Monthly Archives: Jun 2006

Error 651

Posted on by
Reply
27°C, some clouds+humid

I’m baaack!
Last Sunday, I switched on the computer and windows wouldn’t boot up. It reported a corrupt file in the system32 folder. I tried all afternoon to get it running, endlessly loading up the four floppy dics needed to run the installer & repair modules. In the end I reformatted the drive and put a fresh copy on. Unfortunately the boot drive had to be formatted too, so I’ve lost the dual-boot up too.
 
Anyway. Now I have a fresh installations, but the modem wouldn’t work, giving the above error code. Finally after about four days of trying things out to fix it, I had a nagging feeling the modem wasn’t talking to the motherboard properly. Today, I removed the modem completely, then took out the motherboard drivers. Cleaned out everything to do with the modem and finished with putting stuff back in with more care over the order they they are put in.
 
Things learnt:
  • Install motherbaord drivers first
  • Backup the boot drive
  • Backup the OS partition (move all temporary folder to another drive to make this easier)
 
Tomorrow, the virus checker gets put back in, but it’s amazing how much faster the system runs without it.
More arty talk tomorrow…
 

You’re not allowed to say that

Posted on by
Reply
Chicken is a banned word in Space titles:
 
See the attached picture, We’re prohibeted from using the word "chicken" in our  titles.
Instead I am going to say it in my post here:
Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken & so on…
 
See! it lets me do that!
 "Chicken" must be either obscene or blasphemous in American English (since msn is American I can only assume).
try that in your next entry title & let me know if the same thing happens. It made my last post rather difficult to post intill I could isolate the "offensive" word.
Hold on! has an American corporation patented the word "chicken" and blocked me from using it without paying a license?
 
puzzled.

The rabbit that played ch1cken

Posted on by
Reply
17°C,cloudy & more wind
Riding home: there was a rabbit in the road. A busy "A" road with rush-hour traffic. Something made me stop to save that rabbit. It took 30ft of braking to stop then put my bike down before running back. As I approached it- the little bunny hopped away- Is "hopping" the best word, it sounds like something you do if you only have one leg, not four.
Anyway,  I got it to hop to the verge so that  I could get back to my bike. But as I went, it hopped back into the road again. After shoo-ing it again, it "boinged" over to the other side of the road – then dove under by lying bike for shelter from the silly bloke wearing shorts and a lycra shirt.
What should I have done at this point? Carry on the rabbit’s game, possibly getting in the way of the cars myself? Or should I have done what I actually did do?
I grabbed the little rabbit & threw it over the hedge into long grass in a farmer’s field. There were quite a few cars stopping by now, and that meant I probably looked quite comical.
Some treacher’s I know stopped and asked if I’m alright- I told them I had just thrown a rabbit over a hedge.

Displacement activities

Posted on by
Reply
21°C, sun & lots of SW winds

Reports: so many to do, so little time. 80 are complete, that only leaves 200 to do by the end of Friday. Trouble is, it’s so painfully tedious to do. Displacement activites are (jargon) things you do to avoid a boring task. Like vacuuming, reading bland forums, talking rubbish with peers ( It’s not got so bad that I talk about football).
 
and… playing computer games.
Ya sas!
Later: made a database so I can drop in my most used comments with a click. It’s absurd to go on writing individual comments for 270 full reports. that should save soem time. And… now another 60 reports asre all written and submitted. Pah!

Brake Break!

Posted on by
3
22°C, like yesterday with more wind

Screech: The front brake cable broke on pulling up at traffic lights this afternoon. I over-ran the line by about 10 feet & pulled over cursing. Quick decision- go to Brownhills, a slight detour and find somewhere to get a new cable. What an odd place- it’s all shut and run-down looking. It was probably like that when I was little, but it didn’t seem that way then. Anyway, there was nowhere to buy any cycling stuff, not even something as basic as a brake cable. No choice then but to return to my route and carefully make it home.
 
Reports: I have found all sorts of distractions while trying to write school reports. Internet sites, games, and other rubbish that I wouldn’t normally give a second to. Teachers writing reports have very clean houses, the lawn is cut and the cupboards are tidy- all jobs that normally get put off, but now seem worthwhile. I have discovered webcams
 
TOTP: is getting dropped by the BBC. You may be expecting someone of my age to be whistful with nostalgia about the news, but no. It’s been a waste of electricity/airtime & in all the forty years it has been onair. It claimed to be a showcase for British popular music when all it does is reflect the buying habits of the singles age-group. that is, apparaently mostly 13 year old girls- hardly a comprehensive cross-section of Britain in the 20th Century. Good-bye Top of the Pops and don’t come back

Square wheels on that wagon

Posted on by
Reply
22°C, sun, rain then sun

It has been a busy weekend. Six hours of digging the garden yesterday- mostly planting Roses. Muscles all tight and drawing attention to themselves in that weight-lifting way.
Online games fun later after dark-
My online game stats for that server: Wind of War. Apalling how much time I have spent on the server this year. On the other hand- it’s good fun.
 
At about midnight, the strangest sound. Ths loudest train I have ever heard- it really sounded like it had square wheels on one wagon. It moves across the station at about 10 mph, but looked ( in the darkness) as if the carriages had no payload onboard. What was that all about- it must have woken half of the town.
Another odd thing: a dark grey streak across the sky. Probably a fire over in Brownhills direction. It didn’t seem to disperse as it moved eastwards. Perhaps it was full of ash.
Today – 54 miles on the bike- rush back for guests+food. But then rain.

look at the angry man

Posted on by
Reply
24°C,+some rain

Anger at the wheel: In one journey I saw two road-rage incidents. Both followed the same pattern-
Two cars, the one in front stops, bloke gets out to shout at the one driving  behind "what’s your f***ing problem" ( an so on). anger stops the traffic, other car-drivers look perplexed. I ride away bemused.
It must be this weather.
 
Linseed: from a fewdays ago- another sea picture. Painted with oil & linseed onto a prepared turps ground, that on A4 canvas paper.
 
 

deliveries

Posted on by
3
17°C, clouds, light winds

blog: that’s better msn, the pictures module is more like it used to be- much better. Selecting the curser position is easier again. Anyway…
CD/Books: from Amazon-
  • Lisa Gerrard– A Thousand Roads ( Film soundtrack)
  • Fred Frith: Middle of The Moment    (ditto)
  • Fred Frith: Rivers And Tides  (ditto)
Books;
  • "Round The Clock" by Kaplan
  • another one that is too geeky to mention here.
I’m still looking at paintings on a maritime theme – for my own images based on the Keffalonia experiance. There are some good ones out there , and from surprising sources.

The skies of Salop.

Posted on by
Reply
28+°C, light SW.

Cosford: cycled to RAF Cosford via quite a long route and took lunch at "The Spider’s web". 45 miles to get there, buy hey- it was the nice route. Just as I finished the food the jets took off. The row they made…
Anyway, I teamed up with some old guys from another cycle club who knew a good place to spectate. I sat myself in the heat, the grass and nettles as long as my water supply lasted out. It was so hot that 2 litres was good for only 2½ hours. In that time I watched the spitfires, some noisy jets and the police move and book the cars parked illegally. As soon as the police went, more cars arrived. Then helicopters arrived to do a funny dance in the air; it wasn’t a courtship dance, helicopters are machines and they don’t do that.
 
Once the water ran out, I rode home, calling at the cafe again to top up the bottles then set off north-east, downwind. It’s amazing how far away from the airbase were there people who filled the lanes, laybys and gardens to watch the planes. Four or more miles passed before the last ones were seen, standing there with binoculars. The whole of the east of Shopshire had a jubilee atmosphere.
 
As it rode away, the obligatory Lancaster/Spitfire/Hurricane flight was standing off over Boscobel house waiting their turn.
The wind saved today- it prevented too much heat-building up, the diust was keep away and I haven’t noticed any of that ozone-cough. On days like this I can sink into bed, even if it’s a hard bed like a futon and not be seen from above- I’m that tired (74 miles). Such a nice feeling.

Hay fever

Posted on by
Reply
27°C,

Hay-fever is bad today. Worse than I can remember for a long time.
Drat.
A quote for yesterday:
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that does fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Shakespeare