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2001-12-17 11:59:28 Source: Web
Ahhh! A pleasant weekend and now we enter the final run-up before christmas. I've done my christmas shopping, I've even managed to send the presents that were going abroad within the deadline for last posting. I even ordered New Year lobsters today! Hopefully I'll get a chance to pick up a tree this week and find some nice cards for "the Swedish side of the family" :-)
Saw Harry Potter at the weekend. AS one of the few who hasn't read the books, I thought the film was pretty good. Not amazing, but definitely good fun and worth seeing. Now I'm looking forward to LOTR, though I don't think we'll get around to seeing that until after New Year (having not queued up for 2 days to buy tickets!).
Christmas will be with Lotta's parents - as usual the celebrations here are on Christmas Eve which I always find slightly odd. Then my Mum is coming to visit from the 28th to the 3rd. I'm working the 27th and 28th. So that's my plans all sorted!
Jeez! That was a pedestrian update - nothing exciting to report. Ahah! Except that I have finally sorted out a money transfer from my UK bank to Sweden which means that as soon as the money pops into my account this week I will be able to order myself a shiny black, spank high-powered beast of a new computer! Hehehe!
2001-12-14 12:35:11 Source: Web
Well, in the spirit of Chris' search for his oldest postings on Usenet, I've found some of mine too. I suspect that I had earlier postings with an old email address, but I'll be damned if I can remember what I had as a Demon subscriber, so these are probably the closest I'll get.
First Post
The whole thread and the reason why I dropped "Bluewave Web God" from my .sig!
Complete listing of steve@bluewave.co.uk posts
2001-12-12 12:48:28 Source: Web
Ehh! Another of those dumb-but-fun test things.
2001-12-10 12:25:35 Source: Web
Feeling good after a very pleasant weekend. Friday was a calm evening at the local pub with Lotta and a friend of ours. I slept until 11:30 the next day which is almost unheard of. That shows how tired I was after last week (and as I said, it was a *calm* evening at the pub :-)
Anyway, I had time on the Saturday to go and take care of some christmas shopping. I'm getting there, but I still have a couple of things to get that need to be sent abroad within the next day or so. I also took the opportunity to pop into a few of my favourite food emporia (emporiums? Nah!) and pick up bits and pieces for the meal I had decided to make for Lotta and I. I was trying to recreate the great restaurant meal I had earlier in the week.
The meal ended up being really good. It was a pork cutlet served with pesto mash, a brown sauce and red onion jam - which for me was the piece de resistans! I had searched for a pre-made jam all day, but it doesn't seem to be easy to track down (I wonder why :-) - so I made my own instead by softening red onions (sliced in thin rings) in a frying pan and then adding recurrant jelly and warming through. In retrospect I think it could have done with something like a couple of drops of balsamic vinegar or something, but it worked really well in my opinion!
Sunday was a calm day, I had planned to go and finish the christmas shop, but ended up staying home. I spent the day working on my soulXchange portfolio (Level 3 is a bugger to progress in!) and putting together my 2nd electronic gadget!
This time it's a lil' gizmo that plays White Christmas. The circuit is really extremely simple, but I was pretty chuffed with myself because I worked out the actual circuit myself from a circuit diagram and on top of that I soldered this project together (after planning it out on plugblock). I can't say it's pretty and I'm pretty sure that something is going to fall off where I appear to have heat damaged the circuit board - but it's a first attempt! All part of the learning process ;-)
Well, that was a bit about everything! Back at work now and feeling pretty good about the week ahead. Let's see how I feel by Friday!
2001-12-07 15:48:48 Source: Web
Ah! The joy of nostalgia.
Actually, I always quite liked the design that the Bluewave site had at that point in time. Those were the days!
2001-12-05 14:26:29 Source: Web
Tacky - apparently today's most linked blog subject, but what the heck - I liked its answer!
 | If I were a work of art, I would be Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night. I am a tiny village at peace while overhead rages the tumult of the heavens. Objects whirl and flash around me in a fevered haze only partially reflected in reality while I remain grounded and secure in my isolation. Which work of art would you be? The Art Test |
2001-12-05 13:33:57 Source: Web
Built my first electronics circuit (since I was a kid anyway). After a bit of getting to grips with the multimeter and stuff (and spending far too long trying to work out resistor colour codes) it was down to business.
First proper circuit? Why - a flashy LED gizmo of course! Better known as an astable multi-vibrator if you want to get all technical about it ;-)
Of course, this is just the small beginnings leading onto me designing robots and inventing new forms of electronic gadgetry that will propell me to fame and fortune!! (Stop sniggering in the back you!)
Nah - I actually suspect it will never get far beyond the blinky LED or tinny siren sound type projects, but it's fun and I can honestly say that I've learnt more about the actual electronics theory behind the circuit I built than I ever managed to learn when I was a kid.
2001-12-04 07:39:53 Source: Web
Got my electronics parts in the post yesterday (after a 40 minute queue!!!). Hurrah - now I can experiment with making small beppy things and flashy LED gizmos.
But first I've got to finish programming my *bot* using LibCURL and PHP. I'm stuck on getting it to recognise, dump and reuse site cookies right now. Not the easiest thing I've programmed.
Gonna have lunch with the friend whose party I missed at the weekend (doh!). On Thursdya I'm travelling up to Stockholm and back´for an MS DevDays conference. It should at least be interesting to see what they are up to with .NET even if they are spawn of the devil ;-) Nah, we program the site at work using ASP and MS SQL Server, so I need to at least have an idea of where things are going with .NET - though the chance that we could ever find the time to reprogram to use the new techniques is almost completely nonexistant.
Oh! And I chatted with my mate Pete last night. Hi mate! Good to speak with you again. If any other old mates feel like giving me a bell then feel free. I miss you all you know!
2001-12-03 14:14:18 Source: Web
The day would of course not be complete without a link to corporate bullies KPMG who have been trying to put the frighteners on my mate Chris for... linking to their homepage!
Maybe they'd prefer if people linked to their IB&RC Guidelines link instead!
2001-11-30 07:33:45 Source: Web
I went to another hockey match last night - and Frölunda (the local team) lost again. Damn! Still, it's always fun to watch grown men on skates beating each other up while chasing a puck ;-)
Weekend is approaching and there are not 1 but 2 clubs on! Romo Night (80's synth) tonight and Monochrome (Goth) tomorrow. It's also a friend's birthday tomorrow an we're going out for a meal before clubbing. So it's a full-ppacked weekend.
I'm waiting for a package from Maplin containing a bunch of electronics components I've ordered. I've been hankering after learning to build electronic citcuits for some time now and now I'm finally getting there. I've already bought a book on the basics, plus all the bits I need for soldering. Now I'm just waiting for the various components I need to start making exciting things that go beep and flash LEDs! It'll probably arrive next week - so that's next weekend sorted then.
Work is still hectic (to say the least), but I'm slowly getting on top of things - I think!
ttfn!