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
Sunday, 1 September 2019
Wednesday, 28 August 2019
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
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
Tuesday, 27 August 2019
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
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
Sunday, 25 August 2019
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
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
Wednesday, 7 August 2019
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
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
Monday, 5 August 2019
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
Saturday, 3 August 2019
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
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
Friday, 2 August 2019
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
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
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 |
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 |
We're sorry but your parcel couldn't be delivered as arranged.
Pickup parcelshop delivery after first delivery attempt.
| |
| 01.08.2019 | 10:11 |
Redirected to the following Pickup parcelshop:
| |
| 01.08.2019 | 10:11 |
Unfortunately we have not been able to deliver your parcel.
Pickup parcelshop delivery after first delivery attempt.
| |
| 01.08.2019 | 07:29 |
Out for delivery.
| |
| 01.08.2019 | 02:15 |
At parcel delivery centre.
| |
| 31.07.2019 | 01:18 |
In transit.
| |
| 30.07.2019 | 18:38 |
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
Monday, 29 July 2019
Studio almost ready :D
Another on the todo list ticked off, my upstairs studio has been in disarray for many months, I just wasn't that bothered when the house wasn't my own. But I've been cleaning, sorting, throwing things out and properly storing shit all week, and it actually is starting to feel comfy again. The big old, no longer used Pedal boards, have been stripped and stored, and the pedals put away. I may sell some on ebay.
Work desk is tidy and set up with mixer units and Mac Mini's updated (I have 2, the old one can't quite hack it any more, but all its apps are transferred to a more recent, but still old 2014 model), and guitars are no longer littering the floor, they are in their cases or on the wall out of the way. Still some sorting out to clear the "bookcase" where all kinds of crud is stuffed but that can wait till next week.
I set up the new (sat doing nothing for a year) humax freesat unit so I now have a working TV/Movie system up there on LCD and on projector. I don't have cable TV anymore, but I might set up another NLEx streaming box up there for catchup TV (it won't stream unless it has direct cable network access). Tidied up the wiring and DVD/s too, so I can find movies I've not got round to watching yet.
That now gives me, full media access, and netflix on TV or Projector with sound routing out the cinema system.. happy :D
A new (refurbed) Gamer PC is heading its way to me, mainly for gaming, but also for occasional work when my office is too hot. Its a slightly higher spec than my office PC, but I won't swap it out just yet, I will save up for a mega machine sometime around Xmas bonus time. The Gamer PC will also be able to route its output to its Monitor, or the Projector or a VR headset. I havn't made up my mind if I want a console in there, probably not considering I actually seldom play games these days...hmm maybe.
All that once again makes the studio into a man cave with all my toys, interests and stupid shit in one place.
And finally, all the old useless sky boxes, cable boxes and assorted dead junk are in the car to take to the tip for recycling or dumping.
I can't say its exactly "sparking joy"(I've never watched the show, I just keep hearing people say it) getting rid of crap, but I am starting to feel a bit happier that the house has less, better clean this up, rooms to deal with.
Ahthankyew
Work desk is tidy and set up with mixer units and Mac Mini's updated (I have 2, the old one can't quite hack it any more, but all its apps are transferred to a more recent, but still old 2014 model), and guitars are no longer littering the floor, they are in their cases or on the wall out of the way. Still some sorting out to clear the "bookcase" where all kinds of crud is stuffed but that can wait till next week.
I set up the new (sat doing nothing for a year) humax freesat unit so I now have a working TV/Movie system up there on LCD and on projector. I don't have cable TV anymore, but I might set up another NLEx streaming box up there for catchup TV (it won't stream unless it has direct cable network access). Tidied up the wiring and DVD/s too, so I can find movies I've not got round to watching yet.
That now gives me, full media access, and netflix on TV or Projector with sound routing out the cinema system.. happy :D
A new (refurbed) Gamer PC is heading its way to me, mainly for gaming, but also for occasional work when my office is too hot. Its a slightly higher spec than my office PC, but I won't swap it out just yet, I will save up for a mega machine sometime around Xmas bonus time. The Gamer PC will also be able to route its output to its Monitor, or the Projector or a VR headset. I havn't made up my mind if I want a console in there, probably not considering I actually seldom play games these days...hmm maybe.
All that once again makes the studio into a man cave with all my toys, interests and stupid shit in one place.
And finally, all the old useless sky boxes, cable boxes and assorted dead junk are in the car to take to the tip for recycling or dumping.
I can't say its exactly "sparking joy"(I've never watched the show, I just keep hearing people say it) getting rid of crap, but I am starting to feel a bit happier that the house has less, better clean this up, rooms to deal with.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 27 July 2019
5KG lost...:D 20 to go
I havn't mentioned the diet in a while have I... well its been a bit up and down, I've had a lot of trouble dealing with the hunger part of a diet, which is always the issue with diets I suppose :D I tried all manner of things to avoid hunger, eating small meals often, etc.. but the hunger could claim me and I'd go nibble on a few carrots, or a cake or a curry....it wasn't good.
I was still working on the diet, I was cutting back on my intake and weight is dropping, but slowly, and each cake/curry/pizza relapse would set me back to the start again and undo a lot of the good work in a week. I needed to take a more drastic action.
And that happened because recently I was rather inspired by an old friend John Pickford who has been doing a keto diet and lost a massive amount of weight.. good for him.
I didn't really want to do the Keto thing though I did it years ago and it did work, but for me it never really made me feel good.. But I noted one thing in his comments that was interesting, he only has 1 meal a day.. and its a stunner.. lots of protein, fat as per the keto concept, and minimal carbs, it all looked good, but there was a key point he mentioned, he also said hunger pangs fade after a while.
Now that got me thinking, instead of fearing and ultimatly trying to quench the hunger pangs , just embrace them, treat them as a withdrawal symptom and try to do one low calorie meal a day.
And yup, it is true, after a few days of genuinely uncomfortable hunger, the pangs do indeed get less and as long as the meal is fairly filling with some protein in it, hunger pangs fade. I'm not saying they go, I could easily nip to KFC right now and demolish a bucket, but the pangs are not overpowering me to do that. I can keep them in check now.
I now focus on trying to have only 1 meal a day, and even then its a very light one, something like noodles and chicken, or rice and beef. And importantly its not a massive portion. So I'm only eating 500-800 kcal a day.. often less. I can make one chicken breast into 4 or 5 portions of noodle topping. its really not a lot, but having it in there does wonders for the hunger. As does making sure the noodle broth does not boil away, having it as a soupy food makes it last longer, and adding water does nothing to the calorie count.
A packet of noodles is 100kcal and I'm using only a small amount of protein (beef/chicken/pork) to suppliment it and some veg for vits.
Some days I might have bit more, like a steak, or chicken leg, but I keep the carbs to a minimum, so a small amount of rice or couscous, and the lucky dog gets to have the fat/skin.
Also I'm doing a lot of cleaning and tidying and moving stuff around in the house as I complete my spring/summer clean so I'm being as active as possible
This has seen my weight drop much faster, from 50-100g a week (when not cheating), to 100g or more a day... not suprising as its basically starvation level, but its not uncomfortable.
I'll keep this up, but today I had a little whoo moment as I hit a 5Kg lost target, I hope to lose another 5 before going back to work. Watch this space.
Ahthankyew
I was still working on the diet, I was cutting back on my intake and weight is dropping, but slowly, and each cake/curry/pizza relapse would set me back to the start again and undo a lot of the good work in a week. I needed to take a more drastic action.
And that happened because recently I was rather inspired by an old friend John Pickford who has been doing a keto diet and lost a massive amount of weight.. good for him.
I didn't really want to do the Keto thing though I did it years ago and it did work, but for me it never really made me feel good.. But I noted one thing in his comments that was interesting, he only has 1 meal a day.. and its a stunner.. lots of protein, fat as per the keto concept, and minimal carbs, it all looked good, but there was a key point he mentioned, he also said hunger pangs fade after a while.
Now that got me thinking, instead of fearing and ultimatly trying to quench the hunger pangs , just embrace them, treat them as a withdrawal symptom and try to do one low calorie meal a day.
And yup, it is true, after a few days of genuinely uncomfortable hunger, the pangs do indeed get less and as long as the meal is fairly filling with some protein in it, hunger pangs fade. I'm not saying they go, I could easily nip to KFC right now and demolish a bucket, but the pangs are not overpowering me to do that. I can keep them in check now.
I now focus on trying to have only 1 meal a day, and even then its a very light one, something like noodles and chicken, or rice and beef. And importantly its not a massive portion. So I'm only eating 500-800 kcal a day.. often less. I can make one chicken breast into 4 or 5 portions of noodle topping. its really not a lot, but having it in there does wonders for the hunger. As does making sure the noodle broth does not boil away, having it as a soupy food makes it last longer, and adding water does nothing to the calorie count.
A packet of noodles is 100kcal and I'm using only a small amount of protein (beef/chicken/pork) to suppliment it and some veg for vits.
Some days I might have bit more, like a steak, or chicken leg, but I keep the carbs to a minimum, so a small amount of rice or couscous, and the lucky dog gets to have the fat/skin.
Also I'm doing a lot of cleaning and tidying and moving stuff around in the house as I complete my spring/summer clean so I'm being as active as possible
This has seen my weight drop much faster, from 50-100g a week (when not cheating), to 100g or more a day... not suprising as its basically starvation level, but its not uncomfortable.
I'll keep this up, but today I had a little whoo moment as I hit a 5Kg lost target, I hope to lose another 5 before going back to work. Watch this space.
Ahthankyew
Thursday, 25 July 2019
I was hoping the bills would drop.
With summer you can usually expect a drop in the bills, no heating means no boiler.. But now we are in the midst of a heatwave with a record 39+ deg expected today.. and I've got my airco, evapcooler and every fan in the house on with all windows and blinds closed... in an effort to drop the temps.
It is hot as hell, and I am trying to do some work in the midst of it, mostly though I find its best to just work at night, as the computer fans themselves kick out a lot of heat and nothing really gets done as you are seeking a non sweaty shirt or trying to keep my bollox cool....its awful.
Time to start doing rain dances in the hope of the thunder that will come to cool us all down..
Ahthankyew
It is hot as hell, and I am trying to do some work in the midst of it, mostly though I find its best to just work at night, as the computer fans themselves kick out a lot of heat and nothing really gets done as you are seeking a non sweaty shirt or trying to keep my bollox cool....its awful.
Time to start doing rain dances in the hope of the thunder that will come to cool us all down..
Ahthankyew
Wednesday, 24 July 2019
oh this is not normal
Its easy to blame global warming for the current heatwave...but it is.. global warming
jeeze its hot, it hit 38 today, I have to stop work at 11/12 and hide in the attic for hours till things cool, down, the air con is amazing but very loud.
My Office PC has died on me once due to overheating, and right now has its fans on full blow, so its going to pop again any second. There's not much I can do about it in the office, the air is too warm, in too small a space, and there's no way to cool it even with an evap cooler and fan blowing in chilled air.
As a stop gap, I've cleared my desk upstairs and now have my laptop and a monitor/keyboard set up so I can work up there, its not ideal, my laptop is more powerful than my PC but it can't run my oculus until I get a decent USB bus on it, but at least I can escape the heat and do a bit of work on some things.
I will probably buy a 2nd gaming spec PC and set it up there, if nothing else I can play games on my big screen but it will also be a decent 2nd workstation. Cost is a factor though I don't play many games at all, but need a min spec, will have to see what I can find on ebay.
I don't really want to work up there though, its very much a play room, so any work done is only because the air con allows progress.
Its a good job I've been clearing the attic out, making space for me to watch movies and play in the cool, even if it is noisy.
The heatwave will hopefully break soon...just waiting to hear the thunder.
Ahthankyew
jeeze its hot, it hit 38 today, I have to stop work at 11/12 and hide in the attic for hours till things cool, down, the air con is amazing but very loud.
My Office PC has died on me once due to overheating, and right now has its fans on full blow, so its going to pop again any second. There's not much I can do about it in the office, the air is too warm, in too small a space, and there's no way to cool it even with an evap cooler and fan blowing in chilled air.
As a stop gap, I've cleared my desk upstairs and now have my laptop and a monitor/keyboard set up so I can work up there, its not ideal, my laptop is more powerful than my PC but it can't run my oculus until I get a decent USB bus on it, but at least I can escape the heat and do a bit of work on some things.
I will probably buy a 2nd gaming spec PC and set it up there, if nothing else I can play games on my big screen but it will also be a decent 2nd workstation. Cost is a factor though I don't play many games at all, but need a min spec, will have to see what I can find on ebay.
I don't really want to work up there though, its very much a play room, so any work done is only because the air con allows progress.
Its a good job I've been clearing the attic out, making space for me to watch movies and play in the cool, even if it is noisy.
The heatwave will hopefully break soon...just waiting to hear the thunder.
Ahthankyew
Wednesday, 17 July 2019
one room at a time....well half, mabye a quarter.
Its a bit late for a spring clean, but I'm having one, time to spark some joy, or whatever that shit is... and clear up.. I'm going through each room in turn, and finally throwing old shit out, cleaning up and getting myself ready to do a bit of decorating later in the holiday.
The Spare room wasn't untidy, but it needed to be cleared out ready for guests..the kitchen has been stripped, My Bedroom has been declutered and dusted, the studio is getting rid of a lot of old electronic/move/tv crap that is no longer used..I sold some of it..and will junk the rest.
Aside from making more space in the studio to allow for movie and music nights, I'm also setting up a 2nd workstation up there, using my laptop as a working PC (its actually more powerful than my desktop). This is for 2 reasons... one..music and video and two, Air con... its going to get stupid hot in the next month or so, and I have projects I need to finish, so I want to avoid working in my underwear with my back sticking to the leather chair this year.
I'm going to give the kitchen and lounge a nice coat of paint as well as finally wallpaper (just woodchip) the walls of the studio which have been plasterboard exposed since they were made 10 years ago...its time.
And the back yard, starting to clear that up too, getting rid of the old wood and other crap, (literally, since Harvey has used it as an emergency toilet a bit too often)
This time next week, I hope to have a nice sparkly clean house.... now if I can just induce some pretty young ladies to come in and inspect my new 20ft well in the basement.
Ahthankyew
The Spare room wasn't untidy, but it needed to be cleared out ready for guests..the kitchen has been stripped, My Bedroom has been declutered and dusted, the studio is getting rid of a lot of old electronic/move/tv crap that is no longer used..I sold some of it..and will junk the rest.
Aside from making more space in the studio to allow for movie and music nights, I'm also setting up a 2nd workstation up there, using my laptop as a working PC (its actually more powerful than my desktop). This is for 2 reasons... one..music and video and two, Air con... its going to get stupid hot in the next month or so, and I have projects I need to finish, so I want to avoid working in my underwear with my back sticking to the leather chair this year.
I'm going to give the kitchen and lounge a nice coat of paint as well as finally wallpaper (just woodchip) the walls of the studio which have been plasterboard exposed since they were made 10 years ago...its time.
And the back yard, starting to clear that up too, getting rid of the old wood and other crap, (literally, since Harvey has used it as an emergency toilet a bit too often)
This time next week, I hope to have a nice sparkly clean house.... now if I can just induce some pretty young ladies to come in and inspect my new 20ft well in the basement.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 13 July 2019
And I have the house to myself again. Which is actually good.
So for the last year or so I have had a house guest, my failed attempt to start a relationship with Benta resulted in a situation where for better or worse she had to stay here to complete her Masters degree.
I felt it was up to me to allow her to do that and let her stay in my spare room and allowing her some funding to be able to commute and socialise while she was here...in short, I was paying for her to live here...
It wasn't easy, in fact it was at times quite a struggle, but I did feel it was the right and honest thing to do, since I had brought her here, leaving her life in Kenya behind. I had a sense of responsibility and duty of care. Even though many people said it was crazy, I felt it was the right thing to do.
But, I only agreed to a year... and once that year was over, I was expecting her to make plans to move on, or return to Kenya, her preferred option.
She made no plans, and indeed as a result of failing one course had to do a resit... the problem is she was expecting me to fund that, and to fund her continued stay. That wasn't something I was willing to do, but she avoided that issue for almost 9 months until it was raised and made clear.
Added to that she made arrangments with her university to delay her submissions and internship, not exactly an unusal occurance, but that delay or costs, was not discussed with me.. it was assumed I would "continue to help"!
Over the last 9 months or so, since our attempt at a relationship fizzled out, Benta grew more and more distant, staying in her room, or going out with friends, often staying overnight.. as such communication ceased, and what there was, was mostly via whatsapp, or with passing remarks.. I got a growing sense of resentment from her that was both rude and frankly ungrateful, her selfishness grew as she started to cook and eat her own meals, insisting I buy produce I wouldn't normally get... but she had to eat so I did..
There were several straws, but a few final ones where she demonstrated a total disregard for what was being done for her and a massive sense of entitlement and hate for me, to ignore the simple thigns that I had done for her, that made it clear that my honest care and concern for her was wasted.
There was simply no appreciation for what I had done for her and 6 weeks ago I asked her to leave at the pre agreed time of July 12. A few on line tantrums (blocking communication when she didn't like the answers) followed, but I stuck to my point, She had to leave at the end of her term and make her own way from then on.
As you might expect, she left it late, and a week before the deadline she still argued that she had no where to go, and didn't want to deal with that, and school...
At this point though, I just don't care...my care has been used and abused against me, and it was time for her to deal with the reality of her situation..
Today, a day later than agreed, she packed her things and I took her to the train station, she said she was going back to Kenya, so thats probably for the best, I don't know where she will get the ticket from but again, I don't care any more. I wished her luck and put the entire painful year behind me.
I do indeed wish her luck, if she's reading this, she had an opportunity to have a totally new life, with or without me, but she choose instead to ignore my efforts, and take advantage of my care and good nature until such a point as I finally had enough.
I feel no shame for ending things and forcing her to move on.. she needs to get a handle on life as it actually is. The irony is if she had just made even the smallest effort to be nice, just be nice, ask me how my day had been, show any interest at all in the person who was making all her opportunities possible, I probably would have funded 3 more months. But there's only so much entitlement, selfishness, immaturity, rudeness and disrespect a person can take.
Life isn't that hard to work out... Just don't be a dick to the people who make life better.
I've learned a lot from this too.....I went into it thinking, whats the worst that can happen...... now that I know, I'm never risking it again.
Ahthankyew
I felt it was up to me to allow her to do that and let her stay in my spare room and allowing her some funding to be able to commute and socialise while she was here...in short, I was paying for her to live here...
It wasn't easy, in fact it was at times quite a struggle, but I did feel it was the right and honest thing to do, since I had brought her here, leaving her life in Kenya behind. I had a sense of responsibility and duty of care. Even though many people said it was crazy, I felt it was the right thing to do.
But, I only agreed to a year... and once that year was over, I was expecting her to make plans to move on, or return to Kenya, her preferred option.
She made no plans, and indeed as a result of failing one course had to do a resit... the problem is she was expecting me to fund that, and to fund her continued stay. That wasn't something I was willing to do, but she avoided that issue for almost 9 months until it was raised and made clear.
Added to that she made arrangments with her university to delay her submissions and internship, not exactly an unusal occurance, but that delay or costs, was not discussed with me.. it was assumed I would "continue to help"!
Over the last 9 months or so, since our attempt at a relationship fizzled out, Benta grew more and more distant, staying in her room, or going out with friends, often staying overnight.. as such communication ceased, and what there was, was mostly via whatsapp, or with passing remarks.. I got a growing sense of resentment from her that was both rude and frankly ungrateful, her selfishness grew as she started to cook and eat her own meals, insisting I buy produce I wouldn't normally get... but she had to eat so I did..
There were several straws, but a few final ones where she demonstrated a total disregard for what was being done for her and a massive sense of entitlement and hate for me, to ignore the simple thigns that I had done for her, that made it clear that my honest care and concern for her was wasted.
There was simply no appreciation for what I had done for her and 6 weeks ago I asked her to leave at the pre agreed time of July 12. A few on line tantrums (blocking communication when she didn't like the answers) followed, but I stuck to my point, She had to leave at the end of her term and make her own way from then on.
As you might expect, she left it late, and a week before the deadline she still argued that she had no where to go, and didn't want to deal with that, and school...
At this point though, I just don't care...my care has been used and abused against me, and it was time for her to deal with the reality of her situation..
Today, a day later than agreed, she packed her things and I took her to the train station, she said she was going back to Kenya, so thats probably for the best, I don't know where she will get the ticket from but again, I don't care any more. I wished her luck and put the entire painful year behind me.
I do indeed wish her luck, if she's reading this, she had an opportunity to have a totally new life, with or without me, but she choose instead to ignore my efforts, and take advantage of my care and good nature until such a point as I finally had enough.
I feel no shame for ending things and forcing her to move on.. she needs to get a handle on life as it actually is. The irony is if she had just made even the smallest effort to be nice, just be nice, ask me how my day had been, show any interest at all in the person who was making all her opportunities possible, I probably would have funded 3 more months. But there's only so much entitlement, selfishness, immaturity, rudeness and disrespect a person can take.
Life isn't that hard to work out... Just don't be a dick to the people who make life better.
I've learned a lot from this too.....I went into it thinking, whats the worst that can happen...... now that I know, I'm never risking it again.
Ahthankyew
Thursday, 11 July 2019
Ups and downs.
Today was a good day, after losing my expensive photochromatic prescription glasses a few weeks ago, Robbie at work spotted them on the floor near my chair... yeahhh no need to spend money on a new pair.
I say was...becuase coming home from work I get pulled over by a police car, who tells me I ran a red light... now, this is awkward cos I honestly don't think I did.. but there's nothing I can do or say to convince the very police young man, who was adamant the light was red for over 3 seconds... despite the fact I saw him in theleft turn lane as I slowed to a stop in the forward centre lane behind a van, and on a green light followed behind the van to go through.... I am sure it was green.
But he's having none of it, all the cars on the right were waiting at a red light....which is something I really should have picked up on, had I not been quite flustered at beign stopped.. .yes indeed the cars in the right lane were indeed stopped at a red light.. They don't change at the same time as the forward centre lane...where I was.. and I moved when the van ahead of me moved, on green.
I honestly think he made a mistake and mistook the right red light as a stop forward light...but..what can you do.. I got a ticket and will be fined 240 euros... I'm going to appeal, but...its ultimatly his word against mine. I'm not happyl
grrr
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 30 June 2019
what do you mean it won't work?
It turns out my new tv system won't work with the wifi systems, (including the one they supplied)
wt actual f ...it only works with a powerline system, and I've had nothing but trouble with those but decided to give it a go..
managed after hours of fucking about to get the downstairs tv box to work...upstairs though is still in progress... either I buy another extender box and hope for the best or I try to hook up my other powerline system on the same socket...probably not a good idea.
I mean why the hell does it not work on a wifi extender??? stupid
Ahthankyew
wt actual f ...it only works with a powerline system, and I've had nothing but trouble with those but decided to give it a go..
managed after hours of fucking about to get the downstairs tv box to work...upstairs though is still in progress... either I buy another extender box and hope for the best or I try to hook up my other powerline system on the same socket...probably not a good idea.
I mean why the hell does it not work on a wifi extender??? stupid
Ahthankyew
Friday, 28 June 2019
21st Century problems
Wires
I hate wires, with a passion, I hate them when playing guitar, I hate them when connecting PC's and devices around the home I much prefer wireless.
So I was a tad pissed off to find my new cheaper internet provider, gives me a very different and more limited cable box, which.....has no wifi
I don't mind the limited cable, I rarely watch much dutch tv so the recording unit wasn't much use to me..and costing me 52euros a month for the all in one package, instead of 33 for this. But that was a cable based system so it came in and hooked into the home wiring, so easy enough to plug a box into a tv socket.
But the 2 new TV boxes need to be plugged into the DSL Modem, with good old fashioned wires
grrr
There is a wireless booster with the pack too, which took ages to get set up, only for it to not provide enough of a bandwidth for the Bedroom tv box to function in real time..it does strangly pick up the stored (on cloud) stuff and some of the general local chanels, .... so it might be an issue of my contract not being active yet.. I'll report it when my package officially goes live in early July
I've spent the best part of the evening phaffing about with a pair of wireless senders, one is working now, and my office is once again wire free. I finally got rid of the long blue cable training downstairs to the power cupboard. I lose some of the lovely 100mb bandwidht, it drops to 20mb/s but thats fine for me.
The 2nd is in the bed room trying to drive the tv box, which as I say limited success, we will see.
A 3rd wireless router is coming tomorrow, which will then be the base unit for the TV/TVBox and Sat box, Blu/ray all of which can connect to the internet for different reasons.. I'll be wire free again soon...
Ahthankyew
I hate wires, with a passion, I hate them when playing guitar, I hate them when connecting PC's and devices around the home I much prefer wireless.
So I was a tad pissed off to find my new cheaper internet provider, gives me a very different and more limited cable box, which.....has no wifi
I don't mind the limited cable, I rarely watch much dutch tv so the recording unit wasn't much use to me..and costing me 52euros a month for the all in one package, instead of 33 for this. But that was a cable based system so it came in and hooked into the home wiring, so easy enough to plug a box into a tv socket.
But the 2 new TV boxes need to be plugged into the DSL Modem, with good old fashioned wires
grrr
There is a wireless booster with the pack too, which took ages to get set up, only for it to not provide enough of a bandwidth for the Bedroom tv box to function in real time..it does strangly pick up the stored (on cloud) stuff and some of the general local chanels, .... so it might be an issue of my contract not being active yet.. I'll report it when my package officially goes live in early July
I've spent the best part of the evening phaffing about with a pair of wireless senders, one is working now, and my office is once again wire free. I finally got rid of the long blue cable training downstairs to the power cupboard. I lose some of the lovely 100mb bandwidht, it drops to 20mb/s but thats fine for me.
The 2nd is in the bed room trying to drive the tv box, which as I say limited success, we will see.
A 3rd wireless router is coming tomorrow, which will then be the base unit for the TV/TVBox and Sat box, Blu/ray all of which can connect to the internet for different reasons.. I'll be wire free again soon...
Ahthankyew
Monday, 24 June 2019
the collecting continues
https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/
I know, I know, another one....but its a Raspberry :D and its cool and cheap.. though I couldn't wait to throw my money at the top range 4GB version.
This is amazing, might have to write another book just to fully appreciate it.
Its nice to get excited about something, though I worry at the things I get excited about.
Ahthankyew
I know, I know, another one....but its a Raspberry :D and its cool and cheap.. though I couldn't wait to throw my money at the top range 4GB version.
This is amazing, might have to write another book just to fully appreciate it.
Its nice to get excited about something, though I worry at the things I get excited about.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 8 June 2019
Maybe I took the collecting a bit too far?
I decided to lay out the contents of the drawer of shame... I have a lot of toys....
No. in all seriousness they are there for a reason, I need to be sure my book projects work on as many SBC's as possible so that someone buying the book with a particular SBC can (or can't if thats the case I can let them know) run all the projects and get a good experience rather than frustration of getting something to work that won't play nice.
58 of them here, theres a few others dotted around the house or office though, all mine except for the Nvidia Nano, top next to the pinebook, which is the schools, and I'm experimenting with its GPU.
Impressive and sad at the same time eh :D
I didn't buy ALL of them though, many were donated by the makers for review and test and I am very grateful to them for saving my wallet a little bit of damage. Even at an average of $30-50 its adds up when you buy too many of them.
Generally I love my Raspberry's they are reliable and dependable no matter what I do with them, even if not the fastest. The Odroids are beasts, the new RockPi4 is A. M. zing.. The Nano is out of this world and the Nano Pi's are generally really cool systems. Orange and Banana Pi's are a bit of a let down generally due to their shocking software, but for the most part they work..just.
The new range of Rockchip boards, Tinkerboard, Rock 64 and Nano Pi's are stunning and will be an interesting point of progression for the SBC concept.
Some of the more exotic (listen to me trying to make this sound interesting..exotic) ones like the VIM2 and Libre boards are all a bit dissapointing but can be made to work in emulation modes.
The Intel based Up!'s are by far the fastest but also among the most expensive, I only got them due to discounts on kickstarter, but even so only the base models. In practice they are not very mainstream. but certainly great to work on.
The Nvidia is very cool but needs careful coding to get the best out of it, got a 128core GPU, compered to the rest which average 4 (the Up's have 12-16) and can do incredible things when you are careful to really use the GPU.
Its all fun, the only downside is trying to work out what goes wrong with them sometimes when the software is crap and the makers have not put graphic drivers with them....fun fun fun.
Ahthankyew
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