Yule be sorry...

...I couldn't resist it!

I had the most amazing Christmas. So good to see all the family and really ace to have Tola there too...even if it did mean seeing less of Joe than normal ;)



As the elder brother I really enjoyed being driven to Cambridge and shepherded onto buses and into shops...no responsibility. I felt like Andy from Little Britain ("I want a hotdog!", "Not that shop", "I'm going...it's the Grafton Centre!")

Actually, I think mainly it was faffing. Bro, you faff for Britain.

Moments of note: being killed by cats, smoking with the dog, 5 minutes sh!tting myself coz Mum's stereo wouldn't work, meeting up with: Vera, Den, Nikki, Steve, Liza, Paul, Mark, Jan, Rory, Andrew, Emily, Sam, Jack, Tom!...apparently no person un-mentioned (thanks ma).

Wish I'd taken more photos, but all I managed were 3-beer-art and the odd dog/cat photo.



I love Rubes....I'd like to love LillyCat (so I do not get confused with LilBabe) but she keeps running from me!



Good night.

Last Lil til Xmas

So. Just had my last Lil sesh before I head back to M&D's for Yule.

I bought her a rattle....she loves it!

  

As I Thought...

...I am indestructible!

Even biology cannot kill me!

My lump was a intramuscular haematoegina.

Apparently this is rare and wierd. In that, it looked really bad when they looked at it, but sending it away resulted in: "NOTHING"!

Hah!!!

o.o

Storing & Watching Video on PC

I keep a lot of movie files on my machine at home. A lot...I've just backed up 200Gb. Lots of people have said, "Why so many films?", I have no TV, "How do you store and watch them?"...read and learn.

I take no responsibility for the illegal downloading/xopying/distribution of copyrighted content.

DO NOT STEAL STUFF!!!

Fundamentally, there are 3 ways of getting Video (by which I mean TV, Films, and other Video) onto your PC: Record from a PVR/TV Card, Download, Rip from DVD/VCD. I do all three; so I'll deal with each in turn, beginning with the latter.

Burning from Disc:
1. Rip It!
- I like to use DVD Shrink, for which there are many options. Probably the best thing to use as you can cut out unwanted subtitle languages/audio and compress a DVD down so it's generally still usable in a standalone DVD player but MAINLY takes up much less disk space even as a DVD filesystem.
- For "guaranteed" easy ro use (read "slow") results, you need a combo package like: "1 Click DVD Copy" with "DVD 4 3" and "CopyToDVD". For unencrypted DVDs CopyToDVD should be enough.
- VideoLan. Well.....see below, it rocks but can be complicated. :)
You'll be able to rip from DVD to MP4 by the end.
VideoLan can also read BIN/CUE files (about 1/4 size of a DVD)!

Download:
1. Erm, use your favourite method of downloading: IRC, Usenet, or a good Torrent portal. Or maybe just right-click a file. ;)
- You've probably got an AVI/MPG of something using DivX and probably playing sound in Windows MediaPlayer or your other run-of-the-mill media player software.
- GET VIDEOLAN! I cannot stress this enough....there will be more
tutorials to follow; this is just the basics.

Record from TV Card:
1. Most, e.g. Hauppage, TV Cards record to MPeg2, which is a bit fat. So, that's OK for the original recording but then you need to compress it down. Again I recommed VideoLan. Do a convert to MP4 or something, because then you can easily lower the bitrates to get it onto your
iPod/Mobile mediaplayer.

If anyone has any tips on screen re-sizing (using VideoLan or other program) I'd be grateful for them.

How to stream with VideoLan!

I've not been too helpful really, but if you have an ounce of sense you'll do some looking around t'internewt for usage of the appropriate software. :)

PS. I just re-encoded the Babel video for Pearl Street Raga to iPod (video) and am now creating a mobile phone version (should work on good Nokia's, SE/// and Orange SPV)! You can mail me for a copy...

Far Less Gruesome

So, are you fed up with pics of scars and manky staples yet?

Thought so...here's someone much less gruesome :)



Fast asleep on my sofa...it seems the trip to Tesco to stock up on blank DVDs wiped her out...and what's with Mothercare: "Open at 10am but no purchases before 11am"? That's just f*cked up! Still, Rosie would probably have killed me if I bought the "When I grow up I want to be big & strong like my Dad!" T-Shirt....so obviously for boys....but, heh...next time.

Looking forward to a week off work....and get my biopsy results tomorrow...fingers crossed, coz I really can't be doing with further surgery or chemo or anything like that.

0.0

The Pain...

...is diminishing; it feels like am getting over tonsilitis or something. A slightly painful lump in the throat while swallowing (where the lump on my thyroid was) and a sort of tightness of the neck skin where the staples are.

Props to Bucko for this (rather gruesome) pic.

The Frankenstein Look is IN!!!!!

Today's THE Day!

Surgery Day!

Yay!.....or rather, not Yay!....

Here are some pics to get you in the mood.



There's a lot of important blood tubes around there! :/

Hopefully I'll be out tomorrow (Thursday) and fully functional by the weekend....I'll get some pics of the scar up here when I can :)

Wish me luck...

Back in Briz

Had a lovely morning with Lil yesterday. We played with her singing Sunshine toy (which makes her squeal and make miaowing noises), went to the Market (where I bought a Hydrometer and Lil was admired by the brewery lady) and had a little singsong while we walked to the Farm.



Current song (with a tum-te-tum-te-TUM rhythm):
There's a rainbow in the sky
And it makes me wonder why
They are such a pretty sight
Well, it's the refraction of the light
Through rain...
...It's plain...
That makes them shine so bright.

I'm still working on the one about the coriolis effect, but the "Prime Number's are kinda cool" rap is coming along nicely....

So...check out those boots...



The bib is on because we are teething and thus very dribbly! :)

Traffic

Todays Boring Room

Day 3 of the Borefest sees us in the Novotel a few doors down from the office we'd been using previously...today was a continuation of yesterday really as we are seeing the same supplier as we saw yesterday afternoon, but for different applications. Unfortunately I am only interested in 2 of them and now I have seen 4 separate applications...well when I say interested, I mean "have a vague concern about because it relates to my job".

I have been emailed by a lady!

O.O

Not going to tell how or why, but potential lady on horizon...w00t. Trouble is I'm not sure what she looks like....but I do know that we share similar interests....not limited to geekdom either!

So...here's where I am spending my 9 hours of internment today.

Still, tomorrow is the last day and me & Big Stu are heading back on the evening flight...let's hope there's no delays and we actually make the flight on time.

How boring is this....

Where I am spending my days...

Gay Paree

So, I'm in Paris for the week....up at 4:30 this morning, but I tricked myself by going to bed at 9pm the night before! Winner.

Not a lot to say yet, I suspect it will be boring, but I did see a massive motorcade full of Asian looking people hairing round the peripherique near Montsouris.

Anyway...here's a pic from last week.

Please Scroll Down...

Yo!

Realise it's been a while since I posted but I've been busy trying out the new job. I don't yet have full control of my own projects as I am only in the office for 2 weeks before the hospital/recuperation period, so I am helping out Big Stu with his Emerging Markets SIM applications....this may mean nothing to you. To me it means 2 days of filling out documents. scoring applicants and then spending 4 days in some anonymous room in Paris next week.

At least Big Stu is coming too....so I wont be forced to wander the streets of Paris on my own or sit in the lobby/bar reading my book :)

Got loads of new software and films to play with at home too.

Lil came round this morning for a couple of hours. It was only scary for about 10 minutes when she cried like mad and would not settle. Had to call Rosie, who suggested taking her for a walk. Obviously this worked. Straight to sleep......I walk pretty much everywhere in Bristol, so this bodes well for the future. She loved her singing baby plaything though....and the nest I made her from duvet, pillows and blankets...

So. Please scroll down and check out the links on the right hand side...I'll be posting some stuff from Gay Paree hopefully.