Here are a few things I’ve been thinking about recently.
Geek stuff
I have passed my final exams I am now a qualified ACA: this is a good thing.
This is me
I posted about XKCD once before. Like the comic strip I pulled out then, I feel I can relate to the one from Monday this week: Tones.
Geek stuff again
Over the past couple of weeks I have been playing Super Mario Galaxy again. Having completed it several months ago playing as Mario, I repeated what was basically the exact same (and still damn fine) game, but this time controlling his slightly taller, thinner brother, as is the option available to those who have obtained all 120 stars. Let me just say this: Luigi is a git. He may run slightly faster, jump slightly higher and have a more awesome vacuum cleaner than his more famous elder brother, but he ain’t half got a traction problem: I lost count of the number of times I fell from a platform having slipped around backwards and forwards and teetered on the edge, failing to stop in time. You don’t get that with Mario. It was a joy to control the Red One again, albeit briefly, right at the end of the game.
And another thing
When will people learn to use their headlights properly? I’m talking about those driving conditions when it’s wet, or just on the turning point between light and dark. Particularly during rain, the number of drivers without any lights on at all astonishes me: some, I would be prepared to concede have simply not realised their omission, having let the rain slip in unnoticed; but there are too many no-lights drivers for that. A fair number must believe they don’t need to switch their lights on, the fools. Worse still are the sidelight drivers, those who seem to think that sidelights are appropriate for driving with. I say: either use headlights or no lights at all. So there.
I was messing around in my Wordpress mySQL database the other day, trying to fix a behind-the-scenes bug, without really knowing what I was doing. The next thing I knew was that I’d accidentally deleted all of my posts, and I’d forgotten to take a backup beforehand.
As if this wasn’t stupid enough, I followed up with a belter of a move, restoring an old backup I did have over Jess’ database instead of mine, overwriting all of her information. Not content with messing up my own website, I’d taken Jess’ down too, and I had an even less recent backup of her database.
So I put up a holder page (inset) for a few days whilst I fumed at myself for a bit, and now I’ve managed to piece back the missing information (for both websites) from a combination of old backups and recent RSS feeds. I’ve also taken backups of all databases, and I hope I’ve learnt my lesson in playing with live data without backing up first.
I haven’t posted here in a while, partly because I didn’t have much to say and partly because time has passed so quickly I can’t believe it has been nearly six months since my last effort. Six months! Hmm.
Anyway, I intend to resume posting a little more regularly now, probably more with photos than anything else. To kick this off I have changed the style of the site, giving it a groovy new look. This is still a work in progress, and I have for the moment borrowed heavily from someone else’s style as it has the kind of colour scheme I want to move to. I will be tweaking this though; in particular changing some of the fonts as I’m not keen on them.
In the meantime, the other big shift is in the header images you see above. I’ve gone for a selection of my photos which lend themselves well to the letterbox-type crop. As always, you can find the full versions of them along with my other photos on flickr.
I woke up this morning to find that I’d written 1.5 Hours on two bits of torn post-it note. On seeing them I had a vague recollection of having got out of bed and of doing this in the dim early morning light; I think I even tried to stick them to a couple of things before returning to bed.
The thing is, I have no idea why I did this - presumably it was triggered by a dream, but what I had been dreaming I can’t begin to imagine…
We had a game at university that involved thinking of famous names that suggested said person was doing something, for example Wesley Snipes or Tom Hanks. If the name suggested something amusing, then all the better.
This was my friend Ed’s idea, and now he’s written a song about it:
Well, today is the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars, which is quite cool. It’s also TowelDay, so I hope you’ve all been walking around with your towels. And it’s also my birthday, which definitely makes it a good day. Happy birthday me!
Yesterday I received the Bank’s response to my angry letter. While not earth-shattering, it is I think a reasonable response, and a satisfactory one. It is to some extent a fairly standard reply, but it is nonetheless a personal one; I don’t expect to be fawned over, but this shows that someone has at least taken the time to read my letter and consider my concerns, and there is an apology (a genuinely sincere one - I think), which is the main thing I wanted. I’m placated enough to stop considering a change of bank, anyway.
I do, however, take the following with a pinch of salt:
With regard to the letter and document you received, the members of staff concerned have been made aware of the errors. The paperwork on our records has therefore been updated, which should avoid a similar occurrence happening in the future.
I recently got quite annoyed at my bank. The way in which it has dealt with a recent situation that has all come about due to a request I made to change the address on one of the statements has surprised me somewhat, with the bank showing a shocking lack of professionalism in some areas.
For those who are interested I’ve posted here a scan of the letter I’ve just written, along with copies of a letter I received from it and a form I was asked to complete. My letter describes the situation in detail, with the accompanying documents providing evidence of the disgraceful display.
Please feel free to post your comments on the bank’s actions or my response!
I had an argument with a woman in the supermarket this afternoon. Standing behind me in the queue at the checkouts I noticed her looking me in a way which plainly said she thought I’d pushed in ahead of her, and sure enough this is what I was accused of a few seconds later.
Firstly, let me say that I didn’t push in. Quite apart from the fact that this is something I’d not do intentionally, there was no way this woman (I shall for the purposes of this post call her Loretta) got there before me. She had a trolley (I had a basket) and joined the queue from the same direction I did - quite simply I’d have seen her if she’d been standing there when I arrived.
I am now a qualified ACA: this is a good thing.
I was messing around in my Wordpress mySQL database the other day, trying to fix a behind-the-scenes bug, without really knowing what I was doing. The next thing I knew was that I’d accidentally deleted all of my posts, and I’d forgotten to take a backup beforehand.
I haven’t posted here in a while, partly because I didn’t have much to say and partly because time has passed so quickly I can’t believe it has been nearly six months since 
