Life and Times of Roadkill

More progress

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 03:17:53 GMT

That will do.

That one was a right bastard.

Some progress

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:14:58 GMT

Ran out of both green spray paint and black paint for the big sign though. It really needed another coat. Oh well, it will just have to be blotchy. Don't have the time or money to fix that right now.

Finished the first one...

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:11:25 GMT

Sorry about the vertical dark bands. That's strobing of the fluorescent tubes disagreeing with my cameraphone.

Right, on with the next project...

Aerial logo sign thing

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:32:20 GMT

Hmm... making a backlit sign for Stew...

Pinched Kol's idea of skull combined with a biohazard symbol, but I needed it to be cut-out-able, so made something which works OK in monochrome.

The question is, which is best? Black on yellow or yellow on black?

Fri, 16 May 2008 23:05:59 GMT

I should revive this LJ...

OK. Last weekend went camping with gothstew, mmmarcus, aradia_uk + Damien, and Rose. It was brilliant as usual and as usual we caught excellent weather. And as usual we drank beer, talked nonsense, had a fire and stopped off at the carvery at Mottram on the Sunday. All pretty normal. And on the 24th I'm doing it all over again with a different bunch of people because it's oo_cymoril_oo's birthday on the 25th and she's coming over from Ireland.

I've started an IT course. It's dead boring, not much to say on that front.

I've pretty much finished my single-handed pet project of voluntary community work: Project Clearing-up-all-the-fly-tipped-rubbish-from-Drinkwater-park-and-the-bottom-of-Prestwich-Clough. It doesn't have a catchier title. Anyway, most of the crap has gone that was small enough to move. Plus some stuff I probably shouldn't have moved as it was far too much work (cutting up a waterlogged sofa and armchair and dragging them up a steep bank out of the stream). The guys at the tip lend me a wheeliebin so I can haul stuff back and forth more easily. You wouldn't believe how many bicycles people dump.

Today I also pleased myself by fixing an ATX PC power supply which someone gave me with the usual "you can keep it if you can make it work". Usually I can't fix things that explode when I plug them in to test them, but this time I did. Frankly I'm amazed it works. It blew a 5 amp fuse and covered the inside of its casing with black soot. I replaced a handful of components and it worked first time! Freaky.

Can't think of anything else right now.

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:57:31 GMT

This is an awesome idea.

Interesting innovative engines

Sun, 04 May 2008 02:16:48 GMT

Exo-skeletal jet engine

Free Piston Power Pack - linear electrical generator

The FairDiesel Opposed Piston Barrel Engine

Starrotor - A rotary internal combustion engine using the Brayton cycle

[Broken Link] Trochilic rotary Stirling and combustion engines

Revetec - Reciprocating engine utilising counter-rotating cams

Bruce Crower's 6-stroke engine

Interesting reciprocating engine in a rotating housing

Radmax rotary engine with vanes - not even sure how to describe this one

isovolumetric engine with revolving con-rod and half-floating piston

Pivoted piston engine

Blib

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:30:37 GMT

I visited Dublin last week, to visit Zsuzsanna. I don't regret going, but it was spoilt a bit by torrential rain and food poisoning. I only just managed to drag myself out of bed on Monday evening in time to limp onto the bus to the airport. I think I would have felt better if I hadn't let it make me so dehydrated

I skipped Ara as I hadn't regained my energy after not being able to eat all week. I almost did go, but after a shower and shave it was quite late already. Plus I looked at the temperature outside I and that clinched it. I expect I would have sat in the corner being boring anyway and my digestive system is probably not fit for alcohol at the moment either.

Feeling a little less hermit-like now though. I spent this afternoon sweeping up leaves and the fresh air seems to have done me good.

Yesterday I was fiddling with junk from the loft and managed to make a working PC out of it. Eventually. The only spare ATX power supply I have is on its last legs though. It's rated at 350 watts, but has trouble delivering 120 without cutting out. I cleaned all the dust out of it and replaced the fan, and two caps that looked like they were leaking. The problem remains. For the moment I seem to have bypassed the problem by putting the hard drive and DVD writer on seperate IDE channels. Somehow this seems to put less load on the 3.3V line during boot up for some reason. I also downclocked the CPU, but it's running at full speed now, so that's not a problem.

Also the -5V and -12V lines seem to be too low by more than an acceptable 10% tolerance, but I can't understand what would cause that and still let the other voltages be correct. I don't have the circuit diagram for this particular PSU, but it seems to be pretty bog standard. No components look like they've got hot. In fact the whole thing runs cool. My brain hurts.

Mhm

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:47:57 GMT

Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Moya (Farscape)

You are surrounded by muppets. But that is okay because they are your friends and have shown many times that they can be trusted. Now if only you could stop being bothered about wormholes.

Moya (Farscape)

81%

Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)

75%

Serenity (Firefly)

75%

Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

75%

Enterprise D (Star Trek)

75%

Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)

63%

Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)

56%

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)

50%

Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)

50%

SG-1 (Stargate)

38%

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)

38%

Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)

31%

FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)

19%

Mhm

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:15:54 GMT

Procrastination

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:07:15 GMT

Careers thingy:

1. Optical / Ophthalmic Lab Technician
2. Boilermaker
3. Welder
4. Sheet Metal Worker
5. Cabinetmaker
6. Automotive Painter
7. Electronics Assembler
8. Model Maker
9. Electronics Engineering Tech
10. Electrical Engineering Tech

Pick 5? Well, I dunno what significant difference there is between 2, 3 and 4. Not keen on cabinetmaker (I'm crap at working in wood). Not keen on number 6 either. Aside from that, I'm not that bothered. I would quite happily do any of the rest.

And I will do a proper LJ update at some point. In the meantime I'll summarise: Munich and Hungary were awesome, then I came back and worked on the house until I put my back out.

Down with Dremels!

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 23:20:35 GMT

I am going full-tilt at DIY etc at the moment. It seems a shame that I'll have to break the momentum to go away. Next week I'm going to Munich and Hungary with Zsuzsanna for a nice holiday which I'm really looking forward to. However I'm apprehensive about the sheer heat in Hungary at the moment. I don't do hot. I don't even do fairly warm. Anything above 24 degrees C and I start to moan and complain and claim that I'm dying. To me 22 degrees C is plenty warm enough thankyou and anything from 15 to 20 is just right.

Anyway, on the DIY front I have tried my hand at plastering. Yay! Mess and dust and more mess. Lots of fun. And before that wallpaper stripping and ripping off picture rail.

And unrelated DIY activity involves painting some wrought iron gates for my driveway. I am sick of picking dog poo out of the lawn all the time. It was bad enough when it was just cats, but now some local chavs have decided they can't be bothered to walk their dog so just let it wander around randomly. It likes to poo in my lawn. Great big enormous ones. I am hoping gates would stop this. And chavscum stone-throwing offspring too.

Last weekend Zsuzsanna came over to visit as she had a bank holiday. We went camping and apart from my atrocious driving and our campsite being half flooded it was pretty good. We took aradia_uk with us. And there already were John and Lee and Ricky and people I don't know. Much revelry and stuff happened and it DID NOT RAIN! Amazing! We even managed to squeeze in a meal at my favourite carvery with the half-price meal for veggies.

What else... I have joined the suburban set and washed my car! Yes, after 18 months of ownership I decided that the algae was in danger of completely covering the outside of the car, so I washed it.

Mentalist

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:54:58 GMT

It's camping again at the Snake's Pass this weekend. Yay! I heard a vicious rumour that gothstew isn't going, but loads of other people are.

Last Friday I went to Ara and drank too much again. Oh well.

There's not much else to tell. I have been doing useful things like tree surgery and moving all the furniture out of my bedroom in order to decorate it. And I may finally get around to putting up my driveway gates, after extracting them from beneath loads of junk in the garage. I bought them at least 5 years ago, but have never put them up. I've brushed the cobwebs off them, filed off all the crappy bits and primed them. I forgot how much of a pain in the arse it is painting gates with lots of scrollwork. It takes ages and then when it's dry you turn the damn thing around and see lots of missed bits. Then when that's dry you turn it upside down and see lots more missed bits... Argh!

My financial situation isn't as bad as I thought. That always happens: I panic and then take stock and find I was Ok. Well at least until I go away. Not sure about what happens when I come back. I realised I had been paying full whack for my council tax when I can actually have 25% off now I'm living on my own again, so I sorted out that. I also noticed I'm 120 quid in credit on my gas and electric, so I should be Ok there for a while. No doubt they'll keep taking money from my account, but I'll try and get the amount reduced. I considered switching, but I seem to be on the cheapest already. I did wonder if it was worth switching to the next-best supplier just to get my positive balance back from my existing supplier. Then I can get cashback through quidco for switching as well and after the minimum time with that supplier switch again and get more cashback etc, but I think that's all a bit much effort and taking the piss really. I only switched last in February anyway.

Lies, such ridiculous lies, they must all think I'm so stupid, I am just going to ignore them!

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 19:59:09 GMT

I'm rubbish at updating LJ nowadays. Anyone observant probably noticed this. Missed reporting on all the fun of the last camping trip for example (the puke-a-thon). And Ara and laying carpet and other stuff I can't even remember.

I've just been on a 5 day visit to Dublin with gothstew and Shabs, hooking up with oo_cymoril_oo when there. Spent basically all my money on Guinness and coffee and trams. We tried the local Dublin goth night to try and get oo_cymoril_oo out of her shell. It was good actually, despite the sound system sounding like a bee in a tin can. In fact Dublin in general was good. The rain held off for all the important parts of my visit. Ate nice Korean and Italian meals. Also visited Howth on the coast, but that was a bit of an anticlimax to be honest.

Spent the last couple of days with an old friend of oo_cymoril_oo's called Silvia who crashed at mine to attend her graduation ceremony at Salford. Just like oo_cymoril_oo's it was very dull and pointless, but I went along anyway to lend her some support. And the rain held off again! Amazing. Went out for drinks with her in the evening. Then yesterday I patiently followed her around very boring clothes shops. God I hate doing that. Then she was stood up by a date yesterday evening (well actually I think it was a breakdown in communication followed by lots of neurotic second-guessing on her part). Anyway, quite relieved to see the back of her today to be honest. Her issues with men in general were starting to grate (I tried to insert the odd hint of reason where I could, but it didn't stop the ranting).

Now I must sell everything of value in the house on Ebay to replace all the money I no longer have. Don't think I'll be going out much for a while. I've got 4 weeks and then I have to have spending money for Munich and Hungary. Definitely time to find a job after that.

Bah and the car needs a new windscreen too... Ach! Crackedness!

Murciélago

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 13:45:14 GMT

Wibble splat hovercraft Dusseldorf ovaltine furniture earwax!

PCs, PCs everywhere and not a copper to spend!

Wed, 23 May 2007 16:56:30 GMT

Hmm. I'm broke. I have also been having lots of "fun" with computers...

I offered to sort out gothstew's PC, but it turned out to be a lot more time consuming that I thought. I don't know when it happened, but the IDE cable to the secondary hard disc was damaged and it let me access the hard disc at first, but then started to bugger up and corrupted the master file tables of both partitions on it. So I spent a whole day trying to rescue the data.

If that wasn't bad enough, my own PC then caught a serious bout of Sod's Law and died while I was trying to rescue the files from the corrupted partitions. The motherboard packed in totally. The CPU fan turned and the drives span up but nothing else. Dunno what triggered it, but maybe a combination of high ambient temperatures (I have had a cold and had the heating turned up) and turning the machine off and on again (to connect the drive).

Thing is, I didn't know if it was the motherboard or the processor and I guessed wrong and bought a new processor first (on the basis that processors can overheat).

Then when I did get a new motherboard it didn't like my graphics card - cue more wasted time fiddling about.

Meanwhile Stew's PC was full of trojans or something, and on removing one of them, it cut off all net access. As this was before my PC was up and running again I had to use Zsuzsanna's PC in the other room for internet access. I reinstalled Windows XP on Stewart's machine (probably needed it anyway) and replaced the motherboard, processor and memory with reasonably capable ones. Then after spending ages tweaking the install and adding loads of software, something buggered up. I think it was because I had installed XP on a different drive to the original install and then removed the first hard drive and reformatted it... but it had still been the primary boot partition and the XP partition didn't have a copy of NTLDR and so the machine wouldn't boot at all. I reinstalled XP on the first drive so I could access the second NTFS partition and copy across the relevant files for Windows to boot, but because of the way Slev had originally installed it (and which I had replicated) with the pagefile on a separate partition to Windows itself, the new XP install deleted the pagefile of the non-booting one, so even with NTLDR and boot.ini etc copied across, it would half boot and then give up as it doesn't work without swap space. Aargh! Anyway, unable to resolve the big mess I had made, I scrapped the whole silly partitioning idea and reformatted the drives again with one partition each and installed WindowsXP a third time, repeated my tweaks and installed all the software a second time. Huge amounts of wasted time. Oh well. I've learnt my lesson: Having lots of partitions is dumb. Have one for Windows and paging file and software, and a secondary hard disc for files, and you can't go far wrong. Adding an *additional* paging file on the second drive might be a good performance-wise, but beyond that, it's not worth buggering about with.

Saturday saw me very drunk in Ashton for Big Marcus' surprise 40th birthday bash. It was good. Dunno if he had any idea why I was there as he doubtless doesn't know me from Adam, but John had pursuaded me to go, so I did. I had a great time, I hope Marcus did.

On Sunday, just as I thought I had everything computery sorted and could avoid PCs forever afterwards, my Mum brought around her evil Windows ME machine for me to resolve problems on and I nearly lost the will to live. But there were no dramas with that one thank god!

Monday I spent on domestic stuff and tidying up the garden for when Zsuzsanna (oo_cymoril_oo) visits for her birthday on Friday (it was like a jungle out there). gothstew had tried to encourage me to organize a barbecue for this coming Saturday, but I get stressed running about organizing such things and I just want to chill really. Anyone's welcome to turn up and celebrate Zsuzsanna's birthday, but I'm feeling too skint and sleep-deprived to want to faff about with charcoal and meat products and stuff.

Yesterday until this morning I spent over at my sister's house sorting out her broadband setup which hasn't worked for months as her boyfriend couldn't figure it out (I should do this for a living). I would have got it all done yesterday except I wasted an hour and a half lost, driving to her house in Sheffield. I'm getting very good at getting lost. I think I need sat nav. I could have been lost for a lot longer if I hadn't recognised a familiar landmark near her house and kind of stumbled upon her street that way. Afterwards we did her local pub quiz and were totally thrashed.

On Friday I'll be at Ara celebrating Zsuzsanna's birthday. She's coming to visit so I hope most of the usual suspects are able to attend? Well I will be anyway.

So yeah anyway

Fri, 11 May 2007 18:52:25 GMT

I know I should have updated before now, but apathy set in.

Don't feel so lonely now. I've gone back into hermit mode. Plus Zsuzsanna has MSN messenger access at work, so can contact me that way during the day if I leave my PC on.

Last weekend I drank too much at Sin. I don't care. I enjoyed myself. Probably pissed off everyone in the world by being excessively drunk though.

Sunday was a bit of a write-off as a result.

Since then I've been clearing out junk from the loft. There really isn't much of any value left as I sold it all last year on Ebay. I now need to go to the tip. I've got lots of old circuit boards out of things for mis_tique though.

I also repaired a few things. Eg: The torch I dropped in the massive campfire when we were camping (to everyone's amazement it still winds up and charges mobile phones). I also changed the blades on the lawnmower and had a go at McGyvering a new lock for my garage.

And I fixed a long-standing bug in Some software I wrote, but don't bother downloading it as it's no practical use to anyone.

Still haven't got as far as carpetting the spare room, but the woodwork is undercoated now.

Oh yeah, I was supposed to mention Gothwalk. Bit late now as gothstew updated anyway, but we're going for a walk on Sunday. And I forgot the details.

Oh and I applied for a job. But only one. I didn't like the rest.

Tiny little Dan is all alone

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 22:49:07 GMT

So Zsuzsanna has gone. Last week was so hectic I hadn't really thought about it until she had gone and when I got home from taking her to the airport the house was suddenly very cold and colourless and empty and it hit me: I need to have her around. I was happy before and suddenly I'm not. In fact I feel utterly crap. What's that all about? Weird.

Anyway we had a great barbecue on Saturday. gothstew, mmmarcus, and a couple of friends we go to the Crescent with were there and Giles came later on after his parents had gone home. Burnt loads of wood, and some food and melted beer bottles in the flames.

Next day I went to mmmarcus' BBQ too, but I think I was a bit useless really as I was knackered. Alcohol plus late night plus early morning, driving to the airport and back and then clearing up after the barbecue all left me very sleepy.

Anyway, I have to keep busy now or I get lonely. Spent today cleaning and gardening and rubbing down paintwork in the spare room - maybe I'll actually get it decorated now.

I should socialise a lot too, but I fear the hayfever season is almost upon me....

Just spent 9 quid phoning Zsuzsanna in Dublin. It wasn't a long call, but she has no landline over there. Or internet access. Or phone credit. And there's only one TV channel she can get. And the bathroom is mouldy. And the shower gives a lukewarm trickle. And the washing machine flooded the kitchen. Sounds like going back in a timewarp to me. I feel guilty now. I should never have let her go. :-(

It lives!!!!!!! and BBQ alert!

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:46:16 GMT

Zsuzsanna is moving to Dublin for a new job. We are having a barbecue on the 28th to see her off and everyone is invited. I will burn lots of wood (inferno!) and we will eat food that has been rendered into charcoal. It will be the last time we see Zsuzsanna for a while I expect.

Time I resurrected my LJ I think. Lots of stuff since I last updated properly. Quick list, not all of it in the right order: Christmas revelry, learning to drive and getting a driving license, getting a (shit) car on the road, driving to Somerset and working on boring shop stuff, decorating the spare room, trying to get Zsuzsanna another job after she got sacked, failing to get a place on the Mongol rally, getting drunk a few times, watching a few good films (and one or two bad ones), not going out and socialising enough, fixing my central heating, going camping and hurting myself on rocks and twigs, getting lost in the car and slicing my thumb almost in two with a stanley knife.

Great times. :-)

Ignorant Cunt

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:12:57 GMT

This guy cracks me up. It's a great cure for depression. I can't listen to his "music" without bursting out laughing.

Especially the track entitled "Ere mate can i lend". LINK

I could be worse!

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:07:55 GMT

How evil are you?

Jilly's night I won't be at. Tomorrow!

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 18:15:05 GMT

I got a text message earlier from an old friend who says she's organising a night at Jilly's tomorrow night (that's Wednesday). I'm not in Manchester so I can't show my support in person, but at least I can post on here and let people know Jillys is open tomorrow night if you find yourself in town and wondering what there is to do.

She says "Is a metal,rock & goth metal nite". Fiver on the door.

I suspect there won't be enough interest for it to be a regular thing, which is a shame as I haven't seen her for ages and I'd go if I wasn't stuck down here. I know she personally likes Rammstein, Nine Inch nails, Type O Negative, Ministry, Sisters of Mercy, so that might give some indication of the night's musical leanings.

Anyway, there you go. This has been a public service announcement...

Just to recap: Tomorrow (Wednesday 11th October) in Jilly's - but I won't be there.

No other news that would be remotely interesting - Everything here is going desperately wrong... so business as usual then. (Eg: On Thursday we worked from 9am to 4pm the next day - ie: all through the night, AND IT TURNED OUT TO BE UNNECESSARY AND A WASTE OF TIME!). Suppliers in this country can't count, make things to the right size, or do things on time.

Away again

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 17:29:22 GMT

I'm going away on Monday for an undetermined length of time (less than a month anyway). More reading glasses stands. Sounds like there's a lot to do.

Not much else to say about myself really.

Zsuzsanna is moaning about her job a lot. I suspect she'll quit soon. She keeps asking for advice and suggestions career-wise. All my responses are met with negativity though, so I suppose I have failed to contribute anything of value.

Dirndls

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 22:34:40 GMT

Yeah guys I'm back. No more phone calls please. D'oh. Have been putting off updating because I couldn't be bothered to write loads of stuff about Munich.

Munich was OK, but not as interesting as SWMBO led me to believe. Glad to be back where I know what people are saying (even if they don't know what I mean).

Waiting for my Dad to get back to me. Another trip to Somerset is imminent.

Oh God. SWMBO has read this already and I'm apparently being negative again.

*flinches*

*gets hit*

Now you know why I don't update any more.

Honestly I dunno what's so negative. I only spent about 300 quid on the whole trip including spending-money and buying loadsa weissbier. I got some great photos. Might put a few on my fotopic account when I can be bothered. I didn't take as many as I had hoped though...

Munich is clean. I can't believe there's a city not covered in old drinks cans and takeaway wrappers. Wonders will never cease. And they have a public transport system. What a novel concept!!!!

We even went to a goth club and I even enjoyed it. (Bit of a pity I was too shy to talk to any hot girls as I am so embarrassed about the language barrier).

Went to the Oktoberfest. Shrank away from the thousands of people and noisy fairground rides. Drank about 9 pints of beer. Got drunk and went paranoid. *shame*. There were loads of hot girls in Munich in cute dirndls. Rrrr!

Zwei Erdinger Bitte.

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 22:36:04 GMT

We are going to Munich for 8 days on Saturday.

See you all when I get back.