Vista SP1....take a deep breath!

Microsoft have finally released the service pack for Vista, this from past experience is not necessarily going to be a simple thing nor a successful one, of the updates that have been issued thus far a scary number have messed with something they shouldn't have and two crippled my machine almost completely!

Am I missing something glaringly obvious here or do Microsoft have an odd take on 'improvement'?? Yes, ok, I know, it's Microsoft....enough said?

So, I'm gonna back up everything on this machine, download the service pack, take a deep calming breath before installation.....and if I disappear for a day or two you will understand why!

*UPDATE: 10.52hrs: This is proving to be somewhat less straight forward than it ought to be!........

*UPDATE 2: 13.05 hrs. Does the fact that I am posting this time from my phone give you an inkling as to how this service pack is behaving?? This is not going well to put it politely! FFS!!

*UPDATE 3: 16.06 hrs. I'm back, at last but only by means of uninstalling the whole bloody thing after hours trying to get it to work. What problems did it have? What problems did it not have would be easier to list! Conflicts with my AV (despite mine not being on the list M/S produced), connection problems, memory problems, start up problems, shutdown problems....need I go on! And to think...I thought it was flaky before I started! My advice....don't touch it with a barge pole!

I should have known better.

Convert MOV. to AVI.....fat chance!

Please, someone, somewhere must know of software that will convert a MOV. file to an AVI. or an mpeg with this damnable Vista operating system!

I have lost count of how many bits of software I have installed, tried, found seriously wanting and then had to uninstall, not so much as one so far has managed the job in hand, I've given up even trying for quality or options....anything will do!...though preferably freeware, I'm poor right now!

Help!

The Mills & McCartney effect

Today is the day that Mr McCartney will discover just exactly how much lighter his bank balance is as the result of his recent foray into marriage and Ms Mills will learn just how much one can earn for spending four years living the high life with one of the world's modern icons.

I'm not particularly fond of either one of them I have to say, though McCartney's impact on the music industry would be hard to refute and Mills ability to turn a personal tragedy into something apparently positive is quite impressive. A personal liking for the individuals concerned is not what worries me about all this though, rather the fact that here we have to grown people, who are big enough and ugly enough to know better, wasting every one's time and our money fighting over something that should have been resolved with much more ease. Let's face it, within reason whatever sum Sir Paul has to part with isn't going to leave him living under and arch in an inner city and by the same token it is going to provide Ms Mills and the child of the union with a pretty attractive standard of living, even by her recently acquired standards!

It was suggested to me recently that the biggest error in all this was McCartney's stupidity in not having a pre-nup drawn up before said union took place....but therein lies the only aspect of the whole debacle that I have respect for. Perhaps it was purely stupidity that caused him overlook any future 'what if it all goes pear shaped' scenario though I doubt McCartney's legal minions would have allowed him to simply 'overlook' such a thing given his financial standing.

Perhaps he just had faith and trust, however misguided it might appear now, in the woman he loved! Call me naive if you will but that's not a bad thing in my book and I prefer what might be perceived as my state of naivety to the alternative option of cynicism, despite the fact that it has cost me dearly over the years.

Pre-nups have always been an odd conflict to me for whilst I can understand the modern cynics point of view that it is merely a realistic approach, believe me, as twice divorced I know realistic, it has along confused me how a couple can stand in front of an official of a denomination (or not) of their choosing and pledge their intended lifelong love and commitment.... whilst at the same time having so little faith in one another that they feel it appropriate to protect their assets from the destruction of divorce, before the words that should bind them happily of are even out of their mouths!!!

Is there not some inherently very worrying and very sad conflict going on there and does it not say a great deal that is not good about what we have become?

So, whilst I may not be McCartney's greatest fan I do however have massive respect for the man's apparent decision not to allow himself to fall victim to the cynical ways of today's rich and famous and instead take the route that he did. In the event it backfired on him quite spectacularly but his actions say much that is good about the man he is.

Lazy Sunday......

......late night, long drive, too much food, too much fun, yada, yada, yada. Back compis mentis after I sleep some more! ;o)

Never judge a man

"Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins."
....................
One of the things that annoys me most is the apparent superiority some people possess, that enables them to believe they have the right to judge the actions and lives of others!

Those that choose to live this way and make their judgements are, at the very least, not usually in possession of all the facts concerning a given situation, but never let it be said that this might prevent them for one moment, from casting their eye over others they have little or no true knowledge of, and swiftly pronouncing ill informed 'sentence'.

The specifics of a scenario don't concern me, that is not the point, the point is that there is usually much more to be known in any given scenario, than the information an outsider is privy too and few situations occur without there being complicated and protracted reasons behind them, be they political, personal or other.

We do of course have laws (though some of those are questionable) and commonly accepted levels of ethical and moral function, which in the main the majority adhere too but why do some feel that there is no way of living different to their own that is acceptable? Why is it that an individual or group who choose to live a different way of life are deemed by those in their self imposed position of judgement, by default, to be wrong? Why if a chosen path is harming no one else, or if it is chosen out of necessity, or if it is forced by circumstance, that some see it as a lesser way to live and something to be derided, punished or worse?

Is it because the very same people who make these judgements are those individuals who are in a position from which they perhaps would be better scrutinising their own behaviour instead of that of others, is it because in their own lives they feel something is perhaps lacking somewhere, is it envy at something they would feel unable to do for themselves in reality or is it simply their fear of something they don't understand and aren't prepared to attempt to see deeper into to, for concern that what they might find outside of their box might upset the apple cart?

I have no idea really why one should feel it appropriate to judge another, even in very dire circumstances, but I do think that no one of us has the right to make a judgement on another without being in possession of the full facts....and even then I doubt we have that right. Should we not instead be using our energies to try and see deeper into things that are outside of our own life experience and gain a little more understanding and compassion for things we don't yet truly understand?

Professional non achievement!

Day two in the solicitors office is over and if I'm honest it wasn't half so bad as the first day. It was less manic, one or two people actually spoke to me like a human being and I found the coffee and made good use of it!

In fact more than tolerable it made me think how in many ways I have wasted my professional life albeit not out of choice. Some of these people have such interesting jobs. Their environment and protocols might piss me off but the jobs they do are just so interesting and consuming, neither of which qualities have ever figured much in my work life. I only ever had one really good career job and that fell apart for reasons I won't expand on here. Now, even if I had the funds to train in something new and interesting, by the time I got though college I would be about ready to retire!

Hey ho, I'm destined to be broke and bored at work I suspect.... but I have discovered the perfect employer.......however, the commute may be a somewhat restricting! ;o)

Another dead parrot!

Go on, admit it....you laughed! ;o)

Tugging my forelock!

Yesterday was my first day at the temping malarkey and I learned one thing if nothing else....that a solicitors office is definitely not my 'thing'! What a carry on! All those protocols, the self imposed faux hierarchical structure and those that must be treated as demi-gods at all times, the solicitors themselves.


Don't get me wrong, I admire their intellect, respect their knowledge and very specialised area of expertise and I'm sure that most of them are very nice people.... but purlease, spare me the demi-god status!

I think it would be safe to say that being a solicitors receptionist is not going to be my niche in life, more plainly it was pretty horrible.

Immediately I walked through the door I was ordered about by some officious secretary (they are second only to the demi-gods in the hierarchy) who overturned just about everything I had been shown in my hours 'lesson' on Friday, I was suddenly responsible for a myriad of tasks no one had thought to mention previously and spent the next eight hours juggling a string of personal callers (most of whom spoke no English or assumed I knew every detail of criminal and matrimonial law myself), a switchboard that never rested from it's habit of 'all lines incoming' for one moment and various grade of demi-god and secretarial staff refusing to take calls! Oh...and not one single cup of coffee was offered.

It seems it wasn't deemed appropriate to warn me that half the staff were on holiday or sick leave and that the remaining individuals wern't in a hurry to cover for them.

Yes, I was stressed, by lunchtime I had a banging headache,(I don't usually 'do' headaches) and by the time I escaped at five all I wanted to do was hide in a corner and cry, or scream....or both.

Yup, eight hours tugging my forelock under heavy pressure is certainly not my bag and being parked at a desk in the cold suited and booted didn't seem like too much fun either.

On the upside, I only have to do two days so by tomorrow evening it will be over and it's money, not much I'll grant you but not much is more than nothing!.

Next please.....

Vive la resistance!

I seem to have ruffled a feather or two with my 'Quote of the day' post over the weekend!

It's been a long time since I was subjected to comment insults and on the few occasions I have been previously it was concerning serious subjects that others were likely to have strongly held opinions on.

This time it seems to be a lighthearted joke that has hit a sore point with someone, who from a 'one liner' has subsequently deduced that I "probably love fox hunting" and wishes for my life to be "derailed".

Oh how little some people know before they wade in with all guns blazing.

Hey ho....we are all entitled to our point of view, however ill informed, so on the principle of upholding the tenets of free speech and all that I will ride with it on the basis that, what is particularly amusing is not the quote in itself but that my commenter completely misunderstood my amusement in it, despite explanation.

Hell, here's always one isn't there!

The big storm?

So, are we going to find ourselves lashed by the howling winds and torrential rains, are we going to have to drive with great care to work in the morning (well those of you that work) avoiding felled trees and

the structural damage forecast by our meteorological wizards, or is this storm going to be another in the now long line of overly cautious warning forecasts since Michael Fish made his now infamously understated broadcast back in October 1987?

Weather fascinates me and whilst most I suppose are hoping for this to be another damp squib I am hoping for the reverse, though of course I would never wish for anyone to get hurt. I have been watching now for days this storm tracking toward us, watching the barometric pressure drop like a stone and wishing that right now I was in Cornwall not Cambridge. Who knows, I am far from qualified to hazard a reasonable guess but it's looking like it might happen,if I'm lucky I might see some significant gusts even here and if I'm luckier still a tree might just fall on my car and write the damn thing off.......It is 'strategically' parked under a number of very large specimens as I speak! ;o)

'Let me in' - Simon's cat....again

This is fab, I love this guys cartoons, the last one, 'Wake Up', like this one, are so true!

Sound on.

Quote of the day

"This silly woman makes even Jade Goody look like someone with an Oxford first"

Ann Widdecombe on Marion Cotillard

Excellent! :o)

Back to reality.....

......in a small way.

So, it's been two weeks since the white van became history and there have been a few vaguely possible new jobs crop up but nothing really suitable, so as of next week I begin the new (to me) business of temping. The days of being a lady (??) of leisure and playing housewife are beginning to be a thing of the past.

Thus far I have only two days work next week covering for a receptionist in a solicitors office but hey, anything is better than the dole and even two days work pays me more than the government would! I promise you, after the last and only time I went the government handout route, I'm in absolutely no hurry to go through that humiliation again!

Hmmmm...receptionist, that means of course I have to get suited and booted, I don't 'do' that, or at least I haven't had to for years, heels, girly clothes, make-up and all that palaver aren't things I relish, it just doesn't feel like 'me' but needs must and by definition it is only 'temporary'!

Now...where's the job that allows me to wear jeans and boots? ;o)

100,000!

Yes, I'm a hit whore, I won't deny it, hits, stats, referrers etc. etc. etc, I love em...and one inparticular.

Look over there ------------>

When I started this blog, way back when and all that, in the days when even fewer people read it than do now, I came by chance, across a blog that was celebrating it's 100,000th hit. At the time I couldn't believe any blog could ever get to six figures, let alone mine and from that day to this it became kind of a small goal for me, one that I didn't think I would likely ever see here.

But, sometime today I should make it, kicking and screaming, to my very own 100,000th hit count....unless you all bugger off! ;o)

And I might add, I haven't 'cheated' and inflated the count with my own hits, I have obsessively kept myself excluded from the count. Ok, so it's taken better part of four years but I have hobbled there at last!

Yayyyyyyyy.

I'll try and work who makes the actual hit is but in the meantime I think I shall partake of a bar of chocolate by way of a small celebration! ;o)