Solved!

Whilst we are on the sensitive topics I would like to announce that I have solved one of the age old mysteries...

"Why do Men leave the toilet seat up?"

Women assume that this is pure laziness.  Actually it is very good manner!

Men are generally a bit less dignified on the loo than our female counterparts, which means things can get messy, especially after some macho-curry-eating session!  There is nothing more terrifying than walking into a gents public loo and opening the cubicle and finding the toilet lid down!  Who knows what mess has been left behind my an underpowered flush?  To find out you are going to have to get really close to lift the lid!  Which is surely unhygienic in its own right?

However if the seat had been left up we would see at a glance whether it was safe to approach or not - pure courtesy!

Sensitive Topics...

This could get messy so don't read on if you are slightly squeamish!

I am bemused about the design of some pharmaceutical products.

I was a bit under the weather last weekend which resulted in me being constipated.  I eventually had a "break through" but it left my bum more than a bit sore.

Being a man I worked through the pain (so to speak) but it hasn't gone away and I finally resigned myself to going to Boots for some sort of remedy.

I found an ointment and a spray, and also being a man decided to buy both "just in case".

Now the ointment I can figure out for myself.  You put some on your finger and then stick your finger where it hurts.  So why include an optional long nozzle?  I am not likely to stick the tube up my bum just to get the cream to the area that is sore - that would seem like a path leading to "over-dispensing".

Now we turn to the spray.  Here I was expecting something that allowed fine control, but no - what you get is a small pump-action bottle akin to an old fashioned breath freshener.  How does that help me.  I would need a mirror and a third hand just to get close to spraying in the right direction!  A better design would be surely something like a Sinex nose spray.  Then at least you are fairly confident that your are spraying in the right direction!

Sigh!

Anticipation

First part of the Steven Moffat Dr Who double header is coming up on Saturday...

The BBC are pushing it hard and I am deliberately changing channels to not watch the trailer!

I hope he stays true to form...  This series has been OK so far, but could do with a real humdinger!

Numpty

I was in a rush to get home on Friday and left my car's sunroof open (on tilt).

I discovered this on Monday!  After 2 days of torrential rain!

Any suggestions how to dry out a driver's and passenger's seat?  I am commuting using a towel to keep myself dry!!!!

Back behind the sofa

I am saddened that Russell T Davies has decided to step down from helming Doctor Who for Season 5.  He has done a sterling job and he will be missed.

However replacing him will be Steven Moffat writer of Coupling, The Empty Child, The Girl in the Fireplace and the BAFTA winning Blink.  Clearly there is a God!  If I could have picked one person to take over it would have been Steve!

The votes have been counted...

So T-Mobile made me an offer for 2 new Blackberries and were prepared to throw in a PS3 and a Wii.

I phoned up Orange to get my PAC codes and they made me a counter offer...

No fancy freebies but similar minutes, texts, email and data to T-Mobile at about 2/3 of the monthly price; the WiFi versions of the phones instead of the GPS versions, and across the two contracts, £180 of cash-back.

When you compare the two contracts over 18 months, the Orange one comes out £630 cheaper but doesn't give you the two consoles.  The two consoles have a street price of under £500 so this is a no-brainer for me and Serena.  We stay with Orange and buy the Wii soon and the PS3 a bit later.

Oh and we have to wait until 22 May for the new phones as that is when our current contract ends.  Big deal!

Bright Idea?

I really want both a PS3 and a Nintendo Wii.

Now clearly at the moment I don't have hundreds of pounds to throw around and so this is pretty much a pipe dream.

Then I had a dawning realisation...

May 2008 is Mobile Phone Contract renewal time for both Serena and I.  I am no longer precious about changing my number (although Serena might be), so I reckon I will go for a good deal and worry about the number afterwards.

I had intended to go direct to Orange like always, but looking around I can get a better deal from the likes of The Link or Carphone Warehouse AND I can choose a free PS3 or Wii.  Since I have 2 phone contracts to upgrade I reckon that means I could get both!

I need to check the fine print, but I see the start of a beautiful friendship coming!  (Although I may not get the phone I really want - Blackberry - with the deal).

Cry God for Harry, England and St. George!

Happy Birthday Will!

I didn't know that St George only formally became England's patron saint after we won the Battle of Agincourt!

Happy Deathday Will!

I also never knew that the day on which we celebrate Will Shakespeare's birthday is actually a mistake by an 18th century historian.  He mixed it up with his date of death, as Shakespeare's birthday is not recorded!

Good Customer Service

The new Media Centre PC currently has an old Heat Sink on the CPU as the silent one I bought broke when I tried to install it.

Serena emailed Zalman direct on Sunday morning about the broken clip and one arrive in the post yesterday morning, no questions asked.

Now that is good customer service in my books!

More PCs!

Well the replacement parts for my dead PC finally came on Saturday.
After much annoyance I have finally got the system up and running in a Media Centre style case, which will be desk bound until we can afford a decent 2nd PC, allowing this one to move under the telly.
The end count for my damage of the other week was:
Processor - DEAD
Motherboard - DEAD
1 of 2 RAM modules - DEAD
Wireless LAN Card - Seems DEAD
Soundblaster Audigy 2 Card - Also Seems DEAD
Hard Disks - Survived
Important Data - 100% Recovered
PSU - Survived (but obsolete)

So all in all I well and truly stuffed it! Ho Hum!

This does mean that we now have 4 PCs up and running again! Since I only have space for 2 monitors and a laptop, I have two machines driving off the dual inputs on one of the monitors... I just wish you didn't have to go through 3 menus to switch between inputs!

Results

Lauren's horse placed 3rd and Serena's came in 4th which meant that for the £120 bet I got back £87.50.
I am well gutted as my horse was looking good until it fell about 4 fences from home.
Jocey's horse finished 12th and neither of my two longshots made it beyond the fifth fence!
Still I am up if you count back over recent years! All good fun!

All Ready for the Off!

The choices are:

Serena:

#12 Slim Pickings @ 11/1

Jason:

#11 Butler's Cabin @ 14/1

Lauren:

#16 Snowy Morning @ 16/1

Jocey:

#29 Cornish Sett @ 80:1

Jason's Outsiders:

#10 Fundamentalist @ 66/1
#31 Tumbling Dice @ 125/1 

I couldn't choose between the two outsiders so my bet becomes £120 down.

Grand National Day

Those that know me well will know that I always like to have a flutter on the Grand National.  Due to my addictive personality I generally won't bet at other times as I don't want to get myself into a mess, but once a year I allow myself a bit of fun!

I can't say that I have a particular formula or method, other than picking some horses based on their colours, some based on their name and usually one based on my reading of the form.

Past experience has shown that I usually do better with the former two methods rather than the latter!

This year I'll pick one horse for each of my girls (although I may let Serena and Lauren choose their own) and a then two others one based on form and one with odds or 50-1 or more.

I always bet each way so you get more chance of getting your money back if one horse places.  e.g.  A £10 each way bet (costs £20).  If the odds are 50-1 then you can get three possible outcomes:

Horse Wins = £10 x 50 + £10 x 50/4 + £20 = £645. (£10 at full odds, £10 at quarter odds and return of full stake)

Horse comes 2nd, 3rd or 4th = £10 x 50/4 + £10 = £135. (£10 at quarter odds and return of half stake)

Horse does not come in top 4 = £0. (Nothing)

 

Once the bets are laid I'll write them up here.

My form in the past two years is:

2006 - Bet £100, Won £220

2007 - Bet £100, Won £432.50

A-bloody-Choo!

So much for Sea Air!

I had a bit of a cold when I left on Monday morning.

I am now suffering from serious Laryngitis and a raging fever!

I think I'll stay in bed for a day!

Off to the Seaside again...

Once again I am off to the seaside for some training.

This time it is Brighton and I am only there for 2 days and the training course is titled "The Meaning of Life"!  I expect them to teach me to suck eggs (compulsory course), but it is two days away from my "real job"!

I am spending one night at The Grand, which some of you may remember from a certain incident in 1984.

Hopefully there is no-one controversial staying tomorrow night!

Crysis Screenshots

It's Alive!

I can't claim that it worked first time, but after a Bios update, Windows finally recognised the fact that my motherboard had onboard sound and installed drivers for it.

I have installed all the essentials and even managed to install EQ2 and Crysis (the true essentials!).

EQ2 looks a bit better (it's an old game that can only be taken so far) but Crysis is playable (as opposed to a laggy slideshow) and looks gorgeous.

I'll try and work out some screenies.

 

Oh and the biggest success...

My new slipstreamed install disk for Windows XP.

My install disk is pre-SP1 and needs SATA drivers to be installed from a floppy drive (which the new PC doesn't have).

Using nLite, Nero and a lot of help from Paul Thurrott's excellent website, I made a Windows XP SP2 disk, which included the SATA drivers.  Next time I'll try and incorporate all the MoBo drivers and make it unattended as well.

Nervous

Serena's birthday present came today...

It's a new PC to replace her Athlon XP 2800, which we have had for nearly 6 years!

I always feel nervous when building and installing a new machine, and am hoping that the technology gods have been appeased by the offering of my older machine as a sacrifice!

Rather than build one we bought direct from CyberPower as their systems get excellent reviews and we cannot beat them on price either!

Anyway, as I write this the system is currently installing Windoze!

Fingers crossed.

And the winner is...

My little repair shop man has tested everything that he can and has given me a two possibilities....

Either I have killed the processor - 80%

Or I have done something really odd to the Motherboard - 10%

Or Both - 10%

This means that my hopes that I had just blown the PSU are of no avail.

A replacement processor is about £25 on EBay, and the motherboard would make it a write-off and I don't think second hand ones are worth the hassle.

Budget will not allow me to spend £800-900 on a new system so I have to try the EBay route first.

It Tickled Serena...

OK, this one needs a bit of placement for my wider audience...

This is a fan-vid from EverQuest2 and relates to a special quest reward called Brell's Keg which summons beer.  This quest is only available during the week around St Patrick's Day and Serena and I did it at the weekend.