I have been using the video lan player from http://www.videolan.org for over three years now for watching movies and listening to music. Unfortunately the later versions have started to include a bit of bloat to improve the user interface. This feature creep has also caused performance problems. Large MKV and AVI files were image freezing […]
On Saturday night I attended a my wifes sisters birthday dinner party. I was on best behavior and kept my razor sharp wit in check. After a few bottles of Beer Lao my mouth was sufficiently lubricated to make a few increasingly funny jokes. Unfortunately the conversation lurched onto mental health for 15 minutes so […]
I got uncomfortably wet this morning. The rain started immediately as I left my abode and increased with alarming frequency. I sought solace beneath trees. Hiding amongst a suspiciously opened condom and some beer bottles is not immediately inspiring. However I did have time to pull out my phone and do a one thumbed distracted […]
An offshoot from this blog is going to be a largely silly follow up series on some of my gaming friends from about nine years ago. Some of them I have kept in touch with some of them I have had to embellish, make up, and otherwise fill in blanks where I do not have […]
After a typically warm night of turning and tumbling through the small hours, I lurched outside this morning to walk the streets and continue the social improvement of our immediate environment. It was therefore surprising to be nibbled by the beginnings of winter. February is usually the hottest month in this part of the world […]
I have been learning French with a modicum of stealth in the past few weeks. Everybody and everything says France is the one country in the world where rudimentary greetings will not cut the baguette. My strategy includes an iPhone app which has a passable phrasebook including samples and a Collins learn French cd and […]
Time to expand on a twit….. or a gaggle of twits. For the past 12 years I have lived predominantly on the north shore of Auckland, New Zealand. The north shore is blessed with an abundance of beaches, parks and Chinese takeaways. This is a lot like the rest of Auckland. For the past 3 […]
A trio of pictures for today. In between moving house and my typical gentlenmanly pursuits I have been doing some research on France. Paris and Antibes in particular. My Paris research included reading the Vampire Lestat which is full of romantic descriptions describing Paris a few hundred years ago. Needless to say I am well […]
Nothing strikes fear in me more than a house move. Past house moves have induced the full wrath of Zeus and the elements. Torrential typhoons have battered my vehicle as I have crossed suburbs. I almost needed to fit a periscope during the house move of 2004. Famously I said “The next time I move […]
I watch a lot of television. Not traditional terrestrial television but digitally acquired television. I got thinking a few days ago about how I would break into television if I had the chance to be a writer on a television show. Obviously a lot of genres are heavily represented. Medical dramas, crime dramas and the […]