Silentbazz

Is Twitter the answer to getting customer support?

2011-01-19T19:04:00.000Z

A few weeks back my Buffalo Linkstation started dying, badly.. I had bad sectors all over the shop.

Fortunately I had just backed it up (phew!) so whilst data loss was not an issue (and believe me, I'd have been gutted if that had happened) getting a replacement sorted definitely was, as the unit was still under the 2 year warranty. However, as a year had (just) expired, I had to return the unit to Buffalo's RMA warehouse in the Netherlands.

Despite being a tad miffed at the extortionate price required to return the unit, I dutifully parcelled the knackered unit up (after giving it a few hard stares and swearing at it a few times) and nipped down to the post office to post it. Because I had to do this on New Year's Eve (yup, the bastard thing died on me over Christmas), I knew it would take a little longer to get to its destination than normal, but I was relaxed about that.

Then at the beginning of last week I checked the tracking on the parcel (recommend the Royal Mail's AirSure service whenever posting anything of value abroad), and it said a delivery attempt had been made on the Saturday, but no-one had been there to take delivery, so the parcel was being held by the Dutch Post Office. I contacted Buffalo RMA support, who told me that they were closed at weekends, and had received no card, and I would have to contact the Dutch Post Office to arrange redelivery?

Not being fluent in Dutch, and aware that the parcel would be returned to the UK if it was not collected within a certain time period, I quickly went to the Royal Mail website and tried to find the contact us section of the site. Have you ever noticed that it's easier to find rocking horse shit than find a page on a website that lets you contact a company.. any site that's selling you something is ten times worse. believe me.

Anyway, managed to find a "Contact Us" page and once I'd got past the "Have you checked our FAQ?" sections (yes, and they did FAQ all to help me thanks) managed to drop the Royal Mail a line. This was responded to almost immediately..

Or rather that should read, this was auto-responded to almost immediately In the automated response, I was informed that it would be 5 days before I was likely to get any kind of response. Arse! And of course, calling them would involve a lengthy wait randomly pressing numbers in response to another automated system only resulting in another lengthy wait in a queue whilst I was being told that my call was important to them (not so important that they's actually employ enough staff to answer the fucking telephone, mind) which I didn't have time to do during working hours as - aha! - was in work.

And then it struck me: "I wonder if they're on twitter?" (see, and you thought I'd never get to the point, ye of little faith).. a few seconds later on the twitter user search showed that they were: @RoyalMail. So I dropped 'em a tweet, and had answers within 20 minutes.

Genius.
No 5 days to read my mail
No "Press 1 if you want to send Anthrax to your MP" (I would, it'd be cruel to Scott Ian)

Some companies are really making use of twitter to help their customers out in a way that's probably more efficient for them (not listening to whinging customers complaining) and us (not having to wait half an hour to five days to have a good whinge).

Could this really be the future..??

Of course, some companies go above and beyond the call of duty..
Microsoft's XBox Support (@XBoxSupport) must search twitter for enquiries not even directed at them and this is how I found out about them.. I randomly tweeted something about transferring content licences from one console or the other and these guys, out of the blue, gave me an answer. Of course I follow them now and they have dealt with all subsequent enquiries incredibly quickly! In short, @XBoxSupport are awesome.

So could Twitter become the de-facto way to get customer support in the future..? It certainly seems that some companies are showing how it can be done.. and I for one salute them

Oh and follow @silentbazz for briefer commentary on random shit wot I do think about

The Internet's priorities are all wrong..

2010-11-21T17:13:00.000Z

Ding Dong Merrily On High and all that..
Soon it will be the season to be jolly, and by jolly I mean merry and by merry I mean almost permanently inebriated for a week.. No other time of the year causes so much alcohol to be consumed in such a short space of time.. and it's practically the law to be seeing double by the time the Queen's speech is on (then her Royal Highness provides just the right amount of stimulus to send you into a nice alcoholic coma for a couple of hours until you wake up rested in time for brandy, Christmas pud and the seasonal episode of Doctor Who - nice)...

Now the only kind of Christmas shopping I have left to do this year is the annual "booze run" where I take a tesco's trolley and fill it to the brim with enough cans & bottles of grog to make sure that at no point during Xmas & New Year me or any member of my family, or anyone who "drops in" (and who is, of course, of drinking age) risks being in a state that in any way resembles sober.. But I wonder, where is the cheapest place to get my Xmas booze? Are litres of spirits cheaper in Tesco or Asda or Sainsburys?

Surely the internet knows..?

Well, no, actually it doesn't unless Google is spectacularly failing me..
I can find sites to help me find cheap video games, or petrol, or books.. but not booze - seriously WTF!? Someone surely has missed a trick here? Where's my cheap booze comparison site?

That's some fucked up priorities on behalf of the internet..

Oh yeah, I have a blog

2010-11-21T16:02:00.000Z

It's like a toasted sandwich maker though, I used to use it all the time.. Blogs about everything, any subject you can think of..

Now, my blog is at the back of the kitchen cupboard, just behind the Espresso machine and the smoothie maker.. untouched, unloved, unread.. Makes you sad..

And then you remember you have a blog!!!
And it's like, "Yeah, fuck twitter and it's 140 character limit, I can write more than that, I'm like.. literate and shit, you know", so you write a post and are pleased with it and for a while you think you'll go back, but you know what..??

It's not long before the blog is snugly back forgotten in the kitchen cupboard..

Aww bless

The great Kinect pricing hoohah

2010-07-31T15:51:00.000Z

So quite a lot of the internet, yes I'm looking at you N4G.com, has gone literally bat-shit about the the price of Microsoft's Kinect.

If you don't know, or hadn't heard yet, Kinect will cost £129.99 and will be bundled with one game, "Kinect Adventures" (which is kind of like an on-the-rails version of Wipe Out, i.e. the whole idea involves a lot of jumping and ducking to avoid various obstacles, but without Richard Hammond).

Now some people, have declared in lots of badly spelt posts (an awful lot of which were written in solely capital letters, presumably because their caps lock key was stuck down due to the amount of drool that routinely hits the keyboard) that this is Microsoft ripping off the gamer, that it will fail because of this price tag, and that it caused them to literally laugh out loud (how often does that really happen??)

Now I'm not going to be drawn into a Kinect vs Move or XBox vs Playstation argument here, because quite frankly there's enough rampant fanboyism on the internet..

But let's just consider a few things..

Back in April 2007 Activision shipped Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360. In the box was a plastic guitar controller and a copy of the game and the price? Well Amazon.co.uk had it in stock originally for £64.99, so the RRP was presumably slightly above that. So consider that Just shy of £70. Now at the time, this was the only game that the guitar controller could be used with on the XBox 360 platform and the controller that shipped wasn't even wireless!!!

Just over a year later, in May 2008, Harmonix/EA shipped Rock Band into the UK. Now the "Band In A Box" - which contained 1 x Drum Kit (and sticks), 1 x Microphone and 1 x Guitar Controller (wired again) had an RRP of £129.99 and didn't even bundle in a copy of the game you needed to play the fucking instruments with. No.. That shipped separately, at an RRP of £49.99.

Now admittedly this was during the height of the "rhythm game" craze, but still, if you paid RRP for a copy of Rock Band & bought its instruments on the day of release, you'd have coughed up a whopping £179.98. I appreciate that few people actually paid anything like that figure, I mean who actually pays RRP these days with internet retailers trying to undercut each other in order to attract our business?

Elsewhere, DJ Hero, a game shipping with a plastic turntable, had a recommended RRP of £108.

This is also, I'll admit, when we weren't either in, recovering from, or about to be plunged back into recession. I am sure you'll remember these days with a fuzzy fondness. You know, that time where we all used to wipe our arses with five pound notes whilst laughing maniacally..

So now we have the price of Kinect at £129.99.
Yes, it's not cheap, no one is going to disagree with that.

However it is £129.99 for something which is fairly revolutionary in the gaming industry and features some pretty cool tech. It ain't just a plastic controller shaped like a guitar, it's innovative. The sensor array built into the device tracks players in 3D, allows facial and voice recognition for vocal commands. In short, whilst they are shamelessly going for the "casual gamer" market with Kinect, at least they are doing something new and bold in trying to capture those gamers. It would have been simpler (and, most likely, cheaper) to simply go for some form of controller solution, I'm sure, but they pushed the envelope and credit to them for that. The titles available at launch might be slightly disappointing, but then launch titles almost always are and I can imagine that it won't be long before a developer really "gets" Kinect and really something that really allows the platform to shine, already "Children of Eden" could be gearing up to the title that everyone with Kinect "must have".

So it's innovative, it's fairly cool tech, and it's being released just before Christmas.. of course it's going to be priced at £129.99. And I don't think it's that ridiculously priced, or will fail at this price point, not when you compare it to the price of some of the games.

The so-called group of "hardcore" gamers bitch about the price of Kinect, whilst on another browser tab they are considering ordering The Legendary Edition of "Halo Reach" which wades in at a not inconsiderable £99.99 because the game ships with some tat that is, apparently, collectible..

But, apparently, Kinect is a rip-off at its pre-Xmas, early adopter, price of £129.99

You know, just saying.. ..is it? Really??

Back from the Dead

2010-07-31T09:52:00.002Z

This is a test..

No, really, this is just a test..

Nothing really to see here..

I had to jump through numerous hoops to get back to my blog, that I thought I should put something here just to mark the occasion.

It's weird to be back..

It's like pulling on a pair of underpants that you've not worn in some time..

Anyway.. words will appear here again in the future..

Out on a limb..

2007-10-22T11:56:00.000Z

Okay, controversial statement coming up.
Brace yourself for impact..

Here goes..

I really rate Halo 3.

There, I said it. Not only have I said it, but I have blogged it for posterity so that, years from now, the evidence is still there in cyberspace that I said I rated Halo 3. So there you go, I mean it and am prepared to stand by it and everything.

I finally got through playing the single player campaign on Heroic yesterday and I can honestly say it was damn good, bloody tough in places I'll admit, but ultimately very rewarding. I think Bungie did a really good job constructing what felt like quite an epic tale (being new to the franchise, I must admit that some of the significance of some of the story threads may have been lost on me), played within a well designed and varied environment with some pretty tough opposition. And it really did feel as if I was in the middle of a huge campaign, with the events playing out having an overall effect on the whole state of the war.

Looking forward to re-visiting the game now (especially as it is ridiculously easy on Normal), and playing the amusing-sounding "Meta" game that reverts the whole single-player experience to a basic arcade game with points earned for every enemy slain. And of course, I will be playing online again soon as that's hugely cathartic after another crap day at work (when you cannot go postal at work, killing others over XBox LIVE is the next best thing).

So, thanks Bungie, for a thoroughly entertaining game. Worth every penny.

McDisappointment

2007-10-19T12:31:00.000Z

At around 11:40 there was a general panic in the world of Cranky Software Development Limited, there had been no decision on what we were doing for lunch.. As this is the single most important decision made on any given work day, and is the second highlight of the day (regular readers will know the first), realising that we had not set our minds to the task of deciding where to go for lunch certainly caused a bit of a stir. I was, as always, indecisive and beyond needing to go somewhere "near to a cash machine" I really didn't care. It took a coder with the bravado of Sir Lancelot to finally commit to a destination: McDonalds.

I rarely go to McDonalds these days as the food is undeniably shit (no matter how they dress it up, it's all pretty crappy and overpriced, but what the fuck it's within walking distance, supplies ketchup (a big plus) and comes with a free carbonated beverage) and I refuse to be one of those parents who treats McDonalds as a treat and then falls a victim to their child spotting the golden arches on every outing and demanding to eat there.

Anyway, as you approach a McDonalds you spot their advertising on the building.. "Why not try our tasty..", "The new, delicious..", yadda, yadda, yadda..

And for a second (or sometimes longer) you forget every single previous shit experience you have had at McDonalds and you actually think.. "OOh I'll try the new (insert shit burger name here)" that looks very appetising". You get to the till, speak to the shaved chimp operating it, order your meal and then - if you're very lucky- get a plastic tray with your food.

And it's just shit.

Just as shit as it always was.

Just as shit as it ever will be.

Why do I go back?
(If I was less indecisive, I guess I never would).

So the M should stand for McDisappointment, cos every time they spectaculary fail to deliver a meal that looks even 1% as appetizing as the poster.

That is all.

Hiatus

2007-10-18T12:43:00.000Z

..And look, this is where I used to blog.

Damn, I even left a half-drunk cup of coffee here

Well, waste not, want not and all that..

Guess what, boys and girls..??

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacck!

Okay nobody probably reads this any more, but I missed the cathartic feeling that ranting on here seemed to provide me with, something that even sites like Facebook couldn't rival (and yes I am on there, I'm just in "stealth" mode).

Anyhoo.. for those who have been wanting a return, watch this space.. blogging is back on my agenda

Masterful

2007-06-18T07:07:00.001Z

This weekend's Doctor Who was, quite frankly, the best episode since the new series has returned to our screens.

I was literally blown away with the reveal that an old enemy of the Doctor's has returned to the series and, despite knowing The Master would return (for the forums are littered with spoilers like this), I thought the way he was brought back was absolutely fabulous. In previous series they have left clues throughout the entire series as to how the show would end, and this series was no different. However, in previous years the "clues" have been as unsubtle as a brick to the head (with phrases like "Bad Wolf" and "Torchwood" emblazened throughout the shows leading up to the finalé). This year was so much more subtle and the final reveal, as a result, was so much more of a payoff than we've ever previously had. It was also a bit of genius casting to get Jacobi and Simm in as the Doctor's nemesis. All in all it was brilliant television and I am REALLY looking forward to the show's season finalé now.

In other news, my kids were very generous this year for Father's Day, and have bought me tickets to see the "One Man Star Wars" show at the Lowry next week, which has gone down a storm off Broadway and at the Edinburgh fringe. Cannot wait. Bit of a Sci-Fi geek triumphant weekend all in all. Marvellous.

Sweet Dreams..

2007-06-13T07:15:00.000Z

I have started dreaming again - yay!
Dreams have been noticeably absent (well, proper lucid ones that you can actually remember, anyway) in the last year or so mainly because of a small squeaky daughter of mine waking up in the night. It's taken her the best part of twelve months to begin sleeping the night through you see (mainly due to the fact that she has always been quite little), and so sustained periods of sleep have been few and far between (certainly without the aid of alcohol anyway).

And it's a shame that the dreams have been absent, as my imagination certainly has quite a large special-effects budget on any given night, providing photo-realistic images of everything from the surreal to the apocalyptic. My sub-consious really does pull no punches when given the opportunity to flex its imaginative muscles.

So even if they've started slow (last night's dream seemed to be concerned with the inability to get served with three pints of lager in the space of a lunchtime), I look forward to the Hollywood-esque effects-driven spectaculars that I've had in the past, as sweet dreams are made of these..

Cool

2007-06-12T07:09:00.002Z

As well as being a fantastic racer, Forza 2 also allows you to add your own custom designs to your motor. Now, most likely due to copyright reasons, you cannot just upload a jpeg, but rather you must create your designs yourself, building them up from a number of basic shapes. You can apply up to a 1000 layers to each side of the car, and that will allow for some fairly groovy images (in fact if you do a search on some of the Forza forums you will see that some really talented indiciduals have already adorned their cars with images of the Simpsons, Family Guy, etc, etc).

Now, although not being abundently artistically talented or having a huge amount of time on my hands, I'd thought I'd have a go. And you can see the results, my Nine Inch Nails Golf Gti. Looks pretty cool I think..

Of course, that's not the main point of the game, and Forza is still proving to be an excellent racer (although I hate having to drive American muscle-cars, they are unwieldy beasts that cannot corner for shit!).

Saying that, even in European cars, it's still important to brake for corners..
Otherwise this happens:

Lost And Found

2007-06-01T11:22:00.000Z

So.
Is your mind still reeling from the season 3 series finalé of "Lost" last Sunday (or earlier if you watched it using the power of BitTorrent)?
Was a bit good wasn't it?

If you're still trying to piece together all the pieces of the puzzle shown so far (what is the black smoke? what is the purpose of the Dharma Initiative? Why are there Polar Bears on the Island, etc, etc), then you might want to point you browser at the Lostpedia (a Wikipedia just about Lost). It has all of the current threads, plots, subplots and theories covered.. however it is full of spoilers if you're not up to date - so be warned!!!

Anyway, check it out, there are some answers there to be sure!!

I sense a lawsuit from RedOctane

2007-05-24T17:32:00.000Z

Want to play Guitar Hero II (if you scroll down and read a few previous posts, you'll see I've been playing little else since April)? No Playstation 2 or XBox 360 though?
No problem, simply download "Frets On Fire" (a.k.a "Guitar Hero II" for the Mac/Windows/Linux).

Tis open source, and not as pretty but it does the same thing (essentially) as Red Octane's effort - and apparently the 360 controller can be used with the game...

So what are you waiting for..?

Less talk, more rokk!

WTF?

2007-05-21T17:45:00.000Z

Acronyms.
Eh?

They're everywhere these days aren't they?
Whether its "mobile speak", email or forum posts you cannot get away from them.. For any technophobe who is currently trying to decipher LOL or FTW means, there is an online solution, The Urban Dictionary. Quite possibly one of the handiest things to have to hand when trying to determine whether you're being dissed or not on that internet forum ;)

Decided today to find out more about Freezepop, a band that do one of the better "bonus" tracks in Guitar Hero II. They jumped out immediately as thyeir song had a bit more of a indie, synthpop/New Wave vibe as opposed to the rest of the tracks that are more MOR/Rock/Metal (as dictated by the guitar, really). I urge you to check out the track "Less Talk More Rokk", as it's really rather marvellous (and damn catchy too)!

Over staying your welcome

2007-05-18T07:24:00.000Z

It's been a shame to witness such a fall from grace, as when it first came along "24" was an awesome show. But, according to the Beeb, this tired out show is going to get a futher two more seasons!!

Why god why?

They should have killed Jack Bauer off to series' ago..
With any luck the final four hours of the final season will feature Kiefer Sutherland kicking the shit out the of show's script writers for letting things get so bad. It comes to something when a show like "Battlestar Galactica" (men in space fighting robots) seems to have more gritty realism than a show set in modern day America.. Indeed, if at the end of the final season of 24, Bauer was finally offed by a six foot gleaming metal cylon centurion it would probably be a closer representation of current affairs than anything this tripe has depicted on our screens for the last couple of cheers.

Sincerely, FOX, cut your losses and bin this turgid nonesense.

Just my $0.02 of course

Serendipity

2007-05-16T17:20:00.000Z

Just happened to be browsing the Favourite channels on the ol' Sky Plus box last night, flicking through dismissively seeing what was on.. and then.. I stopped as FX were showing Sleeper Cell..

Surely it's a repeat, thought I..
But I did an "info" and no, the description began with "Opening Episode of the second series".. Joy! But it had already started - boo! But there's a FX+1 hour! Hurrah.. Seriously, how often does that ever happen??

And it's good news seeing as Battlestar Galactica has gone, Life on Mars has finished, Hotel Babylon is on a break until next year and 24.. well, 24 is just shit now, isn't it?

So new telly - hurrah!

Rejoice

Also.. fuck the reviews, I really enjoyed Spiderman 3 last night. Okay maybe they did try to cram in a little too much into the film's running time. But it was funny, action-packed, 'citing and featured a cameo by Bruce Campbell - so well worth the time and money.

And after six days of courses I'm back to work tomorrow.. Arse!
Still, another course next week.. another exciting lunch menu to look forward to - hurrah!

Laters

My Spidey Sense is tingling

2007-05-15T08:02:00.000Z

Off to see the new Spiderman flick tonight. Hopefully it'll be worth the admission price, as I've heard mixed reviews. Will update sometime later this week with my thoughts. Have high hopes as Sam Raimi used to be a hell of a director (watched Evil Dead 2 again recently and thouroughly enjoyed it - had forgotten just how good it was).

SQL courses continue.. this is the SQL sequel course, I guess!! ;)
(Like Godfather II though, it IS better than the first one).

One down, one to go

2007-05-11T17:40:00.000Z

So I have finished my first three days at Xpertise training doing the first of the two SQL Server 2005 course I have been sent on. And my brain has remained, mostly, intact..

So, hurrah.. time to punish the ol' grey matter further tonight with a nice combination of red wine and vodka methinks ;) (Not, I hasten to add in the same glass!!).

Last week of the Premiership this weekend - boo... and no Euro championships or World Cup to look forward to, either.. It's going to be a bleak summer.

Ah well, I feel that this post is lacking direction.. so I'm going to cut short.. time to treat my head to a nice alcohol-induced haze and then 48 hours off before the onslaught of further Microsoft training courses begins!

S'later

Brain Malfunction

2007-05-09T17:49:00.000Z

My neurons and synapses are currently overloaded with SQL Server 2005 terminology, and I can feel other important geek information doing battle with this newly acquired knowledge for space in the depleted real estate that is my ickle brain (right now the ability to instantly names of various creatures from the Star Wars cantina because I can still remember them from the original Palitoy packaging is under threat from such shite as how to create db Snapshots, and the new XML type in SQL Server - pah!)..

So it is, quite frankly, amazing that I can write anything.

Still I promised posts so I am.

The food is lovely!!!

More tomorrow

Another Bank Holiday

2007-05-08T07:13:00.000Z

Been busy this weekend putting up coving to (finally -see last year's archives for when we started) put the finishing touches to the bathroom. Have also had the folks over, cooing over their granddaughter so it's been quite a full three days. Hence limited blogging time. Also this week I'm off on a training course (SQL Sever 2005 training -make of that what you will) so may be a bit brain dead for the remainder of the week.. Not a particularly new state of mind for me, but it may also be combined with a state of knackered-ness that may mean further entries are, well.. sparse to say the least. That's the excuses out of the way anyway.

So last night, I got a little distracted on the internet. I was searching for a new laptop for the folks (they want a new one for the various Skype converstaions back to good ol Blighty from the warmer climes of Spain), and whilst I waited for them to look at the results of my search I began looking ahead to the next big XBox 360 release: Forza 2.

This game looks bloody amazing, and I cannot wait until June to give Guitar Hero II a little rest, and play this baby. Check out the official site, as it show's off what you can expect to see from the game. There are even some really nice video's in the pit pass reports section. Which is really good news as the 360 really does need a class racing game. Cannot wait to trade in a few older titles for this (doing so will allow the game to cost me about a fiver - sweet)

Blast from the past..

2007-05-04T12:48:00.000Z

Still funny after all these years.. Terry Tate Office Linebacker.

Just like buses

2007-05-04T07:14:00.000Z

What happened to the glorious sunshine we were enjoying this week? It's cold and grey here as I write this (and, dare I say it? Shall I? Okay, look I'll just come out and say it, it's a bit damn chilly too!).. I guess it's the curse of the UK Bank Holiday weekend striking once more, but it has come as a bit of a shock to the system after the more than plesant weather we've been enjoying this week..

Anyway, finally got around to seeing the seaon finaé of BSG this week.. As sad as I am to see this show disappear for another year (Lord knows that the quality of television shows has taken a nose dive recently.. I mean have you seen this season of "24" - it's more unbelievable than Battlestar Galactica), I was again seriously impressed at how good a finish we got. And indeed although the general quantity of good shows is dropping away (my Sky Planner never seems to look half as busy as it did, say, 12 months ago), the quality of what remains seems to be improving. Look to this season of "Lost" for example.. series two of this show really dragged it's heels in places, but series three has really ramped up the tension, drama and has offered us a far more intriguing story line. Bravo. Doctor Who seems to be going from strength-to-strength this season too, with improved story lines, characters and effects on show. Additionally was pleased to see Hustle return to our screens last noght, it is a charming show, very tongue in cheek and knowing, but slick and amusing and well written.

So, whilst kiddies are young, and babysitters are thin on the ground, there is still some qulaity entertainment to be hard - hurrah!

Bugger me, it's May

2007-05-03T17:39:00.000Z

What the fuck happened?
Who nicked the last month off me?

Agh, bloody hell where did the time go..?

Alright, alright I'm not going to deny it, I have been denying my beloved blogspace, blogsphere, erm.. well blog. But things have been going on, man, things have been happening there have been

distractions

and that's not conducive to regular blog updates.. and I have already been shouted at by a number of different individuals to get my ass back and posting and so here I am now, back.. here, writing a post and everything..

So where have I been, what have I been up to?

Well I could roll out the old usual excuses for my lack of posts, for my failure to bring you your daily dose of mindless babbling.

But I shan't

I have some new excuses instead..

Intrigued?

Me too (- honestly I make this shit up as I go along)

Firstly we have a crawling and clambering (almost) toddler on our hands.. and I mean proper crawling on her knees and everything (as opposed to the funky commando crawling that she was initially doing the like of which I'd only previously seen Royal Marines do under netting). Additionally any piece of soft furnishing or coffee table is now something for my daughter to pull herself up on and stumble along whilst holding onto. Consequently neither the wife or I ave anything like a quiet minute until well after the kiddie-winkies have gone to bed, as Kirstyn is into everything, and everywhere, at quite a shockingly quick pace. It's dazzling how quick she is.

Secondly (as was pointed out to me earlier in the month) I am, bizarrely, enjoying work at the moment and this has rather robbed me of my blogging mojo. Usually it was the incompetence and the frustration of the working day that got me all fired up and angry and ready to rant. So now that I'm pairing, and using TDD, and exciting stuff like interfaces and dynamic mock objects, I feel no need to rant and rave. My thunder was stole you might say.

Thirdly.. Guitar Hero II happened and this is far and away the best XBox 360 game, nay console game, I've ever played (and the wife loves it too). So I've been using a lot of my spare time actually trying to get good at this game so that I might challenge for a couple of places on the leaderboards for this game (even if I am playing against people who seemingly have infinitely more time than I do to play video games).. and it actually takes practice and patience to get good at this game (which means I'm bucking the trend of some of my friends who play games like King Kong and Fight Night 3 which seemingly give gamerscore in the hundreds for sticking the disc in the console the right way up).

Also football has been quite distracting. 'Citing. The Reds are off to Athens! Hurrah.

But I am back (yes I'm back, yes I'm back for good) now and will make every effort to post more often..

..promise..

Come back tomorrow - you'll see

Bugger me, it's April

2007-04-02T17:43:00.000Z

Better write a blog entry, as it has been a while.

So, how's you? Long time, no see.. How's life treating you?

Was a bit ill last week and then we had a 10 month old who thought that 2 am was a good time to get up and demand everyone's attention. So was a bit fucked towards the end of last week..

But things made me smile this weekend..

Liverpool 4 - Arsenal 1
He's big, He's red, His feet stick out the bed..

Doctor Who
There's a platoon of Jadoon on the Moon

Rediscovering Iron Maiden
"Scream for me, Long Beach"

..More soon, honest!

Two weeks to go

2007-03-26T07:14:00.000Z

That's right folks, it's only two weeks until the must-own title for the XBox 360 (in my humble opinion anyway) hits the stores: "Guitar Hero II". Thanks to birthday vouchers, I have this on pre-order from amazon.

The waiting is made even more difficult thanks to this glowing review that is one of the first to hit the internet. To summerise the review briefly, it states: "I will simply say that Guitar Hero II is a game that everyone needs to own. Now, if you want further proof of this then please continue to read. Otherwise do whatever you can in order to get this game as soon as you possibly can. It really is that good."

I cannot wait..
I cannot wait to play some of the great tracks in this game either, particularly "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden. To get me in the mood, I'll be tuning into More4 this week as their "Live from Abbey Road"" show on Friday features the (admittedly aging) metallers blasting out a few old faves..

Yes, folks, metal is back - this time in HD

Time Marches..

2007-03-25T17:21:00.000Z

So the clocks went forward last night.
Lord know's why we still do this, but we do and now the kids are cranky because they're body clocks are telling them that we're putting them to bed an hour early.

Just who the hell decided that the clocks should go forward at one in the morning?
I have an alternate proposition. If they do indeed have to go forward, the clocks should go forward at say midday on a Friday, thus trimming an hour off the crappy Friday afternoon at work and bringing on the weekend sixty minutes sooner. The clocks could go back at about 10pm on a Saturday meaning Saturday lasts an extra hour (brilliant if you're out and about and even if you're at home cos the weekend would last longer).

Who's with me?

You can stick your fucking Mozart up your arse (five ways)

2007-03-21T18:54:00.000Z

People used to smile and nod at me when I would tell them that Kirstyn loved the music on the Kerrang! channel. They used to inwardly, I'm sure, think "poor child" when I used to say that my daughter was always happier when listening to the Foo Fighters, or Guns N Roses or Metallica.

But, now thanks to Sky News, it seems that her love of metal from an early age will aid her in being a super genius, and therefore have the ability to financially look after her poor old dad long into his retirement.

You see, Sky Report that:
"Many parents may regard it as a deafening din, but liking heavy metal may be a sign of intelligence in youngsters.

New research suggests clever teenagers listen to it as a way of coping with the pressures of being talented.

A study of 1000 of the country's brightest adolescents revealed "metalheads" are often extremely bright.

"There is a perception of gifted and talented students as being into classical music and spending a lot of time reading," Stuart Cadwallader, from Warwick University, said.

"There is literature that links heavy metal to poor academic performance and delinquency, but we found a group that contradicts that.

"We are looking at a group with lower than average self-esteem that does not feel quite so well adjusted.

"They feel more stressed out and turn to heavy metal as a way of relieving that stress."

The study revealed those who enjoyed heavy metal often had more difficuilties in their relationships with family and friends.

One of those questioned in the survey said: "It's the general thrashiness of it.

"You can't really jump your anger into the floor and listen to your music at the same time with other types of music."

Being brainy is not limited to the music's fans though.

Iron Maiden's lead singer, Bruce Dickinson, is a history graduate as well as being a novelist and qualified commercial pilot.

The survey involved 1,057 members of the National Academy for Gifted and talented Youth."

* -thanks to Sean for the tip off!

The Tax Man Cometh

2007-03-21T08:07:00.000Z

So the race is on..

I have to get my car tax sorted before the fat bastard who lives next to Tony Blair announces his budget this afternoon. And I find myself having to make a mad dash to the post office to get this all sorted. Have I got a valid new-style MOT certificate? Yup. Have I got current insurance? Check. Hang on don't the DVLA offer the chance to purchase the tax disc online? Yes, yes they do. Indeed havn't you used the online service before, in the past? That's right, I have.

However for some reason, probably only known to the DVLA themselves, the online service will not process my appliacation (and I have tried this two days running now). No matter how many times I submit the reference number provided to me, and step through the stages on the website, can I get a tax disc? Can I fuck. The bastards. So I am forced to storm to the nearest post office and queue with the pensioners and the dole scum before fatty Brown puts the prices up. What a massive faff. If the online service wasn't available, this wouldn't bother me. If I'd not used the online service in the past then I doubt I'd be arsed. However it completely fucks me off when stuff just doesn't work when it should.

The SWINES!!

A tough case to crack

2007-03-20T12:24:00.000Z

From BBC News:

£70,000 Cadbury eggs lorry stolen

"A lorry containing Cadbury chocolate eggs worth an estimated £70,000 has been stolen in Staffordshire.
Three thieves tricked the driver, who had stopped in a lay-by on the A38 near Lichfield, by telling him the van was shedding its load.

When he got out of his cab to investigate, some of the thieves jumped in and made off with the eggs.

The lorry had been taking the eggs north after collecting them from the factory in Bournville, Birmingham.

The rest of the gang made off in a grey Subaru Impreza following the theft on Monday.

Police said one of the suspects is white, aged between 25 and 30, about 5ft 10ins tall and with short hair."

..and presumably no teeth and slightly saggy round the mid-section

Genocide

2007-03-20T08:02:00.000Z

Yeah!

Well I finally managed to unlock one of the tougher achievements in the excellent XBox 360 game, "Dead Rising" last night. Yup, managed to get the Zombie Genocider which means that I despatched 53,594 of the shuffling, brain dead motherfuckers whilst still managing to complete the game in 72-hour mode, which is no mean feat let me tell you.

This does, however, mean that I am coming to the end of what I can do in this game which is a bit of a pity as it has definitely been one of the best titles I have ever played on any format. The game has certainly proven to have a really long shelf life, and certainly I feel as if I've got my money's worth out of the title.

There's still a few things I think I can realistically do but it cannot be long before, unfortunately, the game will be traded (most likely for the up and coming Forza Motorsport 2, which looks awesome). However it does continue to show how Next Gen gaming has certainly managed to hold my interest.

No doubt, with the release of the Playstation 3 this week, the spotlight will be back on NextGen consoles, with much debate about which one is the best, etc but I can certainly say that I am in no way disapppointed with my purchase decision. So let the debate rage on, I care not a jot, as long as there are a few more zombies left to despatch.

Tour "De Force"

2007-03-17T17:30:00.000Z

So after much refreshing at two minutes to the hour, and after spending a king's ransom on tickets, I am finally going to see The Police live. The opportunity to do so looked all dead and buried a mere seven days ago when tickets for the first date in Manchester sold out before I could get my grubby mits on them, but this week I was prepared, determined and ready. So on Tuesday 16th October, me and my wife will be enjoying an evening with the recently reformed Police.

And you know, I'm really looking forward to it. Until today, I hadn't listened to albums like "Regatta De Blanc" and "Zenyetta Mondatta" (the latter always being my favourite album the band recorded, a view I still hold today) for years, mainly due to the fact that I have nothing to play my vinyl on anymore, and partially due to the fact that I never "got around" to buying a "Greatest Hits" compilation (mental, I know).

Aside from the obvious singles ("Walking on the Moon", "Message In A Bottle", "Don't Stand Too Close To Me"), album tracks like "On Any Other Day", "The Bed's Too Big Without You", "Driven to Tears" and "Voices Inside My Head" are just phenomenal. And whilst I don't hold out too much hope of hearing these live, it was good to revisit my youth (I was five or six when these albums were released) and also realise that these songs still sound fucking incredible thirty years on.

Roll on October, I cannot wait

Luck of the Draw

2007-03-15T08:03:00.000Z

Every time you go to, or sit down to watch, a football match you'd like your team to win. As the legend that is Bill Shankly once said, “If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.”. Nuff said. However I think that news today that the Football League board is to consider a proposal to scrap draws and decide matches by penalty shoot-outs (and not, just in finals you understand, in every game) can only be proposed by someone who completely missing the point of the game.

Yes, we have all seem some dull score and no-score draws. It's horrible when a team comes to your ground to play for a point (this strategy being preferred by some of the smaller teams, e.g. Everton). However there have been some phenomenal draws, real end to end stuff with both teams absolutely going for it and both keepers pulling out some fantastic saves.

This sort of proposal must be tabled by people who look at the results, not the match itself, and seeing 0 - 0 or a 1 - 1 must think "Blimey, what a boring game".

There are, apparently, two proposals that will be considered - a traditional penalty shoot-out or where a player would have eight seconds to try and score after receiving the ball on the half-way line.

Seriously, are they on smack?

If you're going to go down this route, then why don't we dispense with the whole ninety minutes of normal time altogether? You could get to the ground, find your seat, sit down and applaud politely as you watch both teams file onto the pitch. The two captains could then be taken to the centre circle and proceed to flip a coin. Best of three wins the game, and takes the three points. If you wanted to introduce some element of skill into it, I guess you could have the two captain's engage in a thrilling "winner-takes-all" spectacle of rock-paper-scissors. Then players of both teams can then shake hands politely, admit it was a tough fixture before scurrying back to the changing rooms for ten past three to do interviews before still having time to take the WAGs shopping before Harvey Nicks shuts.

I cannot believe this is even being discussed, and I'm hoping that the Football League board will simply laugh this suggestion out of the meeting.

We Want Information, Information, Information*

2007-03-14T18:31:00.000Z

And these days we get that information too.. and I wonder if sometimes that's taken all of the fun out of it all.

For example, this afternoon we were sat around discussing the sweets and drinks of our youth. I know what you're thinking: you fuckers discuss the weirdest shit during the working day and, you know what, yes we do! Anyway, I suddenly remembered that I used to really enjoy a drink called "Quatro". Now all we could recall from memory was that it had four fruit flavours in it, had a huge fucking Q on the label and had a really cool advert where all of these fruits were put into this machine that was labouring and steaming away (honestly, in my mind this machine was so fucking cool it could have been off the set of "Blade Runner", but if I could see it now I'd probably realise it was just lame), and then this can of Quatro shot out and this cyber-punk looking kid caught it. So we reminisced about this, and other drinks.

But we don't need to dredge these memories up anymore, not with the internet at our fingertips, no we simply type "Quatro" into Wikipedia and all our memories are confirmed and our questions are answered. I wonder if "Wiki"-ing or "Google"-ing (for they must surely both become verbs one day. Fuck it, if architect can any noun or brand name surely can apply for verb status) will one day completely replace recalling things from memory? Will we soon forget how to reminisce? And will all of our memories, currently softened and somehow given a rose tint by the years that have passed one day just be replaced with the ultra-sharp, Hi-Def results from the favourite search engine of the day.. Who knows?

Classic Comedy..

2007-03-14T12:19:00.000Z

We were recalling a very funny Harry Enfield sketch, this morning.. and, wouldn't you know it, it turned out that we could view it on YouTube!

Thought I'd share as it made me titter!

Women, Know Your Limits

Viddy

Blockage

2007-03-14T08:14:00.000Z

People keep on citing increased car ownership as a reason for heavier congestion on Britain's roads on motorways, however I think that this only goes partway to explain why we get three lanes of slow-moving traffic most days. In truth, I think a lot of motorists need to look at their own driving habits when it comes to congestion, particularly with regard to motorway driving. In short, they need to learn how to overtake.

All too often, people driving on motorways just seem to "pick a lane" and stick to it, regardless of what speed they seem to be travelling at and what the traffic is flowing like around them. And they sit in that lane, blissfully ignorant of the fact that you are only supposed to move one carriageway to the right when overtaking. Of course they never see the queue of traffic building up behind them, as they never, ever would consider looking in the mirrors as they're too busy operating their mobile phones or singing along to the "greatest hits of Westlife" or something. The bastards. This problem is brought home when you travel abroad. When I drove across France, you saw that French drivers will only stay in the overtaking lane for the exact amount of time that it takes to overtake the slower moving vehicle in front of them. As a result no-one get's irate as they're stuck behind some fuckwit who's speed matching the cars in the two lanes next to him. I'll admit that this requires the French driver to actually pay some attention to the road, to use his mirrors, to judge the speed of the cars in front and behind him, etc.. But wasn't everyone taught to do this when they learnt to drive a fucking car in the first place?

It seems that British drivers cannot be arsed with all that effort, I mean they already have to turn the wheely thing attached to the dashboard, press a pedal and locate the CD auto changer button - surely they're working hard enough as it it? No you're fucking not pal, get the fuck back into the inside carriageway where you can sing along to your boy band CD whilst barely doing the fucking speed limit out of my way, you inconsiderate twat.

Ahh well, I guess they're doing me a favour in the long run anyway, why I'm in such a hurry to get to work is beyond me. Especially as I seem to be stuck on the career motorway as it is, with the 16-wheeler truck of incompetant management in front of me blocking any real progress I might attempt to make, slowing my journey and generally frustrating me. Isn't it amazing how I'm blocked and frustrated in all aspects of working life (the journey and the destination). Maybe I should just slip on the CD, start singing along and ignore the queue behind me..

[sigh]

I'm sure this isn't what I signed up for..

Brain Drain

2007-03-13T08:03:00.000Z

Ugh! Cannot believe allergy season has begun this morning.. A sneezing fit in the outside lane of the motorway is not my idea of fun...

[sigh]

Anyhoo, my mother has been visiting us over the last few days before she returns to the sunnier shores of Spain. Whilst she has been with us, she has been lamenting the fact that, since retiring, she has been worried about the lack of mental stimulation now that she is no longer in the workplace. To go some way to combat this she shocked us all over the weekend by buying a Nintendo DS. Now, her main reason for getting one of these was to get her hands on the Brain Age game that you can get for the DS. According to the blurb, the game is a "fun, rewarding form of entertainment everyone can enjoy, as it helps players flex their mental muscles. Brain Age is inspired by the research of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, a prominent Japanese neuroscientist. His studies evaluated the impact of performing certain reading and mathematic exercises to help stimulate the brain".

So, after charging the console, she fires up this game and amuses all of us by initially having a Brain Age (well, according to the game) in her 80's. However by "training" her brain (through mental arithmetic puzzles, memory games, and reading aloud) she has already begun to reduce that.

The shocking thing was when she encouraged me to finally have a go of this game. Now I might not have had my first game under the most ideal of conditions, I had had a mind numbingly crap day at work, it was getting on into the evening and I had consumed at least one glass of wine (and was well on the way to finishing my second). But I was certainly shocked to learn that my initial Brain Age was 58!! After a bit of training, and a lot of mental arithmetic, things were improving but still..

I was shocked!

I think the time has come to try and find a career that doesn't just destroy my neural responses as well as my self esteem, as I don't want to end up a cabbage in my later years. Still, at least Kirstyn still finds me amusing.

Hot Fuzz indeed!

2007-03-12T08:20:00.000Z

So finally got a babysitter Saturday night, so it was off to see the latest flick from Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright: Hot Fuzz!

For the uninitiated, the film revolves around top London cop, Police Constable Nicholas Angel, who finds himself reassigned to the sleepy West Country village of Sandford. With garden fetes and neighbourhood watch meetings replacing the action of the city, Angel struggles to adapt to his situation and finds himself partnered with Danny Butterman, an oafish but well meaning young Constable. Just as all seems lost, a series of grisly accidents motivates Angel into action. Convinced of foul play, Angel realises that Sandford may not be as idyllic as it seems.

Now, as anyone who knows me knows, Pegg/Wright can do no wrong in my eyes, I thought the two series of Spaced gave us possibly the finest British Sit Com ever. And Shaun of the Dead was one of the best British Comedy movies I have ever seen (and it had zombies, and I do like my zombies - hell I'm still playing Dead Rising), so I was looking forward to this immensely.

So did it disappoint?
No, not really. Whilst I don't think it was quite the laugh riot that "Shaun" was, Hot Fuzz was very funny as a homage to all of the buddy cop movies I've ever watched. If I had any sort of criticism it would be that the film takes slightly too long to get going and could have been about twenty minutes shorter. Saying that the shoot out village square and finale in the model village (complete with the moody shot in the rain (well, in this case, a sprinkler)) couldn't have been any more perfect.

Some genuine laugh out loud moments and still miles ahead of any other British Comedy in the cinema, Hot Fizz was well worth the wait..

Anything Wii Can Do, They Can Do Better..

2007-03-10T10:59:00.000Z

So have been thinking about getting a new XBox game as I've practically exhausted "Gears of War" and "Dead Rising", but am not too keen on trading either quite yet as both are getting new content soon which will extend their shelf life somewhat.
However I did have some outstanding Amazon vouchers..

But I didn't just want another shooter, or another action adventure game..

I wanted something different..

Then I saw Guitar Hero II was coming to the XBox 360.. Featuring classic tracks like "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden, "Heart Shaped Box" by Nirvana and "Madhouse" by Anthrax and all played on a really cool looking guitar controller (stick that up yer arse, Nintendo!).

It might look a little daft, but I reckon it will be wicked, and it will Rock!

Ordered. Roll on the March 30th release date

Dead Rising to get Co-Op Add-On?

2007-03-07T08:09:00.000Z

I do hope this is true. I was considering trading this game (great as it is, I have finished it once, but somehow never seem to tire of smashing zombies), but this might change my mind.

Regardez:
"The latest edition of Electronic Gaming Monthly has suggested that Capcom will soon be releasing a co-op mode for it's mega-hit Dead Rising. If there's one thing that Dead Rising players collectively believe is missing from the game, it's the chance to smash zombies over the head with baseball bats, while your buddy let's rip with an SMG.

EGM says the new co-op mode will be available in two ways. First up is in the platinum edition of the game (presumably an Xbox 360 "Classics" title) and also by way of a download from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Capcom have yet to comment on the rumours. "

ITV

2007-03-06T12:11:00.000Z

I see from BBC News (who, incidentally, must have loved writing this article), that ITV Play went off the air last night following a string of problems with the broadcaster's "interactive TV" services (i.e. where you phone in to vote for the outcome of a tv show, or participate in a quiz, etc).

Indeed, ITV has suspended all premium-rate phone-ins, interactive competitions and votes while independent auditors conduct a review of its programmes. Apparantly the problems have lead to X-Factor viewers who phoned to vote being overcharged £200,000 (although I personally see this as a perfectly acceptable "fuckwit tax" for watching that drivel in the first place).

ITV said its interactive services would return on a programme-by-programme basis, with each production facing scrutiny in the investigation. However, the ongoing investigation means that this weekend's semi-final of skating show "Dancing Om Ice" may not be shown if the phone-in procedures have not shown to be sound (mind you, this can only be a good thing and can only help to raise the IQ of the viewers who would otherwise sit comatose and dribbling in front of this televisiual excrement).

I want to know why they only pulled ITV play off the television? Apart from the occasional Champion's League match, ITV has to be the most intellectually devoid broadcaster who make programmes for the lowest common demoninator of viewer. Even viewers of five now look down on it (especially after they broadcast the excellent drama "Kitchen" starring Eddie Izzard last week).

So please (after tonight's Barca match) let's pull the plug on ITV. They waste several channels on my EPG that would be more interesting if they broadcast a test card 24/7.

Ranting at call centres

2007-03-05T18:38:00.000Z

After a day and a half trying to get through to their cancellation department finally allowed me to cancel my Virgin Media Broadband on Friday (formerly known, of course, as NTL and this is still evident from the unbelievably shoddy customer service), I thought I'd dealt with Virgin Media for the last time.

There was no need for further contact, we had parted company and I was more than happy getting my telly from Sky and my phone and broadband from PlusNet.

So imagine my delight when I got home to find a bill from the fuckers.
"Was it for the last month of broadband?" I hear you ask.

No, it wasn't for the final month of broadband.
That would be an expected and fair bill, which I would reasonably expect to get and would happily pay.

No.. this is was a telephone bill
For a line they never installed, and a number we've never used.

Arrrgghhhhhh!!!!
The bastards!

This all comes about from the utterly bodged installation attempt the installation simian from Virgin tried to do last month (I've included the link as I'm tired of explaining the whole debacle to various idiot call centre staff over the last month). In short, they were trying to bill me for a telephone line from a cancelled installation that had never had a phone attached to it and yet had somehow magically generated over £6 of call charges.

I'm afraid that after the bodged installation performed by the drunken monkey, the ruined account which wouldn't let me cancel despite not being installed, the non-existent call back to re-order V+ (glad I didn't seeing as they've gone and blummin' lost Sky One since then), and the 72 hours trying to cancel their broadband, I lost it and had a blummin' good rant at the bunch of incompetent nonces. A month of being on the end of shoddy customer support just spilled out in a one-sided tirade of telephone call centre bile.

In short, I finally, after speaking to a monkey manager got the account sorted and the money refunded..

However please listen when I say, friends and gentle readers,

Avoid Virgin Media like the fucking plague.
They wouldn't know customer service if it squatted above their heads, and proceeded to prolapse all over them

Right, rant over...

I thank you

Sunny day

2007-03-05T08:20:00.000Z

Wow!
Blue skies and sun.
It almost made me want to get up and go to work!!

It's amazing though, what the weather can do to affect your initial mood on any given day. I mean if you peek out the curtains first thing and see the weather bucketing it down, the sky grey and heavily laden with thick clouds and the roads awash with rain water, it cetainly puts a dampner (no pun intended) on things before you've even left the house. However, this morning, I left the front door with a definite spring in my step (which had a little something to do with a new pair of trainers, I'll admit, but mostly it was all down to the weather).

And only a four day week too? Lovely..

Anyway, new week, new horizons, I feel uncommonly smiley.. watch somebody to proceed to bugger it all up now!!

Laters

I don't want to talk about it

2007-03-03T18:26:00.000Z

But we were mugged 87 minutes in today..

Hmph

D'oh

2007-03-01T13:07:00.000Z

Boy did I pick a bad day to try and cancel my Virgin/NTL/Whatever broadband..

You see I'm now satisfied with my PlusNet Broadband (by jesus, it's quick.. and you can get through to Customer Service in like five minutes and the call centre is in the UK, and they seem to know what they're talking about) so I wanted to end my association with Virgin/NTL/Whatever.

However today is a very bad day to try and get through to the cancellation department at Virgin Media.

D'oh!

Watchdog

2007-02-28T08:02:00.000Z

Glad to see that consumer show Watchdog is tackling the issue of hoe happy people are with their broadband set up. I watched the show last night and, having had a very bad experience with Sky Broadband (in short, avoid), found myself nodding along with the woes recounted by the people interviewed on the programme. I particularly shared their pain when they came to discussing the amount of time to actually talk to a real person (up to 45 minutes with Virgin/NTL/whoever, about half that time with Sky, but taking three telephone calls and being passed from department to department in order to get anything sorted).

However I hope the people who have positive experiences are as likely to participate in the Watchdog Survey, not only to champion the providers who do a good job, but also as a guide to the other people out there..

Clicky, clicky

NIN piccy

2007-02-26T18:26:00.000Z

Here's a picture taken from last night's Nine Inch Nails gig (Manchester Apollo, Sunday 25th February 2007)

Click to Enlarge

Quite chuffed, considering we were standing way back (moshpits are not for the over 30's), these have come out pretty good..

A grand night out

2007-02-26T10:59:00.001Z

Nine Inch Nails last night were awesome.

It was the fourth time I'd seen them live, but I can honestly say it was one of the best setlists I've been treated to. It was proper "old school", Nine Inch Nails, with the majority of the tracks coming from "The Downward Spiral", "Pretty Hate Machine" and the "Broken" E.P.
My head's still a bit battered so I cannot recall every track, and the exact order but Trent opened with "Mr. Self Destruct" (yay!), and then ripped through (amongst others) "Last", "Sin",
"March Of The Pigs", "Only", "Terrible Lie", "Gave Up", "Closer" (with "Down In It" in the middle), "Help Me I Am In Hell", "Burn", "Eraser", "Ruiner", "Something I Can Never Have", "No You Don't", "The Day The Whole World Went Away", before finishing with "Hurt", "The Hand That Feeds", "Head Like A Hole"..

We did wonder if a tribute act had been sent onstage at first, as for the first fifteen minutes you really couldn't see the band at all due to the amount of dry ice that had been pumped into the venue.

Ladytron were also very, very good - glad they're getting the sort of exposure that a NIN tour should generate.

In short, very pleased, and half tempted to see them again tonight..

Hmm..

Yay!

2007-02-24T11:12:00.000Z

Found out this morning that Nine Inch Nails' support act is Ladytron.

Also the setlists from the European tour look awesome.. "Mr Self Destruct"? "Dead Souls"? "Get Down Make Love"? Fabulous

Appy-polly-logies

2007-02-23T18:34:00.000Z

Sorry, it seems that the Blog-to-mail service is up the swanny again, and as a result the post I made earlier hasn't appeared here.

Bugger.

Not to worry, it was basically just me bitching about work. Although there are exciting times ahead at work in general, I am currently stuck on the project from hell developing an application for a new select breed of fuckwit who really are too stupid to use computers, although their ignorance goes beyond that really and I'm frankly amazed they manage to walk and breathe at the same time.

So you can imagine, can't you? It wasn't a very positive post..

But now, it's Friday evening -hurrah! And I can look forward to a weekend filled with football, Clerks 2 and Nine Inch Nails (amongst other highlights), so I am feeling much more upbeat and groovy.

In addition to this, the transition to broadband and telephone being provided by PlusNet broadband seems to be going swimmingly too now that BT have released my line. My shiny new ADSL modem/router turned up today, a couple of days ahead of the line being activated on Tuesday. The only thing I'm not sure is how much of an arse-ache it's going to be getting my existing wireless router to talk to the PlusNet modem instead of the NTL/Virgin/Whatever one.. Anyone know of any potential pitfalls? Any info appreciated!

NSFW

2007-02-22T18:44:00.000Z

The other day we were discussing those great online quizzes, usually posted by B3ta.com (great site, by the way visit it), that have wonderful titles like "Female or Shemale" or "Man Milk or Moo Milk".. They're hilarious, and in case you missed them here are links to a few:

Female Or Shemale

Man Milk or Moo Milk

Gash or Tash

Funnel or Tunnel, and..

Jailbait Or Legal

Probably not work safe, if in doubt don't click

Get In!

2007-02-22T07:59:00.000Z

Not a bad night, that..

I tell you, when Deco hammered home his header, I thought that we might be heading for a whupping, particularly given the pressure that Liverpool had to absorb for the following fifteen minutes. But Bellamy's goal was perfectly timed (just before the break) and Riise's goal was the sweetest thing I'd seen in ages.

And who'd have thought Bellamy and Riise would be making the headlines again in a week?

Good result, but the job's not done yet, let's hope the Mighty Reds can hang in there.

Keeping me entertained

2007-02-21T13:24:00.000Z

So it was work night for the Mrs last night, which meant that the wife was busy working on another set of accounts and I had to amuse myself for a few hours. And I found myself, after flicking half-heartedly through the television channels to determine that there was nothing on (well, nothing that we weren't already recording for watching when the work was done anyway), turning my attention to the XBox. And I must admit it struck me that the console really did have very good "staying power" and was really maintaining my interest remarkably well.

And this is quite impressive because I'm not, and never really have been, a "Hardcore Gamer", I like video games, they really do amuse me for a few hours. However, in the past, previous consoles have usually began to gather dust quite rapidly after the initial "wow" factor of getting them home has subsided. So what is it that's keeping me hooked this time around?

Now the games are good, and the graphics are stunning, but I think there is something else which keeps the interest for me, and that's the way that achievements have been worked into every title released for the XBox 360.

For the uninitiated, each full retail game for the XBox 360 has 1000 gamerpoints to "achieve" in it (each arcade release having 200). Gamerpoints are awarded to the player by unlocking certain achievements which are attained by completing some aspect of the game. You may, for instance, unlock an achievement for finishing a level or for killing 1,000 zombies. You get the idea. These gamerpoints are then visible on your gamer profile (cast your eyes upwards).

Now there are definitely achievement obsessives out there on XBox Live who feel they have to get a 1000 points out of every game and basically live and game to maximise their gamerscore. Indeed these people will often rent awful games that they know it's easy to get a 1000 points out of the game, just so they can wob their gamerscore on the table and say "get a load of them points". I am not a gamerscore whore, and have no need to have my ego stroked in that way.

However, some of the achievements are certainly extending the longevity of the games I already own, especially the well crafted ones that hint at something else to discover in the game, or an alternate approach to take. They give re-play value to titles, they raise the bar on the goals of the game beyond merely completing it. There is also often a nice variety of solo and online play in most achievements. Without them, I might have given up on a game or traded it much earlier or, and this is worse, missed out on a whole aspect of a game because the achievement is linked to So it is the achievements idea that I attribute my continued interest in the 360. It's another example of how Microsoft got something really right (and, no, I cannot believe I actually typed that sentence, either) when putting together the XBox, beyond just the hardware of the console but also the supporting online connectivity and community that really does make the gaming experience more rewarding.

Probably just me

2007-02-20T08:12:00.000Z

But it really amuses me that one of the "Gears Of War" achievements, where you have to defeat a creature called a 'Bezerker' has the the name "My Love For You Is Like A Truck".

This is such a Clerks reference, and show's that someone at Epic Games really has a) a good taste in movies and b) a sense of humour.

If you don't get the reference, this should help:

NINWiki

2007-02-19T18:29:00.000Z

Well with all the news of the new album, "year one", being released soon, and due to the fact that we're off to see them on Sunday, it seems a good time to have a sniff round the internet for all things Nine Inch Nails,

I do like the NinWiki, a wikipedia for the band. I especially like it due to all the furore about the new album and, as said on the site, "all the events surrounding Year Zero and the current future world, where Year Zero takes place. This is to inform new and old users alike of everything going on. According to Trent, Year Zero takes place about 15 years in the future, which would be 2022. There is also a Year Zero Timeline being compiled.

A series of highlighted letters have been found on a Nine Inch Nails tour shirt which spell out the words "I am trying to believe," leading users to iamtryingtobelieve.com. This site details numerous things going on in this time line, such as the Parepin drug and The Presence. Using the track list to the album, people discovered numerous related websites.

The first of these additional websites, anotherversionofthetruth.com, displays what looks to be a propaganda poster. Clicking and dragging portions of the image reveals it "tears away" into a much more negative image, linking to a message board in which users have been discussing various aspects of society, including handing out links to various audio files and links to other related websites.

More websites have popped up through context, giving more information as to what is happening in the universe and specifying more details, opening up more puzzles, and inspiring the community to dig deeper to explore more of this world.

On February 14th, 2007, "My Violent Heart", track eight of Year Zero, was "leaked" to the Internet. On February 15th, the first single, Survivalism, was played on KROQ radio and then other radio stations throughout the day, marking its official air date, over a week ahead of schedule. A full-quality rip soon ended up on the Internet.

The Year Zero Research Page is being constantly updated to track recent developments, theories, and essentially organize the Year Zero events into a cohesive storyline."

No doubt, it is an exciting time to be a NIN fan

Scorsese's new movie

2007-02-18T10:49:00.000Z

Got sent this link over the weekend, Scorsese's "Sesame Streets" - genius

Similarly we have the Flintstones in "Raging Bull"

Genius

What? What? What?

2007-02-17T18:32:00.000Z

This dropped in my in box this morning:
"the new nine inch nails single 'survivalism' is now playing on radio stations nationwide. you can listen to it on the nin myspace page, along with another track from year zero: 'my violent heart.'

year zero : april 17th 2007.

track listing:

01 hyperpower!
02 the beginning of the end
03 survivalism
04 the good soldier
05 vessel
06 me, i'm not
07 capital g
08 my violent heart
09 the warning
10 god given
11 meet your master
12 the greater good
13 the great destroyer
14 another version of the truth
15 in this twilight
16 zero-sum"

So not only a new single, but a new album?
Fuck me!
Trent's got a new album out in under five years!
Maybe he'll play some new tracks when I see him next week?
'Citin

Blimey, it's Friday

2007-02-16T08:56:00.000Z

Monday.. Tuesday.. Happy Days!

Blurry days, more like.

Another end of the week rolls around and I am left, and not for the first time recently, wondering where exactly the week went. It's probably just a sign of age, but the weeks seem to be flying past at an ever increasing rate. I feel like that bloke in the movie version of H.G. Wells' Time Machine who is sat there (in the aforementioned Time Machine") as time accelerates around him, days blur as they fly by at an accelerating pace whilst I sit there and observe their silent passage. It's like I used to download life via a 56k modem, and now someone's upgraded me to a 8Mb broadband connection. It's bewildering.

Still, it's not all work, work, work...

Last night played "Gears of War" for the first time in co-op mode. (Co-op meaning co-operative over XBox live for the benefit of the terminally stupid).

Usually, in the single player version of the game you have a computer controlled colleague who assists you in killing anything that moves.. (Gears of War being a first-person shooter not unlike Doom or Halo, you see). However the AI of the computer controlled player is, at times, a bit rubbish, he's forever getting shot, injured, following you around like a lost puppy (as he seems to foolishly assume that I know where I'm going when invariably I'm just winging it) and just generally faffing about. This can make progressing through the game a little on the arduous side, as you have to make up for his shortcomings. However, when you get a friend to take on the role and you have a stab at the game online, the game take on a whole new life and actually becomes stupidly good fun. Now this is mainly because the AI of the computer controlled player in the single player mode doesn't swear quite as much, and at no point will call you a 'throbber' for getting shot, but also at least there really does feel like there's two of you facing the unceasing onslaught of the alien hordes.

Okay, so the non-computer controlled player is more likely to nick your ammo, and have moments of insanity where, acting not unlike Sylvester Stallone in a Rambo flick, all caution will be thrown to the wind and he will leg it into a warzone with the end result being he becomes instant cannon fodder, however when the two of you are stealthily making your way through a level it is really excellent.

I can heartily recommend this game online (and, to be fair, in single player mode as long as you have patience) - XBox Live really does rock!

Rock N Roll? Hardly

2007-02-15T08:08:00.000Z

You can almost see the meeting now can't you?

A couple of months ago, perhaps?

Picture the scene: the executives in charge of the Brit awards sat in their meeting, facing falling audience figures, and faced with the fact that the TV Quick Soap Awards were attracting more public attention, it was time for crisis talks:

"We need to make the whole event a bit more, you know, rock 'n roll, that will win back serious musical credibility and get us a bigger audience" pipes up one exec..
"Yeah, you're right"
"Give it that edge back again"
"Yeah, back to some old school Rock 'n Roll sensibilities"
"The key word here, people, is danger. We want the Brits to have a dangerous edge again"
"I know, why don't we give Oasis an 'Outstanding Achievement' award - you know them Gallagher boys, they're bound to court some controversy, do some of their trademark swearing and Manc attitude, that'll bring the audience. That's 'dangerous'"
"Yeah, high five to that."
[Sound of slapping palms round the room]
"Also, we could get a controversial host"
"Hmm yeah you're right, someone with an air of danger."
"Good, good, yeah, but who?"
"How about that lanky one from Channel four, you know the one with the mad hair, who's always talking about his 'Dinkle' and 'pulling down his trousers and pants', that one who won the 'shagger of the year' award"
"I know who you mean.. err.. what's his name?"
"Got it. Russell Brand"
"Yeah that's it, yeah he fits the part, didn't he used to do drugs at one point?"
"That's right. Wow that's so rock n roll, he'll be perfect."
"Yeah. Great. Is that dangerous enough?"
"Hmm.. well maybe.."
"We're missing that magic factor still, aren't we?"
"Yeah.. something's missing"
"I know, we'll do it live again!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, bring the danger of live television to the whole thing"
"Are you sure, remember the last time we did that? You know we had problems with that tit"
"Sam Fox"
"Yeah, and the other one?"
"Er.. her right breast?"
"No, Mick Fleetwood"
"Oh yeah, yeah, that was terrible wasn't it? We couldn't afford a bad show like that. They still play those clips on shows like 'The Top 100 worst television'".
"Well we'll just stage manage it so that we can ensure that nothing goes wrong.."

And they did, in fact they stage managed it to the point where the CBeebies Children's Television awards were probably more rowdy and rock 'n roll. They reigned the marvellous Russell Brand in, giving him only seconds to speak between each gong was handed out, (and let's not forget that this man at the NME awards had some of the best links ever, particularly his retort to being called the 'C' word by Bob Geldolf (sorry, I mean Sir Bob Geldolf) where he famously said "No wonder Bob Geldolf is an expert on famine, he's been dining out on 'I don't like Mondays' for twenty years"), the winners were ushered off the stage as quickly as they were ushered on. The only nod to rock and roll excess was where, at their tables, winners were doused in what we were lead to believe was champagne (but was probably Panda Lemonade such was the controls placed on the celebrities by the organisers).

All in all it was about as dangerous as a bouncy castle and despite some worthy bands actually being nominated (Snow Patrol, The Killers, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc), the whole thing felt as like it may as well have been the TV Quick Soap Awards. Only Simon Pegg and Nick Frost managed to inject any real 'humour' into the whole proceedings (at least they managed to refer to the last live Brit awards). The whole thing was santized to the point of bland boredom. What a waste of an opportunity.

Still at least it had a few more laughs in it than the ITV comedy that followed.. "The Abbey" reached a whole new low for ITV 'comedy', it almost made their other recent effort 'Benidorm' look like a laugh riot.

It's a pity because music can still court amusement and comedy, as was clearly evidenced on the beeb again last night with "Never Mind the Buzzcocks", which has reached whole new levels of humour since Simon Amstell took over hosting duties. Last night was the episode where Preston stropped off after what could only be described as some "gentle ribbing" from Amstell, and it was hysterical...

Maybe the execs should watch a couple of episodes of that before organising next year's Brits. And let's get Amstell to host.. now that could be funny.

Service!

2007-02-14T13:25:00.000Z

So with all the broadband shenanigans, digital television tomfoolery and cable chaos, there doesn't seem to have been many posts about anything else around here for a bit, and for that I can only apologise. It just frustrates me at how difficult it is to get a decent level of service (not to mention customer service) from pretty much every company who offer such goods and services.

They all seem to want to punt their technology upon us, with tempting packages, unlimited usage and 10% discounts for online ordering, with their flashy websites, the tempting offers, but once they've drawn you in, they don't seem to be able to back up their claims. Scratch away the veneer of the tempting offer and crap service and customer service lurks behind like a skulking nightmare. We are all supposed to be able to reach out and embrace this new technology with wireless internet, high definition multi-screen television channels and lower cost phone calls, and the companies make us desire these things and then totally and utterly fail to deliver it. Or if they do manage to deliver it, they cannot seem to consistently deliver it, meaning that we end up listening to endless hours of hold music, desperately hoping to get to speak to a real person. Surely there must be a better way?

It's a shoddy state of affairs.. the first company that does deliver reliable service and impeccable customer service, though, will clean up.

ISwitch

2007-02-14T08:34:00.000Z

Well it looks like I've found a new broadband and telephone provider.

On the recommendation of Sean, I've signed up for PlusNet broadband, who will be offering me 8Mb broadband that's unlimited, plus free evening and weekend calls for considerably cheaper than I was paying BT and Virgin/NTL/Whatever separately. Tis quite a good deal actually, and well worth checking out if you're thinking of switching broadband (which, of course, from today becomes easier). Haven't actually binned off Virgin/NTL/Whoever yet, experience has taught me to err on the side of caution and get one internet service up and running before I attempt to move to another, but I am looking forward to the phonecall immensely (petty, I know, but they started it!!!).

Anyway, as always, will keep you informed of my misadventures and mishaps in persuit of cheaper internet! You know you love it!

The hunt is on..

2007-02-13T08:25:00.000Z

Right, I need broadband provider..
This is mainly because I want to dump NTL/Virgin Media/Whoever because of the lousy customer service (no, they never returned my call, and consequently I had to crawl back to Sky last night for my television, they allowed me to get my Sky back once I said "I am a naughty boy for wanting to run away from Rupert Murdoch" ten times). I was going to risk Sky providing my broadband, but after people on here warning me off, I think I should look at the alternatives. So I'm after suggestions..

There are a couple of requirements..

It should cost no more than I'm paying now (£24)

It should be unlimited downloads (mainly due to the fact that XBox Live demo's can be anywhere between 800Meg and 1.4 Gig)

It should have a semi-decent customer service ethic

The ADSL Modem needs to be able to connect into my existing wireless routher via a Ethernet cable, this is because my main PC has no wireless capability and I'm loathed to have to go out and buy a wireless adapter just for the switch

The ADSL Modem should not connect to the PC via USB (yes, this is re-iterating the point above, but it's an important one

So far, only Be internet seem to be "fitting the bill", but I'm open to suggestions.

Any info appreciated

Deal or No Deal

2007-02-12T08:44:00.000Z

Well, I see that people have been wondering how the Virgin Media V+ box installation went.

In short, it didn't.

It all started well enough, with the engineer rolling up just after nine (on time, good) and beginning to move the phone line away from the BT socket to the Virgin one. However, when quizzed about the HD connectivity between the V+ box and the telly a blank look came over the engineer's face. It turns out that the work order given to him was completely and utterly wrong, he'd only brought a standard set top box, and he even had us down for the wrong television package. He had no V+ boxes on the van (there were none available, so he said), and certainly had no HD cabling. We were told that the only way to resolve this was that he'd have to cancel the installation and I'd have to re-order the V+ installation for another date.

So on the phone I go to Virgin Media.. except Virgin Media used to be NTL and getting through to their customer support is infamously bad, of course. So I was on the stuck on the phone for the best part of three quarters of an hour being bounced between departments. Eventually I spoke to someone who could help me. He told me that, and I believe this is a quote, "your account is in a right mess". Why? Well it appears that, rather than cancelling the installation, the engineer had in fact marked it as complete. Now, on the NTL/Virgin/Whatever system once an install is complete, a month's notice is needed to cancel that contract. We couldn't order a new install until the old one disappeared from the system. And apparently, the system didn't want to cancel the install because of the lack of 30 days notice. I'd been on the phone so long at this point I wanted to kill, so the guy offered to phone me back.

Virgin/NTL/Whoever did phone me back later that day to tell me that the account had been "somewhat restored", and the bodged install (that never happened) had been removed. However, because he'd had to hack the system so much to get it to do this (hacking systems? We should offer him a job!), he couldn't immediately re-order V+ for me. Instead he offered to phone me back on Monday (or, possibly Saturday) to get that re-ordered. I was less than impressed to say the least.

Now, over the weekend, (and as seen in the comments in my last post) I learn that Sky One, Sky News, and Sky Sports News could disappear from Virgin/NTL/Whenever at the end of the month. So no Lost. No Battlestar Galactica. No 24.

In short, no way.

Three of the shows that me and the wife actively look forward to each week gone? (Yeah I got her into Battlestar - how god is that?). You're kidding, right!? Actually that's only a minor consideration, it's the principal of not getting the same service I'm currently getting from Sky that is ticking me off.

If he phone's me today, I want a guarantee (preferably in writing) that this will not happen. Otherwise I think I may have to admit that I was wrong to try and leave the evil Murdoch empire. However, if I have to go back to Sky I shall be getting my broadband from them too I think (despite the problems I have experience before), and binning off Virgin/NTL/Wherever completely (see? It doesn't pay to piss me off!!).

It's deal-breaker time.. The banker is calling.. Who goes? They decide..

More later, no doubt..

V for Virgin Media

2007-02-09T08:52:00.000Z

So, if all goes according to plan and the installation runs smoothly, I should get home to a shiny new V+ box from Virgin Media today (Virgin Media being formerly known as ntl and/or telewest, of course), which should bring in an age of HDTV into our household (just in time for Doctor Who) along with the ability to record two channels whilst recording a third.

I have been given some confidence by various posts from satisfied customers on the cablehell forums that (finally) cable have got their act together and the service is excellent, although I'm still made slightly nervous by those perennial cable-naysayers who will point to past failings (a lot of these people are very pro Sky though, so who to believe?).

Anyway, as long as we have cbeebies installed by about 2pm this afternoon (so Kirstyn can get her fix of "Big Cook Little Cook") all should be well, otherwise I shall get grief, no doubt.

Although I also have the joy of cabling the existing Sky installation upstairs this evening to look forward to (as Sky+ is destined to become probably the most expensive commercially available freeview box in the country), should keep me busy for an hour or so tonight anyway.

Anyway, am keeping my fingers crossed that, hopefully, my pursuit of thrifty broadband, telephone and HD tv solution will pay off and I will not regret turning my back on Sky (see ya Murdoch) and BT (so long Busby!). Will keep y'all posted (I know I am a guinea pig "early adopter" for some other interested parties out there). Laters!

Democracy In Action

2007-02-08T12:06:00.000Z

Apparently there is only one month left to register your objection to the 'Pay as you go' road tax.

The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't really publicise it.
Therefore at the time of writing only 250,000 people had signed it so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them introducing it.

This is legit... from the 10 Downing Street's website.

Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address, just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition.

Democracy in action?

The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.

On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill.

If you care about our freedom and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

(This is the same site that will allow you to download an application for the Honours List!)

If you have not looked at this spare a wee moment. Gordon (that is brown not Gin) is searching for new ways to hose our money down various black holes.

Brand. Lost. Snow

2007-02-08T08:51:00.000Z

So yeah, I promised a review of Russell Brand, who we went to see on Monday night, didn't I?

Well I am a man of my word, so despite the fact that this post is a little on the late side (for the past 48 hours or so I have still been battling with the remnants of my cold - cannot remember the last time a cold has taken so long to blummin naff off), here we go:

Russell was, of course, brilliant.

I really didn't know what to expect, having decided to avoid the live DVD which was out before Christmas, but I can honestly say that he gave us well over an hour and a half of solid laughter. It's a shame that no commentary here could actually do justice to the material he had, or the unique outlook on life that he brings to the world via his routine. It was very pleasing that he was determined not just to trade on his "catchphrases" and seemed to condemn those who just expected him to come on stage and talk about pulling down his trousers and pants, how things were "'citing" and endless tales about his ball bags and dinkle for an hour and a half. Although he does do an extended piece on the art of pleasuring oneself, which was incredibly funny. Get a ticket and see him live and you'll cry with laughter. Alternatively get the DVD off Amazon ('tis only a mere nine English pounds) - as you will not be disappointed. It's a shame that he allows his mate, Trevor Lock, to have such a long warm-up slot (an agonising 45 minutes before the interval) as he was not funny at all, and I doubt anyone has died on their backside at an Opera House quite as badly as he did. So miss the support, stay in the bar, and then marvel at the comic genius that is Russell Brand.

Also, traded two unplayed titles for "Lost Planet" this week, which meant it cost me 41p. And am so glad I did, as it's a terrific game. Although not quite as graphically stunning as "Gears of War" and not being as engaging as "Dead Rising", it really is very good fun to play (especially online). And now, having finished Dead Rising, I have something to get me through until either Forza or Resident Evil 5 comes out.

Disappointed at the lack of snow here, although it would appear that 5cms of the stuff had brought the rest of the country to a standstill. It was depressing to hear so many people on five live this morning citing the snow as evidence that there is no such thing as global warming. One text read "I wonder if the so-called experts predicting global warming are stuck in the snow this morning?". Just how short-sighted are some southerners when their Network South East train is five minutes late because our awful rail infrastructure cannot cope with the lightest dusting of snow? It beggars belief, it really does.

Best. Trailer. Ever.

2007-02-07T18:27:00.000Z

I know it's been on the beeb for about a week now, but still - this is class:

"Is he kicking in a nonce?"
Genius.

'citing

2007-02-05T18:30:00.000Z

First off, apologies for the week off.. was really ill for about five days, it is inexcusable that I ignored my blogging duties, but I ask you to excuse me anyways..

Just a quicky to announce my return to health and blogging, as we're off to see Russell Brand this evening..
Am really looking forward to it too.. will give my $0.02 on the gig tomorrow..

Also as I've now finished "Dead Rising" but, seeing as everyone else is playing Dead Rising, there's no-one playing "Gears of War" for me to have a good co-op session, I thought I'd trade a couple of unplayed titles for "Lost Planet" tomorrow, unless anyone can recommend something preferable..

More tomorrow!!

Substandard

2007-01-30T18:43:00.000Z

Weird things happened to my brain this afternoon.
It's probably the stress of work.

But I was looking at a Subway napkin, and the way that one tomato is offset started to quite disturb me.
It didn't take much imagination to read between the lines, the napkin seemed to be advocation of bullying and separatism, and a lack of tolerance between all tomatoes..

Regardez:

Surely all tomatoes should unite and stand together as one.
I shall be contacting my MP about the subliminal messages in the Subway napkin.

Emotional Blackmail

2007-01-30T08:22:00.000Z

I am the victim of emotional blackmail.

And the annoying thing is that the one perpetrating the blackmail is only eight months old!

Most mornings I escape being manipulated in such a way, as my daughter tends not to wake up until about eight o'clock (unless her emerging teeth are bothering her, she does seem to sleep quite well these days which is a blessing for all of us really), however on other mornings - and today fell into this category - Kirstyn will be up and about as I get ready for work.

And she is a very happy child in the mornings (lord knows where she gets this from as neither me or her mother are sociable animals until the second coffee is surging through the system), she's all smiles and giggles and is playing quite nicely.

All smiles, that is, until I put my coat on.

Once I pull the sleeves of my jacket on, the smile fades, the giggles stop and I am officially sulked at. The bottom lip is stuck out, and a sad little face peers at me as if to say: "How can you even think about leaving the house?". Now I know this is all for effect as I have it on good authority that as soon as I actually leave the house the smiles and giggles return. However as I try to leave, she will do everything in her (albeit limited) power to make me feel as guilty as anything for having to go off to work. And, let's face it, it's not as if I actually want to leave in the first place!

I knew daughters would try their best to wrap their fathers around their little finger, also she's a woman so emotional blackmail comes as naturally as swimming does to fish, however I wasn't prepared for the assault to begin at such a young age. The cheeky madam.

Unappreciated

2007-01-29T12:06:00.000Z

I appear to work in an industry where you're ignored if you do and damned if you don't.

As you can imagine this has proven to be very demoralising here. Now, I must admit, I tried my best to dig my heels in and refuse to do the ridiculous amounts of overtime that the "powers that be" demanded (not asked), yet even I weakened occasionally and "went the extra mile" for the company. But I think I feel more for my colleagues who gave up weekend after weekend, and evening after evening only to be completely ignored when the praise was being handed out at the end of the process. It's the final kick in the teeth.

it just goes to show it doesn't pay to "go the extra mile" for these faceless corporations and businesses as the extra effort is never appreciated and, indeed, more often than not just becomes what they expect from you as a minimum.. They'll never go "the extra mile" and give you a couple of extra hundred quid in your pay packet if you're coming up a bit short at the end of the month, will they? No the extra effort always goes one way. The only thing to do is stick to your guns and stick to your hours, as per your contract of employment.

Work has indeed made me a cynic

It's a "grand" score..

2007-01-26T14:19:00.000Z

Look..

Up there..

1000gp

A thousand, baby.

Now I realise there are hardcore gamers out there who cleared a 1000 gamerpoints between mummy cooking them dinner and sending them to bed, but considering I only get a couple of hours a week on the ol' console, I'm quite chuffed to finally hit four figures.

The score also came at the end of one of the most difficult missions in "Dead Rising", which has been frustrating the hell out of me for about a week. It's a testament actually to just how phenomenal the game is that it's keeping "Gears of War" out of the console completely at the moment (and "Gears" rocks!!)

So, yes, a real sense of achievement at the moment.. if only I could get anywhere near that level of satisfaction at work (which is, yet again, bobbins)

And we're back..

2007-01-24T11:11:00.000Z

After this morning's outage, we're back.. Links restored, gamertag back in place.

I like this template. Tis groovy.

S'later

Work In Progress

2007-01-24T09:12:00.000Z

Apologies for the "unfinished" look to the blog at the moment, I have changed the template (as you can see), however blogger is proving to be a stroppy madam at the moment and is not allowing me to edit the template's HTML. So no gamercard at the top of the screen at the moment (which is annoying seeing as I am now dangerously close to the 1000 mark - woohoo!) and I'm afraid no links to Maff's, Pedders' and PJ's blogs (but only Maff posts these days anyway, so hopefully I'll have this sorted before you miss too much external content).

So, yeah, will get this sorted at some point today with any luck..

Anyway..

So binned off Sky last night, they had no comeback ("I'm getting a free HD box, will you offer me the same or will I have to pay £299?"), so serving 30 days notice with them at the mo. Unfortunately, due to the fact we want to keep the same number, I never got the opportunity to personally bin off BT as Virgin are handling that cancellation, pity as I wanted to tell them that the company's gone downhill since they stuffed and roasted Buzby.. So, V+ arrives on Friday February 9th 2006 and finally the HDMI interface on the telly will be used.. Blinding.

Also played "Gears of War" on the 360 last night.. looks awesome, but am so close to possibly finishing "Dead Rising" at the moment, it's not going to get much of an opportunity for a hammering for about a week. Must finish this game, as it is quite possibly the finest I have EVER played on any console. Pity as Gears looks absolutely lush.. Ahh well, I'll get round to it

Second Class Post

2007-01-23T09:24:00.000Z

Actually there's been nothing "Second Class" about the posts round here recently, they've simply been non-existent! For unknown reasons I have just lacked the necessary inspiration to write anything for the last couple of days.. not to mention the time.

And this is despite the Mighty Reds seeing off Chavski at the weekend (which was one of those games that justify turning up every other week).

However, now I'm back.. feels good to be back in the ol' blog environment, kinda like pulling on a favourite pair of pants.

Anyhoo..

Today's that day I finally get to tell Mr Murdoch to "get stuffed".

Now I have long been an advocate of Sky+ as it really has been a fantastic gadget, but always in the back of my mind I've felt uncomfortable funding Rupert Murdoch's evil media empire. But, until recently there was no viable alternative: Freeview (or compression vision, as it's sometimes known) is a bit pants really (no Sky One? Are you mad?), and cable had no equivalent to the Sky+ box).

And let me tell you, telly becomes quite important when there's not many babysitters around and you cannot go out on the razz as much as you used to due to the little 'uns asleep upstairs (not that I'm complaining, it's just a matter of fact.. this is the price of responsibility, I guess).

So when I got a letter through yesterday telling me that Virgin had taken over NTL -they've become "Virgin Media"- and were now offering not only V+ (which is Sky plus for cable) but also telling me that V+ is HD out of the box (whereas Sky want me to pay £299 to upgrade my Sky+ (which I paid £149 for anyway) to HD), and they can do my telly, phone and broadband (with no drop in the level of service for us personally) for £20 cheaper a month, I'd be mad not to consider it. After all V+ does all the things that Sky+ does, and arguably it's a wee bit better (record two channels whilst watching a third is an obvious bonus, as is getting all the 4On Demand stuff (apart from the Box Office movies) for free).

And I get to bin off BT too.. marvellous.

Still have a few techy questions, but I reckon today's the day I finally tell Sky to get stuffed.

Gusty

2007-01-18T15:19:00.000Z

It's a tad windy out there, innit?

Apparently our garden gate is Absent Without Official Leave now, which is better I guess than -say- the chimney stack flying off the roof (well certainly less expensive and less hassle to replace), but still a faff. According to reports, trees have been falling over, lorries have been falling over and there is just general traffic chaos everywhere this afternoon which should make the drive home all the more congested and frustrating.. Oh, joy!

Burning a hole in my pocket..

2007-01-18T08:40:00.000Z

So, yeah, on Monday I had yet another birthday (I must be getting old now, these birthday's seem to be coming round a lot faster these days, blink and I'll miss my 40th!).. Yay, happy birthday me and all that..

And, as it's so close to Xmas and I can never think of anything I really want, I asked for some Amazon vouchers..

So rather than getting me a gift, everyone (apart from the Mrs and the kids as they wanted me to have something to physically "open" on the day) got me some Amazon vouchers, which was fabulous.

Except, despite the fact that I know they won't expire for 12 months, I have this overwhelming urge to go spend 'em.

Like, now..

Must.. spend.. vouchers..

My original intention was to hold off a couple of months until I'd finally finished "Dead Rising" and then go get a new game for the 360, something new and fresh. After all the games tend to be quite expensive so I should probably get as far as I possibly can in one game before getting another.

But ever since I got back I've been scouring the recommendations pages and the "Coming Soon" pages on Amazon to try and find something to splurge out on with my vouchers.

Should I get "Gears of War"?

How about "Lost Planet"?

Perhaps I should go for something completely wacky like "Viva Piñata"?

Or maybe I should hold off until something really amazing comes out that I simply must have (Resident Evil 5 is not long away!)...

Decisions.. decisions..

At least my dilemma is continuing to help me ignore Celeb BB.

I deleted it from my Sky+ planner before we went away, and when I picked up a paper on the flight home I saw all this furore about racial abuse in the house, and I have seem to heard of nothing else since.

Every news bulletin, every discussion show on five live.. Big Brother this, Big Brother that..

Burning effigies in India, the Prime Minister being questioned about the show -madness.

I don't know whether the alleged comments were made, or if this has all been a massive ploy by Endemol to restore flagging ratings. Whatever.. I think they've ruined the format this year, and whatever has happened the show has become distasteful. Life is better without it.

Hamsterjam

2007-01-16T14:03:00.000Z

Greetings gentle reader,

Well it's been the best four days.. Amsterdam is one of the coolest destinations I've visited. The architecture is amazing, everywhere you look there are fascinating and unique buildings and structures to take in.. The locals are so damn friendly, the whole atmosphere was welcoming -and, yes- very chilled. Also, the public transport infrastructure is second to none, step off the plane, walk straight into the railway station into Centraal station in the middle of the city, and then straight onto a clean tram that runs efficiently on time.
It doesn't help half bring home just how much of the arse-end of Europe England really is.

And, yes, aside from admiring buildings and marvelling at the customer service and integrated transport system -we also had a a helluva laugh. Highlight of the trip include:

Boom Chicago - a comedy theatre that has shows pretty much every night. We saw a show called "Me, myspace & iPod" which was really hilarious.

It's kinda like "Who's Line Is It Anyway" but with far more audience interaction than you'd expect from that kind of show and some very, very funny gags..

The Heineken Experience which proved to be more fun than youe avaerage museum, well it cannot help being more fun - it's a frigging brewery!! Lots of Heineken can be consumed as part of the ticket price too!!

The Sex Museum which is a celebration of sex (well, mostly porn, but you cannot have one without the other) throughout the ages. Not half as tacky as it actually sounds, and actually a really interesting couple of hours.

The Dolphins - a few very agreeable hours were spent "under the sea" in this little place. Very cool indeed!

Now, it is very nice to see the kiddie-winkies again, but it was quality to spend a few days just with the wife. Almost feel calm enough to go face the crap at work again now..

Laters

Out of office reply

2007-01-13T03:37:00.000Z

Off to the 'dam - see you Tuesday!
laters

Cutting up a bit rough

2007-01-11T09:29:00.000Z

Blimey the weather is awful today, isn't it?

It's blowing a blummin' gale out there.

All you could hear on this morning's traffic reports were tales of overturned lorries (both directions on the M6, that just has to suck), and motorways like the M62 being closed to high-sided vehicles due to 80 mile per hour gusts of wind.

Of course, I only find out about these things now that I've finally dumped Radio 1.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I was getting very tired of hearing the same three tunes on the drive in and again on the way home, five days a week. Even if I hated a song, I still managed to be subjected to it twenty times a week!!! So I had to seek out an alternative..

Commercial radio was out as you have tend to have the same problem with such stations (except you're likely to hear the same song forty times a week, in-between lame adverts for double glazing similarly repeated ad nauseum) and I don't have a DAB radio in the car so there was only one thing for it: Radio Five Live.

Now I feel frightfully informed on my drive in and home each day, as I get the major issues of the day in five minute bite-size chunks (Why are our energy bills continuing to rise when wholesale energy costs have fallen 50% in the last six months, for example). It's all good.

But, yeah, the weather..

We seem to be stuck in this perpetual spring/autumn weather system now, don't we? We've not really had a winter this year, it's been either very mild or a tumultuous storm, and I cannot think of many morning's at all when the temperature's even dropped near zero. Strange times indeed..

Retro Gaming Rocks!

2007-01-10T08:17:00.001Z

Don't ask me how, but somehow the conversation in the office yesterday turned to Pac Man.

It is entirely possible we were discussing neurosurgery and, somehow, inexplicably, we managed to steer the conversation to something as trivial as a 1980s arcade classic. The only shock is that the topic of conversation is actually quite a long way from scraping the barrel of filth where most of our conversations reside.

Anyway, yeah, Pac Man..

Dr Magnetic (he of the very moribund blog) mentioned that somebody had worked out that the ghosts went on different paths depending upon which fruit was shown in the maze (if you don't know Pac Man, I ain't going to explain it to you.. Needless to say, it's basic premise of running about in a darkened room, popping pills and listening to repetitive music could be seen as a reason that techno nightclubs were so popular in the late nineties!). I found this hard to believe that a) the ghosts weren't random and b) that someone had sat there and worked out this fact.. It turns out to be true, though, as we looked it up on the font of all knowledge worth knowing: Wikipedia.

And on Wikipedia, it showed that Pac Man had been converted to be available on the XBox 360 (from the live arcade).

Home.

Live Arcade

Download.

Done.

Yay!!

Pac Man in all it's 1980's glory.

I used to be quite good at this, but I sucked for the first couple of games last night..

But what a faithful conversion - it rocks!!!

January blues

2007-01-09T14:57:00.000Z

So January is continuing to be a grim and uninspiring month so far, although there is a bright shining ray of hope on the horizon, a glimmer of expectation of better things to come: Yes, series three of Battlestar Galactica kicks off on Sky One tonight.

Now, no doubt a few of you out there are scoffing (I can hear you now, actually.. scoffity-scoff-scoff) that it's been "available" on the internet for some time now, but I for one am glad I waited now as there really is bugger all else worth watching on the telly box at the moment. This is particularly true since the weekend's developments in Celeb BB. What a total arse they've made of the show by bringing Jade and her dumbass family in..

Other good news: Our Russell brand tickets turned up today (good thing too, as I was starting to worry about their non-appearance, especially as my Nine Inch Nails tix turned up weeks ago).. Citing.

Up to Level 25 in Dead Rising too, and am embarking on the fourth of seven cases to find "the truth" about the zombie outbreak...

So there are some positives.. hurrah!

Work still sucks and blows though - boo!

Which way did the weekend go?

2007-01-08T08:39:00.000Z

Cannot believe it is Monday again already..

The weekend felt so much briefer due to the fact that I ended up coming into work on Saturday.

Aye, I buckled.

I gave in.

I weakened.

Principals? What Principals?

The major difference this time was I was actually asked to come in (as opposed to being threatened), which kind of makes me respond better and also I came in to fix something specific rather than just coming in to "be seen". So yes, Saturday was spent working - which sucked, going home and watching the football - which sucked, and then remembering we had to take down the Xmas tree and all of the associated decorations - which sucked. After which Saturday was pretty much over.

Also have missed all of the celeb BB news this weekend as our Sky+ box has finally given up the ghost.

Despite numerous Planner Rebuilds and System Resets, it's coughed it's last and died. Horribly. So lost all of the weekend's recordings (and have, consequently, now missed two episodes of The West Wing back-to-back - CURSES!) too..

Still Amsterdam beckons..

..and I squeezed out a couple more achievements from "Dead Rising"

So not all bad then..

Anyone care to fill me in on Celeb BB?

Gone Dutch

2007-01-05T08:01:00.000Z

Due to the fact that it will be the run up to my birthday, and mostly because the grandparents have very bravely elected to have the kids for four days, the Wife and I are off to Amsterdam next week. Hurrah! Think of it as a kind of birthday treat and mini-honeymoon (surely EuroDisney doesn't count?) all rolled into one.

Now we only have three nights there, and so are looking for any recommendations about what to see and do (apart from the obvious, there's no need for innuendo in the comments section now, is there?) from anyone who's been before/recently..
We did find, an internet guide to Amsterdam, which is a good starting point, but now would like some recommendations from friends/colleagues..

Any info would be muchos appreciated..

Am now off to listen to the intro music to "Van Der Valk"

Oh deary me..

2007-01-04T08:08:00.000Z

I guess last year's Celebrity Big Brother was always going to be difficult to top.. Few who watched will be able to forget George Galloway, Pete Burns and Micheal Barrymore's antics in the big brother house.. However it really did feel like the show couldn't match it's own success when it relaunched last night..
We seem to be stretching the definition of the word Celebrity very far this year.. I mean at least Dirk Benedict, Leo Sayer and Jermaine Jackson we kinda recognised even if their hey-days were way behind them..
But Carole Malone? Danielle Lloyd? Donny Tourette?
(The crowd were bang on with their chants of "Who are ya? Who are ya?")
I'm glad Davina was there to remind me these people were famous, otherwise I might have mistakenly thought it was the summer already.
I'm sure once it gets going and the arguments start it'll all be good. (Russell already is back on form, Big Mouth really is the best vehicle for him on telly). However, until then, I'm sceptical.
Still anyone still playing celebdaq must have the opportunity to clean up this year!!

Life Goes On

2007-01-03T08:09:00.000Z

So after waiting ten years for "This Life" to return to our screens, I must admit to being very disappointed with the result. I can remember this show being essential viewing in the nineties, it was different to anything else being output at the time, it appeared to be written for my generation, it was vibrant and fresh. However last night's reunion special one-off show just seemed to demonstrate that the writers are completely out-of-touch with the generation that they once wrote so well for. In short they managed to turn all of the characters into massive wankers, and none of it rang true at all.

Ugh!

2007-01-02T08:33:00.000Z

Well this is a shock to the system..

You'd have thought it would have hit me earlier.. perhaps when the alarm went off?

No, managed to cope with that quite well to be fair.

Perhaps on the long drive in?

No, the roads were remarkably clear and it was quite a pleasant run this morning.

But, BAM!

It's hit me now..

I.. am.. back.. at.. work..

Grim.

It may take several coffee's to get over the initial realisation and get my head straight, then again.. I may never recover.

Watch this space..

Cor Blimey Guvnor, tis 2007

2007-01-01T17:48:00.000Z

Happy New Year to you all.. hope you've now recovered from the annual debauchery that is New Year's Eve and are now enjoying the first day of this new, funky year..

Good to have a new year. 'Citing.

This New Year, for me, really does seem like a blank page, this time last year already quite a lot of the 12 months ahead were all mapped out what with the arrival of Kirstyn, and the wedding. Whereas this year seems all shiny, new, undiscovered and exciting - rather like a new pair of underpants...

Anyway not sure what lies ahead for the coming year, although I do know that I am back at work tomorrow.. Boo! Hiss!

Oh, and I've found a perfect hangover cure: It's a 3 - 0 win over Bolton, my head felt miles better after that.

L8er peeps

Silentbazz review of the year 2006..

2006-12-28T11:10:00.000Z

Well the new year is just around the corner and, like those cheap telly programmes that fill two hours and cost nothing to produce, we're going to take a moment to reflect the past twelve months before we launch into another year of blogging..

January
January began with me setting out my intention of quitting the evil cigarettes, and that I was going to do it using Alan Kerr's book. I envisaged the first couple of months of the blog being a diary of a quitter, but it only took a single visit to a shit supermarket to lose that unique narrative angle. The highlight of the month, as far as the posts went anyway, was BT introducing Tom Baker as the voice of the text messages.. oh we wasted some text bundles sending them in the office. Laugh? We nearly shat.

February
Oh aye, I began February predicting that this would be my last year in the IT industry.. I wish.. Still even I'm surprised at how early into the year I began bitching about work!! In fact I must have started Feb in quite a depressed state, even contemplating Dead Celebs.. It must have had something to do with the fact that this was the month I finally quit smoking!

March
Well we had a wintery start to March, which didn't seem to dampen my smugness at being able to particpate in No Smoking Day for the first time. And it was amazing that I didn't start all over again, as March saw the builders move in (not a euphamism) to rip out the bathroom, which went quite smoothly until a massive balls-up at the end. However, that was nowhere near as disturbing as some other sights that month.

April
So we were getting close to finishing off the bathroom, which was music to my ears as having to use the loo at work, was becoming a bit of a strain. Not that it stopped me ranting.. ranting about telly's behind the bar and Microsoft Word. When I should have focussed on the groovy things in April like Liverpool getting to the F.A. Cup Semi Final, and finding Pimp My Snack.. Possibly the most interesting thing that happened though is that Liz and I tried to predict the future of the sex of out (at the time) unborn baby by trying lots of Old Wives Tales.
By the way, the superstitions were right, in the end so there must be something in it all..

May
May saw the happiest day of the year..
Yes! Liverpool won the FA Cup Final!!! No, I'm kidding, the happiest day of the year came a couple of weeks later. But still I was made up to actually get to Cardiff, after my daughter had threatened (on more than one occasion) to arrive early. It would seem that daddy giving up drinking for a month wasn't enough of a sacrifice for my daughter. Not much else seems worthy of a mention, but I will mention a few things like George Lucas is still a cunt, we will take a moment to reflect on the passing of Vera, and we will take time to remember the best Eurovision for years!!

June
Well June saw the World Cup happen, but let's not talk about that (nor that cheating cunt Ronaldo).. Due to me getting used to having a small demanding female in the house (no, not the wife, I just about got used to her by then) there weren't that many posts of note.. Did get to see the Foo Fighters though, who were awesome! Just as well, as work continued to suck.

July
July began hot, but it wasn't the sun making my blood boil -oh no, it was George Lucas. Being a cunt. Again. And I was probably annoyed that a fadge cost me several packs of donuts, but never mind.. Despite losing my voice, I still managed to moan about Average Speed Cameras, shit horror films, and the Moose-fucker in Big Brother.

August
A company bonus was announced in August (as the company was "Sold to the USA!!"), which meant I went off in search of a laptop, and the result of that search is currently being employed to write this post.. so it all worked out okay in the end, didn't it? The real important laps, though came on the Stag Do early in August.. where we saw my mate Mike Duffy won the entire event at Daytona! Goat emails began their popularity in August too. Big Brother finished in August too, but my calls for people not to vote for Pete fell on deaf ears obviously.. Sometimes I do wonder why I blog at all.. Oh well, c'est la vie and all that

September
Summer was coming to an end, the transfer window shut, and thoughts turned to the imminent wedding. I did manage to downgrade my PSP this month though, so that it would play lots of homebrew and dodgy downloaded games - hurrah! In sad news, Steve Irwin lost a fight with a stingray.. and I discovered that Sky Broadband was shite.
Main event of the month though, was the second happiest day of the year: My Wedding. Not that it stopped me blogging for y'all though!!

October
October got off to an expensive start as the telly blew up, which meant I had to go out and get a HDTV.. However it did give me an excuse to go out and get an XBox 360 too so it's not all bad news. The website of the month had to be the TV Theme Tunes online site (where most of my ringtones are now derived from), which meant I had some cool choons to listen to whilst I remembered the McRib. Things got a tad surreal, I got a shiny new phone, and Lost returned - yay! So not a bad month after all..

November
Well we tore into November, Sky nicked Lost from Channel 4, I was "disappointed" at the Foo's, but impressed at the Genius of Diet Coke and Mentos. And although my favourite night club from my Uni days burned, Birmingham still managed to deliver a grand day out at the Good Food Show..

December
It's been a slow month, blog-wise.. we did welcome another member to the XBox fold though. I went to see, and immensely enjoyed, the Tenacious D movie, and we revealed the results of the first ever Silentbazz Blog Usage Survey - thanks again to everyone who took part in that and gave us such interesting results. I shall be incorporating suggestions made into future posts. Meanwhile others were predicting an end to blog posting altogether - ha! Never! And finally, I got an early Xmas presie when my daughter started yapping and, like most women, she has not shut up since!!

Well that's it, the highs and lows of 2006 summarised in a single post. Hoping for a quieter 2007, but I'm sure I'll still find things to bitch and moan about, so drop by next year for more of the same. Til then, Happy New Year to you and yours! This doesn't necessarily mean there will be no more posts until january, but it's a nice get out clause if I cannot be arsed to do any more. Cheers. Catch you soon.

SB

Gratuitous fun..

2006-12-27T18:46:00.000Z

Not had much time on the ole Xbox with Xmas tying up my time (between kids, family coming round and the amount of Xmas telly nicking prime television time, I have hardly had a chance), but when I have, I have been mostly playing Dead Rising.

Sock, slick, survival horror at its best.. and some very amusing ways to kill of the undead.. If you like your zombiles, you'll love Dead Rising..

Merry Xmas Y'All

2006-12-25T11:31:00.000Z

Just a quick post - sorry there have not been many this week.. but with both Liz, I and both of the kids ill with a combination of colds, stomach bugs and teething (only Kirstyn for that one) combined with my parents arriving back home from Spain, and having to ferry them round the shops to do all their Christmas shopping at the last minute and then get them over to my sis..
But in the meantime, have a great Xmas and all the best for 2007

Sick

2006-12-19T18:47:00.000Z

Aye, I know.. only two days into my annual leave and already the blog posts are slipping.. Guilty as charged, although the kiddie-winkies have been pretty ill this week (one projectile vomiting from the top of the cabin bed, the other almost breaking through her first tooth and has a cold & a fever - joy!!)

Normal service will be resumed and all that..

It's for charity

2006-12-15T12:44:00.000Z

Clicky clicky, for charity this Christmas

No show

2006-12-15T08:12:00.000Z

So tonight is the work's Christmas do..

This means that we get twenty five pounds a head to go out and get lashed. The plan was to go into town, get some scran and then proceed to get wankered...

But you know what?
The last couple of months have been the worst I can remember working for any company, and although I'd quite to go out with some of the people, I just cannot go out on a company do. They represent to me the opposite of everything I associate with Christmas, and so going out on a Xmas do with them would make me some sort of hypocrite.. Besides that, I'm just so fucking angry at the way they've handled the last couple of months, I have concerns that after a few shandies I wouldn't be able to hold my tongue and I may well say something I later regret..

Yeah, maybe I am "cutting my nose off to spite my face". Whatever. It just doesn't sit right with me, and I'd rather just fuck off at hometime and forget about the workplace until the New Year. Maybe by then everything will have calmed down and it all might become bearable again..

So sack it..

The end is nigh..?

2006-12-14T18:30:00.000Z

The writing's on the wall..
well it won't be online, that's for sure as, apparently blogging will reach its peak next year, according to technology predictions by analysts Gartner.

The analysts said that during the middle of next year the number of blogs will level out at about 100 million.

The firm has said that 200 million people have already stopped writing their blogs.

Gartner analyst Daryl Plummer said the reason for the levelling off in blogging was due to the fact that most people who would ever start a web blog had already done so.

"A lot of people have been in and out of this thing," Mr Plummer said.

"Everyone thinks they have something to say, until they're put on stage and asked to say it."

Last month blog tracking firm Technorati reported that 100,000 new blogs were being created every day, and 1.3 million blog posts were written.

Technorati is tracking more than 57 million blogs, of which it believes around 55% are "active" and updated at least every three months.

So is this the end..?
Naahh, fuck it, I have too much bile to get off my chest, I'll still be here next year (sorry, about that). Mind you, I've been doing this on and off for two and a half years now (around March/April 2004 was the first version of this blog, check the archives!!), surely writers block will kick in soon..?

I wish I didn't loathe programming so much..

2006-12-13T18:41:00.000Z

If I did, I'd probably be more excited about the news that Microsoft has made tools available which will allow hobbyists and students to create games for the Xbox 360.

From BBC News:
"The software, which has been trialled since August, is being billed by Microsoft as a first step towards a YouTube for videogames.

Would-be developers will be able to use the tools program, called XNA Game Studio Express, to develop and share games via the Xbox Live online service.

DIY games will provide a contrast to those with multi-million pound budgets.

While the games that can be created by these new tools will be rudimentary in comparison to the best-sellers, it would hark back to the days when games were made on a shoestring budget.

The tools are available to download for free but many may want to join the XNA Creators Club, which allows DIY developers access to technical support, white papers, starter kits and other assets to help turn the games into reality."

If you're keen to see your creations unleashed on Microsoft's latest games console, then point your browser here and make your dreams a reality

Sense of Achievement

2006-12-13T08:03:00.000Z

Yeah, check it..
395, baby.

I think I might just be beginning to get in to this whole XBox thingy. It's taken a while, I'll admit but when you have a wife and two kids, there's neither the time (nor the inclination.. well, okay, maybe a wee bit of inclination) to spend hours and hours gaming.

It's been helped by the fact that the missus is so busy doing her work in the evenings (Xmas is coming and we could use a little extra cash) and also due to the fact that telly is utter shite at the moment. There really is so little in the Sky+ planner in the moment.. Now I know that 2007 is just around the corner, and that will mean the completion of series three of "Lost", along with new series of "Battlestar Galactica", "Life On Mars", "Hotel Babylon" and (most importantly) "Doctor Who", but at the moment there is FACK ALL!!

And, apart from a couple of Christmas specials, Xmas telly looks a bit pants too..
Looks like I'll have to stay reasonably pissed all through the Yuletide season after all..

Survey Results...

2006-12-12T18:23:00.000Z

The results of the survey are in..

Q1. How did you first find this blog?
I know you, dumbass - 100%

Q2. On Average, do you think..
The regularity of posts is about right - 62.5%
You're bloody lazy and need to post more often - 25%
I couldn't give a toss, I complete surveys in some pitiful attempt to validate my life 'cos it makes me feel my opinion matters - 12.5%

Q3. How often do you visit silentbazz.blogspot.com?
Daily - 37.5%
2/3 times a week - 62.5%

Q4. Do you like posts about..
My life (the stuff that pisses me off) - 50%
I am a left handed browser and demand more breasts! - 50%

Q5. What kind of connection do you have to the Internet?
Cable modem - 50%
DSL - 37.5%
T1 or better - 12.5

Q6. Where are you located?
United Kingdom - 100%

What other ways could I improve this blog?
1. more happy slapping videos
2. More breasts!

Thanks for the feedback, your suggestions have been duly noted!

S.S.D.D*

2006-12-11T18:26:00.000Z

Sorry for the slight delay in posting this fine (fine? It was fucking pissing it down for most of the day, for fuck's sake) Monday. I seem to be suffering from a bad bout of cannot-be-arsedness.

Lord knows why this cannot-be-arsedness has struck me, I should be if not already on cloud nine, certainly in the elevator ascending towards it. After all it's my last week in work until 2007 (hurrah), it's two weeks until Xmas (hooray) and I've finished all my gift shopping (double-hooray) and I saw my team win by four nil over the weekend (rejoice! rejoice!).

But alas,
I just cannot be enthused about anything at the moment.. Even a free meal and lots of beer is failing to stir the soul, even though it should be a really good laugh..

*sigh*

Worry not, sure I'll pick up later.. why not check back to see if there's a happier post later

Cheers

SB

* - Same Shit Different Day

Holy Fuckalukadingdong

2006-12-08T08:08:00.000Z

So we saw the Tenacious D movie last night..
Despite the megre 3 stars from the Empire Online review, I actually thought it was very funny. Sophisiticated, clever humour? Hell no, but after hearing the Tenacious D album and seeing KG and Jack perform live it was everything I had come to expect from the D.

I mean, who can fault any movie that opens with a four minute rock opera-ette featuring Jack Black, Meat Loaf and Ronnie James Dio? Add into the mix a satanic performace from Dave Grohl, a nod to a Clockwork Orange, the funniest "gig simulator" I've ever seen, and the best nob gag to grace the cinema screen in a long time, and I think it more than justified the admission price.

Plus the whole magic-mushroom sasquatch sequence was hysterically stupid - loved it!

Hot pick!

2006-12-07T08:08:00.000Z

We're cashing in our "babysitting voucher" earlier than usual this month, although as it get's closer to Christmas we'll find it harder and harder to get a sitter anyway. However.. tonight we're out, and I'm quite excited as we're off to see
Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny!
Should be a good laugh, will post thoughts tomorrow..

And just to get us in the mood for some "D" madness.. how's about the "Tribute" video..?? Alllllrighty then:

And, yes, that is Dave Grohl playing the shiny demon..

Oh, and I "rediscovered" Project Gotham Racing last night.. it rocks, like totally