Well, it's a boring kinda day today. Spent most of the time showing people the Matrix Ping Pong, and that's it. Customers at work are pushing their luck. One day I'm gonna plead to the government that only licensed people should use computers. That'll shed a whole new light on "illegal operation" errors you get on PC's.

My ebay items are going ok so far... still a day to go tho, only 4 items have bids (strange when seeing how cheap everything else is).

I'm enjoying driving more and more. It's hard to stay under the speed limit! it's so tempting just to push it further and further! We switched cars with my parents over a week ago. We used to have a 1993 Vauxhall Corsa, we've now changed it for a Rover something or other (1992), mainly because it has more space (with 2 kids, we're starting to need it more). I took the car for a test drive before driving home, and clutch is like trying to one stone INTO another... it's rock solid (excuse the pun). But we've got used to it now. If you ever see me, you'll know who I am. It'll seem like meeting a normal person with the Hulk's ankle!

My boy's birthday pressie arrived today. A really cool climbing frame, with all bits and bobs and stuff. I'll have fun making it over the next few months, maybe curse a little as I find parts are missing, jump up and down as I slice my hand with a spanner, and then go out and buy a "Bob the Builder" figure instead!

Phew! Well, I'm back from my Paternity leave... this is the second time I've written this, as I typed up a blog equivalent in size to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, and then lost it all on a stupid mistake. *fume*.

It's nice to come back to work, it'll give me some free time! I did manage to spend some time however setting up our family web album. Click here for a ganders.

Anyhow, I seem to remember going into detail about getting my Mac back up and running again. As it happens, it died on me a few weeks ago. I just got up one morning, pressed the power button, and nothing happened. No startup chimes, no hum, no whirring! At this point I knew it was going to be one of three things.. Either the Power supply, Motherboard or Processor.

Not having the facilities to be able to check the fault, I took it down the local PC shop, who after scratching their heads over what a Mac was, discovered that the motherboard was dead. After a few phonecalls, I discovered that a replacement would cost £240 +VAT. So in such a crisis, there's only one place you can turn to... eBay!

Lo and behold, that very same day, and with 6 hours to go, a couple of Blue and White G3's were up for grabs (exactly the same Mac as my own). The current bidding was £106, but knowing the eBay game that was easily going to change in the next few hours. I came back 5 and a half hours later (by which time the bid had gone up to £156). The only way to win this was to place the bid at the last possible moment. Man does the adrenaline get to you or what? With 5 mins to go, my hands were shaking as if I were holding a spinning washing machine! Believe me, it's pretty difficult to press the right keys when you're shaking so much. With 18 seconds to spare, I placed my bid, and won it at £191. However... the reserve had not yet been met.

I managed to hammer out a deal eventually with the owner for £253 (still cheaper than £240 +VAT), and waited for the Mac to turn up. The plan was simple, strip the Mac of the motherboard and processor, and sell the rest on eBay to recoup some of the losses. I already had a friend who wanted the case. Fortunately for me, the Blue and White G3 had become a bit of a collectors item. The case was only in production for a few months, before they brought out the G4 in the similar shaped Black and White case.

When the Mac arrived, the case I discovered wasn't in too good a condition. It looked grubby, and had a few scratches to boot. After a good cleaning (inside and out) I decided that it looked alot better, and wasn't going to lose too much on the sale of it. I had plenty of fun gutting the Mac. I discovered that I had got hold of a revision 2 model of it, and with it a graphics card that was slightly faster... so that was gleaned too. The reason I swiped the processor with the motherboard being that it was 50MHz faster than my old one.

I now have about 12 different items up on ebay, ranging from the RAM, to the old Processor, and even power supply or "salvaged parts". With only 2/3 days left only 4 of the items have biddings, but you know the eBay game.. that'll all change in the last few hours/seconds.

Hearing the chimes as my Mac booted up was so bliss. I just don't get that feeling with PC's. I know I sound really sad about this, but PC's are just a peice of machinery. Mac owners know they buy into a cult, it's more, much more than hardware.

I'm wondering whether I should explain the title of my blogspot "Land of the Giants", but now I've posed the question, I suppose I'm gonna have to explain.

Ever feel like people know more than you, or you're trying to become something special, but feel you're drowning in the competition? Everyone else out there is just so big... but you're really small?

WELCOME TO THE LAND OF THE GIANTS

Trying to make a name for yourself is one thing... trying to keep afloat is alot harder than it seems. I made a name for myself "techietim"! I made it through a website I made which helped callcentre techies deal with Mac problems. When I made that name, and became that person, I was not the top Mac tech at work! Oh, the desire was there, but fortunately, I still had alot to learn. It was good to be under the covering of another person who had "the final say". However I ended up transferring to another department, my name had gone before me, and now I "had the final say".

I guess I'm enjoying being top of the ladder, but it's hard to keep on top of things. When new problems arise, I need to know the answer before anyone else, and that is so very hard!

I can't be master of everything, so I'm swamped in everything but my own little world.

I don't want to make out that it's a big thing or anything, but I just passed my urine!


TEST, I meant driving test!
... doh!

I had the head examiner, so I thought it might be tough, untill she started routing through my hair folicles. It was then that I realised I had turned up at a school, and had been queuing for nitty Nora the head explorer.

Anyway, I got to the driving test centre in time, and this time I had the chief examiner. But after some very shaky hill starts, a parallel park (Like a parallel dimension, but with swings 'n' all), and an emergency stop (he needed the toilet too). He passed me with four minor points (I don't know what the children were doing there either, but they all ponted and laughed).

But would my wife let me drive into work today???
uh-uh (shaking head) that's right!

She needed the car to go shopping!

Maybe I should apologise about my humour... or at least try and explain it.

it's like this... I'm not funny!

No seriously, I'm terrible at cracking jokes, but once in a while I might hit the spot.

I have a few different types of humour, but most of the time I'll just go off on some strange tangent completely unhindered and unrelated to whatever I was talking about in the first place. That's when I come to, and realise that whoever I was talking to is either in a comatose state, or has magically vanished!
My other styles of humer include "Silly humour" which in general ends up being a play on words, and ... erm.... no that's it.

Lame huh?

I hope I keep you entertained all the same. I like my humour, and despite my wife's frownings, rolled eyes, and un-nerved silence, I'm not going to be changing it.

OK, I want to keep some sort of anonymity, So I'll call myself "T. Knight"

No, no wait, that's too obvious. How about "Tim K"

...er...

Maybe I should say a bit about myself. I'm the type of person who will do this blog for a week, then leave it as my attention starts to wonder elsewhere. I've never been good at finishing projects. Starting them is my speciality, but finishing them..... maybe in a year or two, I'll think about it, and send you a postcard! So I'm hoping I can maintain this for longer than normal.

In order of "what I love", at the top of the list is God. Yep, the big JC! I don't want people thinking I'm a Bible basher, I'm a "born again" christian, and God has done alot for me (really-honest). I don't go round imposing my beliefs on people, but I do stand up for what I believe in, and I know that goes against the grain of the rest of society (ooo - what a rebel). I'll delve into this some other time.

Second in the list is my family. I'm a proud husband of a beautiful wife (I won't mention the ugly one, the wife with a shotgun, and the one with a wooden leg), and two handsome sons (currently 3yrs old, and 3weeks old).

My third love is my Mac, not the type you wear in the rain, but the type made out of the same material as bullet proof vests and the like! Don't worry! In any hostage situation, I can happily say "I'm going in... it's alright I'm wearing my Mac". I am referring to (of course) the computers rather than the raincoat!
As a side note, I will not be held responsible for any electrical burns caused by people going out in the rain wearing their computers

Don't worry, you'll hear me rave over these as time goes on. This will make up the bulk of my character.... also occasionally, I'll have a hairbrained idea/scheme which I'll be all enthusiastic about at first, start processing the idea and then