Standard Christmas card entry ;-)

If you want a Christmas card from me leave a message with your address as a comment (comments screened).

If you want one from babyghia and me then leave a comment in her card post.

http://babyghia.livejournal.com/499536.html

Some people may get one anyway (just to annoy them).

I have a few personal rules. One of which is to do with Christmas - its basically this.

I will not deal with any Christmas type stuff until December.

Basically, it means that I don't think about Christmas until its December, no Christmas shopping, decorations or music. My Christmas clarinet and flute music is not touched along with the CD's (they are all kept in the same box).

There are, however, a couple of exceptions. The first is that if I have a concert or something where I need to practise something which involves Christmas music etc. As I need to practice to ensure I play (or whatever) the best I can it is acceptable (but ONLY that stuff, nothing else).

The second is that if I have to do something that will take longer (delivery/creation) than I will have (or push the 'completion' point) too close. That again is okay.

Other than that - forget it. You can do stuff, I won't mind (apart from a sarcastic comment or two). Just don't push it onto me.


For the record I'm not anti-Christmas (or whatever you celebrate). My Christmas music is some of my favourite music to play. Its also some of the best to listen too out of my collection (probably).

(so, now its December I'll probably but a 'who wants a card' post up in a day or so).

At work, we have a ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) system at the main (and only vehicle) entrance as well as at a few other points near the car parks/bus stops. As I have a car park pass its just a matter of stopping just before the barrier and it lets me though. The gate is manned (for the vistors lane etc) and the person also keeps an eye on the passes lane.

Now, for the 'rush' times they have a second person there who will check the passes and they leave the barrier up. When I arrive its usually before this happens (the barriers are usually on 'automatic' or more often just left up). The car ahead of me went through the barrier and the 'guard' waved me through - except the other guard hadn't hit the 'leave barrier up' switch so it almost hit my car (proves my brakes worked).

No harm done and we all had a good laugh (couple of apologetic looks from the guards) - its all good fun. I know a lot of the guards (as well as porters, cleaners etc) and enjoy some good banter with them.

Good smile for first thing and also made sure I was awake (I think they did that on purpose ;-) ).

Happy Birthday to ravenlore Hope you and your clone have a fun day.

A happy birthday to zola - enjoy the day and many happy returns.

A Happy Birthday to lilly_rose.


Enjoy the day and many happy returns.

As a few may have noticed - I arrived back from Austria yesterday. I need to do a post about it all but it was a good trip.

So I'm now back at work and sorting through my email. One thing has made me laugh today - which is unusual as sorting through work email is usually soul destroying (academics love to make their points known). So, here it is, with the background.

A couple of weeks ago, at the last annoying staff meeting, I asked about a piece of software that has been requested to be installed on lab machines by some academic staff..... I got a rather annoying reply from several staff they "they've been on at people to get it sorted for about a year". This was the first time I'd heard about it - the IT TECHNICIAN for the department wasn't spoken to AT ALL about it. So, after talking to the correct people I got an email today - the software has been set to install on the lab machines when the are next switched on (installing over the network is nice).


Isn't it nice how quickly something can get done when you talk to the correct people and not scream to the wrong ones......


Oh well, such is life here and I have to rememeber it won't last too much longer (I hope).

Not really much is happening at the moment. Work is quiet as its summer (practically no students) so I'm trying to get as much programming done as possible during the quiet time (few, if no interuptions = easier to programme). Lots of academics are on holiday or 'working from home' so its quieter that side too.

If I order stuff online I usually get it delivered to work or my parents as I'm not in much. I placed an order last week and the form complained that I was using the wrong address. The address I use, although correct, is not the 'registered' address as I need to add an extra line so it actually gets to me and not stuck in the post room for a few days while they work out where it should go.

So, it got sent to my parents. I let my parents know that one was coming and got an email today saying it had arrived. It was good timing as the kitten was being spayed - I got to my parents after work to discover they had to take her back to the vets - they'd picked her up and she managed to break her stitches, so my parents took her up again and they stapled the wound shut. It was bleeding again so I drove them up there. Luckily it wasn't that bad and didn't need anymore work so I drove them back again. I spent longer at my parents than I'd planned - cups of tea and general talking as well as laughing at a kitten having trouble with a buster collar.

When I finally got home and opened the box - it wasn't what I was expecting. It was the normal monthly anime collection with another folder. I telephoned my parents and told them to expect another box.

One good thing - I've been invited around for Sunday Lunch so that'll be okay. I can probably annoy my sister too.

Oh well, not much of an update but hey ho - it filled the time while waiting for my dinner to cook ;-)

Over the last couple of weeks two links to the past have died.

First was Henry Allingham - a person who fought in World War 1, serving in the Roynal Navy Air Service (a under which was merged with the Royal Flying Corps to create the Royal Air Force). He died at the grand old age of 113 last week. He was with the fleet which fought the Battle of Jutland and also spent some time in the trenches defusing boobytrapped bombs left by retreating German forced.

Then today, the last surviving British survivor of the trenchs died. Harry Patch was conscripted and fought in the Battle of Passchendaele.

Both were links to the past which we no longer have. I was lucky enough during the 1990's to spend a few minutes, during a concert interval at a nursing home, to speak to a very frail World War 1 veteran. Although we couldn't speak longer, those few minutes were extremely interesting.

History is one thing, talking to people who were there is entirely another thing. If you get a chance to speak to a veteran of any war - do so, you may be surprised with what you find out.

I don't get much from my work - but I did get 3 days in Dublin last week for the ATSiP conference. As conferences go - its quite cheap and I was told I could go. So thats what I did.

( Cut for length )

So, now its back to the programming and other such fun at work. I spent a couple of days before the conference messing with 'gd' to attempt to make dynamic graphs from php. Now I'm back to the systems I need to programme. The graphs are an interesting project - but these other projects are more important currently.