Thursday 14 October 2010

Ive not forgotten!

Just a quick note guys to say that ive not forgotten about the short storys project. Ive actully got the first draft of the first chapter sat here on my hard drive. It's just tough a the moment finding the time to finish it.

Ive been getting over an illness this past week and I find myself having to catch up with a few things this week as well as decorating and... you get the picture.

You guy's do deserve to read something at least, and that I understand. So hopefully, if I get time this evening, ill go through the first chapter, make any changes that need to be changed and post it for you guys to review :)

I know this was meant to be a "short story" but I find myself just writing and writing and ending up with a chapter that's 500 odd words. Still relatively short compared to most novels but to someone who doesn't write a lot, it may just as well BE a novel.

But yea.. keep your eyes peeled dudes and dudettes.. it is coming!!!!

Thursday 23 September 2010

Just A Little Something..

I don't know about you but I love hearing about local myths and legends. There's just something about it that captivates my imagination and gives me a deeper sense about the different cultures around the world.

I recently wrote a short article for another blog and I would like to share a short excerpt from it.

This is from the introduction of the article and tells the reader about the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.

The earliest and most famous claimed sighting among believers of the beast, comes from the 7th century and a irish monk named Saint Columbia. The story goes that while staying in the land of the Picts, he came across a group of people who were burying a man next to the river Ness. The group told him that while the man was swimming in the river, he was attacked and eventually dragged under the surface. The group tried to rescue him in a boat but without success, they were only able to retrieve his corpse. When Saint Columbia heard this tale, he was in shock and utter disbelief. He then stunned the group by sending one of his followers to swim across the river and try to lure the beast to the surface. It worked and the monster was quickly in pursuit of the man. Upon seeing this, Saint Columbia made the sign of the cross and commanded: "Go no further. Do not touch this man. Go back at once". The monster stopped dead in its tracks and then fled in terror.

Monday 31 May 2010

Slam Dunk Festival South 2010 Review




On Saturday, I took the journey upto Hatfield to visit the University of Hertfordshire and the Slam Dunk South Festival.

I rolled into Hatfield at about 2pm and then arrived on the site at about 3pm. At this point, there was already a pretty long queue for wristband's and it took me about half hour to get mine. Not a massive wait but it caused me to miss the start of The Skints, already short set (who were awesome by the way).

For the next few bands I stayed at the Vans stage and saw Me vs Hero (they were ok.. but didn't really grab my attention), Random Hand (awesome, the mix of ska and metal really works and ill be keeping my eye on these guys), Sonic Boom Six (Killed it! one of the best bands of the day) and RX Bandits (Amazing, although they came on late and the sound was poor which tainted it a bit).

I then ventured outside for the first time that afternoon and headed for the Atticus stage to see Against Me! Their set was pretty good, they played a few of their hits and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. Again, the sound was a bit on the hollow side for my liking.

We then tried to get back in the Vans stage for Capdown. There was a massive queue though and after an age of waiting, we were told that we should go queue round at the other entrance. So we left the queue, only to be told that it was a fire exit and we needed to go back, WHAT!

So we went back and eventually, we got in and after 3 years, I got to see one of my favourite bands and they didn't disappoint. All in all, it was a pretty decent show. A few of the low points would be the unhelpful security (who man-handled a few people from what I heard), the venue not being able to hold the amount of people who attended and the poor sound quality.

If those three things amongst the other problems which people had get fixed for next year, i'll be back!

Saturday 1 May 2010

Awesome cover

I was sat on my computer last night and in between the videos of cute cats on YouTube. I was checking out various songs from some of my favorite bands. One of these bands were Big D And The Kids Table (one of my favourite 3rd wave ska bands).

The song I listening to was the below..



Pretty catchy eh? I then came across this acoustic cover version of the song by a fan..



Wow..

This cover was even endorsed by Dave from the band who invited the young lady to come join them on their next tour to play it.

What are some of your favorite songs and covers of them? Or what are some of the WORST covers that you've heard?

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Do you prefer short blog posts or long ones?

Just a question to the people reading this.. do you prefer reading something thats short or long?

Only reason I ask is that on my other blog http://techdude.co.uk/, I don;t get to post often, same as on here, so I only write short paragraphs to sum up what I want to say. Do you like this approach or do you think I should try and make them longer?

Friday 12 March 2010

Slam Dunk Festival 2010


Anyone going? I've just bought my ticket and can't wait :D It's going to be my first Slam Dunk ever festival .I have always been tempted to attend but the fact that it was always held up in Leeds, on a Sunday, was a bit of a pain for me because of trains and stuff. But this one also is going to be held at the University of Herefordshire on Saturday the 29th of May.

After seeing the first initial bands announced to play a few weeks backed, I almost got to excited for words. A Capdown reunion show? I'm there! And the RX Bandits as well?.. oh boy oh boy..


Then a few days ago, more bands were announced including the likes of Alkaline Trio and Against Me! We'll that sealed it for me, im so there!

Anyone else reading this going? Or been to the University? Is it easy to get to and more importantly, get back from? Who are you looking forward to seeing?

Thursday 11 March 2010

Excuse me, their appears to be John Cleese in my Fable III




Yay! It has been revealed that John Cleese, famous Monty Python member and comedy genius, wll be appearing in the new Fable game which comes out later this year.

He will be playing a butler to your character which takes over from the menu system of the last game. Sounds pretty cool to me. I'm not a great fan of having to stop a game just to change something in the menu's, it takes away from the immersion for me.

This is not the first time a famous actor has appeared in the Fable franchise. Steven Fry voiced a character in the last game and Johnathan Ross was rumored to be doing voice work for this game as well.

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Something New!



Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, my fellows geeks and nerds.

The time has come to unveil what I have been working these past few days. It is not complete yet (design wise) but I hope by giving you a sneak peak you can give me some tips and advice on how to make it better.

http://techdude.co.uk/

It is primarily a technology based blog but it also contains news on video games, movies and anything else that takes my fancy. I also post articles on how to do things with you computer that after a bit of research, the older generation know nothing about.

http://techdude.co.uk/

So feel free to have a look, tell me what you think (I know, the top banner is ugly.. but ill sort it.. eventually) and if you wish to help out then give me a shout!

Saturday 6 March 2010

New things coming..



I've not forgotten about this Blog.

As I set out in my very first post, I have a passion for writing and see myself doing it for the foreseeable future that's for sure. I have been working on something else and all will revealed in the coming days and weeks.. trust me ;)

In other news.. Portal 2 has been confirmed as in development and it has coop! Woohoo!

Monday 1 March 2010

Blink 182, Arcade Fire and.. My Chemical Romance for Reading/Leeds festival?

Fresh off the rumour mill, word has reached efestivals (which has been very reliable in the past) that the set of head liners for the main stage at this years Reading and Leeds festivals are, Blink 182, Arcade Fire and My Chemical Romance (but their not certain on this last one).

Personally, I think Blink 283 should be a fun band to see, not fussed about Arcade Fire and defiantly not a fan of MCR. Rumours the third slot are still rife though with Sound Garden being tipped to play amongst others.

If you have never been to Reading/Leeds festivals then I strongly urge you to go one year. If these 3 headliners don't tickle your fancy then don't worry, there's a host of bands across 6 stages for you to see. Here's hoping for Rancid to play the Lockup this year..

Saturday 27 February 2010

Nexus One to launch in the UK "in April"


Google's own branded "jesus phone" wont be hitting this side of the pond untill April according to a report in th Telegraph.

The phone which can be ordered from the states right now is Google's first branded smart phone and is the first device to run Android 2.1.

This sucks for any UK fans who can't be bothered to import as no doubt by the time this is out the Nexus 2 will be announced or even Apples new iPhone.

In the mean time we can "lol" at this typo in the article which seems to suggest a new marketing strategy involving moths..


Friday 26 February 2010

I don't care if this is old.. its fricken awesome!


I want one.

Next iPhone to have a front facing camera? Probably not..




Some smart boffins did some snoooping around in the latest version of the iPad SDK and discovered that Apple has the API's in place for a front facing camera, video conferencing, camera zoom and camera flash support. Unfortunatly we already know how this story ends and the iPad is missing these features :(

But as the software running the iPad is a modified version of the iPhone SDK. Could these features make it into the next iPhone? In a short answer.. no.

Along with the above discoveries they also found this image:


Simply going by the size of these buttons, they were probably intended for the iPad but the function got left out for some unknown reason. But at least Apple have some to add to the second generation of the device.

A front facing camera for the iPhone has been a long requested feature and maybe Apple have listened to our crys and impliment it in the next version which is due out this summer.. who knows?

Thursday 25 February 2010

This will be in your head.. forever

Wednesday 24 February 2010

The head is a lie

And I thought he broke the blocks with his head. The past 20 years of my life seem like a lie :(

How about a real heads up display?


Imagine how much easier your day would be if a heads-up display gave you directions to your dry cleaner, displayed today’s weather forecast, or let you check your email without the need for a computer or hand-held gadget. Sounds like the future, right? It’s closer than you might think.

hmm, im not sure how I feel about this. In theory it'll be cool to be able to see things in a way similar to Terminator 2. However, what would the long term implications of this be? My vision is already screwed up and I have to wear glasses so it'll be interesting to see how this pans out. It'll be cool as hell though.

Monday 22 February 2010

Post your Buzz's Directly To Twitter



If you want to condense to tweets and buzz's into one easy stream then you could always link your tweets to post automaticly on Google Buzz. But heres how to post your Buzz's automaticly to twitter.

Q: How do I automatically publish my Buzz to Twitter?

A: There are several approaches to this, but one way that seems particularly effective is to use Feedburner to post a short summary of your Buzz updates to Twitter.

Getting started takes a couple of steps, but it is actually pretty easy.

1) Visit http://profiles.google.com/me, which will redirect to your profile
2) Copy ⌘C your profile URL (e.g. "http://www.google.com/profiles/xxxxxx")
3) Visit http://feedburner.google.com/ and sign in with your Gmail account
4) Paste ⌘P your profile URL under Burn a feed right this instant
5) Click next and then click Skip directly to feed management
6) Click the Publicize tab on the top
7) Click the Socialize tab on the left
8) Click Add a Twitter Account
9) Sign in to Twitter and click Allow to allow Feedburner to post
10) Change Post Content to "Body Only" (important!)
11) Click Activate

Now, when you post your next Buzz it will appear automatically in your Twitter stream.



Thursday 18 February 2010

Epic Beard Man



You just cant make this stuff up!

Here's the basic story: The white guy asks the black guy for a spit shine of his shoes after thinking he heard him offer to. The black guy took this as a kind of racist remark, took offence and became hostile towards the white guy. The white guy assured him that he wasn't racist and then moved to another part of the bus. The two still exchanged insults afterwards until the black guy confronted the white guy and then got the beating of his life!

And the whole thing was caught on video for our viewing pleasure.

Check out this link to read more.

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Google Buzz - Something Old Or Something New?


Incase you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks. Announced last week, Google introduced their competitor to Facebook and Twitter in the form of Google Buzz.

The tool which is built into Gmail, allows you to post updates (Buzzes?) to other users that are following you. These posts can contain content from YouTube, Blogs, Picasa and other online services. So its kinda like a blogging service like Twitter but without the "micro" aspect.

The question I have to ask is do we need this service? It's nothing really new and just seems to be filling a hole that isn't there. There's also the fact that its built right into Gmail, so atleast you can be "buzzing" while actually looking like you doing work..

Add me to Buzz by clicking here and find out what i'm thinking right now!

Got My Free Rage Against The Machine Ticket!


As promised by the band when they made history when their single "Killing In The Name" reached christmas #1. The band will be playing a free gig in Finsbury park this summer to celebrate this once in a life time achievement.

And after an hour of trying to get through, multiple tabs and differant browsers, seeing the "Service Busy" error a million times. I FINALLY got through and ordered my free ticket.. woop!

I'm so happy right now, RATM are one of the bands that got my into Metal/Rock music many years ago and although I saw them two years back at Reading. I cant wait to see them perform "Killing In The Name" again!

Did you manage to get a ticket? If not keep trying is all I can say. Hit F5 till your fingers bleed, you WILL get through!

Tuesday 16 February 2010

"Get Off The Plane Sir" "Why?" "You Asked For Water" - WTF?!



Corporate stupidity never ceases to amaze me..

Yesterday, American film director Kevin Smith got kicked off a Southwest flight for being "too fat". If that wasn't stupid enough then after he was ejected from the flight, they simply put him on another Southwest flight going to the exact same place.

Now another story has emerged that a husband, his pregnant wife and his family have been kicked off a Sprint Airlines flight for simply asking for water.

I'm not a human rights activist or anything but isn't denying someone water against their human rights? Ok, their might be corporate policy and other things to take into account here but she was pregnant for gods sake!

Shame on you Sprint Airlines.. shame on you..

Monday 15 February 2010

Windows Mobile 7 Finally Revealed



At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, Microsoft unveild their latest mobile phone operating system. Windows Mobile 7.

Set to launch "Fall 2010" the O/S is said to be built for the ground up with entertainment in mind. The UI is very similar to that which is already on the company's Zune device and has multi-touch as well as multi-tasking support.

So Microsoft are finally playing catchup with the iPhone's O/S and the Android platform. Will it be enough? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Check out a hand's on impression as well as video here.

99 Songs Of The Revolution Release Date



Streetlight Manifesto (who are one of my favorite ska bands of the modern day) have announced that their 4th album 99 Songs Of Revolution: Volume I has finally got a release date of March 16th 2010.

"The news comes direct from the bands official website:
"2.15.2010 | March 16th, 2010
That's the release date for Volume I of 99 Songs of Revolution. Finally! What does the artwork look like? Funny you should ask, because it's right here! For track listing and to preorder either the vinyl or the CD version, head on over to The RISC Store. It's been a long weekend. Hell it's been a long year. That's it for today, but we have tons more news regarding upcoming tours, more song samples, etc etc. Be back in a day or two. Seriously. No really this time."

The band let us know last year! that the CD was complete and was just "sitting around" so its good to see that it's finally going to see the light of day.

Track Listing:
1. Birds Flying Away - Mason Jennings
2. Hell - Squirrel Nut Zippers
3. Just - Radiohead
4. Skyscraper - Bad Religion
5. Punk Rock Girl - The Dead Milkmen
6. Linoleum - NOFX
7. Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard - Paul Simon
8. They Provide The Paint - B.O.T.A.R.
9. Red Rubber Ball - The Cyrkle
10. The Troubador - Louis Jordan
11. Such Great Heights - The Postal Service

I'm not dead!

Sorry that its been a while since I last updated this site but ive been busy in my personal life and had very little time to document my doings on this blog for your reading pleasure..

The major reason that ive been absent these past months is that im now unemployed bum of 5 months+ and as you may of guessed, searching for a job at the moment isn't the easiest thing to do. Hell, trying to find a job round here even when were not in a recession isn't easy. So writing to employers (and not getting any response! grr) and doing research on company's is taking up alot of my time at the moment. I personally despise being unemployed, its so boring day to day when the highlight is going to bed at the end of it. I feel like my brain is turning to mush with the lack of challenges that it's facing.

Saying that though, being unemployed isn't without its perks I guess, you can play Call Of Duty in your underwear all day for example and who doesn't want to do that?

But anyway, im sure you didn't come here to read about my misery's so ill stop now.

My plans for the future are to go back to a more regular style of posting on this Blog and possibly open up a dedicated site to make myself more personal to the internet community, but we shall see. So if you have any experience in setting up internet blogs on Wordpress or any other blogging packages please get in touch.

Im going to leave it for that at the moment. I may do another update later as that is when I get some free time but im gonna go off and make myself a sandwich.. Feel free to follow me on Twitter or add me on Facebook.