Blog

Managed to spend some time in our garden yesterday. I am trying to tidy it up, and am finally attacking a large mound of cuttings, junk and general crap that was piled at the back kindly by the previous residents. I’ve got through three bags this weekend, and not the first go I have had at it. I have got down far enough to find the frame of a small childs bike.

Still, it is starting to make a difference, if not quite being approaching nice. I should start photographing it, if for no other reason that to shame myself into keeping going with it. What I want ideally, is to get rid of the junk, both at that end, and in the gap between the patio and the house.
Get the back bit grassed over, as there is not a lot you can do with it. Tidy up the lawn, plant out the border with lots of flowers, and then sort out my herb garden so it has, well, more herbs in it. In fairness to myself, I have cut back and cleaned up a fair bit thus far. I have managed some time in the garden most weekends since Christmas, which is far over and above a personal best for me. I don’t think I want to get into gardening, I just want it sorted and nice, and also to get it to a point where it is easier to maintain.

Have been thinking, I reckon I will try and write a detailed review of the DS when I get it, keeps me busy. So what do I expect, what am I waiting to see? Well, firstly I want to see how the two screens work together, can you focus on both, or is the second a distraction? How well does the touch screen work, what does it add to the control? I like touch screens a lot, I have done a bit of work on a Smartboard at work. It is basically an electronic blackboard, you project the image from a computer onto it, and you can then write over the image, and also control the computer via touch. It was quite freaky the first time I physically dragged files into a folder with my finger but it actually made a lot of sense, far more natural than using a mouse. Surfing the internet was cool too, you move around pages far faster. So as I say, I am very intrigued to see how this translates into gaming.

I am also interested to see if the wireless works. I might not get very far, as I don’t think there are any wireless
games yet (in so far as could I connect to my wireless router, rather than another DS). And finally for the moment, I want to see what GBA games look like on it. That is one of my main reasons for getting it for starters, having something nicer to play some of my favourite games on. Obviously I am looking forwards to new games, but I do have some great GBA games I wish to continue playing.

You know when you reach one of those balanced points in life? My main aim this evening, apart from chilling with S is to pay off half of my second big mortgage on Animal Crossing. I think the blog is about as good as I want it to be.

I suspect I need a new geek project too. Mind you, I was going to copy all my videos onto DVD. Hmmm. And rip all my CDs. But these are not such enticing jobs.

Went to fopp in Reading at the weekend, and got 3 kraftwerk albums, and two mix albums by A Guy called Gerald and Les
Rythymes Digitales respectively. For £21. I love fopp.

I was going to do the downloads thing wasn’t I? maybe I’ll start on that.

Might have an opportunity to get a Nintendo DS early. Need to make a phone call tomorrow, to find out if I still can. Would like that a lot. Looking forwards to that whenever I get it though.

Also, Gran Tourismo 4 is out March 9th. Might not get it day of release, but I won’t wait too long. Lots of gameplay in that I suspect.

Have been mainly writing sql and documents the past few days, could do with actually coding something for a bit. Have to do a fair bit of Access stuff which I would rather not over the next few months too. Ah well, its all experience innit. just would rather be writing new stuff that excites me. Do have such things to do as well, which is something.

Sorting out your finances and accounts is a right pain. If I ever get rich, I am so getting accountants to sort it all for me. Its not that I don’t know what I am doing, I just would rather not be doing.

At least its mostly out of the way for another month. I’m up late and appear to be watching Australian touring cars. That suggests even to me it is time for bed.

Head is spinning, have just been doing some sql where the task was to query across three tables unioned together, and then link this in different ways 4 times.

Thus a twelve table query. It looks like shit, runs like shit, but it is probably the best way to get what I am after in this instance. But my brain hurts.
A lot

was ill yesterday, bit out of it with a sore throat and a heavy head. Need a chilled time for a little bit. Have been paid, am in the process of
doing the card and pressie buying that this time of year means to our family. Its virtually a mini-christmas all told. Still, that includes me too, so I can’t complain.

Might write a firefox search extension tonight for tvcream. Shouldn’t take very long. Then I can have a whole catalogue of (two) things I have written. Woo the excitement.

The other thing I intend to do is write some how-to guides for doing things like that. I love it when
I find a nice simple guide to a task online, so where I have figured out how to do something simple, it
makes sense to give a bit back. The search extensions are screamingly easy

Hopefully will have been paid by tomorrow. Was paid in the middle of last month, so have had to stretch
my money out a bit. Won’t last of course. Never does.

Current TV I am watching included Shameless, which is brilliant, and I can’t believe I avoided the
first series now, and Desperate Housewives, which is just good dross.