Well then...

Yes. I am running out of witty names for these blog entries. I know that sometimes I will have a good one but more often than not they're just random names...

So how am I now? Tired? Yes. I'm not really bored, because after four weeks, three emails (all of which essentially said "we know you don't like waiting for your order, therefore we are pleased to tell you that your order has been delayed") and a phone call to the same effect, my sparkly new keyboard has turned up! Yay.

On first impression, the keyboard seems extremely well made. It's got a few improvements over the old one, but a few downfalls as well. I like the sexy new orange backlighting. I love the fact that the mute and games mode keys are now made of steel instead of thin brittle plastic. I like the crisper sharper LCD display.
I don't like the fact that 12 of the G keys are missing (they reduced the number from 18 to 6 in the redesign), I'm not happy that the LCD display is now miniscule, and I'm not super thrilled that instead of a fast, convenient and accurate clicker wheel for volume control, there are now a pair of volume buttons.

Still, when said and done, it's a keyboard, not a work of art, so while it might stumble on one or two points, they're hardly significant enough to matter.

So what else have I been up to? Today I have been mostly putting my £69.99 running shoes in the washing machine and realising after removing them an hour later, with a huge chunk missing from one of them, that even springy flexible running shoes don't like being spun round 1600 times a minute. When I removed the rest of my clothes (calm down, I mean from the washing machine) and found them coated in a fine layer of pulverised foam rubber (from my shoes), I resolved not to make a similar mistake again.

I've been ordering more gems on ebay, and I spose that really is where I learned the lesson "do not drink and bid". Seriously, I've spent about £30 just by doggedly clicking "buy it now", "buy it now", "buy it now". And now I have about 432,683,135 items on the way to me, along with enough receipts, packing notes, and advertisements to keep the world in solid fuel for two weeks. Still, you get what you pay for, and when I get paid again in oh, 15 days, I won't miss the money any more.

Anyway. I've got to go to york tomorrow, most likely to Strensall barracks (brings back memories) or perhaps even to Catterick itself, to do some unnamed assessment. So my running shoes are going with me, as are shorts, etc just general PT stuff. I've then got to do an Icebreaker - a two minute chat where I talk about myself (somehow I don't think I'll have any problem doing that, hell I do it here enough), along with some "command tasks" presumably to test my ability to work as part of a team, and other general stuff I suppose too.

So yes, I am looking forward to it, but I'm also nervous. I can pass any one of the three physical tests they've asked me to do, but I don't know if I can pass them one after the other. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow, but it's important that I get a good night's sleep.

As an aside though, I've finally created a few cool slideshows for my LCD photoframe, and it's turning out to be quite a handy gadget. As is the USB memory stick flash drive type thing I bought with it. Admittedly it's not an ATV Turbo USB drive (an indestructable model of flash drive, designed to be waterproof and shockproof), but mine cost £12, so if they think I'm paying £73.99 for a USB flash drive, they can naa-naas (they can think again).

Anyway, I should probably have a sleep or some food or something similar like that, for now I think I'm just going to chill out and do one, both, or possibly more of those things.

Have fun.
And by the way, having typed all this, it's safe to say that typing on the new model G15 is an absolute pleasure.

Take care!