Tuesday, May 13. 2008
Nest Of Tables
We've been decorating the living room since what feels like forever, I'll post some proper pictures of it finished but here is a sneak preview of the photos I took of the new nest of tables that's been waiting for us to finish decorating for a few months. I finally put them together at the weekend.




Posted by LornaJane
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09:31
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Sunday, May 11. 2008
Attempted Break-in
Last night we came home at around midnight and disturbed an intruder. Nobody hurt and nothing taken, is the short version.
We got back, walked up to the front door and I decided I needed to water my plants as they were looking at bit sad. So I went up the side of the house to the back to get the watering can while Kevin went in the front door. The back of our house is pitch black at night but I know it well so I just wandered round, right along the back of the house and grabbed the watering can. I then looked around and realised there was something moving in the dark ... something very big. Eventually this heaving shape resolved itself into a man climbing out of my kitchen window at which point I started SCREAMING. Forget panic alarms, I was easily louder than any of those, the whole street must have heard me.
As I was only about 4 feet from the man in question, he must have got a fair fright as well (who wanders around back gardens in the pitch black at midnight after all??). Seems like he heard Kevin going in the front and scarpered back out the way he came in. Of course Kevin, in the house, has no idea what is happening other than there is screaming outside the house ... I can't imagine what was going through his mind when he realised it was me screaming. Anyway I ran back to the front, went in the house and after some total incoherence explained to Kevin what I'd seen. At which point we had no idea if there was still anyone in the house or anything.
I rang the police and our neighbours were also out asking if we were OK, they very kindly helped Kevin check if there was anyone else in the house. The police responded quickly and were very good, which is great. I'm sure they had enough going on on a Saturday night! Anyway the fingerprint people came this morning and got a good footprint from the kitchen counter, which was very interesting as I've never seen them do that before.
To cut a long story short, we are fine, nobody was hurt (although we both got almighty frights), and nothing was taken. The window is boarded up now and we will get it replaced as quickly as we can. It seems like the intruder thought we were upstairs asleep (car on the drive, no lights on, midnight), and it was just very lucky that we got back when we did, there was no sign that he had been anywhere other than the kitchen.
We got back, walked up to the front door and I decided I needed to water my plants as they were looking at bit sad. So I went up the side of the house to the back to get the watering can while Kevin went in the front door. The back of our house is pitch black at night but I know it well so I just wandered round, right along the back of the house and grabbed the watering can. I then looked around and realised there was something moving in the dark ... something very big. Eventually this heaving shape resolved itself into a man climbing out of my kitchen window at which point I started SCREAMING. Forget panic alarms, I was easily louder than any of those, the whole street must have heard me.
As I was only about 4 feet from the man in question, he must have got a fair fright as well (who wanders around back gardens in the pitch black at midnight after all??). Seems like he heard Kevin going in the front and scarpered back out the way he came in. Of course Kevin, in the house, has no idea what is happening other than there is screaming outside the house ... I can't imagine what was going through his mind when he realised it was me screaming. Anyway I ran back to the front, went in the house and after some total incoherence explained to Kevin what I'd seen. At which point we had no idea if there was still anyone in the house or anything.
I rang the police and our neighbours were also out asking if we were OK, they very kindly helped Kevin check if there was anyone else in the house. The police responded quickly and were very good, which is great. I'm sure they had enough going on on a Saturday night! Anyway the fingerprint people came this morning and got a good footprint from the kitchen counter, which was very interesting as I've never seen them do that before.
To cut a long story short, we are fine, nobody was hurt (although we both got almighty frights), and nothing was taken. The window is boarded up now and we will get it replaced as quickly as we can. It seems like the intruder thought we were upstairs asleep (car on the drive, no lights on, midnight), and it was just very lucky that we got back when we did, there was no sign that he had been anywhere other than the kitchen.
Posted by LornaJane
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17:01
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Thursday, May 8. 2008
Inaugural Sheffield Geekup
Last night I attended and spoke at the First Sheffield Geekup held at the Fat Cat in Sheffield. My talk was entitled "Deploying Web Projects with Subversion" and you can see the slides for that at http://www.slideshare.net/lornajane/deploying-web-projects-with-svn/.
Overall I think the event was well-organised, there were certainly plenty of people there and we had a projector, speakers and a room so it pretty much ticked all the boxes. The Fat Cat is a nice pub, with good beer, but for those of us coming from further afield it was a bit tricky to get to as its not exactly handy for the station. The evening was good however I felt that the timings slipped badly - I was the first speaker and although there was somthing else happening earlier on, the talks aimed for 7:30 were actually nearer 9pm ... so a couple of pints later than I was expecting my audience to be and I think my talk came across as rather dry as a result! Also since one of the speakers ran over his time completely (now I understand why other geekups sit with a stopwatch and click the slides through for you!), I had about ten minutes after the talks to hand out a couple of business cards and answer a few quick questions before I had to dash off for my train. All of these though are only teething problems and I think everyone had a pretty good time, so well done to Jag for getting it off the ground ... here's to next month!
Overall I think the event was well-organised, there were certainly plenty of people there and we had a projector, speakers and a room so it pretty much ticked all the boxes. The Fat Cat is a nice pub, with good beer, but for those of us coming from further afield it was a bit tricky to get to as its not exactly handy for the station. The evening was good however I felt that the timings slipped badly - I was the first speaker and although there was somthing else happening earlier on, the talks aimed for 7:30 were actually nearer 9pm ... so a couple of pints later than I was expecting my audience to be and I think my talk came across as rather dry as a result! Also since one of the speakers ran over his time completely (now I understand why other geekups sit with a stopwatch and click the slides through for you!), I had about ten minutes after the talks to hand out a couple of business cards and answer a few quick questions before I had to dash off for my train. All of these though are only teething problems and I think everyone had a pretty good time, so well done to Jag for getting it off the ground ... here's to next month!
Wednesday, April 30. 2008
Geekup Sheffield
I was very pleased to hear that Sheffield is getting its own Geekup event, and that it starts next week on 7th May and will run on the first Wednesday of every month. I was even more pleased to be asked to speak at it - I'll be giving a 20:20 format (20 slides, 20 seconds per slide = 6 and a half minutes) on "Deploying Web Projects with Subversion". Come along to The Fat Cat on Alma Street at 6pm for lots of fun, beer, and chatter!
Monday, April 28. 2008
OpenOffice Custom Quotes
I have been driven mad for the last week or so by the silly slanty quote marks that OpenOffice insists on using instead of the normal ones. It is especially annoying when adding code snippets to presentations!
To turn these off go to:
Tools > Autocorrect > Custom Quotes tab
And until the "Replace" boxes.
Hope this saves someone else the annoyances I had.
To turn these off go to:
Tools > Autocorrect > Custom Quotes tab
And until the "Replace" boxes.
Hope this saves someone else the annoyances I had.
Saturday, April 26. 2008
Weedkiller
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Comments
Tue, 13.05.2008 11:44
thats rubbish lots of cuddles for you at least you can make necessary changes now :) I hope they catch him but like you say i wont hold my breath… our recent break in they caught the lads in question still with glass on their clothing fro m our house and they still couldnt charge them! see yo [...]
Tue, 13.05.2008 00:26
Saw your post in the DevNetwork PHP forum, followed it to he re. Good thing to hear you and your husband were not hurt. Y our message was a wake-up call. Unfortunately tonight my wif e and I heard that our sister-in-law’s Internet connection w as cut by an angry ex-boyfriend, and we suspect he’s b [...]
Mon, 12.05.2008 09:28
thanks people for dropping by and adding a comment, the supp ort means a lot. I have no idea how likely they are to catc h him and I’m keeping my expecations of that pretty low, for now we are just making some practical changes in the house and trying to keep the whole thing in perspective.
Mon, 12.05.2008 08:46
I hope they catch the guy. Seriously sucks!
Mon, 12.05.2008 04:18
Glad to hear you’re not hurt and nothing was taken, but I’m sure sorry to hear about this.
Sun, 11.05.2008 19:34
I can only echo dotjay. I’m glad nothing bad happened. Ro b…
Sun, 11.05.2008 17:33
hug What a crap thing to return to. Still, lucky that you disturbed them before they took anything.
Thu, 08.05.2008 16:14
Tamlyn: Thanks for the vote of confidence :) Its a tricky o ne because with 20 slides you can either do basics or intere sting stuff, there isn’t room for both. I very much enjoyed your talk, great slide design and images as well – very nic e!
Thu, 08.05.2008 15:46
I think the timing for the talks is something Jag will be wo rking on for next time. You timing, however, was impeccable, as Ian Ibbotson pointed out! I wouldn’t say your talk was t oo dry but that you perhaps tried to cover too much in 6 min utes (which I think I did too). I didn’t get a chance [...]