Stuffs
Finally, I've managed to make my home internet connection work again ... I think there is a problem with the wireless modem, but if I enable / power up things in a particular order, then it eventually gives me an IP address *and* I can ping the gateway (albeit with, at best, a 50% packet loss).
Anyway ... as a consequence, there are some backdated posts that I've finally been able to upload. And I had fun poking around the b3ta message boards, earlier.
People have been telling me about the work party last week. It turned out that the lovely people looking after the drinks stopped refilling my wine glass and started giving me whole bottles. At some point, I staggered off hugging one particular bottle that I'd decided to call Beth. The bad thing is that, now people have jogged my memory, I vaguely remember this: I think it was a short while before I threw up. I am so glad that the boss left early. So very glad.
Wandered around town on Saturday, and popped into Celestial Ring in the Stephen's Green centre. Iain was there, and changed my dodgy mocked-up PTFE labret for a bioplastic one ... and at no charge, which was very good of him. I didn't feel aught while we were messing about with it, but my lower lip is rather tender, now. He reckons the piercing is in a bit of a weird place, perhaps a bit too low; now I think about it, the woman that did the piercing at Access All Areas left there to work in Sainsbury's shortly afterwards, and there were all manner of problems in the first week due to the labret stem having been cut too short to accomodate post-piercing swelling. Hmmm.
Went to ickle_tayto's party on Saturday evening. It was great to see everyone again, and the party was most enjoyable. I constrained my drinking to a merely moderate level. Thankfully.
I fucked up booking the flights home for Christmas. For some reason, I booked flights into and out of Liverpool (probably because they were the cheapest), forgetting that I want to go to Nottingham for the first two days. Turns out it costs about the same to by another flight directly to East Midlands as it does to take the train from Liverpool to Nottingham. So, that's what I've done. I'll be in Nottingham on Thursday and Friday.
Unfortunately, I have to sort out all of the crap that I have at my ex's in Nottingham. I have no fucking clue what I'm going to do with all of my books. There's a chance that I can leave the Russian crystal stuff at my parents place, but generally they're a bit funny about having my stuff at their place (well, at least my mum is - I think my dad just goes with whatever's quietest) ... even the three or four boxes I have there in the attic at the moment! My old room is full (and I mean full) of clothes that my mum hasn't worn in years, and probably never will again. Grrr. And arse.
Everything on the laptop is working well under the Ubuntu kernel images, except the card reader, which I don't think will be supported for a while. Still, I pulled down the 2.6.14 kernel source from kernel.org. It's weird: the module system has all changed, and I don't think I've got my head around it, yet.
If I apply a patch from Syskonnect (to the sk98lin module), the ethernet card works fine. Similarly, I can get full OpenGL acceleration with proprietary drivers from ATi. However, my custom kernel can't see the DVD rewriter, and I can't figure it out. I reckon I probably need to tweak something to do with the SATA support ... but what, and where?
Well, stuff works under the Ubuntu kernel image, and these seem to be updated fairly frequently, so I could just wait for the next update. Still ... I'm used to running me own trimmed down kernel.
Oh ... and I made chocolate sponge pudding in the microwave, which I hadn't made in years. I ought to watch it, though, lest I become a fat(ter) bastard.
Shite! Where did the evening go? Best be off to bed.