Silentbazz

Out on a limb..

2007-10-22T11:56:00.000Z

Okay, controversial statement coming up.
Brace yourself for impact..

Here goes..

I really rate Halo 3.

There, I said it. Not only have I said it, but I have blogged it for posterity so that, years from now, the evidence is still there in cyberspace that I said I rated Halo 3. So there you go, I mean it and am prepared to stand by it and everything.

I finally got through playing the single player campaign on Heroic yesterday and I can honestly say it was damn good, bloody tough in places I'll admit, but ultimately very rewarding. I think Bungie did a really good job constructing what felt like quite an epic tale (being new to the franchise, I must admit that some of the significance of some of the story threads may have been lost on me), played within a well designed and varied environment with some pretty tough opposition. And it really did feel as if I was in the middle of a huge campaign, with the events playing out having an overall effect on the whole state of the war.

Looking forward to re-visiting the game now (especially as it is ridiculously easy on Normal), and playing the amusing-sounding "Meta" game that reverts the whole single-player experience to a basic arcade game with points earned for every enemy slain. And of course, I will be playing online again soon as that's hugely cathartic after another crap day at work (when you cannot go postal at work, killing others over XBox LIVE is the next best thing).

So, thanks Bungie, for a thoroughly entertaining game. Worth every penny.

McDisappointment

2007-10-19T12:31:00.000Z

At around 11:40 there was a general panic in the world of Cranky Software Development Limited, there had been no decision on what we were doing for lunch.. As this is the single most important decision made on any given work day, and is the second highlight of the day (regular readers will know the first), realising that we had not set our minds to the task of deciding where to go for lunch certainly caused a bit of a stir. I was, as always, indecisive and beyond needing to go somewhere "near to a cash machine" I really didn't care. It took a coder with the bravado of Sir Lancelot to finally commit to a destination: McDonalds.

I rarely go to McDonalds these days as the food is undeniably shit (no matter how they dress it up, it's all pretty crappy and overpriced, but what the fuck it's within walking distance, supplies ketchup (a big plus) and comes with a free carbonated beverage) and I refuse to be one of those parents who treats McDonalds as a treat and then falls a victim to their child spotting the golden arches on every outing and demanding to eat there.

Anyway, as you approach a McDonalds you spot their advertising on the building.. "Why not try our tasty..", "The new, delicious..", yadda, yadda, yadda..

And for a second (or sometimes longer) you forget every single previous shit experience you have had at McDonalds and you actually think.. "OOh I'll try the new (insert shit burger name here)" that looks very appetising". You get to the till, speak to the shaved chimp operating it, order your meal and then - if you're very lucky- get a plastic tray with your food.

And it's just shit.

Just as shit as it always was.

Just as shit as it ever will be.

Why do I go back?
(If I was less indecisive, I guess I never would).

So the M should stand for McDisappointment, cos every time they spectaculary fail to deliver a meal that looks even 1% as appetizing as the poster.

That is all.

Hiatus

2007-10-18T12:43:00.000Z

..And look, this is where I used to blog.

Damn, I even left a half-drunk cup of coffee here

Well, waste not, want not and all that..

Guess what, boys and girls..??

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacck!

Okay nobody probably reads this any more, but I missed the cathartic feeling that ranting on here seemed to provide me with, something that even sites like Facebook couldn't rival (and yes I am on there, I'm just in "stealth" mode).

Anyhoo.. for those who have been wanting a return, watch this space.. blogging is back on my agenda

Masterful

2007-06-18T07:07:00.001Z

This weekend's Doctor Who was, quite frankly, the best episode since the new series has returned to our screens.

I was literally blown away with the reveal that an old enemy of the Doctor's has returned to the series and, despite knowing The Master would return (for the forums are littered with spoilers like this), I thought the way he was brought back was absolutely fabulous. In previous series they have left clues throughout the entire series as to how the show would end, and this series was no different. However, in previous years the "clues" have been as unsubtle as a brick to the head (with phrases like "Bad Wolf" and "Torchwood" emblazened throughout the shows leading up to the finalé). This year was so much more subtle and the final reveal, as a result, was so much more of a payoff than we've ever previously had. It was also a bit of genius casting to get Jacobi and Simm in as the Doctor's nemesis. All in all it was brilliant television and I am REALLY looking forward to the show's season finalé now.

In other news, my kids were very generous this year for Father's Day, and have bought me tickets to see the "One Man Star Wars" show at the Lowry next week, which has gone down a storm off Broadway and at the Edinburgh fringe. Cannot wait. Bit of a Sci-Fi geek triumphant weekend all in all. Marvellous.

Sweet Dreams..

2007-06-13T07:15:00.000Z

I have started dreaming again - yay!
Dreams have been noticeably absent (well, proper lucid ones that you can actually remember, anyway) in the last year or so mainly because of a small squeaky daughter of mine waking up in the night. It's taken her the best part of twelve months to begin sleeping the night through you see (mainly due to the fact that she has always been quite little), and so sustained periods of sleep have been few and far between (certainly without the aid of alcohol anyway).

And it's a shame that the dreams have been absent, as my imagination certainly has quite a large special-effects budget on any given night, providing photo-realistic images of everything from the surreal to the apocalyptic. My sub-consious really does pull no punches when given the opportunity to flex its imaginative muscles.

So even if they've started slow (last night's dream seemed to be concerned with the inability to get served with three pints of lager in the space of a lunchtime), I look forward to the Hollywood-esque effects-driven spectaculars that I've had in the past, as sweet dreams are made of these..

Cool

2007-06-12T07:09:00.002Z

As well as being a fantastic racer, Forza 2 also allows you to add your own custom designs to your motor. Now, most likely due to copyright reasons, you cannot just upload a jpeg, but rather you must create your designs yourself, building them up from a number of basic shapes. You can apply up to a 1000 layers to each side of the car, and that will allow for some fairly groovy images (in fact if you do a search on some of the Forza forums you will see that some really talented indiciduals have already adorned their cars with images of the Simpsons, Family Guy, etc, etc).

Now, although not being abundently artistically talented or having a huge amount of time on my hands, I'd thought I'd have a go. And you can see the results, my Nine Inch Nails Golf Gti. Looks pretty cool I think..

Of course, that's not the main point of the game, and Forza is still proving to be an excellent racer (although I hate having to drive American muscle-cars, they are unwieldy beasts that cannot corner for shit!).

Saying that, even in European cars, it's still important to brake for corners..
Otherwise this happens:

Forza 2 - Out Now!!

2007-06-09T17:31:00.001Z

I swear, this game is awesome.
Was only going to take it out for a little spin yesterday to check that the disc was ok, etc and ended up racing for three and a half hours straight. It's WAY cool.

It's also nice that the game integrates with the Forza website too so you can keep a track on your stats, photos (see above) and car auctions (for the dodgy second hand dealer in all of us).

Highly recommended

Lost And Found

2007-06-01T11:22:00.000Z

So.
Is your mind still reeling from the season 3 series finalé of "Lost" last Sunday (or earlier if you watched it using the power of BitTorrent)?
Was a bit good wasn't it?

If you're still trying to piece together all the pieces of the puzzle shown so far (what is the black smoke? what is the purpose of the Dharma Initiative? Why are there Polar Bears on the Island, etc, etc), then you might want to point you browser at the Lostpedia (a Wikipedia just about Lost). It has all of the current threads, plots, subplots and theories covered.. however it is full of spoilers if you're not up to date - so be warned!!!

Anyway, check it out, there are some answers there to be sure!!

What a difference a year makes!

2007-05-30T17:43:00.000Z

30th May 2006

30th May 2007

Happy Birthday Kirstyn!!

Quite where the last year as gone, I have no clue, but my little babs is a year old today!
You can see she has her new ride (A "Fifi And The Flowertots" pushalong sit on thingy) and a new stuffed toy (Laa-Laa from the Teletubbies - which is not just a television programme it is comparable to crack for the under two's!!), and that was just the beginning of the presents!!
I can honestly say I don't think I've ever seen anyone so excited as young Kirstyn this morning, she was literally giddy with all of her new stuff!!
Anyway, I know this isn't the usual kind of post, but it goes to show how quickly 12 months goes

I sense a lawsuit from RedOctane

2007-05-24T17:32:00.000Z

Want to play Guitar Hero II (if you scroll down and read a few previous posts, you'll see I've been playing little else since April)? No Playstation 2 or XBox 360 though?
No problem, simply download "Frets On Fire" (a.k.a "Guitar Hero II" for the Mac/Windows/Linux).

Tis open source, and not as pretty but it does the same thing (essentially) as Red Octane's effort - and apparently the 360 controller can be used with the game...

So what are you waiting for..?

Less talk, more rokk!

WTF?

2007-05-21T17:45:00.000Z

Acronyms.
Eh?

They're everywhere these days aren't they?
Whether its "mobile speak", email or forum posts you cannot get away from them.. For any technophobe who is currently trying to decipher LOL or FTW means, there is an online solution, The Urban Dictionary. Quite possibly one of the handiest things to have to hand when trying to determine whether you're being dissed or not on that internet forum ;)

Decided today to find out more about Freezepop, a band that do one of the better "bonus" tracks in Guitar Hero II. They jumped out immediately as thyeir song had a bit more of a indie, synthpop/New Wave vibe as opposed to the rest of the tracks that are more MOR/Rock/Metal (as dictated by the guitar, really). I urge you to check out the track "Less Talk More Rokk", as it's really rather marvellous (and damn catchy too)!

Over staying your welcome

2007-05-18T07:24:00.000Z

It's been a shame to witness such a fall from grace, as when it first came along "24" was an awesome show. But, according to the Beeb, this tired out show is going to get a futher two more seasons!!

Why god why?

They should have killed Jack Bauer off to series' ago..
With any luck the final four hours of the final season will feature Kiefer Sutherland kicking the shit out the of show's script writers for letting things get so bad. It comes to something when a show like "Battlestar Galactica" (men in space fighting robots) seems to have more gritty realism than a show set in modern day America.. Indeed, if at the end of the final season of 24, Bauer was finally offed by a six foot gleaming metal cylon centurion it would probably be a closer representation of current affairs than anything this tripe has depicted on our screens for the last couple of cheers.

Sincerely, FOX, cut your losses and bin this turgid nonesense.

Just my $0.02 of course

Serendipity

2007-05-16T17:20:00.000Z

Just happened to be browsing the Favourite channels on the ol' Sky Plus box last night, flicking through dismissively seeing what was on.. and then.. I stopped as FX were showing Sleeper Cell..

Surely it's a repeat, thought I..
But I did an "info" and no, the description began with "Opening Episode of the second series".. Joy! But it had already started - boo! But there's a FX+1 hour! Hurrah.. Seriously, how often does that ever happen??

And it's good news seeing as Battlestar Galactica has gone, Life on Mars has finished, Hotel Babylon is on a break until next year and 24.. well, 24 is just shit now, isn't it?

So new telly - hurrah!

Rejoice

Also.. fuck the reviews, I really enjoyed Spiderman 3 last night. Okay maybe they did try to cram in a little too much into the film's running time. But it was funny, action-packed, 'citing and featured a cameo by Bruce Campbell - so well worth the time and money.

And after six days of courses I'm back to work tomorrow.. Arse!
Still, another course next week.. another exciting lunch menu to look forward to - hurrah!

Laters

My Spidey Sense is tingling

2007-05-15T08:02:00.000Z

Off to see the new Spiderman flick tonight. Hopefully it'll be worth the admission price, as I've heard mixed reviews. Will update sometime later this week with my thoughts. Have high hopes as Sam Raimi used to be a hell of a director (watched Evil Dead 2 again recently and thouroughly enjoyed it - had forgotten just how good it was).

SQL courses continue.. this is the SQL sequel course, I guess!! ;)
(Like Godfather II though, it IS better than the first one).

One down, one to go

2007-05-11T17:40:00.000Z

So I have finished my first three days at Xpertise training doing the first of the two SQL Server 2005 course I have been sent on. And my brain has remained, mostly, intact..

So, hurrah.. time to punish the ol' grey matter further tonight with a nice combination of red wine and vodka methinks ;) (Not, I hasten to add in the same glass!!).

Last week of the Premiership this weekend - boo... and no Euro championships or World Cup to look forward to, either.. It's going to be a bleak summer.

Ah well, I feel that this post is lacking direction.. so I'm going to cut short.. time to treat my head to a nice alcohol-induced haze and then 48 hours off before the onslaught of further Microsoft training courses begins!

S'later

Brain Malfunction

2007-05-09T17:49:00.000Z

My neurons and synapses are currently overloaded with SQL Server 2005 terminology, and I can feel other important geek information doing battle with this newly acquired knowledge for space in the depleted real estate that is my ickle brain (right now the ability to instantly names of various creatures from the Star Wars cantina because I can still remember them from the original Palitoy packaging is under threat from such shite as how to create db Snapshots, and the new XML type in SQL Server - pah!)..

So it is, quite frankly, amazing that I can write anything.

Still I promised posts so I am.

The food is lovely!!!

More tomorrow

Another Bank Holiday

2007-05-08T07:13:00.000Z

Been busy this weekend putting up coving to (finally -see last year's archives for when we started) put the finishing touches to the bathroom. Have also had the folks over, cooing over their granddaughter so it's been quite a full three days. Hence limited blogging time. Also this week I'm off on a training course (SQL Sever 2005 training -make of that what you will) so may be a bit brain dead for the remainder of the week.. Not a particularly new state of mind for me, but it may also be combined with a state of knackered-ness that may mean further entries are, well.. sparse to say the least. That's the excuses out of the way anyway.

So last night, I got a little distracted on the internet. I was searching for a new laptop for the folks (they want a new one for the various Skype converstaions back to good ol Blighty from the warmer climes of Spain), and whilst I waited for them to look at the results of my search I began looking ahead to the next big XBox 360 release: Forza 2.

This game looks bloody amazing, and I cannot wait until June to give Guitar Hero II a little rest, and play this baby. Check out the official site, as it show's off what you can expect to see from the game. There are even some really nice video's in the pit pass reports section. Which is really good news as the 360 really does need a class racing game. Cannot wait to trade in a few older titles for this (doing so will allow the game to cost me about a fiver - sweet)

Blast from the past..

2007-05-04T12:48:00.000Z

Still funny after all these years.. Terry Tate Office Linebacker.

Just like buses

2007-05-04T07:14:00.000Z

What happened to the glorious sunshine we were enjoying this week? It's cold and grey here as I write this (and, dare I say it? Shall I? Okay, look I'll just come out and say it, it's a bit damn chilly too!).. I guess it's the curse of the UK Bank Holiday weekend striking once more, but it has come as a bit of a shock to the system after the more than plesant weather we've been enjoying this week..

Anyway, finally got around to seeing the seaon finaé of BSG this week.. As sad as I am to see this show disappear for another year (Lord knows that the quality of television shows has taken a nose dive recently.. I mean have you seen this season of "24" - it's more unbelievable than Battlestar Galactica), I was again seriously impressed at how good a finish we got. And indeed although the general quantity of good shows is dropping away (my Sky Planner never seems to look half as busy as it did, say, 12 months ago), the quality of what remains seems to be improving. Look to this season of "Lost" for example.. series two of this show really dragged it's heels in places, but series three has really ramped up the tension, drama and has offered us a far more intriguing story line. Bravo. Doctor Who seems to be going from strength-to-strength this season too, with improved story lines, characters and effects on show. Additionally was pleased to see Hustle return to our screens last noght, it is a charming show, very tongue in cheek and knowing, but slick and amusing and well written.

So, whilst kiddies are young, and babysitters are thin on the ground, there is still some qulaity entertainment to be hard - hurrah!

Bugger me, it's May

2007-05-03T17:39:00.000Z

What the fuck happened?
Who nicked the last month off me?

Agh, bloody hell where did the time go..?

Alright, alright I'm not going to deny it, I have been denying my beloved blogspace, blogsphere, erm.. well blog. But things have been going on, man, things have been happening there have been

distractions

and that's not conducive to regular blog updates.. and I have already been shouted at by a number of different individuals to get my ass back and posting and so here I am now, back.. here, writing a post and everything..

So where have I been, what have I been up to?

Well I could roll out the old usual excuses for my lack of posts, for my failure to bring you your daily dose of mindless babbling.

But I shan't

I have some new excuses instead..

Intrigued?

Me too (- honestly I make this shit up as I go along)

Firstly we have a crawling and clambering (almost) toddler on our hands.. and I mean proper crawling on her knees and everything (as opposed to the funky commando crawling that she was initially doing the like of which I'd only previously seen Royal Marines do under netting). Additionally any piece of soft furnishing or coffee table is now something for my daughter to pull herself up on and stumble along whilst holding onto. Consequently neither the wife or I ave anything like a quiet minute until well after the kiddie-winkies have gone to bed, as Kirstyn is into everything, and everywhere, at quite a shockingly quick pace. It's dazzling how quick she is.

Secondly (as was pointed out to me earlier in the month) I am, bizarrely, enjoying work at the moment and this has rather robbed me of my blogging mojo. Usually it was the incompetence and the frustration of the working day that got me all fired up and angry and ready to rant. So now that I'm pairing, and using TDD, and exciting stuff like interfaces and dynamic mock objects, I feel no need to rant and rave. My thunder was stole you might say.

Thirdly.. Guitar Hero II happened and this is far and away the best XBox 360 game, nay console game, I've ever played (and the wife loves it too). So I've been using a lot of my spare time actually trying to get good at this game so that I might challenge for a couple of places on the leaderboards for this game (even if I am playing against people who seemingly have infinitely more time than I do to play video games).. and it actually takes practice and patience to get good at this game (which means I'm bucking the trend of some of my friends who play games like King Kong and Fight Night 3 which seemingly give gamerscore in the hundreds for sticking the disc in the console the right way up).

Also football has been quite distracting. 'Citing. The Reds are off to Athens! Hurrah.

But I am back (yes I'm back, yes I'm back for good) now and will make every effort to post more often..

..promise..

Come back tomorrow - you'll see

Bugger me, it's April

2007-04-02T17:43:00.000Z

Better write a blog entry, as it has been a while.

So, how's you? Long time, no see.. How's life treating you?

Was a bit ill last week and then we had a 10 month old who thought that 2 am was a good time to get up and demand everyone's attention. So was a bit fucked towards the end of last week..

But things made me smile this weekend..

Liverpool 4 - Arsenal 1
He's big, He's red, His feet stick out the bed..

Doctor Who
There's a platoon of Jadoon on the Moon

Rediscovering Iron Maiden
"Scream for me, Long Beach"

..More soon, honest!

Two weeks to go

2007-03-26T07:14:00.000Z

That's right folks, it's only two weeks until the must-own title for the XBox 360 (in my humble opinion anyway) hits the stores: "Guitar Hero II". Thanks to birthday vouchers, I have this on pre-order from amazon.

The waiting is made even more difficult thanks to this glowing review that is one of the first to hit the internet. To summerise the review briefly, it states: "I will simply say that Guitar Hero II is a game that everyone needs to own. Now, if you want further proof of this then please continue to read. Otherwise do whatever you can in order to get this game as soon as you possibly can. It really is that good."

I cannot wait..
I cannot wait to play some of the great tracks in this game either, particularly "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden. To get me in the mood, I'll be tuning into More4 this week as their "Live from Abbey Road"" show on Friday features the (admittedly aging) metallers blasting out a few old faves..

Yes, folks, metal is back - this time in HD

Time Marches..

2007-03-25T17:21:00.000Z

So the clocks went forward last night.
Lord know's why we still do this, but we do and now the kids are cranky because they're body clocks are telling them that we're putting them to bed an hour early.

Just who the hell decided that the clocks should go forward at one in the morning?
I have an alternate proposition. If they do indeed have to go forward, the clocks should go forward at say midday on a Friday, thus trimming an hour off the crappy Friday afternoon at work and bringing on the weekend sixty minutes sooner. The clocks could go back at about 10pm on a Saturday meaning Saturday lasts an extra hour (brilliant if you're out and about and even if you're at home cos the weekend would last longer).

Who's with me?

You can stick your fucking Mozart up your arse (five ways)

2007-03-21T18:54:00.000Z

People used to smile and nod at me when I would tell them that Kirstyn loved the music on the Kerrang! channel. They used to inwardly, I'm sure, think "poor child" when I used to say that my daughter was always happier when listening to the Foo Fighters, or Guns N Roses or Metallica.

But, now thanks to Sky News, it seems that her love of metal from an early age will aid her in being a super genius, and therefore have the ability to financially look after her poor old dad long into his retirement.

You see, Sky Report that:
"Many parents may regard it as a deafening din, but liking heavy metal may be a sign of intelligence in youngsters.

New research suggests clever teenagers listen to it as a way of coping with the pressures of being talented.

A study of 1000 of the country's brightest adolescents revealed "metalheads" are often extremely bright.

"There is a perception of gifted and talented students as being into classical music and spending a lot of time reading," Stuart Cadwallader, from Warwick University, said.

"There is literature that links heavy metal to poor academic performance and delinquency, but we found a group that contradicts that.

"We are looking at a group with lower than average self-esteem that does not feel quite so well adjusted.

"They feel more stressed out and turn to heavy metal as a way of relieving that stress."

The study revealed those who enjoyed heavy metal often had more difficuilties in their relationships with family and friends.

One of those questioned in the survey said: "It's the general thrashiness of it.

"You can't really jump your anger into the floor and listen to your music at the same time with other types of music."

Being brainy is not limited to the music's fans though.

Iron Maiden's lead singer, Bruce Dickinson, is a history graduate as well as being a novelist and qualified commercial pilot.

The survey involved 1,057 members of the National Academy for Gifted and talented Youth."

* -thanks to Sean for the tip off!

The Tax Man Cometh

2007-03-21T08:07:00.000Z

So the race is on..

I have to get my car tax sorted before the fat bastard who lives next to Tony Blair announces his budget this afternoon. And I find myself having to make a mad dash to the post office to get this all sorted. Have I got a valid new-style MOT certificate? Yup. Have I got current insurance? Check. Hang on don't the DVLA offer the chance to purchase the tax disc online? Yes, yes they do. Indeed havn't you used the online service before, in the past? That's right, I have.

However for some reason, probably only known to the DVLA themselves, the online service will not process my appliacation (and I have tried this two days running now). No matter how many times I submit the reference number provided to me, and step through the stages on the website, can I get a tax disc? Can I fuck. The bastards. So I am forced to storm to the nearest post office and queue with the pensioners and the dole scum before fatty Brown puts the prices up. What a massive faff. If the online service wasn't available, this wouldn't bother me. If I'd not used the online service in the past then I doubt I'd be arsed. However it completely fucks me off when stuff just doesn't work when it should.

The SWINES!!