Archive for December, 2004
Recap
Coming after the last six months of 2003, which were some of the happiest times on memory, 2004 was a train wreck of a year from the absolute second it began (and I mean, the absolute second). I ended it with a mild dose of food poisoning, and that’s still better than how it started.
It wasn’t all bad, it progressed through celebration, technology and comedy before it started to fall apart.
There was more comedy, the first seeds of Bearscript, spontaneous car journeys, trips around the country and utter contentment before things REALLY went wrong.
Things did get incredibly good again, but of course then I almost killed myself.
But just as a pattern started to develop, things evened out a bit and the second half of the year was much less turbulent. The train had crashed, it would just spend a few months sliding to a halt.
I bought a new car, Bearscript moved on some more, there was decorating, still more Bearscript, dabbling with audio blogging and of course, the second attempt at killing myself. That’s my proudest moment of the year and something I’d actually forgotten I’d done until a couple of days ago.
I briefly flirted with art, discovered The West Wing and completed my first quarter century. By October I’d mastered the long blog post before marking my first year in this flat.
As the end of the year approached, I finally snapped out of my depression, discovered comedy again, and if you look, found myself writing a lot more each month. There was, for the first time in ages, good things happening - even when they were stressful.
Which of course brings us to now.
It was back in June I decided to start writing blog posts on a daily basis. At the time I was having difficulty sleeping and thought this might help clear my head each night before I headed to bed. It worked and I’m now very pleased to have six months of solid blog posts. In fact it’s been a pleasure when writing this post to look back over them and see what I’ve done this year, so it’s a habit I plan on continuing.
Other things that will continue into 2005 are Bearscript/Bearthing, which will certainly be the focus for the first couple of months at least. Looking back over these posts I can see how far it’s come, and although it’s been a long road (the idea is 4 years old), it’s finally coming to fruition.
As for the rest of 2005, I’d hate to predict too much. I’d love to learn the unicycle properly, be able to play a tune on the piano and even finish writing my book. But who knows.
In many ways 2005 is a make or break year for a lot of things. In 12 months I might be writing a post explaining how great it all went or describing another rail accident.
Let’s hope it’s fun between now and then.
Verdict
The best mince pies this year were Mr Kipling. Just in case you were waiting for my final verdict.
Gymnasiums
When food shopping before Christmas, you can’t help but notice the ridiculous amounts of food that some people buy. Looking to either side of you at the checkout it’s not uncommon to see customers with two or three large trolleys filled to the top with seasonal fare. It wouldn’t be unfair to assume that a nuclear winter was imminent, and that these people just knew something you didn’t.
I ventured out yesterday to get a few items to keep me going until next week (forgetting half the things I needed along the way, natch) and once again, the three trolley brigade was in attendance. Now I have no way of telling if these are the same people or not, but it stands to reason that if they’re buying this much for New Year then they probably bought the same for Xmas too. Which begs the question, just how much food and drink have they consumed over the past week?
Or alternatively, just how many people are catering for gymnasiums?
Effort
I need to make some sort of effort today (after I’ve been to bed) to get back into Bearthing, after doing absolutely nothing today. After all that good work getting Bearscript up to scratch (now with a nice little custom handler system), I hit the proverbial wall of procrastination once it became time to start working on the admin system again.
I cannot begin to explain to you the hatred I have for writing admin systems. Thousands of lines of the most tedious code known to man. There’s no challenge. There’s no fun. But sadly, Bearthing pretty much IS an admin system, so there’s no getting away from it.
I just hope you bastards appreciate it once complete.
Round
One of my Christmas gifts was the Long Way Round series on DVD, with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. For those that don’t know, they rode their bikes from London to New York, but always going east. This takes them through Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada and finally the USA in a 20,000 mile trip that takes almost 4 months.
Without a doubt this is some of the best television in years, so much so that I watched the whole 7 hours (plus DVD extras) in one sitting. It’s easily up there with the best Palin has to offer, but serving it up in a much more rough and ready way than his slightly more Jules Verne approach.
Especially glad to see them spend almost the entire first episode documenting the preparation for the trip, but disappointed they didn’t show a bit more of what happened once they made it to New York and completed the journey.
Thouroughly entertaining and highly recommended.
Reaction
Today I listened to the Scissor Sisters (best album of 2004) for the first time in about four months and found it causing a strange emotional reaction.
I’ve mentioned before the memories and emotions that music can conjour up, and how something like Jellyfish or Ben Folds Five has been part of my life for so long that hearing it can remind me of things from long ago, but the Sisters are so recent that it’s odd to get this effect already.
Funny thing is, I’m unable to pinpoint exactly what event it’s reminding me of. The only sense I get is one of driving, so I’ve obviously heard it in the car (considering how long I had it in there, that’s not hard) before or after something happened. I’m just not sure what that thing is.
Whatever it is, it wasn’t particularly happy. Weird.
Fairy
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Bearthing and Bearscript are held together with sticky back plastic, safety pins and fairy dust.
But the satisfaction when all the components do exactly what they’re meant to do, even when you start introducing things you’d never originally planned to, is one of the best kinds of Christmas present.
Duct
I spent over 3 hours today wrapping presents. THREE HOURS.
I actually had to split it into two sessions because as I continued through the first lot it was becoming pretty clear that I’d given up any attempt to make things look nice. Instead I was just surrounding each one with whatever misshapen lump of paper I could get away with, not even stopping when it was quite clear parts of the gift were showing through the holes.
Those that were presented with their gifts then unwrapped them all in about 3 minutes.
So next year it’s plastic bags and duct tape.
Guess
Happy Christmas. I guess.
Eve
Out of nowhere, with not a flake falling all year, the heavens opened today and dumped a fair amount of snow. Due to the amount of rain over the past couple of days, and the fact it was still above freezing, none of it actually lay, but my car was still covered enough to make it feel worthwhile. I am something of a traditionalist, so there is something really festive about seeing snow fall outside the window, and even more so when it waits until Christmas Eve to do so.
And speaking of Christmas, which seems like a pretty obvious thing to do, my presents still aren’t wrapped. I’m just so tired that I just can’t bring myself to do it. So guess what I’m going to be doing tomorrow morning.
Outlasting
Despite the build up over the past couple of weeks, it does seem a bit surprising that Christmas Eve is tomorrow. I know it sounds stupid to say it’s snuck up on me, but that’s honestly what it feels like. Probably something to do with the preparation always outlasting the event itself, so it all seems to fly by so quick when the occassion finally comes.
Circle
UPS again showed all other shipping companies how it’s done. Despite being shipped from Hong Kong in the early hours of Monday morning, my PSP managed to arrive this morning.
The screen is probably the most impressive display I’ve ever seen on any kind of handheld electronic item, gaming or otherwise. Clear and bright, visible from all angles, it’s something you really have to see in the flesh to appreciate properly. The way it dominates the front face of the unit was a surprise, despite how many photographs I’d seen of it.
Unlike the DS, it does feel quite delicate, making dropping it a potentially heart-stopping moment. The weight is almost identical to that of Nintendo’s baby, and the straightforward button layout makes the unit comfortable to hold. Ridge Racers, the only game I’ve got, is a surprising amount of fun. The Japanese text occassionally leaves me flummoxed, but I find that if you just keep hitting circle you get to where you want to be.
I’m going to write something a lot more detailed once I’ve had time to play with it more and gather my thoughts, but first impressions are good, even if it does just feel like playing a PS2 five years ago.
Formidable
Finished. Completed. It’s done, it’s over, no more. My festive shopping has come to an end. I ended the process with my first visit to some real shops and bought items which are hard to aquire online.
As an extra bonus, most of the gift issues I mentioned previously also resolved themselves today. I’m not completely in the clear, but I’m sure it’ll work out.
All that’s left is the formidable task of wrapping everything.
Replenished
There was about six days last week when I didn’t have any medication, and ever since my supply was replenished I’ve had the energy of a newly born kitten. It’s like my body needs a week or so to get used to them again, which is strange considering how short a time I went without. Right now all I want to do is sleep, which is handy given I was off work again today.
On waking I was greeted by an email from Lik-Sang to say that my PSP would ship today. I had emailed them on Friday to ask if I’d missed my chance after my credit card adventures the day before. I guess not. I wonder if it’ll arrive before Christmas.
I spent a good majority of the afternoon cleaning, but due to the kitten stamina I only managed to complete the bathroom, some of the kitchen and the hoovering before deciding that was enough. I’ll finish it later in the week. I don’t know why I feel the need to clean the whole place from top to toe, something about it coming up to a new year I guess. The bathroom is sparkly fresh though, I like that, even if I hate the cleaning part.
The rest of the day was spent on Bearthing. With the telecoms project as far as it can go without getting some questions answered I turned my attention back to getting components working. There’s a workable system for standalone scripts now, which is as fast as it’s going to get. There’s also a system for including them on .bhtml pages, even when they output HTTP headers. But how I get it all to work as components I’m just not sure, manipulating Apache to do what I need is already enough of an adventure without complicating it even more. There are plenty of options, but doing them with as little overhead as possible is my goal. I don’t want Chatbear to fall over just because it’s written in Bearscript rather than Perl.
Summer
Don’t you just hate it when you buy Robinson’s Summer Fruits Fruit Squash instead of Robinson’s Summer Fruits Fruit and Barley?
Or is it just me?
Also
I would like to vote “I’ve Never Been to Me” by Charlene to have some of the worst lyrics I’ve heard in a while.
I would also like to vote Mark’s recommendation of The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike as a good one. Especially the track "Bottle Rocket". Grab it from the iTunes music store today.
I’d finally like to give a shout out to kwenchy cups, which Mark also reminded me of. If anything can make me use the phrase "give a shout out to" then it has to be good.
Resisting
Things seemed to be going so well today, more Christmas presents turned up, leaving me with only two to arrive before everything is done. But then it all just started to fall apart. I can’t say too much because the people the gifts are for will be reading, but at this rate, they won’t be getting anything until next Christmas.
Still resisting the urge to get a PSP. Pages like this one help a lot.
Saved
Parcel Force were nice enough to let me get my package today. Bastards.
Lik-Sang have shipped me out the US version of Mario, so I looked last night to see if there was a tracking number to let me see where it was. While I was there I saw that they had 200 PSP’s for sale, and that they would be available on a first-come, first-served basis at 4pm Hong Kong time today (8am UK time).
Now I wasn’t planning on buying a PSP, I find the selection of games pretty lacklustre and the price quite high, but as a piece of technology, it just pushes all my right buttons. I’m falling into exactly the trap Sony are hoping people fall into, that they’ll buy the PSP purely from a technical standpoint, because next to the DS it looks so much more advanced (even if it doesn’t move the industry in any new directions).
So at 8am this morning I went online, thinking I would never be able to get one before they all sold out. But, through luck, the fact it wasn’t publicised too much, and knowing exactly how to get through the checkout process quickly, I did.
Three hours later though I got an email to say my credit card had been rejected, and despite two other attempts to pay for it, I cancelled the order after deciding that I should stick with my original instinct and not buy one. Especially after seeing that my bank account was completely overdrawn, having spent so much on Xmas presents.
The credit card problem was just Barclaycard being extra cautious because I haven’t used the card in a while and all of a sudden there was a transaction from Hong Kong, so that was easily fixed with a phone call to them tonight. And of course now all the PSP’s are sold out again.
But I can’t decide whether Barclaycard just did me a favour by saving me from myself, or screwed up my opportunity to get the coolest hardware on the block. No matter, time to get one more star in Mario before the US version turns up and I have to start over again in English.
Retardation
I ordered something which is coming from the states via USPS. Yesterday I got an email from their package tracking system to say that delivery had been attempted at 8:26am, despite there being no indication that they’d been anywhere near the office. A little further investigation told me that the package had been transferred to Parcel Force once it entered the UK, but their website said that I’d have to wait 24 hours before I could go pick it up from the depot.
I looked at the tracking system this morning which now said that there was a customs charge to be paid. This is perfectly expected, and it’ll only be about £20 (plus whatever handling fee they tack on themselves). So at lunchtime, tracking number in hand, I drove up to Bellshill to collect it.
I was informed on my arrival that I would be unable to get it because I didn’t have a letter from them. A letter which would just tell me what I already knew, that they had a package for me, and that there was a customs charge to pay.
The complete retardation of this situation is something to behold. I can’t get the package I know they have because they haven’t told me they’ve got it? HUH?!? The website already gave me all the information I need to know, so why can’t I just pay the money and be on my way?
God forbid the package be important business documents or parts, for apparently the customer isn’t entitled to have what belongs to them. Not without the relative paperwork anyway. And with the Xmas post delays, who knows when the letter might turn up.
This is why I prefer getting things from UPS. They deliver.
Torture
Victory is mine, victory is mine, great day in the morning people, victory is mine. Donna, bring me the finest muffins and bagels in the land.
I have finally crossed the telecoms reports off my todo list. In fact, I scribbled it off. With a real pen. For about 2 minutes.
I feel I’ve earned it. Five days of programming torture.
