Category: Personal

Garbage Out

Lot’s happening but not a lot of time to write about it, so in no particular order…

  • Gears of War – done! Well, on hardcore anyway. Now playing through it on insane – a lot tougher. Act 5 (last level) is very short though and while the train seems novel at first it doesn’t have the variety of earlier acts. There’s also some inspiration from the Matrix in that level but I guess it’s no bad thing. Two short games of multiplayer in the last week have confirmed what a fun game it is. Still an overall feeling of a rushed game.
  • Pro Evo 6 has been patched. It fixes the online button lag but the game still feels…wrong. Never did get my thoughts up on the 360 version but in summation – a good game with flaws…Konami is the new EA.
  • Another howling night of wind and rain. A quick trip out this morning and there was a lot of surface water around Glasgow – there will surely be quite a bit of flooding in the next few days. It’s also so mild – who said global warming isn’t making a difference.
  • After Shakeels accident on the Kingston Bridge last weekend there have been two motoring deaths this weekend on the bridge. Puts things into perspective…good to still have you around Shak.
  • Three weeks tomorrow is Christmas Day. Next week I finish work for the Christmas holidays. I C A N N O T wait…the last few months have been pretty frustrating.
  • My Lifestream is now online. Early days yet but shows some promise. Plugin here.
  • Tiger Woods 07 on the 360 is a very good game. Much improved over previous Tiger games from EA, this is actually hard as long as you play it at Tour difficulty i.e. turn off the arcade shite that EA feel they have to add to a golf (well any sports) game. My golfer is now looking disturbingly like me. Yep – that bad.
  • I resisted buying a Macbook on Friday. The temptation was strong but having to pay for MOT, service, road tax, car insurance, house insurance in a four week period (oh – and Christmas) means funds aren’t what they should be. Next year though…it shall be done. I’m still loving the Mac in case you need a hint, despite not being cool enough to own one.
  • I’m back watching Lost. First three episodes of season 3 have been pretty good – hope it continues.
  • Did I mention that I stop work on the 15th Dec to return on the 8th Jan? Bliss.

Madrid

Madrid - Plaza de ColonArrived back home from Madrid yesterday – what a great place. Unfortunately there’s not a direct flight from Glasgow to Madrid meaning we had a transfer at Schiphol in Amsterdam. On flying in you realise how flat Amsterdam and surrounding area really is. If you haven’t been before this airport is massive – we taxied over two motorways before getting off the plane. The driving around the airport is also manic – so much hussle and we had a couple of near misses in our bus to the terminal. Inside was great though – very modern and lots of shops – pity we had so little time there.

From the air the outskirts of Madrid are a total contrast to what I’m used to or expected – the area was so dry. The airport is nothing to write home about either. Our hotel and company we were visiting are based in Tres Cantos, about 20 minutes north of the centre of Madrid. There is nothing much there to see so we made our way via train back to Madrid after checking in (taxi driver did try to fleece for more money but I’ll put that down to our lack of Spanish).

Getting out the train station it took a bit of time to get our bearings – Madrid is very big and very busy and it took a half hour to work our where we were. Only now do we realise that we were 5 minutes form the Bernabeu and in time for a stadium tour – something we missed by five minutes the following night. Never mind – next time.

We walked around for a few hours then ate at Hard Rock cafe. Hardly your traditional Spanish meal but we were pooped by that time having walked down Paseo de a Castellana – one of the busiest and widest streets in Madrid. Next night we were treated to a meal by our hosts at Restaurante Gaztelupe, one of the best Basque restaurants in Madrid. What a feast. I had the monk fish and it was to die for – the restaurant is highly recommended if you ever visit Madrid although it was pretty busy so you have to book in advance. We also had a few beers in a small cafe/bar in the same area. It’s odd as the beers come in smaller sized glasses and in most paces you are served with Tapa each round – small selections of food to share. We later went to the Irish Rover – yep – an Irish themed pub. I guess it wouldn’t be a capital city without there being an Irish themed pub but unlike seemingly everywhere else it was busy for a Wednesday night at 1AM.

The train and metro system in Madrid is excellent with most services frequent and on time. We found it pretty easy to get around. Not so good was our use of the Spanish language. Terrible. Robert at least made an effort but next time I visit I will prepare beforehand and at least learn some basics.

There is so much to see and do and the people in general are pretty friendly. Weather is also good with temps of 20-24C although it was dropping to Glasgow temp’s overnight. We didn’t get anywhere near visiting the old part of Madrid or any of the museums but I have put up some photo’s of the trip. Hopefully next time will get us into the Bernabeu and other parts we haven’t yet seen.

Madrid Bound

Be a bit quiet round here for the next few days as I’m off to Madrid. Now this isn’t a holiday and is definetly a business trip with long hours and no time for play when I’m there. Honest.

Anyway – it’s a good chance to test the new iPod out. Video podcasts here I come. Still loving the mac by the way. Still amazed by the ease of use of it all.

Oh So Quiet

Not been in the mood to post recently. Combination of work (including trip to Bristol), a stinking cold (blame rests with Easyjet) and then a migraine yesterday means I’ve not had the inclination to write anything. This means I’ve made no comments on the PS3 slip (I think it’s good news to be honest) nor on Blair and New Labour or on Saints Row being more enjoyable than GTA.

The only blessing from the last week is that it’s over and tomorrow night is showtime. That 24-inch iMac is so so tempting that I may make the plunge tomorrow. I had pretty much settled on getting a Macbook Pro but I don’t need that type of power on the go. So it may be an iMac now and the gorgeousness that is 1920*1200 pixels with a Macbook early next year. Oh – and a new iPod. For once I’d love the spoof to turn out to be true.

Anyway, enjoy the show for those watching online – no doubt I’ll post with some news in the next few days.

Almost forgot…Lord of the Rings:Return of the King looked amazing in HD on Sky at the weekend. Quality of the picture was superb and looked so much better than DVD. The Proms and the live football have also been great. Sky even managed to get a decent firmware upgrade out which has fixed quite a few of the bugs. Only grumble is lack of disk space makes keeping films etc an issue, especially now that the original Star Wars movies will be broadcast in HD before Christmas. Might have to perform a sneaky disk upgrade before then.

Small Things

Lots of little things going on at the moment, best summarised with a list. Yep – not in a posting mood at the moment.

  • Glasses finally (I hope) sorted. New right lens has made a big difference.
  • Few days off work which is great – really need some time away from it.
  • No big plans though – jobs round house mostly.
  • K2 and WordPress updates have made things a bit nippier round here.
  • Tidy up of blog also – removed some redundant pages/features.
  • Ordered some new kit…NAS & USB drive to finally get my data and backup issues sorted. I’ll post results once gear is here and up and running.
  • I hate wasps!

Pseudonyms

Today I was called….

“the guy that brings in all the CD’s”
“the guy that shouts at her all the time?”
“the guy that knows about computers”
“the guy that has ‘turned on by technology’ on his website!”
“the guy that has more gadgets than I will ever allow you to own!”
“I don’t care how many X-Box’s that guy has, I’m not buying you one!”
“If you like that guys CD’s so much why don’t you feckin well move in with him?”

and those were just the things I know about. I’d hate to think how long the list would be if I overhead a few other conversations today. Still, as the quote said it’s better to be talked about than not talked about. I think.

Sneaky Orange

Opened my mobile phone bill and spotted that from 1st July Orange will now charge £1.50 to receive a fully itemised bill. As usual they will auto subscribe you to this great feature unless you opt out. To opt out text BILL to 2018 or call 150 from your phone and speak to customer services. You can get itemised billing online for free but obviously times are tight in the land of Orange. I’ll be keenly looking elsewhere as my contract is up and I don’t like underhand actions like this by companies I use. Just don’t see a phone that I want to get.