I must admit, that a lot of the news that's being reported at the moment goes over my head.
One particular story currently around, about local authorities using banks in Iceland that are going under, has me slightly confused.
Luckily, The Daily Mash explains it exactly as i had imagined it.

I didn't even know Iceland had any banks, let alone would ever consider putting money into them! Did local councils not consider, say, the Barclays around the corner? :P

While i'm still not fully recovered from my cold, i am also aware that my level of exercise had dropped to nearly zero in the past few months (excluding the odd spot of golf).
So to remedy this, and to kick-start my love of things japanese, i headed off to an Iaido class last night.

The dojo was small, but really nice. I was more than a little nervous as i kept having to ask loads of questions about everything, including how to put on the uniform correctly (the keogi and hakama are the same as what i was wearing for ninjutsu, but worn more traditionally).

After 2 hours of waving around my bokken my arm was ready to fall off. Thank goodness i didn't use my metal sword! Today i really hurt. My right thigh is burning and i can barely raise my right arm. It's all good though!

Right - got lots to do today so i'd better crack on...

Before we go about spamming the heck out of various communities in the next few weeks as we prepare for the new album launch, i thought i'd let you gentle readers of my LJ have a look at the new Rome Burns website.



It's quite shiny, and is will be completely up-to-date since i am one of the admins :P

So go and log in, start discussions, say hello. Stuff.

:)

Still struggling with my cold, and feeling quite sh*tty. However, i did go back to work yesterday, and i'm in again today.
After being in bed all of friday, the weekend was a bit of a non-starter really.
I did, however, manage to buy a guidebook for the *secret destination* that i'm taking G to for christmas this year.
She's always said it would be nice to go somewhere for christmas, but hadn't said anything this year after the fiasco of last year's attempt (remember Travelscope going bust?). So, i pre-empterd her and booked a rather posh hotel in a sectet european destination.
I was a bit concerned about what we can do while we are there, but the guidebook has already shown me a metal pub, a sushi restaurant and a bar i wouldn't mind seeing, and some places to go for entertainment. It was amusing last night as i sat in the opposite corner of the room, cradling the guidebook so she couldn't see the cover and occasionally going "ooooh!" and "aaaaah" while throwing out misleading hints about it. I keep trying to convince her it's Belgium, not that i have anything against Belgium of course.
Right, i'm off to try and do some work between temperature fluctuations and sneezing.

Note: Having been in the office for nearly an hour, i think i can safely remove my scarf now.

Yurgh.
Was all ready to go to Iaido on thursday night, when i was struck down with an evil cold. I was feeling a bit sniffly all afternoon (i was working from home) but by the time 5 o'clock came i was practically dribbling into the laptop.
Spent pretty much all of friday in bed, rising only to eat food.
Today i still feel crap, but appear to be able to focus and breath at the same time, which is a bonus.
Was supposed to be in Stoke On Trent tonight, but driving as far as Te$co for some food is going to prove tricky enough.

Wow!!!
If you love amusing photoshopped images AND science fiction, then head over to the B3TA Board during a spare 5 minutes and marvel at their current competition.

"Make Sci-Fi retro: Steampunk Star Wars, Renaissance Robocop, Art Deco Daleks and everything sci-fi in between. Open up photoshop and show us the fantastical future, yesterday."

Genius.

Any techy people out there have a realy good reccomendation for a good sub-£500 laptop (ideally less than £400) for home use. A bit of MS Office, a bit of surfing. Usual home stuff. Not planning on running games or anything too taxing.

I've been tempted by some of the cheaper Acer Aspire models, and i know you can pick them up quite reasonably from places like Te$co nowerdays. I think i have an old MS Office disk somewhere so software shouldn't be an issue.

Any suggestions people may have off the top of their heads would be welcomed.

Firstly, todays xkcd comic is fantastic!

Secondly, my weekend was good, but ultimately tiring.
On Saturday i went and played golf with the dude. Did a full 18 holes, which was really fun. Also took G into town to get her some supplies for her art course she's started at a local collage. We ony expected to spend about £30 on brushes and stuff, but in the end it was over £80!

Cooked a yummy chilli beef with basil stir fry thang and watched Dark City. I saw this at the cinema when it originally came out 10 years ago, and it was really fun to see it again.

I spent most of sunday trying to capture the essence of an old Rome Burns song and revamp it. Succeeded on the former, the latter will need some time i think. I also made the most of the good weather and spent a couple of hours trimming a hedge in the garden, which has left me with arms that feel as heavy as lead, coupled with the fact they're covered with little cuts from falling foliage.

Today i'm still a bit tired, but have lots to keep me busy.

My shiny new work laptop was ready for me to collect thismorning after a rebuild. And just after lunch, less than 24 hours after going to see the IT guys they kindly put my pictures and large MP3 collection onto it too (as mp3s aren't part of the backup).
Not only is this a new laptop, but it's widescreen, 2GB ram and WindowsXP.
Sweet.

Still gotta go and do some work of course.

IT are rebuilding my new laptop now, and not only will it have XP and an internal DVD drive (old one had an external enclosure) but it has 2GB of RAM.
That's more than my studio PC at home.
Which reminds me - i must upgrade that old thing :)

D'oh!
I came back from lunch, pressed ctrl-alt-delete to unlock my PC and nowt happened. After 6 or 7 attempts by myself and bods in the IT department it looks like i've killed another laptop. To be fair, it was second hand when i got it, and its a model that the IT department said was obsolete now, so it was probably a good thing.
They're building me a new shiny XP machine, which will be nice after putting up with Windows2000 for years :)

Had a good weekend. I think i'm slowly coming out of the odd place my head has been this past week. I think it's because i'm still fighting off this cold.
But, i managed to get out in the garden over the weekend and mow the lawns, play a reasonable round of golf (i think i'm getting better!) and meet up for sunday lunch with a load of old friends.
Oh, and finish Lego Star Wars:The Original Trilogy on PS2 :)

Out for dinner again tonight with holmesgirl and Chris too, which is something to look forward too.

I have a global teleconference in 45 minutes where i'm presenting some slides on the drug i work on. Should be interesting...

Hmm. The new MetallicA album, Death Magnetic, is actually okay.
Still think the snare sounds flat as hell, and the overall mastering sounds a bit rushed, there's a serious brick-wall limiter on it thats been driven too hard. Yes, i know Metal is all about distortion but it sounds a bit too harsh overall. Maybe these little headphones can't handle the extreme metal? :)
It'll need a few more listens, and don't think for a second think it's another Black album (because that is never going to happen) but it's waaaaaaaay better than the turgid sh*te they released last time. :)

I'm doing a lot of thinking this week.
I think work-wise i know what i'm doing for the next 6-8 months, which is kinda reassuring, and G is settling down to her newjob quite well so i think my life as such is going to stabilise.
This leaves my hobbies.
Obviously there's the band - and i hope that not only can we get the damn album out soon (we're literally just waiting on a few photographs to go in) but i also want to take some time to actually improve my skills.
A friend recently complimented me by saying they thought i was a fantastic guitarist, but that's not something i accept. I'm...adequate.
Sure, i can play what i know and write good tunes - but when it comes to technical ability i'm lacking. I need to learn my scales and widdly bits.
I'm sure i've whinged about this before, but i'm really hoping i can do something about it soon.

Also, my ninjutsu has pretty much stopped. I kind of lost entheusiasm a bit, and felt i was just turning up every week rather that being excited and hungry for knowledge. I don't think it's the sensai's fault (and i've known him for many many years) but maybe the class dynamic isn't what it used to be.

However, i am considering Iaido again. I went along to see what they did a few years ago, but at the time i couldn't spare the hours to drive out to nr Haverhill. However, i could go straight from work maybe - and i desperately want to keep studying japanese arts.

Hmm. Lots to think about.

Take a picture of yourself right now. Don’t change your clothes. Don’t fix your hair. Just take a picture. Post that picture with no editing. (Except maybe to get the image size down to something reasonable. Don’t go posting an eight megapixel image.) Include these instructions.

( cut, because i look like sh*t and am fighting off a cold )

I used to have lots of lego as a kid. Even as an adult, i dabbled with Bionicles (collecting all the first lot, the 6 or so round ones), Harry Potter (Snape!) and Star Wars.
Then i kind went off it, as all the kits just became ornaments and of course i grew up a bit.
Actually, that's a lie - i just bought Playmobil Vikings instead, but that's not the point.
The point is, i have seen something that will change my life forever.
And, i suspect, yours too.

I give you, the Lego Death Star Playset.

I definately need to go and have a lie down now *swoon*

This weekend started off like the last one did - with a loooooong drive.
This time to Bolsover Castle for the wedding reception of analogueheart and Rosie.
We arrived a little late due to a lorry catching fire on the M1[1] but it turned out the bride was also late and so we chilled out in the castle grounds for a bit.
The meal was quite good, and the speaches were pretty fantastic as weddings go! The end of the night was marked by a 'disco' that did manage to play a few 80s tunes but was essentially a wedding disco.
It could be that i was just stone cold sober ;)

The drive home was mercifully swift and without incident, partly due to everyone nodding off in the back of the car.

Saturday started early as i headed into town to have my hair cut and dyed[2] and then had the Dude over for dinner, followed by watching Knocked Up (which was funny).

Sunday we headed out to the wilds of Suffolk to see G's parents and have sunday dinner, which was really nice.

And, i came into work today to see that the drug i've been working on for the past 2.5 years has been sold to another company. I knew this was in the works, but i only actually heard it had gone through when it appeared in a company-wide press release. Despite being the global lead programmer for all things Kepivance, i hadn't been told that it had actually gone through. *shrugs* and nobody has told me any more about it so far today, so i guess i just keep working on it until told otherwise...


[1]why my TomTom said to take the M1 i don't know, as on the way back it said to use the A1 instead
[2]Thanks to toripinks suggestion i went for a few more blond bits and had some layers put in the back.

I'm not entirely sure of the model of Marshall head/cab that i played through on Friday, but i think it was an DSL50.
All i can say is i'm glad i use a Line6 PODxt to model my sound - the Marshall was just....crap.

My burnt finger has decided to blister slightly, and changes colour on an almost hourly basis. Ouch.
However, i did manage to cook last night using the offending wok - and the results were....edible. Not as good as my culinary delights at the weekend, but i think that's because the beef marinade wasn't right and i had too many flavours going on in the finished stir-fry.
Still - this cooking malarky is quite fun.

And this made me giggle:
Everyone Dead by Teatime!

It seems like people are making a big deal out of the LHC, but for the wrong reasons. It's a fanstastic piece of scientific kit, and to quote WIKI: "It is funded and built in collaboration with over eight thousand physicists from over eighty-five countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories." and it's hopefully going to explain so many missing bits of scientific theory.
That, to me is pretty cool.

Of course all people are really talking about is the fact it could destroy the world in a nanosecond.
Nothing like looking on the bright side eh?