It’s
just about the time thinks become desparately busy here.. the new Undergraduates
and Postgraduates arrive. Before they do I have make sure that I’ve got all
their accounts set up, all the undergrad PCs are updated and fixed and everything’s
ready for the fresh faced youths to think that everything works and hence
nothing has had to be done. Such is the life of a SysAdmin.

Anyway, I’ve got the undergrad computers done now, the user accounts have
been set up, including the three dropped on me earlier this morning that
the admin types forgot to tell me about. Now I’m just waiting to go and give
the new account details to the new students and get their university ID card
numbers from them for our security system as they queue up witing for their
photo to be taken.

Monday afternoon I have to teach these 1st years how to log into our system
and set up their e-mail. This is going to be painful as those who think they
know how to use computers will race ahead and do it all wrong. This is dispite
being told at the outset that it would not be wise to do so. C’est la vie.

Anyway, getting away from work issues, tomorrow I’ve a busy day. In the morning
I’ve got to do all the normal weekend jobs before going off into London to
meet up with people for the last BTG (By the Gods) meeting. It should be
fun as it will include lunch, wandering aimlessly around central London for
a few hours, probably drinking lots of coffee, followed by a celebratory
final event at Page’s Bar in Westminster. So, anyone who likes Xena: Warrior
Princess (which I find as fun, but I’m not a fanatic over) or likes to watch
lots of lesbian women being bawdy and generally laddish, turn up and have
a fun time. It starts at 6pm and costs £3 to get in. 🙂 (Note: not
all the women are lesbian or bawdy and there are some reasonably normalish
people there too.)

Hmm.. maybe bawdy isn’t quite the right word as they aren’t really overtly sexual, more boisterous.

Anyway, tat’s the plan for the weekend.

Congratulations, you’re a Brownie, a household helper.
What kind of male faerie are you?
Take the male faerie quizby Paradox

Well, Grim has started the avalanche, so it’s too late for the pebbles to vote. It seems that I am closest to being:-

Congratulations, you’re Ambassador Kosh, the mysterious Vorlon ambassador.
Which Babylon 5 Character are you?
Take the Babylon 5 Quizby Paradox

And my answer to your next question is:-

Perhaps.

I
seem to be getting some sort of social life, mostly revolving around one
of the postgrads, John Hillier, his girlfriend, Katie, and the people they
rent rooms out to.

Thursday evening I went out with them to see Signs, the new Mel Gibson film.
Now, I’ll try not to spoil it for those reading this who haven’t seen the
film but I’ll give my opinion of it. Well, the characterisations were fine,
the emotions shown seemed genuine. However, the message of the film, faith
is important and everything happens for a reason, including the bad things
was put over as subtile as (to paraphrase Douglas Adams) having your brains
smashed out with a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick! Add
to this REALLY stupid aliens (if you’ve got a problem with being disolved
by water, why invade a planet that’s 2/3rds covered by the stuff and has
the stuff falling from the skies and walk around naked without an environment
suit?! Oh, and if you’re stealth technology is so good that you can’t be
seen at all by day, why leave the lights on so your ships can be seen at
night?! Oh, and wouldn’t it be a good idea to learn how to get out of closets?)
and I’m afradi I couldn’t suspend my disbelief long enough to enjoy the film.

Anyway, Friday night was uneventful.

Saturday was a mixture of the normal domestic duties with the addition of
taking some old computer junk down to the local “recycle centre” where I
asked if I may remove an old OnDitigal box from the computer skip and was
told no, ‘cos they didn’t want to be sued because of the possibility of it
being electrically dangerous.. and I couldn’t smuggle it out either. (In
the same place were such delights as a ZX Spectrum 3, an original PowerMAC
and an Amiga 500.. poor things.. they’ll be removed from the recycling part
(read refurbishment and resale) and crushed in the landfill to become archeological
artifacts in centuries to come.

The evening was spent at John and Katie’s place being sociable with an evening
dedicated to the leaving of one of their housemates and the arrival of two
others.

Sunday morning was spent in bed reading the end of The Hobbit. That’s taken
me a little over a week.. a far thinner book than The Lord of the Rings and
definitely a children’s book in the language used but the story itself was
far more grown up, though you could tell that the form of Middle Earth had
as yet not been fully formed in the mind of J.R.R.Tolkien.

Seeing as the weather was so nice I decided to go out in the afternoon. I
popped up to one of the places where the Ridgeway meets a road, parked and
took a nice long walk with my camera taking pictures of the scenery. I managed
to see a field vole scamper into the grass.. about 15-20 pheasant, mostly
males, walking ahead of me on the path, disturbed by other walkers before
I could get a good photograph, oh well. I wish people would stay out of my
way in the country, it spoils the whole thing as they scare the wildlife.

The evening was spent watching telly, finally retiring to my bed at around midnight after watching Sharpe on UK Gold.

Following on from Grim’s posting..

	You are Rowlf! You don’t draw attention to yourself much, preferring to keep your cool and stay in the background.
Take the What Muppet Are You? Quiz!

Nah, not really.

Still, the new series of Coupling on BBC 2 on Monday nights (9:30pm) started off very well. I laughed almost all the way through, which for a situation comedy is a rare thing for me. Most bore me rigid, the others usually raise a smile or two.

This evening Sky One are playing the first double episode of the last series of Stargate SG-1. It’s ok, it’s reasonably fun.

Tomorrow night sees E4 showing the new West Wing series.. we’re up to episode 5 or 6 I think.

Other than that, there’s not much on.

Have I done much this last week?

Well, I’ve had a mild cold (which is just about over) and I’ve got better
from the upset innards. Other than that, not a lot has happened.

I’ve requested an estimate for the repair of the keyed paintwork and minor
scratches on my car, bought some trousers which seem a little more baggy
than I like in style but didn’t realise until it was too late. I’ve circummed
to the temptation of the 2 for £20 offers for DVDs in Virgin and bought
M*A*S*H (the film) and the first Austin Powers film. Oh, and I spent a very
nice evening with friends eating pizza and watching “A Knight’s Tale” on
Saturday.

That’s it, there is no more.

It’s late Monday afternoon. I have a headache. At least my innards have stopped their cement mixer impressions.

Anyway, to the subject of this posting, the weekend…
Continue reading →

I finished reading The Lord of the Rings for the second time last night.

It’s
taken me 4 weeks to do so with many nights a hour’s reading, a couple of
weekends almost reading all the time and some evenings full-on reading as
well.

Was it worth it?.. Yes, though at the end it became more of
a strength of will to finish it as it seemed to be never ending, rather like
Frodo’s quest to mount doom with the book becoming more weighty as the end
came nearer.

Last
night I had wierd dreams concerning multi-storey car parks, getting my car’s
paintwork fixed and The Lord of the Rings. One part i rememeber is forgetting
my keys in the car park and driving (without a car!) around my old home town
of Bedford wearing only a towel around my waist trying to get to my old home
in a village nearby and waving to SAAB car drivers.. most strange.. Don’t
even ask about the LotR bits!

Maybe there was just too much MSG in the chicken chow mein I had for dinner.