Must see TV, May 2007

I did a post like this last year, so thought it only right that I did another one this year. Like last year, PTI and Around the Horn go without saying (although I'll admit to podcasting and listening in the car most days).

The Apprentice, 9pm Wednesdays, BBC1
Another compelling series, featuring everything from the competant (Kristina), the nutty (Tre) and the downright nasty (Katie).

Dream Team, 8pm Sundays, Sky One
The final series in drawing to a close, and with a big assist from our Sky+ box I've managed to see every episode of this series.

Sadly the green arrow indicating the series link option is no longer against the next entry on our personal planner. That's because the next episode is the last one ever. On the heels of the best episode of the series to date that's pretty sad.

Lots of questions remain unanswered. Will Harchester win the Premiership? Will Jason and Katy get back together? Will anyone other than Amy discover that Danny is Dragonslayer, and what happens with the cans of petrol and the lighter that he's carrying?

Featured last year...
Prison Break is still a programme I watch out for. However I downloaded the first twelve episodes before they were shown here, until my dvd writing software decided it didn't like my new dual-layer dvd writer. I've got about five episodes on our Sky+ box but I know we've missed one somewhere, so I'll have to download them to see them all. It's better without ads anyway.

Moving to Thunderbird

Not posted anything significant for a while, so thought I would fill this with a tech post (of sorts, it's hardly detailed).

After years of using trusty Pegasus Mail, I'm in the process of switching to Mozilla Thunderbird. I've been using (and recommending) Mozilla's Firefox browser for ages, but now I'm going to be using their mail client as well.

The exporting of nearly nine year's worth of folders (I rarely delete e-mails from friends) is going to take some time, but I'll get there. The reasons I'm moving are:

1) Better support for multiple e-mail addresses. With Pegasus I'd be swapping over between mailboxes. No need with Thunderbird, which handles this pretty easily.
2) Better HTML support. While this was secure with Pegasus, it was pretty awkward, and e-mails didn't necessarily render particularly well. Thunderbird works well on incoming (if you choose) and outgoing messages.

That's really all the reasons I have, but they're pretty big reasons in terms of making my life easier. There are a few things I'd like to see in Thunderbird (multiple signatures, selective mail downloading) but I suspect I'll find those in due course in various extensions that are available. Plus I'm still getting used to using it!

There's another move I'm working on, but that can wait for another time.

Another year older

Hit another birthday on Monday. Took the day off to spend it with my wife and daughter, which was great. Had dinner in Edinburgh at the Hard Rock Cafe which was amazing (I love the pulled pork sandwiches).

Glad to be done with 31 if I'm honest. I was thinking back over the year the day before and can't say it has been particularly glorious/momentous. Not much I can do about it now but hopefully can head in a different direction in the year to come.

The thing is that parenthood is pretty consuming. You need to remember that life goes on around it, and that there are other things you can do to make parenthood even more enjoyable.

(Hope that this has been vague enough to cover up any dissatisfaction about my career. Oops!)