More home network stuff

Right.  DVD library done.  As expected the TV stuff crashed in the middle.  *sigh* but it's the last mile.

I've also upgraded the KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch on the main PC.  I use a docking station for my work PC and alternative between that and my desktop.  The problem was my old KVM was analog only and Vista (we'll blame Vista, it's a soft target) was getting extremely flaky about recognising the driver type through the KVM.  The upshot was that whenever I chaged users on the main PC I'd end up with the computer locking into VGA mode and sulkily refusing to come out.

I've now switched to a Digital KVM switch which, fingers crossed, seems to be working better.  The other good thing is it seems to handle my external USB Port which has all the shared peripherals on it.  This had been a royal PITA as I had to manually switch over the webcam and a bunch of other stuff that I use with both devices.

Anyway, fingers crossed. 

Productive Weekendedness

Gripped with a sudden burst of energy, (made all the more surprising for the whisky tasting the previous night.  Not to self, don't every buy the Japanese Single Malt.) I decided to tackle the back garden (they call them yards around here, strange people).

We have 3 problems.  Firstly, the garden is on a pretty steep gradient sloping towards the house.  There's probably a 1.5-2m difference betwen the house and the back gate.  Secondly, we had Tyson's "friends" over for his 2nd birthday last Sunday and part of the lower end of the lawn is now pretty muddy and boggy - this problem is made worse because a retaining wall that used to hold the top half of the lawn from sliding onto the bottom half has vanished.  Thirdly, years of neglect had left the garden path almost inaccessable.

Well, I can't solve (1) yet, and (2) will have to wait until the grass has recovered so I can explain the problem to the landlady without difficult questions about paw prints.

I did fix (3) and now we have a nice clear path free of moss and ivy up to a back gate that you can actually get through to the bins.  Yay me!  I feel righteous.

I also had the first session with the Personal Trainer that left me with an endorphin high rather than an intense need to visit Casulty (ER).

Movies

While I'm feeling productive:

Twilight: like with the book - blah.  Interesting to see they'd inserted random black and asian characters into the story.  The whole weekend we were in Forks I saw one Asian guy and he was cooking in the back of the Chinese restaurant.  I don't recall actually seeing anybody African American.  Twilight just doesn't work for me.

Bolt: Despite bad reviews Bolt did work for me.  It was a loving view of the essence of dogs.  The animation of dog behaviours made it worth watching as Bolt is taught about his inner dog by a cat.  There's more to it than that but still it's fun.

Role Models: Not just a crappy teen comedy but one of the less annoying depictions of the nature of fandom  in a mainstream movie.  It certainly captured the simultaneously cliquey and inclusive contradiction at the heart of much fandom and got the message across that actually it's ok to be a geeky teenager.

Quarentine: Not even bad enough to be good.  Just bad.  Really really really really really bad. 

Other note to self, must remember to get more Blu-Rays.