Oh Look it's almost that time again and other things

Is it really a year since I had the last one, no can't be oh darn yes it is. Folks it's almost that time again, that time everyone either hates or loves or both. It's my birthday Soon - okay I know maybe 3 days notice isn't much but lol it's me we're talking about here Mr Disorganised Choas.
I helped drop my oldest sister and the BIL at the airport this morning for their 6:30am flight - they had to be there 3 hrs before hand (darn laws). We had a fun time getting there as well she was driving my dad's car, she's fully allowed to as she's on the insurance for it. One thing I should mention is for some reason I don't know why she hates going across bridges - maybe it's just the "Forth Bridge" she hates i don't know. Well the road to the airport is pretty straight forward - just follow the signs but Oh no dad knows better that's not the turn for the airport there is one further up - no there wasn't so we kinda went the tourist route in. Driving back was far easier, I knew where I was going, ignored my dad basically :P, only reason I was driving dad hates driving at night now, and I am allowed to drive the car IF the main driver isn't feeling well due to fact the way it's paid for it's a "mobility" car so there are rules such as you need to be on the "insurance" for it proper to be able to drive it yourself. We did get home pretty quick thanks to my driving safely at top speed ;)
However someone appears to have given my the cold or the flu or something Im feeling crap :| - bet it's a colleague at work. Speaking of work I got Monday OFF :D since there is a holiday the Following monday and Im working it, the monday after that when I would have had the day off Im covering for someone else on a slightly different shift (4pm to midnight) doing that on the tuesday as well but back to normal wednesday :-S gonna totally screw me up but never mind...
:)

What a Week

Well I've survived the 1st week back at work, new work schedule 8am to 4pm works out nicely actually, gaurenteed days off, if there is a public holiday I will get the next monday off. I have to come and go with it, some overtime is involved like i may have to cover the shift after mine sometimes - 4pm-midnight (but i don't need to come in at 8am that would be a bit MUCH!). I've been playing catch up all week as I expected but it's been fun (or rather not as dull as it was).
Mind you one small niggling ANNOYANCE the office got a small re-arrange - my desk was CLEARED! of all paperwork (it was apprently a mess - I could find everything on it I rarely sat at it as I was always at my other desk :P
It's been tiring all the same.

The Loch and others

Well I thought I share with you a few photos I recently took..

The Minehead, originally uploaded by Gopher.

The Loch, originally uploaded by Gopher.

The Loch 2, originally uploaded by Gopher.

Sorry for the previously negative post

Well folks i've just censored my own blog by nuking Monday's post. It's gone never to be seen again..
I'll go grab some coffee maybe even some sun not that I need much of either.

** EDIT **
Junebugg you were right. I took myself for a brisk walk that worked..

G

Well Im relaxing...

Hey guys, i do feel more relaxed, I do honestly, heck im even looking forward to looking after nephew which I do enjoy but if i've been working I just wanna crash and not be bothered by anyone till like NOON...
I now know this is not good for me, why I hear ya ask well I figured this all out myself Im so proud of myself...
I've been sleeping long hours for me this is like more than say 6hrs and been waking up with a headache like i've been drinking the night before now sometimes I had and put it down to that, it goes away after some tea / coffee with milk n sugar sorry gotta sweet tooth.. So Im trying to keep myself hydrated enough so I don't feel like **** in the morning which I've manage even if I was up till 3-4am and get up at like 10...
I treated myself tonight as well to a movie, of my choice at the cinema, my mate and his girlfriend (she who is obeyed :P) went to go see "You, Me and Duprey" tonight so I thought about it looked up what was showing locally, saw that film looked it up and well went no, not for me tonight, I went to see "Crank" all I will say is it's a totaly andrenalin junkie rush type film in more ways than one..

Oh while Im on the subject you may notice a few new links below the main kids link which has now been fixed so that that clicks are added to my running total, they were counted before so your clicks haven't been wasted :)

Toddles

G Dawg

Okay Someone shoot me please...

Day 4 of my holiday..
The story so far..........
Sat: Woke up played WoW or Battle for Middle Earth 2 all day..
Sun: Repeat stayed up to midnight...
Mon: Repeat stayed up till 4am though...
Today: As before...
No Money to do anything else, I am bothered but I've just resigned myself to my fate of being a nobody nowhere in particular..

I'm done...

Im now on holiday for 2 weeks... harrah.... can ya tell im excited, not really i tired, can't be bothered doing anything and probably won't no cash which of course sucks.
I'd have prefered an easier past few days at work but fat fooking chance, my colleague who I covered for the 2 weeks previous to this one announced on monday that he was leaving for another job, not too bad, unless you consider during the 2 weeks he was off 2 of the night/weekend controllers left as well as the driver who went around checking remote sites, we knew he was going, figured the other 2 - they left without so much as a bye, or good luck. The new driver we got lasted 10 days :| not really a hard job, check 5 places, lock up the main office, set the alarm, unset in the morning and open up..
So last week I was busy showing / training as best as I could the 2 new starts, we had a 3 man nightshift team that works 7 nights + 2 weekend shifts between them.
Of course with my colleague being off didn't have access to the material he handed out which meant EVERY PROCEDURE that is carried out in the control room had to be written out and then checked and reworded to LOW IQ level or there about which PISSED me off a TAD. I mean I could just write 1 procedure to cover all the sites, that could be handed to them, site numbers are all in a folder... NO HELL FUCKING NO! I had to write: One for Intruder / Vehicle on a site, One for a fire on a site, duplicate because we have working / non-working (mothballed) remote sites, get all the site number, all the managers names & number. How the barrier is worked the PHONE numbers of Both the RT (which are speed dials on the phone in front of them). EVERY MINUTE FUCKING DETAIL had to be written down and logged..
I mean Im not the freaking supervisor but I HAD to do it, my colleague was that and he done a little.
Oh this was on top over all the other work I had to do as well like :
Test bits of kit, wire stuff up, figure stuff out, drop kick a customers alarm panel so that it would set properly without a long winded way of setting it..
I was meant to go today and program another alarm panel for the same customer on a different site but that went out the WINDOW cos of these PROCEDURES, it's all PROCEDURES, PROCEDURES, PROCEDURES with someone and it's to be done HER WAY! no matter how well it worked before.
I was gonna do another post about me but Im just a neurotic fuck up, maybe my mother should have listened to the doctor at the time and got rid of me..

Klacteal or should that maybe Kraznox...

Can ya tell I've been watching "The Ant Bully", well maybe just a little...
Okay my applogies to Sharon and Melonie for no recent comments on their respective blogs, I didn't realise there was new post I just got the "old" page as for some reason my freaking nice browser FORGET rule number #1 - Check for new material and fetch it for me!
I'll let it slide this time.
Thankfully some good news - I'm finally getting more than 2 days off in a row :D "praise the mother" - my 2 weeks holiday begins 4pm on Friday :D so from then until 10am on the monday 2 weeks after that I'll be selectivly ignoring my mobile (cell) phone - gotta love being able to set a specific ring tone to a entries in the phone.

It is possible to smile and cry at the same time.

I was reading the daily humor letter I get and this was in a section entitled "Daily Kudos" which IM gonna directly Quote

Have a tissue ready both guys and gals! This is love at
it's purest! Take a break and watch both of the video links.
The inspiration you'll receive is the reward.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago,
when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth,
leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors
told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old,
"Put him in an institution." But the Hoyts weren't buying it.

In 2005, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their
24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than
20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in
1992 -- only 35 minutes off the world record which happens
to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a
wheelchair. "No question about it," Rick types.
"My dad is the Father of the Century."

1st: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52rJd9GX10&mode=related&search=
2nd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg

Re: Happy Friendship Day

Thank you to all those who sent me e-cards or left comments on the post :)
I would have thanked you sooner but to be honest I've been too tired to post.
Okay hold it right there, I have a good reason for it, called working 12hrs and having to get up at 5:30am and not getting home till around 8pm and having to filter and report all the spam I've been getting (see previous rantpost about that).
I mean I've even neglected my FAVOURITE online game - World of Warcraft...
So I am here honest, I've been leaving comment here and there.
Now it's just me and something nice and Ice cold from the mini-fridge...
I got the weekend to recover before I do it all again next week, the joys of having a covering a colleague.

<< New Message board - the old one is in the process of being made Vapourware.

G Dawg

Warning! Warning! Warning!

This is a general announcement, in case I haven't made this before..
Some Stupid Mother FUCKING ASSHOLE SCRIPT PRICK is SPAMMING e-mail using random names but MY EXACT E-mail address, not my Hotmail / yahoo / AIM one but private (well ISP based) e-mail address, also notice a small variation same name but with a "d" on the end, if you follow.
So if you recieve an e-mail proclaiming to be from me that doesn't use my actual full name in it then Trash it, do not click on any links just trash - don't report it as spam other wise ligit e-mail from me won't get through :( I may try and see if I can use a similar but alternate name before the @ in the address line will still have my full name in it.
The only reason I say this is well lets just say i've bounce a few in the over the last couple of weeks but today I come home for work (after 12hrs of being there) and mailwasher states 64 email - 54 were trash... about half were from my exact email address or the varient mentioned above..
To the MOTHERFUCKING ASSHOLE SPAM SCRIPT PRICK - I hope your balls drop soon or better yet drop off..

Happy Friendship Day

Happy Friendship day to all my dear readers.
** Hugs to all of you **
Sorry Melonie, but Im pro "hug friendly" :D
Just think the kids will soon be back at school soon :)..
I can't think of much more to say than that..
Another typical post by me then where not very much is said.
If you could click the banner at the top it would help kids in far off places, and well i click it everyday + a few of the other tabs..

** Hugs ya some more **
G Dawg..

Friendship Day is August 6

Well the title says it all doesn't it...
Why not send your friends who you've not seen in a while a card, okay maybe a bit close to be sending a card but it's the thought.
Another possibility is using an e-card site such as www.angeleyes2.com which is 1 of many.
Now if your feeling generous and wanna say something a bit more special there are websites out there like www.ftd.com and many local florist have websites you can order through, okay so you need some form of bank card that's the only down point.
Okay enough about that from me.

Phew What a week...

Well it's been a "lovely" week at work, I was able to get out the sweatbox office a few times to help with stuff so that was good, tbh it was just too hot..
One of my computers at home almost went into melt down, I mean I don't think the processor is meant to be running at 64C(147F) do you mind you it was like 25C(77F) felt more like 27C(81F) outside though. Even when I was out it was plesant while driving to and from the places but very little breeze on a hot day and humdity about 60% not nice now is it..
I've drank countless litres of coke, irn bru and water this past week or so...
They say it's gonna cool down a little over the weekend I hope it does.
I have the delightful task of looking after nephew this weekend ;) should be fun, I need my car washed and he's just volenteered :P, well I think a the prosept of some football down the glen will persude him ;)
Right Im off to grab some ICE and pour myself a cold one...
Enjoy.

It's still pretty warm...

Okay so it's not as warm as it has been it's only like 21C (70F) right now and with a few clouds which probably will mean a little much need cooling rain later, it's fairly humid although not as bad as before thank god.
Long may this continue like this, I could actually get used to it IF i didn't have to sit in my stuffy Air Conless office with all the kit in it. That said I don't actually have the inclination to go out and "catch some rays" maybe I should lose my "milk bottle" look, what says you?

Phew! It's a scorcher.

Okay practically all of my limited readership will not think this is very warm but trust me when your more expecting 17-18C (62-64F) and your getting around 23C (73F) it's warm - minimal breeze, humidity 70%, falling to aroun 16-17C (60-62F) with high humidity :-S you can see why, that and having to work inside with NO A/C, well the UK doesn't really warrent A/C now does it, well when i say no A/C I have a 3-speed fan to try and cool the place down, windows open, ignore the 22 14" monitors, 22 recievers, PSU for those recievers etc. Well today was meant to be really hot, it's relativly cool here but futher south you can add a few more Deg C to those figures. I was kinda lucky I wasn't in the office today, was yesterday :-S, today I got let loose so to speak but well I had to go into an attic space which has 0 air flow, cue wilt... I don't sweat that much, Im not the type to have water drip off me but I was close...
I just need a storm to break this oppressive humidity & heat, would do wonders!
Okay that's me done now, I await the critic of temperate little me...

Have you ever...

Have you ever just wanted to very, very politly smack the snot out of someone else kid?
Well all I can say is Im amazed this hasn't been done yet by my wonderous sister, who has the patience of a saint, mind you my sister taught me how to be devious so you can imagine that killing them would be kind!
Now it's not often I mention my nephew now is it..
Let's just say where they stay there are a few families with kids, now most are fine, some a little young to be playing with Connor but that's going off point.
There are 2 - one lives next door and well let's just say "BRAT!!!!" is too good a word for this boy! He acts like an idiot sometimes I mean acts like he's 4 or something you know the way kids act all stupid like someone's just clunked them upside the head, that's who he acts.. Now he's fine in SMALL doses BUT when he's "partner in crime" the little madam from the across the way is around it's 2 v 1 and you can guess who the one is, this PISSES connor off no end but he's learning to deal but he won't go out the front door even if they aren't there to play by himself which he used to do no problem.
This stresses him no end and in turn stresses my dear sister...
Now this is the fun part, even although his "mother n step dad" and her "mother and 'partner'" (more of that in a mo) know this may be going on they wanted my sister to chip in for a "trampoline" for them all to use, now she didn't go for it so they had to pay for it between the 2 of them ha ha ha £100 for an 8' x 8' with side netting etc, which connor has never went near (even although he could as it's outside).
Now on to the "mother n 'partner'" well all i have to say is I don't know which one of them is the more "butch" if you know what Im getting at.
Now all this anger connor has bottled up (I wish he wouldn't he's so like me and my sister is dangerous!) has to come out somewhere and it normally does his football teammates get it, in fact he had to appologise to his coaches for letting rip so to speak as well as one of the parents of the kids who he said something too, appologied twice - once there and once on the phone (his mother wasn't feeling great at the time)..
Uncle G to the rescue here...
Well yesterday was spent at my sisters fixing her broadband - darn freaking stupid USB DSL drivers and Windows 98se. My nephew kept asking me to go outside to play football which I wasn't going to do as I was busy but "We",my dear sister and I had a plan, I went how about you let me finish this and then we could erm "Go to McDonalds" then go to "the Glen", that's Pittencrief Park aka Dunfermline Glen, so we could play football there we'll imporvise goals as well ;) that worked gave sister some breathing space to do stuff and actually tired nephew out :D Kudos to Uncle G.
Ah that's it Rant over...
I'll post more when I feel like it :P

I am alive...

I am alive, just not posting.
I don't really have anything to post about or rather I can't be arsed posting about..

How Many Can You Name?

Okay I don't know how many there are but there are like at least 5 pages and each page has 10 "clips" on it..
Name That Kid's Tune
The Answers are provided so no need to post them just an honest answer as to how many you could name...
There are 2 other sections "Oldies" and "Patriotic" see how well you do in them..

So Long Great Aunt...

Well here's a post I had hoped not to have to write for a few more years but everything must come to an end at some point..
I only ever actually met her once, when her and her husband came over from the US for a visit, I'd be about 12, so just a few years ago now. My parents did go over to see them about 9 yrs ago, I didn't go as well stuff needed to be done around and well just wasn't fesable for me to go too.
I can remember when ever she phoned, it was like she'd never left scotland even although she'd been in the US for more years than I've been here. Never once did she lose that unique accent, the broad scots tounge.. She did keep going the longest though I mean 97 ain't no mean feat is it now..
Mind you I wouldn't have tangled with her as she spoke her mind, makes me laugh at some of the things she said towards the end in the nursing home she had to go into since she couldn't look after herself, went a bit blind, so the put a TV in her room,
"Wit dae I need a TV fur, I cannae see it!", roughly her exact words. Thankfully she died peacefully in her sleep, got the call yesterday morning at about 7:45 our time, so you can imagine what time it was in MA. I got to know when I got home from work. I was going to publish something last night but I couldn't think of what to write I still can't.
At least her and Great Uncle Don are together again..
Only one thing to do know bring her home :), her daughter is going to fly over with the urn at some point..
So long Auntie Eff, sorry Uncle Don, your peace is shattered again, I can just hear them laugh now, just thinking about that..

Have I bored y'all?

Im just wondering I put an honest post out and a small survey and well blog death or is it just y'all ain't got a round to reading / commenting - mind you my blog is in the "back of beyond" so what can I expect...
Im thinking of a new title not sure what yet but well we'll see
I may just leave the blog alone for a while as well I don't know - it's the darn well fact im a Librian for sure, can't decide on nothing...

The Results are in...

I've had it up long enough for anyone that's gonna vote to vote.
The Results are as Follows:

Answers   Votes  Percent
1.Daily    3 33%
2.Every other day.  1 11%
3.Once or twice a week   2 22%
4.Once a fortnight   1 11%
5.Once a month    0 0%
6.Less than once a month 1 11%
7.First visit    1  11%

I'll leave the poll up a few more days just incase someone hasnt' voted yet..

A Little Survey Folks

Please vote, you'll see it on the right sidebar. I put it there as I can't seem to find a way to get it in to here :(

** Edit **
Okay to clarify something:
A Fortnight is like two weeks, just a word we use here in the good old britain.
I've also moved it so it will be first post for a good while

An Interesting Factoid About Me....

This nugget of wisdom brought to you by my Mother (I love her I really do, sometimes it's OTT - that will teach me for not moving out - it's due to lack of FUNDS :-S) and a little touch of the old alcohol.. The stuff mother comes out with when tipsy ain't stuff she'd say normally..

I shouldn't be here!
Why I hear you say, well if my mother had followed the advice of the doctor (who if still alive I'd love to meet just to tell them off) and gotten rid of me I wouldn't be here. I'd have "Problems" apprently but hmm mother didn't and here I am so to speak.
I wouldn't say I was a small baby but you could put me in a pram with my head on one side and my feet could touch the other i.e sideways!
I did almost die along with mother when i came into this world.. (I was meant to be a big kid - well did they EVER get that one wrong! - mother had gotten stuff to fit me but it looked like a tent on me :P)
Well I am here, albeit with a "minor" problem I don't know if it's genetic or just cos I slouched but well you know all about that already - posted about it a while back... go find it yourself - never know what else i might have told you about me (that's of course unless your a loyal reader and you don't need to :P)
Well from then till now I've fought many a battle, often with people who just don't understand that people who look different shouldn't be insulted / bullied..
I was the "Small kid" that accelled at maths but my written english was never exactly spot on.. I was always one of the last to be picked for the team in Gym class.
I was the one that kept my head down and got on with the work as much as possible, just to try and escape, i pushed too hard I think or maybe overestimated myself or both..
I did go to "University" but well less said about those 2 years and the 6-7 that followed the better..

"Darkness all around, he searched for something to light the way, to help him find the path, alone and lost not realising that he just needed to reach out and say 'help me!' and he'd find the way again. Self-reliant that's what he was or so he thought anyway, the truth was some people he cared for he shouldn't have, but then again he didn't know the whole truth at that point for if he had it would have been a whole new set of rules. So lost he kept searching, in the end it was a journey to find himself in a world he didn't understand, as he didn't understand himself but he would given time."
Even now there are things I don't understand, I'm missing "components", for want of a better word, that would help me interact better, know stuff that at my age I should know etc.. nothing I can put my finger on but I don't know things do I.

God walk by your side and in your hearts..

ah the joys of summer

Well what can I say, been absolutly glorious weather in my part of the world, actually sun for like of the day temprtures in the high 50's / low 60F at least.
Only down point, I've been inside working, well that's not strictly true, i wasn't at the weekend.
Saturday Morning: Up nice and early, because it's that monthly ritual that is taking my nephew to football, the team has vastly improved since last time. I say that because last time, they didn't move about they just like stood there, now they are moving around a lot more making the passes etc, now if they'd only listen and PASS the ball to ma nephew when he's in clear space and ASKING for the ball they might score more than 1 goal in a game. Oh for those interested it was 4-1 to the other team in the end. 2 each half, nephew was in goals first half and save a good number, one was a really good save the sort of save you'll have seen at the world cup (he just got his fingers to it to tip it over the bar :) ). Second half he got let lose up front. I got to my sisters about 8:30 am and I left at like 7pm was a fun day, i did get some sun and yeah i did watch some football.
I have a puzzle for you to see if you can work it out because I'm having trouble with it.
Sunday : Lazy day since well i'm on the early shift this week so 5:30am starts, played world of warcraft a lot finally got an item i'd been after, a new staff that has way better stats on it that the one I had, had to do a few runs of the same place to get it as it only "drops" from the boss at the end of one particular dungeon and i had to do it again as some stupid priest rolled need on it with me even although they KNEW (or should have done) that, that was the whole reason i was there...
Second time I went it was just me and a paladin from the guild - we erm died a few times and everytime we died the whole dungeon reset :( kept having to kill the same one's over and over again, got a priest - same thing happens they rolled need on it, but this time I got it :D
Monday - Today: Work, attempted to get a wireless network to connect from one house to a flat which is like 40-50 feet away - no problem eh - wrong! didn't wanna know even with the latest and greatest tech the "Netgear Range Max (WPN824) Wireless Router" and appropriate wireless interface card, it reached to a point but that point wasn't good enough spent yesterday trying get the thing to connect to a Linksys Repeater which we'd been told would work a treat.. did it heck!
Today - got the thing reconfigured to work with something it states it should work with since it support "Wireless Distribution System" whatever that is, fancy name for something rather annoying :P
Now it's still not working but got a lead so hopefully it will be resolved tomorrow if not I'll erm "swear"..
I think that's everything...
See I do remember to post now and then :P
Now as to the puzzle:
Pick up phone - no dial tone / not anything at all or noise.
Use PC to go online via a ADSL modem - connects and works fine, Explain cos Im puzzled!

confucius say... (Additional)

Okay, Im still a lil confused a lot less than I was, what a week.
Monday: get to work, say morning to everyone and get started never really had a chance to talk to her, got a goodnight for her
Tuesday: Went a fixing things so nothing then either. As above.
Wednesday: Actually I don't know.
Thursday: I left the office just after 2 and well I went home from where I was (someone not happy at this - it was Bingo Night :( ). All I will say is wireless networks are a PAIN!.
Today: Left at lunchtime and was back for 5, wireless working better after getting a new bit of kit.. The bit of kit we had would probably have worked but maybe not.
Anyone recommend a wireless access point that actually doesn't need to have a network cable connected to it i.e one that actually acts as a repeater / WAP and don't say the Netgear 602 cos it don't it needs addition "satilite" 302's to work and that stays connected to the network..
Argh! that and It's been warm all week, stroll on, too warm in the office though :-S
Oh and Im gonna have fun tomorrow gonna be looking after nephew and taking him to football :P

confucius say...

Hmm okay poor me now, confused.
Mind you that's nothing new, I'll explain.
Went to see X-men 3 with my colleague from work Susan, had a chinese before it as well.
Good film and a nice relaxing evening, or so I thought...
Now here is what confuses me..
Nothing said at the time when we got back to my car, switch on phone this morning,
get a message to the effect "hope you enjoyed the film, that will be the last time we go to the cinema"
I have an idea why and it's all to do with "work". I mean she gets a hard time about when we go out, I get it as well but not as bad. Another reason is maybe our "accounts person" who is also MD's wife, gotta love family run companies...
She seems to like to pick fault with ANYTHING and it's never her fault it's susans or mine since I do check in stuff as it's delivered - check that the what's on the note is what's in the box (I can do no more than that since I don't got the order notes as someone else does them).
I'm doing my best, doing what I think is wanted of me as fast as is possible, multitasking, attempting to make good time management etc..
I'll stop there *massages temples to calm self*
Anyone help me out here? Im confused....
Additional for Junebugg / Heather:
No I didn't pinch her hinnie, what you take me for...
I don't talk over a movie, i consider it rude.
She only ever wanted me as a friend, I have told her how i felt before, we both agreed to be friends (see a Feburary post i know i did one - i think)
She doesn't have much self confidence and well all the put downs are finally getting to her I think.
It as if im at the gates of an ancient city, asking to be allowed in, and being denied access.
I hope this clarifies if not re-comment..

Get Well Soon Heather..

Go visit Heather and wish her a speedy recovery :). I think the 6 flags took it out of her for sure..
Get Well Soon Heather.

A Film Review: The Da Vinci Code

I'm not gonna reveal too much incase ya wanna go see it, I'll just reveal enough as make you interested.
Hmm Well Im sure you've all seen the clip in the gallery with the dead dude, Yeah?
I tell you about him he's the curator of the gallery and the grandmaster of a secret organisation that's protecting something that well let's just say could chance the way people assess faith.
He's dead, the cop who is sent to look into the murder is naturally part of another secret organisation that wants to remove this secret and keep they "myth" alive that jesus died and had no kids (i.e not mortal like man) and he wants to arrest the main character for murder but has to do it convincingly, put into the mix the dead dude's "grand-daughter" I say it like that as well she isn't, any such thing, but she knows codes and cyphers and between them, they need to escape the gallery and take the clues given by the grandfather, written in UV pen, and code and track them across paris, ,london, and eventually Scotland. Of course they have to stay one step ahead of the law, as well as this albino monk, who is a little "nutz" and who also shot the grandfather in the first place. Oh yeah he works for the same organisation as the police officer. Now add in an expert in all things pretaining to both organisations who the lead trust and well you have it or do you. All of course is not as it seems, never quite know who you can trust and who you can't.
All this to protect a tomb, but who's tomb and why.. I hope this snippet has given you enough insight as to want to watch the film without giveing too much away...
Thanks to those who have voted so far, many thanks to DB & Junebugg for leaving comments (I should have said I'd like comments as well :P - maybe I did)

Happy Anniversary Moogie

Incase some of you didn't know it's Moogie & Ward's Wedding Anniversary Today ;)
So go pay 'em a visit and say Hi etc..
Oh Yeah Happy Anniversary to the 2 of you :D

The Scottish Cup Final

What can I say, little Grenta FC came so far, and took the opposition all the way in the final, it went to a penalty shoot out which Hearts won 4-2..
I did post about this ages ago, but Gretna is like in "Division 2", Hearts they are 2 leagues up in The "Scottish Premier League", and they took 2nd place in that, so you can see it's quite a feat for gretna to even be in the Final let alone take it to a penalty shoot-out.
Mind you Gretna can go away from this final knowing they took the game to their opponants and because they are in the final and due to some rules they are in the UEFA cup next year, okay it's the qualifing rounds but hey they are there that and they will be playing "Division 1" football next year as they basically stormed through Division 2. Full Story on BBC SPORT.

I just realised!

Well i was looking a Wahwer's Blog, and it got me thinking when is my "blogger birthday", my 1st offical blogspot post can be found here. I did how ever import all my old DD entries the ones that survived a DB crash (and a poor revcovery due to the fact that the site admin had to do it solo with only DD diariests giving him a had, so a few entries got lost in the recovery (some of the most painful got lost :|, unfortunatly - I can't remember what I wrote then) so that technically means it's the 13th June, as seen here, I'll let you make up your mind.

A film Review: Mission Impossible 3....

What can I say,
plot impossible, improbable but some how it still works, they tech-geek from MI & MI:2 well lets just say I want his toys! Oh yeah it also brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "bullet to the brain" - go see for the explaination of it. Also don't ya just hate it when there is a mole in the works, the one who you think ya can trust, I mean really trust and then he turns out to be working for the guy your trying so hard to kill. It's a good film, go see it if you've not already..

This is another one to go in the DVD collection, which Im gonna have to STOP adding to as well last count 130+ DVD's that fill a small bookcase that i did buy to store books but well it now stores DVD's as it's just about the right depth and it's spilled over into a bigger bookcase I got beside it - they kinda sit in one corner of my room which I think needs a redesign / re decorate but hmm not sure on colors / exact what I want, it's currently part mahogony effect, part beech wood effect, with silver and a pine lamenate floor to boot. Walls well they've not been redone for oh a good few years but the effect still works well in here for some reason, it's half lemon, half lemon with a blue/red/green stripe down it, and a blue/green/red pattern on a lemon background as the border between, it works well. I got a look in my head but I can't see it working for some reason!

Me, Myself and I

In a completely blatent rip off / borrow from Heather
I AM: man.
I WANT: more time to do things.
I WISH: I knew what I know now, back when I was younger.
I HATE: feeling vulnerable, although it sometimes nice for someone else to be strong for me.
I MISS: the years I lost doing not much trying to figure myself out.
I FEAR: very little, but fear itself.
I HEAR: nothing much.
I WONDER: what I will be when I grow up.
I REGRET: saying a few rash words many years ago .
I AM NOT: weak, altough you'd never know, inner strength hides well.
I DANCE: alone and not very often or well.
I SING: quietly to myself.
I CRY: fairly easily.
I AM NOT ALWAYS: strong, i do sometimes do silly and foolish things.
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: gifts of love.
I WRITE: because someome needs to figure out what my life is, just to make sure I got it right.
I CONFUSE: many people.
I NEED: to be loved, i wear my heart on my sleeve is this so wrong?
I START: many things.
I FINISH: a few of them.

The View from my Office

The View from my Office, originally uploaded by Gophers Ramblings.

This is the tree outside my office, it all it's spelender, just thought I would share it with you, so you know even although I can't actually do very much online at work (due to something called "Websense") I do have something nice to look at, it helps keep me from going to sleep...... Sorry what was I saying oh yeah it helps, well that and large amounts of caffine, technical support can be boring sometimes. I have found something even more boring and that is stocktaking, I do feel sorry for all those people who have to do it, at least you don't have to do a full inventory of what you have with no actual idea of what is being classed as stock and what is this and that, so Im writing it all down the accountant can sort it all out :| oh i Now strongly dislike accountants. As to why Im doing this, well Im the only one who is available to do it as the others are out finishing off some contract work we have.....
*Yawns and stretches* Right Im off to go get some food since I'm not long in from work... Cya.

A Tale of the Unexpected

Well, I got a surprise this morning. I went downstairs there was a letter waiting for me in a nice bright yellow envelope, the handwritting I recognised as being from one of my friends and the post mark told me exactly who it was from. I hope it up and as Im pulling it out, Im confused as it looked like a card of some sort, check pattern on the part I could see, thought, not my birthday, and a bit late for an easter card. I remove the card and see this wonderous cute baby picture and now Im really confused. There was a letter neatly written on the inside, it was from my friends Jenny & Gregor, who I've known since I briefly went to university about 12yrs ago, they met during fresher week and well they've been together even since, we used to call the the "elastic couple" as they were never far apart, they just clicked, it was wonderful. They got married about oh 9 yrs ago now and were happily settle down somewhere near Oxford. Gregor is even more a geek than me, that is when I talk to him ,lets just say we could talk computers all day. Jen is just well Jen, maths is her forte but she helps kids out who are struggling with maths or english as she's part of the "KUMON" program, with helps kids like that, it's not that expensive to put you kid in and well any time I've talked to Jen about it she's been fully enthusiatic about it. Anyway back to the point the little man, I now know as Harry, staring back to me in the photo wasn't exactly planned and as Jen puts it "either the unexpected or the enivitable occured and we made the silly step into parenthood", they did meant to mention it sooner but well the past 9 month for them has been a bit of a tough one, as Jen's mum also wasn't feeling great but thankfully grandma is all better now :) and is Harry's Number one fan. Im sure a lot of you out there know exactly what they are going through and what is to come, I do a little, it's gonna be a fun next few years for them. Only thing is it's yet another birthday in MARCH! ARGH!!! I'll survive, oh and could you please make sure no more births in March Please I have enough cards to write out and remember :P.
Anyways Im off to go and do something else, with a skip in my step, a song in my heart and with a smile, not something that happens often.

Some Photos

Bishop Hill, originally uploaded by Gophers Ramblings.

Well I did say to few people that I was going to one day do some photos from around about me, well here is one, I was driving back from meeting a friend and I had my camera so it got snapped, along with a few more I took later on, this is part of a flikr set so you should be able to see them all (I hope)

Just a quick post

Happy Easter, coming soon more pictures of where I live, well of the hill i can see every day and other stuff, think I'll only link on and then have flikr do the rest (i hope), I'll upload them tomorrow night after I get home from work. That's right someone is working Easter Monday, 12hrs at that, well someone had to do it, shame that someone was me.

I did a quick look around the Park

I took a quick look around my fellow BWTP blogs.
Okay, 1 dead link - I figured that much
I've left comments on some that I read and understood so if you've not got a comment from me recently then I can't figure ya out...
All I have to say is those that I didn't comment on were impossible to decypher (chewy) or not update in a while (Church of Steele) or just erm Im sorry Chief Slacker I just don't get your blog maybe I need to read more.

Strange Stats

Well from time to time I do check my "Site Meter" to see who's been, all i can say is it does through up some interesting results:
Apart from visits from bloggers on my blog list like : Suzanne, DB, Melonie, Wahwer, Heather, sharon, Moogie and Co.
there are a few visit via my blogger profile page and a few page visits directly many of which show a 0 second visit guessing - couldn't wait for load or they were robots.
I see Miss Zooty visited obviously to see what all the "blog tagging" was all about.
Some Searchs the find by Blog:
http://search.blogger.com/?ui=blg&q=tag+board
- from someone in Singapore.
http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p=forcastfox&prssweb=Search&ei=UTF-8&fr=fp-tab-web-t-1&x=wrt&meta
=vc%3DcountryUK
- from a Person in the UK, searching for Forcast Fox (i think)
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://gopher-yarrowzoo.dyndns.org/users/blog/wtf_coke_tower.jpg&
imgrefurl=http://gophers-spot.blogspot.com/&h=480&w=640&sz=82&tbnid=5FPva0eI9xu4qM:&tbnh=101
&tbnw=135&hl=en&start=39&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwtf%26start%3D2
- a google image serach on "WTF" from Mississippi , got a few searches exactly like that.

http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?srch=105&q=gopher&first=11&FORM=PERE hmm MSN search on Gopher's Im guessing.
even got a link from my gretna story
Blog Search for Gretna Serach
But the best one has to be the "random" next blog that sent someone here: I ain't putting the link here... but there is a "lesbian sex now" blog out there, no idea how long it's existed but it was Visit 2,183 it was on Apr 5 2006 at 12:26 am and the person was from eygpt - it's a strange world.
I also got a few technorati search hits from Moggies World and a whole lot more RANDOM stuff, I guess only a few people get my blog as the "random next blog" (ain't they LUCKY...)

Let's all have a big old game of blogger tag.

Okay, I've had a mad idea that will make sure that well other blogs are visited, our own is possibly more visited..
Okay the rules, now there are simple:
You can tag whoever you like as long as
1) They are not the person who tagged you or
2) The person who tagged them (i.e. the person who tagged the person who tagged you)
Example:
I tag - Millie Helen who tags Heather, now Heather can't tag me or Millie Helen but can tag anyone else she likes.
got me now I'll start I've not decided who Im going to tag yet, oh the tag can either be on the Message Board or via blogger comments (i.e. something that the blog writer will pick up on)
Also could you link back to this post and leave a comment on who you've tagged (URL if possible) so that I can see how far this is going, It's kinda like the snowball thing but only funnier (possibly!?)
Okay I've decided by Random Choice that Miss Zooty is the first person to be tagged. Go visit ;)

** Edit 10th April **
Additional Rule: Can the Tagee (the person who's just been tagged) please post I've just been Blog-Tagged By to let the person know you've seen that you've been Tagged - Thanks.

Fairytales do come true...

Totally Random Posting:
Now most people in the UK if you ask them what they know about "Gretna Green" they'll say it's the place couples go to elope, and people still do that and get married properly in "The Old Smithy", the Local Blacksmith shop, as that's what kids used to do was escape to and get married so their parents couldn't do Nothing about it. Im sure there are places like Gretna Green all over the World..
Well now it's gonna be famous for something else. You see it has a football team, which was until a few years ago in the lower division of the english league system. One day this pony-tailed guy with a ciggy in one hand, came round wanting to see the manager, who was cutting the grass, yeah that's how small the club was, that and the local baliff's had been around a few times to check up on the kit locker to see what was there incase they need to sell stuff to help settle debts. The Guy was Brooks Mileson, that day he left a cheque for £ 20,000 to help the youth team as that's what the manager had said really needed to the money not thinking he'd get a bean. A year passes , same dude comes around, managers still cutting the grass, and the guy goes "what to want to be Manager or Groundskeeper?" and the dream started. He put money where is mouth was, not spending huge amounts of cash but giving the club players insentive to play and win. Someone came up with the idea well were close enough to scotland to play in the Scottish League, why not apply and we'll see, they got in to the Scottish 3rd Division. Brooks Mileson has a dream of playing in the Scottish Premier league one day soon, he's building a statium to match the premier league rules on minimum size etc. They won the 3rd Division title last year and were promoted to the 2nd Division this year which they have already won with games to spare they are that many point ahead of 2nd place. Dream come true, I mean what other team boss says you score a hat-trick this week and you get my Austin Martin to drive for a week, he did and his main scorer Kenny Deuchar did it last year and got the car for a week as well as the match ball as that's what happens if ya score 3, you get to keep one of the match balls as a souviner. Now your saying what's so special well they are in the Scottish Cup final against Hearts who are in the Scottish Premier League the top division, they have had to put out opponents for the divisions above them to reach the final. Well the semi final that put the there was last Saturday and what did the boss man do, he go celebrate, no he went to the animal santuary he has to help out as well it's lambing season and well one lamb was born that night, and it may just become the most famous lamb since "Larry" as he said he might get it to lead the team out at the Hampden Park - the scottish national statium. This is the first time anyone from the "lower division" has made it to a cup final in many years. They got a slim chance of winning but even if they lose, they could end up playing again the Elite of Europe in the UEFA cup, total fairytale. The guy behind it all is even gonna let the guys go away for a few weeks after end of the league proper to recharge for the final on him, he even paid for a load of tickets and transport to make sure the supporters could go see the team in the semi. I mean you all know what it's like you support your local team be it football, baseball, basketball, american football, ice hockey. You should at the ref, the players, the TV when they do something STUPID. It's all in the passion, that man is going places. If someone had said to me to put a bet on "Gretna FC" in the Scottish Cup Final back in August when the leagues kicked off the season I'd have laughed, now I'd be crying because I'd have made a MINT.
Good Luck Gretna FC and Good Luck Brooks Mileson don't worry you'll be able to smoke all the way back home.. (Since there is a smoking ban in place now all over Scotland)
From another Black n White Fan - That will be "The Pars" like but come on Kenny put one in the net.

A Film Review: Duma

What can I say be well directed and brilliant film. It's about a boy and his best friend a cheeta who he raised from a cub after his dad almost running over it one night after it's mother had been killed by lions.
They live out in the african wilderness, farming the land. Many names for the "pet" are tried but only Duma seem to fit, we see duma grow up learning to run like a cheeta should, reaching the speed of 80-90 kph in seconds it's breathtaking. It reaches the point where Duma must return to the wild. The boy's dad however takes ill and they plan to take Duma back to where he came from and released. However like many thing in life his dad doesn't see his plan to the end and dies, his mother realising they can't run the farm so they have to move to the city to stay with his aunt and Duma is supposed to go somewhere to be looked after. When the get to his aunts the man who's picking Duma up isn't going to be there for a few days, so duma stays too, but escapes when he gets frighten after chewing on a TV remote, only due to the fact he scares the aunt who runs out the door, this is of course seconds after his mother has left to pick him up. Duma follows the truck and well causes chaos at school when he turns up naturally the boy is not bothered, just scared for Duma safety.
The boy then decides to forfil his fathers wish and return Duma to the wild, on the way running into a drifter who's out to make a fast buck maybe but then realises that it's not the way once he gets to know the strange pair and decides to help but not before being stuck in an old diamond mine when the pair realise he's trying to make that fast buck. After getting himself out the mine, he catchs back up to the pair after duma gets cuaght in a trap and agrees to take them to the mountains, however drifter gets sick as he's bitten by something nasty, the boy saves him by running to a nearby village in the dark and with lions about, tying duma up to protect the stranger but duma escapes and finds a mate but comes back to say goodbye one last time. I highly recommend you rent / buy this movie.

Okay Call me Stupid But......

How the HELL is one after i've uploaded my pics to flikr meant to get them so i can view them in blog without having to do 1 post per freaking PIC aka i wanna update my snow post so my poor webserver can have a rest.

Happy Birthday to My Mum

It's my mum's birthday today, I won't reveal her age even although she doesn't know how to work a pc (dispite years of my attempts to teach her).
Unfortunatly the weather isn't the nicest, it's raining has been most of the day but then again it's March in Scotland and thus I can't expect anything less.
One wonderful thing is that this Sunday is Mothering Sunday here in the UK, hmm nice double presents...

Why......do........I..........even...........bother!

Now dear reader a semiantly-reoccuring theme of my "life" (ha now that is a joke - I don't have one or rather very much of one!) I do sometimes just think "Why do I freaking bother!" Example tonight "dearest" mother said she's seen the griter lorry out gritting the road and said so, you might get have a bit of trouble getting out in the morning - to which I go "I don't think I will, it's going to be ok" now was it something I remotely said - Do I need to go see a "shrink" now I know I'll be fine due to wonderous tool called "ForcastFox" the accuweather.com extension for Firefox, okay so -3C (27F) overnight isn't exactly tropical but expected for time of year. I hear mutterings from mother! I think i should just maybe not say a fucking WORD, so I go to try and smooth things over by saying that I've checked the weather on the computer (that and I do listen to the radio on the way home and catch the local weather forcast). Now my mum isn't into computers and never will I've tried for past 15+ yrs to get her to try and use 'em but to no avail - it takes her to work the freeview box & the Video/DVD combo player that is downstairs, so PC's are beyond. I was told "in future I'll not say a word even if there are 10 gritter lorries...."
Hmm oh that and a good friend seems to be ignoring me in a game Im back to playing even although I said "I was giving it up" I can't I've tried - they coding hurt my head too much, still is because Im determine to finish the id3v1/(v2)/ mpeg frame find and read php class (ID3v2 spec is erm well ya interesting!)
Now Im away to watch "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" on DVD which I got today.

Happy Birthday to Sharon

Yes well it's that time, time to wish fellow blogger and all round wonderful lady Sharon a Happy Birthday. So head on over and give her your kindest regards :D

What's in a Name Eh?

Well what is in a Name?

G	Glamorous
O	Outrageous
P	Patriotic
H	Handsome
E	Entertaining
R	Realistic

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator

From Go-Quiz.com
Oh how true this is, Head over to Moogie the "Old" 's and say hi or you could just hop to Lesley The Omnibus Driver and say hi:)

A Review..

How special would you feel if the entire school had made an effort to welcome you on your 1st day, even if it was in the middle of the school year. Oh yeah one thing your profoundly deaf. Hmm you got this one yet.
Here is a story about 1 4yr old girl called Olivia, her local school of 48 pupils (it's only a little village school) and staff made the effort to learn sign language after finding out from Olivia's big sister that she wanted to come. All I can say is If this was me I'd be very proud of my big sister. Hey siblings may fight but love overcomes that instantly.
Full Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/4769456.stm

Another story I read of recently (Full Story):
If you read the front page story of the SF Chronicle Thursday,
Dec 15, 2005, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line (rope) wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so badly off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her -a very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer.

They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around. SHE THANKED THEM! Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.

The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same...
----
Now tell me your've not got a least a tear in your eye. Two Stories that show where kindness is shown it's repaid. Remember that.

What I decided and other stuff.

I decided to stop my subscription to World of Warcraft for a while, it was doing my head in and well tonight I think I totally screwed up on my old Guilds Team Speak just hope someone can forgive me, darn my mouth can get me in so much trouble sometimes!!!!
Also since I have the time I thought I'd write my own ID3 Tag read class - you know those nice MP3 type files, it will read the file and tell me what the artist, album, song, year, track, comment as well as information such as the mpeg version / layer / file bitrate / sample frequency but it's glitching - i won't go into it too much just going to say the what Im looking for isn't easy to find I'll just say this
"AAAAAAAA AAABBCCD" < the 1st 2 bytes header data I need to read
where it says "A" it means that has to be a 1, the rest can be mixed so you can see not easy as 11111111 => FF => 255 is a common occurance in the file, most of the time the code I have works, working on fixing the code to deal with the rest (that don't)
Oh yeah and dispite the snow I was able to get to work :(

This is what I woke up to this morning

Well I woke up to snow, it had apparently been falling since 2am, i was still up at that point but never thought to look out window, well why would I.
So thanks to Sharon for the nice e-mail I picked up when I woke up and checked my mail I decided it was high time I went and played a little with my digital camera I mean 3 months and not much to show for it eh well I'll just dive right in and begin with the shots then shall I.
This is the view that met me when I open my bedroom curtains, nice ain't it.
Well this is a set of chinese chestnut trees that are well about 150m from my house, riot of green in the summer but right now all snow covered they look wonderous. Okay Im just gonna stop talking and let the pictures do the talking I hope as they help show of my new camera finally :D. I do hope Rick or someone who has a professional Camera stops by and tells me what they think.







Well That's them all, I only took a few and these link to 1024x768 images, I have the originals too and those are twice that size direct from the camera, best to publish just the thumbnails, Enjoy your morning / afternoon :)
** EDIT **
Ophs my bad I erm did some of the editing not using the bloggers "Add Image" tool and thus mistyped the path to the full sized image, should all be fixed now.

Well That's gone and torn it!

Well it has well and truely gone and TORN IT!
Okay, I've no idea what happend exactly, but I did post to BWTP and the entry did post I saw the post, now I've just checked and the post is no longer there, no even listed as editable. Now all I wanna know is was it deleted by someone if so why and if so then that person can take their blog and stick it where the sun don't freaking SHINE! Ya got me, We CLEAR on this!!!

** Update **
Okay it appears blogger thinks I want it as a draft, I did make one minor change to it but hmm it reposted fine *swear* if SOMEONE could fix this for me as I can't see it

Monday Blues..

It's been one of those days at work.
I came in to 1 more dead camera, thankfully that was an easy fix, phone the site have them reset the trip switch, after that it starts to go wrong but thankfully not just for me.
Colleague gets stuck in traffic on the way to fix / investigate faults with a few of the cameras we have. IT Manager wonders why noone phoned him to say oh btw the tempreture in the server room is a bit warm (a bit warm being 25C), well someone didn't bother telling me Formally that we'd to start to monitor it, it was kinda oh were testing it (nothing more was said after that). Speaking of Camera a site manager wondered why no-one at the company had replied to his e-mail about something that had happened, I did by phone and I said so in the reply e-mail which I made sure was CC'd to one of the Company Directors (and BCC'd to the Boss ;) ) He phoned me up and told me that well basically I was talking CRAP and really shouldn't be doing that especially if I was CC'ing it to a director who was also looking into it. Well to the Best of My Knowledge I did phone him on that day after checking the digital recording and saw nothing. well its not so bad, before I left work 2 more Pan / Tilt units were required along with a telemetry drive board for one site, nice length of new coax for another site (since erm they'd joined it adhoc stylee) and my colleague was at a 3rd site investigating / fixing, unfortunatly he's got the bosses Jag Keys in his pocket, well he is the bosses son so it's allowed ;)
The poor accounts manager tried to kill me as well, her laptop spat the dummy today while she was in mid check of something, machine ended up getting rebooted and well no back up had been made today and well thank god Sage is good software and has recovery tools built in, 6hrs work could have been lost, not a lot you think but hmm enough. I left the boss and the accounts manager to fix it once I seen that well it was okay since nothing I could do would help. She came through and said it was all gone all the data for today.. Then smirked as I went into panic mode! (not funny at all).
Oh and Dear BWTP people Im considering leaving since well I've nothing to post there that would interest and well very few of you come here and leave a comment, also I don't always read everyone's blogs I sometimes only read a few daily, some weekly, some less so and chewy's well erm blue moon time..
Sigh, roll on tuesday.

Nephew's Birthday

Well Happy Birthday to my Dearest Nephew Connor who is 8 today, that's right 8 somehow he has survived this long..
I've no photos as yet but I may post 1 at a later date.
Well let's see Im his favourite Uncle again, after giving him £20 in his card and setting up his steering wheel & pedals for his Playstation 2 - it's a "racing pack" so it's got a seat that's attached as well so it all clips together and I just HAD to set it up (I got no option in this FYI) he's doing not bad, when I'd left he had only done like 3-4 shortish races with it and he was gaining places..
20,9,8,2 - I'd say he was getting the hang of it no bother, he just needs to remember that it's a steering wheel if he ever needs to set it up again for that game (which I don't think he does ;)). Oh and because he's Connor he didn't just have 1 cake he had 2 - a chocolate cake with loads of chocolate icing on it which is very tasty and a "football" cake a nice light sponge with a icing like the outside of a football on it.
I don't know what our other sister is up to, she dropped the card off this morning at like 7am (must have been before her work) and well not been seen since :( - done this before, but hey he's cool with that he just got an extra hug or 2 because I know a few of you out there would want me giving him a hug from them so to speak ;) so it done :)..
Oh it's my dear old dad's birthday tomorrow - I won't post about it, as well it's just dear old dad and not really that exciting ;) - I know Im cruel and harsh but that's life sometimes..

The Weekend...

Well I've just about got over a superb weekend I had.
Got home friday night for work, on automatic so to speak and really didn't do much, didn't stay up late as well erm it's a bit cold over here right now and my computer being in the attic not that far removed from the outside world with minimal heating and stuff well you can imagine.
Got up saturday with a plan to go do some birthday card shopping as well it's nephews b/day soon and my dads and a friends soon after so though do that, go have a look see what dvd's / music cd's I can get.. got myself "Wallace & Gromit : Curse of the warerabbit" just cos well it's a british film and it's good. I also got "The Pacifier" which Im currently watching and laughing sometimes at the antics of Uber Hardman Vin Desiel Trying to act like a mom after being a SEAL it's not easy but someone's gotta do it, got a few other films as well, got a few computer games for my PC well they were on offer so I got 'em. I then go for a Big Mac as well I was hungry and it was on the way home, just finish that, driving up a set of lights out the local retail park, phone goes could I pop along, I go sure. Now the journey from where Im at to my sisters should take like 5-10 minutes, I of course take longer as I've still a few things to get and some flowers for mom just cos Im like that. So I get to my sisters and she goes "Could you take Connor" to the game. I go "sure I'll take him" now this is like 2:20 the game starts at 3 and well we still gotta get there and into the ground. We make it on time :D, my nephew amazed me and my sister by staying the full 90 minutes of the game, which ended in a 1-1 draw (worked out about 1h50 as 20 minute break in middle or so) and then he gets bored waiting to get out the carpark lol, well he is only 7 and it was his and my first time at a football match.
We go back and we play "Fifa 2006" and replay the game so to speak except this time "our" team wins 2-0 ;) each time we played it :D - so you could say I've got him support the local team for those who wanna know is "Dunfermline Athletic FC" aka "The Pars" :D. Well by the time i get some food and was able to leave ;) he's a sweetheart and don't let me hear anyone say diffrant, I got home like 9pm, I left at like 11:30am - get me.
I jump online to check mail, play Some WoW and like catch up on what's been happening and I hear on my Guild's TeamSpeak a very drunken member of the Guild who I know is visiting her sister who's going out with a good mate of mine was funny.
Sunday I get up late as well I some how ended up staying online till like 2:30am. I jump straight back into WoW once I had woken up etc. and i get invited out for dinner with mate, his g/f and her sister so I get directions and well erm get to "dundee" no problem but erm after that well it's a little tricky trying to figure out what direction the map means and driving and well they it's a little crazy. I managed to navigate my way to meet up with my friend and take him to do a little food shopping to let the girls get "ready!" now all I will say on this is "7pm came and went". We got the place we were eating at at like 8:40 well almost lol.. I got to meet clare and well it's fun, exactly like i thought of her, she says she shy, lol well if she is she could have fooled me. I'd have posted this yesterday but well work was interesting yesterday lol. Im gonna sign off now and warm up as erm I need to warm my feet up now..
Toodles

The Template and the Stylesheet.....

Hmm well this is an interesting one, ever since the conception of the Web browser way back in the early 90's with the Mosaic browser (think before pre-Netscape) then came Internet Explorer and the more popular (at the time) Netscape which is based on the Mozilla engine which it still uses today, now these browser "fought" for people, MS bundled IE with Windows so you didn't need to go and find one, then you have Opera a great browser that if you were to look hard enough into IE you'd see operaesque behaviour. We should also mention Firefox the new kid on the block, Safari and Omni for the Mac and Knoqueror for those nice people who like linix. The only thing is well we have a set of rules that state that if you use tag A it will has to do this type of behaviour and for Tag B that behaviour. That isn't the case just like with Stylesheets certain browsers Interprut your wonderously created Style list slightly wrong.
Known bugs are the "padding and border" bug in IE 5.x (know as the Box Model Bug) and there are many more, I hunted around and found a very comprehensive list of them at Centricle: css filters (css hacks) this lists all the know "bugs" with all the browsers listed and well how to get your lovely page to display exactly the same in IE, Firefox, Opera, Netscape, Safari and Knoqueror. After all IE5 has that bug i listed so you look up how to do it and well there are actually several ways to do it ;) Heather,Moogie & Sharon you may wanna have a look and point this out to others ;) hey it's a good resource point if you want to "fix" a few glitches in your template with a specific browser ;) and score brownie point for getting it looks the same all over - no doubt my page breaks in IE5.
Enjoy right I'm off to do something interesting, what I don't know..

The Weekend

Well lets see what I've done this weekend.....
Not a lot :D
Well that's a lie, i posted a letter yesterday before spending the most of the rest of the day watching my nephew play football, or playing Fifa '06 on the PS2 with nephew (he won all the time). Finally got a break when I help him get a bit further on in one his Harry Potter Games on his Gameboy Advance. I managed to eventually "escape" at around 6 for some food and then chilled out watching the magic roundabout and eating pizza before playing some World of Warcraft
Today so far I've spent an hour freezing trying to get a 2nd hand part out of a old car to put in my oldest sisters car to no avail it's the alternator and it's hard to get out as no tyres on the thing so no way to get a lift on it.

Template Changes are now complete

Well that's the template changes done for now. :) Tagboard added as you may have noticed, clock backgrounds done and clocks moved around :). 5 Color schemes to choose from (ATM the font changes are disabled in Firefox due to some weird non-replicatable bug with blogger). If your using some other browser and notice something weird let me know it's probably something I can write a quick fix for ;) Like there should be a space where the blog title is (no idea why it does this in Firefox but the "bug" is ok with me ;) )
Opera users let me know - totally untested as erm I my copy appears to be screwed up and I've not re-downloaded it yet. IE users let me know also if anything wierd is happening I'll post a "what it looks like picture" at some point soon.
Oh yeah Have a goood weekend. Im gonna try and have one :P

New Template

Well I've switched the template to this blog so all can see it. I still have 1 or 2 minor adjustments to make but they are small, it's just a surround for the clocks to be done.

Blogger: The next Step... (pt 2)

Okay I have a small problem with the new template I can get the background colors to change but when I try to get the text to change color which I'd want as well green on green don't. I have a working piece of code it works fine from the code I have updated online but it stops working when I place it in the template - works fine on here from local copy of code and from online version - freaking Annoying spits out a vicious error that it can't get to what I need to get to or that what Im looking at has no data :| Anyone got any ideas...
I know I need to get away from blogger get a domain and be done.. but hmm it's the hassle.

Blogger: The next Step...

I've been playing and well instead of just changing it I thought I'd let people preview it so you can see how it will look.
New Template Test
leave a comment on here as I won't actually look at the comments on there as well it's a test blog.
**** Update ****
Well I've been playing some more and well go see what I've done - i just now need additional color sets :P

Ack I feel crap!

Hmm darn it woke up yesterday with a little bit of a sore throat nursed it with strepsils all day, same today, feels like Im swallowing something sharp, back of throat feels rough and is probably glowing red so to speak, sipping liquid to keep it lubricated to try and salve the rawness :( I'll get over it just - means silence in the office as I don't speak as often.

Melonie Made Me Do It

4 jobs I've had in my life:
Technical Support / Call Centre / ARC Staff
not had any other jobs - that's my 1st and only

4 movies I could watch over and over:
Lord of The Rings : all of them
The Last Samuri
51st State
Bulletproof Monk - very hard to choose I have a very large DVD selection

TV shows I love(d) to watch:
Startrek : Any of them
Stargate
Doctor Who
Hmm anything that isn't "Reality" TV that I find SO SO SO Boring

4 places where I have lived:
Not Lived anywhere but where I live just now sorry to disapoint,
See I am boring.

4 places I've been to on vacation:
London (a few times)
Relatives for summers many years ago.

4 places I would rather be:
West Virginia,
Indiana,
Hawaii,
Somewhere I could relax, actually relax and feel like doing something rather than just sitting staring at a pc screen.

4 of my favourite foods:
Hmm tricky but it would have to be something like:
a nice fillet of fresh trout,
brocolli,
roast potatoes,
melon (or somthing like that)

4 websites I visit daily:
Melonie
Sharon
Moogie
Laura

4 people worth tagging:
I can't think of anyone who's not already been tagged, Im like that person you send those e-mails that say I must get this back and you never get them back from me. I'm a safe bet never to pass on anything I don't is worthy of passing on.

Virus Alert!

Okay this one has been around for a while but the latest current varient is a bit of biatch, it deletes / overwrites 11 types of files, for more info read here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4661582.stm
No need to panic - all you need to do is make sure your Anti-virus software is up-to-date and has been ran recently (you do have anti-virus software don't you I do believe I recommend it a while back - don't say you wasn't warned!) and keep an eye out for "dobious" e-mails, get mailwasher / mailwasher pro (the pro is worth the cash as you can report it to spam cop :D and speaking of which I got my 1st reply back from a ISP about an IP / site - shut down in 24hrs or less :D Party On.
Oh I don't get to relax this week either - oh well.

What a week

Where do I begin!
I'll begin with last friday, no not 2 days ago, 9 days ago.
I was busy most of the day finishing off testing and packing camera equipment and other pieces of equipment that was going to installed on the monday / tuesday / wednesday.
All packed up and tested by 4pm :) ready to be packed.
Early starts all week which helped (kinda!)

Monday - customer #1 - 2 fixed dome style camera to look after the way in and out of the site, customer changed the spec on us, we can't see the barrier they've since installed as where we were putting the camera can't see it if a truck is being weighed on the weighbridge.
Loaded up the 4 cameras, digital video recorder (DVR), keypad, cat5e cable, power cable, co-ax cable, connectors for the cat5 & co-ax, tools, etc into the hire car so my boss and his son & camera tech, could drive 450 miles to customer #2 to do all the work needed.

Tuesday - they arrive at customer #2, meanwhile I'm let out the office (they do this now and then) to go to help my colleague finish most if not all the wiring to an alarm system that I'll need to help program at a later date for customer #3, as I was seriously the only one small enough to get into the attic spaces as well hmm the hatches to get to them are shall we say "small" I could just get in them.
I hear you asking why, 2 cables needed run from sensors back to the main panel as it would be easier to do that than run them to where we were running the other cables for that section of the building. It's a garden centre with a restruant attached and all the walls are erm 18" thick. We got there about 10:30am , we didn't leave until 6:20pm, the place closes at 6pm. Got back home late. During the day I was getting phone calls on this and that from the boss, like why no video here I said to check the cabling and then this or that.

Wednesday - Im back in the office, discovered after I had asked the question yesterday to my boss - are all the cameras and the cat5e to co-ax convertor hub (which needs power!) on the same phase, reassured by 1 guy onsite yes but we are on the limits for our supply! then discover they aren't, Great!
We had them re-wire them all to same phase of the supply, now I don't know if you've ever had to work with cat-5e and tried to put connectors on the end but it's not the easiest (cat-5e is that cable that has what looks like a big phone connector on it 8pins, sometimes called an RJ-45 connector on the end and is used to connected pc's to other pc's and switches, routers, cable modems etc) Those are Fiddly to up on if you don't have small fingers / cable fanned out in the right order and cut square as well cables don't always connect! We got it all resolved by 5pm (i finish at 4).

Thursday - Return to normallity, everyone is back in HQ, now all we need to do is get pictures back from customer #2 to base.. Easy - NO!!! Need to get into router to configure it so that it points at the dvr so our software can connect to it, Simple, you've guessed it dear reader - NO it wasn't!
Called the ISP who provides the adsl line to customer #2, 1st call was very helpful that let us get into the router with the username and password they provided us with - yeah they password protected the router (stops people changing stuff on it) now the thing is what do you when it says "Speedtouch 510" on the outside but when you get the page up for it, it says "Speedtouch Alactel" (didn't get around to till late on thursday as it was catch up day). We weren't (I wasn't!) getting anywhere and it was like 4pm so I went home and we stopped for day)
Friday - 3 calls to ISP (Demon Internet - named and shamed - 1 from the guy down there like we were told to do) couldn't resolve what we wanted to do which was where do we go to get to "Port Forwarding / NAT / Port Mapping" as said yesterday it was a Alactel (looking at isp's webpage says the supply a speedtouch 510 nothing about speedtouch alcatel!) - they all said can you call us back when your in front of a pc by the router which we had the guy down there do with us listening in via the guys mobile - I said I was offsite and it was a distance away - I gave up, called the maker of the router and in 2 minutes resolved the problem what it had taken 3 calls and 30 minutes of wasted time by all to get the ISP tech support to tell us. Got into the router got the guy to set up what we needed for each of the "ports" there were 3 needed to be done, set the ip address of the router to somewhere that wouldn't be used as well needed to fix that as well if the power went out and there was no pc attached it would get a different IP (possibly - didn't want that) so we were done with the router had the guy go the DVR and set that up to the ip address we'd given it, had him save the all the changes and exit, and then tried to connect. Success 1st time connect :) Thank ****ing god! this was done at 3:30pm Friday only taken 2 days - I'd have been down or the boss would have done it if he had, had time wednesday but took so long on simple things like connections, power etc not his fault..
Saturday - Installed broadband for my dear sister :D - now Aol broadband says it needs 98se and won't work below that my 98se cd wouldn't play ball with the cd-rom in her machine so when I ran the CD it went and told me it couldn't find bits to finish the install, had to re-do the install of 98. Once I got back into windows I then just had to install broadband usb drivers - AoL CD said it couldn't do that, I knew otherwise :D - i ran the driver installer manually and it worked sister has broadband and she happy with it..

MY Router - Continued!

Sorry If I made some people go eh!? or make their brain hurt a little trying to understand it, sorry it's my technogeekie side showing.
The basics of it are it a bit of kit I plug my adsl line into, plug my computers into , power up and it connects them all to the net flawlessly. I have something similar set up on one machine it uses software to do the same thing using a seperate modem instead of having one built in. That explain it better, well I got a e-mail reply today from the makers of it - I put in a support request on it and got the reply back today, I've to check / Change something (I won't go techie on ya) and double check my e-mail server settings with my ISP and hopefully all will be well. Im gonna do that at the weekend. I've had a fun few days and I will post about them soon, when I can find energy to do another post..

My Router - The Final Chapter....?

Okay well I got another router a really nice D-Link 504T which does all that i want it to do finally got it hooked up, and it all looked like it was working swimmingly until I noticed I wasn't getting any replies back from spamcop for all the spam I report and Mailwasher had been hanging kinda and i had to force it close.. I then let it finish 2 related errors it couldn't connect to my isp smtp service to send mail out..
Theory checked with a quick test mail which FAILED..
So as of now I'm back on the old system that has worked so faithfully
ADSL Modem Uptime 8hrs..

No I've not died

I am still alive, I have been leaving descreet notes of this around the blogsphere, a comment here and there to let some pople know Im still here.
What a week or so it's been at work. We've got a few contracts that are just now starting to kick off in a big way, need the equipment all checked and working so that's what I've been doing, that and talking nicely to our dome camera suppliers about the next fault I've found with one of their cameras - not been many just the order I think was a little rushed as well our customer was going hmmmmmmmm a lot on deciding what to go for etc.. Built the 1st lot up to discover hmm dodgy on/off switch in that it wouldn't switch at all, unfinished welding on a dome didn't look good and could have leaked and a camera failure which of course meant I was delayed in getting the 2nd customers cameras checked over which I've just done or at least enough to be going on with, as well what I've checked goes live as of monday, customer #1 is getting it all done over the tuesday / wednesday and on one of those days I will be out the office at an other customers helping my colleague finish off the cabling of their new alarm system which i've then gotta adjust the programming on, name the zones, types of zones, users and user codes, redo the engineer code.
So what time I've had has been taken up either sleeping or chilling out I've not forgotten any of you guys out there honest.
I will try and get out this weekend and takes some pictures I need the exercise I think..

Hugs to all

Blogger World Trailer Park - Buttons

Okay folks post yer ideas, comments, comments to the ideas, comments to the comments and replies to the above below...
Constructive Ideas about overall size, shape, possible colors and wording that will be in all the buttons (or color sets so say BWTP - in 16 different colors with different background colors etc) allowing space for Individualisation of the button - Might be able to even do 2 seperate buttons and combine them with a bit of code I could probably make up.

Gopher's Random
Blog World
Trailer Park
Ramblings

Like That but the background image and the BWTP text would be as one, then all you need to do is a create the overlay - don't worry about getting it to work - that's what others are here for ;) and management :D

m***********g bl***y routers!

In case dear reader you hadn't guess I'm well to put it mildly ROYALLY PISSED OFF!!!!!!!!! Now I got a router on saturday, lets just say it wasn't upto the spec I wanted returned it and got it changed for one that claimed it would do the job with Port Forwarding and the like, look at manual - impressive should do the job. Did it, did it HELL as like. I set it up and after logging in with the default admin & password supplied guess what I got..... A Page very, very similar but with fancy graphics to the 1st router i.e all I could do was set up my username and password to connect to my ISP, no menu system, no **** all.. Me ROYALLY PEEVED! only set it up today as well was busy yesterday, so tomorrow is gonna be a very good day, unless your anywhere near the either end of the phone when I call the shop...........
Do Not By Origo ADSL Routers - what they say on the box isn't what ya get inside!!
Yours

ROYALLY PEEVED & PISSED OFF!

In Reply to "A Quiz of Questions"

Okay thank you for the response I'll try and be as open and honest as I can and if I can't I'll say I can't.
What a varied and mixed bag of questions well I did ask for that.
Here goes.

DB - Hmm here are yours.

1. Where's the nearest Pub... and why aren't you there partyin more often?
   
   Hmm nearest Public House (if you can even call it that more of a Dive) is called the Cleickim Inn simply because one of the roads near it is called Cleickimin Cresent, it's well lets see down the bottom of my street, near my Favourite Pizza place, about 25 yrds away. Why aren't I partying there more often it's not the place to party, got a few places to party but hmm they are far enough away to be good places to go but full of people, Im not really a party person, Im the quiet type didn't ya know.



2. When are you planning to visit Hawai`i?
   
   Hmm tricky one as well I don't actually own a passport, only once been outside mainland UK, well not really now as there is a road joining the Isle of Skye to the mainland but been to the Isle of Skye & Thruso to the North of Me and London for my friends wedding and a few other times - furthest south I've been. So erm not for a while.



3. How long have you been in IT?
   
   Strictly speaking Im not in IT, although my job does entail the use of computers and doing technical support for the companies 2 engineers + all our customers who have problems with their alarm systems. I'm also the guy that gets the new kit to figure out how it all goes together. If your taking involvement with PC's / computers then since i was about 10, on ye olde BBC B Microcomputer at school, typing in programs to see what they did. Got my first computer (so to speak) when i was 12, ZX Spectrum 48K elite computer, I've just picked up stuff from there like how to build, install new parts and resolve hardware / software conflicts - although somethings still puzzle me. Hope that answers your questions.


Junebugg

4. How the hell did you get the name Gopher?
   
   Hmm well that's an interesting story actually. I did go to university right after I finished school (bad idea probably!). I did get to meet a lot of people, I made some good friends most of which I keep in touch with today. Univeristy was a high point and a very low point as well, all i can say is I've stared into the Abyss but didn't leap (Don't ask for any more info!). I have a love of computers and well I was good at finding things plus there was around that time a puppet on kids TV over here called "Gordon The Gopher" now my first name is Gordon so you can see how it came about, don't know who started it, it just happened and I didn't get mad at them. It would be Gordon go find this on the net, evetually it became Gopher Go find this as well I was good at it, Still am at ferreting out Information, glitches in blog templates etc. Yup Answered that :D


Jackie

5. Can you describe your best childhood memory?
   
   Hmm this is a tricky one Jackie, I have a few. The one I gonna go is a christmas one, I was 12, mother had put ribbon all over the living room for me to follow, I found bits and pieces, a TV, my computer and such it was fun, set it up and well played it till it died (which was quick - it had to a fault :( ) never mind got fixed.
   Another is summer time I'd always be out till like 9pm at a local Country Park, I knew most of the staff by name, I have this infectious humour and ability to make friends temporarly so was never bored. Reminds me need to go find a few of the people I know from back then.
6. 
   
   Moogie
   
7. If you could pick one thing in your life to do over or change, what would it be?
   
   Hmm I honestly can't think of anything I'd chance as well if I change something in they myriad of possiblities I may not have gotten to know you all if my choices had been different. It's actually a miricle Im here at all, let's just say there is a the gap between my age and my parents is greater than my age. Maybe the one thing I'd have changed is getting my spine fixed when I could have gotten it fixed easier or rather trying not to have it needing to be done in first place.


Wahwer

8. Seaside vacation or mountain getaway?
   
   Hmm now that depends on who's going with me. I don't dislike large crowds but sorry I can't take the heat so it would have to be some where cool, somewhere I could actually relax, if i can even remember what that is. Most likely it would be mountain getaway as the Seaside places tend to be crowded with idiots thinking they are cool..
   


Roxi

9. Who are you?
   
   Tricky, and yet not tricky. Many meanings to this question. Who am I..
   Well my name is Gordon, I'm 31, from a village in Western part of the Kingdom of Fife in Scotland. I don't have a girlfriend at the momement, my previous girlfriend was my 1st girlfriend, lets just being dump hurt. Im F.I.N.E (go watch the Italian Job - the remake for what that means or google it). I'd say FINE sums me up actually quiet well. I like a multitude of musical styles and stuff from Queen to Athlete, Ash to The Chemical Brothers and many more I can say I listen to. Im the youngest of 4 children (although I will only acknowledge having 2 sisters - I've hinted why in previous posts) I read many books from Harry Potter to the Kinsey Milhone series so I have wide musical and reading tastes. I can cook, have written poetry - see my website for that - link on sidebar. Think that does that.


Vicky Waters

10. I've never been to Scotland, so if I go what food unique to Scotland should I try?
    
    Hmm well there is the thing Scotland is famous for Haggis, my some fresh caught local brown or rainbow trout is nice if you like fish. We are the crossroads for such a diverse range of people that you can get any style of food depending on where you are. I'd say Haggis or maybe black pudding (bit dry for my liking), or find a fish and chip shop and have fish n chips - we do it real nice up here :) - Hope that helps

Wow long post took me a while to write hope that answers all your question.
Addition:

Melonie:

11. What is your favorite "guilty pleasure" on television? Is it some reality show? A soap opera? A sitcom?
    
    Hmm i don't really have 1 as such, it's certainly not "reality" TV sorry I hate that whole senario. Probably be something like Dr. Who or something like that..



12. What is your favorite literature (I use this term loosely) genre? Mystery? Sci Fi? Fiction?
    
    Hmm Well I like a bit of Sci-Fi, I've read all of Douglas Adams books, Some of the Discworld Series by Terry Pratchet. I also Read Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone series so mystery, crime, sci-fi oh and I've been known to pick up the occational book by Jill Mansell



13. Do you fish?
    
    In a word, NO i like fresh caught fish but I don't have the patience to sit and wait for a bite, the few times I've tried I've gotten nothing.



14. What was your favorite cartoon as a child?
    
    I had several like Hong Kong Fooey, Captain Caveman and the like well early 80's toons, ya dig

Come On, Come On

Hmm 5 Questions posted so far.. Come on people I know there are few of you out there that haven't commented but well I know want to ask me something.. I will think on those 5 that have all ready been posted, after all what's the point of doing this if you I don't answer them correctly or do a polotian on ya and give half an answer. Post more Questions in Post Below. Thank you.