Expected Allies

After running around various shops, searching for 'storage solutions' to bundle up things in the house that are no longer particularly needed, we popped to McDonalds. There was an amusing entitled-princess woman in there who loudly announced, "I am NOT sitting on a dirty table" before proceeding to do so. The food then somehow made me feel ill, despite just being beef, bread and potato. Mysterious.

After that I made some boiled eggs for the rats and did some Mass Effect 3. First proper mission - rescuing a Primark. Turns out that it's actually *Primarch* - some sort of bloke rather than a clothing shop. Who knew? Here he is, brooding over his burning planet:

At least, I think that's him. Though actually, it may well be Garrus (MY EXPECTED ALLY) looking at his hometown burning up a bit.

Managed to get out, got myself a new sniper rifle. I'm a ohh.. what's it called? The cloaky sniper class.. Inflitrator? Anyway, I'm one of those this time. Fancied a change from being an Engineer. I do like sniping.

Here me, now.

The number of emails I have received asking when the next blog post will appear is literally uncountable. Here it is, at last.

First thing to notice, blogger has a totally new layout on its backend - it's all HTML fivey. Nice and all, but seems overengineered.

But back to business.

The weekend was mostly spent doing yet more tidying. I don't believe I even cooked anything. The house is now looking neat and tidy, for a given value of neat/tidy. Getting there though.

In rat news - we have two new 'uns. When out shopping we popped into Pets at Home - this is always a risk - to check their rescue section. Occasionally they have rats alone in the cages and it's just too sad to leave them. On this occasion there was a single male - he was fairly jittery and gave me a bit of a bite but we couldn't take him as we've got two new males coming to us soon anyway. They did, however, have two girls. After a quick intro we decided to grab them to accompany our current two girls. Here they be:

The silver is named 'Beneath a Steel Sky' and the black&white is 'Broken Sword'. Alternatively known as Steel/Sky/Sword. They are dumbo rats and Steel has a short tail, possibly as a result of some accident. They're getting along ok with us and are curious and pretty active. Sword is unscarable whilst Sky is a bit cautious. Slowly bringing them along and we plan to move them in with Arya and Sansa at the weekend. They've already met Arya as we got them out to have an explore but I wasn't able to retrieve Sansa - she remains outright terrified of us. I'm hoping that she'll improve once she's gotten more to play with. Sansa and Arya aren't very active and curious at the moment but I get the feeling that's due to Sansa's terror. As Sansa doesn't do very much, Arya must be pretty unstimulated and bored and so also doesn't do that much. A couple of newbies for them to play with might make all the difference.

The weekend also saw the construction of Rat Palace:

The Savic Royale Suite for the boys. It's a little big for them really but should be a good fit once we have the two new ones. It has great access - the whole front of the cage opens - and is on two floors. The two floors can even be isolated if you wanted to have two cohorts. Will be really handy for cleaning as we can isolate one floor, cleanout the other and then repeat. Alternatively if we have some that don't get along we can do the same. They love it in there, they're are much more active now. We have them up with us in the computer room though, so they may just be more active so they can get my attention and hence receive food. Who knows.

I completed Mass Effect 2 with the above results. In case you were wondering, the deaths were Legion (NOOOO!) and Miranda (shrug). I didn't even realise Miranda had died at first, such is my ambivalence. I've now started Mass Effect 3 and there have been terrible events:

The Earth is under attack by baddies! My goal is to go around the galaxy and recruit enough help to go and sort them out, as well as make a big gun to shoot at them.

Stop bombarding Earth, will you?! Sheesh. I haven't gotten into it that much so far due to lack of time. I have, however, recruited a new doctor as Chakwas died. The new one is French and a bit of a hippy. Her medical advice so far is that I should do nice things to reduce my stress and let my scars heal. Thanks.

Another game played is Dota2.

Above is shown one of the main issues. THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T BLOODY LOAD! Tch. Once I got into the game I chose a druid thing who can transform into a bear as well as having a bear pet. Clumsy to control that.

There is bear-me and bear having a fight. We won the first game once I got the hang of it but I can't see me playing it much. Given that it's basically the same as League of Legends but that has a nicer interface, better art style (if inferior graphics) and is one I'm already used to then this is a bit redundant. Furthermore, Dota2 has annoyingly shouty things like on Smash TV or something. "M-m-m-mmmonster kill!!" and silly gamer language. People are 'pwned'. The actual official parlance says as much. I know that Dota2 is technically more closely aligned to the 'original' version but I don't care enough about such philosophical matters.

That covers some of the things that have happened.

Busy Night

Yes, a busy night! Got home from work at the usual sort of time a bit worn out from a basil hunt. I was going to make bolognese but I had no basil!! This would not do so after work I went a-hunting. Here is a list of local supermarkets and the herbs they had:

Lidl: coriander, parsley
Sainsburys: coriander
Spar: nothing
Co-operative: parsley, coriander

Co-op did have some basil plants but I needed a lot of basil so would have killed it. I didn't want to pay extra for the privilege of throwing a pot in the bin. Walked for ages and ages but still ended up having to go to Asda on the drive home.

Got home, started the bolognese (more on that later), put a flatbread in the oven as a cookingsnack and Fran got to work on a reorganisation. She looked out of the upstairs window and then came down to me with an important alert. THE GARLIC HAS SPROUTED:

I had noticed previously that a bulb of garlic in my garlic pot had begun to sprout, possibly due to the slight damp in that cupboard. As I didn't fancy eating it I decided to break up the bulb and plant the cloves in the hope of reaping a harvest of lots of garlic. The results are above for you to see. Free garlic! Assuming they form into proper bulbs, that is.

While I was out there I took the chance to examine my other crops. SPINACH:

Coming up really nice, should get a decent crop there. We have tonnes of seeds left, despite me planting a silly number in that pot. SAGE:

My herbs aren't exactly thriving but the weather has still had a bit of an edge to it. Hopefully they'll be a bit happier once the cold nights aren't so cold.

So, back to the bolognese. The sauce I did was based on one by Gennaro Contaldo which I previously used for a lasagne. It's extremely simple but also extremely tasty. Modifed it into this:

Chop three onions, however you want, and three-four cloves of garlic. Fry in 125ml olive oil - extra virgin is probably worth it as the oil is contributing to the flavour in this. Once soft add four (yes, four) tins of whole plum tomatoes. Once warmed, roughly tear up a whole supermarket pack of basil.

In the meantime fry up about 900g-1kg of mince. Beef, lamb, pork, doesn't really matter. Once browned add to the sauce. Try not to add much of the fat that has come out of the meat - not much flavour to it and it's just adding unhealth and badtexture.

Simmer for an hour or so. Add water if it's dried down to much. About 45 minutes in, taste a bit and check for seasoning - you will almost certainly need some salt in it to lift the flavour. Black pepper - probably just put a little bit in but add more when you serve. Probably good for an easy six portions.

Optional: add some red wine. Not tried this as it's already rich as hell but I'm planning to. Chilli flakes - probably a good idea. More garlic and basil is probably worth it as they do get slightly lost. Bit of fried smoky bacon or pancetta can't be bad either.

Once that was polished off we continued to reorganise. We decided it was a good idea to move the rats up to the computer room. It's our usual hangout and so the rats weren't quite getting the company they need while they were in the living room downstairs. Moved around various tables, there was some hoovering and the rats are now with us upstairs. It's nice hearing them scuttle around all the time and it's a much better way to keep an eye on their condition.

Sansa seems to be improving - she's still not too brave but is getting better again. It's been a bit of a reset but we're gradually building her confidence back up.

After all that, some Mass Effect 2. Phew!! Just went to get a bit of kit for the main mission and it's now being installed. As a side point, I have a new crew member named Legion. Teehee, he's great. I now have him and Zaeed, two killing machines.

Zaeed was entertaining me by using the line, "I shit you not" when telling one of his stories.

Now I'm back to getting more crew stuff so I guess there's something that has to happen before I can continue with the main storyline. Think I only have the Jacob and Legion story missions left - I don't know what Legion's one is yet as he's only just asked to speak to me and I had to get to bed. It's getting exciting!

Tonight is going to be an EVE Online night. Can't say too much, it's a bit hush-hush.

Mapping

I just realised that I'd forgotten to actually update a site with a new map I made to replace one that was no longer accurate. I attempted to make it look a bit more professional, sort of succeeded even if it's still not quite as I'd like it:

Though annoyingly, I now notice that it becomes illegible once reduced to the size on the website. BAH!

It has been six days

since I last posted. Lots has probably happened but I do tend to find it hard to keep track of absolutely everything. Therefore I will only log the most absolutely crucial events:

I think it was Saturday that I made the above. Yes, must have been. Pretty much just third-thirds wholemeal flour, one third white. Bit of yeast, some oil, touch of salt and sugar, left for a bit and then rolled, cut and fried in polenta. Very tasty. Initially served with sage 'n' onion turkey burgers, randomly thrown together by my good self. Bit of fried onion, chopped sage, white pepper and turkey. Maybe with some other bits and pieces. They were later served as toasted breakfast snacks.

I got a tonne of Mass Effect 2 done as well and I unfortunately totally buggered up regarding Thane. He's so sad now, I must find some way to make up for my failure. I have a feeling that there's only a handful of side-things for me now before I enter ENDGAME. We'll see when I find time.

Especially as I have been busy with my pointless Linux obsession. I'll go into details at another point but I'm mainly getting cheap usb memory sticks and installing various Linuxes to them to see if I can do it/how they work. Some are nice, some don't work properly and all of them hate my wireless card due to it requiring proprietory drivers that can't be bundled with the Linux installers. GAH.

Sunday saw the cooking of roast gammon and the continuation of forensics studies.

There is other stuff but I may just wipe the slate clean. I should just write more often rather than trying to do a retrospective. My biographer will hate me otherwise.

Coming soon: Linux screenshots, photos of herbs, rats and maybe that picture of a vampire.

Another Night

As the previous post indicates, last night I played a bit of Mass Effect 2. Specifically, I went on a mission with Zaeed to get revenge on some other geezer. It was, in a word, excellent. I decided to take the opportunity to be a complete bastard too by letting some people die. Mwahahaha. I think he may be a permanent member with me now, especially since he unlocked a big explodey grenade power.

My main reason for not using him in the past was because he came from DLC. I therefore worried that he might be overpowered or something and constitute some sort of cheat mode. That being said, I don't especially have much trouble with the combat parts as it is so if he is a cheat it's not going to make much of a difference.

I also invented a pasta dish which came out nicely. My plan for the night was "some sort of pasta bake thing" but I didn't have a recipe so I threw something together. It was the following:

Three rashers of bacon chopped up and fried to crispness.

About 250g of chicken chopped up and fried in the bacon fat.

200g wholemeal fusilla, boiled for five minutes.

About 200g of cheese, finely grated.

A pint of milk, warmed with a good bit of salt, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg, half a teaspoon of mustard powder and two tablespoons of cornflour which I first dissolved in an equal amount of water.

The halfcooked pasta was put into an oven dish and roughly mixed with about two thirds of the cheese. Then I chucked in the meat, mixed around a bit. Poured on the milk concoction and then the remaining cheese. Oven at 200 degrees for 30 mins. Worked well.

It was supposed to have also had a red pepper, finely chopped and fried to softness in the bacon fat. Unfortunately I forgot that.

I also started reading Maus in an attempt to get into graphic novels. This is about the holocaust as told by Jewish people represented as mice and the Nazis as cats. Enjoying it so far and it also had a very cute baby maus.

I am continuing my efforts to get Sansa used to me. Our two girlrats are Sansa and Arya. Arya is fine with us, she doesn't particularly mind being held and remains curious and explorative. Sansa is fairly curious but hateshateshates being handled. She has a bit of a 'head tilt' which is caused by an ear infection early in life. Her head is therefore held at an angle and has restricted movement, kind of like if you've ever had a crick neck.

Fortunately it doesn't affect her ability to move around, eat, climb or anything. I'm not sure if it's the reason she doesn't like to be handled - if it's at all painful to her or it affects her balance and makes her feel dizzy then being picked up might be deeply uncomfortable. The way she struggles and squeals whenever I catch her and hold her is little short of heartbreaking. It also seems to be making her less willing to come and see us and less willing to explore.

As she doesn't seem to be improving, I'm inclined to settle for not routinely picking her up. I think I've got to a stage where I can grab her if it's absolutely necessary (for cleaning or the vets, etc) which is pretty much all we need. I really don't want to be causing her suffering if there's not going to be anything gained from it.

Fran has suggested us taking the cage upstairs so we can have them coming outside of their own accord and climbing on us as a way to get further used to us. This is definitely worth trying and should also be fun for them.

Firey 'nough

Yeah, so Zaeed is pretty cool.

Commanding Data

Currently occupying me in work is the design of a database. The goal of this is to allow us to eliminate the use of paper log sheets and hence simplify billing stuff. Sounds simple.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that I need the database to be able to output data into Excel sheets which are formatted in a very specific way. The actual billing sheets for our finance department utilise Excel sheets with various codes for user groups, supervisors, all using some of the ugliest data you could imagine. I am therefore trying to use nice data in the database but have it all linked with the corresponding ugly data to allow it to be outputted in the appropriate format. I initially designed the database thusly:

The problem I have is in that the final output has to contain User, Supervisor, Group. Now, each group has multiple supervisors in it and each supervisor controls multiple users. There's therefore a need for a User entry to lookup supervisors and then for the supervisors to look up the groups. I'm having a tough job getting it all to make sense in it's current form and I'm kinda thinking it's easier for me to start from scratch with a new top-down design rather than trying to bend the current one into shape.

It's a shame to abandon the work done so far but it's not totally wasted as I've learnt from it.

Sad news, etc

Woke up this morning and after my usual slow, grinding warm-up went downstairs and decided to feed the ratses. As usual, they went a bit loopy after I switched on the light, I dug out some food for them and opened the cage. Had to do some wrangling to keep them in (they are very keen to explore new frontiers) and was doing a headcount when I noticed that Vulcan wasn't up. I then spotted him laid out on the floor of the cage. He'd passed on:

Never could get a very good picture of him. We got him as part of a trio of brothers - himself, Havok and Nightcrawler. From the very start they were absolutely terrified of us and we struggled to get them used to us. Nightcrawler got there reasonably quickly but Havok and Vulcan were always still very wary of us.

The pair of them had continual problems with their chests due to the scourge of boyrats - myco. This is a bug that is normally resident and operates as an opportunistic infection. That is, when weakened by other things it takes hold and causes respiratory problems. I think the pair of them were always a bit stressed or not particularly forceful about getting food as they were often underweight and weakened by the bug. A little while ago they both came down terribly with it and we had to put them in a seperate convalesence cage to try to recover. Unfortunately this is where we lost Havok.

Happily, Vulcan pulled through and (though weak) seemed to be doing ok. By this point he was fine with being handled and I continued to work with him, giving him extra attention and treats and things. He'd finally become quite inquisitive and totally tame. He could climb and explore perfectly well, he was just a bit slow and continued to be pretty bony and weak. However, he was basically doing as well as I'd ever hoped.

A couple of days ago I found him in his Savic bed (a sort of hanging plastic orb from the top of the cage) and noticed he was unusually unresponsive - he'd normally at least have a rummage around if I was buggering about in the cage. I pulled him out and he was pretty much kaput. He barely responded to being handled and just lay there looking tragic. I took him upstairs to bed and Fran looked after him for a while, kept him warm and tried to comfort him.

After half an hour or so he came around and began exploring. Same as before, seemed weak but basically fine. I had hoped that he was now going to recover fully but I knew it wasn't particularly likely.

I do hope we managed to get him vaguely happy and comfortable for his last days, and I'm sure we gave him a better life than most domestic rats. From the start it was obvious he was never going to do all that well but I never really gave up hope. I'm glad he went in the company of his ratfriends.

Massive Effects

Little bit of Mass Effect this evening. I mostly just explored some sort of spaceship and put a monument down. The ship somehow seems significant but I can't think why..

I guess it's from the character's backstory or something. Still, I found some dogtags and had some nice flashbacky things. Since then I've gone to a planet to find a Krogan to join me. I ran into a kinda funky-armoured one:

Prior to this point I had crouched behind a block:

That's long enough.

So, over a year since my last proper post. Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?

I'll do some accompanying pictures in future but for now we only have words. I'll bold some to make it more exciting. Hopefully that is acceptable.

Lately, my activities aren't entirely without consequence but I'll focus on the ones that are. Trust me, that sentence does make grammatical sense. It helps if you read it out loud.

Mass Effect is my main gaming thingy at the moment. I completed the first one without realising there's practically an entire other game within it - I didn't realise you could talk to your crew on board ship and that they unlock quest lines and so on. But anyway, it was still pretty gripping and there was at least one traumatic death. Mass Effect 2 is ticking along nicely and I'm trying to resist the urge to rush it. I live in constant terror of Mass Effect 3 spoilers, particularly as I've caught bits and pieces about it having a silly ending. My silly ending theories:

• It was all a dream.
• It was all a dream that constituted a test by the first Prothean beacon to see if mankind was ready for access to the megadethray.
• It's all a test by the Reapers to see if organic life is worth preserving.
• Shepard is a Cylon.

EVE Online is still very much on hiatus despite occasional attempts to get back into it. I mostly can't bring myself to devote the required time to it. I did pop on the other night to do some scouting for the wormhole corp but I didn't find anything for us to kill. I only noticed in hindsight the number of people who were sitting around in our home system and not scouting, lazy devils.

Steam continues to draw money out of my bank account in small quantities in the same way as 'death by a thousand cuts'.

This weekend saw me finally planting out a bunch of herbs and other things. I planted out oregano, sage, thyme, tarragon, parsley, coriander and basil. For non-herbs I planted some spinach, strawberries and some garlic from the cupboard that had begun to germinate. I did this just about in time for a bunch of fresh frosts. *sigh*.

They seem to have survived but they aren't looking massively healthy. I don't know if it's the trauma of the replanting or the transition to the cold. Luckily our kitchen is pretty cold at night anyway (that's where I started them growing) so it's not a total shock to them.

I've been doing some Roleplaying games. Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition and a Whitewolf thing. In the D&D I am a younger brother (by about an hour) who is slightly thick, tetchy and violent. I am also 15 years old, which may be the same thing. The Whitewolf game is set in 'the real world' and has me playing a version of me that was hired by a supernatural investigation agency (MI9) in Cardiff. They hired me because they saw that pathologists and histologists work in the same lab but histologists are waaayyy cheaper and they must be more or less the same thing, right?

There's more but that's too many words without pictures so I'll end it there. Coming soon: pictures of herbs, rats, a bald shepard and a drawing of a vampire.