Much Ado About Nothing and Everything

Finally got the car fixed last thursday.  The bill wasn't as high as I expected which was good.  Apparently 3 yards of copper pipe doesn't cost too much.  Still several things I need to get sorted including : the sounds coming from the back brakes, the loose alternator belt and good service but those can wait until the end of the month.

On the games front I've managed to finish Easy level on guitar hero and the first pass of Mario Galaxy.  Next steps will be to finish Medium hardness and get enough stars to play as Luigi respectively.

I've also found enough time lately to start a Second Life.  Now computer games have never really been my thing as they just don't compare to what a good Nintendo can do.  However Second Life isn't really a game.  This is me - Bocan Undercroft:

Bocan Undercroft

What is it with me and cars?  I seem to attract car problems like a magnet attracts iron fillings.  The latest problem is a nasty one.  The brake line from the master cylinder is either cracked or broken and the brakes are essentially gone.  Problem is, this pipe is basically as long as the car and only the dealership will touch something like this.  That's going to take big £££ to fix - money that I don't really have spare.

Anyway, I got up early and painfully came in via train today.  Tomorrow I have to get the car over to the dealership to get a price.  If it's reasonable I'll get it sorted then.  Otherwise I'm a bit screwed as the missus needs to get to Reading hospital for a scan on Thursday.  When it rains it pours.

Yet another holiday season come and gone.

Yet again the missus gave me almost no useful clues on what she wanted so much random guessing ensued.   She informs me that I didn't do to badly though.  Here's some of the swag Santa brought me:

Guitar Hero 3 for the WII (convenient for me since I've discovered I'm a ROCK GOD!)

A tasty little Samsung 10.1 Megapixal camera

A large nkuku leather journal

One goth rubber ducky (more on this subject later)

A Dilbert Calendar for work

So.  How did 2007 treat me you ask?  Not too bad thanks!  Major highlights:

• Had an excellent green man tattoo on my lower leg completed.
• I managed to keep my job and my staff during the big re-org mainly by being damn good at my job.  You'd be surprised what you can get away with if you fill that one simple requirement.
• The reorg gave me a new manager that's not only competent but very easy to work with.
  
• Got a rather tasty bonus and a generous pay rise.
• During the summer we had a nice trip back to Texas.  The lake was an icky color of green, but very warm.
• Had two near-life experiences when my brother slammed his jet ski into mine at high speed on said lake AND when blasting around the edge of the lake at high speed I suddenly noticed a barbed wire fence going down into the water 20 yards in front of me.
  
• Managed to somehow reach a total of 13 years of marriage.  (I'm a trained professional. Don't try that at home kids)

As for 2008, I'm not going to call these Resolutions because that would just ensure they don't happen but I'd like to accomplish:

• In order to teach myself a new programming language - Write a web based Change Management tool in PHP with a database backend in Mysql from scratch.  If my company won't use it I'll open source the bad boy and make myself famous.  (No such open source tool exists.)  I actually started this work over the holidays and it's coming along nicely.
• Make more of an effort to go see my mates in London.
• Try to take the family camping some long weekend - tents, real fires, etc.
  
• Loose at least two stone in weight.  I'm not happy at all about this at the moment - starting to feel deeply unhealthy.
• Perhaps cut down on smoking.  I've actually developed a smoker's cough - scary.
• Make an effort to not get so angry at family, friend and colleagues over shit that doesn't really matter.  This one should really be top of my list - I "snapped" at too many people last year.
• I wish. I wish. I wish I was back in Egypt.  Mmmm.  Holiday.
  
• And finally, not that you'll often see me bring up the sticky topic of religion on this blog, but I really need to make more of an effort to get to Avebury or Glastonbury (Tor) for the 8 pagan holidays.  I miss my peoples.

SpinVox Release 2.4.3.1.22

Lively discussion between myself (imagine the one in grey) and one of the project managers (imagine the one in brown) over the status of a very very very very delayed release. The 22 is the number of times Development have given us "fixes" for this one particular release. As tomorrow's the first day of the change freeze and I won't let this thing get anywhere near my lovely production system, I sent him this fantastic picture to emphasize the point.

Thought I might take a few random pictures from around the office.

Once upon a time I had hair
Originally uploaded by bocan_2005

When I was 12 my hair was thick, long, and light brown - and clearly cut around a wobbly bowl!

Even more strange - my eyes were still brown instead of the multi-color green and grey they've become now.

How the hell does that happen?  I'm sure I was abducted by aliens at some point.

Polish Snow
Originally uploaded by bocan_2005

There are two things (beyond the funeral) that I'll always remember about Poland: The Snow and the Vodka.

It was the first time I'd visited an eastern European country or any place with so much snow before. I found it fascinating looking at the architecture of the buildings. There were old grey communist buildings that looked entirely made of concrete mixed with traditional polish houses with abnormally large eaves and balconies. The sense of space reminded me a lot of west Texas.

After 5 days of searching at work, my car, and every single room at home, I finally found my Nintendo DS!  It was laying smack in the middle of the floor behind the drivers seat of my car.  Now this is odd for the following reasons:

1. I've only owned the car for 7 days now and being completely clean there's nothing to obscure it.
   
2. I've searched the car three times - under the seats - back seats - etc.
3. I've carried the family along several times since I lost it and no one's noticed it.
   

Bizarre.

Anyway, I celebrated by going out to buy Super Mario Galaxy.  Awesome!

Should you find yourself in Poland I HIGHLY recommend this.  I got a bottle on Sunday from Rzeszów airport on the flight home

Chill it in the freezer and then put a couple of shots in apple juice.  Yummy.

Read about it here.  Yes, it really does have a blade of grass in it.