Bad : chain snapped on bike
Worse : no tool to fix it
Sort of good : only a few miles from home

Fucking bike. I'm taking it into the bike shop tomorrow, I'll get a better front derailleur and the chain fixed. Whilst I'm at it I might as well get a chain fixing tool so I can fix it myself in the future.

Bikes. feh.

I was up rather late on Saturday due to the 4am bedtime, and had a speedy mow of the front lawn and collecting of cat food before dashing off to Manchester to spend £30 of vouchers I'd been given for my birthday and find presents for my mother and sister.

I found a rather nice wooden cat in Shared Earth, visited Lush, and then managed to get a haul with my vouchers, to whit on the films front : Curse of the Golden Flower, Seven Swords (opinion is a bit divided on whether this is good or not), The Hustler, Shadowlands, Serenity.

On the computer games front, despite already having too many to play I obtained three for a tenner - Freedom Force and the Third Reich (this does not help with early bedtimes). I was never very taken with the demo of the original Freedom Force, but FFvTR works extremely well; the 3D presented-as-isometric view is lovely and working out how to use the heroes powers is fun. It really is rather cheesy, and someone should be mildly chastised for creating a character called Red Oktober which then leads to the next objective being 'The Hunt for Red Oktober'. Oh dear :).

I also obtained Beyond Divinity - which is supposed to be a bit of a flawed gem, just like the original Divine Divinity that was fantastic up until the ending, then turned into a boring battlefest.

Finally, Tunguska appears to be a competent adventure.

All the above for 30 quid? Bargain!

Of course, the fact I intend to catch up with Torchwood and watch all the Dr. Who to date by Saturday does not really help in watching all these films. I don't want to wait long to find out what happens in Doctor Who episode four, though...

Finally, Sunday involved playing FFvTR, going on a 16 mile bike ride, some more FFvTR and a couple of drinkies. splendid weekend :).

I spent much of Saturday swearing very loudly at my bike. In essence the front derailleur is simple, but actually understanding the precise techniques is more tricky. By late afternoon I had achieved bugger all other than a deeper understanding of derailleurs (T's suggestion of Sheldon Brown did not really help although another suggestion (on Monday) of Park Tools seems rather good). I was in a foul mood, so stayed in and watched a bit more Torchwood. Somewhat later I dragged myself out to the Bowling Green and found a guy singing that was actually entertaining. There was some beer and chat and I felt rather less fed up.

Sunday, being a complete masochist, I tried to fix the bike again. This time, however, I gave up after only 1.5 hours and went for a walk/run on the moors which was lovely.

Other points of note are :

H&B are coming round tomorrow to see my kittens and help me work on my bike :)
My ankle is again knackered - must do some yoga, and possibly get someone to look at it, as something is clearly wrong :(. Certainly I must not do any more running on it.
Computer hasn't crashed again yet - it was up for 3.5 days after switching both CRTs to be on one card. Have now switched one CRT back and it's up to about a day and a half - hopefully it will now crash, so that I can pinpoint the problem.

So far Torchwood series 2 has been rather good; episode 5 ('Adam') probably being the weakest one so far. Owen seems to be the only remaining member of the team who is not bi (the kiss to get out of an awkward situation in series 1 episode 1 doesn't really count..)

I did make a small amount of progress with exult last week - it runs fine (I made a stupid linking error, and am still finding my way round Visual Studio 2008). However, the debug version is a) slow (understandable) and b) occupies about 30Meg. Some of that will be debug code, but given that I want to get it under 10MB, that's rather a lot!

My front derailleur has been playing up for weeks, culminating in losing everything except second gear. I managed to fix it, but the switch from second to third gear wasn't perfect and the chain was rubbing on the derailleur when the lowest gear was selected.

So I had a go at sorting it tonight. Gahhh... It appears to need a lot of practice and three arms.

I've gone from losing all my front gears, to regaining them all but losing some rear gears.

I suspect I shall have to do a from the groundup check starting with the rear derailleur then prolonged fiddling with the front. Gah.

May pop over to see B sometime soon, as they've offered to fix my bike and show me how it's done.

This looks interesting if charmingly British - on 'partial winter shutdown' until March 17^th, indeed!

I realise most people won't want to get out until it becomes lighter but still! On a related note I have a new bike light, which may or may not be better than the old one..

Still, I think I'll be buying that shortly as although my bike isn't that expensive as mountain bikes go, and the insurance covers it, I'd rather things be as safe as possible. I want it out of my hall though, as it's a pain in the arse, and is just a tad bachelor..

Friday I received my new work phone, the shiny Nokia E51. It does ( stuff )

On Saturday I nipped to Scan to buy a guest USB keyboard (some people don't like a hardwired Dvorak keyboards, amazingly!), a 4GB USB stick - upgrading from my 1GB, and 1GB microSD for the phone. The phone now has ScummVM and Lure of the Temptress installed - it's utterly unusable given the interface, but still technically impressive. I'll also see if there's an RDP client for remotely accessing work's servers. I wonder how difficult it would be to port Exult to Symbian S60..

There was nothing terribly exciting on in Manchester, so I decided to go for a ride up to Lead Mines Clough from my doorstep. This was good fun - I got rather muddy and rained on, but was snug with a proper cag and other clothes, even if it did make my legs twinge a bit.

I spodded around reading Blogging Ultima by Ophidian Dragon - going through each of the Ultimas. Also visited was a site with samples of all the Ultima music - even now, the soundtracks played through a LAPC-I (MT-32) or SCC-1 (Sound Canvas 55) are highly impressive and superior to some existing games. I should resist Sound Canvases on ebay..

Anyway, some pubbage, then Sunday I nipped over to see my mum. She liked the cake I'd baked for her and card, I got foisted with yet more of my old stuff, then went back home.

Of course the sensible thing to do after having slightly twingey legs after a ride the day before is to ( go riding again )

Finally, I'm pondering one of those more serious decisions : changing my local. The Old Original Bay Horse has been going steadily downhill, and although there was a recent improvement in service it's not been sustained. It's a bit sad, really, as it's probably due to the landlady's alcoholism getting the better of her. The favoured alternative is The Bowling Green, where the beer is 50p cheaper (£1.50 a pint!), better, with attentive and fun staff.

Decided not to go to Bollox on Friday, which was probably a mistake especially as it was its first birthday, but I was tired.

Anyway up at a half reasonable time to go to the LGF for 3000 Years of Bisexuality, led by alextiefling and L, ably arranged by haggis. It was jolly good, and the carrot cake I brought all got eaten so can't have been that bad. Taurus thereafter, then home. I was a bit of a muppet and didn't eat out, as I tend to get a bit wary of spending any cash after making large-ish purchases (the mountain bike). I should remind myself that the occasional meal out is probably not going to make a huge difference.

Anyway, drinkies that night at which I unfortunately learnt that an older friend M is currently fighting for their life and has only a few days to live unless they get a heart transplant :(. Here's hoping..

Sunday I managed to get out on my bike - it was a bit late on (4pm) when I finally finished faffing with equipment, maps and so on and rode around locally. For the first proper ride I decided to drive part way, as the hill near my house is steep-ish, but more importantly has lots of cars going past and I didn't really feel confident enough.

Anyway, I spent plenty of time getting used to the steering, brakes and gears, didn't fall off too much (mostly when misjudging gears and running out of leg power on uphills). The gears are good, the forks are great for going over uneven ground, doing a standing start on a steep slope is bloody difficult and my arse hurts from the hard saddle and bouncing over rocky ground.

Also managed to use the lights (finally finished the ride about half 6); they're good enough for people to see me, but not good enough to do any high speed riding over unknown terrain. Can't wait to have a go again soon :).

I nipped off to Buy a Bike/Charnock Richard Cycles, spoke to a really helpful guy (Chris), wobbled around on a few bikes and ended up getting a Specialized Hardrock Pro 2008 with a free Deore upgrade at the back.

It rides really well, allowing for the fact I've not ridden for 20 years! (I didn't fall off too many times..). Disc brakes, lockable forks, and it'll have a tire swap to something that works a little better on read as well as off.

General opinion on the net is that this is a tough, entry level mountain bike that's good value for the money, and I got a decent deal. There are some sniffy comments about the forks and the front derailer; I'll see how things go. At this point the limiting factor is definitely going to be me...

I pick it up Thursday. w00t!

Hmm... That's a bit too accurate, seeing as I got to bed at a time not unadjacent to that last night.

Anyway, weekend has been relaxing. On Friday I fitted my second hand Shiny Compaq EO1004C 8 port KVM as I need more than four ports now, and the old one was misbehaving. It's a rebadged Avocent unit, as pretty much all decent KVMs seem to be.

It works! I don't have to keep the KVM switched to the machine I'm using when it boots up, and it works fine with my Unix boxes too. Technology that works is good.

Anyway, Saturday featured S' birthday, and the buying of some mountain biking mags to prepare for bike buying (probably Wednesday night this week), Sunday featured a mild hangover and a very long bath. The coming week heralds the moving of furniture in the study to consider where the desks/etc will go, the aforementioned bike buying, biphoria and if I can fit it in, some pie baking. Not sure if I'm making Brighton Bifest.

Misbehaving and snuggly kittens featured this weekend as usual. I probably need to consider getting up straight away when kittens start trying to get me up, instead of pulling the cover over my head and ignoring the mayhem around me.. It's also notable that with a duvet, the heating coming on, and two kittens sleeping on top of you, bed can be a bit too warm in the morning.

How loopy do you think someone would think me if I asked for a desk that's slightly higher than normal, so that I can fit my chair, me, and a cat on my lap in that order to stop the cat getting squashed under the desk...? I suppose this wouldn't be too great on ergonomics..

Recommedations of decent desk places are good. Ikea will do the job, but I don't mind spending a bit more to get something a tad better. I'm looking for a left hand curving 160x120 desk (or deeper).

Maybe tidying the desk and encouraging whingey cats on that instead would be a better idea.

In other news, I weakened and purchased *toys*. Some cheap computer stuff (various leads etc) and a Pioneer DV600 (in black). It's a DVD/SACD/DVD audio/USB upscaling player for 81 quid *including* VAT on special till tomorrow at Scan. Normally it's up to 150..

Being a multi function player it's probably not as good as a dedicated player but a) an SACD (Super Audio CD) player playing SACDs is generally better than a good CD player b) It has to be better than the pile of junk CD player I was previously using and 3) It's only 81 quid FFS.

Also, it does DSD over HDMI, which is a stupidly high end feature to provide that price point.

I also bumped into the Oppo Digital range. Whilst I was tempted to buy that instead, I made the decision to buy something fairly cheap (in audio terms) that I can then sell/give away and purchase something better when I have Lots Of Cash.

Both are reportedly excellent for what they do, but aren't perfect at upscaling DVD (taking a DVD and scaling it up to a higher resolution than a standard TV) if you're very picky (by comparison, several people have rated both as 'better than the PS3 at upscaling' though). I think I will therefore keep my PC for DVD playback (plus the fact my projector does not take HDMI..).

Have ordered a Sibelius SACD to see if it's any good. They're not an incredibly popular format, despite the time they've been out, however classical recordings are one area where it performs well, and is something I enjoy. Worth a go, anyway..

Still intend to get a bike; given the weather at the moment someone would be mad to buy one, therefore there will probably be some deals available!

Now, off to cook food. I have to master my breadcrumb technique with meatballs, plus carrot cake and maybe mince pies (I have eggs that need to be used up.. how did you guess?)