Beatle drive

Last week I had one of my slightly stranger evenings; after the usual Friday night meal of take away curry and red wine at my father in laws (curry from TopTaste, wine from Chile) we attended a beetle drive at a local church. My father in law is an ordained vicar so the going to church bit isn't too unusual, I like to show my support and try to go around twice a year, less if I can get away with it. I don't know how, but this was my first beetle drive so I must have been very lucky; until this point. For those of you who don't know, beetle drive is a game where a die is shook/ shaken and dependant on the number shown you 'win' part of a bug, 6 for the body 5 for the head etc etc, the aim being to create and draw a whole insect before any body else. Your prize for this is a number of points (surprisingly 13 for a full bug) and eviction from the table you were sat at, you are replaced by a newcomer and you become fresh meat at another table. The game(torture) completes after 12 rounds. Nothing prepared me for the speed and aggression displayed by a number of wheeled octogenarians present that evening, the looks you get if you don't retrieve your die quick enough and replace it in the shaker before passing it onto the next combatant. And the noise! The rattle of the shakers, the roll of the numbered cubes across the Formica battlefields, the scratch of the cups across the tables as it engulfs the dice. It sounds like a small army of toddlers fencing with their rattles. But the spoils for the victorious, what treasures, the winner received a box of assorted Ferrero Roche(TM), which he tried to give away before he left, but to no avail.

Computer repair

Just seen the trailer for the new Hulk film with Ed Norton and Tim Roth, looks like it could be a proper hulk film with a proper hulk story line and recognisable characterisation. See it at http://incrediblehulk.marvel.com/ .

Spent Wednesday repairing a friends computer and rebuilding mine after a repeat viral infestation. After 2 and a bit hours of checking drives, data, using esoteric software (Linux utilities and a boot time virus scanner in German!) trying to network it, remove the hard drive and give it a general overhaul it was fixed by running chkdsk from the XP install disk! Mine ended up with a full format of drive C: and re-installation of XP, which for some reason seemed to go a lot quicker and easier than last time I had to do it (January). With hindsight the majority of my problems related to my elderly graphics card and it's driver, now replaced by an even older card, it's now running fine but it still took me the best part of a day to locate and download all the necessary drivers and software that I generally have running.
Essential software.
I've used The Bat as my email client for years and it's portable version, Voyager, permanently resides on my memory stick, it's quick, clean, safe and configurable. http://www.ritlabs.com/ .
I use quite a few of the Google apps as I like the idea of an external repository I can access from anywhere such as the bookmarks, notebook and Blogger (and Gmail as storage).
As for office stuff I use Openoffice, http://www.openoffice.org/ . It's free, less than half the size of Microsoft Office and compatible, plus it outputs pdf and pdb files. I also install Activesync and Outlook to look after my Dell Axim 50v, which is used as diary, address book, game console and e-book reader.

Brain Thrust Mastery

Last night I listened to 'We are Scientists' new album 'Brain Thrust Mastery', a low bitrate version leaked onto the internet. I expected big things because the single 'After hours' is one of my current favourites, I've even been caught whistling it, albeit badly; so, after one listen, here are my words. It's not bad, but it didn't live up to expectations. Don't get me wrong, all the songs are well crafted and intelligent but nothing stood out, even the single receded into the background. My player continued and immediately after 'Brain Thrust Mastery' their last album 'With Love and Squalor' played and I have to say I enjoyed that more, whether that's down to familiarity I don't know, but it was certainly more engaging. The album is certainly worth a couple more listens and once I've done that I'll post my final thoughts.

Intro 1

This is my first post, I have the intention of posting something interesting at least twice a week; the rest of the time it will be boring, mundane ramblings, at times my daughter will no doubt interfere and complain about layout, style and content. I will carry on regardless!
A little about me....Gadgets,computers,music,books,graphic novels,food,drink,family,usually calm,occasionally seething.