Day: November 14, 2007

  • Lack of being in the mood

    So, todays been one of those days when I’ve just not really felt in the mood. I gave in and replaced the electric radiator in the lounge; the panel one I’d borrowed from my brother in law. It’s been leaking oil gradually and I got fed up of that – and suspected that it’s efficiency was somewhat lowered by the leaking oil. Unfortunately while I was exploring the oil filled radiators (why exactly is it that the come the winter all of the stores heater ranges disappear) Brick decided to leak coolant all over the car park. Having checked it looks like one of the clips was loose, but the pipe it’s connecting looks pretty past it; so I may add that in to my incredibly huge set of jobs for the garage…

    So far we’ve got:

    – Replace Servo

    – Service and tighten head bolts (if necessary)

    – Change rear brake shoes

    – Fix passenger side window winder and door locks (rear one doesn’t work, front one only locks with the key, window winder ceased to descend).

    – Try and see why the heater does absolutely nothing whatsoever.

    I need to order the bits for the service; but it’s being one of those months where I started off doing quite well, and I’m ending the month wondering where in hell the money’s going. Mostly on the house or the car, or petrol, to be brutally honest.

    Unfortunately the Viva parts place is closed today, so I can’t book the car in because I don’t know when the bits will arrive. And for some reason I’m bloody cold again. See, I’m really just not in the mood. I feel tired and cranky; and generally slightly out of sorts with the world. I’m not even sure why; I had a really *really* good evening last night – I suspect it’s just the prospect of 6 days where I’ll barely get to see Kathryn, and 6 night shifts in the cold.

     

  • late night ponderance

    See, nights. I always try and swing my body round to night shifts by staying up insanely late the night before; thus allowing me to sleep late into the day before my night shift. That’s the *idea* anyhow. Which means staying up late at night, which means pondering and thoughts and kind of wondering about things.

    So, I’ve got various things lurking in my brain; the Viva project (which I’ll unveil at some point when Zesthost have sorted out the problems with billing which may be internet explorers, my, or their fault (I don’t know how it happened….)) lurks in my mind distracting me during the day; the house – obviously – continues to be cold and I keep thinking about the bills (including the TV licence :-/ ), and trying to work out whether it’s better to fork out 80 quid on a tool that we need, or leave it and rent it (at 40+ quid a day); and funnily enough I’ve got a strong desire to make a Super 8 film again.

    A couple of days ago I finally showed my cine films to Kathryn and it’s left me with a strong urge to get the camera out again. I’ve been missing the video camera – having played with John’s camera my little Aiptek which shoots at less than half tv resolution it just feels – well – exactly what it is, a cheap point and shoot which does video. But cine film has a certain quality to it; not so much a timelessness as a feeling of being fixed in time. Having hunted e-bay I can see a variety of options; well, two really. The Ektachrome colour film (I need to check any of my cameras will take this), or a black and white film.

    Either way, I have a distinct urge to get the camera out; only I’m not quite sure what to film. Anyone got a script that can be shot in 5 minutes (or so)?

    Anyway, the plan for tonight, such as it is – having watched Long Way Down (which I was seriously beginning to struggle with watching until about 2/3rds of the way into this episode when suddenly it became much more about the journey and the people than just an endless struggle to get the miles in), is to go and sort out the Mac. The only problem with that is that it’s in a room that’s cold. Cold and upstairs. So, thought for the moment is that when I’ve done this I’ll make myself a little cup of tea, grab my nipod, my copy of Accident and Emergency Nursing and head upstairs – taking with me a fan heater (well, I’ll use the bathroom / workshop heater). It’s a shame, ‘cos the gas fire’s just made the lounge nicely habitable. But hey.

    I need to get the Mac up and running really, because I’m fed up of using IE on the laptop – but I daren’t reinstall the laptop until I’ve got one other machine working. I’m slightly concerned about the Mac also because when I switch to the BeBox, as I intend to, I’ll have to pick up a wireless card for the Mac… and so far the ‘it works perfectly’ squad of Hackintosh people have produced for me a machine which has never worked the way they said. I’ve still no sound… and the latest Hackintosh software’s only succeeded in giving me more problems (that had no sound or networking). I don’t have the skills / interest / time /energy to care enough or to fix it; so it’s back on an earlier revision which just left me with no sound. Something I can deal with thanks to the nipod, and the existence of the laptop. But it’s not something I have any urge to live with permanently. Thankfully, my life behind the technology curve just got much better, with the addition of a G5 Mac. Only teeny little problem – it’s a dead G5 mac. So if anyone’s got a spare G5 power supply kicking round it’d sure come in handy right about… now.

    Anyway, I should get on :)