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Monthly Archives: December 2002
New Year looms ever faster,
New Year looms ever faster, we are off for dinner with my cousin and his wife for the evening. Should be nice and relaxed.
Had a busy day at work today upgrading our NT4 domain to Active Directory, after a minor hiccup (couldn’t initially upgrade the first domain controller), everything went reasonably smoothly. Well, apart from the testing being interrupted by our firealarms being set off and having to stand outside in the pouring rain. Guess who didn’t take a coat to work? Apparently, some wierdo set off our alarm, he then wandered around hurling abuse and shouting “A and E”, we sort of pointed him in the right direction, called Security and followed him. On his travels he visited Nuclear Medicine and demanded that they give him some Kryptonite. He ended up being held until the Police arrived at which point he was arrested and charged (apparently), with Criminal Damage and Breach of the Peace. Excitment over, we finished off the testing and wandered off home.
I got home to find a note that I had a parcel to collect. Unfortunatley it wasn’t the much needed freehub parts (they are really starting to take the piss now), but it was the Godfather DVD Collection. I may not be able to ride my Inbred (nearly 4 weeks now), but at least I have DVD’s to watch.
Well, christmas has come and
Well, christmas has come and gone (mostly), and I’m back to work tomorrow. We will be having christmas mk-II on Sunday when my brother returns with his wife and child, and we gather at my parents for another christmas dinner and the exchanging of more presents.
Talking of which, I had some nice presents for xmas, nothing specifically mtb related though. I did get some money that will shortly turn into a Velodyne CHT-15 subwoofer to annoy the neighbours.
It’s been unseasonably warm this last few days, I walked home just before midnight on christmas eve without needing a coat. Mad.
Posted in Misc
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Congratulations to Marc and partner
Congratulations to Marc and partner on the birth of Sian at 2:10 this morning.
Posted in Misc
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Unseasonal Weather
I’ve just walked back from work in t-shirt and RaceFace Freeride vest top. Bonkers.
Work is now finished for christmas, I’m not back in until Friday.
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The BBC did another one
The BBC did another one of it’s Test The Nation thingies tonight, this one was based on the events of 2002. I am notoriously bad at current-affairs type stuff, so wasn’t surprised when I only managed 71%. The breakdown between categories was: news 87%, people 53%, entertainment 67%, sport 80% (how?), general knowledge 70%.
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Well the working week has
Well the working week has ended. My cold is clearing up slowly, and christmas bears down upon us at a relentless pace, hopefully I’ll finish off my christmas shopping tomorrow.
The parts for the Inbred haven’t arrived yet, but with the state of the post service, I’m not surprised. What with everything else going on, I probably won’t get to ride it for a week or so anyway.
After several visits, Comet have now decided that they can sort out the wonky picture on my TV, they just need to get hold of the bits to do it. They have ordered them from Thomson, and in theory will call me when they have arrived. All being well I’ll soon be able to watch tv without leaning my head a few degrees to the left.
Tonight will probably see me watching Minority Report on DVD whilst enjoying an Old Speckled Hen or three.
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And in more important news……
And in more important news……
The replacement parts for my freehub are “just about to go in the post”. The Inbred will soon be mobile again.
Posted in Bikes
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Slightly less sick
I feel slightly better today, but then I did sleep until 11am this morning which probably helped. I can actually manage proper food now, and the large duvet in my head has been replaced with a pillow or two.
Watched Donnie Darko last night, now that is one wierd film. Very good, but weird. I’m sat watching it again at the moment and listening to the Director/lead actor commentry, which is (so far) quite interesting. The film is definitely worth a watch at some point if you get the chance.
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Still sick
It feels like someone has stuffed a large duvet into my head whilst I was asleep, which wasn’t for long as work rang me at 3am, and I didn’t really get back to sleep again.
I’m not planning to go back to work tomorrow, we were being taken out for lunch which probably isn’t a wise idea whilst ill, and I’m sure they will appreciate me not infecting them all just in time for christmas.
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30 something
Well, technically I’m now 30. Doesn’t feel any different. I’m still alive, and I don’t qualify for a pension yet.
Had a dinner party tonight with a few close friends where we had a murder mystery evening, good people, good food, good drink. I had an excellent time, I hope all the others did as well.
I opened a few early presents and had, amongst other things, a Chris King beer glass, some nice wine glasses and (best of all in my opinion) an Ordnance Survey Landranger map centered on my house. How good is that? I’m going to get it framed and hang it on the wall to plan walking/cycling routes on.
Tomorrow (well, today actually), I’ll be visiting relatives and spending the rest of the day at my parents.
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Not quite so cold now.
Not quite so cold now.
Still no freehub parts though.
Had Scouts tonight (well, yesterday now), finished off the year with an xmas party, a nice an easy evening for us. Finished off playing with the new website earlier, for the interested/bored, you can have a play around on cove.stiffee.com, although it’s a bit dull unless you happen to own a Cove Stiffee (and if you don’t, why not?).
Still cold. Still no freehub
Still cold.
Still no freehub parts, or any other post come to think of it.
Worked from home today and had an appointment at the Docs. It’s official, I am still alive. Spent some time yesterday and today playing around with XOOPS for a new site (more later), I couldn’t get it working on Apache2 so ended up downgrading to Apache 1.3.19 which seemed to solve the problem. Once it’s fully tested, I’ll announce it to the world and it can dissapear into obsurity safe in the knowledge that it would actually work if anyone cared to use it.
Still cold. Still no freehub
Still cold.
Still no freehub parts.
Pissed off with rack mount servers.
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A bit on the chilly
A bit on the chilly side here today, I don’t think it’s got above 0c all day.
Still no freehub parts either.
Posted in Misc
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The replacement parts for my
The replacement parts for my freehub haven’t arrived yet, hopefully they won’t take too long.
Didn’t get any proper riding in at the weekend. I dug the Stiffee out, pumped up the tyres, and took it for a trip down to the LBS where I arranged for a friend to buy a slightly smaller Cove Stiffee frame. The evening was spent in town finding a new home for several pints of Guinness. Sunday mostly revolved around trying to tidy up the house a bit.
I’m currently chuckling along to I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue on Radio 4, then it’s off out for a skittles match washed down with a few pints of beer.
I managed to break the
I managed to break the freehub on my Inbred on the way home Wednesday, luckily I was most of the way home and so didn’t have too far to walk. I appear to have managed to snap the wire o-ring which holds the pawls in place, hopefully a replacement is on it’s way.
Chainreaction replaced my helmet with the size I’d ordered, but appear to have neglected to refund my return postage costs. I must remember to chase them up about that.
Currently amusing us in the office is Celebdaq, the celebrity stock exchange. It’s getting to be quite addictive. Is David Beckham a better investment than Mark Owen? Will John Leslie prove to be a good pick? Only time will tell.
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I sat down last night
I sat down last night to do 10 minutes of fettling the design of this website. Two hours laters, it seems to have changed quite a bit. There is some fine-tuning still to be done, but the radical new look (not that radical actually) will make an appearance sometime during the next week or so. A few links will change, but hopefully I’ll work around that. Thanks to Olly for pointing me in the right direction for some CSS stuff I could steal^wlearn from.
Posted in Tech
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Well, my new helmet from
Well, my new helmet from arrived today, only they’d sent a M size rather than the L-XL I ordered. So back into the post it went.
I don’t think I’ve recently started driving an invisible car, but from my two short trips this evening, that would appear to be the case. On each journey, someone managed to pull out straight in front of me oblivious to the fact I was heading rapidly in their direction. My car is quite a large one, and both headlights are fully functional, I can only assume that both drivers were blind fuckwits with a death wish.
Posted in Bikes
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Update: Amazon have wisely decided
Update: Amazon have wisely decided that my parcel will actually now be delivered tomorrow rather than today. It’s probably more realistic.
Posted in Courierwatch
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Amazon seem hopelessly optimistic this
Amazon seem hopelessly optimistic this morning. I ordered a couple of books and a CD yesterday (the 2nd), this morning the order is listed as “items dispatching soon”, with a delivery estimate of 3rd December (thats today). I’d like to see them manage that.
Posted in Courierwatch
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There are various “interesting” discussions
There are various “interesting” discussions taking place on the bulletin-board Bikebiz at the moment where certain retail shop owners are getting upset about other (for “other” read internet and mailorder) stores having the audacity to offer a discount on products. Now maybe it’s me that’s got it wrong, but those owners who are complaining seem to have a minimal grasp of basic economic theory. They all seem to rigidly believe that the only way to maximise their profits is to sell at full RRP for as long as possible, then only discount to shift remaining stock at the last possible minute. Surely the way to maximise profits is to carefully examine the effect a discount has on sales figures? If reducing your profit by 25% leads to a doubling of sales, then you are better off offering a discount.
Interestingly, various threads have seen confessions of price fixing, promises to “re-educate” staff in a major retail chain if they dare to offer an unofficial discount, an attempt to form an illegal cartel to enable them to increase prices, and lots of people who generally get very upset when people who don’t charge full RRP.
I’m going to have to stop reading Bikebiz because all it does is make me hate (some) bricks-and-mortar bike shops more and more, and appreciate what a good job people like Chain Reaction do. I know that it’s not meant to be visible to the general public, but the Bikebiz bulletin-board is probably the worst advert imaginable for the cycle trade.
On a nicer note, I ordered myself a new cycle helmet yesterday, a Giro E2 from Chain Reaction (take that Bikebiz whingers), and some clear lenses for my Smith Buzzsaws from a proper local bike shop (not all of them are run by whinging tossers).
Last night we went out for a friends birthday. We headed over to Bristol for some food (where they cocked up my order), and then onto the cinema to see The Rocky Horror Show. It was very good, if a little hot. Nick Bateman can’t act to save his life.
