Tag: LCD

bookmark_borderThe impossible bike ride

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My legs are pumping, sweat drips from my brow, trickling down my nose, my hands are slipping on the grips and through half shut eyes I watch the distance slowly rise.

More! Faster! COME ON!! I silently urge myself, blocking out the slow burn of acid in my muscles, pushing myself on, adrenalin surging round my body whilst I gasp for air.

The timer counts down, seconds to go, I know I won’t make it but I have to try, all the way, 100% until there is no time left, push push push, the pedals spin and my legs scream at me to stop.

The timer hits zero, I sit up in the saddle and gulp down air. Huge mouthfuls, a drowning man saved. My legs slowly calm as I slow down.

I look down at the display, hoping for the distance I want, the distance that was set, the target that spurred me on.

The LCD glows. 10.4km.

I silently curse.

I slowly cool down, stretch my legs and head home. Why can’t I do it? Why am I so far away from it? I’ve done it once before, mere weeks ago, what is wrong with me??

And then it hits me.

Two weeks ago I sat back after spending 40 minutes on the bike. I ‘travelled’ 12.1km. Excellent, I thought. A good target. Since then I’ve only managed around 10km, quite a drop, and it’s taken me until now to realise why.

I’m only cycling for 30 minutes.

My brain is trying to kill me.

bookmark_borderShiny and New

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Despite suggesting that I had, I didn’t actually purchase a 1TB drive the other day. I was perilously close and it was only the realisation that we were getting the bathroom done (and the car needs an MOT) that stopped me.

The same basic maths (money in – money out) is what will stop me getting the new iPhone 3GS when it is available. The one thing that excites me the most is the improved camera as it is safe to say that I’ve started using it far more than I imagined, largely thanks to the application Flickit which makes uploading images from my iPhone to Flickr achingly simple. Add in CameraBag for some post-processing fun and I’ve actually quite enjoyed using my iPhone as a camera.

Still needs must and if I’m honest a new iPhone isn’t a need. Neither is a 1TB drive, nor a second monitor or a second LCD TV for the bedroom, nor any manner of media gadget for the living room, indeed there is not really any need for any other shiny new things.

Yet the desire to get something shiny and new remains and, no matter how many I purchase, just isn’t sated by recent Threadless purchases.

Note to self: whatever happened to that t-shirt project you were gonna do? huh?? Lazy sod.

The iPhone remains the best gadget I’ve bought for a while, largely because the “ohh new and shiny” appeal is constantly being polished by the discovery of a new application that I didn’t know I needed. Apparently there’s an App for That too…

I don’t think I’ll ever be cured of the need for something new. It’s almost, but not quite, a grass is greener type desire balanced only by the fact that I can’t really afford to ‘experiment’ with new shiny things so said purchases are always well considered and match my exacting and specific needs. Part of me wonders if I enjoy the planning/researching stage more than I let on.

And part of me wonders just how much I have left on the credit card…

bookmark_borderStorage

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I have a MacBook, and I really enjoy using it as it is a very nice experience.

I have a PC, and I really enjoy using it as I am a power-user and have it tailored to the way I work and I’m very comfortable in the environment.

I find myself wanting to use the Mac for more but as I’m still learning keyboard shortcuts I find myself pausing and.. well it’s still not as fluid for me as working on the PC. Part of that is the resolution of the MacBook screen which is, these days, rather low. Hence my recent ponderings about a KVM to allow me to hook up the MacBook to my LCD monitor.

Anyway, another thing that stops me switching fully to the MacBook is the pitiful hard-drive. My music collection ALONE, is larger than the drive which brings me to the topic of this blog post.

I think what I need to do is switch out all of my storage needs, files, photos, music, to an external drive. That way it doesn’t matter what machine I’m on, I can just switch the external storage drive and access whatever I need.

So I just need to figure out how to move the iTunes library files to an external drive and I’m all set, I think… Ohhh yeah, and buy a big enough hard drive (and backup).

Or maybe buy an iMac… hmmmm

bookmark_borderWeekender

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Busy day ahead, so I’ll be brief.

My Office Christmas party was on Saturday night. Drawing up at the main entrance, I was greeted with a red carpet, and gladly accepted a glass of fine champagne. I turned down the partridge and quail

The meal was served in the atrium area of our office (the carpeted section in the photo) and was pretty good. All I really remember was the constant supply of bottles of red wine, put an empty one down, 10 seconds later a full one appeared. It was such a fun game… i think.

Meal finished, it was time for the company awards. I was lucky enough to be nominated for one but didn’t expect to win, and the rest of the awards (6 in total) were all won deservedly. Next up, the raffle. The main prize that everyone was hoping for was a set of “bespoke curtains”. No, wait. That’s not right… ahh yes, the main prize that everyone was hoping for was two return flights to New York. I didn’t win them either, nor the 27″ LCD TV or the bespoke curtains. There were main other prizes but, thankfully, the rest of the draw takes place today (I’m holding out to win the lamb. Yes, seriously. A lamb.)

Then the band started. A few ceilidh numbers at the start before they started pumping out some classic covers. They were fantastic, although there is something odd about being drunk and dancing like a fool in the office. The reception area (you can see it, left of centre in the photo I linked to above), was the bar for the evening, and thankfully no-one fell in the fountain (on the left of the photo, just).

A cracking night.

And it wasn’t finished for me. Jumping in a taxi at 1am, I headed back to the Normandy Hotel were Louise was having her office party night out and which didn’t finish until 2am! I got to meet some of the people she works with, and as I was one of only 3 guys wearing a kilt, got a fair amount of attention. Why are women still surprised that men don’t wear anything under their kilts??

Back to the room at 2.30am and… up at 8.30 after a broken night of fitful sleep. Not sure if it was the bed or unfamiliar noises but I think I managed about 4 hours sleep in total. But that was OK, it wasn’t like we were going shopping or anything.. ohh crap.

I was a complete wreck yesterday (apologies to my parents who had come over for dinner) and ended up in bed at 9.30pm.

What a great weekend. How the hell was yours?

bookmark_borderBriefly…

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… no we didn’t win the Lottery, but if we had, I’d have a year long “see the world” holiday (and I mean real world, not “luxury hotel” world.. well ok, a few luxury hotels..), then distribute as much of the money as I could, leaving enough for Louise and I to live off without having to work again (in a modest detached house).

… Twitter, Facebook and the like. These are good for blogging as those of us who still blog have a little more ‘clear space’ into which we can shout. The ‘casuals’ are moving to more immediate and easier to maintain services. Perhaps.

… September looms and the possibilty of starting an MA in Technical Communications approaches. Or do I put it off until February (takes 3 years anyway).

… tinkering with my other sites a little, a minor rebrand is on the way and will alter things here slightly.

… there is a possibility of a fairly high profile client coming my way. Wants a website, will need to be on form for that one.

… no run over the weekend as my knee is a little (tendon) tender. Will try for tonight but Mondays are never good.

… we hired a gardener! How posh are we!! OK, it’s just to cut the grass and do a little weeding but it should free us up to do the other jobs, planting, fence painting, step building, patio re-laying type stuff. Lord knows there isn’t a shortage. And that’s before we finally finish painting the hall.

… and finally, once I finish it, I will post what may well be the last “Windows” focussed techy post here. I’ve using my Mac more and more at home, and once I get a wireless keyboard and mouse for it, I can see me using it almost full-time (I’ve got it hooked up to my LCD monitor already).

… I really must stop abusing this format as it’s a terrible excuse for a blog post.

bookmark_borderWeekender

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Friday night. Games night at work, with a Wiimbledon tournament running on one wall (using the overhead projector) and a Pro Evolution Soccer tournament running on one of the small LCD tvs.. a third TV had an XBox hooked up for various games, and a second Wii was chopping and changing another set of games. Chaos. And pizza.

My thumb still hurts.

Saturday and we picked up some friends and headed to Strathaven for a BBQ. The weather held, surprisingly, and we all ate too much. For a change I didn’t have that much to drink, with the onset of a migraine lurking.

Which wiped me out for most of Sunday. Bloody things.

Still, we did make it through to Dumbarton to wish our nephew a happy birthday. We no longer have any nieces or nephews who aren’t teenagers and Louise and I feel very old.

And that’s about it really. I did read Nigel Slater’s book “Toast” (funny and sad at the same time) and we did watch Transamerica on the Saturday night (great movie), but not much else happened. Which was good. I could get the hang of these 3-day weekends you know…

I see the discussion that, somehow, I kicked off last week is still going on, and I’ve got some more thoughts on that myself. As for the rest of this week, well I’m not entirely sure what it holds, but do swing by if you get a moment.