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

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.

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.

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.

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:

Last Stop

Time

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.

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...

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)

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:

• 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.