Rage Against The Sardine

For the motherloving win!

65daysofstatic = awesome

I got over my fear of flying. I did this by the simple means of getting on a plane. 

This feels much better. I just got back from a work trip to Switzerland (which was awesome), and now I don't actually have any fussiness about going on planes, which is handy given my November holiday to Nork.

Having to run to get the already-delayed plane didn't help my nervousness on the way out though; neither did the fact I was still holding my belt in my hand and my shoes were still untied from the security scan, nor the fact that BA had neglected to shove any barfbags in the seat pocket. Not that I've ever been travel-sick, but I wanted to have all bases covered while I was shitting myself. 

Fortunately it was an extremely smooth flight and I managed to just control my breathing and lean back into the aircon overhead until it had taken off...at which point I was completely fine. The flight back was bumpy as hell but having got one out of the way it didn't bother me in the slightest.

This is a lifting of a weight.

Skiing is awesome by the way.

Hey, look, a readable blog

The ongoing travails of one guy living in the Oblivion world as an NPC (ie, living day-to-day trying to make a living without actually doing any quests or story elements).

It's pretty funny and very very good.

An imp! Interrupting my relaxing swim! He’s got some gall. Ha ha. That will be funny in a minute.

I gotta say, the little guy is positively ripped. Look at those abs! He must do a lot of crunches. It doesn’t make me gay to admire his dead cut little body, right?

I search him for loot and find that he’s loaded with Imp Gall, which is like bile or barf or something gross like that. Imp gall can be used in alchemy — plus it’s worth about 15 gp on its own. I also spot an oyster in the water under the corpse, and open it to find a pearl worth 2 gp. Finally, I found an oyster! Screw you, Anvil.

I quickly get my armor back on, and just in time, because another imp comes flapping over looking to start some static. He’s dealt with, and his body plops into the pond like the first.

How I love these guys.

 Need sound

Yaaaaaay.

I'm going to see how many hours out of the 48 I can spend asleep. 

Super Mario Galaxy is ace. Thank you to every computer game producer who lets you play on with a sense of purpose after you've completed the story.

I have an Xbox 360 sat on our spare bed that I'm not allowed to play for another 9 days :-(


:-D

I think my body and I are due for a bit of a fall-out.

On Friday I drank so much coffee in such a short space of time that I genuinely saw stars for a few minutes.

On Sunday I stayed up til about 4am watching the Superbowl.

Last night I was in bed by 9pm and asleep by about 9.30.

Tonight I'm attempting to stay awake until about 3am watching the Super Tuesday results.

Tomorrow will be another early night.

Thursday...best not to think about it.

She's not wrong o_O

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEqZkglTVYE

Review of 2007

Well now, that weren’t too bad were it?

I’ve had a good 2007, I have. In fact, checking back through my LJ archive to this time last year, I’ve pretty much managed to do all the things I’d said I wanted to achieve this year. The main one of which being, of course, getting a new interesting job down here in London and staying settled for a long period. By some amazing stroke of fortune, that’s exactly what happened, and long may it continue into 2008. I’m feeling that next year will be a bit of a consolidation period, build up a bit of cash, maybe get a promotion at work, see a lot of my friends, go out a bit more, and keep waiting for that housing market to crash so that I can nip in there. Oh, and I’d like to see another heron fly over my house.

            Work

-          Woohoo! Got a new job, it’s enjoyable, rewarding, and I work for and with a group of people who I both respect and enjoy their company. It’s very good.

-          Left my previous job amicably and having gained a lot of experience and friends there too

-          I also love working in London itself, the commute hasn’t become a pain yet (just time for listening to music and reading books) and being in the centre of it all means it’s very convenient to do stuff after work

            Home

-          As requested, spent more than 12 months in the same property for the first time in a little while. In truth, I’d find it difficult to live anywhere but Finchley at the moment, I really like it here. The only disadvantage is that all my London-based friends live south of the bloody river!

            Life

-          I’ve seen much more of my friends this year, and most importantly been out “doing stuff” in London. There’s so damn much to do in this city that anytime I’m sat here doing nothing (like right now), I feel as though I’m missing out. But this year I’ve watched a Hitchcock film in Trafalgar Square (with live pianist), seen The Godfather at BFI, found some great new pubs, sang in a karaoke bar, seen an NBA game at the 02 Arena, played cricket on Hampstead Heath, been to the theatre, been to plenty of gigs. Lovely.

            Sport

-          United getting relegated was gutting – I could barely eat for a couple of days. It’s been a miserable year for English sport in general but as I said in my job interview (when asked what the worst moment of my life has been),  if the worst thing that happens to me is United being relegated then I’m a lucky lad indeed.

Family

-          The only disadvantage of working and living in London full-time is that I now no longer see my family on a weekly basis as I used to. I’ve missed going to the pub with my dad and just generally seeing everyone regularly. Having said that, Christmas was great having everyone back, my sister and dad visit quite often anyway and I’ve been up to Sheffield several times. My brother has grown up loads this year (cheeky beggar he is as well), my sister’s doing well for herself at Uni and both parents seem happy. The only bad moment was my granddad being very ill in October/November, but thankfully that’s turned out to be nowhere near as serious as first thought and he’s made a full recovery – in time for Christmas!

Next Year?

Hmm. Like I said, I’d like to get a promotion at work, but one step at a time. I’d like to really crack on with some of my writing because that is one thing I certainly have not concentrated on this year, regrettably. And I’d like to continue with my exercise bike regime in an attempt to lose weight rather than get fit. Other than that, consolidation all the way for 2008.

Happy new year y’all.

Can't wait. Love it.

London is a great city for christmas time. Went to a carol service at Westminster Abbey last week (shook the Archbishop of Canterbury's hand!), the "winter wonderland" thing they've got going on at Hyde Park on Saturday, braved the terrors of Regents Street and Oxford Street on the same day (not sure why, but seeing stuff I'd made on sale was quite nice) and tonight had a drink in a nice warm pub before going to watch the ice skaters at a nice cold Somerset House. Brilliant.

Very excited about going home to my family. Got our work do on Thursday which should be fairly awesome too.

Peace to all.

Been a bit crap in updating recently.

Things good. Looking forward to Christmas now. Went up to see my family at the weekend which was great, really did put me more in the Xmas spirit.

Also saw Queens of the Stone Age in Brixton on Monday. They were really good, but not quite as good as I'd hoped. I'd seen them twice previously, once at a festival and once as part of a day-long line-up supporting the Foos, and they had much more energy about them those times. It was possibly down to Era Vulgaris not being in the same league as their previous albums, although there are a few tracks that really stand out live. 

Feel Good Hit Of The Summer featured Josh Homme murmuring "They tried to make me go to rehab, ah said no no no" during one of the breakdowns, which concluded with "rehab's just not my scene man...I'm too fond of my...nicotine, valium, vicodin..."etc complete with enormous circle pit right next to us.

Then the next night I saw Within Temptation at the same venue, which was awesome! The difference in mentality and demography of the crowd was incredible - whereas QOTSA seemed to have drawn the pissed-up, pilled-up Carling swillers (there was a huge amount of aggressive looking bald men), Within Temptation just saw lots of goths enjoying themselves and it was so nice to receive an apology when someone bumped into you/pushed past. Similarly whilst the bars were rammed for the QOTSA support, everyone was out watching 69 Eyes the following night (they were quite good in a guilty pleasure sort of way).

Sharon den Adel's voice is out of this world, it sounds even better live than it does on record. About midway through the set they lit up these four giant flaming torches and just left her on stage with the keyboard player for Forgiven, the closer on Heart of Everything. It was absolutely gorgeous, the whole crowd just stood in stunned silence at how good it was. Didn't want it to end, marvellous.

As a wiser man than me once said, what's the big fucking deal?

Seriously - I know there are tech-geeks out there amongst you - could anyone explain to me why the new iPhone is any good?

Preferably in better terms than the wankers on Five Live earlier, interviewed whilst queuing to buy it, asked to describe why the phone will change their life. After repeated attempts to say something other than "I love Apple, I hate Microsoft, I'd pay over £200 for some dog shit if it had the Apple logo on it and it meant giving my money to someone other than Microsoft" or "it looks cool therefore I want to pay lots for it", one person blabbered on about "the interface", and another said "it just works".

Allow me to repeat that.

The cretin actually justifed his purchase by trotting out the Apple slogan, "it just works". 

I can't even begin to articulate what's wrong with this. My brain actually siezed up at that point, and I was left gasping like a fish out of water.

As far as I can tell, the iPhone breaks down like this:

CONS
Stupid, limiting, expensive contract
Shit camera
Shit network coverage unless you live in London/other major city
2G instead of 3G
Apple have you by the balls in terms of apps and add-ons
Expensive to buy

PROS
Status symbol
It's also an iPod
You can ring people and send texts and stuff
"It just works"

I guess you could summarise that it's a pretty nice gadget. An iPod that you can also ring your mates with. But are any of the early-adopting iPhoners viewing it like this? Of course they're not, to them it's an essential lifestyle choice that will revolutionise their social calendars and make them much nicer people because it takes them one less button press to view their phonebooks with their streamlined interface. The phonebooks, of course, will be filled with the same self-satisfied smug twats that no one in their right mind would want to speak to anyway.

According to this BBC article, the Yanks are calling it "the Jesusphone", which seems quite appropriate in a Life of Brian way. That same article basically lists a stream of reasons why the iPhone is no better than most other phones, and ends by saying "but it will succeed anyway" - again, quite appropriate.

I just don't get the fuss. Can anyone help?



 

Heh. That Halloween LJ skin is quite tidy.

A man who urinated on a woman as she lay dying and shouted "this is YouTube material" has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Anthony Anderson also covered Christine Lakinski with shaving foam after she collapsed in a Hartlepool street.

Miss Lakinski, 50, who suffered from a number of medical conditions, was later pronounced dead at the scene.



Full story here 


What. The. Fuck?

More and more each day I understand why I generally hate anyone and everyone.

Working late.

Want to go sleep now.

I don't have an issue with Macs. I just happen to have used Windows pretty much all my computing-life, so I know my way around it. I know Mac users generally have less virus problems blah blah, and that it's cleaner and doesn't fanny about with so many service packs and Apple isn't a big evil corporation like Microsoft...etc.

But the thing that does piss me off is this attitude that "they never break". 

I was on the phone to IT for two and half motherloving hours this morning, because it had helpfully decided to cock up.

Then for another half an hour in the afternoon because it had eaten a CD and refused to spit it out. Unlike most desktops, the iMac doesn't have an "eject" button, apart from the one on the keyboard. Terrific.

Went to the NBA game at the O2 last night. As someone who fell out of love with basketball about five years ago (most of the people I played against were wigga American wannabes), I was wary of the beast of cynicism ahead in an evening that was a celebration of all things US, but fortunately it remained suspended and a thoroughly enjoyable evening ensued.

The thing about American culture in England is that it can jar so much with English attitudes. Stuff like a man in a wolf suit trying to get the crowd to clap in unison, or that "baseball" style music that plays in the background during the game (you know, "Addams Family" and whatever played through a vaguely synth-sounding keyboard)...it's just so not "English" that you expect anyone over the age of 10 to squirm uncomfortably with a forced smile on their face.

But no. NBA Europe has effectively transplanted the whole NBA experience into London's O2. They have pretty much taken an entire stadium's worth of NBA paraphernalia and stuck it in the only venue in the UK that has a genuine US basketball feel to it, the former Millennium Dome. Not just the players and coaches, but the cheerleaders, the mascots, the announcers, the adverts, the competitions - even the blokes with the towels and drinks. I was even surrounded by fans with American accents (at leasy 66% of which, I'd wager, were not put on). For one evening you could actually believe you were in America watching their national sport, rather than playing uncomfortable, sceptical hosts.

The game was good as well. And it was free.

Swish!

Seeing as we're all back to school/work tomorrow...



More stupid exam answers behind the cut... 

No idea who Brown Punk are, but I spotted this on the Northern Line this morning and was quietly impressed.

(thanks to mysterious flickr user)



It looked better on the Northern Line map (it fit into the line better), but still, I take my metaphorical hat off to that piece of subterfuge.