Rispon Avenue

But they never are, are they?

For a start, why is it so annoyingly fiddly to get HDTV at the moment? Is it just my system, my set top box, or are other people finding their signal isn’t consistent? It’s HDTV, it’s supposed to be stable, strong, consistent, dammit! My better judgement is telling me that it is something to do with my set-top box, and I really don’t want it to be, but the local technology forums aren’t reporting anything…

It’s so frustrating when things don’t work the way they are supposed to… It reminds me of when I was a teenager, around 17 I think, I was still living with my parents, and they’d taken me into the city – an hours drive from their home – to pick up a PlayStation game. It was one of those ones that came on multiple discs, it was Final Fantasy VIII. When I got up to disc two, I found that they had sold me a scratched disc. This was frustrating enough, but after a phone call to the store where I had bought it, I was somewhat relieved to know they would swap it for another disc with no trouble, I just had to get my parents to drive me into the city again.

Okay so they did, and we picked up the disc, and came home. This was a two hour journey, mind you. So I put the disc in the PlayStation… same issue… not just the same issue, it was the same disc! They had given me the same disc back by mistake… so then I had to convince my parents to make the two hour drive into the city again, purely for my benefit. Thankfully they complied the next day, with little attitude towards me, which was nice.

Third time turned out to be the charm, and finally I had a working copy of Final Fantasy VIII. Anyway, what’s going on with my set-top box reminds me of that.

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I really like this series, so I’ve been buying them on DVD.

I’ve seen all the seasons so far, and I’m watching season six for the first time now. It’s been a very good series, in my opinion, with more than enough to keep me enticed into buying more seasons, though some tropes of the show do become a little frustrating after a while.

For instance, the fact that there always has to be another one behind the scenes, pulling all the strings, and then we find out that guy is just a dupe for another guy who’s really pulling all the strings. I think this would work just fine whilst it was on television, and you only got one episode a week, but when you watch them back to back over the span of about a week, those tropes don’t work so well.

Nonetheless, the show is awesome. Jack Bauer is one of the best protagonists on TV, hands down my favourite character in any show that’s currently airing. It is so refreshing to me to see someone who is willing to push, to go the whole hog for their morality, who has a morality which they abide by, even if it isn’t great for them or doesn’t quite fit inside the law.

Season six is shaping up alright, Jack’s dad being one of the major bad guys is… interesting. I liked that Chloe is being more humanised in the show, too. I’m about half way though the season at this stage, Jack’s just called the previous president, the little crazy megalomaniac Charles Logan. That guy is so creepy, in my opinion, and not just because of his willingness to kill his citizens to gain access to more oil, but the way the guy moves. That little cocking of the head up and to the side… he looks very… wrong. I’ve no other way to put it, he gives off ‘wrong’ very strongly. :lol:

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It’s never ending, always more you have to do, have to sort out.

For instance, I had a friend approach me to help them with some finance stuff, because they were looking to create an investment portfolio and they knew that I was interested in that sort of thing. I think basically he wanted to have some idea before he met with an accountant so he could sound the guy out. By no means am I an expert, but when you have friends that can tell you anything about something as… open to misuse by others, as money, then you make use of their expertise when you can!

I pointed him in the direction of a few good sites and said I would help more when I had the time, or he could go ahead and investigate all this himself. I wanted to help, but I didn’t have the time to sit down and help properly, and I didn’t want to help half-assedly. He came back to me today to say that he had found a good offshore financial service, and that he was going to be investigating it further. He offered to pass along what he found, too.

I found it really refreshing to see someone really doing their homework before investing anywhere, especially as, like me, the guy is busy! If everyone was as careful with where they put their money, then I think a lot of people would be a lot less worried in general life. That’s just the way it seems to me, anyway. There are things that are way beyond our control, like what happened to the international finance markets, and that is always going to be the case, but if we are careful with what we do have control over, then I’m guessing we would be able to accept easier those situations that weren’t our faults, and have a lot less situations where we could have done something differently to gain a better outcome. I’m rambling now, I know it. That’s it then, enough.

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Will they ever learn? Can they learn? Can it be soon? I hope so… in the mean time I shall continue to complain about them.

Spam got it’s title originally from a sketch by the Monty Python crew, where a cafe menu included spam in every dish. It doesn’t take a lot of brain power to see how this was translated into the title for obnoxious morons sending you reams of crap. For instance, I’ve spoken of my insurance issues lately, that I have had to renew my home insurance… well now of course, I’m getting spam emails about ‘have you decided which carrier to go with for your insurance? We’re the best, blah, blah, blah’

I got news for you, spammers, one, I’m not stupid. A quick Google search reveals that this so called excellent insurance company is non-existent, and two, you’re spamming! Who in the name of all things good is going to base their insurance choice on who sent them an email because they mentioned the word insurance on a blog!? This company didn’t rate a mention anywhere, not any home insurance news sites, nor forums, nor a proper website of your own! Bah!

It’s funny what is spammed about, too. For instance, this is the first time insurance has been spammed to me. I do, however, see a horrific amount of comments left on my blog, spamming the sale of non-over the counter drugs, and viagra. Lately my spam has taken a turn for the worse, and it’s become about geriatric pornography. I so wish that was a joke, I really, really do. But it’s not. My blog gets around two spam comments each day, and lately they have become walls of text, dotted with disturbing references and hyperlinks. Wherever you are, spammers, I hope a can of spam miraculously hits you in the head for putting so much spam on my blog!

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Because I couldn’t play the game I actually bought, no, of course not! I’ve played through the demo of Batman: Arkham Asylum instead.

I have to say, I’m pretty darn impressed. The game looks very nice, with a good eye for detail and texture. I liked that you were given a strong impression of the dark Gotham City as Batman drove to the asylum, and I liked the very unique external look to the place, too. There is always the heavy Gothic influence, but then there is also a twist with some almost Industrial aspects and some others that are almost… Jules Verne in look.

I really liked the inside of Arkham, too. The place is so decrepit, just the sort of locale for a showdown with a bunch of psychos. The voice acting is fantastic, I’m so glad they used Bruce Wayne and The Joker from Batman The Animated Series, because they are the quintessential voices for those characters. Both are just perfect, The Joker’s especially. Harley Quinn and Oracle are also voiced well, along with Chief Gordon. I was racking my brain trying to place the voice of the asylum warden, and then it finally hit me. Harriman the giant rabbit from Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. I’ve always been very good with voices, so it was such a relief to pinpoint that one, otherwise it would have bugged me all night.

Batman moves very well in game, too. The control system seems largely very intuitive, though having to hit the left Control button is kind of annoying… If I get this game it will be on my new PS3, so that doesn’t bother me really. I love the fight scenes, when Batman slows down to render his foe unconscious it is always enjoyable. I have to say, though, I often wish that Batman would just kill his opponents. Bah! Anyway, the game plays well, looks good, and sounds good. One that is worth picking up at some point.

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Dragon Age Origins is one of the upcoming PS3 titles which has got me most interesting in playing as soon as it ships.

This is an Action RPG sort of game, from the creators of some of the best games ever. Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal, is still one of my favourite games of all time. These are also the creative minds behind Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and Neverwinter Nights II. So some really stand up games there, definitely this team turns out some of the best content in gaming so far.

Now, when I first saw this title I wasn’t really sold… I don’t know exactly why, it just felt somewhat not up to par with BioWare’s previous titles, but the more I looked at the game, and the tons of videos they have on their website and IGN is also hosting, the game really took off in appeal. Sure it’s gory as heck, but that’s part and parcel of fighting back hordes of evil creatures.

The game has a huge focus on your ‘origin’ story. Where you came from. This doesn’t only include your race, but also includes you social status and class. For instance, the human noble origin story starts you off defending a castle, whilst the dwarf commoner story starts you off working for a crime lord. It’s all very interesting, and the cinematic scenes look quite good, too.

Character creation looks to be done nicely, and it is very refreshing to be given such free range in character design whilst we are still getting nigh on full voice acting. I can easily see this game spawning a sequel or two, and I wouldn’t mind that. It’s going to be released across all platforms, with the PS3 coming last as BioWare is less familiar with developing for that console. The game will ship early November for 360 and PC, and PS3 will be later in that month.

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And I can’t download the game I just paid for…

Right now, I’m battling Steam to be able to download Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and usually that isn’t an issue. Except the last two games I’ve tried to download, Ceville, and this one, have both given me quite an annoying run around. In the case of Ceville, I kept getting errors and couldn’t install the game until I stumbled across a related error to the one I was getting, and found that I had to rename my old client registry file.

So I did that then, and it worked. It was quite a relief, too. So when I got one of the same errors today, and a whole new one, I tried to do the same fix. Nope, not happening. I tried rebooting the machine, restarting Steam, nope, nothing doing. Steam allowed me to buy the game, but if I want to download it, I get an error telling me there is no dedicated server for this game right now, please try again later… So that sucks.

I find Steam to be a usually good platform; usually reliable, rarely have any issue with any of the games I’ve downloaded, and it’s secure and straight forward. All things to seriously be valued in PC gaming. But when this happens, you feel left out in the cold. I can’t find mention of this on the support forums, but have just stumbled across a thread on the Steam forums which has a whole bunch of other poor saps in the same boat I’m in.

Thanks Steam, nice work there. If you’re saying you’re going to be releasing a game on a certain day, it would be best if it was actually available! My goodness, that’s ridiculous! Well, hopefully in the short term future this issue will be rectified. In the mean time, I’m going to go watch more 24!

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GizmoBlog has all sorts of weird and wonderful things featured, so I wanted to share a few which stood out to me for one reason or another.

I like USB gadgets, because they are entertaining, don’t require a lot of mess, and are often very quirky and fun. Here are a few stand outs from the above mentioned site. First up is the USB Chameleon, which I don’t like, exactly, but is sort of… well it’s interesting! Next up is something called a USB Moo Moo. This is a very cute little gadget which you hook up and install onto your computer with a small amount of software, and you can pat this little plastic cow to make it moo, which sends a message to the corresponding cow – this is why it is cute – which is supposed to be hooked up on the computer of a SO or spouse. Oh that’s… odd but cute.

Now I move onto the totally miscellaneous. I, like many British, enjoy a hot cup of tea. I don’t enjoy, however, is misjudging how long that tea cup has been sitting on your desk, only to take a big gulp and find that it is either scaldingly hot still, or disgustingly cold. This cup here, the On/Off cup, would completely eradicate such incidents! I like groovy things to put on my desk, like the Newton’s Cradle and such, so this little Levitron AG Anti-Gravity Globe would be just perfect! It’s always handy to have a globe close by, for some reason, so this would be just nifty. Now, as a gamer soon to have a PS3, and for some reason console playing often leads to feeling the need to move off the comfortable sofa and sit on the uncomfortable floor, I would love to have one of these Lazy Geek’s Cushions.

Now this is just a mock up of an idea, but what an interesting idea! A Tattoo that responds to the DNA of the wearer. Hmm. I’m not into tattoos, personally, but this is still interesting. On a completely different note, my SO loves to read in bed, but I don’t, and I need darkness to be able to sleep. So I’d love to get her one of these so she can still read, a LightWedge Mini, just the perfect thing for reading in bed!

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Why not, eh? Tech blogs are fun! If you read mine, you’re probably into this sort of thing anyway, if not, why not? Okay, back to the point of today’s post…

First up I wanted to point to TechBlog, which is a nicely put together technology blog. I have to say, it’s nice to see a tech blog that doesn’t look like crap. Because it happens a lot. I blame Linux users. :lol: Anyway, this is a good place to see a well rounded overview of whatever is making tech news today. I like it, and I like that it often leads to broadening one’s horizons. I’ve often read stories over there and then researched the content further, and that is what good news does, in my opinion.

Another interesting tech blog is called Andrew Burke’s Hardcore IPTV Blog… quite the title he’s got there, but I like this blog because it gives an inside look about IPTV in the UK from a business perspective. This guy is the CEO of amino, the IPTV company, and I like his perspective on things on his blog. It’s nice to see a blog from a high-up company member that is actually quite candid. I actually use IPTV, and it’s great. It just seems to work for me, and I like that I don’t have to fork out a heap to get a great cable net connection, because the cable works for both, it’s just spliced by a router, one for the TV, one for my modem, and voilà, I don’t have to pay for separate SDSL, which is very pricey!

The last blog I’ve been saving up, I really like this blog. I love gizmos and gadgets, I know I’ve mentioned that before, so GizmoBlog is a really fun one to have a look at every other day and see what awesome stuff has been cooked up by the geekery of the world. I’m personally a big fan of this gaming simulator, which looks like so much fun, but begs the question, how would I fit it in my living room?

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And I’m getting mine that very same day. My first PS3 console ever, and well let’s just say I’ve cleared my schedule and my SO and I will be shut in gamers all next week. I can just see it now, a week after we emerge from our home, pale and squinting in the natural light, with hands still twitching from playing so much SoulCalibur.

I’ve not had a PS3 before, so this is a new experience for me. I’m looking forward to the relative stability a console offers compared to a PC. For instance, thanks to a disc borrowed from a friend, that pretty much spazzed out whilst it was in my disc drive, my D: drive now keeps un-mapping itself. And not whilst I’m loading, or after a reboot, no, just every now and then, in some cases, whilst I’m playing a game! I’ve no idea why this is happening, precisely, except that it first occurred when I was watching a DVD and that DVD went mental whilst it was playing. Great, juuuuust great.

A reboot fixes it fine, but come on, who wants to reboot or remap a damn disc drive all the time when you shouldn’t have to map it in the first place!? Bah! So yes, console stability, I’m sure as hell looking forward to that. I know that generation seven consoles aren’t free from the issues that plague computers, but they are at least much less likely to go through those sorts of issues. And it’s refreshing, too.

I’m also excited to get the PS3 Slim because of the difference in games. I mean sure, I’m going to get GTA IV on the PS3 just because it was so buggy on my PC I couldn’t play it, but there are so many action games, and RPGs that don’t make it to PC and do make it to PS3. The games available on the PS3 are a big draw, there’s no doubt about that. I’m really looking forward to the next Final Fantasy game, too.

When I have the console I’m going to do a review on it. I’m also going to be reviewing those games that I buy for it. Heck, I might just start reviewing all my new games!

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I’m sure that you would have heard of this by now, but just in case, yes, the Pneumonic – deadlier than the Bubonic – Plague had been confirmed in a village in Tibet.

This shocked me, to be honest. I had thought that diseases like that had been largely eradicated, I mean, small pox has been, there are only two places on the planet where this disease still exists, in the U.S. at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and in Russia at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology (VECTOR). I was surprised that something similar is not possible with Pneumonic Plague, but in light of the fact that it is carried by rats and marmots, and the fleas and ticks that have been on those animals. Once a person has been infected, they are able to spread the disease via coughing – as it is air borne – and the like.

The disease can be treated, within the first 24 hours if antibiotics are administered survival chances are very good. Thankfully, authorities acted quickly in Ziketan town in Xinghai, and whilst three lost their lives, at least 9 who were also infected survived. Without those antibiotics, the disease has an almost 100% fatality rate… That is astounding to me, humans are still at the mercy of such things if we don’t have access to the appropriate health care. The Worldwide Health Organisation stated that China had done the right thing in the most recent outbreak, and that the country had had some experience in dealing with this particular disease. It’s good to know that authorities are on the case, and that with education the infection of humans could be vastly diminished…

I know this is a rather dour subject, but I think this sort of thing is important to know. I think that we ought to be aware just how far we’ve come, and to not take for granted that which we have. When the Bubonic and Pneumonic Plagues swept through Europe in the 12th Century, somewhere between a quarter and a half of the entire population died. All in all, around 200 million lives have been lost to the Bubonic Plague, this is a massive piece of our global history, so when it’s cousin is popping up again, it’s something we should take serious note of.

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Throughout July, the finance market seems to have been behaving rather strangely. By that I mean that inflation actually paused, and that has lead to banks fighting it out for the best savings account rates…

I’m not disappointed in that, to be honest, because I’m enjoying seeing the banks scramble to see who has the best interest rates on whichever of their account types. It’s enjoyable to see because banks pretty much got us into the global financial crisis – okay, mostly a few very selfish bastards associated with a couple of banks – and it’s nice to be aware that the common man isn’t the only one taking the fall out of those people’s choices.

I’ve often looked into savings rates, because it’s always important to ensure you’ve got the best deal you possibly can… a good savings account can be the difference in retiring a few years earlier or not… and I like to stay aware of the more relevant news, like this article here, for example, I really like the fact that they are listing which bank is offering what rate, currently. I’ve noticed that foreign currency bank accounts are still a good choice for interest, too, which is nice.

It seems to me that banks are trying really hard to bring in cash again, and that’s understandable given everything that has happened. They really seemed to have taken on at least a modicum of a lesson about what not to do in the future, and I hope that lesson really does become ingrained in the global banking system. It has been a shocking reminder of what can occur if people aren’t responsible with the power they’re given.

Personally, I’m in agreement with the international banking reforms which have been suggested, I think this event proves that such action is not without warrant, nor is it over the top. If a small handful of people can wreak this kind of damage, then it seems it is an industry which deserves closer monitoring.

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I said that I would keep tabs on this, and so I am!

Tamzin Merchant will be playing Daenerys Targaryen and I have to say, I don’t think she’s the right choice. She doesn’t seem at all like Daenerys, though it’s not just the looks, because that is sort of approximately close, but not really there, and I don’t think she has the strength of presence for this character.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will be playing Jaime Lannister and this choice seems alright to me. This actor looks like he could carry the arrogance of Jaime pretty well, actually.

Sophie Turner will be playing Sansa Stark and she actually seems like a good Sansa… not at first, I have to admit, the blonde threw me off, but she actually seems alright for Sansa.

Maisie Williams will be playing Arya Stark and she seems a good choice, she’s got a certain energy that says Arya to me.

Iain Glen will be playing Sir Jorah Mormont and I’m really not sure about this one… he does have the right look, though, but I think I imagined the knight to be bigger, more bearish.

Richard Madden will be playing Robb Stark and it seems an alright choice, a bit iffy that he is older than the character, but I know they are doing that with all the children. But, I don’t know, I picture Robb quite different…

Alfie Allen will be playing Theon Greyjoy and this does seem like a good choice, the actor already seems smug in the shots on George R R Martin’s blog.

Okay so that is now a total of 14 of the cast members so far, we are still missing Bran, Rickon, Tommen, Myrcella, Cersei, the Hound, the Mountain and all the Maesters, too. So a whole bunch, it’s safe to say. I wonder who, though, will actually be needed for just the pilot?

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In my world, today, there are three topics which have caught my attention and in my opinion deserve to be written about, but they would have been little posts, so instead I’m combining them all into this one post!

First off, I’d like to say, I love the internet. Just one reason for that is, I love not having to go and wait in annoying offices for simple things, like quotes for things. Just today I realised that I never got around to renewing my car insurance, but I didn’t want to just jump in and wanted a quote, so I just jumped on the net and got one! There! Car insurance quote and I didn’t have to go anywhere or wait in lines! I also found this car news site, and I was actually kept interested for a little while. I personally just enjoy seeing all the emblems for car manufacturers all in the same place!

Next thing I wanted to discuss, oh my goodness, seriously, what’s with IGN comments and total Nerd Rage? I was looking at the Batman Arkham Asylum review earlier, and it looks to be a pretty good game. But apart from that, if you take a look at the link there, you’ll see the Reader Average is 7.3, a far cry from the IGN US review of 9.3. A sane person would ask why, why is the reader average so much lower than both the IGN review, even the IGN AU review, and the average press reviews? Well that would be because of the crazy Nerd Raging morons who are scoring the game 0.0 on the PS3 because they – being Americans – believe that Americans should only buy this game on American console, and not support a Japanese company… Oh dear me, aren’t they stupid? Seriously, the game is good on either console, don’t go crazy with rage in your fan-boyism of your nation, okay?

Last thing I wanted to talk about, I can’t wait to get my hands on the next Professor Layton game, the Diabolical Box… It’s out on Monday, and I’m pretty excited. I’m proud to say I’ve finished the first game in it’s entirety, with no online walkthrough assistance! I really enjoyed the first game, it’s got such a nice pace to it, it’s a heck of a lot of fun, and the idea of having a whole other one… oh yeah!

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I can switch between these two emotions quite quickly when I’ve not had enough sleep, as has been happening for a while now, but thankfully with just a little time spent on funny blogs, I’m in the former frame of mind. :D

I love that about being tired, it’s about the only upside. Earlier I was on I Can Has Cheez Burger and noticed they were self-promoting for a new site, Comixed, which is another of their funny caption sites, taking seemingly innocuous pictures, and in this case, stringing them together with funny captions to form an almost comic strip like effect.

These are actually quite good, and the comments aren’t quite as inane as those sadly found on I Can Has Cheez Burger and the dog version, I Has A Hotdog, which are so mind bogglingly stupid that I have to steer clear of them lest I surge into a total Nerd Rage. There are of course the ongoing references to internet memes, like this comix here, and a few humerous ones of Sarah Palin.

Now, whilst I was viewing this site, I happened to have had about three and a half hours sleep the night before. This gives anyone a bent to either being angry and laughing, I’ve found, and I can switch between both quite quickly. My SO was busy with something that required I not be overly noisy, she was working, so I was quietly stuffing around on the internet filling in time. Once I happened upon this site, and viewed page after page, I couldn’t help myself. I was laughing out loud, I was guffawing, I was choking back laughter behind poorly concealed snorts.

I was also missreading and miss-seeing things, which is fun. What is a chair turned away from you, seen from the corner of your eye, suddenly becomes a four foot Buttercup from the Powerpuff Girls hovering in mid air, and what is actually a can in the fridge with the words ‘Health Benefits’ written on it becomes ‘Health Brain Fish’ when one reads it too quickly.

So yes, it’s almost fun to go around sleep deprived, so long as I don’t drive or try to do anything that’s actually important.

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So when you find yourself talking with complete strangers, don’t talk about your mortgage!

Today I attended an IT conference, I know, really boring. It was alright, quite interesting, but there’s nothing like an IT lecture to put one in the mood for a nap, but I managed to force myself to stay awake through both the presentations in the morning, and then bolted out into the fresh air at lunch. I was sitting in the sun for about ten minutes when I realised I had nothing to do for the next hour. Presentations recommenced at that time, but it wasn’t long enough for me to go into the city and do anything, and my SO was at work, so I couldn’t talk to her, and I’d stupidly not brought anything to entertain myself during such a lull because I had driven to the conference instead of taking the bus like I normally did to work.

I saw a bunch of people sitting round a table having lunch, and I knew some of them from work, so I decided to go and sit and join them. With twelve people sitting round a table at an IT conference, it really was no surprise that they were talking of IT stuff. People’s choices in PHPBB themes for forums, other people’s intentions to update their websites with new Web 2.0 tech, and then there was one lady, the lady I was sitting next to, an innocuous, slightly older than you’d expect to still be working, especially in IT, she was talking about whatever and whenever. I could be following the conversation that the whole table was having, and then this little grandmotherly like lady would start talking to me about why her son remortgages his house every few years, and how mortgage news was very interesting, which it isn’t.

I’m sorry, but it’s not, and your a very uninteresting conversationalist, even though you seem like a nice person. You can’t say that, of course, unless you have some sort of disorder of the mind, but hey, it’s nice to imagine such things which would of course lead to an offended lady leaving the table, and I could get some relief of normal conversation before I go back in for another round of IT presentation… :lol: Or not.

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I just want to say that today my post is a little random, because there are two completely unrelated topics I wish to discuss.

Firs off, I wanted to mention just how excellent it really is to have our bathroom finished… and electric showers are bloody awesome. This thing is marvellous, no, it’s better than that, it’s bloody fantastic. My So and can sit in there for as long as we want because the water is heated as it comes through. Brand new shower enclosures are nice, too, because when you get to pick it out, you get exactly the one that suits you!

This new bathroom… I’m spend so much time in there because it has such a pleasant atmosphere that I just don’t want to leave! :lol: Of course, you have to take precautions that you don’t shower too much, because then your skin dries out and you end up constantly itchy. But if your showers aren’t too hot that shouldn’t happen.

Okay now onto something else, this is a bit of a rant and inspired totally by getting on here to write only to find 18, yes, that’s right, 18 spam comments! What the hell is with that? Why are there so many people running around posting gibberish posts full of links to damn pharmaceutical products? Who buys these things like that? Who thought this was a good idea in the first place, to go around spamming people’s blogs with advertisements for drugs? I find it infuriating and offensive.

Did you know that spam is actually adding to global warming? That there is so much spam being tossed around on the internet that in the last year it took up 33 billion kilowatt-hours of power, which is about the same as the power used in 2.1 million houses. That’s mind boggling, and that was only counting the 62 trillion junk emails, not all the nasty spam comments left on blogs. So please, if you leave spam comments, I understand you’re probably being paid a tiny pittance to do this, but please, don’t stop looking for more reputable work so that you can stop posting those comments on my blogs, I’m deleting them anyway, no one sees them but me, so please, stop posting them.

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A Game of Thrones the TV series by HBO will start shooting in October, and here are the cast names that have been released so far…

Now, I think these books, A Song of Ice and Fire, are the best fantasy series I’ve ever read. I’ve read a lot, and these are the best, in my opinion, so far. That’s a pretty big call, but I’m making it. The people behind this series are the same who created Deadwood and Rome; two good shows, in their own ways. Today I’m going to outline my response to each of the announced cast choices. George R R Martin also said on his Not a Blog recently that six more characters are about to be cast, but we will have to wait some time for the announcements. When they are announced, I will do a follow up post. I’m interested to see how this series works out, because as I said, this is an amazing book they are working with, and Martin has even been involved with the screen plays, I believe he is writing one episode himself. Now, onto the cast and my impressions!

Sean Bean will do quite well as Eddard Stark, in my opinion. He voiced Martin from The Elder Scrolls Oblivion game quite well, and the character has a similar sense of… rigidity or dourness, so I think this was a good choice.

Peter Drinklage as Tyrion Lanister will be awesome, I think. Drinklage has a tenacious and sardonic personality in many of his roles, and I think this will suit The Imp so very well.

Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark will work very well, even as Elizabeth Bennett in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice she had an austere coldness that I think will work wonders – now that she is older – as cold and hateful Catelyn. I dislike Catelyn intensely.

I’ve never seen Kit Harington in anything before, but he looks okay for the part. I would have liked to have seen someone perhaps a little longer in the face, but this serves, and there could be – with hair and make-up – similarities brought out with him and Sean Bean.

Mark Addy as Robert Baratheon is interesting… I’ve no doubt he can play it, I just envision him as being… bigger, swarthier, and at least somewhat intimidating… :lol: But I still think this will work out well.

Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon I’m not sure about because I can’t see a picture of him that is anything like recent on the net, so I don’t know. It’s going to take a good actor to portray that horrid little abomination.

Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen… he seems too old, to me. This one sticks out a bit… but with a lot of alterations, silver hair, lilac eyes, maybe it’ll work.

So far only the pilot is sure to be shot, but if the reception is good enough, more could follow, and I for one, bloody hope so!

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And will ship next month, along with a reduced price!

At a Gamescom press conference in Germany today, or yesterday, it’s hard to tell, Sony announced that not only where they dropping the price on their current console, but that they were also releasing the PS3 Slim. The PS3 Slim will be smaller and lighter than it’s original counterpart, plus it will draw less electricity and have a larger, 120G, hard drive. All other aspects of the console will remain the same, there are still two USB ports, Wireless, and Bluetooth.

I have to say, I’m pretty pleased that just before I was about to buy a PS3, at the end of this month, this happens. Here in the UK the original PS3 will be selling at £249.99, as will the Slim when it ships September 1st. I don’t really mind the size of the console, I didn’t have any issue with the original PS3, so I’m pleased that the console is now environmentally better, and is also more likely to net Sony some actual profit from the consoles themselves – at this time, Sony actually loses money for each console sold, they can’t put the price high enough to cover their cost and still maintain any competition with XBOX360 and Wii – but I’m not over the moon about anything save the fact that I can afford to get a few more games with my console, now. :D

I find it an interesting move, on Sony’s part, because they are still selling the soon-to-ship PSP Go will still retail for £214, so they obviously aren’t entering to a huge price war with the other consoles. I’ve no interest whatsoever in the PSP Go, I think Nintendo DS Lite kicks it’s ass in entertainment, so I don’t care that they are sticking to a high price for their portable console.

In the coming weeks, when I’ve picked up my brand new PS3 Slim I’ll be writing some reviews for games I’ve played on it.

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I’m getting out the ol’ soap box and I’m having a rant, today. Be prepared!

I’m ranting about the ludicrous amount of CCTV networks being employed in Britain, which have been shown to be of little value in diminishing the rising rates of violent crime. Now, what are we using these things for if not to deter criminals? Where is this going wrong? It’s mind boggling that the country can have 20% of all the CCTV cameras in the world pointed at it’s own citizens, and yet violent crime rates are still going up!? Doesn’t that just prove that CCTV systems aren’t the answer to all our criminal ills?

There are even growing numbers of CCTV cameras being employed by civilians… I just think that maybe it’s time to settle down. For instance, the former residence of George Orwell, author of 1984 – when the notion of Big Brother was first coined as such – had no less that 32 CCTV cameras installed by the government within a 200 yard radius. That number goes up tremendously if one counts the privately owned CCTV cameras in the neighbourhood, of which there are hundreds. Now, doesn’t that just sound a little crazy to you?

Another thing that has gotten me of late is this Children’s Minister Ed Balls’ idea of putting CCTV cameras into private homes, after the parents have signed ‘behaviour contracts’, to ensure that the children are going to bed early, eating balanced meals, and doing their homework. These families being ones that have had any dealings with social services before. But the odd thing to me is they keep being referred to as ‘anti-social’ as if that’s the worst thing in the world. Balls states that ‘Over 120,000 young people have been saved from getting involved in or being the victims of crime’, and I have to ask, where the hell did you pull that figure from? I can guess, and it ain’t pretty! But then the article goes on to say that around 128,000 children have been aided by this programme, which suggests that ol’ Ed thinks that all these kids would be now violent thugs, if not for their programme.

It’s scary, too, that if these families don’t come up to snuff, if they fail one of their surprise inspections, the parents could face jail, and the children could face youth hostels. Doesn’t that seem absurd to you? If you can stand the craziness, here’s a link to the official description of the programme listed on the Home Office’s website.

Bloggers around the world seem to be feeling much the same way I am about this strategy… it will be interesting to see what happens.

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