2 August 2016 (Tuesday) - Star Trek Beyond



I suppose both me and my dog were somewhat tired after yesterday’s road trip. We both slept like logs last night.
We got up to find heavy rain. Yesterday had definitely been the better day to do our road trip.

Over a spot of brekkie I checked my emails. I’d got the thumbs-down on one of the questions about yesterday’s Earthcache. The task was to go to a certain point and (using my GPS) measure the altitude. It turns out my phone was fifty metres out. After a little to-ing and fro-ing the chap accepted my answers, but I’m left wondering just what else is adrift on my phone.

I then took the bull by the horns and started using my new lap-top in anger. I say “using”; setting up was closer to the truth. To begin with, Microsoft Edge had to go. It seemed to be little more than Internet Explorer, and that was always pants. I started off downloading Google Chrome, but after a few minutes I decided I just couldn’t cope without a drop-down bookmark menu thingy. So I went back to Firefox.  It’s done me well over the years. I then activated my KnowHow cloud account. I can store no end of stuff there. I get the first year for free and then I have to pay for it. I wonder if I can get a similar thing free elsewhere. Mind you I’m not sure I’ll ever use it anyway.
After an hour I’d got to the stage where I had a browser that I liked and cloud storage that I probably would never use, and so decided to have a little break.

I’d spoken with "Daddies Little Angel TM" and we’d decided not to meet up today. The rain was against a walk. But seeing how the rain had subsided I took "Furry Face TM" round to the park. He gets fractious if he doesn’t go out. (Bit like me really). As we walked we saw that some trees by the river had fallen down overnight. Fudge was fascinated by this; he would have spent all day sniffing at them if I’d let him.
Fortunately, we didn’t meet anyone else as we walked; that always makes for a quicker outing.
Although we’d left home with no rain, the rain had returned as we walked. We were rather damp when we got home.

Once home I put some washing on, hoovered (with the Dyson) and fed the fish. I had intended spending a bit of time in the garden today, but it was a bit too damp for that. So I returned to the lap-top. It didn’t take long to install Paint Shop Pro (the package I use for farting about with photos) and so the lap-top was blog-capable if nothing else.
I then downloaded GSAK and got it registered. I also downloaded Urwigo. In theory the lap-top was now geo-capable too. I shall have to test it, but that can wait until later.
It was then time to transfer the data I wanted from the old lap-top (and leave behind that which I didn’t want). I started off with backing up three years’ worth of photos to the old hard drive I have upstairs (perhaps I might stick that lot onto cloud storage?). Over seven thousand photos took a while to shift.
I then had a rummage on the old lap-top. I discovered loads of stuff, and after a *lot* of farting about I decided to leave the vast majority of the stuff where it was. I’ve copied over that which I use on a regular basis. The rest of it can stay where it is until I need it rather than wasting time and disk space copying it never to use it again.
I was surprised at just how quickly I got the new lap-top to a state where it could take over from the old one.

Having a little time on my hands I then had a rummage through my letter rack. I had a letter from my Internet provider telling me they were pulling the plug on mankybadger dot com.  They apparently did that three weeks ago (!) because as a company they don’t do that sort of thing any more. Oh well; their loss. I suppose the Internet will just have to rough it with mankybadger dot co dot uk. I started farting about with that some time ago. I really should carry on doing something with it.
And flushed with success at how good yesterday’s Jasmer day went I planned another one. Starting with a drive to Welwyn Garden City the next ports of call would be Tring and Stoke Manderville, ending up in Harrow. If any of my geocaching readers fancy a day of lots of travelling about for five smiley faces please drop me a line.

I had a bit of toast for tea, then drove out to the cinema. Bearing in mind hardly anyone was available for the traditional Tuesday gathering I’d posted on Facebook asking if anyone fancied going to see the Star Trek film. Chris said he was up for it. I’m glad he was. Have you tried to buy a cinema ticket recently? The last time I went to the cinema was in 2014 to see the “Paddington” film and Cheryl had organized that. Prior to that I’d been to see the previous Star Trek film (in 2013) and that was with free tickets given to the astro club. Buying tickets is a right faff now. You have to choose where you want to sit. How would I know where I want to sit? Fortunately, Chris organized all that. All I had to do was get there and give him the dosh for my ticket.
I was surprised at just how busy the cinema was. And as for the film…. It was *very* good. There was all sorts of nods to the fans in there. Mind you if you are the sort of trekkie that has Star Trek tattoos and you pay *very* close attention there is one glaring inconsistency with the Star Trek mythos. I won’t give any spoilers but I will say “warp four”.

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