This Just In...
New Horizons now has a "current location" feature. Updated hourly. Sweet.

Monday Evening.
Hello. No post for me this morning, but I didn't expect any. I'm expecting post tomorrow or Wednesday.

Found a couple more cousins on Genes Reunited. Not made any more advances though. I must finish that 'pack' for that bloke who got in touch last week. Still haven't finished the project for my Aunty either. I have all the info - it's just finishing it off that needs doing. So tonight I shall do the latter and tomorrow I shall do the other with a view to complete it.

Car is running nicely. Handbrake pulled up a bit further than usual last night, but I think I was being rough with it. Brake still works and the lever doesn't come up further than its meant to so all is well.

I've been playing Sim City 3000 again. I'm doing rather well by my standards if I'm honest.

Well, I've got things to be getting on with. Before I go though, I want to draw attention to this scandalous turn of events in London.

Take care

Money Update.
Everything is sorted now. Final bill came to about £510. I've had to use my credit card. I've had the card 3 years. I got it for when I went abroad on work trips and I've never used it since finishing that job last year.

Anyway, lets not dwell on that - there was a big coincidence to report today. I found my Dad's cousin through Genes Reunited!

Seperately, Mum has managed to take back one of our ancestral lines a couple of generations. So good news there too! :-D

Next big event is some time next week when I find out the result of my interview. Well, hopefully I'll find out. They can't delay the decision further can they? If they do, I might have to get in touch to try and find out what they're thinking; mainly cos of the aforementioned, inievitable credit card bill.

In other news, the forum at Biggedy Bong thinks I'm a troll. I'm not very good at forums - i'm too used to chatrooms. Plus I don't exactly have an encyclopedic knowledge of music so I can't join in easily. But I like reading what they say and I join in when I can - but that seems to bring the topic to an abrupt end. Oh, and as eager eyed readers will remember, I paid some of my hard earned student loan towards keeping the site open (Click here to read the entry).

My Money Has Flown The Nest.
For those of you following my plight, the repair bill has come to £435-74. Unfortunately, this is still only a total so-far as there is still the small matter of road tax which I have to pay by Tuesday. The very thing, may I add, that has raised the need for an MOT certificate in the first place. I think the road tax is £110 - I could have managed £110. It's now £555 and counting. Shock absorbers are apparently failing - they are roughly £50 each and ideally need to be replaced in pairs.

Why did I ever want a car?!

MOT retest is at 14:00 tomorrow. Cross your fingers those of you not doing any exams of your own.

In Adition...
* New Catalytic converter as old one has been damaged by the problem with the oxygen sensor
* Front pipe not being replaced now
* Front nearside shock asbsorber is now somehow travelling too far (told them not to fix that though)

Time is of the essence here. Time is of the essence and it's Thursday and STILL it isn't ready.

*bites fingernails*

Money, Money and More Money.
£360 and counting; that's the bill to repair my car. This includes the following work:
* New front pipe
* New oxygen sensor
* New handbrake cable
* Rear brake shoe dismantle and refit
* Diagnostic check
* Emissions check


Then there's the MOT retest - that will cost £20 if I get it booked in by Friday.


In the past year and a half of me owning this car I have replaced:
* Auxillary (alternator) drive belt
* Fuel pump
* Timing belt
* Front brake assembly
* New exhaust (back box and catalytic converter)

Then there's the expected small things:
* Wheel trims
* Exterior lightbulbs
* 3 litres of Oil

Okay, so the car is 12 years old and only original parts have had to be changed. But WHY do all these things have to reach the end of their lives at the same time?! Still, on the bright side there shouldn't be any big jobs left to do over the next few years!

Enough complaining. I have found more relations on Genes Reunited. Now my number of relations is up to 603, with 92 different surnames. Talking of surnames, below are two maps showing the distribution of my surname in 1881 and 1998 respectively...

I found out last night on TV (Balderdash and Piffle) that the word "set" has over 150 documented contexts and a 85,000 word defintion. You can see the definition for yourself online. Click here to go to the Oxford English Dictionary online and explore for yourself. On tonights TV there is Who Do You Think You Are - a very interesting show delving into the family histories of well known people - one person per show.

In Pluto news, things are going well, here's an image of New Horizon's trajectory leaving the Earth. Latest news can be found here.

Take care everyone.

Monday Morning.
Good morning - I must first brag about being up so early and having got up willingly. 06:25 I got up! I walked Trace to the train station and had a lovely stroll home. I stopped to watch the birds in the trees a few times too on this cold, frosty morning.

I haven't much to say really. I'm still waiting for job news (1 week to go) and car is being booked in to a garage today (hopefully). I have a few links I wish to give...

Firstly, online Sudoku. Secondly, a website that tracks ships online (almost live) - here is an example if you can't be arsed searching. Thirdly, I'm looking out for New Horizons being entered onto this Solar System Simulator.

And that concludes this post. Thankyou for reading.

FAILED.

Yes, my car has failed its MOT. I now have to fork out anything between £70 and £200 to put it right. I intend to do the smaller jobs myself; if you can call having to adjust the handbrake a small issue.

In other news, it appears the Pluto mission is on track to launch today. Fingers crossed!

News At Last.
Yes, it's true, I've heard back from my interview. Unfortunately it's not a yes but it's not a no either. The company are interviewing someone else before they give me a final answer at the end of this month.

So what do I do in the mean time? Do I wait around or do I assume the worst and move to plan B? To add to the mix, I have an MOT to pay for and car tax is due (also) at the end of this month.

I haven't had a round up of news for a while and I'm not going to do it now either. What I will tell you all is that the mission to Pluto (New Horizons) has been postponed until 18:16 GMT tomorrow due to strong ground winds. A couple of webpages of relevance to geeks like me can be found here and here.

You may have heard in the news that the Stardust mission has returned to Earth. The contents of the space craft (which is basically space dust) is being scanned. It will take until around March to do this. Then, the public are being asked to help look through the scanned images to find the grains of space dust. For the person(s) who find grains, you are rewarded with your name being attached to the science paper showing the findings. For a better explanation, look at the website.

Another webiste has come to my attention (okay, so I saw it on BBC News). This site allows you to look up the distribution (by county) of surnames. You have two further options - view the distribution as of 1881 or view the distribution as of 1998. It's pretty busy at the moment (none too surprisingly) but once demand has levelled off it should be very useful. I intend to use it with my family tree project that I've nearly finished.

And that is about it. I haven't included any Countdown clips today as it was rather tough - especially with the current champion!

Funny News.
Hello there. There being a complete lack of news today (still no word on the verdict of my interview) I have found this amusing story on BBC News Online.

So, let Ms Vorderman test your mind with this numbers game from Countdown.

Happy New Year.
A tad on the late side, I know. But still, it's the thought that counts eh?

Well here we are. 2006 is rolling out in front of us and I hope we all have at least some idea what we want out of 2006.

My aim is simple. To get a job. I intend to get a job by February; whether it be degree related or not. So there exists a plan A and a plan B.

Plan A expires once I hear back from my interview on the 11th.

So then, do you like today's picture? I took it a couple days ago - you remember, when the outside daytime temperature was -5C. I found it funny that the nightime temp was warmer than the daytime temp!

My list of links is going to be growing some more. One of Shaz's regular reads is going to be added to my list. And I must copy this link cos it was Funny.

Got to stay at Esther's over New Year. That was good. They even let me stay a few days which I really enjoyed. I kept worying I was imposing though, and I think I kept insulting them by accident. I'm even thinkng of taking up a new hobby - this combines two hobbies I'm already interested in plus a third that I've never explored before. Great eh?! I just hope I have somewhere to put all this stuff! I will have to draw a picture for you all.

I've recently started watching the Discworld animations. They're okay, I wouldn't say I'm a fan of them - I like the characters the way I've imagined them for a start.

Well, I'm going to update my links and then I shall draw a plan of my dream home and then I shall carry on preparing for my interview. Take care all.