For Pete’s Sake

Well, anyone who is actually still reading this or has it bookmarked may be, especially when the last post was back in August. Anyway, I’m still at my current job, despite the odd misgiving here and there. At times it’s not that bad, others.. well let’s just say I have bad thoughts. Either way it’s employment and I should be grateful for that. So that’s work summed up, short and sweet really.

Life in general is going pretty well despite the odd worry but then they’re nothing more that what everyone else probably worries about. It gets me down and recently it’s got me down more than it usually does. The other thing that keeps bugging me lately is I have this feeling that things are just passing me by. I don’t know if they are or why I have this feeling but even as I sit here now I just thinking I could or should be doing something more. Fact is I probably could, I even started writing my part of a story I’m doing with Legionary, hopefully I’ll write more soon. Cat is doing well in her job though right now she’s worrying and stressing about her dancing exam which is approaching far too quickly! Our holiday to Iceland is booked for next year, just a case now of saving the money and damn it’s expensive but there you go, what in this life isn’t?! Still it’ll be worth it and I really can’t wait to go. On another life note, my birthday is approaching again, I tell you it must be improving its ninja skills as it really did sneak up on me this year.

One cool thing though that happened recently was my attendance, along with my good friend Carl, to the NHL ice hockey game in London. The atmosphere and venue (The O2) were superb and the game wasn’t half-bad either. It’s certainly got me buzzing and really excited now about attending the NFL London game for which the tickets turned up the other week. I also managed to get my hands on the Halo 3 Legendary Edition. It’s a seriously cool special edition and, in my opinion, worth it.

Sports wise it’s an up and down start for my teams. The Steelers are doing well in the NFL with their defence really looking the business this season. United have only just started to get in to gear and as far as the Penguins go; such a stark contrast to last season. I won’t mention anything about the Pirates’ baseball season as, apart from the odd surprise win there’s nothing to talk about.

So there you go, 3 months zipped up.

Well, with my birthday gone it was time to do a little (well that’s really an understatement) birthday spending. First off I bought myself a couple DVDs with some Amazon gift vouchers I received so I picked up Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Harry Potter & The GoF and Jarhead. All of which I have seen but those who know me know that I can really get an unlimited replay value from DVDs. I’ve also still to watch the Stargate SG-1 box set I got, can’t wait to dig into that. I’m a sucker for sci-fi. My Amazon wish list is full of SG-1, Enterprise, DS9 & Voyager box sets to buy. Costly, but one day I may own them all.

I also received a large amount of money for my birthday which has allowed me to do two things I’ve contemplated for a long while. Firstly, to replace my ipod as I’ve been dying to get my hands on one of the current gen ipods; and secondly to buy an iMac. I will still be keeping my main PC as it has the most storage (around 500GB) and has a lot of stuff on there that I couldn’t put elsewhere but since I bought my iBook last year I miss a lot of the functions that MacOS offers. Quite often I’ll be hitting F9 or alt+w whilst at a Windows machine and well, I do like Macs. So yeah, I’m really looking forward to that, should arrive by tomorrow if the despatch information is correct. I haven’t used the new ipod as I’m going to connect it solely to the iMac so I’ve had to be a good boy and not connect to my iBook or PC.

On other, rather sad news, a family friend of ours who Catrin knows more than I do is very, very ill and, according to all news, may not last much longer. It’s been a big drain on Cat and with her visiting her mother tonight no doubt it’ll be the topic of the conversation on the trip from the Convent to Seend. It’s been a big test for the both of us as something this big so early in our marriage has been a bit testing. The problem being is I’m sort of detached in a way from the situation. Although I know the person and have met them a few times I don’t have the connection that Catrin, Mair and her mother have. It has caused a couple mini-disagreements between us and while it’s nothing major I’m just slightly annoyed with myself. It’s always major to lose someone you know even more so when you’re heavily involved in the situation as Cat is. I know that she knows I’m here for her and everything it’s just every now and then I wish I know what I should be saying.

Switching topic as that is way too sombre a way to finish a blog post I’ve been most chuffed with United’s last two performances. We beat Liverpool and then, yesterday, we demolished Bolton in a very clinical way. Shame the Steelers can’t match them as last week we lost again. The match was a gripping one and I really thought we’d done enough to win. However it went into overtime and we lost as they scored on the first drive with a field goal. Oh well, I guess that’s sport for you I just hope we can turn it around soon ya know?! Long ways to go in the season in both respects but I feel United could be a real challenge for Chelsea this season. Finally though on a side note, Morton (where a lot of my relatives live), lost they’re unbeaten record this week losing 3-2 yesterday. Shame really but we’re still top and that’s key and with any luck we could be going up to the Scottish First Division, time will tell no doubt.

So I was doing my regular rounds around the sites I most visit and whilst visiting The Register I notice its report that Microsoft had released Beta 2 of the new version of Internet Explorer, best yet, it was public. So I headed on over, downloaded, and installed this new beta version and, if I’m being honest, was pleasently suprised by IE7.

Ok, first off, yes it does have ideas and features that have been used in Firefox and Opera for donkeys years and yes you could argue to the cows come home which browser nicked which idea from which browser and who thought of it first. Please if anyone does comment on this post don’t just say “OMFG M$ have sooo stolen that idea from Firefox” or whatever. In this world it happens, Opera has tabbed browsing, did FF steal that from them? To be honest, who cares?! The main key for me is, does it work and if it does how well and more importently is it secure? I don’t care whether they’ve stolen ideas from somewhere as that will always happen and it’s not just Microsoft that do it so deal with it.

As I said though I was pleasently suprised as it had the features I liked in Firefox (tabbed browsing and an integrated search bar) but it also added a couple things of its own. The main on for me is known as “mini tabs.” As you can see in the screen shot below

which is from the IE Blog what you get is little screen shots of the page you were visiting which makes finding the page you were just looking at a helluva lot easier. The other feature I like is its “favourites center” which is also where you can view your RSS feeds .

This is a nice feature as it kind of floats there (you can also fix it there) and is just a little nicer than a drop down menu. What has also been added to IE7 is a “phishing” which tries to let you know if the site you are looking at is, in fact, the real deal. This I think is a great addition and the fact that is built in just shows, I think, how much MS are taking security now. Yes I know IE is known to be a risk security wise but then again it is the most used and security by obscurity is no security at all. IE7 also has the pop-up blocker which first appeared in IE6 and it has also gone a little re-design too. Tool bars are different graphics changed which is really the norm on new software.

I really do think Microsoft are making a big effort to make IE7 secure and give its customers confidence in the browser. Wether you use IE or not for the average home user its the only browser they know and in places of work IE is the defacto browser used. The fact that MS have woken up to the criticsms of its current browser and are now trying to change them in IE7 can only be a good thing.

I’m in no doubt however that it may still suffer security problems and the anti-MS people of this world will continue to bash it. What I say is give it a whirl (though if you don’t like trying beta stuff try it when its on full release) and see how you go. Don’t be obtuse and make up your mind from your own experiences. I mean I only switched to FF because I like customising things and you can’t do much of that in IE.

So if you’d like to, read more on the IE Blog (got the screenshots from there too) and if you’re feeling dangerous, download IE7 Beta 2!

Well after the disappointment of yesterday comes the joy of today. The house that we missed out on yesterday is now ours! The person who claimed it had a house sale which unfortunately fell through and so was unable to take up the let. Therefore we were next in line and the landlord agreed to let it to us. With the agents fee (£200) now paid all we have to do is sign the receipt (doing that tomorrow), get the forms filled in and then afaik move in :) Happy days! It’s a good feeling that we’ve now got most things sorted and all that remains to do now is set a move-in date, hire a van and move the stuff over. I may also have a buyer for my television though I’m not overly hopeful but we’ll see.

As for Uni things aren’t looking so rosey I just can’t get myself into the groove for doing the work. Hopefully I’ll snap out of it at some point tomorrow and with any luck I’ll have it done for Sunday. This, however, doesn’t leave much time for revision but I’d rather resit an exam than re-do a coursework, sounds strange but that’s me for ya!

On the upside again though I bought NBA Live 2006 for my XBox and its proving quite difficult to get used to. I am trying to avoid my usual “take it back” syndrome when things don’t go right so I’ll keep plugging away and hopefully I’ll get the hang of it. It will at least give me something to do till I have enough money for an XBox 360. I also got my hands on Kingdom of Heaven on DVD; probably one of my favourite movies from last year. That said I had quite a few favourites but this is one of the few I’ve purchased on DVD. You see I have quite a sizeable DVD collection (around 130-140) and I decided that this year I really should only get the top notch ones if I wanted to get a new DVD. The up shot of this is my purchasing of DVDs has gone down which is good and for now, long may it continue.

So for now all is well.. ask me again on Monday night ;)

So, for the past week or so, local Game stores along with other stockists have had the XBox 360 demo units in. Now despite the wonderful reports of crashing these units seem fine and so I’m guessing those unfortunate users in the US are the minority but then, that’s no the point of this post. The point of this post is to tell anyone and everyone who happens on this blog that, if you’re going to get an 360 (lucky people you), get Project Gotham Racing 3!!!

I had a few goes on it at my local Game store and my gawd is it jaw droppingly brilliant! It looks amazing, the gameplay (from the limited time I had on the console) was as good if not better than any other racer I’ve played and well everything else is amazing as well. The first thing that hit me was the interior camera view, doesn’t it look stunning! Not only that but I found courses easier to drive around and I honestly think that when I do get a 360 (which wont’ be till next year) this will be the view I’ll use. Secondly the actual overall look cars and surroundings which you can look at in this picture. The shot doesn’t do it justice and imho neither does this shot but then that doesn’t suprise me as I always think you have to see something to appreciate it.

I really want to get an 360 now but I will have to wait to doubt about it but at least now I know the game I really want is going to be worth that wait and the money that I’ll spend on it.