Pauly's Soapbox

Car is MOT'd

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:45:32 GMT

Took today off mostly to do that, only failed on a missing brake light bulb (the extra one in the boot lid) so that fixed we are good to go!

Went to Beano's vegetarian cafe in Tontine Street while I waited. Very nice, would like to go back there. The Creative Quarter is not quite there yet though is it? All looked particularly gloomy on a cold damp day like today...

Harry much improved today, just about to try and rouse him from his nap...

Harry much better tonight

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:26:15 GMT

Man alive is he snoring though.

Snow again today [img]

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:07:53 GMT

Harry a bit better today, still woke up in the night seeming a bit confused, and still off his food, but improved. Temperature lower, which is the main thing.

We had heavy snow again this morning, didn't last long but gave us a good surface coating. The original snow is not cleared yet, our snowman in the back garden is still standing, though his features have gone.

Not moving far today. Went to Toolstation to buy a new soldering iron but that's it.

Spent all day at the walk in centre

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:40:41 GMT

NHS Direct told us to take Harry to the walk-in centre just in case it was anything more serious, wo we were there today for three hours or so. When we finally saw a nurse she was really good, but still says it's some kind of virus just keep giving him calpol and neurofen.

I say we were there for three hours, but I took twenty minutes out of that time to nip to Maplin and buy some components for my Arduino experiments, leaving Clare waiting with Harry.

Harry still ill

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:19:10 GMT

He's been up and down today, he woke us up several times in the night but seemed to be just a bit sad each time. We left him with Granny and went to IKEA and Bluewater. Granny phoned while we were there to say he had a raised temperature again, so we started heading home. Then a second phone call to say no, the calpol had kicked in and he was OK again. Tonight he seems worse again, though it's been the same routine of raised temperature, worry, apply neurofen or calpol, temperature down, ok again. This time I've called NHS Direct though as this is the third day. Having been assessed by the call centre someone is going to call me back in several hours, so they clearly don't think it's serious.

While we were at IKEA we chose a bed for Harry, will got back and get it or get it delivered though. We headed from there to Bluewater just to double check beds in John Lewis, they didn't have many though. We had a smashing lunch in Gourmet Burger, there are lots of new food options in Bluewater now.

Tonight mostly just sitting my the phone, listening to Harry snuffling on the baby monitor.

Two and a half is not too old to still have a baby monitor is it?

Hack day

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 13:21:49 GMT

Missing hack day tomorrow if I don't go in to work (as planned, shopping day) but I'm having one at home today on my own. Got my arduino, plugged it in and am working through examples... I've made the onboard led blink on and off at my command, and plugged my own led in and controlled that. Now I've installed Processing so I can easily turn things like a movement of the mouse in to signals out through the usb socket, in to the arduino. Yes, ok, actually it is only more LEDs blinking on and off but this is just the start. full diy home automation!

And all while Harry was napping...

Home, sick

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 08:29:33 GMT

Not me, but Harry, he has a temperature and he's very clingy so I'm staying home with him today. He insists he's not ill, he's feeling much better now, but he's super cuddly. Cousin Elliott had the same thing over the last couple of weeks, hope this doesn't last quite as long.

Thought we'd done dreadfully in the quiz last night, but so did everyone else, so we came in second.

My Arduino arrived, but not the extra bits I ordered with it, no breadboard, got to send an email...

Day one of the new remote

Wed, 8 Feb 2012 09:24:12 GMT

Got my Logitech Harmony One, it's nice, but as expected I have not quite set it up right. It's complicated. I think it's only the amp it's having trouble with, it's not turning it on or off automatically, though it gets there eventually if you click the "help" button and it tries again. This could be a long setup process. Also I've not programmed the lights in yet, still plenty to do...

"I've NEVER willingly parted with a singing garment before" [img]

Wed, 8 Feb 2012 09:21:23 GMT

@JustinHawkins Justin Hawkins

Yep, Samsung are giving away one of my catsuits. I've NEVER willingly parted with a singing garment before, so enter NOW!

Hmm, I've got one of Justin's on stage outfits from the early days at home... it was not *exactly* stolen. OK, it is just a t-shirt, this one actually:

Thanks Ralph for salvaging it for me.

You can win the outfit and other goodies from this advert somewhere or other, probably by clicking on that youtube video.

Clare less than impressed with her early valentines gift.

Tue, 7 Feb 2012 16:50:21 GMT

I thought Boys in Blue was a very thoughtful gift - we have been watching celebrity coach trip recently with Cannon and Ball on and I don't think Clare had a full appreciation of who they were. I must have seen the film before, though not sure I can remember it. I picture it being exactly like Hot Fuzz - exactly.

She seemed marginally less unimpressed with the new remote that arrived today, looking forward to having a play with that. Hope Harry hasn't broken it yet...

It's a good job I haven't done anything crazy like bought an arduino and accessories which will sit gathering dust somewhere...

Hey my venn diagram of rock is back! [img]

Tue, 7 Feb 2012 09:12:34 GMT

Not sure why this one works and the last one did not:

Still lots of snow on the ground round here, the work car park and our road both packed snow still, though all the main roads are clear.

The Darkness are back in the big time

Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:00:33 GMT

Did not watch the Superbowl myself but supposedly this was shown during it:

Coo.. I wonder how much Justin / The Darkness got for the Superbowl Samsung ad? A LOT, I imagine. Ker-chinnnggg!

cc : +Paul Clarke

Samsung Mobile USA - Thing Called Love

/Via Kosso on the google plus...

Still masses of snow around today

Mon, 6 Feb 2012 09:27:25 GMT

My camera is refusing to charge so I can't get any pictures, but still as much snow here today as yesterday. The main roads are OK, there has been no new snow, it's just not thawing. I'm in work, and Clare has headed to London as planned. The snow looks lovely1

I had a dream last night that I went in a comic shop and it was run by Tom Selleck. He had some huge 2000ads that he was cutting up to put in to frames.

UPDATE: Did not do my walk today, my third day of no lunchtime walk this year. Not just the snow, I was very busy. I walked to the car to see if it was frozen to the ground, all seems OK. About to head out and drive home, we'll see...

I've done more Media Monkey programming this weekend

Sun, 5 Feb 2012 12:25:34 GMT

I lost a lot of my music data recently, not the music itself but all my play counts and some other meta data. So I've written a script for Media Monkey that checks what my playcount is on last.fm whenever I play a track, and if it's more there then it updates my local copy. Quite pleased, it's the first "useful" thing I've done. I say useful, it's of no practical worldly use but it's something I thought was a problem, so spec'ed it out, learned how to solve it and programmed a solution. Man alive I could almost do this sort of thing for a living!

Oh yeah proper snow today [img]

Sun, 5 Feb 2012 12:21:44 GMT

We had some snow yesterday, fairly light here, but then there was a little more in Etchinghill, where we went for lunch with Dom and Jen. Hmm I have been writing sentences that are too long recently. Anyway overnight, lots more snow, lots and lots here:

Not seen many people out and about, I did just see an army truck fail to get up the hill behind the house. His wheels were spinning so he gave up and reversed back down the hill again. I hope he wasn't heading off to a war anywhere snowy.

Clare is on the Wii Fit. Jogging by the looks. I am playing computers, mostly surfing for Arduinos on ebay. This is going to be a good deal, I keep getting outbid though. I guess it would just be more unused clutter if I did buy that much in one go, but I do need a good starter pack. Should have asked for that for christmas...