Hiyo God Damn Silver!

Again I appear to be the laziest blogger, so let me rectify that by sharing with a few things I've enjoyed while I've been away.

Firstly, a fan boys wet dream. A fan-made trailer for a movie about Dick Grayson. I love this for so many reasons, and I hope that if you've ever read a DC comic you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

Next on my path to true geekdom, I seem to have got myself involved in Dungeons and Dragons. Completely coincidental with the death of Gygax, I assure you, I am now playing weekly, and rather enjoying it. Anyone else of the blogroll a secret player? Any tips?

And finally, a little story from work. The other day I happened to pass by IT services and noticed they had a new plasma screen installed. The screen displayed a rotation of various statistics, such as the number of computers switched on, temperature and light levels in the server rooms, that kind of thing.

One such report seemed to show lights being turned on and off every half an hour in one room, over a 14-hour period. Obviously something was seriously amiss. Could it be that someone was truly going into and out of the locked room so often across the working day?

Eventually we figured it out. The report had been set for 14 days, not 14 hours. Light/dark was simply day/night. This was not solved before we had physically checked the location, stood guard over the room and spent a great deal of time scratching our heads.

We're professionals, us.

Half Term.

For the past two days, there have been a group of kids on the corner of my road holding signs saying "Honk! Honk!" and waving them at passing motorists.

I don't know what amuses me more. Whether it is that the kids are bored and inventive enough to use this as a pastime (and keep it up for a significant period of time) or that nearly every damned car which drives past is doing it.

And I'll paint if I want to.

Largely inspired by Henner's blog, I have been toying with the idea of taking up painting. Unlike Hen, the medium of watercolour, rather than oils quite appeals to me. I like to see myself as the organised sort of fellow (I'm not) who will meticulously plan a picture before rendering it.

Being as it is my birfday today I decided to splash out and buy a set of water colours and paintbrushes from Mr. W H Smith.

I spent a good half an hour just playing with the colours (and cling film), making a few blocks of paint and interesting shapes, before setting about a little work. This first result was, I am quite ashamed to say, somewhat childish in its composure. I think I probably learned a lot about lighting, dimensions and planning just from this one piece. I won't share it here - needless to say I'm not proud of it, but I'm glad I did it.

Thanks Hen for unwittingly encouraging me to take up this pastime. I have a sneaking suspicion it will be addictive. And thanks for Stu for the name and shame to make me blog.