This section covers my life outside of Trainz and other rail simulators which this site is mostly about. This reflects what else I do in my spare time and you will find the following topics come up amongst others – sometimes with Youtube videos.
- Parish Council work (I am currently as I write this a Parish Council)
- Computing and remote VDI solutions for personal use
- Work (VERY occasionally!)
- Travels
- Website troubleshooting and design.
- Other situations like social situations. As I am openly on the Autistic Spectrum, I sometimes find myself in difficult social situations.
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Things that surprise me.
Read more: Things that surprise me.Its no secret what I do for a living, however, I know staff for other operators and one gave me a discussion about their shift card one weekend that really shocked me. I could come up with something as equally in efficient, but this is sort of what I was told, I’ve used locations of similar distance and times on the network to protect the identity. Sign on 12:00 Sign off: 18:00 NM1201 GRD Act Traction Location Arr Dep TAXI Northam Dep 13:15 Portsmouth Hbr 13:55 PASS 2E30CB Portsmouth Hbr 14:00 Southampton Ctl 14:59 PNB 450 2E35CB Southampton Ctl 16:10…
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Small problem I have (Part 2)…
Read more: Small problem I have (Part 2)…So I wrote a few months ago about my issues with a lady who sits opposite me and getting the body language confused (this post). Well, it gets more curious – now she knows my name. I’ll be honest, ASD doesn’t help me here and I am not one to talk to someone unless I find something common to talk about (hard when you are on a train) to get over that first bit of anxiety. I know this person has a couple of friends that join at Haslemere occasionally. I mean, like once in a blue moon. I was…
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Proton VPN and Linux
Read more: Proton VPN and LinuxOh what a headache. Well, it was easy once I figured out what I needed. 2 versions, 2 tutorials, so as of October 2024, the easiest way I found to set it up is to use the Proton VPN gtk app from the AUR. I’m running Arch so, it was a bit more difficult. Anyway, you need to build and compile a lot of source files from the AUR. To make things super easy, I created a very quick and unprofessional script. It also saves you hunting around for the repositories. Tested on my computer and it works, I need…
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Small problem I have…
Read more: Small problem I have…I think I’ll talk about my first problem with autism or ASD with a little problem I have currently and it may explain how I work. Patterns, lots of patterns. My current issue is my daily commute and one lady (who I suspect I now have some name, could be wrong but I believe it’s a J), gets on further up the line. Nothing unusual. For me, the most difficult problem is understanding body language, she also knows I carry a particular type of laptop, a Panasonic Toughbook, at the moment it’s more like 2. A Mk1 and Mk2 (as…
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Guess what I forgot?
Read more: Guess what I forgot?“Its just a manic Monday” the bangles said. So, Sunday, I get everything ready for work, change a laptop over, so I am using my Dell Latitude 7300 (which is identical to my work laptop – they are both the same, just one is upgraded and one is untouched), I also have my Toughbook on me. Next morning, make my lunch, stuff my bag (I need a bigger one), drive to Havant (haven’t a clue why), got onto the station, got my morning tea as I’m feeling tea’ed off, talk to someone I travel up with on a daily basis…
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Freebie Mac
Read more: Freebie MacApart from the introductions, I thought I’ll open this blog with something a little more interesting, I tend to mess with old computers and this is one of them. Its quite wordy and long, however, you might want to have a laugh at my expense. I also have no photos of said machine yet (I didn’t think about that bit), but I’ll put one up later. I’m a big user of Facebook, I have to confess and I tend to look at Facebook a bit too much for my liking (note to self, find a different hobby) – but unexpected…
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WordPress sometimes
Read more: WordPress sometimesThe purpose of this blog is to be really simple, I.e. the site uses one method to display content (using NetObject Fusion – there is a custom template I plan to impliment at https://wessexelectricnut.co.uk/test/test.html to see what you think) and have it as an iframe on that part of the site as a different heading. Small problem, I had to deal with the default profile for some time, as it has a lot of default stuff added to it (twenty-twenty four, I was not happy!). Trying to convert over to other profiles – i.e. simplistic ones to give a more…
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Welcome
Read more: WelcomeWelcome to my blog, its a new blog and it started from one problem with my life. I’m on the ASD (autistic spectrum disorder) and more recently, I have had a lot of issues with my personal life (thankfully, not my work life). I won’t go into the past but I have produced blogs before on this site and on previous sites (pre 2008 can be found here: (link to find – from Live Journal), most of this is between my teens and early 20s when I wanted to show the world the work I produced and back then, the…
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The hardest software/hardware I’ve ever tried to find.!
Read more: The hardest software/hardware I’ve ever tried to find.!And it was for an old laptop! In fact, it is for an old Panasonic Laptop, more specifically, a Panasonic Toughbook CF-18 (I love Toughbooks! But their optional extras can be a pain!). Mine is fitted with an additional item called a GPRS modem, or General Packet Radio Service or 2G (Or EDGE which is 2.5G if you like, but my Toughbook called it 2.75G!) I have 2 newer toughbooks and 2 newer laptops (a HP Elitebook 2730P and an Elitebook 2760P which is a US import) which have 3G modems installed in them (which is faster than EDGE and GPRS – you may…
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Right or Wrong?
Read more: Right or Wrong?Interesting scenario to think about, you are station staff in a mess room near the end of your shift. You hear shouting from one platform so you investigate. You see that all your colleagues are already talking to the person, but at the same time, a passenger distracts you telling you that there is a knife on another platform under a bench which you categorise as a sharp object, but you remember how you are trained in dealing with sharp objects (not to touch it with anything other than litter pickers) and the law. You had 2 options: Option 1:…