Biking

I've just been watching the first two episodes on the Long Way Down set I got for Christmas. This is the one where Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman go from John O'Groats in Scotland, to Cape Town in South Africa, and something just struck a chord.

I really enjoyed their first trip, Long Way Round, which I watched on BBC2 and read the book to, and it got me itching to learn to ride a bike. However, this time, they talked more about "just going for a ride with my mates" kind of stuff and it really just made me want to learn to ride all the more, not just because its something I've always wanted to do, but also because my Dad's 60 now and still riding regularly (he owns a Suzuki GS500 2006 registration, I think, and a Norton Dominator 650NS or something that was reconstructed and originally dates back to the '60's).

He frequently goes on trips with his mates, taking the Dommi (as he calls it) if the weathers nice, or the Suzi when its wet, but hes never had a family member to go with as my Auntie has decided my Uncle is far too old to consider riding a bike (I think he's at least 5 years older than my Dad, not sure though). My brother's never really been too bothered about motor vehicles, he drives, but he see's them as more of a means of transport, where as I genuinely love them. I grew up on the circuit really, with many memories of my Dad taking myself and my younger sister to watch Motorcycle races, and I've sat in a fair few "nice" cars (a handful of Ferrari's and a Lamborghini Countach are the highest points) and sat on many racing bikes (including one of the bikes Kevin Schwantz rode during his World Championship winning season in, I think, 1994).

So, I've now got one thing in my list I want to do with my life for definate, and thats to go on a trip with my Dad. Even if its just to Matlock Bath just outside of Nottingham, which I've been to many times as a kid in a car, once on a drunken trip with some mates in a coach and once on the bike of my Dads previous Suzi which I really really enjoyed.

I know I can ride, to a degree, as I rode a 50cc Monkey Bike around a small dirt course when I was about 8, but that was a long long time ago no (I'm now 24) and it wasn't on the roads, plus it was only a Fifty. I'm not looking at anything big, but it'll still be expensive to do, and its weighing that dream against the practicality of learning to drive a car (something both Missus and I want to do), which in reality, should come first. My Dad's always tried to make me believe that he doesn't want any of us to learn to ride because of the dangers, but I still remember the pride on his face when he saw me on that fifty and really enjoying myself and can imagine how much he'd love to just go for a ride with his son, with my family and my Step Mum in a car behind so it can be a family thing too, and I'm just scared that, considering his age, that I won't get to do that with him even though, as far as I'm aware anyhow, he's in good health and not looking 60 years old at all.

Desktop update #3

I know I only changed it about a week ago, but found this one today after watching The Dark Knight for the first time last night. I'll go into my impressions of that tomorrow as its getting rather late now (waiting for Missus to finish what she's doing on Hatchlings on Facebook...)

Anyhow, this is what I'm using at the moment.

Colossi?

Found this via StumbleUpon, which makes a change from all the pornographic material that pops up whenever I click the little button on my browser. Now I like that kind of thing as much as the next guy, but sometimes it happens far too much...

Anyhow, I really like it when something like this piece of art pops up.



Makes me want to play Shadow of the Colossus on PS2

Pictures from Christmas

Heres a bunch of pics taken over the Christmas period.

First up are pics of our town centre's lights, these aren't all of them, just the ones that showed up best in the pics.







Next up are the only shots that didn't blur from Sprog's first Christmas show, she played a star and sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, unfortunately we didn't arrive as early as most of the other parents so ended up at the back.




Some pics of the carousel that was in town for the Christmas Market, Sprog and I are in a couple of these. We went on this after she finished school on her final day before the Christmas break and we'd taken her to see Santa, unfortunately not got a picture of her with Santa on the computer as they now only let you have a picture from the professional photographer. We got one, but as I've mentioned in a previous post, our scanner is now a glorified photocopier.

The visit to Santa was rather funny though, when asked what she wanted for Christmas, Sprog simply replied with "presents". Santa tried to get more information from her and she pointed to the sacks of wrapped gifts he had by his side and said "Those ones", the photographer found one that was labeled for her age group and put it on the false mantelpiece, and when pressed for more information again, she ended up describing the wrapping paper of the present that was set aside for her.

Still it was more succesful than previous years. Her first two visits involved screaming and or crying, whilst her previous two visits resulted in her standing nervously next to the big man and refusing to talk to him. Luckily we'd already picked her presents, which were already wrapped and hiding away in our bedroom.






Lastly, are photo's of Sprog opening up her gifts.













Lastly, before we headed off to bed on Christmas Eve, we had some wierd powder stuff that you add water to and it makes fake snow, so we put false footprints coming from the back door right upto the Christmas Tree and told Sprog about the "Magic Key" Santa has for house that don't have a chimney, and said the best place for him to park the reindeer was in the alleyway out the back which is why the lights don't work out there (obviously, that has more to do with hooligans than anything else). This is how it looked:




You can see our two dogs in that pic, the black one in the background is Jet, she's a crossbreed of near on everything, Mimi, the one closest to the camera is a Spaniel/Beagle cross who's parents were registered with the Kennel Club.

Merry Christmas and all that!

How was your Christmas? Ours was nice and quiet and the three of us came away pretty much happy with what we received, hell even the dogs seemed to be happy and weren't fighting amongst themselves. Which was nice considering in recent weeks they've spent the evenings growling at each other and starting mini fights over nothing whatsoever.

I've been looking into modifying the appearance of Floyddseuss, although its difficult to find a decent guide on how to piece everything together and its been a while since I've edited any HTML or CSS in any form, and considering the time of night, plus it's still a school holiday, I really can't get into the frame of mind to be able to concentrate on something creative that involves more brain cells than the Workshop on Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

So I've just stuck to playing with some fonts for the time being in order to find one with which to base the design of the template on, but I can't decide between the following three fonts.





Mind you, in retrospect, I quite like the last one.

Speaking of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, I recieved it from Missus and Sprog as one of my Christmas gifts and I'm really really enjoying it. It makes a nice change from all the shooting and racing that many XBox 360 games involve, and also means I can play it whilst Sprog is around, or even hand her a pad and let her pretend she's joining in.

We often do this together, sometimes, if the game permits two players and isn't too complicated she'll join in properly for a while. It enables me to experience some of the games that arrive through the post for me to write about on bitparade, whilst not neglecting the fact that one of my duties (and privelages) as a father is to entertain my child. Although her now being at full-time school has made getting gaming time in much much easier, but I also have to balance that with job searching, something thats becoming increasingly difficult in the current climate, especially when you take into consideration my lack of references because I've been the "stay at home" parent whilst Missus studies and works towards becoming a Nurse.

It's difficult for all of us really, but as I always remind her when Missus thinks things are getting too hard, its a means to an end, it'll take a while longer (she qualifies in two years time), but it'll make life better for us all and I've just gotta get my foot back on the ladder in any job (although I've ruled catering out because I know I wouldn't be able to stomach it).

Anyhow, back to Christmas, my gifts this year were:

Missus and Sprog:- VW Campervan model kit, VW Campervan mug, "My Dad Wished He Had One Of Those", Big Book of Top Gear, a Venus Fly Trap, The Long Way Down, Feeder - The Singles, Muse - Black Holes & Revelations, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts,a Nightmare Before Christmas Mug and a Light Sabre key ring.

Dad and Step Mum:- A Doctor Who T-Shirt and another one of those Camper Van kits mentioned above.

Mum and her bloke:- Smellies

Older Sister, her bloke and her two daughters: - The Dark Knight

So, not a bad haul for me really!

Christmas Eve!

Wow, that was easy! Sprog went to bed with no trouble whatsoever. Mind you, she did go over an hour later than normal...

Everythings done and out of the way too, Mince Pies are made, as are Cookies (Missus keeping Sprog entertained there) All the presents are under the tree, minus all the chocolate ones because of the dogs, there in the kitchen, as are the dogs presents. The Rats have had new hammocks made and Missus has strung freshly popped (plain) popcorn across their cages, and I'm happily drinking HobGoblin that was left out for Santa.



All that is left to do is hang Sprog's stocking on the back of her bedroom door to enable to have an extra five minutes in bed in the morning and its time for Missus and I to see in Christmas Day in our usual way.

Tomorrow will be less stressful for us than today has been, we're at Missus' Grandads, he'll pretty much have dinner all prepared and cooking away slowly when we arrive, she'll help dishing up and Sprog's Uncle will keep her entertained, that or she'll be in the garden on her new scooter.

I'm looking forward to it more than I have previous Christmases, which haven't been the most fun in recent years, however, there shouldn't be any problems this year and the three of us have a nice number of gifts each (of course, Sprog's outweigh ours by about 10:1). So all thats left is for me to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

The Devil in disguise...

We do alot of charity shop shopping, its great for picking up cheap books and Missus likes getting old material (usually bed spreads) from them in order to make into various things such as hammocks for her Fancy Rats. So whenever we're in town we pop into a few different charity shops, take a look and normally end up buying something, very rarely spending anything more than £5.

So yesterday we popped into Shelter, and Missus picked some material, Sprog was with us and she, as kids always do in shops, wanted a toy. She picked up a Firby, I began to cry inside, bought we bought it anyway, it only cost a £1 and it'll keep us happy.



Unfortunately I seem to be having a spell of bad headaches that won't shift just recently, so despite the fact she's had Coco (what the Firby has named itself) for less than 24 hours, I feel like throwing her (Sprog has stated its a girl) in the bin. Still, the person who had it before obviously took good care of it as its not really rude (Missus had one as a kid, her brothers taught it to swear) and has provided a couple of humourous moments, such as it burping whilst Sprog was having some supper before bed last night.

Ahwell, its Christmas Day tomorrow, so with all the stuff she's got waiting to open, maybe Coco will stay in her room like her other noisey toys. At least Mimi (one of our dogs) will be happy then as she seems to hate (or is at least scared) of it.

Audi design concept car, inspired by WipeOut much?

So, once again, using StumbleUpon, I come across this car:



And I couldn't help but think it looks a hell of alot like this:



The above is a piece of artwork depicting the vehicles in the futuristic racing game, WipeOut (need I say, WipeOut Pulse is an excellent game that anyone with a PSP should own). The person designed the Audi concept car in the first pic (this guy calls himself Tibor) claims the design was inspired by the shape of the bone of a cuttlefish (you can see this could be true in the picture below), however I think the guy's (or gal's) been playing a bit too much of SCE Studio Liverpool's (formerly Psygnosis) most famous series.

Desktop Update #2

So I've changed my desktop wallpaper again, this is from a random website I found via StumbleUpon.

Ready to doodle do!

I've always loved drawing, I've never been all that good, and I've never found a particular style I'm strong at, but nevertheless, I've always enjoyed doing it. However, in recent years its something I've really struggled to do, whether its just getting in the mood to do so or just being happy with anything I've done, usually I look at a piece of work before I've even got half way through and just felt unhappy about it.

However, I've achieved a quick doodle (mind you, I never spend long on any particular piece) that I'm quite happy with and I'm thinking of tackling the subject even further throughout the sketchbook its in. I guess I'm setting myself a New Years Resolution a few days early to try and get back into my drawing again.

Cerificate!

After spending a few hours in town, some of which was spent being all Solid Snake like, peering round corners after almost running into someone Missus and I don't want to run into in New Look and then again on our way to Wilkinson's, we went and fetched Sprog from school.

In her bag was a certificate for "special mention in an assembly", the reason for her receiving this (and a sticker from the head teacher), was a model she had made, I assume this was some tissue paper flowers she'd crafted, which were rather good. Anyhow, upon getting home, we took some pictures of her with the certificate. However these didn't turn out as expected.





As far as I'm aware, our house isn't haunted, nor has anyone managed to sneak up behind her on that last pic.

EPIC FIGHT: Monkey V Robot

Plenty of fish in the sea?

You all know the phrase "There's plenty more fish in the sea" right? You know the one, someone always says it when you've had a break-up. Well here's a twist on things that you might not expect:

SergioThree: there's other fish in the sea, man, she's just a girl
Beatsfromkorea: no dude, that's bullshit.
Beatsfromkorea: Think of it this way. if your precious copy of street fighter third strike broke and i told you "it's ok man, there's other games in the sea. here, play mortal kombat instead" what would you say? you'd be like, "fuck that, gimme third strike."
SergioThree: ...
SergioThree: you just reached me on a level that i never thought possible

Good eh?

Found this via StumbleUpon

What a comeback!

I'll admit it, I'm a fair weather Football Manager addict, I'll play it and play it for about a fortnight, then I'll stop, then I'll go back maybe five or six weeks later.

Anyhow I recently went back to it, I remembered having a save file where I was the manager of Swansea City, I'd just got them relegated from League 1 (This is Football Manager 2007) but had somehow kept my job. I've had an amazing start to the season, but nothing so far (I'm currently at the start of December 07) has topped earning a replay against Blackpool in the second round of the FA Cup, these guys are in League 1, and admittedly, they're struggling there, but at 2-0 down before the match has hit the hour mark I wasn't expecting this:




Considering Kandol is one of two first choice strikers, and Trundell is my other and also injured, and also that Lester hasn't been as successful as I hoped he would, that really is a fantastic result for "my boys". Every League game, I enter it expecting something, and am disappointed with a draw, however, I have never done well in cups on any FM game, so to be pulling off results against teams that are odds on to beat me is an absolutely fantastic feeling.

Desktop update

I'll try and do this everytime I change the background on my Desktop. OK so its not majorly interesting, but I usually try and find something cool or whatever whenever I do change it.



As you can see, its kind of zombie related. I'm not one of those who are absolutely mad on all things zombies, but I do enjoy a good zombie flick and quite liked the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. With this in mind, I want to play Left 4 Dead, but considering its only really built for online play, I can't justify its price tag and by the time it comes down in price, the XBox Live community will have moved onto something newer, probably.

I'm sooo good at this blogging malarky!

Yup, after another lengthy break (ha! over a year!) I've remembered this existed and have come back.

So whats happened in the past year?

Stuff thats what. My little girl is now in full time education, and loving it! My missus is a Student Nurse proper, and is mostly loving it! and I'm trying to find a job, with not alot of luck to be honest.

We're in the build up to Christmas, and its feeling rather Christmasey for the first time in a long time, probably because the sprog is properly getting into it this year. She's had her Christmas party, play and fayre at school, she's visited Santa and we've been trying to hide all the presents around the house with, so far at least, quite a bit of success. The closest call so far has been a parcel arriving from my Dad at the weekend, she saw the big box, asked what it was and settled for the answer "nothing for you" and carried on doing whatever it was she was doing at the time.

We spent Halloween at Gulliver's Kingdom in Milton Keynes with my Dad, Step Mum, older Sister, her bloke and my two nieces, and despite the appauling weather, a good time was had by all.