Popped out this morning for a coffee in town, was very strange as when we arrived it was clearly not busy but as we left the coffee shop it was getting silly. First things first .. Sales? WHAT sales? Everything I saw was actually more expensive than before Christmas. Mental.

Got a call from the offshore lot who basically said no work, no really what a shock.. Anyway said not interested any more and left it at that.. Sucks but I’m not sure I want people to do this to me again 3 months with no money is incentive enough to tell someone to go jump.

Anyway after the Coffee popped in to the fish shop and picked up some Prawns for tomorrow’s dinner yummy, then on to the local supermarket and finally home (horay we missed the mentally deranged drones who sales shop). Spent the rest of the day watching films and chilling before taking the hounds for a walk down the seafront and turning off the phones so we could have a nice relaxed nights sleep, why does everyone txt? What a waste of time.. *sigh*

Taking the hounds to the downs tomorrow, hope its not as cold as the other day *brrr*

As it is coming to the end of the year I have been mulling over how good/bad it has been so far. As to be truthful I have noticed that my mind keeps comparing it to times in the 90′s when I *think* they were better. However I know that they were not, and that I’m just rose tinting my specs because my memory of the bad times has started to fade.

So as I look forward to 2009 and what may happen I have decided to ignore what *may* happen and just go for it and fight tooth and nail.. One thing I have not been known for is getting what I’m owed or asking for payment, basically I’m just too damn soft! Well 2009 I think I will be changing that and becoming more hard arsed with people, at least that’s how I feel right now hehe..

Certainly going to try and spend more time learning the guitar and less thinking about it

Am I going to be making a new years resolution? Nope because the way I see it if you can’t keep it at any time why should you slower it all up and say it’s a “New Years Resolution” that’s just a big advertisement for “I’m not taking it seriously” *sigh*.

Lots of people spend their time moaning about what has gone wrong and how unfairly they have been treated, you make your own life so stop blaming everyone/thing else and get a hold of yourself that is what I say.

What else.. Popped out to Bexhill bought some veg from Aldi’s and then headed back home, had a blazing row with Angel about nothing before saying sorry and spending the evening playing online with Jasper, before heading to bed early for a change.

Boy it was cold last night.. Brrr anyway took the hounds to the downs in the afternoon, well about 4pm to be truthful just before it started to get dark.. And well it was bloody freezing up there on the downs the ground was frozen solid and it looked like it had snowed it was still so white and crisp!

Had a call in the afternoon from a client and sorted out a problem remotely.. Still money is money in this day and age.

Wondering whats going to happen come Jan.. as now no money at all.. oh well… We shall see what 2009 brings…

Played online with Jasper tonight seems his Live membership had run out so I ended up giving him a 48hour code I had laying about.. So played some more Too Human before watching a couple of films both pretty dire..

Got up late and spent the day just chilling out (which was nice) kept finding myself playign the guitar a fair few times too.. Starting to get used to the new one a bit but have to be honest and say prefer the acoustic still, the electric is hard to get to sound right at the moment. I expect I will get it to sound better over time though

Watched a few films and generally had a cool time, took the hounds onto the downs and watched them wear themselves out again hehe.

Relaxed day..

So the day has arrived and with Jasper and P dropping in to say they are not making it we start to think that perhaps everyone is just too old for these sorts of thing now. Still I have a bit of a play around and get some PC’s arranged out the back (just in case) sort out the Xbox 360 with “You’re In The Movies” downstairs before settling back and wondering when people will (if at all) turn up.. 6.30pm arrives with Rahl turning up even though he has a terrible cold, still when he arrives I shove on the Xbox 360 and test out the movie game thingy.. which is.. errr.. No good for a projector setup *sigh* the projector meant you had to have the room dark and err.. with a camera you need a room bright.. *doh*.. Anyway play it as best can then watch the results.. Hmm *must be a four player game to make it good*.. Still might get an airing again.. certainly not recommended though

Bubble arrives just as we have finished making fools of ourselves and we chat for a bit before deciding on a game of Poker, lasts a long time as everyone is playing properly (for a change) with Bubble going out first followed by me (one bluff too many ).. Then sat around chatting for a couple of hours until everyone decided it was late and time to head off.

So actually was a pretty good laugh in the end..

Perhaps next time we’ll make it a FPS night instead

Someone told me that the real day that presents were given on all those many years ago was in fact Boxing Day, I even remember getting some presents on Boxing Day when I was a kid. Not so these days as Boxing day is just another excuse to flog a dead horse to the public and instill a need to spend money as if it was going out of fashion. I actually wanted to have a look in Blockbuster games, as I always do (hey they have lots of retro stuff there even now) and after Jasper and P had left we popped in for about 2 minutes looked and left. truth be told even if they did have something I would have bought I would not have stood in a line like a Zombie clutching it to my breast in case someone else took it.. No I leave that to the drones.. *sigh*

Then back home and managed to nod off on the sofa then out with the hounds before a nice salad dinner *yummy* and some gaming online in the evening Also found an old Xbox game that Angel and myself used to play so that is going to get some serious play soon me thinks

Ok this year is a little different as most of my prezzies are less than gadgetry and that’s mainly due to the fact that well I’m a right pain in the arse to buy for lol.. Anyway top of the list of cool items where -

Electric guitar from Angel – although the neighbours maybe thinking of moving shortly so bonus there.

Leather Jacket from Angel – Always wanted one and pretty chuffed to have one now

Circuit board mouse mat from Kirstie and Dan – Looks like it used to be an old 486 too, tried it with a laser mouse and needless to say think this one is for balled mice only hehe.

Bonus points this Christmas – No socks, underpants or useless items.

Lemmy popped in towards the evening and dropped in some prezzies too think he was chuffed with the ones we got him too which is nice, made a change to get him some stuff that was actually useful too, rather than vouchers.

Had a nice dinner with a bit of wine and generally had a cool relaxed day.. Ended the evening playing a bit of Rock Band with Angel and watching a film, decided not to go out anywhere in the end hehe..

Anyway Merry Christamas to all those who know me and to all those who don’t Merry Christmas too

Welcome to Meltdown Eve 2008, this is the day when all the shops increase prices by 75-80% and say they are having a sale, whilst strangely selling out of the only item on sale 5 minutes after opening (well they only had one). This year we managed to get *everything* sorted early even having the food sorted yesterday so now our siege mentality has kicked in and it won’t be long before we start stacking objects in front of the front door, turning the lights off and pretending we are not home

The day was spent mostly mooching around.. Rahl popped round and dropped off about three metric tons of dog treats and toys, whilst Angel popped in to Nan’s.. And I felt like crap all day sneezing and trying to reduce my body mass index by snotting half of it out my nasal cavity… Just think of that film “The Blob” and you get the idea.. “brrr”..

Then had another go on Too Human in the evening, started to have a headache towards the end, although it was a marathon (snickers) session.. Went to bed early just in case Satan (he is the one with the red coat isn’t he?) was waiting to come down out chimney.

Ok so today has been about a couple of things.

First I discovered that running two monitors and using VirtualBox can be pretty surreal and second that Firewire printers are a complete arse!

So firstly I was playing about with VirtualBox after finding the extra 3D implementations I thought I would play a bit so installed URT and tried that out.. Ok but the mouse goes mental.. Not sure why but will have another play soon. Second Guildwars needs DirectX so no chance there *yet* and finally clicking on the fullscreen option and dragging it to the other monitor is VERY cool as anyone walking in sees Windows XP on one screen and Linux on the other.. when you drag a mouse from one screen to the next lol.. Now THAT IS cool..

Secondly the machine over the road is *still* having issues, this time the firewire card reported it could not start, no ryhme or reason to it as nothing else had changed so I took it away and did some DIY filed down the card and added a little tape (so it slipped past a STUPIDLY placed Capacitor, come on designers are you really that thick?? Placing it right there when there is heaps of room all over? Not only that but why, WHY not lay it down???!?!?!). Anyway decided to add a second card just to go for overkill. Took it back and it worked fine.

No Too Human again this evening.. Hmm not too bad a game and it is starting to grow on me but the camera is really annoying now..  Not only that but come enemies seem to die very easily to certain weapons and others you just can not kill and end up dying over and over until you just get lucky

Ok so those who read this on a regular basis (you really should see a therapist you know) will remember me waffling on a couple of days ago about setting up a bridge in Linux (mandriva in this case) so I could get my VM machines to have local IP addresses so I could route to them etc for testing. Well I should have waited about 10 minutes and just updated to Version 2.1.0 of VirtualBox as it actually err has that now “DOH!”. So I suppose the only thing I can take from this is that I have become a lot more familiar with the CLI in general. Oh dear.

Anyway updated to the latest version, which was a pain too as I needed to backup the old VM’s, just in case, uninstall the old version and then restart and install the newer version. and.. of course remember to delete all that pants Bridging stuff you hacked about.. *sigh*

What else.. Paid a stupid £13 to the post office for importing a package (now before people say tough luck, why do I pay the post office £8.00 of this so they can hold my package, stick a white label on it and try and say it’s the Customs I never know) which turned out to be damned expensive as not only did it cost a lot anyway but they added import duty without converting the $ to £ (which just to rub it in is crap at the moment anyway). *sigh*

Also played Too Human again tonight but almost decided to give up after finding my game save had disappeared! So I had to start all over again and no I did not delete it Jasper pointed out about 5 million times that I must have deleted it.. *sigh*.. No I didn’t! Damn it the game is going down a lot right now if this game saves goes them i may just use the DVD as a shuriken star sanding a filing th3 edges down so I can make it into something useful DAMN! YOU!.. ARGHH!

Also watched “The Hulk”.. Think that is the name for the second one.. What a load of twaddle.. Don’t bother as you could get some green jelly and some toy soldiers and make a better movie not only that but a small child could be used to slurp up the jelly make it more scary than the movie.. .. Perhaps I should find a dark room and meditate on some Bourbon creams?