Stuff, and then some

Tansy caught a bird today; a freshly-fledged sparrow. So, after mum, Sam and Cla(i)r(e)(?) left this morning I spent the next hour and a half running around after her in the bushes (in my dressing-gown and pyjamas, I might add) trying to rescue this poor bird.
It wouldn't have been so bad if she'd just killed it. But because she's useless when it comes to killing things (being a lady-cat as she is), she just sat and prodded it with her paw if it ever stopped for breath. Then it'd peck her paws whenever they went near it, which would make her confused because she wouldn't know what to do otherwise. It was only when it tried to fly off that she chased it, because she enjoyed running after all this feathery, flappy movement and batting it with her paws.
I managed to get the green fishing net that we 'acquired' from Gunwalloe, Cornwall, a few years ago ('stole' is such a harsh word :p), and it quite happily let me place it gently over its head and move it out from under a bush into the middle of the lawn. I scooped it up and it flew off into the other bushes on the other side of the garden (in line with the new neighbours' fence). But I managed to do the same thing again -- with the cat watching me, scandalised by my taking-away of her plaything -- and this time it was even happier to sit in the net, swinging about. I put it on the patio, and it didn't move. I put it on the extension roof, and it still didn't move. So, I walked through the side gate and out the front, where the postman was walking past to give my neighbours (also outside) their post. I had to explain what I was doing for a second before he turned to give them their letters (though they didn't see), and tilted the net to the floor and it sprang out and flew down the street.
^_^
Took an hour and a half, that did. And all before breakfast.

The cat was still hanging around the bushes, though, thinking it was still there. She's asleep now on the bench outside... worn out!

-----
I plucked up the courage to ring Waitrose again after that. God, I hate phoning people... -.-
Gail Robinson wasn't in, so I asked them to leave a message and ring me back... and I have yet to hear from her. At least it'll appease Mater(em) Mea(m) for a short while.
-----
I got a reply from them, this time from someone other than Mrs Robinson, and she used that 'yourself' thing that I despise so much.
"I can see that it's quite important to y'self..."  ¬_¬

...but I'm one of these gamers who uses mods as well.
Have mercy.
:D

But look; I downloaded one the other day that lets you do Force-pushes on people as if you were a Jedi... and this is what happens:
They momentarily turn to spaghetti!
- On a Chorrol guard
- On Amusei, just after he told me that the Gray [sic] Fox wants to talk to me again.

And also... It wasn't me, honest. <_<

Edit...

I've just found some more.... Imps are funny things. :D
They die in such funny ways... as did this woman.
Look -- a gay Imp orgy!
:S
Oo-er.

The house I'm living in at the moment. I grew up here, and I've never moved away.
I feel more at home in Wales, though... somewhere where it feels very Welsh -- so over the mountains and on the western parts of the country, rather than the more Anglicised east.
But yes, my first home (my physical home) is here, but my second home (more emotional) is in Wales; preferably in a Welsh-speaking area. :)

In other news...
I didn't get in at Waitrose either, by the way. Got an e-mail this morning... honestly, what is it that makes me so unemployable???

Some interesting news for people who care:

I might be a bit slow, but I found yesterday that Arial, Tahoma and Times New Roman have been made compatible for Vista with the IPA and more extensions in the Latin, Greek and Cyrillic alphabets. :D
Hooray!

I've also taken some screenshots of how Oblivion looks now that it's working on Windows Vista. It doesn't look far off how it is on my desktop, which runs Windows XP...

- My character, a Khajiit, riding on the back of a Fire Drake (in other words, a firey version of Akatosh (scroll down) -- original version of mod looks like this)
- First-person view of the same
- A giant slaughterfish I found while on a quest from the Thieves Guild -- contains quite a lot of treasure in its stomach after you kill it (namely a robe that enhances your Speechcraft).
- Mid-fight with the slaughterfish (blocking with the Katana I've got).
- After I killed it, and before it floated up to the surface, hundreds of feet up (obviously I have the cheats enabled! :p).

Now, I think it's Oldblivion's doing, but whenever the graphics start getting a bit too much for this computer's drivers, it seems to be a failsafe that kicks in, whereby the lighting flips up to maximum and all things like bloom lighting, HDR lighting, and everything else that increases the framerate are deactivated... meaning that everything runs incredibly smoothly and looks really, really bright. Like this:
- This picture with Fathes Ules ought to be much darker than it actually is -- the game lags so much whenever you walk around an inn like that (the 'Oak and Crosier' in Chorrol).
- This is inside the Redguard Valley Cave where the ogres that attacked Weatherleah (see the quest on that page: 'Legacy Lost') -- note how light it is; it should be much darker than this. The lighting does switch back to how it should be, though, but it's just faintly comforting to know that this could happen whenever the game decides that things are getting a bit too much. :D

Anyway, I'm off to play it again now. I'll just finish downloading the Unofficial Patch for it and then carry on.

Edit:
Mha!! Look what I've just found! There's a book in the Chapel in Hackdirt called the 'Bible of the Deep Ones'...


Oh, that's made my evening, now. ^_^

While I was writing that Writer's Block response last night, a lady from Waitrose phoned me to tell me that she wants me to go for an interview today, and that it's at 2 o'clock. :D

I've got quite a good feeling about this.

In other news...
It's one year since the prom tomorrow... things have changed a lot since then, without really feeling like anything has happened at all!

Correcting grammar, mangled language, hype, misplaced semantics and other people when they say something different from what they mean! I blame John Humphrys for this obsession.

Of course, I'm not trying to say that I'm perfect, and that my language is perfect. What I'm saying is that it is important to communicate clearly and precisely. I'm not trying to preserve the state of the English language, because that's pointless (English has changed for centuries to get where it is now); and I am not saying that I'm a traditionalist who hates splitting the infinitive and ending sentences with prepositions. I'm as much pro-colloquial-English as the next man. Nor do I claim to have perfect spelling or punctuation -- I am human.
And yes, I make exceptions with the spoken language and making little slip-ups in it, because when speaking you don't have the time to think about how you're going to word the next sentence. But with the written language there's very little room for excuses -- you should have thought about how you're going to word something before you begin writing. To think that there were (albeit a few) people in my top-set GCSE English class who were happy to send their English essays to the exam boards written almost completely in text-speak -- that worries me.
And this is not down to the internet and mobile phones like everyone thinks it is -- it's down to a lack of education! The French, Germans and Russians (to name but a few) have to learn their respective languages as languages, not bodies of literature like we do, so why can't we do the same??

But you can't say anything about this at all without being labelled an anorak or someone in desperate need of a life. Humphrys tells of a teacher he knows (or at least heard of) who was afraid of correcting his students' grammar because they might accuse him of discrimination and prejudice! It's sad, really, to think that the majority of people believe that grammar and semantics don't matter.
They do, because they're based on rules. If you didn't have rules you wouldn't be able to drive, eat, think, swim, walk or ride a bike. I know you can understand what I'm saying if I write in text-speak, but the aim of writing precisely is to make the number of people who might not understand as small as possible.
Like I said, I'm not against other kinds of English used by different kinds of people -- what I'm against is the misuse of language by people who should know better. Grammar should not be daunting, and it should not be believed that rules supress people. Learning the rules of how to use a car doesn't thwart you -- it liberates you in letting you go wherever you like, whenever you like; and it's the same here. Knowing the rules means you can write in a way that is the most precise and most elegant.
That way, you don't end up with what one of my collegues in the shop wrote the other day, for a sign outlining the most recent special offer:

Buy a ladies [sic] dress, get your item of a ladies top for your second item at half the marked price!
Buy a pair of mens [sic] trousers, get a second item of your choice of a mens top at half of the price marked on the label!

For a start, why point out that it's a ladies' dress (as opposed to a man's dress? Although, you can never tell in this day and age...), and why write it in the most contorted fashion possible?

For more on this, try Humphrys' two books, Lost for Words and Beyond Words.

Also, I can't stand hype. If there is a flood in Bangladesh, I can understand that it would be absolutely awful, but is there really any need for ITV to have a 'live and exclusive report' with some chinless bloke calling it a 'scene of utter devastation' every five seconds, emphasising every other word and making sure it alliterates in all the most dramatic bits? The studio news-readers have to stand up and walk about, with big screens behind them and graphics coming swooshing in over their shoulders (usually to point out really basic things, like numbers or dates or single words... as if we're all thick). And when they do sit at their desks, they do so like preying-mantises, slowing down at the ends of their sentences and skipping full-stops before the next one.
I agree with James Clarke, the Ministry of Defence's director of news, who said that ITV News is:

'As bad a hatchet-job as I’ve seen in years. Cheap shots all over the place, no context, no reasonable explanation. Like the Daily Star in moving pictures.'

Even the airline pilot isn't free of hype. Humphrys writes about how he heard one of them telling the passengers (whoops, sorry: 'customers') that...

Flying with us today, we have a GREAT team!

...and that he could have sworn that he'd overheard the person coming down the aisle with the refreshement trolley being dubbed an 'in-flight retail facilitator'.

I even saw this on Microsoft's web page the other day, when I was downloading the lastest version of DirectX:

Firefox and Netscape Navigator browser users may install a helper program, the Windows Genuine Advantage plug-in, to enhance their download experience.

Oh shut up, Microsoft! ¬_¬

It's faintly Orwellian. We're at the centre of these companies' universes, as customers (and they like to tell us so: 'Your call is important to us...'; 'Kind regards...'), but they use language that alienates us from them and their products. We're meant to feel like we're the incredibly valuable, yet faceless, millions -- and I bet there's some smartarse up there in the Powers That Be who believes that using this kind of jargon is making him, and everyone around him, seem much more important than he really is.
Real people don't use language like that, and it's sad to think that they're beginning to believe it's necessary if they want to get anywhere in life.

Lol, lol, lol, and lol *nods*.

Right, I've got Oblivion working fully now. :D
It was the keyboard drivers causing the problem with the in-game console. Disable them by going into the Control Panel on Vista, and going into the Keyboards section, right-clicking on them and looking for the 'Uninstall Driver' button in one of the tabs. Uninstall all except the one named 'Launcher', or whatever it is.

Stuff to remember:
- Run the game through the Oldblivion.exe file.
- Install mods by going through the Oblivion Mod Manager, and then running the Oldblivion.exe file (not by clicking on the 'Launch Oblivion' button in the program itself).
- Save downloaded mods in the C:\Oblivion\Data file; uninstall them from here too.
- Remember to disable any mods in the right-hand column of Oblivion Mod Manager, otherwise (as with the lightsaber one) things like the sounds or textures might still run as though it is active, even if you've unchecked the box in the Mod Manager.
- Go to the Oblivion.ini (text file that affects how the game runs in terms of graphics and other features) via the 'Documents' folder. If you're about to edit it, back it up first by copying it -- Vista will automatically name it differently by adding ' - Copy' after it -- and then copy & paste everything back into the original file if you don't like the changes you made.

Just a quick post -- as I'm leaving for the shop in about five minutes -- to say that Oblivion is now working again! :D
Yaaaaaaay.

It was the keyboards -- disable all infrared keyboard devices under the Keyboards button-thing in the Control Panel and then run the game through the Oldblivion file. It was they that were stopping the in-game console from popping up, so if they're disabled then it should all work properly. ^_^

I've learnt how to install mods now too, so I've ended up with an Akatosh Mount, on which I can fly all over Cyrodiil without the need for a horse.

Right, shop time.

With cheats and codes, instead of strategies. I'm a terrible cheater. That's related to why I'm having so much trouble with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on Vista at the moment.
See the rest of my journal for details. :)

Why do I get so nervous about driving lessons? I used to do exactly the same about exams before I went for them... I'd pace the floor and get bored very quickly with whatever I'd do to take my nerves away. I'm usually ready to go about half an hour before I actually need to be, meaning that I have nothing to do for that half hour before the time comes to up sticks and get on with whatever it is I'm about to do.
Hence why I'm writing this.

I've had a bit more trouble with Oblivion lately. The command console in the game isn't working, which means I've had to download a new mod to make it work, which needs a script extender program to work, which needs the v1.2 Oblivion patch to work... which isn't patching the file it needs to patch in order for the script extender program to work, so that the new mod can work, so that the command console can appear, so that I can type in a cheat to get 100 more lockpicks, so I can break into the Countess of Leyawiin's jewellery box to continue with the quest I've been set.
*sigh* ¬_¬
It's so "'round-the-houses".

I've joined up to the Oldblivion forum to ask why it's doing that and what I can do to solve the problem, but no one's replied yet.

Neither have I heard anything from Waitrose's online technical support people, so I'll have to go in at some point and talk to them about booking an interview.

Neither have I heard anything back from the DVLA about whether they got my cheque or not, or whether everything has been resolved yet or not.

(EDIT) Someone's just posted on that forum and ended up telling me no more than I already know. ¬_¬

My driving lesson went all right-ish. Went to Wellingborough again via Hinwick et al. and did turning in the road as well as just driving in general. As it was from 2.30pm to 4.30pm this time I had all the kids coming out of school to contend with, meaning there was a lot of stopping and starting going around Wellingborough. And it was all right... you get used to the idea of keeping your foot near the clutch ready for when you have to brake.
It didn't feel like two hours this time either.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is not working on the new laptop. I've written to the support people at Take-Two, and I've just written to the tech people at Acer (the company that made the laptop). I've searched the internet for forums that give answers to this sort of thing and it appears to depend so heavily on each user's own computer that there's no single "one size fits all" solution to the problem.

I launch the game, it takes me to the main page as usual, but when I tell it to start a new game (and presumably load one as well, but because I've not got any games already because it's a new computer, I can't do that) it crashes as soon as the introductory video ends -- or, as soon as I take control of the main character.
I think it's down to one of two things: my graphics card (nVidia GeForce 7000M) or the fact that this laptop runs on Vista up to only 32-bit mode... when I think my XP desktop uses 64-bit mode too.
I dunno. I've sent a 'dxdiag' file to both tech support people; hopefully the Acer ones can be a bit more useful, considering the Take-Two folks have just told me to do everything I've already done. ¬_¬

Shame, really. I like Oblivion.

In other news, Aleks is going off to Israel today for two weeks, which means that I shall be more bored than usual now... and thanks to this laptop, more irritated too.

Although, I have figured out how to make blank HTML files on GooglePages rather than using their premade templates. So yay!

Went to Aldwincle this afternoon for a walk, because due to the storm last night, today is extremely windy and we all needed to "blow some of the cobwebs", as my mum put it. Because of all the problems I've been having with stupid bloody Vista recently, I can't be bothered to write all about it... but the picture gallery is here:

http://pics.livejournal.com/james0289/gallery/0000tq7d

My particular favourites are the ones of the green weed in the river near the mill, the one of the rusty old milk churn on the table, the one of the sheep with the buttercups in the foreground, the first one of the house-martin chicks sticking their heads out of their nests, the two ones involving the cows/bullocks (the first one is huge!!), and the one of the dead pigeon stuck in the grille on the front of our car.
Oh, and the "spot the cat" one. :D

Obviously I'll need to keep that pigeon picture for when we claim insurance... damages due to bird stupidity. *rolls eyes*

... I don't like Windows Vista's annoying "I'm going to take care of everything for you" attitude. It's rather like having a little irritating child getting under your feet all the while. It's as though I want to shout at it "I can do it for MYSELF, thank you!"

Plus I don't like its anti-aliasing of text on the screen. I know it is meant to make it easier to read, but I like everything looking how it used to look... but there's no option on the desktop Properties thingy that allows you to "deselect" it.

I forgot I'd taken this picture -- I was just checking my Photobucket account:

Boxing Day 2007 at Ashton

I went to Bedford earlier today with my parents to get the new laptop that they had ordered for me, ready for university. I'm writing this on my desktop computer at the moment because, frankly, I prefer it.

I am fairly disappointed with Windows Vista, despite all its flashy visual effects and smoothly fading-in and fading-out of things on the screen. My desktop has Windows XP, which, despite everyone's negative comments about it when it was released in 2004(?), I think is quite a reliable and straightforward version of Windows to use. It seems Vista has had more "teething problems" than any other version of Windows so far; and Microsoft's need to "innovate", coupled with its yearning for money, just means that it alienates its users from its products' features. For example: it has put Microsoft Office 2007 on a trial period, and, once it expires, you must buy the activation code needed to gain access to its full features (which are of course limited during the trial of 60 days, or 25 start-ups of any Office program). Thankfully it has put Microsoft Works -- something of a contradiction in terms -- on Vista and without a trial period, meaning that anyone who doesn't want to buy access to MS Office doesn't have to do so. But the only problem with this is that Works isn't as full as Office -- so where, in MS Word, I would type [CTRL]+['] and then [e] to get the letter <é>, none of that works in Works (ironically) because it doesn't recognise key-combinations.
It's like a watered-down, weaker version of Microsoft Office... and presumably something of an act of revenge on its users from Mr Gates, for not paying for MS Office in full when they had the chance.

Even if we try to install the desktop's version of XP onto the laptop, it could (as my dad and I understand it from the lady in PC World) invalidate that installation disc -- meaning that you can't use it at all afterwards.
Of course, the main word there is could... not that we're prepared to try it just yet. My dad says that we should wait until our warranty runs out of its own accord, and then try it after, but it would take forever to wait for that to happen.

I'm going to try to download Open Office sometime and see whether that's as good as, or better than, Microsoft Office.

Did the jolly, jolly fun emergency stop today!
Basically, when he says 'stop' and does the 'halt' signal with his hand, brake firmly, clutch to the floor.
Handbrake on, check blind spots left and right, if it's safe to go, then bring to the bite, handbrake off and get going again.

Drove to Wellingborough today... so obviously did a few roundabouts too, which were fine. Bit slow off the mark on one or two, and at traffic lights also.... and I still need a bit of practice with 'protected' right turns, but then I'd never done those before either, so I think I'm allowed a bit of leaway. :D

I learnt a useful new word yesterday: Cacoethes /ˌkakəʊˈiːθiːz/ - an irresistable compulsion to do something irrational and/or ill advised. Sometimes you see it spelt with a diaeresis over the 'e' (cacoëthes), but I don't really see why... it seems that spelling it like that is more uncommon than the word itself is!
Its origin is in the Latin word from the Greek κακοήθης kakoḗthēs, from κάκος kákos, 'bad', and ήθος ḗthos, 'disposition'.

We've just had a couple of Jehova's Witnesses come to the door. Now, I know they have got quite a bad reputation but I thought they presented their argument rather well.
Shame that I didn't buy it, though.

My dad answered the door, and unluckily for them, he was in his 'grumpy old git' mood again... not good when they asked him about his opinion on the state of the Earth and what he thinks God is going to do about it all. It moved onto evolution, global warming, the media, history and societies... and they kept referring to chapters in the Bible (saying that God made it for a purpose) and asking him (and me) whether all of this would still be in existance if it weren't for a Creator of some sort.

My dad and I seem to have the same opinions on this and many other religions as each other; and this is also similar to Ben's essay on the subject:

• Our perception (and opinions of perception) of our existence is only relative. We cannot look back to our supposed origins and say 'Well, it must be down to a Creator (so it's something absolute)' because, IMO, that is Man's need to have rules and security in knowing that there is a reason for everything. It's an anthropomorphic way of looking at it; and slightly out-of-place as well - a bit like a pea trying to describe the outside layer of the pod that it's in, when it's only ever known what it's like to be inside it. We know of only one existence, and our perception is limited to only that one existence: it's impossible (and frankly, unnecessary) for us to tell whether there is a Creator or not. The point is that whatever our existence is, and however we perceive our existence, we know about it, and it's happening to us, whatever 'happening' means.
• We do not believe that things will get miraculously better in the way described in the Bible. I think that, as pessimistic as it seems, unless those in power of Mankind come to the realisation that actually they're destroying everything, we're going to need something of a Malthusian Catastrophe to give us something of a slap in the face. Then life will be better because we'll hopefully have learnt something from our mistakes.
• Yes, nature is beautiful, but that's not to say it's down to design. Evolution is down to trial and error, working things out in a relative situation (rather than coming from a divine, absolute source) until they become absolutely perfect. Just look at Fibonacci spirals (The Golden Spiral) and the Fibonacci Number. The fact that it all happened millions of years before our time means, presumably, that as soon as we look at it, it seems instantly perfect to us -- and our logical, pattern-seeking perception of that would dictate that it's down to them being made, rather than evolution.
• Yes, science can't account for everything, but like I said, we're relative and will probably never be absolute. Who's to say that the Bible is correct, when it's just a book? Besides, there are many misinterpretations of it, not to mention mistranslations -- I remember something about Moses getting horns on the top of his head in the Bible, and how really this is a mistranslation into Greek/Latin of the Biblical Hebrew word for "rays". <_<

Ugh, anyway. That's today's joy... it was actually quite refreshing to have a conversation like that, first of all with my dad, which never happens, and then the fact that it was on my doorstep. And it was spoken, not written -- the only times I ever really see anything like this is when it's written down somewhere, usually on LJ or on Facebook.

I might try starting to learn another Chopin piece soon, probably Valse op.64-2....

I've pretty much got over my cold now, although I do still get a bit bunged up from time to time.

I made a bit more progress with Cymhraog earlier on, and added about an A4-page's worth (in two columns!) of new vocabulary -- most of it pronouns, temporal adverbs and demonstratives, but useful stuff nonetheless.
I've reached that stage now where I need a non-conlang-related activity to do because I've just got so bored of looking at Welsh and thinking about what it'd be if it was spelt like Irish.... O.O

Auntie Ann came round today to show us her and Pete's new dog, Millie(? can't remember), which looks like a cross between a border collie and a labrador; she's got a bit of brown in her fur on both of her sides.
I don't think she quite knew what to make of me - she tried to nip my fingers a couple of times and even ran away at one point, so... not off to a good start! She's very quiet, isn't as much of a 'party animal' as Gemmie was, so I think that'll take some getting used to as concerns family get-togethers at Gran's house...

My hair's starting to get long again... and in fact, until I shaved this morning, I looked quite like that photo on Facebook that everyone keeps commenting. :D

Ohh, I must answer this one too -- I apologise to everyone in my friends list for this pointless posting!

1) Anything with Nicholas Cage in it. The most unemotive, expressionless face of our times; he's an actor who can only ever play himself.

2) The Day After Tomorrow. I can't stand that movie. (Does it have Nicholas Cage in it?)

- It's centred only around America; and when it does switch across to Europe (specifically the Highlands of Scotland, UK), everyone sounds awfully, awfully southern -- not Scottish at all! -- and is drinking tea and eating biscuits. "I say, this weather we're having is terribly unseasonal, what? Oh never mind; we've got enough tea and biscuits to last us for decades... *guffaws*"
- There's a cheap little love-story in the middle that has nothing to do with anything.
- It's completely far-fetched. I know that it's to do with 'what would happen if', but the point is that it's not going to happen that quickly. It was more about politics and scare-mongering than anything. It's got no science, and a surplus of melodrama. (Case in point: there's a bit where there are about 8 or 9 twisters located in the one city, so the news teams think it'd be a great idea to send helicopters up to film it all. Good one, people; nice to know you're invincible, eh? ¬_¬)
- And America is the only country at the end of it that seems faintly okay still. Europe is completely covered in about 5 miles' worth of ice... but the US is fine, so that's okay. Phew. *wipes brow*

I'm not really patriotic; I just don't like Americano-centrism and overt American patriotism. And I know it's an American film, but if it supposedly affects all of us, why not look at somewhere else, like the other two major polluters of the word: India and China? (Having said that, I am glad that it skipped across to Europe, but why just the UK, why make them all sound frightfully English (and southern at that!) when it's in the Scottish Highlands, and why not go to, say, Frankfurt or Marseille or Lisbon instead?)

I don't really know. Probably Titan, one of Saturn's moons... just because there's been a lot of attention centred around it recently.

By the way, my inner pedant can't resist this: *take.
*What would you take with you?
It's 'take' because you are being exiled from the place where you are now -- unless the person asking the question is already up there in outer space, and is asking you from their perspective what you would bring with you as you went from your location towards theirs.

There's a nice little way of saying 'to take' and 'to bring' in Welsh: mynd â and dod â; literally 'to go with' and 'to come with'.
So, a sign telling you to take your rubbish away will read 'Ewch â'ch sbwriel (chi)' -- 'Go with your rubbish'.

I would take everything that I possibly could, so that life on Titan (and on the ship to Titan) would be as similar to life on Earth as possible. :)
(Plus things like extra thick umbrellas, because it rains liquid methane over there. :S)