Archive for 2006
April 10th, 2006
One of the last things we did in our first year at University was to create some “kick ass” flash games. I’d almost forgotten the genius that was Ross’ “Corona Fighting” until he e-mailed it to me the other day…
Everything about this game out classed the rest of our efforts (except maybe Huggies Coconut Stall - that thing was class). The sights, the sounds! The thrills, the spills! This is the ultimate panda fighting game, forget your Street Fighters, the future is here.
You can play the game (you may have to click on the actual game window before you fight) or watch the introduction.
The keys you say? Well, simply use the arrow keys to move left and right and jump, and to kick some ass use Q and A. Old skool.
I’m expecting to be inundated with comments with this one. It’s amazing!
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April 5th, 2006
We watched the Constant Gardener last Tuesday night, which Paul told me was called the Uphill Gardener so really didn’t want to watch it. For those who haven’t seen it, I really would recommend giving it a go, I’m not going to bother explaining the plot (you can read about it on imdb if you’re really that interested) but suffice to say it’s set in Africa, and shows in no uncertain terms the sometimes brutal existence that people live.
The film catalyzed me into writing about something I’ve been thinking about for the last few weeks: How privileged I am.
When McClegg got back from India, he had lots of stories about the absolute poverty that people find themselves in. I can’t even begin to imagine living that life, the gulf between my luxury existence and the hand-to-mouth living that many of this world’s inhabitants endure is almost insurmountable.
As the old saying goes…
It could be worse
…and yes indeed it could be a lot worse. So this got me thinking about “accident” of birth. Is it pure chance that you are born into the family and circumstances you have? Does God control it? If so, it may seem a little unfair that I’m enjoying my decadent life while there are people suffering all over the world from a variety of different evils. I guess we could look at the “big” picture and say that everyone is dying, and the only purpose of this life is to drive us closer to our maker / the answers / any other generic thing that we as a species seek on a day-to-day basis.
I’ll admit, I don’t have the first idea. So over to you guys, no pressure, but I’m relying on you to give me a definitive answer to this…
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March 28th, 2006
I used to do a bit of pixel art, you know, using one pixel at a time to build up amazingly complex city-scapes. As you can imagine, my designs prowess didn’t quite stretch to these dizzying heights, so I’m always impressed when you see someone with real talent for the medium.
One such talent is Mark James of FamFamFam who created the wonderful Silk icon set that is currently making an appearance on this very website. Such talent, and such a lot of icons (1000) all for free! So get yourselves over there now and feed on the rich pickings on offer.
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March 23rd, 2006
How cool am I? (By the way, this is a rhetorical question, I don’t expect an answer cos I already know). Last night I bravely dived all the way down the stairs. With no thought of my own safety, I heroically lunged down what must have been about 100 steps.
Ok, back to reality. Last night I fell down the stairs. But as Matt pointed out I did the classic ’slide’ manoeuvre instead of the more deadly ‘tumble’. Yeah, so, I’m a bit banged up but nothing I can’t handle (at this point I want ladies to my left for sympathy and dudes to my right for high-fives).
Are there more ways of falling down stairs? In fact it doesn’t have to be stairs, it could be any household obstacle. Have I accidentally invented the coolest new sport since extreme championship dominoes? I mean I’m not recommending you try this one at home kids, unless like me you have Elly to catch you. But I think there may be potential for this sport at the Olympics. Keep an eye out for it.
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March 22nd, 2006
I had such an awesome day yesterday as Josie very kindly let me shadow her teach. Yeah, I was a bit nervous but also dead excited to be out of the office and having fun with a bunch of kids all day. Some of you will know that it’s crossed my mind to go do teacher training in September, so wanted to see what it was all about before I signed up to anything.
It’s weird seeing one of your friends tech a bunch of 8 and 9 year old, to me it doesn’t seem all that long ago that I was their age. I was really impressed with the way she controlled the class, and the obvious affection the kids had for her.
I’ve got to say, teachers work damn hard. They work their collective asses off. Which is a big sticking point for me. It’s not that I’m adverse to a bit of hard work (ahem) but quite a lot of the paperwork seems so unneseccary. I can’t imagine anyone becoming a teacher unless they had a passion for working with kids, and the government seems to be squashing this by putting undue pressure on hard working school staff.
I’m not really ruling out teaching as a possibility, but I’ve spoken to entirely too many people in the profession that are bitter about the workload. I dunno, we’ll see. It’d be good to check out a few more schools (and years) first I think.
The best bit of the day for me was thirty-five manic kids singing me the bumble-bee song. Awesome!
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March 13th, 2006
I went and did it, huh, I think I did it. Yes, this weekend saw the biggest move away from Brownhills since University. I am now an official WS1 resident, slap bang in the middle of picturesque Walsall.
I guess this has been coming ever since I realised that Walsall (at least for the moment) is where I need to be. The Kidz Klub thing continues in Coalpool and I can see scope for getting a lot more involved there.
13 Comments »
March 10th, 2006
The Mighty Boosh? Wolverhampton Civic Hall? 9th March 2006? 7 O’clock? Yes, we’ll have a bit of that.
Although I’ve only even seen one episode of the tv series I had already realised the genius of the Boosh. One time is enough you see, one time only to drink in the sweet sweet nipple-nectar from the Boosh’s comedy teat.
In review I can only say brilliant brilliant brilliant! It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me spit my beer over the guy infront. (Sorry if you’re reading this). I’d recommend that you all go, but I’m pretty sure it’s all sold out. (I guess some simple checking would have confirmed this, but I really can’t be bothered).
Anyway, you can always look at some fine photos of the event.
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March 9th, 2006
Today I are been mostly suffering with Man Flu. Yes, that most common of conditions where the merest sniffle leads us men folk to declare that we “feel like death”.
So as I sat at work, not really suffering whatsoever, I got to thinking about the common man cold (or to give it it’s full name “Homosniffus-Sciveaday“) and it’s place in the history of this great nation.
At first I drew a blank, it appeared that all mention of this disease had been wiped from the history books, erased by those ashamed to even speak it’s name. But a renewed determination yielded some surprising facts.
For instance, did you know that the first cases of plague in London were thought to be nothing more than a new strain of Man Flu? Of course they quickly realized that this wasn’t the case when people started exhibiting real symptoms rather than just complaining a lot because they had “a bit of a sniffle”.
The next recorded case of the dreaded affliction was in 1750, when on March 2nd there was a small earth quake in London. What most of these so called ‘History‘ sites wont tell you is that it was actually a young baker Frank Littlebottom sneezing to emphasize his flued-up-ness and making entirely too much of it.
So it would appear that Man Flu is nothing new, for hundreds of years men have been complaining about a case of the sniffles, I’m just proud to be able to keep up this fine tradition. *sniff*
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March 6th, 2006
Like a little kid I was, queuing for Madame Tussuad’s this Saturday morning. I was almost wetting myself with excitement we approached the “Queuing time approximately 30 minutes” sign. Being a bit of a London virgin, I’d never been to Madame T’s and was needless to say quite looking forward to it.
Walking round the universal cry of “Don’t they look life like” was heard from young and old. And they did. They looked scarily real. So much so that when we came to the infamous chamber of horrors I was at first a little disappointed. There was one rather rubber looking thing in a cage, and that was it.
But they do this to trick you. Trick you into thinking the chamber is crap. Then you go through the Chamber Live! As we stood in the que (queuing seems to be a recurring theme in London) waiting to go in, one woman ran out white as a sheet exclaiming “I can’t do that”… Wow, I thought, this must be good. At the door to the “Prison” (evidently of escaped mental patients driven mad… maybe by the fact that they were escaped but still in prison) a guide told us that the Chamber Live featured live actors (hence the name I guess) and they would get very close but not touch you, please don’t touch them.
What a job these guys have. Hiding in a dark room all day scaring the s**t out of everyone who walks through. Coming right in your face snorting and panting. It was horrible, it was scary… It was awesome!
So ends my post about a random Saturday in Madame Tussauds. If you get a chance to visit London… Go see this! It’s worth it.
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February 28th, 2006
Over a week since my last post!? I’d been really getting into this writing thing too. To be honest with you I have six draft posts that I’ve half written and not published. Mainly because I’d write a line and then think “Crap, what would people think if they read that?” and given up and gone off to write about “safer” subjects.
Much like Lloydy I have a great desire to spew for all to read (or, in this case, not), but to construct posts of intelligence and wit (feel free to laugh out loud at this concept) and NOT the arbitrary “Today I went to the loo three times, and had corned beef hash for my tea”.
So then what am I trying to say? Maybe nothing, maybe I’m filling the void - bridging the gap until I have something remotely interesting to say. Or grow some balls and say what I really mean.
Until then, I hope this has kept you relatively entertained. I’m glad I could fill up 16 seconds of you day.
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