Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in newt_e's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
7:38 pm	Warrington - Day 2 So, first day into the office. Glad I made the decision to use a taxi to go from the hotel to the office. It was pouring with rain. Slept really badly, and didn't fancy breakfast. Of course, but 11am I'm hungry, and by 12 even more so. The office is on an industrial site, and there's no obvious canteen. Then, two short car beeps. "That's the sandwich van". Hurrah, that's lunch. And they had fruit. Stayed until 5, and then got a lift back with another bloke who was visiting for as few days, and who is staying at the same hotel. Bonus. Then back to the pool for a few lengths and then food in the bar. Starting to feel a bit lonely now. I'm glad that I can watch TorchWood, and that I'm going home tomorrow. I won't be here next week, but I'll be there Wednesday/Thursday for a few weeks after that, though with a trip to Whitby sandwiched in there as well. I'm still debating whether driving up might be a better choice, but I'm not sure at the moment. I don't think darckense will be overtly impressed. (Comment on this)
Monday, July 6th, 2009
10:29 pm	Tonto, I don't think were in London anymore... Indeed, I'm not in London. I've got the opportunity to spend a couple of days working with a bit of our parent company (we got bought in early May) as they need more people to help them out with one of theur big projects. Someone with SQL knowledge, integration knowledge, a bit of reporting knowledge. Hmm, wonder who that could be? So the hotel and train ticket have been paid for by said parent company. My only gripe thus far is it would be far better if the train arrived after the earliest check-in date so that I don't spend time with nothing to do. Oh, and I'm glad I allowed two hours to get from home to Euston - it took one and a half hours, thanks to roadworks. Whilst at the hotel, the wifi seems to work (it must have done if you are able to read this), and I've got access to the swimming pool. I haven't been swimming for years, but I'm hoping that the ache in my shoulder is a good sign and not a sign of a problem. I managed to find the Games Workshop in Warrington. So off early to the parent company office tomorrow, but via a taxi. However, having asked reception to order a taxi for 8:30, I forgot that I'd asked before 8pm, so they buzzed me at 8:30 to let me know the taxi was here. They had to go out and explain it's for 8:30 tomorrow morning... Spent a bit of time doing some work as well (boo, hiss). But I have been able to watch Torchwood. I'll get to watch episode 2 tomorrow night as well, but I'll probably have to catch the other three on-line. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
10:02 pm	Power Grid Finally got round to playing Power Grid this evening. I lost. But, hey, it was fun, and an interesting game. Missed a few rules out here and there, but overall it was good. Next time we'll try and do a three player game. And get the rules right. Whilst the missus and I were out today (it was out 14th Wedding Anniversary) I bought a copy of Talisman as well. The new 4th edition revised version, with proper counters and playing pieces. I'll play that with the boy soon. Work is OK. Out company now has a parent company - another non-competitor has bought us. From what I've heard, we're an add on, rather than being replaced or removed, and our product portfolio extends the parent companies existing one. I'll know more on Friday, but it looks like a positive move. Current Mood: tired Current Music: a helicopter, flying around outside.. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
11:49 pm	Vista, how I hate thee... Grr. Grr. Vista, 3Gb RAM and nForce2 motherboards are not the way to go apparently. All it does is BSOD during a boot. (What's worse is I went from 1.5Gb to 3Gb after install.) There's no point going back to 2GB as I've ended up with 5 suspect SQL databases including MSDB and 4 Biztalk ones. Grr. Grr. Still, this will all be resolved when I get round to buying a new PC (and Windows 7 hopefully). (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
5:23 am	Off to Belgium... No not me (sadly), but the small boy has gone to Belgium for the day with his school. Dropped him off at the school at 4:50am (zzzz). He's due back at 11pm. I just hope he remenbers the chocolate... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
11:21 pm	It's Been How Long LJ thinks it's been 17 weeks since my last post. It may well be right. I'm using a beta of Windows 7 for this, which uses IE 8. The screen for typing this on has the scroll bar in the middle of the text box. It's a bit weird. Mentioning Windows 7, it took ages to sort out a network connection. Couldn't get the motherboard drivers to load properly, but found an old PCI Netgear FA311 card which works a treat (one I'd manually set the network speed !!). Work is good. I'm being used as a general technical resource, which is fine by me. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
9:26 pm	What's been Happening... Well, the new job has been OK. Spend some time at home, working and listening to the neighbours having DIY done on their houses. Been into the office a few times. But tomorrow I get to go off site and pay a visit to a hosptial trust to help them out with SQL server. And next week I go back to my old trust to help them with integration. That's going to be a little weird. Gaming wise, I'm playing Dark Heresy at the moment. I've got a Tech-Priest, with two extra mechanical arms. One's a utility one, the other is a medical one (and is equipped with a chainsaw scalpel - I'm itching to use it on somebody else). As for books, I've now read The Saint, The Founding, Traitor General, His Last Command and The Armour of Contempt. I'm now on Only in Death, which I think is the last of the Gaunt's Ghost ones that are available. Not sure what to read next... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 15th, 2008
6:24 pm	An Update Well, I've been employed in my new job for two weeks, and I've been to the office three times so far. Working at home is ... odd. It's nice to have the freedom to plan my day as I want, but it can be a little difficult to settle down sometimes. I've been suing Skype to chat to my boss online. He;s been place on site, and they're not quite ready for him just yet, so he's been a bit bored... I tried to read "The Saint" the other day (not a Simon Templar book, but the second Gaunt's Ghosts anthology for Warhammer 40K). I didn't understand it. I'm sure that the first book was more 1st person orientated, and the characters were all different. So I went back to the first anthology ("the Founding") to find out what had happened to them. Couldn't find them in there either. Then realised I haven't read "The Founding" at all. I have read the "Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium" anthologym, also about an Imperial Guard Commissar, and got confused. So I'm now reading "The Founding", and good it is too. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 1st, 2008
11:16 pm	New Job, - Day One Well, I've done the first day of my new job. I've got my laptop (which was not not completely set up) and a phone (very low on charge, with the wrong charger, and set to divert all incoming calls somewhere else...). My previous employers still owe me money, so I don't know if I'll get a new P45. Other than that, all was OK. Just the usual induction stuff, looking at courses and looking at one of the products I'll be working on. And I'm off to my bosses house for a meeting for most of tomorrow (we felt it was better than attending the office as only I have to drive, and we can start later (and not wear suits!)). The laptop fits really well into the laptop case that hex61 bought for me for my birthday, so that's really good. I was hoping to be at home on Wednesday for small boys first day at secondary school, but I'm due in the office to meet people who were away. Such is life. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
11:58 pm	Room Changes Well as a result of my new desk, I've got a bigger desk. So to fit it in the study, I'm going to have to create space. So I've taken out a set of shelves (they were only 50cm wide), and that should be enough. Interesting what you find behind things... ( The chaos behind the shelves ) There was also a casualty. Thankfully not me, but I'm sure this process will give me planty of opportunity... ( What got broken ) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
1:53 pm	Resignation - Part 2 Had a chat with my senior manager yesterday. Looks like they've realised that me going is going to be a bit of a problem for them... "What can we do to keep you?" - I might enjoy the next conversation on Monday. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
6:36 pm	Jobs Well after much thought I've finally resigned from my current job!! I've given my 8 weeks notice, of which three will use up my leave so only five more left. I start my new job on Monday, 1st September. With my current bos as my new boss (he's changing jobs as well). But that's OK. (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
10:51 pm	Status Well, it's been a very long time since I last updated this. I suppose the big news is that I'm going to change jobs!! I've a provisional start date of 1st September, which gives me plenty of time to resign in. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
9:51 pm	A Long Time Has Passed Well, according to my LJ page, it's been 20 weeks since I last posted. Not since February 13th, when I was bored at work. I guess one of the things I have been doing is amassing my Warhammer 40K army. I collect Tyrannids and Bonce collects Space Orkz. Stangely, the thought of 10 Space Orkz screaming their heads off, charging at you some how reminds me of Bonce and his friends doing similar things... We've also got some Warhammer armies as well. I've gone for Hordes of Chaos, while Bonce has gone for Bretonnians, mainly because he likes the idea of the Grail Knights. Not been too any gigs, but did go to the Vampyre Connexions (I hope that's the right spelling) Summer Party. That was lots of fun - they played a fair amount of guitar orientated music, so I was able to have fun headbanging. The following few days after, I remembered why I don't do that very often. Hell, they even played some Alice Cooper. And Rammstein. And Marilyn Manson. And Cult. And Nightwish (or something similar). And some tracks I didn't recognize... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 1st, 2006
8:28 pm	Life Well, Halloween was quiet. The SO went out (not entirely sure where). I stayed at home and dealt with the odd caller - there weren't that many this year). Tomorrow, I'm due in at work for 6am so I can oversee an upgrade that will be done by a third party supplier. Based in New Zealand. Why does my office always get systems in from around the world and not the UK. Grrr. Hugh's got into the school football team. They lost 5-0. Apparently they are the worst team in the league. Plenty of room for improvement then :-) (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 30th, 2006
12:25 am	My Ears ar Ringing Just got back from seeing Y&T in concert, supported by GPS (bits of Asia and the keyboard player from Spock's Beard). It was amazing. Current Mood: happy Current Music: The ringing in my ears (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 20th, 2006
11:52 pm	Server and Stuff I think I now have my server booting properly, with partitions on the right disks. And it didn't need a re-install. Hugh survived camp - he's got a cold now, but he's doing OK. Still haven't done much towards my Tekumel adventure - there's now only 3 weeks left... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 14th, 2006
7:36 am	RedHat and other Things I finally installed my IDE card into the server. It's only taken three days to get the drivers to work properly. Let me be more honest now - the drivers have always worked (apart from the SuSE drivers I tried to install onto a Red Hat box). The real issue has been trying to make them load during the boot sequence. Finally managed it last night. Not only did I have to amend the linuxrc file on the boot image and copy the driver file to the /lib directory of the image, I also had to so the same with the sd_mod and scsi_mod drivers. I think that over the last few days I tried most combinations, but not all at the same time. Hugh is back at the hospital today, hopefully for a final checkup, and for the bandage to come off. He's also off to camp this weekend. I now have four weeks to put together my Tekumel adventure, which I have to run for 6 weeks in four weeks time... Current Mood: bright and alert Current Music: None, I'm at work (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 17th, 2006
8:53 pm	Media Players I got a Creative Zen Vision : M MP3 player yesterday. It also does videos as well (and not just MP4 like the ipod). It is a bit heavier than my old 1Gb player, but we'll see how it goes. I've also been painting my Warhammer 40K army, or at least trying to do. Pictures in magaines always look so good, but are so very hard to replicate. Still I'm fairly happy with how they look. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 13th, 2006
11:41 pm	Back to Work... After a relatively pleasant two weeks off, it's back to work tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to the alarm at 05:40. In other news, Hugh's arm is on the mend. But there is some concern over one of the wires, which is very close to the skin. Hence he hasn't gone to PGL for this week, which means negotiating with work over time off to look after him. Current Mood: anxious Current Music: None. (1 Comment |Comment on this)