Just got my latest toy, a little solid-state mp3 player. It comes with no memory, but has an SD slot so it's infinitely expandable. SD is insanely cheap and getting cheaper all the time, so that's great. Pretty good for £13!
Now I'll just have to do some script hackery to automagically convert Ogg files to mp3 and copy them across, so I can quickly get music ready for my daily cycle commute.
Holly and I went to see Lleyton and The Poo at Queen's Club last night. We get freebie tickets because it's at the end of our street. Was good fun, though the Aussie lads really weren't at their prime and went down in straight sets.
Tonight we're off to see the Australia vs New Zealand football friendly at Fulham. Very much looking forward to this game. Should be a load of fun.
I've managed to score a week off in between jobs. Can't wait. Lots of things I need to catch up on, and little projects I've not got around to.
After sushi for dinner last night at the excellent Yoshi Sushi, I realised how much I miss good sushi. It's rare and expensive in this town. Yoshi is probably the best price/quality balance I've found so far. The sushi train places here all serve expensive, dried-out garbage. I used to eat sushi in Sydney all the time.
Solution: make it myself! I'm starting with the relatively easy maki (rolls), using a recipe from Wikibooks. The hard part, of course, is getting the rice right. And if you know me, I'm crap at rice. So this is very much an experiment.
Google News is just so good. Here, you get to see the different sides to a story. The official mouthpiece of the US military tells how Guantanamo Bay guards are very respectful when handling the Koran. Abuse occurred only a small number of isolated cases. As you might imagine, Al Jazeera has something of a different take on it which, strangely, seems to concur with more sensible reporting.
I love Google News.
Just brewed a quick-and-dirty beer for my birthday party keg. Cooper's Canadian Blonde kit, 350g wheat malt, 350g dark malt (what I had already opened in the fridge), 300g glucose, Brupaks Flavapak beer kit enhancer. Haven't used this last one before, it's basically three big teabags with hops and grains to give a little more to your kit.
Should be a nice, light and refreshing brew for a (hopefully) hot summer's day. I love having my birthday in the Northern Hemisphere and thus in mid-Summer. We're hoping to hire out a local bowling green and play lawn bowls in the afternoon, then retire to the flat for a party.
These things are hard to find online without paying some dodgy bugger who stores them online. So here it is, for free: Toshiba Portege 3110CT Service Manual in PDF.
Just bought a broken laptop of the same model as mine. It's apparently working but has broken screen and no keyboard. I bought it solely for parts as the little cable between the motherboard and screen on mine is stuffed. To buy this part from official channels would end up costing more than the laptop is worth, whereas this cost next to nothing.
The other bonus is I'll get to work out how to pull the sucker apart without destroying my working laptop.
Finally got back on the bike today. Foot seems pretty much healed now, so I can ride again. Of course, luck being what it is, that will likely mean a wet ride home in London Spring drizzle.
Was a nice ride in, though I'm looking forward to the new job. Currently I ride through Brook Green, Shepherds Bush, White City, Wormwood Scrubs, Harlesden, Stonebridge Park. Crackland, in other words. New commute will take me through Kensington High Street, Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, St James' Park, Charing Cross Road, New Oxford Street. Lovely!