One of those nights!

Here I am again, the dead of night when all normal people are fast asleep and cosy and I'm not, instead I am here, this is becoming way too much of a habit!

What's that all about then, for the last three weeks, off I go to bed, bleary eyed and feeling nicely tired but to no appropriate avail....the moment my head hits the pillow my eyes spring open and my mind turns back onto wide awake mode. No amount of lying there counting sheep or whatever makes even the slightest difference, the eyes stay firmly in the open position! Gah!

Add to that I seem to be having a 'spell' of that damnable fiddly legs malarkey, ok,so that's not a technical term, it's called Restless legs syndrome, but that barely sounds any more technical does it?, which in turn doesn't help any attempts at restful sleep, to put it mildly.

I know, I'm not exactly overworked right now, I'm probably not really very tired in comparison to usual but please, if I'm not to be allowed to sleep the least the technical gods could do at this late hour is allow me a wireless connection without an hours lost fight, resulting in the bloody wire having to be heaved from it's hiding place and poked into the back of the machine!

This all of course has to be undertaken in super quiet style so as not to wake himself who, just to rub salt in the wound, is happily sleeping like a baby!

Grumpy? Who me? Did I mention the PMT already?

*N.B.

My last post seemed to have caused a little confusion in various quarters, a few emails later it seems I gave the impression I am leaving here.....well I'm not, sorry but you don't get shot of me that easy! ;o)

I am only getting rid of my domain and web space, none of which will directly affect this little patch.

'gemmak' the blog, lives to harass you for a sometime to come...... :o)

The death of a domain

'gemmak.co.uk' is about to bite the dust.

Still un-gainfully employed and trying to save money I made the decision to no longer maintain my domain and the webspace I have enjoyed at a cost, for years, reasoning that I don't make enormous use of it and the money could be better spent right now.

In the way that things seem to transpire, it wasn't quite as straightforward as it should have been. My initial, um.... 'bright idea' that involved the simple principle of 'well just don't pay the host and the registration guys and they will kill it all off' was fine until I realised just how much I have used it, just how much how much of my blog was hosted there and how many bits and pieces of other peoples blogs were loitering there from the days when it was just easier to host the stuff myself rather than keep opening accounts for others.

Arghhhh.

So yesterday, the whole of yesterday, I spent trying to find where all the odd bits from years of blogging belonged, moving them, putting them back in, making sure no links were broken and mailing those whose sites were about to collapse unexpectedly along with the demise of the domain. Thus far only one has got back to me, I did a redesign on that to make up for her aggravation and finally I think I have my own stuff all safely relocated....save for the few bits of course that are file types no-one seems to want to host for free. What's the issue I wonder with 'ICO.' files? There just doesn't seem to be anywhere that will have 'em!

I'm kinda sad to lose the domain, it's been mine for years and years but common sense must prevail. Doubtless I have also missed something along the way in yesterday's fiddlings and there will be a glaring 'red cross' somewhere in my blog (if you see one let me know!) but on the up-side I have saved myself over £50 and let's face it, I can hardly say my time is worth more right now!

Still remembering....

....Karine of Graybar, the third anniversary of who's very sad loss is remembered today.

My thoughts are with those she loved and who loved her.

This is it....

.....the snowstorms and blizzards that were forecast came to only this pathetic offering where I was:



It lasted about long enough for me to turn my camera on and then stopped again within seconds! Perhaps it was more impressive elsewhere but I think for this winter I should be giving up on my hope to see any real snow, it ain't gonna happen!

The snow aside Easter was good, relaxing and fun and full of chocolate....there is little more blissful in life than Montezuma's excellent, 72%, organic fare.

If you have a passion for the strong stuff I promise you it's well worth the cost, this is chocolate how chocolate should always be! ;o)

Happy Easter!

Ahhhh...Easter....chocolate! Ok, I'm a heathen I know.

We are off for a day or two by the sea visiting relatives for Easter, there is even a little snow forecast for the south coast and chocolate by the bucket load is permitted, things are looking good! :o)

Have a good one guys!

Snow and sods law

Sunday we are forecast for heavy snow, the first of the winter, long awaited in gemmaks-ville and unusually agreed by more than one source, it's looking very hopeful....but we won't be here! We are going away! That is a good thing, the weekend away, but still, it's sods law!

Still mad!

That's a reference to Tilly before the wisecracks start!

I got an email from Tilly's new mum yesterday, news has been long awaited for various unavoidable reasons but yesterday I finally got news and new photos....my week was made :o))

I still miss her badly, I still feel guilty that I let her down and I still wish massively that it could have been different, but it wasn't and so now, though it is always with mixed emotions, getting any news of her and hearing about her carrying-on's is always a highlight and makes me smile.

One day I will feel able to visit her, I'm getting there but that day is not yet.

She hasn't changed, she's still a mad little thing, ok ,not so little anymore, she still has a passion for worms and caterpillars, she still has to sleep in bed with her human, she still steals bath sponges and carts them around with her......and she still hasn't grown into her ears!

She's as happy as a little pig cat in muck and that's what matters most.

(Click image to enlarge)

A glutton for punishment

That's me, a glutton for punishment, I was not going to let the service pack issue beat me and so last night I tried again, all seemed well and I went to bed thinking I had cracked it on the 5th try....but no!

This morning Microsoft popped me up an oh so lovely little message informing me it hadn't actually been installed! That will be why the machine was still working then?!

So, back to it, I won't bore you with the number of 'windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown/serious error/memory problem yada, yada, yada' messages I have been through, or how many blue screens I have been witness too (I thought we had seen the back of those with the demise of M.E!) or how many times I have had to fight tooth and nail to get a connection along the way but finally it is installed!

It's been something akin to getting blood from a stone, but it's in and the machine is still alive this time, my AV is even working (for those that don't know M/S have released this service pack knowing it has compatibility issues with various AV software packages! Hmmmm, impressive).....how long I wonder until the first evidence of Vista's usually flakiness rears it's ugly head again?

Me? Skeptical? nah! ;o)

Oh...but I did find a MOV. file converter that works....well it did previously, it remains to be seen if it still does! ;o)

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?