Calum’s Wee GNOME Blog

So, first blog of 2007… bliadhna mhath ur, and all that.

It was a fairly quiet break for us this year, at least in terms of travelling and seeing family– we did neither, apart from a one-night spa break up the road at the Johnstownhouse Marriot in Enfield. (The food there really is gorgeous.)

We were out and about around town a bit though… went to see Jason Byrne on December 23rd, and we took in Casino Royale, Flushed Away, Happy Feet and Deja Vu at the cinema (mostly for free– thanks Curly!)

Work-wise, I’m trying out a Sun Ray 2 at home for the first time this week… the technology is certainly impressive, although it remains to be seen whether it’ll oust my laptop as my working-at-home tool of choice. It would probably be more useful if I had one on my desk at work as well, to get the full benefit of session mobility– maybe it’s time to retire my old Ultra 10….

Sorry Bastien, I’m just too disturbed by the thought of you in ManU pyjamas to say anything witty about it. (Something akin to a composite of these two springs to mind…)

Irn Bru has had some classic print and TV ads to its name over the years, but this one has to be right up there…

My 15″ Powerbook G4 died in various interesting ways yesterday.

It’s been making a scary buzzing noise for months, but yesterday the hard drive gave up the ghost. While doing some diagnostics in its death throes, I also noticed that I seem to be suffering from the logic board failure that causes half your memory to go AWOL. Not sure which of those was responsible for the buzzing noise (if either)– will find out when I replace the disk in the next day or two, I guess.

Of course, Apple being Apple, they’ll only admit that the logic board was faulty on a certain range of PB G4s, with serial numbers from W8503xxxxxx to W8518xxxxxx… and three guesses whose is a W8502. So no free repair for me.

I guess that leaves me three possibilities (four if you count “do nothing and hope it doesn’t get any worse”)… sell my 2×512Mb memory sticks and replace them with a 1xGb stick in the ‘good’ slot (and hope none of the more serious symptoms of the failure appear); purchase AppleCare now for €450, even though I’ll only get a year out of it now rather than three, and have it repaired under that; or pay the somewhat ludicrous €690+ that my local Apple authorised repair shop quoted me. Hrmm.

Edit: D’oh, just realised you can only buy AppleCare within a year of purchase, of course. Just have to cross my fingers for a while then, I think

Got around to watching Shaun of the Dead this Hallowe’en… had the DVD kicking around since this time last year. Turned out to be a bit of an over-hyped duffer, really… but should have expected that, I’ve yet to see anything with Simon Pegg in it that’s particularly amusing. (He seems to be one of those people whose coolness reputation has been built more on appearing in cult TV shows than from actually being hugely funny.)

First I was going to try and post something arty (like a Luis-esque mosaic), then considered writing screeds about the whole escapade, but that would have taken forever. So, in summary:

First we did this:

And then we went here:

And we had a blast.

Have seen it all now… got this phishing email today that actually includes a snail mail address to send your money to, just in case you’re too “clever” to click on the link.

Account On-hold: Please pay your eBay fees today

Dear member: You are late in paying your eBay fees of $718.28 and your account for user kahlocjd is past due. These fees result from listing items on eBay or using related services (ID verify, Stores, etc). This account has been restricted and you will not be able to bid or list on eBay. To avoid further collections please pay your fees today by following these steps: 1. Log on to [dodgy phishing link deleted] 2. Click ‘Site Map’ at the top of the page 3. In the ‘My Selling Account’ section, click ‘Make a Single Payment’. Sign in if requested 4. Select a method to pay your eBay fees and follow the online instructions on page If you do not have access to your account or prefer not to pay online, please mail your payment with your payment coupon and clearly state your account ID E286455801001 on the check with a copy of this notice to: eBay, Inc. P.O. Box 2179 Carol Stream, IL 60132-2179 United States If we do not receive your payment, your account may be suspended and additional collections remedies may be used to bring this account to current. All current listings will be ended and you will no longer be part of the eBay community. If this past due balance is the only reason for restricting your account, it will be reopened for bidding and listing when your full payment is received. Your account will continue to be charged a late payment finance charge of up to 1.5% of your past due amount. Thank you, eBay Global Collections

So, here starteth my last week’s work as a single bloke. The next time I sit at my desk on a Monday (the first one in October), it’ll be with a resized-but-still-doesn’t-really-quite-fit ring on my wedding finger, if I haven’t managed to lose it on a South African beach by then.

The arrangements have been far from smooth, and I’m secretly regretting not having a stag night¹, but otherwise (largely thanks to Julie) things are about as organised as they’re going to be before Saturday week. Speaking as someone who generally hates weddings², churches and being the centre of attention, I’d be lying if I said I was completely psyched up for the occasion just yet, but I’m sure the end will justify the means!

Now, back to all that work stuff I need to finish before I disappear for a month…

¹A choice I made partly because most of the people I’d want to invite are scattered too thinly and widely around the planet to have any chance of attracting a critical mass, partly because stag nights in Dublin aren’t quite so appealing when you live here and have to wade through scores of them any night you go into town, and partly because the majority of frat house stag night antics have never held much allure for me anyway. As many pints as I could squeeze in at GUADEC was the closest I managed instead, but I’d have been having those anyway, and there wasn’t exactly much chance of a final fling there now, was there? :o)

²Don’t ask me why, I’ve just always had a strange aversion to them– I won’t even watch them in films or on the telly, if I can avoid it!

Apparently I’m the only person on the planet who’d never heard of Snakes on a Plane until yesterday. Fortunately, from what I’ve read about it since, this doesn’t concern me in the least.

Cool, there’s a Top Cat cartoon on TV just now without the canned laughter. God Bless the BBC¹! I wonder if they’ll get the same backlash when they revert that they did when they accidentally showed a chortle-augmented episode of M*A*S*H?

¹ When I was a lad, they wouldn’t even call it “Top Cat” in the listings, because there was a cat food on the market at the time with the same name…