Smile, thank god it’s Monday

I had a dreadful weekend. I went into the office on Saturday at 2 so I could catch up on some work and I didn’t leave until 10, then I did the same thing on Sunday. Thank god it’s Monday. Most people, normal people, will be miserable as shit today, but not me, no sir! I’m glad it’s Monday, after working the weekend, with an empty office, it’ll be good to get back to normality.

I recently acquired a graphics card from a friend of mine, an old ATI Radeon 9800 XT. Uponinstalling the card I soon realised that Half Life 2: Episode Two — which previously was unplayable with my old Nvidia GeForce 6600 — now runs smooth as the proverbial babies bum. So, with a couple of days off last week, due to sickness, I took the liberty of sitting in a hot and stuffy room, in shorts, with sticky-up bed hair and played the bastard from start to finish in one day. What a fantastic experience that was! I’ve always been a big fan of the Half Life games which have always been great fun, and Episode 2 is no exception. I’ll not spoil anything, but I will say that the ending — the first time in a video game — very nearly made me cry. I really didn’t see that one coming.

Along with a graphics card, I’ve also recently acquired a copy of Burnmout Dominator, and since I’ve got a day off tomorrow I think I’ll get stuck into that in a big way.

Happy Monday!

A bad week. . .

I’ve been off work, for personal reasons, since Tuesday. I’m going back in today and I couldn’t feel more miserable and depressed. Not because I’m returning to work, but because I’ve been off in the first place, and now I know I’ve got a shit load of work to catch up on, plus you  get all the ‘are you feeling better now?’ comments. Having a shit load of work to catch up on is an understatement, so I think I’ll be in all weekend now in an effort to catch up just enough to make next week bearable.

I think I’ll throw a couple more cups of strong black coffee down my throat, have a shower and then go. I have a feeling it’s going to be a very long day. Shit, I have the feeling it’s going to be a very long weekend.

B.O.B

The window next to me is wide open in an attempt to clear some of the smoke. I’m bloody freezing, but I want to keep smoking my cigar. We’re watching Band of Brothers, drinking beer and just chatting, putting the world to rights. I’m trying to relax and enjoy the company of my friends, but all can think about is how I’m in the office tomorrow and the mammoth amount of emails and other shit I have to work through.

Oh well, it’ll get done and no amount of worrying will help.

UPDATE

It’s now 00:26 on Tuesday and I can safely say that none of the work got done in the end. I stayed up Sunday night until about 2 am, before our host passed out on the sofa and then pissed off to bed. I was left to find a place to sleep, and since I had to be up in about 7 hours, it was imperative that I got at least a couple of good hours rest. I decided that  my choice of chair would not result in even a slightly good nights sleep. I instead improvised and pulled two chairs together and slept across them. It kind of worked, but the slumber I got could hardly be considered as good. I recall waking up at about 4 am, my arm, unlike the rest of me, had completely gone to sleep and my neck was having some kind of spasm. After about two hours of dreadful, very restless sleep, I was again woken, this time by our hosts sister and brother, one preparing for school, the other for work. I lay there, listening to them walk around, pondering how much time I would allow on average each morning, before I had to leave the house. I had concluded that I would leave about an hour, most people would do the same, so I had an hour, maybe an hour and a half of laying on those two chairs, with my eyes closed and listening to them move about before they left.

I finally got up at 9.30 and our host drove me home. I had a quick breakfast of bacon and eggs with a slice of toast and three cups of coffee, before I had to leave for work. I spent the whole day taking calls, I answered about 4 emails and got rid of one of my negative balance cases. So now, as I said at the beginning, it’s 00:26 and I am going to leave it there, my bed is big and warm and the mere thought of it fills me with a sense of sleepy comfort. Compared to those two chairs in that smoke filled flat, my bed is a fluffy cloud worthy of heaven itself.

Good night.

Good Morning Sunshine!

Well, I say morning, it is the afternoon really. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone.

I have a large cup of very strong black coffee by my side and a powerful lust for World of Warcraft. I think I’ll play it today. Ever since I reached level 40 I’ve suddenly lost the desire to play for hours at a time. I suppose my next big goal is level 60, but considering the time it took to reach 40, that’s probably not going to happen any time soon.

Wow is a pretty odd game really, and if I put enough thought into it — which I tend to avoid doing — I begin to wonder if it might be a waste of time. For example, if I type /played into the game it will add up all the hours I’ve played (with this character) and give me the total number of weeks days and hours. According to the game, I’ve been playing for 6 days and 15 hours. I’ve had three characters previous to this one. The first I played for 1 days and 6 hours the second I played for 3 days and 4 hours and the third for 6 days and 18 hours. So, in total, I have played the world of warcraft for 17 days and 19 hours solid. That’s an amazing 427 hours! I could have learned a new language in that time, or done a short course at my local college and received a recognised qualification at the end of it. On the minimum wage I would have earned £2357.04.

However, I did get my mount last week, and that was pretty cool.

Repaired

The plumber left about an hour ago. He had to rip the whole radiator off the wall since the thing was so old it was filled with rust and could explode at any minute, killing any one of us who live here. That bastard radiator had me sitting up all night, in a cold house drinking coffee and watching bad, late night TV. As a result, I now feel a powerful cold coming on. I only just got over a nasty cold about 2 weeks ago, so I’m pretty pisses off. I might go out into the garden and beat the shit out of that bastard radiator, might make me feel a bit better. Not sure what the neighbours will make of that ugly scene.

I’m sitting on my sofa, in my room, with a glass of wine by my side, and the only noise to accompany me is the sound of the keys tapping as I type this out on my old IBM Thinkpad T40 and the wind, which is beating my window with a ferocity that makes me think it’s angry about something or other, and to be honest, I suppose mother nature must have her reasons for getting angry, more so now than ever. Though I’ll not get into that subject now, or ever for that matter. The subject of our raping this beautiful earth and then suddenly realizing that we probably might have made a dreadful mistake, thus allowing us to ‘go green’ and change our daily lives in such a dramatic way as to ensure we don’t all drown or fry in godless heat, all created by our short sightedness. No sir! I shan’t touch that ugly subject! You know? The subject regarding how all this destruction that is happening due to ‘climate change’ is a great way of making a shit load of money. And why not? Why not create a brand of ‘Eco friendly’ washing up liquid and sell it for twice the price of regular washing up liquid. Because the simple act of switching the product that cleans my dishes is indeed, with out any doubt, going to save this world and the way we live. Washing up liquid? Do they really think we’re that fucking dumb? Oh, but we are! That’s the beauty of this one. We will buy this stuff, because many of us really are that stupid! However, as I’ve said, as much as I would love to touch on this pretty little subject, I’ll deviate. If only because when I begin to talk about stuff like this, I’m filled with a sense of pointlessness, which stems, I think, from the fact that either, nobody cares, or I’m just wrong and talking about shit I really don’t understand.

Burst!

My radiator in the living room has burst and sprung a leak. I just went downstairs to get something from the kitchen and noticed a puddle of water all over the floor. There is a pin-prick size hole in the top of the radiator which is allowing a constant trickle. The great news is, the only thing I have that will fit under said radiator to catch the water fills up in about an hour. It looks like I’m going to have to stay up all night emptying the bastard until I can get somebody to come out and fix it. I suppose I’d better brew a pot of coffee.