Renovations - midway (7-/-0/2008)
We're now half-way through the third week of renovations, and things are starting to come together. The appropriate walls have been knocked down and the old kitchen, bathroom and floorings are gone. We've got a new boiler, new electrical mains. The new bathroom is half-installed, and should be done by the end of the week, with the walls all finished by the middle of next week, and carpets installed by the end of next weekend. At that point, the flat will be done, apart from the kitchen which isn't due to be installed until the end of August. Because Ikea are dumb. They can afford to be dumb, however, because they are also cheap.
The renovation process has been a really interesting one. We've been lucky to have found a really good, helpful builder (we met quite a few who are not good, and not honest). We've also been lucky in that the place we bought has been, for the most part, flexible enough to meet our needs. At this point, the only things I'd do differently is spend more time working out what decisions we'd need to be making up front (it's about 80% of all the renovation decisions), so that we could plan them a little better. It hasn't turned out badly, actually, considering we had to decide on a lot of things on the fly. The bathroom fittings, for example, were chosen at 6:30am as I was rushing around getting ready for work.
It really helps to have had a strong idea of how we wanted the new place to be, and we've pretty much stuck to our original vision. It has also been important to keep in mind that while we want the place to work for us, we're probably not going to live in it for too long - maybe only a couple of years - and as such it needs to be generic enough to allow us to market it to others. I'll take some pics (and upload the ones already on the camera) this weekend.
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Update your penis (6-/-0/2008)
While most people automatically delete their spam, every now and again one gets through, often with bad or 1337 spelling (V.A-1GR.A). But once in a while, a real doozy comes through. I really like "update your penis" as a subject line. I'm not sure what it actually means, though. Is there a new penis firmware available? Or is it just some penis-related penis-news that's been passed down the penis-grapevine that my penis needs to know about? I'll never know - I deleted it once my chuckles had died down.
Also: penis.
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Look out, Lockhart! (6-/-0/2008)
Having two of Texas' top 50 barbecue joints means one thing to me: road trip! Having spent the weekend in Sarasota, and a few nights here in Houston, we're heading off to San Antonio for a night, stopping at Lockhart both ways to enjoy some top-notch food.
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The most fantastic thing (6-/-0/2008)
I overheard a colleague proclaiming this phrase (though I'm not sure what it was in relation to), and my first thought was Superman dressed as father christmas riding in a flying saucer pulled by unicorns.
.
On a much-related note, I'm on day four of my no-sweets-or-sodas-or-cheese diet. And it may be affecting my brain.
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More video games (5-/-0/2008)
Now that I'm taking the train into work (hooray for 1.5-hour commutes!), I've got a chance to get back to playing on my PSP. Having finished Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, I'm now working my way through Vice City Stories. I have a routine with these games that tends to serve me quite well: I start off by completing side missions; ambulance for infinite sprint, fire truck for fire-proofiness, and vigilante for better armour. While this takes some time at the start of the game (especially the vigilante missions), it makes for easier gameplay as the game goes on. I also spend a little while driving around trying to find as many hidden packages (in this case, balloons), so that I build up a nice armoury before getting into the harder missions.
I'm hankering for some PS3 action, though. Especially Rock Band and GTA4. I saw an article on The Gadget Show last night where they were playing Rock Band (on easy - losers), and I really wanted to join in (and beat them, naturally).
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No way back again (5-/-0/2008)
Now that the council tenant is about to be evicted (it only took 9 months!), the moving process has now begun. Packing up an entire flat's worth of stuff (and, because it's me, there's a lot of stuff), labelling the boxes, packing the van, and then unloading it again at t'other end.
This will be the 17th time that I've moved houses over the course of my life, and I know that there's plenty more moves ahead of me. Hopefully, one day I'll just be able to co-ordinate it, and not have to do anything myself.
I'll miss living in Central London. It's really convenient for getting around (I can get out of bed at 8, be at my desk by 8:45), and it allows me the freedom to do what I want outside of work hours (no last train home!). On the down side, living too centrally is really expensive and, at all hours of the day and night, loud. I'm looking forward to deeper sleep (on a bigger bed) and less noise. But I'll really miss being so close to everything.
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Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (5-/-0/2008)
I'm about half-way into my rewrite of the site code, and have plenty of gnarly little optimisations to try. I want to add a layer of caching (my webhost provides memcached, so that'll be my choice made for me), and then I want to try and get to an A rating in ySlow. I'm not far off it at the moment, and I'm not sure if I can be bothered moving the static files (sprites, css and js files) to a CDN. I'm interested in the Amazon S3 service, or something free like the Coral Distribution Network.
I'm about 25% of the way through the redesign (actually, re-hashing an old redesign that never saw the light of day), and will trawl the web, and design books, for inspiration over the rest of the week.
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Liberty City Stories (5-/-0/2008)
So I've spent a few hours playing GTAIV now - running around Liberty City, stealing cars, going on dates and getting cursed at by tai-chi practitioners (no, really).
It's a lot of fun, and I can't wait to try the online game, once Rockstar get around to fixing the showstopper bug that prevents the game from loading if I'm connected to the internets.
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Mobile phone review (5-/-0/2008)
Towards the end of last year, I upgraded my cellphone from a Sony Ericsson K800i to the Sony Ericsson K850i. I use "upgrade" in the loosest sense, as there is very little about this phone that is superior to the previous model. In fact, there are a lot of things about it that are worse.
I'll start with the positive - the screen is a little bigger, and the camera has been upgraded to 5 Megapixels. The phone also loses the lens-cover "hump" of the K800i, so it's a little more aesthetically pleasing. In terms of plusses, that's pretty much it.
The phone has a bunch of other new features that are poorly imagined, or implemented. For example, there is no joystick for navigation. Rather, there is a square, four-sided directional pad around the 2 and 5 buttons. While it is fine to use for menu navigation, it makes playing any of the games extremely difficult. Also, there are three "touch-screen" buttons which are also used for menu navigation. Except, they're not partcularly sensitive, so occasionally, I'll be unable to unlock my phone, or answer a phone call. A lot of the software available for the phone (including the excellent Opera Mini web browser) haven't adapted the new three-button navigation system, so often there won't be a icon to denote the use of the middle touch-button. While on a phone call, the touch buttons become overly sensitive, and I often finish a call only to find that I have composed a text message, and chosen a recipient. All with my face.
The games bundle included with my phone (I'm on an o2 contract, your mileage may vary) is restricted to Tennis, Marble Madness, and an assortment of demos. The tennis game is identical to the version on the previous model phone, so the only new full game is Marble Madness, which uses the phone's built-in accelerometer to control gameplay. It's an OK game, with terrible graphics and slow frame-rate, but the innovative controls make up for some of its flaws. The accelerometer is the last significant new feature, and its use is limited to the aforementioned game, and in the media viewer application, which lets you watch the movies and pictures on your phone. The K850i stuggles to support the feature, with the rotation slow to respond, and jerky in doing so.
It's fair to say I don't really like this phone, and had I not lost my old one, I'd probably use my K800i over the K850i.
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Video game madness (4-/-0/2008)
Having succumbed and finally bought a Wii, I find myself with a rather fantastic dilemma as to what to do with my long weekend. Do I play Wii, do I play Rock Band, do I finish Burnout: Paradise, or do I play GTAIV? It's a win-win-win-win situation, one that I'm very fond of. The only thing I know for sure: I will spend most of those three days on the couch.
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Rocking out, but not really (4-/-0/2008)
I buckled under peer pressure in December, and bought a PS3, to compliment the new television. After all, what's the point of a hi-def TV without hi-def movies, right? Having played Guitar Hero II at HMV (and Best Buy, and Virgin Megastore, etc, etc), I figured that Guitar Hero III would be a good first game purchase. And at the time, it was. Playing through on easy, and then again on medium, the game is extremely fun, and the availability of additional songs (for a price) gives it more longevity. I don't think many people will have purchased GH3 and been disappointed. Unless, that is, they have played Rock Band.
Rock Band follows the same game dynamic (play notes in time with music), but has evolved and progressed beyond just a guitar to include drums and a microphone. So alongside playing guitar you team up with friends to form a complete virtual band, with a singer, drummer, bassist and lead guitarist. I haven't yet tried vocals and lead guitar together, but I have a feeling it's pretty messy.
Rock Band beats out GH3 in quite a few areas: character customisation, to help put you "in the game", better progressive difficulty (medium on both games is similar, but hard and expert on GH3 are much more difficult than their RB equivalents), and generally more fun - there are fewer people watching, and more participating.
Apart from the RSI from the guitar and laryngitis from singing (one has to know when to stop), Rock Band has it's downsides, too. Firstly, the quality of the peripherals isn't fantastic. Our drum set was faulty on arrival, and a poll on the Rock Band website shows that 70% of respondents had received a faulty instrument. Secondly, we have to purchase a another guitar, because the PS3 version doesn't support the GH3 guitar (responsibility for this isn't being accepted by anyone) and vice versa. I'll probably just end up buying a 3rd-party guitar, which works with both games (but doesn't look as good). Lastly, it isn't available outside of North America yet, which makes finding bandmates difficult.
Apart from that, I'm loving the game. Having always wanted to try playing the drums, and never had an opportunity, it's so much fun to be able to do it in a pseudo band environment.
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My poor mum (4-/-0/2008)
- Mum:
hi ben
- Ben:
hey
- Mum:
seems that i may have to have surgery for my ankle
- Ben:
oh no!
- Ben:
what are they going to do? amputate?
- Mum:
have to go for my mri scan next week
- Mum:
yes and put on jimmy choos shoe on one foot
- Ben:
if they amputate, store it in a jar of formaldehyde, because one day they'll have the medical technology to re-attach it
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Ain't just me (7-/-0/2007)
Apparently, people more qualified (or, at least, possibly more artistic than me) have a message for Subway, too.
I'm slowly recovering my life back from Facebook. all it took was three weeks.
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My threadless t-shirt entry (7-/-0/2007)
Dear Subway employee:
- No, I don't want to upsize to a foot-long
- No, I don't want to order extra meat
- No, I don't want to order extra cheese
- No, I don't want to order a value meal
Translated: No, I don't want to give you any more than the £2 that you've advertised your sandwich for.
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Somewhere, Naomi Klein is weeping into her latte (5-/-0/2007)
London is not a hospitable city for coffee lovers. There is an abundance of chain coffee shops (Pret, Nero, Costa, and, of course, Starbucks), including one in the building I work in, but more than the pseudo-comfortable sofas or faux-wood-panelled decor, their main denominating feature is their sale of distinctly terrible coffee. So as part of my adapting to working in Soho, I'm trying to find places that break this mold. I had huge success very quickly - I found a cafe called Suburb that
- Ground the fair-trade, arabica beans in front of you (including adjusting the grind)
- Filled the group manually, after brush-cleaning it
- Hand-tamped the group
- Manually frothed the milk
- Left a nice design on top (cue
You're drinking. An adertisement. Loser
) - Made a great-tasting coffee (resultant of the above)
Of course, the fates were mocking me, and Suburb is no longer. I've discovered two other options: The Flat White, which is too far out of my way (and too expensive) and Progresso, which isn't open until after 10am. Any suggestions as to where I can try next?
