Ian Wild

I’ve wanted a projector forever but always thought a decent one (as I would want) is out of my price range. A new passion for baseball, plus cheap Sky+ HD, plus the impending world cup had me looking again though and to my surprise I find they are now MUCH cheaper than I remember. I missed a £350 special on Ebuyer, so instead went hunting Ebay. And I found the ideal candidate, an Optoma EP1691, which I won. £500 worth of new projector for £300. I hoped.

However, on plugging it into my Sky box or PC, what I get is a horrible yellow blob where there should be nice colours (blue maybe?).

Oh dear

I’ll talk to the seller and see what happens.

My favourite week of the year is the one I spend without electricity, heat or petrol anywhere to be found.

I’ve been sailing on the Norfolk Broads pretty much every year now for 20-odd years.

We first took the plunge and hired a Percy Hunter boat about 5 years ago, having previously hired numerous different sailing craft, many of which were ruined by the addition of mod-cons like engines, showers, radios and heating.

The Hunters have been beautifully maintained in their original 1930s condition and even the new boat added a couple of years ago was built to exactly the same design without any modern day enhancements. They sail a lot better than anything else on the broads too.

On looking for some good links to explain to prospective crew members what they might be letting themselves in for, the yard sent me these, most of which don’t appear on their website. So I’m putting them here for my reference and yours:

Went to the launch party this evening.

The beer selection really is exceptional and I hope to god they can keep it in the same condition as it was tonight past the first few weeks. We work in the Electric Works opposite and the immediate area is so desperate for a proper beer house / after work stop-off that this is a godsend.

The setting is very traditional and it’s certainly got loads of character - reminded me of some of those impressive Victorian city centre boozers in Liverpool. On the downside I found the seating arrangement pretty uncomfortable and didn’t get the impression I’d want to hang around too long chatting.

The big downer though is that they were playing god awful music and in a big high room with terrible acoustics it’s just a waste of time. Mind you it was a party and maybe they’ll not bother with music normally. I hope not cause it’s got real potential otherwise.

I don’t know if they are planning to do food. They had some on tonight but it was just party food (very good mind you). I really hope they can knock out some good grub as well as the beer. The area is completely crying out for a decent Friday afternoon lunch spot and I’m sick to death of M&S salads.

Banksy classicness

Over the years I’ve had loads of ideas for projects and it’s no big deal that I haven’t acted on any of them yet. When people do such a good job without me, I really don’t mind. The reality is whatever I do build I’ll be wanting all the building blocks I thought of.

As much for copying later on for my own model, but also because the underlying project is something I think works so well and every company should do, I’m highlighting Uservoice.

Good work chaps. Another thing I don’t have to worry about when the time comes and I need ya.

Ian

While researching Picante de cuy (Guinea Pig with spices), which I’m determined to cook and eat sometime, I came across a recipe for Braised Cat. Unfortunately, this breaks one of my rules about eating meat, as I know what I feed my cat on, but it’s all useful information in a recession. 

Tasty cats can be cheezeburgers?. From http://catrecipes.com/recipes/index.html