Everything, Everything

Weather will be pretty awful this week, and I have to be at work for 7AM tomorrow. I like my nice warm room, don't want to leave it.

Feeling much better now. Been out to the pub a few times with friends from work, and old friends from uni are keeping in touch (like the lovely Katie, who now has internet access). Caz has finished Compilers, Chloe now has a boyfriend, and Jonathan's engaged - did I mention that already on here?

I forgot just how good this album is, a friend seems to be really into it right now so I found my copy.

Feeling tired and depressed right now, hopefully will feel better in the morning.

Okay, so most is still spam that gets caught by No Spam Today! (software based on SpamAssasin), but I have received a lovely lengthy reply from Katie (aka JOG) and a short but sweet reply from Callie (who - yes, really - I went to Pate's with). I must reply to them at some point before I forget.

Helen seems to be struggling to write an essay, the title sounds far more interesting than it actually is, I hope she does well on it. Apparently I found a useful link for her when I did a quick search in Google, as she needed to make hers a little longer, and you can't really pad out maths.

Spoke to Chloe and Jo yesterday, as well as my brother who can't wait for us to upgrade his PC next time we go visit. And he was also relieved that he hasn't lost anything important from the 40GB Fujitsu drive that appears to have died. My dad managed (after several failed attempts) to get into Windows and access the disk, and copy the data across, but the drive is definitely dodgy and wants throwing away.

Apparently it was snowing earlier this afternoon - it was certainly cold enough - as Maria sent me an email saying so. The blinds were down in the room I was in, so I didn't get to see it. I doubt she was lying though.

Finished work early today, so I went to get a haircut. The new kid did it, I've not seen him before, but he seems to have done a pretty decent job. I'll take a proper look later tonight when I have a shave and a nice, long, relaxing bath.

I got my new graphics card today, and it's great :D I can put the qualty settings to maximum and games are still playable. I'll obviously knock them down a shade to get perfect gameplay, but the blurring on Need For Speed: Underground when you use NOS is great, and the details and textures are now all visible.

I ran AquaMark 3, which my old card barely coped with, and I was amazed at the score, a whopping 39,406 triscore (20,000 and higher on those max settings is apparently acceptable for playing 'future games' like AquaNox 2. So I'm hoping this card will last quite a while! Now it's time to run 3DMark03 (which only ever made it through the first test with my old card).

Went to Cardiff today to help sort out my brother's computer. Looks like the hard disk has failed, so he's running a clean install of Windows 2000 on my old 30GB IBM drive until we get the new hard disk along with my graphics card (still waiting) and pass it all along.

My brother got me into Marion and Geoff over Xmas, it's really funny in a cult way, and one of the things he does is talk to the guy in the toll booth when he goes to Wales, so it was a good reminder.

I was surprised by just how good these shuttle boxes have become, I reckon I could make myself a nice system for my dad/brother for under £370 including delivery. If I didn't already have silentbob2 going nice and quietly, I'd probably look into building one. But for now my next purchase would be a TFT and a desk in my room to sit at.

This was the original title to Nirvana's opening song on most shows from late '93 and '94, best known as Radio Friendly Unit Shifter now (and also known as Nine Month Media Blackout). Interestingly enough, All Apologies, one of the other greats from In Utero was originally titled La, La, La... La.

Nirvana were so great.

Went out with Jonathan and Maria from work, still a little drunk now to be honest, and saw a girl who looked just like Katie from uni (aka JOG). But it turns out her name's Sarah (yes, I went up and spoke to her, didn't ask her out though).

Just finished eating a lovely omelette I made with the egss I got from shopping. I can't remember the last time I cooked one, I don't normally have eggs, but I'll have to cook them more often.

I must say, I'm getting quite into Nip/Tuck at the moment. Most of the new American shows are pretty good this year.

I still don't have my new graphics card, grr! Apparently the larger Zalman heatsink I have on my GeForce 256 is only a 'Satisfactory solution' for my new 9800 Pro, but I can live with that. As long as it's stable. My CPU runs hotter than I'd like, but I generally keep CPUs for around 9 months, and it's so much quieter. If it weren't for those noisy hard disks (well, just the Western Digital drive really)...

I have an iPod. Got it a while ago, already looked into opening it up but decided against doin it quite yet, luckily I found a webpage with photos of the insides. It seems it uses a 1.8" hard disk, but it's as cheap to buy a new iPod as it is to buy a bigger disk. There are some cool accessories for the iPod, but my current plan is to get my dad a firewire card so I can use my iPod as a removeable hard disk to move files across from home.

Also, I've got loads of apple and orange juice to help me fight this nasty cold, I think I'll go grab myself another cup as I'm feeling thirsty.

Lastly, I've taken a really old fan heater from home to help dry my clothes, as the washer dryer's no good at drying clothes, it just makes them really hot and slightly less damp. I also use it to keep me warm when it's too cold in here, as my PC's not on all the time anymore, now that I'm working. The bad news is I was drying my underwear by pointing the fan heater at my drawer, and I didn't realise quite how hot the plastic handle was getting. It's looking a little deformed now, but it's not that noticeable. Maybe I'll get myself some new drawers, or perhaps a proper desk, chair and (finally) a new TFT and have a nice looking bedroom. But that might require tidying it up a little first.

Lastly (yes, really this time) I should have paid off my overdraft by this time next month! Hurrah!

A lot's happened already this year, I've fixed something I wasn't expecting to do at work (and when I say fixed, I mean it's working better than it was before) and I've caught a cold, bought a new graphics card, spoken to lots of old friends, and taken a day off sick.

The cold's getting better, still a bit of a cough, but my tummy muscles ddon't hurt each time now. Was told I could go home anytime on Monday, but hung in and even managed to go shopping and fill up with petrol before collapsing in bed for about 15 hours. Back to work tomorrow though.

My dad wanted to buy another hard disk, so I'm splitting the delivery costs and buying myself a new Radeon 9800 Pro with the money I got from Xmas (and some of my wages, obviously). Not got it yet, but my brother should hopefully sign for it sometime in the next couple days when it arrives.

I've heard from loads of friends recently, like Callie (finally managing more than a term at uni, although she's still being flown out sometimes to do modelling), Katie (aka James Owen Girl), Kath (a fresher at Exeter who I've not even met), Chloe (still busy at work and visiting friends), Jonathan (still busy, not managed to meet up yet for drinks), and Gareth, Adam and Maria are back at work again so I have people to go to lunch with again! And loads more people who I'll remember later and kick myself for missing out, like Helen who I should remember seeing as I'm talking to her now!

I got some nice presents for Xmas. Aside from the CD changer in my car, I got a Bill Bryson book (A Short History of Nearly Everything), windscreen wipers (you should have seen my mum's face when I guessed what they were before even taking the wrapping off!), underwear (it must be Xmas), some money and a few smaller items.

I sent an email to a couple friends, and I realised I hadn't mentioned this before on here, but back in November I asked out a girl who turned out to live 50 miles away with her husband, and one girl I was interested in was far more interested in my other friend's housemate. That was definitely a bad month.

We've got a Nintendo GameCube in our flat now, Richard bought it today (after several days of nearly buying it and deciding it's not worth it, last thing I heard). Mario Kart seems quite good fun, I'll probably have a quick play later so they won't thrash me each time! I've also gotten into Need For Speed: Underground on my PC, hence the new graphics card as my current one (although cool) is quite slow and old now. It's pretty much the only part of my computer that's more than one generation old.

New Year was quiet, after Jonathan cancelled on me to look after his girlfriend who had a cold, I was hoping to go to the Comedy Night that goes on monthly here, but I missed it last night when I collapsed in bed, will have to join Jonathan (from work), Maria and Ross next month. Still, saved myself a fiver!

Oh, and we got a new server, a nice fast, shiny one, which is why I haven't sorted out the links to past months at the bottom, as Jonathan hasn't set the permissions correctly still. It's been over a week now, will chase it up next time I see him.

Yes, a new year, hopefully it'll be better than the last one. Actually, the last one was generally okay, it just had good and bad parts. I'm tired, should head to bed soon.