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                  |:|  |                      \:\__\    |:|  |    
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I don't owe you shit, and there's the door >>> [door emoji]
[HOME] | [ARCHIVE] | [PROJECTS] | [GALLERY]


Quoth Gwen Guthrie, "Ain't Nothin' Goin' On but the Rent" 2021-05-10 | 21:00
The usual GardenCam pix can be found in the gallery [LINK]. Not much to report except that it
seems the trail cameras *do* make a noise when capturing images, hence why the birds seem to take interest in GardenCam 2, which is located
pretty much at ground level.

I furtled with the trail cameras a bit; the batteries drain quite quickly and they are often warm to the touch. Jackdaw said that he'd found a
strip of foil in one of his trail cameras but that turned out not to be the case with mine. Back to the drawing board and further future furtling.

I've made some updates to my Projects page; no doubt it'll just end up being a graveyard of ambition. One project I have been thinking about for
a while is "100k Car", where I attempt to get my car beyond 100,000 miles (the units used by the car, not me). I have not decided whether this
is 100,000 miles on the odometer or 100,000 miles added to the odometer from when I purchased it. There's not much difference either way, so...

The motivation for the project came from when I was looking for a new car even though mine runs perfectly and meets my needs. The fact that I
haven't driven it for more than 700 miles last year shows that I do not need a new car, and this project will serve to remind me that new isn't
always better.

No real plans for the coming week. I'll try to think of more things to furtle on to keep my project list full.

Oh shit here come dat boi 2021-05-03 | 20:00
An eventful week, if you can call it that. GardenCam2 finally started to pay for itself with images of mice, badgers, blackbirds, and 
goldfinches. There was one particular blackbird that seemed to take an interest in the camera. I think the camera makes a noise (I hope not) or 
activates a l.e.d. that may have attracted the blackbird's curiosity.
Week 005 GardenCam 1|2 in the [GALLERY]

On Thursday evening I was able to book my 1st and 2nd COVID-19 vaccinations, roughly 12 hours before it was announced that my age group could do 
so. Saturday saw my first vaccination, AstraZeneca, and what an experience it has been. The organisation and delivery exceeded my expectations; 
certainly those working at the vaccination centre had a lot more patience than I ever could have dealing with the public, and seemed to be happy 
to be doing what they were doing. Maybe I'd gotten in before any arseholes turned up to ruin their days.

I got home from the vaccination centre to be greeted by my mum, hanging out of her bedroom window, asking how I felt. I was OK at that point, 
but could feel that my arm was getting sore. "Yeah, that's normal, that's about as bad as it got for me and dad," she told me. "Only the 
young'uns seem to get really bad reactions to it."

Reassured I went into my house and set about whatever furtling I had planned for the day. A quick trip to town to get hot dog rolls, but pretty 
much not much else on. It was around 19:00 I started to feel a bit tired, but other wise OK. Around 20:00 I noticed that my joints, particularly 
my knees and my shoulders, were feeling a little stiff. At about 23:00 I felt it was time for bed; I was tired and my body started to feel 
"heavy", like I was trying to move through treacle or something equally viscous.

The real fun started at about 00:30 when I woke up to go to the toilet. I was very warm but as soon as I left the bed I started to shiver, but 
started to return to normal (i.e. not shivering) once I'd warmed back up again. Thus began a cycle of sleeping and waking and sweating and 
shivering that lasted all night. My fitibt tells me that I managed to get around 4.5 hours of sleep between 23:00 and 09:40; it felt like a lot 
less than that.

Sunday was spent taking things easy. I started out with a headache, but 2 568ml glasses of orange, lemon and pineapple squash and some breakfast 
took care of that. Paracetamol might've played a part, too. I put off my usual Sunday tasks, such as prepping the week's food, knowing that Monday 
(today) would be free. The rest of Sunday was pretty uneventful, other that chatting to an ogre on WhatsApp and IRC.

Monday saw me waking up much more refreshed, and with fewer "'flu" symptoms. Fitbit tells me I slept for a total of 7h13m, which is about 45m more 
than a normal night for me. I definitely needed it.

Shitty product review #234,689: AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccination
Experiences may vary. Do everyone a favour and get both anyway.

Smash 2021-04-18 | 22:30
Good news! There are at least two more badgers coming in to the garden. They seem to know each other, so maybe we have a decent size colony next
door.

Other Stuff:

 Boomer shit I: cut the grass
 Boomer shit II: tidied the sheds
 Boomer shit III: powerwashed the garden chairs
 Belched the words "Oh Yeah" as if I was the start of that song by Yello. [REFERENCE] (Y*uTube)


Jesus Christ, what is the French word for "stakeout"? 2021-04-18 | 20:00
The first week back at work after 10 days off, and it's been a long'un. I don't think I'm cut out for this "working for a living" lark.

As ever, not much has been happening IRL.

Our neighbour, Dave, said that he had seen a fox in the garden the other night. Than, about 10 minutes later we had a knock at the door. It was 
Dave letting us know that if we looked out our back window we'd see the fox chilling out at the bottom of another neighbour's garden. [IMAGE] 
I then checked the GardenCams and, sure enough, there were images of said fox going up and down the garden.

In other GardenCam news there has been no shortage of visitors to the garden. A couple more videos of the badger (or badgers? They all look the 
same to me), as well as birbs, squirrels and the fox. [GALLERY]

Mid-morning on Friday, while I was chatting to my Dad in the street, Dave emerged with his shopping bag on his way into town to buy some milk. 
"Oh, he's forgotten his wallet" said Dad as we saw Dave returning to us. Unfortunately Dave was returning with news that there was a dead badger 
on the kerb. The three of us walked the 80m or so down the road to inspect; it didn't look as if the badger had been struck by a vehicle; its 
position, under a fence, was along what appeared to be its run, so we don't think it had gotten stuck. Dad touched the badger and announced that 
it was cold so may have been there for a while. I have been checking the GardenCams since Friday but with no further sightings of any badger, but 
previously I have not had badger footage every night. It also seems that the batteries died on one camera, so there is a night that is unrecorded.

On a brighter note we have reorganised the gym. The new layout is a lot more logical, and there is a bit more space available in to which we will 
put a motorised treadmill. Cardio to kill gains, etc. Weights are now behind and in front of the power cage, instead of being on the other side of 
the room, meaning they are more accessible when working out. We effectively have separate 'weights' and 'cardio' sections of our gym now. I have 
also "built" (read: screwed together some pre-cut pieces of OSB) some deadlift boards so that we can drop weights with less fear that we will 
release asbestos from the floor tiles.

If it ain't done blogged, it don't done gone happened2021-03-28 | 21:30
Another week of not much. But what did get done? Hooo boy!:

Watched a nice video on Y*uTube about Reading's I(nner) D(istribution) R(oad) and surrounding areas. [LINK]
Cut the grass.
Bought, and set up, some trail cameras to finally see the badger(s) my neighbours have seen.

Inspired by some Heathens [LINK]
Furtled with setting up a gallery to show my garden to the world. Wisley, it ain't. [LINK]
SAW A GOTDANGED BADGER!

Fixed the back door. Adjusted the flag hinges and moved one of the catches. Door locks/unlocks nicely and now requires less effort to operate.
Re-set a couple of clocks in the house. Had to re-set the time *AND* date on maw's knock-off Fitbit.


It was then that J realised that the old systems of power were still in place...2021-02-28 | 22:00
Not much happened this week:

Watched episodes 1 & 2 of Adam Curtis' latest series "Can't Get You Out of My Head".
Bought, and returned, a pair of shoes.
Furtled some Python. An IBAN validator that no doubt exists in some library and is a lot more elegant.
Saw the Moon. [IMAGE]


Fuck R2D2 and the Horse He Rode in on2021-02-20 | 19:46
Washing machines. What a crock of shit, eh? Yeah they're good for cleaning your clothes, but when you need to fix them they're a right fucking
pain in the nuts.
Our machine was leaving clothes wet after a wash/rinse/spin cycle. I checked the filter and there was a bit of gunk, so I cleared that out. I 
also tipped the washing machine on its side, reached up inside it, and furtled with its drain pump. The pump was full of manky gunk that made me 
heave. 
Four years of accumulated gunk. RAS.
I cleaned up the pump and put it back where it belongs. Fired up a rinse/spin cycle, and enjoyed the show. The washing machine drained as it 
should. The spin cycle? Fuck me, the spin cycle. The washing machine would only half-heartedly spin the load before giving up. What the shit? I 
headed off to the internet and learned that I could make my washing machine spit out an [error code], so I did just that.
"E18". An unbalanced load? That's been the cause of our washing machine woes for the past few months? And I took the washing machine apart for 
this? FML, dawg.
I put on a new load, made sure it was balanced, and set the washing machine going. I went away. I came back. The load wasn't sodden. There was 
much rejoicing.

Shitty Python Furtling Attempt #37,2762021-02-13 | 10:35
What's this? the first update of 2021? You bet your sweet angus it is!
I was browsing [/r/wallstreetbets] last night to see what the current state of $GME was. Not good if you bought at $300! I saw a post where the user had claimed 
500% returns in 2020 using their one wierd trick: gathering a list of stonks over the week, putting them on bits of paper, puttting the bits of 
paper on the wall, and then throwing darts at them. Highly scientific.
This got me to thinking that I could cobble something together in Python to select stonks at random, from a list input by the user, without
causing damage to my walls. It's a bit simple but it seems to work. The code:

Asks the user to enter a currency code
Asks the user how much they have to invest
Asks the user how many stonks they have to input
Asks the user to input the stonk for as many stonks as they have to enter
Picks three of the stonks at random, for 16.6%, 33.33%, 50.00% allocation of funds; removing each picked stonk from the pool of available stonks
Outputs how much, at the allocation tier, to invest in each picked stonk

It's probably buggy and sub-optimal as all hell, but it's available here if you're interested: [DOWNLOAD]

π