Life, music, games and computers.
Life
Dell 2408WFP
03 years ago
by John Pennycook
in Life
Today I received my third Dell 2408 in as many days. The other two had to be returned because of issues with a pink band down the left hand side of the screen, but it seems as though this one is finally free of that fault.
But I’ve got to hand it to Dell; their customer service and tech support are incredible. Far from being treated like an idiot or somebody causing a fuss, both faulty screens were swapped out the next morning at no cost to me.
This is exactly the kind of service I’d expect given I bought a £420 screen and I am not disappointed.
Chris & John Meal: Pizza
24 years ago
by John Pennycook
in Life
Today is Tuesday, and that means it’s a “Chris & John Meal”; the rest of my housemates go away or don’t eat on Tuesdays, so we get an opportunity to experiment with interesting food.
Behold the greatest pizza I have ever eaten:
The picture isn’t brilliant, since it was taken on a phone and the lighting was funny, but there you go. Oh, and it’s uncooked, obviously.
Ingredients:
- Pizza base x 1
- Tinned tomatoes x 1
- 125g of salami
- 60g of chorizo
- 3 chillis (sliced)
- 1 Pepper (diced)
- Lots of cheese (grated)
- Garlic puree
- Pepper
- Mixed herbs
- Hot sauce!
Recipe:
- Mix the tomatoes, garlic puree, pepper and mixed herbs in a bowl and spread over the pizza base.
- Sprinkle about half of the grated cheese on top.
- Slicing the salami into squares, lay it on top of the cheese until almost all of it is hidden.
- Lay the chorizo slices on top as well.
- Sprinkle the diced pepper and chillis over the pizza.
- Drizzle the hot sauce over everything to taste.
- Top it off with another layer of grated cheese.
- Finally, pop it in the oven for about 20 minutes.
We originally cooked two, but it turned out we could only manage about half each. More for tomorrow, I guess… XD
The 24 Hour Clock
14 years ago
Ever since the release of Kubuntu 8.04, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in #kubuntu and #kubuntu-kde4 whilst trying to get to grips with the new UI. If none of the things I’ve just said make any sense, you should check out the Kubuntu webpage.
What surprises me is that the most common question I’ve seen is not “How do I configure my GTK applications to use my KDE4 theme?” or “How do I run the system settings module as root?” but “How do I replace my 24 hour clock with a 12 hour one?”
Perhaps even more shockingly, I saw somebody clarify they didn’t want a 24 hour clock “because they live in America”. Reading 24 hour time is second nature for me and has been ever since I was a child; is it really that rare outside of Europe?
I find it hard to believe that anybody would even want a 12 hour clock; times aren’t ambiguous if you forget to say “morning” or “afternoon” after them, and you know that when you set an alarm it’s going to go off at the right 07:00.
Please comment if you think you can explain why America seems to think that the 24 hour clock is reserved for Europeans and the military.
Pennycooks on Parade
04 years ago
by John Pennycook
in Life
I’m not quite sure why this blog entry is so late, but anyway… Two weeks ago this Saturday, the Student’s Union decided to hold a fancy dress party. As a bit of a joke, I set up a Facebook group to see how many people would come as me.
We ended up with:
- Teenage Pennycook
- Girl Pennycook
- Burglar Pennycook
- Nurse Pennycook
- Homeless Pennycook
- DJ Pennycook
- Emo Pennycook
- Pennycook After a Haircut
Homeless Pennycook wore this:
Your eyes do not deceive you; that is a John Pennycook wig, manufactured for a housemate in about 10 minutes out of an old Ann Summers cardboard box.
The wig in action:
By the end of the night, the wig had been worn by four or five people, the DJ included. Looks like my ego is partly justified after all.
XPAntivirus.com
14 years ago
by John Pennycook
in Life
I’m not quite sure why, but ever since I posted my last entry there have been people — I say “people”, I’m pretty sure they’re actually bots — posting comments on it.
What it is about my last entry that’s brought them here I don’t know, but it’s pretty darn funny that the links they keep posting are to some “XPAntivirus” page, which looks like this:
Apparently I have several Windows viruses installed, even though the website knows I’m running Linux (and thinks I’ll be scared by its amazing knowledge of my computer).
It even gives me a .exe when it finishes its scan. Maybe I’ll install it under WINE.
Lack of Updates, Ahoj
04 years ago
by John Pennycook
in Life
Probably entirely due to my CS247 coursework — which, if anybody is interested, is going well — there’s been a distinct lack of blog updates these past two weeks.
Unfortunately, there may not be any proper content appearing here for a good few more; I’m 30% through Revenant Wings at the moment, but what little spare time I have is being piped to writing code as opposed to playing games, and I really don’t like reviewing games I haven’t completed.
The only thing I can offer is this game character model of myself, e-mailed to me rather unexpectedly by Spencer:
…yeah, I know.
Hospital
04 years ago
by John Pennycook
in Life
I’m writing this entry via a Patientline machine from within University Hospital, Walgrave.
Why, you ask? Because I’m currently a patient here, under observation due to suspected appendicitis. Relatively bad timing, since I was supposed to hand in two pieces of work and give a presentation today, but what can you do.
The good news is that the doctors don’t think it’s my appendix based on how I felt this morning. The bad news is they want to check me again this afternoon and I may not be able to go home.
I suppose I should be happy got two days off worrying about my group project and some time to play Final Fantasy: Tactics , but I’m not.
I just want to go home and see Lou.
6 Weeks, 5 Days
04 years ago
… is the total length of my music collection.
Today I have embarked on an endeavour that I have long wanted to complete; to listen to every single music track I own, for I am far too aware of the fact that there is plenty of music that I have only heard once and even more that I’ve probably never heard all of the way through.
Considering that it should take no effort on my part (except for sitting through audio clips that Amarok can’t distinguish from songs), it’s probably also the easiest goal I’ve ever set myself.
Keep an eye on my Last.fm; it’s about to get crazy.
Also, feel free to keep track of my progress in my new Last.fm widget at the right-hand side of the screen. Isn’t the internet awesome?
‘Tis the Season of Winter-een-mas
04 years ago
by John Pennycook
in Life
With Winter-een-mas here, it was only natural that my house do something to celebrate it. Those of you who know us may have heard of our last two game-focused celebrations; the 24-hour and infamous 48-hour gaming stints.
What could be the next logical progression in a series of feats, the likes of which Warwick University has surely known before? A 72-hour gaming session? No, too obvious… A 1337-hour gaming session? No, around 52 days too long…
The answer is simple; a laid-back nobody-really-cares what happens event at which we just try and complete some games.
Boring? Perhaps. But it doesn’t change the fact that I should make some considerable headway with NiGHTS and Eternal Sonata.
This Saturday, hold onto your seats and prepare for one or two reviews. They’ll be exciting.
…possibly.
6 Months
04 years ago
by John Pennycook
in Life
Today marks me being with my girlfriend for 6 months, and with it being a pretty big milestone we thought we’d get each other some presents.
Being as incredible as she is, she got me not one, not two, but all three volumes of the Cowboy Bebop manga! Those of you who know me probably understand how excited I am, but for those of you who don’t; Cowboy Bebop is my favourite anime ever and the inspiration behind my own webcomic, and to own these volumes is something I’ve wanted to do for years.
I know you don’t check up on my blog very often, Lou, but if by chance you stumble across this entry I just want to remind you that I love you.
