mattp's LiveJournal

Current Music:	Levellers - World Turned Upside Down
Current Mood:	busy
Subject:	bah yay bah yay
Time:	01:47 pm

I've been bad at updating recently so I'll summarise today's thoughts

yay: I've nearly finished the alpha version of the off-line reader for LiveJournal. (Does anyone fancy testing it and/or making patches/suggestions?)
bah: too many other chores like laundry which should take precedence
yay: I tracked down my ex housemate
bah: He was out, but I left a message.
yay: Curry tomorrow night
bah: despite the seemingly nice weather, there's too much haze and my flying lesson was cancelled
yay: the levellers are playing a couple of local-ish gigs next weekend
bah: I've noone to go with. Anyone fancy joining me?

At some stage I'll post about the past weeks. Maybe.

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Monday, March 14th, 2005

Current Music:	Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Beanfields
Current Mood:	busy
Subject:	Catching up
Time:	12:14 am

Sorry, I've been crap at updating recently.

Saturday 5th: Went into town and met

ga5tn. We'd been chatting for a few weeks and despite living only a few miles from one another still hadn't arranged to meet up. In the evening went out to

jillys with

fruitboy,

tabath_yeddap,

louis_mallow and

emmy_mallow and ended up with a small gathering chez

fruitboy but I decided to head home and get some kip.

Sunday 6th: Had an early morning flying lesson and as the weather was so nice it was extended to 90 minutes rather than the usual 1 hour. I purchased the set of theory books and also a circular slide rule to assist with some of the usual calculations.
Lunch was in town with many of the same from last night and

loosly and

kingginger came along too.

Wednesday 9th:
This paragraph is merely a placeholder.

Friday 11th:
*kicks self* In the evening there was a party chez

angeoverhere - I thought it was on Saturday and only found out on Saturday morning when speaking to

northerncutie. WAAAH. It's not as though I was doing anything; I was only chatting online to various.

Saturday 12th:
Woke up early and was chatting with

gardeneden on MSN and we decided to meet up, having not met before. SO I faffed for a bit and picked up Chris and we met up with her and

xlittlechocobox in Afflecks and wandered around town.

I then had to rush off to another flying lesson. It's going really rather well, and my instructor commented that I'd made vast improvements from last week. *happy* And I'm even starting to recognise some of the local naviation points.

Evening time I was chatting on MSN with

_phuturatica_ and she suggested meeting up so we went to Taurus, met with a friend of hers (Wes) who it turns out I already knew and after a bit of debate we went to

jillys.

Sunday 13th: For the second day running, and despite not getting an excessive amount of sleep, I woke up before my alarm. I spent most of the early morning watching South Park and Macgyver, and then went over to Darren's place with

shinydan and others who either aren't on LiveJournal or I otherwise don't know their names. We had lunch and then played D&D for several hours. I'd not played before, and it was such a laugh. It included such silliness as falling through thatched roofs. Looking forward to the next game.

This coming week I'm away visiting clients on all 5 days so I'll not be out much, but will be available for weekend shennanigans. Sleep. nn.

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Monday, February 28th, 2005

Current Music:	Rammstein - Herzleid
Current Mood:	accomplished
Subject:	The "10 things" meme
Time:	10:18 pm

Here are 10 things that I've done that I don't think a lot of you will have done

1) Piloted a plane out of Manchester International Airport
2) Been on prime time TV as one of the ~~stars~~subjects
3) Modelled for a photoshoot for a online porn site
4) Nearly drowned at the age of 3
5) Bit hit by a car... twice.
6) Been an studio engineer, editor and presenter at a radio station... sometimes all 3 at the same time.
7) Travelled abroad alone at the age of 12.
8) Held a belching contest with my mum... and lost.
9) Been to a wedding with members of the royal family as brides maids.
10)Been for a bungee jump

It was tough keeping these clean such that I could make it an unlocked post. I might consider making an alternative version ;-)

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Current Mood:	busy
Subject:	Weekend shenannigans
Time:	09:50 pm

Edited slightly
Saturday:
Woke up feeling much happier. Had a flying lesson again and covered the secondary controls (flaps, power and trim) and even took off. Not bad for a 2nd lesson. (Well, technically 5th, but the other 3 were 10 years ago).
I'm axious to learn about the navigation side of things, though I guess that will have to wait until I've managed to get the hang of the flying-the-plane bit before worrying about the theory.

In the evening was the big social party after Charl and Lel's commitment ceremony. It was wonderful. I'm so happy for you both, and you have incredibly good looking friends ;-) Fantastic to catch up with people and special thanks to

softfruit and

snagglepat.
Sauciness of the night involved about a dozen of us baring our tops. Tame, I know. Maybe I should post a quiz asking "Guess whose nips" :-) Fear not, I shall acquire permission before using any photos taken.

Oh, the other thing: when I arrived I was stopped by someone in the bar who recognised me from the documentary. He told me his story (which I'll not share here), but it was great to know that I'd given some other people hope. UNtil then I hadn't really given much thought about how I came across.

Sunday:
Did nothing much, but I did download the documentary as I didn't have a complete recording of it. I shall shortly be getting that put onto DVD along with a BBC documentary shown earlier last week also on Nf just to broaden the scope a little. Anyone want a copy?

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Friday, February 25th, 2005

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2005

Current Mood:	accomplished
Subject:	Flying, curry and TV stardom
Time:	03:28 pm

Depsite having a shitty week, I had a rather good weekend.

For once, the weather was not against me and I managed to have a flying lesson. I took

dineleeeee and

scrumpyncheese with me to the aviation viewing park and a number of photos were taken. It was a bitterly cold day,but I was wrappedup warmfor the flight. It was fantastic, and I can't wait to go again this weekend. Themost surprising thing was the low takeoff speed.I had thought it would be in excess of 100mph, but we took off at around 70kts. I startedhaving lessons 10 years ago and though my practical skills had dropped off, I remembered alot of the theoryso we covered quite a lot of content, ending up with spin recovery.

Sunday was a curry at myfavourite place with members of The Geek House and it was as excellent as their usual standard. I also managed to find someone to write the program I mentioned a while back, so that was productive.

mhw: I introduced a few more people to In C by Terry Riley. It's become one of my favourite contemporary pieces of music.

Got home far too late, bearing in mind that I was due in Herts. the following morning. That would have been a two day job, but I managed to complete in one so headed home.

On Monday, the documentary was shown. I skipped most of it though, due to self consciousness :-/ I got a load of phonecalls from various people and didn't get off the phone properly until midnight. Thanks for you rcompliements, everyone. Yesterday I spoke with some of the crewto catch up with them and let them know that I enjoyed working with them and liked the final result. I'm going to miss them, and am looking forward to when I can next head to London and play catch-up.

Busy yet productive day at work, so I ought to press on.

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Sunday, February 13th, 2005

Current Music:	Add N To (X) - Party Bag
Current Mood:	busy
Subject:	The weekend that started with me driving from Bristol to Manchester via Cardiff
Time:	10:25 pm

New user icon!

Friday:
I was working in Bristol on Thursday and Friday and eventually hoping to meet up with

rikrose, only to find out he wasn't getting there until Saturday. (Rik - we'll have to meet up some other time). I called my exhouse mate Helen for a chat, only to find out that she was visiting relatives in Cardiff and was due to return to Manchester that evening. Having not seen her for far too long (October/November ish) I decided to pick her up; it was only about a 90 mile detour :-) Had a lovely chat on the way up and it was great to catch up.

Saturday
Went out for evening drinks in Tarus with Charl and Lel and two others whose names escpae me. It's their commitment ceremony in two weeks - can't wait for it. *bounce* The Net had died for a vast proportion of the day due to some BT foul-up (http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=2095 and http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=2094 have the details)

Sunday
Was going to go flying, but was once again thwarted by weather. Tis surprised me because when I woke up it was wonderfully clear and bright and the cloud base was high up. What I didn't notice, being indoors, was that it was windy. Gusts of 20+KTS so it was cancelled. Next booking is for 3pm on Saturday 19th. Seems as though I've picked the wrong season for it.

At midday-ish I headed over to Mary's place to see her, Dan, Stu and Kevin. Talked for a bit and then Dan and I went for a pub lunch - originally this was to be at the Honey Bee (?) but we decided against it because of the drinks prices, settling instead for the Coach and Four. I intend to return there at some stage; the steaks were wonderful and not overdone like is often the case. Ate too mucha nd bloated a bit.

Came home and caught up on well overdue laundry. Was going to have dinner with Helen but she wasn't well so stayed in and had dinner cooked for me which was good.

Work tomorrow, and in the office thankfully, so not much of a drive. Not sure I am for the rest of the week though.

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Sunday, February 6th, 2005

Current Music:	Mogwai - Kids Will Be Skeletons
Current Mood:	bouncy
Subject:	The weekend so far
Time:	12:50 pm

I realy need to start coming up with imaginative subjects. Not least so I can find posts when searching through comment email. Unless anyone knows of any decent email indexing and searching solutions for Linux?

A friend of my two housemates that I vaguely knew in halls of residence at uni has been over for the weekend. I decided to cook dinner. I roasted veg for the first time which may not sound like much but I've only ever used the hob for cooking, so it was quite an achievement.

( recipe beneath )

Later in the evening I went to

jillys with

softfruit. It was a surpriseing quiet night for a Friday, but I did manage to see

neuromantix (welcome to my flist :-)),

msbhayvin,

db85 and Jay.

Saturday I was going to go flying for my first lesson after a 10 year hiatus, but the poor weather prevented it. Had 2 hours of ground school instead. Watched QL all evening and made it through to the final episode.

Today I have another booking for a lesson, but having just checked the weather I don't think it'll happen.
( METAR weather report )

No plans afterwards, though maybe I should tidy my room and do some laundry, as the place is a sty.

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Sunday, January 30th, 2005

Current Music:	Sky - Scorpio
Current Mood:	hungry
Subject:	This week
Time:	02:59 pm

Work has been keeping me exceedingly busy. Tuesday and Wednesday I was in Belfast. It was a lovely city and I wish I had more time to see some of it. One the second day, I had a very chatty taxi driver and asked if he'd take me to the airport and show me some of the city en route, and he was happy to do so. I was shown the shipyard where the Titanic was build and some of the political murals around the city fringes. There was a gate which is now open, but used to block off one of the main arterial routes which seperated the two fractions during the times of greatest violence.

On the flight out, I told one of the stewardesses that I have enrolled for flying lessons and was given a tour of the flightdeck.

Thursday and Friday I was in Sussex. That was a hellish drive. On the way back I decided to call by various people that I'd not seen for a while and also to break the journey up. Managed to see my mum, my dad and stepmum, have dinner with my brother, and also see

bethanthepurple and

revraven. Annoying some careless van driver dinged the car coming home when the car was parked in the driveway. It's superficial damage, but still a hassle to sort out.
My dad lives in a flat, so space is at a premium, even in the loft. Much of my stuff that I didn't take to uni with me was put into storage there when he moved to the flat from the family house and now that I myself am in a house there's more space here. I had a huge nostalgia trip going through my old things and have brought back about 10 bags of stuff. Mainly old books, but a few I want to keep. The rest I shall take to the charity shop down the road. I keep managing to busy myself on a Saturday and not being able to take the stuff I've already amassed over there. It'll happen soon. It has too. It's taking up needed room :-)

I got back home to Manchester late Saturday evening and headed over to

softfruit's place for

jezebel_z's birthday. We were going to go to Nando's but Parrs Wood was rammed so we took a look in town and the one there was closed due to some mechanical problem. We went out for a fabulous chinese instead. Rar, it was good.

Woke up about 1130 this morning and haven't even dressed or showered yet. Am just about to head over to

fruit_boy's place as I've not seen him or

tabatha_yeddap for far too long.

I know that I planned to be visiting London this weekend, but I shall try some other time instead.

clicky. meow.

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Sunday, January 23rd, 2005

Current Music:	Oh, the shame. It's Bowling For Soup
Current Mood:	hungry
Subject:	I can't think of a non-boring title
Time:	12:46 pm

Lazy Matt. I woke up around midday both yesterday and today. Should've not watched Quantum Leap until 5am, eh? ;-)

Yesterday I headed over to see Dan and James for D&D; character creation but that was curtailed and we instead talked about music, MT:G and politics (both in governmental and on-line settings). Later in the evening we went out for a curry and it was fabulous. The glutton that I am, I suggested going to the Moonlight icecream parlour. Cold though it was, it's never too cold for icream.

All I've done so far today is book a flying lesson (the lovely clear sky prompted me to make the call). Which brings me on to something I've been pondering on and off for some time but not previously got around to. I've only made the one, but my new year's resolution is to obtain my pilot's license. I had a number of lessons but this was 7 or 8 years ago and they were a present. At the time I couldn't afford to carry on myself, but now that I'm working I'm in a better position.

Plan for today is grab a bite to eat and head over to

saintmaryuk's place where there'll be more Magic and other geekery, I'm sure.

Whilst I'm writing an entry, I've a request for any bored coders. ( cut to save the non-geeks )

One for

duranorak: clicky

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Monday, January 10th, 2005

Current Mood:	sick
Subject:	ugh
Time:	01:16 am

I'm still alive but have mostly been dead-to-the-world since Friday evening. Had a fever, aching muscles and general fatigue. Now I only have a sore throat. At least I have the energy to venture out of bed

Christmas and New year update to follow, along with a bit of comment-whoring.
Just thought I'd make my presence known now, because I'll be away for 2 days visiting a client in Hull.

Update Wed 12th:
Am feeling a bit better but have a seriously dimished appetite. I've eaten one poptart today and last night I barely made a start on the bolognase I cooked.

( possible TMI )

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Thursday, December 30th, 2004

Current Music:	Gene - A Car That Sped
Current Mood:	busy
Subject:	Reminder / Invitation
Time:	11:25 am

I'm having a new year's eve party, and it's not surprisingly tomorrow night. I can offer food and will be serving around 9ish, but feel free to turn up from 8pm. I know about some of you, but others have been uncannily quiet about their plans ;-)

Todo: drive to Ormskirk and back
Get a haircut
Tidy house
Buy some party food
Write Christmas journal entry

In other news, I've discovered a benefit of having nerve damage leading to an insensate area on the top of one's foot - you can drop heavy items on yourself and have it not hurt :-) Just to put your minds at rest, this was not intentional, nor will I be demonstrating this as a party trick

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Friday, December 24th, 2004

Current Music:	Penguin Cafe Orchestra - In A Sydney Motel
Current Mood:	busy
Subject:	Today
Time:	01:52 am

Pissed off with amazon because not all of my stuff has arrived for people's presents. I braved heading into Manchester town, and it thankfully wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been. Got replacement presents for all, which is good. Came home and decided it was too late to head back, but did see that it was the leaving party for one of the people I worked with at my previous employer. Went out for drinks with that lot and had great fun. It was brilliant to catch up with them all. (It was difficult not to be too jubilant about having left that place ;-)

Decided against going to 5th Ave. as they were so that I could pack for the journey home tomorrow.
Have a great holiday, however you celebrate it. And I hope to see some of you at my New Year's Eve party.

Now to finish off packing and sleep.

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Monday, December 20th, 2004

Current Music:	Stone Roses - Fools Gold
Current Mood:	deflated
Subject:	Weekend
Time:	12:59 am

Went out to

saintmaryuk's place for

shinydan's birthday. Met a load of people; amongst others (aside from those two) were

timpootle,

hippo22 and

stuflyer. I was most impressed to meet people who'd heard of the Pengiun Cafe Orchestra :-)

Saturday evening was an AFP meet, which I was intitially ~~gah-I've-forgotten-the-word-it-begins-with-a~~apprehensive about going to, until I realised that other meetups I've been to generally aren't topic-centric and hence I decided it would be safe. Much thanks to the pub for allowing us to consume vast amounts of pizza.

Best thing of the weekend is that I drove. I don't think that I'd be able to keep it up for a few hours, hence driving to parents house will be awkward unless I can sort hand controls in time, but it's all looking good. I felt fine doing local pottering around though. It's a good thing that I've persuaded my boss to drive for the coming site visits for Monday-Wednesday ;-)

Am feeling a bit deflated now. Part of that is exhaustion, and part of it is that I had such an excellent weekend around many fluffy people and it's been a while since I've been in such a wonderful atmosphere. Thanks to all who made it so great.

*meep* 5 days until Christmas

clicky

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Saturday, December 18th, 2004

Current Music:	Penguin Cafe Orchestra - More Milk
Current Mood:	tired
Time:	02:38 am

I went back to work on Wednesday - I don't think I mentioned that. All is going well and it was a pleasantly quiet week. Tonight was the company Christmas lunch - we left around midday and went to the bowling green for a very nice meal. The MD set a very interesting "get to know your colleagues" task. Earlier in the week he'd asked everyone for a random unusual fact about themselves. At the meal each person was given a list of these facts and a list of names who'd supplied the facts and tthe tast was to match the person to the fact. I learned some very interesting things :-)

Fell asleep watching TV earlier but having come upstairs I rode a wave of adrenaline and had the energy to stay up a few more hours. I'm glad I did; I managed to fix my broken spam scanning for incoming email.

mhw - Yes, it involved reading mail logs again ;-) ( what was wrong? answer under here for those who really care )

Tomorrow I'm off to see

saintmaryuk and clan for

shinydan's birthday shennanigans.

Need to finalise Christmas arrangements at some stage. My last day at work is Tuesday 22nd December. I need to be down south (at parents' houses) on Christmas day and probably part of Boxing day. Then I've no fixed plans until New Year's Eve when there's a party at my place. All welcome :-) I return to work on the 4th. Does anyone want a visitor or want to visit me over any of those gaps?

And now I flop into bed. nn.

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Tuesday, December 14th, 2004

Current Music:	Quantum Leap theme tune - am watching series 4
Current Mood:	nostalgic
Subject:	That perception meme (stolen from heteronormative)
Time:	05:53 pm

For each of these, please pick which you feel is most appropriate to describe me.
Feel free to leave out any questions you don't want to answer. Steal and modify as desired.

Poll #403144 Perception meme
Open to: All, results viewable to: None

Am I more of a

View Answers

leader
7 (58.3%)

follower
5 (41.7%)

Am a more

View Answers

instinctive
1 (6.7%)

philosophical
14 (93.3%)

Am I more

View Answers

quiet
8 (57.1%)

talkative
6 (42.9%)

Do I tend to be more

View Answers

spontaneous
3 (20.0%)

planned
12 (80.0%)

Am I more

View Answers

dominant
3 (23.1%)

submissive
10 (76.9%)

Am I more of an

View Answers

introvert
14 (93.3%)

extrovert
1 (6.7%)

Am I more

View Answers

honest
15 (100.0%)

deceitful
0 (0.0%)

Am I more

View Answers

angry
1 (6.7%)

peaceful
14 (93.3%)

Am I more

View Answers

logical
10 (66.7%)

intuitive
5 (33.3%)

Which describes me better

View Answers

social
9 (60.0%)

loner
6 (40.0%)

Am I more

View Answers

kinky
6 (42.9%)

vanilla
8 (57.1%)

Am I more

View Answers

normal
6 (40.0%)

strange
9 (60.0%)

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Sunday, December 12th, 2004

Current Music:	In C
Current Mood:	productive
Subject:	End of a lovely week
Time:	03:00 am

mhw went home on Friday. It's been great having him around - time spent together too often feels so rushed, so a long week to relax was wonderful. Makes me sad to see him go. Long distance relationships are seldom easy. I've far too big a need of tactility. blah blah blah. enough relationship mush. I'll upset myself if I don't stop

softfruit came round on Wednesday, and then

kimble and

barakta came to visit on Thursday and it was good to catch up and be able to show off the geekiness of this place.

Was pondering going to Brum this weekend but 2 out of the 3 main people I'd be visiting wouldn't be around, and I can't face the hassle of public transport in a city I don't know. My sister is thinking of visting on Monday instead.

Was going out for drinks with

dere0n et al. but sat in the car to think about driving and decided my immobility meant that I wasn't up to it. Stayed in and watched far too much crap TV (including Flatliners) but on the productive side I did start and finish all of my Christmas shopping. Yay for Internet purchases. Took me all of 45 minutes too.

Actually, that leads me on to a question. The old adage "It's the though which counts"... as Internet shopping is hassle free - no fighting queues, no having to search shelves for that hiding book, no having to place an order and going to collect it - is there any less sentiment in making one's purchases that way? I've been productive, true, but it does feel a bit of a cop-out.

Anyway, it's far too late. Bed calls. G'night.

(In case you missed it: New Year's Party at my place. All welcome)

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Thursday, December 9th, 2004

Saturday, December 4th, 2004

Current Music:	Goldfrapp
Current Mood:	cheerful
Subject:	Enter subject here
Time:	02:56 pm

After being away from LiveJournal since Tuesday and getting back yesterday evening, I've only just caught up on LiveJournal. I've had almost 400 entries to read and that's not including community entries. There have been about 2500 UNaXcess entries to read though I admit to have skipped a load of them. You guys write too much ;-)

mhw is cooking something lamb-and-cuminy downstairs and it smells great. Food soon.

In other news: there's a party at my place for new year. All are invited. See http://www.livejournal.com/~matthewp/164942.html for details - though please direct party-related comments to that post so that they all end up in the same place.

Not able to make McScruffs tonight - sorry to

tax et al, but I'm not up to it yet. I'd welcome a visitor though if anyone feels like it - see http://matthewp.livejournal.com/info#contact for details if you need them.

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Wednesday, November 24th, 2004

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004

Monday, November 22nd, 2004

Friday, November 19th, 2004

Current Mood:	bouncy
Subject:	Raar
Time:	12:05 pm

I love phone calls like this. I've just had a call from a friend Cath wholived in Manchester a couple of years ago and we did sign language together. Shemovedback to Canada, but is back in the country for a while. We've arranged to meet up on Monday night. I'm looking forward to catching up; so much has changed and I'm already feeling strangely nostalgic.

In other news I'm up and about today. I even ventured out last night for drinks with people and have a great time. I've so missed going out. I'm still hobbling, but the pain is pretty much under control so it's going as well ascan be expected.

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Saturday, April 2nd, 2005

Monday, March 14th, 2005

Monday, February 28th, 2005

Friday, February 25th, 2005

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2005

Sunday, February 13th, 2005

Sunday, February 6th, 2005

Sunday, January 30th, 2005

Sunday, January 23rd, 2005

Monday, January 10th, 2005

Thursday, December 30th, 2004

Friday, December 24th, 2004

Monday, December 20th, 2004

Saturday, December 18th, 2004

Tuesday, December 14th, 2004

Sunday, December 12th, 2004

Thursday, December 9th, 2004

Saturday, December 4th, 2004

Wednesday, November 24th, 2004

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004

Monday, November 22nd, 2004

Friday, November 19th, 2004