cameron and grace 

comps 

cameron 

Day 5 Thursday

balancing act

Day off today, so it was - ashamedly - exploited in the pursuit of naelife activites;

• eBay during the morning
• posting eBay stuff
• afternoon spent (1.5 hours) playing Half-Life 2

I took Cameron with me this morning into town to do some business, and treated him to a lunch from the bakery.

While he was at nursery Gail enjoyed watching some of the 2nd series of Monarch of the Glen (that I'd bought for her off eBay). I spent that time playing HL2 - I must be really, really near the end. It's getting 'solid'. I won't spoil it for anyone who may (actually) be reading this and a player. There's a nice sequence, though, that reminded me of the start of HL1, on the train.

Anyway, after picking up Cameron from nursery I needed to nip into Costco to buy batteries for my digital camera. I brought him with me. I was a pure geek in Costco - it pains me greatly to admit it, however this is part catharsis that's going on here - walking around with a wee notebook jotting down prices of things that I may be able to sell on eBay.

Tragic.

On the way home I did the 'what's your favourite' game that he likes. But later on, when I was sitting right here with my laptop advertising stuff on eBay, he wanted me to help him - again - with a bit he was stuck on in Finding Nemo (on his GBA). I'll admit, I wasn't impatient, but he must have detected that I was a bit...distracted.

He then asked why I was always on the computer and not doing stuff with him.

He's, like, 4. Surely he doesn't already know how to play the guilt card. But it worked. After I'd come home (stuff to do, you know how it is) I played with him for over 40 mins with his railway, cars and 'superheroes'. A guilt-offering? (40 minutes before bedtime is, in my opinion, both quality AND quantity)

But sitting here - again - now, I'm thinking back on the day and realising that he actually had quite a bit of my attention today.

So, a balancing act it is. Balancing my commitments to LIFE - which includes myself and my interests on my day off - to FAMILY and to GUILT.

eBay

My listings, as of today.

Oh, if, er, anything listed catches your fancy etc etc...

blogging

Wow, I got an email from someone that has actually read this blog - look for their comments further down.

Both Jason and Andy have linked to me on their pages, too, which is great.

laptop

I've dug out my PII ThinkPad. I love it, it's old, it's scuffed, it's a pure genuine old 'notebook'. I feel I should be sitting in a smokey NYC coffee house, 'ThinkPad'ing my blog, like a real blogger, rather than sitting in my dimly lit living room surrounded by the trappings of family life (sleeping 3 week old daughter, 4-almost-5-year-old son playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater on my PC, dog barking at the back door).

Reality is, smokey coffee houses don't exist anymore (do they?), and TBH I prefer the reality rather than the day dream.

I've been thinking, this 'naelife' thing could become some sort of franchise. I mean, the naelife philosphy is that it can appear that you have nae life (no life), namely your life consists of working and being a family man. The reality is that this sort of life is probably more fulfilling, ultimately, than that enjoyed by our single, childless contemporaries. Naelifers supplement their perceived lack of a life with things like worrying about our eBay rating and whether our CD of 90's hits is going to sell or not, or the FPS we're getting on Half-Life 2.

So my thoughts today travelled, as they're wont to do, along the lines of buying the naelife.org domain name, getting some cheap hosting and setting up a simple site dedicated to naelifers, guys that work, come home to their families, and spend their freetime fannying about on-line or playing games. Or recording the litre-age of Stella that they consume a day (Jason). The site could have a testimonial page where other guys like me could post their stories, and detail how they discovered they'd turned in to a naelifer.

It's all about irony. Ok, unlike people like my friend Matt, I don't go out once or twice a week to the Sports Bar (and then on to wherever it is that he goes to until 3am), and I'm not as lean as I once was, and I'm not as nippy around the 5-a-side pitch as I once was. I mean, Matt's married with 2 kids as well. He - I'm sure - looks at me with a degree of scorn, concern and sympathy. But just because it may be preceived that I have naelife, doesn't mean that it's so. The irony is that I consider my life to be good, that I have a life. I would contrast my life with his and be thankful that I can accept my 30-something-cohabitational-childrearing-examplesetting existance.

Because I'm happy and content with.

Anyway, my eBay rating has gone from 1 to 22 in just 3 weeks! Cuh, naelife? I don't think so...

Nova Prospekt 

Nova Prospekt 

eBay Listings

Ok, here's my eBay listings.

Some items are admittedly 'novelty', however, I'm actually experimenting. You never can tell how anglophilic (don't even know if it's a word - it should be, it means demonstrating your love of all things English) the Americans are. I'm not English, but Americans can't tell the difference.

Once, in New York, a guy told me he'd love to visit Scotland because "I've always wanted to visit a 3rd World country". Yep, and he was a college student too.

Grace 

Grace

Ok, got the pics to work. Reading the instructions, it would seem, is actually fairly useful.

Grace is almost 3 weeks old.

Day 4 - Wednesday

Pictures? I'm trying to use 'Hello' to send pics to this...nothing has appeared so far, but I will - of course - keep 'you' posted.

Quite a good eBay day yesterday. My rating is now 22, which is 5 better than it was earlier. I've advertised a few more items, and I've got a few more selling ideas. Ah, the things you do to help you get through the winter months.

HL2

Ross was texting me from just after 7am this yesterday, almost begging me for some Hl2 files. He claims he has a crack for it. I told him that the game hasn't been successfully cracked, which he says it has. He only needs the pre-loaded files on my system. :-| Oh right, only the pre-loaded ones, i.e. the whole game. Some crack.

He then accused me of being a 'tight-ass' because I said no.

Hmm, interesting theory, I replied, I spend £40 on the game yet he wants me to give him some of the files so that he can try and play it for nothing. Yet I'm the tight-ass.

Quite.

Anyway, I've emailed him a Google Alert I got this morning about Valve kicking something like 20k gamers for trying to do dodgy stuff with HL2.

Emailed a guy called Jason (http://www.videogamediaries.blogspot.com/) because he mentioned Omega drivers that claim to be optimised for Hl2. So I've downloaded them on his recommendation. Got his website via Andy's (the one I keep up with - minimal, yet strangely compelling) http://www.mediarypics.co.uk/

Day 3 - Tuesday

Managed to get Gail Monarch of the Glen, Season 2 DVD for about £18, so she'll be well chuffed.

I'm still in eBay mode, big time. I'm even considering getting up extra early on Sunday to go to the car boot sale to look for sellables. :-\

Anyway, managed to secure 3 mini disk recorders that will be repackaged and sold on for a profit. Hopefully.

Am very surprised that my old graphics card is already at £16 with 9 hours to do. Fools...

West Wing Season 1 DVD

Cool - £20 inc postage!

Result.

West Wing

wow, I love West Wing. We've watched most of season 2, so I'm keeping my eye on getting seasons 1 & 3 off eBay.

eBay newsgroup

wow...unfriendly or what?

It's one of those newsgroups where no courtesy or consideration is shown to newbies at all.

And everyone's try to be 'smart'...Check it out!

Look for uk.people.consumers.ebay

All of that being said, I did need to post a question regarding those 'free plasma tv' auctions, and I got 3 or 4 very nice helpful replies.

Day 2 - Monday

Actually, it's my ankle that seems worse for some reason.

I think I must have weak ankles.

Day 1 - Sunday

Sore knee - crocked a beauty by Ross at footie - he denies it, of course.

No HL2 today, altho glad to take a break. Should have it completed by Wednesday.