So, as mentioned yesterday, this weekend I will be attending the wedding of a work colleague.
To be frank, I'm not entirely looking forward to it.
Don't get me wrong, it's not one of those situations where I don't like the work colleague or anything like that. She's nice and we get on well, I think. The problem is more that that's the only connection - we work together. I don't know any of her friends of family, so it will be one of those situations of knowing nobody there.
No, that's not right - I'll obviously know the other people that are coming from work. Now again, I get on well with all the people at work, but I see them all day at work. Do I really want to be spending social time with them? And we're only a tiny company so we're not talking hundreds of people here - we're not even talking half a dozen, to be honest.
And, more importantly, do I want to be getting drunk around them? I've noticed alcohol tends to loosen my mouth and I'm bound to say something stupid or that otherwise marks me out as the weirdo I am, when I've been doing an okay job of keeping it hidden.
I'm sure I'm worrying needlessly - it'll be a case of a lovely meal and a bunch of speeches, and then I can just pop off when it gets a bit later and people are getting drunk and I'm getting tired. As I said yesterday, I only live a shortish walk way, so I can pretty much head home whenever.
Friday, 9 April 2010
Thursday, 8 April 2010
easter weekend
So, last weekend was Easter, which meant I had 5 whole days straight of not having to work, which naturally begs the question "What did I get up to?"
The answer is a rather disappointing "Not very much of interest."
As previously mentioned on the blog I'd been suffering from a stinking cold last week and I still wasn't feeling up to par by the beginning of the weekend. Friday I therefore mainly spent watching the last half of Ouran High School Host Club and some stuff I'd recorded. However, I did actually also go for a walk.
It was actually the first of two walks I did - the other being on the Monday. There were two reasons for me going for a walk. The main one is that this weekend I'm going to the wedding reception of one of my colleague's. It's being held in Farnham and, while I'm not sure I'll walk there (I may book a taxi), I'm thinking I'll walk back.
But the second reason is I'm a bit fed up of being as out of shape as I am. It's a bit of a weird thing to explain, because I've been having some thoughts that I'd like to be able to walk distances without getting really out of breath. Now I know the main problem here is actually that I'm morbidly obese, but in a way, that's not the bit that bothers me. It's the not being able to walk up stairs without sweating and breathing heavily for ten minutes I want to stop.
So I've basically decided I'm going to do that by going for some walks and hopefully that will improve my fitness a bit. The problem of course is that I may start butting up against the fact that really I need to also start eating a bit more sensibly as well and therefore as my weight would come down, so the real improvements in fitness would come.
Trouble is that's the real difficult bit for me.
Anyway, back to the point - I finished off Ouran, which turned out to be a really good series that I greatly enjoyed.
I also watched a lot of telly generally. As you might expect there were quite a few specials and stuff on over Easter, so I watched them as well as catching up on previously recorded telly. It was also the Malaysian Grand Prix and with the BBC's coverage being so extensive (they show all 3 practices, Qualifying and the race) that accounted for quite a lot of hours too.
I did no scanning whatsoever, though, which was a bit disappointing. I'd kinda hoped I would at least do a bit, but in the end I just didn't get around to it. What I did do was prepare a load more updates for trismugistus.com, which is always good. I'll start rolling them out from next week.
So you see it was all pretty dull. Part of the problem was everyone I know seemed to be off doing things, so I was just left to bimble around with no real plan or intent. I mean, I spent a lot of hours sorting through the scans I made myself or have downloaded and archiving those and fansubs to DVD and stuff like that. I tend to regard these as necessary activities, but they're so tedious (and time consuming) I only really do them when I've a big stretch of nothing much to do.
I did, however, get the time to do some more unusual entertainment stuff. First off I read Saturday Night Peter, the second volume of Peter Kay's autobiography. I didn't find it quite as funny as the first, which had me in stitches, but it was an interesting and entertaining read.
I also played Settlers 7.
Well, that is to say, I tried to play Settlers 7.
'm totally new to the Settlers series and I'm a bit torn if I'm honest. It's very similar to Anno, being a resource management/strategy type of game and in it's favour it's very slickly done. The campaign is engaging and interesting and teaches you how to do stuff. On the downside, I much prefer Anno's focus on the "sandbox" aspect and also, I slightly prefer its approach to resources. In settlers, some things get used up and are difficult to replace, whereas in Anno if you run out of something you can just pay to replenish it. This might sound like a cop-out, but of course you need to generate the cash to pay.
Anyway, my main issue isn't with the game itself, but with Ubisoft's horrible Digital Rights Management (DRM) implementation.
See, even though I've paid for the game and I've got a DVD in a box and everything, I still don't own the game. No, what I've bought is the right to rent the game off of Ubisoft.
See, it goes one step further than the really annoying online game registration. To play Settlers 7 you have to have a constant internet connection and you save games are basically stored remotely on Ubisoft's servers. And there's no offline mode.
Yes, that's right - if their servers are down (which it basically was all day Monday, when I was trying to play) or your internet connection flakes out (which mine often does), you can't play. Also, if you're in the middle of a game and your connection or the servers die then it pauses and won't let you play on.
I mean, I understand piracy is a major problem, but surely it's not in anyone's interests to punish the legitimate users?
The answer is a rather disappointing "Not very much of interest."
As previously mentioned on the blog I'd been suffering from a stinking cold last week and I still wasn't feeling up to par by the beginning of the weekend. Friday I therefore mainly spent watching the last half of Ouran High School Host Club and some stuff I'd recorded. However, I did actually also go for a walk.
It was actually the first of two walks I did - the other being on the Monday. There were two reasons for me going for a walk. The main one is that this weekend I'm going to the wedding reception of one of my colleague's. It's being held in Farnham and, while I'm not sure I'll walk there (I may book a taxi), I'm thinking I'll walk back.
But the second reason is I'm a bit fed up of being as out of shape as I am. It's a bit of a weird thing to explain, because I've been having some thoughts that I'd like to be able to walk distances without getting really out of breath. Now I know the main problem here is actually that I'm morbidly obese, but in a way, that's not the bit that bothers me. It's the not being able to walk up stairs without sweating and breathing heavily for ten minutes I want to stop.
So I've basically decided I'm going to do that by going for some walks and hopefully that will improve my fitness a bit. The problem of course is that I may start butting up against the fact that really I need to also start eating a bit more sensibly as well and therefore as my weight would come down, so the real improvements in fitness would come.
Trouble is that's the real difficult bit for me.
Anyway, back to the point - I finished off Ouran, which turned out to be a really good series that I greatly enjoyed.
I also watched a lot of telly generally. As you might expect there were quite a few specials and stuff on over Easter, so I watched them as well as catching up on previously recorded telly. It was also the Malaysian Grand Prix and with the BBC's coverage being so extensive (they show all 3 practices, Qualifying and the race) that accounted for quite a lot of hours too.
I did no scanning whatsoever, though, which was a bit disappointing. I'd kinda hoped I would at least do a bit, but in the end I just didn't get around to it. What I did do was prepare a load more updates for trismugistus.com, which is always good. I'll start rolling them out from next week.
So you see it was all pretty dull. Part of the problem was everyone I know seemed to be off doing things, so I was just left to bimble around with no real plan or intent. I mean, I spent a lot of hours sorting through the scans I made myself or have downloaded and archiving those and fansubs to DVD and stuff like that. I tend to regard these as necessary activities, but they're so tedious (and time consuming) I only really do them when I've a big stretch of nothing much to do.
I did, however, get the time to do some more unusual entertainment stuff. First off I read Saturday Night Peter, the second volume of Peter Kay's autobiography. I didn't find it quite as funny as the first, which had me in stitches, but it was an interesting and entertaining read.
I also played Settlers 7.
Well, that is to say, I tried to play Settlers 7.
'm totally new to the Settlers series and I'm a bit torn if I'm honest. It's very similar to Anno, being a resource management/strategy type of game and in it's favour it's very slickly done. The campaign is engaging and interesting and teaches you how to do stuff. On the downside, I much prefer Anno's focus on the "sandbox" aspect and also, I slightly prefer its approach to resources. In settlers, some things get used up and are difficult to replace, whereas in Anno if you run out of something you can just pay to replenish it. This might sound like a cop-out, but of course you need to generate the cash to pay.
Anyway, my main issue isn't with the game itself, but with Ubisoft's horrible Digital Rights Management (DRM) implementation.
See, even though I've paid for the game and I've got a DVD in a box and everything, I still don't own the game. No, what I've bought is the right to rent the game off of Ubisoft.
See, it goes one step further than the really annoying online game registration. To play Settlers 7 you have to have a constant internet connection and you save games are basically stored remotely on Ubisoft's servers. And there's no offline mode.
Yes, that's right - if their servers are down (which it basically was all day Monday, when I was trying to play) or your internet connection flakes out (which mine often does), you can't play. Also, if you're in the middle of a game and your connection or the servers die then it pauses and won't let you play on.
I mean, I understand piracy is a major problem, but surely it's not in anyone's interests to punish the legitimate users?
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
bleedin heck
Today is my first day back after Easter break and it's been non-stop.
We're putting together a banner for a show we're going to be at, and it's one of those things that takes way longer than you would sensibly expect. That's always the case with artwork like this, I find. You think 'oh, we can knock it out in an hour or two' but then it takes all day.
So yeah, just this crappy 'I'm too busy' update today.
We're putting together a banner for a show we're going to be at, and it's one of those things that takes way longer than you would sensibly expect. That's always the case with artwork like this, I find. You think 'oh, we can knock it out in an hour or two' but then it takes all day.
So yeah, just this crappy 'I'm too busy' update today.
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