Recently in just me wittering Category

I've just come across a site called exelib, and on the surface it appears to be quite useful. It tells you what some of the programs Windows runs behind the scenes on your computer actually do. However, there is a page there which mentions a program called isass.exe. It says this is a keylogger program installed by a virus/trojan, and that may well be the case. It then says "hey look, we have a program that will get rid of this program for you - click here to find out more."

What's dangerous about this is that there's actually a perfectly harmless program that's part of the Windows installation, called lsass.exe (that's an L at the beginning there). A lot of people would open up task manager, see lsass running, and think it's Isass (with a capital i). They think they're infected, and then go and download a "protection tool" that could well cause more harm than it claims to fix.

As ever, keep your wits about you, and research a problem before downloading anything that claims to fix problems on your PC.

For more accurate information about lsass, look at the Wikipedia Entry

The famous UK Hurricane, October 15 1987. I was a student at the time, working my year out in Croydon, Surrey. I was living in a bedsit, and remember being woken up in the middle of the night by the high winds. As is often my wont, I worried a little about what it might be like if the roof got blown off the building, or a tree came through the window. Then I decided if something like that happened then there's not a lot I'd be able to do about it, so no point sitting up all night worrying.

I remember I overslept, because the storm had cut the power and my clock radio alarm didn't go off. I woke in a panic, and rushed to get to work. I travelled to work on the bus at the time, and when I got to the main street, I found trees on the road, shop signs sprawled all over the place, roof tiles on the road and so on. Of course the buses wouldn't be running, so I found a phone box and called in to the office (remember, no mobile phones in those days!)

I was told that there wasn't a lot going on, but to come in anyway if I could. Work was only a few miles from where I was living (maybe three, three and a half), so I walked in. I got there about 11am, only to discover that although they had power, the current was fluctuating and they didn't want to risk switching the servers on. So my colleagues and I had a relaxing day at the office and spent a couple of hours in the pub at lunchtime. Actually this wasn't unusual as we worked flexitime we took short lunch breaks during the week and had a two-hour blowout on a Friday!

I can't remember too much about the following few days, presumably it took a little while to clear away all the debris and for everything to get back to normal, I think by the following Monday I was able to get to work as normal on the bus...

And now that I've written all that, it doesn't sound all that impressive! We had some high winds, some trees got blown down, I walked to work and spent two hours in the pub... h'mmmm.....

So... a weekend without internet access at home, what the hell did I do to fill my time? I didn't see my son last weekend, so I had 48 hours to try and fill! I spent some time fiddling about with computers, I have an old PC lying around I'm trying to set up to use as a server, of course it took me the best part of Saturday morning to get it to boot up in the first place....

I found that I spent longer browsing shops. I went into town on Sunday to do some shopping and ended up just browsing book shops, browsing computer game shops (I did have this idea that I'd get a playstation 2 to help me pass the time, after all I can't be having a social life every waking moment I'm not in work), and browsing aisles in the supermarket I never even knew existed.

I decided against getting a PS2 in the end. Not because I couldn't afford it (I can't) but because I didn't actually fancy playing any of the games. They all look so alike, they're either car driving games, or fighting games. And I can't be bothered with games that are so similar. I remember when my nephew got a PS2 for his birthday last year or the year before, he went out with his birthday money and bought four car racing games. It took us a long time to persuade him to take at least one of them back and get a different type of game in its place.

I watched a lot of television. There's actually quite a bit on, if you only bother to look for it. I can't stand soap operas, but comedies, quizzes and documentaries are all worth seeking out. Although ask me now what I watched and I'll be hard-pressed to tell you! Oh yes, the new snooker season started this weekend, and there was the Japanese grand prix. I taped a very silly movie on Friday night called 51st State and watched it on Sunday evening (god this must be sooo interesting to read!)

And I spent a fair amount of time wth my cousin, and while at her house I took a gander at the web site for the social club I was a member of before I met my wife (I'm sure that sentence isn't grammatically correct but I can't be bothered to try and fix it now). The site is at www.spicemcr.com and it has the current diary on it. There are lots and lots of events to choose from, and I'd love to do more than I can actually afford to do! I'm going to join up anyway and get out and about doing something, though. I quite fancy the "taking more confident steps" and "what to say after hello" seminars - sounds like they're just what I'm looking for.

I've had a bit of a life-changing experience this week. I'm not going to go into detail about what it is, but I'm going to use it as a kick up the backside to try and change my lifestyle. And the first thing I'm going to change is the amount of time I'm spending on the internet. I'm treating my internet usage like an addiction, and I'm going to treat that addiction by hoing cold turkey. I have cancelled my internet account at home, and am going to be blogging from work (outside of office hours, of course) from now on. I'll probably be writing entries at home and then posting them from work, or from a friend's PC. So you may not see as many entries from me in the future, and I may not be reading and commenting on other people's blogs as much as I have been.

I have realised that I am spending far too much time on the internet, and far too much time staring at a computer screen. I stare at a screen all day at work, and then I've been coming home in the evenings and staring at another screen, often until the early hours of the morning. Enough is enough. I'm going to try and turn my life around, get out and about, develop some sort of social life, so that when I do make a post, I'll have something to talk about!

I still have internet access at work, and I use it as part of my work, but it should remain basically a work tool. My social life has suffered a lot over the last few years, because I have felt that I don't earn enough money to be able to pay the bills and live a life at the same time. That's no way to live, I'm merely existing and not getting anywhere or doing anything. Stuff the bank balance, I'd rather be a little bit in debt and happier as a person than debt free and miserable.

I've made various posts in the past about how I should be turning my life around, I keep saying I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that, and in the end I don't end up doing any of it because I spend all my time in front of the damn computer. Enough is enough. The money I save on internet access can go towards a social life! There was a time when I didn't have a computer at home, there was a time when I didn't have internet access, so what did I do back then to fill my time? That's right, I had friends and did things with them.

I spend an inordinate amount of time in chat rooms, because I enjoy the level of social interaction it gave me. But it's not proper social interaction. It's kind of like eating microwave food instead of hunting, killing and cooking a rabbit. I'm sure you'd enjoy the taste of that rabbit a lot more when you know it's real, rather than some pre-processed artificial rubbish. Chatting with people online is no substitute for talking to someone face to face, just like microwave food is no substitute for the real thing. So to avoid filling my life with artificial microwave food and just pretending it's the real thing, I'm going to throw away the microwave oven and buy myself a hunting knife.

Bye bye internet, hello social life.

Well it seems I've had my head up my arse for the last week or so. Sometime I don't feel like I want to post about every last detail of what I get up to or what I think about, because if I did it would be so boring even I wouldn't read it back. Here's an example of what's been going through my mind this week.

Last Monday my brother's friends, Bess and Lemmy, were featured in an episode of Wife Swap on television. If you don't know, the premise behind Wife Swap is that they get two completely different families and, well, swap the wives over for two weeks. During the first week the wives have to live the lifestyle of their new family, and during the second week they turn the tables and try to impose some of their own rules and regulations. This is where the sparks usually fly. At the end of the fortnight, the families meet up to discuss what, if anything, they have learned. To make it more interesting, the programme-makers tend to choose families with vastly different attitudes and lifestyles, and usually choose a family who's got it basically right to swap with a family that has got it drastically wrong.

Fortunately for Bess and Lemmy, they were the family that had got it basically right. They do what they want, they have lots of friends, the children are happy, sociable, and have enough freedom to express themselves. The other family, Cheryl and Sam, were.... different. Sam worked 80 hours a week, and was never there. The kids (twins aged 15) didn't go to school, and hadn't been for about two years, apparently. Cheryl took them out of school because they were being bullied, and had intended to home-school them. But (and there's a big but here) Cheryl was addicted to cleaning the house. Fifteen hours a day she spent vacuuming, polishing, wiping, dusting, and insisting people took their shoes off before going into the living room. The kids were basically housebound, they didn't have any friends or any sort of social life, and joined in the cleaning to give themselves something to do.

Now, it's not easy to film two families for a fortnight each, come back with a month's worth of footage, and then edit it down to one hour. A hell of a lot has to be left out, and some of what was left in was out of sequence, so they cut from a shot of people hanging around in the living room at 1am to a shot of the son in his room playing an electric guitar. This obviously gave the impression that he was playing at 1am, which would annoy the neighbours and only add fuel to the "bikers are scum" debate. Of course, he wasn't playing at 1am, it was just the programme-makes trying to stir things up a bit. They also tried to entertain some debate by asking that Bess wore a "Just Fuck Right Off" tee-shirt when she first visited the other family.

But by the end of the programme Lemmy and the bikers had won Cheryl over. She spent a day doing Bess's job teaching aqua-aerobics. She had to sit in the lounge watching the kids play video games while Lemmy prepared dinner. She felt bored and useless. At the end of the first week the Lemmy and the Black Knights took her out on a rally, got her to wear a leather jacket, ride on the back of Lemmy's trike, have a few drinks, sleep in a tent and loosen up a little. She started to realise the error of her ways, and that the lifestyle she'd made for herself wasn't what she wanted at all.

Bess was just as much out of place in Cheryl's house. She wasn't used to being housebound all the time, and after a few days was going stir crazy. When it came time to impose some of her own rules, she hid all the cleaning stuff and got the family out racing each other on mini-motorbikes. By the end of the fortnight both families had learned something. Cheryl had learned that there was more to life than cleaning, and Bess and Lemmy learned that they were perfectly happy all along. Although they did take one aspect of Cheryl's lifestyle and incorporated it in their own - they bought a dining table and started to sit down together as a family to eat dinner. Although, as Lemmy said, they didn't really need to sit round a table in order to communicate with their children.

According to my sister-in-law, who was present for the entire shoot, Channel 4 said that the programme had got 4m viewers, a record for the series. You can catch up on some of the debate by looking here, here , here (although Lemmy would like to point out that Cheryl is not, has bot been and never will be a member of the Black Knights!) and on the BikersWeb message board here.

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Ok, enough of that. What else has been happening? It's all very geeky and technical I'm afraid, so if you want to switch off now you can. I found out on Wednesday about these people who are offering 24Mb broadand for £24 a month. That's 12 times faster than my current conenction for a pound less. Definately definately worth looking in to. I've put my phone number into the enquiry screen and it says it should be switched on in my exchange in December. For an extra £4 a month you can have a static IP address, and they don't even mind you running your own web server and email server from home. Now that appeals to the geek in me - I quite fancy the idea of building my own web server and hosting my site in my bedroom. Of course, if something goes wrong it's down to me to fix it!

I think I'll have another look at the Linux from Scratch (LFS) project - this project takes advantage that Linux is all open-source, you actually have the original program instructions for the software you're running. LFS takes this to the ultimate level, that of building an entire operating system using only the original source code. But in order to build a piece of software, you need the software required to do the building, and in order to build that..... it's a circular reference. To get round this, you either have to start with a running Linux system, which seems a bit daft since all you're going to do is throw it away once you've used it to build your own, or you could use the LFS LiveCD, which is a bootable CD containing all the tools you'll need. Simply get a blank PC, put the CD in, boot it up and away you go. I don't have a blank PC here, so I'm using a virtual PC to play around with it.

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I went back to the gym on Friday night and spent an hour and a quarter there. Now my back is aching, which is good. I spent yesterday with my son, niece and nephew at my parents house, and gave my son his birthday present. It's not his birthday until Monday, but I won't be seeing him again until Tuesday evening. Anyway, his present was a Micro Scalextric Batman car racing set, which he loved to bits. He tried his best to get me to tell him what the present was before I actually gave it to him though - but this year I didn't cave in! I took him into town in the afternoon to get him some new shoes (which came with a toy spaceship embedded in the heel of the shoe - what will they think of next?) and while we were out my mum and niece baked him a birthday cake. My son, being not at all typical, blew out the candles, ate the crust off his slice and then said he'd had enough..... what sort of child leaves a plateful of birthday cake? Ah well, I suppose he'll be getting plenty more over the next few days.

My ex called me on Thursday and said that she was planning a small party for some friends, and could I contribute a little towards the cost of food and party-type-stuff. I didn't mind this at all, even though it was over and above my normal weekly child maintenance payment. For all his birthdays up to now he's had a big party at a Wacky Warehouse-type place, and it's cost a small fortune. My half of the expenses last year was £150, which I gave to my ex in an envelope in cash together with that week's regular payment. Guess what? She lost the envelope with all the money in it, and begged me to give her some extra to cover the loss. She was genuinely upset about the whole thing, and she said she'd cover half the loss if I covered the other half. So that party cost us both £225.... no wonder she's keeping it more low-key this year!

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I've also been getting tempted to replace my PC monitor at home. I have a standard 17inch monitor, and it's taking up quite a bit of space on my desk, so I've been looking into getting a flat screen unit. I've no idea if I will or not, but while doing some research into flat screens, I came across the acronym DLP. This stands for Digital Light Processing, and is used in some large-screen tv sets. It's an incredible piece of technology, and you can find out how it works by clicking here.

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Ok, that's enough drivel for now. I'll come back when I have something more interesting to say. Or maybe not.

You think about some strange things in the car on the way home from work. This evening I was listening to the radio when the Rolling Stones came on, and I started thinking about the lives the men in that band must have led. Take Keith Richards for example. Here's a guy who's done exactly what he wanted to do for his entire life, he's done it all, tried it all, been everywhere and come out the other side. And he's still here, still rocking, and still the same man he's always been. On top of all that, he's brought pleasure and enjoyment to millions of people and helped create a multi-million pound industry (and I'm not talking about rock music here, I'm just talking about the Rolling Stones).

As I sit in my car, wearing my suit and going home to my little house after spending the day in a fairly typical office job, I can't help but be envious of those people I'd consider to have led a.... not so much privileged, or charmed, life... but a more fruitful life than mine has been so far. People who travel the world, people who bring joy and hope into other people's lives, people who make a difference to somebody. I sometimes get the impression I don't make much of a difference to anyone, really.

When I start writing my posts for this blog, I have no idea where they are going to go. Sometimes they come full circle and I actually make a point about something, and sometimes they just amble on in whatever direction they seem to take until I decide it's time to hit the "post" button. I sit at the PC with a vague idea in my head about what I'm going to write about, and it took me a bit by surprise when I wrote the sentence at the end of the previous paragraph. I don't think I really meant to say that - of course I make a difference to someone's life.

I guess the point of this post is that I really admire and look up to people who I think have achieved something significant in their lives. My idea of "significant" may differ from other people's, and I think that most of us don't really do anything significant - we grow up, get a job, get married, buy a house and have kids - and that's perfectly good enough for most people. But some people want to live outside the mould a little bit. They're the ones that become rock stars, explorers, artists, visionaries and so on. The rest of us become IT Administrators and office workers.

So far in my life I've fathered a wonderful little boy who brings joy into the hearts of everyone who meets him. He's cheeky, mischievous, clever, sneaky, happy, imaginative, domineering and sometimes a bit of a bully (if I'm honest). I was thinking at the weekend that the ideal career for him would be as a movie director. He's just the sort of person to take an idea from someone else and flesh it out, decide how it's all going to work and tell everyone what they need to do to make his vision become reality. I'd consider him to be my greatest achievement so far, heheh.

Let's see, what else have i done? In my career as "programmer-for-hire" I like to think that some of the things I've been able to get the computers at work to do has made someone else's job a bit easier. No-one ever phones me up to say "that last tweak you did has really made a difference to me, thank you!" (well, almost no-one, I have been thanked once or twice in the past fifteen years or so). The secret of working in IT is to make yourself invisible - if it's all working perfectly no-one notices the IT department. You only come to the fore when it all goes wrong, hehehe. IT also has a reputation for costing money rather than bringing it in. Colleagues who work in sales have been known to get big annual bonuses, but my job is just as valid as theirs (as indeed are the jobs of those who work in wages and accounts and every other department not directly connected with sales). But we don't get the bonuses, because we aren't seen as "making a difference" to the company.

Of course I have to think that what I do for a living makes a difference, otherwise there's no point in getting out of bed in the morning. Like most people I want to do something really, really, significant with my life, something I will be remembered for in years to come. But until I get a chance to make a difference I have to carry on working for a living, because after all I have bills to pay. Work is getting in the way of me being able to live my life!! Maybe I wouldn't mind so much if I thought I was appreciated a bit more.

Perhaps I should get someone to clap and cheer me as I leave the office at the end of the day. "Ladies and gentlemen, Daniel has left the building."

It occurred to me one day last week that this month marks the 20th anniversary of my first day at University. I had intended to write something and post it on the actual 20th anniversary, but then I couldn't remember the exact date and found I had other things to blog about last week anyway, so I forgot all about this. Until now.

Let's see, September 1985.... I was 18, nearly 19. I had long hair and big glasses (that was the trend in the '80's - big glasses that is, long hair had probably gone out of fashion ten years earlier!) I had absolutely no idea what to expect on my first day, and in fact I nearly didn't get to university at all. To get into uni here in Blighty you need to get good grades in your 'A'-level exams. In my day you sat 'O'-levels (O for ordinary and A for advanced) at age 15/16, then you specialise in three subjects for your 'A' levels two years later. For my 'A'-levels I studied Computer Science, Pure Maths with Statistics, and Communication Studies. Yes, I know Communication Studies didn't quite fit in with computing and maths, but the Physics class was full :-) I left grammar school after my 'O'-levels and went to the local technical college to study for my 'A'-levels, and the atmosphere at college was much more relaxed than at school. So relaxed, in fact, that the grades I got weren't brilliant.

During the latter half of the final year of 'A'-levels students have to go through the rigorous UCAS system. I can't remember exactly what UCAS stood for (something like University Clearing and Admissions System) but it involved applying to different universities hoping you'd get a place based on the results of exams you hadn't sat yet. I remember I went to visit Aston University in Birmingham, Liverpool University, and somewhere in north Wales. The exams are graded A to E, with A being 5 points and E being 1 point. To get onto your chosen course, you need a certain number of points. I think the courses I wanted to get on required 10 or 12 points. I sat the exams in June or July, and the results came through mid-August. I got a C grade in Computer Studies, another C in Communication Studies and an O in Maths (an O grade means the equivalent of aother 'O'-level, which meant I hadn't really learned anything in maths in two years!). So I had 6 points, not the required 10 or 12. Bummer.

I had to go through the whole UCAS procedure again, this time applying to polytechnics, which were seen to be a step down from universities at the time but still provided a degree-level education. You didn't need the same number of points to get into a polytechnic, so I pinned all my hopes on one of them accepting me. I applied to 5 as per the UCAS regulations. I got offered a place at North Staffs Polytechnic, and was all set to go there, until Birmingham Polytechnic offered me a place a few days later. They were offering a brand new Computing Information Systems degree and needed students to fill the course, so they were taking anyone! This was about a week before term started, so at the last minute I switched from North Staffs to Birmingham. I'd been to visit Aston Uni down there and liked the look of the place. Birmingham (aka Brum) is right in the middle of the country, far enough away from home to be independent, close enough to get back for a weekend, and being Britain's second city, I thought there's be plenty of nightlife and concerts.

It was always accepted that I'd go to university if I could. I never had a contingency plan, and the whole idea of me not going was never discussed. To this day I still don't know what I'd have done if I hadn't got in! So one Sunday we pack all my belongings into the boot of Dad's car, and drove the 100 miles down the M6 to Birmingham. I'd never been to the Polytechnic before, so with map in hand we crawled through the unfamiliar streets to the halls of residence. I was allocated my room, and went to unpack. We all had a little look around, and after an hour or so my parents started to feel like spare wheels so we said our goodbyes and they left me to it.

Left on my own for the first time in my life, I tried to personalise my room as best I could. I went to the student union shop and bought a padlock for my food cupboard. Later I realised that all the padlocks sold in the shop used the same key, so they didn't provide any security at all! I left the door to my room open while I got the place organised, and tried to be sociable with everyone who walked past. At no point was I nervous about anything. It was just another step in growing up as far as I was concerned, I wasn't worried about what I'd for money (I had a grant to keep me going), and the thought of having to cook for myself certainly didn't fill me with dread.

Let me take a moment to describe the halls. These were six or seven apartment blocks with the student union in the middle. I was on the first floor, first room on the corridor. There were five rooms down the corridor, with two double rooms at the end. The room next to me was empty, then there was the food locker/dining room, then a guy studying English, a foreign student, a couple of girls in one of the double rooms and a couple of guys in the other. On the other side of the corridor was the kitchen, unisex toilets and a couple of bathrooms. The rooms were big enough for a bed, a chair and a desk. To the right of the door was a small wardrobe, and to the left was another cupboard containing a basin and a mirror. Not bad digs at all really. The kitchen was tiner than tiny, especially since it had to be shared between up to 8 people. It contained a fridge, an electric cooker, a microwave and a sink. If you stood in the middle and stretched your arms out you could turn on both the oven and the microwave at the same time. Quite impressive, considering they were at opposite ends of the room!

Before we knew it night was falling, so time to head to the bar. Six hundred complete strangers, fuelled by alcohol. Suffice to say, I had no problem making new friends. Everyone was in the same boat, and all the conversations started with "who are you? where are you from? what are you studying?" I was wearing a denim jacket which I had embroidered with the names of my favourite bands at the time, and that attracted a bit of attention, not least because I only had three of the Led Zeppelin symbols across the top (it was a work in progress, you see...)

If you've been paying attention (and if not, why not?) you'll remember that I said I had never visited the polytechnic before. This fact turned out to be quite important the following morning when I had to make my way across town from the halls to the campus. I had absolutely no idea where the campus was! I had no idea where the bus stops were! How do I get there! Help!!

I had to take one bus into the city centre and one bus out again. I found some bus timetables in the student union, so I managed to find my way there. However I didn't have a map of the campus, so by the time I found my way to the induction lecture for my course I was 90 minutes late. Seems like I started the way I meant to carry on, heheh. Getting to the campus was one thing, getting back to the halls was something else. I remember buying an Birmingham A-Z (map book) and looking at all the routes on all the bus stops, then looking up the places on the map to see if they were anywhere near where I wanted to go!

So that was it..... my first night and couple of days away from home as an independent human being. Of course, I was back at home three days later. I had to go back to my old school to pick up a copy of one of my 'O'-level certificates so that the local authority would let me have my grant money. By the end of the first week we were all referring to our rooms in halls as "home"....

I didn't mean to ramble quite so much here, and yet there's so much I've left out. Some of the people I met in that first week became very close and trusted friends for the next ten years, it's a crying shame I'm not in touch with any of them now. But I have my memories. The four years I spent at uni were among the best four years of my life, I'm sure I shall be writing about them more on here.

I really should get in the habit of blogging stuff on the same day that it happens... here's another 24-hour late update. I managed to get out of bed really really early yesterday morning and was at the gym by 7am. I worked my way through the cardio workout the Personal Trainer gave me on Friday, and had time for a shower and a sit down before leaving for work at ten past eight. Bloody hell, I was impressed with myself.

I've also jumped on the iPod bandwagon. This is another example of the sort of thing "other people" do, but it's never been for me in the past. I used to have a Walkman cassette player, in fact for years a walkman was my only form of music equipment. I listened to it on the bus on the way to school, during break time and in the evenings. I always had a pair of headphones either on my ears or hanging round my neck. Then I just got out of the habit. Maybe I just started socialising a bit more. I didn't miss having a portable stereo up to now because when I go out for a walk I enjoy the peace and quiet, and when I'm cycling I need to be able to hear traffic and other people coming up behind me. So why buy one now? Well, I saw the new iPod nano advertised and really fancied it, but it was a bit expensive for me. I looked at the rest of the iPod range, and thought that an iPod shuffle would be a pretty cool and trendy thing to own, so with credit card in hand I went shopping. And very impressed I am with it too. The headphones only just stay in my ears though, so I think I'll get some new phones later in the week. I got it to listen to while I'm exercising at the gym - some loud Metallica should help me keep the revs up on the exercise bike! So far, it's working very well :-)

Last night I slept like a baby (no, that doesn't mean I woke up every four hours and wet the bed) so I didn't manage to get to the gym this morning, but I am going to go to one of the classes this evening. I'm torn between something called "body pump" and something called "spin to win", whatever that is. I'll find out later, I guess. Got to get the most out of this membership, it's costing me enough!

A recent comment on this very blog has given me lots of food for thought over the weekend. Certainly the climate isn't going to put me off getting a motorbike, although the costs involved might! To be honest, I've often thought about riding a bike, although I've never done anything about it. I've never really been a mad bike fanatic, but maybe the older I get the more I think that it might provide an adrenaline rush, that it might actually be a lot of fun. Forget the idea about saving money on fuel, because by the time I've got myself trained up, bought a bike, bought all the gear and so on I'll be spending at least as much as I would on getting the car converted to LPG. But getting a bike is oh, so much more fun! I've always thought that buying a bike was the sort of thing "other people" did, I was always far too sensible and responsible to go down that route. But I've been thinking about it over the weekend and come to the realisation that, hey, sensible and responsible people ride bikes as well, so why should I deny myself all the fun? Fuck it, I'm going to express myself, and if that means surprising (or even shocking) a few people then so be it. I'm fed up of being Mr Boring.

Step 1 in becoming Mr Less Boring involved speaking to my brother, who has ridden a bike on and off for about 20 years now, and asked his advice. We discussed my options:
1. buy a 125cc bike and ride it with L plates in perpetuity. The only problem with this is that I can't take it on the motorway, and a large part of my journey to work is on the motorway.
2. Pass my CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) and ride a 125cc bike without L plates. However I would soon outgrow the 125 and would want to get myself a bigger bike, and that would mean extra expense. It would be better if I could get the bigger bike straight away, which leads me to....
3. Take a Direct Access course. This is for riders over 21 and combines the CBT with training on a bigger bike. After I pass a direct access course I would be qualified to ride any bike straight away.
(The laws regarding engine sizes etc are all designed to prevent teenagers getting bigger bikes until either they are old enough to handle them or they have had enough road experience to handle a more powerful bike)

My brother also took me out on the back of his CBR1000. This, I must say, was an exhilirating experience. It was only the second or third time I'd ever been on a bike and I was much calmer this time round than the last time (which was also riding pillion on my brother's bike but was at least 15 years ago). I say I was calmer this time, however I won't tell you what thoughts went through my head when he decided to show me how fast it can accellerate!

I've not been put off at all, in fact I'm getting more turned on to the idea of getting a cruiser and, well, cruising (for want of a better word) along the country's highways and byways.

My boss would have other ideas about that. After being away from the office last week he's decided he can't survive without me, so I suggested the only way he can stop me from getting a bike is to get me a pay rise so I can afford to put fuel in the car instead!

I've had the week off work this week, and done a lot more than think about LPG and moan about Yahoo Messenger. On Monday I met my parents at my late grandmother's flat, to see if there was anything I wanted that wasn't specifically mentioned in the will. While I was there my mum got me to take the tv set to the golf club (mum's on the board of directors on the golf club, which sounds a lot grander than it actually is). The golf club TV had broken, so mum arranged a replacement. After I'd put the "new" tv set in place and plugged it in, I took the old one to the tip. However, throwing the tv set over the wall and dumping it in the skip wasn't as satisfactory as it could have been, because the skip was full and it only fell about three feet. As a result, it didn't break into a million pieces as I was rather hoping it would. So, only a little bit rock'n'roll then.

I had planned on joining the gym on Tuesday, but in the end I spent most of the day being a bit lazy (only a little bit lazy, mind). I felt a bit guilty about this so I went out for a cycle ride in the evening. Did an impressive 16.5 miles! Which isn't bad at all considering it's the first time I'd ridden the bike in about six weeks. Well, it seems like six weeks.

Wednesday........ what happened Wednesday? Can't remember. Must have been a humdinger of a day, Wednesday.

On Thursday I finally got round to joining the gym. I'd been thinking about it for a few weeks now, and decided that unless I get off my arse and do something about it, I'll end up putting on a good few pounds over the winter. Hell I think I've even managed to put on a few lbs over the summer, and that's with a bit of cycling. Anyway, I was introduced to the various machines, and spent an hour doing a fairly leisurely work out. I booked a session with a Personal Trainer (three half hour sessions are included in the joining fee) which leads me to......

.... today, when I had my first half hour with the PT. He showed me a cardio workout which takes half an hour, and includes the cycle machine, treadmill, cross trainer and rowing machine. I felt like I got a better workout in half an hour with the PT than I did in an hour on my own, which is exactly the sort of help I was hoping to get, so that I know I'm doing myself some good when I go. I think I'm going to enjoy going, I certainly don't feel out of place in there, or feel like I'm the odd one out or anything like that. All I have to do now is keep it up! By the way, current weight is 16stone 7lbs, or 231lbs. A further weight update next week, folks!