So don’t expect me to be around on the forum, or there to be any posts on here for a while.
Hopefully everything goes smoothly, and we’ll be about again before you even realise we were away.
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My new phone arrived today! Jane bought it for me for my Birthday (December 8th, Birthday fans), but I’m allowed to use it now as my old phone (which I’ve had for about 5 years now) turns itself off at random intervals. Obligatory old and new model comparison shots:
A shade taller than the old one, but much thinner and lighter. And look at the size of that screen! Lovely. I’m very pleased with it. That’s not all the news I have for today, oh no. Contracts have been exchanged, so the house move is definitely on for Monday the 30th of November. This means that December could be very light in terms of blog entries, it depends how quickly we get the internet sorted. I hope to God we don’t go with AOL again, they are truly awful, the internet cuts out every so often, it’s a pain for Xbox Live. Also, Adon has been confirmed for Super Street Fighter IV. This makes me very happy. Do you pirate games? Do you illegally download music? Watch dodgy copies of films bought from suspect looking guys sitting on the high street? Do you regret doing any of this? Personally, I try not to pirate anything. Things like Spotify and last.fm are brilliant, I’ve got into quite a few artists that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise and actually gone out and bought one of their CD’s. There’s also the authenticity of the purchasing experience. I love going out and buying a CD, sometimes having to unwrap the cellophane or peel the security sticker off, then putting it in the CD player while I look at the inserts. When it comes to games, I’ve only ever dabbled with retro ROM stuff, never cracks of the latest titles. Sure, I have copies of some older games you can’t readily buy anymore, or are stupidly expensive on places like eBay, but either because of their age and old-skool playability issues or the fact I got them for nothing but a portion of bandwidth and half an hour of my time, they feel very throw-away. One thing I do “pirate” is TV shows, but surely it’s not that bad? I download episodes of Dexter and Lost purely because I’ll see them sooner than if I wait for them to come on TV. That said, I fully intend on buying Dexter on DVD and then re-watching the entire saga, same as Lost probably, so it’s only Sky who are losing out on subscription money. But then again, I think I’d rather not watch Lost at all than have to pay a Sky subscription for that one programme. What about you? You may have heard that the Xbox 360 has recently had lots of Web 2.0 functionality added. My initial reaction to it all is that the dashboard is so cluttered now! My Community, separate Music and Video Marketplaces (why would anyone want to download music videos to their 360 when they can most likely watch them for free on Youtube?), I wish you could hide channels you don’t want and/or wouldn’t use. My thoughts on the new features: Sky Player. We don’t have Sky at the moment, but we will do when we move into The Big House. This would be excellent, if our connection could handle the streaming. Laying in bed watching Lost and loads of cool movies on my nice big telly? Oh yes. Now I just need to convince everyone else that Sky Multi-room is a good idea. last.fm would be better if you could stream music whilst playing. As it is, there’s no reason I should use it on my 360 as we have a PC in our room which is fully capable of using last.fm while I play on my Xbox 360 videogame console. I’ll stick to the PC version. Facebook is alright for status updates I guess, but you can’t watch Youtube videos, play those little Facebook games or basically do anything more technical than looking at photos on it. I’ll stick to PC version. I was quite interested in Twitter, just to subscribe to some videogame related stuff and see if I get any exclusive news or anything, but I don’t use it anyway so I don’t really feel I’m missing out on anything massive. I’ll stick to ignoring the PC version. I’ve mentioned Halo: Waypoint before, but for completions sake I’ll mention it again now. It’s good for general Halo goodness such as articles on the “Making Of” of various Halo related things, I believe they are going to be showing Red vs Blue, from the beginning, which should raise a smile or two, and there are episodes of the Halo Legends series being shown for 24 hours only every Saturday. I’ve missed every single one so far. It is glaringly missing one thing though: I was fully expecting to go in there and be able to see an Xbox-ed version of my Bungie.net Halo stats – That would’ve been awesome. I’ll stick to Youtube and Bungie.net (PC versions). It looks to me as if the Zune Marketplace has simply replaced the existing Video Marketplace. I never dowloaded any films before, and I’m unlikely to now. Can you still download films the old fashioned way instead of streaming them with the Zune thing? My connection isn’t good enough to stream films, FFS. All in all, I’ll stick to the PC versions. Now, an icanhazcheesburger dashboard app, that’d be awesome. LOLcats delivered to your 360, daily. OM NOM NOM.
I thought it apt as we are moving soon.  An absolutely adorable bundle of fluff
Smudgit Smudgkins Smudgey-moo Fluff Fluffy Fluffit Fluff-bag Fluff-bum Madam Moo-moo Moo-moo-kins Princess Princess Moo-moo I don’t have a favourite when it comes to our cats, but if I did, it would be my Moo-moo. It was love at first sight, I think, mutually. When we went to collect Gizmo we knew we were only getting one of them, all the others had been allocated to friends or family. All of them were ginger, apart from one. We were there, trying to coax Gizmo out from behind the sofa, when I felt some claws digging into my calf. I turned and looked down and saw the most beautiful, adorable, gorgeous tiny bundle of tortie fluff at full stretch, her claws still attached to my leg. Love at first sight. We went off with Gizmo and thought that’d be the end of it, but two weeks later we got a call asking if we’d like another of the brood. Smudge, as she’d already been named, had been homed with a member of their family who already had an older cat, and Smudge was not getting on well with her at all. We thought about it for about… ooh, a second and a half, and said “Yeah ok!”. It was destiny. Aloof and regal, Smudge is a real character, you’d never guess she and Gizmo were sister and brother. She’s the most independent of the three and definitely lives up to her Princess moniker. She’s gorgeous and she knows she is – she can flirt like no-one’s business, rolling around on her back, showing off her white bits, looking cuter than a super cute thing. She has an adorable habit of coming to find someone for a quick cuddle when she’s just woken up – is it some kind of reassurance for her or is it just her asserting her power over us humans? How she’ll react to having two more female cats in the house… I’m putting money on her becoming Queen, and having Claire’s two as her bitches! She’s incredibly fluffy, and thanks to all this rain we’ve been having lately, incredibly shiny. She loves going out in the rain and then coming back in two hours later looking like a drowned rat. Sometimes even it’s not been raining in a while, she’ll go outside for two minutes to make her paws nice and dirty then come in and jump up on your lap for a cuddle. For some reason I don’t mind having her muddy foot-prints all over me. She loves Beef flavour Felix. No idea why, but if you put some of that down then she’ll eat it all up in no time. She enjoys finding new and innovative places to sleep – Or maybe it’s necessity as Gizmo often sees these exciting places and bunks in on her. Some examples of this are on top of sideboards (she used the coat rack as a climbing frame), inside cupboards, on top of televisions, on bannisters… She also once developed a habit of sleeping on Jane’s pillow. In the middle of the night. When Jane’s head was also on it. She’s incredibly fierce and bloody minded – I don’t recommend anyone ever try to get her in a cat-basket, feed her some medicine or try to wipe off the poo that gets stuck to her fluff – You’ll only end up with scratches galore. She’s not taken to Tigger very well at all, he just wants to be he friend and maybe play chase once in a while or cuddle up on an especially cold night, but she growls whenever he gets too near to her. She only ever really tolerated Gizmo, she doesn’t mind him too much, but she’s not fond of Tigger at all.  This gives you an idea of how long he is!
Giz-giz Gizzy Gizbo Gizzy-bo Gibby Gibbles Gibito Gib-gib Jib-jib Boy-boy Orange L’orange Skinny Runt Skinny runt Boney Wuss Ginger bits He has a lot more nicknames than the other two! So, what can I tell you about our orange boy? He’s quite a large cat, not fat, just kind of stocky, long limbed and athletic looking. He has lost a bit of weight since we moved over here, whether that was due to him actually being allowed outside into the huge long garden (and enjoying it very much, he can thunder up and down the entire length of the garden in seconds), or down to some kind of infection he may have picked up from a neighbouring cat, we’ll never know. You can’t quite feel his spinal column when you rub your hand down his back anymore thanks to the steroids, but to a trained eye he definitely looks slimmer. Looking at him now you’d never guess he was the runt of the litter. He was absolutely tiny when we first got him, and terrified of everything. Whenever there was a knock at the door he’d leg it up the stairs into Mum’s room. He’s still like that a little bit, he’s still scared of Ethan, he never hangs around when the kids are here and any loud noise can make him retreat to the safety of our room. But saying that, he is coming into his own as the Alpha male. Tigger is getting on a bit now and makes no attempt to ward off trespassers, but Gizmo, the other night, actually chased another cat out of our house. He made a hell of a racket as he wailed and chased and most probably attacked this intruder up and down the stairs, then out of the cat-flap*. We always thought it’d be Smudge who would be the most ferocious, so Gizmo manning-up took us by surprise. He loves his sleep, but then again, most cats do! He also loves fish, especially real fish, not fish flavoured cat food. Actually, I think he enjoys wailing at the top of his voice while he’s waiting for the fish to be prepared more than the actual eating of it. He’s a big cat and he can produce a big noise. His favourite toy is a green fish on a bit of string (called “Fishy”, naturally), and he used to love this little pink ball, he’d take it places with him, and always hunt it when it was left out in the open for him. I’ve not seen it in a while, we lost it during the move, but to be honest I think it had just fallen apart – Judging by the amount of time he spent biting, clawing and chasing it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it just disintegrated. *Because Gizmo and Smudge are stupid and don’t quite understand how cat-flaps work, we leave it propped open at all times, so it does kind of invite other cats in!  You cannot see his massive stomach from this angle
Tig-tig Tiggy Tiggidy-tig-tig Fatty Toothless Toothless wonder Fang Oi Shh Shut up Tiggerus Plonkerus Maximus Bless. Most of those names were given to him by Jane’s family, before I knew him, so don’t blame me for their apparent cruelty. Tigger then. He’s about twice as old as our two, but instead of calling him old, I like to refer to him as an Elder Statesman. He only has one big tooth left (hence the nickname Fang) and he is quite large. Not a Gizmo style athletic large, no, a fat large. This is mostly due to him eating all the food (or rather licking all the jelly off and leaving the actual meat) and not really going out in the garden much. He’s quite noisy… Whenever I walk into the room he is currently in he meows and meows with his cute little noise, he doesn’t even stop after I’ve ruffled his head. He never used to meow at all, so I’m told, but one day he was trodden on (or something) and discovered to his own surprise that he had a voice; Ever since that day he’s not stopped using it. He has this strange habit of coming over and meowing at us when we’re all at the table at dinner time. He’s even been known to stretch up and try to get our attention with his claws. We ignore him. It’s for the best. Then he crashes out under Jane’s chair, I mean properly crashes out. He has fallen head over heels in love with Smudge. Totally, utterly, 100%. He follows her everywhere, always wants to join in when she’s off down the garden chasing invisible things, he’d dearly love to snuggle up with her on a cold evening, but she’s an independent woman you know. She was utterly baffled the other day when Tigger, who knows how to scale the outside of the building, was sitting outside our bedroom window while she was sitting inside of it. She looked up and down and all around but could not work out how he was there, right next to her, but somehow behind the glass.  Tigger, window and Smudge Oh my, how could I forget to mention this – He has really bad breath. A lot of stuff happened this week that didn’t deserve a post of their own. This very rarely happens, but, if I can remember enough random things from the week before then I’ll try to do this every Sunday, like a weekly round-up of boring shit wrapped up in the façade of actually being interesting because it’s more diverse than the usual blog post. I went to Southampton to see Mum, David, Katie and Jasmine yesterday, that was cool. Jasmine’s growing up so fast! David handed in his notice at work the other day, as he’s going to be looking after Jasmine full time while Katie goes back to work – Something I’ve often thought would work for Jane and I. I think Claire first suggested it about four years ago, I was as up for it then as I am now, but apparently it’s a no-go – Even though Jane has a job which she loves and pays well, the total opposite to me. I think it would make sense, Jane earns far more than I ever will, but hey. On the way home there were many delays, it took me two and a half hours to make a 45 minute trip. One of these delays was down to “A fatality in Coventry”. They actually said that over the tannoy at the train station. Incredible. Paul is moving out! Hooray! Not until next Saturday, but still, it means he’s not coming with us to “The Big House”, which means we get the study, which means we could turn it into a nursery! I AM NOT BROODY, honest (Come on, I’m nearly 31, my body clock is ticking!). See the “Currently Listening to” thing over on the left there? Well, it’s not going to change for a while as we’ve packed all our CD’s ready for the move. And all our DVD’s, so the “Watching” thing won’t change either. Unless you count Youtube stuff like “They’re Taking The Hobbits To Isengard“. I love shit like that.  Yoyuusu! Following on from this post, I just thought I’d let you know how I got on last night – It was spectacular and full of victories. Sure, I didn’t win every single match, but there were some proper beatings I gave out. Twice I bested some random people who had over 2000 Battle Points – It’s great fun when Dan is there with the thumbs up at the results screen, but seeing 80-90 BP drain from their meter and add on to mine just makes it all the sweeter. Playing Dan certainly helps me polish up on the basics, as the tools he has at his disposal are not always 100% reliable. I certainly appreciate and have a better understanding of Focus Attacks, backward dashes, forward dashes, wake-up attacks, move priority and whether to throw or not. Shame vanilla Street Fighter IV doesn’t have proper replays yet, otherwise I would’ve put some up on Youtube. Roll on Super Street Fighter IV! This Wednesday on Xbox Live Arcade, 0-D Beat Drop was released. Now, always wanting to give every game a fair crack of the whip, I downloaded the trial version. Wow, it was just awful. Combining a Puyo-Puyo or Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo style puzzler with a rhythm based block clearing mechanism just does not work if you ask me. But the real reason I’m mentioning it is because of it’s presentation. It so wants to be Every Extend Extra Extreme, but fails as it’s just incredibly cluttered and far too flashy – really epilepsy inducing – and the main font just doesn’t go with the overall look. The presentation in E4 worked (only just, mind) because it was minimalist and refined, but this is ridiculous. Sure, the same developer was behind both games, but for two otherwise unrelated games to have the exact same graphical style, from the cycling colours motif, to Here are some videos. First up is Beat Drop, check out the swirly loading bit from Every Extend Extra Extreme, and while you’re there, also look at the ill-fitting, boring font. Now, some E4. Granted, it does look more cluttered during gameplay thanks to the ten million enemies, but I’m on about the menus, the presentation and stuff. So, to summarise: E4 = Stylish. 0D = Ugly. What do you think? Man, I love Street Fighter IV and I love this video. Annoying people with Dan is sometimes more fun than actually fighting properly. My favourite character is Cammy, I’d say I’m best with her, but I have more fun playing Dan. He is, without a doubt, the worst character in the game, but for some reason I get on better with him than “good” characters like Sagat or Ryu. Maybe it’s his jovial attitude rubbing off on me, I mean, I don’t really care whether I win or not when I’m Dan, but when I’m Cammy and I narrowly lose to someone I really should have beat I get SO MAD sometimes. Playing Dan sometimes has this RAGE effect on my opponents. Often, when people see I’m Dan, they taunt a lot. Guess they figure Dan is a taunt machine so they taunt to make my taunts seem less offensive to them. But when I start air taunting over their fireballs and putting my finger in my ear then dashing off they sometimes lose it, go all out on the offence and leave themselves open, wildly reeling off move after easily avoided move. If they are using mics I can hear the RAGE – If they are not using mics, their reckless jumping gives them away! Something that annoys me with Street Fighter IV is the amount of Ryu/Ken/Akuma/Sagat players. Sure, you get the occasional Bison, the occasional Gouken (although he is pretty similar to Ryu/Ken/Akuma), but in a ranked match I don’t think I’ve ever played against a Honda, a C.Viper or a Gen. Actually, Gen is understandable as he’s rubbish. But you see where I’m going with this. Most people choose to learn the easy characters. Although Dan is semi-easy to learn, he does low damage and most of his moves are easily tradable. Unlike Ryu’s Shoryuken which is mostly invincible, I always seem to trade hits with Dan’s version. I like his Ultra though, it’s very easy to surprise people with, and very useful against an enemy’s whiffed (missed) move. One day, in a competitive match, I will combo a match winning Gadoken into the Super Taunt! So, to summarise, I play mostly Cammy, which usually makes me angry, Dan, who is super fun but can be hard work to scrape a win with, and to mix it up a bit I sometimes play Rose, if the Ryu/Ken/Akuma/Sagat are not very experienced they fall into the Soul Reflect, Soul Throw trap very easily. I’m hoping the rumours are true and Adon is in Super Street Fighter IV, he was awesome in the Alpha series. |
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