If you're an avid
point'n'clicker and you haven't found
nordinho yet use a couple of those precious clicks and get your browser over there now. An astonishing collection of games with walkthru's for most of the games for those of us that are a bit limited in our ability. Especially worth a visit since they wrote to me today suggesting a link exchange and it's only my own laziness which meant I hadn't gotten round to linking to them permenantly already.
Also while I'm shouting out to other sites a load of respect to milinkito who linked me recently and despite the fact I have no idea what they're saying half the time (no hablo espaņol) a few quick clicks around reveal them to also be the home to some finely linked content.
Both sites are now linked permenantly in the right hand column of this site if you need to find them again and have an aversion to doing your own bookmarking.
Finally while I'm doing a catch up on linky and site stuff. A big thanks to all my visitors. I'm not totally sure what I was doing when I started this site - it really was intended as just some practise for my asp coding and somewhere to keep my own 'stuff' where it was easy to find. Anyways, a couple of years down the line and more and more of you are visiting all the time. Thank you! I've now just started to exceed my 30Gb a month bandwidth limit on my current package with my webhosts, Brinkster, so I've just upgraded to the top package which gives me unlimited bandwidth. So keep on visiting and bring your friends too! We may as well make use of the facilities.
So what does this mean to you the visitor? Well not too much hopefully. I'm opposed to advertising or membership on the site so I'll be covering the extra cost myself (it's not too much), but what it does mean is that I have access to some extra facilities. For a start I get a SQL Server database as part of the package so I'm looking to move the clunky Access database the site is currently based over to SQL Server. Hopefully this will mean I can keep things better maintained, but it will mean the site is down for a while, while I switch over. I'll keep the down time to a minimum though. I also hope to update the site to asp.net which won't effect usability at all (well maybe it'll be a bit quicker), but this is mainly for the challenge of reskilling myself. I hope to be doing a lot of stuff in my work life with C# and asp.net next year so starting here is a good practise experiment for me.
Right that's enough site stuff for now, back to the games and puerile nonsense...
Oh Micro$oft! I wasn't going to mention your laughable guide to l33t (aka
A parent's primer to computer slang), but you leave me no choice. After 2 days configuring 6 applications on IIS6 spread over 4 Windows 2003 servers I'm at the end of my tether and I have no more patience with you. I've been chasing
missing session variables (the application recycling tip on this link seems to work btw) and your complete
inability to hang on to the auth_type server variable which has trashed every site I've been working on. How much time have I wasted due to things you allege are only fixed in SP1, which isn't even released yet? Too bloody much - that's how much. The fact that the servers have been located in Beijing, Houston, The City and my own office but remote desktop has allowed me to do all the work from my own desk hasn't calmed me down any either. I like air travel. The flights would have been nice. Arrrrrrgggggh!!!!
*deep breath*
Work related rant </ends>
Don't think I've been posting enough recently? Well I've got some bad news for you. In a double espresso induced buying frenzy I pre-ordered a new
slim-line PS2 and a copy of
GT4 (actual screenshot above - *drool*) this morning. Predicted delivery date is at the end of Feb so I suggest you catch me before then as I'll have entered 'career mode' shortly afterwards and be unavailable until May at the earliest. It's been nice knowing you all :o)
Ok - I'm doing a little bit of end of year house-keeping to try and tidy up all the links and photos I've gathered over December and done nothing with. The idea is that come the new year when you guys are kind enough to mail stuff in I'll actually get round to posting it straight away. Well that's the idea anyway.
First up are a group of photos gathered over the course of my company's events during December which I only remembered I had lurking on my USB drive when Jules came round the other night.
They're from our quarterly monthly meeting (in which we discuss the progress of the various different parts of the company and then retire to a bar - this time we went to Mar I Terra a great Tapas bar around the corner from the office), from the IM Awards ceremony, which I've already posted about, and our office party at Jongleurs (comedy club and home of the worst food in London).
Right, enjoy the pics, and I'll move on to the links - apologies if I post something you sent in without a credit, but quite predictably I've lost pretty much all of the original e-mails.
I
mentioned a while back that one of the projects I worked on was up for an award - well we were actually up for two awards. The project actually came second in one, but in the
Information Management Awards which we attended en-masse we didn't get anywhere beyond being nominated. Still a good time was had by all as you can see from the
pictures. Being a black-tie event we were, of course, all on our best behaviour.
Some people say to me "why haven't you posted any links for so long", and I reply "because I'm sooo lazy - the clue is there in the domain name". Anyway despite a week off work I haven't caught up with any of the linking, photo processing or coding I was meant to, but have spent it all chilling out. I'd say sorry but I'm not. I feel much better for it, thank you.
One thing I did manage to do in my week off was erect the lazylaces Christmas Tree, which for the more observant of you may look familiar. Yes - it's exactly the same tree as last year - I spurn real trees for plastic tree goodness. The really observant among you may notice that this year it is situated on the otherside of my living room - it's this kind of detail that really spices up my life.
Meanwhile the photos of me in black tie at my awards ceremony lurk on my hard drive waiting to be commented upon. When I buck up a bit they'll be on-line too. I know some of you (well one of you anyway) waits with baited breath.
Okay this is one of those circular e-mail things that I'm sure you've all got by now, but because I can't be bothered to forward my replies onto a gazillion firends I'm going to write all my answers here and I'll let you do yours in the
comments or e-mail them to me if you're all prissy and private. The idea is you take the questions and post your personal responses to a bunch of people (you can
know your friends too). Anyway here they are with my replies:
What time did you get up this morning?
Alarm got me up at 04.55, a couple of snoozes later I got up at 5.30.
Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds (bit of a girly one this I thought, my jewellery actually consists of a steel watch and that's it).
What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
I really can't remember, it's been far too long since I went to the cinema. The last film I watched was School Of Rock which I highly recommend.
What is your favourite TV show?
At the moment it would be Spooks or West Wing.
What did you have for breakfast?
Black coffee, no sugar. Multiplied by 3.
What is your middle name?
Fascinating fact #1 - I have no middle name.
What is your favourite cuisine?
Pizza. Domino's to be precise. You might not think they are cuisine. I know they deliver. I win.
What food do you dislike?
Brie. Don't ask. It sends shivers down my spine just looking at the stuff.
What is your favourite crisp flavour?
Golden Wonder sausage and tomato. They're damn hard to track down though.
What is your favourite CD?
Big Calm by Morcheeba is an all time favourite. I'm currently listening to Jamie Cullum, Snow Patrol and The White Stripes though.
What kind of car do you drive?
Mini Coop.
In men/women what characteristic do you look for?
Just that I like/get on with them. Most people would agree I don't have a 'type'. Especially at the moment when I'm a sad singleton.
Favourite sandwich?
On a friday/weekend/bad day it would have to be bacon (hot). Any other day of the week Pret chicken caesar.
Favourite item of clothing?
G Star jeans that are 5 years old if they're a day.
If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation where would you go?
Cape Town. When I was in South Africa everyone insisted I had to go there but I never did.
Where would you retire to?
The Somerset countryside just outside Bristol. Great memories.
Favourite time of the day?
Early summer morning in London by the Thames. Sometimes it can take a long time to walk to work.
What was your most memorable birthday?
21st - also the most unmemorable - you know what I'm saying.
Favourite sport to watch?
Sunday village green cricket. As long as there's a village pub.
Who do you least expect to send this back to you?
Any relation of mine.
Person you expect to send it back first?
Daisy - except I think she might have posted something similar a while back.
What fabric detergent do you use?
Tesco Colour.
If you could choose any animal as a pet what would it be?
I'm not to be trusted with pets.
Are you a morning person or a night owl?
A little bit of both, but I definately get more work done in the morning.
Favourite alcoholic beverage?
Laurent Perrier or a Mojito if I'm feeling flash, a London Pride otherwise.
Do you have any pets?
1 fake cat. It's quite realistic.
Any new and exciting news you would like to share with your friends?
A project I did most of the development work for has been nominated for an award.
What did you want to be when you were little?
A train driver if I remember rightly. You wouldn't believe how much I hate trains now I commute every day though.
What are you meant to be doing today?
Working about 11 hours on 3 different projects. I have a week off starting on Friday though.
Phew! Well here it is, after over 2 years of lazylaces postings we finally arrive at post
1000.
The mini hiatus over the last couple of weeks has been down to me using every inch of my free time to get the site redesign finished in time for this post. I felt the site deserved a new set of clothes to mark the event, but I've added a style switcher in the right hand column for those of you that prefer the old blue colours. I still love them myself, but I was getting tired of looking at the same old thing all the time and fancied a change. The code redesign behind it means it will be easier for me to add extra alternative styles in the future as well.
There are a few other tweaks and changes, although lots of these are still on a 'to do' list that just seems to get longer no matter how many items I cross off. The photologs are slowly being changed over to use my own code, meaning I can ditch the clunky frames they used before, and the 'popular' links on the right are now generated dynamically from the number of recent comments, rather than being generated by hand when I can be bothered to check my referrals.
Up-coming changes include a font-size selector, improved site navigation, a site-map, content warnings for things like games that need shockwave, and an overhaul of the 'about' and 'links' pages. As always my free time is minimal so I don't when I am going to do all these things but I do have a week off work at the being of December so maybe this will get cleared up then.
I was going to make this a cheesy retrospective post with all my 'best bits' from the last two years, but the site redesign has spared you that, I'm still pleased to note though that some of my favourite posts go all the way the begining of the site, and post #1 is still one of my favourite things I've found online.
That's all for now. Thanks for everyone's support over the last 1000 posts, all the friends I've made on-line, all the folks who have e-mailed ideas, contacted me on AIM, or made one of the 4000+ comments. Here's to the next 1000.
Graeme aka Lazylaces
You know you are close to cracking with stress at work when you find yourself laughing uncontrollably when you discover you live near a place called
Great Bottom Flash whilst looking up directions for visiting friends. The fact that it is a 'water feature' seems to just push you over the edge.
Tomorrow I welcome Matthew (my best-friend since we we're 12) and Helen to lazylaces towers. Sunday I go back to work. SUNDAY? All because Monday sees a major stress bunny presenting his intranet application to a room full of City financial types. Eeeeek!
Today I'm making my first posts from my new
X40 - I can't tell you how amazingly awsomely geeky this baby is. Well I can, but I've got other stuff to post right now, so more on
this puppy soon - maybe at the weekend when I have more time. For now bare with me while I get distracted by what I'm typing on, and as I get used to the little red nipple mouse control. Suffice to say for now by the power of wi-fi these posts come to you from the comfort of my 3-seater sofa...*joy*
Yesterday I headed off to
St Mary's Church, near Newbury, for my cousin's wedding. These are some
pictures of the day, mainly of my cousin, Nathan, and his new wife, Claire, but my other Cousins, my Uncles, my Grandmother and, of course, my Mum & Dad make guest appearances. Curiously the rain storms ripping accross the country stopped for the day, and the sun popped out, making for rather a nice day.
Typical - I've only been back in the country for a week and I get a bizarre summer cold thing that ruins my weekend and keeps me off work for a couple of days. I've been feeling rotten so I haven't gotten round to posting anything - the only thing I've been good for is eating paracetamol and drinking orange juice. Anyway I've dragged myself out of bed now and I'm feeling pretty much better - back to work for me in the morning, but first some light posting...
