Journal Entries
I've got a job interview
Posted Jun 4, 2008
Just checked my email and I was excited to see an invitation to a job interview. This is the library assistant position I may have mentioned.
My excitement is tempered by two things:
1. The interview is next week, when I will be the other end of the country.
2. The email says they had their postal invitation returned, which makes me look dumb if I got my address wrong. Checking the website the address in my account is indeed out of date, but the application required a home address to be filled and I duly filled in my current abode. Almost. I transposed the digits of the house number somehow. 
That's not good for a job where attention to detail is quite important.
Anyhow, I'd best phone them tomorrow and get things sorted out.
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Latest reply: Jun 4, 2008
Lakeland Stag
Posted Apr 21, 2008
I've been off to the Lake District on a friend's stag do, though perhaps not your typical example. Granted there was a certain amount of alcohol drunk, including fancy whisky swigged from the bottle because we had no cups (accommodation was a camping barn, which is pretty basic), but we also found time to climb the Old Man of Conniston on Saturday (despite the gales blowing) and go mountain biking yesterday.
The mountain biking was interesting as I'd never done it before. A couple of us, including the stag, went off on the really tough and technical North Face Trail (we were in Grizedale Forest if that means anything to anyone), one went off on his road bike, and the remaining three of us took one of the easier routes along forest roads.
The guy at the bike hire shop seemed to assume we were all experienced, probably because we'd paid extra for the premium bikes, and doing the loony North Face Trail. So he talked for a bit about jumps and falling in the bog and some technical stuff about the bikes. Even when I had to admit I couldn't get the front spoke to change gear, and then admit I didn't understand his explanation, he wasn't disabused of this notion. The problem with the gears was that it takes a while to change and it helps if you ease off a bit while changing - not very helpful if you're trying to cycle up a slope and have just found the pedalling too hard.
The route we took was pretty much okay, though I still had trouble with the gears, and the chain seemed to go loose sometimes and once came off. After that we had a couple of hours left so two of us did a part of a longer route, with a shortcut along another forest road. On the way back we decided to try a bit of the crazy trail, which was generally not too bad. The hardest parts were the wooden boardwalk, especially when it slanted one way or the other. I may have fallen off a couple of times, but not so spectacularly as the other guy. What got me was when there was a bit of a drop and the way was narrow - I tended to brake and then have to put my feet down to avoid falling off.
We made it back last, so I just had time to buy some Kendal mint cake before we headed home.
I'm glad I took today off work, because I'm a bit tired.
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Latest reply: Apr 21, 2008
I demand TV
Posted Jan 2, 2008
I'm not sure when it happened but BBC iPlayer now works with Vista. (Incidentally, don't Apple get annoyed at the ripping off of the whole iName thing? I guess you can't copyright sticking a lower case letter before words.) I have to use Internet Explorer to view stuff unfortunately, but it's not a great hardship.
So far I've watched the Christmas episode of Doctor Who and two episodes of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe (I never seem to catch it when it's on, somehow, but it is well worth seeing - imagine a grumpier, ruder version of TV Burp, with more ranting and smaller collars). The picture's not so good as an actual telly (maybe that's better if I download stuff instead of streaming it) and the menu is a bit pants: Only nine programmes shown at once? That's going to be a big problem when more are available; you'll have to click through screens and screens of stuff to find what you want. What's wrong with having a big list with short descriptions, like on the radio version?
Also the chair in front of my computer isn't as comfy as the settee downstairs. Hopefully the Beeb will address this and other issues in the near future.
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Latest reply: Jan 2, 2008
Christmas journalising
Posted Dec 26, 2007
Well, I see a few people have got Christmas journals and rather than post a bland "Merry Christmas from me as well" message in each one I thought I'd add my own.
I've been at my dad's for the last two days, having gone straight from work to the railway sation on Christmas Eve. Train delays meant I took a different train and had to change in Darlington instead of going direct, so in the end I was half an hour later than I should have been.
We went down the local football club on the evening. Nothing much was happening so we watched Christmas Carol on the big telly. It was the one with Patrick Stewart in it from a few years ago. I wasn't feeling to great so went home early.
We had a fairly traditional Christmas dinner (turkey, roast potatoes, mashed potato, carrots, parsnips, cauliflower, stuffing, cranberry sauce, cheese sauce, yorkshire pudding, gravy) with five of us there. My plate seemed a bit too small when things were being dished out, but I soon found I had plenty to eat. I don't think any of us felt up to Christmas pud so dessert was fruit and merringue.
We were a bit lazy I think, mostly watching TV, reading and doing puzzles before heading back to the football club, where we got second prize in the quiz, all three of us got knocked out in the first round of the domino tournament and then we left before killer pool was played. It had gone midnight.
I'll add more to this in a bit.
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Latest reply: Dec 26, 2007
Back on t'interweb
Posted Sep 15, 2007
You may have noticed my absence over the past few days. If you haven't, just pretend you have - it makes me feel like an important member of the community. Anyway the reason I wasn't here was that I was between ISPs. One housemate moved out and the other wanted to get some sports channels, which is why we today had an engineer from a company henceforth referred to as Beardie Media round.
Things didn't go entirely smoothly. For a start my housemate, out at work until almost three o'clock, abandoned his original plan of "I'll leave my room open so he can put the TV cable and stuff in there," in favour of "I don't trust people so I'm going to lock my door and hope to be back before the engineer gets here." The Beardie Media van pulled up outside at 1.30 and housemate was uncontactable by phone. So the Beardie box is now installed in the front room, which is annoying because I don't really want the sports channels and may well want another channel on opposite the match.
We also now have a telephone account, with assigned telephone number etc. The one thing we don't have is an actual telephone.
As for the old broadband internet, I tried putting the CD in my computer, but it complained that I don't have an ethernet card. After my housemate got home and finished cussing the engineers earliness we tried it in his machine with a little more success, which is to say we got further through the setup process before encountering an error. This error was along the lines of being unable to connect to the Beardie Media exchange and were we sure the cables were plugged in. After checking the cables and swapping them around to no effect I put them back how they were in the first place and everything worked. Yay.
So, now I'm back I guess I should get on with yon North Yorkshire article that's been sitting in PR for weeks. Or I could look up some hints for the Fleur-de-Lys puzzle in Broken Sword: The Angel of Death.
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Latest reply: Sep 15, 2007
Bagpuss
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