Balls are touching...

Balls are touching... it's what I did on Friday, so read on. Work is looming over my head like a big grey cloud... But here's my fix!:

The last 3 weeks have been a series of [rather dramatic] highs and lows for me, and I've found it hard to come to terms with everything, but that's cool, it's for the best. On Friday I met up with some pals to go play pool at Rileys, which was easily the best thing I've done in a while. Like the others I hadn't touched a cue for some time, so y'know, we were all a bit rusty. Within an hour or so.... we were playing a little more competitively (it's a good thing, I can assure you).. but of course, Rileys was always about socialising rather than competing. Earlier today, I met up with another good friend, and we had a good chat for some... what, was it 5 hours+ or something? I don't think I've had a conversation with a single person for so long (!!). It was great to catch up and see her new flat, and all my worries were eased away... (well I hope her's was a little, my apologies for being a not-such-a-good guest!). But today I really felt she understood me, was there to listen to what I had to say and like, of had some good ideas and advice, so thank you. Today was my turning point, that point where the little light bulb inside my head goes *ding!* and I know what I'm doing in life all of a sudden again! (i.e. not being silly!)

On another note, as part of my big "phase" of distraction, I've gotten a new phone, which I've found rather feature packed. So I've been installing various ROMs (software that makes the phone go "tick"), softwares... So much so, that I'm working on a holder for my motorbike to use it's GPS feature. Note: Skip to the end of the post if you're not interested in the build!

The basic setup is basically a metal bracket (used for roofing that I got from Toolstation), attached to a waterproof case (meant for valuables when outdoors, from eBay) with some nuts holding it together and a BIG dollop of Araldite epoxy. The phone is able to charge and output audio via a splitter cable (from eBay), although it won't take calls since this would require finding some way to answer the call - i.e. the phone is inside a case, the only workaround is a button from a handfree headset, and that's not possible due to the nature of the setup. So I figure if I get calls I'll just ignore them until I pull up.

Sorting out the basic holder was simple enough. The holder will be mounted onto the mirror attachment. However, since the mirror is attached to handbars which rotate as you steer, the movement presented the next problem. Cheap wires/cables to bridge the steering (such as the typical cheap ones used in the splitter as seen above) would just not be able to handle the outdoors/rain/stress and would fail in pretty soon. I went to Maplins to buy some decent speaker cable which had 4 wires, removed one (since stereo uses 3) and was able to squeeze this into a normal 3.5mm jack. The power lead was automotive cable with a USB and mini USB plugs at either end, so it's essentially a power-only hardcore USB extension. I DIY-soldered my own cables so that I'd have some which would withstand the steering.


With the cables made up, I plugged the phone into my amp and the power to the usual charger. Bingo, it works fine and charges as it should.


The final job was making connectors ready for the outdoors, I'd already thought about the case for the phone. However, I wanted to be able to separate the USB cables from the splitter rather than waterproofing them by gluing them together. So I found a small plastic case from some old electronics to cover the plugs.


So that's it. The splitter is permanently held in place with the epoxy, tomorrow I'll mount it and give it a go, although I'm still waiting for the proper cigarette lighter socket-to-USB adaptor to arrive in the mail. I'll post a few more pictures later in the week!

Here's two good tunes which are on my playlist (might not be to everyone's taste I know)






Tomorrow is the start of another week, I'm some 2 weeks behind in study now, but I hope to catch up this week.

I've been looking at the way I work my life recently, and picked out a few sucky bits which I figure this academic year I'll work on! Well, there's quite a number of things I want to do now, so I need to take some initiative to work on myself. I've also been made to realise that I was never that inspiring towards others, sure I was good at being supportive.. but there is a line drawn between being supportive and being inspiring. Well, so I've been led to believe...! Sorry I was not there for you... I'm sorry to the various pals I've "neglected" a bit over the last year or so, you're not forgotten =P


"Live the dream" .. as a good pal always says..

so LIVE THE DREAM! I won't be scared of stepping OUT of my comfort zone this year!!

Take care all,
Have a fantastic week - I know will!!

Stay Happy, don' be sad... happyyyyyy =)