Today

Ahhh April Fool's day - the celebration of silly things & also strangly the first day for paying rent - strange but true. To celebrate this strange day, take a look at some of the best april fools gags around. My personal favouties are the 'left-handed Whopper', 'Drink-driving whilst on the internet', 'Internet spring cleaning' & 'Flying Penguins'.

However the classic 'Rickroll' seesm to be missing. This was an internet meme where almost every seemingly useful link on the internet (including all the main videos on the front page of Youtube) was redirected to a video of Rick Astley's epic (i.e. fail) 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. This happened in 2008 where it was everywhere!

We'll see what today brings, but comedy always happens...rofl!

We continue....

End of 24

The end of an era is amongst us - the current season of 24 will be the last. My reaction was a very loud 'WHAT?!' It's a very sad day when great shows get cancelled/finish -the great like Firefly or The Wire, or to a certain extent The Bill!

From the Beeb entertainment article where they have announced today that this will be Jack Bauer's last outing - in his own words - the star of 24 Keifer Sutherland said:

"This has been the role of a lifetime, and I will never be able to fully express my appreciation to everyone who made it possible." 

A longer rant/look back at the show will be following this later on this week (when I finally get teh interweebs up & running in my new house) but for now - so long Jack - we will miss you & I can't wait to see how this show finishes, but as you repeatedly say...dammit!

Muse-musing

Having recently watched the H.A.A.R.P. DVD by the mighty Muse for the first time in ages - it's the recording of their 2007 Wembley 'Black Holes & Revelations' tour concert (which I was lucky enough to see live!) & it showcases the quality of their performance.

Muse are a band that are very difficult to dislike - there is a mix of sound & when live their showmanship is quite something to behold. Watching their lead singer / guitarist / pianist (+ frontman / legend) Matt Bellamy is like watching one of the masters of guitar; Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Mark Knoffler, etc.or the more recent upstarts like; Slash, Kirk Hammet, John Fusciante or Jack White. The way this guy plays guitar is really something else - check out their video for Plug in Baby from the H.A.A.R.P. DVD & you'll see what I mean:



I strongly suggest checking these guys out if you haven't already - they've been round the world many times, released fantastic songs, have played festivals like Glastonbury, Reading/Leeds, V & even played to a sold-out Wembley (the pinacle for UK bands as far as I'm concerned) twice (so far)

....the mighty MUSE we salute you

Out of Control(lers)

OK there's been a lot of talk about the next big thing in gaming. The response from the gaming industry has been not (yet) been the development of new consoles, but instead look at new controller systems. So here's what's going on with the 3 big console companies:

Nintendo (Wii) were the first to release a motion controller. Thier first controller was the wireless Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device using optical technology (very similar to remote controls & has a big receiver bar placed on or in front of the TV) and detects movement in 3 dimensions.They also have a 'Nunchuk' which works along side it (again with 3D movement) creating in total a 6 axis control mechanism. Their new controller is the Wii MotionPlus & this is a method of sharpening up the movement detection - critically without the need to purchase a whole new set of controllers. This is different & arguably better, because it's a 'snap-on' addition, not a whole redesign. However, I'm not convinced of the Wii as a 'gamer's console', but as a family-based entertainment console - that is hard to argue against.

Sony (PlayStation 3) released a 6-axis controller with the PS3, but so far all the games released which are compatible (surprisingly few) have been more gimmicky than functional or natural (I'm thinking of you 'Lair'. The design is nothing new - it's a little new tech under the hood (sixaxis & bluetooth wireless) but the design is the same as the dualshock controller from the original PlayStation (circa 1997). What Sony decided to to was (arguably) use a 'similar' idea to the Wii's controller - called Move. Now to me, this looks just like a smaller Wii Remote in black rather than white. Time will have to tell on this one, but it appears that this is just Sony attempting to break into the 'family' area of the gaming market. Further reading on Xplay

Microsoft (Xbox 360) have once again done things a little different,ly. The Xbox 360 had redesigned controllers in either wired or (bluetooth)  wireless versions, in a variety of colours. The controllers are my preferred choice out of all the major consoles (biased but it's OK - it's only my opinion!) & I hoped that they would not go the same way as all their competitors & do something that looks suspiciously like a jumped-up TV remote! Well what they did is to create Project Natal which at first glance looks very odd, when you first see what it does it looks like a grown-up version of the Live Vision/Eye. The idea is that it's smart  version of motion capture - once you're 'captured' you can "control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller through a natural user interface using gestures, spoken commands, or presented objects and images" (thanks Wiki!). Again it's not out yet to consumers, but the industry insiders & testers (mostly from Lionhead Studios - the crew behind the award-winning Fable series) are saying good things. I'll wait to give a full account as to what this means for the 'average' gamer...

But here's my issue with the whole controller 'revolution' (especially Natal) - they all depend, to varying extents, the dexterity & mobility of the individual players. Therefore you could argue that if you have a lack of those dependants - you could well be scuppered with the new mostion controllers/sensors. I think this is a problem which keeps some consumers away from the Wii (mostly the more hardcore gamers) generally, but I think that it's a limiting factor & not one the industry is taking a great deal of notice of...we shall see.

...we continue

3D Cinema - does it make any difference

So I watched my third 3D movie on Saturday night (also the third with Maddie!) the rather brilliant Alice in Wonderland & it got my brain thinking about the whole 3D cinema (& forthcoming Sky TV) move in 2009/2010. It's not the first time that the film industry has tried 3D - I researched a bit & they existed even in the late 1800's - it's not a new idea. However in 2008 there was a small number of releases in 3D, then in 2009, there was a resurgence of 3D entering the mainstream - there were at least a dozen last year, of which I saw 2: Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs & Avatar.Now in 2010 they're everywhere! So below are my thoughts:

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - was my first foray into 'the world of 3D cinema' (yes I'm aware of the 'I wish everything was in 3D' gag - I keep spreading it after all!) & it was immediately apparent that there was something different about the presentation of the film - the screen seemed more alive than ever before.It was quite bizarre to see Manny's tusks & trunk (he's the Mammoth don't you know!) pop out of the screen - bizarre but good. Also because 3D is effectively messing with your perspectives & depth perception, it took a little while for my eyes to adjust. One thing that I thought was useful for this was one of the adverts (for Real D, the 3D glasses company) which had a dog with a ball which he chased round the screen - nice.

Avatar - simply stunning in 3D - there's lots of depth perception & it's a great movie...& so it should be, with a supposed budget of around $500m, I would expect excellence! It was subtle in the most part - fireflys & sparks/ash outside the main screen, pieces of scenery flying towards you - it was magical stuff. I'll wait till I get it on Blu Ray (end of April) & think on it again, but a definite winner in my book! You definitely get a sense of the fabric of the universe that Jim Cameron was trying to create. As with all films there are elements of plodding at points, but the general progression of the film was of the most epic of scales. You could tell it was in 3D but it was subtle enough but even from some of the earliest scenes (with the main protagonist coming out of cybersleep) show the huge depth & lengths that the director went to 3D pretty much everything. It's the highest grossing film of all time (so far)...I think I know why, but is it the 3D element or not - that's to be seen when the Blu Ray appears next month.

Alice in Wonderland - a very good film, but the 3D element was almost unnoticeable (apart from the traditional & necessary running through the trees clip). However, the film was (pardon the obvious pun) wonderful. I'm vaguely familiar with the source material (I must have seen Disney animate version at some point in my youth) & knew some of the characters. I also know that the author was based in Oxford. However, it was exciting to see a fresh take on everything & Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat was brilliant. All the characters seemed authentic & magical and it really did feel like a dream most of the time. Jonny Depp was his usual mad self (sorry!) as the Hatter & Helena Bonham-Carter was great as the selfish Red Queen. I think it's definitely worth watching, but I'm not sure that the 3D element was essential, as it's difficult to see where it was used. However, this might well be the beauty of the medium.

For further reading: this BBC article looks at the current trend of fast releases for home use (Blu Ray & DVD) - an interesting read.

And while the debate about DVD release windows goes on, a further element in the mix is the dawn of 3D television.3D sets are already on sale in the US, and manufacturers hope to launch their products in the UK and Europe over the next couple of months. Sky rolls out its 3D service to customers later this year."3D in the home is coming," says Mr Cooper, "but those TV sets are going to be a bit more expensive than the standard top of the range 2D HD TVs - and if people want to watch 3D films it is a question of buying into a 3D enabled Blu-ray player."

The debate continues...

Friday roundup

So it's Friday, I'm packed & ready to go down to Canterbury (in fact by the time this has autoposted - I will be on my way!) & I'm very much looking forward to seeing the Madd one again.

It's been a funny old week - either super-busy or super-quiet at work (currently the latter) - which gives me space to look at my project work. Me & Madds went up to Woking to surprise her mum for Mother's Day (she had no idea - it was genious!). I got a real short haircut, hung out with both my mother & little brother & generally had family being exceptionally nice. Also very nearly moved into the new house - the only minor hitch struggling to actually get my sofabed indoors!

However, throughout this week there was a strange sense of lonliness - I'm not sure I can pinpoint what that is - possibly just moving somewhere new (out of the 'family home'). I think the fact that I've been offline for a week or so hasn't helped, but going to see some friends & Madds this weekend will help enormously.

The weird thing about being offline (no internet/online gaming) is that I seem to be missing from the online community of gamers within my clan - weirdness.

One could argue that it's good to disconnect & to some extent I agree - but when the dust settles on my housemove - I'm going to need something to occupy myself & stop me spending unnecessary money - things are going to get more complicated soon & with rent & household bills to pay for the first time - everything matters!

Right enough random ranting for now - we continue

Updated Blogger

I will be playing with this site over this week to try to give it a fresh look - so if it keeps changing on you - it's because I'm playing with the formatting (also the fundamental flaw of Live updating on teh interweebs).

We continue...

UPDATE: I've also shifted a few apps & created an about page - enjoy!

UPDATE 2: I've also just (not-so-automatically) imported all my old Brainshare posts - there really weren't that many & have added them, including original comments to this blog - nice housekeeping job!

Personal, but no bad thing

I've been meaning to blog again, but once again life has been a little hectic so here we go again.

The main reason I missed the last couple of weeks has been a massive shift in my concentration - I've been focusing heavily on helping Madds in Canterbury, moving into my new house & also heavily involved in my research project in work. I'll fill you in on a few of them.

Madds let out a cry for help [a couple of weeks ago now] - I answered that call & brought her back from to be with her family. This has caused me to pay much closer attention to her & listen very carefully to everything from the tone of her voice, to the words she uses when we talk. What has made me think & reflect a little is the fact that I knew in my heart I had to go & I think God was active in making it happen. If we need proof - the fact that she's not in hospital works for me.

In a less serious, but still rad way my house-move is so nearly finished - everything is there, apart from about 1 box of belongings, a sofabed & a suitcase of clothes & I'm in! All I have to do is get my services over - this is now operation 'Get up & running' [not to be confused with anything to do with exercise!] sorting out bills & services etc.

In a more work related way, I've finished my first epic project in my job - creating a map of which local authority [LEA] uses which Virtual Learning Environment [VLE] provider. Next up I have to redesign the old FAQ intranet site which is definitely going to be a long old project - but definitely something to keep me occupied during holiday periods.

There's so very many new things going on that hopefully regular updates will be happening...hopefully!

We continue...

OK GO!

I just had to post this - it's everywhere at the moment [tagbacks to Youthblog for the original lol]. This video is so well made it's insane & the effort they made to make it was truely inspiring. Check it out below:



Also just for fun, here are some of their older videos the treadmill & the old school classic dance video.

Great stuff

Moving Out & On

Another week, another blog. This week's random thoughts are about the whole concept of moving out of where I am now & into my first house!
I've lived in Kidlington for about 15 years, with my Grandfather (Ian), since secondary school & it has been a bit of a mixed blessing - sometime marvellous with friends old & new & sometimes periods of great loneliness & frustration.

However, this is not my main reasoning for this blog - it's the fact that I'm now moving out & on to a new place. It's not going to be perfect (in fact, some might say it's very much far from it!) but it's a new place to call home. The idea is that I will then carve out some independence & learn how to make my way in the world myself. In doing this, I've ended up starting to pack up my possessions & have of course in the process had to 'lose' some 'less necessary' ones!

When doing this I have got rid of such random things like boxes of memories containing this from school & my childhood - the classic was my A Level Biology folder which had some classic 'additions' to it - bringing back memories of people borrowing my stuff & returning it covered in pictures of naked chicks & Begbie from the movie trainspotting - weird!

The really important thing for me was finding an old box of photographs & a box of letters & cards. I've kept all the photos & will need to go through them & maybe put them in albums eventually.

However, it was the letters that really stuck for me as I went though & sifted the cool from the yawn/fail. There were some letter from my Grandmother (Jean), which I had to mostly purge, but there were letters from Princess Diana & Earl Spencer's family, Mohamed Al-Fayed & even from the King of Jordan - definitely keeping those then!

The most interesting ones for me were from a time before emails (yes kids it did exist!) & people like Jo, Giz, Cheryl, Vet Boy & I used to communicate with the hand-written word! It brought back the classic memories of being a teenager & much happier & innocent times. I think I might have to dig them out next time I see them all - to see the reaction their words get!

Overall it's rather therapeutic to start to sift through things & purge a little, but also sad to say goodbye to bygone ages & periods of my life. And yet exciting to be starting something new. all this has come through one day of packing up - what will tomorrow bring?!

To be continued...

Musical Interlude

Have to post this link - just for this track really: Friendly Fires: "Jump in the Pool" seriously huge song & the horn noise around 2:25 mark is epic - enjoy:

Great Moments in Life: Holidays

Playing on the black gravel beaches of Teneriffe with my little bother, when were much more innocent children.

Learning to ski in Serre Chevalier as a per-teen whilst still at school & earning my 3 star's badges.

The French Exchanges - I've been on 2 & they both involved mostly learning to swear in french! However, the experiences of other cultures useful for setting me up later in life with an interest in cultures.

Giant seafood & epic meals in Portugal - including giant grilled prawns - learning the word langoustine!

Staying in the Schweizerhof in Davos with James, Susan & Don & Will & Kat. Also in the same resort being there at the same time as one of the World Economic Forum guns, barriers & security everywhere.

Skiing in Galtur [Austria] with the Cranston clan on numerous occasions - great memories of hanging with all manner of creature; all the Cranstons & Hobbit, Nate Adams, Dave & Rachel Adams & Madds & the old man - brilliant holidays.


Road trips in the summer 2005/6/7/8 - packing as much clothing & gear as could fit in the car - drive to see friends & family & living out of my car - a lot of fun & would recommend it to those wanting to escape for a few weeks of unplanned win.

Getting the chance to go to America in 2008 - a whirlwind trip starting with getting a flight within a couple of days of finding out I was going, to meeting up with a party of people who I'd never met before & had no idea what thy looked it, going to New York & Washington (amongst other places) & sitting in the House of Representatives & seeing the media broadcast room - epic!

Great Moments in Life: Dance Music

Discovering Trance - Gatecrasher Red on cassette & then the arrival of CD's meant life would never be the same again - dance music forever a part of my psyche.


Being given & educated in, eclectric music [thanks Chris Bradford & Matt 'Brad' Oakley], then seeing Lemon Jelly play in Birmingham, after getting 4 tickets, taking both my parents to a gig together - classic gig.

Discovering Hard House - via Rick Castle/ISC crew - Insomnia 1 & Hard House Euphoria begin a long & industrious career as a clubber/cyberfreak - baggy combats, Acupunture shoes, tight Cyberdog (ultraviolet glowing) vest tops & spiky multi-coloured hair! My understanding of Dance musical genre expanding rapidly.

Clubbing for the first time properly to Hard House - Storm [Coalville/Leicester]  with some of the old ISC configs crew - best moment all lined up on the podiums, all pretending to fly in formation - brilliant.

Becoming a member of Sundissential [I still have my members card!] & discovering the joys of real clubbing, although I must admit I was the only one just on just water & not other...chemicals, but the experience of very happy people just there for the music & the atmosphere of awesomes.

Seeing the epic Lab-4 playing Sundissential & 2 venues in Oxford, getting Adam's autograph & chatting to the big man himself - always the toughest music & no DJ could follow them - they had to be the set closers of choice! No hard house DJ/artist was tougher back in the day.

Meeting up with Ed Steele [from school] & discovering that he is a DJ & one half of a breaks DJ team & runs a night in Oxford - the legendary Fresh Out the Box. Cue trying to find any CD I own of breaks music, the only one being Elastic Beats from Mixmag.

Discovering the joys of Adam Freeland - his live mixes: Wonderlust & Essential Mixes, the COPE album & Evil 9 , Ills & Fabric mixes - these are the breaks becoming a permanent fixture phrase.

Great Moments in Life: Rock Music

In no particular order:

Seeing the Silversun Pickups live in London & Oxford in 2008/9- my favourite band & with Maddie last year. Also when they payed in Oxford - going properly mad [not gone off like that since my clubbing days, nor since] to the SSPU was amazing.

Seeing the Foo Fighters live in Wembley - standing room only, epic rock & to top it off they had fireworks & released it on DVD & had one of the original guitarists (Pat Smear) joining them as a touring guitarist. Dave Grohl & his crew have been at the top of my gig list for a long time & I have now seen them 4 times & they have never failed to blow me away, if you ever get the chance to see them - do not hesitate!

Seeing the mighty Muse live in the brand-new Wembley stadium - with Hobbit, Horse & Ben - even though we were sat down it was still amazing to see the mighty boys from Devon electrify the stadium at large. They released the gig as the H.A.A.R.P. live recording & it is rather amazing & definitely worth watching.

CoD 6 MW2...again.....again [fail]

OK more of the legendary CoD6 MW2 - I've gone online, I've begun ranking & have created a clan (denoted by a 4 character tag, with [] either side) which I've called [fail] - very apt I think.

So far has only 3 members, but we work really well as a team. The others are Sparky & TC...I shall update when I manage to get to Level 70 (for far only on about 41) but it's a thoroughly exciting ride so far.

We continue..

Great Moments in Life: University

Party for my Uni class at the end of the first year [summer 2006] some wine, bbq & staying up till silly o'clock in the morning having some serious fun! Then in the morning all doing a meditation exercise, lying down, eyes closed & soft music...whoever snores first loses!


Uni residential [where all the other classes & year groups all got together for a few days at the beginning of the year] for my second year [autumn 2006] & having a beer or two with Steve, Ali, Mark & Han - happy times.

 Graduation - not taking it all too seriously, trying not to think "I'm dressed like a wizard, I'm dressed like a wizard, I'm dressed like a wizard" then my brain thinking "Expelliarmus!"

This weeks bloggeringitus

Expect many blogs this week - I've pretty much written all my Great Moments in Life articles - 4 so far & am working on the 5th, but they're on an auto-publish for the remainder of the week.

....we very definitely continue

New Console

This is a big of a double edged Blog, but here goes...

My delightful Xbox 360 failed....again - first it was the 3 red rings of death issue that I talked about over here, then the DVD-ROM drive stopped working as well (not picking up that a game was in the drive). I looked at the possibility of switching to a new DVD drive is possible, but highly complicated (have a look at this *.pdf but it looks like a total mission).

Therefore I got a totally fresh console, with warranty etc. the Elite version with 120GB hard drive which looks much better in terms of overall aesthetics, but also the quality of gaming - it's pure HDMI & you can really see the difference. I think that in comparison to the old machine there's an improved graphics card & RAM& you can see the quality jump.

The great thing is the gaming upgrade - it really feels like a new console & has a smaller power pack & colour-coded accessories & better still it came bundled with Forza 3 & Mass Effect 2 (reviews coming soon).

There is unfortunately a however...when getting the current model, there is no HDMI cable bundled with it & the controller came with non-rechargeable batteries & will require further investment to get a chargeable powerpack. Also it does not come with built-in wireless, which would have been a very nice addition (although admittedly I prefer LAN as it's a better & truer connection).

All in all am very happy with my purchase & can now get on with my serious gaming!

Gaming....we continue

Blogs being misquoted

I just saw this from Dara O'Braiain's twitter account & it's definitely a warning to other bloggers out there to be careful what you write. Have a look at this article, where this blogger has been 'quoted' in a Mail on Sunday article.Then have a quick look at her response & the impact it's caused her. I sent her a comment:

I just saw this link from Dara O'Briain's twitter & am outraged for you - it's completely ridiculous. A blog is supposed to be our private thoughts & opinions which we bear to the internet because we choose to in our own method. To have it twisted & forced into a newspaper  article - especially for something as epically fail as the Mail on Sunday - is ridiculous to say the least. I urge you to pursue this  legally, because it's unacceptable, lazy journalism & puts you in a terrible position with your job - all without your knowledge. It misrepresents you in a public forum without your permission - I'd  start kicking ass & taking names...now!

Just because I think it was necessary to support a fellow blogger - unfair is an understatement methinks.

More gamer-ing

More gaming - surely not? Well surely yes!

Another well-rated game (by Xplay 4/5) Those of us who play shooters & I'm definitely a big fan myself sometime cross over into the darkside & combine realism with a little bit of serious fiction - the dreaded Zombies! (mmmmmmmm brains - Si)



This is not the first Zombie orientated game I have played recently (the classic Dead Rising & the legendary Nazi Zombie bonus levels from Call of Duty 5: World at War) but it has a very different feel from either. Although planning is almost impossible - I have no idea where I'm going on the map...till I get there, the key difference is the simplicity of teamwork. You really will have to work as a team to survive - it's not every man for himself & if you don't heal your teammates - they won't do the same for you. Equally if you decide to run off ahead of your crew you will get overrun very quickly.


So far I've only played with as a 2 player co-op, but there is the scope for 4 player co-op which could be rather awesomes. Also there is a lot more to the game when you go online - I've not tested this out yet, but I feel it's only a matter of time.


The gameplay (so far only tested on easy) is very much run, gun & evade the horde of undead trying to help relieve you of your brain & make it alive to the 'safe room' which is full of resupply ammo & med packs & can grant a well-needed rest-bite from the chaos.

When on easy the zombies are fairly easy to dispatch, but crank it up a gear or 2 & it starts to really challenge the player. I'm still very much at the early stages, but what this game loses in graphics (they're very Valve, but not amazingly realistic) it makes up for in fun & mania.

Overall then a 4/5 from me, but I think I will wait till I've played online & see if that tips the balance into making this an awesome game!