Android... you really are a pain.

Having to do some Android stuff for work, getting myself fully up to speed with VR systems and learning Unity....

Basically 3 of the things I really hate most..  VR makes me sick, Unity makes me angry, and Android leaves me comatose

Anyway, have to do it I need to expand my abilities on these platforms so I can teach them a little better and be more in tune with students who are using them

I've been working on a VR project for a couple of months in Unity, it was a slow starter as I just didn't get some of the madness of the latest versions of Unity right, but it sped up and my project is basically over now. Leading to me doing more VR research on Oculus Go and Quest

Now I must admit, as much as I hate VR, I am finding those 2 wireless units much more fun to use... but much less fun to code, Android coding is still painful and on Unity its painfully slow. But the result is somehow much nicer, smaller fun games, my personal fav and once you get projects developed using a rift with far better debugging and build speeds, its got potential for some fun games.

Maybe when I clear the decks a little of other things I'll do something on them.

Pleased to say that my ColecVision project is finally(yes finally) nearing an end. I hit a total wall on it for various reasons, and was advised to bring someone in to help, I resisted for so long but finally I had to admit I just wasn't able to get it over the line, so welcomed Allard to the now 2 man team.. well, he helped, he fixed the thing I've been stuck on for over  year....over a bloody year... in 1 week.

Fresh eyes.... I shouldn't have been so stubborn to finish it myself, but I couldn't progress and my motivation levels crashed, added to personal upsets and stress I just couldn't get my head round how to finish it.. But now, happily Allard, has come in and like a white knight fixed all the stuff I broke, or couldn't get working  so I can finally put this little bitch of a project away in the next week. That then leaves me with time me to update my SBC software in the light of the new Pi4 issues..

Then...maybe, I'll have time to write a cool VR project for myself....or maybe have a bath...a long long bath.

Ahthankyew

and another few mouthfuls

yup, it seems every few days when I think he's giving up , he eats something, no where near enough, but something, its always sometime different, sometimes ham, sometimes chicken, sausages, pork pie even...but never the same thing twice, what he eats one day, he refuses the next, its like he's on a mission to try all human food before he dies..


So far so good I guess, but I am going to go to the vet next week and take advice on how much longer we should continue with this.. he's not in pain, but he's not himself...




Ahthankyew

Think thats it now.

I think thats it now, he's not eating much at all now, even bacon isn't going down...he's losing a lot of weight having accidents right in front of me, not even trying to get to the door.

It's not good... he's not in pain, (as far as I can tell), he still wants to be snuggled and stroked, still wags his tail, and has a bit of a spring in his step when we are coming back from his very short walks.
but his eyesight is almost totally gone now, he only notices big sweeping movments and food has to be right next to him to even get him to sniff...but sadly not to eat.

I don't want to see him starve to death. a slice of salami, or a bit of bacon isn't enough, he won't even touch steak or chicken or ham now..Time to call the vet and make an appointment.

I can honestly say this is horrible.


Ahthankyew

well some people don't change

Strangely had a run in with my ex wife on Facebook, didn't recognise her new surname and commented on a post she made on a mutual friends page...

Few minutes later I get pm'd with some right nasty shit, threats, abuse and basic bile. Thats when the penny dropped who she was.

Very very sad, very very pointless and very very fucked up. She has her own version of events, one in particular, with everything twisted to make me the devil incarnate....I have a very different recollection of the fear and stress living with a rapid cycling bipolar person brings....It really was a bad time, and I was relieved to get out of it... I hoped she'd find peace..maybe she has, but clearly still has a lot of hate in her baggage.
Anyway, after a few choice comments she blocked me... good, I don't really need her kind of hate in my life.
Dunno if she reads this, its not impossible... But if I never have any contact again with her I'll be more than happy.


Ahthankyew

a few mouthfuls

Took the whole day, but finally he's had a bit of roast beef and some ossenworst (kind of tartar steak slices)  not interested in the liver I cooked for him though he did have a few pieces... I'll try him on some chicken



he didn't want the chicken.
:(
Ahthankyew

hanging in there

Harvey picked up quite a bit later on Sunday, eating roast beef, roast chicken and bacon....as  much as he wanted.. And toward the end of the day he really was quite chipper.

But today again he's not eating and spending most of the day sleeping. Ill try and tempt him with some ham.


Ahthankyew

last meals?

Poor Harvey
he's very much on his last legs, if there was any sign he was in pain I'd take him (or rather call them to come as thats nicer) the the vet,  but so far he's still showing sings of responsivness and happiness at being fussed over. But he is barely eating anything now, he's gone off steak, and chicken and mince and sausages, but will nibble at some salami, streaky bacon and rare roast beef, but only nibbles.. I can't persuade him to eat much at all, and his weight is dropping..

The kitchen has a selection of dishes on the floor for him none of which he wants, but todays, roast beef from Jumbo was something at least, and a few strips of bacon.
I hate this...really its horrible, but lets just make the little man as cosy and loved as possible.


Ahthankyew

Back home to dentist

Trip home was quite long, lots of delays, but I was really impressed with the Budget car rental, no issues, in an out and quite cheap. (mind you I have to see if they deduct anything from the card)
There was some incredible turbulance on the plane but home safe and sound and reunited with my little man.. But he's not at all himself, he's really deteriorating. So slow now, but he's still eating and enjoying snuggles so I dont' detect any distress in him. But....its not long now, Steak and Chicken and bacon it is from now on, his last days will be filled with doggy joy.
I guess I'm going to have to eventually bite the bullet and take him to the vet, but I am so afraid that they will ask me to make a choice....as soon as I detect distress...but not before. He's old, just old, and as long as he's got some spark and eating, we'll keep going.


Speaking of old things.. mum (ha you thought I'd forgot you) is also looking old and frail, I suggested taking her to the vet but she seems reluctant still, next time I go I'll take a big sack with me.

She is rather poorly at the moment, and tired of all the small procedures and tests she's being put through, but she had a good natter an cheered up no end when I introduced her to the joys of spiced dark rum, sans coke, I'd like to think she was pleased to see me, but it was probably just her off her tits on rum :D

My grandkids are wonderful, D and K are doing a great job with them, Harvey2 is a little boisterous but thats fun to see, little 8 month Eva is the most content baby I have ever seen, 3 days I was there, never heard her skriking once...amazing..

Can't wait to see them all again, hope mum can indeed make one more trip to Breda, and maybe Danni can bring the family when she sorts out passports.

oh well, that was a nice holiday, time to get back into the swing of things.

Which brings me to the Dentist.

I always thought modern dentistry had an air of surgical precision to it, with swabs, isolation, clamps, small scalpels, special tools...etc.

Nope... a big pair of pliers and lots of twisting and pulling...

Wait till the anesthetic wears off.


Finally had the right uppper wisdom removed and wow, I can open my jaw quite a bit, I wonder if I'll be able to yawn again, it was always stopping the tendon after the surgery..

And sadly had to say goodbye to another front tooth whcih also lost its home due to bone degradation from the radiotherapy/reduced blood supply, but new falsies in a few weeks.




Ahthankyew

Finally off to see the sprogs and the auld bag

Well after a lot of last minute kerfuffle finding a dog sitter, I'm heading over to the UK for the last weekend of my autumn break to meet my new grandaughter, comment on how big my grandson is getting and also go see my grumpy auld bag, who's not been so well of late. Seeing me might cheer her up a bit, or finish her off...I'll keep you posted.

Only a flying weekend visit, but even so it will be nice to connect with my peeps again... as long as we don't talk about brexit..no one needs to die!



Ahthankyew

more on line dating fun

So aside from the crazies and the box tickers (if you're not perfect and tick all the boxes they don't want to know), another of the things to watch for are the scammers.
Man there are a lot of them, but you can really spot them pretty quickly, they tend to be too good to be true...young, stunning, age is only a number etc...Also they flatter you far too much.

And the good ones will lull you into a false sense of security before suddenly there's a crisis that has come up that they desperatly need cash for somehing.....

For the last week or 10 days, I've had one of these chatting to me, she(no gurantees she was even female, as I'm pretty sure the person whos pics she ripped off from Facebook has no idea), she. was actually very good, and showed great patience, but I smelled a rat right away, and was just waiting for the sting to arrive. There were little inconsitancies, like being Brazilan and only being in NL for a few months, (her facebook went back to 2016 all in dutch), forgetting some of my details, reasking the same question etc... but having established this was a scammer I let her think she had her mark.

After laying the ground work, single mum,  dealing with life, looking for a good man,  sick parent, own business bla bla, the set up comes, in the shape of having to go to Hamburg on business for a few days, and we'll meet up when she gets back...course we will.

A small ration of how was your day, things are going ok,  some hassles but I'm dealing with it...on whatsapp to keep the pot simmering was quite nice to see, I admired her patience, Most of these scammers go for the closer pretty quick, but she was making sure the hook was well in.

And then of course the closer has to come... shes there  in Hamburg to pick up goods and has to pay import taxes, she's paid most of them, but suddenly its more than she expected...oh dear.

Funny sort of importing business that the courier can't send goods direct to you and take payment online....like every shipping company everywhere!!

Well its all very "convincing" (well no not really but I can see how people might fall for it) except she sends me the worst, and I do mean the very worst fake waybill ever.... allegedly she's getting a diplomatic bundle of 1.2 tonnes of leather........wtf??

Note the null bar code, lack of sender and receiver address, fake company name, lack of comany addresses, no phone numbers. no tax codes, also the date...was only a few days ago, (bloody fast boat) diplomatic shipment lol... its just beyond terrible.  I've seen a lot of way bills when I buy things from states or japan/korea and this is the most pathetic I've ever seen.
I've removed the name becuase I'm pretty sure the name is a real person who's had it nicked.

But she's quite smart she just uses it to keep the hook baited...not asking for money yet, but making it clear to me she's having to pay out funds and soon as she has we can meet up, shes just taking care of business.....A few more days pass and she's got one last bill to pay (yeah....right)  only at the last minute does she come up with the, oh I'm 120 short, my sick dad can't help...... can you lend it me?

Its known as a 419 scam, very common with Nigerians, they try to get you to pay for some shipping taxes or something and lay a guilt trip down on you if you don't help them to get the goods they need, or that they promise you is worth more than what you will give them.

I let her ask a few times but of course, she still thinks she has her mark hooked, but I'm not playing ball and quite enjoy letting her struggle. I know this scam and I'm not paying anything...a few key questions about who she was paying and had she does business with them before, didn't get a very sensible answer,  so she twigged in the end and logged off....

Its amazing.... Con artists like this are the worst... its not like the classy scam artists you see in the movies, where they prey on the rich and greedy, this kind of chancer has no care who they screw over... shocking.. anyway I spotted it instantly and let it carry on for a bit to keep her occupied, while (s)he was working on me,  she wasn't working on someone else.

Feeling quite pleased with myself :D



Ahthankyew

Autumn break

Not that its going to be much of a break, got some work to do and will have to spend a few days at a clients location,  and also going to squeeze in a visit to see the sprogs and grumpy gran, who's not very well at the moment.

Biggest issue is Harvey 1, he needs to be looked after and isn't quite himself at the moment, age is very much catching up with him and his eyesight is getting progressivly worse. He now habitually runs into doors he cant see when I bring him in from his walk...it was funny at first but a couple of times he's ran at speed and hurt himself, so I need to take special precautions to make sure the door is open before he charges in.

Also he's developed a nasty bump below his eye, which at first caused half his face to swell up.. Before I went to the vet though it calmed down and seemed to fade but its come back. I dunno if this is a bite or a bruse cause by his crashing into things, its not tender to the touch so I suspect not, but it does not seem to be an infection or anything else...can't be a tumour, it came up too fast and came down after..
I'll wait till Monday, since he's in no distress, if its not gone down again, its vet time....something I fear a lot considering his great age....

Ahthankyew

I got a new bike

The old warhorse is nearing its end, its costing more to repair it every year than it would to get a new bike...

So I got a new bike :D

yup.. a real bike, with gears and thick tyres... and bend down bum up seating...

well ok, its not my usual thing but I will get used to it. One of my neighbours put all his old bikes out on the lawn to sale and I asked what he wanted for it..50euros....it had a flat back tyre but that was an easy fix...

so I now have a proper bike. Need to get a lock though as the cable with it has long since lost its key. and I need to fit a pannier rack and a kick stand, but these are easy to get.

After fixing the back tyre, while doing my back in (yup, not even exerting myself I spazzed my back) I took it for a spin, and its certainly odd but smooth fast and something new, something hard to explain...stopping things....quick stopp..oh yeah brakes...it has awesome brakes.. very cool.

The warhorse will be allowed one last repair, but at some point I might forget to take the key out the lock and let it go to the a new owner..or theif.


Ahthankyew

People are strange part 6504

Well once again I get confirmation that online dating is filled with odd people (well I'm there). I hooked up with a very nice lady, just over the Belgium border and we've been chatting for a few days.. in the run up to meeting up. A very good start, very interesting and smart lady, really cool communication, intelligent, observent and even a dry sense of humour which is always a plus.  American so no language issues, and a swearer, perfect....

But then she sends me a good morning sunshine gif at 7am on a Sunday, which I reply to at 10am, when I wake, oh god you're a morning person barf.... a comical one liner...nothing extreme...

That results in a fantastic angy response that she just sent something cheerful and I will never hear from her again. And it seems thats true as she rage quit me from facebook and whatsapp and blocked my phone.....so..yeah... that happend...

red flags flying high there I think....lucky escape. Wow..just wow..


Ahthankyew

ow, croak, sniff, ow, croak, sniff

The cold is almost over, bit wheezy and coughy but so far (touch wood) no chest infection ...yet..
my arm though, oh fuck that is painful

am doing the physio excercises but it seems to be making things worse rather than better, am trying my best not to play guirar which for sure makes it worse but its very hard not to play guitar at the moment as I am running some of the jam nights for students and we're going to start rehearsing again soon for both bands after a summer break.

Also at the moment I seem to be really in a zone with my playing, lots of new things starting to appear from my fingers and I just "feel" more in tune with the guitar, and want so much to play......ah well...a bit of pain is worth it, we all suffer for our art I guess.

Not much more to report at the moment, the new 1st years are a challenge but they are soaking things up like a sponge and I have high hopes.



Ahthankyew

croak croak

Well its a bit of a self diagnosis but pretty sure its accurate, my voice is literally gone, only croaks and wheezes coming out... and it feels like I've been gargling razor blades for breakfast, lunch and dinner.All classic symptoms of laryngitis.  Lucky I don't actually have to say anything to anyone today, but I did want do a bit of recording with a nice cold deep voice (I actually sound a little better when I've just had a cold).... maybe tomorrow. but if I'm still croaking tomorrow I'll consider going to the docs...not that there's much they can do for cold related laryngitis.

Ironic really as over all this cold hasn't been too severe, just a bit of a runny nose and a slight sore throat, until last night when the razor gargling started.

Voice rest and a lot of paracetamol today, will hopefully pay dividends.




Ahthankyew

Cold time

always the same, new group of students, new bunch of colds to catch.... ah well


Ahthankyew

ow ow ow

Still in pain with my arm, its seriously impacting on my guitar playing and also my diet.... I'm miserable when I can't play, and I eat....damn, undoing weeks of good work with a chilli dog, or 3

...its ok, I'll get back into the mood soon. Had some more massage therapy today, hurt like hell and leaft me feeling all wiped out and sore, but hopefully the treatment will help and I can get back to my scales and my scales (see what I did there?? no... oh ok)



Ahthankyew

Appeal accepted

Got 2 letters today, one in Dutch, one in English (nice touch) to confirm that my appeal against the traffic fine for running a red light has been accepted and is being processd.

Of course its a formality of sorts, but at least there were no issues with my formatting of the appeal, which I sometimes get caught out on, Dutch letters in relationship to rules and regs are very formal and require specific things, like reference numbers, date of birth, etc...its can be quite a challenge to make sure you put everything done.

But its in, its accepted it will be reviewed, I dont hold a lot of hope that it will pass, even though i am certain the police made an error, its ultimatly my word against his and the courts usually go with the police, but I gave multiple reasons to cast doubt on the officers view, and I will just have to wait and see.
It will take up to 3 months to get a decision, during which time I don't have to pay the 250euro fine...

fingers crossed.

Ahthankyew

Tearing down a wall

Diet news folks, I know you've been waiting with bated breath

Been really struggling to get below 92kg, for over a week, no movment staying on our around 92.3 but never getting to see a magic 91.. A few cheat days saw it bump back to 93 on a couple of weigh ins... But finally today I hit 91.7 an important wall.

Next wall is the 90kg mark....then the 89...then ...oh it never really ends does it.



Ahthankyew

Not a total loss then

I heard through the grapevine that Benta graduated from her Masters course...So no November retakes, I assume she managed to do a summer block E for her one retake either way it means she's done it and she can move on now.

I am pleased for her, she did work hard at it, and also for me personally knowing that the effort is not wasted is good, there was a lot of financial hardship and personal confict to deal with which would be a sad waste of all kinds of effort if she had not finished the course

I doubt my contribution will ever be recognised, it's telling, that she has not let me know herself as she basks in the congratulations of her friends!.

Maybe in 10 years or so when she matures a bit, but for me I am pleased it wasn't all for nothing in the end. I hope she makes good use of this and has a good life because of it.

Time to close that chapter, and not look back.

Ahthankyew

owwwwww fuck owww shit

Im in pain, serious fucking ow ow ow pain.

Tendonitis in my elbow from guitarrerring too much, it is fucking agony

got a gig on Saturday, then nothing till Oct, so going to try to not touch a guitar for a few weeks to see if it calms down.

Also have to have some physio and lots of paracetamol as an anti infmamitory.

grr


Ahthankyew

Back to school

I didn't want to go, but I had to...its my job..

But the 1st 2 weeks are always deadly boring, dull, full of meetings, panic planning and reviews... I'm not overly worried though ,we know what we are trying to deliver and I just have to make sure my lesson plans are in order.

Students arrive on the 2nd Sept, and things get a bit more regular and routine then as we get to know them and settle into a familiar routine, of screaming, crying, bewlierment and frustration.. for me at least, not sure about the students.

I've been doing a unity gig for a few months now, in anger, ..and that is well ment, god I hate this.. I loathe engines and their obession with doing things their way.. Im trying to write a simulator for a veehicle systm, thats not a typical vehicle, and the physics needs to be stomped on so much... But the project is coming along and at least I can say I now understand the latest version of Unity much better than I did before. It has been quite a few years since I did much with Unity, probably version 2 or 3 and it has moved up a lot. We only really use Unity for a few school projects these days, we seem to prefer UE4, but 1st years do some Unity, and I suppose I'll get assigned to help them..ugg..

House is still clean and tidy I am happy to report, didn't get time to decorate though, and still have to squeeze in a weekend to the UK while I can..waiting to see if I win an appeal against a fine for running a red light, which I am sure I didn't... If I do, then I can afford a flight, if not.. have to postpone.




Ahthankyew

hmmmm

21st century geek issue... can't get the new PC to drive the projector, and 3 monitors and an oculus

I guess it was asking too much.. but maybe if I can hook up the 1050's spare display port, rather than the onboards 2nd DVI,  to the projector it might work...adapter ordered... We'll see.

Its not really an issue though, I am unlikely to want to play games on the projector, or make presentations up there, and I am genuinly delighted with the new PC. Never thought I'd be this happy with a new system; there is always a lot of, where is that app gone or why wont this work now when I change work laptops.
Sure, I am only using it for 1 specific thing at the moment, even then I am still using my dev PC for most other things...but I find myself quite enjoying working up stairs.. I may indeed make the full move..we'll see.

Weight loss progresses well, I've now lost 7.2 kg, which is more than a stone... At least 20kg to go though, I checked my BMI and as expected I am considered very overweight. A short skinny runt like me should be around 70kg, not 99.2kg as I was. Still sticking well to the 1 (or 2 very) low cal meal a day. The odd cheat if I am out, but the loss is continuing at a steady 200-400g a day.  I'm looking forward to seeing 89.99kg in a week or so.. The dog's less keen on the long late night walks, but they are part of it.




Ahthankyew

Well this is better than I expected

The new PC is amazing and has a feature I honestly never noticed.. It has on board graphics, pretty shitty low level on board Intel, graphics but still.. They were naturally disabled in favour of the (now medium level) graphic card a GTX1050ti I had asked for.

The 1050 is a great card and more than meets my general needs and VR requirements, but  it does mean I have to dedicate the HDMI slot to the VR and that leaves only a Display port and DVI for monitors, so 2... I like 3. I hated having to sacrafice a monitor on my dev PC to a VR unit.
So I decided to try and go into the BIOS and activate the onboard graphics as well, fully expecting them not to... but they did.. And now I can drive up to 6 monitors, 3, dvi, 2 display ports and 1 hdmi

I still have to dedicate the hdmi to my Oculus, as it does not really play well with switches. but that leaves 5 ports open to use for editing and coding, just the way I like it. :D

I only want 3 though, a centre monitor, a side portrait monitor, and a side landscape monitor.  I will put 1 more of the dvi's to use to drive an image to the projector should I want to play games. :D

I don't quite know how the gpu's are working, it may be, I need to drive a fast game to a monitor hooked up to the 1050ti, but thats easy to arrange.

I am really pleased with this arrangment... now if I just had a decent chair upstairs, I might move all my work to the studio... but for now I'll keep this as a summer place to work.

Ahthankyew

New PC day... so soon?

DPD finally delivered the PC to the pickupshop, again after 2 attempts it seems, when they were not officially open, so it is here now, on Saturday, not Monday as they stated...terrible company..but at last I have a budget upgraded PC.

I mean it has to be 9 or 10 years since my last one?

As I've noted before, I am not someone who has to have the very latest PC's, I get the most powerful one I can afford at the time, and keep it uptodate with occasional drive and graphic card updates as long as possible.

Pretty sure I have had the current one for at least 9 years, and it itself was a refurb several new graphic cards and SSD drives have kept it working but its started to show its age recently and had a couple of unexplained crashes that scared me.... So Ive splashed out on a new refurb. This isn't going to be my main PC though, just a back up for use upstairs when the heat gets too much. The Main PC does indeed still need to be replaced in the next year or so, but it still servicable for the moment, for much of my work. Though it does chug a bit on VR projects. I will do a major upgrade on that around Christmas bonus time when I should have recovered my finances after the year of paying out.

The new PC is an off the shelf refub gamer PC from ebay, with the same 1050ti graphic card I've found works well in my current PC, but this has a later gen faster I7 CPU, 2600 @3.4ghz compared to the i7 860 2.8ghz on my main PC, its quite a bit faster. Also 16GB of new RAM compared to 8GB and.... though the benefits of this are less obvious to me, Windows 10.. not 8.1 they also sent me a pretty naff wired keyboard and mouse, and a refurbed Del monitor which is quite useful.. so overall not bad for £392 . Im pretty sure the old one cost a lot more than that. Its not  very exandable though, only 1 slot for a graphic card, and one IDE for any extra cxards I might want to add, but it will do the job.

I've turned off all the horrible flash LED fan lights and got it set into a more sedate, quiet fan update in the background mode and its all good.

Just starting the process of setting up the 100's of dev tools I like to have available, all of which take forerver to download. The supplied mini dongle for wifi didn't really cut it, but lucky I had another dongle that has an antenna that gives a good solid signal and the PC is busy doing its thing for the next few days of downloads.

I'll leave it in peace to get on with it.



Ahthankyew

DPD are the worst.

I really don't like DPD as a courier service, I make a point never to use them, after seeing how the throw parcels around, marked fragile, and how they spectacularly messup up deliveries.

Once again I see their incompetance in action,  I didn't choose to use them of course, but a new PC I bought on Ebay is being delivered by them.

They tried to deliver on Thursday, when admitidly I was in bed, and didn't hear any buzzers, ok, well thats a bummer.. But at least they redirect to a local store.

I accidently went to the store yesterday after 4 only to have it noted the not entierly clear tick box on the note said it woudl be there Friday after 4.


oh ok, so this morning, I notice another DPD note through my door, with no actual info on it this time.. So it looks like they tried again...and again the buzzers failed to wake me, it turns up in fact the batteries on the upstairs one are dead, but the downstairs one is fine and more than loud enough to wake me....so we can assume he only pressed one.

tits... but nevermind I will go to the bicyle store and get it...at 4-30 and no its not there...they have no clue where it is.

after managing to work out the tracking code I get this

02.08.2019	10:21	Etten-Leur (NL)	Unfortunately we have not been able to deliver your parcel. Consignee not located for second time. The parcel will therefore be stored for 7 days and then automatically returned to consignor. Please contact DPD.
01.08.2019	18:15	Etten-Leur (NL)	We're sorry but your parcel couldn't be delivered as arranged. Pickup parcelshop delivery after first delivery attempt.
01.08.2019	10:11	DPD data centre	Redirected to the following Pickup parcelshop: SCHIETECAT TWEEWIELERS
01.08.2019	10:11	Etten-Leur (NL)	Unfortunately we have not been able to deliver your parcel. Pickup parcelshop delivery after first delivery attempt.
01.08.2019	07:29	Etten-Leur (NL)	Out for delivery.
01.08.2019	02:15	Etten-Leur (NL)	At parcel delivery centre.
31.07.2019	01:18	Heywood (GB)	In transit.
30.07.2019	18:38	DPD data centre	Order information has been transmitted to DPD.

So did they even try to take it to the Tweewielers store??  who knows  It looks like they tried to deliver at 18-15, the shop closes at 18-00

I have pinged them on facebook...and put new batteries in the upstairs ringer...they better try again tomorrow or give me info on how and where I can pick it up.

I really don't like DPD..

Ahthankyew