Category: General

So, today being a day set aside for such a purpose, we set out in search of Jeans and Pyrex (well, cookware). The cunning plan was this; it just having been Christmas, many people would clear out their old clothes and kitchen stuff and we would benefit mightily from the spoils of Xmas.

Well.

It didn’t quite work. We did find Jeans and teeshirts (currently experiencing the manifold joys of a Chinese washer/drier), unfortunately I also found a ‘half price’ set of 7″ singles with a stack from the 60s and 70s. We also found a Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s album, a few board games, a copy of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (in great condition – creating my new challenge*) and a copy of Native Tongue.

God damn it, we were meant to just get Jeans and Pyrex. And maybe a few teeshirts. No one seems to be getting rid of Pyrex (or other cookware) though. And nor did I spot any Icecream makers lurking. Damn.

Still, I think, despite the desperate lack of space in the house, we can class it as a success.

* To acquire all the Harry Potter books in children’s UK hardback editions (not the ‘adult’ ones), in reasonable condition, from second hand shops. Today was ‘goblet of fire’ in paperback day, and half blood prince in hardback day. My copy of Half Blood Prince was the best I saw today, but was 50p more than the cheapest copy (which had lost it’s dust cover. I want the dust covers too). Not that I need a book acquiring mission!

So, yeah, apologies to those who hate my writing. If it’s any help I’m not very convinced of my abilities on that front, but it’s fun having a play. Anyway, the new washing machine is finally here and our kitchen is slowly starting to smell less of cheap Chinese electronics.

Cheap Chinese electronics have a very distinctive chemically smell; one which pitches at me from the 90’s when I started having modern electronics (most notably, my 17″ monitor, back when 17″ CRT monitors were impressive*). I’ve never before had a self-assembly washing machine – having taken it from the box, attached some sound deadening, removed and replaced various panels it was brought into service, and has proceeded to attempt to walk across the kitchen several times.

The last attempt prompted me to obtain a laceration to my finger as, in between loads I attempted to readjust the feet. I discovered that one of the panels is ‘really very sharp’. However, for all my whining and complaning about it’s cheapness (or the fact my finger is throbbing away), it actually appears to work very well. It’s produced sheets that are actually dry, something the hotpoint never could do. The clothes are coming out clean (and frankly less wrinkled). So, really, it’s doing it’s thing.

The MZ has returned from the bike-shop, the carb having been serviced, the tank cleaned, the fuel filter replaced, the wiring modified further (apparently we had a 2.3Amp drain going ‘somewhere’. He’s fixed this with a ‘switch’ which I switch on when the bike’s running, switching the charging circuit in only when it’s running).

The carpenter was due to come quote, but is now coming in a little over a weeks time, and BT have promised to come fix the broken line. With the planned carpenter’s visit we’d moved the bookcase, allowing access to the master socket – this proved that our line still sounds like shit when connected directly to the master socket with, or without our ADSL filter. Checking the line made it flag up a little diagram which said ‘look, the automated tester things the fault is in the box at the end of your street which, incidentally, has no cover on it and is full of snow’. They say that Monday is the day for fixation.

We have, however, not done much to the house because all the work clothes are waiting to go through the laundry, which is going to take days to clear. The pile was potentially as big as us (only the fact that my uniforms were in the dead washer/drier meant that it wasn’t actually that tall. That and stability issues) and is only slowly going down. 6kg at a time.

* A beast with which I could heat my room, it having a more impressive heat-haze than my 1970’s TV set. I actually did heat my room at university, at some points, by turning on the monitor. It was cheaper than any of the brand ones, and cooked itself over the next 5 years.

So, I finally got bored of the poor battery life on the wireless keyboard, popped to Maplin a few days ago and invested in some bits, and now:

It’s actually a test run – if it works I’ll do a less cludgy repair* – it appears to work, but we’ll see what the battery life is like. Actually the biggest change to improve battery life is forcing it to be off instead of standby. Energy saving FTW :)

In other news… it’s snowing again! Woo!

This is awesome, except that it means I can’t easily fix the DAF’s exhaust (to get it ready to be sold off) and more importantly the Washer Drier which should be here today? It’s not. Pah.

Decisions made: I promise not to buy a new entertainment machine, or a new camera before we get to Canada (assuming schedule does not slip dramatically). 1: Electronics is cheaper there. 2: What I can afford will remain the same in terms of price, but technology will improve. 3: Less stuff to transfer, even if it’s small things.

The exception to this is if my Canon AE-1 expires, or if my EntMac dies properly, then I shall reconsider the options.

* Although my rate of getting-around-to-such-things is pretty poor, so we can probably expect the blu-tac mod to be there a while**.
** And yes, I could have bought a nice slider switch, but it’s a toggle, and I think we can all agree that toggles are awesome.

Spoilers, lots of, because while I gave part one the benefit of the doubt, Part 2 was bloody awful.
(more…)

Talking to my sister she said that I rang during the beginning of Dr Who (we iPlayer everything thanks to the failure of me to connect the arial) – and she said: “I did wonder what you were thinking. It’s Doctor Who“!

Ah, the Doctor :)

So I’ve finally decided (having just rewashed the same floor tile for the fourth time) that it’s time to link my WordPress Journal from my oh so vanity domain to the LJ Journal. Save me doing everything twice.

Let’s see if it works.

Kill time until about midday (with breaks to rewash the floor / coat floor if it’s dry), eat lunch, head to: Post orifice, Maplin, Doctors, My Doctors, Potentially plumbing place.

Oops: Kathryn’s mom gave me an Amazon voucher for Xmas. I bought, uh, 6 books (yay for second hand). Forgot that I’d ordered a book before Xmas (Chimera, Will Shetterly), and, uh, another book to go with it (Midnight Girl, Will Shetterly)….

Arse.

8 Books.

We need more shelves. Again.

Am trying to locate will power to fix MZ. Am also wondering what happened to “we’ll ring you in the morning” from the dry cleaners*

* Eddie slept on the lounge rug (our decision) and we think there was a drooling incident. It needed cleaning anyway, so we’re not bothered. But the local dry-cleaners weren’t really sure how much it’d cost until they saw it and promised to ring today.

So, having spent all of yesterday working through different OS X installs for the Hackintosh:

10.4.10 – Works, but needs nVidia drivers
10.5.1 – Installs almost completely, then crashes, then kernel panics on reboot
10.5.6 iPC – Crashes before installer
10.5.6 iDeneb – Crashes before installer

I decided to try a different tack and went hunting for old versions of iTunes which are actually on Apple’s site*. Having removed the new version of iTunes, and dumped 8.0 back on there; and also removed the dead DVD-+-RW the machine is now happy again**. I’ve also disconnected one of the case fans, since it appeared to be overkill, extracted some of the layer of dust from the processor fan, and grumbed that perhaps the Sempron/Abit NV8 – both of which are 6 years old – are starting to be a bit limiting. I, for reasons that escape me, thought it was an Athlon 64 in there. It’s not, it’s a Sempron 2800+.

Still, I can’t afford to replace it at the moment – and even if I could, I’m not sure if I want to just before going to Canada – am largely of the opinion that I’d be better off packaging the HDDs properly, and heading off to Canada with just the disk :)

Anyhow, I need to take a wander into town to collect some bits and bobs, and perhaps take a look at the ‘zed, and also seal some floor tiles :)

* Apologies to Apple.
** For values of ‘happy’ related to being a 6 year old hackintosh being forced into use most days.

So tonight I’m having trouble sleeping. I actually almost made it to sleep; moved, and suddenly my nose started to bother me. Then my brain woke up and that’s been the problem ever since.

For some reason I had managed to put the multipart list of many things that need doing out of my head while I was on holiday, but with the restarting of the rest of the world, all the things that need doing are frolicking around my head like gamboling lambs, keeping me from sleeping*.

And my nose is still itchy.

I also have been suffering the Trial of Hackintosh. See, while I long ago accepted that I’ve become an AppleDrone, and that I have little hope of ever escaping from a desire for Apple’s equipment, my aged OS X running Hackintosh; the thing which got me into this cursed place in the first place; has become unwell. It required a new DVD-Writer. Fine. Not a problem. Considered options. Bought. Ready to replace… except. Except in a moment of foolish desire (wanting the iTunes on the entertainment machine to directly sync with my iPhone) I decided to to finally upgrade iTunes. Here I must berate Apple. It doesn’t appear to do any kind of check to say ‘can I run on this system’. Presumably this is because it assumes that you’ll go round installing their updates. Unfortunately, 10.4.9, which is what is on there won’t run the current version of iTunes.

Of course I discovered this by installing iTunes and finding it won’t run. Interestingly, it doesn’t give any error messages, it just singularly fails to load. And now I can’t find an older version to install. Thanks Apple (and I know I deserve no support for having a Hackintosh, but I did buy a shiny shiny laptop from you too, and I sport an iPhone).

Anyhow, this has lead to a flurry of poking with sticks, and the new year beginning as so many years of my life, with a computer scattered in bits across the (in this case, the lounge) floor. I’ve managed to find a 10.4.10 install that will sort-of-work, unfortunately the nVidia card in the machine isn’t very happy with the 10.4.10 install. More work is, unfortunately needed.

Anyhow, I think it’s time for me to try sleeping once again.

Incidentally, anyone know why Kathryn’s laptop keeps beeping? I’ve run disk-checky software on it which says that the one year old hard disk in it is, potentially, failing very slightly in an obscure very minor way. But having run a really extremely thorough scan of the disk it doesn’t actually seem to generate any faults, so I’m not sure when it’s generating this fault; nor can I tell if that really is the cause of the beeping as it doesn’t appear to generate any obvious error messages.

* Including, but not exclusively: Have I made the right decision on the washing machine, the DAF and it’s hopefully impending sale, the MZ and why it’s decided to stop, the Civil Claim I want to start against the people who ruined my Morris Minor, the Civil Claim I’m waiting to have against me from John Lilly of Dragon Electric Vehicles, the potential new job, my 52 week programme which I’ve not finished, Canada**.
** Not *all* of Canada. I’m obviously not really concerned about Canada in general, just about moving there and all of the complexity entailed in that.

Well, dream car is a bit of a weird statement. I don’t generally dream about owning cars. I’ve got a favourite car, that’s my beloved Morris Minor. For long, complex, emotionally messy reasons I’m deeply attached to that car in a way which is potentially quite unhealthy. Certainly for my bank account.

I also have what is kind of a fleet of mostly slightly obscure vehicles I’d like to rescue and restore – and these days convert to electric. That’s the list that Kathryn (being the sweet wife she is) created for me*, in felt, as a Christmas present. The likelyhood of me buying or owning that fleet is pretty slim.

It consists of Moskvich 401, Tatra T603, Trabant 601, Landrover, Vincent HRD Black Shadow. I’ve also become quite attached to CVT Vehicles, and would quite like to build a CVT Electric, probably from a Moskvich or a Trabant. The Landy is entirely silly unless we live somewhere remote and can run it on biofuel (maybe reprocessed veg oil).

The HRD is probably the only vehicle classic enthusiasts would consider a true classic, and is the only wholly impractical vehicle that I’d like – well, technically the Tatra’s pretty impractial, and totally insane, and environmentally hideous, but it is, at least, interesting. Unlike all those Hummers out there.

Would I buy a new car? I’d’ve bought an EV-1; and may consider a new EV at some point. A new fossil fuel car? No, no thanks.

I’m bitterly disappointed that the governments of many countries have ignored the actual evidence (as per usual) and scrapped thousands of roadworthy vehicles to save a dying industry. We could, instead, have had a nice attempt at a green economy, but instead opted to save the pitiful businesses we had already, none of whom care about the planet.

* It’s a gift in Process.