Sunday

[dangtri]

So we have a new addition to the household: a refurbished like-new IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T60. This is meant to be my new main personal laptop, in addition to the work-supplied T43 and replacing the trusty and faithful T22, which came to me in early 2005 and is now literally falling apart.

It's a gray and rainy day here in London and I've used it to geek around with the new gear and plan carefully how I want to get Ubuntu in addition to XP Pro, how to reorganize my haphazard personal data etc.

Yesterday I dropped in at my future place and had the occasion to see the household under stress. An overflowing bathtub had soaked through to my landlord-to-be's study and brought down an impressive slab of the 18th century ceiling. It could have easily caused serious injuries -- these ceilings are heavy! The slab was about 8 cm thick, and had 3 layers: a padding of horse hair where the ceiling adheres to the rafters above; a thick layer of rough and stony plaster; and less than 1 cm of very fine plaster, which was eventually painted over. One of the current occasional residents is an experienced builder (a Kurdish refugee), and he took over and got the study cleanded up and plans how to proceed drawn up in a jiffy -- luckily for everyone's peace of mind, esp. the miscreant's who had let the bath overflow in the first place. Hopefully the insurance will pay for the repairs.

Now I should either cook something or make some sort of plans for the evening. Well, let's have a shower first...

Comments

[vasilatos]

Jeezum crow that sounds like a major mess! And I didn't know you were moving. And the new computer, that's so much going on. Good luck!

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

I lived in a place once where a section of the kitchen ceiling came down with a crash due to rain leaking in. Anyway, this definitely sounds promising in terms of being able to take care of problems that may come up in the house.

[vasilatos]

We had that! I could see sky through the ceiling for a while. :-)

[dangtri.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree that it does.

[graylion.livejournal.com]

congrats on the new baby :)

[m-nivalis.livejournal.com]

Oh, you really are moving to that place. It sounded really cool when you described it. When's the big moving out/in day? I can't promise to help you move, as it depends on where I am that day, but if I'm available, I'd give you a hand.

[dangtri.livejournal.com]

Yep, looks like it. No fixed date yet -- they'll re-paint my room first, but realistically I'll be moved mid-to-end of June. Many thanks for your offer -- I'll let you know in any case, and you're of course welcome any time.

If the weather hadn't been so bad, I would have been tempted to jump on a coach for a day trip... round your corner for example.

Are you travelling around a lot at the moment?

[m-nivalis.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty stationary at the moment. Will go to a medieval market in Colchester next saturday, but otherwise I've got nothing to do in particular until the end of June, when I'm off to a re-enactment event. And after that it's pretty quiet as well. And when I say pretty quiet, it means I'll be mainly sitting at home sewing madly on my new overcoat that I'll be needing for the pilgrimage event in september.

[auntieruth.livejournal.com]

addition to XP Pro,...

What? No Vista?

[dangtri.livejournal.com]

Took me a lot of work to avoid Vista. I nearly bought a Dell, but while from the mid-range one upwards they are indeed available with XP, only Vista-equipped laptops were eligible for promotions like free shipping.

There are too many stability and compatibility problems right now for my taste. Remember, I have to be pulled kicking and screaming to use Windows at all. And with XP I know in my sleep how to make it behave together with Linux, which will stay my main desktop.

This said, I'm kinda tempted to get VMWare and install Ubuntu in a VM. Or get a full XP install CD and do it the other way round -- run Windows in a VM under Linux. I have 1.5GB RAM thoug, which might be a bit short for this sort of game.

[vasilatos]

I shoved Vista off onto my housemate, and I keep catching him using it. So that's something. I'll wander over into Second Life at some point...

[graylion.livejournal.com]

xp under ubuntu!

other wasy round no be good ;)