Swansea 10k and Scam monkey update

Another year, another run around Swansea for 6 miles! Only this year my expectations were on the floor. After a year of physio and rehabilitation classes, before starting back to run properly, I was happily hoping to get round in 55 mins or so (although I was faster than that in the Merthyr 10k).

Come race day, I'm feeling good, had to run an unexpected 1k kids race practically dragging Gracie by the hand  first thing. But that's all warm up I suppose! Plenty of stretching so as not to destroy my knee again and i was off.

Got to give it to Swansea, it's a nice course, especially when the sun is pumping down on you on such a nice day. Downside is... sun is pumping down on you as it's such a nice day. Big thanks to the guy with the hose at about 6 or 7k, much appreciated. So so hot!

On route, felt horrible at first, had been stood in the baking sun for 20+ mins before hand, was really overheating! But got myself into a good rhythm and within 2 or 3k i was going at a decent pace. Then the realisation hit me... I could maintain this pace, this was comfortable... so I maintained it. It got to the point where occasionally I was losing time due to traffic, this does not happen to me.

Got to the last 400m or so and I felt like i had more in the tank, so off i went, no quite a sprint finish but a quick one. I run in before the clock gets that close to 51 mins and instantly know... PB. Phone says 50:38, but slightly over distance (as usual me wandering past the line trying to turn it off). But regardless I'm happy.

Time later comes through at 50:19, 1:31 off my old best time! Barely mediocre in the grand scheme of things but for me, not bad. Although I have got sunburn on both my shoulders... in September... and it is quite sore...

Also, update on scam monkey from other day, reported to police, PayPal and gumtree (who ignored my email) and my money is on it's way back! Massive thanks to Andrew Aitcheson for the assistance/advice on this. Now hoping to get a capture card again! Have recorded one XB1 video, but it was shite and has been filed away on some god forsaken corner of YouTube. as a WIP!

Cardiff half in 2 weeks, expect more running related writings before then.

Scammed!!

Right this is the second time of writing this, Blogger... poor show.

I can be really annoyingly fucking stupid on times. I try to see the best in situations and people and while most of the time, this stands me in good stead, every now and again it comes back to bite me in the arse. Well this is one of those times.

I wanted to get an external capture card to record game footage on my xbox one/360/wiiu etc. The idea being it would enhance the reviews etc I do over at www.keyboardwarriors.co.uk. However, the main stumbling block was the price, the one i wanted was an Elgato Game Capture HD, which would set me back about a hundred quid. Too much for me to justify paying sadly.

So I hit eBay and Gumtree, start pricing them up at anything between 40 and 70. I select one (on the bottom of the price chain) and check him out a bit. He has picture of the actual product, not a stock one, looks like a verified uk location, history of posting to the site. Looked legit.

After a length back and fore by email, he agreed to post, I agreed to pay. Guess what? Only 50% of us kept their end up and shockingly that was me.

The day after I paid (this morning) I get a message off Gumtree saying he was a suspected fraud and my cash was gone. I head to PayPal and try to dispute the payment, but apparently I clicked an option wrong when sending the money (option I needed wasn't there on the screen I used mind), then to Natwest who may be able to help when it appears on my statement, but I already know there'll be some reason why they can't.

Informed Gumtree who can do pretty much nothing, so I'm minus cash and item.

Worst part is it's made me not want to do the very thing I was trying to do better, I really resent writing any review or game news now and I don't think I can do it anymore.

It's definitely the end of me buying second hand online. Which will stop me buying... most things I want.

Anyone want to play balls the guys email/paypal add is  ohservice3@outlook.com - John Daily (yes spelt like the every 24 hour thing). Enjoy!

Fallout - Part 1

A good while ago I did a thing about Batman, took 3 or 4 posts but I quite liked it, so here we go again. This time Fallout...

War. War never changes. The dulcet tones of Ron Perlman open each of the Fallout game to date, emphasising you are entering a desolate game world. But what about Fallout itself, does Fallout ever change. Well let's start at the very beginning.

Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game (1997) (PC/Mac)

Slightly pointlessly long title. From this point I shall call her Fallout.

9 years prior to the release of Fallout, Interplay had released Wasteland, in which a team of Desert Rangers, the remnant of the US Army, explored a post apocalyptic world, examining what remained of civilisation, including the city of Las Vegas, but more about that much later.

The game was a critical success and was due to spawn 2 sequels, one by Interplay and one by the games publishers Electronic Arts. As time went by the EA effort became it's own standalone title 'Fountain of Dreams' and the Interplay sequel, initially titled 'Meantime' fell by the wayside and was never completed. However, what wasn't completed gave the groundings for an all new franchise to be born, that franchise being... Fallout. Whoo big reveal...

Fallout itself was set in post apocalyptic 2161 version of the west coast of America. The bombs dropped years previously after an escalating war between the US and China primarily over the last of the planets natural resources. Some people survived above, some like you survived in large subterranean fallout shelters known as vaults. you start off snug and tucked up nicely in Vault 13. You get a choice of 3 characters or a create your own option who is then approached by the Vault Overseer as the water system has developed a problem and predictably you're he only the person thinks can fix it.

So after a (decent for the time) bit of cut scene action you're out and making your way to the wasteland. Controlling a character only known as 'The Vault Dweller'. If that's to be mysterious or to save programming in lookups for the name in loads of dialogue I'll let you decide.

The game took a pseudo-isomeric view with mouse clicks guiding the player round the screen, and the camera moved via arrow keys.

Each of the characters available for selection in the game set up has a different approach, you can have a diplomat who will try and talk his way out of situations through to a brute who will strike first and then forget to ask questions later as he's too dense for that.

Fallout graded the character using a system known as S.P.E.C.I.A.L. This system, still in place in the modern titles, determines the 7 basic attributes the character has:

- Strength
- Perception
- Endurance
- Charisma
- Intelligence
- Agility
- Luck

These then determine a set of sub skills, which level up with the character through the distribution of skill points.
A theme through each of the titles is some of the skills could be improved outside of levelling, you can find books in the wasteland which when read put skill levels up.

This way of levelling and character development wasn't unique at the time, in fact the title was due to initially use the table top GURPS system, however this idea was dropped and SPECIAL was developed in house by Chris Taylor, Jessie Heinig and Tim Cain.

Once you're out of the vault one think is certain, at some point you're going to have to fight. Combat could be initiated by the payer or aggressive characters would attack when the player was close enough. You'll start off with rats, but enemies do get bigger and tougher.

Here lays one thing I was never a big fan of (same for Fallout 2), the combat was entirely turn based, something I never got on with. You could launch attacks until you run out of points, then you stood there and took the retaliation and repeat. Dull, dull, dull. I never liked stuff like Final Fantasy for the same reason.

That's the primary reason to this day, I've never finished Fallout, or Fallout 2. I started playing through each game again for this very (series of) post (s) which were going to be for keyboardwarriors.co.uk before turning up here, so I knew what I was talking about, and found I still can't get on with that style of combat.

It's probably me.

Fallout is generally considered to be excellent, and ignoring the combat it's hard to argue with that. The multiple approaches to puzzles, the interactivity of the NPCs you meet all work well and it was a sign of better things to come. Such as:

Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game (1998) (PC/MAC)

Dropping the stupid subtitle like it's hot? If only...

All of the key features from above return, multi solution puzzles, interactivity, Ron Perlman, Turn Based Combat (GAH), excellent story, SPECIAL, character development. Can't go far wrong can you?

This time you play as a descendant of the character from the first game called (for the same reason I assume) 'The Chosen One'. It's now 2241 and the 'Vault Dweller' founded village of Arroyo, Oregon is suffering a drought. The player character is sent forth into the world to find a GECK (Garden of Eden Creation Kit) to end the environmental woes of the village forever. First stop? Vault 13 from the first game, but not much luck there... so the fun begins...

The game essentially plays the same, however some basic changes are made. Currency is more scarce and items cost more, encouraging scavenging. Skill values peak at 300 points not 200 and the higher levels are harder to get too. The items are more varied both by type and variations on a type (3 types of minigun?).

SPECIAL is still present and working better than before, generally everything feels like it's had a bit of a polish and upgrade. Skills can be further upgraded by reading books, although mostly in the early stages as they have a cap of 91%.

Also introduced is Jet, a drug which has got me out of tight spots in 3 and NV! Here it's a new drug sweeping through communities. New factions include the New Californian Republic (bringing people together) and the Enclave (claims to be old government, has very nice kit).

As with the first game references are made to 'pop culture' but here they're a bit more in your face. Reno in particular is OTT. Play it, you'll know the bit I'm on about.

The upgrades are welcome but clearly incremental though, graphics are very similar, sound, general feel hasn't moved on much. But it wasn't broke so they didn't need to fix it. Well maybe the combat.

Still a cracking game if you like turn based combat, worth a go.

Next time, the demise of the isometric-ness!

Headphone Traumas

I like (borderline need) to listen to music much of the time, particularly while working and running. While working it's fine, however when I run the little white (other colour variations are available) lead, bouncing around in front of me, catching on things, generally begin a nuisance, pisses me /off.

I've left it dangling in front of me, annoying. I've fed it up under my shirt (not somewhere anything deserves to go really) and it rubs and the lead then obviously has less length. I've suffered occasions where my pocket is just, ever so slightly, too far away and 20 yards in the lead is yanked out and I have 2 hours of silence and other people breathing.

While running it's also not just da toons that help, but also my phone likes to talk to me and tell me how I'm doing. Not in a freaky beginnings of skynet way, but in a MapMyRun / Nike+ kind of GPS update way. I need this as still, after years of doing this now, have little sense of pace. Without it I'll plod along thinking everything is easy and the worlds great, then realise I'm slow, panic and kill myself trying to catch up. It doesn't end well.

So, I decided to take a punt and go wireless with headphones. I started looking weeks ago and initially found things with horrible transmitter / receiver kind of things going on, wasn't a fan and definitely wasn't reasonably priced. After wading through these I came to Bluetooth ones, essentially upgraded headsets. These seemed to be the best ideas, but I couldn't decide between 2 styles (over or in ear) so I ordered quite cheap versions of both to sample.

I got:

http://instagram.com/p/rKTc-eRyW1/

(It's a link as I don't know how to insert an image on the app!)

I wasn't expecting much from them, as combined they cost 20 qud and generally speaking, at least with sound quality, you get what you pay for.

The ones on the right were first to arrive, and I was generally shocked. They fit nice and sound very nice. Don't get me wrong, they aren't a pair of Beats, but I have more expensive normal headphones which sound the same/worse. I did have them on when Wife Driscoll phoned me in tesco though. I can confirm they work brilliantly as a headset, but can also confirm people don't half give you some funny looks when you use it. Merthyr is not ready.

I then tried them out on the Bryn Bach Parkrun on Saturday. To be fair, couldn't fault them, comfortable, sounded good, relayed the GPS news as I went. The GPS needs fixing as my settings were lousy, but that's not the headsets fault. I ran poorly due to many reasons, not the least of which being late and having to run to the start line...

They seem to be the preferred option.

The other ones, the in-ear option, still not bad. Still better sound quality than the outlay deserved, however a bit big. I don't think I have a small head, in physical size context before you make your own jokes, but these were a good bit too big. As a result the back 'box' flapped up and down as I ran being quite annoying, but maybe not as annoying as catching a headphone lead on your hand as your run.

Also the controls are on the very same box, meaning so skip a track or answer a call, you end up reaching round the back of your head like you're participating in some kind of stupid dance. The on-your-right-ear controls of the flat headset win through there.
 

I haven't ran far with them on yet as the box bounce on the back, just inst appealing, however I may pair them with my tablet as they seem to have a bit more volume about them and the Nexus 7 is really quiet on times.

The flat ones will have a further outing this weekend as I run in the Merthyr 10k (Didn't know that existed a couple of weeks ago) where I hope to run under an hour (and preferably not come last). Half Marathon countdown well under way!

Xbox blah

Firstly... fuck you blogger app as you didn't save my last post. Ahem.

Right back onto it.

Back last year when the xbox one and ps4 were released, I knew I wanted to stay with the xbox brand, so I did. It took me a few months to gather up my pennies and purchase a few shiny (actually matt) xbox one, complete with my very own high res but still largely generic football title (FIFA).

Since then, I honestly have not been particularly impressed with it. Initially there were problems connecting to the internet, an update fixed them. Downloads and updates are generally HUGE and my snails pace connection really struggles (not after today bitches, FIBRE DAY!) to download anything.

Equally game quantities are not high, there are some good titles, I could just do with... more. some highlights so far...

Ryse: Son of Rome, excellent single player mode, really enjoyed to the point I was disappointed when I could see the end coming. Multiplayer seemed good, but with the lag on my piece of shit connection I could never get a game, or it'd have issues during (tomorrow...)

Rayman Legends: Wii U game originally but a good old school 2D platformer that looks very nice, yes please!

Forza: Pretty and controls well, can't ask for much more can you?

There's more too, the FIFA is decent (still not buying 15 though) but there have been disappointments in things like Murder: Soul Suspect, the Destiny beta (which my sadly deleted/not saved post was all about) which I was hoping for more from.

Prices don't help, I have probably missed a couple of good ones, but at 50+ quid a game (in GAME, please see Amazon for more realistic prices) you're not going to take a punt on some are you? 360 prices started high and then as games got older they fell, this better happen here or I'll not be happy.

Equally, while I didn't shell out the full price for my console and Kinect (gotta love a voucher code), not long after I bought it, the price dropped, then dropped again (with less hardware) which pissed me off. Microsoft largely ignored the shouts of early adopters objecting to this or requesting some kind of freebie to make up for it and just cracked on. Not the greatest at PR!

There's also a shockingly large amount of remakes of 360 (and equivalent) titles. Both Metro games are coming back out (which I kind of want), all the Halo games (which I kind of want), GTA 5. Write some new stuff!

There are games in the pipeline I want (apart from the Metro pack) such as Destiny (still), Far Cry 4, Fallout 4, so it will get better, but most of these are months away, so my big black VCR-a-like (which I think is a good look) will probably get dustier before it gets busier.

The whole snap thing was shite too Nice touch I can watch TV while playing, up for that, however having to have the xbox on whenever you want to watch TV. Stuff that, ad a deal with Scottish Power did they?

Now I mentioned Destiny above, I can't be arsed writing my previous post again, but in a shortened form, it played like a very good FPS. But I was expecting more somehow, maybe once I get into the story in the full release it'll be all good, but it didn't really feel much apart from Call of Duty, which I stopped buying 2 or 3 years ago.

I don't regret the purchase and I remain optimistic long term, but so far this generation has been a bit of a disappointment. Onwards and upwards though.

Train folk

Public transport is a very strange place, especially when you're in a routine and tend to be on the same service every day. I say service, I use Arriva so service isn't a word they're familiar with but stay with me.

Most people get into a real routine, myself included, I generally sit in the same place every day (on the way there, the way back is a nightmare) and more often than not, the same people sit around you. I occasionally vary and if someone, some... non regular is in my space it's no big deal. However, I have seen people with genuinely no idea what to do if they can't sit where they always do. Panic stricken looks the works. Got to love a routine!

For all intents you spend at least an hour sat round the same people, weekday in weekday out, but chances are you will have never have said a word to them. it's quite odd.

After a while you start noticing if people aren't there, even though you don't even know their name. For example, the guy who is the most conversational, with himself, on the whole train hasn't been on this week. I do find myself wondering why! Not that I'm overly gutted there's a nutter missing, but you notice these things.

It gets more... odd (for lack of a better word) when you pass one of these people out of context. By that I mean, not on the train. There's a moment of mutual recognition, as if, oh ait, I know him/her. Then a realisation... wait no I don't. By which time awkwardness has already occurred.

To be fair it's not always like that. Many months ago I left my bright white headphones (classy!) on the train, I was unaware of this until the following morning back on the arriva express. But before I could moan, whine or whinge a guy, who I recognised as detailed above popped his head round the seat, headphones in hand. Hero!

Still don't know his name though, but he is sat, at this moment in the carriage in front of me!

Train folk are also a very diverse bunch, yesterday for example a somewhat robust guy sat next to me who basically then squashed me against the wall of the train using nothing but the size of... him. Today? I have a Chinese student listening to Daft Punk songs while an older lady reads Dan Brown almost sat on his lap...

Of course all this only applies to the mornings, in the nights the shambles that is arriva crams you into the smallest space possible, then gets you home 15 mins late. Suppose the standing is good for your legs though.

They tried to make me go to rehab... and I went

Well when I say rehab, it's not for my massive drink and drug problem as I don't have the cash or the time for a massive drink and drug problem. However, I do have a consistently body falling apart problem.

Let me take you back to October 2013, the sun was shining and i was suffering, I was 11 or so miles into the Cardiff Half Marathon, all set for an easy PB, when something just felt... tight in my knee, then it felt worse than tight, then it bastard hurt. My dreams of a sub 2 hour run died along with my ability to walk properly for the next week.

Undeterred I gave it some rest time and cracked on, became pretty obvious i was doing more damage than good and off I trotted to the doctors. he referred to hospital and I waited. There followed a brief spell on crutches, pain whenever attempted exercise and months of walking like a Monty Python sketch.

It also killed of my hopes of completing an ambition by competing at the London Marathon, sorry Diabetes UK

Eventually the time came and I went to physiotherapy where I was informed my hamstring was the main issue, not letting my knee cap run straight or smooth, causing all kinds of shit to go down inside my knee. The doc still thinks there may be a slight tear to something, but it's not bothering me so... didn't happen.

Physio came and went and after being bent, pulled and twisted in many ways, they then moved me on to lower limb rehabilitation class (or something like that). Today i completed session 5 of 6 and to be fair I do feel better. I can run free of pain, not done any proper distances yet though but at the moment, but I'll happily take that.

The downsides? Well so long without real exercise has messed my cardio up. I'm probably not even a third as fit as I was at this point last year. I'm heavier, I've shot back up to pushing 13 stone from just about 12, which is also counter productive on the cardio of course. That increase is chub too as anyone who has seen me... ever will testify, there's not a muscle on me.

So what do I do? Yep yesterday I submitted my entry to the very race that killed me off last year (and I did think permanently at one point), I'm running the Cardiff Half Marathon 2014. Not for time this year, I'll obviously try my best, but I've accepted now there will be no PB (2:03), no sub 2 hour, probably not under 2:15, but baby steps and all that. my practise race is as usual the Swansea Bay 10k, where I'm targeting 58 minutes (51 last time out).

I'll be doing the charitables as usual and any sponsor money I get is going to velindre, just click www.justgiving.com/driscoll (If that works, I'm using the app and it's not great).

More to follow of course!

Fibre baby!

I live in a nice area, it's quiet, the houses are decent size, most everyone is retired or has a job (even me) and the last reported crime was in 1984 when Old Man Smith from down the road was caught worrying the sheep on Winchfawr (real word). All in all it doesn't meet the stereotype of Merthyr Tydfil where people are on the sick for 6 years for having a burny fart.

However, what is limited are things like Internet speeds (less than a meg quite a bit of the time), phone signal coverage, access to a cash machine, you know the kind of thing.

Well no more fr one of those things, no I haven't bought an ATM, today my order goes in for Fibre Optic Internet! Last week, my regular forlorn visit to Superfast Cymru's website didn't produce the traditional, "Fibre Not Available" result, so I did it again just to be sure.

No longer will every xbox download take 6 weeks, no longer will I not be able to stream Netflix and YouTube at the same time (2 different people). Imagine the luxury! Imagine all you want as I won't have to.

Booya bitches!

OK, it'll be 2/3 weeks getting installed which will undoubtedly be a torturous wait, but soon, really soon, my little slice of the Tyd will be one step closer to catching up with the world!Having said that, long contract and somewhat pricey are the downsides extra 10 baps on my (well the wife's, but I'l pay the difference) bill for a nice 72mps connection.

Got a feeling it'll be worth it though.

The return

Christmas 2012, so long ago, but was the last time I wrote on here. Yep dead blog. But no longer, I am here to resurrect!

Now I've not been inactive, my wares have been on display on xboxramble.com (now defunct), thetechramble.com (now defuct), ramblemedia.com (now defunct, stop me if you spot a pattern anywhere) and most recently keyboardwarriors.co.uk (not defunct! Yay!) where my current production is focused.

However, they currently have a bit of my work to catch up on, so there's no point adding to the pile, plus there it has to be on topic, I can't just wander off the way I used too on here, so let's get this get this show back on the road!

So that was Christmas

Well that's crimbo over for another year, and this years tried its best to add a little variety!!

This year managed a first for me, the first time I'd ever woken up on Christmas morning in a chair in Prince Charles Hospital. Well that's not strictly true, waking up implies I slept at some point, which with an Ill baby at my side wasn't going to happen. Dylan was diagnosed with bronchitis and spent the night in Ward 31 with the wife, myself and mother Driscoll alternating cover to stay with him.

Then in the night, with loads to be done at home before we served dinner for 7 the following day, I stayed as let's face it, I'd have got fuck all done, or it would have been done badly, one of the two.

After some begging we managed to get discharged at 6:30 or so, then making it home in time to see Gracie open her presents. Words can not describe how gutted I'd have been to miss that. Big thanks to the Ward 31 staff! Christmas day then went on to be the rather good day you'd expect, only let down by me being wiped out in the extreme from the night before and having to take a nap (or two) to stop myself falling down.

Present wise, I got good stuff as you'd expect! This tablet (which I may have mentioned I had early), an N64 which I've acquired a few games for, Batman blurays, and loads more.

Extended period off now til Wednesday, nice to be round the house with the family etc!

New years eve next, off to Swansea with a couple of friends, should be a laugh! Then back to work... Joy... Looking forward to that.

Hmmm a late one but baby doesn't fancy sleeping tonight...

3D tax

I like going to the cinema, but aspects of it do piss me off.

As you may have worked out by now I live in the lovely valleys town of Merthyr Tydfil, sadly all we have is a Vue. We used to have nothing, and for years so it's progress and everything, but we did get stuck with the lesser of the chains. Always expensive, limited showings, only the most mainstream of films and not always at their best (no 3D showing, films only there for a few days, you know the kind of thing.)

But there are things I don't understand, there are possibly perfectly good reasons but what they are... not forthcoming. The main one is the couple of quid they chuck on the (already nearly £8) price for 3D films. I went to see The Hobbit this weekend with the good wife and £20 of tickets for the bog standard seating (if we'd wanted the nice seats it'd be the same price to get into the Odeon IMAX in Cardiff Bay) makes cinema going prohibitive. Plus generally the effect isn't worth it, in this instance it looked nice on a few landscape shots and looking into the Goblin city (no spoiler warnings, the book's been out long enough) but for the film as a whole, I could have done without it.

Do they need special projectors? (I assume so) Does it cost for to put on? Are we paying for those poxy glasses they demand back at the end? I've never seen a film which I initially saw in 3D back in normal 2D and thought... missed that 3rd dimension there. That includes Avatar and Avengers! As a gimmick its fine, as it was in the 70s and the 40s (I think) but it died then and may do so now.

If I wanted to take the full set of sprogs and wife... £8 extra. That's a whole extra person! On release weekend that cinema was 1/3 full at most. I'd imagine cost would be a factor. People wonder why films like Dredd 3D fail, the fault may be as much with the cinemas themselves as with the films.

People weigh up the excessive cost of going and the majority of the time things like cinema lose.

Oh and why couldn't we get an Odeon or a Cineworld... Sad face.

The film itself was good, didn't think it was great. Acting was OK, Freeman was good as Bilbo and it was good to see Sylvester McCoy in work but I found James Nesbitt highly annoying, but then again I always do. The first and last hours were very good but the middle kind of sauntered along waiting for something to happen. It's worth a watch but the 3D isn't a deal breaker.

Bits felt padded out/unnecessary and this didn't always work, it brings me back to other moans about a 300 page book being stretched beyond what is healthy.

I'll be watching the next two but I'm struggling to see how they'll fill 6 more hours!

£20 worth... Nah.

Roughly 1 year later...

This time last year (think it was January) I posted this:

http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/hi-im-andrew-and-im-underachiever.html

Which has been described to me as a very frank and honest post about myself, it was even mentioned in my work appraisal! Well as much as January is the time for planning, December should be the time for reflecting, I've just read that post back and... Hmmm a mixed bag of results at best.

Let's start with positives! Oh yes fitness. Decent effort PB's at 10k and half marathon and big PB's too. Had a big stall the last 6 weeks or so with a broken arm but come March 3rd I'm confident I'll be capable of a sub 2 hour half marathon in Llanelli. Not bad for a fat asthmatic! Still plenty to do though, still fat but not as fat (my work pass photos were beginning to look like before/after shots). I was actually going to the gym today but mother Driscoll is coming down shopping and so I'm meeting her for lunch instead! Dedication!

On a personal level, good stuff. Child #2 (Dylan) successfully birthed and growing. I was actually fully aware of his existence at the point of the other post, but it was early pregnancy and we hadn't said anything to pretty much anyone, so me announcing it to the 24 (actual number) of people who read the last post would have been silly! I still have 2 houses etc and home like is still good (hi Cerys!), Gracie is doing well in school and dotes on the baby. No complaints there.

Ambition wise, not so great. My 'chance' to try out a senior role and then apply for it was a truly epic epic fail. Crashed and burned in style and what felt like my last chance to progress failed. I tried to join another department, bang in another fail, I tried to join another company... Hat trick! There's still a possibility going forward, but by now its pretty obvious where then problem really lays.

Am doing some courses though, maybe I'll learn something.

Don't get me wrong I don't hate my job and I work with some good people. Generally people who've been there less time than me and have passed me by though. There's even patterns in fractals (Google or listen too Mandelbrot set, Benoit has sadly left us though... Mandelbrot's in heaven..).

Writing wise, including this I've posted 40 times on here. That's not too bad. Some with decent number of views too!

As I said previously, all I can do is try and on times I've crashed and burned and on some things I've done quite well. Oh well power on!

The blogger app (still on the nexus 7, tis lush) just asked me to tag my location... Northern Europe was the best it could do... Don't think this pad has GPS but well done for trying! If you ever wonder where I am in the mornings, its easy there's only ever 2 possibilities, either on manor way while a stagecoach driver looks confused at traffic or on the A470 while some stagecoach driver looks confused at traffic. After Christmas I'm switching to train. I'll take overcrowding ahead of taking 2 hours to get to work.

EDIT: Sorry Nexus, you do have GPS. Should never have doubted you!

Crimbo come early!

After much deliberation following my pervious post, a decision was made. I am now the proud owner or a Google Nexus 7 which is the very location I'm typing from now, easy too. Well it would be if I could feel my fingers. How about some heat on drive??

Tis a very pretty thing lovely HD screen, light, shiny android 4.2. Cracking stuff. The downside is this may mean the end of the netbook. It's been 3 good years but you've been replaced. Its been fun, and you'll always have a job around the house...

One odd thing I have noticed is the number of apps not ready for/compatible with 4.2. Obviously all of he Google stuff is (this blogger app being an example) but such things as iPlayer (flash issues apparently), come on BBC sort it out! I ran a bit of Netflix (Archer series 1, petty funny) and it looked fabulous.

One bugbare with my phone is the pure lack of any sense shown by the predictive keyboard, but this is much better. I'm watching typos corrected in front of me, while on my (awesome still) phone one letter off typing 'and'? The phone returns 'abducted'. But I am using the Liam Neeson dictionary.

Yesterday when I went to choose the present, I'd decided on a mini tablet and it was between Nexus 7 and Galaxy tab 2. No contest to be fair, the screen quality and build feel put this ahead. Nice red case that supports the thing at a nice typing angle and voila!

I have a feeling this could be an awesome present, cheers wife!

Crimbo presents

It's almost that type of year again, Christmas.

For the record I'm a firm believer in Christmas is 25th December. People with decorations up in October? Sorry I just don't get it, surely by having them up for so long you actually detract from the 'special-ness' (not a word) of them through over exposure. Companies with really early Christmas adverts... same to you, and people counting down 'sleeps'etc from about 150. Yes that is why I stopped following you on twitter/hid your facebook posts.

Oh and the to anyone who posts 364 sleeps til Crimbo on boxing day. Words can not describe how swiftly you shall vanish from my timeline(s). That includes retweets.

But this blog isn't to rant about premature festivities (my staff Crimbo party was in November this year, and was good!), I may do that separately, in fact I'm pretty certain I will. This is about myself, me, moi. I have no idea what I want for crimbo, and times a wasting.

The good wife asked me a good while ago what I wanted her to buy for me, I didn't know, which isn't uncommon but generally I think of something (to give to Santa in case Gracie is reading this, fat bastard gets all the credit) sooner or later. But this year I'm struggling.

I'm 30 year old so if I get not much, especially after being a pain in the arse about it, I'm not going to cry. But I'm a blank. It's me and I like gadgets so something electrical is an awesome idea. Do I wanted a tablet, the Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7 are both pretty awesome little machines (wouldn't want to carry a 10" one round) and let's face it my 3 year old netbook is feeling it's age. But would I use it? I think so, especially as I do love my kindle and either could replace/upgrade that on everything except battery life. Possibility.

I did ponder the idea of splitting a Wii U between us (and my birthday) but jesus they're so expensive, even the games are £50 (in Game who you should know my opinion of by now). Cut the price Nintendo, one of the selling points of the original wii was the accessibility and affordability, at least of the basic pack. They still bummed you hard for a remote. So probably not a great idea.

Batman blu-ray set, check.

Ummm apart from that, I could ask for a 360 game, there's a new cheap PS3 out, but I don't really want another console. Something retro? An N64 would rock, but I haven't played the SNES as much as I thought I would, so it could be a dust gatherer. The wife has a 3DS but I can't see me getting the use.

So any ideas anyone, I have gadgety friends, who may or may not read this tripe. What's good?

Game... again...

These things are becoming a rarity of late! Two main reasons, typing with a broken arm sucks and I've started reading A Song of Fire and Ice George RR Martin, and those books are... substantial. I'm 80ish% the way through Game of Thrones at the moment. It's good, long winded, but good stuff. Poor Sean Bean.

Anyway I'm not here for an update, nobody cares that much, I'm here for a good old fashioned moan! Not for the first time, Game, you're up.

Game haven't 'made the list' as they are already there, I think they l;ist was invented for Game to be honest, as companies go they've always been among the worst and almost got their just reward last year. Maybe next hey ;)

One thing I've always wanted the usually pretty poor store that is Game to do is allow you to check their trade in values online. Well stone the peasants, they've done it! Or at least they seem to have pretended they have. 

Last week I traded in Zelda for the DS without knowing this checker thing existed, found it later on and found out they only gave me 44% of the onsite value for it. I complained and have had 1 email igored and been told 'tough' by their Customer Services.

Yesterday, I checked the price of Goldeneye 007 on XBOX, I kind of enjoyed it, but I'm never going to be arsed finishing it, so when £16.50 came up I thought decent, that'll help the wife get Mario Kart 7 (why'd they number that one, they've never been numbered before. Well except 64, but that wasn't a series number...)

Product Description		Barcode	Cash (£)	Trade-in (£)
	GoldenEye 007: Reloaded (XBOX360)	75030917105081	12.40	16.50	x

The wife goes to the store and the staff, you know the Scottish woman, that heavily balding bloke who I assume is some variation on manager. Not from Merthyr or ever go to the one remaining shop they have there? Then it doesn't matter.

This place. What's in the boxes? I can only assume the extracted morals of the staff...

Anyway they refused point blank to honour the quoted trade in price from their website, saying it wasn't definite and depended on stock levels. Offering her £3.50 less at £13ish

However the website says different, it says:

"The Price Checker will calculate the Trade-In value of the game. The Price Checker is always kept up-to-date with our latest Trade-In values, so you can be sure the price quoted is the game's current value." 


So, what is it Game? Your staff poorly trained/badly informed? Is it a deliberate ploy to shave a couple of quid off every one, before selling them on at twice the price? Either way it's shit and cost you a couple of sales off me. Not that that'd worry you as it's Christmas soon (it's not Christmas yet, it's not even December, pretending it is already is a surefire way to get you binned off Twitter/Facebook) so it's sell Call of Duty to 10 year olds via their Grandparents time, as it's "Not that violent" (actual quote from a game store employee!) or tell a parent their 4 year old can use the 3D for a bit on a 3DS, but only if they buy the bigger more expensive console, cos it's bigger and therefore easier on the eyes... (week before last in Game Cardiff).

I'm going to start recording some of the sales pitches, there's comedy gold waiting!

Anyway back on point, I've emailed the Game CS address (customerservice@game.co.uk) a couple of times no, I'll await a reply. Not holding my breath though.

Disney star wars?

My love of the Star Wars film has long since faded. Not due to the quality of the original trilogy, but more due to the constant reissue and amend, the 3 prequels that were made with the sole purpose of buying George Lucas a new gold cock ring (or something), and indeed the very poor quality of these films, there's what 30 mins watch able out of however long they are. Shit.

What do you think Paul and Storm?

So, it's vaguely good news that Disney bought LucasFilm and have taken away the direct responsibility for doing any more damage away from George himself. Now we may be spared the scene where we see Vaders sweaty cock rash.

But the problem is while before everyone was fearful Lucas would anally penetrate the series a bit further with more films now we know Disney will, and frequently. Disney like making money above all else, they're a corporation, that's as it maybe should be, so Star Wars (and maybe Indianna Jones, Lucas only shafted that with the 1 dreadful film though, less to come back from) will now be sold everywhere and on everything. But I can live with that.

The concern is the new films will be made to be marketable, sci-fi is rarely marketable. It'll be full of safe Disney stars that kids will pay money to see regardless of the quality of the film. I can easily see such people as Miley Cirus (sp?) and Zac Efron being in what is essentially a rom-com set in space.

It maybe ok, Disney owns Marvel and some of the avengers films were ok, particularly the Avengers itself. But regardless, I wont be watching episode 7, not on DVD or cinema or anything. I've still got the silver DVD boxset of eps 4-6, that's all the franchise ever needed. Now I think about it, it better not be fucking reboot...

Efron as a 'cool' Skywalker who breaks into song regularly? Cyrus as Leia who's also a cheerleader? Some fucking Jonas brother as Han? And no Leia, Luke kiss, as the family thing is why Disney declined back to the future!

I always preferred Star Trek anyway.

And I'm spent...

Running season is over, for now anyway. last weekend was the final run of my 3 leg September/October jaunt round Swansea, Cardiff and Aberdare(!). Personal Bests tumbled, knee joints crumbled but after a roughly combined 242 minutes of running, I'm done.

As a result of my efforts, Barnardo's has a little more money and I have...

A truly epic collection of event t-shirts and participation medals!

My favourite shifted this year too, usually the Swansea 10k is my fav race, but this year it was Cardiff. This was helped by Swansea being horrifically wet and windy, but the crowds etc in Cardiff did spur you on, plus I wasn't struggling as much as before so could take stuff in! Aberdare? Fuck me, hardest first mile and a bit ever, but quite pleasant apart form that. Think I'd like to do it quicker, but the main issue was my brains unwillingness to let me run quickly down steep hills.

Given my standard of coordination I'd have been picking up my teeth from a rock half way down if I'd gone for it! Still worth a go though and the t-shirt from that was the nicest!  

So what now? Time to sit on my arse over crimbo and get fat... well to a degree. I've classed myself as injured at the moment as I am walking like I've shit myself due to swelling on my foot and a ropey knee, but give me a week and I'll be back in the gym on lunch times, I've kind of agreed with my pointless and demon run co-person to do the 5k 'santa' dash in Cardiff in December. It's 5k, there are no concerns there, but it'll keep me going.

Further more there's then a 8 mile road run in Newport in January (let's face it if I'm in Newport, I'm going to be running, to save my trainers from chavs at least) which looks like a great warm up for the Llanelli Half Marathon in March, which is supposed to be a nice and quite quick course. Sub 2 hours anyone? I doubt it too but I'm going to try.

Long term goal is apply for London 2014... but calm down for 5.

Then next year I'll do it all again! Well maybe!

Either way the slightly smaller version of me is more manageable and less likely to die horribly from a heart attack or related illnesses, so the exercise levels should at least stay the same, and to be fair do need to get picked up further. Particularly on distance, must run further at a time.

But for today... where's me burger?

Cardiff Half Marathon

Well that was fun, the only dry day in about 6 months, contrasting the Swansea 10k drastically, freezing temperatures to start but warming up nicely, and improvement on the course they used last year. The Cardiff Marathon was a nice day out:

I went in with a target time of 2:10, hoping for 2:05 and for the second race in a row, I hit the better target! Moving my oversized gut round the 13.1 miles in 2:03:58. If anything a bit frustrating I was closer to 2 hours than I was expecting while still falling a bit short.

A slow first mile people dodging (10:40ish) didn't help, and there was also a massive flap at around the 8 mile mark all of which cost me quite a bit of time of course. But I think with better training 2 hours should be my target come Llanelli in March.

Not a bad couple of races, taking 6ish mins of my 10k time and 19ish of my 1/2 marathon and judging by how I feel, there'#s more to come on both. Sadly my knee doesn't seem as willing as the rest of me and is rather useless at the moment, as a result I'm now officially doubtful for the Aberdare Demon Run this coming Sunday, as long as it feels ok by Wednesday I'll be raring to go, but I think I quick check up on it may be in need tomorrow.

Next year though, sub 2 hour 1/2 is on, and I also fancy a go at a 26.2 miler at some point, but maybe 2014.

So, why is the website cheaper?

There's always been an issue of website prices vs instore prices, for stores who offer both anyway. Typically, a couple of years ago buying something off someone's website would be a decent amount cheaper than going in a shop and picking it up.

This is bollocks.

I've always thought it was bollocks and many companies have now caught on to this and realised 1 shop, 1 price is the future for fairness. Bravo to the likes of HMV, John Lewis, Argos, PC World/Currys, Comet et all who do this and I think for the most part most stores do, or at least be willing to meet the website price when challenged.

There are exceptions though, there are always exceptions, and one of those exceptions is usually Game. My darling wife would like a Nintendo 3DS, and with the big 30 coming up, a Nintendo 3DS she shall have. Game were selling these little things, pre-owned, for £99.99 on their website, reasonable, probably a decent profit for them too as chances are they gave some chav about £60 trade in for it a couple of weeks ago, they do love a good profit margin.

However, in store they came in at a not massively dissimilar, but nonetheless more, £109.99. Now I'm against paying £10 so a gorp from game can hand it to me instead of my polite and efficient postman, so I asked quite nicely if they'd no it for the website price, it's only a tenner after all.

No, apparently they're different shops, but if I speak to their customer service team they may do something. OK, what's the phone number? No, no phone, online chat only... great. While not known for their level of customer service, not being able to ring is pretty shitty.

Anyway on to my shiny, new, still fast, PC I go and then to the Game site to speak to an Indian with a UK sounding 'name' (I assume). The conversation goes slowly as they carefully select predesignated phrases from a list to match my questions and basically I'm getting nowhere, basically it's getting to the point where it's not worth £10 of my time, but I do enjoy this kind of thing, so fuck it and off we go. Once the handler is clearly confused and I'm starting to border on breaking out the sarcasm. (In response too 'it's on the website prices may differ', I think I could have made about 15 one liners, but resisted) So I ask to speak to a manager and after only the 2 attempts to stop me (Unavailable, they'll only tell you the same thing) I get put through to 'Sammi'.

After initially making me repeat myself (thank you copy n paste) 'Sammi' is a little more helpful and offers me £5 credit on my Game card, but can't change the price, so I suggest giving me £10 credit so it's the same... no movement. I queried whether they'd lose the sale over £5, and 'Sammi' was happy too.

So she(?) did. Cerys wanted games too, so Game essentially cost themselves £130-£180 for the sake of a fiver. We did pop down for a look at them and for the sake of £5, Game's 'they'll buy it anyway' plan could have worked, but also their entire stock of 3DS had been battered the shit out of. Guessed as much when the shop dude, got the box and went to seal it without giving us a look at it.

Instead the money went to Amazon, where as there was a free game, we even managed to acquire the XL model. Lovely!

I know some sites such as Tesco and Amazon ship from reduced tax areas from their website, this is a reasonable reason for different prices, different tax levels. But I doubt Game are doing this. It's easy too see why a store like that ended up with the administrators in previously when they don't seem keen to move stock, no matter how many pretend discount sales of their pre-owned games they have.

Oh well Game p'd me off and lost my Football Manager pre-order, I'll just get it form Steam instead!

Dylan!

Four n a bit years ago, I was lucky enough to become the father to a somewhat temperamental but all round awesome little girl that goes by the name of Gracie, increasing the family unit from 2 members to 3.

Well today the final increase took place and my son, Dylan TBC Driscoll (if I remember I'll edit in the correct middle name when decided) was born at 4:03 yesterday afternoon.

There they are, the Driscoll kids! Nice pose Gracie!

So far Gracie has been brilliant, despite a half arsed effort at holding him! They should be home at some point today and then the sleepless nights can start!

Job done on the kids side of things then...

I've had quite a strong reaction on Facebook/texts/etc, and would like to take this opportunity to thank whoever passed on their congratulations, I can't reply to all I've received, there's lots and lots of it and I get confused easy.