Ghatanothoa

Golden Age of Communication My Arse

2010-01-14T12:47:35Z

Sooooo I now have a proper business premises (nice serviced office in Stafford).
Gave the call to NTL Business about moving the broadband and the phones.. 30 Days
30 Fecking days to change a handful of switches and 1 hour to reconnect lines that already exist within the building (there is a thoroughly underused NTL switch box in the building), oh and £150 for doing it.

I have since chased them three times to get a progress report on the transfer and have heard nothing back. Unfortunately we have 12 months left in contract with them which they have cheerfully told me will cost approx £820 to cancel.

For a short term solution I have grabbed hold of a wifi dongle for the laptop. Unfortunately it seems to be impossible to use this usb wireless device to connect to 02 whilst at the same time using the laptops own wifi device to connect to our network.
So I can access our files and indeed send emails, just not at the same time... Bugger.

Still, only another 20 days to go.....

Cold Calling

2009-10-19T10:35:57Z

I hate cold calls at the best of times but some really annoy me with their useless one size fits all scripts...

Our firm is based in Walsall, they have called a Walsall number to get through to me...

'Hello, my name is Sarah I am calling from IIS in Dublin'.

(Obviously this is going to be a financial call... IIS is either 'make loads of money' or 'have you considered selling your business'.)

'We are making calls to all local businesses in the area.....'

(and thats the clincher. sometimes I give these people the time of day cos I know they must get a lot of flak, however, being told that Walsall is local to Dublin before my third cup of coffee of the day is just too much, at least I didnt say anything sarcastic before I hung up)

And now my body hurts

2009-09-26T19:27:09Z

Sooo, our Aikido Sensei has organised a visit to the Dojo from Sensei Steve Miranda from Sacramento USA.

I was feeling out of sorts on Tuesday night and didnt go but thoroughly enjoyed a good 3 hour session on Wednesday night. After all its not every day that you are taught by a Godan.

On thursday my attention was drawn to steve_c's journal and I just had to have a go at the press up thing.... and the sit up one.. and the squat one...

Roll on today and the first part of the weekend Aikido seminar. As we are a one car household atm I cycled across town to it before again thoroughly enjoying much wrist and elbow pain* and inflicting the same on fellow students. 10am till 5pm pretty much flew by (5 hours actual training time in all that) and finished with a refreshing cycle home.

Now my body hurts.. a lot.

Gawd help those doing tomorrows session as well.

*it's not the wrist locks or being thrown that hurts in the long term, its pulling your ass up off the floor over and over and over (etc...) that's really tiring.

ghatanothoa @ 2009-08-03T16:23:00

2009-08-03T15:25:01Z

Five words meme, words provided by pax_draconis

Children

It sometimes seems (from perusing certain areas of the internet) like children are the last safe targets for vitroel.
I can understand that not everyone wants to have children, I just never understand why people can get so venemous about them. I'd like to say that it doesnt bother me when it happens... but it does.
Being a parent (for thems that wants to) is brilliant, there is a very strong and pure love that comes from your child to you, and vice versa.
When (one of) your child(ren) grabs you in a tiny bear hug and tells you that 'I love you forever' there are very few things that can compare.

Dance

To link briefly to the previous topic there is a sign at my Daughter's school which reads 'Dance like there is no-one watching'.
After a few pints in a nightclub I think I adequately achieve said directive.
I am not sure if it is an age thing, but as I grow older I worry more and more about looking like a complete dick on the dancefloor, I think I find it less easy to fool myself nowerdays.

Heroes

I used to have a lot of these as I was growing up. I was largely brought up on God (which never really stuck), Sport and Westerns (not the spaghetti kind, but the classic John Waynes etc..) and I think the majority of my early heroes came from the latter two influences.
I generally dont tend to think of people in that way any more although if I were to choose one person who most closely fit the bill (i.e. was the person who had most impressed me with their achievements) then it would have to be my Uncle John. He suffered throughout his life from his early years with Muscular Dystrophy. He wasnt expected to live to see 20 and instead lived to 50. He was the secretary at his local cricket club, held a similar position in the local football admin and was the treasurer for the 'Sequal Trust'. He achieved more with the limitations he faced than a lot of us do with good health... and my Nan received a condolensces card from Stephen Hawking when he died.

Perspective

Visually I have always enjoyed the works of people such as Escher who play with angles and perspective to produce those brilliantly impossible scenes and backgrounds.
Mentally I am very good at seeing things from a different perspective when someone else is affected but not very good at doing it when I am. This is something I really should work on.

Tentacles

Whenever one comes across a tentacle the likelyhood is that there will be something cool but hideously evil attached to it (yes I think Octopi (sp?) and squid are the servants of you know who.
Whether it be the moderately evil plans of 'Purple Tentacle' or the innescapable innevitability of destruction from beyond the stars you know you are up against it when you find yourself faced with a tentacle.

It has taken me days to get round to writing these and everyone is probably bored of the whole 5 words meme but if anyone wants any you know what to do...

There must be a blue moon

2009-05-22T12:23:16Z

There were virtually no delays with any of the flights. The kids managed a day of travel really well. Car hire queue lasted an eternity but we did get a free upgrade to a chrysler tank (its an automatic, has very little low end torque and lets just say its a good that America has very few bends).
The hotel wifi actually extends as far as our room and my hands can actually fit on the netbook. Its overcast... but last night it was pleasantly warm even at 11pm.
The hotel room is big (should really have brought a cat to swing) has a coffee filter machine a fridge and a microwave and we eventually found out how to lock access to the balcony of certain death.
The hotel pool probably has a working capacity of 3 but if i threw one of the kids really hard from the room window they would land in the Atlantic (well maybe just the little one, the big one is getting too heavy to hurl nowerdays).
Wifey has just returned from the hotel gym and we are off for breakfast.
Everything is made of win.
Oh and apparently one of the works vans was stolen from site yesterday causing mass hassle and phone calls galore.... haha its great being on holiday.

A Return to Form

2009-02-02T11:09:59Z

After last years blip, the victory of the yellow towel twirling tossers last night indicated a return to form in the matter of my wanting the losing team to win the Superbowl every year.

I am not quite sure why I so utterly dislike the Steelers but they would have to be playing a team of undead Nazi's before I would have wanted them to win. Last night I was happy to support a divisional rival against them.

Still, there you have it. Even though the officiating team at times seemed to be waving their penalty flags as though they were 'terrible towels' (what a ridiculous concept) and as much as it pains me to say so, the Steelers did put on an excellent display and yet again managed to pull off a stunning late victory; arse. Defence wins championships and playing a very ~~dirty~~ physical game throughout the season does indeed seem to be the way to go.

I feel a bit sorry for the Cardinals but with the cock up before half time they really cost themselves the game. There has been a sad innevitability to things this season when the Steelers have had the ball trailing by 1 score with 2 minutes to go.

On a slightly different note, apologies to evil_chalkie for not getting back about the invite. I tried calling over the weekend but the number you called me on kept going to answerphone. Couldnt make it over as I was supposed to have a meeting in Newcastle this morning (which has of course been cancelled) and wanted every last bit of sleep I could grab after the game.

Fab!

2009-01-15T23:18:44Z

Here is a quick scan of the picture that I comissioned for my better half for christmas! It arrived (a bit late) a couple of days ago. It has to say the least been well worth the wait.

It was produced by the brilliantly talented Ed Org.

I am now a qualified first aider.

2009-01-11T10:02:28Z

Title says it all really. I could have posted this on Friday but I was too lazy at the time.
After four days in Walsall Rugby Club (probably the coldest place on earth) myself and 11 of our operatives now have first aid certificates (at the behest of our clients).

It has been interesting to see 11 hardened workers look so uncomfortable and nervous; they were most definately fish out of water.

Now I have completed the course I sincerely hope that I never have to put anything I have learnt into practice...

Wouldnt you know it

2009-01-05T09:52:40Z

All those bloody adverts telling you to check online for a better insurance premium.. etc.

Well I have done; choosing at random a comparisson company with a deeeeeeeply annoying advert... I have almost doubled the contents value covered, kept accidental damage, added legal cover, increased the personal possession / items outside house cover by over half and have found a policy that covers all outbuildings contents.

This has saved us £100, with the only downside being an excess of £50 pounds that we didnt have before.... so provided we dont get burgled more than twice this year we are quids in (I hope the karma fairies havent overheard that).

I am now considering the rather frightening possibility that moving our mortgage might save us money as well.

Christmas and New Year

2009-01-01T21:33:39Z

Its been an interesting week.

Christmas Eve was great. We had a pass out for a couple of hours and went for drinks with friends followed by present wrapping that went on into the early morning.

Christmas Day was good as well, the kids were buzzing, my Mother was only moderately contentious, lots of food, drink etc...

Boxing Day started rather well, then turned to shite by mid afternoon leaving us (myself and my better half) shocked and really pissed off! Certain things in life will have to change and this coming year will be very interesting due to this.... I strongly advise that everyone read 'Hansel and Gretel' and 'Cinderella' and 'Snow White' again.... they contain valuable lessons.

To be honest it took a couple of days for the good ship RD to right itself, which was made more awkward by GC2 coming down with Chicken Pox and being very fed up and restless because of it.

The last couple of days of December have been really good and today has been fab. At the end of it all, provided you still have those who are most important to you then you can take on anything and deal with any situation.

Good (ish) stuff

2008-12-12T10:52:23Z

I have just finished reading orcs (omnibus edition) by Stan Nicholls. It has been one of those strange books that despite being rather simplistic (felt vaguely Dragonlancy but with F words) and having many glaring faults, especially mathematical ones (dont tell me there are 30 opponents, describe in repetative detail the deaths of 15 of them, that 10 more are killed by less significant peeps and that 10 run away at the end.. it just wont wash.) has infact kept me reading from cover to cover.
It doesnt do what it claims to on the cover, 'change the way you think about orcs forever', because the orcs of that books world are a disenfranchised nation reduced to near slavery who happen to be green and it tends to move very swiftly from combat to combat with a wide range of enemies, most of whom add nothing to the story. Oh and theres a 'lets split up for no apparent reason they can get us easier that way' bit in it as well, and he doesnt have the guts to kill any of the main characters off until the very end and even then its a bit rubbish.
But somehow, with all its glaring faults it was still a reasonable read.
I wouldnt recommend it to anyone else, but if anyone else has read it I would be interested to hear what they thought about it.

The other night, as already described by my better half, we watched Batman TDK and Hellboy 2.
Hellboy 2 was great fun and very enjoyable (at least provided you arent a serious fanboy of the comic series). It was big and stupid and fun.
Batman TDK was quite a let down, especially after all the hype. I wanted a superhero film and got slightly quirky detective thriller.
What was deeply disturbing was not Heath Ledgers performance as the Joker (it was good, not earth shattering but very good) but the political messages sent out through it.
When Batman uses the mobile phone network to go all Daredevil, Fox (as the most moral character in the film) states he will not help him as it is too much information and power for one person to have. He is however talked into it on the grounds that the enemy is sooo bad that its ok to remove everyones liberty and once the threat is over everything will return to normal. At the end of the film Batty and Com Gordon decide that they have to lie to the people for the greater good.
So... say there is a great global terror threat... it would be ok to remove peoples liberties and privacy whilst lying to them about what is actually happening just so long as it stops happening once the threat is gone.... and even the most moral people can have no arguement against that, cos its so obvious that it HAS to happen. Bit too much of a right wing political statement for my liking.
And that unfortunately pretty much spoilt the film for me, there were some good bits but Christian Bale being supergruff (someone give him merocaine) and the rather boring setting (Tim Burton's Gotham was so much prettier) made it quite a let down.

Last Saturday I went to a mates house for a small lan party.... anyone who has not already done so should buy Call of Duty World at War and play the zombie survival game with three friends... omfg... hahahahahaha.
WAR continues to be fun, Orcing around is hilarious!

Finally... Metallica in good album shocker!?!?!?!
I stopped buying their albums after Load, then someone at work suggested I get the new one. Its actually good... In some places it is 'And Justice for All' good, in other places it is 'Ride the Lightning' good, it never quite makes it to being 'Master of Puppets' good but its still one hell of an improvement on the last decade or so.
I have happily donated my £10 towards the latest Metallica Gold Plated Ferarri Fund.

Crap Stuff

2008-12-12T10:26:43Z

Yesterday was awkward.

GC1 was sick during the night before at about 3 - 4 am.
This left us with quite a bit of icky washing to do which was started straight away.
Halfway through the first load the washing machine packed up so it is now waiting half full of vomitty washing water waiting for some lucky repair man...

GC1 then spent the majority of the day moping around hungrily, asking for food every half hour (which of course was not provided) and looking at us like we were depriving her as a punishment rather than for her own good... kids!

She was sick again last night so we head into day 2.

During yesterdays sickness tv marathon the kids managed to lose the remote control. So every spare second I had was spent searching for it in an attempt to rid our screen of CBeebies. Due to my magnificent child safety alterations to the TV cabinet (although really its to protect the AV equipment from the children rather than vice versa) it is impossible to manually change the channel, so we were stuck with mind numbing toddler tv all day. Eventually 'a' remote was found. Not the one that was lost, but the old old one that was lost many eons ago. There are bound to be other such arcane items hidden in the furthest depths of our sofa but I fear to search for them lest I be sucked into whatever evil dimension it acts as a gateway to.

Work wise, as we rush towards our deadline for completing plant operation NVQs we have yet again been struck by the dreaded spectre of the Health and Safety touch screen test. For those who dont know, you cannot apply for a new card / qualification unless you have completed a touch screen test in the last two years. This way the CITB can ensure that ~~all ~~operatives knowledge is still current~~~~ / they can continually screw £35 every two years from everyone in the industry. So with a deadline of the 31st December looming we have 40 people to push through a pointless test where they will be asked about working at height, in the ground, with scafolding and many many other things that they do not do. (There will of course be no questions about highway works, what would be the point in that?!?!?) After which their application forms will need resending to arrive by the 31st in the post christmas postal service.... oh joy.

That was a whinge brought to you by the letters a, r, s & e.

Vista

2008-10-28T10:51:49Z

I have finally found myself using vista.
What is instantly apparent is that everything is somewhere slightly different... this is not good.
Also, it appears that the default setting is 'complete windows noob' and thus it seems to be hiding as many folders and options from me as is possible; I feel like I should put on some mittens and stick a dummy in my mouth before booting it up each time.

Could one of you good people point me in the direction of the 'show me every folder' setting as well as the 'stop asking me to confirm every last f*cking thing I f*cking well do' setting so I can enable and disable them respectively.

Office 2007 is proving suitably alien as well. Still, it only took me 1 hour to find the macro access button... ffs

MMO's

2008-10-20T23:53:42Z

After a break of about 18 months I have yet again started on the slipperly slope of MMORPG playing.

This all started with resubscribing to COH and then not playing it at all. It was closely follwed by purchasing Age of Conan and my time is currently split between playing this and WAR.

I know a lot of people were put off by the sheer amount of bugs in AOC when it was initially released. Coming late to it I have found very few and have found it both beautiful and immersive game with a fabulous combat system. The down side is that theres no-one there. I mean really no-one there. It is on most servers a pvp game, but to be honest, when you meet someone of a similar level to yourself you want to hug them rather than kill them; its been that long since you had any kind of human contact..... I cant understand why more people dont play AOC (accepting those that were driven off by the initial poor release state).

WAR is fun. I wasnt too impressed in beta but tbh I have come to the conclusion that beta testing doesnt suit me. I prefer to play a game in its entirety rather than be instructed to play a certain race starting at a certain level and to do certain things for a fixed period of time. Beta just tends to put me off games.
So anyway, I have been playing it for about a week and a bit. A few days ago I would have complained about how my chosen class is badly balanced and how others have got it soooo good. Now its just the latter, but I shant bore people further with that particular rant. I still think it remains to be seen whether Mythic have created a game as good as DAOC was (before they ruined it with realm abilities). I think they may well have done.

Both of the above are great games for different reasons. If the best parts were taken from both then the ultimate MMO would be had, but isnt that always the case.

New Laptop

2008-10-20T23:36:05Z

I have just ordered a new laptop for work, complete with docking station.

After pestering the hell out of pax_draconis about his set up I eventually (due to a mix of, and progression through, technical, cost justification and then availability reasons) went in a completely different direction; apologies to him for basically wasting his time, although it was done with the best of intentions :-).

I am now getting a Samsung R710 and X-docking station. After some careful shopping I managed to save myself enough for a bottle of wine and a kebab which I can enjoy whilst figuring out how to get back those two hours of dredging through search / shopping results.

Reading that last paragraph I realise I am wasted on engineering. Anyone who can completely break through their initial budget of 'about £500' and yet still congratulate themselves for saving £20 on the overal price should really become some kind of spin doctor / publicist (before declaring themselves bankrupt).

I have sprung a goth leak

2008-09-18T07:40:45Z

Having taken the goth test Maleghast pointed at I find myself to be....

You Are 52% Goth

You definitely have some gothicness going on, but you're far from being a stereotypical goth.

You enjoy certain elements of goth culture, but you're not going to be into something simply because it's goth.

It's likely that you're the type of person who totally defies labels. Good for you!

If you are into something, it's because you sincerely love it. Not because it projects a certain image.

Are You Goth?

After thinking on a bit I retook it answering in a mid 90's ghatanothoa stylee and....

You Are 88% Goth

You are clearly goth. Even if you don't consider yourself goth, other people do.

Let's face it. You're a little moodier, darker, and weirder than most people.

But that's okay. You enjoy being different, and you're proud of who you are.

Many psychologists think that goths are more self aware and smarter than the average person!

Are You Goth?

Evidently my gothiness has started to leak. The question is, should I try and stop it?

Message Boards

2008-09-12T19:58:45Z

I am looking for a new message / bulletin board system.

Back in the day we used ezboards which allowed local usernames and allowed the admin to grant individual forum access.

I have been using proboards, but these do not allow individual forum access, they work on a password system which i find cumbersome and of course if you wish to remove access to an individual you have to change the password and tell everyone else.....

I have tried messing with Yuku, but this only seems to allow global usernames, which can be a pain in the ass because mose names are already taken when you try and register.

Does anyone know of an ezboard like system that is available online which allows local users and forum access set at an individual level?

Wot november_girl said, but its fun

2008-06-18T08:50:06Z

1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. List 5 songs that start with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.

november_girl gave me W

What you are - Audioslave
Wild Boys - Duran Duran
What you become - Lucia Ciafarelli
Wail of Sumer - Fields of the Nephilim
White Coats - New Model Army

Easy?!?!?!?!

2008-06-15T07:43:11Z

Today I shall be outside finishing building the polywhatzithene 'Easy Shed' that we bought yesterday from Homebase.

After spending four hours on it yesterday I am really f**king glad we didnt buy an 'Awkward Shed'.

Maelstrom

2008-06-10T18:17:01Z

Yes, last weekend was as almost everyone must know Maelstrom weekend.

Well, we had a brilliant weekend. It involved a hell of a lot of moving around in very hot weather in very heavy armour and was rather draining at times, but worth every ounce of energy thrown into it.

We achieved just about everything we set out to beforehand and worked well with the various spanners that came flying our way once we were there. We found ourselves having more purposeful interaction with more different groups than I can ever remember us doing at Maelstroms past. Its been really good to roleplay with such a wide variety of groups and other players.

The new group members from two events back have really found their feet and we have even more enthusiastic prospective members.

I also have to add that we had plenty to work towards because littleonionz put in a lot of effort both before and during the event. Maelstrom strikes me as being a game from which your return depends on what you put in, having someone working so hard for the group as a whole ensured that there was always a lot for us all to be getting on with.

Of course, Maelstrom would not run without the crew putting in huge amounts of effort so great big ups and thanks and stuff to all of them too.

I shall try not to be too horrified

2008-05-22T15:02:35Z

I did this to delvy so I guess I ought to be open to it....

1. Think of the first word that comes to mind when you think of me.

2. Go to Google Images and search for that word.

3. Reply to this post with one of the pictures on the first page of results (don't tell me the word).
(The html for images is here.)

4. Put this in your own journal so that I can do the same.

Hiding behind an umbrella

2008-04-14T05:55:18Z

Last night we had a visit from Gareth (sans lj) and I took the opportunity to break open 'Resident Evil - The Umbrella Chronicals' for the wii, which has been sitting on a shelf waiting to be played for ages.

Judging from littleonionz reaction there is nothing quite so funny as watching two arachnophobes trying to shoot giant spiders.

Where do you go to worsen your mood

2008-04-07T11:31:35Z

My father recently had his garden shed crushed by a falling tree. In actual fact his shed, his neighbours greenhouse and a brick outbuilding diagonally to the back of him.

Last weekend his insurance company saw to the replacement of said garden shed, since then I have had multiple calls from him about it. He apparently bangs his head on the doorway and thinks that it may be smaller in that area than the shed which it has replaced, so he has wanted to know -
Do I remember if I ever bumped my head on his previous shed?
How big is our shed door?
Do I ever bump my head on our shed doorway?
Is there a standard size for shed doorways, if so how big should it be?
etc.. etc.. etc..

When I asked what difference any of the above answers would make he has grunted something about just wanting to know; I must therefore conclude the answer to be 'none whatsoever'.

Today he has Meldrewed his way over to a local garden centre to look at sheds.

He wont be getting the replacement shed replaced, there is only the possibility of getting even more disgruntled than he already is after banging his head several times.

I hope I dont get like this when I am older....

Never again

2008-04-01T07:56:27Z

Mental note to self....

Do not ask, even if it appears to be the most innocous, harmless question, anything on the rule 7 Maelstrom forums.

I should have known better, sigh.

Maelstrom Recovery and other tales

2008-03-27T11:13:19Z

Maelstrom was great. When you love a bit of adversity nothing beats setting up two tents and an enclosure in cold wind, rain and hail. We had to give in on the smaller yurt for the weekend as the central ring just doesnt have the weight to hold the structure steady. The enclosure was dropped for a while (the wind snapped one of the 2" x 2" posts?!?!) but went back up on Saturday evening.
Finally sorting the camp let me actually play properly from Saturday onwards and it was all brilliant. We had a LOT of people in the camp for the event due to tent loss which made for a superb atmosphere.
All in all, thoroughly enjoyed it, thanks should go to PD for another excellent event.
Now I just need a sunny day for drying out all the canvas.

In other news whilst locating addresses for last weeks sites for invoices I have finally defeated www.streetmap.co.uk! The town of Eglwysfach finally proving too much for it.