Smile and wave boys, smile and wave...

Well, I've been to Watford, I've been to West Sussex, I've been to Reading, I've been to Leicester, and I'm finally home. Well, okay, back on-site.

With my shiny new bike. Which is rather cool.

... Unlike the temperature outside and in here.

Also, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Not entirely, anyway.

Later people.

Just been pointed to this little gem - MailStore Home - a free easy way to back up mail, including off IMAP servers, into something that's restorable into anything too.

I think I'm going to be using this later!

Correction: This only supports 3 accounts. Good if you've only got, er, 3 accounts. Not the 15 or so I have to archive. Arse.

... I shall be mostly doing sod all.

Might watch some stuff, generally relax, maybe do a little graphics work, maybe learn a few things, maybe just play Warcraft. But I'm basically going to do bugger all. :)

In other news, the bike is in the workshop. Yay.

Happy new year everyone! May 2009 be less shit than 2008. ;)

... IS A FUCKING BIKE THAT DOESN'T DIE IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING NOWHERE.

kthxbai.

My fucking bike electrics are dead.

It's just been deposited at Pendle Motorcycles.

Annoyed Biker is Annoyed!

You are The Sun

Happiness, Content, Joy.

The meanings for the Sun are fairly simple and consistent.

Young, healthy, new, fresh. The brain is working, things that were muddled come clear, everything falls into place, and everything seems to go your way.

The Sun is ruled by the Sun, of course. This is the light that comes after the long dark night, Apollo to the Moon's Diana. A positive card, it promises you your day in the sun. Glory, gain, triumph, pleasure, truth, success. As the moon symbolized inspiration from the unconscious, from dreams, this card symbolizes discoveries made fully consciousness and wide awake. You have an understanding and enjoyment of science and math, beautifully constructed music, carefully reasoned philosophy. It is a card of intellect, clarity of mind, and feelings of youthful energy.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

It's been a long few days, really. I'll crawl out from under my rock eventually, or something. For now though, take care everyone.

Here's the plan, and it's a fairly simple one.

I give myself until the end of December to do whatever it is I want to get done and out of the way.

After that, in January, I start work on the new project.

That gives me... about 2 and a half weeks, realistically, to get stuff done, or planned to have done if it's going to take physically longer than the timescale I have, then I get my arse into gear.

Sounds like a plan... looks like a plan... almost tastes like one. I'd better get on with it!

Note to self: Having UPnP enabled on two routers on a network, one of which is just supposed to be an AP/switch, tends to make it not entirely work properly. Duh.

Still, at least the thought appeared in my brain I suppose to check.

I'm looking at buying a complete new set of gear - leathers, lid, boots and gloves - and have had the Dianese stuff particularly recommended, albeit expensive. The expense isn't a huge issue if it lives up to it's reputation. The boots I was looking at the Sidi ones, although again the Dianese stuff seems to be well rated online, and the lid... well, I've not really got much idea on that one, except I'd like it to have a skirt underneath so it's a bit quieter and less cold.

Unfortunately I haven't really got much of a clue what I should be looking for! Except obviously comfort and the features I want. I've got a bit of a toss-up going on between the leathers and the gore-tex - I much prefer the look and feel of leathers, but the gore-tex is apparently better all year round in this country (as it's usually raining!), unless I want to ride around with my luminous yellow waterproofs over the top. That in itself isn't a huge issue, more a minor inconvenience.

Has anyone got any particular thoughts or recommendations? Having come off once before with a jacket that was too big for me, I learned the perils of armour that does more harm than good - but of course, that wouldn't be an issue with a properly fitted set.

Ideally, I'd like something that keeps me warm, but can be ventilated when it's cooler... waterproofing would be nice but optional to an extent (I have waterproofs if it comes down to it!). Lid as said above (quieter would be nice, air not getting through when the vents are closed, could perhaps do with a visor that stops me being dazzled by the sun?), and boots (reasonably tough, would be nice to be able to walk around in them too without the soles coming off/apart/generally dying like the last pair)... course, I'm not asking for much am I? ;)

Advice appreciated!

(Cross-posted to uk_bikers.)

... that in the middle of the week letters, there's "WTF"?

Just a passing note...

Later this afternoon: looking at new bike leathers and lids...

... Codeweavers have put up Crossover Games and Crossover Pro for free up today. Their main website is down due to the sheer traffic this has caused, but they've put up a temporary download/registration page. Brought to you courtesy of your favorite non-emulator Wine.

... I don't know what I'm doing to attract them at the moment, although everyone else I see also seems to be catching one after another. Certainly can't be doing my system much good, although it has to be said I'm feeling quite a bit better so far today.

Going to add The Homebrew Channel to my Wii today, thanks to Mat lending me his copy of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Then I can finally upgrade the console (aka a couple of updates but not including all the Nintendo anti-homebrew stuff), and install the Opera Browser on it, which I finally got enough points for with the Wii Fit. Yay. Ironically, I can see myself using the browser to do remote magic more than I can see myself installing homebrew stuff, but we'll see.

I meant to add Step 3 to that previous list, but I never got around to it. Still, it doesn't matter. I'm dragging my life back into order, kicking and screaming if necessary. That said, I *am* tempted to lock myself in a room until all these bloody colds go away!

Onwards and upwards! First: breakfast. Second: shopping. Third: The world. Fourth: ....... Fifth: PROFIT!

A rather cool flash game to make a chunk of time disappear. If you like physics-type puzzles, you'll enjoy this. Hey, you might enjoy it anyway.

Fantastic Contraption

Well, sort of at least. This initial post is just to let people know I'm cleaning up a whole lot of my communities and friendslists. If I've removed you, it's nothing personal, and doesn't mean you aren't actually my friend - it's just that we don't have all that much in common, or I tend to skip through your posts.

If anyone gets removed who wants to see filtered stuff for some reason, drop a message on here.

Also, I'm going to be changing all my filters quite drastically. Tech stuff of general interest/value I'm going to post publically, although if it's long I'll probably cut it. The rest... well, the rest is in the air right now.

Have a good day everyone.

... or at least LiveJournal and a few other places.

I need time 'alone' to sort out the jumble in both my head and my life, and to let some calm return to the less than tranquil current state of mind I'm in.

If anyone needs to contact me, I'll be available via the usual means. And if anyone doesn't know what they are, then ask one of the people who does. *laughs*

Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back (in a while) for breakfast!

... I was looking for an alternative to iTunes, because frankly, I liked Winamp (although it's got a bit bloated as of late), and iTunes just pisses me off with the way it does things.

Then I found this.

Songbird.

That 'bird' part is in fact showing some relations to Firebirdfox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, etc. It's an XUL-based media player thing. Except it's actually really good. And damn fast. And shockingly, well, good.

The Hype Machine in there is damn cool for discovering new music direct live off the 'net, streaming reliably without blinking. Lots of plugins. Decent built-in browser. Instant off-the-net playlists for you to play with. It's... it feels like what the next music player should be. Some seem to be previews, but it's certainly very interesting to play with.

Awesomely cool. Try it. Don't know what it's like on Windows or the like, I'm running it on OS X... it's still a bit rough round the edges, but definitely worth a look.

Happy birthday vampirelolita! Have a fantastic one babe ;)