The Return...

Well... I keep saying I'm going to start blogging again, and everytime I fail miserably, Here is my latest attempt. Hopefully I will not lose interest and keep it going.

At the moment, I am writing this whilst visiting my parents in Essex. Tomorrow will be Sophie's and Kayleigh's first birthday! My gosh, where has the time gone? We've got balloons, a cake, and I think we may all be going for a walk along the seafront from Westcliff to Leigh-On-Sea... a ritual that we always do when we come here, just like walking Southend Pier (like we did yesterday).

After spending the past week in Laindon, we will be heading back home on Monday to Evesham. Long gone are the days when I looked forward to returning to Evesham - I really want to move... Not even my job at the High School makes me want to stay anymore. 8 years down the line, and I am still homesick.

Thinking of work is getting me down a bit at the moment. Not sure why though, as it's not much different than most years. We've got quite a few projects going on during the summer holidays, and I'm stressing a little bit because they all need to be finished and/or up and running by the start of the new school term. To be honest though, lately I've been letting a lot of things get on top of me, along with the stressing and worrying - it's amazing I still have my hair! I'm sure I've knocked a few years of my ticker!

New Song - "Popcorn"

I've been writing music again, and here is my latest creation - A cover of "Popcorn" (written in less than 2 hours on Friday 14th May 2010). Did you know the song is over 40 years old already!! I know it has been covered many times before, but I like it, so here is my take on the the song. I might record a music video to go alongside it oneday, but in the meantime you'll just have to settle with this.

I hope you like it. Comments welcome.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD/LISTEN TO THE SONG - POPCORN BY STU .WILSON

"Yes I'm back, and its not a repeat, so turn on your computer and start reading this stupid s**t!!!!"

Right... Apologies to all my readers (all two of them!) for the lack of posts these past few months.

I've had an interesting few days this past few weeks. Went back to work on Monday after having the previous week off (half term), and on Wednesday I started my driving lessons again! It's been nearly three since I last drove, but I think I did well. Below is a map of the route I drove.

I only stalled the engine twice, and accidently switched on the windscreen wipers instead of indicating... but other than that, it went really well.

I also had to see the dentist because I've been experiencing excrutiating pain from one of my wisdom teeth. It appears I need to go to hospital and have it removed... Oh joy. I hope they do it under general anaesthetic.

So there you go! Kieran, Sophie and Kayleigh are growing quickly. I can't believe that the girls are nearly seven months old already. I'll say one thing for the past couple of months... They have flown by!

Welcome to 2010

I will get around to updating this blog more often... but in the meantime, Happy New Year!!! I hope you all have a wonderful 2010.

Lots has happened over the past few weeks which has resulted in me losing my interest in updating this blog - I doubt I will talk about here, but rest assured things will resume as normal soon.

Pimp my C64

On the night Michelle went in to hospital to give birth to Sophie and Kayleigh (Friday July 31st), I started a little project. I wanted to 'pimp up' one of my C64s by spray painting the case black, and swap an old style C64 keyboard so that it would match the newly painted case. Obviously it took me some time to complete (shortly after dunking the case in the bath to clean it, Michelle decided it would be a great time for her waters to break and we had to go to the hospital). I did manage to finish it a few days later though, and this is how I did it.....

Take two Commodore 64's (One breadbin style, and one C64C)

After removing the motherboard from the C64C (Thats another C64C that I own behind the motherboard).

Two empty C64 shells with the keyboards removed

C64 Motherboard again.


The famous 'SID' chip

C64 Breadbin keyboard

C64 Breadbin after having a C64C keyboard installed.

More C64 goodness - C64C Motherboard, C64 Keyboard and an additional C64C computer

Before spray painting - A dunk in the bath, with bleach to clean and remove the yellowing.

One clean (and less yellow) C64c case. Shortly after this photo was taken, we were on our way to Cheltenham General Hospital. About 15 hours later, Sophie and Kayleigh were born!!

Several days later... After spraying the case, the C64 is ready to be reassembled.

Finished - Black sprayed (silk) C64C with dark keys from a C64 Breadbin

Side view

Rear view

Before and After....

My current C64 collection - 1 black C64, 2 cream C64s and 1 Breadbin C64 with a C64c keyboard. I also have an Action Replay V6 cartridge (red cartridge shown at the back of the right C64), and a C64TPC unit for connecting the C64 to my PC. I have also just aquired a Commodore 1541-II disk drive. Plus tons of software/games etc.

My Commodore collection also includes 2x Commodore Plus 4's
1x Amiga 500 with a 120mb harddrive and 40mhz accelerator

1x Amiga A1200 with a 2Gb harddrive + shedloads of tapes and disks full of games/applications/demos etc.

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While I am posting, I thought I would also include a photo of Kieran in his new school uniform. He started school last Monday at Bengeworth First School, and after a week, he absolutely loves going.

The life of an IT Technician/Network Manager.... Systems Manager

I can't believe that it has been 6 weeks since the start of the summer holidays. School returns to normal on Friday (Friday of all days!?!) and I am already starting to panic...

It's not anything I have done - Over the past few months we have been having major building work on our IT block at the school. What started of as a simple 'replace the windows' job turned in to a massive 'shit, we've found asbestos in the wall columns' kind of job, and it has been ongoing ever since. Now, with only 3 more days to go, the IT block is still in a terrible mess. The builders have not been in for days, and I am left with 4 IT rooms that look like they have been hit by a bomb...

The new IT staff office (My office... the main Comms room is through that door - (note no furniture!!!)

This is a classroom and it needs to be ready by Friday - No desks... no computers... no nothing!

Classroom DU3 - Again, no computers, benches not complete and looks a complete tip

Classroom DU2 - Not as bad as it looks, but still needs work

DU1 - The only room we have been able to get in to a 'decent' state.

I love the way we were told at the start of the project that we would have 'plenty' of time to get the rooms ready for September - this includes any maintanance required, and the installations of Adobe CS4 and Microsoft Office 2007 on all the workstations.

Oh joy....!