I guess that summer done with..

Well that's it this part of the world has had summer, no seriously we've had our allocated number of really sunny days for this year already a whole 5.. I'm just kidding but well it's now back to rain, warm rain and it know it want's to thunder the air is that way, getting heavy, waiting for a break... then it's flash followed by the crack of the lightning as it accelerates the poor air molecules out the way..

Hmm Well it's still warm in my attic even with the skylight open. darn I need Air Con in here.. oh wait im in the UK what would I need Air for when I'd only use it for like a month in the year total. I guess I'll just stick to my desk fan in order to cool off, or I'll just have to keep my retro styled mini fridge fully stocked..

A Glorious Weekend

Well wow, what a lovely weekend it's been, nice an sunny, a bit too hot of my liking but I did get out in it a little bit today.
Went up to sister's so I could get help washing car cos I don't like doing it but it needed done, ended up doing mine as her's as well and getting little or no help (should have known). Was meant to be going meeting up with some on Sat but that didn't turn out at all (Never mind it's only me, unimportant me). Anyway back to today, lovely day, too hot to do much but washed car anyway.. Then nephew decided he wanted to play with his water guns... hmm with his friends who'd come over, sister though she'd got it timed perfectly so that the 2 that were there would be gone before his next friend got dropped off, well it almost happened that way, she was looking for 5 minutes peace didn't happen. I ended up getting soaked not before I got nephew and his friend (who had his own water pistol) wet... nephew cheated though kept running in and out of house to stop us getting him... but we got him.
Was fun, it was only water but what fun and it gave sister peace (sort of for a little while) Just shows you what can be done with a little bit of water don't it..

How do you really feel?

Hmm well you can blame Moogie for this... you might wanna head over to her blog in order to understand what I'm jabbering on about.. but hey anyways let's begin.
1. Who are you? My name is Gordon or Gopher.

2. Are we friends?Hmm I'm sure we are. I remember stuff for you..

3. When and how did we meet?Hmm Now that's going back, meet IRL never, wandered across each other somewhere in Free-DC land and well got hooked on your blog..

4. Do you have a crush on me? If no….why the hell not? Not a crush as such but you are cute, hmm darn gosh is it warm in here?

5. Do you read my blog regularily?Yeah. I do even when you've not posted for a few days I still check just in case you have.

6. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.Moogie, well you told me to call ya that otherwise Moogie J would come over and pummel me..

7. Describe me in one word. Magnificient.

8. What was your first impression?Your a lady who gets what she wants, when she wants it but is a little bit soft when required. You don't take no crap of nobody..

9. Do you still think that way about me now?Yes, but there is more to you than that.

10. What reminds you of me?Chocolate cake, you can never get enough just like I probably could never get enough of you chatting away to me..

11. If you could give me anything what would it be?Hmm your kids, they'd survive somehow well you need a break from them now and then.. I'd promise not to sell them...

12. How well do you know me? Mostly through e-mail and your blog but I real letter now and then might just work too..

13. When's the last time you saw me? I've not met you yet, but I'm attempting to work on it. Now where did one put one's passport application

14. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't? I don't think so...

15. Do you feel like your back in high school now? Yes. Crazy is it not.

16. Are you going to put this on your blog and see what I say about you? You bet ya I am.

A fine weekend

Well this weekend has been superb, well almost weather was nice yesterday and ok today, cloudy but still warm, Average Temp round here is about 21C (70F)
Played football with nephew yesterday down the park after it cooled down a little it was hotter earlier in the day and I had other things to do like get me a fan to cool me and my poor computer down... Yeah it was actually hotter in my attic than outside, it has this weird ability to trap what you don't want it to trap, like cold air in winter and hot air in summer...
Mind you I realised I couldn't spend any more one after I'd bought the fan, hmm needed pay day to come around soon but that won't be till end of the month.. I got enough in my account to cover what I need but not much more, guess I've went a bit nuts with the spending... Oh well I'm off to bed, to see if I can get some sleep before I have to get up for work tomorrow morning at 8:15.

My Grandmother

Hmm well sharon got me thinking about my grandparents..
I never got to know either of my grandfathers which is a pity as my mother's father sounded a really nice gentleman to know and well my other grandfather I'm kinda glad I didn't hmm if my dad is anything to go by, but thats a whole other can of worms. I only really knew my mum's mum, my nana as I called her. Was great every weekend we go and stay there, watch "CHiPs" and things like that, it was the early 80's, eat gammon flavour crisps hmm darn you can't get them and smoky bacon just aint the same.. Anyway I'll never forget the day we found her dead, I think we'd went down to see if she needed anything from the shops or something I was only 5/6 at the time.. there she was laying on the floor between the kitchen and the living room, toast was burning, she can't have been long dead as the toast wasn't that burnt (or at least I think it was).. Then it was all a blur.. Me and my sister got shunted out the way while the family took care of it, I don't even know where she's buried. It seems I wasn't to get to know because I was too young.. I hurts a little. My other gran died not that long ago, I didn't really know her at all yet I was expected to go. I was working that day, in the same company I work for just now, my sister worked there and was going, I didn't I couldn't I don't know what it is about my father family that just makes me steer clear of them.. Only one I give a stuff about is an uncle who is mentally retarded, a little slow on the uptake of things but he's alright the others I dont give a toss for.. Sorry Nana i haven't been to see you, one day I will, one day.. I'll find the courage in my heart to find you..
Darn that was hard to write..

A Film / Turned Down Again..

I gotta say I was looking forward earlier on to seeing Batman Begins with my good friend but she sent me a cryptic text saying "I cannot go" turns out she had to work late, so why didn't she put that in... I replied saying Ok, No problem, I'm gonna see a film, see you monday... replies with "I'm still at work" but I think what they hey, I was planning on going out so I'm darn well tooting going out and I did and I had said that to my friend earlier in the day that I was gonna see a film with or without her... Hmm should have seen it coming..

So I went and Saw "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" good film, not really for kids, some good stunts in it and oh yeah more than a few bullets... Hmm i enjoyed it dispite the fact I needed to "go" most of the film, I held on... darn knew it was a bad idea to drink Pepsi Max before the film but I had time to kill so I killed it by drinking finished it, got my popcorn and a 2nd drink incase I needed it... ate most of my popcorn before 15 minutes of the film was done, mind you had been sat there listening to music / trailers / additional trailers / the movie for about an hr..
Also let's just say it's good a few momements of absolute comedy..

Re: Moogie - MIA

Wow, she's not MIA anymore, moogie is alive and well and blogging, her strange style of blog once more..

Moogie - MIA

Folks its happened, something I thought might never happen....
Moogie appears to have gone MIA - unless I missed something, or got missed off the mailing list telling people what she was gonna be upto...
So Anyone know, anyone spotted her at a 7-11, Walmart or other such locale?
Or maybe.... The kids have had it with mom and decided they are gonna run the show and have hypnotised OWW into doing their bidding... must check out his blog to see if anything's happening.

Doh! or should that be Double Doh!

Do you hate it when you click on the "Save as Draft" button instead of publish post button on a post and then forget and go back the next day and not notice the post is missing and post then realise it's missing and go to start typing it again and notice a "draft" post which is Identical to the one that is "missing". Well I didn't quite re-type the post I checked before I did that..
If anyone is really good with MS Access 2000 databse stuff, HELP!, I've dug myself a hole and can't get out, I try something and it refuses to work I think I'm gonna have to start from scratch and redo the whole database, all the tables, forms & the query I've done so far as it's just too plain I want to be able to change the "style" but I can't seem to be able to do anything but change the color, oh well... Insanity here I come, oh and I need it done by erm yesterday..

Ophs

Well I leave my computers on 24 / 7 so it can number crunch for whatever distributed computing project takes my fancy. That's right I said computers, I got 4 of 'em and the one I do all my blogging on and that has all the programs I regularly use otherwise known as the Beast cos it's the best one, well it was a little hot last week but I notice the Processor temprature of it was a bit on the High side, it was 57C (134F) this was with the side of the case off and a fan blowing air in from that side but nothing helped, I even stopped the project it was running and ran a program I have called CPU Idle Extreme which is puts it under full load but turns bits of the processor off in doing so and cools the CPU down by making it produce less heat.. Anyway I got a new case for it and though while I transfer it to a new case with a front mount for a fan and a prefitted rear fan I'll check the Heatsink on the processor and see how much thermal transfer compound there is on there between the processor and it, well there wasn't much and I couldn't reuse the old stuff as I couldn't scrap it in to a useable pile.. I went okay, I'll clean it off and go find the tube of thermal paste I have, it's around here somewhere. Of course I couldn't find it (don't say it typical man can't find nothing) this was at 6:30 lastnight and I know you can't turn a processor of the speed I have on without a heatsink on it and without something to translate the heat from processor to heatsink. So I was stuck without my main computer for about 18hrs will I wait for the computer shop to open earlier on today.. Well I got it back up and running and so far it's doing better - it's 5C cooler at least and that is with the case full buttoned up and it running at full pelt once more - ya...
Rule 1 of building / refurbishing a PC - make sure you have all the tools you'll need in order to do the task at hand..
Building all you need is a small flat bladed screwdriver to undo the screws to open the case, and to put the screws in to hold the motherboard on the back plate, to hold the video card,sound card, tv capture card, etc in the appropriate slot inside the pc and to screw the case closed again once you've connected up the power supply and clipped in the heatsink on to the processor after it's fitted, to fit the hard drives / cd / dvd drives, cd / dvd writer. I could do anyone a step by step on how to build a pc if anyone wants to do it, well I think I pretty well could since all 4 of the machines I have here are hand built + I've oversaw a mate build his 1st pc..
Have fun and rememeber if your pc says it's getting hot check the fans..
I recommend getting Motherboard Monitor 5 < click the link to go to the website at livewiredev.com..
You need a little knowledge of what motherboard you have in the machine. A program that will tell you the manufacturer and the manfacturers number of your motherboard is a program called CPU-Z, Click Here it will tell you what processor you have as well as a few more peices of info, useful to have if you want to add more memory to it and need to know what type you have in it and what speed it is..you just look up the manufacturer then click the "+" beside that one and look for the number it gives you or as close as you can find, most motherboards are listed, it even has most dell / e-machine / hp ones included :)

Darn well blogger

Well folks I did attempt to change the template for my blog, got a nice shiny silver background for the top with an edge to it.

I attempted to introduce this to blogger and well it didn't like at all did weird things, darn freaking thing... *beats blogger round head several time*.. The result was I had to the orignal template layout and start again, thank god for backups (well just about).. I've decided I'll leave the sidebar on the right as well otherwise my site breaks in IE :|.. Just looked at it again and its still broken but it now in a weird place { swears some more } One day I will will win blogger, you will see.. maybe I need to go to the darkside? or maybe I'm already on the darkside and need to return to the light!

Gee It's warm this week

Hmm well I guess summer is finally here, it's warm.. Well warmer than normal right now I'm sitting at my PC sweating, with the skylight open, trying to cool down my attic space, my sanctuary.. Right now it's about 12C outside (not hot for some but this is 12:30am) and it's gonna be more of the same.. maybe even hotter.. lol
Gonna be cooler tommorrow night though thank god..

A Blogger A to Z Additional

Hmm well I've though about it some more and was thinking that maybe the Chapter Titles could have the A to Z theme running through them instead of the chapter subject being the A to Z theme object.. Sounds like a much easier idea to me
Well Guys what da ya think?

A Blogger A to Z

Well Thanks to "Fiesty Productions" we've had a few Blog Stories now,
We've had a Blog Novella, a Blog Noir and a Blog Western.
Now I'm gonna suggest something totally outlandish and off the planet kinda.
Before I begin let me introduce someone:
Step Forward, Ms Kinsey Milhone, PI, lives in the Southern Calafornia Town of Santa Teresa, she's been shot at, run down, killed people in self defence. Found people that are dead, alive having faked death, money, but most of all uncovered the truth..
You can blame the PI for the idea, or rather you can blame her Alter Ego, Step forward Sue Grafton Author Extraordinare.
Heres the pitch:
A 26 part blog Story.. Why 26 part, 1 part for each letter in the English Dictionary, just like the Alphabet Series Sue Grafton is writing..
Now what is the setting of this story well thinking somewhere in the USA, what each chapter is about well that is up to the writers of each chapter.. but the main subject has to link back to the previous one and be able to link forward to the next. You could easily set up one thing in a chapter and use it as cover in another, a bit like providing an Alias to cover up a Bungled robbery you get the idea yet..
Thoughs much appreached..
This is only a real open idea at the moment but who knows..

Re: I'm Mad I tell ya...

Well let me fill you in on how it went on saturday...
Went to local flower shop to pick up a generic bunch of flowers, well I needed a gift that wouldn't be misinterpreted.. Well that and I needed to go shopping for some more DVD's and the shop I use is nearby the flower shop on the high street.. Mind you typical ATM for my bank was "down" :| I think that and the other main branch near me are down every other weekend due to the fact they either a) run out of cash b) are needing major refrubishment and a kick ass hardware / software upgrade... but enough of that...
I got the DVD's first thankfully I could pay for them on my card..
I got Ocean's Tweleve, Lemony Snicket's - A Series of Misadventures and National Tresure. I then got the flowers and drove to see my ex-girlfriend and Jen - you and everyone I told about this though the same thing I'm NUTS..
But well it was a nice enough day, rain and sunshine, must be a Scottish Summer...
I got there, parked up, It wasn't raining at that point, it was nice.
I knocked on the door, wasn't sure it was the right house as car wasn't the one I expected but everything else was the same, heard the dog, I though right house..
My ex answered and I went Happy birthday Caroline, her mouth dropped and she made a sound something like "Oh" then said thanks.. I was invited in and give her mother a shook as well :D We chatted for a while, catching up on what we were all doing now.
All in all a fun few hours. I had to laugh a few times on the journey back it was that fun.. The look on Caroline's Face said it all :D

A helping hand for bloging

Okay I know many of you out there are driven to distraction at the fact that your latest incarnation of your blog looks great in X but not in Y...
here is what I do.
go to the template tab and copy the entire template, blogger spefics and all and then paste it into my favourite text editor which is UltraEdit it's a good all round editor but it's not freeware, it has syntax highlighting, i.e all the HTML Tags get highlighted, it also offers auto indent, which is great if your doing stuff and want the whole thing to follow on below it so it's all neat and tidy
Example:

  <DIV ID="content">
   <DIV ID="header">
    <DIV>
     <H1><ItemPage><A HREF="<$BlogURL$>"></ItemPage>
     <$BlogTitle$>
     <ItemPage></A></ItemPage></H1>
    </DIV>
   </DIV>
  <!-- Begin #sidebar -->
   <DIV ID="sidebar">
    <P ID="description"><$BlogDescription$></P>
   <!-- Begin #profile-container -->
    <$BlogMemberProfile$>
   <!-- End #profile -->
    <MainOrArchivePage>
    <H2 CLASS="sidebar-title">Blogger Links</H2>
     <UL>
      <LI><A HREF="http://perspectacles.blogspot.com/">The Adventures of
      <LI><A HREF="http://www.moogiesworld.com/">Moogies World</A>
      <LI><A HREF="http://www.daxmontana.net/">The Dax Files</A></LI>
      <LI><A HREF="http://feistyrepartee.mu.nu/">Fiesty  Repartee</A>
      <LI><A HREF="http://GopherTheAngelic.deardiary.net/">My Old Dear
     </UL>
     <BR>

This is a section of the template for this side.. see how it's all laid out?
you get what I'm on about now?
Also it lets you see how it looks in a browser window. I have both IE 6, Netscape and Firefox installed on here so I can do local previews of pages.
the Url for UltraEdit is UltraEdit.com
you won't actually see any of the "content" just some strange things like $BlogDescription$ etc as they only work on blogger itself.
Now once you have it "playing" how you want, save it as an html file that way you can go back and change that one rather than the one online - you may wish to save the images you use somewhere, but I think most templates link images back to blogger anyway.
Now all you need to do is the reverse of what you did earlier and copy the whole template back into the "Template" on blogger and do a preview to make sure it's done right.. if so Save and your done if not.. you have a local copy you can play around with some more...
Hope all that helps.. if not e-mail me :P

A Western Blog - Chapter 7 is up...

Well what can I say about this Tale of revenge, double dealing with more twist in it that a couple of corkscrews..
The Grand Finale and oh boy was it worth the waiting for...
If you haven't read the story so far, where ya been? Hiding under a rock for the past 7 weeks or worse had no access to the internet (goes lightheaded at the meer thought)
well here are the other chapters in order...
Chapter 1 from within "The Dax Files"
Chapter 2 from Moogie, setting the scene some more.
Chapter 3 from the Nitwit, the attack with a twist.
Chapter 4 from Kelley, The aftermath.
Chapter 5 from Eric, a twist or 2 in the tale perhaps?
Chapter 6 from Pammy, the payoff perhaps?

I'm Mad I tell ya...

Ok call me totally INSANE if you will..
Today is my ex-girlfriend's birthday, now we are still "friends" or I think we are we rarely talk but then again we don't have much to talk about. Anyway I have a card all written out and I'm gonna pick a bunch of flower tommorrow and take 'em over, that's gonna be fun. I'll keep you all posted (I can tell by the comments / lack of them that this hasn't quite been listed as a good blog or something like that - lol call me paranoid if ya like)..
Hmm reminds me where can I get a referal / hit count tool from?