Pauly's Soapbox

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...

Wow snow has settled outside

Fri, 3 Feb 2012 23:34:14 GMT

Our road is covered.

You could see our house on Restoration Man this week [img]

Fri, 3 Feb 2012 22:39:25 GMT

Watch it here, I didn't realise we were so close to this abandoned Martello tower... You could see us every time they did an aerial shot of the property, like this:

or this

Like I said, watch the whole thing...

Walking Heads

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 14:14:52 GMT

This is a lovely idea; Walking Heads, a music and comedy walking tour via phone app. Not sure if it's just an mp3, or if it's fully interactive and can tell where you are via gps. If it can't do that, it surely won't be long before there is something that does that. Ought to be something crowd sourced and free too. Still a good start to a good idea.

Via theappside.com.

I'm the walking dude

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 14:00:23 GMT

I need to recalibrate my pedometer, I think I set my pace length too short. Just walked from work to Aldington Road and back, google maps says that's two miles and I made it 3700 steps. Man alive it's cold out there, in the midday sun the pond is still solid ice. Blue skies though, no clouds, so no snow today.

Another new series of Coach Trip

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 08:44:33 GMT

You are spoiling us! We have hardly finished the celebrity coach trip that was recently on and already we have missed the start of the new Coach Trip... Come Dine With Me is just not getting a look in these days I will have to take it off series link...

Poor show at the quiz

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 08:38:59 GMT

We were only actually three points behind the winners, but in a very evenly matched field, we were not even placed. Not a good show at all!

I thought I might miss some of the quiz, as I went for a curry after work, with work, at the Everest. Was not a bad meal, but did not feel a very relaxed one. Partly going so early, midweek, everyone driving, no-one drinking, and me thinking about heading off to the quiz. I should not have bothered...

Very cold again today, no snow yet, sure to be by the end of the week though. The window washer nozzles on the car were frozen solid.