Since I keep getting asked what the problem is with Endless Games, here the answer from my site hosts:
We are having difficulties with the linux server your site is hosted on. Our network administrators are currently working to fix this issue.
Rubbish.
technorati tag: endless games
Some changes to this blog. Firstly, for the benefit of random passers-by and friends from my LiveJournal days, I’ve allowed all viewers to comment blog posts, rather than just registered Blogger users.
Secondly, I found a new tool for updating the blog. It’s called Blogger for Word and it’s quite a useful tool. It adds a toolbar to MS Word, allowing you to post directly from it. This may well replace mail2blog for me as my main posting tool. It can be downloaded here.
Update: While I can make it work with Word 2000 and Word XP, I can’t seem to get it to work with Word 2003. How annoying.
Update 2: It seems this tool does work with Word 2003 after all, it just didn’t work for me on the first try. Oh well.
Finally, as you can probably tell from the tags I’ve added to old posts, I’ve joined Technorati. Technorati is an internet search engine/community of web logs and one of the tools they provide is the tagging of blog posts for easier searching. I’ll see how it goes, tagging is currently a manual process in Blogger, but it’s no great shakes.
Oh, and I now use Bloglines to aggregate my newsfeeds, so that I now when various blogs and news sites have updated without having to visit them all.
Technorati tag: blogging tools
BBC NEWS Magazine Can read, won’t read books
Victoria Beckham says she has never read a book in her life. It’s a common trait – one in four adults say books aren’t for them.
Does this mean she’s never read her own (alledged) autobiography? Oops…
But seriously, I have heard people say they just don’t have time to read and that they’d rather escape into some like Eastenders or some magazine or other. I’ve even heard “I think enough at work, I wouldn’t want anything too intellectual in my time off”. It’s a sad world.
technorati tag: beckham
Well people at work don’t tend to do things at lunchtime as a team. So on my wanderings I managed to find Farnham Library and was pleased to find they had quite a large graphic novel selection. Perfect lunchtime distraction! And free! Between going there on rainy days and reading in the park on the sunny days, I should be fine. And I should be able to keep up with my reading now that my commute time is a grand total of 12 minutes per day. That’s barely enough time to start a sudoku!
I watched the Global Frequency pilot last night and I must say it was very, very good. And very, very disappointing that it’ll probably never be shown on TV. Not just for the reason it was canned in the first place, i.e. change of studio exec, but also due to the nature of the public support it’s currently getting. Sure, there are thousands of fanboys jumping up and down on the internet saying they’ve downloaded it, watched it, loved it and are campaigning for it’s release. However that’s part of the problem. Can you imagine a big TV studio going public with “Tell you what, so many people who have infringed our copyright want us to release the pilot and continue making episodes. So we said yeah! We love our pirate movie downloading demographic and they ought to get a show they love!” It’s just not going to happen, which is a real shame. In the meantime, let me know if anyone wants to see it and I’m sure someone, somewhere, entirely unconnected to me will burn a VCD (or whatever your preference) of it.
technorati tag: global frequency
Well, I’ve started in my new position! I’ve been inducted and trained where the fire exits are. But since all of my line managers are in meetings I’ve been left to my own devices with a new computer. (Not sure if it’s my new computer yet of course) And so I’ve been forced to discover that I have no webmail access at work! How anal! I shall have to see if there is a workaround before handing out my new work email though. Good thing I found out about Bloggers mail2blog facilities really!
Edit: Okay, due to the standard company disclaimer, the mail2blog thing will need some thought too. Dammit! Luckily it seems I can directly edit.
technorati tag: work
Tuesday night was pretty hellish, with mad, twisted fever nightmares, reminiscent of Walt Disney working hand-in-hand with Clive Barker. And that was just in the period of time I actually could sleep. The next morning was no better, with my temperature climbing rapidly up to 40.3°C, constipation and some uncomfortable swellings in infected areas. Not a rosy day by any means. I was pumping pills, dropping in and out of consciousness (and reality) and generally not a lot of use to anyone all day. At night a decision was taken by my parents. If I wasn’t better in the morning then it was unlikely I was going to be better by Saturday when I was to take my flight back, and so my parents would drive me back to Aldershot.
Thursday morning was a continuation of the previous day. Apart from the fact that preparations began for an early morning departure the next morning.
Friday was a different affair altogether; I felt marginally better, my fever having lessened and everyone was up by five. As the car had been loaded the night before, we were on the road by six and at Calais by eight, just in time to catch a ferry that would whisk us across the channel. When we reached Aldershot Health Centre, we hit the first potential obstacle. Apparently the first appointment available was at five in the evening and it would with a nurse not a doctor. Needless to say, my mum was having none of that. With stubborn tenacity, and an unsubtle veneer of contempt for officiousness, combined with a German determination of wanting something that someone has told you isn’t yours to have, my mother berated and argued with the receptionist until, mysteriously, a last minute vacancy appeared. The nurse took one look and referred me to the doctor. The doctor took one look and referred me to the hospital. The hospital made me wait around for a while and eventually I was tested, poked, scanned, probed and generally made to feel like a slab of meat. At the end of which I was given my prescription and sent on my way again.
Now, you may ask why I was sent to hospital for a flu? That’s because I left something out. If you’re squeamish, look away now. Especially if you’re squeamish and male. Take it from me, a testicular infection is not a pleasant thing. Oops! Now the cat’s out of the bag! (So to speak). Imagine a testicle swelling up to the size of an orange. Then add pain. You get the idea. That’s why the hospital visit, unfortunately, the symptoms are very similar to some more gruesome problems down below and nobody was taking any chances. So there you go. The anti-inflammatory and the antibiotics will take care of it in short order, but it’s still not pleasant.
The squeamish people can come back now…
A side-effect of the whole affair was Penny meeting my parents which, while brief, was a pleasant affair.
Since my parents’ departure, Penny has taken over duty of care, keeping me fed, watered and stuff. It was a bit of a weird week off, but it certainly has it’s perqs…
Tomorrow, the first day of a new job.
technorati tag: health
Monday was a proper day of rest since the head-cold thing I was still fighting off from the previous week reared it’s ugly head again, looking suspiciously flu-like, what with it’s fever and all. So it was lots of chicken soup, lying around watching films, reading etc. Nice.
But on Tuesday, strangely, it was seemingly gone. So I was instantly co-opted into helping install a loft window as it was a two-man job. To drain me out a little further, it was time for a cycle to the beach and a two hour walk down the Zeeland coast. Very pleasant indeed, but by the time I got back I was quite drained. An earlier night beckoned me, not knowing what the next day would bring.
After Saturday’s “relaxation”, on Sunday it was time to get serious with Mum’s schedule of events for the holiday. So off we went to Antwerp for the day. (Click to enlarge pictures)
Antwerp is quite an 
attractive Belgian city. Wait, that’s wrong. Antwerp is very attractive for Belgium. It has actually managed to find balance between it’s needs as a modern city and it’s well-estalished history. Although it could well be the history that makes Antwerp stand out. Firstly, back in the olden days it was in a reagion that was owned by the The Netherlands. Antwerp was a Dutch city before it was a Belgian one, and do this day there will be more Dutch speakers in Antwerp (and the rest of it’s region) than there are French speakers.
Antwerp is well known in the area for it’s large and varied market; fresh food, clothes, antiques, tat etc. But once in a while they market is extended to sell live birds. 
It sounded an interesting thing to see, but seeing it in the flesh was a little different for every cute little songbird, you had cage after cage crammed with hens or cockerels; shoeboxes stuffed with budgies barely able to move or a mountain of chicks in a carboard box.
The theme seemed to continue when we turned the corner and saw a street containing many ‘puppy shops’. In these shops were small, case fronted, white boxes filled with puppies of a variety of breeds. And people all around them, tapping at the window, cooing in delight, not realising the puppies, at about 6 weeks old, were terrified.
I guess animal rights isn’t really a high status issue in Belgium.
technorati tag: antwerp
More to come soon!
Well, they actually managed to surprise me. While there was indeed a small amount of tat included, they were at least well-considered. As for the rest, I got a four-pack of beers (Fullers) and a stack of book tokens. Result!
All my calls are closed, my files deleted and the hard disk defragmented. The only thing left to do is to wander around the company, say my goodbyes and then off to the pub!