Possibly the last one from the mid-year season. This is a Guardians / Avengers mix-up. I’m not sure if I know which part of the MCU this actually comes from but that doesn’t matter. It’s got Groot.
Lego 62 – Model 76102
Not A Normal Distribution
So, I’m feeling grumpy today. Just am. Not sure why. And then I go and stupidly read an article in on the BBC News website about most babies being born at 4am. You can read the article here and I’ll be taking quotations from it.
Four o’clock in the morning is the time most babies are born spontaneously in England, with the majority arriving between 01:00 and 07:00, a study shows.
So, four o’clock is the “average” of 01:00 and 07:00. Is that how they worked this out? I’m not sure. I’m probably not going to read the original paper but it does seem a strange thing to say. Assuming that spontaneous births are reasonably random the actual number arriving at 04:00 would be quite small and the variation could be little.
While planned C-section births tended to happen on weekday mornings, births after induced labours were more likely to occur around midnight.
This makes sense. C-Sections in the morning to then make sure everyone is fine during the time when the medical cover is best. Inductions probably happen at that time because they are started in the morning and it takes that long for the effects to show. These are not surprising figures and make utter sense.
It’s this next bit that turned me into a rage.
Overall, more than 70% of births took place outside regular working hours.
And
The researchers said there could be implications for staffing of midwives and doctors, with only 28% of births taking place between 09:00 and 17:00 on weekdays.
So, an event that is reasonably random is spread throughout the day? About thirty percent of births happen in a time frame covering roughly 30% of the amount of time in a day. THIS IS WHAT WE WOULD EXPECT. The working day covers 1/3 of the 24 hours in a day and the number of births in that time period is about 1/3. This sentence made me swear out loud in our staff common room earlier today, much to the ammusment of my colleagues.
I’m going for a walk to calm down.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Last night I went to see the latest Jurassic Park film. I travelled to the Cineworld Cinema in Rochester. The tide was low, I could see the whole mud back. The place looked quite picturesque in the dimming sun. As is my custom I rated this film on the IMDB site and you should read the rating system within this communcation.
I rated Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) 6/10 #IMDb https://t.co/um3KbuWrcS
— Ian Parish (@iparish) June 13, 2018
Do you know what? I just tried to settle down and watch this film and enjoy it. Yes, it was terrible. The plot was shocking. The script was poor and everyone can outrun a volcano. They did get Jeff Goldbloom in for a couple of shots in the studio but they left the action to the younger actors. I just tried to enojy it as an action film and not be too picky.
There must be some form a rule that indicates that sequels are really bad, except for the Godfather and I haven’t seen those movies. This is film number 5 is the series and it was as you would expect for the fifth film in a series when there is only one plot.
Was it film four when they designed a new type of dinosaur? It wasn’t long before the capitialist pigs would take that dinosaur and then try to create an army with them. There was a lot wrong with this film. But I suspended an awful lot of disbelief and managed my best to enjoy the experience.
I remember seeing the first film in Harlow and it was an utter rush. Spielberg did an amazing job creating a world where dinosaurs exist. The original film made me so excited and scared I loved it. Unfortunately for kids these days they get to follow it up with tripe.
Oh, why were there kids under the age of 10 in the cinema when it’s a film that finished at 21:45?
These People Exist
In a communication still yet to be written I will explain how my lovely liberal views and attitudes towards people of “just be nice” are an outlier and not seen as the norm in these post-Brexit days. I feel left out in my own country. I feel my views, which are surely just about being nice, aren’t common.
So, what set this off? I was at a child’s party at the weekend and there was an “older” dad there. I have a feeling this was his second time around with kids and he and I chatted. There are three things that really pissed me off.
He looked around the party for a boy and said something along the lines of:
No girls here, that can’t be a bad thing.
My reaction was who the fuck are you to judge who a young child can invite to thier party? Who are you to say that girls are a bad thing. It seemed a very odd thing to say. Especially to someone you’ve only just met. I dodn’t say anything and let it move on. Had this been a friend of mine or someone I had known for a while I would have tried to dig down deeper into that comment but at the moment I won’t have a great deal to do with this person and so I left it.
The next thing he said was
I’ve got four boys, and a girl but she doesn’t count.
This was quite curious. I wondered perhaps he thought that this is the sort of thing you should say to a six foot skin head? Perhaps he was behaving in a way that he thought I would find acceptable. Once again I didn’t pull him up for this comment. Perhaps I should have. Perhaps I should have explained to this sexist man that his attitude will live on in the things that his son says as he grows up. Perhaps I should have said that it is people like him who mess up the future generation with thier stupid sexism. Perhaps this would have resulted in a heated argument. I don’t know. I let it pass. I’ve argued with enough friends and collegues to know it’s only best when you know someone.
The final thing that annoyed me wasn’t his sexism. It was his degradation of my career, my chosen employment. When asked what I did I replied “I’m a teacher”. his comment:
Well, that’s the end of that conversation then.
What an arrogant twat this man was. How rude and sexist to someone he had never met before he was.
There are lessons here. Maybe I should start realising that the majority of the rest of the world doesn’t think like me. Also, maybe I should have called him out on his sexism and arrogance. But, that’s not quite me. I’m not the confrontational tpye of person. I also know he’s entitled to those thoughts and beliefs. It’s just that he’s wrong.
Backitup 2
Within this communication I essentially told you that my NAS Drive had died and I was reasonably convinced I had lost my data but had a plan to get it back.
I had originally thought I could plug the hard drives into a Sata socket and the PC would be able to read them. It didn’t. This was because they were in a RAID configuration and also Linux so I would need the iOmega NAS to be able to read them.
The data recovery software did manage to find half a terabyte of data but as I explained this wasn’t formatted well and the file names were missing, because the files were RAIDed. This was my last resort really. I have spent a LOT of time arranging the files into a decent directory structure and using decent naming conventions.
Next plan was to order exactly the same enclosure as the one that died and hope I could put my disks into it and it would read them for me to copy the files over to the new NAS drive. I found one on eBay but lost that auction at the last moment because I was busy at that time and my phone didn’t notify me. I was gutted about this.
So, I ordered the next best thing. A complete iOmega NAS drive the same as the one which died. There were no more enclosures on eBay. This was costly. However, it arrived and was as described.
The tricky bit now was wondering whether it would read my existing disks with the data, try to format them or just die in the process. I decided an order of operations which minimised my chances of data loss.
- Turned of new Synology NAS.
- Turned on new (but not quite) iOmega NAS. Plugged it into the network and tried to communicate with it without installing the CD based software. This worked.
- I then called the iOmega NAS the same thing as the dead one. It was running a lower version of firmware and this bothered me slightly. The interface was different. I then turned it off.
- I installed ONE old HDD into the second hand enclosure and turned it on while connected to the network. My plan was to try and log into the device before it decided to automatically format my data-filled drive.
- Nothing happened. Just some flashing lights.
- Next, I tried both old HDDs in the new enclosure and hoped. Once again . . . nothing.
I was quite distressed at this moment. The new enclosure wasn’t reading the old HDD at all and I didn’t think I would get my data back. Then I had an idea. Maybe, just maybe, the old iOmega enclosure would power up? I was convinced it was the power circuitry on the board that had died. I mean there was smoke last week.
So, I thought. I’d plug the new power cable into the old box with the HDDs just slotted in to see what would happen. The fucking thing only went and started and seemed to run just fine. I have no idea what happened last time. I don’t know what the smoke was. All I had to do now was hope that the old enclosure would survive for long enough for me to get data. In all it took about three hours to transfer everything to a HDD inside the PC. Then I had to transfer everything to the new NAS drive. This was quicker as I think it has a far better read-write rate than the old box.
So, the data was restored and I now had two copies.
I had formatted a plan. The Synology is to be the main NAS and storage centre in the house. I have also installed one of the HDD from the old enclosure into the PC and it will have only NAS drive data on it. I can used an FTP program to sync that once a month or so. This way I have a separate copy of the NAS data in a useable format. The next thing will be to get a large capacity USB memory stick and create a shortcut in in the new NAS so that whenever it is inserted into the USB port the NAS will automatically back itself up.
So, ultimately what happened:
- Old NAS died (?) with smoke and then refused to power up.
- Synology works really well with excellent data transfer rates.
- New iOmega NAS works and is currently surplus, being an older model.
- The old enclosure might be serviceable.
- I might have just blown the fuse in the old power supply.
- Enclosures aren’t meant to die, HDDs are.
This incident has caused me over a week’s worth of stress and worry.
I hope my new backitup plan will work. I’m working on two degrees of redundancy, I might include a third with cloud storage.
Lego 61 – Model 60177
Here’s the latest offering from Fooyah. A lovely little plane from the Lego universe.
EXACTLY
I know I shouldn’t really but I have a few spare moments and thought I should share my thoughts.
I HATE THE DAILY MAIL
I’m not going to justify it. I’m not going to say much apart from moaning about this headline:
Fuck the Daily Mail. EXACTLY. Really. Have you looked at the outfits and seen they are EXACTLY the same. No you haven’t you fuckers because they aren’t EXACTLY the same. Fuck You you racist piece of shit newspaper.
Backitup
After my return from a trip to the Lake District, to be chronicled here at some point, I powered up the house. There’s quite a bit to do with IoT lights, Google Home, wireless speakers and the NAS Drive.
The NAS drive is where I have stored all my music, movies and photos for just over six years. I’ve replaced the hard disk drives once but never really thought I’d have a problem with it. So, I powered it up and went and did some stuff. When I got back to the black box I noticed there was no power light on. I checked the lead and socket power. It was all on. I pressed buttons but nothing. I then tried taking out the power lead from the box to then plug it back in. This was the second sign of trouble.
The power cable didn’t really want to leave the black box. When, after some good tugging, I got the lead out there followed a small spark, some smoke and general bad things that happen to electrical goods. Bugger.
After a quick check to see that it was definitely dead I panicked about getting the data off the HDDs. So, I ordered a USB Sata connection to join the drive to the PC. This seemed reasonable. When finally connected the PC didn’t want to read the HDD drive the drive was formatted in Linux and also had a RAID configuration. I was now starting to feel sick. The most recent photos are backed up in the cloud. But I have loads which are only on the NAS Drive. I thought I was protected because the HDD were in RAID1 configuration so the data should have been backed up in case of HDD failure.
More importantly I think was that my entire music library, along with the 100s of hours of organising it, was on the NAS. This has been a labour of love and the SONOS system uses the NAS as the music library along with iTunes [which I hate passionately].
The whole point of the RAID configuration was to make sure my data was safe. I hadn’t really considered the black box was going to be my downfall. It has died.
So, I now have some data recovery software and it has found 250GB of data but the file names are gone. I have those files transferred to the PC at the moment but my main hope is that I win a NAS enclosure the same as the one I did have. I will use this to get the data from the HDD assuming I can just plug the drives into the enclosure and it will be happy to let me read the data from them.
Reading online there are people who keep three or four copies of their data. This is something I am going to do in the future. I will have copies in the following locations:
- PC
- NAS Drive
- Large capacity USB
- Cloud
This will take a little organising but seeing as I was only at around half a terabyte on the old NAS I think I’ll be ok for a while. One of the disks I have taken out the old enclosure will be fitted into the PC and be used as the PC backup disk. I will use a USB stick plugged into the NAS to back that up and I will generally transfer stuff to the cloud as often as possible. I am currently a little sad about it all and I’m hoping that in a week’s time I’ll be fixed, up and running and generally a lot more cheery. There will be updates.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Today I went to see Solo. A film from the Star Wars universe but nothing really to do with the Empire and the Star Wars films. It was set before Han meets Luke is Mos Eisley. I went to the Plaza cinema in Workington and it was a very pleasant experience. The cinema was a good multiplex with decent prices. I liked it. I now need to include some form of information about the tide and I am afraid I have no visual information about it. I can inform you of what it was like at a similar time the day before:
Gorgeous. pic.twitter.com/fB4ZmVTI2Q
— Ian Parish (@iparish) May 30, 2018
This was the view over the River Esk slightly further down south. Just north of the Eskmeal Ranges used by the MOD to test rockets and shit out to sea.
As is customary I rated the film on IMDB and you should know by now to see this communication with information about the rating system.
I rated Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) 8/10 #IMDb https://t.co/AJifEhTzDQ
— Ian Parish (@iparish) May 31, 2018
So, there we go! A resounding 8/10. That’s pretty good for me. I went to see the film without any real expectation and I just wanted to be entertained. I struggled at the beginning because it seemed to be Oliver Twist for the first fifteen minutes but things settled and I enjoyed the remainder of the space romp.
I’m not going to go into detail. I enjoyed the film and I liked the action sequences. Could it have been better? Yes, loads. But it was good enough. I think what makes it survive a roasting here is that it didn’t have anything to say about the Darth Vader issue. It’s not a prequel and it doesn’t mess with the original films. I enjoyed it.
Tales Of Investigation
Perusing a website for a castle I noticed that they organise sleep-overs or rather not-sleep-overs in the most haunted room in the castle.
Apparently there’s a scientific team based at Muncaster Castle who investigate paranormal activities. Now, I will admit that paranormal claims should be investigated. I am happy to dismiss them out of hand but I also think that these things should be investigated. Claims of things moving noises heard should be tested. I very much doubt there will ever be any true evidence towards the existence of ghosts. Back to the team investigating Muncaster.
I can’t find anything about who they are or what they publish. Nothing. Oh well. It’s a great piece of marketing by Muncaster who charge about GBP500 for a night in the castle for six people.
I guess scientific research means a team put loads of cameras and measuring devices around the castle. I don’t think these are necessary as people claim to have felt real effects of ghosts so sensitive measurements shouldn’t be needed. The effects of ghosts should be obvious. But “researchers” look at more and more sensitive equipment which means they are more likely to be affected by noise in the measurements than anything else. This noise will be held up as evidence of tiny effects of the supernatural.
As I’m heading to the castle today I’ll let the three of you who read this know if I see anything I can’t explain.
I downloaded the T&Cs for the ghost vigil and I was amazed at point 12:
12. Please note that stories about the Tapestry Room are not fabricated or “made-up”. On occasion very strange
things seem to happen in that room at the dead of night.
This is almost Trumpian in its language and use of quotation marks. Does the castle renege on its part of the contract if these stories are not true?