Doing Stupid Things

Hmmm. Pesky wasps. We have a wasps nest in the flat roof just above the porch. Just the way to greet visitors, with a cheery hello and a sting which makes their head swell up like a balloon. I know that we are all part of the fabric of the universe and every creature has its place in the wonderful tapestry of existence. But the wasps have to go.

I guess it is that time of year. We have had nests before, usually just before a child's birthday party with half the school class coming round to trample jelly into the carpet. The first nest we had a guy come round who brought a space suit kind of thing which he wore while he squirted white powder into the nest. This was good, but cost us thirty quid. The second time I bought some white powder from the local shop (price six quid) and did my own squirting - without a space suit. I really wanted to buy a space suit but they didn't have any in stock. I wanted to wear it one morning to wake the kids up, but it was not to be.

I hate hot weather. It makes me do stupid things. Like play with DVD burners. I've just acquired one and I've been trying to convert a video into a DVD. I downloaded an evaluation copy of Nero (the premier DVD and CD writing program) and captured my video using Windows Movie Maker, thinking that I could then use Nero to burn it. Wrong. You need an authoring tool. So, off to the web and get an evaluation copy of ulead Movie Factory. Then I worked my way through the program and got to the point where I think I've made a DVD. I quite like ULEAD products, but they always have this fake menu system laid on top of windows. They probably think it makes it easier for novices to use, but to people who know what windows and buttons are supposed to look like it can be a bit confusing. Anyway, now to burn my first ever DVD. Crack the seal on the box, open it and put the the top disk in the drive and close the door. And curse.

They put these foam spacers on top of the disks in the container. I'd of course forgotten this (hot weather I guess) and had to watch the DVD and foam widget vanish into the drawer. Of course when I pressed eject the foam thing stayed inside. Cue much cursing and stamping. Followed by lots of prodding, followed by stripping the drive down to remove the cursed ring. I've now got the thing sitting in the corner chugging whilst the disk is built. The counter currently stands at 3 hours to completion, i.e. sometime tomorrow. I'll let you know if it works.