I just finished Tomb Raider I. Yay me.

There was just one room I lacked the dexterity to get through, and had to cheat by downloading one of Stella’s savegames.

Everyone’s blogging about how cold they feel. Me too. Damn that North Atlantic Oscillation.

I never used to feel the cold much — never wore jumpers, and slept with the windows open year round. I definitely need to stock up and get jumpers in my wardrobe for this winter.

Leaving the office this evening at just gone 10.30pm and my car was already completely frosted up. I’ve never had to scrape the ice off before. Last year was mild.

Moblogging from the Kitchen

Originally uploaded by nilexuk.

This year’s crop of jams. Next thing to try: chutney

Although I said recently I didn’t believe in tagging people with memes, I’m taking that back in aid of a good cause. And the chance to start my own meme.

Earlier, I gave a list of things on my desk that are plugged in. And earlier in the week, I was looking at signing up with a green electricity supplier that just happens to have an affinity programme with the Lib Dems.

Good-Energy mention on their website that mobile phone chargers that are left plugged in are using electricity even when you’re not charging your phone. We’ve all known for some time that it’s better to unplug your telly overnight than leave it on stand-by for the same reason: appliances using power they don’t need to. Saving power is saving yourself money in leccy bills and prevents some unneccessary carbon dioxide from being released.

So here’s my meme: what’s plugged in on your desk? What doesn’t need to be on all the time? Blog your answers, and then tell me you’re now switching things off if you weren’t before.

What’s on my desk:

13 things that need plugging in on my desk

1. PC
2. Monitor
3. Old PC which still has some files on it I use occasionally
4. KVM
5. Laptop
6. Modem
7. Router
8. Lamp
9. Speakers
10. Scanner
11. Printer
12. Answerphone
13. Mobile charger

And splitting that up into what does need to be on all the time:

1. PC (at least when I’ve left it busy downloading)
2. Modem
3. Router (for the other computers in the house and the downloading)
4. Answerphone

and what can safely be turned off when I’m not actively at my desk:

1. Monitor — can be off even if PC still on
2. Old PC — only needs to be on when I’m actually using it
3. KVM
4. Laptop — doesn’t need to be permanently on charge
5. Lamp
6. Speakers
7. Scanner
8. Printer
9. Mobile charger

I’m going to achieve this by switching the second list appliances to a separate, switchable plug-board. And I’m going to turn that off at night.

So, what are you going to do, Rob, Mike, Leigh & Kathryn (different blogs, same desk, I think), Stephen, Alan, John , Neil, St E, Nomad, Radders, Matt?

Oh, and this is a meme! Make your friends do it too!

Oh dear. It doesn’t take much to get me prevaricating. Someone on Umra asked ‘Are you grumpy tonight?’ and suddenly I’m off on an Elvis impression.

I heard a few days ago that one of the recordings I made for the Librivox project (note new url) was played out loud to a party of 600 well-connected Internet industry people in California.

It’s particularly scary that this piece was chosen because it’s the one where I ‘do’ an American/New York accent that in no way stands up to scrutiny from real Americans.

Luckily the clip that gets played doesn’t go as far as the dialogue.

Hugh, the leader of the LV collective, taped the speech which included the extract of the piece. Someone in the audience says ‘wow’. How chuffing!

New home, new phone, new haircut

Originally uploaded by nilexuk.

Another foray down the paths of hi tech. If this works, I’ll have managed to blog from a moving train.

House purchase went through yesterday with no further hitches. About 3ish we got the keys. The big jobs are all still to come, and it will probably be at least 6 weeks until we can move in.

I finally found an Orange shop to upgrade in and let myself be talked into a 3G phone that can video conference. Not convinced I ever will even if I ever find someone else with the facility. It’s not like I’ve ever even successfully sent a picture message… It’s going to take a very long time to get used to this Nokia 6680. The buttons and layout are a real change from the 6230 and not really an improvement. I was threatening to return it the minute I found it takes 6 keystrokes just to start a text message.

And finally, a new haircut. I’ve been fed up with the long hair for ages, and the thought of even more sinks to block with long blond hairs was just too much. So it’s radically shorter and apparently trendy. And makes me look like a cross between a hamster and Eddie Izzard.

My mobile phone contract runs out today.

Unfortunately, key buttons on my phone stopped working yesterday, so I’ll be trolling down the road to the dealer to get a new phone and another 12 month tie-in.

And a phone whose spec changes ever so slightly by the addition of an ‘i’.

Friday night, P and I had separate engagements. I had a local party annual dinner, he was giving a concert with his madrigal group. We’d both arranged these events months ago, and it wasn’t until we thought to invite each other to the other one’s do that we realised we had a clash.

But the co-incidence came in that the two events were less than 100 metres from each other in a little North Notts village twenty miles north of here that neither of us had heard about until recently. He was in a singing in a church, and I was eating in a pub and listening to Lembit.