Obsession

I'm playing around with some code for the Smartphone. The idea is to play the "Blackjack" (or Pontoon or 21) game on the phone. I've been given a program to start with and I'm knocking it into my kind of shape. As part of the program I've been given 52 card images. The images have corners which are round. But the "rounded off bits" aren't transparent. This means that when I show them on a non-white background they don't look right 'cos there are little white bits, three pixels in size, on each corner. I don't like this. It offends me.

So today I spent around an hour writing a program which reads in every card image and redraws the corners in a different colour so that I can make them transparent and get rid of the little white dots. This has no effect on the program at all. But I am happier. The question is; Does this make me a sad person? Oh, and please don't send me answers to this...

Wheel Man

Took number one son up to university today. I told him to take plenty of stuff, it seems silly to have equipment in his room which he can't use when he is away.

He took me at my word. The mudguards just about touched the wheels as our little car trundled up the motorway. And the car seemed a lit more lively on the way back.

Now we are back down to three at home.

Bulletin the Head

I got the new issue of the university magazine, "The Bulletin", today. At the bottom of the last page there is the message "We are always interested in ideas for stories"

How about four people and a dog who go round in a van solving mysteries?

Blogging Motivation

My blogging has been a bit sporadic of late. Not quite sure why this is, I think perhaps I've not been getting bored enough over the last few weeks. When I'm at home I can usually find something to occupy myself if I get bored. The last few days at work have been ultra busy (no -honest). But left alone for long enough I get bored and start thinking of stupid stuff. And thence comes a blog entry.

Hmm. Having said that I'm now worried that anyone reading future verbose blog posts might assume that I'm not doing something else which is more important. Why is life so complicated?

To Err is Human

I am very human. Some people are characterised by a mechanical efficiency which makes you think that they might actually be computer controlled. I use computers, but I am definitely not computer controlled. If only. Today I got all ready for my 12:15 lecture only to find out that it really took place at 12:15 yesterday. I managed to read the wrong row on a timetable and incorrectly set all my machinery which reminds me to do stuff. Sorry folks.

Pity I don't have a time machine so I could go back and give the lecture. In fact, thinking about it, I guess making a time machine is one of the few projects which will definitely come in on its deadline.

Through the Pain Barrier

I've done with marking. I've finished the stuff for this year. I've looked at hundreds of programs, exam questions and the like. I've rewarded myself with an M&M for each paper that I've marked. I've tried all kinds of motivational techniques. I've marked with music on and without. And now it is done. Hurrah. I'd be even more happy but for the fact that I've just received the request for the papers for the next round of exams.....

A Bright New Dawn at 5:15 pm

A new term started today. Students driven by an urge to learn descended on us to be given their apportioned pearls of wisdom. Me, I had the short straw and the 5:15 pm lecture slot. It seemed to go OK, with a reasonable turnout. I wrote some code live in the lecture (becuase I am brave/foolish) and it mostly did what I wanted. I think I told a couple of jokes, but the safety mechanism in my brain has blotted them out.

Plasma Power

Dad wants a plasma telly. He wants one which is big and posh. I've not got a plasma telly myself, can't afford it. Although I tell myself that I've not got one because the technology is still a bit under development the real truth is that I can't afford one yet. Today we went and looked at some. Very pretty and very large. Not many of them were showing pictures that did them justice. How much can you get from Sky golf or perhaps the menu screen of a DVD? But I must admit to quite fancying one now.

All the predictions of the future that I read in the sixties had us wearing one piece jump suits, surrounded by flat TV displays as big as a wall and flying round in hover cars. I guess one out of three isn't too bad. And I think I'd look pretty darned scary in a jump suit anyway....

Club of Science

Another Science Club talk today. I'd have thought that by now they would have got bored with me, but they keep asking me back. The talk I give is different each time, but mainly becuase it is based around the latest gadget that I happen to have brought with me.

This time, of course, I took Digby, my robot dog. This time he did a good turn. Instead of firing him up and demanding that he entertain us, instead I just turned him loose. Apart from a couple of attempts to fling himself off the table top, he behaved rather well. I ran a program that lets you see inside his head (and even what he is looking at) which looked quite good on the big screen. Then we tried the 20Q thing, which managed to guess "octopus" at a second attempt - which was quite impressive. All in all, a good time was had by all. I'm also available for Bar Mitzvahs and parties.

Backups are for Winps

A computer is a really good place to put all your information, indeed your entire life. This means that the very stuff of your existence is now on something moving at amazing speed whilst scant fractions of a millimetre away from total oblivion. Fortunately, we all know that hard disks hardly ever fail. Not even if you do stupid things with them like remove them from one machine and plug them into another. Except that sometimes they do. And then you are left flapping like those fish that you see which have been dragged out of the water and are now somewhat short of breath.

Fortunately I have a sort of backup. That is, I've backed up all the files that I think are important. This unfortunately raises the irritating possibility that files I didn't think are important might turn out to be later, but for now I suppose I'm going to have to live with it. The good news is that I seem to have a lot more free space now....

Down with the Tree

We have now taken down all the christmas decorations. All the trees and lights are safely hidden up in the loft, where we will probably never find them again. Downstairs we just have the crunching under foot of the stray bauble to remind us that it ever happened at all. I must admit that when the tree etc goes down I quite like to see the clean, tidy look of no tinsel draped over everything. We have eaten just about all the chocolates, we just have a huge chunk of christmas cake to get through to see the season off.

Back To Work

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. And it happened today. I had to go back to work. And that means marking. I think I've figured out the answer to making marking bearable though. It is that you mustn't try and do it all in one day. I think I've just tried this. My brain is presently in a puddle on the floor. I've not got to bend down, scoop it up and get it back into my head before it notices this.

No fun.

If you pace yourself and decide to do reasonable number each day you can almost remain sane.

Ho for the Sales

Rather than go back to work today we snuck off to the sales. Felt terrible about this but, since they opened today, you have to do what you have to do. And this time I actually did buy some clothes, including four pairs of trousers. Then on to the Swedish Furniture Shop to see what they had in store. Apparently nobody wants bright orange covers for their sofas. Which makes them very cheap. So we bought two. My little guvvy room is presently all aglow.

We also bought a rug for the living room, which number one son and number one daughter both don't like much. I think they have something against us making changes to their house. However, the fact that we have actually managed to unite them on something gives us hope for the future.

Drowning in Bank Holidays

We seem to be having a lot of bank holidays this year. They are usually in lieu of other bank holidays which should be on other days. Anyhoo, here we are on the 3rd of Jan. and we are on holiday again. This is going to make the run up to easter seem really tough.

Had a bunch of folks around and we played with some toys. The four lane racing car set that I got from dad really pulls its weight when you have a five year old to entertain. And me.

New to the Job

"Quick, throw her a piano!!"

"Is this your first day as a lifeguard Mr. Hodgkins?"

Quiet New Year

By means of cunning and luck we managed to get both children out of the house for new years eve last night. "Oh how sad" you might think. "Just the pair of you on New Year's Eve". Yep. Just us, three bottles of Bailys, numerous chocolates and stuff, and a thriller on the telly. Oh how terrible. How we suffered.

Then a gentle stroll through the fireworks just after the new year came in to fetch number one daughter. 2005 is looking good from here.

Paper Weight

Nearly finished tidying up. I've decided that I buy too many magazines. Perhaps there is a magazine, "Magazine Overcollector Monthly"?, about people like me. If there was I'd probably buy it.

Busy Doing Nothing

Spent the day doing stuff. Nothing useful. Just stuff. When I'm on holiday but the rest of the family is sort of working I end up doing things which I think are useful, are fairly undemanding, but don't actually achieve much. In this case I decided to tidy up the paperwork.

This involved sorting through loads of papers and messing around with the shredder for a long time (something to do with my fear of identify theft - as if).

The work did produce a number of bags of rubbish and a whole pile of old magazines, so off I went to the tip to get rid. The tip is near the Humber Bridge, so I stopped off and took a few sunset pictures with the new camera. I'm quite proud of this one.




The bridge

Then off to Geoffs for more free food and entertainment. It's a great life if you don't weaken....

Not a Bit Like Lily Savage

We drove home today. Another motorway, another bunch of bent metal and huddled figures by the roadside. The way things are looking I'm going to be too scared to go out on the roads soon.

Then, in the evening over to David and Anna for eating and entertainment. This time we played Cranium. We've had a copy for a while. We like playing with the clay and making stuff (which almost always looks rude). The team I was on won, in spite of me breaking all the rules when asked to impersonate Lily Savage. Apparently you are not allowed to mention places. So claiming to be "..the slapper from Liverpool.." got me disqualified. But fortunately my vast knowledge of Dr Who and thruppenny bits managed to help us on to victory.

Another Day, Another Christmas

Having a spread out family does mean that you can have more than one christmas. This was number two, with presents, enormous meal, flaming pudding and silly games. The silliest game we played was Munchkin. This arrived courtesy of number one son, who lists it amongst the cerebral things that he does at university.

If you like daft card games you will love it. It is a bit like an adventure quest type thing, but a seriously silly one. You fight with each other, help each other (if the price is right) and generally plot and scheme to get to be the strongest fighting force in the dungeon. The monsters are great. Grandad won by beating a level 8 Gazebo....