Reasons why I don't play online games

I have never tried online gaming for the following reasons:

• I buy and play cheaper older games and I'm not sure that networked play is still supported (e.g. Command & Conquer Gold Edition, SOCOM I, XIII)
• low bandwidth - 56K modem (worried in the past that playability would be so poor to be not worthwhile)
• setting up internet connection sharing, buying the right kind of cables and asking ISP for any information - the process is too painful
• privacy fears

SOCOM US Navy SEALS

Bargain time again - this time I bought a pre-owned version of this game with a head set earphone and microphone. I'll look a bit daft playing though as I'll probably not play the online version. See next post.

Contestant Sam

Her resilience after tongue lashings from various housemates has made me quite like Sam. I think she is probably my favourite now, although I do like Vanessa too but she's a bit too much of a gossipy bitch especially when she's with that Craig the wierdo bitch queen (who I would never get along with in real life because I can't stand bitching men).

DVD Decrypter RIP

It would seem that DVD Decrypter is no more. I must have been one the last people to discover it for the first time only a few weeks ago. A great program, its a great shame that its gone. Check the comments on the post for an alternative source. I shall continue using it.

PSP Pangs

I really want to pre-order a PSP. Even though I know there is no chance in hell of my family agreeing for me to have one. I still want one. I'm just a big kid. Am I being selfish? I don't drink or go out. Maybe I should go out more and enjoy the company of other men, drooling over young women in pubs.

Vote Anthony Out

I have taken a dislike to Anthony. He's quite unpleasant. He's so thick. I think he looks up to Maxwell, when he had a go at Science for throwing the bin at Maxwell (not that I think he did) I felt he was just labouring the point too hard - whose fucking argument was it anyway? Not his, that's for sure. He should have stuck his neck in. I want him OUT!!

More game bargains

It's been a few weeks since I bought Metroid Fusion for the Game Boy Advance. Which is a great game, by the way. So, I thought I owed myself the chance to pick up another bargain. I really fancy Advance Wars for GBA too, which I thought I might pick up pre-owned for a bargain. Unfortunately GBA games in general seem to hold most of their value, even when secondhand. So, I didn't feel a copy of Advance Wars with a beat-up old box wasn't really good enough value at the price. Instead I picked up a few more PS games:

• Time Crisis
• Spyro 2: gateway to glimmer
• Spider-man
• Medal of Honour Underground

All of which seem really great. The only thing is I don't have a GCon 45 light gun for Time Crisis and the game with the Dual Shock (digital only) controller just feels a bit strange. Oh well, I can't see my wife agreeing to the purchase of one.

DVD Ripping

I've been ripping some DVDs lately, using our new family workhorse PC. If you want to know how to do it I recommend looking for DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink information on the web. It's not hard to find.

Mary's Out!

So Mary's gone. Shame in a way, she got the other housemates on their toes. Nice to see a bit of character from Saskia as she spat a few unpleasant words out at Mary. I'm beginning to warm to Sam a bit, she's a horrible weak person but she is pleasant to look at (I'm so shallow!).
I think BB6 would be better if Mary had stayed and the awful Craig had got evicted. For someone with a hair salon he has shit hair: oh, and did I say he's an idiot?

Mary the witch

I was starting to warm a little towards Mary. But then she had her birthday party and was so excited by having a crap halloween-ish party (with accompanying crap music). I would have thought she would just have said it was all false but she seemed to think it was totally her. What kind of a witch is she?

Derren Brown - Home page

I'm looking forward to watching Derren Brown tonight. It's a special with celebrity guests and is on for over an hour.

PSP - Manual

PSP - Manuals are available here. Worth a read if you're thinking of buying a PSP (or just dreaming of it!).

Sony PSP Import in stock

Sony PSP Import Version is available from Firebox. Can't afford one but it would be lovely to have one.

PS2 Freedom

I'm not sure what this is about, but it might be worth visiting it from time to time and watching a few videophone diaries.

BB6 Underway

I do feel more inclined to watch BB6 now, after watching the housemates enter the house. Lesley and Saskia have caught my eye for obvious reasons but I'm sure my views will change as the personalities shakedown and come to the fore. Strategy-wise, the ones who usually remain are the ones who have a foothold in the various cliques. My prediction for a winner? I would say Sam at the moment (7/1 odds).

School uniform

Who was the sick fuck who dreamt up the traditional English soft porn of lady dressed in school uniform? What does that say about underage sex? I can't imagine who thinks it is sexy or why they could ever think that. English people of my generation are probably different to older generations. One of the reasons we don't progress as a race is what is passed down the generations. Evolution goes quite slow.

Big Brother 6

BB6 Starts tonight, we'll likely be watching it. I'm not very enthusuastic about it this year. Maybe after watching the start I'll feel differently. I've got some stocks on the contestants in BBCi's Celebdaq. I made quite a killing on my Michael Jackson shares.

More games

Bought some more games this week. Metroid Fusion for my GBA today. It's been a long while since I bought a GBA game. I picked up Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Rayman, Ace Combat 3 and Tekken 3 for PS recently. All great.

Domain Name

I purchased a personal domain name today. I'm setting up my other blog tool so that I can post to my personal webspace as a blog category. I am not sure what I'll do with this blog. I like it, so may well keep it for posts not going to my other blogs. Not that I've been very prolific this month.

No-Jogging this week

Feeling pretty bad because my jogging hasn't done too well lately, I stopped because I had developed a cold. Haven't really picked it up again. Must try tomorrow.

Celebdaq

I've signed up to have a go with BBC - Celebdaq - mainly at the request of my wife who is very excited by it. Be interesting to see how I do.

Eurovision 2005

Printed out the BBC Eurovision score card. Cooked a curry. Drank some beer. Scored the acts. Enjoyed the commentary. Watched the results come in with mounting disbelief. My top act was Switzerland who started well but sank halfway through. Greece won but I had them in joint second with France and Spain. Maldova did well on my sheet too, so did Latvia. A good evening's entertainment all in all. I think it gets better each year, I'm SO glad that Jordan didn't compete - she might have done better than Javine though! Eurovision website.

Barbara Streisand

Saw a lookalike for the young Barbara Streisand today. She just needed the puffy hat like in Funny Girl.

Still Jogging

Well, I'm still managing to jog nearly every morning its practical. Today, on my lap, there was a burned out van. Made it look like I was jogging through a warzone. That's life on da street for you.

Baggies to Glory

I am so pleased that West Bromwich Albion have not been relegated. Good on you, you Baggies!

Gran Turismo 2

My nearest shops for secondhand games are both crap. So I drive 30 mins for a better shop. I buy several games but the prat serving me puts the wrong game in the case. I get home and realise the error. The following week I take the game back and exchange it, arranged on phone. However, it turns out that disk 2 of 2 is missing. What a pisser! Am I never to get Syphon Filter 2, is it any good?

Pause Problem Resolved

I took the memory card out and the game no longer pauses. Perhaps Tomb Raider II would have worked? Oh well, I took the PS version back and bought the PC version instead.

PlayStation Pause Problem

I've bought a few more old PS games over the weekend. The list includes Die Hard Trilogy, Alien Trilogy, Dino Crisis, Duke Nukem: Time To Kill and Syphon Filter 2. Actually, that's all of them! I'm having an issue with Die Hard Trilogy though - when I start a new game the PAUSE function keeps launching, its maddeningly interrupting. I had the same thing with Tomb Raider II and after taking it back and exchanging twice gave up on it and swapped it for something else. Having the same thing happen with another game leads me to think there is something more consistently wrong. Is it the controller? Should I try with a non-dual shock controller?

Jogging

So far this week I've run about 14 miles, averaging about 3 miles per day. Glad I'm doing it early in the morning. Enjoying it so far, hard work though but my thighs are not so tired as they were when I started.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Listening to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath tonight, while washing up! I've heard it a zillion times and it still amazes me. Wonderful music.

Derren Brown Video Game

We do like Derren Brown in our house, went to see him live a few weeks ago and it was great. Last night's episode of Mind Control was fantastic. The video game with zombies to shoot was scary and exciting to watch - best thing I've seen on TV for ages.

Tomb Raider: Legend

It's quite exciting to anticipate the arrival of a new Lara Croft adventure. Tomb Raider: Legend has a website where you can register to receive news and view exclusive content.

Bank Holiday Rant

This is going to sound petty and vindictive. Here it is... I was at a car boot sale today, looking around and checking out bargains - yeah that's what you do at car boot sales STUPID! I see a few PS2 games I wouldn't mind having, so I ask innocently enough how much they are - thinking I might be able to pick up 007 Everything Or Nothing or GT3 cheap. The teenager I asked was old enough to sell the games and said 7 quid. OK, that's what I'd pay in a shop for a pre-owned copy with guarantee. Here I get no guarantee. It's a car boot sale so haggling is what people do. I ask if he'll take 4 quid for a game. But just then his overbearing mummy buts in and asks which one, I say the 007 one and she says no way - and begins to justify her decision by saying its a recent game (which its not). OK I say and walk away happy not to give her anything. My wife said she could tell she wasn't going to come down on a price even before I asked. What are these stupid people doing at car boot sales? I offered a fair price, I could have justified it if I'd wanted too (hell, it's labelled 007 but Everything or Nothing was not associated with any Bond film). The best thing to do was to say OK and walk away, which I did. But man, I feel sorry for the kid having a mother like that - it made him look weak. He was lanky and ginger too, that doesn't help.

Midnight Club II

I picked up a copy of this today - it's great fun! Driving around LA like a mad bastard!!!

Absence from blogging

I realise it's been a few days since my last blog post (apart from one I just created), I've been pre-occupied with building my new PC and life in general. I started jogging today, my legs ache because I haven't really run for such a long time. I enjoy it though - my "circuit" is very flat at the moment. I managed 3 laps (I needed to walk one and a half laps-but it still counts as exercise don't it?).

New PC!!

It's here. It's good. It's fast! My new BioStar Ideq 200T is looking cool (and blowing cool incidentally!). I'm very proud because I selected all the bits and put them together myself. AND what's more, it worked. I did have the jitters when I first turned on and heard a horrible rasping noise. I quickly powered down and checked and the FDD power cable was hanging free and trailing into the CPU heatsink fan. I quickly remedied that by tidying up a bit better and then it was fine.

Classic PlayStation Games

I'm grinning like a Cheshire Cat! I picked up some great old PS games recently - REALLY cheap too. The first three Resident Evil games, Silent Hill, Gran Turismo, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, Syphon Filter and Metal Gear Solid.

Royal wedding TV commentary

What a joke the TV coverage is whenever there is any Royal occasion. Its totally over the top and biased : anybody who does make a comment that is balanced is regarded as mistaken and anyone who criticises the Royalty (even by email read aloud) is treated with the contempt reserved for criminals. And they have to talk don't they - even when there is nothing to say! I don't want to hear a banal comment on a hat when it's on the screen and anyone with half a braincell can make the same observation. I know I had the choice to turn off and I'm not an avid supporter of the Royals we've got but I do like to see a spectacle and I did want to watch it. I also know that we can't choose the Royal family but after Charle's handshake with Mugabe I'm just so embarassed!

Air Force One

I watched this film last night. It's a shame when a film can acquire the acting talents of great actors and have a great special effects team. However, this film is let down by a script that descends into farce: its one against one insurmountable odd after another - and it happens to be the President of the United States. The baddies fail to be really threatening because it all turns out alright in the end. If they were really as bad as they are built up to be they wouldn't think twice about murdering his family. Rant over. Don't expect much and you'll be entertained in a lazy Sunday afternoon type of way.

My Room 101

1. Instructions for cooking raw meat are usually on the underside of the printed price label. Impossible to peel off to read so you have to slit the plastic with a knife. I would like to know how long to cook something for before deciding whether or not I want it.

2. New CDs (in jewel cases) that have the teeth holding the CD in place broken and fall out.

3. Variety of biros at supermarket checkouts. Why can't Tesco afford to supply biros? Why do the staff have to bring their own?

4. Complaints by Bank of England that consumer spending is too high when at the same time the finance industry encourages people to get into debt. Why blame consumers? Surely the finance industry is to blame for making it so easy?

5. In a sugar bowl, having blobs of coffee stuck like a cluster nut to sugar. I hate having to knock them away when loading my teaspoon with sugar.

Mel C

Ever since Mel C turned into a rock chick I've fancied her. I just caught a bit of a Queen tribute show last night and I saw a brief bit of a performance from her, it was awesome (I just saw the last 20 seconds, so I don't know how it started) and I wished I had seen more. Infact, I'd love her to do a show just singing Queen numbers - she did it so well. She looks great, sounds great.

Pope JP2

The pope is dead, what a farce the TV coverage was over the weekend. I half expected to see Jon Snow with a computer diagram illustrating the failing heart and liver functions. "The Pope's breathing is now shallow and kidney functions are at 10%, he can't hold out too much longer and take this kind of punishment". Really, he should have been left alone. I can't understand why people who revel in the sight of a dead man get called pilgrims either. I just don't get books of condolence/lying in state kind of stuff I'm afraid. It's all just a bit weird.

Bargains

Found a few game bargains last week, so had to pick them up. Was away at the weekend hence my lack of posts. Those bargains were:

Tomb Raider III
Metal Gear Solid
Gran Turismo
Firestorm Thunderhawk 2
Metal Gear Solid 2

All of these were less than half the cost of a new game. I tried to buy a new copy of Tomb Raider II but the same error kept appearing, so I exchanged it for GT. Funny that the same error was on both disks, I suspect this is too much of a coincidence. Oh well, I am just destined never to own that game.

MP3 Player Musings

My wife is looking into MP3 players for taking along to listen while she does her gym workouts. The market is pretty saturated it seems. The question is which player is both light and portable, is supported by software that is Win98 compatible, is easy to use - meaning is easy for a relative computer novice to use: particularly where track selection, playlists and music organising are concerned AND has a decent display. I'm seriously considering an iPod Mini but don't know whether it would be supported by our current PC - we'll be changing it soon for a faster one though (see earlier posts about the Ideq).

Cult TV

There are a few TV shows I haven't seen that I would like to:

Babylon 5
Stargate SG-1
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Dark Angel
Alias
Roswell
Millenium
Harsh Realm
Farscape
Smallville

I don't know if I'll like them or not but I'd like to see them from they're first episode to be able to judge them.

Car Boot Excitement

Well, it's Easter again and the start of a new car boot season begins, hurray! Went to one today with a decent turnout, just a pity that there was not much that was good on offer. I did pick up Andy McNabb's Bravo Two Zero and Immediate Action that I've been thinking of getting lately. I also bought Stand by, Stand by and Zero Option by Chris Ryan - I "think" they might be fairly similar as they are both ex-SAS but I could be wrong not having read them. I don't know if I'll like these however, as I'm not sure how fictional they are and how much is autobiographical.

New Dr Who

I watched the BBC's first episode of the new Dr Who series this evening. It was a good start overall I thought. My wife thought there were scary moments in it, I wasn't so sure about that but then I'm too old to be scared in that way. It's not the kind of show that would genuinely frighten me, its more entertainment than anything else. There were lots of screams and lots of running about. Its good that the locations were outdoors - but I suppose the budget of millions helped! I look forward to future episodes. I'm glad the show is back on, Saturday night on BBC needs a series thats not another bloody celebrity talent contest/DIY/reality TV/lottery/quiz show like every other night of the flippin' week.

The death of creativity

I used to be part of a writers group. I wrote a lot of poetry but I did it when I lived alone and was lonely. Since meeting my now wife I hardly ever write any poetry or prose. The kinds of novel I've been reading lately worry me some - they're usually about spies or the military. I wonder if this is the deatyh of creativity within me as I approach 37 this year?

Authors to read

Some other writers that I'm thinking of reading are:

Craig Thomas (who wrote Firefox, which I read recently)
Dale Brown
Stephen Coonts

The latter two are ex-military personnel who have turned to writing. I'm also considering two others:

Andy McNabb
Chris Ryan

I've been put off both of these because of the first person narrative they use, which I find slightly amateurish if I'm honest - but perhaps this is just my prejudice. I suspect that I may appreciate the style more once I get into the novel. I'm slightly put off the McNabb stuff by the fact that Alan Partridge (parody of English TV talk show host) likes reading him.

Hair Cuts

Well, gone now are the days when I pay for my hair cuts - actually I haven't paid full whack for a haircut for a while now. A relative has been cutting my hair for over a year but I've paid something towards the cost and its a little inconvenient because he is not terribly reliable or punctual and I end up waiting around and being disappointed when he doesn't show. So really, he has only himself to blame for losing my custom - but it's not a big deal to him anyway I think. So how have I achieved this? I've gone and bought a hair trimmer - the Remington HC-363 to be quite precise. My wife has trimmed mine and my sons hair and we both look very smart, here's to DIY, cheers!!

Other games on the hit list

The two games I've considered recently but haven't as yet bought are Freedom Fighters and Dead To Rights. Both have got reasonably good reviews in Gamespot but I'm worried that I've spent too much on games recently. Especially since I'm awaiting the credit card bill soon and it's not going to be good reading - several items for our new family PC are on it plus God knows what my wife has added to it.

Tomb Raider 2

I bought a copy of this for PlayStation for £1.99, which I thought was good value for a game I haven't got - despite its age. But unfortunately, its the first pre-owned game I've got that I've had a problem with. It keeps pausing the game for no apparent reason. So I'm going to take it back.

The News

I once read that Clancy was asked where he gets ideas for his novels and his response was something about him reading the papers everyday. It's true, when I watch the news I can see Clancy novels. I wonder if he is charting all the news and weaving plots around the various strands? It could be the kind of thing you might do in MindManager, I wonder if any authors use that tool for novels?

Tom Clancy versus Op-Centre

I'm reading Tom Clancy's Op-Centre at the moment, written in 1995 by Jeff Rovin actually - so not a Tom Clancy novel at all. Although, the Op-Centre book's are branded as Tom Clancy, I understand that Jeff Rovin wasn't actually credited properly as the author when the book was first published. It's OK, I'm enjoying it - probably not as much as a Clancy written novel though; it lacks the fine detail and "believe-ability" one gets reading a genuine Clancy.

Men With Cigars Are Trash!

Friday afternoon, walking from Oxford Circus to Hamleys toystore. In Hamley's I'm queueing with my sons trains patiently in line when some old git with a cigar hanging out of his mouth ignores the fact that there is a queue and barges infront of me. He stinks. Why are men with cigars arrogant sons of bitches? They're all tossers!

Next Game!

Oh no, I've got to get Freedom Fighters - my addiction is out of control!

Avoiding Temptation

Well, I've managed to avoid the feeling of having to purchase a game so far. Although even as I type I'm looking up a game review for a game I've seen cheap. I'm reading Firefox by Craig Thomas at the moment. I haven't seen the Clint Eastwood film adaptation for years and years, I wonder if I could get it on DVD?

Kuala Lumpur

Good that Schumaker didn't make it onto the podium at the Australian Grand Prix : a good start to the 2005/6 season. However, Barrichello came second so Ferrari are a long way from the doldrums. This weekend it's the Kuala Lumpur grand prix, so I'm getting exciuted about it. Check out the interactive circuit map.

A New Leaf

After some reflection, I think I have to stop buying new games that I may never have time to enjoy. Afterall, I don't have time to play the ones I've got already. I do like to swap between games but this means I never get very deep into them. I must change this behaviour, take a new leaf and play games more deeply instead of playing a lot very shallowly - if you see what I mean. I MUST NOT BUY GAMES ANYMORE - but equally, I know I can't resist a bargain. I MUST NOT BUY GAMES ANYMORE - UNLESS IT IS A BARGAIN.

Weekend Additions

Three new titles added to my games collection over the weekend. I must stop buying games and start playing them instead. I do worry about where I'm going to find the time to play though - I'm so tired once the kids are bed and whether I play on the PC or PS2 depends largely on what my wife wants to do. I also have DVDs to watch and books to read, no TIME! If only someone would pay me to do what I most enjoy!
I also bought 7 new books over the weekend - for the than a fiver, not bad at all! All good condition, in one swoop on a MacMillan charity shop I acquired most of the Power Plays series and two more Op Centre novels all bearing the Clancy name on the cover but not written by the man of course. I finished Sum Of All Fears over the weekend and started the Craig Thomas novel Firefox because I'm missing Without Remorse from my Clancy collection - my "Tower of Clancy" I call it because of the vertical height of the book stack. I want to read the books in order and without this I have had to pause.
I was doing some book research over the weekend on publishing dates for Clancy and related novels and it was quite hard work. I will post the results some time but I had to use the Library of Congress, Amazon and British National Bibliography web sites to identify them. Not at all easy but the number of series bearing his name and a young adults series that I have included for comprehensiveness made the task a bit harder than it might have been. I look forward to reading them all though.

Irritating World!

I know it's a sign of increasing years, I've been getting this way since my 30s began. But I find small irritations in life lead to stress and annoyance far beyond their individual weight of importance. Last night for example, I spent over an hour searching for and adding my PC games collection to my Gamespot profile and what did I discover when reviewing my list of games at the end of it? 21 games! No way, I've got a shit load more than that. I was infuriated! But today, I view my profile after logging out and it says there are 81, which is a lot more like it. Now, I'm not so annoyed because my work doesn't seem to have been lost.

I posted about this last night but w.bloggar complained the server was busy - last time this happened I just tried again and after about three attempts it was accepted and posted. Unfortunately, when I next viewed my blog I had 3 duplicate blog entries so I had to log into Blogger and delete the redundant ones. Now last night, instead of trying again I just thought -oh well, it's probably posted them anyway but I find it didn't and I lost the post: oh crap!

Sometimes life is just annoying!

Tombraider

I've been installing a few older PC games and trying to get them working on my system. If you have a SoundBlaster Live sound card and can get Cannon Fodder 2 working please get in touch as I have tried everything I can think of - the furthest I can get is about 3 seconds of gameplay. The copy I got is on the Sold Out label. At the same time I bought Iron Assault and this game installs and works perfectly.
If you have Tomb Raider and the image is a bit grainy hit the F1 button and it instantly improves the resolution. I really like Tomb Raider, I will play it some more. I found a really great Tomb Raider web site, check it out here.

Hide and Seek

A package came for my wife this week. Inside was a baseball cap and T shirt, she's obviously won a competition (she spends half her time on the Internet filling in forms about soap powders to win prizes). I don't know what Hide and Seek is but it has 20th Century Fox on the label so it's fairly safe to assume it's a film. Nice stuff though, I'm not complaining.

Gamefest

I've been a game demon this month. I've bought eight games so far and we're only into the second week. Games are a serious addiction for me. I caught the bug when I was bought a paddle game from Binatone as a kid. It worked on the black and white TV I had, it never did tune very well, I remember the picture not exactly being rock steady like today's monitors. But since the eighties I've slipped behind in the video games world - mainly due to the price of new games and consoles. Since I've had my Playstation 2 in January I've been doing some catching up and now I have 12 PS2 games and 9 PS games. The last couple games I've actually hidden from my wife, I'm embarassed to admit buying them. It's a compulsion I can't resist! Maybe an addiction???

Airgun Tragedy

A horrible news story about some thug who called the fire service out on a false call and shot at a fireman and also hit a 2 year old boy in the crossfire, killing him. In my opinion these people are scum. But what punishment would fit their crime? I have a 2 year boy myself so its hard not to be emotional about this, the way I feel right now I would like to see a painful death for him.

F1 Kicks Off

The 2005 F1 season kicks off this weekend with the Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park circuit. I have dusted off my F1 Championship Season 2000 PC game and done a quick race on the circuit - but I was tired and the experience of using a racing game on PC (being so close to the monitor) is quite draining, so I didn't complete the race. Good game though from Electronic Arts.
The new FIA rules sound quite interesting but I wonder how effective they will be in reality - they are trying to de-engineer the cars to even things out for the drivers but I think that the stability and reliability of the most successful teams will give them an advantage under the new rules.
I disagree with Ecclestone's comment about Schumaker's dominance being good for the sport - last season was a complete washout seeing him win almost every race.

Celebrity Fame Academy

It's for Comic Relief I know - so it is a good cause but this show is the pits. Nuff said.

Care Bears To The Rescue

This is a fairly strange to post about I know. But, my kids seem to like their Care Bears - I don't really understand why. We have about three large ones in the house and a Care Bears cartoon movie on DVD, which I just can't seem to work out - probably because I can't sit through very much of it without being totally bored and confused. That's not what this post is about though. It's about a tape we bought on Saturday called Care Bears To The Rescue - it was 50p and my daughter wanted it so what the hell right? Anyway, after a quick listen on Saturday in the car I thought it was pretty much like the movie - confusing and boring. But after the traffic today I had a much better listen and could follow what was going on. Not to say it was MY thing or anything but I recognise putting words to music is a skill and the guy who wrote the songs obviously is of a higher order of quality than normal because they actually work well as songs and they tell a story. That's it. That's what I wanted to say. I don't know if you can get it anymore - we got ours from a charity shop and it was released in 1989.

Red Faction

I bought this game on Saturday and tried the tutorial out last night. Looks really good, can't wait to get stuck into it. Great game premise too.

Brrrrrr

It was cold last night. I spoke to another parent in the school playground this morning and he said it was -3 according to his car's thermometer. That was at 9am, so earlier than that it was probably colder. My wife's car wouldn't start and my own normally reliable automatic died a few times during ferrying people around to their various locations. It really screwed my routine up this morning, having to ferry passengers. I was most annoyed and behaved like a complete tit. Why am I so horrible to my family?

Oscars: Best animated feature film

I see The Incredibles won this against Shrek 2, depends on the criteria but I think Shrek 2 would have got my vote.

The It girl conundrum

Strange how the mind works isn't it? I was thinking of blogging something about girls bottoms (will probably still write that piece one day) when I had the thought that an attraction to someone is not necessarily a physical thing you can typecast - I fancy Tara Palmer-Tomkinson for some reason I can't explain but I loathe and despise Tamara Beckwith and I don't know anything about Lady Victoria Hervey but just the name makes me want to puke, so I can't imagine I would like her either. The Spectator partially explains the history of "the It girl" if you've never heard of it before.

The Incredibles

I don't know if I like this film, I mean I do like some aspects of it but it's attempt to appeal to children and adult audiences stretches it a bit too far. It's got dark and light moments, the animation and lighting effects are groovy. It's got humour and menace. I think if I was pushed to put my finger on it, I'd say the Mr Incredible character is the weakness of the film. He is just not somebody I can empathise with. All the parts are there, its a tried and tested formula but his character ultimately leaves me feeling like so what? Shame, its enjoyable all the same but it is not a classic film.

Minutemen film

I'd be failing in my blog duties if I didn't bring this film of the Minutemen to your attention. I can't wait to order a copy of it when it comes out on DVD.

Angelina Jolie

I can't watch Angelina Jolie without sighing and exclaiming words such as "And God created woman...". She is perfect,is she not? My eyes naturally, unknowingly, just adore her from her eyes to her lips to her breasts.
I've also been adoring Monica Harris recently, a beautiful girl worthy of much fame.

Vin Diesel

There are some actors who I just don't like, whatever role they play. I've already spoken in this blog about Nicholas Cage. My next victim is Vin Diesel. I'm sorry but it's not like I haven't tried. I rented The Fast and the Furious and began watching. I don't know what happened, it made me fall asleep. It was on TV recently and I watched a bit but it brought back horrible memories of how rubbish it was. I just had to turn over the channel. I'm not above action movies and I like films that others may hate - Charlie's Angels and Tomb Raider for goodness sakes! But XXX and TFATF take the biscuit - they are SO boring! If you want action - get The Transporter, I'll talk more about that film one day...

Let the Pope go

Why is the media fascinated with every turn of the Pope's medical history. OK, I know why - he is the pope, but it gets reported like it's unusual or something for an 80 year old (or whatever he is) to have poor health, I mean really he's had a good innings hasn't he? Let him alone to die in peace I say, give him a bit of dignity. He sure enough deserves that for tirelessly serving God and his flock.

UFO

I bought the box set of the 1970s TV series UFO starring Ed Bishop as Commander Straker. The most striking part for me, after years of loving the stories, is that the costumes are so damn sexy! I'm talking principally about the female costumes here of course, especially the Moonbase ladies. Here's an interesting fact I can't get out of my head - Lt. Ellis in Moonbase is an actress called Gabrielle Drake who played a character in Crossroads in the 80s. Don't say I'm not good for trivia again!

XIII

I've been playing this game intermittently since January and I just have to tell you that I have the utmost respect for the developers. I love the cell shaded graphics and the nice little comic book touches, like the 60's Batman style "Tap Tap Tap" written in words infront of a wall a guard is walking behind. I'm getting into the levels and the pace is picking up to, my weaponry is getting more advanced too - cool! Lovely colours as well.

Queen's snub - so what?

The second annoying thing in the media is the queen's so called snub to Charles and Camilla. I can't stand either Charles or his horsey bride to be. I couldn't care less that they are getting hitched, I care even less about who attends the ceremony. This is NOT the NEWS - don't report it!

Give Ken a break

There are 2 things that are making me annoyed at the moment. They are both concerned with the media reporting non-news as news.
The first is the "controversial" comments made to a Jewish Evening Standard journalist by the London Mayor Ken Livingstone. This should be between the two of them and is not a story that should be headline news. I don't particularly like Ken Livingstone, I have never supported him personally. He is an official and should be sensitive to any audience he speaks to in his official capacity. He would be wise to follow the same rules in private, however I don't expect that because he is in public office his judgement will be perfect always. The journalist should likewise recognise that as a reporter he should be objective and unemotional about the things he is reporting. I think a reporter should expect to get a bit of flack from people they are following.
It's a question of balance. The unintended hurt caused by Livingstone's words has been due to the way the event has been reported. No party is innocent here. But my point is that this is not news. It's going after a public target for the sport of it - something the British press like to do. I don't want to hear or read about it because it's all nonsense.

Nirvana: From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah

I was listening to this last night and it brought all of my memories of the early/mid nineties back. The music is still surprisingly good, still sounds quite fresh. They were a breakthrough group, their music did cross the bridge between alternative and mainstream. They were certainly not the only grunge group that was successful but the scale of their success was quite amazing.

Deus Ex

I bought this a few weeks ago, started the tutorial a few times but have finally had the time to start playing it in earnest. I'm enjoying it. I've noticed it seems to be titled Deus Ex: The Conspiracy but my copy is just called Deus Ex - same game though (Playstation 2). I like the fact that it's a fairly open game and that it's your choice how you play the levels. Quite a good plot too.

Clear and Present Danger

My illness gave me the opportunity to finish my latest read, CAPD. Great book, a real page turner. I've started my next book - Sum Of All Fears.

Collateral

I saw Collateral last night and was impressed overall. Some great night scenes of LA. It's a good thriller, some nice twists. I thought perhaps a little short at the expense of storyline. But rather too short than too long. Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise share leading characters and both play their roles well. It could easily be turned into a video game. It's not of Hitchcock class however, as a few reviewers on IMDB have incorrectly reported.

Windows Media Player and Playlists

Well, I've had a My Playlists folder in the My Documents directory for ages and its always been empty. That is to say, I haven't ever really used Windows Media Player except to play audio CDs occasionally and to stream videos when I've had to. Before this weekend, I had Real One, Winamp and Windows Media PLayer - all of which can play audio and video. I also have Apple QuickTime but I don't know if that plays audio files. Anyway, I'm trying to rationalise my media players and have decided to settle on Windows Media Player (at least for the moment). On my last PC, I wanted to play an audio CD - not an unrealistic demand, even though the PC was not very powerful it was PC Chips processor running at around 300MHz. Anyway, to get to the point Windows Media Player wouldn't play a CD whereas Winamp did - so I've used Winamp for audio ever since. Now though, I'm giving Windows Media Player a go again. I have some CDs with my MP3 tracks on and I've created playlists in Windows Media Player for all of them. So now, I select a disk and choose my playlist, put it on shuffle and away I go - several hours of music played in combinations I would never have chosen myself. Seems to be going OK, there are occasional skips but nothing serious.

Metallica: Master of Puppets

I listened to this album this evening. I think its one of their best. It was the first Metallica album I heard and I was blown away by the power of Battery and astonished that there were some great guitar solo pieces in amongst the heavy grinding thrashing. My favourite track remains The Thing That Should Not Be, even though the lyrics seem a little naff now. In the last year I've heard their first album Kill 'Em All and this is also very very good. At their best, they are strong and melodic and are able to convey the dark overtones and trgedies of life in their music.

Reinstall thoughts

Trying to boot my machine just brought up a Windows Protection error. I looked in the bootlog.txt file and for all of my fonts I got the failure code 0016. Everything else was loading fine, it would boot into Safe Mode but not Normal Mode. I reinstalled Windows without formatting my drive and that worked but I had to reinstall all my drivers and applications but fortunately my data was all there. I was concerned about losing my Outlook Express settings. Fortunately, past experience helped here - I had exported my account settings to another drive so all I had to do was reimport these. I also new that my old email folders were in the directory C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\ but there were two folders in this directory - it was a case of going into both and identifying one with more than the default folders and copying the .dbx files into the folder that just included the default mail folders (also there as .dbx files).

Half Life

I bought the game Half Life yesterday. I did the tutorial last night and it seems quite good. I look forward to playing it some more and working out the puzzles etc. I tried a bit of the main game and sure did enjoy it. But it was late and I had to stop to get enough sleep.

Windows Media Player

I'm running Win 98SE, I know its an obsolete OS but it came with the PC. I installed Windows Media Player - or so I thought - and everything seemed fine - not that I tested it. But the installation seemed fine, version 9 I think it was. However, I wanted to watch a streamed video from Gamespot earlier today and it wouldn't let me. It took several attempts to get a version of Media Player installed and working. At one point I uninstalled the version of WMP that I had installed to try a re-install. Basically, you need version 7.1 if you're running Win98SE but you need a version of Windows Media Player installed to find that out - I had to roll back to the version of WMP installed by default with the OS.

Computer Crash

Disaster last night with Windows failing to boot after I tried to install a driver for a network card. Took me several hours to get back to nearly normal. What a waste of time! Oh well, at least I'm there now. Have I learnt from it? Er, not sure.

Kate Moss painting

A painting by Lucian Freud of the model Kate Moss sold for 3.5 million pounds. Unbelievable. I have never much liked Lucian Freud's paintings and I've never really got anything out of looking at Kate Moss. A combination of the two going for so much seems completely surreal. What a strange world this is!

Clear and Present Danger

Started Tom Clancy's CAPD yesterday evening, going well so far. It's book five in my attempt to read all of Clancy's novels. I enjoyed all his books so far read - Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Rising, Patriot Games and Cardinal of the Kremlin. Am looking forward to reading the more recent ones but his books take me a while to finish.

Runaway Jury

Runaway Jury is a good thriller if you get the chance to see it.

Conflict Desert Storm II

I do like playing this. I'm not very good but it is a good time waster. Quite a good choice of weapons and an arcade feel to it make it playable. Not incredibly realistic, I take far too many hits from bullets for that - but hey, I've only played on easy and I haven't worked through it all yet.

Differences between women and men

No, this post isn't what you think it's going to be. I just get the feeling I've offended some mothers at my kids school because I don't always talk to them. I don't blank people yet I've a feeling I've been blanked a few times, just expressions on faces and not making eye contact. Maybe it's paranoid.

Bureacracy.....

Just got some unfathomable correspondence from the Inland Revenue about Child Tax Credit. Why is it that even though we supplied information to them months ago they still get it wrong? Why is it so hard to get what we're entitled to? It just seems so unfair that the amount of money wasted in government because of stupid financial rules can't be used to fund giving us some kind of financial relief. I was having a chat with a fellow parent at the school this afternoon, he used to work for the council and said in April they would have to carry in new desks and come February they were chucking them out again so new ones could be bought. Its all just a waste of public money.

Predator

This was on last night, too late for me to watch unfortunately. I love this film, maybe I should get the DVD?

Grinding Wheels...

I've got to stop writing now, time is marching on and I'm on my own with the kids. They'd be happy to stay playing together watching television but the grinding wheels of live have to turn and we all have a schedule to keep if we're to survive the day. I feel like just going back to bed though...get that thought out of my head!

The Pope

I wouldn't like to offend anyone's beliefs but surely we are into the last few days of life for the current pope. That's why all the world's media have gathered, after all they're not there to wish him well, the poor old sod. It does seem an odd job to have, pope. Strange name for it too.