Personal – Page 10

Happy New Year

A bit late due to being down south but Happy New Year to everyone. Last year ended on a bit of a downer with some family deaths…in fact there were a lot of people I knew off who passed away and that sad fact can only be tempered by the amount of births with Roy already announcing another for this year. As per usual I have no resolutions for the year or major goals (although a little weight loss would be helpful) although I will try to keep in touch (and visit) more friends than I normally do. Be warned!

So – 2005. My best bits?

Music
A close thing for my favourite album but Madonna just snuck it. I loved almost every track on the album and could listen to it straight through time after time. Not bad for a 47 year old. Other’s I loved included Amerie, Chemical Brothers, Franz Ferdinand, Gorillaz and Hard-Fi. Coldplay’s X&Y was also a grower – at first I wasn’t sure but it has turned into an essential album. KT Tunstall was also listened too loads this year but that was definitely a 2004 album.

Games
Project Gotham 3 was my favourite game – there are very few that I try and complete but this was one of them. A strong single player mode and great online options make this an easy winner. Other greats – Geometry Wars, Call of Duty 2 (even I’m surprised at the quality of this game), GTA3:Liberty City Stories, Wipeout Pure and Halo 2 sneaks in for most played game.

Film
This year was a little weak for me with regards film. I loved Batman Begins although that is probably more to do with my Batman fixation than the quality of the film. Notable mentions – Crash, War of the Worlds, Sideways (maybe last year) and A History of Violence. Not seen King Kong or Munich though so this list will probably change.

Here’s looking forward to more in 2006.

It’s snowing

The Child

For years I’ve always enjoyed reading and watching Batman. I remember ages ago seeing a Batman figure in the window of Forbidden Planet (sad sacks shop) and for weeks wanted to buy it but I was a poor student at the time and just never got round to it. Shakeel pointed out some vinyl figures made by Kotobukiya although they were mostly Star Wars.

However by the magic that is EBay I tracked down a Batman figure from the same firm – I now have it in the house and it looks great. Although it was pretty pricey I think it was worth every penny and goes nicely with the Matrix APU. The trick now is to not buy too many more – EBay is far too easy to use.

Hard Yards

Yesterday was the first round of Christmas shopping. Jenny & Rasool were visiting so to the shops we went. Ouch – feet still sore from the 8 hours of shopping that we did. The main point is that we were pretty successful so only another couple of small trips are required.

I know folk think I’m mad doing real life shopping when Amazon can make it so much easier but it is so impersonal to order Christmas gifts that way. I hate to think of presents arriving at the house like that when I can easily pop into town and make an effort to buy them – makes it feel more like a gift. Also allows you to browse and see things you just wouldn’t see online.

Online I tend to go to certain sites, search for specific items – I find it hard to just browse. Shopping in the real world….things catch my eye, idea’s pop into my head, apple cake tastes really nice. Today was also another task that I HATE doing. Wrapping presents. It’s such a pointless exercise but we all still do it. Better watch – ghost of Christmas past will be visiting if I keep this up.

Tidy up time

Got into the garden over the weekend – hedge cut, borders tidied and grass cut. Even cleared out the garage of some of the mess thats built up over the last six months and took it to the dump. I’m determined to keep it clear and not let it build up again.

Since the work we had done I hadn’t taken any pictures – that’s now rectified with the results up on Flickr. The surprise wasn’t the difference we’ve made in the last two years but the fact we’ve got a second skylight that we hadn’t noticed before. If it wasn’t for West Wing I’d be in the attic investigating but that can keep for another night.

Rants

I’ve got quite a few posts to put up but really have to get a few moans out of the way first – think of it as cleansing.

Plusnet. Although I’ve moved to Freedom2Surf that doesn’t take place until the 6th of October so I still need to suffer. Not only is the Usenet speed slow during the day as well, but they are wanting users to vote for them in the PC Pro 2005 awards. Cheeky bards. What’s worse is that they can e-mail all their users about voting for them and how they could win prizes yet they can’t e-mail them to say that their pricing is changed or their accounts are totally different from when they signed up. Apparently there is a communications opt out checkbox hidden in the terms and conditions but nobody mentioned that the checkbox had been added and unless you visit the forums you won’t know it’s there or how to opt out.
Why does the new Apple Nano in black come with white headphones. Just looks daft. I guess it’s so the adverts still work.
In the same vain – why did the black PSP come with white headphones and white adaptor. It looked cheap Mr Sony and was white because of the iPod.
The Xbox 360 – 2 different versions of the hardware is impacting on how games are being developed and what features are added. See this article for more info. Fools.
Rangers are mince. Watched the game yesterday (for free on Freeview – nice) and they were woeful. Lucky it wasn’t a heavier defeat. Bring on Inter!!
It’s a holiday weekend. Off Monday & Tuesday. The weathers crap and I’ve got work from the office to do. Bah.
Why does plaster soak up so much paint. Even though I put two coats of sealer on it’s still soaking up the paint. Oh well – time to put on another coat.

And relax…

Down South

Had a quick trip down to Peterborough and Scunthorpe. Nice time had by all and coincided with Hamid’s 32nd birthday. Doesn’t time fly when your getting old. Good to catch up with everyone and I managed to avoid my usual trick of ordering an overpriced gadget that I didn’t really need. Although since then Shakeel has ordered a laptop so I’ve kept up my part of the bargain and ordered a new monitor. Now if only someone could ship it to me before the weekend. Swine’s.

Daddy Graham

Baby Ali with dad. Isn’t he cute – Ali – not his dad.

A decade has passed…

…since I graduated from Uni. A lot has happened in the last 10 years but strangely some things are still the same. Have things turned out as I expected – feck no. But things could have been a whole lot worse so I guess I should be relatively happy with my lot.

The graduations at Glasgow Uni are pretty cool (well I thought so). Bute Hall, quadrangles, nice weather, loads of folk dressed up all made for quite a special day. Photo’s can be found here (although they’ll be moving to a Flickr account soon). We haven’t aged one bit, or put on any weight. Ricky’s take on things here.

Gutted

Picked up the kitten on Friday. She was a handful and not very friendly – lots of spitting and just unhappy. By Saturday she had really brightened up and was friendly, eating and drinking and getting use to her new home. It was then I realised that I was sneezing quite a bit, my throat was sore and my eyes running. I spent a couple of hours away form the kitten and then went back for another play – same again. Crap – I was allergic to her.

We were both gutted and the allergic reaction to her only got worse. I couldn’t believe it – I’ve always been around cats and pets and never suffered before. We took the decision to take her back to the cat protection league this morning before we got too attached. Although we only had her for two days it was still heart breaking. Hopefully she’ll find a new home quickly as she was a lovely wee cat.