Not preparing for a 10k is one thing, but not preparing for a half marathon is just plain stupid. I know this to be the case, but yesterday I found myself lining up for the start of the Cardiff Half Marathon having prepped with a massive 3 runs (4 miles, Swansea 10k, 8 miles indoor), but for some reason I was feeling pretty good at the start in my new bright yellow running top, Nike+ strapped to my arm just after queueing for 40 mins for the toilet... and boy was that toilet grim when I got in there.
I didn't fly it, I picked a sensible pace (for me) averaging between 10:30 and 11 minutes per mile but I was very pleased with the results. I kept on going I ran the entire distance without stopping and got round the course in 2:22:06. No injuries to speak of (although my knee started doing something at around 10 miles) so it appears to be all good!
One advantage I have is I've learnt some things though practise, when to drink, when to eat, what to drink etc, that probably drove me on a bit, but I was very happy, especially considering the course isn't the flat PB buster it once was. It was still mainly flat, however sections involving the link road were long and uphill and as there was no crowd up there, eerie and quiet... but I thought to myself, if I can run up all this uphill bull, I can run the rest, so I did!
Best part though, was the buzz of finishing something like that quite well. It's got me well and truly interested in keeping a bit fit again which my interest had drifted in before, I'm today signing up for the Llanelli half marathon (doubtful for charity this time, it's too soon to try n bleed people again) which is in March, a target is a great motivator!
The photos will be out on Thursday so I'll have the chance to see how rough I looked at the end, if they got me this time, they missed me on the Swansea 10k completely. Which isn't a shame really...
I also ended up with £185 for charity which is more than I expected, my page is still open too... anyone?
Monday 17 October 2011
Thursday 13 October 2011
iOS5 and the 3200 error
I've had some fun with technology the last few days. Firstly I switch on my netbook on Monday evening and the screen is screwed up, green lines, flashing pixels like green snow, colour scheme that would make Windows 95 look classy, to say I wasn't impressed wouldn't exactly be an understatement. After some brief internet searching, I discovered the area around the side of the screen was somehow coming apart, so I clicked that back in, still the same.
Then I closed the netbook in annoyance and noticed the battery bit thing wasn't straight, somehow something there had come loose too. Out came the battery, and a quick repair later and I had one netbook looking like nothing had ever happened to it.
So I thought right, that's my weekly machine break down, it's all good. Then last night I decided to try n get a bit of iOS5 action going on for my little soon to be out of date little iPhone. I was expecting slowness having the drawn out process of going os3 - os4 still in my memory, but thought fuck it lets go.
The first part was more a lesson than anything, don't ignore iTunes updates, as I think I had to do about 150 updates to that first (that may be an exaggeration... may be). But then I was ready to go. I began the download, all ok and done in about 30 mins, much better than I was expecting, iTunes then backed up the creatively titled 'Andrews iPhone' (imagination pumps from every pore on times), it was time.
Time? Yeah! Time to friggin crash!
I was greeted with the soon to be infamous 3200 error, iTunes didn't know what it was or if it did it didn't want to tell me. The update stopped and the phone reverted to its previous state. OK, no big deal, no harm done. Let's try again. Same thing happened.
"To google!" I exclaimed (in my head) and started a search for this problem. Of course the Internet was instantly filled with know-it-alls who were making it their business to tell everyone how to fix it as they knew cos they were clever. They varied from restarting PCs to restarting phones to reinstalling iTunes itself. Nice one assholes, I've heard people talk shit before and I spotted it a mile off, so ignored them. However there was one, reasonable sounding post saying to just keep trying eventually it worked and they thought 3200 was some kind of server issue due to traffic.
This all made sense, it was doubtless busy at the moment, so I soldiered on. Numberous times I was thwarted at the metaphorical gates of Mordor by this 3200 error, but I battled back, only to be pushed back again. Then finally... it connected, the installation started, this was it... iOS5 would be mine.
Boom in comes a 3004 error and stops it dead, only this time no revert, I'm stuck in restore mode. I have no idea how to get out of restore mode. I stomp off for 5, phoneless...
A bit of research tells me how to reset the phone using the buttons, I do so and try again. 3200 kicks my ass all over again. Twitter is alight with part 'yay os5' tweets and part '3200 gumble grumble' ones. With a side helping of smug Android users (easy to be consistent if you never try anything new). One more item I think, just one more time...
Battle of Los Angeles (that's battle of, not Battle: Los Angeles) had been playing in the background thanks to Syfy+1 and was about to finish (and may I say what a piece of dog turd that film is. I know it's one of the Asylum low budget cash in films, but Jesus Christ, how do you make films this bad??) so I knew it was late.
I hit restore one last time and bingo, it worked, iOS5 was mine took seemingly an age to update and then it was done. To be honest, looks a bit prettier in places but so far not noticing a ton of changes, but I have used it for about 15 minutes to date. But improvements are the subject for another day. This was about my battle against 3200 and how I won!
Go me...
Then I closed the netbook in annoyance and noticed the battery bit thing wasn't straight, somehow something there had come loose too. Out came the battery, and a quick repair later and I had one netbook looking like nothing had ever happened to it.
So I thought right, that's my weekly machine break down, it's all good. Then last night I decided to try n get a bit of iOS5 action going on for my little soon to be out of date little iPhone. I was expecting slowness having the drawn out process of going os3 - os4 still in my memory, but thought fuck it lets go.
The first part was more a lesson than anything, don't ignore iTunes updates, as I think I had to do about 150 updates to that first (that may be an exaggeration... may be). But then I was ready to go. I began the download, all ok and done in about 30 mins, much better than I was expecting, iTunes then backed up the creatively titled 'Andrews iPhone' (imagination pumps from every pore on times), it was time.
Time? Yeah! Time to friggin crash!
I was greeted with the soon to be infamous 3200 error, iTunes didn't know what it was or if it did it didn't want to tell me. The update stopped and the phone reverted to its previous state. OK, no big deal, no harm done. Let's try again. Same thing happened.
"To google!" I exclaimed (in my head) and started a search for this problem. Of course the Internet was instantly filled with know-it-alls who were making it their business to tell everyone how to fix it as they knew cos they were clever. They varied from restarting PCs to restarting phones to reinstalling iTunes itself. Nice one assholes, I've heard people talk shit before and I spotted it a mile off, so ignored them. However there was one, reasonable sounding post saying to just keep trying eventually it worked and they thought 3200 was some kind of server issue due to traffic.
This all made sense, it was doubtless busy at the moment, so I soldiered on. Numberous times I was thwarted at the metaphorical gates of Mordor by this 3200 error, but I battled back, only to be pushed back again. Then finally... it connected, the installation started, this was it... iOS5 would be mine.
Boom in comes a 3004 error and stops it dead, only this time no revert, I'm stuck in restore mode. I have no idea how to get out of restore mode. I stomp off for 5, phoneless...
A bit of research tells me how to reset the phone using the buttons, I do so and try again. 3200 kicks my ass all over again. Twitter is alight with part 'yay os5' tweets and part '3200 gumble grumble' ones. With a side helping of smug Android users (easy to be consistent if you never try anything new). One more item I think, just one more time...
Battle of Los Angeles (that's battle of, not Battle: Los Angeles) had been playing in the background thanks to Syfy+1 and was about to finish (and may I say what a piece of dog turd that film is. I know it's one of the Asylum low budget cash in films, but Jesus Christ, how do you make films this bad??) so I knew it was late.
I hit restore one last time and bingo, it worked, iOS5 was mine took seemingly an age to update and then it was done. To be honest, looks a bit prettier in places but so far not noticing a ton of changes, but I have used it for about 15 minutes to date. But improvements are the subject for another day. This was about my battle against 3200 and how I won!
Go me...
Monday 10 October 2011
Top 5 Web series and the like
The Internet is a weird and wonderful place, but it has some damn creative people on it, some funny some serious some a bit of both (*ahem*) but some stand above the rest obviously. I've decided to use today to make a list of my 5 favourite web released media, whether it be via personal websites, youtube etc, see if anyone wants to have a watch themselves:
Does exactly what it says on the tine really, animated bunnies perform popular movies in 30 seconds (or thereabouts) it's not a hit every time, but when it's good it's great (Grindhouse, Evil Dead 2, Rocky Horror). Your general enjoyment of the short is pretty much in line with your enjoyment of the film as a rule so if you pick your favourite films, you'll enjoy the shorts, appriciate the jokes, the touches of details, which can be outstanding at times. Much recommended!
Apparently there's a DVD available, but I wouldn't go that far...
I've stuck an example below!
There may be a fairr bit of local loyalty here but Dai does crack me up. He, along with some other users, play XBOX 360 online, particularly Call of Duty games and practise the art known as griefing. Generally being a dick to get a reaction out of the other players, and of course with people who take COD far far too seriously, he generally succeeds in getting a reaction, and as he's pretty quick witted to stay ahead of them, it's highly amusing.
Of course after a while this can become dull as fuck so Dai has branched out into older game reviews, playthroughs, prank calls and the like. Without spoiling too much, he appears to be gifted with accents and uses a voice changer, it's best to listen to him to be honest.
Oh and highly NSFW, strong language.
Here's a classic:
5.
30-second bunnies theatre
Source http://www.angryalien.com/ and youtube (abetoons)
Does exactly what it says on the tine really, animated bunnies perform popular movies in 30 seconds (or thereabouts) it's not a hit every time, but when it's good it's great (Grindhouse, Evil Dead 2, Rocky Horror). Your general enjoyment of the short is pretty much in line with your enjoyment of the film as a rule so if you pick your favourite films, you'll enjoy the shorts, appriciate the jokes, the touches of details, which can be outstanding at times. Much recommended!
Apparently there's a DVD available, but I wouldn't go that far...
I've stuck an example below!
4.
Dai Ling Ping
Source http://www.dailingping.co.uk/ and youtube (MrLBXv2)
There may be a fairr bit of local loyalty here but Dai does crack me up. He, along with some other users, play XBOX 360 online, particularly Call of Duty games and practise the art known as griefing. Generally being a dick to get a reaction out of the other players, and of course with people who take COD far far too seriously, he generally succeeds in getting a reaction, and as he's pretty quick witted to stay ahead of them, it's highly amusing.
Of course after a while this can become dull as fuck so Dai has branched out into older game reviews, playthroughs, prank calls and the like. Without spoiling too much, he appears to be gifted with accents and uses a voice changer, it's best to listen to him to be honest.
Oh and highly NSFW, strong language.
Here's a classic:
3.
The Guild
Source http://www.watchtheguild.com/ or XBOX live or Zune or youtube (theguild)
The guild was the brainchild of Felicia Day and is now the ripe old age of 5 series old (the series 5 finale due out tomorrow in fact!) and apparently was an inspiration to other titles on this list. It basically it a sit-com regarding the interactions of a guild from an unnamed online video game (actually only ever called 'The Game') not entirely dissimilar to World of Warcraft.
They start off having never met, and personal issues, eventually force them too and the series develops from there. Some of the acting is very good and the cast cameos can be superb on times (Star Trek, Big Bang Theory, Eurika and Stand By Me actor Wil Whedon is regular, Nathan Fillion, Brent Spiner, Colin Ferguson have all guested in series 5).
Many people who play such online games (me) will identify with the situations and personalities and overall this is a top series. DVDs available again but only region 1 I believe.
I've attached the pilot!
2.
The Angry Video Game Nerd
Source
or youtube (JamesNintendoNerd)
This guy cracks me up, he also has a video game collection that I'm amazingly envious of. The guys name is James Rolfe and he makes videos reviewing retro games, typically pretty damn poor retro games, under the persona of The Angry Video Game Nerd.
He's typically foul mouthed and very very NSFW but delivers it with such venom that is comes across as funny. He also manages to make the reviews informative resisting the temptation to nit-pick.
Under different sections of the site (and app which I own, I also have Dai Ling Pings app, but this guys I actually paid for) he does movie reviews, plays board games (Bored James), and does short rants under the title 'YOU KNOW WHAT'S BULLSHIT'. It's all good and very funny. Plus I do wish I had 1/50th of his collection... Send donations too...
Here's a good example of his little reviews an an awful game to boot:
At this point I'll mention the ones who didn't make the top 5, and there are plenty of good ones out there, whether it be The Legend of Neil, Dragon Age (Day in both of them again), the Mortal Kombat trailer (ok rubbish, but somewhat interesting despite), the Various Star Trek series, Fallout, Red Vs Blue. There's loads more out there so go investigate!
So, on to...
1.
Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog
Source Various including iTunes, youtube etc
Yes I know it's not exactly the same kind of production values as some of the others. But this is awesome!
Joss Whedon used the writers strike to produce this, makes the strike worthwhile all on its own if you ask me! Starring in it were Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother), Nathan Fillion (Castle, Firefly), Felicia Day (again), and Simon Helberg (Big Bang Theory) and each was excellent.
The script is as slick as you'd expect, the songs good and memorable and at 45 minutes, you'll wish it was longer. Apparently there is to be a sequel once Joss is finished working on The Avengers. I mean honestly where's the priorities!!
I have the DVD and the commentary track (well one of them) is produced as an entirely different musical to compliment the one on screen with the actors (in varying degrees of character) interact and clash about the show and themselves.
This needs to be watched by all. Hate Musicals? Well see it as a superhero film? Not doing it for you, ok romantic comedy etc. Works on so many levels.
Here's the first bit from youtube:
Once you've seen it all, 8-bit Dr Horrible is excellent too.
TTFN
Friday 7 October 2011
Please sponsor me!
Hello,
No rant today, more of a beg!
In just 9 days time I, under the persona of runner 6695, will be one of a massive 14,000 people tearing through the streets of Cardiff as a runner in the Cardiff Half Marathon.
I do these things as a personal challenge, something always to keep ahead of me to work for, although this time the work has been beyond non-existent, I'll do better next time I promise, but I also do them to do what I can for charity. This run as my last couple have been is for Velindre Cancer Hospital in Cardiff.
I could spout endless amounts of shite about their good work but it's generally better to let them do the talking, their information is here:
http://velindrefundraising.com/
So if you have a spare pound, fiver, grand (maybe not) and want to give it to Velindre, I'll be happy to be the conduit for that. Plus it'll help spur me round the 13+ miles of disaster and torment that lay ahead of me.
You can sponsor me at:
No rant today, more of a beg!
In just 9 days time I, under the persona of runner 6695, will be one of a massive 14,000 people tearing through the streets of Cardiff as a runner in the Cardiff Half Marathon.
I do these things as a personal challenge, something always to keep ahead of me to work for, although this time the work has been beyond non-existent, I'll do better next time I promise, but I also do them to do what I can for charity. This run as my last couple have been is for Velindre Cancer Hospital in Cardiff.
I could spout endless amounts of shite about their good work but it's generally better to let them do the talking, their information is here:
http://velindrefundraising.com/
So if you have a spare pound, fiver, grand (maybe not) and want to give it to Velindre, I'll be happy to be the conduit for that. Plus it'll help spur me round the 13+ miles of disaster and torment that lay ahead of me.
You can sponsor me at:
Thanks in advance!
Wednesday 5 October 2011
Yodel
Previously on this blog:
http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.com/2011/06/early-learning-centre.html
Now the continuation...
http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.com/2011/06/early-learning-centre.html
Now the continuation...
Yodel, Yodel, Yodel, so our paths cross again...
I have serious issues with this company, the above link contains details of my only ever previous dealing with them so for a start they were 1-0 down. This time I ordered some new running stuff (top, shorts, trainers) from sportsdirect, paid a bit extra for Saturday delivery so I'd get it nice and fast, clicked but and thought I'd be slipping into my new trainers within days.
Did I think wrong? Of course I thought wrong as the delivery agents for SportsDirect are fucking Yodel...
Saturday comes and we hang in the house as long as we can knowing that if we miss it, they'll just leave it in a random house as usual. Wait, what's that in the door? It's a Yodel failed delivery slip... hmmm didn't knock hard there did you gringo. Oh well shit happens, particularly when it comes to these fuckers.
I ring their automated redelivery service and the next available appointment is Tuesday (I personally passed 2 Yodel vans driving round Merthyr on Monday) so after some discussion (not with the computer I'm not mental) I booked 'Tuesday' of course no times or anything, that would be good service. I of course leave a contact number so any problems they can get hold of me.
Nobody does, the sun sets and rises a few times and Tuesday comes. It just so happens I'm off work Tuesday to have my Diabetic Eye Screening, life's one long party in the house of 3 Driscolls I tell you! Nobody comes all day, it gets to about 4pm and concern is creeping in. I nose through the sports direct confirmation email and find a tracking link, click away and it tells me the thing is still in the depot in Nantgarw.
Not impressed.
On the phone I go and get through to someone who I'll kindly describe as new. Picture an older woman both index fingers extended searching the keyboard of each letter she has to type. The conversation is slow to put it mildly and the guy over her shoulder is clearly audible on the line! She says I haven't requested a redelivery, I protest, offering to show her a phone bill with my call to them on it from Saturday. Then it changes to, it's held in Nantgarw, as per my request... my request... what request was that then?
She kindly offers to arrange a redelivery for Thursday, I kindly ask them to shove it up their arses and return the package to sender. This confuses them, much button searching follows and eventually I'm assured this has been done, and it will head back to Sheffield tomorrow (now today) I'm not confident.
(At this point I've just checked the Yodel site and the package is still awaiting collection in Nantgarw... Jesus wept, now they're delaying my refund off SportsDirect)
I then asked to make a complaint, I was told no basically, no way to do so at the moment. I ask to speak to a manager, nobody around (I can fucking hear him telling you what to do!!) but she can take the complaint details from me and they'll be in touch. Cool. She then informs me this is the first complaint she's done... believe me love, it aint gonna be the last.
After much detail taking, such as name, address (they didn't know my address, explains a bit) and quite a bit of 2 finger typing, she has all the details. Then tells me she's taken all that in error and I need to write in to the following postal address, I ask for an email alternative and eventually get one. I'll be writing the complaint later today!
I then had to contact SportsDirect to cancel the order, which had a big big waiting time, but was easy and they were really apologetic. Nothing against them, but they're a Yodel user!
So new rule, if a company uses Yodel for deliveries, they don't get my business, simple. Yes I may be massively limiting my options, but these fuckwits have crossed the line, they are so far past the line, the line is a dot to them.
I've already cancelled my Arkham City pre-order from the Yodel using Amazon.co.uk and will move it to the TNT using shopto.net.
I apologise for the use of language through this blog, but Yodel really grind my shit.
Monday 3 October 2011
Welsh Cup football
The Welsh Cup is one of the longest standing club competitions on gods green earth. Wrexham won the trophy for the first time in 1878 and up until 1996, one of my favourite competitions to watch my beloved Merthyr Tydfil FC in. 1987 saw Merthyr win the damn thing 1-0 in a replay final at Ninian Park against Newport, they then proceeded to beat Atalanta 2-1 at penydarren park before getting done 2-0 in Italy in the 87-88 Cup Winner Cup. I was only 5 so can't really remember this, but it's all good.
Then to everyone's disappointment we were excluded from the cup as we played in the English System. Merthyr joined Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham, Newport and Colwyn Bay as teams excluded from their own national cup competition. Booooo
Then news came out at the start of this year we (now of course Merthyr Town) we once again invited to join, along with the other 5! 3 accepted (Merthyr, Newport and Wrexham) and the excitement began. Now as Merthyr play in a very backwards league at the moment (and who knows for how long) we joined in the 2nd qualifying round, playing 2 games in 2 days and with a second string beating a small team 5-1. All good. The draw came out and Merthyr got Barry Town in the first round. Much additional excitement!
Merthyr and Barry had an awesome rivalry back in the day, yes now both teams have fallen on hard times and dropped down the respective league systems, but the rivalry was still there. This was potentially the tie of the round with the Welsh Premier and Blue Square Premier teams not joining for 2 more matches.
Game day came and Merthyr put their team on twitter and I went what? It was a second string. I knew at that moment we'd get beat against by all accounts a tidy Barry side. I'm very sorry but who exactly do Merthyr think they are playing 'fringe' players in a cup match against a team that'd give our first side a potentially even match.
What was the thinking?
Is the Welsh is (was) not a priority? Then why enter it, nobody had a gun to their heads.
Did we disrespect the opposition? Arrogance? Someone needs to have a long hard look at some of the players in the side, even the first team, then have a look at the teams who've beaten us in competitions so far this year and reassess how good they think we are again. Last years league wasn't a pub league, but it certainly wasn't high quality, had to be won, but don't get carried away.
Did the manager(s) misjudge the game? They both played in Merthyr v Barry games, they know the rivalry. Sounds a bit naive to me.
Anyway, Barry won easily and deservedly 3-0 and Merthyr sit out the business stages of the competition. Based on that as well looks like I'll be saving myself some £7's in the upcoming weeks, oh well!
Then to everyone's disappointment we were excluded from the cup as we played in the English System. Merthyr joined Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham, Newport and Colwyn Bay as teams excluded from their own national cup competition. Booooo
Then news came out at the start of this year we (now of course Merthyr Town) we once again invited to join, along with the other 5! 3 accepted (Merthyr, Newport and Wrexham) and the excitement began. Now as Merthyr play in a very backwards league at the moment (and who knows for how long) we joined in the 2nd qualifying round, playing 2 games in 2 days and with a second string beating a small team 5-1. All good. The draw came out and Merthyr got Barry Town in the first round. Much additional excitement!
Merthyr and Barry had an awesome rivalry back in the day, yes now both teams have fallen on hard times and dropped down the respective league systems, but the rivalry was still there. This was potentially the tie of the round with the Welsh Premier and Blue Square Premier teams not joining for 2 more matches.
Game day came and Merthyr put their team on twitter and I went what? It was a second string. I knew at that moment we'd get beat against by all accounts a tidy Barry side. I'm very sorry but who exactly do Merthyr think they are playing 'fringe' players in a cup match against a team that'd give our first side a potentially even match.
What was the thinking?
Is the Welsh is (was) not a priority? Then why enter it, nobody had a gun to their heads.
Did we disrespect the opposition? Arrogance? Someone needs to have a long hard look at some of the players in the side, even the first team, then have a look at the teams who've beaten us in competitions so far this year and reassess how good they think we are again. Last years league wasn't a pub league, but it certainly wasn't high quality, had to be won, but don't get carried away.
Did the manager(s) misjudge the game? They both played in Merthyr v Barry games, they know the rivalry. Sounds a bit naive to me.
Anyway, Barry won easily and deservedly 3-0 and Merthyr sit out the business stages of the competition. Based on that as well looks like I'll be saving myself some £7's in the upcoming weeks, oh well!
Monday 26 September 2011
Swansea Bay 10k
Yesterday was the lovely Swansea Bay 10k. My third time in the race and by far the least preparation I'd ever done. I'm by no stretch an athlete, so to try this kind of thing ideally some decent effort needs to be made, however this time things just kept getting in the way and I did 1 run (count it... 1) in the 2 months or so before the event. (Heolgerrig - Beacon Heights via winchfawr road, 4 miles very hilly) So as you can imagine there was a sense of dread as number 3753 took up his position at the rear of the field (where I belong) to run the 6.2 miles ahead.
At this point I'll go into my biggest usual problem running, pacing. I can't do it, I never have any idea how fast I'm going etc, so hight praise for the Nike+ GPS iPhone app. An absolute godsend, kept me informed on pace as often as I wanted, well worth the £1.49 from the app store (I had mine free!)
Anyway, back on point, I started, right calf quite tense and a little sore, couldn't hear the warm up (as could nobody round by me, everyone just kinds stood round looking confused while the first 2500 - 3000 people bounced around weirdly) so just tried stretching the sore bit.
Then bang, we were off... well almost it took me 2 and a half minutes to start, but I was off. I hit the Nike+ app which started the music. First song? 'We're not gonna make it' by the Presidents of the USA. You couldn't write it! It also finished with Still Alive by Jonathan Coulton, quite apt, 'This was a triumph...'.
But it went quite well, I kept pace well for the first half of the race, was on schedule for an hour time, my ultimate goal (aim low, rarely disappointed) until a few niggles kicked in and I had to stop a few times on the way back. But I finished and I finished without any major disasters. The time:
Nike+ says 1:04:43 my chip says 1:05:00 so one of them, in a massively underwhelming 2,400th / 4,000.
Not exactly a write off, but I know I could have done better and if I'd actually trained I could have done well. So I'm frustrated mainly with myself!
I now have 3 weeks til the Cardiff Half Marathon, I need to train, I will do 2:20, it's my goal! Plus I can't make it 13 miles without good prep, it's a physical impossibility! I'm also running it for Velindre if anyone wants to sponsor me, feel free!
http://www.justgiving.com/andrew-driscoll0/eurl.axd/d33ccee2fd79d546ae925c4f9d873bb1
At this point I'll go into my biggest usual problem running, pacing. I can't do it, I never have any idea how fast I'm going etc, so hight praise for the Nike+ GPS iPhone app. An absolute godsend, kept me informed on pace as often as I wanted, well worth the £1.49 from the app store (I had mine free!)
Anyway, back on point, I started, right calf quite tense and a little sore, couldn't hear the warm up (as could nobody round by me, everyone just kinds stood round looking confused while the first 2500 - 3000 people bounced around weirdly) so just tried stretching the sore bit.
Then bang, we were off... well almost it took me 2 and a half minutes to start, but I was off. I hit the Nike+ app which started the music. First song? 'We're not gonna make it' by the Presidents of the USA. You couldn't write it! It also finished with Still Alive by Jonathan Coulton, quite apt, 'This was a triumph...'.
But it went quite well, I kept pace well for the first half of the race, was on schedule for an hour time, my ultimate goal (aim low, rarely disappointed) until a few niggles kicked in and I had to stop a few times on the way back. But I finished and I finished without any major disasters. The time:
Nike+ says 1:04:43 my chip says 1:05:00 so one of them, in a massively underwhelming 2,400th / 4,000.
Not exactly a write off, but I know I could have done better and if I'd actually trained I could have done well. So I'm frustrated mainly with myself!
I now have 3 weeks til the Cardiff Half Marathon, I need to train, I will do 2:20, it's my goal! Plus I can't make it 13 miles without good prep, it's a physical impossibility! I'm also running it for Velindre if anyone wants to sponsor me, feel free!
http://www.justgiving.com/andrew-driscoll0/eurl.axd/d33ccee2fd79d546ae925c4f9d873bb1
Friday 23 September 2011
R.E.M.
The first album I ever bought myself (that I can remember), out of my own cash, under my own steam at the age of 10 was the amazing Automatic for the People. One of REM finest pieces of work, in fact I'd go as far as one of the finest albums ever to grace us with its presence.
Yesterday, R.E.M. of course announced they are to split, there now will be no new R.E.M. material (except the obligatory 'few new tracks on the best of' which apparently they have already). To be fair their last album wasn't exactly a masterpiece, but the one before was, so there may well have been some life in the old dog yet, but they've chosen to walk away before they fade in to some kind of tribute act to how they used to be, and that's probably the correct decision. I would have liked maybe a farewell tour, only having seen them live twice, but alas was not to be. Plus doubtless they'd have charged through the nose for the tickets.
Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage will apparently appear on 15th November and will cover their whole career 82-11. I will pick that up, as doubtless it will be a triumph. However I will say in advance, without even knowing the track listing or having any indication of it, that's not songs I'd have picked. Shiny Happy Fucking People better not be on therte.
I always thought of them as quite a versatile band, even in their advancing years they could make one hell of a noise, in quite a melodic way. They were equally adapt at acoustics and rock and swayed from style to style pretty randomly.
They lost a very strong songwriter in Bill Berry before the Up album and documentaries show how it almost finished them off, against their will, then. That would have been a shame as I don't think the others were ready to quit yet (Berry had been ill, collapsing on stage in Switzerland once as a result of a brain aneurysm I believe). They powered on though and Up is aa triumph in doing something different, it's a very different sound, contains some of Stipes strongest lyrics, particularly Falls to Climb clearly detailing the bands infighting following Berrys departure.
It's not all good of course, there have been songs which are poor, Imitation of Life was quite a poor single as was Daysleeper, especially when you think there were far stronger tracks on both albums that deserved the attention more.
I fully recommend anyone who's interest has been peaked by them splitting up, pick up an album! Why not, most of them are dirt cheap now, I'd recommend Accelerate or Monster for a mostly heavy sound, Out of Time for the more acoustic sound or Murmur or Automatic for the People or the sublime New Adventures in Hi-Fi for all round greatness.
The existing best of isn't the 'best of' but it's pretty damn good too.
Ever since then, and my subsequent purchase of every album and many many of the singles REM released (including an original vinyl Chronic Town EP... I have no record player), they have sat comfortably at the head of my favourite bands/artists list. For the record that currently reads:
1. R.E.M. (now defunct)
2. Ben Folds (inclusive of Ben Folds 5)
3. Foo Fighters
4. Jonathan Coulton
5. Green Day
But is very changeable, but what is a constant is R.E.M.
Yesterday, R.E.M. of course announced they are to split, there now will be no new R.E.M. material (except the obligatory 'few new tracks on the best of' which apparently they have already). To be fair their last album wasn't exactly a masterpiece, but the one before was, so there may well have been some life in the old dog yet, but they've chosen to walk away before they fade in to some kind of tribute act to how they used to be, and that's probably the correct decision. I would have liked maybe a farewell tour, only having seen them live twice, but alas was not to be. Plus doubtless they'd have charged through the nose for the tickets.
Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage will apparently appear on 15th November and will cover their whole career 82-11. I will pick that up, as doubtless it will be a triumph. However I will say in advance, without even knowing the track listing or having any indication of it, that's not songs I'd have picked. Shiny Happy Fucking People better not be on therte.
I always thought of them as quite a versatile band, even in their advancing years they could make one hell of a noise, in quite a melodic way. They were equally adapt at acoustics and rock and swayed from style to style pretty randomly.
They lost a very strong songwriter in Bill Berry before the Up album and documentaries show how it almost finished them off, against their will, then. That would have been a shame as I don't think the others were ready to quit yet (Berry had been ill, collapsing on stage in Switzerland once as a result of a brain aneurysm I believe). They powered on though and Up is aa triumph in doing something different, it's a very different sound, contains some of Stipes strongest lyrics, particularly Falls to Climb clearly detailing the bands infighting following Berrys departure.
It's not all good of course, there have been songs which are poor, Imitation of Life was quite a poor single as was Daysleeper, especially when you think there were far stronger tracks on both albums that deserved the attention more.
I fully recommend anyone who's interest has been peaked by them splitting up, pick up an album! Why not, most of them are dirt cheap now, I'd recommend Accelerate or Monster for a mostly heavy sound, Out of Time for the more acoustic sound or Murmur or Automatic for the People or the sublime New Adventures in Hi-Fi for all round greatness.
The existing best of isn't the 'best of' but it's pretty damn good too.
Monday 19 September 2011
Mortal Kombat
Yesterday for the snip of 800MSP I downloaded the arcade versions of the first three Mortal Kombat games. I used to love these back in ta day (home versions anyway) so I thought I'd relive some classic memories and play some Mortal Kombat.
Firstly, yes I know there's a newer one, yes I've played it and although I didn't hate it, I can't say I particularly liked it. Nowhere near enough to actually part with cash for the thing. If it turns up in a 2 for £20 with Rise of Nightmares, I'll pick them up, but not for £30/40 thanks.
But the old ones? I thought yeah, lets go!
I started off with Mortal Kombat, looks dated yes, it's old, no doubt me and my grey mop also look a fair bit more... classic then I did in 1992. Nobody's judging me on it (to my face) so I'm not going to pick on that, I started ploughing through the single player mode, as I doubt the wife would fancy a bit of this game. It was still fun, still played mostly ok, felt a little jerky and maybe not the quickest, but good! I remembered (some of) the moves, even Scorpions fatality (10g for that too), struggled through the endurance rounds and then I got to Goro. The bastard.
Suddenly, I was being beaten like Arsenal on a Saturday. Nothing I tried was working and this 4 armed motherlover was beating the living shit out of me (well Scorpion anyway). So I tried again, same result and again, you know where this is going. Eventually I scraped 2 rounds against him and moved on, but I was shocked at suddenly how hard it had got.
Next was Shang Tsung and once again, for an old bloke, he was damn tough. He spent 70% of his time as Rayden and the rest as Goro which really didn't help, but once again repeated beatings started. Then in a lapse of AI judgement he decided Johnny Cage was the way forward so I kicked his behind quite easily (Cage being the worst choice.. ever) and then to my astonishment he went Sonya Blade / Cage the next time and boom he was down and out.
Scarred from the horrible difficulty of it, I thought I'd give 3 a blast (well it's 'Ultimate' MK3 which apparently is quite a minor upgrade) I started, waltzed through the first few in a very similar style, still holding my determination to play as Scorpion, I got beat the odd time on the way up and thengot to Montaro. I could easily write the bit about Goro again here, but this guy had a horses arse too. Bit he was overcome!
Then came the experience of the night, Shao Kahn. Seemingly impossible to beat in open combat. The others were frustrating yes, but this took the piss. I must have played this guy for 30 mins before resorting to such cheap tactics as dodge and uppercut, repeat to eventually beat the fecker. I'm honestly shocked the TV hasn't got a hole in it the perfect shape of a flung XBOX controller and thankfully nobody else was around to hear my language!
This is my point, they started out fun, but became annoying, too annoying. I've still got MK2 to play, but there's no doubt in my mind that'll be very hard and frustrate me too. I never remember the games being this hard, although these are the arcade versions not home and while I don't think I'm great at them, I'm far from rubbish. Apparently the new one is the same at the end as well, I like a challenge but this is bull to be fair!
I will play it, I paid for it after all, but I can't say I'm overly looking forward to it.
Firstly, yes I know there's a newer one, yes I've played it and although I didn't hate it, I can't say I particularly liked it. Nowhere near enough to actually part with cash for the thing. If it turns up in a 2 for £20 with Rise of Nightmares, I'll pick them up, but not for £30/40 thanks.
But the old ones? I thought yeah, lets go!
I started off with Mortal Kombat, looks dated yes, it's old, no doubt me and my grey mop also look a fair bit more... classic then I did in 1992. Nobody's judging me on it (to my face) so I'm not going to pick on that, I started ploughing through the single player mode, as I doubt the wife would fancy a bit of this game. It was still fun, still played mostly ok, felt a little jerky and maybe not the quickest, but good! I remembered (some of) the moves, even Scorpions fatality (10g for that too), struggled through the endurance rounds and then I got to Goro. The bastard.
Suddenly, I was being beaten like Arsenal on a Saturday. Nothing I tried was working and this 4 armed motherlover was beating the living shit out of me (well Scorpion anyway). So I tried again, same result and again, you know where this is going. Eventually I scraped 2 rounds against him and moved on, but I was shocked at suddenly how hard it had got.
Next was Shang Tsung and once again, for an old bloke, he was damn tough. He spent 70% of his time as Rayden and the rest as Goro which really didn't help, but once again repeated beatings started. Then in a lapse of AI judgement he decided Johnny Cage was the way forward so I kicked his behind quite easily (Cage being the worst choice.. ever) and then to my astonishment he went Sonya Blade / Cage the next time and boom he was down and out.
Scarred from the horrible difficulty of it, I thought I'd give 3 a blast (well it's 'Ultimate' MK3 which apparently is quite a minor upgrade) I started, waltzed through the first few in a very similar style, still holding my determination to play as Scorpion, I got beat the odd time on the way up and thengot to Montaro. I could easily write the bit about Goro again here, but this guy had a horses arse too. Bit he was overcome!
Then came the experience of the night, Shao Kahn. Seemingly impossible to beat in open combat. The others were frustrating yes, but this took the piss. I must have played this guy for 30 mins before resorting to such cheap tactics as dodge and uppercut, repeat to eventually beat the fecker. I'm honestly shocked the TV hasn't got a hole in it the perfect shape of a flung XBOX controller and thankfully nobody else was around to hear my language!
This is my point, they started out fun, but became annoying, too annoying. I've still got MK2 to play, but there's no doubt in my mind that'll be very hard and frustrate me too. I never remember the games being this hard, although these are the arcade versions not home and while I don't think I'm great at them, I'm far from rubbish. Apparently the new one is the same at the end as well, I like a challenge but this is bull to be fair!
I will play it, I paid for it after all, but I can't say I'm overly looking forward to it.
Thursday 15 September 2011
Test flight - Short Story
“This is testflight 1701, ready to engage the engines” The received a green light for OK and what he hoped was good luck on this dashboard and brought his ship around to the prearranged co-ordinates.
“All in place, now go make history” his radio crackled back at him.
He surveyed the view from around his cockpit, black, as far as they eye could see… black. If this worked, he was about to get much much deeper into that great big sea of black. He flipped three switches over his head and a pleasant whirring sound followed from behind him. He rolled his shoulders forward in preparation and surveyed the console in front of him. One further light was green, another 3 dead, he needed the lot green, but that would take a few minutes yet.
He allowed his mind to wander, if all went well here, he would literally put his career forward my miles. He could be a hero, everyone would know him, images started running through his head of parades, parties, in his name. 3 months ago nobody knew the name Armstrong Taylor, now, a few geeks and freaks who spent their lives on communications networks and the internet did. This time tomorrow there would be nobody more famous.
Yuri Gagarin? Neil Armstrong? They’d be nothing compared to him. One giant leap for mankind? This one be one huge rocket forward for mankind. No cameras here though, one was fitted above him, but he was far too far away to consider broadcasting back live, he had no doubt it was recording and everyone would see it at some point.
A third green light lit the console, he tapped at the forth, as if somehow he could speed it along. Adrenaline was building now, he could feel his heart rate picking up by the second, which was by no means a good thing, he had to stay calm, a few deep breaths followed and he started to feel calmer. He reached forward and held the controls, the inside of each glove was becoming just a little more damp. He could sense his moment approaching.
“Nearly there flyboy, hang tight.” came a voice over the radio. He was being monitored by dozens of people at the base, albeit at a few seconds delay, they’d obviously noted the heartbeat jump and were seeking to keep an eye on him.
More whirring from behind him, as more of the equipment came to life. He’d wanted flashing lights and blue glowing tubes, like he’d seen on television so many times, but when it came down to it, everything was encased in metal. It was clean, functional, but lacked a bit of excitement.
A 4th light was now showing green in front of him. He needed just one more.
He turned his head to a computer to his left, it showed a detailed map of where he was expected to go, it was straight, let’s face it he wasn’t going to be able to turn while hurtling through the galaxy at previously unknown speeds, while he was the pilot here, and when he got back home the glory would follow him, he was essentially here to get it to the experiment then turn it round and bring it home afterwards. There were inanimate carbon rods that would maybe deserve as much praise as him.
The route he saw was huge, the distance involved, the places he’d pass, people had never done before. His glance shot down to the panel, still holding steady on 4 lights. He stared at the 3 ignition switches which it would soon be his job to flick, he didn’t fully understand the science part, he wasn’t a scientist although he’d studied much of it to get the job. Primarily he was a pilot, and the best pilot, well the best that was willing to take part. There was some risks involved out here, he’d been in hundreds of simulations of the next 5 minutes but, nobody had done it before, the simulations could be so far wide of the mark.
A beep. A fifth light. It was time.
Within seconds the radio cracked in, “This is it Taylor, we’ll see you when you get home.”
Taylor signalled an acknowledgement, he stared at the lights for a couple of moments, all green, all steady, everything was ready. He stared at the switches, all down, it was down to him. Butterflies flew around his stomach, he took a few deep breaths, he dreaded to think what his heartbeat was now, but no doubt 5 men with clipboards and worried looks were pointing at the readout right now.
He reached over and flicked ‘top engine’ a whir from above him, as the engine came to life. He waited 5 seconds and hit the right engine, then the left. He always though space was supposed to be quiet, but the noise felt deafening inside his little self-contained tin can. All the switches were up, he pressed a large button next to them and sat back as hard as he could in his seat, checking every restraining harness he had attached to him.
Nothing, nothing was happening. Patience he told himself, it’ll come. A few more seconds passed, it felt like hours to him and nothing. He left his almost braced position and looked at the panel, every display seemed to suggest things were ok. The noises from behind confirmed the engines were running, so what was going on.
He began to reach for his radio to ask for help when the whole craft began to shake. No build up either, this was quite a violent motion, he gripped on to the sides of his chair as tightly as he could, this has never happened in any simulation. In fact in each case, at least towards the end, he’d have been on his way home by now.
The shaking got worse , he felt almost pressure building up on him, he didn’t know if it was fear or some kind of unexpected g force or what, but he couldn’t get up from his chair. His vision began to get blurry, he felt sweat dripping into his eyes, but couldn’t move a hand to wipe it away. He felt like the ship was about to shake itself into tens of thousands of pieces, when a light shone directly in front of him, outside the ship, it was bright, so bright it hurt his eyes, but in a way it was beautiful.
Then the light seemed to run at the ship and suddenly he knew he was moving, the shaking had stopped, the pressure had gone, a wave of calm flew over him. The light outside now seemed to flow over the ship, was this it? Was he breaking records? Was he a hero?
There was a loud, high pitched beep from above him. He recognised it instantly and held on tight again. Suddenly the pressures were back, the engines cut out and the ship flew to a sudden halt. The force of breaking from such a massive speed to nothing in a second hurt him. He felt winded and pressed against his seat. Which is where he stayed for a few minutes, almost coming round gradually.
He surveyed the area, black, everything around him looked the same as everywhere he’d been before. For all he knew he’d gone exactly 20 yards and it’d have been a massive waste of time. He knew that at this moment the computers on board were photographing, cataloguing, monitoring and logging everything they could. He dragged the screen to his left over to him, to plot the return course he literally just had to drag his finger to where he wanted to go.
The earth was clearly noted on there so he simply moved his finger from ‘current location’ to ‘Earth’, even his finger slide felt like a long way. The computer notified him it would stop him a safe distance from the planet and allow him to proceed on conventional engines from that point. He’d OK’d the warning and waited. The engine began its readiness again, same procedure as before, he manually positioned the craft as the computer recommended, essentially so it was facing the right way, and waited. None of the nervousness was there this time, everything felt a bit slower now and the computer signalled the information gathering process was complete before the third green light even came on.
Armstrong flicked through some of the data as he waited but it was all gibberish to him, but at least he could confirm it was saved and present. The final light came on after several minutes and Armstrong flicked each switch in turn, once again disturbed by the noises from each of the engines.
“All ready!” he thought, preparing himself for the same ordeal as the outward flight and once again the ship began to shake. A computer noise sounded from above him, but stuck to the seat there was nothing he could do but read, it was a proximity warning. Proximity? He peered out of the screen and a familiar flash of light appeared from the distance within seconds a massive craft appeared and started making its way towards him.
His radio cracked, noises, sounds, maybe words but nothing he could understand or respond too even if he could move a muscle. Then the light came, he began to move, the image of the vehicle was gone in an instant and so were the sounds from the radio.
Within a few minutes he came to a stop, the blue/green sphere of the earth in the distance, emotions and thoughts running through his mind. What or indeed who was that, did they know what he was, could they trace him back here. If they could what were their intentions?
Had this mission opened the biggest can of worms in the history of humanity?
He moved the ship to dock with a large space station in orbit of the planet, he couldn’t resist the all too human reaction of glancing over his shoulder, nobody… yet…
---------------------------
Links to previous efforts:
Wednesday 14 September 2011
100th Blog Post!
So, according to my dashboard thingy, this piece of text constitutes my 100th blog post. I think it's quite safe to assume everyone guessed that from the title. It's pretty certain I've written a few more than that, including some I've discarded as being rubbish (oh yes, even worse than some of the tripe I've clicked publish on, imagine how bad they were!), I distinctly remember one I wrote in borderline anger and then deleted before I accidentally clicked said publish button, but this is number 100 that is publicly viewable and at least, and possibly at most, 4 people will read.
I'll be honest, I expected nobody on this planet to read the crap that I decided to type in, typically on dodgy public transport (bus has only hit 1 curb this morning and slammed on breaks once, good day, but then again we're only half way there) or when I couldn't sleep at some god forsaken hour in the morning. (Just hit 2nd curb, a roundabout approach too!). But it hasn't been the view free zone I expected, I'm not going to pretend I get thousands of hits, as obviously I don't, it's a personal blog and a shoddily written one at that. But I've had a couple of thousand and I'm quite happy with that! (No, that doesn't include me looking at my own, it doesn't count that).
I've used it to air a couple of short stories I've written, I have more but lack the nuts to make them public, I also have a longer one I haven't finished, but let's be real, chances are it's crap and I'm pretty damn sure it'll never see the light of day. Actually thinking about it I doubt I'll ever actually finish it, probably for the best! If anyone wants to see a story so far version... tough.
I've used it to vent opinions, I've used it to rant (usually fair enough I'm sure most people will agree, I do enjoy a good 'go-off-on-one' but someone has to wind me up first), I've used it to try n be funny. For the next 100 posts, if I get that far, chances are I'll do exactly the same.
I will publish the script, along with a link to the video of a recent presentation myself and a colleague wrote in the style of star trek, it was highly classy. It's on youtube now (Star Trek - Revenge of the Tribbles) but It'll be better all in one place I feel. I'll get a copy later.
I'll leave you with a proper blast from the past, here be a link to the first thing I ever posted. I steal from Red Dwarf, Anchorman and have a dig at facebook (setting the pattern early then). Not exactly inspiring and the 2nd post was better and I've been much funnier since... on a relative scale (3rd curb and a sharp brake). But it brought a cheesy grin back to me face for a second:
http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.com/2010/09/end.html
You stay classy Internet.
I'll be honest, I expected nobody on this planet to read the crap that I decided to type in, typically on dodgy public transport (bus has only hit 1 curb this morning and slammed on breaks once, good day, but then again we're only half way there) or when I couldn't sleep at some god forsaken hour in the morning. (Just hit 2nd curb, a roundabout approach too!). But it hasn't been the view free zone I expected, I'm not going to pretend I get thousands of hits, as obviously I don't, it's a personal blog and a shoddily written one at that. But I've had a couple of thousand and I'm quite happy with that! (No, that doesn't include me looking at my own, it doesn't count that).
I've used it to air a couple of short stories I've written, I have more but lack the nuts to make them public, I also have a longer one I haven't finished, but let's be real, chances are it's crap and I'm pretty damn sure it'll never see the light of day. Actually thinking about it I doubt I'll ever actually finish it, probably for the best! If anyone wants to see a story so far version... tough.
I've used it to vent opinions, I've used it to rant (usually fair enough I'm sure most people will agree, I do enjoy a good 'go-off-on-one' but someone has to wind me up first), I've used it to try n be funny. For the next 100 posts, if I get that far, chances are I'll do exactly the same.
I will publish the script, along with a link to the video of a recent presentation myself and a colleague wrote in the style of star trek, it was highly classy. It's on youtube now (Star Trek - Revenge of the Tribbles) but It'll be better all in one place I feel. I'll get a copy later.
I'll leave you with a proper blast from the past, here be a link to the first thing I ever posted. I steal from Red Dwarf, Anchorman and have a dig at facebook (setting the pattern early then). Not exactly inspiring and the 2nd post was better and I've been much funnier since... on a relative scale (3rd curb and a sharp brake). But it brought a cheesy grin back to me face for a second:
http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.com/2010/09/end.html
You stay classy Internet.
Monday 12 September 2011
Rise of Nightmares
My Kinect hasn't been the best of investments so far, if I'd paid anywhere near full what for it I'd be borderline livid, but I did get it on the cheap and I do very much like Kinect Sports. However apart from that software is well sketchy and if anything a bit... young (or a bit Wii-like even).
When I heard about Rise of Nightmares I was quite excited, looked a bit like House of the Dead, seemed quite interesting, uses Kinect. Result. It's been quite a wait for it to turn up and it didn't look all that promising from videos/previews etc and there was no demo (never a good sign), so I rented it yesterday as opposed to buying it, and honestly that seems like a good choice, it's not that I'm not enjoying it... it's just a bit... fiddly.
Combat is good, it picks up on punches, kicks, pipe swings well, but movement less so. A slight move of the shoulders can send you spinning off target. The graphics and voice acting is somewhat lacking and (so far) it's just not very scary, which must be what it was going for.
However, it is quite fun, punching zombies... where else can you do that, as I said the combat is reactive and well done and give them a quick 1-2 and down they go giving a sense of satisfaction. Nothing like kicking a zombie to the ground to make you feel good about yourself.
I've got it for 5 days, by which time I think the story mode will be done, and with no multiplayer and doubtful replay value, I'd say a rental is fair enough. It's not bad at all, it's just not wow.
Worth a go if you're curious though...
When I heard about Rise of Nightmares I was quite excited, looked a bit like House of the Dead, seemed quite interesting, uses Kinect. Result. It's been quite a wait for it to turn up and it didn't look all that promising from videos/previews etc and there was no demo (never a good sign), so I rented it yesterday as opposed to buying it, and honestly that seems like a good choice, it's not that I'm not enjoying it... it's just a bit... fiddly.
Combat is good, it picks up on punches, kicks, pipe swings well, but movement less so. A slight move of the shoulders can send you spinning off target. The graphics and voice acting is somewhat lacking and (so far) it's just not very scary, which must be what it was going for.
However, it is quite fun, punching zombies... where else can you do that, as I said the combat is reactive and well done and give them a quick 1-2 and down they go giving a sense of satisfaction. Nothing like kicking a zombie to the ground to make you feel good about yourself.
I've got it for 5 days, by which time I think the story mode will be done, and with no multiplayer and doubtful replay value, I'd say a rental is fair enough. It's not bad at all, it's just not wow.
Worth a go if you're curious though...
Thursday 8 September 2011
Gears of War 3
I quite enjoyed the England v Wales football match the other night, chalk another one under battling defeat for the records. Good for reputation, bad for ranking. But for me the highlight of the broadcast was the half time Gears of War 3 trailer, it may not have been overly representative of gameplay but it looked damn good.
I got onto xbox quite late on, when I bought my 360 Gears 1 was quite an old game, well thought of but old, and Gears 2 had been out for a bit. I quickly acquired the second game 2nd hand completed it and then went back to the first one, which I never really got going on. But I've played enough to make me quite eager to get my hands on the third (and apparently final) chapter.
Similarly to the other games to catch my interest that are forthcoming, the story seems particularly good here, and has been knocked up by an experienced writer on the series. I like a good story and have also found myself quite interested by Modern Warfare 3 and Arkham City for the same reasons, and 'cos Batman is cool innit. (Well I say cool, you know what I actually mean)
Also though, Gears 2 had a cracking online section. It's not too often I play online multiplayer, as I find it annoying and generally I suck. But Horde mode was a thing of beauty, and I clocked hours on it (as well as deathmatch etc) and I fully intend to try it out again, along with the reverse mode where you play as locust attacking cogs for a change.
If anyone does fancy a game I'm on live as: eternalcymru don't be shy.
So come September 20th, not far away now I'll either be waiting for my pre-order to be delivered or in Tesco at midnight (who knows, I live life so close to the edge anything could happen)
I got onto xbox quite late on, when I bought my 360 Gears 1 was quite an old game, well thought of but old, and Gears 2 had been out for a bit. I quickly acquired the second game 2nd hand completed it and then went back to the first one, which I never really got going on. But I've played enough to make me quite eager to get my hands on the third (and apparently final) chapter.
Similarly to the other games to catch my interest that are forthcoming, the story seems particularly good here, and has been knocked up by an experienced writer on the series. I like a good story and have also found myself quite interested by Modern Warfare 3 and Arkham City for the same reasons, and 'cos Batman is cool innit. (Well I say cool, you know what I actually mean)
Also though, Gears 2 had a cracking online section. It's not too often I play online multiplayer, as I find it annoying and generally I suck. But Horde mode was a thing of beauty, and I clocked hours on it (as well as deathmatch etc) and I fully intend to try it out again, along with the reverse mode where you play as locust attacking cogs for a change.
If anyone does fancy a game I'm on live as: eternalcymru don't be shy.
So come September 20th, not far away now I'll either be waiting for my pre-order to be delivered or in Tesco at midnight (who knows, I live life so close to the edge anything could happen)
Tuesday 6 September 2011
My beloved netbook and me...
...we go everywhere together. But on times we don't half get some strange reactions.
We live in a very technological world, I'm pretty sure the non Amish readers I have would agree with that. Amish readers... you appear to be cheating, you better go...
However, despite this the sight of me slipping out my black sleeve and getting my little red one out incurs at best some funny looks, at worst some disdain! The people them selves can be put into one of a few categories:
We live in a very technological world, I'm pretty sure the non Amish readers I have would agree with that. Amish readers... you appear to be cheating, you better go...
However, despite this the sight of me slipping out my black sleeve and getting my little red one out incurs at best some funny looks, at worst some disdain! The people them selves can be put into one of a few categories:
- The over the shoulder reader - as if I'm up to something so interesting that they just have to see it. I have absolutely no idea what they're hoping to find on my screen, but as a general rule I'm assuming they leave disappointed. In a mild variation of this an OTSR has once been reading something I was producing, and was never intended to actually see the light of day (he seemed quite interested so maybe it's not all that rubbish) and decided to give me a grammar tip on the last bit I typed. Which I took and said thanks, as he was right.
- The WTF is that?? - I'm sure laptops, netbooks, tablets, kindles etc have been around for quite a time now, but still on occasion you'd swear we were in a cave and I just pulled a lighter out of my pocket and produced fire. These people tend to be older, as you'd expect, but to them the idea I can look on twitter (not that they'd probably know what twitter was) on my lap on the bus boggles their mind. I mean honestly, where's the wires!! If it was their day, and let's face it, their day was quite some time ago now I'd be trying to type this while tied to a stake on the village green, about to get a wicked tan.
- The mine is bigger than yours - On occasion the sight of my little friend sends some people flying into backpacks, holdalls etc and has them dragging out whatever device they are also carrying. For some people I've served as some kind of reminder, like an alarm clock for 3G, that they have something with them. For others it almost seems like I've laid down a challenge, as if I've gone, "Hello stranger on the bus, my nob is so big, let's see if you can top that bad boy." I've seen kindles, ipads, various android devices, fellow netbooks, laptops, even all of a sudden a spike in those HP pieces of crap that were sold off cheap and once, and I remember this, a brand new in box xbox 360 elite. The guy then proceeded to open the box and.. stroke it, that's the only way I can describe it... he stroked it. Once again, sometimes people simply use them, others they are almost like a geek off weapon, screens are tilted towards me to give me the chance to show my respect at the geek altar. Please just leave me alone!
- The conversation starter - These are the worst, particularly if they are sat next to you. I always dread hearing, "Oh what's that?" or, "Excuse me is that a Packard Bell Dot netbook." Now before I go any further, I'm an introvert, and a pretty severe one, I struggle in large groups or when weirdos some straight on to me, but I'm not (usually) rude, so I feel some need to respond, at least at first. But I really don't want to have a conversation about what version iTunes I'm running, if I know I can update the firmware on the graphics chipset, if I suffer from overheating after prolonged use (a little, but nothing drastic, there now never ask me again), battery performance through the years, or the relative speed of my 3G dongle compared to the 3G capabilities of an iPhone or iPad. (all of which have been real conversation I've experienced in the years of commuting with a computer). Headphones, usually the barrier between me and various people I don't want to speak too (works lovely on charity collectors in the street) are no boundary, to the point where hand gestures are used to gain attention, and once some dick puled out one of the headphones and said, "Ahh I didn't think you could hear me...".
- The suspicious mind - Some people think the Internet is for 2 things only, facebook and porn. Due to this some OTSR people check what I'm doing as opposed to being interested in reading it, they think they should make an assumption based on it. When my first reaction of the day isn't to open Facebook, they make the logical step too... porn, and assume that's where I'm headed. I've had people look at me in disgust and then look quite apologetic when the ATP site turns out to be the 'Association of Tennis Professionals' not 'Ass Tits and Poontang'. I've even one respectable looking gent get up and sit somewhere else before I've had chance to put my password in... on two separate occasions. Maybe he was allergic to red start up screens and championship manager?
There are normal people who realistically don't give a crap what I'm doing as long as it doesn't bother them, and kudos to these people. I like to think when netbook-less either by choice, battery or forgetfulness, I'm one of those people. I hope anyway, I'm weird enough as it is...
Oh and apologies to the eels for the title.
Wednesday 31 August 2011
Facebook 'friends'
I actually had a look at my Facebook profile for the first time in god knows how long today. First up it decided to spend about an hour telling me about all the security changes, but I powered through and caught a glimpse at my friends list:
Friends (203)
it said.
I'm not even sure I know 203 people, let alone consider that many to be 'friends'. In fact I'd imagine people I actually consider to be good friends, so I should be sharing masses of personal information with would struggle to number 30. Add family to that and it doesn't add up to 200+.
Looking round though, my one is quite low (sob sob) there are people with 500, 600, even more than 1,000, and looking at some of these people.. really?? I doubt it.
Just having a nose through as I type and, yes I do know most of these people, can't remember the last time I spoke to many of them. Can't remember the last time I wanted to speak to quite a few, but it's some kind of twisted manners that I continue to tell them when I'm on holiday, when I'm in Tesco, when I've got a headache etc (actually that makes me sound like I update my status every 10 mins, believe me I don't) it's a fact that each of these people would have had the opportunity to gander at photos of me in a dress, a couple of times.
Saying that it's a miracle they haven't removed me. Bt equally I also have to wade through their shite on a daily basis, stuff I'm not really interested in, even question the integrity of much of the time.
So far I've removed a massive one, but come lunchtime there'll be a cull, if I can be arsed. Or I may pop to HMV and see how much Rocky Horror is on Blu-ray. I'm disgusted with myself I don't own it.
This is why I prefer Twitter (@andrewdrisc don't be shy!) yes I still make stuff public, I can easily control who reads it if I wanted too, but I only read what I want too (well there's still some there that need to go, but anything like the same kind of scale.
Maybe Facebook should give us some google+ (still not really used that, am signed up) style options, so I vcan have friends, family, and... other...
Friends (203)
it said.
I'm not even sure I know 203 people, let alone consider that many to be 'friends'. In fact I'd imagine people I actually consider to be good friends, so I should be sharing masses of personal information with would struggle to number 30. Add family to that and it doesn't add up to 200+.
Looking round though, my one is quite low (sob sob) there are people with 500, 600, even more than 1,000, and looking at some of these people.. really?? I doubt it.
Just having a nose through as I type and, yes I do know most of these people, can't remember the last time I spoke to many of them. Can't remember the last time I wanted to speak to quite a few, but it's some kind of twisted manners that I continue to tell them when I'm on holiday, when I'm in Tesco, when I've got a headache etc (actually that makes me sound like I update my status every 10 mins, believe me I don't) it's a fact that each of these people would have had the opportunity to gander at photos of me in a dress, a couple of times.
Saying that it's a miracle they haven't removed me. Bt equally I also have to wade through their shite on a daily basis, stuff I'm not really interested in, even question the integrity of much of the time.
So far I've removed a massive one, but come lunchtime there'll be a cull, if I can be arsed. Or I may pop to HMV and see how much Rocky Horror is on Blu-ray. I'm disgusted with myself I don't own it.
This is why I prefer Twitter (@andrewdrisc don't be shy!) yes I still make stuff public, I can easily control who reads it if I wanted too, but I only read what I want too (well there's still some there that need to go, but anything like the same kind of scale.
Maybe Facebook should give us some google+ (still not really used that, am signed up) style options, so I vcan have friends, family, and... other...
Tuesday 30 August 2011
Merthyr Town / Non league football
I took the bank holiday weekend to revisit the world of non-league football.
I support Arsenal as I'd imagine the vast majority of people reading this will know are not non-league, far from it (and no I don't want to talk about Sunday). But as much as I want them (and Swansea) to do well, my team has always been and will always be Merthyr Town (formerly Tydfil) FC.
The team has just returned to play in Penydarren Park, after a year in exile (which I didn't make a single game in) 20 or so miles away in Taffs Well. So I trotted down to the park yesterday to watch them play league pace setters, the undefeated Brislington Town (where??). It was then I realised I quite missed watching football like this, TV is comfortable, gives you replays, you can stop, rewind and all that shit, you have commentators telling you whjat to think any any given moment, stats popping up on screen, and generally speaking it's of a higher standard.
But being right up next to the pitch, taking it all in yourself, the experience is so much better.
The game itself was quite decent, Merthyr looked tidy passed the ball quite well, sometimes overly so and they could have done with taking a shot more. While at the back, but punts forward were a bit haphazard. Brislington had one or two tidy players, their left back looked good, while on the reverse their no4 looked like we was as likely to fall over at any given moment than successfully run in a straight line. Both keepers showed some... interesting positioning, but proved to be good shot stoppers when needed.
There was a few moments of marking (mainly the English side to be fair) that would I'm sure would give both sides coaches nightmares for a while. Even the ref had mostly a good game (although the away penalty was a bit of a mystery).
Happily Merthyr won 2-1 and moved 3rd in the table. Next week they have 2 matches in 2 days in 2 different cups (FA Prelim Round, Welsh Cup 2Q) and if I'm able I'll take the chance to pop down for the Welsh Cup game on Sunday.
Next week is an international break, no Prem games, no Championship games, which means come the weekend many football fans are at a loose end (Wales playing Friday). So if that applies to you, why not go see a team a bit further down the pyramid than you're used too? Go see Newport, Merthyr, whatever lower league teams are around, whoever's closer, you might like it! It's not always a comfortable as a sofa and sky sports, it's likely to be less conformable than a seat in the Liberty or CCS, but it's fun!
But speaking of armchair fans, the US Open started yesterday and I do love my tennis. I'll happily go see it in person if anyone wants to shout me flights and tickets. Please?
I support Arsenal as I'd imagine the vast majority of people reading this will know are not non-league, far from it (and no I don't want to talk about Sunday). But as much as I want them (and Swansea) to do well, my team has always been and will always be Merthyr Town (formerly Tydfil) FC.
The team has just returned to play in Penydarren Park, after a year in exile (which I didn't make a single game in) 20 or so miles away in Taffs Well. So I trotted down to the park yesterday to watch them play league pace setters, the undefeated Brislington Town (where??). It was then I realised I quite missed watching football like this, TV is comfortable, gives you replays, you can stop, rewind and all that shit, you have commentators telling you whjat to think any any given moment, stats popping up on screen, and generally speaking it's of a higher standard.
But being right up next to the pitch, taking it all in yourself, the experience is so much better.
The game itself was quite decent, Merthyr looked tidy passed the ball quite well, sometimes overly so and they could have done with taking a shot more. While at the back, but punts forward were a bit haphazard. Brislington had one or two tidy players, their left back looked good, while on the reverse their no4 looked like we was as likely to fall over at any given moment than successfully run in a straight line. Both keepers showed some... interesting positioning, but proved to be good shot stoppers when needed.
There was a few moments of marking (mainly the English side to be fair) that would I'm sure would give both sides coaches nightmares for a while. Even the ref had mostly a good game (although the away penalty was a bit of a mystery).
Happily Merthyr won 2-1 and moved 3rd in the table. Next week they have 2 matches in 2 days in 2 different cups (FA Prelim Round, Welsh Cup 2Q) and if I'm able I'll take the chance to pop down for the Welsh Cup game on Sunday.
Next week is an international break, no Prem games, no Championship games, which means come the weekend many football fans are at a loose end (Wales playing Friday). So if that applies to you, why not go see a team a bit further down the pyramid than you're used too? Go see Newport, Merthyr, whatever lower league teams are around, whoever's closer, you might like it! It's not always a comfortable as a sofa and sky sports, it's likely to be less conformable than a seat in the Liberty or CCS, but it's fun!
But speaking of armchair fans, the US Open started yesterday and I do love my tennis. I'll happily go see it in person if anyone wants to shout me flights and tickets. Please?
Thursday 18 August 2011
epetitions
The government have had a (recycled) great idea!! The epetitions website!
It's been running for around a month now and I must say, it has some very valid things on there, but it also appears to be yet another place for the more... special people who live in our society and somehow manage to use a computer despite their limited cranial capacities.
Even the most signed petition to encourage rioters to have benefits removed is spelt bastard wrong!! It states. Convicted London rioters should loose all benefits.. were they tight before????? For God's sake people hundreds of thousands of people will read what you write, especially on such an emotive subject so take 5 seconds and proof read the heading Mr Stephen Mains.
Now I don't hate spelling errors (I make plenty of them) but really obvious ones, or they're vs their mistakes and txt spk/chav speak really grind my shizzle, as I've mentioned before, and this site is full of it.
But that's not my beef with the site, it's also usually broken by traffic volumes and hard to use, but once again that's not what I'm getting at here.
Mainly, it allows people to set up whatever petition they want too, no matter how twisted/Daily Mail the view is. The petition to get the speed limit to 100mph... bad idea, the petition to ban immigration... Nope don't think so, the petition to force Welsh and Scottish governments to abolish free prescriptions as it's unfair on the English... jealous?? Soak rioters with florescent dye (also a victim of the spelling thing may I add), WTF??
Freedom of speech is a great thing, but it does tend to generate these kind of... outbursts.
Generally I think the site is a good idea, it's the same good idea it was under Labour only hopefully will be done better now. It's got some solid valuable petitions on there (such as the Hillsborough one) but my word it highlights some oddballs.
It's been running for around a month now and I must say, it has some very valid things on there, but it also appears to be yet another place for the more... special people who live in our society and somehow manage to use a computer despite their limited cranial capacities.
Even the most signed petition to encourage rioters to have benefits removed is spelt bastard wrong!! It states. Convicted London rioters should loose all benefits.. were they tight before????? For God's sake people hundreds of thousands of people will read what you write, especially on such an emotive subject so take 5 seconds and proof read the heading Mr Stephen Mains.
Now I don't hate spelling errors (I make plenty of them) but really obvious ones, or they're vs their mistakes and txt spk/chav speak really grind my shizzle, as I've mentioned before, and this site is full of it.
But that's not my beef with the site, it's also usually broken by traffic volumes and hard to use, but once again that's not what I'm getting at here.
Mainly, it allows people to set up whatever petition they want too, no matter how twisted/Daily Mail the view is. The petition to get the speed limit to 100mph... bad idea, the petition to ban immigration... Nope don't think so, the petition to force Welsh and Scottish governments to abolish free prescriptions as it's unfair on the English... jealous?? Soak rioters with florescent dye (also a victim of the spelling thing may I add), WTF??
Freedom of speech is a great thing, but it does tend to generate these kind of... outbursts.
Generally I think the site is a good idea, it's the same good idea it was under Labour only hopefully will be done better now. It's got some solid valuable petitions on there (such as the Hillsborough one) but my word it highlights some oddballs.
Monday 15 August 2011
Football season has properly begun, 'mon the Martyrs
So we're into the Premier league season, and this one could potentially quite interesting. Don't get me wrong I've written Arsenal off already, I think 4th is a pipe dream and 5th more likely, chances are Man Utd will win it, Chelsea and Man City close behind and maybe a bit of improving Liverpool rounding off the Champs league spaces. But I don't think I'm most interested by the top this year.
As everyone probably knows who has any interest in the sport, Swansea were promoted. Oooh a Welsh team in the Premier, and, as I've said before, a Welsh team I quite like (sorry Cardiff, you could be playing in the Champs League final and I wouldn't give a rats ass and everytime I'm told by Cardiff fans I 'should' support them, and it's great for the whole of Wales when they win stuff, it makes me care just a little bit less.) so I find myself quite interested in how they do, to the point where I may even watch them tonight (while I still have sports).
Obviously I think they'll struggle and while I'd never say I 'support' them, I'd like them to do well. I think they've made some decent, not overly high risk signings which could be enough, could being the word. Just get to 40 points and the rest will sort itself out.
Going down the odd step, Merthyr are playing in Merthyr again, and I have a feeling this is where most of my football related time will be devoted this year. I didn't go Saturday as there was stuff on, but I'm quite fancying a few trips to Pen Park this year to watch them. They went up last season and are now playing in the Western League Premier, not exactly stuffed with footballing giants but you can only play what's infront of you. They started off beating Odd Town (I have no idea what's so odd about it) 7-1 which is a hiding at any level, so we may have a shout again this year, who knows.
Also the new kit is very nice
So if you see me wet and looking p'd off in Penydarren Park, say hi!
Oh and the bloke sitting behind me looks the spit of Leonard Nimoy...
As everyone probably knows who has any interest in the sport, Swansea were promoted. Oooh a Welsh team in the Premier, and, as I've said before, a Welsh team I quite like (sorry Cardiff, you could be playing in the Champs League final and I wouldn't give a rats ass and everytime I'm told by Cardiff fans I 'should' support them, and it's great for the whole of Wales when they win stuff, it makes me care just a little bit less.) so I find myself quite interested in how they do, to the point where I may even watch them tonight (while I still have sports).
Obviously I think they'll struggle and while I'd never say I 'support' them, I'd like them to do well. I think they've made some decent, not overly high risk signings which could be enough, could being the word. Just get to 40 points and the rest will sort itself out.
Going down the odd step, Merthyr are playing in Merthyr again, and I have a feeling this is where most of my football related time will be devoted this year. I didn't go Saturday as there was stuff on, but I'm quite fancying a few trips to Pen Park this year to watch them. They went up last season and are now playing in the Western League Premier, not exactly stuffed with footballing giants but you can only play what's infront of you. They started off beating Odd Town (I have no idea what's so odd about it) 7-1 which is a hiding at any level, so we may have a shout again this year, who knows.
I did miss every game last year, but the trip to Taffs Well was a pain in the arse.
So if you see me wet and looking p'd off in Penydarren Park, say hi!
Oh and the bloke sitting behind me looks the spit of Leonard Nimoy...
Wednesday 10 August 2011
UK Riots
Generally I think of the UK as a good country, but there are problems. Keeping 60m people on an island, you're gonna get problems there's no doubt about that. It's a sad thing that these problems are then used as an excuse for people to do what they want.
Yes, initially there was no doubting people wanted to peacefully protest about the shooting of Mark Duggan, as is their right to do so, and I would never deny anybody that right. If it came to something that my community cared about I'd hope we'd do the same. However, this peaceful protest was hijacked by people who, chances are, didn't give a flying fuck about the cause or reason, they just wanted to kick off.
I've heard many experts of the TV trying to explain away the reasons behind the rioting, I've heard it's police attitude, living conditions, no doubt someone had suggested it's cos they're daddy doesn't love them any more. Bullshit, these people want high end free stuff and suddenly this opportunity to loot en masse and they took it, knowing full well in the numbers they were the police would struggle to cope.
Lives were put at risk, livelihoods were destroyed just because someone wanted the thrill or setting fire to buildings. I'm by no means right wing but if the call was mine, on a strictly watching from a distance anger and frustration point of view, there would have been soldiers, armed police the works. If they want to create hell... fuck 'em.
Some of these morons even bragged on twitter/facebook "Yo biatches I got maself I new plasma last night" or a variation of. Thankfully people seemed to pick this up and forward on names etc to the police. These are the same 'protesters' that were so brave facing up to police they'd run up, throw something and immediately leg it incase they missed and the police smacked them one. Only problem there is the cop would probably be made into a villan and all police made to only use foam mallets in riot situations.
Some of the kids that have been interviewed, particularly those ones on the BBC yesterday, have come across as thick, mindless and many things I'm too polite to point out. Clearly no knowledge of the situation, using the pretence of 'sticking it to the man', well yeah if the 'man' is a independent business owner struggling to get by as it is, or someone renting a now destroyed flat who is temporarily homeless. Idiots.
Oops those right wing thoughts are back again. Honestly, if my daughter turns out like these morons, she's going to boarding school. Forever.
As you may be aware, as it says it on the top of the page, I'm from South Wales and rumours were flying last night about trouble in Cardiff, theer was little, it seems like about 7 14 year olds tried breaking into JD sports and something on Cowbridge road realised they didn't have a clue what they were doing and legged it before the police arrived. But still, these kids have obviously seen London/Birmingham/Manchester etc (even Gloucester last night?? Seriously??) as something to be aspired too, they fancied some new Reebok Classics an iPod touch and one of those bendy sausages from Wimpy (I mean honestly... looting Wimpy on Monday... that must be mindless violence as there's little to steal) for free and thought they'd try their luck.
There were facebook messages being sent round trying to incite rioting, however thankfully the Welsh either can't be arsed (which judging by our history is unlikely) or couldn't see the point. Kudos to all the Cardiff Chavs.
I think London may be done, extra police, the condemnation of Mark Duggans family, all may have helped the situation, but now it's spread, will things carry on in Manchester and Birmingham tonight? Probably yes, but with a bit of luck the police will soon be in control and can get started on locking these motherlovers up.
Finally massive respect of the riot clean up people. This shows what the UK is really about, helping out and getting back to normality. Thankfully none needed by me, but I like to think I'd help if there were (and work would give me the day off).
Yes, initially there was no doubting people wanted to peacefully protest about the shooting of Mark Duggan, as is their right to do so, and I would never deny anybody that right. If it came to something that my community cared about I'd hope we'd do the same. However, this peaceful protest was hijacked by people who, chances are, didn't give a flying fuck about the cause or reason, they just wanted to kick off.
I've heard many experts of the TV trying to explain away the reasons behind the rioting, I've heard it's police attitude, living conditions, no doubt someone had suggested it's cos they're daddy doesn't love them any more. Bullshit, these people want high end free stuff and suddenly this opportunity to loot en masse and they took it, knowing full well in the numbers they were the police would struggle to cope.
Lives were put at risk, livelihoods were destroyed just because someone wanted the thrill or setting fire to buildings. I'm by no means right wing but if the call was mine, on a strictly watching from a distance anger and frustration point of view, there would have been soldiers, armed police the works. If they want to create hell... fuck 'em.
Some of these morons even bragged on twitter/facebook "Yo biatches I got maself I new plasma last night" or a variation of. Thankfully people seemed to pick this up and forward on names etc to the police. These are the same 'protesters' that were so brave facing up to police they'd run up, throw something and immediately leg it incase they missed and the police smacked them one. Only problem there is the cop would probably be made into a villan and all police made to only use foam mallets in riot situations.
Some of the kids that have been interviewed, particularly those ones on the BBC yesterday, have come across as thick, mindless and many things I'm too polite to point out. Clearly no knowledge of the situation, using the pretence of 'sticking it to the man', well yeah if the 'man' is a independent business owner struggling to get by as it is, or someone renting a now destroyed flat who is temporarily homeless. Idiots.
Oops those right wing thoughts are back again. Honestly, if my daughter turns out like these morons, she's going to boarding school. Forever.
As you may be aware, as it says it on the top of the page, I'm from South Wales and rumours were flying last night about trouble in Cardiff, theer was little, it seems like about 7 14 year olds tried breaking into JD sports and something on Cowbridge road realised they didn't have a clue what they were doing and legged it before the police arrived. But still, these kids have obviously seen London/Birmingham/Manchester etc (even Gloucester last night?? Seriously??) as something to be aspired too, they fancied some new Reebok Classics an iPod touch and one of those bendy sausages from Wimpy (I mean honestly... looting Wimpy on Monday... that must be mindless violence as there's little to steal) for free and thought they'd try their luck.
There were facebook messages being sent round trying to incite rioting, however thankfully the Welsh either can't be arsed (which judging by our history is unlikely) or couldn't see the point. Kudos to all the Cardiff Chavs.
I think London may be done, extra police, the condemnation of Mark Duggans family, all may have helped the situation, but now it's spread, will things carry on in Manchester and Birmingham tonight? Probably yes, but with a bit of luck the police will soon be in control and can get started on locking these motherlovers up.
Finally massive respect of the riot clean up people. This shows what the UK is really about, helping out and getting back to normality. Thankfully none needed by me, but I like to think I'd help if there were (and work would give me the day off).
Monday 8 August 2011
Rogers cup time!
Probably my favourite time of the tennis season is under way, pity it's all played over in North America and therefore at some ungodly hour over here, but its still good!
The Rogers cup has started today in Montreal (the women are in Toronto) (main draw) with a massive 1 British entrant into the singles (Murray) and one team in the doubles (Murray/Murray). Notice a pattern there?
Murray is the defending champion here, having retained the title for the last 2 years and will be looking to level Ivan Lendl's 3-in-a-row record this time, but with the form of Nadal and Djokovic I really can't see it, as much as I'd love him to win it. He'll start probably with a game against Ryan Harrison in round 2. Awkward draw though as his R16 could be Stanislas Wawrinka, followed by Mardy Fish then Nadal in the semi. But 2 wins in a row means you can't count him out. Although it's hard to look past Nadal or Djokovic for the title.
From here it's Cincinnati for another masters (Murray only defending 180 there!) and then the US Open, my favourite of the grand slam of the year. I need to get myself skysports for my xbox again. Plus the football season is starting...
The Rogers cup has started today in Montreal (the women are in Toronto) (main draw) with a massive 1 British entrant into the singles (Murray) and one team in the doubles (Murray/Murray). Notice a pattern there?
Murray is the defending champion here, having retained the title for the last 2 years and will be looking to level Ivan Lendl's 3-in-a-row record this time, but with the form of Nadal and Djokovic I really can't see it, as much as I'd love him to win it. He'll start probably with a game against Ryan Harrison in round 2. Awkward draw though as his R16 could be Stanislas Wawrinka, followed by Mardy Fish then Nadal in the semi. But 2 wins in a row means you can't count him out. Although it's hard to look past Nadal or Djokovic for the title.
From here it's Cincinnati for another masters (Murray only defending 180 there!) and then the US Open, my favourite of the grand slam of the year. I need to get myself skysports for my xbox again. Plus the football season is starting...
A massive well done though to James Ward for winning a 100k challenger in Vancouver last week, beating Boggo in the quarters (he still deserves to be higher than 344 in my opinion). Ward up to 144, pretty good, I'm assuming he'll be off to US Open Quallies quite soon. Anyone kow when the draw is out?
Monday 1 August 2011
RIP iPhone
After between 22 and 23 months by my side with almost unfailingly decent levels of service, my iPhone will die today. It no longer wishes to charge itself, and being an iPhone, this gives it a very short life expectancy.
Sadly this also leaves my mobile phone-less until I'm due an upgrade, which thankfully isn't too long, so if you need to get hold of me... tough.
The phone went through some tough times, it lost it's volume buttons, but it carried on. It took a tumble through a massive hole in my pocket onto a harsh Tenerife street (you know the typical Spanish kind with the little squares) and cracked its screen, but it carried on going. But like so many older devices, it started to get confused, telling me the accessory wasn't optimised for iPhone, when I hadn't actually got anything plugged into it... freezing up during calls, and sometimes not even wanting to receive them at all.
Now it looks like the little weekend away in Burnham on sea was it's last action as a useful device (thanks Gracie), it's farewell tour if you will. Now it's refusing to be fed, there's just 24% of the battery left of its life, so about an hour and a half then!
Not wishing to sound heartless, throwing away my long time companion and replacing it with a newer shiner model without a second thought, but it's only a phone! This does open the door to be acquiring an iPhone4! Yes, of course I know the iPhone5 isn't all that far behind, I am a fully paid up member of geek you don't have to tell me, but circumstances have forced my hand. Plus the 4 will be more than adequate for my needs.
I've already started having a look around, and I've already assumed o2 are not going to offer me a decent deal and will frown at my data usage and the early leader is three. For the same as I'm paying now, they'll give me ludicrous amounts of texts and calls and most vitally, 'unlimited' data (I haven't checked the old t&c's yet and am fully aware there is probably some kind of cap or fair use policy, but it's still better than 500mb) all with an iPhone4 (either colour... woo-hoo...) for exactly the same as I paid for my 3GS all those many many months ago.
I will ring up o2 and give them a chance to explain their early upgrade procedures before I laugh in their general direction when the price is mentioned. Or I could wait a month 'til they'll upgrade me anyway. Not sure when I'll ring, or indeed on what, but I'll ring! Have to asses my options from that point.
Last night I frantically backed up music, photos, but not contacts... hmm oversight there and it's only just occurred to me, oh well...
Sadly this also leaves my mobile phone-less until I'm due an upgrade, which thankfully isn't too long, so if you need to get hold of me... tough.
The phone went through some tough times, it lost it's volume buttons, but it carried on. It took a tumble through a massive hole in my pocket onto a harsh Tenerife street (you know the typical Spanish kind with the little squares) and cracked its screen, but it carried on going. But like so many older devices, it started to get confused, telling me the accessory wasn't optimised for iPhone, when I hadn't actually got anything plugged into it... freezing up during calls, and sometimes not even wanting to receive them at all.
Now it looks like the little weekend away in Burnham on sea was it's last action as a useful device (thanks Gracie), it's farewell tour if you will. Now it's refusing to be fed, there's just 24% of the battery left of its life, so about an hour and a half then!
Not wishing to sound heartless, throwing away my long time companion and replacing it with a newer shiner model without a second thought, but it's only a phone! This does open the door to be acquiring an iPhone4! Yes, of course I know the iPhone5 isn't all that far behind, I am a fully paid up member of geek you don't have to tell me, but circumstances have forced my hand. Plus the 4 will be more than adequate for my needs.
I've already started having a look around, and I've already assumed o2 are not going to offer me a decent deal and will frown at my data usage and the early leader is three. For the same as I'm paying now, they'll give me ludicrous amounts of texts and calls and most vitally, 'unlimited' data (I haven't checked the old t&c's yet and am fully aware there is probably some kind of cap or fair use policy, but it's still better than 500mb) all with an iPhone4 (either colour... woo-hoo...) for exactly the same as I paid for my 3GS all those many many months ago.
I will ring up o2 and give them a chance to explain their early upgrade procedures before I laugh in their general direction when the price is mentioned. Or I could wait a month 'til they'll upgrade me anyway. Not sure when I'll ring, or indeed on what, but I'll ring! Have to asses my options from that point.
Last night I frantically backed up music, photos, but not contacts... hmm oversight there and it's only just occurred to me, oh well...
Thursday 28 July 2011
Battle: Los Angeles and How To Lose Friends & Alienate People
Over the last couple of nights I've been flexing my blu-ray muscles and have rented a couple of films I quite wanted to see ion the cinema but me 'n' the wife (got used to saying that now, it just kinda rolls off!) never got round too it.
Thanks to a few (rapidly expiring) blockbuster vouchers we have from when we bought the player we went down and picked up, Battle: Los Angeles and How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, two slightly different films no doubt.
Well first up was Battle: Los Angeles.
I quite like my alien invasion sci-fi films (shocking I know), Independence Day is overly cheesy but remains a favourite to this day, I even quite liked the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds... sorry. I was expecting a cliché ridden, over the top, 'Go America!' film, with minimal character development and stuff blowing up all over the place, ending with a initial victory for mankind but looked like it would result in overall glory.
Got what I was expecting.
It's by no means a bad film, the predictable plot and the flag waving patriotism are hallmarks of a bad film no doubt, but I didn't go in thinking it was going to get many screenwriters guild nominations. After a bit of a slow start, which set up many of the clichés from the outset (1 guy close to retiring, 1 guy's wife having a baby so fighting to protect it etc) it is action packed, the constant action to action movement with the narrative done in the lulls was very video game in it's style, shame then the game of the film, as with so many film tie ins, sucked ass.
The acting was very standard for the genre, I'm pretty sure Aaron Eckhart's jaw has never been so square for so long ever before, and (unless there's a sequel of course) wont be ever again. But overall I think the film worked on most of the levels it went after, stuff blew up, mankind started to win, a good time was had by all. I've made it sound like a very by-the-numbers 3 star film, and yes I think that's fair enough and sometimes that's all you want from a film.
Second, and on the following night, was a British film, ropey territory for a start, set in America How To Lose Friends & Alienate People.
For which I didn't really know what my expectations were. I'd wanted to see it purely as Simon Pegg was the lead and he's usually pretty good, but had never got round to it. From the box office (quite a heavy loss) I wasn't the only one.
Turn out this film was pretty good. I wasn't aware of the support cast, but to be fair once they were on screen they were mostly good, Megan Fox (who was awful, but it suited this part), Kirstin Dunst, Jeff Bridges, Gillian Anderson, Danny Huston, Bill Patterson, even 2 of the 3 leads from the IT Crowd, Miriam Margoyle and James Cordon were in it.
It was mildly funny where necessary, I didn't think all the slapstick was really required, but it kept the film moving along. It got quite predictable towards the end when it was always easy to see who would end up as the love interest, but it was a good watch. Pegg was very good, Dunst was good as she tends to be in a more supporting role (E.g. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Bridges was a little subdued but was funny on a number of occasions.
Bonus - no game to slate, it'd be awful anyway, just assume.
Battle: Los Angeles took better advantage of the blu-ray looking better, but then it's an sci-fi slash action film not a comedy, it would!
Of the two, it's hard to compare, but if it came down to watching one or the other again, I'd go for How to Lose Friends. It just worked better as a story, as it actually had a concrete not 100% predictable one. Go watch, if enough people do, it may one day break even!
Thanks to a few (rapidly expiring) blockbuster vouchers we have from when we bought the player we went down and picked up, Battle: Los Angeles and How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, two slightly different films no doubt.
Well first up was Battle: Los Angeles.
I quite like my alien invasion sci-fi films (shocking I know), Independence Day is overly cheesy but remains a favourite to this day, I even quite liked the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds... sorry. I was expecting a cliché ridden, over the top, 'Go America!' film, with minimal character development and stuff blowing up all over the place, ending with a initial victory for mankind but looked like it would result in overall glory.
Got what I was expecting.
It's by no means a bad film, the predictable plot and the flag waving patriotism are hallmarks of a bad film no doubt, but I didn't go in thinking it was going to get many screenwriters guild nominations. After a bit of a slow start, which set up many of the clichés from the outset (1 guy close to retiring, 1 guy's wife having a baby so fighting to protect it etc) it is action packed, the constant action to action movement with the narrative done in the lulls was very video game in it's style, shame then the game of the film, as with so many film tie ins, sucked ass.
The acting was very standard for the genre, I'm pretty sure Aaron Eckhart's jaw has never been so square for so long ever before, and (unless there's a sequel of course) wont be ever again. But overall I think the film worked on most of the levels it went after, stuff blew up, mankind started to win, a good time was had by all. I've made it sound like a very by-the-numbers 3 star film, and yes I think that's fair enough and sometimes that's all you want from a film.
Second, and on the following night, was a British film, ropey territory for a start, set in America How To Lose Friends & Alienate People.
For which I didn't really know what my expectations were. I'd wanted to see it purely as Simon Pegg was the lead and he's usually pretty good, but had never got round to it. From the box office (quite a heavy loss) I wasn't the only one.
Turn out this film was pretty good. I wasn't aware of the support cast, but to be fair once they were on screen they were mostly good, Megan Fox (who was awful, but it suited this part), Kirstin Dunst, Jeff Bridges, Gillian Anderson, Danny Huston, Bill Patterson, even 2 of the 3 leads from the IT Crowd, Miriam Margoyle and James Cordon were in it.
It was mildly funny where necessary, I didn't think all the slapstick was really required, but it kept the film moving along. It got quite predictable towards the end when it was always easy to see who would end up as the love interest, but it was a good watch. Pegg was very good, Dunst was good as she tends to be in a more supporting role (E.g. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Bridges was a little subdued but was funny on a number of occasions.
Bonus - no game to slate, it'd be awful anyway, just assume.
Battle: Los Angeles took better advantage of the blu-ray looking better, but then it's an sci-fi slash action film not a comedy, it would!
Of the two, it's hard to compare, but if it came down to watching one or the other again, I'd go for How to Lose Friends. It just worked better as a story, as it actually had a concrete not 100% predictable one. Go watch, if enough people do, it may one day break even!
Tuesday 26 July 2011
Lloret rocks, alpharooms suck
Right, it's got to be said, these blogs are turning a little into the consumer section on that's life. But I don't care, it's my blog and I'll write what I like so there :p
Firstly, I had a delightful time in Espania. Lloret is a lovely place, not really targeted at the Brits so much any more, or maybe not at this point in the season anyway. But the hotel was decent the staff was nice, all in all it was a lovely little trip.
The only downside was... well getting home at the end. We noticed the night before that Alpharooms, who we'd booked everything through, had made a mistake with the return transfer, which would have left us stuck for a very long time in the airport. So we rang up to arrange, the first woman, unhelpful but gave us another number, the second one took their time, seemingly couldn't work their own systems (all while we should have been partying on our last night out there) then eventually gave us a new time and pick up point. To be sure, we passed the phone woman to the receptionist to write stuff down due to slight difficulty understanding the Spanish accent. She even drew us a little map, how nice!
We ate and drabnk and were merry! Eventually after sorting these people out, it can take the shine off the last night of a holiday (actually a honeymoon) when you have to sort out stuff people have cocked up on your behalf.
Following morning, checked out after a nice breakfast (gotta love a bit of all inclusive buffet style grub!), at least 50% of us remembered to get their wrist band snipped, (the other 50% may have kept it on til we were in a party on the sat night) and we trekked over to the Guitart Monterray to get picked up (We were staying in the Guitart Capri!). Well we waited for the bus, and waited and the due time passed, and we got a little(!) stressed and waited and then phoned.
Yay! We'd been given the wrong pick up location and the bus had fucked off without us. No choice, panic stations, ran back to hotel, asked the still helpful reception staff to get us a taxi and we taxi'd it back to the airport in time... and at a cost of €55, we were lucky we had enough cash on us. We also tried asking the Spanish taxi driver for a receipt, I may as well had been asking a Martian for a table tennis ball, so we gave up and went for the plane.
Obviously this annoyed me, it was alpharooms fault for booking the wrong thing and then the coach company (NTIncoming) for giving the wrong info when we tried to fix alpharooms mistake. So on return, I wrote a nice email ready for alpharooms stating I feel they should cover the taxi fare, refund the unused transfer and maybe a little sorry would be nice. I went to their site and guess what. No email address to complain to.
I asked if anyone knew one on twitter and the company themselves contacted me to say no. I mean honestly, how backwards a system. Fair enough if I was supplying receipts or something, but I could even scan them!! I just wanna complain! It's obstructive and obviously designed to make complaining as hard as possible. Poor show. But complain I will. Maybe they'll even read this who knows!
In other news today, series 5 of The Guild starts on XBOX Live! (Thursday for other formats) well I'm assuming that's the case as it's the US release schedule and it should be pretty uniform.
Firstly, I had a delightful time in Espania. Lloret is a lovely place, not really targeted at the Brits so much any more, or maybe not at this point in the season anyway. But the hotel was decent the staff was nice, all in all it was a lovely little trip.
The only downside was... well getting home at the end. We noticed the night before that Alpharooms, who we'd booked everything through, had made a mistake with the return transfer, which would have left us stuck for a very long time in the airport. So we rang up to arrange, the first woman, unhelpful but gave us another number, the second one took their time, seemingly couldn't work their own systems (all while we should have been partying on our last night out there) then eventually gave us a new time and pick up point. To be sure, we passed the phone woman to the receptionist to write stuff down due to slight difficulty understanding the Spanish accent. She even drew us a little map, how nice!
We ate and drabnk and were merry! Eventually after sorting these people out, it can take the shine off the last night of a holiday (actually a honeymoon) when you have to sort out stuff people have cocked up on your behalf.
Following morning, checked out after a nice breakfast (gotta love a bit of all inclusive buffet style grub!), at least 50% of us remembered to get their wrist band snipped, (the other 50% may have kept it on til we were in a party on the sat night) and we trekked over to the Guitart Monterray to get picked up (We were staying in the Guitart Capri!). Well we waited for the bus, and waited and the due time passed, and we got a little(!) stressed and waited and then phoned.
Yay! We'd been given the wrong pick up location and the bus had fucked off without us. No choice, panic stations, ran back to hotel, asked the still helpful reception staff to get us a taxi and we taxi'd it back to the airport in time... and at a cost of €55, we were lucky we had enough cash on us. We also tried asking the Spanish taxi driver for a receipt, I may as well had been asking a Martian for a table tennis ball, so we gave up and went for the plane.
Obviously this annoyed me, it was alpharooms fault for booking the wrong thing and then the coach company (NTIncoming) for giving the wrong info when we tried to fix alpharooms mistake. So on return, I wrote a nice email ready for alpharooms stating I feel they should cover the taxi fare, refund the unused transfer and maybe a little sorry would be nice. I went to their site and guess what. No email address to complain to.
I asked if anyone knew one on twitter and the company themselves contacted me to say no. I mean honestly, how backwards a system. Fair enough if I was supplying receipts or something, but I could even scan them!! I just wanna complain! It's obstructive and obviously designed to make complaining as hard as possible. Poor show. But complain I will. Maybe they'll even read this who knows!
In other news today, series 5 of The Guild starts on XBOX Live! (Thursday for other formats) well I'm assuming that's the case as it's the US release schedule and it should be pretty uniform.
Tuesday 19 July 2011
La la la la la la la - Y Viva Espania
So what's going on at the moment in the news...
Some moron has disrupted the Murdoch questioning by using a shaving foam pie on the old git.... There may be a poisoner in a Manchester Hospital, Rory McIlroy is single again.. oh wait
You know what, I don't give a flying fuck about anything as I'm off on holiday!!
In just a few short hours I'll be shifting my ass to the airport then spending the rest of the week in sunny Espania. I'll be sipping all inclusive drinks and chowing down on cheese and ham toasties (probably) and all inclusive buffet style meals while everyone else is in work (well almost everyone). I'll spare a thought for you all as I'm sitting in the sun drinking Reina (not the goalkeeper).
I'll return just in time to attend an engagement party and then relax.
Sadly the child won't be joining us, she's got a lovely few days with Nanny, Aunties and Grandads to look forward too. I'm sure she'll enjoy that far more anyway.
Of course if there is such a thing as karma, I've just screwed myself over here... oh well.
Some moron has disrupted the Murdoch questioning by using a shaving foam pie on the old git.... There may be a poisoner in a Manchester Hospital, Rory McIlroy is single again.. oh wait
You know what, I don't give a flying fuck about anything as I'm off on holiday!!
In just a few short hours I'll be shifting my ass to the airport then spending the rest of the week in sunny Espania. I'll be sipping all inclusive drinks and chowing down on cheese and ham toasties (probably) and all inclusive buffet style meals while everyone else is in work (well almost everyone). I'll spare a thought for you all as I'm sitting in the sun drinking Reina (not the goalkeeper).
I'll return just in time to attend an engagement party and then relax.
Sadly the child won't be joining us, she's got a lovely few days with Nanny, Aunties and Grandads to look forward too. I'm sure she'll enjoy that far more anyway.
Of course if there is such a thing as karma, I've just screwed myself over here... oh well.
Thursday 14 July 2011
Cash Generator 2 - The reply
Right, here goes again, for anyone wanting the back story the original blog, including my communication to Cash Generator can be found here:
http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.com/2011/07/cash-generator-vs-good-service.html
Well you've never have guessed it, they've responded and to be honest it was a very predictable response, so as not to dilute the experience, here it is in all it's glory:
http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.com/2011/07/cash-generator-vs-good-service.html
Well you've never have guessed it, they've responded and to be honest it was a very predictable response, so as not to dilute the experience, here it is in all it's glory:
From: merthyr tydfil [mailto:merthyr@stores.
Sent: 14 July 2011 15:37
To: Still not gonna leave my email address here, nuh-huh.
Subject: Kinnect Game
To
Mr Driscoll
In response to your e-mail as a gesture we will offer an exchange on the item or credit note to the value of the disc, our exchange policy is clearly stated and when initial query was handled no mention of disc burn was mentioned and as far as we are aware this damage cannot be repaired, although scratches to discs can be. We will happily give you the exchange as above or credit note which has no expiry.
If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to contact us.
Thank you
Cash Generator
Merthyr Tydfil
I haven't responded.
A few points, not written the best (or maybe it's my years of letter writing giving me OTT standards) and it never fills you with confidence when they can't even spell the product... The product knowledge (disc 'burns' can't be repaired??) worries me a little also... and grow a pair (or the female equivalent) and sign your email.
No mention of disc burn, true, but saying that I didn't mention anything, I left the staff member to examine it, but they possibly/probably didn't know what disc burn was!
And honestly a credit note, like I'd ever want to shop in their pikey shitehole again after this experience. I'll leave that to people in tracksuits from now on.
I did take a picture of the pre-fixed disc and although it's a shite picture (I'm not a photographer!) you can see the white rings of surface disc scoring! Et voila:
By some crazy random happenstance though a guy from Trading Standards in Merthyr rang my house asking for me today, not long after the email landed in my inbox. One monster of a coincidence if you ask me. Maybe it's fate... maybe it's just really pro-active, maybe even it's some jester from Cash Gen pretending to be trading standards to judge a reaction! I'll give them a ring back tomorrow (or they now have my mobile) and see what they got to say.
There's very little in it for me to do anything, but I just feel like I should, or they'll just carry on.
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