Strangest day for a long time. Did little of use all day. Couldn't settle to read, had seen enough of computers. Felt disturbed and rather anxious all day. Later, went to a "Proms in the Park" event, which had some highlights, but the jingoism seemed to raise my levels of beligerence. Later, was practically forcibly ejected from someone's home after drinking too much and launching a somewhat radical rant. When will I ever learn?
Early start, making some sense out of the mess and chaos here due to possibility of impending visitors. Set about finishing up some PC repairs I agreed to do as a favour. Having to work with Windows to diagnose hardware problems (which are hardly my strong suit) was a nightmare. The old cliche about the 'car with the hood welded shut' sprang to mind readily on several occasions. Wandered out to buy a cheap replacement sound card. Got a bog standard no-brand card, but was amazed and pleased to see that the driver disk contained Linux drivers too! Having finallly got things working I set about finishing work on the replacement for <<lionel>>. Salvaged all the important data from /home, and shut the case. Ready to go on Monday when a modem is available. Couldn't stop there - set up a webmail thing so that a friend can check her IMAP account, and an web/IRC gateway so I can maybe chat whilst at work. First glance at the Apache docs for a couple of years. Sort of crashed here - no more jobs to do, nothing much going on. Became miserable. Weird day.
We made our target. Despite predictions otherwise, much stress and bother, and most of all a whole heap of self-doubt, every student who submitted a valid, on-time application form has some sort of funding (or will do when the postman next visits). Amazed that we learned how to do all this in a few months, certain there will be mistakes discovered, but really relieved and a little vindicated! Taken to pub at lunchtime by managers, which is nice. Parcelforce manage to avoid delivering books to me. Still no sign of DSL connection. Everyone who laughed about me insisting on buying shoes online should note that I just got a pair reduced by 75%. My feet are the one bit of me where things 'just fit' out of the box. I suppose I'm lucky.
Unexpected visit to Bristol after work. Drank too much cider (the summer beverage of choice hereabouts). Nice evening though, including a strange discussion of Wuthering Heights (my second in 24 hours oddly enough) and an incomplete game of Scrabble in the Victoria. Became somewhat maudlin in an 'Approaching Milestone Syndrome' kind of way. Still, its good to plan ahead - however morbid. Felt generally better having had a fine old talk, if a little woozy from the cider. Chased Demon about the DSL again - the 15 working days just became 20. Getting back to normal after a strange weekend here.
Lost::MikeGTN
I've had a home on the web for more years than I care to remember, and a few kind souls persuade me it's worth persisting with keeping it updated. This current incarnation of the site is centred around the blog posts which began back in 1999 as 'the daylog' and continued through my travels and tribulations during the following years.
I don't get out and about nearly as much these days, but I do try to record significant events and trips for posterity. You may also have arrived here by following the trail to my former music blog Songs Heard On Fast Trains. That content is preserved here too.
