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.

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!

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 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.

I’m not sure where to start to be honest. To stick with the less controversial I’ll go with the on-island events. When all’s been said and done, the on island events are almost trivial. That’s not to say they weren’t entertaining, they were. The Jack and Locke faceoff was satisfying, the danger of the island sinking gave everything a sense of urgency and there was still the uncertainty as to how it would all end. I’m not surprised that it was Hurley who would end up protector of the island, he had been my prediction for a long while. It was a touching moment too when he asked Ben to be his number 2. Mythology wise we got to learn a little more about the light at the centre of the island. Not enough to satisfy everyone as there are people that want to know why or how this ‘magic plug’ works, who built that, how did they know about it etc, the questions could go on forever. I think those people are missing the point of the show. Call it a plot device or a McGuffin, whatever you like. Just accept that this thing does what we’ve been shown it does and take it at face value. The island events end fittingly with Jack in the same place he woke up on the island, bringing things full circle. It wasn’t Jack’s death that turned on the waterworks (which to be honest were on and off all the way through), it was Vincent laying beside him. He didn’t die alone.
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The ‘sideways’ universe is where the heart of the episode was. We finally learn what it is, and it’s something that I think will anger a lot of fans. I’ve already seen the scathing review in io9 and in various comments threads. It’s the same reaction to the end of Battlestar Galactica. The arguments seem to boil down to this: because the endings had religious/spiritual themes and things were left unexplained, that the entire show was a waste of their time. Even if people had been in love with the show, the final 15 minutes ruined it all. Going back to what I said earlier, these people are missing the point. The show has always been about the journey, not the destination. This show has always had mysteries, it’s part of what kept people watching. As each one was solved, a dozen more were created. The important ones were solved though, at least for me. To think everything would be solved in a show like this was to be naive. But apart from the mysteries it was of course the characters and their relationships that defined the show. The stories, the setting, the sci-fi elements are just decoration. Exciting, interesting decoration, but still just things to frame the meat of the show that is the characters.

The final mystery of the sideways universe was explained as some form of existence for those who have died and have yet to move on. Now let’s not confuse this (as some people already have) by saying that they were all dead all along. They weren’t, they died as and when we saw it on the show. The final season showed us where the characters went when they died. They lived out their lives in a world where they didn’t crash on the island. But to move on they needed to resolve their issues, which for most of them was to be with the ones they loved. Christian Shepard managed to explain where they all were with very few words. Like he said, some died before Jack, some died after. This is pretty much confirmed when Hurley and Ben acknowledge their time as guardians of the island.

Was this ‘limbo’ universe a satisfactory way of tying everything up? I think so. Considering what has happened on the show you can’t dismiss it for being unrealistic. Yes the producers made a mistake by early on saying everything would be explained scientifically. I think if they could time travel they’d stop themselves from ever saying that. You could poke holes at the logic of it, even by Lost standards. For example, are we to assume those that escaped on the plane led unfulfilled lives? Did they not go on to fall in love again? I’d have thought at the very least Sawyer and Kate may have got together. My point is the episode was no less enjoyable because of this.

Ok so far I’ve managed not to gush about The End. but gush I have done. Emotionally, The End is perfect. On all but the John Locke flashback/remembering moments I was in tears. Part of this was the choice of flashbacks, most of them being the most emotional and important moments of their lives but also the brilliant, heart stirring music by Michael Giacchino. Each of these scenes brought closure to those characters and to me as a viewer. They all got their happy ending, even if it was in the afterlife.

The End was quite simply brilliant. I could not think of a more perfect ending to the show. In a way I was in that church with them. I’d got the closure I needed, I’d seen all I needed to see, I had my happy ending and I can move on. I honestly don’t feel the need to debate things for all eternity, to pick apart the show for it’s inconsistencies, to list every mystery that wasn’t explained and come up with my own answers for them. I have been taken on the most magnificent journey, one that I can’t imagine being matched or surpassed for a long time.

Although I plan on writing a big ‘thankyou’ article to further praise those that made Lost over the years, I would like to say now a huge thankyou to Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and Michael Giacchino. You guys for me are the heart and soul of Lost.

A perfect ending to a brilliant show:  The End.

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“Our growth and resilience is truly inspiring. The BNP has arrived and will be knocking on the doors of power sooner than some ever imagined!”

Let’s see, they had a 1.8% increase. Assuming their money hasn’t run out and they don’t destroy themselves through in-fighting, and an election every 4 years, why yes you’ll be in power in a few hundred years!

The answer of course is yes. Yes it is sad.

I have been weighing up whether or not I want to sell my Macbook to buy my iPad. The kicker is that I know someone that I could probably sell it to quickly. As the majority of my internet activity will likely switch to my iPad, the Macbook gets a little redundant. However, I think I just can’t do it. I’ll be selling it for half of what it cost me and saying goodbye to quite a lot of nice software. Plus, 3 years on it’s still a cracking good laptop. So I decided to keep it.

As I have my gaming PC and a netbook I thought there’s not a lot of need to keep my Windows Boot Camp partition about. So I decide to reclaim that space. It did not go well. I’m not sure what I did wrong, but frankly I’m surprised that I was able to fuck things up. That I know of, I didn’t do a damn thing to my Mac partition. Anyway, basically I lost all my stuff.

Enter: Time Machine! It has saved my bacon once before. But I am not very good at backing up. I usually ignore those “You have not backed up in 200 days” style messages. But I decided to do a backup in mid Feb, and for that I am very glad because before that my last backup was August last year! The problem is all my photos and music is obviously digital. You can’t retake those photos and you can’t (in the case of iTunes) re-download the music. I do copy most of my music to my gaming PC but not always straight away. So I could have lost a lot of money’s worth of stuff! Luckily any photos I lost should be on K’s laptop, and the best ones I usually upload to Facebook anyway.

So the moral of the story is, back up your stuff!

Be warned, there’s a lot of waffle here! So much so I think I’ll have to insist you click to see more…

(EDIT: I’ve just realised how horrid the headings are in this theme. I can’t be bothered changing them now but hope to soon)

Games

WoW wise, I’ve slowed down since I hit lvl 80. It also helps I’ve finally got my Chef’s Hat, costing 100 Dalaran Awards. So I don’t have to do the daily cooking and fishing quests. Though if I have the time I do indulge on the chance I’ll get a rare item. I have been loving the random dungeon finder and runs are so quick with this that I can usually squeeze in a random normal, heroic, the Tournament dailies and the cooking/fishing quests in an hour-ish. The dungeon runs are pretty soulless as groups tend to be of the “GO!GO!GO!” variety. However my aim really is to gear up a little more (got some good healing gear, though need some decent leg and trinket items!) and then start looking for a family oriented guild. I’d love to start doing 10 man raids but most people organise this for 7pm ish which is bang in the middle of bathing and putting Hannah to bed. I’d want to start at about 9pm really as that gives me time to go to her if she hasn’t settled and hopefully anything after that Kat can deal with!

Still on the topic of games, I’m getting rather excited about Star Trek Online. In fact I’ve just pre-odered it after reading Tom Francis’s preview. I have no doubt certain aspects will be ropey (such as ground combat) but the idea of an MMO that lets you develop a party of characters is quite appealing, and of course ship combat.

Other than that I’ve picked up a few games in the sales:

• Osmos
• Braid
• Ben there, Dan that & Time Gentlemen Please (Double Pack)
• Red Faction 3
• Borderlands
• Braid

Some of those were very, very cheap in the Steam sale. I won’t go into detail about them all, but I’ve completed Ben there, Dan that (available free here), enjoyed quite a bit of Osmos, a few minutes on Braid and a few hours on Borderlands and Red Faction 3 each. The latter I was…a little dissapointed by. Red Faction 3 is great in concept, I think the problem is actually with me. I don’t like the GTA ‘living city’ style game, they’re a bit too free form? The demolition physics are fantastic, and the game is certainly great for a quick ‘blow everything up’ game but just didn’t grip me.

Borderlands on the other hand has the mechanics that appeal to me (an FPS Diablo, essentially) but the UI has not really been designed for the PC which just smacks of laziness. I shall try it multiplayer though where I think it’ll fare better.

Rob recently got Dawn of War 2, and we’ve played a bit of Last Stand and campaign co-op which seem quite fun.

Comics

I’ve just caught up with the recent Matt Fraction series of Iron Man and I have to say I’ve really enjoyed it! In addition to that I’ve continued with Dark Avengers, New Avengers, Astonishing X-Men and Captain America.

Dark Avengers I quite enjoy, I love Norman Osborne and am just waiting for him to finally snap. New Avengers is as usual a bit average but fun fluff.

Astonishing X-Men has just about recovered from the truly awful Warren Ellis initial run. I don’t know if he realised it was shit, or it’s the new artists or both, but it seems much better at the minute so I’ll stick with it. I’m hoping really that Joss Whedon returns to the series. Or actually if Kieron Gillen would. Gillen used to be my favourite games journalist a while back. I think all the awards made him a bit too pretentious for a while, but from the previews of his run on S.W.O.R.D (which is tightly linked with AXM), I think he could do the series well.

Captain America is getting back to being one of my favourite series. I have to say I’ve not enjoyed it much since Captain America died and Bucky took the mantle. I loved Bucky, but since he’s been Cap and they’ve OD’d on the WW2 stuff I’ve found it a bit of a bore, and dissapointed that during Dark Reign that a new Captain America hasn’t been the beacon of light for our heroes that he should have been. Though I do understand that Brian Michael Bendis has had the major heroes fail so that they can rise better than ever, which is pretty much what is happening. There’s only 1 issue left of the ‘Reborn’ series to go where Steve Rogers will return. Which I’m excited about because I love Steve. And the prospect of there being 2 Captain America’s is interesting, I wonder if Bucky will be renamed?

I’ve also started reading Ultimate Avengers, which has the brilliant Mark Millar returning to the Ultimates universe. So far I’ve really enjoyed it, quite a radical move to have the Red Skull as Cap’s son, and Cap going ape shit about it! I think this’ll be on my regulars list.

Last week I got the JMS (I can’t spell his full name…) trades of Thor. With Thor, Cap and Iron Man all returning to former glories soon for the up coming Marvel event ‘Siege’, I feel I need to complete the trilogy and get caught up. It also helps that there are Cap, Thor and Avengers movies in the works which has got me excited about these characters. In the next few weeks I think I’m actually going to bite the bullet and subscribe to these titles from a comics. Yes I know it’s about 3 times more expensive than waiting for the trades, but the 6 month plus wait for those is too long!

Other stuff

Well work is work. Nothing much to note. My degree is going ok, submitted my first assignment for the new course last week, I think I’ve done ok. My other course starts in a couple of weeks so yay, double the work!

Hannah wise she’s of course as lovely as ever. The super cute thing at the moment is that she really loves books, always bringing them to us to read to her. One of them has flaps that reveal pictures, and one of those is a tiger mask. So we say “Tiger, rarrrgh!” and she says “Rarrrgh!” back! It’s so funny. It’s impressive too that she can be looking through the book on her own and she will recognise the picture and say ‘”Rarrrgh!”. However she some times gets it wrong, and apparently a giraffe and an elephant also go “Rarrrgh!”…

Anyway I shall try and update more, which I always say but hey, perhaps I’ll keep to it this time?

BUY IT!

Yeah I can understand the counter arguments. Centralising everything to Google creates a monopoly, less visits to the actual websites means less revenue from ads etc. But still, it’d be cool. Perhaps make the feature optional? Commercial websites could make it a perk of being a paid subscriber? I don’t know.

In other news, I’ve got my MAC code from Virgin and going begging back to Zen Internet. I got pissed at Zen when I went over my limit and they charged extortionate amounts for additional bandwidth. After months of shitty pings and streaming video using Virgin I’d gladly pony up the extra £10 for top quality service. Despite the price, I always had a great connection with Zen and they have won multiple awards for it.

This should mean more time for WoW, rather than the roll a 6 system I’m going through. I don’t get huge amounts of free time (even less as the work from my OU course picks up soon) and when I do I like to play WoW. There’s nothing more annoying that logging on to see a ping between 1000-20000ms before being disconnected. I’m really enjoying playing my druid and I dinged 75 last night making this the highest character I’ve played. I’m about 500g off Epic Flight Form (despite having to wait to lvl77 and another 1k to use it in Northrend) and really enjoying the lore in Northrend. I’m looking forward once I hit 80 to taking my time to find read all the little interesting books and doing missed quests, fishing in Dalaran for coins and doing all the obscure achievements.

Warcrack indeed