Welcome to the Diary section

3^rd of December 2007 - Well another year has gone by. As usual I have been lax about updating this web site.

Cough, well what can I say life is imitating art, yada, yada, yada.

I have managed to get through virtually an entire year with so few entries into this it is sad. I have been doing things. Not necessarily living but you know, stuff. Anyway, here is a game that I am really looking forward too.

10^th of January 2007 - Well another year has gone by. As usual I have been lax about updating this web site.

It seems that some life in this life are consistent. I.e. my total lack of speed keeping this up-to-date.

2006 - A summary

I was pleased to have some work to do, but the amount was not enough. Yes I managed to have enough money to eat and pay the mortgage but that was about it. I guess that I was annoyed by this situataion. Well maybe stressed out of my mind might be a closer truth.

Also I have been feeling depressed about being so lonely. As I get closer to my fourtieth birthday things feel very different. Am I happy in Milton Keynes? Do I like the way that I look? Where do I want to be?

2005 - So long ago

8^th of April 2005 - Eek! I have not really kept up any changes to this web site have I? <sigh> Never mind. I am doing something with it now.

And of course the main news is that I managed to get a job last year. In June / July time. I worked for a firm called General Dynamics as a Temporary BLIS Field Engineer. Got me out in the open air and doing some excercise so was not all bad. Then I managed to get a job working for Lowther (UK) Ltd. programming. I thought that this would be a fun place to work and it was until... Well they went bust. A client who the management thought would place a large amount of work with us, didn't. I.e. there was a three to four month gap in the work schedule. As you can imagine no small business can withstand that kind of gap and Lowther was no excpetion. The directors decided that they did not want to get into more debt and so made the decision to liquidate the company.

So I am again looking for another job. Although this time around I have some better experience and the job market, in general, is a LOT better. So anyone looking for a C / C++ programmer who has done some things with Windows CE 3.0 get in touch with me.

5^th of April 2004 - Well it has not been too long since my last entry. Only another month. Yeah not to bad an average really. Well not an awful lot has been happening, really. I have managed to pass another of the mock exams that college make us sit each end of term. So I hope that I have a good chance of doing well in the final exams in June. Obviously there is no gaurantee about anything but I remain hopeful. Last Friday a few of us were having a wee drink in the pub and discussing what we would do after the course. Tracy had been to the job center the day before and looked for Electrcianing roles. She only found one. <Gulp> So we talked about not getting proper jobs. She did say that she could go back to her previous role. Stuart is still working so does not seem all that bothered. So all in all not that great a picture.

But the I.T. industry is slowly picking up again. So it is still possible that I could get another job doing what I enjoy doing. Programming that is. Just in case someone gets the wrong idea. :-). Having been out of the industry for two years now my knowledge is a little out of date but the key skills I have are as good as they ever were.

On a slightly lighter note I have been playing more of the Disc World MUD which is a lot of fun. My wizard is now 11^th level but still not very good. Also I have managed to exoplore only a tiny part of the city of Ankh-Morpork. There is just so much of it. Most muds are only as big as the city itself but there are far more places to explore! I have begun my first quest, to deliver a parcel to The Fresh Start Club. Pity I can't find the location where the club meets. Although I have found what I think should be the correct shop above which the club should meet. <sigh> It does seem to take quite a lot of time to find out anything. But my map of the city is coming along nicely. Still a huge number of blank patches but I am filling them in.

1^st of March 2004 - Gosh a bit of a gap there. <Ahem> Well I guess I am not so good at keeping this up to date. Still doing the computer replacement course Electrical Installation 2360. Not fallen through the roof of the bays either. Although that is probably a good thing. I have also done some finish plastering and it was quite easy. In that I had never done it before but I found it no trouble at all getting a nice smooth finish. It is weird the talents that you unearth. So I did the finish plastering of our bay. We are working in teams of two. Ciro did try and do it but he was a bit tired and could not get a very smooth finish on the plaster. But as I say I managed it OK.

The weather is very cold. Most of the spring bulbs have popped up though and the crocuses have almost finished flowering. I am a little bit disapointed with my daffodils. Of the dozen or so that I have planted in the front garden only one has a flower this year. I guess the poor soil is to blame. I did not really fertilise the soil terribly well last year. A lack of money kind of put paid to it. So I hope that next year I get a few more blooms. Time will tell.

In the back garden the new bed I dug last year and put in the peonies seem to be doing well. The stems of the bushes are showing good growth. I just hope that the intense cold weather does not kill them. Although I think that the plants are fairly well adapted to cold. Some of the other plants are beginning to bud. Not a good idea. I suspect a few plants will have some bad frost damage. My camelia is not doing too great. Some of its leaves are going a nasty brown colour. Hopefully it will survive though.

Over the past little while I have begun to play on the DiscWorld MUD. Now some of you may not know what a MUD is, Multi User Dungeon. Clear now? No, well a mud is a place where people play a strange sort of role playing game. You create a character within the fictional world of the mud. There are a huge range to chose from. And to connect to the mud I actually bought a copy of zMUD to play it on. The Discworld mud uses Terry Pratchetts land to amuse and bamboozle the players. I refer you to any good bookshop to buy copies of his literature. I have decided to try and be a Wizard (whose staff's have knobs on the end.) But it certainly seems to a character class for the patient sort. I have tried to practice spell casting for about two hours of real world time and have yet to succeed in actually casting a spell. I have managed to raise one skill. Points. I don't even know what use it is or what it does! But it does seem that the creators of the mud have managed to convey Terry's sense of fun and mischief in the game. Not certain if I want to start a page dedicated to the MUD. It takes me all of my time to get round to the pages I already have. So probably best not to.

They say the computer market is picking up. I have yet to see any definite proof of this but I guess it might be true. Though I am not holding my breath. The DSS have put me on the New Deal - back to work program. This could be good or it could be bad. I am still not decided either way. After thirteen weeks, if I still not managed to find work, they will put me on a training course to help me back to work. Of course doing the electrical installation course does not seem to mean terribly much. They do know that is what I am doing though. but knowing my luck I will be sent to a hair dressers. <sigh> I just hope that there are no further complications. The mortgage protection money seems to have gone a bit strange. I am not sure if they overpaid one month and then cut back or what. I am a little bit concerned, to say the least.

2^nd of October 2003 - Well I am in the middle of the second week of my course. So far only two people have managed to leave. The course leader told us that 50% of the class would be gone by christmas and so far we are WAY short of that. Let me tell you. So we shall see I guess.

25^th of August 2003 - Well it is my mothers birthday today but I decided to go and visit her on Wednesday. This means that I can go to the Milton Keynes Role Playing Group on Tuesday. Also because she is having a party on Saturday I will be staying in Scotland until at least next Monday. Obviously if the weather is as dry and warm as it has been my plants will require watering. If I am not here then I can't. Also my orchids and indoor ferns will all require attention. So I can't stay away too long before they will all die from lack of water.

I have also spoken with the DSS about starting my Electrical Installation course. Unfortunately they are not 100% happy about the number of hours that the course takes per week. It seems that they have been asked about this before. Even though the course is guaranted to be a maximum of fifteen hours a week, they are worried about extra study time. I guess that the last time this happened the study time took the total number of hours over sixteen hours. Thus breaking the goverment's rules. Mary who was talking to me tried to talk to the peron running the course to find out if there was any extra study time. She called the college but no one answered the phone, so she left a voice message. Obviously I need to wait and see what the DSS's decision about this will be. If they decide that I can't study the course I will no longer be able to claim mortgage protection for my house. If that happens I will be in a very difficult position. My money reserves are slowly dwindling away. Without the insurance payments I will run out of money very quickly. So this is not exactly the most pleasing information I have received.

The tomato plants given to me by Kevin are setting fruit and ripening quite nicely. The heat inside the greenhouse helps a lot. Kev's are not ripening that quickly.

17^th of July 2003 - I had an interview on Monday at Bedford College where I was wanting to join an Electrical Installation course. I dressed in the fancy pants and a shirt and tie. Of course the weather was hot and sticky. So I took the train from Bletchley which runs past the end of my road. You can't see my house as the trees and bushes are very thick and dense blocking the view. It was better on the train rather than being stuck in the car. Although the train was a small diesel one with no air conditioning. The train hardly managed to get to any speed due to the stations being so close together and the huge number of sharp curves. (The trains can't go too fast on sharp corners becasue they damage the track.)

So I eventually got to Bedford and started to walk to the College. The heat was rather oppresive and I started to feel rather hot and bothered almost immediately. Anyhow I got there and had a seat at reception. The course lecturer showed up and took me to the building where the class is taught. He then showed me the equipment that we will use during term time. He also explained about the course and it's aims. Then I signed to say that I understood what he had told me and that I would show up to matriculate in September. So not a lot too it after all. I had expected some sort of review for me to explain why I thought I should be on the course but nothing like that happened at all.

For the first time in about a couple of months I slept really well. Heat and all not withstanding.

I put the car in for a service today. Argh, the pain, the pain. Of course it does need serviced but that does not stop me not wanting to spend huge amounts of money on it. This time of the year is really bad for bills you see. AA, TV licence, Car insurance, and ISP renewal. There should be road tax but because of when I bought my car that is now in September. So not a very fun month money wise. I'm sure certain people would talk about all clouds having silver linings but I can't see anything like that so far. <shrug> Who knows maybe something will turn up. Last two weeks with the Lotto has been rather depressing. I did manage to get four number but split over two lines. So no money for me. I guess one in fourteen million is rather long odds. Anyhow the local shop now has a Lotto machine. The place where I normally go is being converted into a Tesco (Something or other) store, so the Post Office and the Lotto machine are unavailable for a whole month. They are refurbishing the store to the Tesco doodahs, etc. Not certain why Dillons sold it mind you. Progress I suppose. Not sure who for but a change I guess.

Well I have notice that the street light outside my home has been on 24/7. Of course this is a waste of energy and bulb life. So I phone the street lighting people to ask them to come and do something about this. The chap showed up yesterday and I went out and spoke to him. He had taken out the old photo-cell because it had burned out. His opinion of the cells was not very good really. Anyhow, he had done something and then was called away to do something else. I.e. he had only started on my lamp before having to go somewhere else. Now of course I did not know how much progress he had made. I spoke to a friend of mine and we did discuss the lamp. We both thought it quite likely that the lamp would now be a dark bulb 24/7. And sure enough when it got dark the lamp failed to light. From one extreme to the other. I was somewhat peaved. Why not let the poor chap actually finish what he was doing before getting him to go somewhere else. It makes no sense. But there agin Milton Keynes council is a law unto itself. So I am a annoyed. Someone had better show up today and resolve this.

My electric shower is also playing up. I have had a few problems before but now it is hardly getting any water at all through itself. The notice on the outside states "No user serviceable parts inside." So I have not yet taken it appart to find out what is wrong with it. Although I caught the end of a news report which sadi that the water companies had reduced the preasure because of the lack of rain. So that might be doing part of it. Although I suspect it is limescale buildup.

June 2003 - Frankly not a lot happened. I got depressed about being out of work. I did almost nothing in the garden, even though a few things did need doing. Erm, not a lot else to report really.

24^th of May 2003 - Well it has been raining for the past week or so. My mother has been complaining that she is unable to get outside and do any seed planting. I tried to suggest that doing the planting inside and then putting the trays outside might be her only option. I am still not sure if she has sown them or not.

Well it was my birthday last week. I am now another year older. Any wiser? Well no. Of course not. If I was wiser I am sure that I would have gotten a job by now. Or maybe I am being a little to harsh on myself. Or perhaps my lack of lying on my cv is doing it? The statistics are that 80% os people lie on their cvs. Dreadful eh? So the fact that I feel this is outrageous leaves me feeling OK but gets me nowhere. You might think a slight change of plan would help. If everyone else does it then shouldn't I? I cannot say that I would be happy liying. What if you get found out? Perhaps I am being sad or pathetic but at least it is honest.

28^th of April 2003 - The dry weather that was beggining to anoy me has kind of ended. I know that some people will be upset by this. Not me. I was getting rather peaved watering my garden almost every evening. Of course after a few weeks I will be complaining that it is never sunny. But hey, I was brought up in Glasgow, where it rains so much more than here. So my complaints tend to be about the lack of rain rather than anything else.

Well there is almost no news on the job front. At least for today. I have applied to get a job at Cranfield University. I am fairly confident I could do the duties. I read the blurb that came with the application form. You need to be less that 25 miles away from the university. I was plesantly surprised to find that it is only seven miles from here. Which is very convenient. But I don't want to get my hopes up and them have them dashed to pieces like they have been up till now. I spoke to one of my neighbours who is also looking for another job. He said that he had contacted an agency and the person he spoke to said she had been in the industry for thirteen years and it had heven been this bad. Not a very possitive outlook perhaps. I also spoke to the woman at the DSS and she said that other I.T. people were saying it was pretty slow as well. I am still not sure if this is the right thing to do. Trying and waiting for another computer based role.

12^th of April 2003 - Well I have looked at my Wisteria and the flowers are dead and so are most of the growth tips. The -6^oC of cold has put paid to them all. Also my Tree Peony was looking decidedly unhappy so I tried watering it to see if that will help it. I did the watering last night and have not stepped over the threshold so I have not yet seen if this has made any difference to it.

The Vine Weavil infestation of my seedling has upset me. I think that all of the Malva seedlings will die. So I am not sure if the insecticide I have used will kill them or not. Outside I use the nematode worms but inside I am not sure how effective they will be. The insecticide might work, I don't know. All of the other seedlings have been watered with it, so here is hoping.

It has not yet rained much. This March has been one of the driest for a long time. Down here in the south of the UK it only rained for one day in almost all of March. Or should I say one decent day of rain. It drizzled a little bit but not enough to actually make any difference. And now the temperature is set to rise. Paying for ones water makes it more anguishing to use ones hose to water the plants. My mother of course is complaining about the amount of rain she is getting. Frankly I would love a little of it down here rather in Glasgow, Scotland.