Saturday, April 30, 2005

q: why am I in the wrong job?

a: because I hate computers! They're OK when they work, in fact they're great when the work - it's just that I seem to have the knack of persuading them not to work.

Thought I could speed up my aging old frenemy by re-formatting my system hard drive and installing an actual legitimate copy of XP I've had for ages. Easy enough one might think. But no, obviously not as I'm writing this. Problem 1: Scratch on legit CD copy of XP and / or corrupt files from the (legit) download. Problem 2: Some confusion over hard drives (possibly wiping all data on storage hard drive - I don't know at the moment) so re-installing old WinME from PCs recovery disk would not work. Probably some other problem too as removing storage disk does not help as WinME recovery disk now cannot find any hard drive to install itself onto. Problem 3: Borrowed WinXP disk simply goes round in circles, believing that there is an OS already installed on the HD that it's just itself re-partitioned and re-formatted (about 4 times I think I went round this loop).

Solutions? Answers on a postcard would be v. much appreciated.

:0(

[update] Repartitioned system hd using dodgy XP disk for the nth time, made a small 5GB FAT32 partition and left the rest unformated. Tried old WinME recovery disk that came with the 'puter and it finally worked! next step: try and install a version of XP, probably have to do it over WinME which is NOT what I wanted to do; part of the main objective was to get XP running on NTFS rather than FAT32 but never mind.

:oS

1 replies:

Blogger 8480 said...

snap! I too have a BSc in Information Systems - all the good it does me! So what course is it you're doing now?

Thanks for your advice. Think I'll leave my computer to think about it's recent poor behavour and have another crack next weekend...

02 May, 2005 16:06  

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Friday, April 29, 2005

"lost my wife and kids..."

There was a man stumbling from the train station yesterday evening. He fell against a wall, held onto it for support. Thought about asking if he needed any help, but I've seen lots of people who can't walk properly around here so thought it might be some disability and he might take offence or something. Looked over my shoulder as I walked by to check he was OK.

"Can you help me" he calls out; he wants help to cross the road. "Sure" I say, why not? I took his arm, he grasped my hand tightly - it surprised me how strong his grip was as he'd looked so frail. At the crossing of the main road he made drunken small-talk; so he was 'just a drunk' after all. "How am I?" "Good thanks." "Of course you are." [crossing the road] "How are you?" "Terrible." [slurs something that was probably "got no job"]. "Lost my wife and kids." Before or after the drink? the cynic inside silently questions.

Having crossed the road safely he wanted me to walk him further down the street. "I'm going that way" I lie, pointing in the opposite direction to any direction that someone who's just walked the way out of the station that I had would be going. "Oh" sounding a little down, "well thanks anyway" earnestly. Shakes my hand, wishes me a good day. "Be safe" I wish him.

I walk away, don't look back. Just another day in Paradise.

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Thursday, April 21, 2005

Going Underground

Hello,

Here's your longer letter and it is indeed later...

Have I told you about my current living arrangements? They're somewhat "underground" (not literally). I'm living with my dad in his rented 1 bedroom flat, sleeping on a bed settee in the lounge. My clothes are kept in the 2nd wardrobe in his bedroom (along with my mom's weekend clothes), my coats and shoes in the closet in the hall, my bathroom stuff in my toiletries bag in a cupboard in the bathroom and all the rest of my belongings are kept in a small drawer in the TV cabinet in the lounge. What does this all mean? It means that to the casual eye my existence within the flat can be wiped out (well, hidden at least).

On Tuesday we had the quarterly inspection by the landlady's letting agent. Tuesday morning I transformed my bed back into a settee, stashed the sheets etc away and the flat's 2nd resident vanished. The inspector-lady was one-the-wiser. It's not that me living there (temporarily, as a short-term guest) is not allowed - it's a "double" flat after all, but perhaps it would be frowned upon. Also there's the issue of Council Tax, which my dad only pays single-person rates for. This could be seen as ironic, perhaps even hypocritical as my dad's last job at the council was heading up the "Overpayments" department for benefits, which included overpayments of Council Tax if, say, a forgetful tenant neglected to put on their benefit application form that someone in their household was earning and should be contributing council tax.

As I faded myself into the sofa I thought of other people who've lived similar(ish) hidden lives. Anne Frank, for example, hidden (with her whole family) behind a bookshelf in an office; the character in 1984 who has to rent a room in a prole area to do "un-good" things with his lov_r. Not quite the same as me dodging landladies and council tax, but still.

Do you want to know something else about me, in a similar vein to my official invisibility? I ALWAYS buy my books (aside from textbooks) with cash. Never plastic. I guess its my paranoid self not wanting "people" to know what I read (just in case they ever want to, or if I buy a book that raises a flag in some top-secret gov system that watches out for certain ISBNs - you never know!). Although I put the latest books I read on my blog for everyone (all 50 visitors so far) to see. It started when I was in Cambridge and I didn't want my identity to be stolen so I tried buying everything with cash. Very impractical so that didn't last long. My book buying has remained in cash though.

Now, to reply to your email properly...

You remind me of an old person will all this stumbling on stairs. If you were 50 years older you'd be be put in a home!

What was the "American Boy" book about? I think you told me but cant remember: some sort of auto-bio? Did you finish the Time Traveller's Wife?

I'm OK, mostly enjoying my "great job", been a bit dull lately what I've been doing, but almost finished that bit. The projects slipping a fair bit, although apparently still "salvageable". There was a big meeting up in Nottingham about it today actually. Hope it went well. N. left yesterday. She'd been here a year a and a week but wasn't enjoying it. Maybe that'll be me next year! I think I'll stick here for a bit, give the London life a go (when i eventually get a place in London that is!) and I quite like the people I work with - much better being surrounded by geeks!

You get scared of the strangest things!

Might see K. (girl in the hat in that pic) on Saturday cos it's P's birthday and he said she might come. Hope so, maybe I can try out this "more confidence" you talk of. Or not.

Other news: I've joined a gym buy the train station in London. Went swimming this morning before work. Swam in the "medium" lane but probably should have been in the "slow" one. Interesting huh?

Anyway, best be off home,

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Thursday, April 14, 2005

Sunday

As I was saying, I hatched a cunning and devious plan. It was this: In Croydon swap Fight Club for a more expensive book at Waterstones then go to HMV and buy Fight Club for £3, possibly returning Kaiser Chiefs if it turned out to not be that great (£14 is a lot of money to spend on a CD you don't really like).

When I got back I carfully opened Kaiser Chiefs without taking the security seal off, as S_____ had shown me how to do back in the good old minidisk days when we were poor VI formers. I listened to it a few times but it didn't do much for me to be honest, so I was pretty disapointed. I'd need a reason for returning the CD - "It's just not good enough" is just not a good enough reason really, as I'm not sure that it fits in with either of the 2 allowable reasons stated on the back of the reciept (bought in error, or unwanted gift).

My story was this: "I bought it in London yesterday [true], then went to meet my girlfriend [lie] for lunch [lie] and guess what she'd bought me?! Only this CD [lie]! And I don't really need 2 [true, strictly speeking]." HMV worker bee may say: "Bit of a coincidence that." To which I would extend my story to: "Not really, we [lie] were listening to Import Export friday night [true] and Kaiser Chiefs were on and I said I thought they sounded cool [lie], which is why I bought a copy myself yesterday [true]." That aught to work.

So Sunday morning I put the Kaiser Chiefs CD case back together, checked I had all my reciepts, the CD and the book and set off into Croydon town centre. My first stop was Waterstones, just incase I couldn't swap Fight Club I didn't want to have already bought another copy from HMV and be left with 2 (how ironic that would be). I picked up a copy of Catch-22 and took it downstairs to a girl who gladly exchanged it and then said I owed £1. Erm. "It's in the 3for2 offer, so shouldn't it be free still?" "ah, well really you should have bought all(!) of the books back in with you." "really? Oh. [maybe I could offer to go and find copies of the other books here so she can use the barcodes? Nah, she can make a call out for a worker bee to do that.]" I stand there a while while she thinks what to do. In the end she just discounts £1 of the bill and gives me the book. What a nice girl. Phase 1 complted.

Now on to HMV. It's a smaller HMV than Oxford Street (as most are) and laid out differently. I eventually find the books section - just one bookcase full of books. No Fight Club though. I look at every single book spine - no Fight Club. B____x. Oh well, I can buy it from Birmingham when I'm next there.

On to the "Please Pay Here". "Can I return this CD please?" I say to the girl behind the till. "Sure, have you got your reciept?" "yep". "Ah, we don't actually do refunds" shows me the back of the reciept - only mentions exchanges, not refunds, "Why's that??" "Company policy". B____x. There's not really anything else that I want (except Fight Club). "I could give you a voucher, if you wanted?" Keeping the CD didn't really fit with my story, even though she hadn't asked for it I figured I should stay in character. So "OK then, that's fine". So she gives me a voucher card for £13.99, not realising that I got a 10% discount when I bought the CD in the first place. So in reality, I'm now up 20%, as I can get a further 10% discount next time I buy something from HMV. Not really what I wanted, but the extra £2.80 I'll eventually save at least paid for the rest of my Burger King yesterday.

The moral: Don't buy books from bookshops, get them from music shops, and dont buy music from music shops, get them from supermarkets where they'll give you a £££ refund!

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Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Saturday

Thought I'd tell you about my "adventures" at the weekend. Saturday I set myself the task of buying a book from Waterstones and a CD from HMV on Oxford Street. Not too difficult I hear you cry... but I have to find my way from London Victoria to Oxford Street without the aid of the Underground. It's not really that difficult, and quite a nice walk on a nice day. Down Buckingham Palace Rd, cut through Green Park to Piccadilly, follow Piccadilly to Piccadilly Circus and then up Regent Street to Oxford Circus and there you are on Oxford Street.

I made the mistake of missing out Green Park and going up some other road instead, adding about 10 mins to my journey and taking me through the squares Trafalgar and Leicester, but that was OK.

When I got to Oxford Street I found Waterstones first. They've got a "signed by the author" wall there where all the books have been signed, which I thought was pretty cool so I got my mom a signed copy of The Understudy, by David Nicholls. You can tell he's not been an author for long as his autograph is still legible. Not sure why I bought it her really, guess I was just in a giving mood! I then picked up the book I was after - Cloud Atlas - and as both books had "3 for 2" stickers on them I hunted around for my "free" book.

I settled on Fight Club in the end as I'd almost bought it the last 2 times I went book shopping (which is every weekend lately!), saving me £6.99.

Next it was on to HMV. Despite having passed at least 2 other music shops on the way to Oxford Street my mission was to get the CD I wanted (the Kaiser Chiefs one) from here. This was mainly for nostalgia really, as the first/last time I'd been here was when I was 17 on a kinda date with a girl the first/last time I saw her. (no it wasn't really that bad a date, OK it wasn't great but I'm sure thats not the reason I've not seen her since...) Anyway I found Kaiser Chiefs and also picked up a CD of Damian Rice b-sides on sale. Looking around the rest of the store I stumbled across the books section and found, to my horror, that they had Fight Club for only £3! So I'd just wasted my "free" book on a book that was really cheap anyway :o( It had a different cover, but as you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover I guess you shouldn't buy one by it either.

Anyway, my mission was complete on Oxford Street so I set off back to Victoria (the right way this time), stopping off to spend the £4 (and then some) I'd saved from not using the Tube at Burger King [not that there was a Tube at burger king I could have used, unless I mean "straw". Really should do something about the mischevious commas in that last sentence.]

I then hatched a cunning and devious plan....

[Coming Soon: Sunday]

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Friday, April 08, 2005

Recognition

Thank-you for your kind words Anna of Postcards. I still don't know
who Sophia and Yaldaboath are though.

[update: As always, the Matrix has the answer (to the question of Sophia and Yaldaboath).]

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Sunday, April 03, 2005

Jazz Night

Thursday night is Jazz night at the pub down the road. Jazz always reminds me of Sesamie Street or Monster's Inc. or that car advert (although I'm not sure for which car), but that's neither here nor there.

My dad always tries to go as often as he can, making himself a Thursday night regular. I try and go with him whenever I can, mainly because I don't like the thought of him sat at the end of the bar on his own like a sad loner even though there's plenty of other sad old loners there to keep him company. Sometimes the bands are pretty decent too, although when they're not it can be painful to my ears.

Last Thurs the band played a pretty good set though. My dad had invited my uncle along, who came with my 2 boy cousins and some guy from SA who the youngest boy cousin had met at some Christian holiday camp over easter. Walking back from the pub somehow my cousins and this guy started talking about Christianity and the guy from SA started telling of how he'd been talking to some Muslims who had said that Allah was the same god as the Christian god; to which SA guy apparently rebuked [like my use of biblical words here?!] them saying that the christian God is all loving a forgiving yada-yada-yada god, where as Muslims fear their Allah - so how can they be the same? What a load of bollox. I really do worry about my cousins sometimes if this is the sort of division-creating crap they think sounds good.

This guy was also wearing a star of David around his neck, which made me think he was Jewish when I first me him (they've not quite made it over into the mindless-fashion-ohh-that-looks-pretty domain that Crosses have). But after hearing this conversation it got me thinking that maybe this was some sort of political statement about Isreal and Palastine? Who knows.

1 replies:

Blogger tomirose said...

Intresting...I wonder if it's because a lot of people here wouldn't be able to spell Philosopher, much less say it:) Thanks for posting.
As to the conversation re: Allah vs. the Christian God, I wish I had some amazing reply...seeing how I profess to be a follower of Jesus, but alas apologetics have never been my strong suite.

04 April, 2005 02:09  

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