And fuck her too!
No I’m not being rude, but I am completely addicted to the new track from Cee-lo Green. You know, the voice of Gnarls Barkley. There is a ‘clean’ version where they change the words to “Forget You” so it should still do well with radio/tv plays but I think you have to listen to it in it’s original form to really enjoy it:
So the major perk of working in a school is of course the holidays. I can’t deny it’s a great bonus. We’re about half way through now, so what have I been up to…
Well the first thing is the utter failure of a trip to London. We were going primarily for Hannah’s first visit to London Zoo, a place Me & Kat have been before and loved. Hannah loves animals so we were super excited about it all, which is why the whole experience was all the more bitter. The trip can be summed up thus:
So basically it was a lot of money and a lot of effort all for nothing really. The one redeeming thing about the trip to the zoo was that for a few minutes when Hannah saw the tigers she lit up and was happy. Ho hum. Next time we’ll do it when she’s a bit older and we’ll do it as a day trip.
The best thing about the holiday so far is the thing that’s cost us the least. Kat’s parents went on holiday and as they live in a mansion (not really, but you could fit our house into their’s several times over) we decided to stay there whilst Kat’s friends Tom and Jemma visited us with their brand new baby Ellie who is 6 months old. They are the nicest people you could ever meet. Scarily so. Perhaps they secretly eat kittens or something to balance out the niceness? Who knows. Anyway Ellie and Hannah got along great and I found it really nice to be with another ‘new’ family like ours. It’s a real shame they live so far away. I have very few friends and out of those only two are guys and neither have children, it would be nice to have another dad to talk to on occasion.
Every new year, every holiday I tell myself I will lose weight, start exercising etc. It never happens. I managed 2 long morning walks and that was about it. It comes down to my main underlying problem, the aspect of myself that I really hate the most. I can’t focus on anything. I have a million things I think about doing and I flit between them all, never doing most and barely doing the rest. So I feel in a permanent state of cruise control, doing the same things. I like my life a lot, in fact it’s pretty much perfect. I have a stable job with prospects, a lovely wife, perfect child and overall a cushy lifestyle. But there’s nothing I ever get my teeth into. The closest I get is when my assignment deadlines are only days away and I have no other choice. In those moments I excel, it has always been the way I do work and 99% of the time it works out fine.
So what to do? My brain tends to flick between these options:
When I pick an option my mind tends to go into overdrive with ideas and enthusiasm. The problem being it all vanishes after a night’s sleep. So either I need to stop sleeping, or perhaps set a more low-key plan for one of those goals. Merely writing this is just another example of me just talking the talk, pretending I’ll do one of them when my usual laziness will override any such instincts.
Or will it?
(Answer: Yes)
I do at least have one thing that I always try my best at and that is being a father to Hannah. Every day I make sure I have fun with her, protect her, teach her and show my love for her. I think this is where my laziness is an asset. It’s just so easy to love her. It happens without trying, it’s effortless. With that the playing, protecting and teaching happens on it’s own. In fact you can’t have one without the others.
All a bit soppy I know but she’s magic personified and I felt like writing about it. On that note I have the rest of my summer holidays to be getting on with, so shoo! Off you go!
Ok I have a lot of comics and a few DS/PSP games to sell. I’ll put word about on Twitter/Facebook first then eBay ‘em. All prices include second class/standard postage.
Before I list the main attraction, I have an iPod Touch, 1st gen, with a broken earphone port. It will probably play music through any kind of dock (Haven’t tested this but I can) and if you really want I think you can buy dock to earphone converter cables. Anyway for internet browsing over wifi and general iPod Touch games it’s fine. Supplied with charging cable, no headphones £50.
Nintendo DS Games. No boxes/manuals unless otherwise stated but they are legit! £5 each
White PSP for sale, original model. Barely used, great condition. I’m selling as a bundle for £70 including:
Where possible I want to sell entire runs. If you do want bits and bobs I’d rather they were at the start or end of the collections so I can still sell continuous blocks but all offers welcome. Conditions of all comics is at least good
New Avengers: I have the entire run of New Avengers (well, issue 57 is missing!) going for £40.
Ultimate Spider-Man: The first 15 volumes (issues 1-90) for £45
Ultimate X-Men: First two paperbacks are the “Ultimate Collections” that have 2 volumes in each so there are no missing issues, they are just grouped differently £40.
Ultimate Avengers: 6 issue run for £4
The Ultimates 3: This is not a patch on The Ultimates 1 and 2 but hey ho, at £3 you can’t moan!
Captain America: It pains me to sell these as they are so good, this is the current Ed Brubaker run. Slightly higher price due to hardbacks, aprox 70 comics for £60.
Invincible Iron Man: This is the Matt Fraction run, issues 1-28 for £15.
Secret Invasion: Annoyingly I’m missing issue 7. For that reason it’s only £3.
Dark Avengers: Again annoyingly missed buying issues 7 and 8 but it didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the series. £5.
Siege: The 2010 crossover event, only 4 issues so a princely £2.
Astonishing X-Men: The first 34 issues for £15.
X-Men: The Complete Age of Apocalypse: Four thick paperbacks that I can’t be bothered to count the issues of! £20.
X-Men: I have various X-Men books. I can find out what issues and series they belong to but for now will just list the book titles and prices. Basically the more issues per book the more it costs!
Farscape has to be in my top 10 tv shows ever. I was probably about 17 when it first aired and I stumbled across it on BBC2 part way through season 1 and easily fell in love. For some reason the DVD box sets have always been hellishly expensive, and still are. At £30 ish per season on iTunes I could just about justify the cost, even though it’s a rip off when you consider how old it is and you can buy the entire run of something like West Wing for £50.
Anyway, I managed to quickly plough through the first season in about 2 weeks and I’m pleased to say on the whole it has aged well. Production values still look good, the actors nailed the characters early on and the stories are a lot of fun. The downside to watching any tv show back to back is that the character and relationship developments at times feel like they are rushed, but that’s a trick of the mind. You have to remember that usually a 22 episode series will span nearly half a year!
The basic premise is astronaut John Chrichton gets slung through a wormhole to another part of the universe and lands on a prison ship in the middle of a breakout. This prison ship is a living ship and the prisoners on board are a priest called Zhaan, a warrior D’Argo and a dethroned monarch called Rygel. In addition to this is Pilot, an alien that’s plugged into the ship (Moya) and who as his name dictates is the pilot of the ship. They of course escape and spend the rest of the show on the run from the Peacekeepers who are not as nice as their name might suggest.
One of my favourite aspects of the show is the thing that put a lot of people off it, the wonderful creations of the Jim Henson Creature Company. I used to hate it when people said it was “Muppets in space”. To call these creations muppets is a bit of an insult, the design of the characters is brilliant and as the seasons go on they get even better. The Scarrens are a particular favourite of mine.
The highlight of season 1 for me is the introduction of Scorpius who to this day is my favourite SF villain. What I like about him is that he is so intelligent. Whilst a whole base of Peacekeepers are fooled by John, Scorpius calls him on it instantly. Sure he has certain special abilities, but I like how Scorp cuts out the BS and gets things done. He’s not a stereotypical villain who will go at great lengths to explain his plans to the enemy, he just gets in there and does things.
So then, any bad sides? Very little for me. There’s the occasional boring or low budget episode (“Jeremiah Chrichton”) and I found the rock music a bit intrusive early on in the season. Ben Browder’s acting is a bit OTT/hammy at times but Farscape doesn’t take itself too seriously so it’s all part of the fun.
Overall Farscape has aged well and is just as much fun watching a second time. I think it will be a while before I move onto Season 2 (mainly due to cost!) but I really look forward to it as I have fond memories especially once Chrichton has a Scorpius inside his head (way before BSG did it!).
Ok so as mentioned before this idea is from ‘devious2k’. I list the games that I own and have not completed. I am not allowed to buy a new game until the pile is empty. This should stop me buying games that I spend almost no time on and therefore have wasted money on!
I will add my own exceptions though:
So off the top of my head, here are some games that are on my Pile Of Shame:
That’s plenty to get me going!
It’s what makes the world go round. It’s also what I’ve never, ever been good at managing. So I’ve decided to give it a go. I spent a couple of days playing with the Numbers app for iPad (a scaled down version of the OSX equivalent of Excel) to keep a closer track on my expenses and hopefully save some money. I have OU course fees that need paying next year and for a change I don’t want to slap it on my credit card!
Speaking of credit cards, I really need to stop using them. They really are the devil. I’ve done a little debt tracker for them and it’s scary to look at. The good news is my main bank loan will be paid off in about 2 years which frees up a large chunk of money a month that should go towards paying off the cards, and I think a year after that it’s possible we’ll be getting a decent amount of money that could either go towards a new house or pay off any other debt.
Of course this is all in theory. I know what I’m like, and when unexpected things crop up the credit cards tend to come out. However it is worth trying for and so I’ve set up a second current account that I will transfer some monthly ‘me money’ to be used for luxuries for me, I will make sure some money goes into my savings account and the rest is for the bills!
My next post will be related to money saving, and it is an idea borrowed from ‘devious2k’, I’m starting a ‘Pile of Shame’, a list of games I own that I have not completed or in some cases never even installed. The idea is I’m not allowed to buy any new games until then old ones are completed.
Doing a rather boring assignment at the moment and decided to just sneak a little geekyness into it. It’s a software designing course for my degree and I’m doing UML diagrams. For this particular use case and sequence diagram, the name values for certain objects are the secret identities of Marvel characters.
I doubt my tutor will notice, names like Hank Pym and Steve Rogers aren’t as recognisable as Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne, but it’s just something to make me smile.
I think I will try to sneak more geek into everything I do. Anyone that ever notices will be a kindered spirit!
I have been debating whether or not to use my iPad for work purposes. I can take registers on it, I could take notes on it in briefing, use it to show pictures to kids or do some translating without having to haul back to my desk, loads of uses. The thing stopping me? Not wanting people to think or say “Ooh look at him with his iPad, doesn’t he think he’s good!”. Basically that I’m a show off. Although there is a small truth in that, I do like to show it off, it is actually a useful tool! It’s just everyone else uses paper and I would stick out.
Well today I thought dammit, I spent a fortune on this thing and this is 2010, if I want to use new technology I bloody well will! I haven’t had too many comments from staff or students which is good. I actually felt a little uncomfortable when people asked me to ‘justify’ the device.
Bering the geek that I am, I’ve used the database app Bento to create forms for briefing and a checklist for form time. I am forgetful and having a list like that will help me. The fact that it’s not on paper means I won’t lose it either!
So I shall not care what others think, this thing is making me more efficient so all you luddites can think what you want!
Downside to the day was I’d lost my voice so had to take the day off. Upside was that my iPad was dispatched a day early!
It is the most lovely piece of technology I have ever had the pleasure of holding. It’s sleek, sexy and fast. I opted for the 32gb 3G version. I have a nice case for it on order, but the Amazon delivery slot for it is 1-3 months which I think is just code for they aren’t released in the UK yet and they’re just guessing a time frame.
Oh and of course this post was written on the iPad with the WordPress app. I can actually type just as fast on here as a regular keyboard. The downside is I am making more mistakes than usual and the keyboard doesn’t have an apostrophe key. The iPad does compensate somewhat for this with it’s auto correction but it’s a little hard to get used to. I suspect practice will make perfect.
My advice is if you have the money to burn, buy one. It’s the ultimate tech luxury item. If you consume a lot of information and media that is internet or electronic in nature, get one. If you’re not sure then see if you can try one out at an Apple store, but beware they are hard to resist!
I’ve written my thoughts on the final episode of Lost on my Lost website, but I want to repost it here because it’s personal to me. I want to make a separate post on the fallout of the show, but not here, I don’t want to sully my utter love for it 
I was awake at 4am on Monday 24th May 2010. Any other date and this would be a depressing time to be awake. But today was special. The end of Lost. Was it worth getting up for? Yes. A million times yes.
It goes without saying that I am of course a huge Lost fan. You can call me a fanboy or apologist or whatever you like, I love this show flaws and all and what you are about to read comes from the heart. The reason I’ve not said this is a review is because it probably wont be all that critical. Of course the rest of this article contains major spoilers, read ahead at your own risk. Read more