Christmas Prezzie

So. I spent most of the day trying to create a page to host a virtual(ish) version of our one-size-fits-all Christmas calendar.

I used google pages, which is incredibly easy to use and provides okay if somewhat formulaic results preeety quick. Absolutely fine for my needs though.

The thing that took the time was trying to workout the best way of uploading the stupidly large word doc' that was the calendar in the first place. Obviously write to pdf was my first port of call. I used cutepdf writer, on the recommendation of Mr Smeeth. It seems okay to use and was free (a key point)- but rendered a yet larger file.

I tried using 7-zip to shrink it but as most of the size of the file is pictures (I assume) it didn't work terribly well. Of course it's entirely possible (a) I had no idea what I was doing or (b) it ain't that good - as I've only un-zipped stuff with it before.

I then had a little bit of trouble working out if I could upload a file. Y'see the doohicky says 'upload a file', but all the help seemed to refer only to photo's. Tricky. Also I couldn't find any reference to the max file size.

A little rooting through the google help pages revealed nothing. However, a foray to the appropriate google group was much more productive. Giving me all the info I needed - and more.

So you can see the (somewhat pitiful) final product here-

http://eldiccon.googlepages.com/home2

And if you didn't get a Christmas calendar - sorry help yourself. Ditto if your calendar had a page missing (doh!).

Ken - Don't no if you read this but there is one on the way, along with the rest of the prezzie.
Ste - Ditto the second half now you are in the country.

Ken

Ken
Originally uploaded by Mr. Dtb.

Hammond In Second High Speed Roll.

On the day that the BBC finally aired the footage of Hammonds high speed crash (just photo's I'm afraid) - and dull it was too, a vehicle rolling at 300 (or whatever) mph is much the same as one rolling at 6o they just kinda roll and then stop. It just happens quicker this way. None the less - on the day....

I bring you footage of the Hamster in yet another high speed roll. You'd have thought he would have learned his lesson from this one eh!

Wise Words

Stuffed deer heads on walls are bad enough, but it's worse when they are wearing dark glasses and have streamers in their antlers because then you know they were enjoying themselves at a party when they were shot.

- Ellen DeGeneres

Too Many Pedals

I've been driving my sister-in-laws car today - it's what they'd call a 'stick-shift' in the US, and what we'd call 'normal'.

This is something-of-note as I normally drive an automatic, and although having passed my test in a manual, that's the only one I've driven since. Brief round up - it's trickier than I remembered - but I managed okay - didn't stall which is quite an achievement. My left thigh feels about twice the size it was, and I'm not sure a breathed for the entire journey as I was concentrating too much. That aside however, the main area in which I had trouble with the car wasn't it's excessive need to be interacted with.

No, it all started badly even before I'd got the engine going - when I tried to adjust the seat. It's got one of those snazzy electric seats, again a new thing to me, which seemed to be more like something out of the krypton factor than luxury to improve your driving comfort. The first 10min's of my journey felt like I was on a roller coaster as the seat pitched up, down, forward, backward, and generally moved through every imaginable plain. The next 10min's also felt like a roller coaster ride - but that's just down to my driving style.

The other major problem appeared at the end of my journey when I tried to pop the bonnet in order that my engine could be inspected for - well actually I don't know what it's inspected for but they always look none the less. So ten minutes was spent with an increasingly inpatient guard type person waiting for me to open the bonnet while I pretty much crawled around in the drivers, and then the passengers, footwells. I succeeded in popping the fuel hatch several times but this of little use as it is pretty much too small a space to hide anything in.

Eventually I remembered that you had to unlock the bonnet with the key - this led to another 5min's searching for a keyhole. Which I finally discovered was accessed by sliding up the name badge on the front of the grill. Obvious really! What is even better is that the little printed instructions on how to unlock the bonnet had a diagram to show that you had to lift the plate - but these are printed next to the keyhole and , therefore, behind the nameplate - Genius.

And I get to drive it back home again having spent far too much of the night at work - awake. At least there won't be much traffic on the roads.

Wish me Luck.

Or better still wish luck to anyone I should happen to meet along the way!

The wanderer returns

So Ste has come home to roost- well actually he is just having a brief vacation while he fails to sort out a new job in Korea from what I can gather. None the less we were graced with his presence yesterday - and, as always, it was more than a pleasure to see him. It's been a long time.

But as Ste noted it took no time at all for us to slip in to the habit of insulting him.

Ahh, it's good to be home ain't it Ste.

Definatly NOT Fish.

Someone has finally made it.
So I thought I'd grace you all with a large version.

Self Referential, Once Again

So relating to this post - -or more the comment.

I remembered the reading the following article - actually it wasn't this one exactly but a much more in depth discussion, I just can't find that one.

Don’t play this music while driving

Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ tops list
Updated: 1:35 p.m. ET April 16, 2004

LONDON - When Richard Wagner composed his powerful “Ride of the Valkyries” in the 1850s, he surely wasn’t thinking of any danger he was posing to 21st-century motorists.

Britain’s RAC Foundation for Motoring on Wednesday named the strident classical piece the No. 1 tune not to play while driving, based on research it says shows loud music can cause accidents.

The “Dies Irae” from Giuseppe Verdi’s “Requiem” was also considered a no-no.

So there you go.

I also saw some (less than stringent) reaserch on the excellent brainiac: science abuse.

They were having people drive around a test track and trying to distract them various ways. as I recall (and it's not 100%) listening to music you like is distracting - having girls get undressed and the dressed againin the car around you isn't ( the test subject was a 'lad', obviously).

The wee small hours

So. I'm on nights again - which is fine, it's better than working - and I pretty much get paid to watch DVD's all night with the small risk of someone finding a dead person.

No, the reason that this is note worthy is in order to defend the fact that I - it would appear at first glance - haven't lived up to my obligation to blog daily.

Well, I have it's just that you have missed out due to the shifting of my days to the night. This means

1. I have been awake since about half nine yesterday morning
2. Since I haven't been to bed yet it is still today.

So you see it's today not yesterday or tomorrow and that must mean that statement 1 should read

1. I have been awake since about half nine this morning.

It all makes perfect sense; really.

Big Bother

If - and I am extremely doubtful of this - but if Jade Goodys' career vanishes following the whole big bro' racism row. Then, well, for starters we can all breathe a sigh of relief that there will no longer be any risk of the talentless bint forcing her way into our lives. But more to the point she'll be unique in having had her media career (actually scrub that we could just say 'her career' - it's not like she was a oil magnet before the show) both started and destroyed by BB.

The Four giveth and the Four taketh away.

That Damn Song

So,

Stringent research has uncovered that my previous post was factually inaccurate in almost every count - thanks anarchkit (who trapped his boo (or penis to the uninitiated) in his flies once BTW).

I wish to redress this failing.

1. the ad was for ipod (?colours - not sure if that the name of the campaign or a product).
2. the tune was by steriogram.

Other tune's till better though - and I'm glad I had the opportunity to share it with the world.

Actually - having watched the ad on you tube for the purposes of this post I'm not entirely sure I've ever seen it before - it's defo not the ad I was thinking it was. So, maybe still open to debate.

Watch this space (but not too hard).

Sound words of advice

A little quote - as provided by the quotie tool on my google homepage - that I feel every world travelling, passport notch collecting, lay about (refer you to the sadly absent ste), should bear (?bare) in mind.

Exploding Bins

So, it's been a little bit windy on this small isle we call home. And quite noticeably so here at chez dtb.

So much so in fact that our compost bin has exploded.

It would appear that the wheeled bins - emptied today so both lighter than usual and not hiding in their slightly less windy corner as usual - carreared across the yard and took out the compost bin along the way. This seems to have been a concertated effort by the wheeled brethern as well; the first wheeled bin knocking over the compost bin and the second landing on it and breaking it up into it's four sides.

Only two of which I can see at the present.

This making it somewhat difficult to re-construst, and, I suspect, meaning we'll have to invest in a new bin.

There is also the vegetable matter, in varying states of decomposition, that now forms a largeish, if somewhat strewn, pile on the front lawn - where previously contained - to deal with; as it seems merely ramming the compost bin on top of it is no longer an option.

Maybe when we get a new bin we can get one with a screw lid so you don't have to use a large piece of masonry to hold the lid on (under normal wind conditions - I don't think that a large house would have helped keep the lid on today). I suspect we'll just get a cheap one from the neighbouring borough as they do a reduced price scheme thing and our council don't.

So that just leaves the rotting veg and convincing someone to commit minor fraud in order to provide us with a bin. Hurrah.

Speed freak

Note to self: don't listen to the Dead Kennedys whilst driving.

Got home in record time mind you.

P9091986

P9091986
Originally uploaded by Mr. Dtb.

Well. This has been in the guess what I shot group for little while now and no ones got it- so it can go to the big wide world. If you want to see what's been guessed then click on the photo.

Comment here or there it matters not.

Have fun.

;D

Crazy Tap-Dancing Penguins

Went to see Happy feet yesterday. It was okay. Small and Tiny enjoyed it which is the point I guess. They was dancing in the aisles. Literally.

SO it's a fairly normal story of tap dancing penguins saving the day - your kinda run of mill stuff.

Actually, really it most reminded of an 80's teen rite of passage, outsider makes good type thing with some heavy environmental spin as is now seems de rigeur.

Had a cool false ending which was incredibly depressing, and in a kids movie even more so - for a second it almost pulled me in. But then it all went shiny again.

None-the-less I wouldn't run to see it again, but equally happy to go see it when it tips up on kids club.

DOH

EDIT to previous post.

This is the ad I was thinking of wish very much isn't that music. Obviously. But i can't think what ad it's from now. And the fact that none of the ad databases have that song listed is making me begin to doubt the truth of my mutterings at all.

So if you know what the hell I'm blathering on about then....

answers on a postcard please.

I like Sweet Music

I stumbled across the tune that the cool photo printer add with the guy going in and out of photo's uses. The tune is ace - but what is more ace is the fact that the song is even better. YEAH.

It's here - it's by a guy call Hamell on Trail who's on the righteous babes label. The label started by the apocalypticaly ace Ani DiFranco. My personal all-time fav' artist.

Not such a big name in Blighty but seems to be pretty large in the US. At least on the right circuits. But then I guess pretty big on the right circuits here too - it's just you get back to the start quicker.

Failed already

But only 'cos I'm dumb. Got distracted just as I was about to write my post for yesterday and forgot to write it, in fact thought I had until now

DOH.

Well that's novel.

Thank you DaPi.

Where's My Pint

So.

For christmas I got a pottery tankered. Which is great - it was something I wanted, with out knowing I wanted it. It's very attractive. Drinks well. Has a nice pyramidical shape to it so it's hard to knock over.

However, 'cause it's pottery if you put it down you spend the next 10mins looking around for a glass full of amber/brown stuff going "which bastard moved my pint".

Which is most annoying.

Ha I'm NOT going mad....

So. I guess most of you will have - at some point or other - heard me going on about a US TV show I watched as a kid about pulseless aliens (that is of course unless you're some hapless punter who's stumble by here expecting to read something about bikes!).

And you have also, I guess, as it was the general response, looked at me blankly and smilied whilst backing away.

Well I'm not mad - I have proof of it's existance. It's on the interwebpediamajig so it must be true. There's Pictures an everything (note small-disc-make-person-dead-thing alien cop is holding).

It's even got it's own fansite (or twenty).

So there.

Playing Games

I have recently been sucked into playing a very cool game on Flickr. I am sure there are many - but this one is jsut like a game I used to play at primary school and it's great.

It's the old guess what this close up of an everday thing is game. It's cool nad you can find it here.

To get you started I have put a couple of the pic's in the previous two posts. One's been solved (so as to give you a bit of gratification), one's taxing the mind's of the great and the good of flickr as we speak.

If anyone can tell what it is that'd be great - many sighs of relief would be sighed.

I also found this, which is kinda a visual sudoku where you can change the images and stuff. It's probably very good but sudoku makes my brain hurt too much (I hoped removing the numeral element might help but no joy).

Kerb

Kerb
Originally uploaded by seanhepburn2006.

The One to Guess At.

(you can put your guess in comments I guess)

What am I 2

What am I 2
Originally uploaded by brainleek007.

And one that's been got already. Bit that doesn't stop you having aside bet in the comments before heading over to see what is was does it?

kerrrRUNCH

Don't worry I haven't just taken a spill. If that were the case there would be a much more intersting pic of my injuries over there ----->.

Or possibly not!!

The story is - in some ways - more worrying.

I was stood on the train the other day, actually crammed would be a better word, following a commute back from Leeds. It was rush hour, I had my bike and so the only place for my helm was to hold it directly in front of me. Now given that it's about a 25min journey and given my being English I couldn't possibly make eye contact with, let alone talk to, any of the plentiful supply of perfect strangers, and so was forced to examine my helm closely by way of entertainment.

On examining I discovered that there was a crack in it - running the full depth of the polystyrene stuff from - about where main break is in the picture is actually. In fact just where, should I hit something and come off I would expect my helm to take the brunt (unless it's the kerb. In which case experience shows ones knee takes the brunt leaving any form of protective equipment one may have deployed completely unscathed but I digress).

Now as you might imagine I found this quite disturbing. Disturbing as

1. I had no idea when this occurred (no not during the knee thing).
2. I had just weaved my way through rush hour Leeds traffic and muppetish pedestrians.
3. Last but not least - I had to do the same to get home from the station when I got off the train.

Not only did I have to do the same - but I had to do the same along a very busy main road known (at least in my mind) for the stupidity of it's drivers - by Hudd's standard's anyway - nothing compered to the driving on Chapletown rd. But that's another story.

Anyway, needless to say I got back in one piece (having been veeeeery careful).

This prompted me to make a lovely purchase (actually P. did as a prezzie; isn't she nice) - more on that later. And also for my older younger brother to destruction test my old lid. Hence the pic.

It took him three large jumps to render it to that state - and that was with a crack in the front. Sufficed to say my confidence in MET lids to stop your head exploding in a bike launching scenario is greatly increased.

A Little Bit'a Fun.

Apparently this blog's worth:

My blog is worth $1,129.08.
How much is your blog worth?

And some of my blogging buddies:

Ste's blog is worth $564.54.
How much is your blog worth?

A moderately healthy amount.

anarchkit'sblog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

HA HA!

'frin's blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

Only in it's (very) infancy at the mo'. I'm sure it'll grow soon.



But wait don't be too disheartened

Google is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

Obviously I have no idea what-so-ever how they manage to generate these numbers so if anyone can enlighten me that'd be cracking, (it's something to do with links into your blog).

New Years Resolutions

I don't really believe in such things, Mainly as I find it is just as easy to break promises to yourself at any time of the year. And as such I make and break resolutions all over the shop. Mostly no-one else knows and I'm very forgiving of myself so that is okay.

However, it is kinda traditional to reflect at this time of year and nights always put me in that kinda a mood, so I have couple of broad sweeping statements to make.

1. I will attempt update this blog everyday -even when I have nothing to say
2. I will cycle more

Okay not the most ground breaking of statements but here's the back story. When I started this blog I was pretty good at posting stuff - and most of it was at least vaguely interesting (to me anyway). However, events did what events do and I for a pretty long period of time I didn't post - if you want to know what events do then you'll have to trawl back for pathetic excuses. This was a lamentable state of affairs, I had a bit to say as well and just never found the time to say it. So, I reckon that if I get into the habit of saying meaningless tat then I'll be doing it when there is good stuff to say; if you get my drift.

With regards to cycling - well I'd like to do some - pref' in the mud/dust (okay actually pref' in the dust but I don't want to wait that long).

I don't mean epic treks or anything - and hour/half hour in the woods would be fine. 'specially as they are so easy to access now.

HAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHA
Originally uploaded by anarchkit.

I think anarchkit said it all really.