[ stu's blog ]

Foo Fighters at Dingwalls 2011

2011-09-04T22:27:00.001+01:00

It's been a long time...
I thought it was about time for an update of some sort. There's been a lot of films out this summer I've been meaning to write something about so hopefully I'll get round to these soon.

But until then I thought I'd post some videos I filmed from a secret Foo Fighters gig from February this year.
They are without a doubt my favorite band, and have been for years now, so having the opportunity to see them in such an intimate venue has so far been my highlight of 2011, and therefore worthy of a post. This was actually the second secret show of theirs I've been to (the other being Camden Underworld in 2006) but I think this is as close as I'm ever going to get.

After a long wait queuing to get a good view they finally emerged, playing their new (as then unreleased) album, Wasting Light front to back.

I didn't want to record the whole song because I chose to enjoy the show more. Can't stand those people that insist on holding their phone or camera up to film every song.

...But I did get the whole of one of my favorites from the new album, Arlandria.

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Anyway, that'll do for the post. I've uploaded the other videos I took from the night to a playlist on my youtube channel.

I even managed to grab one of their guitar picks :)

initial impressions of inception

2010-07-21T23:16:00.005+01:00

so i just got back from seeing inception for the first time and thought i'd excrete a quick bloggle post on my initial thoughts. i'll keep it quite vague and spoiler free for anyone who hasn't yet seen it 'cos i went in having only seen the trailer and i really enjoyed the ride.

i'd probably describe inception as a sort of mission:impossible meets the matrix with a little dark city and james bond with alot of chris nolan's intelligence thrown in (like the kind found in memento). usually i'm a bit put off by a long run-time but i found inception was well paced with no lulls and the almost 3 hours flew by.

what i loved:

the mission:impossible style team on a mission (obviously)
the great effects - which nolan plays down too much in interviews. they looked incredible.
that the matrix just got it's ass kicked
the whole dream within a dream concept
the concept of time within a dream
all the phun with physics

i really liked the whole universe the film takes place in and i'd love to see more of it. i'm not sure whether a sequel would live up to inception but i think it could potentially make a cool little tv series. i'd imagine it being similar to dollhouse only with more of a team, but i guess a tv budget would never make anything as cool as anything seen within inception.

so maybe a comic series would be a better cheaper idea - as seen in this cool inception prequel comic. i'd like to read more comics set within inception's universe. the possibilities for cool story-lines set within inception's concept are pretty endless.

i think i enjoyed it nearly as much as the dark knight (posters are pretty similar aren't they?) and at time of writing i'd probably put this as my current best film of 2010 (ironman 2 and kick-ass are probably a 2nd and 3rd) but i've still got toy story 3 and scott pilgrim to come!

there's still alot of theorising that could be done over inception and i'm looking forward to reading into it more, so if you find anything cool throw it my way :)

ipad thoughts

2010-05-30T10:05:00.009+01:00

as usual it's been a while since blogging but my ipad turned up last thursday so i figured i'd write my thoughts.

when it was first announced earlier this year i was pretty skeptical like the majority of the planet is right now. i'm a big apple fan anyway, i love my iphone and macbook pro - which makes it kinda difficult to justify getting an ipad. initially i was trying to think of what uses i would have for one, which i could think of about three. before i bought my macbook i used to have a dual monitor setup with a custom made pc, so i thought it'd be kinda cool to be able to use the ipad as a second screen for my macbook, which it turns out you can!

second use i thought of was being able to use the ipad as an expensive wireless mouse and keyboard for when my macbook is connected to my tv (for watching movies and tv shows, etc) - i could already do this with my iphone but the screen is so small it's pretty fiddly and kinda unusable. i use iteleport but here's something similar.

my third reason i came up with was purely how much of my iphone battery it'd save. the iphone is great and it does so much that you find yourself using it alot. it's main power drain is playing games. when your playing on a psp or a nintendo ds battery isn't too much of an issue when you need to go out, but when the battery your draining is your only source of communication when your out and about it becomes a pain when you've spent all morning playing games and need to go out in the afternoon.

in the time between it being annouced and released in the uk i read alot of stuff online about it. all the gadget blogs showing off all the innovative ideas people were trying and new uses people were finding for it. i also read alot of the columns from the haters. it's impossible to please the haters even if you invent 'the perfect product' let alone one that appears useless to someone with a smart phone and a laptop of some form. and i agree, it's a difficult sale to those people.

when the pre order was announced i figured i'd take the plunge anyway and if it sucks i'll just ebay it. but i've been using it for a week now and although i was skeptical at first after trying it i get it, and i love it. i understand it's not for everyone and that's fine but i think over time people are going to find more and more uses for the thing.

when it first turned up i'd never actually seen one before, but it was smaller and lighter than i was expecting. in comparison to my macbook pro it's alot smaller and lighter and for what i use my macbook for, i think i'd take my ipad if going away for a week but as the ipad is right now, it'd would never replace my macbook completely.

it's really useful to just have this large screen device that's instantly on and ready to use when you need it - no boot up times. it's great to get online instantly and check a few web sites, emails, youtube, twitter, facebook, whatever. i know you can argue that you can do all that on your smartphone but it really is so much better on a bigger screen. after using the ipad for a while the iphone seems way to small to be doing the same things.

web sites look really good on the big ipad screen and function really well with the touch screen scrolling, panning around and pinch to zoom that was introduced on the iphone. the obvious weakness with web browsing is the lack of flash support, but to be honest i haven't found it too big of a deal. youtube works and the bbc iplayer works so that's about 80% of the videos i watch online anyway. and why would you want flash games when you can play much better games from the app store, designed for a touch screen device.

comics are amazing on the ipad. i'm not a big comic fan but there's still a few out there i've been meaning to read for a while, so i've been holding out till the ipad todo some catching up. there really isn't any device out there as good for reading comics. the marvel app rocks! but there's also other comic reader apps that will read cbr, rar or pdf files.

games look and play great. the iphone really paved the way for touchscreen games but it's main weakness for gaming is that the screen is too small to incorporate the display and controls at the same time. to control alot of games your fingers end up covering about 50% of the screen in some cases. i really cannot recommend plant vs zombies enough, but after playing it's hd version on the ipad the game feels as if it was designed to be played on this device. it looks and plays so much better than it's pc or mac versions.

i think overall the ipad is just a really good media sponge for all forms of content. listening to music, watching movies/tv shows, viewing web sites, reading rss feeds, playing games, viewing photos, podcasts, books, comics, magazines, newspapers, audiobooks, facebook, twitter, youtube, iplayer, emails, instant messaging, and google maps - all thrown together on one well designed, well thought out, fast, simple and intuitive device that isn't too big, or too small to handle all this content. sure there maybe some stuff missing that you wish it had or did but this is a first generation device (the first ipod kinda sucked). apple will add more features and memory to it's future generations and probably offer them for the same price or less, that's just how they roll.

for all the people who think the ipad is useless i suggest you at least try one before making your judgment, i think over time the ipad will become more and more useful and eventually will win alot of people over, and if not they appear to make pretty good cat toys anyway.

as a side note i also found this article quite interesting: understanding ipad - it talks about the ipad being more about consumption than contribution, which does make sense but i think given some time the ipad could help improve with contribution. whether it be via the app store (with apps like brushes) or i think it could also make for a great input device into a pc - an advanced multitouch trackpad with it's own display would have some great uses in video, photo or web editing.

aliens vs predator demo thoughts

2010-02-06T01:06:00.007Z

people who follow me on twitter (probably you if you're reading this) will probably know that i'm pretty excited about the new aliens vs predator game coming out this month. the old pc version of avp was probably the first online multiplayer game i got into using the craptastic gamespy arcade (yes back then online multiplayer wasn't even supported within the game itself). i played some avp 2 when it came out which added loads of new features and better graphics but it just didn't seem as much fun to play.

back story done. a new multi-platform avp game from the makers of the original is being released and some pretty sweet looking teasers and trailers are shown off:

looks good - maybe even good enough to pre-order.

ok, so a few days ago a demo was released (on pc, ps3 and xbox i would assume, but i played the xbox version). now if you're gunna release a demo before your game's released there's a fair old bit of pressure to release a good demo - there's currently no other way for people to try your game. you need to reasure the people who want to buy the game and try and sell it to the guys that didn't.

which brings me to the main motivation for a blog post. i want to like this game. before this demo i probably would have bought this game without question, but this makes a pretty good example as how not todo a game demo. first of all this is a single player and multiplayer game, and there will be an audience that want to play either one or both of these. not only that but there are quite a few different multiplayer game modes too.

personally i'm more looking to the single player experience. i'm a big fan of the alien and predator movies and pretty much hate the avp movies (like the rest of the world) so creating a similar experience within a single player campaign should be good fun - and i'm still looking forward to trying the game's campaign mode.

however the multiplayer will always have balancing issues between playing as aliens, marines and predators. first i should mention the brightness. avp games have always been dark. aliens need to hide in it. marines need to fear it. now darkness isn't really an issue when playing as aliens 'cause enemies are highlighted anyway and same applies for predators with their vision modes but as marines your left in the dark with a shitty flashlight and a motion tracker.

now i know darkness plays into this game alot, but this is ridiculous:

yes, this is unedited and the in-game brightness turned right up. i admit this could be something on my tv but i messed with some settings and it didn't help much, plus i've never had any problems with any other games before.

as a marine in this game you're basically fucked. which is a shame 'cause marines were my favorite mode to play. predators can cloak and lock onto you. aliens are so much faster, see you miles away and can scale up walls and ceilings. a flashlight and motion tracker ain't gunna do shit when an alien can be on the horizon one second and biting a hole through your head the next.

the final game will have many online game modes so why in the demo would you limit us to an 8 player free for all deathmatch. surely part of the point is to have the marines and aliens working as seperate teams at least. but oh well, at least having one game type will make finding games easy right? ...

wrong!

maybe call of duty: modern warfare 2 has set the bar too high, but you can select any of the dozen game modes and be in a game ready within 10 seconds 90% of the time and load times getting from the lobby into the game are about 10 seconds too. all other games should be like this. either copy call of duty's code or buy it off them.

this demo takes around a minute to find a game and i saw this useful message for much longer than you'd expect and very often too:

anyway this post has been longer than i expected. i'm just annoyed that this was a game i would have bought without question before this demo was released, but now i'll hold off and wait to hear how it's reviews turn out first. the final game could still be good but this demo is not gunna do it's sales any good at all.

if you read this far you must either be insanely bored or you're a big enough avp fan to get this far, so as a reward you'll probably like this vid:

red letter media movie reviews

2010-02-01T13:05:00.006Z

a few months back i found this great seven-part video review of star wars episode one. if you haven't seen it yet already try and find time for it because it's brilliant. it's more of a piss take review (not difficult) but it still raises some good points while being entertaining and very funny. seven parts is a long review but if you find the time give it a look. i also can confirm it's the "best, weirdest 70-minute review of then phantom menace" - sci fi wire.

find more on the red letter media youtube channel.

anyway the same guy is back for a shorter review on avatar. so chick it oowt innit...

followed by paaaart 2...

the end.

converting the lost to lost

2010-01-31T13:22:00.000Z

hoping to get back on the blogging again for some more updates and i've been meaning todo a post on lost for a while.

so season 6 is just about to kick off and i don't think i've ever been as excited for a tv series to start again, but it will really suck once the season ends and it sets in that we'll never get a new episode of lost to look forward to. i really don't think there will be another show like lost for a long time.

i've been a big fan of this show since it started back in 2004 when i accidently downloaded it thinking it was the cool channel 4 reality show of the same name but when i started watching it really wasn't what i was expecting. so i went into this series knowing literally nothing. no adverts, teasers, trailers. i'd never heard of it (this was when it first aired in the usa, way before it aired on uk tv). but the pilot episode worked really well at grabbing my attention (as you'd hope for "the most expensive pilot in television history" - which it was at the time).

the only problem with the pilot episode is it kinda leads people to believe it's just jurassic park: the tv series because it only shows enough to suggest that. it so is not that. it's actually a million times more interesting than a jurassic park tv series could ever be. so don't be fooled by the pilot episode.

if you were sold enough by season 1 the opener to season 2 was probably one of the best openers on a tv series - ever. i love that this show just raises so many questions (although too many without answers can get frustrating) but it's all part of the fun. lost is so unlike any other show out there and it's down to it's online theories and discussions on the questions it raises. sure it gets pretty geeky from there onwards but i love that you can either watch the show on face value to delve deeper and go online.

even being a big fan of the series since the beginning i'll admit it did seem to stumble a little during it's thrid season but if you stick with it, seasons four and five more than make up for it. seriously i was really enjoying the series but after season four onwards this shit got really good!

a few fan sites i regularly check out are:
http://darkufo.blogspot.com
http://the-odi.blogspot.com
and http://www.docarzt.com

they provide news, theories, podcasts, forums and optional spoilers (if that's what your into).
and all three can be followed on twitter for regular site updates.

i also highly recommend checking out seanie b's youtube channel. he does some great lost secrets and recap videos that also give some good theories and talk about things you might have missed or forgotten about. he also runs his own web site over at www.lostvideorecaps.com

anyway i really cannot recommend this show enough. if you don't catch up in time to get with the excitement of next weeks episode and online talk while there's new stuff to come, it's your loss. but i know that it will really damage the experience once all 6 seasons have aired and people just starting lost will be able to just look up answers to some of the many questions from the show.

in the mean time check out this weeks o.d.i lost podcast. if you're into lost as much as i am you should find it quite interesting.

paranormal activity review

2009-10-22T01:29:00.006+01:00

ok so just finished watching paranormal activity. every since i first heard of this movie i really wanted to see it. and it's been a long time (that review was written in jan 2008). i generally don't like buying into the hype but that seems to be the way paramount want to sell it with a trailer like this:

looks pretty good right? yeah i thought so too. paramount seems to be marketing this movie in a weird way. it was filmed in 2007. all the early reviews i read were very good, so what the hell paramount!? what's the hold up? now in 2009 they've decided for some reason it's time to release it. but they can't just release it, that'd be too easy. it's already a movie with nothing but good reviews so let's release this as agonisingly slowly as possible with exclusive tiny screenings in america first, then have all the new good reviews push people into demanding their local cinema show it - which only applies to america. which of course leads to more people raving about it.

well yesturday a good quality version of the movie leaked online. usually i normally make a rule of going to the cinema to see a new film i wanna see whenever possible, obviously. it's just better. but in this case i'm happy to download it early. fuck you paramount. if this had been available to see at any cinema around me between 2007 and now i'd be more than happy to go pay to see it for a better experience. that said i'll probably pay to go see it anyway when it comes out (plus apparently there's some alternate endings in existence...).

sorry. paramount rant over.

i thought blair witch project was ok. cloverfield was great and i loved rec/quarantine (also check out the rec 2 trailer if you haven't already 'cause that looks fucking great!). but hype's a difficult thing. i read alot of hype behind the film (as any of my twitter followers will probably know) but overall i still really liked it. there are parts in the film that are genuinely really creepy. more so than... well probably any film i can think of. but i can see it turning into another blair witch project. the early adopters (see the over reactions of the dumb americans in the trailer) will say how fucking scary the film was and then everyone else will go in with high expectations and say it's more stupid than scary. so you can't win either way.

i really liked it. maybe a little more than drag me to hell because it's going for scary and less comedy. the more i think about the ending i saw the creepier it seems but there are so many different ways it could have gone so i look forward to seeing the dvd extras when it eventually comes out.

i recommend you watch it. if you don't believe the hype then you'll probably really like it... if that makes sense.

4 creepy goings on out of 5.

iphone 3gs review

2009-09-18T13:46:00.008+01:00

i've been an iphone user now pretty much since they released the first model in america and i've never looked back. it's quite weird how different it feels to other phones i've had in the past. the general mobile phone rule is about a month after you buy a phone the next generation of models come out that look cooler, have more features, better camera, are smaller, lighter, faster, better... but even since i bought my iphone in 2007 i haven't wanted to change to a different phone. sure other phones do the same stuff (arguably better in some cases). other phones have better cameras, replaceable batteries and probably plenty of other features. but overall nothing seems to handle everything as well as the iphone and this is mainly due to it's app store and it's ongoing firmware updates from apple.

i was happy enough with my first generation iphone and probably would have stuck with it alot longer had i not lost it at this years reading festival moshing. so it was time for an update so i figured i might aswell push the boat out and grab a 16gb iphone 3gs. when it was first announced it was definitely an update i could have skipped and waited for the next generation model but being forced to upgrade i'm pretty happy i did.

the main updates were the massive speed increase (it's really noticeable), improved camera, video recording, 3g internet speeds, voice control, gps and it's built in compass (to orientate google maps). so a pretty decent upgrade really, and overall this thing is pretty fucking great.

essentially this thing is just catnip for geeks.

and being a geek i love that i can use this thing for pretty much anything, anywhere. i can check my email, facebook, twitter (and take pics or videos to upload to these) keep up with rss feeds, watch youtube, check web sites, ebay, play games, find out where i am/what's around me, use as a sat nav, listen to music/podcasts, watch movies/tv shows, check train times, the list goes on.

obviously computers have been able todo pretty much all this stuff for ages but having all this on something pocket sized i just find really cool. infact for a few tasks i'm actually starting to prefer using my iphone over my laptop. some things really do just work better on the iphone. like checking train times for example. i can open up the national rail app, have it find my location and all the nearest train stations and all their train times (and which ones are late). it's just quicker and easier on the iphone than on a pc.

... oh yeah the iphone can also send and receive texts and phone calls!

another couple of useful apps i've started using recently are evernote and read it later. you can use both whether you have an iphone or not. both offer a similar service to the google stuff i mentioned in my useful web apps blog post a while ago but these seem superior (mainly 'cause google won't integrate it's services into google chrome).

the main advantage to using these tools is the changes you make are synced online so they are always up-to-date from wherever you access them from. anyway here's a couple of vid's to show what they do.

yeah she was kinda annoying but that was the best vid i could find to sum up what evernote does. but it's pretty useful and completely free so give it a go.

derren brown's jedi lottery trickery

2009-09-10T15:45:00.011+01:00

ok so last night derren brown apparently predicted the lottery result. i'm a big derren brown fan and fascinated by his jedi powers. here's a clip of the live prediction which i actually missed so thanks youtube!

i just found this link posted on derren's own blog of what other people think. looks like these are all the wrong answers to get people talking.

my thoughts? first of all it's obviously a trick. he can't actually predict the lottery result - and even if he could he's not gunna tell the nation. i'm pretty baffled how the live trick was done but derren brown cannot predict the results.

two reasons: not so long ago he did a tv episode titled 'the system' fooling people into thinking he had a guaranteed method to predict horse race results (watch it here if you haven't seen it) which turned out to be a way of bending the truth to susceptible minded people. the other reason is what he says in the first video in this post. first he says he will predict the results (which he appears to have done successfully), then explain how he did it and how you can do it too, but it's the following show title: "how to control the nation" that seems to point to it obviously been fake.

my theory is the whole lottery trick is actually part of the "how to control the nation" show 'cause it's obviously a big way to grab everyone's attention and get them interested. chances are fridays show (where he apparently will tell the nation how to win the lottery) it part of a trick to get the nation todo something they wouldn't normally do to confirm that derren is basically a mind reading jedi who knows what your thinking and can make you do whatever he wants you to.

anyway that's my guestimated prediction. maybe i'm wrong and from friday onwards winning the lottery will become alot easier for the world.

reading festival 2009 round up

2009-09-03T14:32:00.016+01:00

[now updated with the bbc's tiny slice of covereage from their highlights]

delayed blogging due to a few weeks of being busy and last week was reading fest weekend! last year was my first year there and it was awesome. so far i've been to v festival 2007, glastonbury 2008, reading 2008 and 2009. v fest just felt like a big lifeless corporate money maker (kinda how you'd expect i guess). glasto is just the king of festivals mostly for it's shear size, atmosphere and diverse lineup. but band wise i'd say for me reading fest is the strongest.

last years headliners (rage, killers and metalica) seemed much bigger to me compared to this years (kings of leon, arctic monkeys and radiohead) but i'm a big kol fan and i like most arctic's stuff so that's good enough for me (sorry, i just don't know enough radiohead to call myself a fan).

probably the best news though was rumors of them crooked vultures doing a secret set on one of the side stages. there were already rumors they'd be there a few weeks before the festival but i managed to confirm the rumors were true on the saturday with the help of an iphone and twitter (it's awesome when twitter comes thru and you find a really good use for it) as they played the leeds festival the day before. so i knew where they'd be on and at what time! perfect!

here's the short clip from bbc's highlights. mcfly!? fuck off.

we got there about four bands before they were due to play so we could get right to the front for them. the plan worked brilliantly and by 4pm we were about two rows from the front - which was worth it even if we did have to put up with patrick wolf's set. by then the place was pretty rammed, the crowd were riled up and there had been alot of moshing to even bands you wouldn't expect it for.

after what felt like forever of setting up and mic checking they finally emerged. everyone went mental. and once they started playing they went even mentaler. as expected they sounded amazing. however in all the mentality my pocketed iphone somehow became depocketed. so if your wondering where my pictures from the weekend are, they are probably smashed up somewhere in that field. here's what it was lost in - there will be a handsome reward if you can spot it. was quite a bazaar experience being equally excited and gutted at the same time. but not to worry, review of my shiny new iphone 3gs is probably coming up sometime soon. plus i managed to score tickets for them at freaking plymouth in december!

after the m.i.a iphone had pissed on my festival poncho it was time to get on with the festival good times. one thing i thought was very weird this year is how the the bands before the headliners (with the exception of kol/kasiers friday night) just felt more powerful and had a better atmosphere than the actual headliners. wtf is up with that!? on saturday the prodigy were fuckin awesome, great band, great songs, the crowd went apeshit (as expected) ... arctic monkeys were fuckin dead on stage, as was the crowd. exactly the same happened on sunday with bloc party rocking the party and radiohead killing it. very weird, but i guess radiohead were never really gunna rock the party.

on friday night we dodged the kasiers and went to see friendly fires on the nme stage instead. wow, what a good call. they were infinitely better. i really like their album so we great to get to see them live. after them it was back to the main stage for some king of leon action. i'd say they were the best headliner even if they were pissed off but i would have liked to hear more from their first two albums. ho hum, t'was great to see them live again though.

and that was about my reading festival. one more thing before i'm done. it's great seeing all these cool bands in one place over one weekend but sometimes you do need something to break up all the music - which is where the alternate stage comes in. we tried to get into the tent on friday to see some of tim minchin's set. i don't know much of his stuff but what i heard was good. on sunday we caught quite a odd choice for reading which was a lecture on watchmen. was interesting to see what was basically a film studies lecture at a music festival, but did help break up the music a bit, so that was cool.

later on that afternoon we managed to catch adam buxton's bug show thing. it wasn't what i was expecting but still very cool. if your new to bug (as i was) he basically shows a series of cool music videos from artists you've never heard of with a few of his own songs/videos mixed in. here's one of my favorites from the ones he showed at reading:

now the song will go round in your head all day again and again and again and again!

ok that'll do. end blog post.

them crooked vultures

2009-08-22T12:42:00.007+01:00

i guess this blog is kinda just for sharing whatever i think is something cool or interesting - and it don't get much cooler that this. them crooked vultures are basically a hard rock supergroup consisting of josh homme (from queens of the stonage), john paul jones (from led zeppelin) and dave grohl (from foo fighters/nirvana).

i'm a pretty massive foo fighters fan anyway and dave grohl on drums is pretty fuckawesome anytime. queens of the stoneage rock and led zeppelin... well i'll be honest i don't actually know much of their stuff yet but i'm giving it some more listens :)

so far most of the stuff the band have done has been really secretive. unlike most bands these days nothing has leaked online yet. they've done a few secret gigs so far (so there are a few bad quality videos on youtube) but bar that all we have are these videos.

they've also done this pretty cryptic google earth link that they post on their facebook/twitter pages every now and then. it zooms into where ever they are playing next before any venues have been accounced.

i'm pretty freaking excited to hear whatever these guys do and rumor has it they are supposed to be playing reading festival 2009 (which i also happen to be attending).

awwwwww yeah!

cannot. freaking. wait.

inglorious basterds review

2009-08-20T01:40:00.008+01:00

been a while since blogging, should hopefully pick up the pace again soon! so another film from a few of the ones i wanna see has now been seen.

going in i knew it was a pretty long film at 2hrs 45mins which is fine if the movie's good but i still would have liked a couple of trailers, but ho-hum nevermind. and if i'm gunna spend 2hrs 45mins watching someones film quentin's are generally a safe bet. i'd say i'm a big enough fan to watch whatever he makes. it's pretty unanimous that reservoir dogs and pulp fiction are great films and among the favourites among most of my friends and myself. jackie brown... meh it was ok i guess and got a little better towards the end. death proof i did kinda like mostly from the last 30mins. i quite liked kill bill though but i haven't seen it for a while but probably would have been better edited down to one really good film instead of two alright ones. but watching inglorious basterds it did feel kinda like kill bill in a few ways (probably just quentin's style of the 00s). the titles, chapters and i'm sure some of the music was actually from the kill bill soundtrack.

first of all the film feels like it's being really falsely advertised. watching the trailers and tv ad's it's not just a group of guys killing nazis. infact you really don't see alot of the basterds at work (which is kind of a shame 'cause i'd like to see that movie too). the problem is the people who see the trailer and want to see it will get something they weren't expecting and the people put off by the trailer may actually like the film.

the acting was all pretty great. brad pitt and the rest of the basterds were all pretty awesome. mike myers had a cool cameo. but the stand out was probably the rob bryden lookalike christoph waltz as lt. hans landa - the jew hunter. every scene with him was pretty awesome. he's kinda scary and funny but kinda likeable at the same time (for a jew killing nazi anyway, which can't be easy to pull off).

most of the scenes in the film did seem to follow the same pattern of building tension for as long as possible and build to a true taranino style stand off. obviously it's still pretty violent. its pretty gory in places and there's alot more humor than i thought there would be (which is always welcome). for some reason the film kind of reminded me of 'there will be blood' - although i'm not quite sure why yet. could be just from all the extended dialog scenes.

anyway that'll do. review over.

overall, good film! 4 nazi scalps out of 5.

some thoughts on windows 7

2009-08-07T12:34:00.009+01:00

this week i made the update from windows vista to windows 7 on the work laptop and overall it does seem pretty good. who'd have thought windows vista could have been improved upon! i should note that i did the update option as opposed to a complete reformat, 'cause i'm lazy like that. the update process took about 4-5 hours but overall there seems to be a pretty good speed increase in booting up and shutting down (which kinda is expected as vista is pretty much the slowest operating system there is).

i've been using it now for a few days and it does seem a definite improvement (again not difficult coming from vista). since buying a macbook (for home) i'm pretty converted to mac os x and given the choice i'd much rather be running that, but from what i've seen it looked pretty complicated to get it installed on most normal pc's and i'm just not that bored enough to get into it that much. so for the time being windows 7 will have todo.

so being a mac user i do like the new windows 7 taskbar 'cause microsoft being microsoft has attempted to copy the mac os x dock. the new windows taskbar takes up much less space and just looks alot nicer. one feature that seems to have been left out is stacks (a mac os x feature) that allows folders placed in the dock to be opened so you can access more from one icon on your dock. there seem to be a few apps out there to get around this and the one i'm trying out is called standalonestack2 (catchy name i know). it's compatible with windows xp, vista and 7 so may be something you wanna check out anyway. for more info and to see it in action check this out.

another cool thing i noticed about the new taskbar is when your copying files it shows the progress bar in the background of the icon. so you can see when your files are done copying without having to minimise everything else.

another slightly changed feature is the "gadgets". basically they are little things you can add to your desktop to get in the way (like a clock, calendar, local weather, news headlines, etc). in windows vista these were limited to the left or right side of your screen but now you can just throw these anywhere on your desktop. it's a useful feature to have if you actually use them but still doesn't compare to the infinitely better mac os x dashboard.

another "big" feature added to windows 7 is the resizing of windows. if you want to compare two websites side-by-side you can just drag the window to the far left or right of the screen and it'll resize it to fit half the screen. once your done you just drag them back and they return to their previous size. kinda cool i guess.

given the few days i've been using windows 7 these seem to be the most noticeable and stand out features - so far anyway. i'm sure/hope there's more under the hood but it definitely seems a worthy update from vista (but then so was windows xp...). it really should be a free upgrade from vista but any way microsoft can make more money they will, and if they can confuse people with all their stupid different versions at the same time all the better. seriously, is anyone gunna make sense of this:

but i guess for the time being this is a free and worthy update from vista so i'd recommend doing it (especially if your already on vista, but maybe if your on xp too and fancy a change). obviously backup your shit first - just incase.

now here's a quick video on microsoft's innovation in windows vista :)

charles trippy's vloggity vlogs?

2009-07-30T11:18:00.010+01:00

ok so while browsing youtube i accidentally found one of charles trippy vlog videos (a vlog is a video blog if you hadn't already guessed). this guy has basically decided to keep a kind of video diary for 2 or 3 years, filming and uploading a new video everyday. for most people (including myself) doing this would be insanely boring but i don't know how this guy gets away with seemingly not having a day job (unless this vlog is already paying for itself... or he's just on holiday on the videos i've seen) but after watching a few of his entries i'm a converted fan.

[update: i caught one of his ustream's the other night and turns out he is actually being paid to make youtube videos... pretty sweet gig]

every video of his i've seen so far has always been fun, interesting, cool and funny so i'd say it fits the bill perfectly for something i'd like to post and share on my (primitive in comparison) blog.

here's a preview vid for you to see what you think. in this one he visits the google hq, the empire state building and nintendo world - all in a days "work" for charles trippy which warrants muchos cool points in my book :)

check out and subscribe to his youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/CTFxC

or head to his own site at http://charlestrippy.com - he's on pretty much everything: twitter, facebook and even has his own iphone app to keep you updated on his transpirings :)

new sci-fi trailers

2009-07-24T12:25:00.005+01:00

thought i'd do a quick post on a couple of cool new trailers i've only seen recently. first up is the district 9 trailer. this was one of the trailers shown before moon and i think it looks pretty darn good, almost like a half life movie. see what you think:

another trailer shown was for new bruce willis movie, surrogates. i first saw this one before terminator salvation and thought it looked alright. looks like a weird mix between the matrix, i robot and total recall :)

moon review

2009-07-23T11:11:00.009+01:00

heard about this movie few weeks ago and it seems reasonably unknown by most. the trailer got my interest by looking like a very retro cool space film more about the isolation of space than baysplosions that comes with most movies that have the budget to be set in space. there really should be more films taking this route than being just another summer blockbuster.

i don't really want to talk about the story too much because the trailer should show you enough to watch to learn more and go see the film. sam rockwell was great (which helps 'cause he's pretty much the only guy in the whole film) and who wouldn't want a talking computer with kevin spacey's voice. to me there felt like a few parallels with desmond from lost, you sort of have to wonder how it's possible living in such an isolated environment for such a long time and if it's even possible (even with future technology aka a talking kevin spacey emoticon computer) without eventually going nuts.

i really liked the retro feel of the whole film and the 2001 space odyssey and the original alien movie vibes. but overall i really enjoyed it, good times!

rhythm heaven on ds

2009-07-18T11:53:00.005+01:00

the other day i saw a tv ad for this game and thought it looked kinda interesting. interesting enough to dust off my ds and give it a try. ever since the success of brain training nintendo have been milking the casual gamers dry with any sort of training games they can think of. brain training, maths training, sight training, even bloody face training. and you could argue that this game is the same but not they've cottoned on to all the training titles and in a huge mix up, taken the word 'training' out of the title!

anyway i've been hooked on this game most of this week. it's similar to those wario ware games and like 90% of all ds and wii titles it consists of a load of mini games. you basically have to tap, hold, flick, slide and lift the stylus in time to the music and visuals you see on screen. it might not look as cool as strumming a big plastic guitar (but what is, right?). the game sounds pretty simple and stupid but give it a try 'cause it's really addictive.

brüno review

2009-07-13T12:41:00.008+01:00

i'll try and keep this review short and spoiler free 'cause the shock value is part of what makes films like this good, and there is plenty of it. anybody whose seen any of sasha's previous work should know what to expect. he's basically set to offend, and if that doesn't make you laugh some of the people's reactions in this film definitely will.

it did make me think exactly how long comedy like this can go on. obviously it's funny finding where people draw the line and then crossing it. jimmy carr's an expert at it. ricky gervais, ali g, south park, borat. it's all kinda the same formula. but you have to wonder where this will end, and i guess it won't as long as there are stupid people out there to be offended by anything. but i mean in like 20 years time is everyone just gunna be desensitised to it? obviously most of the humor comes from the stupid "p.c gone mad" times we live in where even brainstorming is found offensive, sorry "thought showering". whatever. this is going off topic...

that said, remembering some of the mental images from this movie, we are all a long way off being unoffendable. and that's just the mental images. those long dangling mental images... oh dear. and if that's not proof enough some of the reactions bruno invokes - this guy really knows how to wind people up.

but i can definitely say this is the gayest movie i've ever seen - so stick that quote on your movie poster (that reminds me i still haven't seen brokeback moutain, but from what i've heard it's pretty much the film shown at that movie festival in south park. the one with gay cowboys eating pudding. and that was years before brokeback came out. lawsuit? ... probably not).

but overall this is a fooking fünny movie, even if you do wonder how much of it is scripted. there's probably a few too many borat storyline parallels but i was still laughing all the way through. so watch it ... and then try to forget the mental images.

go see quarantine

2009-07-11T12:20:00.005+01:00

i rewatched/loved this movie the other day and can't seem to find many other people that have seen it, so i figured i'd do a quick recommendation. back in 1999 (wow 10 years now) a big fuss was made about the blair witch project for the whole movie being filmed on a hand held camera in a documentary filmmaking style. cloverfield later did the same but one film that flew under some people's radar was a spanish horror film called rec. it's filmed in the same style and tells the story of a news reporter doing a report on the local fire brigade's night shift. it doesn't take long for them to get called out by a report of a woman being trapped in an apartment building. when they get there they break down the door and the woman goes crazy and bites one of the policemen there, like you do. obviously there's some kind of infection so later they get sealed in the apartment building by a hazmat team to contain the infection, and that's all i'll say.

personally i really liked rec, but obviously subtitles aren't for everyone (the lazy) so america being america remade the movie. and surprisingly i liked it more than the original. the two are practically identically shot but with a bigger budget and a different cast - including the awesome jennifer carpenter (dexter's hot sister from the also brilliant tv series dexter).

it's quite interesting that unlike alot of films that get released the general rule is films start good and get worse/boring through the middle or towards the end but this film completely mirrors that. if anything it starts out pretty slow and builds and builds through the whole film as the shit hits the fan and get real intense by the end.

in summary: i love this movie, so give a look if you haven't seen it already.

why twitter?

2009-07-04T01:08:00.002+01:00

i've been meaning todo a twitter post for a while now so no time like the present right? i've been using twitter now for a few months. i was reluctant at first but after reading the twitter experiment blog post by david pogue i decided to get involved and start using twitter - and i really like it. but it seems difficult to get new people to get involved, and i can see why. the first thing they always say is it's just another facebook status update and on the surface it's easy to just look at it like that, but when you actually start to use it properly you might start to like it more than facebook (as i now do). however they are difficult to compare as i have different uses for both facebook and twitter.

facebook is mostly good at what it does, keeping you in contact and updated on what your friends are up to, sharing photos/videos, creating events, etc but over time it seems to be getting bloated with useless crap. i don't care about your mafia wars update. i can see why you'd join a group and become a fan of a band you like or event your interested in but i don't care if your a 'fan' of laughing or joined the group 'i need money' ... who the hell doesn't and who doesn't like laughing! it's getting ridiculous. this is somewhere twitter prevails. as soon as you read something by someone your not interested in you can just un-follow them. this instantly kills any spam. plus twitter doesn't even have adverts (how many web sites can say that these days?).

once your on twitter you should get a desktop app for it 'cause they are just better than using the web site. these allow you to get instant updates from the people you follow. you can set them up to update as often as you like and they give you a small msn style popup when new tweets are received. probably the most popular is tweetdeck. you can download it windows, mac or iphone for free via their website or the app store. one of tweetdeck's coolest features is the ability to create search columns. so if i wanted to keep up to date with say half life 2 episode 3 just create a search column and you'll receive live updates from anyone whose tweets contain 'half life 2 episode 3' - even people i don't already follow.

tweetdeck is good and has most of the features you need from a twitter client but i find it does take over my screen a bit too much for my liking so i use twhirl. it uses a smaller window and actually displays incoming tweets as they come in on the bottom right of your screen. twhirl is available for windows and mac on their web site.

i should also mention tweetie which is a good app on both mac and iphone. you have to pay for the full version but you can download a free version on mac with adverts but there are loads of different twitter apps out there so just search around and use the one best suited to you.

one of the most useful features for me is just having live updates from web sites i visit regularly. basically you can use twitter as an rss feed from news/games/movie sites, anything your interested in and receive updates as soon as they go onto their web site.

then there's obviously celebrities. alot of tv and radio shows now are using twitter as a way to communicate with their audience. it's also pretty cool following people within the industry, like someone working on the effects in a film or working on a game still in production.

i mainly use it for sharing links. it's just easier to put something i want to share on twitter than individually sending everyone i know an instant message. plus on twitter it'll reach more people because twitter is open to everyone (not just people you know like on facebook).

anybody can search twitter for anything. any topic you want to see what people are talking about. if you want to see what people are saying about a certain film, or a specific web site or event you can just search and see what people are saying about it. you can also use hashtags which work in the same way. you basically put a # in front of a word which then makes it a searchable link. if you see any weird words with a # before them check out wthashtag.com - it's like a wikipedia of hashtags and will tell you what they mean.

anyway that about covers everything i wanted to say on twitter. it's not for everyone but it is for me, so i recommend you give it a go. i guarantee there will be plenty of people/web sites you'll want to follow - so if your not already, get on twitter.

podcast playlist

2009-07-02T13:48:00.009+01:00

well i've managed to add some cool new mp3 player widgets to the sidebar of the blog now. one of them has replaced the flashplayer for the band covers (which i've also added a song to) and i thought i'd use another to share any other cool audio goodness i find online. don't worry i won't have them autoplay when you visit (cos i hate that, yes i'm looking at you myspace!).

i figured i'd start by just sharing some podcasts i listen to, which at the moment mainly consist of adam & joe on 6music.

if you havn't seen or heard any adam & joe (where the HELL have you been for the past 10 years!) give them a listen and see what you think - it's one of my favorite podcasts. if you are already a fan of their current 6music podcast you should definitely listen to their old xfm podcasts still avalible for FREE on itunes if you haven't for whatever reason.

another favorite is the ricky gervais podcast. these are probably the funniest podcasts out there so i can't recommend them enough. the first series is also still free on itunes so give them a listen when you've got time. they've done about 4 more series since, which they started charging money for (but they can be found online elsewhere if you look hard enough).

now a couple for lost fans. first one is kinda obvious: the official lost podcast. the shows executive producers damon lindelof and carlton cuse answer questions sent in from lost geeks. being a pretty big lost fan i'm interested in any extra clues on offer from anyone working on the show so this is all good.

the official podcast is good for most casual lost fans but if you wanna get really hardcore try listening to the o.d.i lost podcast. these are some pretty big lost geeks who will analyze any and everything from the show and also share some interesting theories. if your hardcore you should like, if your casual or just not a lost fan this is probably not recommended :)

that'll do for podcasts for now. try out this weeks adam & joe podcast in the sidebar on the right and keep an eye out for any new stuff i add to the playlist.

what podcasts do you listen to? leave a comment below or @reply me on twitter.

in an unrelated matter, celebrity deaths have been all the rage this week so for no reason here's jeff goldblum, he will be missed:

glastonbury 2009 round up

2009-06-29T11:40:00.013+01:00

the first and arguably the biggest music festival of the year just ended this weekend and it looked pretty awesome as always. i didn't actually go this year (two main reasons: the lineup for the most part didn't appeal much to me and i had no way of getting there or back) but i did go last year and had a really great time. glastonbury seems to be famous for it's weather issues (i don't understand why they don't move the festival to july/august time) but it seems both this year and last year seem to have been pretty varied but mostly dry, from what i saw anyway and i saw alot.

i spent most of the weekend watching the bbc coverage which i really can't fault. 6music had full coverage all weekend just playing live music from the festival with an extra weekend dose of adam and joe - 6music ftw! they also showed a wide selection of all the good bands and the stuff i wasn't really interested in on bbc 2 and 3, but with the red button stuff too at least i could pick and choose who i wanted to see and when. the only way the bbc could have done a better job would be to replace the retarded hosts (bring back adam and joe!) or do away with the hosts altogether and just play some bands. nobody gives a fuck edith! nobody is watching this for your awkward "banter" with reggie dickhead yates! get back to the music already!

one of the particular highlights for me would have to be pendulum. i saw them live last year at the reading festival and that was a pretty incredible experience. i wouldn't even say i'm that big of a pendulum fan but live they are immense! really get the crowd going, check them out:

quick list of other bands there that i thought looked really good live: bloc party, yeah yeah yeahs, kasabian, prodigy, fleet foxes, the ting tings, maximo park, franz ferdinand, doves and friendly fires. that said some of these i'll be seeing at reading festival this year :)

one of the things that put me off going this year most was the headliners. don't get me wrong a diverse lineup is probably one of glastonbury's biggest strengths but this year's just didn't appeal much for me. except one.

blur was probably the first band i actually liked when i was young so i was looking forward to seeing what they'd do. i know alot of their songs but there's so many you forget and seeing them performed live it just looked awesome. they played 24 songs in total and ended on the universal.

probably not my favorite blur song but that's the only clip i could find :)

to see more of glastonbury be sure to check out more on the iplayer while it's online or i think it'll be on bbc 3 during the week too.

after seeing the highlights i'd say i'm pretty set on going next year regardless of the lineup (which normally isn't announced till the tickets sellout anyway). plus i think next year is the 40th glastonbury festival so they should have something special planned.

see ya there! :D

transformers poo review

2009-06-25T00:09:00.014+01:00

where do i begin... well the bad springs to mind, so let's start with that.
it's kind of depressing that in this day and age (i'm not trying to sound old) something like this can reach the masses. when i think about the whole process that movies have to go through to actually reach cinemas worldwide - all the script writers, editors, the director, the cast, the effects guys, test audiences, everyone listed in the credits - at no point did anyone put their hand up and say 'heeeeeeeeey, wait a minute! this part sucks!'. there's so much here that i would hope anyone would have picked up on any of the crap that went into this movie. don't get me wrong i probably couldn't do better (...actually maybe i could, but another time) but c'mon studios! sort your god damn filtering process out and save yourself alot of money!

i admit i've never been a fan of transformers (bit before my time grandad) but at least the first movie managed to keep my attention. and at least in michael bays other work i remotely gave a shit about the characters (i still love con air and the rock dispite nic's acting talents). throughout this movie i couldn't care less if any or all of them got killed off - in fact through the second half i was kinda preying for some sort of t.w.m.d (yes that's transformers weapon of mass distruction aka 'the matrix key' or whatever it was called in this movie) would just go off and kill them all so i could go walk off my numb ass and forget this movie sooner.

it was also quite funny how sexist the movie seemed. there's pretty much one girl in the whole movie.

a woman? yeah a woman. and yeah megan fox is pretty hot if your into that fake looking slutty type whose hobbies include bending over bikes and jiggling away from explosions in slow motion. oh and just for something to keep the female viewers interested we'll add some lovey dovey, badly written scenes with the exact same greenday song playing and slot them randomly into the film.

the jar jar binks fans out there will enjoy the two useless autobot twins 'cause i bet no one else watching this movie found them annoying right?

"hmm i'll tell you what this script needs... dog fucking!" ... yeah whose weirdo idea was that? and more importantly how was this not vetted out (haha vetted, you see! cos they are dogs! i dun a funny! maybe neutered out would have been better, nevermind whatever).

questions that spring to my mind during the movie:
why leave these t.w.m.d's in existence, let alone on earth?
why would these advanced aliens even stay on earth just to blow our shit up?
how useless and futile anything the humans do is. why even get involed? it's not like you can stop them.
how shia's prision break style disguise (a baseball cap) is gunna fool anyone?
why not roll the credits hours ago and save the world some time?
why am i still sat here watching this?
who would win in a fight: a monkey with a stapler or an invisible pelican?

well that's the bad, now the good...
urrrmm the special effects... umm yep that's it, and i can't fault it there but there's only so much cg your eyes can take until your desensitized to it. it's kinda like when toy story first came out - really impressive at first but about 30mins in the cg is just a given and the script needs to take over (toy story: win, transformers 2 ... epic fail).

oh and doctor claw from inspector gadget doing the voice for the satellite decepticon, that was quite funny.

anyway if your gunna watch something at the cinema this week i'd recommend you invest your stock in drag me to hell, the hangover or star trek (if you still haven't seen it) and save terminator salvation and transformers 2 for a dvd, i'm sure they'd make good coasters.

it's also worth checking out this review. it's probably the best review i've seen for it online :)

curing boredom, one game at a time

2009-06-21T13:08:00.010+01:00

well i'm back at work, bored. but i thought i'd pass on a couple of games i'm currently addicted to between my times of of back breaking labour. popcap have been making addictive casual mini games for a long time now - most popular probably being bejeweled (and everyone's played that in one form or another by now right?). i even actually bought feeding frenzy on the xbox live arcade when it came out (that reminds me, i probably should play some more of that and get my monies worth).

anyway here's the big two i'm hooked on at the mo...

first up is plants vs zombies.

this is another one of those tower defence games. when a horde of zombies comes a-knocking you do the only logical thing you can ... plant seeds in your garden that shoot them ... yeah, i dunno what the makers of this game were thinking but don't be fooled! this game is very addictive. different plants attack in different ways (as all zombie hating gardeners know). there are many different types of zombies with different strengths and weaknesses so choose your seeds carefully (the michael jackson zombie can be a bitch - if you don't put him down quick enough his dancing will bring even more zombies to your door).

you can download the trial or full game on their official site (or elsewhere if you look hard enough).

the second game is peggle.

this is another popcap game and it's freaking addictive! the concept is fairly simple. it's a peg and ball game. you got 10 balls you have to use to get rid of orange pegs by hitting them. there's also a ball catcher at the bottom of the screen that constantly moves from left to right - if it catches your ball you get to use it again. there's also loads of different power ups you can get by hitting the green pegs and bonus points are given for hitting purple ones. if it sounds boring you need to give it a try or see it in action to comprehend the addiction.

this game is currently on pc, xbox, nintendo ds, iphone and on some ipods.

again you can find it on their official site (or from other interwebs).

and just as a bonus i'll recommend one more. this one's probably a bit older so you may have already tried it. if not, try this on for size.

world of goo

this is a physics based game where the idea is to build structures from goo balls to reach a goal. sort of lemmings style but with more creativity by making your own ways out. alot of it is trial and error until you figure out what you should be doing (or just search youtube for a solution to the game your stuck on).

you can get this on pc or download it on your wii.

as before you can locate it on their official site (alternatively via other means).

and just one more to finish on 'cause i've just thought of it (after all the structure building talk)...

everyone should check out http://fantasticcontraption.com 'cause this one is just web based (so not downloading/installing) plus it's free!

the object is to build something to carry the pink ball into the goal area. again this one has alot of trial and error gameplay but every level has loads of different ways to complete so give it a try.

it's also worth checking out some of the ones the pro's have made on youtube - they are pretty crazy.

anyway check them out and lemme know what you think.

eastbound and down

2009-06-19T11:18:00.006+01:00

i love this show and can't seem to find many people who have seen it. eastbound and down is a comedy that aired earlier this year on u.s tv. it stars danny mcbride as kenny powers a has been professional baseball pitcher trying to make a comeback. will ferrell and craig robinson also make a few guest appearances through the short first season (but a second season has been ordered).

if you like your comedies give this a go. there's only six episodes in the first season and each episode is only about half an hour long but they are very funny.

i've even found some download links so you have no excuse.

aren't you lucky!

episode 1 | episode 2 | episode 3episode 4 | episode 5 | episode 6

the hangover review

2009-06-18T12:51:00.005+01:00

i'll try and keep this pretty short and avoid any spoilers. this is the third film i've seen from my new movies post - and it was very good! i'm a pretty big fan of todd phillips' movies anyway (old school, starsky & hutch, road trip, school for scoundrels ... umm not so much) but this didn't disappoint.

alot of these kinds of movies can have a tendency to use up all the funny parts in the trailer but the movie felt pretty funny all the way through. i wouldn't go as far as to say "funniest movie of 2009" (i'm hoping bruno with come through for that) but it's a good film. probably could wait for the dvd but if you need something to see at the cinema this week this and drag me to hell (if they're still showing it) won't disappoint - yes i'm looking at you terminator salvation...

looking on imdb it seems the studios have deemed this sequel worthy already along with old school dos which is cool.

cake fails

2009-06-16T12:19:00.018+01:00

who doesn't like cake? what's the only thing better than a cake? a cake fail! cake wrecks is a blog dedicated to shared the failed cake love.

when someone misspells, mishears or just generally fucks up it's funny, but to take that mistake and blindly run with it straight to the bakers it escalates to a whole new level of comedy.

you can imagine the phone conversation:

"yeah we want it to say 'best wishes suyanne' and underneath that 'we will miss you', got that?".

oh yeah, bonus fail points for also misspelling underneath ... unless the baker was irish.

or "yeah it's really simple. we just want it to say 'welcome baby' ... in pink".

but some of them are just plain funny.

i mean who wouldn't want a chewbacca cake right?

hmm i need a unique mothers day cake, ooh how about this...

happy mothers day!

and just to finish, how about this guy...

i quite like him. can you image if tom hanks in castaway found this washed up instead of the football.

anyway more cake fails to be found at http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com

new kasabian album

2009-06-14T12:49:00.004+01:00

kasabian - the west ryder pauper lunatic asylum

quick music recomendation. got this album the other week and it's pretty good (stupid album title aside). i wouldn't say i'm a hardcore kasabian fan but i do like their other two albums and they've got alota good singles in their back catalogue.

fave tracks off the album are probably underdog, where did all the love go, fast fuse, take aim, vlad the impaler and fire. that's quite a few favorites, so i guess it's a pretty good album and probably worthy of a quick blog post.

plus they've done two cool videos, check them out!

quick links info

2009-06-13T12:46:00.007+01:00

thought i'd do a quick post just explaining what the quick links are on the right of me blog. they're basically a few site's i like and go back to every now and then so if your reading this maybe you might too. so with the help of my brain and wikipedia (both of which never lie...) here goes:

first is zero punctuation - this is a video game review series created by video game journalist ben “yahtzee” croshaw. he does awesome animated game reviews every week so if your into gaming give this site a go - it's a great afternoon killer and very funny.

cinemassacre is the creation of james rolfe (aka angry video game nerd). it was the first place to feature his old game reviews and now he uses this site to talk about and review movies.

ashens is another reviewer of shit games but his mostly centre around cheap made in china tat and generally quite funny.

adam & joe radio show is a radio show featuring adam & joe ... doesn't need much explaination really does it? anyway they are great, as is their show so either join black squadron or download the podcast but give them a listen sometime.

screenwipe is charlie brooker's tv fucking great tv series. for some reason it airs on bbc four which nobody watches. it's a tv show basically taking the piss out of tv shows. judging by how much shit is on tv i'm all for this and agree with everything this guy has to say.

charlie brooker also writes for the guardian and this is a link to his column titled screen burn. basically screenwipe in text form.

pogue's blog is written by technology writer david pogue. he covers all kinds of technology related cool stuff, so i like to check here now and then.

llewtube is robert llewellyn (kryton off of red dwarf)'s web site. he does this series called car pool where he drivers a comedian somewhere and records the chittle chattle that transpires. it's pretty good. 'nuff said.

fail blog you've probably already heard of from youtube. it's basicially an achieve of people failing with hilarious consequences... meh anyway give some videos a look sometime it's normally quite funny.

natural selection 2

2009-06-11T13:44:00.012+01:00

back in 2002 most online gaming revolved around half life on pc in one form or another. while almost everyone will have played or at least heard of counter strike at some point, one awesome mod was released that i spent almost all of my time playing - natural selection.

nothing todo with darwin, this mod resembled more of an alien vs predator style gameplay with two teams (aliens vs marines) fighting to secure the whole of the level. but this wasn't the standard team deathmatch though - this was a first person shooter come real time strategy. i won't go into too much detail but basically one of the marine players plays as the 'commander' who instead of playing first person shooter gets a top down view of the entire level and has the power to drop upgrades and equipment for the other marines to build and use.

in the standard mode the fight between the aliens and marines could go on for hours and these games were awesome. in later updates the creators added another 'combat' mode which was more like a quick version of the game more gears towards team deathmatch. both game modes were fucking great and just thinking about them makes me wanna fire up my old pc and get back into it. problem being i have since done away with my old gaming pc and now just play console games (seems cheaper in the long run and i don't wanna have to upgrade my pc for every new game that comes out). once you get used to the controller instead of mouse and keyboard they aren't so bad. plus now with xbox live, consoles have pretty much caught up to provide a very decent alternative to pc gaming for playing online.

anyway this post has already gone on waaaay longer than i intended. in summary natural selection rocked and the creators are working on a stand alone sequel originally titled natural selection 2. they recently released a new teaser trailer and it looks awesome! with all the multiplatform releases for games these days this may be the one game that gets me back into pc gaming (unless they get this out on xbox, unlikely but you never know). either way i can't freaking wait!

new iphone announcement

2009-06-09T13:50:00.007+01:00

yesturday apple made some new annoucements at their worldwide developer conference keynote about some of their upcoming products. you can watch the full presentation here.

they started out with some new macbook updates adding an sd card, firewire 800 (the apple fans cheer at the weirdest things, this was one of them lol), better screen, better battery and some other stuff. after that a guy with an annoying accent showed off some of the new features from their next major operating system update snow leopard. most of it looked pretty sweet and i still think mac os x leopard is the best operating system around at the moment so i'm looking forward to the update. snow leopard is due out in september and apple is only charging $29 to upgrade to it, which will make it extremely hard for microsoft to compete with windows 7 (unless it's a free upgrade from vista - which it should be anyway cos vista's just shit).

after that they moved on to show off the features of the new iphone 3.0 software which adds loads of new features for all iphone's and ipod touch's. they're finally adding copy & paste, a landscape keyboard in all text entry apps and tethering to your computer to use your iphone as a modem to get online wherever you are. one of the features i was most impressed with was the 'find my iphone' service for if you lose your iphone - check it out:

then the big annoucement that the apple fan boys were waiting for - a new iphone called the iphone 3gs (the s stands for speed). time to get my bullet points out, aww yeah! new features include:

an upgraded camera - still only 3.2mp tho, but the pics they showed off did look pretty good.
video recording - with ability to upload straight to youtube.
all the insides have been upgraded to increase speed all round.
built in compass - so the iphone can rotate maps to the direction your facing.
voice control - allows you to give your iphone voice commands to phone people, play songs, etc.
available in 16gb and 32gb versions.
and it's the same size as the iphone 3g.

the iphone 3gs does seem cool but i don't think they've upgraded enough to warrent me paying for a whole new contact when alot of the features are still coming to my iphone 2g with the 3.0 firmware - but then it took me a while to come round to the iphone in the first place, but now i'll buy almost anything if it's shiney and made by apple:

terminate me to hell movie reviews

2009-06-07T14:54:00.012+01:00

ok so out of the new movies i wanna see post i've actually seen two of them now. so i figured i'd do a quick round up of the two while they are kinda fresh in my head. i'll try to avoid spoilers for those who haven't seen them yet anyway.

the matrix + fallout 3 + i am legend = terminator salvation. overall the movie was ok and probably actually quite good for a prequel (i'm trying to think of some examples of a good prequel but none are coming to mind... no wait! ... nope that sucked too ... hmm star trek doesn't really count does it? oh well, suggestions on a postcard...). the special effects were pretty awesome but it did start to feel more like a transformers movie after a while with the bikinator things and that transformer sized terminator. just like all the other terminator movies the terminators eventually find a way to strip down to just their endoskeleton (lava ... the terminators natural enemy) which is probably the best part of the film. i was quite impressed with cg arnie's cameo aswell, he looked just like he did in the original dated terminator movie.

it just kinda sucked the film didn't feel john connor centric. christian bale did a good job which was fucking distracting but the movie seemed to follow sam worthington's character way too much. kyle reese was played really well but wtf was the need for the mute kid? i guess they were trying todo the same thing as aliens with newt but that worked (ripley lost her daughter, newt lost her family, they found eachother and then alien 3 happened ... oh dear) but the girl in this is literally THE most pointless character in a movie. i really have no idea why she was in the film. she's basically the movie equivalent of kevin from south park - except at least he helped out here and there.

for the most part it was ok though, but given the choice i'd save your money and wait for it on dvd and go see drag me to hell instead.

gotta say i. loved. this. movie. i'll admit it's not for everyone but if you liked any of the evil dead movies you should love this. it's like the classic sam raimi style none of that spiderman shit (well 2 was ok i guess). looking at the trailer it's easy to assume it's another one of those films (the ring, the grudge, maybe the saw movies, etc) but i think this kinda puts all of those in their place. i wouldn't really call the movie "scary" but more "jumpy". the film is pretty tense all the way through and you can normally feel the next jump is only a few mins away (i think i jumped twice, but one of those i blame on the girl in the cinema who screamed when she jumped, bloody surround sound). but sam certainly knows how to build his tension. most movies like this i find normally come off as kinda stupid and normally funny for the wrong reasons but this movie empraces that in the same way that the evil dead movies did and is genuinely really funny in places.

anyway check out the clip and check out the movie.

e3 round up

2009-06-05T12:03:00.005+01:00

so e3's over for another year but overall it was a pretty good show. if you haven't checked out the major presentations from the show they are probably worth a look if you've got the time. here's the links - microsoft, sony and nintendo.

microsoft seemed to have the strongest show in my opinion. sony did a good job showing off new ps3 stuff coming out and the new psp go does look pretty good. nintendo while doing better than last year (which wasn't difficult) were still a little disappointing. they are obviously set on pleasing the casual gamer so their presentation was quite bizarre considering the only people watching are the hardcore. that said super mario galaxy 2 and the new metroid game look alright. new super mario bros wii seems a bit weird. it's cool they are bringing a classic 2d mario game to the wii with 4 player coop gameplay but i can't help but think they could and should have done this years ago on the n64 or gamecube. watching the gameplay it just looks like they've been beaten to the punch and outdone already by little big planet.

the new motion control stuff from microsoft and sony look pretty interesting. i'm still not really conviced it's the way to go for anyone other than the casual gamers (kids, parents, grandparents, etc) but nintendo seems to be printing money with the wii and ds's success so obviously microsoft and sony want in. out of the two sony's does seem the strongest and most likely to succeed even if the controllers do look like weird glow sticks.

i thought the beatles rock band animated intro was awesome and really well made. can't say i'm a beatles fan (just never really listened much to them) but i liked the songs used and i've never properly tried a rock band game but after seeing this and the game demoed i kinda wanna give both a try.

but all this is all just background noise from e3. the major stuff i am looking forward to (also mentioned in my upcoming gaming awesomeness post) is:

call of duty modern warfare 2 - this just looks awesome. i'm a pretty big fan of all of the call of duty games but the video of the new demo shown at e3 looks pretty amazing. this could be goldeneye amazing :)

aliens vs predator - like i said before i've been a fan of the games series for a long time (less said about the movies the better) but the new videos of the predator gameplay demo look really fun. i especially like the new way the predator can jump from tree to tree just like in the movies.

left 4 dead 2 - wasn't expecting this game to be shown off or released so soon after left 4 dead which only came out in october. first thing i noticed was the improved graphics and some new weapons, which isn't really hard - left 4 dead's graphics looked pretty dated even when it came out but the new trailer looks cool so check it out.

perfect dark xbox live arcade - one of my favorite n64 games coming to xbox 360 is just awesome. hopefully they'll include online play to make a great game even better. cannot wait!

well that about covers e3 2009 the only stuff that i missed was half life 2 episode 3 and a new zelda on wii to look forward to. nevermind, hopefully next year.

until then ever wonder what the bottom of an avatar shoe looks like?

microsoft fail...

mtv movie shawards

2009-06-01T23:44:00.012+01:00

after hearing about bruno's entrance i figured i'd check out the mtv movie awards. in the past they've done a few good parodies (matrix reloaded and mission impossible 2 spring to mind) but overall it just feels like a big corporate advert and opportunity for all the 12 year old girls to scream about the dick from twilight or the twat from high school musical (this got real annoying, real fast). don't get me wrong i knew going in this wasn't gunna be the oscars but seriously your doing a (rigged) text vote (is there any other kind these days?) for best movie between the dark knight, slumdog millionare, iron man, high school musical 3 and twilight? maybe it's just my opinion but the first three are kind of in an entirely different league.

make even more annoying by the numerous stupid sponcers messages before the actual adverts. after plugging the best movie text vote it cut to a group the stereotypical dumb "sweet 16" girls voting for twilight all from the same t-mobile phone (one of the sponcers of the show of course). obviously the 12 year old girls prevailed and twilight won best movie. the whole thing just felt so staged and fake. awards shows shouldn't be like this.

that said it wasn't all bad. i thought the host adam samberg came off pretty well (so to speak - not to be confused with jizz in my pants) and i loved hot rod so he seemed a good choice for a host. i loved the idea of using keyboard cat to rap up speeches that overun - this should become a rule for all speeches everywhere in my opinion.

the "cool guys don't look at explosions" song featuring will ferrell was pretty good too and jj abrams keyboard solo was great, and should feature somewhere in the last season of lost.

ben stiller's award introduction was pretty funny with kiefer sunderland breaking down but i was a bit disappointed with triumph the insult comic dog. he just felt uber toned down and out of character really - more auto-cue fakeness i guess, which should actually be the tagline of the show.

always good to see kings of leon live, but they did seem like an odd choice for the target audience of the show which i felt pretty alienated from what with all the twilight bullshit. maybe they were just trying cover all their bases.

as for the whole eminem/bruno thing it was the highlight and probably the funniest bit of the show even if it was all staged which is pretty much guarenteed judging by the rest of the show.

so overall that was the mtv movie awards and to me the shittness pretty much outweighed the good stuff so i can't really recommend watching it unless the dick from twilight makes you moist/jizz in your pants. otherwise watch the highlights and invest the rest of you time doing something more constructive. like burn the rope.

cassetteboy vs the bloody apprentice

2009-05-28T23:36:00.004+01:00

found this today and thought it was great. so check it out!
presenting... sir alan sugar. sir alan sugar. sir, alan sugar...

2mins of youtube

2009-05-27T19:52:00.005+01:00

can't believe i actually spent nearly 2mins watching this...

oh well, it was worth it i guess - but he's no keyboard cat

new movies

2009-05-26T15:12:00.008+01:00

quite a few good looking new movies coming out this year. here's a list of a few i'm looking forward to seeing...

terminator salvation - seems to be getting some flak in reviews at the mo, but all the trailers do make it look good so i'll go see it when it's out.

drag me to hell - latest sam raimi movie. trailer looks quite funny. might check this one out tonight.

inglorious basterds - new tarantino movie. 'nuff said.

land of the lost - mixed feelings on this one. the plot seems a bit stupid but it's ferrel and mcbride so will have to see how it turns out.

transformers 2 - i thought the first one was ok but with these kinds of movie the second in the series is normally the best (spiderman, hellboy, dark knight, short circuit 2, speed 2, oceans twelve, blair witch 2, dumb and dumberer ... hmm wait a minite). anyway, hopefully this'll be good.

bruno - 'cause everyone needs to know how to defend themselves from a man with two dildos.

the hangover - reasonably unknown one. same director as road trip and old school and the trailer looks alright. plus it's got andy from the american version of the office.

transforminators trailer

2009-05-26T12:30:00.003+01:00

just found this trailer online and thought it was pretty good :)

get your cod on

2009-05-25T11:07:00.005+01:00

brand new full length call of duty modern warfare 2 trailer went online late last night. check it out if you haven't already. it looks goooooood!

useful web apps

2009-05-24T15:07:00.004+01:00

few posts in now, i'm doing better than i thought i would at blogging. the web's pretty useful as it is, but i find myself using these services more and more so figured i'd pass them on.

first up here's a few google services you may not have tried or heard of. most people probably use more than one computer every day/week/month so you want to be able to access the same stuff on all the computers you use. cloud computing is gunna become more and more popular so might aswell jump on the bandwagon now. if you find something of interest at work and wanna take a better look at home later a useful tool is google bookmarks. basically it's a list of favorites you can access from any computer once you log into your google account (which everyone has by now right?). another advantage of using this is if your computer does go pop and you lose everything at least this way your bookmarked porn site's are safe :)

along with this you also have google docs (free ms office online basically) and google notebook - which i find myself using alot. i guess all this is pretty useless if you only ever use the same computer, but if you don't (like me) hopefully you'll give them a go and like them.

ok enough google ass kissing.

free youtube to mp3 converter

you know when you hear a new song you like and wanna get it on your ipod. this ones a good way to go. once you know the artist and track name (probably through shazam or another phone alternative) chances are the song your after is on youtube in some form - i mean c'mon what isn't these days. point your browser here and download this free app for windows. once you've installed it just give it the url of the youtube video with your song and it'll download and convert it to mp3 - perfect!

songza

this ones another music related one. if your ever been on someone else's computer who has either no music or just an awful taste in music head over to http://songza.com. it allows you to create playlists of youtube videos. so instead of going track by track of all the songs you wanna listen to you can just go here make a small playlist and leave it on shuffle. ideal!

anyway, that'll do for now. if you know any other cool online services like these that you find useful gimme a shout.

iphone apps

2009-05-24T13:32:00.008+01:00

with the itunes app store getting alota downloads everyday and new apps being added all the time there's alota useless crap but i figured i'd do a quick post on the apps i like and use the most. i doubt everyone reading this actually has an iphone but if your considering getting one you might be interested. so let's get started...

i'll put a link to a video of each app in the title so you can see them in action. the videos aren't mine but they'll give you an idea of what the apps like. if you wanna give them a try just search for the title on the app store (obviously).

field runners - this is one of the first games i really liked on the iphone that turned out to be really addictive. it's a basic tower defence game where you have to stop these little guys from getting from one side of the screen to the other by building turrets to stop them for as long as you can. there are loads of similar apps (one being tap defence which is free) but this one is the best i've tried.

sway - this ones kinda difficult to explain and is much better just to see in action. you basically control each of your characters arms with your left and right thumb and have to swing around the level to get to the end. it's one of my favorites on the iphone at the mo and couldn't be done on anything other than an iphone.

scoops - last i checked this ones actually free on the app store so definitely give it a try. i started playing and was instantly addicted. basically you've got an ice cream cone and you need to move it around to collect scoops of ice cream and avoiding the fruit. my current high score is 160060.

zenbound - again this one you kinda need to see in action. the object is basically to wrap a rope around diffenent 3d shapes. wherever the rope touches the shape it becomes coloured. the idea is to colour in as much of the object as possible using a set length of rope. might sound boring but the touch controls and accelorometer make it work really well. very unique game that i was impressed by anyway.

rolando - if you liked locoroco on the psp or ps3 then this one's for you. it's almost exactly the same really but the main difference if the controls. you basically select the character you want to move by touching them onscreen and then tilt the iphone in the direction you wanna go. different characters move around differently and generally the object is to collect fruit and get all the characters to the end of the level.

sudoku grab - there are quite a few sudoku apps on the app store but this one impressed me most. as usual they come with a load of puzzles with the app but this one actually allows you to use the iphone's camera to add more puzzles to your iphone - and it actually works!

recommended movies ... recomovies?

2009-05-23T12:29:00.012+01:00

'cause it's still early days on the blog i'm trying to cover something on all the topics i want to cover - mainly so that when someone stumbles here it's morely likely they'll be able to find something to relate to and hopefully come back. everyone likes movies right? well if you don't - your weird so get the fuck outta here! what da hell is broccoli anywayz!? shut up with da broccoli!

anyway i'll start with a few recommendations that i recon you should check out if you havn't already. these days it seems pretty difficult to not be disappointed with movies. i recently rewatched aliens and couldn't help but wonder why they can't make films this good anymore. might save that for another post. anyway, so yeah back to what i liked. i'll put a link to the trailer in the films title incase it's something you havn't heard of. so here goes...

first a few comedies:

pineapple express - what a great film. wasn't expecting much going in but this delivered the goods. big fan of seth rogan and danny mcbride. probably the best comedy i've seen since hot fuzz (yeah i liked it that much). if you liked this be sure to check out eastbound and down.

hot rod - this one seems pretty unknown and i admit i hadn't heard of it till someone recommended it to me. wasn't so sure of it on first viewing but found it way funnier the second time round. plus it has isla fisher. me likey. definitely give it a go if you get the chance.

role models - this turned out better than i thought it would. most of sean's movies are normally pretty funny i guess and the kid and mclovin kinda sealed the deal.

burn after reading - i'm a pretty big coen brothers fan anyway but i think this is probably my favorite of their movies now. it's got the same sort of vibe as the big lebowski (stupid people mixed up in something bigger than they know) but overall this just felt like a better movie so STFU DONNIE!

and here's a couple of other movies i liked:

let the right one in - there seems to be alot of reviewing buzz around this. i first heard about it here and that kinda got my interest. i like good vampire movies. i hated twilight (made it 20mins in and that was enough for me) and this is the polar opposite. my one sentence review: it's the pan's labarinth of vampire movies - so check it out.

splinter - this one could be the most unknown movie in this list. it's a small british horror film. i found the trailer online a while ago and thought it looked cool - and waddayaknow it turned out to actually be cool. how rare. so give it a look.

that'll do for now. recomendations end! stop reading and start watching ... or go do something else - like watch this guy:

funny stuff from interweb

2009-05-23T01:09:00.012+01:00

i recently came across an article on david pouge's blog titled "the culture of the internet". he basically talks about the most famous internet clips that people have seen and that there's no official log online of stuff that everyone should have seen - which then lead me to www.youshouldhaveseenthis.com (brilliant afternoon killer btw). alot of it i hadn't even seen myself. obviously afro ninja, peanut butter jelly time, numa numa and yatta are all givens - but here's some "new" ones that i just found and liked:

i'm the juggernaut bitch
charlie the unicorn
the pet penguin
drunk jeff goldblum
tranquilized bear hits trampoline

another one i found recently that's not on this site is playhimoffkeyboardcat.com. here's a free sample:

and just one more for now. i found this not so long ago and it makes me laugh everytime. the "best" of tourette's guy:

upcoming gaming awesomeness

2009-05-22T14:40:00.008+01:00

2009 is starting to look pretty good for gaming and with e3 just around the corner i'm looking forward to seeing some new stuff.
anyway, here's three games i'm currently looking forward to big time :)

call of duty: modern warfare 2
call of duty 4 ate up many hours of my life last year. you shouldn't need much background info on this (last i checked it was one of - if not THE number 1 selling game last year). probably the best console shooter since goldeneye. a must have for any fps fan.

alien vs predator
this was probably the first fps on the pc that i got into, and alot of fun it was too. the sequel was cool but i didn't think it was as much fun as avp1. hopefully with todays tech this new game won't disappoint.

bioshock 2
of the three videos this one shows off the most. bioshock 1 was alot of fun and got loads of strong reviews when it came out in 2007. the bar is set pretty high but this video definitely suggests the sequel will deliver the goods.

band covers

2009-05-21T00:04:00.010+01:00

for a few weeks now me and a couple of mates have been having some amateurish jam sessions with the hope of maybe one day being ready to reach the masses and play some gigs.

until that day we are limited to a small room at my place - my "beat laboratory".
so far we've had a few weekly "band meetings" where we record bad versions of good songs :)

adam's on vocals and guitar
steve's on bass
and i'm on drums

as of yet we don't have a band name, but are open to suggestions.

here's a quick playlist of a few songs we've (badly) recorded

anyway i'll leave the playlist somewhere on the sidebar of my blog i've put a few of our covers to stream. feel free to give them a listen and see what you think.

leave a comment with what you think and/or if you have any good band name suggestions. also feel free to suggest some crowd pleasing songs we can try.
cheers!

[btw 10 cool points if you got the step brothers and flight of the conchords references - well done you!]

about me

2009-05-19T20:50:00.009+01:00

first be sure to check out my first post.

ok, so why follow me or come back here?
i guess to answer that you need to learn more about me. ok here we go...

i'm 23, self employed and live in cornwall.

i'm a pretty big movie fan and will watch pretty much anything and like to keep up with movie news, trailers, reviews or any cool stuff.

i like all kinds of music really but i love seeing any music played live and i'm a massive music festival fan. i love drumming, playing guitar and am currently trying to band started with a few mates.

i guess i'm a pretty hardcore gamer. i've got all of the current generation consoles and i'll try pretty much anything fun, new or innovative.

i guess i am kind of a geek (hopefully the cool kind). i use both mac and pc and hope to post any cool tools/web sites/apps for both. my iphone is the best phone i've owned (as you'd expect for the newest i guess) so i'll probably recommend some cool apps for that too at some point.

i have a pretty wide sense of humor, and there's alot of funny shit online - so it's pretty likely i'll post anything here that makes me laugh.

i love watching my stories. favorites include lost, 24, dexter, fringe, flight of the conchords, mighty boosh, family guy, south park, screenwipe, spaced, peep show, there's too many to list them all.

---

if that's what your into then cool, but if not don't let that put you off. i'm hoping to cover pretty much anything that interests me - so if anything i've listed above interests you hopefully you'll come back once in a while.

hopefully this post gives you a vague idea of where i'm heading with this blog and with any luck there's at least something here your into.

now i'll try and end this post on a high after boring you - so congratulations if you read this far. if you like any of the above tings, then your gunna love deez tings:

first post

2009-05-19T20:03:00.003+01:00

ok, so this is my new blog. i've been thinking of setting up a web site for a while now, but before putting in all the work for something i may only update once or twice would be kind of a waste of time. so i figured if i setup a simple blog first to find out:

a) if i'd update it
b) if anyone would read it
and c) 'cause i spend alot of time online and figured maybe i should try and give something back

i'm not really sure why. i don't think i have much to contribute to the public toilet wall that is the internet, but screw it i've got nothing to lose.

best case scenario i gain some new friends/followers (frollowers?) who are either interested in what i've got to say or just so bored they'll come here to kill some time or stop themselves from thinking for a few more minutes.
worst case scenario no one reads this and i have some weird online diary of what i was thinking at the time of posting. that or it's the crappy legacy i leave behind after i'm dead.

right now i'm not really sure if blogging is what i want but it's the easiest way for me to get started and share links, music, apps, thoughts, reviews and recommendations - which might be all i need to gain a small following which might push me into doing something bigger and better.

... either that or i'll go back to doing whatever it is that i do ...