Excuses

"Arctic Fox, where are your blog entries for the last three days?" Asked a mustachioed, unkempt school teacher.  "Sorry Sir, the cat ate them and then the dog ate the cat" came my smart-arsed, well rehearsed response.  A hundred lines and one hour of detention were my reward.

I wake up, cold sweat.  Pounding headache.  Must be Monday I think to myself and sitting bolt upright notice it's actually Tuesday.

Well, I've had a rough few days.

I've finished my antibiotics and am starting to feel like I dare loosen the bond between myself and the nearest toilet.

I've deleted the complex series of alarms that I'd created to remind me when to take this, take that, or even eat food.

With a little research and an old carrier bag, to plug the holes in my sieve-like memory, I've managed to fix up my Nintendo 3DS so that it (once again) agrees that it can play games from my "very special" card.  Thank heavens I still have my old Nintendo DS otherwise I don't know how I would have done it!

Apart from feeling like I'm sitting on an infected timebomb..... and my head feels like I drank about fifteen pints of real ale last evening..... everything's coming up roses..... or is it?

In some fevered fit of sleep last night..... I remember hearing, and wishing I had been dreaming..... that ISPs are being told to block access to Pirate Bay!  I mean, you're frikking kidding me right?  Didn't we all get a bit antsy because China blocked Google?  Isn't this just the bloody same?  Can someone tell us what we can and can't look at?  I tell you what.... I'm SO bloody furious that I'm going to watch snooker all day!  Stuff your internet up your arse! 

(but don't, please.... I beg you, bring it anywhere near mine!)

Careful.

Spent the most part of the day trying to care about Big Brother. It's very difficult to get involved in it without the live feed. Come on Channel 4, bring it back.

Tried to watch Fistful of Dollars... fell asleep.

Ended up caring about my Pokemon far more than I ought to.

Let me just say.....

Be careful what you wish for!!

About turn.

Blog entry take two.

Having previously decided to blog about a successful purchase of Marmite - a measly 250g jar which worked out cheaper than any of the other sizes, larger ones included.... I've changed my mind, and that's my frikking perogative, so back off!!

It's Nintendo DS time.

Having spent approximately six hours swapping the case, only to fail at the final hurdle by snapping the power switch...... that's where I left off. I had been quoted thirty quids to repair it....

Having shopped around, I managed to buy a couple (one for emergencies/disasters) of said power switches from a company in Leeds for just ninety eight pence each.... yes that's nine-eight 98 whole pence!!

Good old RBK came round and desoldered the old switch and soldered on a new one for me - cheers Rich - GREATLY appreciated - some people have skills and although they don't prize them very highly, others certainly do.

I put the whole thing back together and settled down tonight to stick on the rubber feet and screw covers and all those other bollocksy bits that finish the job. The rubber feet weren't self adhesive so I superglued 'em on for good luck...... can you guess what happens next??

I turn on the completely reassembled machine and the top screen is blank.

Back to the drawing board - screw heads are starting to strip away and rubber feet are now cut out and thrown in the bin - back to the fiddly gold connector ribbon and it's working again.... reassembly - seriously those screws won't take another undoing....

Hey presto - a bit of bodging and lots of determination and assistance into the bargain and:



Before - all set out for a very organised afternoon. When the switch snapped it all ended up being chucked into a bag and the screws got mixed up and.... well you know how it goes.... everything I touch turns to shite!!



During - A picture I took during the operation - this one was supposed to help me remember the wire routings. See the little black wire that runs under that big silver block thing..... oh my.... it nearly didn't get reconnected. Also spot my Hong Kong screwdriver propping it all up.



After - Sexy metallic red - all revved up and ready to go.... if I can just finish this effing blog then I might be able to play some!!

Patience!!

I am not a patient person...

The above statement suitably encapsulates the feeling of severe despair that is currently hanging over my head like a big grey cloud, brought on by the disintegration of my Nintendo DS.

New parts ordered.

New parts arrived.

Tri-wing screwdriver...... of course missed off my original order.

In a concerted effort to get my project underway - immediately - I set off to find a suitable screwdriver....

DIY store in Marsh - never heard of them.

B&Q in town - "Have you tried Screwfix Direct?"

Screwfix direct - Confirm for me that they are indeed called tri-wing screwdrivers but don't have one.

End of the line......

Back to the internet shopping.....

Choice 1 : $1 but comes from Hong Kong with free postage 10 -12 working days?.....

Choice 2: Same place I got the case from - £6 + £2.50 postage - 1 -2 days.....

Normally I'd have gone for the fastest. Call it credit crunch, or a lesson in patience and thrift, but I went for the cheap Hong Kong one!!

I miss my Nintendo.



Smashed.... bloody design faults!!! Cue weeping fox.

Peril.

The perils of pressing shift-delete.

For those of you that don't already know, you can avoid your files making their final shuffle into the Recycle Bin by holding down the shift key while you press the delete key. This deletes the files instantly, thus bypassing the security net of the bin.

For those that don't know, I've spent 310 hours playing Pokemon Diamond (since October 18th to this morning). It's been a real labour of love and my creatures were just starting to really like me... I mean REALLY like me!!

For those that don't know - I am a complete idiot and accidentally shift-deleted both the Pokemon game and my progress save file.

D'OH!

Gotta catch 'em all!

Hazy, lazy, Nintendo time days.

I keep meaning to get out on my bike or go out for a walk, but the weather..... oh the weather!! I wish it would make its mind up as to whether it's autumn or winter. Broadly speaking, we're supposed to have at least a couple more weeks of autumn left.... the hail storms and random storm force winds and fog and rain (torrential rain) are not really defining our season too well.

Some might say it's a typical Yorkshire autumn..... and even more so it's a typical Outlane autumn!! The wide main road here is a real open artery through which the weather truly gushes.
Roll on the winter beer festival season (There'll be loads of really strong dark beers)..... Of note:

The Star at Folly Hall - 26th November to 30th November 2008
Drop Inn at Elland - 4th December to 7th December 2008

So make sure you come and burgle my house over those dates - if I'm out then you'll have no worries otherwise I'll be the drunk one asleep on the sofa.... try not to wake me.



Be they alive or be they dead.... I'm just an old tree hugger at heart and I love this pair of dead trees in a field near the (very beautiful) village of Helme. A walk when the weather knew what it was doing.

My name....

My name's Jason, and I'm a Pokemon addict!!

Don't ask me how it came to be that I have waited until my fortieth year to investigate the photosensitive epileptic phenomena that put young children on the floor, all those years ago back in ninety seven.

We all grew up with top trumps, and essentially Pokemon's the same game, but with some adventurey role playing type game stapled on the front of it.

I can't even explain why I am finding such a simple game to be so addictive.

I only know that before long, I'll have played it to death and can get on with my life again!!!

Curse you, you crazy Japanese anime creators.



Irony: Seeing as we had our first hard overnight frost last night, and I spent most of the day in bed keeping warm, playing Pokemon, and subsequently didn't get out with my camera.... here's one I took earlier. I have a strange fascination with these old gateposts. This is somewhere between Slawit and Marsden.... somewhere between river and canal.

Like I need an excuse.

Having spent last evening in Wakefield, at the lovely hostelry known simply as Fernandes - an Ossett brewery tap, Dawn spent the night being sick in my bathroom (accompanied by one of many power cuts that we seem to be experiencing lately). I think we're both fairly sure that the meat from the smorgasbord that we ordered, had, sadly, disagreed with her.

The upshot of Dawn's nocturnal stomach churning adventures meant that, today while my central heating refused to cooperate, she slept while I played Pokemon Diamond on my Nintendo DS. I think we eventually surfaced at about two in the afternoon and Dawn started to feel a little better, and the central heating kicked in, and we managed to settle on the sofa and relax for a while watching a bit of TV.

Poor lass..... hope she feels better soon!!



Just one of a series of "landscapes" that I have in my collection - A Bolton Abbey waterscape. I love the sunshine, the motion, the weed on the rocks..... You get the idea... I'm fond of it, you make your own mind up!

Full speed ahead!

Seems the season of beer festivals is upon us. I have to be careful not to drink too much too often!! Having gotten myself a little bit blootered last weekend has made me slightly wary!!

Well I've been quite busy with one thing and another.... mainly Pokemon Diamond!! I DID manage to get my job application handed in on time though, so you never know..... Everything now remains crossed up to the point where interviews begin in the week commencing third November, and to hope that I get an invite!!

Shows how busy doing nothing I have been when I haven't even had a chance to look at my Pogo badges this week and they've been available for me for four hours or more!! Unheard of!!



Finding Nemo? A very lucky picture - indeed the one that DIDN'T get away!! A day at "The Deep" in Hull yielded some pretty crappy photos, and this is the best of a bad bunch. Shame the fish aren't bigger in the frame, but lovely colours and stuff.

A little bit deeper.

Yes, put off by the complicated "work history" that I seem to have accumulated, my enthusiasm to apply for a job has waned to the point that I managed to stay in bed until three o'clock this afternoon playing Pokemon Diamond on my Nintendo DS.

So far I've reached Pikachu procrastination level nineteen.

Bearing in mind that the application deadline is Wednesday and it's already Monday evening and I've only filled in my name and address..... if I had to ask a magic eight ball I am sure it would say something like "Outlook not so good".

I wish I had stayed in permanent employment and never turned to contracting now because the idea of references and work history would have been so much simpler.

Having played some Pogo and updated my blog, I guess I ought to go and at least try to fill in a few more postage stamp sized boxes with my patented "spider-crawling-across-the-page" style calligraphy.



Bolton Abbey 20th September 2008 - What can only be described as a lovely day out - we went walking near Menwith Hill around Fewston and Timble Ings Woods (walking route supplied by the excellent Yorkshire Water website) - A day filled with sightings of red kites, enormous dragonflies, and sunshine - Called at Bolton abbey on the way home.

Making an example.

Sometimes I wonder how I can be so busy, when in reality I'm not actually, really, doing anything at all.

What have I been doing since Sunday?

Well, I resolved to NOT go out for a drink this week... It's only Tuesday and I am wondering whether I might have made a bad choice. May is a month of celebration of the humble pint of mild, and there's a couple of *mild and cider festivals cracking off this coming weekend, so I thought I might enjoy them more if I err on the side of sobriety this week.

* Three Pigeons mild festival Saturday and Sunday (10 milds) - Rat and Ratchet mild and cider festival Saturday and Sunday (15 milds and some cider).

So that's what I HAVEN'T been doing.

I've been glued to the snooker (an annual occurrence) at the Sheffield Crucible - Yes, we all know it's really boring, but like Big Brother, the more you watch it, the more you get sucked in and enjoy it.

Spent half a day today looking for:
a) Mario Kart Wii - with steering wheel - (found in the first shop I went to)
b) Wii Fit - (Gave up looking after the twelfth shop)
c) A **Rubik's Cube - (Gave up looking after the ninth shop)

** Apparently the Rubik's Cube is once again a "must have" toy for kids.... Some shops have not had any stock of them since December!! I am so out of touch with the youth of today!! Obviously I still have my original "cube" but I'm sure a birthday gift didn't ought to be so tatty!!

Obviously, after purchasing Mario Kart for my Wii.... I've invested a little bit of time and effort into doing some of that, and playing against Riv.

Spent a few hours yesterday evening servicing (well, helping Riv to service) a bike for the Turtle, which is now, once again, greasy and almost road worthy!!

Satnav... I've been trying to work out why the Nokia LD-3W is such a poor bluetooth GPS receiver. After quite a bit of digging, it turns out that it's because the unit operates in "static navigation" whereby your position data is averaged, and therefore it's more accurate when travelling at speed than it is for walking around some fields (or indeed being (mis)guided up and down the same street outside the Manchester Arms in Hull several times to the point of embarrassment). So.... after much digging and sniffing around the interweb, I've found a utility that lets me hack into the bluetooth GPS receiver and turn off the static navigation... I tried it out today and it does genuinely seem a bit better..... it needs a more exhaustive test, but that would involve me getting off the sofa!! Anyone interested in the Nokia LD-3W should look here, it's most useful.

I baked some bread... then ate it.

Caught up on my Sky+ recorded programmes (Heroes (season 2), Love Soup, Pushing Daisies (season 1), Dexter (season 1).

Hoovered around the house - a task LONG overdue. Bleached my dishcloths (I never know why I don't just throw them away!!). Unclogged the bathroom sink.

Hung a window mounted bird feeding station on my lounge window.

Listened to Terry Pratchett's - The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - part of Mr. Pratchett's 60th birthday (28th April) celebrations on Radio 7.

Played endless hours of "brain training" type activities on my Nintendo DS, and an equal amount of time playing "brain numbing" type games too. Also played a fair amount of Pogo.

Drunk a lot of coffee!!

And so..... it would appear that there have not actually been enough hours in the couple of days since my last post to fit all of this nothingness into.... where did I get the extra day from?

Step away....

Step away from the Nintendo!!

I'm trying to ween myself off from my Nintendo DS.

I don't have a problem with playing it twenty hours a day. I don't have a problem with falling asleep with it clutched in my sweaty palms and waking up to its tinny speakers playing some weird loop of music from an aquarium simulator that I was playing. I don't even have a problem with breaking out in a cold sweat when the low power light comes on and I am out of the immediate reach of a suitable power supply.

The reason(s) I am keen to ween are along the following lines:

I have a nine AM job interview on Friday this week. It would therefore seem logical that I try to get back into some sort of routine in a two day preparation ritual. I also need to spend some time doing "revision" to ensure that I at least know what the job that I have applied for entails, and some background info on the relevant organisation. (I will give more details about this job after I've either passed the test or embarrassed myself into oblivion later this week).

Real life things. Despite being cocooned in a soft, fluffy, cotton wool wrapped Nintendoland for more time than I would care to add up, there is no doubt that my time of "retirement" must come to an end soon.

Bike. If I had spent any fraction of the amount of Nintendotime actually riding my bike, in the real world, real air, rain, snow, hills, and mud, then I might not currently be two dress sizes bigger than my ideal size!!

Brain draining. Doctor Kawashima has a lot to answer for. The Brain Training game that came out (a long time ago) for the Nintendo DS did more than get us to sharpen our mental agility. The rash of "training" programs that followed it have resulted in a two hour door (I would normally call it a window but you can see through a window, this block of time is not transparent, it's solid, and a real daily obstacle for me) where I embark on a range of daily training activities.... Picross, Ninja Reflex, Maths Training, Brain Training, More Brain Training, Puzzle League.... I can't function until I have satisfied this unhealthy quota of training.

And so......

I must step away from the virtual aquarium.

In other news:

There must be a phrase that sums up a situation where you lose something, but find something of equal value? I've heard of losing a something and finding a something else, but it's usually an expression of gaining something...... Anyhoo, if I knew the phrase, then I'd be saying it in relation to the fact that for the first time ever, I appear to have a pair of sparrows nesting in my garden (following the tragedy of losing my robin nest in the snow and wind earlier in the week). I don't often get many sparrows, so it's nice that they've chosen to stay.

Customer service. Following on from yesterday's order for a new ISP (just twenty-four hours).... I have received no fewer than six messages to my mobile phone advising me that different phases of the process are taking place. Service indeed!! A nice touch is that they messaged me to say that my equipment arrives tomorrow and as a pre-emptive measure I can simply reply to the text with any one of a range of numbers to pick alternate delivery dates. Let's hope that:
a) When I need to speak to someone, they are in this country and know what they are talking about.
b) The "up time" of the new service can even partly compare to the current service provider.

(For the records: I was with Zen - they're fantastic if you can afford them, absolutely top notch.... I am now going with O2 - a mobile phone company which isn't Orange, but the negative vibes are spooking me!!)

Piss.

I am still bloody suffering from the effects of a cold..... wheezy lungs and a sore throat and blocked sinuses!! Is there any respite?

Managed to get out for a short walk today around the Rocking Stones Quarry, near where I used to live, and on to the, now abandoned and decimated, highest football pitch in England at 364m above sea level, at Scapegoat Hill. The wind was bloody strong, and it was very wet underfoot, but getting wrapped up and having fresh air gale-force fed into your lungs is exhilarating.

Despite playing far too much Nintendo DS for my health and or sanity, I seem to have almost finished my curriculum vitae.... the deadline for applications for this job is next week, and I really don't want to miss it. The more I've thought about the job, the more I think it would be a good career change for me. No, I haven't mentioned what the job is yet, and no, I'm not about to until I know that I either have or haven't got it....... I can't believe for one minute that, having not even looked for a job, the first one I see will be offered to me though!!

Let's just hope that if I get considered for an interview (and there's no reason why I shouldn't) that they hold them in the afternoon, otherwise I am cream, crackered!!

Rattle and hum.

Rolling along on the crest of a wave......

I'm ticking over, treading water, rattling round the house spending portions of time doing a myriad of smaller tasks, and of course, never completing any of them.

I think the fact that I got my Nintendo DS playing copied games in the same week that I am trying to type up my curriculum vitae equate to one procrastination too far.

Between Zelda's Phantom Hourglass, Scrabble 2007, and Cooking Mama 2, there isn't enough time to formulate a few simple sentences in a Word document, let alone write a blog entry. This is before I even dare to put Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga anywhere near my micro SD card!!

I pray to Shigeru Miyamoto that I can finish Zelda in the next couple of days, or find the will power to put it down and finish whatever I am supposed to be doing.

I also seem to be trapped in the habit of watching the last hour of lots of films. I seem to catch only this last slice of lots of great films. I really ought to get myself a televisual magazine, but then I never get round to reading it. I used to use Digiguide on my computer, but it's not cheap and you need it running in the room where you watch TV for it to be worthwhile. Perhaps I'll look out for a good free television guide tomorrow.

And so to bed...... drifting off to BBC radio seven..... bliss!!

That'll learn ya!!

Some time ago, I bought a thingummyjig that plugs into my Nintendummyjig, and when you get some memory and stick it in this oojamaflip and plug it all together, it should allow me to play *coughs* copied games.

Well these particular thingummies and oojamaflips have sat idly by for a year or so, and I finally decided it was time to bite the bullet, give it a go and get myself some lovely new *coughs* copied games.... there's only so many times you can bathe your dalmation without getting tired of the routine.....

I went out today and bought the requisite memory card. I came home all excited and started downloading some *coughs* copied games. I plugged this into that and that into the other, and then got a cable and shoved an adapter into this and it was like some kind of crazy technological Russian dolls.....

Well, it was going ok..... I was getting some warning about something not being authorised, which of course *cough* it isn't...... I'm just coughing for fun now!!

I don't know what happened next... I think I might have pulled out an adapter or switched something off at the wrong time.... and now nothing works..... it just sits there with a white screen..... no errors.... no messages..... no clues..... just a smirking white screen!!

Bugger.... I hate those effing unfriendly errors.

Well, I've ordered another oojamaflip in the hope that I managed to overload it's quarter wave phase adapter and it melted the flux capacitor!!

That'll learn me for messing about!!