Well, I’m here, back home, still typing this blog under Linux. Strangely, I’m still using Ubuntu, and actually finding it useable. I’m sure there’ll be something that’ll stop me using it. Currently I can’t remember how to mount external directories, using smbclient, so that’s something that’s a bit of a nightmare, as I can’t mount my MP3 drive which is hosted in another machine. Thankfully, I’ve cobbled enough music together in order to be listenable.

This also means that I’ve got MP3 ability in Amarok toned down to a tee, along with MySQL configuration. I’m sure I could do both of these now with my eyes closed. OK, slight lie there, but when I see the instructions, at least I understand them, and know what I’m doing with them.

OK, onto the old jobs section. Over the last few days, I’ve been rather reminiscent about my old place of employment back in Summer 2000, mere months before I started this blog.

Andy The Iridium Fan took himself, his bike, and his new shiny camera up to the old Cerebos plant, on the outskirts of Hartlepool. Well, technically, it’s on the outskirts of Greatham, a village separated from Hartlepool by the A689 and the Sappers Corner junction. Anyway, it holds a lot of memories for me.

The year is 2000. Summer 2000, in fact. I had left college, and was still struggling to find a job. I signed up for some training bollocks, of which I don’t remember the name of. Either way, part of this stuff meant that I worked part time in certain places. One of these places was a company named Centura Foods. This place manufactured food products for places such as Sharwoods, Robertsons, Capri-Sun and many others. Actually, I can’t remember if they dealt with all of those brands in this particular factory, as I rarely stepped foot on the “shop floor” as it were.

On my first day, I remember trying to find it, and getting completely lost. I knew it was “in” Greatham, but not in the actual village, but on the outskirts.

The 36 bus carried me from Winterbootom Avenue, all the way to the centre of the village. After leaving the bus, I was totally on my own. Um. Where next?

I can’t remember if I asked for directions, but I found myself in the middle of a thin country lane, with no footpath. expecting to be killed by some passing lorry. It’s very possible I could have been.

I approached the security office, explained who I was, and whether they were expecting me. I “reported for duty” as it were, and they didn’t have a clue who I was. I had no idea whether they were expecting me….

Er, let’s snap out of this memory, and go back to the present day. The first view that greets you is the long road leading down to the factory. It’s a long way down this road. Eventually, you approach a level crossing.

This is the only train line out of Hartlepool to the south, and therefore connects you to London. Just to the left of where this picture was taken, was the old Greatham Station, which was abandoned long ago.

The next stop is the afore mentioned security hut. For a place that has been closed down for nigh on 6 years, the site appears in very good nick…

I think part of this reason is that there’s a right-of-way leading down to a farm. It seems very odd that it’s survived in this condition.

I’ll probably continue this particular blog shortly. At the minute, I’m fooked, off to bed, and it seems a waste to abandon this!

Now, I can’t have been the only person to notice this, but I’ll type about it anyway.

In the OI forum, a post was mad e of someone getting owned by EA Sports. The original poster had spotted a bug in one of the Tiger Woods games, and uploaded it to Youtube. It shows Tiger Woods walking on water, taking a shot and getting it in the hole. The video was apparently by “Levinator25″ and was entitled “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 Jesus Shot ”

The link to it is here

Now, EA SPorts have posted a response directly. A very clever, well thought out piece of video featuring Tiger Woods himself…

The link to THAT is here

Classy. All very well done anhd thought out, until you view Levinator25′s profile and then notice he has videos such as “Disney Still Hates Jews

Things could get veeeeeery interesting….

Well, my previous posting about Linux has got off to a GREAT start. I spent half an hour waiting for the 3.6Gb DVD image to download. Then I tried to write it to disk, and got “Power Calibration error”. Turns out the DVD was duff, apparently as another one worked fine.

And, as I went to look at the name of the disk image itself, it turns out I’d downloaded the AMD64 version instead of the 32 bit version. Sigh.

So, I’m having to start from scratch, and I’ve wasted a blank DVD.

Therefore, if anyone is reading this, you’re from the UK, and would like this DVD free of charge mail me your address and I’ll pop it in the post. Seems a bit of a shame to bin it.

Too late. Clearly everyone thought I am a psychopath, or was going to turn up to their doorstep and nick their milk, or something. The DVD will shortly find a new use.

Ah, once again I have stepped into boredom territory! Therefore, I am going to whip out one of thee hard drives in Beastbits, and install Linux onto a fresh one.

I wonder how long it will take before I get entirely bored by the idea. Again.

Ah, once again, it is time to shave off my beard. I’ve enjoyed its company since I started growing it on approximately July 22nd, but after a month, it’s just getting a bit too long and scruffy. So, it’s going to take its final long journey down the sink. Shame.

And, as I simply can’t get over how gorgeous I am, here’s a photo of me with the beard.

Oh, ok then, I’m not that good looking.

Since I typed that sentence, I’ve gone and shaved it off now, but I can’t be bothered taking an “after” shot. I normally grow the goatee beard as a bit of a cost saving excersise. When my razor starts to go blunt, that part of my face is the most painful to shave, however, the rest of my face can still be shaved by it quite comfortably. Therefore, to get a few extra weeks out of the blade, I simply just grow the goatee, and I don’t have to shave it!

Is that clever, miserly, or just pure laziness?

I happen to be off work for the next few days, so I have no idea with what to amuse myself with. I’m still trying my best not to buy that camera. I’ll have to see how my finances pan out.