A Very Busy Christmas

This is the first time since I last posted that I've been able to sit infront of a networked computer for long enough to write something. I'll try to fill in all the details in a few days time, but needless to say that Christmas has, once again, been rather busy, but still offered me enough chances to catch up on some sleep!

Problem detection

I think I've just about recovered from last night. Spent the evening with my parents for a final exchange of presents and cards for Christmas. Ate too much. Drank a bit. And had a good long session playing my Garklein recorder. It's not to everyone's taste, as it's rather squeaky, but it's great fun.

Later, I spent some time playing with CWCom - a sort of eQSO for Morse code. A couple of Americans willing me on to improve. I think I'm going to have some fun with that over the coming months.

This morning, I woke to the news that the sixth Harry Potter book is complete, and at the publishers. So I'm just waiting for a release date that I can look forward to. Standard protocol is that Shelagh will get to read it first, because she reads faster. She'll then refuse to talk to me about it until I've completely finished reading it myself. I feel an entertaining summer coming up... with another Harry Potter film in the winter to look forward to.

Just after 10:00 I accidently tried to VNC the Boundary Sound computer system. I was actually trying to look at my own machine to check my email, but clicked on the wrong name. I discovered that the studio's network wasn't responding. I managed to get Duncan to cycle the RF decoder, which magically brought it back to life. I suspect JHCS did their usual trick of rebooting a router without telling anyone.

Anyway... onwards... only 1.5 days of work before my Christmas holiday starts!

Ding Dong!

Once again it's Monday, and I'm completely knackered. It's been a productive few days though...

Thursday evening was spent creating a training schedule for Boundary Sound presenters. Just a few pointers... about 8 pages worth! I hope that the presenters will inwardly digest the comments, and follow the guidelines. Sadly, I finished much later than I intended, and ended up getting hope at well past midnight.

Friday morning was a real struggle. I remember being woken up by my alarm at 07:45, and then falling asleep again. Fortunately, I woke up again at 08:15, and dragged myself to work. A quiet morning in the office, and managed to sort out a few things. The day was unexpectedly cut short at lunch time, when I was informed that there was no need to come back for the afternoon session, as everyone else was off to the Christmas party. I'd decided not to attend, because I'm attending too many parties already, and dragging myself up to Huddersfield in time would be difficult with Shelagh not finishing work until late. I'll try to make an effort next year. That's now 2 years in a row I've not been to a work Christmas party... and on both occaisions it has been down to distance.

So I spent Friday afternoon hacking at Boundary Sound's record library. Fixed several mistakes, sorted some new tracks out, and deleted a pile of duplicates. That's 150 less tracks to worry about now.

Choir practise was interesting. Seems like someone is about to apply for the currently vacant "music director" post. I'll let you know when I find out more myself...

Spent Friday evening tidying up the studio and office. Cleared piles of junk and ate a very nice kebab.

Saturday was another horrid early start, and mainly thanks to Shelagh's packing efforts on Friday night, we managed to be on the road to Aberystwyth by 08:00. We arrive at about 13:00, to find that parking has got much worse now that there is now no out of season free for all parking on the sea front. Not good. The afternoon quarter was, quite frankly, a disaster - minimus on the back four. I was on the tenor, and called it round after 15 extents before I completely wrecked my muscles (although they're not feeling that good today anyway...).

The dinner was good - plently to eat, good value for money, and we didn't leave until about 01:30, which made ringing for 09:00 rather interesting... but the turnout was good, and we managed to get all 10 bells ringing for the first time in ages. Then time for a quick coffee, a visit to Jo and Andrew, and then home via my grandparents to drop of presents. We got home at about 19:00.

I then raced off to the studio again to do a couple of hours of web work, as promised. Managed to make some changes and fix a few bugs, but there still some deep underlying problems. Also noticed that the feedback form doesn't work properly! I won't be recommending the person who originally wrote the site to any of my friends.

So I finally got home at 23:00, spent 45 minutes pampering my teeth, and managed to get about 8 hours of sleep. Had to turn the bedroom heater on at about 05:00 though... it was FREEZING!

Getting the car serviced today. I knew that the coolent needed replacing, and Shelagh suggested that the hand-break needed some attention. It turns out that the rear cylinders need replacing... which alone will cost £100. Another expense I can do without.

More stress

I'm begining to get stressed again... and it's probably all very unnecessary.

The intermediate course on Tuesday evening wasn't too bad, but when I got home, I decided to have a look at the Boundary Sound website to see what needed doing. Well I've opened a real can of worms. I started correcting errors in the presenter pages, and found myself having to updated just about every page on the site, becuase the common page parts are not stored in a common file, the code is duplicated for each page. One of the coding errors had lead to the presence of two copies of the presenter index page. I think I've now removed all references to one of them, and fixed all the code. I suspect that there's a similar situation elsewhere. I really need to get the presenter details separated from the common banners and page layout code... I just don't have the time at the moment. I'll probably have to look at it before the next RSL goes live though.

Yesterday was busy at work. I'm ploughing through a task sheet, and haven't got time to think about much else.

Today isn't going all that well. I finally got to bed after 1am, after fixing the web site problems, and discovering a new consultation on the Ofcom website... I'm going to have to look at that soon. I've simply had to go swimming this morning. I had intended to go on Tuesday, but Monday was a late finish after the meeting. Wednesday was a non-starter having been to Lincoln, and then sat up listening to the end of the Priory FM RSL (which I though was appauling - even the last track wasn't back timed, so at midnight, it all cut off rather suddenly). Swimming this morning, coupled with my requirement for the car today (I've got to see the dentist again at 13:30) rather annoyed Shelagh, who wanted the car this morning to give a workmate a lift. No can do. Not if I was to be home for just after 08:00 in order to put together a lobby for tea tonight (and it has to be done today before the veg goes manky). With all these things in mind, and coupled with Shelagh's bad mood, my stress is on the verge of turning to anger.

Oh, and my lower back is aching again this morning. I was unable to relax in the sauna this morning, and it hasn't eased up. I'm in for a bad weekend unless things pick up.

Making plans

I sometimes hate the way my brain works. An insight for you - I have many random conversations with lots of people on a wide range of topics. The conversations are often nothing special, but often, some point, which may not be key to the conversation will stick in my mind, often without me knowing it's got stuck. Then, days, weeks, months later, it'll come unstuck and I'm left wondering about it, wishing to complete the conversation in my head with renewed understanding. Maybe I just miss the point while having a conversation? I don't think so. Sometimes I play devil's advocate, and will happily drive down an obviously wrong path in order to make someone think, or rethink their reasons for chosing a belief if I think it's necessary. I don't always enjoy doing that. Sometimes I use it as a tool for forming my own opinions, as I don't always have any on some important subjects.

My point? I'm sitting here thinking about keeping my back warm after someone told me it is important that I do so. What an odd thing to be left thinking about! I don't fully understand this thought at the moment, and I'm wondering if the advice is valid. I might find out next year... because that's the way I discover life. Frustrating, slow, and ellusive.

In the more immediate future, there are lots of exciting things on the horizon. Boundary Sound's second RSL (Restricted Service License) starts in 55 days. Last night we came up with as close to the final programme schedule we could. About halfway through the meeting, I had an idea that spawned nearly an hour of creativeness... new programme ideas that I'm sure will be heard in February. I'm glad the idea to put a picture of my mug on the arse end of a Marshall's bus was a joke though. Lots of plans for the far future, which we're simply going to have to leave to March... there's enough to be getting on with for now.

I had a bit of a nastey shock last night. I noted that between 2pm and 6pm, my computer had uploaded over 100Mb of data over it's only active network connection. Now 20Mb, I might have passed off as ok (but even that sounds a bit high), but 100Mb is out of all proportion. I also noted that my machine was still uploading, so I ran a quick netstat, which showed the FTP ports connected to a .nl machine. I don't run an anonymous FTP server, certainly not with write permission. I closed it down pretty quickly, and investigated how bad the system compromise was. Looks like someone's back-doored IIS to use my machine as a DVD copying repository... complete with illegal directory names, etc. I had a hell of a job removing the unwanted data.

Nooooo!

I'm begining to hate Mondays as much as I hate Wednesdays. I look and feel like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards today (mental note: must fix webcam again). I'll explain this a bit later, after I've caught up with the weekend's activities.

Friday night was the Boundary Sound Christmas do at the show ground. Nice evening out all in all. The meal was edible, and there wasn't too much of it, nor did I feel there wasn't enough. My only complaint was that it felt rushed. I'd just tucked into my prawn cocktail starter, when the "DJ" (must remember his name... Noel... might be useful if I'm looking for radio talent - but he'll need some training) started to introduce all the tables, and hand out a quiz sheet. Come on :( I'm trying to EAT here! Anyway, I managed to finish my starter, and have a bit of conversation across the table, before the main course arrived. I nearly ended up serving the veg myself, but managed to sort it out, and start eating, when Noel decided it was time to start the quiz. Come on :( I'm trying to EAT here! He needn't of read out the questions anyway, as they were all on the sheet. Pudding was a little less disturbed, but as I'd chosen the cheese option (there's only so much pudding I can stand) it took me a few minutes more than the pudding eaters to get through it. I have to remark that the cheese was a good option, and I really enjoyed it. Sadly, coffee was being brought around while I was still eating my cheese, and I'd been so busy being distracted and trying to eat, that I'd only managed to drink half a pint by this point. Some how, I managed to get through it all. At least the disco was ok, Andy turned up later, and Duncan, Paul, Andy, and I propped the bar up until 1am.

Saturday... ugh. Actually, despite drinking loads, I wasn't hung over, but I was rather tired. Shelagh had taken the car to work some overtime, so I cycled (!) to town, and spent some time at the studio fighting with the new domain login setup. More work required there I fear. I took the opportunity to have a good look round at the new antenna installation, and I'm pleased to say that while it is definately higher, it's not all that visible due to trees in the castle ground, which when in full leaf, will hide it from ground level. Your best bet for seeing it, is to walk towards the castle down Boar Lane, and stay close to the wall at the old Stray's store, and you can just see it poking over the roof tops.

Since Shelagh was going to see the Beautiful South at Shefield, I decided to spend an evening with my radio. Managed to spend some time talking about the Lincoln repeater with Bob G7AVU, and nearly an hour on 70cm with John G8PSP, who I hadn't talked to since May. Oops. Won't leave it so long between calling CQ on 70cm next time. And the QSO didn't manage to flatten the Ni-Cad battery on my hand held either (although I was running medium power - 1W). I'm yet to try to run down the new Ni-MH batteries I've bought.

Sunday was as busy as usual, with 2 services to play the organ for, and a wedding to ring the bells for. Can't say I achieved an awful lot. Devilish spent the day with us, after Shelagh brought him home after the concert. After we'd taken him to the station, we spent a couple of hours in the Mayze with Andy, and discussed web site plans for the radio station, and identified a long list of things that need to be bought for engineering work (including those blessed 37 pin sub D plugs that I've been after for months). Grabbed a kebab on the way home, watched a bit of TV, and crawled into bed.

Can't say I slept very well last night. Woke up every couple of hours. By 0815, I really didn't want to get up, but dragged myself into the shower, and treated my teeth to an extra thorough cleaning to remove the evidence of last night. Then at 0840, I realised that both of my pairs of black trousers were still wet, and I hadn't got any ironed shirts to wear. So I pulled out the ironing board, and dug out some grey trousers. before dashing off to work.

I can still taste last night's kebab.

Christmas bites...

The season of regular over eating has begun. Looks like all the weight I lost over the summer is going to go straight back on.

As usual, a quick look back over the last few days, since I really couldn't be bothered to write something every day this week (and I've been quite busy at work again, with quite an urgent project requiring some serious coding).

Tuesday evening was at least educational. It's been 8 years since I last studied electronics, and until Tuesday, I had got impedance, reactance, inductance, and capacitance all mixed up in my head to some degree. I think it's a bit straighter now.

Wednesday morning was an early start. I actually went swimming for the first time in over a month, and got home in time to prepare some lobby for tea. And supper. And lunch for Thursday. And probably Friday too. I received a new cash card in the post. All going chip and PIN now. Hmmm. I'm not sure I approve yet.

The evening was yet another typical hospital radio night, apart from an accident on the A1 causing me to divert down the back roads to Marston, which added some time on to my journey. Was all clear on the way back though. Managed to get home before 22:30, so spent some time playing with my radio. I was glad I did, as there was some serious tropo lift on, and I managed to work a chap in Bognor Regis via the Reading repeater. At long last, some lift activity for me :)

Thursday was fairly uninteresting. Received a bank statement, which didn't yield any great surprises. However, the evening was quite good fun. The Waddington Radio Club's Christmas dinner. Decent attendance, and quite a high standard of conversation. Much more interesting than usual discussions on RG213, PL259s, the menu system on the FT1500M (which I happen to be quite conversant with). Food was the usual Pyewipe standard (outstanding), and worth every penny. Just a shame I was driving.

I'm sure there'll be time for drinking at Boundary Sound's party toinght...

Unscheduled reboot

It seems that over the weekend, the electricity meter at the radio station ran out of credit. We've been waiting for a new meter for MONTHS, and it still hasn't been replaced. The upshot was that the entire computer system had to be restarted last night, which is something I could have done without. I spend all day working with computers, and don't really want to work with computers in the evening. This is why my own computers are never set up to their best.

Anyway, the linux box that I got Mit to help set up last Thursday evening wasn't very happy having been rebooted. I could really do with getting pico installed, so I can easily look at the logs and edit the configs myself, but the pine RPM won't install due to missing dependancies that I'm sure aren't missing. I sometimes understand why so many people hate RPMs. Anyway, I got Mit to have another look at the box, as smbd didn't restart on reboot, and the firewall was cacked again. I had to open up the ports again before I could get ssh access. I also got Mit to look at setting up bind, as I'm absolutely useless, and the lack of a decent name server on station is becoming a pain, as some machines refuse to resolve some names via smb.

On a less stressful note, I managed to get some ringing in at St Giles, and got through a plain course of Ipswich Surprise... enough to boost my confidence a bit more. I then dashed home to confirm timings for this Thursday - the radio club Christmas dinner. I also got confirmation regarding taxis for the radio station's dinner on Friday.

I've also been informed that the work planned on Saturday to move the radio station's transmitter antenna has been rescheduled to Thursday. Hang on. I've got a problem there. Looks like I won't be able to attend that. Must also make a note of my forthcoming Sunday activities, playing the organ for two services, and ringing for a wedding at 13:30. I hope by now you've got some idea of the nightmare that is my diary...

Lazy Weekend

Well, Friday seemed to fly by. Lots of work to do, so I'm trying to get a drip of that at the moment. Spent Friday night in the pub with Jacko and Dunc, and I managed to bring Shelagh with me, which meant I could have a drink or two, and she'd drive home.

...then we proceeded to sleep for the best part of 12 hours, only to be woken by my sister pointlessly phoning me. Decided to visit my parents and get the car washed to make something of the afternoon, and then I took Shelagh out to the Asha for a curry.

It seems that the rear windscreen washer on my car has developed a fault, so it's not squirting with much force at the moment. Maybe a leaking connector?

Sunday morning was utter chaos, running between churches to play for 2 services, before finally getting round to doing some shopping. I cooked some trout for tea, but had another minor disaster when trying to turn the cooker off, resulting in one of the control knobs losing its notchiness. That'll probably cost a fortune to replace.

Today has been a bit varied. Lots of work. The bad news is that Graham has decided to withdraw the peal I rang a few weeks back, due to concerns over the composition. Quite a shame, but these things happen, and I enjoyed ringing it all the same. Next time I will make time to go to the pub afterwards!

Imaginary people?

I've just had a rather interesting conversation with Duncan, who's been hard at work at the Boundary Sound studio. Here's a copy of what was said on MSN:

Boundary Sound Studio - 87.7 says:
I have just seen a ghostly figure on the stairs
Steve Caddy (Dyn/M3FKH) @ Work says:
heh
Boundary Sound Studio - 87.7 says:
Just come in to the studio and although the heating is on it was freezing, kitchen and toilet door slammed...
Steve Caddy (Dyn/M3FKH) @ Work says:
cool :)
Boundary Sound Studio - 87.7 says:
weird feeling up here
Steve Caddy (Dyn/M3FKH) @ Work says:
I'll see you later with spare underware then?
Boundary Sound Studio - 87.7 says:
don't jest..
Steve Caddy (Dyn/M3FKH) @ Work says:
:| oh well... I'll... err... keep an eye out
Boundary Sound Studio - 87.7 says:
My hairs on my arm are standing on end...
Boundary Sound Studio - 87.7 says:
Bring the underware!!
Steve Caddy (Dyn/M3FKH) @ Work says:
heh... I'll bring yvett fielding if it'll make you feel better :P
Boundary Sound Studio - 87.7 says:
ha ha ha
Boundary Sound Studio - 87.7 says:
what time are u in??
Steve Caddy (Dyn/M3FKH) @ Work says:
just after 7 as usual
Steve Caddy (Dyn/M3FKH) @ Work says:
I'll bring my webcam with me... see if we can capture some orbs or something
Boundary Sound Studio - 87.7 says:
coools
Steve Caddy (Dyn/M3FKH) @ Work says:
I quite like the idea of being haunted, but I can't say I've ever noticed

Make of that what you will...

Plants, words, and pictures

I've noticed that I've not updated my webcam image for some time... I'll have to remember to get my webcam plugged back into my computer at some point in the near future, and capture a new image of my ugly mug.

Spent last night at the radio club having my second installment of training for an intermediate license. I'm still not entirely sure that I'll apply for it once I've got my pass certificate, though. The rumour is that a full license course will be run after the intermediate, so I might go straight on and go for that, especially as I've only just renewed my M3 license.

I took Shelagh to the Pyewipe, as I was still unsure as to whether I was taking Lucy or not. Taking Lucy requires a little extra help. As it happens, Lucy wasn't that bothered about going, and decided to decline the offer. Shelagh tends to sit by the fire and read while I'm in the club shack, but I suggested to her that it'd be a perfect opportunity to do some writing. Maybe something will come out of that idea?

I'm currently engaged in a battle with the peace lilly that resides in our lounge. It hasn't flowered for over two years now, and I'm not sure why. For some time I've though that it's been too happy where it is. I've been trying to reduce how much water it receives, but all this does is makes it go limp (although it perks up again within 6 hours of it being watered again). I asked Nermal what he thought, and he's suggested feeding it and giving it more light. I've had problems with it in the past, in that when I give it too much light, it tends to yellow, but at this stage I might give it a go, as it generally recovers its colour after lurking in the gloom of the lounge for a while. Any further ideas would be gratefully received.