I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I got a new iPod recently. Since I bought my first, and previously only, iPod back in 2004 I turned off iPods mainly because of the iSheep mentality and the bloatware that is iTunes. However it does make me feel better that I didn't pay money for it: we got it from our credit card's rewards points program.

I got a blue 16GB Nano, and honestly it seems like a pretty good device even if it is somewhat overpriced. I am still using iTunes, but that's only because it is actually somewhat responsive now … Read more →

I got up early this morning to watch the big game, the 2010 World Cup final between the Netherlands and Spain.

Overall Spain were deserved winners, the Dutch went out of character and tradition to apply niggly fouling tactics in an attempt to break up the Spanish play (van Bommel is a disgusting excuse for a player), so it is good to see those tactics not pay off.

The Dutch can't complain though, they did have their chances to score a goal or two earlier, and they were probably lucky to have everyone on the pitch for as long as … Read more →

This past week I picked up Mario Galaxy 2. Unlike with the first game and to my great disappointment, there was no awesome pre-order deal anywhere to be seen, so i resorted to buying the 'Premiere' (i.e. normal)-edition game-guide myself.

Normally I don't buy game guides, but as with Zelda: Twilight Princess and the first Mario Galaxy, they were really quite useful for these type of games, not to mention enjoyable to utilise and follow along. Already i'm glad that I splashed the extra cash on it.

The game itself is amazing. And frustrating. And rewarding. And great.… Read more →

After my previous entry, last Sunday week I was admitted to hospital again. This time it was a lot more painful, as the apparent cause of it was acute pancreatitis probably brought on by some of the medication i was taking for the colitis. Not a fun time, although I was given some morphine for the first time in my life. Funnily enough it didn't dull the pain much, but did allow me to sleep it off a bit.

I spent another four nights in the Mater Private and was discharged on Thursday. This stay was made a little easier … Read more →

Well before I begin, I know it's probably been the longest ever time between blog entries ever since I started this blog several years ago, and believe me, there's a pretty good reason for that. I should also forewarn that this is going to be a pretty epicly long blog entry. I actually typed most of this entry out from a hospital room after spending 4 nights there.

I was slightly apprehensive about actually posting this entry publicly, but I know a lot of people are worried about me and this is probably the best way to let people know … Read more →

As mentioned recently, i've spent a fair bit of time playing BC2. I'm really enjoying it, and we've even gone to the trouble of setting up a TeamSpeak server in order to get around the buggy in game audio.

Although i've been critical of the whole ranking and weapon-unlock multiplayer progression previously, i actually don't mind it now in BC2 now that i've gotten out of the bottom ranks.

In addition to BC2, i've spent a fair time of time gaming on the PC recently. I've bought Episodes from Liberty City which is the standalone expansion to GTA4, and added … Read more →

In the past week we've gone and seen another two movies: She's Out of My League and Kick-Ass. I really enjoyed both of them, but the former more than the later.

Somewhat disturbingly, I could actually relate to a lot of the stuff in She's Out of My League (I still reckon i punched above my weight in landing my wife ;)), and generally i loved the humour.

Kick-Ass was also good, I found the anti-stereotypical take on the super-hero thing awesome. I loved the line: "With no power comes no responsibility."

I also somewhat stupidly went and saw … Read more →

A big 'Christ Has Risen!' to everybody!

So another Easter has come and gone, this one really felt as though it came and went really quickly. It's really good having the Western Easter coincide with the Orthodox one, the public holidays make it so much easier.

The past couple of weeks has seen some IT action home. The new Dell laptop we got recently started having problems and wasn't booting. After some of my own professional diagnosis, it turned out the Seagate hard disk in the computer had failed. Not happy at all for a 3-month old laptop, but it … Read more →

One of the bigger games that was looking forward to in this mini-gaming season at the moment was the EA published Battlefield: Bad Company 2. After the largely disappointing blockbuster late last year that was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, i was looking forward to a game that actually respected the PC gaming community enough in order to at least continue with the previously taken-for-granted staple of having dedicated servers for online multiplayer.

However in the past I haven't exactly had great experiences with past EA published games, and also disappointingly, it has somewhat continued with this … Read more →

The big final on the weekend ended up being a big let-down. It wasn't helped by Eliot having injured himself the day before and not really being able to play, nor the fact that we were the most generous we've been in front of our own goal for a very long time. The game ended 5-3, and pretty much at least 3 of their goals we gifted to them on a platter.

I scored two in the first half, and 'keeped for the second half. So in the end, it was a quite anti-climactic end to the last 6 years … Read more →