Finally the Writers Strike in the US is over. This means that shortly I can start watching my favourite TV programs again - HALLELUJAH!

So what do I watch?

US
American Dad
Bones
Chuck
Cold Case
CSI
CSI.Miami
CSI.New.York
Dexter
Family Guy
Jericho
King of the Hill
K-Ville
Monk
Psych
Pushing Daisies
Reaper
Scrubs
The Simpsons
Two And A Half Men
WWE Raw
ECW
WWE Smackdown

Some of these have been shown recently in dribs and drabs as the networks exhausted what they already had available (the WWE shows have been entirely un-affected which was fortunate). Roll on new episodes, I say!

Not affected by the strike were UK programs that I watch:

Primeval
Skins
The IT Crowd

Erm. Thats a sad reflection on how taken I am with UK television shows. The second series of Primeval is up to episode 5, I have no idea if there will be another episode of The IT Crowd and season 2 of Skins starts tonight!

On Friday evening I went to the Webbington Hotel to check out the setup for Kate & Brendans wedding (as I am their DJ). Nice big dance floor and a huge (and I mean HUGE) lighting setup (incl. fog, lasers, chasers, strobes, mirror balls, you name it!), all with a nice control box for me to play with - yay! It looks like the band will be providing the speakers and amplification, so I should just have to bring my source equipment, mixer, cans and music!

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[link]   Posted @ 15:00

So... Recently I gave up having a car (not sure if I mentioned it before) and started using my trusty '95 Saracen Hardtrax that was pining away in my garage (after being rescued by Ian and then taken back from him).

Anyway, it is now a little worse for wear, so I am going to spend a little and give her some TLC.

1 - a new saddle. The existing saddle has a couple of issues:

- made of foam so when it rains it gets very wet and hence so does my ass
- cover is ripped and foam is spilling out
- not longer properly connected to seatpost as one of the brackets has broken
- the suspension has died

A new one has been ordered (vinyl covered, padded and with suspension to make it a little more comfortable)

2- new pedals. Both pedals are nylon and one of them broke last week entirely making it a) difficult and b) painful to ride

3- new brakes. Needed cos the existing ones are 12 years old or so and squeal like crazy.

4- new tyres. Currently it has an off road front tyre and an all purpose on the rear. These will be changed to Kenda Semi Slicks for noise and comfort reasons.

Tesco Direct currently have a MTB available (an Emmelle Tracker) for �50. But my bike was several hundreds when I got it, so I think its worth investing a little in it. Once its got some nice new bits - I might even take it for a little holiday and have it overhauled and sorted out!

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[link]   Posted @ 13:45

Well, Tim and I met up with the lads at 7.15am at our local greasy spoon and the day started. With a fry-up and cans of Strongbow and Carling...

We all got to the airport around 9, checked in and hit the bar. At this point, Greg introduced us to the drinking games for the next few days:

Peggy Su - someone will secretly place a peg on your person. They will then shout "Peggy Su" and count to 5. The peg has to be found before the count is up otherwise the "Pegged" has to down their drink. If they do find the peg, then the "Peggee" has to down theirs.

Spoon - if you find a spoon in your drink, you have to down it.

Card check - Greg can at any point shout out "Card Check". If you dont have your cards, you get a forfeit. If everyone has their cards, a random card from another deck is chosen and whoever has the matching card gets a forfeit.

We also played Spoof quite a lot...

I have no idea how much I drank (apart from when we found a bar where the pints were 60p each and we stayed for 4 hours, had 5 pints and ate for �6 incl. the tip!) or mostly where I went, but one of the strip clubs we went to was amazing, the other was a shithole.

At the good stripjoint, we paid for Brendan to have a stage show and my god, I'm surprised I didn't pee myself. He got stripped to his boxers and walked around on a leash. Brendan being Brendan of course, he cocked his leg against one of the poles and humped the strippers leg. Su-fucking-perb!

I did have an interesting experience with a lap dancer in the shithole one, but we'll leave that for another time when embarassing stories are being told.

On the Sunday, we went to see Prague's Premier Hockey League team "HC Slavia Praha" at their local arena and that was the best sporting experience I think I've ever had. Truly awesome. A brilliant atmosphere and the game itself was full on with no shortage of thrills and spills. Brendan has always wanted to see live Ice Hockey and he was well chuffed.

I have been on several stag weekends/do's but this one stood out as the one where I drank more, did more and laughed more than ever before. I've even lost my voice which is kinda fun :)

- Stottie getting spooned 3 times on the trot (as new beers were being put on the table) when he had already complained of feeling crap, was hilarious.

- Mils spending more than 3000Kc on a dancing girl cos she said she loved him.

- Ben challenging me to a drinking contest and everyone in the group pissing themselves laughing at him for doing something so stupid.

- Taking over "Coyotes" bar nr. the old square, dancing on the bar, Steve hogging the mic, Adie dancing on the bar with the girls...

- Being offered a midget sex show, then a Monkey shagging a Midget... I drew the line about being offered Gay Monkey Midget sex though - thats just wrong!

If I could convince Brendan to get married again so we could do it all over - I would.

I've also made some new friends - Lynn (Brendans older brother) and Adie which was cool. The three of us and Marcus spent hours chatting about SciFi, Horror, Manga, books, films, time travel and all sorts of crap while drinking our cheap beer. Good times...

Now for something a little more boring and a little technical...

Converting UIF disk images under Linux

I download a cd image this weekend and it was in UIF format, which is a proprietary format of MagicISO.

When I have had one of these files before, I used the freeware linux version of PowerISO to convert it but this time it wouldnt work.

So after a little research using google, I tracked down a little program called uif2iso from here.

This program (once compiled) converted the uif file to an iso then I extracted the contents using poweriso.

Result.

The code is also available for Win32 and Amiga (on Aminet)

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[link]   Posted @ 09:40

Here is my complete set list from Friday night:

Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out - FreakPower
How To Save A Life (Ultimix) - The Fray
Chasing cars (Diffusion Dance Mix) - Snow Patrol
Dub Be Good To Me - Beats International
Rehab (Desert Eagle Mix) - Any Winehouse
All Out Of Love - Keira Green
Proper Education - Eric Prydz

Love Me Right - Angel City
Out Of Touch - Uniting Nations
Pretty Green Eyes - Ultrabeat
Loneliness - Tomcraft
My My My - Armand Van Helden
Satisfaction - Benny Benassi
King Of My Castle - Wam Du Project
Somebody To Love - Boogie Pimps
On the Beach - ATB
We Become One - Faithless
Never Be Alone - Justice Vs Simian
Thunder In My Heart - Meck ft Leo Sayer
For An Angel - Paul Van Dyke

Fading Like a Flower (Morjac Radio Edit) - Roxette

The One (DJ Tee Mix) - Sharam
Shake It - Lee Cabrera ft Alex Cartana
The One (DJ Tee Mix) - Sharam
Baby When The Light - David Guetta
Love Is Gone - David Guetta
Destination Calabria - Alex Gaudino
Let me think about it - Ida Corr vs Fedde le Grand
I found U (Remode Radio) - Axwell
Lovestoned (Tiesto Radio Edit) - Justin Timberlake
Apologize (Ultimix 130) - One Republic ft. Timbaland
With Every Heartbeat (Voodoo & Serano Radio Edit) - Robyn with Kleerup
Since U Been Gone (Jason Nevins Radio Edit) - Kelly Clarkson
U + Ur Hand (Bimbo Jones Radio Rdit) - Pink

The way I Are - Timbaland
All Good Things Come To An End (Kascade Radio) - Nelly Furtado
In Da Club - 50 Cent
Beautiful Liar - Beyonce/Shakira
Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani

Right Here Right Now - Fat Boy Slim
Catch A Falling Star - Sunset Strippers
The Creeps - Camille Jones Vs Fedde Le Grand
Writers Block (Seamus Haji Mix) - Just Jack
Hands Up - Out Of Office
Lets Dance - Hi Tack
Bleeding Love (Dance mix) - Leona Lewis
Counting Down The Days - Sunfreakz
Starlight - The Superman lovers
Another Chance - Roger Sanchez
R&B Dance Floor filler - umbrella (rihanna), 1-2-step (ciara), keep on jumping (cornell vs lisa marie), perfect (mason vs princess superstar), call on me (eric prydz)

Spice Up Your Life - Spice Girls
Stronger - Kanye West
Fergalicious - Fergie feat. Will-I-Am
Let Me Think About It - Ida Corr vs Fedde Le Grand
Because Of You - Ne-yo

Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now - Starship
Boom! Shake The Room - Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
Night Fever - Bee Gees
I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
The One And Only - Chesney Hawkes
Tragedy - Steps
Y.M.C.A - The Village People
I Feel Love - Donna Summer
Ooh.. Aah Just A Little Bit - Gina G
Wake Me Up Before You Go Go - Wham

And I was very well behaved too. Didn't drunk loads, didn't smoke loads, didn't go back to anyones for a random shag...

Today has been a day of partying as we celebrated the kids Great-Grandfathers 80th Birthday Party. Oodles of people - around 20 people throughout the day. It was good to chat and catch up with people I hadn't seen for a while.

Tomorrow morning, off into town for shopping, lunch and then back (via Asda cos I need a new coat for the weekend) home.

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[link]   Posted @ 20:19

For the past few weeks (since Deej) moved in, I have desperately been trying to get his PlayStation3 access to the large collection of video files on my NAS.

The PS3 2.10 update added proper DivX/XviD support so it could play the files but couldnt see the damn things. Copying them onto DVD proved it was capable of playing them but how to play them from the network was the problem?????

The answer is a streaming media server that supported UPnP (Universal Plug And Play) and also DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance). However, finding one that did everything needed for the PS3 was another challenge altogether.

So after weeks of downloading, compiling, adding dependencies, etc for about 10 different open source UPnP servers, I now have a working solution. And it works a treat. And I stopped the PS3 saying "Unsupported data" for every file apart from .mpg files.

Firstly, on your linux box, obtain, compile and install MediaTomb. Once installed, run it, stop it and then edit the ~/.mediatomb/config.xml file.

On the line above </server> add the line:

<protocolInfo extend="yes"/>

Then above the line </extension-mimetype> add the lines:

<map from="avi" to="video/x-divx"/>
<map from="divx" to="video/x-divx"/>
<map from="vob" to="video/x-mpeg"/>

This makes the server tell the PS3 that certain files are mime types that it understands (not a problem I have with XBMC in my room). I only have avi/divx and vob so thats the ones I needed - other formats are supported but you will need to fiddle around to get that working if required.

Start MediaTomb again (I use the command mediatomb -d -l /var/log/mediatomb to run as a daemon and give me a log file) and then add your files to the container/database and enjoy your video files streamed to your PS3.

NOTE: Adding the files after and not before changing the config.xml file is important as it classifies the files during the scan, not retrospectively

I have also set the directories to be re-scanned every 24hours for updates, so I can just leave it running and not bother with it.

So I now have an Xbox with XBMC in my room, another in Chans room and a PS3, all streaming videos off of my network. All I need is a solution for the lounge (that is quiet enough - possibly an XBMC solution with the fans turned down) and I'll be all sorted.

The next big test is to have all 3 boxes streaming/playing at the same time (different video file to prevent cacheing from helping out too much) plus my laptop, to see if my network and NAS can handle it. Then I know a machine in the lounge would be a viable reality...

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[link]   Posted @ 22:41

Anything happening then?

I'll give a quick rundown of life from when I finished work before Xmas...

20th Dec afternoon - finished work and headed to the pub
20th Dec night/21st Dec morning - best shag of 2007 (not to happen again)

21st Dec evening - kids came round until Xmas Day

23rd Dec - finished all the Xmas shopping with the kids

Xmas Day - woke up around 7 and found kids still asleep. Chan was pretty ill. Had to wake him up, he came down for pressies, opened one, fell asleep, opened and stacked the rest then slept for 2 hours, hardly had any Xmas lunch and then they both went home around 4pm. Apart from that, we had a great time.

Xmas Day evening - went to Pierre/Johns, then the pub, then Mauds

Boxing Day - recovered

27th/28th - had the kids back

28th Evening - started drinking again

New Years Eve - wasnt feeling too well but had loads to do, so started off early at the pub to sort out lights, then home, got ready, back to pub for 7pm, fixed one of the lights, celebrated NYE, DJ'd, had a laugh, had bacon butties, got home around 6.30am

New Years Day - spent the evening at Sarah Js feeling steadily worse

Jan 2nd - meant to be back to work but was now in full flow of suffering from the Flu

Jan 4th - got out of bed and had kids again

Jan 7th - back to work and have been working virtually every day and virtually every evening since

Friday Jan 11th - finished work, SS&S and went to the pub for "a couple of drinks"... At 1.45am I was apparently at Sarah Js with Matt, went to sleep around 4.30 and woke up at 11.48, remembering nothing from midnight onwards...

Saturday Jan 12th - HANGING OUT OF MY ASS! Spent the entire day with Sarah J incl. 3hrs in Homebase choosing a new kitchen (during which time my hangover kicked in proper). Got home sometime Sunday morning.

Sunday Jan 13th - asleep virtually all day

Friday, I'm DJing a full set by myself. Saturday and Sunday I've got the kids and then next Friday - I'm off to Prague for 4 days on Brendas Stag Do. About 30 of us - should be a riot. I'm trying to sort out not working any evenings next week if I can help it cos I want to enjoy Prague and not be knackered the whole time. The Hen Do is in Benidorm...

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[link]   Posted @ 21:41

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[link]   Posted @ 14:21

Chan got some themed presents for his b/day from me: Rey Mysterio costume, WWE Stunt Ring, Biggest Little Man DVD, John Cena, Great Khali, Kane and The Undertaker action figures - spot the theme there?

Thursday morning saw me at the kids Carol Concert at their new school in Locking Village. Very touching. I felt a great amount of pride in my kids that morning and had wet eyes for quite a while - I did the same last year at their nativity :)

I'm meant to be working at the pub on New Years Eve but have been asked elsewhere, where I shall be provided with a similar amount of free alcohol and can DJ if I require. What do I do?

Xmas Day will now consist of kids until 4, Pierre/Johns (with Shell, their Mum and Pix) til 7, pub til 8, Mauds til ...

Saturday during the day, Steve and I hit the town centre and we raced through a couple of hours of Xmas shopping and met up with Rae, Sarah and Kate for a bit.

Saturday night we had our Secret Santa meal attended by: Amanda Jane, James, Andy, Tony, Gina, Me, Brendan, Kate, Matt, Emma, Rachel, Steve, Sarah and Howard. A top time (apart from a small spat), decent food, odd presents (I got socks, cufflinks and smellies from Matt) and then we went to the pub. Sarah and I wandered off and did our "enter a pub/bar, order a shot, drink shot, leave pub/bar, repeat" for a while and then we all met up again in Senoritas. Ended up back at Sarahs and finally went to sleep around 7am!

I have 4 presents still to buy (I think) although this may increase over the next couple of days as I might have to buy some "quick fillers" just in case!

Deej has gone off to Centre Parcs this morning for the week, Tim was meant to be going but is now working the week on his 2nd job to get some more money - clever lad!

I will update before Xmas on such things as: Xmas dinner shopping list, xmas present list, plans for between xmas/new year.

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[link]   Posted @ 12:44

So Christmas eh! What a crock of poo!

I love this time of year, but this year I shall be alone with the kids. I have actually been crying as I had a flood of emotion. How fucking sad!

Which means me doing all the cooking, all the cleaning, not being able to drink, no-one to talk to, no-one to wake up with and exchange "dodgy" gifts with... In fact, I'm not even sure I'm gonna get any Xmas presents this year! Back to the good old days of being a JW I suppose - hahahahahaha *vomit* !!!

The plus side is that the kids are staying on Xmas Eve, meaning they get to wake up Xmas Day at mine to have their presents. There will hopefully be a large Santa sack for them each, stuffed full of whatever I've been able to afford for them this year (and not a lot cos my company fucked up my last pay cheque and paid into the wrong bank account where I owed a few hundred pounds and had to clear the debt before they would let me have the remainder)

A few years ago I was criticised for putting plans for my Xmas dinner (what it was and where I was getting it) here on the blog - but frankly, its an easy place to keep my shopping list. And so, to rekindle that tradition, over the weekend I shall work out what I require and the list will go up :)

Anyway - back to my current fug! I have a huge number of friends, several very, very close friends and yet being the singular adult on Xmas Day, just seems like too much at the moment. I wont get to see many of them during those couple of days (expecially as loads of them have all fallen out with each other!). The kids will be going back to their mums later on Xmas Day and then I shall be going out and seeing people, getting pissed, etc. But it just doesnt seem enough...

Fortunately, I am on holiday from the 21st Dec to the 2nd January - so I shall be making the best use of my time and drinking myself stupid and trying to get laid for Xmas. Sod the presents - someone give me a blow job!

Anyway, the kids are coming for the weekend later, Chan to have his b/day stuff (pressies today, tobogganing tomorrow), etc so hopefully they can pull me out of it. We'll do some Xmas shopping on Sunday (buying presents for other people from me and them) and maybe do a bit of present wrapping even. Watch out Boots - here we come!

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[link]   Posted @ 13:14

So today, Chan-man is 6 years old! 6 YEARS! Dear god! And especially for him - here is a piccie...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

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[link]   Posted @ 21:30