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..in case you didn't see my post on FB...

Seen this?. While the article is about Moyles, it reveals Minchin will be playing Judas in the production. Hell of a role, great musical. Anyone else interested in going?

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UK peeps - there were a couple of websites that used to be THE places to go for geeky and nerdy gadgets, gizmos and gifts. Can anyone remind me of what they were or suggest likely sites? It's not ThinkGeek, they're US based, and I'm sure there used to be UK based sites that people drooled over. Any ideas, oh flist?

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Just back from the movies, went to see "The Avengers". OMG! Brilliant, brilliant film.

( Spoilers! Getcha Spoilers Here! Or avoid if you haven't seen it yet )

SQUEEE!!

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Many, many thanks to doccy and silenttex who between them fixed my DVD playback problems.

Turns out that in addition to a couple of techie things, DVD43 was interfering with the playback. Turned that off before attempting to play R2 DVDs and allll was well. (Well ok, Windows Media Player still tantrums, but VLC works like a dream).

So THANK YOU you two! One day cold beverages of your choice will be yours :D

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I'm having major problems playing DVDs on my computer, but only film dvds. Playback is fine at first but after about five minutes the playback becomes choppy and rapidly degenerates until it is unwatchable. I've updated every single driver I can think of, I'm using the latest version of DirectX, I've got the latest K-lite codec pack installed and the DVDs appear to be in good condition, no major scratches or flaws. I do not have any problems with other types of video playback - mp4 and avi files are just fine. And, weirdly, I haven't had any problems watching DVDs of TV shows, just films. The problem exists across all the media players I have on my PC.

I'm running Windows XP which has been regularly updated. I'm currently triple checking for viruses and unwanted spyware but I have done this before and nothing improved. Graphics card is NVIDIA GeForce G11, sound card is RealTek Audio.

Any ideas guys? I've about reached the point where I'm thinking it's gotta be the DVD drive being freaky and I'll just buy another one. :P

ETA: doccy has walked me through a few things, like deleting a spare Primary IDE Channel that seemed to be redundant, tweaking the Registry, making sure DMA was being used, deleting some recent windows updates to see if they caused the problem etc. So far no joy. I have been able to play some DVDs successfully but not all. I can't find the common denominator. *sighs*

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Wil Wheaton is knitting cities! :D



Episode 2 of Table Top features Settlers of Catan!

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First of all, news of Mr R T Furball. The blood tests weren't 100 per cent conclusive but the vet decided there was enough there, with the symptoms, to go ahead and treat him for hyperthyroidism. So he's been on meds for the past week and it seems to be working, he's lost the "OMG I MUST EAT ALL THE THINGS ALL THE TIME" behaviour. The downside is this treatment isn't a cure, it's a "meds for life" deal. Hmf. Which is going to make figuring out what to do when I go away interesting but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. We'll pass briefly over how much money this is going to cost per month too.

However, the other downside is it's NOT stopped the throwing up behaviour I originally took him into the vets for. I say "throwing up" but often he doesn't actually produce anything, he just retches violently. So far, this seems to be occurring once every week. So long as it doesn't escalate, I'll wait until the next scheduled appointment (May 1st) before squeaking anxiously to the vet. I have to say though, Rob's fine in himself - bright eyed, alert, happy, yowly, purry and furry - all the usual signs of a healthy cat! *scritches the purring lump curled up next to her*

Life update - no news on the work front. Socially, I'm a busy bee atm. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with someone I used to know when I was dating Mike, one of the Cambridge mob. Will be good to have a good ol' gossip and catch up with what's been going on with that crew.

Friday I'm digging even further back into the past and meeting up with Vicky, who I knew at middle school. We reconnected (by accident!) on Facebook and have decided Lunch Must Be Done. So I'll be in Hornsey on Friday for rapid fire gossip and food scoffing during her lunch break :)

And then Monday I'm back up in Cambridge for another meeting with my finance adviser and I'll be having lunch with Julian, another chap I knew from dating Mike - he was Mike's house mate :) I am well out of the loop on what he's been up to so that'll be fun. All I know is he's about to be first time father any week now :)

Lastly, have a picture! I took this when I was on one of my really-should-do-this-more-often walks. This is Blueboy, a shire foal who was 4 days old when this pic was taken. Isn't he a handsome chap?

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We're waiting on blood test results but the vet is a lil' frustrated. He agrees that Something Is Wrong but there really isn't any evidence of anything at all. The thyroid might be sliiightly out of whack but! While he has got some of the symptoms of that, with the increased appetite and thyroid not feeling right, he hasn't got the chronic weight loss that should accompany it. In fact, his weight has been remarkably consistent for over a year. Plus he's otherwise in excellent condition and in good spirits. So the vet was left scratching his head a bit. But he's given him a 10 day course of some capsules as a sort of pre-treatment on the grounds it will do no harm at all and if the tests show anything, it'll give us a head start.

Rob was superbly behaved again and the vet positively gushed about how good he was when he brought Rob back from having his blood taken. Good kitty :)

While I was waiting for the appointment, I made friends with an adorable dog in the waiting room. He was a six month old Norfolk Terrier who just loved everything and everybody. He took a shine to me and practically sat on my foot and let me fuss him for ages. Such a lovely dog :) Owner and I had a pleasant natter while we waited, which made the time go much quicker.

Should get the test results Saturday, although it being the long weekend, I may have to ring on Monday (when the vet I saw today will be on duty and will give me the results. Further bulletins as events warrant!

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Gotta take Rob T Furball back to the vet's today. He was in early last week after he couldn't stop throwing up, but some anti-nausea meds set him right. Conclusion was that he'd possibly eaten some rubbish off the floor - validated a bit when I subsequently caught him chewing on a bread bag tie. (He had the audacity to complain when I removed it from his mouth, the ungrateful animal). Anyway, I said to the vet at the time that I thought there might be an underlying separate problem as he has been horking rather more than he should. It was averaging once a week but we've just hit the 3 times in 5 days point so I'm taking him straight back.

Vet couldn't find any obvious signs of blockage when he examined him last week but he agrees with me it could be a hairball that he can't shift. It could also be lots of other things so I'm going to insist on bloodwork and maybe an x-ray today. Hang the expense.

But 'm worried about him. On the plus side, he's cheerful enough, still yowling for fuss and attention, happy to curl up and be scritched for hours and he's eating and drinking just fine. So paws crossed all around it's just a hairball. On the minus side, he's 16, if he needs surgery that's not great and if it's more serious than a hairball, well.........

*cuddles the purring furry lump*

I will keep you all informed.

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Go here:-



...to see Wil Wheaton and Grant Imahara (among others) do battle over board games :D