Rispon Avenue

Want to know something amazing? Really? How bout the fact that I just found 119 spam comments waiting for me when I sat down to post…

A new record… 119 spam posts all waiting for me to Approve, Spam, Delete, Edit, Quick Edit, or Reply… Yeah, I think I know what I’ll do there. I always mark it all as spam, and then usually I delete it all, but now I’m thinking of leaving it there for a month and seeing how many spam comments I have sitting there!

I was going to write more about the mortgage market news, and what it’s up to. You know, current prices on mortgage deals and the like. Something that did surprise me was the move back towards the more ‘high risk’ end of mortgages, as in the bad credit mortgage loans and whatnot. I pretty much hate the whole ‘credit’ industry. It’s been a shockingly good way for a few to make money, and a great many to bleed money out their you-know-what. That’s why there are so many of those cash for home businesses, and that’s a sad thing, if you ask me.

Spam and mortgages… seems to go together in a way. Constant source of irritation and stress, and the best news you can get about it is that it’s over! :lol: The sad thing is that all this spam is unavoidable, there are so many blog posts out there about hatred of spam, or the unfortunate amount of cheap labour employed to spam Wordpress blogs. There are ways of fighting it, but when you just want to jump on your blog and blog, well, you don’t really want to go through too much to actually get to why you were there in the first place.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. All you Russian spammers, I’m sincerely hoping you get a better job soon. I know what you do much suck, suck pretty bad, and I bet you get paid a pittance for it, too, and really, it’s not your fault so much as the moron who hired you to spam Wordpress blogs with links to their stupid website that sells pharmaceuticals illegally. So, to all those spamming my blog, I wish you better luck with your next job! :)

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I’ve always loved Winter, for the snow and cold and the snugness of indoors when it’s that cold outside.

I know it’s still Autumn, and early Autumn at that, but I couldn’t help but smell that certain cold on the wind today that means Winter is on it’s way. It’s a certain icy cleanness, very fresh, almost smelling of nothing. Autumn is a lovely season, too, but I really do prefer Winter… especially after it’s started snowing!

In spite of seeing snow for my entire life, I always find it a little magical when those soft flakes start to fall from the sky. I love seeing how everything looks once it’s been snowed on for a while, to see an entire landscape blanketed like that, it’s breathtaking.

I’ve a friend who hates Winter. He plans holidays around the time of year when Winter hits hardest so he can avoid the cold. It’s always baffeled me as to why he lives in the U.K. if he doesn’t like the cold… but anyway.

Today he told me of the package he bought to spend two weeks in South America at the beginning of next year. He thinks those first few weeks of January are the coldest, but I’m not sure of that, to be honest. He’s got everything ready, months in advance, from travel insurance to money converted into the local currency. He always goes over there with some stupid excuse as to why he should be treated like a VIP constantly. It’s rather preposterous. Last year my friend went over there only to find that the phone he so desperately needed to use was occupied, so he told the hotel manager that he needed to use the phone because he had to call his accountant. He said he was going to be buying up a large portion of beach front land and property for sale there in Brazil, and wanted to know if the deal had gone through. The hotel manager saw him for what he was, and from what I understand, just nodded condescendingly and told him he’d have to wait! :lol: We all thought that was bloody brilliant!

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I’m speaking of the game Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and the fact that the amount of blood in the game has been reduced from the previous title in the series.

So, yes, I’m sort of surprised that they can say with such certainty that there is exactly 57% less blood than Ninja Gaiden II, but there you have it. There is still blood in the game, still red cuts when you hit an enemy, still blood spatters on walls and floors, but when you cut off a limb of an opponent in game no longer is there a gout of red, but instead the exact same gout… but now in blue!

It was apparently done to appeal to a broader audience, especially in Japan where violence is frowned upon. That’s a hard pill to swallow, considering they are the home of the Yakuza, and have a history – right up to the first half of the last century – of being one of the most violent nations on the planet, and seem to have no qualms in completely and utterly objectifying women. Personally, I don’t care for the level of gore in the previous games, but I still find it strange nonetheless that a country that loves Dead or Alive games would have issues with blatant violence.

It’s a strange choice, too, to keep in some blood effects, but to alter others only in colour. Why not reduce them, or take them out, or make all the ‘blood’ blue? This half measure way of doing it is odd, and doesn’t seem right to me.

I’m all for maturation of the medium, but I would rather it was consistent throughout the entire game, not just some randomly chosen aspects being changed whilst others left the same. It’s a very strange approach, and I’m interested to see how people respond when they get their hands on the games.

So far the response out there is rather mixed. There are those like myself, who appreciate the reduced gore, but don’t like the approach, and there are those who think that both those aspects are fine, and then there are those who are now really aggravated about it. Those people I don’t understand at all!

Well, we’ll find out soon enough how it all goes, the game ships to us Brits at the beginning of October.

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Among the things that I find intriguing, yet completely irrelevant to my actual daily life, are ‘Cryptids’, or ‘Cryptozoology. Basically, the investigation of animals which aren’t confirmed, but are suspected – on flimsy evidence in many cases – of existing anyway.

I can’t remember exactly when I first became interested in cryptids, but I know I have been for some time. I love looking at the folklore stories, and how people still believe in these creatures today. Some of them seem more plausible than others, I’ll grant you that, and some are real unexplained phenomena, like the Bloop.

The Bloop is one of my current favourite cryptids, because there is actual evidence backing it up. We’ve got the ‘what’ in this case, but not the ‘how’ or ‘who’. You see, The Bloop is the name given to a sound picked up a few times by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who use equipment that was originally designed to keep tabs on that part of the ocean in case of Soviet Subs. They aren’t listening for subs, anymore, and are instead using the equipment to evaluate marine health, oceanic weather, and general atmospheric conditions out there.

They’ve often picked up strange and – in my opinion – ominous sounds, most of which can be explained by ocean currents, volcanic activity , or the movement of Antarctic ice, but The Bloop doesn’t conform to any of these. It’s the odd sound out.

The Bloop’s sound profile suggests that it comes from a living organism. The sound was heard on multiple underwater listening devices, called hydrophones, about 5,000kms apart. Even a Blue Whale can’t manage that, the creature creating The Bloop would have to be much, much bigger.

Some people have speculated that a Giant Squid could be behind the sound, however that’s extremely unlikely because, according to Phil Lobel, a marine biologist at Boston University in Massachusetts, US they don’t have the giant gas filled sac that would be necessary for such a noise. He says it’s impossible to be certain at this point, because no Giant Squid has ever been caught alive, though Whales have been seen with tentacle ring marks on their bodies, but he believes it’s not the sound of the giant cephalopod.

Anyway, that’s a mystery I hope to see solved one day.

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Though I’ve not tried the first instalment, after watching this review I certainly want to play them both!

When I was looking into whether or not purchasing a PS3 would be a good idea for me, personally, I found the first Uncharted game touted as being among the best on the system. I looked up videos and reviews and thought that it looked like a really great game, it’s on my list of games to get.

I was perusing IGN as I normally do, and then noticed that in the few minutes I’d been on the site, the Uncharted 2 review had gone up. I eagerly clicked on the link to the video review, and watched on rather happily, finding the game was even better than I’d expected.

I’ve yet to play it, so I can only work from the review and my impressions of what I’ve seen in videos, but this game does look really, really good. The graphics are mind bogglingly good, and the story looks to be a heck of a lot of fun. Seriously, trekking around the world in search of treasure? It’s like being Indiana Jones but without the cliché!

The voice acting seems nicely done, and the character models move really well. The locations look to be quite varied and lots of fun, from verdant jungle to icy mountain sides, it all looks really great.

The game received a 9.5 from IGN, a fantastic score, and is currently sitting at 10 even for the reader average. That’s a pretty amazing score, there, and I really hope the game is as good as they say.

My only draw back is that I’m a little disappointed by ten hours of single play. Co-op is fun, I’d like to try that, but I’m not hugely into online play, so this aspect doesn’t make up for only ten hours of actual story-mode gameplay.

Nonetheless I fully intend on picking this game up, after I’ve picked up the first one, of course!

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I visited my mother this weekend. It’s one of only three times I’ve been able to get out and visit her since she moved into a retirement community back in… March I think.

When my mother moved into this community earlier this year, she sold her home. This has left her with an even nicer nest egg than she already had, which I’m rather grateful for. I like to know that she is set to live in the nice community she moved into for about two decades before there’s any concern about paying for everything.

Whilst visiting her, she told me that she had gotten a stack of forms in the mail asking her to sign off on the renewing of her home insurance and contents insurance separately. She thought this wildly funny, and even applied for a building and contents home insurance quote, though I think she just meant for a home and contents insurance in one package.

Once they got around to processing her quote, they soon realised their folly, that she no longer owned a home, and politely told her she didn’t need their services anymore.

So that was that, and my little old mother seemed to think this the best prank of the year! :lol: She has an endearing sense of humour. She then told me that I must close my eyes and put out my hands. She used to do this when I was a child and she was giving me a surprise. It didn’t matter what magnitude of surprise we are talking about, from my favourite chocolate bar to a SNES game I’d been wanting, it was our routine.

Sitting at her nice little table, with it’s white lace cloth, I put my hands on the table, palms up, with my eyes closed. My SO was grinning like a Cheshire cat at me, so I had a feeling they were in cahoots. My mother placed into my hands three smooth plastic cases, and when I opened them, I found to my utmost surprise that she had bought me three PS3 games from the list I just happen to keep on my computer of games I intend to get in the future. LittleBigPlanet, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, and Metal Gear Solid 4.

I knew then that she must have asked my SO for the titles of some games I wanted, and I was just stoked to get them back and try ‘em out. My mother told me that she had decided to do something nice for me when her insurance renewal came around, because it reminded her of how much I’d helped in selling her house for her and making sure it all worked out nicely.

Ahh, isn’t it nice with the generation gap can so easily be bridged? It doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, it’s very refreshing.

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No one is sure what this thing is, but I think it’s amazingly weird and more than a little creepy.

Okay so the run down is as follows. A group of teenagers where playing near a lake in Panama. There’s a waterfall and cave near this lake, and apparently this creature came out of the cave, and came up some rocks towards the teens. They felt threatened, describing the creature as standing 150cm tall, so threw rocks and used sticks to beat the creature to death. They then tossed the carcass back into the lake, and told their parents who went to have a look for themselves.

The parents found the carcass had washed up on the shore, and within a few days the body was showing signs of decomposition and having been eaten by buzzards…

Okay so now what I think of this whole thing. I think it’s a hoax. Reasons… the decomposed body sure enough looks like a sloth, but it doesn’t account for the body shown in the previous shots. First off, that decomposition looks fairly dry, yet we are talking about Panama, next to a lake… Tropical location, heading into Autumn, is not exactly going to dry the thing out. Not to mention, that’s an extreme level of decomposition for a few days, and if it had in fact been eaten by buzzards, then why was so much of the skin still in tact? No, this looks to be a sloth that has been decomposing for quite a while, in a dry place.

Now onto the freshly dead photos. This creature is supposedly three times the height of a regular sloth, which grow usually between 50 to 60cm tall. If you look at this creature, yes the hands look sloth like, but the face is too long for a sloth face, which have short faces with small pointed muzzles. Very different. The big kicker, the thing that screams fake to me about this thing…

If this creature was stoned and beaten to death, then why aren’t there any marks of such attacks upon it in the photos? Seriously, this is a major discrepancy, and all the other stuff could be explained, but that last fact is rather important. There’s no defence marks on the arms, no marks on the face, head, neck, chest, abdomen… Unless they managed to only hit the animal from behind, which seems rather unlikely considering they were throwing rocks at it because it was coming towards them.

Anyway, here’s a link to the Metro’s article, and here’s MSN’s article.

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I’m feeling that certain lessons should have been taken from the financial crisis which have been completely and utterly missed by far too many.

You see, what really sparked this entire collapse was a few people in the U.S. deciding it would be a grand idea if they gave people large loans, we’re talking house loans here, with no down payment. That’s right, loaning the full 100% of the total amount for a house. This of course lead to many people being the horrible situation of having a home and a home loan, but loan repayments too hefty to keep up with. They are referred to as high-risk loans. What then happened is other financial establishment went and bought those loans from the banks and so forth who originally issued them. Now, on the books, this looks like the company has a certain amount of assets, but if the person defaults, if they can’t keep up with their payments, that company that thought they had a few hundred thousand in assets suddenly has to write that off. Completely.

This is just one of the causes of the current financial instability – which seems to be somewhat on the mend – but it was a major factor in why so many companies lost so much money in such a short amount of time.

Anyway, what bothers me is that I feel people should have learned that quick credit, fast cash, short-term loan, all have a nasty way of coming back and biting you. I know it’s a pretty damn difficult time for most people, at the moment, but if they continue to buy into the cycle of loans, and then paying back at a minimum 20% – though you’d probably find it’s much more if you cared to check it on one of those loan calculator things – more than they borrowed, it’s going to be very difficult to break out of.

I suppose I also feel a sense of frustration with loan brokers, that they are so happy to cash in, in spite of how it effects people. Bah! Anyway, if you are considering one of those short-term loans, please don’t if you can avoid it in any way!

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So I won’t play it. Well, if I really think a game was underrated, then I’ll give it a go, but mostly I trust in the reviewers, at least on IGN I do.

So yeah, don’t have as much time for gaming as I used to, which is why I haven’t been playing LOTRO so much. That’s a little sad, because I think it’s a great game, but there it is. I’m still interested in MMOs though, so when Champions Online was coming up, I thought I may drop in and give it a go.

But then I saw the review today on IGN… 7.6 from them, but the reader review average is 6.7. Now, I usually don’t play games that got under 8.5, so this means that Champions Online is completely and totally out, unless they put out an expansion that dramatically alters the score for the overall game, I won’t be playing it.

The reader reviews are really interesting, actually. They seem to swing between scores of 3.5 through to 5, which basically talk about how buggy the game is, repetitive, animations aren’t working, skills aren’t working, and powers have already been nerfed. Then you have those who are rating this game around 8 to 9 saying it’s fun, especially once you’ve a few friends to quest with.

I have to say, though, that a quick look over of the reviews with the low scores, and the reviews with the high scores, that the low score reviews are better written and more in-depth, whereas the high score reviews are a little superficial and you sort of get the impression these people would be happy playing any game.

So, from what I’ve read, this game sounds unfinished, and it really doesn’t look all that good, either. Server downtime seems to be a big issue, which I find hugely frustrating when you’re paying for a subscription.

All in all, from what the reviewer on IGN said, I’m sort of surprised they reviewed this game as highly as they did.

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Ahhh, got to love the simple pleasures of life, lest you turn into a right sod!

Today I went out food shopping, a very annoying task, I assure you. Wandering through the super market aimlessly is not my style, so it’s really annoying to be stuck halfway down an aisle behind just such a shopper. I calmly went about doing my thing, hoping this lady in front of me would hurry up, but no, it was like she was trying to win a race for being as slow as possible whilst still moving…

Anyway, by the time I got home, I was in such a foul mood, that I knew something must be done. But I didn’t know what… then I found that my SO had just run me a bath, with bubbles and the whirlpool jets going already, too. I was enormously thankful, and went into the lusciously steamy bathroom and sat in the nice hot bath. When I’m doing this my SO likes to sit and hang out and talk to me, it takes the experience from really good to oh I really love, love, love, this!

It’s amazing to me how something so very simple can really turn your mood around, to go from frustrated and surly to calm and pleasant in the span of half an hour is quite remarkable. When that bath is soon followed up by an extremely lovely slow-cooked stew with crusty bread, well, then I’m positively joyful.

I’m now full, warm, and pretty much ready to sleep. What a great feeling! I’m not the best sleeper, to be honest, so when I actually feel sleepy its a very pleasant experience… now to just slowly wander about locking up and turning off all the lights and I’m off to bed for a good ol’ sleep. Ahhh, the good things in life!

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Because I really, really need it. These last few weeks have felt like months!

All my usual routines shall fall away, I’m going to spend tomorrow doing as little as possible. Lounge around in my bathrobe all day long, I really love doing taht. I feel so indolent, and I don’t often get to feel that, so that’s what tomorrow shall be for me.

Don’t expect to see a post from me, either, I’m serious about doing as little as possible. I’m going to spend much of the day gaming, because I’ve really not had the time I would have liked to fully test all my new games and wear my new PS3 in.

Right now I’m looking through the last work related stuff for the day, then off to relax until the Tuesday! I was just looking over some recent savings news before I toddled off, because it seems like it’s a really pertinent time to be watching the markets, online expatriate savings accounts seem to be doing fairly well, in spite of it’s niche market potential, as do SIPP investments, though that’s somewhat less of a surprise.

I’m really hoping that after all this financial storminess blows over, people will have learned a valuable – if hard – lesson in savings and investments. Especially in not taking on more than you can handle. That’s the saddest part, if you ask me, all those people who lost their homes to foreclosure. It’s one thing to have to tighten your belt, a whole different thing to lose your home. There’s something so intrinsically wrong with that if you ask me.

I think people have learned, to some extent, I mean, look at the rise of child trust fund figures. People are realising that things ought to change, that we can’t keep doing things the way they’ve been done, just because they’ve been done that way in the past.

Anyway, I’m in a good mood, so off I go, ignoring the super-spammer I’ve got dogging my site at the moment. And always posting in Russian! I’ve got no idea what this fellow is saying! :lol:

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Then why be so morbid? Yeah, some ads are all laughs, all funny, and some are just trying to suck you in to thinking you could be rich and happy like the people on the screen should you buy this product. Then there are the ads that think, lets scare or depress them into buying our stuff!

Have a guess which sort of product might market itself that way? Certainly wouldn’t be the normal stuff, food, clothing, tech gadgets, sporting equipment… no, all those things either go with just normal selling it’s good points, or ‘you’d be cool like this guy here if you drank/ate …’ kind of stuff. But there are a few that think they need to use scare tactics to get us to fork out our hard earned cash.

Insurance companies do this all the time. Have you ever gotten pamphlets in the mail for insurance companies? A few weeks back I was looking for new term assurance and life cover, or at least a normal life insurance package. I looked into a lot of companies, trying to find the best deal. Some of those companies are rather poor at getting their advertising material out in a timely manner, or seem to just have you on a mailing list once you talk to them.

Basically, these pamphlets show up in your letter box – addressed to you in an envelope – telling you you could die, and don’t leave all the burden of burying you on your family and blah blah blah. I think this sort of advertising is abhorrent, and am thankful I didn’t go with the company who sent me this kind of crappy advertising material. They also show you statistics about injury from work, home or car accidents, which I seem to have miraculously avoided – according to these statistics – with the only exception being that case of whiplash earlier in the year. That was from a fairly minor car accident in a car park, so barely counts as a car accident anyway.

I don’t know, I just hate this kind of thing… it’s like trying to guilt you into buying insurance, or trying to make you really fearful about anything happening so you’ll pay up. Bah I say to those companies, bah!

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What’s it like? Is it worth it? Shall I give it a try? Will I ever try a Rock Band game? These questions shall, mostly, be answered in this post.

Firstly, lets be clear, I’ve not played any of the Rock Band, Guitar Hero, games… at all. Nor any of those ‘Sing Star’ games. I’ve not had a PlayStation in a long while, and I’ve not felt compelled to play these games in spite of generally liking rhythm games. I think it’s being told to like them that puts me off… Does that make me contrary? Maybe…

Anyway, this one is getting some odd reactions. Reviewers are treating it like the bees knees, the cat’s meow, and all sorts of animal related idioms. It’s sitting at 9.0 on IGN, and Metacritic is showing it at 89, but there seems to be some less than stellar fan reviews. Basically, there are two camps regarding this game.

First camp, the major review sites. They say it’s awesome, great song list, visuals are pretty good, sound is pretty good, not a huge challenge of a Rock Band game, though. Second camp, the players. A heck of a lot of players are panning this game due to how easy it is, which leads to it getting boring quickly, and the fact that the amount of songs on the game compared to the amount of songs that you can download if you pay for. If you’ve read much of my blog you’ll know I absolutely detest games being released with downloadable content already available should you pay for it. That’s total BS, in my opinion, and just a very nasty practice being used by game producers.

So, where do I sit in all this? It seems to me that if you like The Beatles and you have a PS3, you’d be a little silly not to get this game at some point. However, if you’re like me, and The Beatles aren’t really your thing, then this probably isn’t the title for you. So, I think I’ll continue along having not played any of the Rock Band games until one comes along that is just too awesome to pass up. This title does not meet this standard for me, but as I said, I think Beatles fans will go mental for it.

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I’m in one of those states where you don’t have a fully fledged idea for an entry, but rather a few ideas that you want to put down, but none really make a full post…

It’s been really busy in the past few weeks, my SO has still been suffering with that back pain – and being really strong and soldering on, in spite of what is agony almost every morning for her – so we’ve been getting very little or disjointed sleep. She’s been able to manage about five to six hours most nights, and we’ve taken to napping in the afternoons a lot of the time, too. We know what’s going on, and it’s just a matter of her strengthening her back, at this stage, but apart from that, there’s not much to be done. Hot showers and a back massage seem to help a little, relaxing those muscles. It’s just a pity that she’s better at massages than me.

Work has been hectic, but being able to work from home has been a Godsend with my SO so under the weather. I can make sure that she’s well taken care of, and still get all my work done, no matter what time I’m awake or asleep. I’m really liking this style of work, and no longer having to commute to work has been fantastic! I’ve gotten an hour or two extra in every day!

All my financial interests have largely been put on hold. I’m still keeping an eye on all those investments and offshore financial services, which seem to have pretty okay rates at the moment, but I think I’ve decided against investing in international real estate. I just don’t want the trouble that could come of it, I mean, invest in Panama real estate, for example… I would hardly ever see the place. Nah, not for me!

Anyway, that’s an odds and ends post there, now hopefully they can be a little better put together!

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I’ve never before seen screens or videos of an RPG that looks this good, and with gaming the way it is, that’s saying something!

The storyline is set around the expulsion of a race, called the fal’Cie, by humans, from a floating paradise like city called Cocoon. Originally the fal’Cie created Cocoon for humans, but thirteen centuries later, humans are scared of the fal’Cie, because some of them can become l’Cie, which are people with special destinies, which if they don’t fulfil, become Cie Corpses, which are big scary monsters. The humans are trying to force the fal’Cie to move back to the surface of the planet, called Pulse, which has strange effects on people and the governing body of Cocoon, the Theocratic Sanctum, have a staunch quarantine that anyone who’s been to the surface of Pulse can’t get back into Cocoon.

The story centres around a few characters, which all happen to become l’Cie, even though they didn’t want that to happen, and their fight against the army, called PSICOM, to stop them purging Cocoon of the fal’Cie.

The story line is intriguing, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out. There is a demo and a couple of trailers available to watch here on IGN, which show the game to be just amazing. The most impressive visuals on an RPG yet, in my opinion, and the transition between cut-scene and in-game is startlingly similar.

It’s nice to see the good ol’ Eidolons back, with Odin, Shiva, Ifrit, and Carbuncle, and apparently, not only their respective summoning scenes are amazing, but you can also combine your character with their Eidolon to get some form of… transportation that can do damage during battles. Odin becomes a horse like creature that his summoner, Lightning, can ride, whilst Shiva is actually summoned in the form of two sisters, Nix and Styria, and they turn into a motorcycle that their summoner, Snow, can ride. Carbuncle is summoned by Vanille, and he turns into a disc, and Ifrit, who is summoned by Sazh, turns into a hotrod racing car.

I really can’t wait to get my hands on this game, do yourself a favour and check out those videos on IGN.

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One more, though another has been chosen and not announced. Anyway, here’s my impressions…

I noticed on George’s blog a few days ago that Cersei Lannister has been cast, and will be played by Lena Headey. Now, obviously they will have to give her golden hair and green contacts, but I think this is a very good casting choice for Cersei, actually. Doesn’t this lady look like she could play an evil calculating so-and-so? I think so, and it’s nice to see that the casting is still going pretty well.

There are more pictures of the two Stark girls, too, up on George’s Not A Blog, and they really do fit the parts of Arya and Sansa, if you ask me. I was concerned about these characters, because finding good child actors can be very difficult, one imagines, but George said Arya especially blew the competition out of the water. That sounds like Arya spirit to me. :)

I was watching season six of 24 recently, with Boothe Powers as the President, and I think this actor could fit in so very well in the SoIaF world, he looks and sounds just right. It’s funny, but I couldn’t say exactly which character – have to be ‘bad’ or ruthless one – but I think he’d be a great addition to the show.

Now, just for a little bit of a complain, because it wouldn’t feel right to leave this out… George has been talking about writing more on A Dance with Dragons… about tackling a certain portion of the book, and not getting anywhere with it… Well, and this is a restrained version of what I want to say… What the hell is going on!? I want to write in all capitals right now, but I will refrain… George! Stop spreading your attentions over fifty bloody projects and get this bloody book bloody-well published! You told your fans when you released the last one that Dance was more than half done, which later turned into a third done, which meant this should have taken half to a third of the time of the last one! But no, NO! The last book came out October 2005! The one before that August 2000, so by my estimation of time and what he said, this book should have been out at latest early last year… We are looking to hit 2010 before Dance with Dragons is actually released, and I can’t help but feel this is due in part because of George’s lack of focus.

I know that it’s hard to write a book, to write a short story let alone a novel, but when you’re running off to write graphic novels and other things, it’s going to take even longer. It’s just so annoying. Respect the people who love your work. This is part of the reasons why Malazan makes into my top five favourite series, Erikson gets books written in a fifth of the time, and they are just as epic, larger in scale even, that Song of Ice and Fire, and as interesting in terms of storylines. Too depressing, I will admit, but Westeros has more than it’s fair share of that, too!

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Well, hotmail’s spam blocker, anyway. I mean seriously, you won’t stop scam after scam, but I try and get a verification email and that just can’t be let through!?

I got a comment on my blog from someone who said they saw the site on Technorati, so I went over and decided to join up – looks like an awesome site, actually! – and ‘claim’ my blog. All was going well, save having to find a user name took a few tries, until it got to verification time. There was a little message at this point saying if you didn’t get the message, check this FAQ. Over I went, thinking smugly that I was just filling in time, that my email account wasn’t one of those frustrating ones which wouldn’t let this process occur, nooooo, of course not!

I have a Hotmail account that I use for all non-work stuff. The company I work for have a very strict policy about non-work related emails, it’s insane. Anyway, because I’ve had this Hotmail account for about eight, nearly nine, years, I don’t much fancy using anything else. Seems fair enough, right? Anyone notice how the free Hotmail accounts stopped giving you the option to ‘block’ some time ago? Well, I get a heck of a lot of spam and phishing scam emails as a result, and I can deal with that, at least they still go to the Junk box.

But this verification email is just gone, lost, never to be seen in my Inbox, and I’m really annoyed. I wanted to join this site, but now the chances of that seem rather diminished. All I can hope is that some nice person will read this, and post me the email address the verification link comes from, so I can add it in Hotmail as a contact, and then I’ll get the email! So that’s still really annoying, but nice to know people are reading my blog!

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ISA savings account, I’m going to get a new one, but now I have to find the best deal I can…

Lately I’ve mentioned that my SO is experiencing back pain, which means that she cannot sleep much longer each night than six or so hours. Sometimes this is more like four, and very rarely it’s been seven. I naturally like to sleep about eight hours a night, but can manage on a lot less. I don’t like sending my SO off to fend for herself with backpain, so each morning I get up with her, and do what I can. This means that for the last three weeks or so I’ve been getting not enough sleep each and every night.

Now, I’ve been unhappy with my cash ISA savings account for a little while now, and I want to get that sorted out ASAP. But it’s difficult to concentrate on banking figures and bonuses and extras when your brain capacity is that of a person who’s mildly intoxicated. Also, please don’t confuse the ISA with an ISA savings fund, the two are wildly different, and it’s just an odd coincidence that the acronyms are the same. An ISA account allows you to take a certain portion of your tax and put it into a savings account. You don’t get the money if you don’t have one of these accounts, that’s the way it is, so if you don’t have a specific ISA account to place to put it, each year you’re just throwing away thousands of pounds. You can also invest your ISA into fixed rates bonds, but I prefer the cash method.

There are services out there to help you find the best ISA, and that can make a huge difference. The internet is really a fantastic resource in banking, because there are so many unaffiliated sites, you get the real deal, so to speak. They aren’t – the honestly unaffiliated ones, anyway – trying to push one particular bank or account on you.

I’ve been thinking about one with Manchester, because at the moment there’s is the highest for interest rates, but still I’m not sure. These things need to be looked through thoroughly, not just a superficial inspection.

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I hate when things change just to have changed. I feel like that’s what’s happened over on Penny Arcade, change for the bad.

If you go right back to the start of Penny Arcade, you can see how far Gabe’s come in his art. The characters look a lot better, smoother, just… more professional. This new art style seems to harken back overly to the original Penny Arcade, and it makes Gabe’s work look less good for it. I don’t know what the heck is going on over there, and I haven’t seen any mention of it on the forums over there, but it just looks a bit cheaper, a bit nasty.

The whole site has a new style, too. The menu buttons have all be squished over to the sides, which means any time you want to use them, you spend the first second searching for them. Bad design, very bad design. Even the fonts are ugly… what are they thinking?

Looking back over comics from earlier this year, I’d have to say the colour pallet is slightly different, the backgrounds are tending to be less detailed, and the characters themselves seem to have thinner outline lines, and I’d say that a major difference is the eyes. They seem to be just slightly different, leading to the characters looking a little… stupid… I don’t want to say that, but that’s the affect.

Of course, these are all very slightly noticeable, two degrees less saturation on colours will be hard to specifically notice, yet has an impact… I’m being picky I suppose because I really like the comic, it’s the only web comic I keep up with. It’s frustrating to see their site and their comic go downhill. I’m hoping that the comics are just the intervening ones whilst they are at PAX, and that they are the reserves that were done some time ago.

On a side note, I’d like to say congratulations to Tycho on his second bundle of very cute joy, Ronia Quinn.

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Laugh if you will, but nearly every gamer will be able to tell you of some pain they’ve had due to their favourite hobby.

I spend a lot of time gaming on the PC and the PS3 Slim, at the moment, and whilst the PS3 is fine for me, the PC does give me some pains. First off, my wrists hurt like heck, after a while. I’ve got wrist guards to help with this – which my SO fondly refers to as ‘Gamer Gauntlets’, she has some too – but you can’t really take all the pain away from RSI injuries, because in most cases you don’t stop doing the behaviour which caused it in the first place.

Then there’s the inevitable back pain from sitting in the same chair, usually your posture isn’t fantastic, and you aren’t getting up often enough to stretch. Anyone who’s experienced prolonged back pain will know that it takes a lot of energy from you, it’s really draining. Having sore wrists and a sore back makes you very uninclined to do a lot of things, too, except maybe to lie down or have a hot bath.

Now, with the PS3, as I said, it doesn’t bother me. However, since we got it, and my SO has been playing it, she has said that her finger tips – especially her thumbs – get sore, along with her wrists and hands. She has to stop and massage them quite regularly, same with me and my wrists whilst I’m playing PC games. I find this amazing, that the PS3 can give me no issue, but she is still caused pain by it. She’s a uni student, so has to spend a lot of time on the computer, and she’s also stated that this leads to the same feelings of sore wrists – she’s essay writing, not gaming, though – along with sore elbows and knees from her chair and a sore back. She’s short, so she often gets extra pains because the world is sized for a slightly taller woman.

But we both wouldn’t give it up, even with all the pains, I don’t know if that makes us more or less geeky, though…

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