Sprog issues and more videogames

Couple of things that don't really mix this time round.

We've been having behavioral issues with Le Sprog, and they've come completely out of the blue. I'm not sure if its due to change in routine after going back to school last Monday after having 2 weeks off for Easter Holidays or not, but this weekend she was an absolute terror. Defying us at every turn, to the extent that she wouldn't eat her tea yesterday and ended up going to bed without. I felt incredibly cruel doing it but she seems alot happier after being at school today, she even ate most of Missus' completely home made Spaghetti Bolognese (which I adore!!), and was thus rewarded with some biscuits, a small bar of chocolate and a sticker to stick on her reward chart (8 "tasks" each day, all of which are things that she should be doing anyway, eating meals, brushing teeth, tidying away toys etc, when she gets to 25 stickers she can have a packet of Stickers for the Hannah Montanna sticker album she got today).

The only other major issue we have with her now is toileting, she goes for a wee-wee without any problem, washes her hands everytime etc etc, but we can't get her to do a number 2, she either has little accidents in the bath or in her knickers, or she holds it until she's in a nappy for bedtime (once we've tackled this issue, its then onto the nappies to get her out of them completely!). We've been told by our Doctor and the nurse at the surgery not to worry until she's 7, but its the last 2 hurdles before she's no longer our "little baby", we'll get there I'm sure of it, it'll just take time and some experimentation.




In other news, I've got a bunch of new games, we visited a car boot sale last weekend and I managed to pick up a couple of PC games dirt cheap (Company of Heroes, £2, and Project IGI, £1), then I bought Hogs of War on the original PlayStation for 80 pence, swapped Kameo on XBox 360 for the new Prince of Persia on the same system with a friend (I think I got the better end of the deal personally but he didn't like PoP...) and today picked up Amped 3 on the XBox 360 for £8, £7 of which was a credit note from a previous trade-in, so with my registration for Runes of Magic and the fact I've literally just got onto the Open Beta for Battlefield Heroes, I've got some new entertainment very cheaply to keep me occupied whilst waiting for new episodes of Heroes, Ashes to Ashes and Co-Op.

I've also, so far, kept to my Photo A Day challenge for the other blog, yes I know its only been 3 days, but thats more than I've ever managed before with any other project bearing any similarities to this one (hell, even my blogging is sporadic!). However, it was incredibly difficult to find a picture I was genuinely pleased with and found interesting today, gonna be more difficult as I've literally got nothing to do outside of the house and nothing of interest inside the house (that'll change when Missus herb garden on the kitchen window sill has begun to grow).

A new blog...

Well, sort of. I've been trying my hand at photography recently, I'm not using a top of the range camera or even one designed for serious photography, just a simple point and snap style digital camera. In fact to be precise its a Pentax Optio A20 compact.

Even so, and inspired by Brandon Klein (whom I sort of know from the website pocketotaku.com) I've decided to keep an extra blog that records a photo I've taken each and every day starting today.

You can view (and follow) that blog here.

Update on repairs.

So the surveyor came and went, he was roughly half an hour early but thats fine it made things a bit easier otherwise I'd be rushing around showing him whats what and then rushing out to fetch the Sprog from school.

It was an old guy, the guy who was supposed to come was double booked so we got this guy, the same bloke we'd had out two times previously to look at the toilet bowl. All he'd been told was he was to look at the rear entrance to ours and our neighbours back garden. There's a gate leading to a back alley that leads to our garden gates, the gate at the end of the alley is padlocked and we don't have the key, nor do the neighbours, we'd asked on the phone if we could just take some bolt cutters to it, but they insisted on having a look...

So he looked at that, did a doodle on his A4 notebook, had a look at the radiator and its accompanying crack, wrote down my complaints about the toilet (the bowl, cistern and overflow pipe) but didn't bother to take a closer look and said he'd get back to us before leaving, he was here about 5 minutes and I can't see anything being done unless we keep chasing it up every bloody week.

Repairs repairs repairs, oh and general house work...

We've got a surveyor from the housing association coming over at some point today to take a look at a few things, some of which we've had him look at a few times before that are still awaiting repair.

The cistern to our toilet is leaking from the handle, the overflow pipe has also been dripping for months and they've done nothing about it, likewise, we've been requesting a new toilet bowl since we moved in 5 years ago as the one thats currently there is badly stained and/or all the enamel has come off it and quite frankly its not very nice to look at, it stinks and its hardly hygenic. One of the brackets holding the main radiator in the lounge has come off and there's a huge crack in the wall where it used to be (going right from the windowsill down to the skirting board!) not to mention other cracks in the walls in the lounge.

Time will only tell if these things are seen to, although they probably won't be too pleased with our overgrown back garden (which we're aiming to see too over the next few months). Speaking of gardening, I took the strimmer to the front lawn yesterday, which was knackering work, then I tried to take our hover mower to it, but the blades keep spinning out I'm not sure why it keeps doing that but its far too annoying to mow the whole front lawn (which admittedly isn't very big) when I'm having to stop 10 or so times each time I attempt it to slot the little plastic blades back into the spinning disc.

Sebastian's Voodoo

Great animated short about a Voodoo doll who tries to save his friends from getting pinned.

Walking in a Geordie Wonderland?

Before I start let's make on thing clear, I'm not a fan of Newcastle United, I'm a Gunner. Anyhow, carrying on...

This season has been a bit of a pantomime for the Toon Army, what with their seemingly clueless owner, Keegan walking out, Kinnear needing heart surgery and Houghton and Calderwood working as a team (and the least said about Calderwood from a man who's place of birth is Nottingham the better), now it seems that Alan Shearer has finally given into demands and seem's set to become the next manager of Newcastle United.

There's a lot of fuss, especially from those passionate about the club, and talk of him being a Geordie God (much the same as when Keegan returned), but do they honestly believe that he's the answer to all of their problems? Sure his appointment will lift the fans' hearts, but I honestly don't think thats enough in the modern game. Watching Newcastle United play leaves you with the impression that certain members in the team just don't give a shit, either because they're happy just doing a days work and collecting their wage or because they can't cope with the pressure of playing for a team that has the fanbase Newcastle have or some other reason.

There's the exception of course, Martins always seems to be impressive and selling Given was a huge mistake, whilst if Owen started focusing on his general fitness rather than his horses he might not pick up so many injuries, actually play some games for the team and get Capello's attention, that's if he even cares about that anymore, the man just looks like a shadow of what we have seen from him before his move to Real Madrid.

So will Newcastle beat relegation? Probably yes, they're a better team than Stoke and I prefer watching them to Allardyce's Blackburn, but they do have a very difficult end of season ahead but I think they can scrape it, afterall only 3 points seperates them from 14th placed Sunderland.

2 months!

Wow, didn't realise it'd been two months since I last posted here.

As usual not alots gone on, just job hunting and I've taken up a spot of photography, although I'm only using a compact digital camera at the moment, it's a Pentax Optio A20. Not a bad camera but not the best thing for what I wanna do.

You'll find all of my pics on my Flickr page, here. I've also created a blog for video's I've captured in SKATE 2 from EA, which you can find here.

I've got an interview at the Job Centre tomorrow about Job Seeker's Allowance, it's also a means towards making finding a job a little easier in the crazy economical crisis we're all having, or at least I hope so anyway, 4 years out of the game is a bloody long time, especially for someone who has no qualifications above GCSE level.