peteashtondotcom

There’s a big ferris wheel thingy in Birmingham at the moment. I was walking past at dusk and took some photos.

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I’m quitting the job at the airport at the end of this week.

Broadband is now go on both computers.

The boiler is being replaced today so hopefully we’ll have heating tonight.

Went out on the piss last weekend for the first time in months and had a wonderful time.

Registered a new domain last week though haven’t done anything with it yet.

Spent a significant amount of time recently watching the extended edition LOTR Two Towers DVD.

Details to follow. Probably.

While having a piss I suddenly had an idea on how to combat spam. If only a teeny tiny percentage of the 100,000,000 spams sent out actually result in a sale surely rather than trying to stop the tide we should be targeting those idiots that actually reply. I would suggest sending out spam that looks like the usual garbage but that when clicked on takes the user to a page politely but forcibly explaining what a total dumbass they are and to please mend their ways. It’s not like a bit more spam will add to the torrent already out there and it might do some good.

It also occurred to me that PayPal et al could use this tactic to identify which of their users are likely to give away their passwords based on a bogus email and educate them before they do so for real. It’s said you learn from your mistakes so best to get them out of the way safely I reckon.

It’ll be interesting to see the long term effect my niece, Isobel, has on her wider family. Suddenly there’s a topic that all the direct relatives of my sister and brother-in-law have a passionate interest in. It’s a bit like we’ve all been drifting around, sometimes crossing paths, sometimes not, and suddenly there’s this powerful tractor beam pulling us, quite willingly, into it’s orbit. She can’t speak and it’s hard to detect anything other than base emotions and thoughts, but Isobel is the most powerful thing I’ve seen enter the family in a long while.

Which made her Naming Ceremony all the more fascinating. I should explain: a naming ceremony is basically a christening only without the God stuff. Bluntly, it’s an opportunity for those close to the child to state the bleeding obvious in public - “I promise to look after her”, etc - but sometimes you need to state the bleeding obvious in order for it to sink in.
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Just for the record, I really like USA, many of my friends are American. In fact a vast proportion of my immediate family is American. Most of the culture I’m interested in comes from the US or is directly influenced by it, be it comics, books, movies or music.

But if I could I’d be down in London this week protesting with the best of them.

This is not anti-Americanism. This is against the Bush administration and it’s insidious effect on this country.

I could write more but I’d just get incoherent, and others are no doubt doing so elsewhere. Just wanted to say my piece.

(Why couldn’t he have visited over the weekend?)

Been having quite a few computer adventures this last week so it’s only fair to document them.

First up, the iMac got an overhaul. It’s getting on four years old (a Grape job) and was getting ready for retirement. But then Dad discovered it could take more memory. And a larger hard drive. So we figured it could probably run OS X thus giving it a new life. It was a bitch getting into the thing but a relatively painless experience all said. It’s now gone from 6 to 80 gig. Which is nice. OS X to follow soonish.

Then on Saturday, at the same time as the plumber was initiating our current cold spell, the cable guy came round to install broadband. I was very skeptical as to why this was necessary having got broadband myself twice now, but it turned out cable broadband is different from yer standard phoneline ADSL, requiring a new cable and it’s own box. It’s essentially a router with both USB and Ethernet ports and sits there always on and connected. In theory any computer plugged into it is automatically online. In other words Sam’s PC laptop works perfectly but my iMac, still being on OS 9, needs a bit more work. As I had to dash off to Banbury I didn’t get all the details off him but they should come through the post soon. So we have broadband! Which means hardcore streaming radio! Yay!

As he was setting up the router he suddenly went all apologetic saying the PC had just gotten the Blaster virus. Bu it wasn’t his fault, really. Honest guv, these things just happen. I had a look and realised to my embarrassment that the virus had been there for a good few weeks. We just thought the laptop was crap. Of course, I can claim ignorance in my defense, being a Mac man. And so for the first time in my life I de-virused a computer, which was an interesting experience.

More adventures no doubt to follow!

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

The boiler in our house started leaking sometime during Friday night. Plumber came round Saturday lunchtime and condemned it. Not only that but he disconnected it as well. Which seemed a bit harsh, but then I suppose it is essentially a water based bomb. That night I was away in Banbury (for my niece’s non-denominational naming ceremony - more later) so I managed to have a shower on Sunday morning. Sunday night I was back and, while it was cold, it wasn’t that bad. This morning was a bit tough, pulling on freezing trousers and putting on my hat before going out, but no more tough than normal. This evening the new boiler was supposed to be fitted. But it wasn’t. And there’s a possibility it might not be fitted til the weekend as it has to be done in working hours, when Sam and I are working. Hopefully the landlady will sort it out earlier, but it’s probably best to assume the worst.

And so, after 50-odd hours of no heating the house is now cold. Completely cold. The novelty is rapidly wearing off, though at the very least I’ll get an early night - the duvet looks very appealing. It reminds me of the first few weeks on the farm in that bleeding cold caravan, which might explain why I’m suddenly having this urge to write blog entries. And, to be honest, while it’s easy to moan about this situation, especially as I’m paying rent now, it’s actually not all that bad. So far.

Oh yeah, the pussy. Macy the cat has been really annoying this last week, demanding attention no matter what and following my fingers no matter what I’m doing (typing being the worst one). Not only has the cold slowed her down a bit but she’s proving her worth as a lap warmer. Cats rock.