Rispon Avenue

I’ll pick up now where I left off in my last post.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger: This game looks fantastic! Very unique look to the game, with some amazing characters. I’m excited to play off against my SO and learn my way around all the interesting characters. It’s nice to see a fighting game where so much effort has been put into the backgrounds, as well as non-generic characters. I like the complexity of the fighting mechanic too, button mashing will only get you so far.

Soulcalibur IV: Another fighting game, but one that I am more familiar with. I’ve always found these games to be very entertaining, and a nice divergence from the norm to be able to fight in these sorts of games with weapons. I think this is the only fighting game where you really get to use a weapon, and the game has always been really slick. You can button mash to a small extent, but in the end you do need to learn the controls of the game to really excel. It’s nice to see the old characters we know so well, with a few new ones thrown in there too. Darth Vader makes an appearance in the PS3 version, and apparently is good to fight with… not as ridiculously over-powered as Yoda in the 360 version.

Metal Gear Solid 4: This game looks amazing; it has been called one of the best games of all time. I’m very impressed by the graphics, as well as the story-line. I respect where the franchise has taken the main character, and like this fond farewell to him. I find the story of the entire world to be a war-zone thanks to PMCs to be very interesting, and look forward to see how it all plays out.

Final Fantasy XIII: The Final Fantasy series is one that has well and truly stood the test of time. I’ve enjoyed every iteration of the game that I have played, and I am really looking forward to the release of this one. The trailer looks amazing, and the voice acting seems to be quite good. The story is intriguing, and I am really happy to see the good old GFs included. This game is set to ship later this year.

There are other games out there that look amazing for this console, but these are the ones I am most interested in right now.

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That it is! I’ve waited for quite a while before getting one of these, but I think now’s the time, and I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve been an Xbox 360 and PC Gamer for a long time now, mainly PC for the last few years, but before that, I had an Xbox and then an Xbox 360 as well. Before that I had a PlayStation, but I went the way of Xbox instead of moving onto a PS2, as the hardware was much better. Now, though, I want to get back into console gaming. PC gaming is great, there is often a good range, the Real Time Strategy games can’t be beaten, and there are other benefits to the PC, but there is the bugginess that often plagues PC games. I own Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Far Cry 2, for instance, and can’t play any of them due to bugginess.

When I do get the console, I am interested in a few games specifically. I’ve no doubt there are others out there I would want to play, and I’m sure that there are games on the horizon that I’m not aware of but would want to play, but for now, here are three of the six games that have most caught my eye.

Little Big Planet: This is a rather unusual console game, because not only is it a rather nice looking platformer, it also allows players to create their own levels, and share them on the online community, where they can download other people’s created levels and play them. It looks like a lot of fun, and very unique, and Sack Boy is a fun little mascot that diverges from the norm.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma: Whilst this is a re-release of an original title, the game nonetheless looks amazing. It is somewhat off putting that the game is not really giving any new gameplay, that you will be re-playing an old game with better graphics, but it was a good game originally so I do look forward to playing it again. There is some new gameplay, being able to play as Rachel seems like a nice change of pace for a short while, but I am just really looking forward to flipping around as a Ninja.

Infamous: This is a game that looks like a heck of a lot of fun. It has that comic book vibe, but isn’t based on a comic in existence, which means that it can be designed to work in game-form, rather than comic-form. It is set in a sand-box style city, and you play a character who has recently gained special abilities which all revolve around the use of electricity. I like the karma aspect of the game, where your decisions make an obvious difference. When you’re closer to the Hero side, your electric attacks are blue and white, and when you are closer to the Infamous side, your attacks are red and black.

Before this entry becomes enormous, I’m going to move onto a second post.

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When faced with the option to buy a new game the other day, I realised that the only game I want to play right now is LOTRO.

I got some unexpected cash, and thought why not splash out this time. My SO got something that she had been after for a while, and I figured I would do the same. I then immediately went to find which game it was that I wanted. I thought about it. I thought some more. Looked up recent releases on IGN and nothing really stood out. And then I realised, I have all the gaming I need with just the one game.

Between work and life, I don’t have as much game time as I would like, and I’m pretty darn happy with spending all that game time with my SO running around as our dwarf and hobbit combination. I still have other games on my computer, but I tend to be focused on one game at a time, and right now it’s LOTRO.

So instead of getting a new game, I decided to get a gadget. I love gadgets, in all their odd glory. So I decided I’d get a Sun Jar. I’ve always thought these things very fun, and I’m looking forward to having mine turn up later this week. I also thought the Lego inspired USBs looked fun, but the site I found them at didn’t ship internationally. The other thing I liked at this site was a clock that would work well in my study, but as I said, no shipping to the UK. Overall, the Sun Jar seemed the best gadget to get with my free cash.

Now I’ve got to get back to playing more LOTRO. I’ve spent long enough writing up this post, and as much as I’m looking forward to getting my Sun Jar, I’m more looking forward to getting a level or two with my new character.

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Net Memes are those funny little ‘in-jokes’ that circulate, and lately I’ve taken an interest in those funny little things.

Not the funny that sucks you in right away, no, this is the kind of funny that the more you watch it, the funnier it gets. Take Badger, Badger, Badger, for instance, when you first hear it, it’s actually kind of annoying. But the longer it goes on (to a point!) the funnier it gets. I think that is one of the true hallmarks of an Internet Meme.

I really find this sort of thing fascinating. What will become one of these World Wide Web phenomena and what wont. It reminds me of many of the catch-phrases from Seinfeld. All the ones that took off, ‘Master of your domain’, (said in a hissing manner with a fisht pump) ‘Newman’ and ‘Yada, yada, yada’, were all unintentional hits. But the one time one of the writers thought this catch-phrase thing would happen, ‘Anti-Dentite’ it didn’t in the slightest. I wonder if the same is true of Net Memes?

A lot of the time you have to look up the joke to see why its funny. For years now I have been seeing pictures of cats captioned with ‘I believe you have my stapler’ and didn’t know what the reference was. Apparently, I just looked this up, it is a reference for a film called Office Space, and this just happened to be a one-liner that took off from it. Often these cat pictures are quite cute and funny, so I had wondered about this one.

Another stand out for me is Tunak Tunak Tun; the song is really catchy and the dancing really is hilarious. The guy seems to be having a lot of fun dancing all by himself, you’ve got to love that. The video is here, in case you’re interested, though I warn you, its a catchy song!

My favourite of all the Net Memes, though, is Chuck Norris Facts. See how I capitalised the ‘F’ in ‘Facts’ there? That’s because that what they are… Facts. :lol: Okay I don’t believe any of that, it’s just fun to play along. These things are fun in there absurdity.

As a side note, should you receive any of those odd emails that seem fishy, often these are what later become Internet Memes, but if you want to know sooner rather than later, check out Snopes, they investigate that sort of thing.

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There are some good cab drivers, and some really, really, crap ones. Last night I encountered one of the latter ones.

I called the cab around twenty past nine and was pleasantly surprised to find it on my doorstep at nine-thirty. When I say ‘on my doorstep’ I mean, parked across the street with no intention of coming over. Okay, so I cross the road, and hop in the back seat. Now, I live in a suburb just outside a major city centre. I tell him where I wanted to go – a very well known restaurant in the city. Whilst having the car pointed towards the city, he says to me, ‘You’ll have to give me directions’ and then says ‘can I get out this way’. This is a street, not a court, mind you.

I tell the guy the directions for getting onto the main road going into town – the restaurant is on that road. Now, as we are driving along, I hear this annoying ding, ding, ding, noise. I can see in the dashboard that the seat belt buckle sign is flashing at the driver… He’s not wearing is damn seat belt! He’s also pushing the speed limit, driving right up behind a huge truck, and quite jerkily too.

We get closer to the restaurant, all he has to do is go a short way around a large round-about, and then drive into the car-park for the place. I tell him exactly where to go – whilst my mind boggles that I even have to tell him, seriously, this restaurant is that well known – and he completely misses the turn off into the car-park. I tell him what he’s done, and he pulls over, and I have to tell him to do a U-turn, go back round the round-about, and turn into the car-park.

He turns around, goes round the round-about, without a turning signal(!?) and turns into the wrong car-park. It’s close enough, so I pay and get out. Usually, I would ask the driver to wait, as I was just picking up some take-out, but I couldn’t stand this driver, so I didn’t say anything. I made a mental note of the number of the cab, and I will be calling the company later today to mention the numerous traffic infringements and plain lack of necessary geographical knowledge for the city.

By the time I got home I could at least relate the story to my SO without any fury, I can see the funny side of it, but at the time it was very annoying.

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That’s exactly what my SO and I have got with our two new characters/classes in LOTRO…

I mentioned that we tried out some Hobbit Burgs and had then switched over to a Dwarf Champion and Hobbit Minstrel combination, and we are now a bit further into that. My Dwarf is level 21 at the moment, whilst my SO’s Hobbit is level 18. At first we missed that sense of solidarity because we couldn’t run together the whole time, her in the Shire, me in Ered Luin, but once we were up to that point where we could run around together, so Bree-Land, we have had a marvellous time!

The Dwarf Champion is such a fun class to play, your essentially a moving wall of blades, and that’s just a heck of a lot of fun. When you play as a Dwarf, you have a greater sense of your character, too, because you don’t just get a generic human character model, you get a sense of being a part of a mythos, being part of the story, you watch your Dwarf fighting through hordes of Orcs, and you feel like you really are a part of Middle Earth… It’s a much more accessible feeling when your playing as a mythological species, rather than a human. Of course, that only works with something that has always been a part of myth to you, if someone had never heard of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or any of Tolkien’s work, then they might pick up the game and think playing as a Hobbit would be utterly rediculous, and what are these short fat people? But nearly anyone would still find a Dwarf accessible because recorded myths of Dwarves have existed back into the 12th Century, and probably before that too.

Because of Tolkien’s work being so well known today, Hobbits have become a part of today’s Western Mythos, so when my SO plays as a Hobbit, she too gets that feeling of being part of the mythology of the world of Middle Earth. It’s a great feeling, and it’s terribly fun to watch our two stunties running hell-for-leather across Middle Earth.

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If you have no love for the Malazan book of the Fallen series, or don’t intend to read it, or haven’t read up to book eight, then this post will be a little incomprehensible, but it will still be interesting, and maybe might inspire you to read the books…

I am about half way through the book, yes, it has been a long time in the reading, and I don’t know… some things are just still bothering me. For instance, I just found out that The Dying God and The Crippled God are not the same person, and here I was the whole while thinking this Dying God was just The Crippled God playing at a new trick. But no, The Dying God is Bellurdan… as in husband of Nightchill, former Elder Goddess, and whose soul (at least a part of it) went in with Tattersail’s in the formation of Silverfox, the only living Bonecaster… That has got to come to some confrontation at some point, but maybe not, and what’s with Aranantha? Why is this girl strong enough (magically) to overpower Bullurdan as The Dying God? I’m happy that she did, but I am looking forward to some explanation. I have a suspicion, which could be way off, that she is in some way connected to Mother Dark (an incarnation of her in physical form?) and perhaps the reunion of the Tiste Andii and Mother Dark… not sure, just a suspicion.

Something that has really bothered me through this book is the depravity that has gone on as a result of The Dying God… the living scarecrows dancing in the fields, dripping that horrid Selmankelyk, which then everyone is drinking? I think this is just a little too horrifying, even for Malazan.

I have to say, I’m rather pleased that Itkovian will have Seerdomin for company, it was so sad to realise how lonely Itkovian had been.

On another note, here is a list of things I’m looking forward to/hoping for in this book; learning who Traveller is, seeing how Apsalara will get out of Dragnipur, – which I think, by the way, is a house of the Azath, I mean, that’s what is riding in the giant wagon – hopefully seeing more of the Elder God who built the Azath Houses, because he seemed awesome, seeing Nimander’s group reunited with the rest of the Tiste Andii, finding out what the go with Aranantha is, seeing more of Harllo and his awesome Imas friend, seeing what’s left of the Malazan army kick the crap out of that nasty idiot who hired the assassins to have them killed, Cutter getting the hell over himself, and hopefully seeing more of the ghost ascended Malazans.

So, I’m really enjoying certain aspects of the book, but as I said, I really hate what’s going on with The Dying God… I really hope he just dies already.

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I have been looking forward to The Hobbit films since I learned they were being made, but then I learned that Guillermo del Toro was set to direct, and then I wasn’t so thrilled.

At first I was completely and utterly against this, I mean, del Toro has done some good films, Pan’s Labyrinth for instance was great, but movies like Hellboy and Blade 2 were less than great, less than good in the case of Blade 2, so I really felt like the wrong director had been chosen. del Toro is also famous for his off-beat horror/thriller films, all of which I found extremely unappealing after reading the synopsis of each film. He seems to have a bent towards the depressing, too many of his main characters end up dead at the end of the film for my liking. When I wrote my last entry on this, del Tor had been talking about how he intended to bring out the scariness of the Hobbit… I really didn’t like the sound of this… but anyway, that was all covered in that post.

Now, I don’t know how I got onto it today, but I was looking over The Hobbit film wiki page, and was rather pleasantly surprised by what I found there. It seems that the actors for Gandalf, Gollum, and Bilbo (at least in voice) will be appearing in the two films, which have now been altered so that both films will contain the narrative from The Hobbit, rather than one film being The Hobbit, and one film being a bridge between the events in The Hobbit and the events in The Lord of the Rings. I think this is a good thing, as the bridging film sounded rather… odd and unappealing.

On that Wiki page, I read of the work being done by del Toro and Peter Jackson, who have been working together to write the film, apparently reaching twelve-hour work days quite regularly; now that’s dedication! From what was written in that page, my ideas on this film have been turned around, and I am really looking forward to more Hobbits on screen!

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I learned a few days ago that Sam Raimi is set to direct the upcoming World of Warcraft movie, and I have to say, I couldn’t be less interested in seeing that film.

To me, there is little less appealing than a film about a really crappy game by a director who has done films that I have disliked. I haven’t played more than five minutes of WoW, and here’s why. I got into the game, a game which lacked all semblance of a storyline, a game that has graphics woefully inadequate by today’s standards, and a game that has the biggest player-base of morons that I have ever heard of, one of which I ran into in the starting area, by the name of ‘Oldfartdude’. Now, not only did Oldfartdude have a really, really, crap name, he was jumping around repeatedly in the same little area. The stupidity displayed by the name and the action could only remind me one of those mechanical monkeys clapping symbols together, but this was a cheap knock-off version so only one of the arms moved and his symbols never clapped, but that one arm was still clapping away to the silence of his own stupidity.

After seeing that particular little Petri dish of the gaming world, I felt the need to run, run away and delete the trial version of the game off my computer. Now onto the other half of this oh-so-unappealing combination is the directing of Sam Raimi. Now, I’m not here to say that the guy can’t do a good job, I’m just trying to say that the films he has done have been, to me, highly meh. The Spiderman films were so utterly uninteresting, and I felt that they really could have been. Spidey’s not the greatest Super Hero, but nor is he the lamest, but these films… they were just so… uninspiring. Raimi’s other films have largely been in the horror genre, and whilst I like thriller movies, horror is generally very poor viewing for me. I don’t like to see the rampant indulgence in other people’s pain, and the gore associated with said pain, that tends to be in these films. Raimi was one of the directors rumoured to have been considered for the upcoming Hobbit movie, and I am so very, very, glad that it was Guillermo del Toro, but I plan to talk more about the Hobbit movie in my next entry, so I’ll leave that one be.

Back to the topic at hand, the marriage of these two forces leaves me so uninterested… I really can’t see a storyline worthy of film coming out of WoW, but hey, I bet it’s still going to get huge ticket sales, just because it’s WoW.

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As the Summer Festival is on in the LOTRO world, it means that there are currently a heap of Summer Quests on, which only run during the festival. This leads to a flurry of extra activity, but only in certain parts of the world.

The areas where you will see extra activity are The Party Tree in the Shire, all over Thorin’s Hall and the stairs of Frerin’s Court, the festival area of Duillond, and the festival area in the Horse Fields in Bree-land. You can get some curious, some fun, and some useful, some not-so-much rewards for competing in the events, or completing quests found in these areas during the festival, which has just been extended out through to August 31st.

Now, I’m not hugely interested in the festival goings on, I do like to get the racial dances of the character I am playing at least, maybe the other races if I’m particularly in the mood, but as for the rest of it… it doesn’t thrill me as it does some people. However, my SO gets really into it, and as she’s playing a Hobbit, she’s running around the Party Tree having a grand old time placing bets on the Hobbit Races, finding missing items, fishing, and of course, eating. It makes me happy to see her have such a good time, so I like the festivals for that.

Now, back to those dances. Each of the races, Dwarf, Hobbit, Elf, Man, all has two racial dances that can be obtained from doing a little dancing quest with a Dance Master at each of the festival locations I mentioned earlier. So far with these rather new characters, my SO has both the Hobbit dances and the second Dwarf dance, and I have the first Dwarf dance. Some of the dances are better than others. Both the Dwarf dances look good, a sort of Irish dance meets tap-dancing for those two, and the first Hobbit dance has this same feel. The second Hobbit dance, however, makes the dancer look like a drunken sailor. It’s hilarious and horrible all at the same time.

On to some of the rewards you can obtain, now. You can find the complete list here at the LOTRO Wiki, but a few of the stand outs for me are the cloak, it is actually a very nice looking cloak, the two rather strange drinks, and the Essence of Toad. Now, the two drinks, the Mug of Triple Strength Brandy, and the Mug of… Liquid, look pretty interesting, and if I remember correctly, they have have a chance of porting you anywhere in the world… but I’m not sure if that’s these ones. As I said, with me not being all that interested in the festival, I’m not 100% sure on what these things do because I haven’t gone and gotten them.

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That’s what I thought to myself when sitting in an office with a person who I really shouldn’t laugh at. Have you ever been in one of those situations where something occurs to you, that is so very funny, but you are in a situation where it would be, for one reason or another, very, very bad for you to laugh? I have, and I have to relate a few that relate to each other. These funny stories are based on the premise of look-alikes. Like this blog, but this was in real life.

This video here belongs to a French semi-spoof band, Fatal Bazooka. That’s all well and good, I actually like most of their songs. Now, in my local games store, the manager looks exactly like the lead singer. Whenever I am in there, I have to try really hard to keep and straight face, and I am constantly running through the scenario in my mind of what I just blurted out that this guy looks exactly like the lead singer of Fatal Bazooka? I would never be able to shop there again!

Now, the other look-alike funny stories both relate to being at University. When I was at Uni, I had a lecturer that my SO thought looked strikingly similar to Merriweather from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. She’s the fat one in blue. Can you imagine how difficult it is to have serious discussions with someone your SO has announced repeatedly as looking like a fat fairy? Rather difficult, actually.

This last one is just great. My course coordinator for my degree at University looks very much like John Malkovich. This man looked so much like John Malkovich that my SO and I called him Malkovich between ourselves at all times. I was once having a discussion with the man in his office, sitting there, talking normally, and then all of a sudden it popped into my head just how much he looked like John Malkovich that I wanted to howl with laughter, I think partly because I knew how rude that would be. :D

Hopefully if you find yourself in my situation, you too can keep a straight face!

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The last few weeks have been absolutely mad for me. No time to really relax, which has certainly taken its toll, but this weekend that finally changed. Things have finally returned to normal, so my SO and I found some time to play LOTRO, and seeing as we hadn’t played in so long, we started new characters.

In this case, I finally dropped my ‘No Hobbits’ rule, and created a Hobbit Burglar. Cute little fellow, that I had a surprising amount of fun with. He played well, the Burg skills were fun to use, interesting, and just something a little bit different. I duoed this character with my SO’s Hobbit Burg, and we had a lot of fun stealthing around the place. Good times! The combination of the two Burgs meant we knew what the other was capable of, and that can make all the difference.

The going was pretty quick, surprisingly so, actually. In just a few days my SO and I had hit level 19. Alas it couldn’t last… I saw all those awesome Dwarves running past and I felt less than thrilled with my tiny little Hobbit. I have to say, though, that even though I am no longer playing that Burg, I do have a much greater appreciation for the Hobbit folk, not that I didn’t like them before, but I like them more now.

Like this fellow here, he has a blog, he is a Hobbit, his blog is The Hobbit Herald, and I think that’s funny. :lol: Whilst I am at it, another LOTRO blog I have found useful is The LotRO Follower – very handy for when the servers are down, as this site has that sort of info listed up to date on there. And just because I like some of the comics, and lots of the maps, here’s a link to a blog called The Brasse, another LOTRO inspired blog.

Anyway, so I’m not playing a Burg anymore. It is good, but not what I want, in the end. So I am playing a Dwarf Champ and my SO gets the Minstrel she always wants to play. Now we’re both content with our characters! :)

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Oh yes it is! Since I found out that I can start working from home as soon as I have the necessities set up, I have felt more invigorated about the job than I have in a long while!

Okay so I have been busily going through which of the leased line providers would be the right for working from home. I have checked, and I thankfully do have business SDSL availability in my area, so that is quite good to know. Now it is just a matter of deciding which of the broadband companies has a deal that is right for me, and right for my boss. :lol:

My current broadband connection is good, don’t get me wrong, but because I am a web designer, it would be better to have something with a bit more bite to it, especially when it comes to my upload rate, as my download rate is fine. Most standard net connections offer a certain download rate, with the upload rate being much, much reduced from that of the download. That’s find for most people, but it can become a pain for those who are posting, hosting, creating, big web documents or other hefty HTML files, as with websites.

On a side note, today I had one of those letters from banks where they offer you hefty amounts of credit? I got one today and had to think, what am I, stupid? As if I would be taking out any large credit lines at this point with the economy the way it is, nuh uh, no thank you! It’s just something banks do with people whose credit ratings are way up there, but I am not interested in just any bank account! I like my own bank account, thank you, and the only change I would consider would be one destined for investment purposes, which would be an offshore bank account.

Okay that is enough of a ramble from me! I’m off!

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The kooky old neighbour just had to chat to me today when I went out to get my mail. Today’s fun round of awkward conversation revolved around her crazy conspiracy theories.

For instance, today she stopped me at my letterbox, and noticed that I had my cordless phone in the pocket of my dressing gown, because I was expecting a call. She then spent the next FIVE MINUTES without a word from me talking about the security differences in regular telephones and cordless telephones. Can you imagine how unlikely anyone out there who has the know-how would give a rats ass what this lady was saying over the phone? Enough to connect into the right frequency of her particular handset? I think she has a better chance of being struck by lightning than having someone that interested in what she is saying to other people on the phone.

I was so tempted to tell her that ‘The Panasonic KX are bugged by the government’ but I thought that wouldn’t be very nice, or fair to her mental health. She started going on again about how I should get call logging, did I get it yet? Well I should have it by now, what was I waiting for, we talked about it days ago… I told her flat out I wasn’t going to get it, I didn’t see the need. She just looked at me like I was a little crazy, and left it at that, though did drop hints about it, really, really obvious hints. She told me how cheap her call logging was because her telecoms companies knew that people really wanted call logging so they were dropping the price on it… I don’t think that’s true in any way, but anyway.

Goodness, I think I am going to get a robot to go out and collect the mail. This would work for two reasons, one, she probably wouldn’t talk to it, and two, if she did, it’s a heartless robot, she can’t fault it for not stopping to chat. :lol:

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I meant to post about investment opportunities with Philippines real estate, but then I saw an article about Scribblenauts and I got too caught up in that to write about the investment stuff.

See, what’s really annoying about a game that should be really good, is that often it doesn’t live up to it, and often, you are waiting for what seems like a hundred years before the damn game comes out! Today I stumbled across this article about Scribblenauts on IGN, and now I just want to play the game. I hate that! There isn’t an official UK release date as yet, but US and Australia get it mid September this year, so supposedly I shouldn’t be waiting for long.

But then there’s always the option that the game will be pushed back, because seriously, this game hasn’t been known about for all that long, and that isn’t a great sign in terms of when the game will be out. The same thing happened with The Sims 3 (still haven’t bought or played it, EA, you scum), they announced the game pretty close to the initial release date, and sure enough, the game was delayed by a few months. I really hope that doesn’t happen with Scribblenauts, because as I said, I really want to play the game.

I also got side tracked looking at blogs… I don’t know why I care, but I find myself reading other people’s blogs. I suppose that explains why I am always so surprised if someone leaves a comment (a non spam comment, you damn spammers… I hate what you do!) because it means someone was really reading my blog!

I think I have to go lie down for a while, now. See, my SO has been going through some pretty severe back pain of late, which has meant that she can’t sleep properly, so I haven’t been sleeping properly either. So now I’m going to go rest whilst I can.

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It would be nice, to get reception. I have been trying to tune in my TV to the digital TV channels for the last half an hour, and getting no where at all!

A while back I bought a fantastic wide screen LCD TV from Samsung. I’m really happy with it, it’s been a great TV. Now, when I bought the TV, I was told that I didn’t need to buy a set-top box because the TV automatically tuned into digital TV. Okay, excellent. It’s what spurred me on to get a bigger (and more expensive) TV than I had originally planned.

So today I figure I have had it for a while now, I should tune in the DTV channels… half an hour later I realise I’m not getting anywhere, and this bloody thing just isn’t picking up the channels like the dude at the store said it would. Now, keep in mind, I am talking about free to air DTV, not Sky and not anything from Virgin Media, just the regular DTV channels.

So I jump on the net, my trusty fix-it tech tool. I realise that I was lead down the garden path, sure the TV itself can show DTV channels, but it seems I still need either satellite help, or some kind of set-top box that actually picks up the DTV channels, like a Eurovox things or a Dreambox.

I can’t believe that I was duped! Me! I am normally so… alert to people’s BS… to know that on this occasion that moron just left of ‘Oh, you’ll still need a satellite dish’ is really infuriating. Initially I didn’t want to pay for digital TV, I wasn’t that interested in cable, but now I don’t care so much about that. I want the deluxe package, dammit!

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Could I? Should I dare to hope? I want to work from home, I’ve always wanted to work from home. The idea of not getting out of my bathrobe all day is highly appealing. Not all the time, just a day here or there where I make no effort to look like an office person. This dream could be on the horizon, too!

My boss approached me with a proposition. I have two options to choose from. I could one, stay working in the office and receive a slight promotion and a slight pay increase, or two, I could take neither of those things, but rather remain at my same level for my same pay, and work from home. Now, I wanted to talk it over with my SO before I made my decision, but I am chomping at the bit to be able to work from home.

My SO thought it a great idea, and loved the notion of having me around a lot more! :D So I informed my boss that that was my choice and now I just have to get some things set up and then I am working from home. The boss said the business will pay for my secure net connection, but I will need to find a 2mb leased line provider in my area. I will also require business broadband in my home now that all my work will be done from there, but all those broadband providers out there at the moment, that shouldn’t be a problem.

I’m really excited by this prospect, it would be an absolute dream for me. I really hate that morning bus and tube ride into work, but if I take my car I feel all eco-guilty. This would take care of all that! It would feel more like weekend all the time, but because I like the actual work I do, it won’t be hard to motivate myself. :D

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Oh yes, my little old lady neighbour is an odd one. You’d not think it to look at her, but she is one of those who feels they absolutely must keep tabs on everything that happens in their street. As if anything at all could happen if they didn’t watch their neighbours all the time. It is rather horrid to talk to this neighbour, just because they are so obsessed with all this security stuff. But she caught me checking my mail, and she wanted to chat…

“Hi! Sure, things have been great! Oh, Mrs Peterman down the road has been ‘acting shifty’ has she? Oh well that’s… no good’ At this point, I just want to leave, but oh no, the neighbour had launched into an unceasing monologue about security measures they would like to take. Seriously, this lady wants to install CCTV in the neighbourhood. She said she’s been using ‘the internet to investigate CCTV systems‘.

I was so surprised that this woman had the internet, she must be at least 70 years old. She took my shock as a sign that I didn’t know enough about home security, and told me that I should have call recording, because ‘who knows whose calling these days’. I don’t believe any such thing, I don’t think I need such security measures. I mean, I do have a home security system, but I don’t think I need CCTV or whatnot. I do think larger companies need to consult with security companies, especially those handling sensitive data or equipment, but not every day folk like me! :D

After agreeing to investigate more stringent home security measures, I finally had an opportunity to get back into my house and the heck away from her. It’s like that joke Jim Gaffigan has about holidays ‘well gee, I really need to get a job’. The lady is nice, but goodness I wish she had a more wholesome hobby!

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I happened to find the Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks video trailer again, and it got me thinking all about the train stuff again. I really liked the boat in Phantom Hourglass, but a train doesn’t really have… any appeal at all to me. I’m pleased to see good old regular dungeon play, though.

Link seems to be spinning a Deku leaf or something like it in some of the video, and Link also gets to control the Phantoms last seen in Phantom Hourglass. But still, this whole train thing seems overly steam-punk and not in the spirit of the Legend of Zelda games that came before it. It’s so gimmicky and unappealing. This image kind of exemplifies what I feel was the driving force behind the choice. In case you are interested in the train aspect, here is a big ol’ wallpaper that has been released for the game.

I think I need to stop panning the game now, because, quite frankly, I know I’m going to play it, and I’m probably going to love it too. Whilst I can’t see myself getting into the train thing, really, I can see the rest of the game being a heck of a lot of fun. I really enjoyed Phantom Hourglass, I like playing the Zelda games on the DS, I like using the stylus for much of it. The Wii Zelda was also a lot of fun, but I am pretty darn concerned about the lack of Mastersword – or any sword – rumours floating around about that one.

Anyway, I’m off now, I said I’d go to the movies with that estate agent friend I mentioned in my last post. See, if I go to the movies then I don’t have to spend two hours talking about UK property, or which property blogs actually reflect the market – yes, he spent twenty minutes one day talking about property blogs! I can’t fathom how he can talk so much about fast house sales… I don’t find it interesting… nearly at all. I mean, I find finance stuff interesting, but housing stuff is just… not compelling to me. That’s why I’m off to a film!

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A little while back, my mother moved into a retirement community, so she asked me to sell her home – if I didn’t want it – and then she wanted to split the money between her and I 50/50. I was pretty impressed with this, because she knows I am in a stable financial situation and don’t strictly need the extra cash, so I felt like it was a really lovely gesture to give my SO and I some extra nest-egg money.

We were lucky, because the house was in one of the few locations that was still selling well, so we got a good price and it was a really quick house sale too. In an effort to say thank you, my SO and I took the estate agent out to dinner.

It went alright, and it turned out we did have a few common interests. However, he’s one of these people that can’t leave work at work. Every time I run into him or get an email from him, he is always talking about the housing market, anything about property news, which areas are selling well at the moment, and what property prices are doing at the moment.

Today he sent me an email, and gave me a link to real estate forums… I am surprised that a forum like this would be out there, and that it would have enough activity to keep going… Anyway, I am trying to be a nice friend, so I told him it looked interesting and that I might join, and then I tried to guide the conversation to a shared interest.

It’s an uncomfortable situation to be in, when you don’t know someone very well, and their primary topic of conversation is one that most people, myself included, have no more than a passing interest in. It makes me want to drop any attempts to be the guys friend, just sort of let the new friendship run it’s short course with no more momentum put in from me, even maybe some brakes put on from my side. It’s really simple, how can you expect a person to continue to communicate with you when you are so fixated on one area of interest, almost to the exclusion of all else?

I don’t know exactly what I am going to do here… I’ve been so busy of late that I don’t have a lot of time for friends anyway, especially not ones that I don’t really know and who are fixated on something so boring! Yeah that decides it, I don’t have the time or the patience to coax a reasonable conversation from this dude. Alright, back to work now.

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