Garden Progress

I finally got around to taking a picture of how my garden is at the moment, it needs some weeding (again). The pictures below show how it has changed since March. Still loads to do, but will get there in the end.

(Above) 23/09/06

(Above) 21/08/06

(Above) 14/06/06

(Above) 29/05/06

(Above) 26/03/06

Transporter 2

Transporter 2: I watched this tonight and it wasn't as good as the first one. It has plenty of action in it and for some reason the director forgot to give Amber Valleta a wardrobe, not that I should be complaining.

I read a review on the IMDB that said "Action, explosions, total disregard for physics. EXCELLENT." That sums it up perfect, at times I found myself shaking my head in disbelief but if you just look at it as a action film with loads of stunts you should enjoy it.

I gave it 6 out of 10, maybe it should of been a 7.

Roddymoor Farm Auction

Its a bit hard to see in the small picture above but in the field above the gardens, there is loads of cars parked for the auction of the animals, machinary and tractors. That was yesterday.

not much

i haven't felt like doing anything all day and was a bit hungover this
morning. i had to get up and at least be slightly alert for a
conference call i had to do for work.

then this afternoon i changed the oil and filter on my car. i need to
take it in to the garage on monday because the noise from the exhaust
is getting worse. i am hoping it is just the gasket by the cat.
otherwise could be expensive.

it was a strange and quite sad day today. ian who is my godfather (not
that i am religous) was selling off the animals, machinary and
tractors from the farm. i spent most of my childhood down there and
sad to see some of it going. i suppose much like my life at the moment
everything changes and evolves. i wonder if the so called nature
reserve actually happens or if its just gossip?

there must of been 100 vehicles down the farm today for the auction. i
actually took a picture of all the cars. i Havent seen so many cars in
the village since the eighties when there used to be a Roddymoor
carnival.

i have to get up in the morning to go to work to do some testing and
another conference call. i also have to tidy my house up before a
friend comes over tomorrow night. i also need to go for a run and will
hopefully get time to go to my sisters to watch the Newcastle match.
so a busy day ahead!

Muse

I was talking to Tony tonight and he said we should book up to see Muse at Newcastle Arena, even though we could only get seating tickets. I was thinking about going on my own anyway, so pleased Tony wanted to see them.

I could of got slightly better tickets when I first mentioned it but who cares, gonna try and get into the Standing part anyway. I will make it, hopefully without being thrown out!!!

Durham Night Out

I have been on the Durham Night Out tonight. It was very quiet, maybe its because its the first in over 2 years since I have not done any rounding up and encouraged people to go out. I was talking to Val and Craig, if it weren't for them it would of been shite. Then I met up with Tony at about 10:15 in the Coach, is always good to catch up with Tony coz we get on well.

Night Watch

Night Watch:Another I have put off, mainly because its Russian and is subtitled. Yet it is very good visually (somersaulting rocket powered truck). The main problem is there is often too much going on at once. This maybe makes it harder to follow when subtitled.

Having said that I could still follow it and made a change from the usual hollywood fantasy style films. This is suppposedly the first in a trilogy, so I look forward to the next film. There are parts that I am still slightly unsure about but having said that I have been like that watching many Hollywood movies.

I would give it 7 out of 10 because it looks fantastic and does have a good story.

Run

Distance: 1.8 miles
Time: 18 minutes

I took some time off work this afternoon, intent on running one last long run (9 miles or so). I stopped at our Consett office on my way home to fix something and by the time I got home it was 1:45. I was starving so had to eat something and gave myself 45 minutes afterwards for my stomach to settle. So I set off at 2:30 intending to run around the back roads to Harperley Round-a-bout, down the A68 to Fir Tree, then down to Howden, then up to Crook and back up to Roddymoor. It probably isn't 9 miles but don't want to measure it until after I have ran it.

Yet today when I set off I just didn't feel right from the first few steps and almost turned around and went back but thought I would go on. I still went at a slow pace in case I felt I could go the route I wanted. Ran up the the nasty bank towards White Lea Farm, its hard going because its steep and very rocky and uneven. I had decided by this time that I wasn't going to run much further just didn't feel right and I'm now becoming paranoid about getting injured. Once I reached the track down to Roddymoor after Arthur Pit Cottages I decided I should at least work up a sweat and picked up the pace. I ran the last half a mile in under 3 minutes but don't know exactly what time. The overall time is just a nice pace, 10 minute mile.

I am now going to have to find some time to do a longer run, unless I do several short runs. Maybe I could do the run I did the other night but go round twice, could be a good idea. It has just the right number of uphills, downhills and some nice flat sections. The uphills maybe too much the second time around though.

So today's supposed long run never happened :-(

Boxing

I am going to boxing tomorrow at Spennymoor Leisure Centre. I nearly went a year ago with a friend from work but talked myself out of it because worried about my temper.

Jay rang me tonight and asked if I fancied going, more to get fit than to actually box. I have thought about it a lot over the last few months anyway but haven't really mentioned it (maybe once).

I agreed to go and have a look around tomorrow night but said I didn't actually want to start until after the Great North Run.

I will start out just training but I think I will be drawn to the ring, I have had dreams about getting in the ring as well as some of the other stuff I dream about. I intend to stay out of it for as long as I can. You need control to be a boxer, I'm still not sure I have enough to get in the ring.

If nothing else it will be a good way to get fit and actually see Jay more, hardly see him these days.

Brancepeth, Willington & Oakenshaw Run

Distance: 4.86 miles
Time: 50 minutes

I took my running gear to work with me today, but decided not to go out at dinner time and go on the way home instead. I got changed before leaving work and headed for Brancepeth which is on the way home. I intended just to run along the old railway track to the Works then turn around and go back the way I came.

As I was approaching the Works I decided that I would keep going and aim for the 100 acres Nature Reserve at Oakenshaw. There were some steepish uphill sections to Oakenshaw and was pleased to get to the flat.

I ran through the Nature Reserve looking at the scenery as I went and avoiding all the people walking their dogs, its a nice place to run and the whole route made a change. There was only about a mile or so in total of it on the road, the rest was tracks and bridleways. I got back to the car and wasn't out of breath at all.

I estimated the time, but it will be quite accurate because I took it from how far through a playlist I had listened. So will only be about a minute out at most. I'm fairly happy with the pace, 10 minute mile. If I could keep that up for the entire G.N.R. I would be completing it in under 2:15. It's not very likely that I could keep that pace for over 13 miles but would like to do it in under 2:30. To be honest will be happy just to finish nevermind aiming for times.

As always click the image at the top for a larger version.

Little bit more thinking

I have done very little over the weekend other than house work and spending a few hours doing some gardening today. I gave the grass it's first cut, weeded and acquired some more plants. I could do with doing loads in the garden but my money is being diverted to other things at the moment as you can probably tell from the previous posts. I wouldn't be spending all that much time in the garden now the autumn weather is on its way, so may wait until next year before finishing it.

What recent events have shown me more than ever is that I have to do things now, you never know what life is going to throw at you next. I have spent most of my life putting off things and saying I will do this, that and the other and never doing any of it. I am gradually changing, watching things happen to friends and family and realising that it could all too easily happen to me, is making me rush to do as many things as possible NOW. I can't wait for tomorrow, for all I know it may never arrive.

I wrote the other day that it was a new beginning, thats what I was thinking about. My dad's sight is getting worse and he has asked me to come and help him with a few things recently. I have friends who's family have been ill and was thinking about a few people from my year at school who are now no longer with us. I am writing about negative stuff again, but in a good way because it's really pushing me to enjoy my life. No matter what has been thrown at me recently, there have been people there who have been there for me, family of course but also friends who I haven't really known all that long as well as some who have been there my entire life. I am grateful to all of them. I had some very difficult moments, no one quite knows how difficult, but I am stronger for them (strangely Christina Aguilera - Fighter has just come on).

"What doesn't kill us makes us stronger" Friedrich Wilhelm

I would like to close a chapter in my life and start a new one, there are still some lose ends to tie up. I know at the end of this year, I am going to look back and see it has been the most difficult and life altering of the last 27 so far. I would like to make the next 3 months some of the best, after the last 2/3 months being some of the worst. It will start off with the Great North Run on the 1st of October, if that ain't life altering like my parachute jump a year ago, I dunno what is. One thing I really want to do more of is walking, I have missed not going off the last few weeks. I haven't dared in case my knee gives out, which would be a nightmare so close to the 1st. My walks will start again after the G.N.R.

I am hoping to take Wednesday afternoon off to go for a long run, the last long run before the big day. I am working next weekend so wont get the chance. The advice is to ease back the week before, not that I have ever been exactly pushing myself.

More Stuff Booked

On Friday I booked up to see Basement Jaxx at the Arena, can't remember if I mentioned that before or not. I saw them live before Robbie Williams and they were amazing live, so decided to see them again on 6th December. I'm going there with a friend from work, who seams to be doing much the same as me and trying to say yes to stuff.

I have just booked up to see Dirty Pretty Things at the Carling Academy in Newcastle the night after Basment Jaxx on the 7th December. I saw them live in May @ Hi-Fi. Although at the time I din't realise who they were but was the best live band that day, certainly better than Ian Brown. That could be a busy week if I end up going to the Peterlee Xmas party as well, I went last year and had a good laugh.

I am toying with the idea of seeing Christina Aguilera, I do really like her music but don't think anyone will go with me. Although do know a few women from work who are going but thats kind of a womens night out. I better not leave it too long to decide or wont get a ticket. I went to see the Subways on my own so I guess I could do this too. I will make my mind up tomorrow which more than likely will be me deciding to go on my own. Listening to her new album while typing this.

November is looking bare except for watching a mate boxing in Wales, so do need some live music to go to. I a hopefully going to see a musical at the theatre in the next 2 months, possibly Chicago. I've never been to a musical and not sure if I will like it. I was tempted to see the Rocky Horror Show which is on in Sunderland this next week, but can't afford everything (unfortunately).

Lost

I finally got around to watching the last 5 episodes of Lost. I have been meaning to watch them for months. The end of the second series is even more bizarre and annoying than the end of the first series.

I suppose the third series starts in about 3 weeks in America, so not too long before I can start to see what its all about. I hope they end it after the third, sick of it being left on cliff hangers and it keeps getting stranger by the episode.

Here's a clip from the 3rd series.

MediaMonkey

After my post yesterday about MusicIP Mixer I was reading something on a forum about MusicIP and in the signture of someones post it mentioned something about MediaMonkey. So I clicked on the link and ended up finding a program that is billed as a Free MP3 Jukebox Player, Music Library Organizer. I thought not another, I've tried loads of these from major programs like iTunes and Windows Media Player to smaller programs that I can't even remember the names of. All have been slow or had other problems and faults.

Yet for some reason I read on and could see that MediaMonkey had a lot of features and it mentioned about working with large libraries of files. Most programs seriously start to slow down once you have a couple of thousand files and just get slower and slower the more files you have. So when it says, designed to work with libraries of 50,000+ files it caught my eye.

I installed MediaMonkey last night and I have been impressed with how well it imports information from other programs and devices and how quick it works. It is highly customizable and there are quite a few plugins, scripts and skins for it. A huge bonus is it actually works with most Winamp plugins so there are tons of plugins out there that will work.

I intended to try it to organise my music and play the songs with Winamp but I have been playing music all day with the built in player and other than it sometimes taking a few seconds to start to play WMA files it has worked perfectly.

I have installed a couple of plugins, MonkeyRok which displays loads of extra information about the song that is playing and AutoRate which automatically rates the songs you play by number of times played and if you skip over a song it get a low rating. I have yet to try and sync it with my iPod or Zen but hopefully it will work as well as it says it does.

So I now have an arsenal of excellent programs and websites that I use for music:

Winamp - The Best MP3 Player
Tag&Rename - Rename and Tag your audio files
dBpowerAMP - Convert between audio formats
Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition) - Excellent Sound Editor
MusicIP Mixer - Help dicover your music library
MediaMonkey - Manage your audio files
Album Cover Art Downloader - Download and tag your audio files with cover art
AllMusic - Excellent music site with reviews and details of albums and artists
Napster - As much music as you can download, but renting it
AllOfMP3 - Buy albums in just about any format or bitrate (haven't used for a while)

MusicIP Mixer

I mentioned the other day that I was trying Predixis MusicMagic and that it seamed quite good but it was slow and did choose some strange songs. As a recap the program helped you find music in your collection you would like. If you have a large collection like me, you end up not listening to most of your music.

I received 3 comments on the previous post from people involved with MusicIP Mixer which has replaced MusicMagic, they recommended I try the new version and if I had any problems to let them know. It seamed rather strange at the time but I'm actually grateful now because the new version is loads better, it took over night to scan my music which isn't bad. The old program wasn't even a quarter of the way in that time.

MusicIP also seams to have less restrictions on playlist size in the free version and find it hard to see what extra features I would want, to make me pay money for?
Maybe more control over moods and filters like formats and bitrates?

MusicIP isn't integrated into Winamp like the MusicMagic version I tried before but this is probably an advantage.

Below is an image of the program:
It's extremely simple to use, just import your music into it. The Winamp import didn't work for me, it only imported the Genres and never imported any artists, albums, tracks. So I just used the Add Songs option from the menu to import my music, then you select a track, tell it how many songs you would like in the generated playlist and press the mix button. It creates a playlist based on the selected song. If you don't like some of the songs it chose you can right click the song and ask it to replace it and another song will be chosen.

Below is a playlist MusicIP Mixer created and I have just about finished listening to. I chose the top song in the playlist and a playlist was created based on that song. The program did a very good job, there were a couple of songs I hadn't liked and I asked it to replace them. The resulting playlist was more or less what I was looking for (good background music). The only song that has felt out place so far has been the Temptations - Get Ready, but 1 out of 50 aint bad. I am up to song 45 in the playlist and have been impressed. I would highly recommend anyone with a colection of probably over 700 songs to try this out.

Click above image for larger (readable) version.

The only criticism isn't actually of the program but the website, the frontpage does't tell what the program is and lots of people would just not bother reading any further. To be honest when I first saw MusicIP before my previous post, I thought they had some how high jacked the Predixis domain because there was no real announcement saying that it was formerly known as MusicMagic and it looked less professional than the Predixis old site, which is still accessible. If the website was improved a lot more people would try the program I'm sure, rather than having doubts like I did. There does appear to be good help in the forums though :-)

Go try it!

House Prices

While mentioning useful sites I guess I should mention Net House Prices, it's an excellent site that I've used for over a year now. It shows every house that has been sold in the country and the prices they were sold for since 2000. Interesting to see how prices have changed and how much people have paid for their houses.

Planning Applications

I just found a site that lists Planning Applications for the entire country. I have always wondered why there wasn't an easy way to find planning applications on the internet. I guess there now is.

The site is Planning Portal which is a government related site but I hadn't heard of it before and I have looked for this sort of thing in the past. you have to click through a few links which eventually take you to the search here.

It lets you search the whole country for planning applications, there is up to a 3 week delay before they appear but more chance of finding them here than through the normal process.

World Cruise

I was listening to someone at work talking about the cruise they had been on to Iceland and Greenland and I thought it sounded fantastic, right up my street. I used to think why would anyone want to go on a cruise but I have changed my mind over the last year or so and think it could be an excellent way to see lots of places. I often get bored easy when looking around places so a cruise where you only spend a few hours in a port would mean I wouldn't have the time to get bored.

While looking at the cruise mentioned at work I saw this one. an epic 85 day cruise around the world stopping in 24 ports. I might book it after tomorrow when I win the lottery (yeah right). You can see the ports of call here. I would maybe get bored spending so much time on the boat, unless they had wi-fi access, lol (wonder if they do?)

It would be nice to have the money to do something like this, the prices start from under £3000 for 4 people sharing but there are big suppliments depending on rooms and number of people. There's a nice Grade 2 Balcony Suite 3 berth with a £25,900 supplement ;-)

Run @ Dinner Time Again

Distance: 3.15 miles
Time: 36 minutes

I went for a run at dinner time with Mandy again today. We set off a little slower than last week. Although last week when we went up side gate (cobbles) we walked, this week me and Mandy decided to run up and we stopped just before the steps, walked up the steps then ran from Main Street USA all the way up the bank. Mandy didn't expect to make it all the way up.

I was actually tired half way around today for some reason, too many late nights maybe. We speeded up the second half of the run and Mandy felt certain we were faster than last time I went. According to signing in and out times we did it in 36 minutes, a minute slower than last week. I have been thinking about it though and neither of us was wearing a watch and just went off the wall clocks and Mandy signed out and me in on different clocks. So we could of been faster or slower than we said. I think we were probably faster!

When I went out last week with Mandy and Helen they said they normally didn't really walk any of it, yet they did when I was with them. Yet Mandy told me that last week was the fastest they had ran it (36 minutes), so think they must of been putting a spurt on with me running or something?

Maybe they are trying to kill me off, I have been intentionally trying to run slowly in my training (if I can call it that). I don't want to run too fast at the Great North Run or not gonna make it halfway nevermind to the end.

I spoke to Denise at one of our other offices today who was intending to run the GNR as well, but she has injured her knee and can't do it. She is trying to get it organised so she can run next year, she sounded like she really wanted to do it. She also mentioned that Gemma from the same office was running it as well.

Listening to..

I haven't wrote a post with what I'm listening to for a while. I was supposed to still be trying to work my way through 1001 albums to listen to before you die, but I kind of got side tracked as usual.

Below are some of the albums I have been or am listening to:









In case you can't tell what the albums are from the covers, I've listed them below. I haven't listened to all of this on constant repeat, some like the Vines I have only heard once and need some more plays.

• The Automatic - Not Accepted Anywhere
• Basment Jaxx - Crazy Itch Radio
• Blackbud - From The Sky
• Kasabian - Empire
• The Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out
• Missy Elliott - Respect M.E.
• Morcheeba - The Platinum Collection
• Robbie Williams - Greatest Hits
• Orson - Bright Idea
• Megadeth - Rust In Peace
• The Subways - Young For Eternity
• The Shys - Astoria
• The Vines - Vision Valley
• Classic FM - Relax and Escape
  

I think from the above list, it shows the fairly broad selection of music I listen to. As well as full albums, I have listened to a lot of individual tracks. To look at more of the music I have listened to over the last year see my Last.FM page.

Nigel Boxing in November

I got a text from Jay tonight to let me know that Nigel is boxing in Wales on November 18th against Gary Rhys, its a British Eliminator. So its another trip off and I'm looking forward to it :-)

Just as well I didn't book tickets for Muse today on the 19th, I'm sure I could of still gone but probably as well I didn't.

The Sentinel

The Sentinel: I went to the pictures to watch this tonight and it was very much what I expected. It's a good film but the beginning was a little drawn out. Some good performances from Kiefer Sutherland and Michael Douglas but nothing special.

The movie is good and certainly worth watching, but nothing new.

I think I might of made it sound a bit crap but I did actually enjoy the movie, I gave it 7 out of 10.

new start

today one chapter in my life drew to a close or at least i hope it
did. i asked to speak to the chief at work today and if managed to
answer some questions i had. i then said what i needed to this
afternoon to put an end to the nightmare that i have been in the last
god knows how many weeks. i was careful how i worded things.

i now want to think of things as if i am making a new start from
tomorrow. you hear that people dont change but that's rubbish i have
been like a chameleon over the last few years and have completely
metamorphised myself.

i want to change the things i dont like in my life and increase the
things i enjoy as well as trying new stuff and of course learning new
skills that interest me. where all of this leads me i dont know.

i really want to go off walking on my own again but trying to put it
off until after the great north run. i am really going to struggle at
the run. i have less than 3 weeks and still can't motivate myself to
get off my arse and train.

one of my previous posts was about concerts to see. as well as booking
some more of them, i need to enter as many other tasks and activities
into my calendar as possible and somehow make sure i actually do
them.

i would like to find a friend who i get on well with who would enjoy
going walking. my parents just cant cope with some of the walks i want
to do now. i like to do some on my own but other times it could be
good to go with someone else!

i really need to get an increase of income to enable me to do more.
there just isn't enough time to fit everything in and i certainly
don't have the money to do it all. i don't want to waste the time i
have left being sedentry like i have for much of the last 27 years.
when i go i want to be able to look back and think of all the things i
experienced in life :-)

New Live Chat & Meebo

I have been using Meebo for a while. It's a website that lets you login to all your IM clients from anywhere and all from the website. Excellent when away from your normal desktop but still want to be able to chat.

They have just added a new feature which allows you to add a chat feature to a website. On the right of this site is a chat feature and if I'm online at Meebo you can chat live with me :-)

Concerts

I decided to have a look at what concerts/gigs are on over the next few months that interested me. I obviously wont go to all of them but would like to see some of them. The ones is Red are already booked.

September
29th - Northern Sinfonia (The Sage)

October
8th - Level 42 (The Sage)
10th - Frog Tour featuring Babyshambles / Holloways / Noisettes (Carling Academy)
12th - Orson (Carling Academy)
12th - Automatics (Newcastle Uni)
16th - Tom Jones (Newcastle Arena)
25th - NME Rock 'n' Roll Riot Tour [The Fratellis, The Maccabees, The Horrors] (Nothumbria Uni)
29th - Ross Noble (Newcastle City Hall)

November
1st - Jet (Carling Academy)
10th - Pink (Newcastle Arena)
19th - Muse - (Newcastle Arena)
19th - The Feeling (Carling Academy)
20th/21st - Paul Weller (Newcastle City Hall)
23rd - The Killers (Carling Academy)
25th - Thunder (Newcastle City Hall)
30th - Snow Patrol (Newcastle Arena)

December
6th - Basement Jaxx (Newcastle Arena)
17th - Iron Maiden (Newcastle Arena)
21st - Kasabian (Newcastle Arena)
29th - The Blue Planet (Newcastle Arena)

January

February
12/13 - Roy Chubby Brown (Newcastle City Hall)

March
6th - Black Label Society (Carling Academy)

Hopefully I will be booking Basement Jaxx and The Killers before the end of the week.

Bed or Not?

I'm not sure whether to go to bed yet, I will probably just lay there thinking about tomorrow and get more and more worked up and angry. Could be an idea to keep messing about on the computer until I can't keep my eyes open like I used to do for years.

I did want to go to bed early and get up for a run but not sure I will make it up in time. I have already organised my running gear and just ironed a shirt and stuff for tomorrow so I don't need to rush around in the morning.

A few people have given me advice on what to say tomorrow but will probably ignore all them and just say what I think is right. So wonder if I have a job after tomorrow then?

Still fairly pissed off that someone said it would all be at an end if what I said was acceptable (or words to that effect), grrr that makes me angry. I do nothing wrong yet my fate lays at someone liking or not liking what I say. Where's a lottery win when I need it?

Trying to tell myself to keep smiling but on the other hand I have ingrained in me now "Live each day as if its your last". I should stay true to myself and do exactly that (there must be a devil inside me).

I spend far too much time thinking about things, especially pointless stuff. We live in a world full of rules, do most of these rules make things better or just stiffle us and create pointless barriers? We are hearded about like sheep, I don't want to be a sheep, I want to be me!

Sometimes I let people into the chasm that is my head and allow brief glimpses of the goings on in there by writing on this blog. I am always constantly aware of who is reading it, which tends to hinder what I write. I don't undertstand most of what goes on in my head let alone try and write about it. I have never known anyone like me for having such an active mind once I try to relax.

I have a million ideas, thoughts, feelings, worries, hopes, desires, ... constantly jumping into view when I close my eyes. My head is like being in a gigantic room with thousands of screens and each one displaying a different thought, I will look at a screen and suddenly another will come into view then another and another. Every now and again one will remain in view for longer this will interest, upset, worry, intrigue me or various other things then I will move onto something else. This happens constantly until I am exhausted or until I have to get up. I don't actually see computer screens it was just an example of how my mind is constantly jumping from one thing to another. This isn't always a bad thing its my way of coming up with ideas, plans, decisions (on a rare occassion), it's how I work out things on my own.

I think I have mentioned before on here that I have many times dreamt exact situations exactly as they then happened. It starts as a case of De Ja Vu where things seam familiar then I realise that I know exactly what is about to happen. I don't just mean broad things I mean who is about to walk past, what they will be wearing, talking about right down to the minutest detail. I could tell you exactly what someone I was walking past was about to say or do even though I have never met them in my life. It is very strange, it hadn't happened for while until the last couple of months. Its happened on a couple of occassions, the last time on Friday when at the Robbie Williams concert.
I was stood there with Leila and it started like I described like De Ja Vu. I recognised a few people and what they were doing. Then I realised I knew what was about to happen, a lady I noticed and pointed out was very drunk. She fell down and just sat there on someones blanket and started talking away, then I knew who was about to appear and what was going to happen. I didn't mention it until now. There was another occassion on the night as well but wasn't as memorable and several occassions of extreme De Ja Vu.

I'm starting to wonder if these happen on occassions of extreme emotion, happiness, sadness, loss and on a rare occassion love. It would of been happiness on Friday :-)

I probably should of kept some of this post to myself, as I normally do.

Kasabian

I booked 4 tickets to see Kasabian today @ The Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle on December 21st. Me, Tony, Leila and her son is going. We had to get seated tickets, there was no standing left.

I intended to look at Basement Jaxx and the Blue Planet shows which are also on in Decemer but my mother rang and asked if I could copy a cassette of Indian Dance music to a CD, it was for the school and they needed it for tomorrow. So my plans for the night went out of the window.

Predixis MusicMagic

I am giving Predixis MusicMagic that is included in Winamp a test. I have briefly looked at before and expiremented with the standalone program a few years ago and something similar called Moodlogic I think, which I did really like but didn't want to pay for.

The first impression of MusicMagic is SLOW, it takes an eternity to scan your music. If you have a large collection. It has been scanning mine for over 24 hours and it is still less than a quarter of the way through it.

I guess I should explain what it does, it scans your music which then helps you create playlists, by creating a fingerprint for all your songs. You select a song you like and would like similar music to. It then scans its database and trys to pick songs that it thinks are similar.

It is an excellent way of hearing music in your collection that you may not of heard in a long time or in my case never. It is far from perfect as the screenshot of the last playlist it created shows below. I selected Twisted Sister - I Wanna Rock and it created this playlist.

How the hell did it think that 2 Take That songs and Shakin Stevens were similar, oh and Merry Clayton, sadly I didn't mind listening to Merry Clayston (oh dear). I guess the question could be what am I even doing with those songs, lol. Besides for those it did pick some excellent music like Van Halen - Atomic Punk and some classic Ratt. I had never heard Talking Heads - Burning Down The House before, only the Tom Jones version a few years ago. The original is fantastic :-)

There are some limitations to the free version included in Winamp. The big one being it will only generate playlists of 20 songs.

I might give MoodLogic another spin, I can remember thinking it was excellent. If it's as good as I remember I just may pay for it. There is also another similar program called MusicIP and it is free. So will test them out and see which comes out on top.

Below is another playlist created from "The Subways - Rock & Roll Queen". I have only added Artists beginning with P-Z so far to MusicMagic, will get a broader range when its all added. This looks like it did a better job, less strange tracks (Pink maybe).

The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift

The Fast And The Furious - Tokyo Drift: This gets a poor score on IMDB but I would imagine most lads like me would enjoy the movie. It's got cars, crashes and women. If you're wanting a film with an excellent plot or something look elsewhere.

Its a fun film and doesn't pretend to be anything else. If you like cars, watch it otherwise stay away.

I gave it 7 out of 10.

What will my PVR do?

Below are some of the features my PVR when it is eventually built will do:

• Pause, Rewind, Fast-Forward "live" TV.
• Watch and Record TV at the same time or record 2 channels at once.
• Watch recorded programmes in other rooms in the house.
• Skip Adverts
• Schedule Recordings from TV Guide
• I will be able to copy recordings to DVD or to a laptop to archive or watch away from home.
• Schedule recording from the internet, so if I forget I can login and schedule remotely.
• If I add in Orb I could stream Live TV to any internet connected computer in the world. So if really sad could watch stuf when on holiday or round a mates house.

There are tons of other features it should do, many are not exactly PVR related like weather and stuff but I can already do most with my Xbox.

PVR & Projects

I think I mentioned a week or so ago I was looking at a PVR (Personal Video Recorder), which is like Sky+. Sky+ costs too much and there is an ongoing cost which I don't like and don't want to pay. I looked at the other options, Freeview PVR and Media Center PC. I had sort of talked myself out of it for the moment.

Yet I have been frustrated when I have missed a couple of things this week that I had been watching. I don't want to hook up my VCR because they are shite. Sometimes I manage to find the programmes on the internet which has helped in the past.

So because of the frustrations this week of missing stuff I decided to have another look after noticing an article on MythTV. MythTV is a free program that lets you do everything that a Media Center PC can except it runs on Linux. This means there is no cost for software, don't need to buy any version of windows or any other software it is all free. I can remember reading about MythTV a long time ago but at the time it was very complicated to setup which didn't necessarily put me off but it was also in an early stage and not everything worked.

Since I originally read about MythTV masses of work has been done on it and it now looks like a complete package. One thing that really jumped out at me is that it can be setup in different configurations. You can have what you call a backend, which basically mean you can put a nice big, fast computer with all the recording hardware hidden out of the way in a cupboard somewhere (under my stairs). Then have a slower, silent, tiny PC in your living room or wherever acting as a Frontend. So you when you pause live TV or schedule recordings when sat on your couch it is actually being recorded on the PC in the cupboard. Yet to you sat there it looks like its happening in front of you. This sounds like an excellent idea, this means I can have a nice fast noisey PC under the stairs. One of the major problems I was having when I looked the other week was how to make a fast PC that was going to be quiet enough in the living room. This isn't so bad when you only need a slow PC in the living room.

I had read all of this and could feel another project coming on. I then read late last night that some people had managed to write some scripts to enable an Xbox to act as the frontend, so don't even need to put another PC in my living room. The Xbox is already there, this is getting even more interesting.

I decided to plonk down the money on the TV Tuner card. I already own an old one but it doesn't have any hardware encoding and is basically rubbish. But the new one a WinTV-Nova-T-500 I ordered enables me to receive 2 digital terrestrial TV channels (Freeview) at the same time. So I can record one while watching another or record 2 channels at the same time. I very nearly bought the WinTV-PVR-350 because everyone was banging on about the card but what most people fail to mention is that it doesn't have a Freeview tuner so you would only get the 5 analog channels.

The tuner card is the only part I have bought so far. I intend to just fit it in my main computer while I do some testing to see how well it works and use the bundled software that comes with it and may test out GB_PVR another free solution but it runs on Windows. I decided not to go to Wallington, the Northumbrian Coast or the Ice Hockey tonight and have saved the money which has enabled me to buy the above mentioned card.

It's good to have another project underway. I have had quite a few over the years. One of the early ones I can remember doing was making a PC that streamed MP3s and displayed what was playing on a small LCD screen I built. It had full remote control. This was long before the likes of Streambox and the dozens of other products now available but it did the same thing (I've still got it in the spare room). I suppose before that there was building my own PC, this was before most people did things like that. I also hacked the Xbox to enable me to use XBMP or now XBMC. That was probably the most worth while project and was the whole reason I bought an Xbox so I could play my movies and music using it. It was a bit nerve racking doing it as lots of people had turned their Xboxs into bricks (unusable) doing it, especially when I had only bought it for over £200 a few days earlier.

There have been other projects like networking my parents house (twice) originally as 10-Base-2, then 10-Base-T, then 100-Base-TX, hopefully I got that right. Then in my own house I ran cables through out the house, even into the attic. With proper wall sockets and everything linking back to the cupboard under the stairs where I have my cabinet and server.

If all my testing goes well I may have another server in the cupboard for the TV recording. Although I never ran the TV aerieal to the cupboard and not sure if the signal would be strong enough splitting it again in my bedroom and running it back down to the cupboard. I can't run it from where it enter the house as I now have laminate flooring down. Where as upstairs I have carpet and could take the floor boards back up if needed. Will see how everything works first.

I had mentioned about the networking in my house but I forgot about the Wi-Fi betwen my house and the parents, this was a bit of an experiment that has really payed off. It lets us share one internet connection. They can listen to the music on my server and access any files we let each other see. We can also share printers. They could if they ever buy an old Xbox watch the movies and TV series on my server. When I get my PVR project finished they would also be able play the things I have recorded as well from the comfort of their house. How cool is that, yeah I know I am a geek and sad :-)

There have been numurous other projects from MP3 jukeboxes, web servers, mail servers, dedicated downloading computers, linux installations and tons more. I could do with 2 external networked camera, that's another I would like to do, would know what happened to my green recycling box if I had that running. Just a shame I don't have the money to do all the projects I would like to.

Robbie Williams

I've just got back from the Robbie Williams concert, it was excellent. I am happy he played a lot of his older songs, Angels, Let Me Entertain You, Rock DJ. He also did a swing song and his new song "Rudebox" which is starting to grow on me now. He was on stage for nearly 2 hours.

There was supposedly 90,000 people there (certainly a lot). I had a spare ticket so I sold it to Leila from work. We stood further back on a bank so we could see. We could of gone closer but would of had peoples heads in the way and would of probably seen less.

The show started like a scene for Close Encounters of the Third Kind with the music from the film and the lights flashing, then Fireworks went off. It was certianly impressive :-)
I am pleased to of seen him live. Leila said the same, she was really excited. She did say she doesn't know if she would see him again though. Not that he was a dissapointment or anything far from it he was excellent, exactly what you expect.

Before Robbie the support acts were Orson, who were good but I only knew 3 songs. Then the big suprise was Basement Jaxx, I like their earlier songs but after listening to their new album I wasn't impressed. So I wasn't expecting very much at all. I thought it was just a couple of DJs with guest vocalists. I was wrong there are proper singers and I thought they were excellent, I knew just about every song they played. Would even think about seeing them at Newcastle in December.

The strangest thing was how far the car park was from Roundhay. It was a park and walk, but the walk was over 2 miles, maybe 3. I think there was a closer car park but it was full.

So it was an excellent night and really pleased I got talked into getting a ticket, even though that person couldn't go in the end.

Off To See Robbie...

I'm setting off to Roundhay Park in Leeds to see Robbie Williams in about an hour and a half. Really looking forward to it now :-)

Orson and Basement Jaxx are the other people playing before Robbie Williams.

I better stop writing on here and make sure I have everything (tickets).

March Of The Penguins

March of The Penguins: I watched this on Wednesday night but this is the first chance I have had to write it on here. I had heard quite a lot of good reviews about it.

I don't think I need to write a description of what its about. It is an interesting and visually stunning film but I did find myself a little bored at times even though it wasn't on very long.

It was good but not a patch on Baraka, that is a visually stunning documentary film. I gave March of the Penguins 7 out of 10.

The Blue Planet Live

I just got an email about concerts and gigs coming up and The Blue Planet Live jumped out of the email at me. It sounds excellent it's the the Blue Planet BBC programmes on HUGE screens with an orchestra playing the music live under the screens. Even if you are not into the music it would be good to see the massive screens and the music fitting in with it.

Its on @ Newcastle Metro Radio Arena on the 29th December, I have to go :-)

Dinner Time Run

Distance: 3.15 miles
Time: 35 minutes

I finally got persuaded to go for a run today with Mandy and Helen at dinner time. They have been on about me going running for months and never had much fancy for going on a dinner time but with the GNR fast approaching and never getting around to going out.

Hopefully the route I marked on the map above is correct (click to enlarge), The only part I wasn't sure about was heading towards the river the path forks on the map. It wouldn't make any difference to distance.

It wasn't bad, I wasn't sure how to pace myself because I had no idea of the terrain or inclines, I was just following. I fairly quickly learnt that Mandy and Helen both have different running stiles. Mandy is much like I used to be, rush off at times but end up shattered and has to walk. Where as Helen paces herself properly. I guess now I know roughly where I am going I would be somewhere between the two of them in running style.

They walked a few section but they assure me it was only because of running yesterday as well. Not that I'm complaining was quite happy to have a breather. Although once I stop I find it hard to get going again. When on my own stopping is the kiss of death for my run, once Is top I can never get into a comfortable rhythm again. So try not to stop, but the course today was quite hilly at times.

May take the GPS with me next time but it will probably lose the signal in the trees :-(

The Subways @ Newcastle

Just got back from watching the Subways at the Carling Academy in Newcastle. I will sum it up at the beginning so you dont have to read the rest. They were excellent :-)

I got to Newcastle really early (6pm) and intended to have a bit walk about and sit in Burger King opposite until near the opening time (7pm). I got there and Burger King was shut. So stood in the queue but after a few minutes I decided I was starving and ended up in KFC. When I went back to the queue it was 3 times longer. Luckily didn't have to stand long before the doors opened and we started moving.

Gonna skip quite a bit, I don't know who the first band were but I thought they were shit. I did stand quite a long way away with a drink so maybe they sounded better if you were down on the floor but I don't think so. One of the blokes on guitar was really funny though, he reminded me of Jack Black in School of Rock. He was jumping around like a tit. Had to be seen to be believed and his timing for the jumps was out as well.

The next band were a lot better, I still stood at the back but they sounded good. They were called "The Sunshine Underground" who's name sounds familiar to me.

After them it was time for the Subways so I made my way down to the dance floor and waited. It wasn't long before they appeared. I cant be bothered to write a long description. The very first song seamed like it was missing something and I can't remember which song it was now. After that though it got gradually better and better as the gig went on. Billy jumped into the crowd during Oh Yeah and someone took his shirt off. Shame it wasn't Charlotte who jumped in the crowd and lost her shirt ;-)

The crowd seamed to get louder and more animated as the songs rolled on. They played 4 new songs, I think 3 of them were played when I was at Leeds. I certainly remember California and it sounds the best of the new songs.

Billy (singer) climbed up onto the top of 2 speakers which was very high and jumped into the crowd again during Rock & Roll Queen. That was the last song (I think).

I really enjoyed the night once The Subways were on stage, next time I wont be getting there quite so early!!

tired

i was very tired today and at one point very angry, maybe it was
partly because i was tired. although the main reason is i am sick of
being told different things by different people and wrong information.
this has happened constantly over the last 2 months and has added to
the considerable strain i was already under.
everything is supposed to be resolved next week but i am less and less
sure i can do what they are asking me to do.
how can i apologise for things i haven't done, that goes against every
bone in my body. i may want the situation resolved but apologising for
things i haven't done and not being allowed to explain things amounts
to lying.

i am unhappy about how the current situation has been handled yet
again. too many people have been involved in the entire thing over the
last 2 months which is why i am constantly told the wrong thing.

after speaking on the phone today i had to go for a walk afterwards i
only went downstairs, stopped myself from walking around the block.

i had really hoped things would be a lot better and maybe they will
after next week but dont know if i can swallow my pride and dignity
not sure if that is the word i am looking for. if i word it correctly
maybe it will be ok but i will find it hard not to say too much.

wish i could win some money but i guess who doesn't.

on a more positive note i am going to watch the subways tomorrow night
in newcastle. i am going on my own and didn't ask anyone else to go.
sometimes i need to do stuff on my own. i am realising it more.

if i believed in star signs i guess i would be a true gemini. there is
always 2 sides to me. sometimes need to be around people other times
the complete opposite. different friends know me as completely
different people. if you asked some friends they would give you a
completely different description of me almost the opposite to other
friends. maybe i am schizophrenic.

these days i seam to question everything as well as moan about it.

today i could feel the worst of me was coming out and i felt like
complete shit. i was angry, upset, tired and confused. i went home
feeling physically sick and it wasn't from actually being ill. i don't
want to feel like that :-(

Classical Music and Events

I had a conversation today about how after reading on here about me listening to Classic FM music in the background when doing stuff and to relax that they had started listening to Classic FM as well and enjoyed it. I originally was only talking about CDs but I have listened to the actual station as well.

I think people often find it strange and suprising when the realise that I like classical music as well as most other types of music. When I think about it this year alone I will be or will have seen all sorts from Northern Sinfonia, Guns N' Roses, Robbie Williams, Iron Maiden, Bon Jovi, Subways and Body Count to name just a few. I would like to see an even greater variety of music and theater.

I haven't booked it yet but I am looing at seeing Northern Sinfonia later this month and thinking about the Last Night of the Proms (NEPACS) at Newcastle City Hall but that has more singing and not sure I will like it.

I need more money to enable me to do the things I want to see, hear and visit. I am constantly saying enjoy life while you can and live each day as if its you last. I am trying to do exactly that but some days its harder to remember than others. Maybe I should tatoo it under my eye lids.

Can't remember if I mentioned it but I have found someone who really wanted my spare Robbie Williams ticket. They were actually the first person I asked which was lucky.

It's a busy week, the Subways on Wednesday, Robbie/Orson/Basement Jaxx on Friday, Wallington and Northumbrian walk on Saturday and hopefully the Ice Hockey on Sunday. In between all of that I need to be out running as well.

Still Angry

I was actually quite angry tonight when I drove home from work. I got a phone call about a meeting to sort out the last things that need to be done to clear up the whole reason I was off work in the first place. I was pissed off because they said they would ring me back and they didn't they spoke to my unit manager and told her that they had agreed the meeting and time with me but we hadn't yet. I wanted to speak to the person sorting the meeting out again because I wanted to ask some questions. It is starting to feel like deja vu again with me not being told things directly.

I can't understand why they didn't speak to me again. I also found out some other information that I had suspected but didn't know for certain until now. My instincts are rarely wrong, other than one major one which got me in this situation in the first place. I trusted someone I obviously didn't know well enough and certainly couldn't trust.

Back to what I first said about being very angry, I hadn't quite realised how pissed off I still was about the whole situation. The main thing that is really annoying me and hopefully I will find out next week, is "Why?".

I have calmed down now after 90 minutes of classical music.

more thoughts

my first week back at work wasn't too bad, it certainly could of been
a lot worse. i managed to start to do some stuff that is more
interesting and have some more development work to do on a database i
developed some time ago.

i haven't got my sleep patern sorted out yet. i found it very hard to
get to sleep when i was off, worse than usual. i still cant get to
sleep on a night all that easy, better than i was a few weeks ago but
probably because i have had to get up for work.

i could do with some extra money from somewhere, couldn't we all. i
spent quite a bit of time the other day working out the bills i have
to pay. i can afford them but i want to do more than just go to work,
then just sit at home all night. like previous posts have shown i am
trying to get out and see stuff but i need money to do that. even
going off walking costs money in petrol, because the places i would
really like to walk are in the lakes, scotland or wales.

i haven't done any walks since crinkle crags. i had hoped to walk
blencathra and sharp edge yesterday but decided not to when i saw the
weather forecast. sharp edge is very dangerous in bad weather. for the
next 4 weeks i really need to concentrate on running, but i enjoy
walking more. maybe if i was fit enough to fell run then it would be
the best of both worlds but i am far from fit enough to do that.

i have seen something else i would like to do, downhill mountain
biking. i have thought for years i would love to try that but you need
a proper downhill bike really to do a proper course. i was reading
trail i think it was the other day and it showed the downhill course
in fort william which i had already seen on the internet. it looks
like according to the magazine that they will rent you all the gear,
bike, helmet, etc.

i could go back to fort william and walk ben Nevis again but via the
cmd arete this time and while there do the downhill mountain bike
course. this will probably have to wait until next year now
unfortunately :-(

my list of things to do next year appears to keep growing. hopefully
Canada is the big one. As well as that though i have said i want to
walk ben Nevis again, mt snowdon, scafell and scafell pike. downhill
mountain biking and the west highland way. not sure i would have the
holiday to do all these but i suppose the lakes ones are easily done
on a weekend and ben nevis and snowdon could be done on long weekends.
there are a few other things that i have mentioned. i need to update
my list of stuff to do and could be a good idea to pencil them in on
my diary. i say pencil but its actually an online diary!

i am going to try to start and put some money away each month for the
Canada trip. just hope it happens and the friend who mentioned it
doesn't change their mind. i better find out more about them as well
so i know exactly what sort of stuff they enjoy doing. other than
seeing niagra falls i don't know what else they want to do. i would
like a holiday crammed full of stuff rather than wasting it like i
have done in the past. you have time to lay about when you are in a
box!

i was talking to my dad last night and both of up said that we
couldn't undertand people who were bored when they weren't at work.
there is always stuff to be doing. there just isn't enough time in the
day to do everything. although i must admit i regularly find myself
just sat staring at a screen doing nothing when really i should get
off my arse and do something or at least accomplish something worth
while on the computer. i guess that is something else i need to try
and do.

well its about time i went to sleep...

Run

Distance: 3.2 miles

I went for a walk to the shop to get some milk in my running shoes to see how my feet felt and they were fine. So when I got back decided to go for a run.

I said the other day when I went for a run that I didn't feel right, I didn't feel quite that bad today but still not back to normal. For some reason whenever I set off running down towards Crook I always run too fast and I never get my pace right afterwards. So I struggled running up the deerness valley walk section again. It is steep but I need to keep tackling it, its no good running just on the flat.

I had hoped to run along the top from Stanley to Sunniside but when I got to Stanley it was very windy. It would of been an absolute nightmare, the wind was blowing staight towards me and would be hard enough walking it. So decided just to make it a short run and run down Billy Row bank. I ended up running quite fast down the bank and back into Roddymoor.

I think this may be a good idea to run a long route one day then a shorter route the next day but at a faster pace. I was dripping when I got in.

Feet Pain

I am sitting here trying to decide whether to go for a run or not. The balls of my feet are really hurting. I could run through it, which isn't a problem. I just don't want to make them any worse, when the Great North Run is only 4 weeks away. Where I am intending to run is probably 8 miles all on the road. They have been hurting the last few days but stumped as to what to do for the best.

I need to get as much running in as possible but don't want to go out and make them even worse and end up missing even more days training than I would of done if I had spent a couple of days resting.

I think the shoes I have been wearing for work have caused the problem with both pairs I have worn being old and worn. I will see if I can buy some new shoes tomorrow in Durham, hopefully that will fix it.

This is annoying, looking out of the window and actually wanting to run for a change. I am more fired up than normal after reading an article on the BBC website about a girl who loves to exercise but can't very easily because she has Cystic Fibrosis and needs a double lung and heart transplant. It makes me realise just how lucky I am and should enjoy what I have and can do.

Events Booked & Organised

I've just booked my ticket for The Subways at Newcastle Carling Academy. The ticket is only costing me £13.44, cheap at twice the price :-)

If they are as good as they were at the Leeds Festival it should be a good night.

I also booked the tickets to see Ross Noble at the the end of October at Newcastle City Hall, looking forward to that. He is hilarious, I have a couple of DVDs of him.

I asked my parents if they wanted to go to Wallington next Saturday but unfortunately a friend of theirs is coming up to stay for the weekend. It is probably better I go on my own anyway. I get bored easily at stuff like that, so at least I can leave when I want. The house itself doesn't open until 1pm, so intending to walk along the Northumbrian coast on the morning. Again that's something I think I need to do on my own, I need to review recent events in my head. If it is tossing it down I wont be walking up the coast though!!

On the Sunday I am intending to watch the Ice Hockey at Newcastle Arena on the night, I think my dad would like to go but need to find out when their friend is leaving.

Kitchen Computer

I decided to put my Mac Mini in the kitchen today, I bought it at the end of last year and have hardly used it. The actual Mac Mini is the little box to the right with the Apple logo on top. The screen I bought from work last year. The speaker in front of the monitor is only there to try it, I use it for my iPod. I could also do with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard but will do for now.

After setting it up, it all worked perfect and I can surf the internet and get to my files. Oh and play music while I am in the kitchen all using the built in Wi-Fi.

The only problem was I have nothing to sit on in the kitchen, so I decided to buy a stool. I would of loved a nice fancy gas lift stool but I need to be able to move it around the kitchen when not at the computer. So I bought a normal one from Argos for £20.

I spent 2 hours sitting at the computer earlier on, only intended to use when cooking or eating breakfast but its actually a nice place to sit. I need to tidy up the wires and a get some speakers but otherwise its working better than I could of hoped :-)

Nuts!

Sometimes I get the urge to do things for no apparent reason. I was laid on the bed listening to music (Morcheeba - The Platinum Collection), when for some reason I decided to see if I could still do a head stand.

So I spent about a minute doing a head stand on my bed, then thought why the hell am I doing this and started laughing. Maybe I am cracking up ;-)

I can remember doing the same thing about 5 years ago in the staff room where I used to work, to prove I could still do one. Thinking about it I also put my leg behind my head. I did this about 2 years ago at work to prove I could still do that as well. Maybe I should try that now. Just tried it, that's a bit more of a struggle, it's just about there but would need to do a few stretches first.

I really have lost it!

Calendar

I am trying to fill my calendar with things I want to do, if I don't book things or make myself do something I will sit in front of the computer all day doing nothing. I need to do some stuff that isn't going to cost me too much money either.

I haven't planned any walks in yet, but think I need to concentrate on running for the next 4 weeks. Not that I have added any of them in either yet. I am looking at going to Wallington next Saturday because its a free day to visit National Trust buildings. I am going to ask my parents if they want to go, they like going to stuff like that and haven't been to any old houses for ages.

I am also thinking about going to watch some Ice Hockey after watching the North East news when they were talking about it. Never really watched Ice Hockey much other than in the Olympics and when I was in America but its something a bit different. Intending to watch Newcastle Vipers if I go, there are 2 games on next weekend. So thinking about going on the Sunday.

At the end of October I'm off to see Ross Noble @ Newcastle City Hall, as long as I remember to order the tickets tomorrow. I have been intending to go to some of the Newcastle museums for a while now, gotta fit that in somewhere as well.

I better add as many runs as I can in before I start planning anything else, well until after the 1st October.

My Calendar for the next month is starting to fill up, mainly with exercise. At this rate I will be wasting away, clothes are already getting very baggy.

Recording TV

This is about my 4th post in the last hour, suppose I didn't do any yesterday.

I have been looking into recording TV, I mean Sky+, Freeview PVR and Windows Media Center. There are advantages and disadvantages to all of them. Sky+ is great but it costs £99 for the box, £60 for installation and working out the minimum amount you would have to pay a year (12 months contract) it will cost £294, thats a total of £453.

The Freeview PVR is a lot cheaper but from reading the reviews they are rubbish and constantly crash and have poor interfaces. You only get the basic channels as well. This would be around about £150 for a cheap one.

The final option is a Media Center PC, this in some ways appeals to me the most. Probably because I am some sort of computer geek. The cheapest ready built PC I can see is just under £500 and only has a single tuner. Yet I am fairly certain I could build my own for a hell of a lot less if I didn't put top spec components in. Just enough to do the job. The advantages of the Media Center PC are you have a fully working PC that you could do anything you could on a normal PC. A major advantage is I could watch the shows that it records on any other computer in the house or on my Xbox. You can also write the recorded shows to DVD if needed. There is also no ongoing costs for subscription like there is for Sky+.

So the cheapest is a Freeview PVR but poor quality, the most expensive including ongoing costs and setup is Sky and the other option is a Media Center PC which has a very variable price but probably about £300 spiraling upwards.

I still need some money before I could get any of these though at the moment.

I'm gonna give up spell checking my blog at all, it keeps adding weird symbols and messing words up even more than I do in the first place.

Insoles Fooked

I have had my insoles for less than 2 weeks and already I have knackered one pair. I put them in my work shoes which really needed replacing but couldn't afford to until pay day. I pulled the insole that was in them out, I checked to see if the base was sticky first but it appeared OK. Yet after they had been in a day, they had stuck in the shoes. I eventually got them out with half of the shoes still stuck to them. I tried to clean them as best as possible and wore a different pair of shoes today with the cleaned up insoles but there was still some glue int he bottom as after a day on my feet, they have stuck solid in this pair of shoes. I can't see them coming out without damaging them. So thats another £50+ down the drain. Just as well I got 2 pairs :-(