Floyddseuss

Sprog issues and more videogames

2009-04-27T18:27:00.009Z

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...

2009-04-25T11:44:00.003Z

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.

2009-04-24T16:51:00.002Z

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...

2009-04-24T11:02:00.004Z

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

2009-04-07T11:44:00.001Z

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

Walking in a Geordie Wonderland?

2009-04-01T15:35:00.004Z

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!

2009-03-16T11:50:00.003Z

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.

Me cook? OK I'll try

2009-01-22T16:54:00.003Z

So the missus has been doing twelve hours shifts this week. This means she's hardly seeing our daughter and I'm having to cook, something that is usually left to her because, well, because she's good at it, where as I'm not confident.

I decided to try my hand at a stew, I figured it was pretty much prepare everything and chuck it in a pot on the hob and leave till its cooked, obviously stirring every so often. We do have a slow cooker, but it doesn't seem to thicken too well in there.

So anyhow, the stew turned out fairly well in the end (this was Tuesday evening), good enough for Missus to request I make another tonight, well, maybe she didn't want me to try my hand at making a curry just yet...

So here's what I did

440g diced beef (although substituted for diced pork tonight as the supermarket had no beef left)
2 medium carrots
3 large potatoes
1 parsnip
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
500ml of beef stock
400ml of chopped tomatoes
220ml of Guinness Draught
salt, pepper and herbs depending on your taste.

I cut all the carrots, parsnips and potatoes up into small chunks and chucked them straight in the pot.

Make a small mix of plain flour, pepper, herbs and salt then lightly covered the cubes of beef/pork in it.

Shallow fried in olive oil the beef/pork until it was slightly brown, then fried the onion and garlic alongside the meat until the onions were slightly soft, and chucked them in the pot.

Added the tin of chopped tomatoes, Guinness and Beef Stock and left on a low light for 2 and a half to 3 hours, or until I was satisfied with its thickness.

I then served it inside a large Yorkshire Pudding each (I cheated her and used Aunt Bessy frozen ones) with a chunk of French Baguette for dipping.

Admittedly on Tuesday, I burnt it a bit so some of the taste was lost,I was trying to find a heat on the stove that would cook it in time for Missus getting home, but ended up partially rushing it a little too much, luckily it was still edible, but as I stated earlier in this post, it must of been nice enough for her to ask for it again (either that or she was trying not to hurt my feelings), I enjoyed cooking and eating it anyway, which is a rarity as usually cooking seems to put me off my food. I even managed to cut and cook the onions without being blinded (I cannot cope at all with the stingy eyes onions give me).

"I'm a horsey"

2009-01-15T14:35:00.001Z

Children's imagination's make me laugh. After waking Sprog up this morning, she insisted on bringing some of her My Little Pony's down for breakfast before I took her to school, this was fine, its normal for her to do this, although I wasn't expecing a whole rucksack full of ponies.

So anyhow, after saying goodbye to them, and goodbye to her mother who had only just returned from work, we headed off to school, which is about 10-15 minutes walk away. Immediately she shouted out "I'm a horsey" and proceeded to half skip, thus creating a sort of trotting motion, down the drive and this continued all the way to the school, even when I was holding her hand she'd be doing this. If she saw another child from her class, or the class next door (who are in the same "year" as her) she would shout "Neigh" at them.

When we arrived at school, she also decided to declare to her teacher that she was a horse before trotting and neighing through the door to take off her coat...

2009-01-13T23:30:00.007Z

After spending so long surrounded by videogames as my main source of entertainment medium, I decided it was about time I branched out again and started enjoying movies more. This has resulted in weekly visits to Blockbuster and keeping an eye on a few movie trailers. I'll get to some short blurb about the films I've seen recently (or at least the ones I remember...) in a post tomorrow as I've had a couple of drinks this evening and just want to get off to bed and play some Persona 3 whilst Missus is on her night shift (9pm till 7am poor woman...).

But for now, I'll just post a bunch of trailers for films I'm liking the look of that are due out this year.

First up is Franklin, which I've linked to the trailer for as the embedded video wouldn't fit onto the blog...

Which looks wonderfully dark, oppressive and just down right fascinating.

Then there's 9, a film that started off life as a animated short that the great Tim Burton has put his name to as Producer in order to bring a longer version to the big screen. Admittedly, I've not seen the short (thats for tomorrow) but I think you'll agree that this looks like the sort of thing Burton would put his name to.

There's also Coraline, by the director of one of my favourite films The Nightmare Before Christmas, Henry Sellick (Tim Burton was the producer of it), it has a sort of Psychonauts (a videogame by Tim Schafer's studio Double Fine, its available on PS2 and XBox, aswell as PC, infact you can play it for free on PC via GameTap).

Coraline Trailer - For more amazing video clips, click here

Next up, Valkyrie. Now I'm not really bothered about most films with Tom Cruise in, Top Gun's alright but would of worked just aswell without him, Rain Man was excellent but that was mainly down to Dustin Hoffman rather than Cruise and I quite enjoyed Steven Speilberg's adaptation of The War of the Worlds despite going into it not wanting to do so, but the fact that this is based (probably very loosely knowing Hollywood blockbusters) on the true story of a group of German soldiers who plotted to assassinate Adolf Hitler and those in ranks immediately below him makes it utterly fascinating.

Valkyrie - Trailer - Click here for funny video clips

Lastly, this is the big one for me, I only read Alan Moore's graphic novel towards the end of last year after Warner Bros. sent me a copy when I recieved review code for LEGO Batman on XBox 360, but I thoroughly enjoyed Watchmen and am now really looking forward to seeing what is done with the movie, thats if Fox let Warner Bros release it...

Watchmen Trailer - More amazing videos are a click away

Oh what a night...

2009-01-11T15:04:00.004Z

Had barely any sleep last night, and there's only one reason for it. Missus was ill, really rather ill. Unsurprising really, she's developed an intolerance to fast food, which is great, kind of.

So anyway, last night she was watching Casualty, we'd been out in town during the day and had paid a visit to Pizza Hut. She had a Salmon Pasta Bake thing and a couple of slices of my pizza, plus a small bowl of salad from the salad bar (she hadn't had any breakfast, so yeah, she was starving). Around the time Casualty started we were both getting hungry again, Sprog had had her tea (after eating a rather large Chicken Wrap meal and salad she just wanted some sandwiches...) and was in bed asleep. There was nothing in the freezer that I had the ability to cook and Missus was resting her feet after doing a group of 12 hour shifts at the hospital during the week. So, I thought "hmm baked potato from the 'Baked Potato Shop'" which was all well and good if their last delivery time was 9pm but they'd taken the phone off the hook at 8:30pm leaving us with the choice of going hungry, me running out in the cold to Sainsbury's to find something to cook, which would of left us eating some time after 10pm or phoning Andreas Takeaway for a a burger and kebab (she had the latter).

Unfortunately, Missus' stomach deciced that, whilst watching the second Death Note movie, that it wasn't too happy with what she'd eaten, and she spent half the night sat on the toilet with her head in a bucket. When that wasn't happening, she was trying to sleep whilst having an emergency bowl at close hand, right in the gap between our heads, so I spent half the night awake in fear that I would be thrown up on. Luvvly Jubbly.

Suppose it serves us right for going down that route and wasting money on crap food...

Looking forward to tonights Bangers N Mash with Guinness Gravy (and yes, thats gravy with guinness draught in)

The new Doctor

2009-01-04T12:05:00.003Z

So yesterday the BBC announced who will be replacing David Tennant as the Doctor in Doctor Who when his "reign" (so to speak) is over near the end of 2009.

All sorts of names were banded about, as you'd expect, and none of them stood out to me, one in particular left me stating that if they chose him (Hugh Grant), I would refuse to watch the show ever again (as I assume many right thinking people would) as I cannot stand the pompous git. However, the producers of the show have gone for a guy who is set to become the youngest ever Doctor on the show, a guy called Matt Smith, whom I have no opinion on whatsoever as I've not seen anything (to my knowledge) with him in.

However, from the short interview he gave on Doctor Who Confidential last night, he seems to know what is expected of him and the producers and writers seem to be looking forward to working with him, so thats a very positive point. He also seemed incredibly enthusiastic about the role, which is also a good sign.

Heres his Wikipedia page if you're interested in having a look at what he's done.

Unsuprisingly, some have stated their opinion that he's going to ruin the show etc etc, and I can't really comment on that for reasons I've stated above, where as if it had of been Grant (which the bookies were classing as an outside bet) we'd of known that the Doctor would of been a bumbling, yet some how arrogant, twit with an accent that has become the stereotype British accent, even though its far more forced than that of the Royal family.

So good luck to Matt Smith as the new Doctor, good luck to Steven Moffat as the new head writer of the show and I look forward to seeing what will be done in 2010. In the mean time, I can't wait for Tennants final four episodes that are to be dotted throughout the year, he's been an excellent watch during his time as the Doctor!

Biking

2008-12-31T01:29:00.003Z

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

2008-12-30T01:30:00.004Z

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?

2008-12-30T01:09:00.003Z

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

2008-12-29T23:31:00.008Z

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!

2008-12-27T23:08:00.006Z

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!

2008-12-24T21:21:00.004Z

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...

2008-12-24T09:44:00.002Z

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?

2008-12-23T21:27:00.004Z

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

2008-12-23T21:00:00.003Z

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

Ready to doodle do!

2008-12-23T20:51:00.002Z

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!

2008-12-18T18:45:00.005Z

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

2008-12-17T22:34:00.002Z

Plenty of fish in the sea?

2008-12-17T22:04:00.001Z

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!

2008-12-17T21:10:00.004Z

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

2008-12-17T20:46:00.003Z

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!

2008-12-17T20:30:00.003Z

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.

Wow, such a long time!

2007-09-28T14:04:00.000Z

So then, its been a while since I even logged into this place!

Why? Well, I don't really know why to be honest, but I'm gonna try and pick up where I left off.

So, this first new post is gonna be more of a "What have I been upto" type post.

Well, basically, I've been trying to get bitparade off of the ground since February time (I think) but not having a whole lot of success. We have some ideas in the works though, but they're on hold until Mark returns, he's currently moving house and getting internets back as he has a new job.

I recently appeared on the Radio Ninty podcast. Basically I was there to show some support to SEGA, although the sound quality from my headset wasn't too great. The microphone arm is bendy y'see and the slightest touch on it knocks it out of place it seems, so it sounds like I was talking with the mic inside my mouth. You can listen to it by clicking hereor by visiting Radio Ninty's Filefront page here.

Other than that, I've been playing a whole host of games, I now own a 360, PSP and DS Lite, and am currently playing the hell out of Halo 3. My little girl has just started Pre-School, while my fiance has started a Diploma in Nursing which will take 3 years.

My friend from my school days, Steven, came over the other week, we drank a fair bit of cider (for me anyhow) although we didn't really get drunk. The 360 seemed to be broke so we ended up playing LEGO Star Wars II for part of the night, and a bit of We Love Katamari. I figured out what was wrong with the 360 after he'd gone the following day, I'd accidently nudged the button on the SV cable to HDTV (I only have an SDTV).

We also went to Blackpool for the week back in July, I'll post the pictures up in a little while. Other than that though, its been pretty much games playing and running around after the sprogling since my previous post.

Ferrari 275GTB through the streets of Paris

2006-12-27T16:38:00.000Z

On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive him at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris. The film was limited for technical reasons to 10 minutes; the course was from Porte Dauphine, through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur.

No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit.

The driver completed the course in about 9 minutes, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The footage reveals him running real red lights, nearly hitting real pedestrians, and driving the wrong way up real one-way streets.

Pope Benedict and Emperor Palpatine the same guy?

2006-12-26T23:14:00.000Z

This picture of Pope Benedict at this years midnight mass make me think of Emperor Palpatine, and I can actually picture him saying "Riiiiiiiiiiiiise Lord Vader".

Heres the picture to show you what I mean, plus a pic of Palpatine for comparison.

i'm also aware this is an old joke, but I still found the similarities incredibly striking. Also, I'd like to apologise in advance for any offence this post may cause.

How to get Police attention...

2006-12-26T22:17:00.000Z

Image was taken down so, heres what it said:

"Going to be the other night, I noticed people in my shed stealing things.

I phoned the police but was told no one was in the area to help. They said they would send someone as soon as possible.

I hung up. A minute later I rang again. "Hello," I said, I called you a minute ago because there were people in my shed. You don't have to hurry now, because I've shot them."

Within minutes there were half a dozen police cars in the area, plus helicopters and an armed response unit. They caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the officers said: "I thought you said you'd shot them."

To which I replied: "I thought you said there was no one available."

TONY GLADSTONE"

I love things like this, although I'm not sure if this is fake or not...

I would also say "only in America!" but the website url is an Australian website, so maybe not. Over here, they wouldn't even turn up if you could prove that you were holding them hostage by gunpoint, the police would be too fucking busy parked up on double yellow lines while they stuffed their faces in McDonalds.

Amazing machine

2006-12-24T12:14:00.000Z

I randomly found this on a french site called Daily Motion, it shows a machine playing a cracking little tune. I assumeit works on great timing and some sort of wind power to shoot little balls out of the holes for them to strike whatever it is that creates each noise. Anyway, enougb of my waffling, heres the vid.

FantasticMachine
Uploaded by olivier66

Reminds me a bit of this Honda Advert:

Just goes to show, even engineering is an art form!

GamesTM Issue 51 & 52 Scores.

2006-12-21T15:03:00.000Z

Issue 51:

Gears of War - 10 (X360)
GuildWars Nightfall - 8 (PC)
GTA: Vice City Stories - 8 (PSP)
Sonic The Hedgehog - 5 (X360)
Wii Sports - 6 (Wii)
Medieval 2: Total War - 8 (PC)
Red Steel - 5 (Wii)
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - 7 (PC)
Guitar Hero 2 - 9 (PS2)
F.E.A.R. - 8 (X360)
Zelda: Twilight Princess - 9 (Wii)
Call of Duty 3 - 8 (X360)
Lumines 2 - 8 (PSP)
Rainbow Six Vegas - 9 (X360)
Gunpey Reverse - 8 (NDS)
Need For Speed Carbon - 7 (X360)
Phantasy Star Universe - 4 (X360)
Tony Hawks Project 8 - 8 (X360)
Pathologic - 8 (PC)
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz - 7 (Wii)
Wii Play - 3 (Wii)
Mario vs Donkey Kong 2 - 7 (NDS)
Tingles Freshly Picked Rose Colored Rupee Land - 6 (NDS)
Crusty Demons - 3 (PS2)
World Championship Darts - 7 (PS2)

Issue 52:

Lost Planet - 8 (X360)
Trauma Center: SD - 7 (Wii)
Phoenix Wright: AA - JFA - 7 (NDS)
Viva Pinata - 8 (X360)
Call of Duty - 6 (Wii)
Medal of Honor: Heroes - 7 (PSP)
Resistance - 6 (PS3)
Neverwinter Nights 2 - 7 (PC)
Sonic Rivals - 6 (PSP)
Thrillville - 6 (PS2)
Touch Detective - 5 (NDS)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire - 2 (PS3)
Yoshi Island 2 - 8 (NDS)
Rayman: Raving Rabbids - 7 (Wii)
Ridge Racer 7 - 7 (PS3)
Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball 2 - 5 (X360)
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves - 7 (Wii)
Sid Meier's: Railroads! - 8 (PC)
Tony Hawks: Down hill Jam - 7 (NDS)
Elite Beat Agents - 8 (NDS)
Star Wars: Lethal Alliance - 4 (NDS)
Rafa Tennis - 5 (NDS)

ToyFare Mario

2006-12-21T10:21:00.000Z

About ToyFare comics: (From Wikipedia)

"ToyFare is a monthly comedy and collecting magazine published by Wizard Entertainment that focuses on collectible action figures, busts, statues, and maquettes. It previews new and upcoming lines and figures each month, as well as providing a price guide for hundreds of different toy lines, new and old. ToyFare is also known for its satiric humor, which can be found on almost every page."

Sonic The Hedgehog :- The Movie

2006-12-21T10:17:00.000Z

Yes its a fake, but still, I don't think it could be half as bad as Super Mario Bros. was, for a start, this would have Keanu Reeves and Steve Buscemi in, also Danny Devitto was pretty good in Batman Returns, but the less said about Diesel Engined Van the better.

Blogger BETA = infuriating!!!

2006-12-19T22:22:00.000Z

ARGH, every so often, I type something I think is well written and interesting to read, click "Publish" only for this damn software to pop up with an error message stating that "Posts can be no more than 200 characters".

Yet I know for a fact it canb be longer! The blog about IGN's Zelda guides is 1019 characters before any sort of html code was inserted (the html being the links at the bottom of the post).

I found the character count out thanks to this website.

Bye Bye Gamecube, VG Cats Stylee!!!!!

2006-12-19T22:04:00.000Z

VG Cats have done it, they've killed off the Gamecube, and they've done it in their normal funny fashion. Anyone who loved the Gamecube should check out their latest comic. Just cick the link up top.

Lazy Arsed IGN staff...

2006-12-19T21:24:00.000Z

OK, Gaming post time again.

I've been playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on Gamecube all weekend, and I'm loving it. Anyway, I'm on a flaming bridge and I'm not sure how to get past it, so I check t'internet for a guide, and choose IGN's own walkthrough as it has a pretty decent menu system.

While scrolling through to the bit I'm on, I noticed a place name screenshot, and noticed it had been mirrored, so I checked another with the controls tab on and thats been mirrored too.

It seems, rather than take actual screenshots of the Gamecube version of the game, they've just flipped the Wii shots (for those that don't know, the Wii version is a mirror image of the Gamecube one, the Gamecube one being the original as it was in production first, plus in it Link is left-handed like he is in every other Zelda game) and then during the descriptions swapped the words East and West, Left and Right round in order for them to fit in properly with the Gamecube version, this is fine, but the screenshots just stink of lazy journalism.

Heres both guides for you:

Gamecub e | Wii

Pilot see's plane take off without him.

2006-12-18T12:07:00.000Z

From Ananova:

"A pilot watched in horror as his plane took off without him.

The airman, 70, saw it soar into the sky and do a loop before crashing, reports the Mirror.

The unnamed pilot had clung on to the wing to prevent it taking off at Barton Aerodrome, near Manchester, but lost his grip and fell off.

The drama began when the engine of the single-seater Luton LA4A cut out while the plane taxied.

The pilot left the cockpit to restart the motor manually but accidentally nudged the throttle lever open.

When he spun the propeller the engine roared into life and the plane surged down the runaway leaving the flyer stranded.

The plane was severely damaged but the pilot escaped with cuts and bruises.

An Air Accidents Investigation Branch investigation said the pilot did not realise he had knocked the throttle on because he was wearing padded clothing.

The plane is registered to Stephen Smith of Lancaster but he is not believed to have been the pilot.

A Barton Aerodrome spokesman declined to comment."

This is something you'd see in an old 70s British Comedy or something, well, minus the scantily clad women, ala Benny Hill or Carry On. I really wish there was video footage!

Mac & Cheese

2006-12-15T09:22:00.000Z

Since having Sky installed about 6 weeks ago (I think) I've become a big fan of Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. I have a Desktop Wallpaper with Mac and Bloo on, and my AIM/MSN Icons both have Bloo on, I also tell everyone I can about it.

So for those that haven't watched it, heres an episode from Youtube that was split into 3, this episode introduces us to Cheese, I wont say anymore as it spoils the fun, needless to say, Bloo and Cheese are my favourite two characters.

Foster's Home For Imaginary Friend's is on Cartoon Network at 9am on weekdays and then brand new episodes air at 4:30pm on weekdays.

I want!

2006-12-14T16:28:00.000Z

Wow, I so want one of these trucks. Its so much better than my house, which to be fair is a housing association terraced in a nice neighbourhood, but look at this thing! It's so god damn cool, it even has a quad-bike! And that seating area looks oh so comforable.

If I were in a big rock band (which I'm obviously not, although Guitar Hero helps me dream) I'd rather have one of these than a proper Tour Bus, it can go off-road!

If you've got money to burn, I've no idea how much it costs, but its called EX70-HD / MAN TGA 6x6, try ordering that over the phone, and while you're at it, buy me one.

View here.

Wii works with candles...

2006-12-14T15:54:00.000Z

Yup, sorry, another gaming post, but this is rather cool.

If I'm understanding how this works, basically the sensor bar emits infrared light via its LED's and the remote picks up on this light to calculate placement and what have you. The candles are simply replacing the sensor bar's LED's.

Would love to try this out, I'm yet to buy a Wii, Moneys a bit of an issue with most things now days, I'll get one eventually though.

Nintendo should release a Limited Edition package without the sensor bar and with a box of exclusive "Wii" candles and a lighter.

Media ruining kids vocab skills?

2006-12-14T10:48:00.000Z

I'm trying not to turn this into a gaming blog, I really am, hence the title of this piece... anyway.

Professor Tony McEnery of Lancaster University has been conducting research into the vocabulary skils of the population of Britain. His research reveals, that todays teenagers don't know as many words as todays 25-34 year-old. no disrespect to the guy but, no shit Sherlock. According to the research teenagers have a word count of just over 12,600 words compared to the 21,400 words used by the average 25-34 year-old. With the most common word sequences being "But no" and "No but".

According to Prof. McEnery "Technology Isolation Syndrome" is to blame, an "illness" so new that a Google and Wikipedia search for it brings up no results. He claioms that kids these days spend too long in their own little worlds, aided by the use of MP3 players and videogames. This, to me, is completely idiotic. Why? because for one, before MP3 players, there were Personal CD players, before that there were cassette based walkmans and before that, portable radio's yet they haven't "affected" teenagers in the manner todays entertainment technology is reportedly doing so, like wise with videogames, last months outcry about Canis Canem Edit (Bully for those that aren't aware of the name change) was completely unfounded, especially as at a younger age I was playing Splatterhouse and Mortal Kombat on a friends Mega Drive. Hell, if this "TIS" is aided by the use of head/earphones, then thats completely unfounded, I've not seen a single teenager around my way who uses such devices, instead they use the MP3 playback on their phones to blast it out of the phones speaker.

I'm not going to point the finger at anything in particular, and I'm not saying that his research is complete rubbish, it does hold some truths, but theres more to todays societies ills than mainstream media.

Read more about it here.

Rabbids invade Paris!

2006-12-14T09:06:00.000Z

My friend Kitsune is going to be happy about this, he's currently mad for all things "Rabbids".

Anyway, to my point, while just randomly browsing various websites this morning I came across YouNEWB.com who had a story about a "Street Team" going round Paris and sticking big stickers of the Rabbids from the latest Rayman game onto random things.

Here are a few of my faves:

I'm yet to get Rayman Raving Rabbids, mainly because it looks so good on Wii that its probably pointless and inferior on PlayStation 2, and I'm yet to buy a Wii.

YouNEWB post
Flikr Album

Him the man, Him the Spider-man!

2006-12-14T08:56:00.000Z

Cool little flash game for you, pretty simple all it requires is timely mouse clicks. Basically you have to see how far you can get without falling off the screen by firing off the strings connected to the guys hands. Its extremely addictive and easy to just pick up and play.

Be warned though, those strings can't extend forever.

Double Wires

Gamercakes...

2006-12-14T07:54:00.000Z

Cakes great stuff, and as a gamer you'd think I'd love nothing more than a giant cake with a gaming theme. Well, this morning I'm bitter and feeling crappy so I'm going to say no, no I bloody wouldn't like a gamercake, I cant think of anything more sad to be honest, I'll just stick to having Alabama Chocolate Fudge Cake spank you very much.

Unless someone was kind enough to make a Dreamcast cake, a cake that looked like the "circular" Sonic on the cover of Sonic Adventure or the great looking Katamari cake that you can see on this website of the Top 10 Gamer Cakes.

And, just because I can, I'mm going to say the Guitar Hero cake (placed at No.10) really looks like their guests ate all the cake and then shat on the baking tray and a plate and tried to disguise it...

Bah!!!!

2006-12-14T02:00:00.000Z

I really could not think of a name, I already have several blogs on this account for various things. Most haven't been used in ages but I'm bored and this is just something I'll update as and when I can be arsed to be honest.

So what's this thing for? Whatever I feel like, one day I might retell a day out of my life (woo!) another day I might spend just posting stupid video's of idiotic people I found on YouTube, i.e. its a place of randomness, just like the title.

Where'd I get the title from? Well, I was listening to Nirvana at the time and Floydd the Barber popped into my head (despite me actually listening to In Utero at the time) and while searching for "funny blog names" on Google to get an idea, I saw a website mention that Dr.Seuss may have invented the blog. Which could be interesting, there you go, my first bit of randomness......