Irregular Verbiage

Last weekend, I went to Centre Parcs in Sherwood Forest. It was a chilled out stag/hen night for some friends of mine who are about to get married. I knew almost no-one there but everyone was really friendly and I had a great time.

I found out quite a bit about the people I met and I’ll be a little embarrased if I can’t remember who is who when I go to the wedding in a few weeks. It occurred to me I should write some notes, then I thought maybe I should have a little paper “people” diary. I dismissed the idea of setting up a database as overkill but does anyone use any technological aid for this sort of thing?

Tim Bray says: “It’s a necessary but not sufficient condition”.

I left work this evening and wandered around the car-park looking for my car. Nothing unusual there – I often lose my car. Except that it went on longer than usual and I was feeling quite silly that I couldn’t find it. Eventually I realised that I hadn’t driven to work this morning – I’d got a lift. D’oh.

This weekend, I downloaded Google Earth for Linux. I’ve played with the Windows version before but as I spend the majority of my computer-time in Linux, I’ve never used it that much. The Linux version seems very similar to the Windows version so I’ll probably play with it quite a bit over time.

Playing with Google Earth caused me to poke around the Google site a bit and I noticed that Google Maps Mobile now supported my (nothing all that fancy) Nokia. I am so impressed. It’s so easy to use.

A couple of weeks back, my girlfriend and I were trying to find a hotel we had a reservation at. We got hopelessly lost despite having looked up directions in advance. In the end, lost and frustrated in outer London we had to phone Em’s Dad and get him to guide us there over the phone. If the same events unfolded next week, a lot of anguish would be avoided.

Early last week, whilst repairing some elses phone connection, a BT engineer shut the line that leads to my house in the door of the junction box only a few hundred metres from my door. Instantly we lost internet and phone access. For an internet-addicted geek like me that was traumatic. No more blog-reading. No more working on DWARF. Did I go out and play in the sunshine for a few days? Nope. I started playing a (free) computer game: Battle for Wesnoth. Gah! Even now my internet is back, it’s still sucking up huge amounts of my time.

If someone asked me. “Do you spend much time playing computer games?”. I’d usually say no, but it’s very sporadic. I don’t play anything for a few months then for one reason or another I start and that’s it – no free time for a week or two.