The Mega-post!!!

Right - if you get bored easily, dont bother with this post. Ive got 2 days of catching up to do so its going to be a long slog until the end of the post. Firstly, the boring stuff. Work has been good, with it getting a little busier every day so I hope it doesnt reach melting point soon. Either way, at the moment, Im actually enjoying going to work. The weather is fantastic here at the moment too, with it being 28 degrees today and its due to peak tomorrow at 32 degrees. Mad when you think it is now the equivalent of being September in the northern hemisphere. I dont ever remember it being 32 in September in the UK. 

Right, now thats out of the way I can write about other things that we’ve been doing/mulling over. Yesterday, we went into Prahran to have a look about and just to get a change of scenery from Melbourne, and really enjoyed it. Popped into a great antique/vintage shop and saw many millions of dollars of stuff that we wanted, and things that bought a tear to the eye, as fond childhood memories came flooding back. They had a pristine, mint condition boxed Starbird, in all its sound-effect and lightshow glory. You remember that Andy? Even had the little detachable ships on each wing - awesome! On our way around, I picked up some HD leads for my Wii and 360, as well as Super Mario Galaxy, but more on that later. We managed to abstain from blowing  a small fortune in the Playboy shop, as Becca found some great looking baby-doll style heeled slippers, and I saw a great looking suit. Both far too expensive though. Settled for tapas on our way home from the restaurant just up the road, which was damn nice. I usually measure the quality of a tapas joint by the tastyness of its patatas bravas, and this place didnt disappoint - an 8/10! 

Before we visited “Pu-ran” yesterday, we decided to go and have a look at an inspection, pre-auction on a property thats next door to us, and in our price range. Thought it would be good to experience just what we’ll have to go through in a few months time.  This is the property (dont forget to click the links Mom!) we went to see, which looks huge on the photos, but seemed smaller in real life but the view was more spectacular in the flesh. We had a look at the penthouse suite in the same building as it was avaiable for rent (but quite pricey) and it was lovely. Built in robes, an even better view, big bedrooms and a nice bathroom. Trying to make an appointment to see another unit tomorrow too, just to have a “stickybeak”! Good to have a nose and see what we should be expecting even if we arent in the market right now. I went back to that place up for sale this morning to sit in on the actual auction. It was a pretty slow affair and seemed like trying to get blood from a stone for the auctioneer, as nobody really wanted to pay a lot. The opening bid was for the asking price of $510k, and it finally crept for $530k, which isnt too bad for a property with that view. We’ve spent a lot of today mulling over our options, trying to predict market conditions, should be rent for a year, how much is it going to cost us to get furniture, beds, appliances etc….. and we havent really got anywhere. Renting and buying right now, have so many pluses and minuses for and against each option, and as such its like hitting your head against a wall. In the end, we decided the best thing for us to do was…..wait. We’re in this place until July, we need exchange rates to improve, we need interest rates to drop and more properties to appear on the market. We can continue to monitor whats going on without making a rash decision that will end up costing us in the long run. The property market here, and the economy, cant carry on at the levels they are right now, so its got to slow down, or burst pretty soon. We just have to wait until then and jump in!

Right, onto games. Despite it being a bumper period for games in general, with a crapload of A+++ games being released, and another quality period around the corner, Ive been getting slightly sick of it all. Bored of killing people in Assassins Creed. Killing more folks in Halo 3. Killing more folks in COD4. Killing more folks in Mass Effect. Killing more folks in Tomb Raider Anniversary. I know theyre all very different games, but I cant help feeling theyre all quite generic when considered as a whole. All are very realistic, all are very tense games and all are fiercly competitive. I feel like Ive been playing them because theyre there, rather than playing them for enjoyment, or escape. Its been fun for a while, but that fun has turned into monotony, and Ive not looked forward to switching my 360 on for a week or so.  So that has ended now and after reading countless rave reviews I bought Super Mario Galaxy, and the found the reviews were not wong. Its bloody fantastic! Really does get back to the roots of what makes a good game. Its not realistic, its not gritty, its not got lifelike textures and environments. In its place is escapism, fun, colourful, no-stress adorable gaming at its best. Even the way Mario runs put a smile on my face! If youre sick of the whole generic real-world, shoot/stab-em-up style of gaming that infests every weeks release schedule, I urge you to try this. Its bloody amazing! As a result of this I intend to change my whole perspective on buying games. Ever since 360 was released, I tended to buy a game I was fairly interested in on its release day, rather than if I actually WANTED to buy it. For instance, in the coming weeks theres Army of Two, Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 and a couple of others that I acant remember which were orignally must buy games for me. On reflection, “post Mario”, I really cant be arsed with any of them. Theyre just more of the same generic gubbins I mentioned before, so I’ll be leaving them well alone. Hopefully, I’ll be able to hunt out some original, fun games to get on with instead. 

Ive also realised that I am far more into driving games than I thought. Forza 2,  PGR 4 and DIRT have all really got “my motor running” (pun intended) and I just want more of them, especially with the steering wheel setup. As a result of this, I may be about to commit a terrible, terrible sin. Well, at least in the eyes of UK Resistance (and possibly my Brother). Playstation 3. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Force Feedback Wheel. Three items which have me considering a purchase of Sony’s George Foreman grill. I knew I would end up getting one at some point, for God of War 3, maybe Singstar for Becca, and Little Big Planet also looks pretty special. However, I dont realy want to get one before the control pad has rumble reinstated so I wont be buying one immediately. I dare say I’ll be even  more keen to buy one in a few days as I intend to visit the Melbourne Motorshow on Tuesday evening, which is joint sponsored by GT5, and has demo units galore inside. If it actually plays half as good as the videos Im seeing, it will be very hard to try and persuade me not to buy one! 

And on the subject of buying things, my mind is thrown into even more confusion by news of this game. Battlefield Heroes. While it may just seem like a WW2 Team Fortress ripoff, it looks superb. I can tell you I played Battlefield 1942 more than any other videogame before it, or since, so the prospect of a highly styled, great looking, FREE update of it sounds ace. Only problem is, its PC only. No Mac, no 360. If I buy a MacBook Air, it wont be powerful enough to run it. A MacBook Pro will easily powerful enough, but I aesthetically, it looks like a crock of shit, and has the ugliest keyboard Ive seen in a long time. I know aesthetics arent everything, but they are if youre me and use your laptop every day of the year.  However, there are distant rumours of the next MacBook Pro update in June, which will hopefully make it look prettier too. If this happens, Im quids in, but if they dont, I dont know where I stand. I guess, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it I suppose, but up until then, its yet another waiting game. 

So there ends the largest post Ive made yet. Its taken me over 45 minutes to type, and is currently at 1493 words. Jesus! I wrote University essays shorter than this! Dont fret though, normal service shall resume tomorrow.  Now, its time for Match of the Day, and a beer…….

Old School Game, Old School Annoyances…..

Routine kind of day today. Woke up, went to work, came home. Nothing really of note to talk about in depth. Oh, except Becca made a fantastic croissant/cream/wild turkey desert thingy. Kind of like bread and butter pudding, but with croissants, and wild turkey, strangely! Bloody gorgeous!

My major talking point to day settles with Tomb Raider: Anniversary for the 360, but it could just as well be any platform I suppose. If you dont know, this is a remake of the original Tomb Raider for the original Playstation (and about a million other formats), and I find myself getting extremely frustrated with it. Whereas the last Lara Croft game (Tomb Raider: Legend) had a pretty decent story, and had some good puzzles, this game kills you. Lots of times. Lots….. It does have puzzles, but theyre so dumb the answer practically beats you over the head (king midas statue turns stuff to gold. you collect lead ingots…..slots on the wall only accept GOLD ingots….hmmmmm?!?!) Its not the puzzles that frustrate, its the perfectly reproduced spectacle of pixel perfect jumps. I know I have to jump from here to there. I know what to do, but I dont have the willpower, or patience to watch onscreen Lara plummet to her inevitable doom every 20 seconds or so. It really isnt conducive to my improving the longevity of the game, and I just end up switching it off. Collision detection is also a another area where there are problems. Trying to navigate a room with spikes that pop up from the floor with a constantly moving camera is damn hard. If Lara grazes the edge of spikes that are already raised from the floor, which are a good foot or 2 above your head, then you warp 2 feet into the air and “onto” the spikes and its instant death.What also isnt helping is that according to the in game stats, Im 43% of the way through the main game, and if you check out my gamercard on the right, you’ll see that this feat has earned me a whopping 10 achievement points. Wow. So now I have FIFA 08 which I dont play as it gets me mad, Tomb Raider which gets me mad and a couple of 1st class FPS multiplayer games that Im generally too tired to play. Oh well, I’ll have to re-learn the story and controls for Mass Effect. Thats the only problem with RPG’s…..if for whatever reason you stop playing htem half way through, youre screwed when you go back to them .Not a clue what to do, who to see and where to go. I may just crack open the Wii this weekend and buy Mario Galaxy. I feel as though I need my faith restoring in gaming at the moment, and from what I read, even in the most fickle of gaming magazines, this is hailed as a revelation. Getting games back to being fun, and not hyper realistic, hyper challenging anger sessions. 

You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat……

Well, what a FANTASTIC day its been. I feel so content and all warm inside! Firstly, the temperature has been perfect today - sunny, and a cool 29ºC all day. Secondly, work has been great. Just the right amount of stuff to do, learnt a lot of new stuff, had some good chats with the other engineers, and got thanked by our boss for doing a good job - its just fantastic! Thirdly we did what we always thought we would be doing here on a work day. Having a tough/tiring day at work, coming home, putting your shorts on then going for a stroll along the beach. Only for us, we went with a mission…..to go to the end of St Kilda Pier to get a photo of the Queen Victoria liner, thats in Port Melbourne for a day, then is shooting off in….. oooooooo…. 10 minutes or so. In fact, I’ll stop typing for a bit now as its leaving under a hail of fireworks, so I’ll be back soon (but due to the miracle of blog posting, as if by magic, no time will have passed for you……oooooo….spooky!). 

 Ok, just back from outside (where its still quite warm), and while the ship did leave half an hour late, the fireworks show was pretty good. The first time Ive seen a firework go of in a shape (of a heart) and I havent a clue how they did it - mighty impressive. Anyway, back to my good day. Rewinding about 4 hours, we’d just finished  our walk along the beach, so decided to get a bite to eat at a near stove-baked pizzeria, and boy, was it a good pizza! Becca had marinara, and I had proscutto, mushroom and anchovy, which may sound odd but it was one of the best pizzas Ive had ever, and was a good size - just enough to fill you up and not leave you yearning for more. All that and fireworks too - a regular thursday has never been so good! Ive took pictures but my camera is on charge now so I’ll host them tomorrow. 

I dont really know what else to say - Im just really content, and smiley. And to round the day off, Ive just noticed they’ve announced Gears of War 2 for November release this year. Im going to go now before I jinx the remaining few hours…..  

Ch..Ch..Ch…Ch…Changes!

I still cant get used to Melbourne weather. Fact - yesterday had a high of 35ºC, was sunny ALL day, and was even measuring 29ºC outside at midnight. Fact - today was around 17ºC and drizzling all day! Really hard to get used to but I think everywhere had retained the heat inside from yesterday, so it wasnt cold at all in the factory. Speaking of which, its been a good day today as we actually got to experience a full working day with NO training. However, it was kind of scary that the parts we were checking today are going to end up on the end of a wing of a plane! Been really enjoyable, and look forward to more non-training related days. 

Enjoyed watching the Liverpool match today earlier today too. It was a real wrench though, as it was just about to kick off when I left for work, but I recorded it and have just finished watching it. Good result, and I hope they get through in a fortnights time.  Got the Arsenal match set to record tomorrow and am really looking forward to it - should be a great match for neutrals. Been up to nowt other than that - oh, played a bit more Gotham racing and really enjoyed it. The 3 lap race around the Nurburgring, in an old BMW M3, in teh tipping down rain was fantastic. Renewed my interest in the track, as Ive been virtually driving around it for nearly 5 years now. However, trying to drive the bikes using the wheel peripheral is bloody impossible, so I’ll just have to use the controller. 

Still unsure as to what new Mac I should get. With each week that goes by I wonder whether to wait for the inevitable MacBook Pro update, but I doubt I would use all its power all of the time, or just go for a MacBook Air now. One thing I do know is that trying to type on my existing MacBook when its 35ºC is almost unbearable - like some sort of thermal leg torture.  Plus, Im never going ot get a better time than now. No mortgage, no bills, no rates, no water/gas/electric supply to pay for and quite a significant wage coming in each week. SPeaking of which I havent a clue when we’ll apply for a mortgage as the papers today said that another interest rate hike is on the cards in the next few weeks. I just wish the economy here would crumble like the rest of the worlds. Exchange rates are crap (UK to AU) and a mortgage would be crippling. Everything just needs to slow down, before we take the plunge. Nevermind…..I can wait!

Heat and FIFA Frustrations

Jebus H Christ its been another hot day today. 35 degrees, and probably about 30 of those in the factory. Its nowhere near as bad as my old place on a hot day though - no “wet” machining here at all so no coolant hanging in the air and sticking to your lungs. Despite it being really hot, its felt quite changeable as we’ve had CAD training in a very cool, almost cold, air conditioned office. Its been odd going from cool 18 degree office to blazing 35 outside - hard to adjust! I hear its getting on for -10 degrees in the UK though, so I think I’ll stop whining on about the heat!

As I mentioned, today has mostly been computer training, which for once has been extrememly interesting. Learnt a lot as quite a lot of the training was practical, so it stays in your brain instead of in one ear and out the other. As far as I know, we have no more training of any great length booked from here on in, so maybe we’ll actually be let loose on the shop floor tomorrow - scary!Not much else to report really. Just tend to spend my home time watching TV, playing on 360, eating and drinking. Perfect! Im finding FIFA 08 still extremely frustrating. Every 50/50 ball goes to the opposition. They can perform sliding tackles perfectly, by my guys always get fouls.  My guys wont suport me when I break into the opponents half. they dont make any challenges unless I tell them to - I dont know if Im still just annoyed that I was so good at FIFA 07, and now its like I would  have been better not actually playing it, or whether the game has some serious misgivings. Either way, I’ll be playing it rarely as it puts me in a terrible mood afterwards if things dont go my way! Played a bit of Gotham racing after that, and was impressed. Firstly from the amount of new downloadable content and how good it is, and secondly cos its the first time Ive played it with the wheel. Its mighty good, especially in a fast car - the weather effects really pull the wheel from your hands - its fantastic. The only downside is that , as with Forza, accurate use of the wheel leads to accurate driving, which doesnt really fit with Gothams whole “Kudos” thing. However, the kudos system has never really sat right with me so its more a fault of me not liking “cool” driving. I much prefer to take a corner, fast,  perfectly than powerslide around it backwards. Oh, I downloaded (legally I might add) UNKLE’s new album, and I’m REALLY like it. Nothing at all like the last one, as its gone for a more guitar-influenced sound. Doubt it will please the hardcore fans, but for us that only dabble in the hipping and the hopping and the dancing and the dubbing, it’s a good listen.

Cheeky and Naughty….

Today was yet another uneventful day at work, as it consisted of a full days worth of training. Ho hum. Should be on the home stretch now as we’ve only got 1 more unit (half a days worth) of this training subject to go, so hopefully that will be the end of it by 12 tomorrow. Been getting a bit twitchy on what Im hearing about our final work hours though. We’ve been hearing it may be fortnightly rotating shifts on evenings (3-10pm I think), and other folks saying we’ll be on permanent evenings. While I can stand rotating shifts (not ideal, but what are you gonna do) I dont like the sound of permanent afternoons. Will have to ask about clarification on this issue, as it may be a deal breaker. If Becca gets a regular day job, it means I wont get to see her until the weekend which considering she’s the only person I know here apart from work folk, is not great.  

Not much else happened. Amusing, story on the news today about cockatoo’s causing $70,ooo worth of damage to a building in town. There is a steel framed spire over the top of Melbourne Arts Centre that is covered in blue LED’s which illuminate the entire structure at night, but the cockies have been turning up at the tower en masse, taking off the all LED protective caps, and then crushing the lights! So to scare them off, some local falconry school has loaned a couple of massive eagles (bloody huge - 2.5m wingspan, and are the cockatoos natural predator apparently) which they have have trained to fly about the vicinity, putting the shits up all the cockies.   Bit different to plastic owls to scare of pigeons!

Not really got much else to report. Games wise, Im still really enjoying Rez HD, getting frustrated by FIFA 08 (I was really good at FIFA 07 but thats all gone out of the window with 08), and getting back into Forza 2, even though Ive had to drop the difficulty from hard to normal.  Im sure you CAN beat it on hard, but I have neither the skill, inclination, or patience. Exciting games news today that folks that made Gears of War, are set to release a game called “Aliens: Colonial Marines” and is supposedly a squad based FPS. All I can think of is Gears graphics, coupled with the Aliens universe and I soil myself with anticipation. However I hope its not as scary as Aliens Vs Predator 2 on PC from several years back. An absolutely brilliant FPS, but I didnt play it much on account of being too damn scary! My brain somehow couldnt fathom that it was just a bunch of grouped polygons charging me down, it WAS actually an Alien and it would kill me and spray acid at me if I shot it. Here’s hoping the license isnt wasted and we get another substandard Aliens game though. 

Houses, Cars, and Bjorn the Unicorn!

Been a pretty quiet, relaxed day today, which was lovely after my 1st week at work. I really do appreciate the weekends now Im earning a wage again. Woke up at 9.30am (bliss compared to 5:45am!), and had a mooch about until my driving lesson later on. Was a little rusty to start with after over a week away, but the prats on the roads didnt help. The amount of suicidal cyclists, cycling up the wrong side of the street in the road, and dopes not indicating when changing lanes were a pain, but whereas a few weeks back I would have panicked and flustered over them, I took it all in my stride and just got on with it. 

After that we popped into St Kilda to get the papers, have a wonder about, get some food in one of the cafes and just pootle around. Got back and spent the afternoon looking at houses (have a squizz at this one which I wish we could get in time - we could afford it but I need 3 payslips as proof of income and it will sell before then - boo hooo!), calculating what mortgage we could get, looking at cars, and seeing whether it could pay for me to lease a car through work rather than buying one. 

I also decided to dispell the hype and finally got round to playing Peggle today….and Im hooked. Its strange, cos you dont actually DO anything, but its both addictive and relaxing at the same time. Id recommend it to anyone as it can be played casually too. I was going to buy it but did a quick search and found that its coming to Xbox Live soon, so I will get it then. So there you go, for as much as I have a go at Becca for playing Jewel Quest on her phone when we have a Wii, PS2, 360, DS, etc…. I also  spent the afternoon playing a game thats basically pachinko!  Ach….I dont care - try it out and you’ll probably be as addicted as I am!

St Kilda Festival tomorrow, so will be V-E-R-Y busy here. The TV news reckons over 400,000 folks will be coming here to sample the comedy, music, theatreworks and general “activities”. We’ll go in and see how busy it is, and how long we can tolerate it for. I think it sounds like a great idea….but 400,000 people in a place thats probably as big as Kings Heath seems a bit crazy for my liking!  

Danger Will Robinson! Beer and Sake Everywhere!

T’was a good day today. Work was just more training, training, training but had a good natter with the other chaps there and had a good laugh. The bad news is that it seems we have at least another week and a half of training to go! I’ll have info coming out of every orifice by that point, but it was a late start thanks to the training so it wasnt all that bad. 

After work, I met Becca in town as I needed to get some more work shirts, but it turned out to be a much more lengthy visit than just shirt shopping. On the way down to the shops, we saw a good little bar caller “Bar Humbug”, which we thought was a great name and it looked pretty decent inside, so after I got a shirt or 2, we went back to the bar and had a drink. Nice bar, a little expensive but would be a nice place to take visitors. After that, we went along to another bar, which was really funky. A little Japanese, anime robot bar, simply called “Robot“. The decor was all robot-ey, with lots of anime pics everywhere and tons of little robot toys on the shelves. The bar was stocked with a wide variety of Japanese beers, had loads of sake, and they even sold pocky! You would have loved it Andy - they even showed anime on a Tuesdays and had drinks specials on. I definitely think we’ll be going back.

After that we went and got some food at Yoyogi sushi place, then home (again Andy, you would have liked it - yakitori chicken and katsu curry). Feel quite tired now though, which isnt surprising as Ive been on the go for 14 hours. Oh yeah, I also managed to pick up FIFA 08 for 360 in Electronics Boutique - 2nd hand but it looks ok and comes with a week long guarantee in case it plays up. Sensible Soccer rekindled my interest in footy games, but is just too damn hard, and doesnt have the depth of FIFA, hence, I got FIFA. 

Only plans we have for the weekend are me having a driving lesson tomorrow (first Saturday lesson so I hope the roads arent too busy), and then St Kilda Festival on Sunday, when about 400,000 people descend on St Kilda for music, comedy, and other gubbins - should be a good un, and I’ll be sure to post pictures, as I have today on my webspace/Facebook. Check em out!

Privacy = Annoying!

Well Im relatively un-tired, got plenty of time to post stuff, and have done a lot of “things” at work, but when I sit down to write about it, I find myself bricking it cos of Boeings crazy Ay-mericaaaan privacy stuff. And knowing how stringent they are on site, and at the gatehouse, and online about all things 787, I really dont think I can say anything in detail about my day on a public blog site, so I’ll try to be non-descript and vague.

Still doing training, which on one hand is very annoying, but on the other hand, its how its meant to be done, rather than thrown in at the deep end and just told to get on with it. Been around the factory and seen where Im working, and it looks really good, but TOTALLY different from everything Ive done before.  The bunch of engineers Im with are all top blokes, and get on well with them. Its still a bit strange getting up so early, as the only way I find I can cope with it, is to offset my whole day by 2 hours. so I get up early, come home early, and go to bed early. Bit of a pain, but it works fine, as Im nowhere near as tired as I was on Monday or Tuesday. 

Weather has been crazy here today. Last night was stormy, this morning was windy and cool, then it brightened up then got hot, then drizzled, then warm again, and its blustery now - mad! Supposed to be getting better tomorrow and over the weekend though. 

Managed to finish Assassins Creed a couple of days ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I actually thought the game was a bit short, as I just wanted more cities and levels to bound around in. Nevermind, still got lots of stuff left to do before I get all the achievements.  

Well, Im sorry Im not able to say much about my new job, needless to say,  I AM enjoying it, even though I haven’t actually done much “work” yet.  Please dont think Im over-reacting about not saying anything about my job, but I really dont want to jeopardise this opportunity, by posting something that can get me sacked. From the stories Ive heard, Boeing isnt too afraid to wield “the big stick” if someone compromises the interests of the company. I know Ive got more training tomorrow, and I think training all of next week too, so I have no idea when the reigns will be off. Everyone is telling us to make the most of it as our feet wont touch the ground once were let loose. I hope they’re wrong!

Band of Brothers 2…..kinda

Nothing really spectacular happened today. It rained all morning, so it made driving a little more interesting than usual. 1st time pootling about in the rain, and it went ok. More of the same….just wetter! Didnt go to the gym afterwards though as the 1st visit is starting to take its toll. My stomach and arms are aching like a swine, so Ive put a repeat visit off until tomorrow morning, when I intend to go, no matter what! Played some more games, well…I say “some”, I actually just mean Forza 2 with my steering wheel again. Starting to remember why I played it so much. Its just so damn satisfying to buy a slow-ass car, upgrade it, tweak all its settings (and not in a chavvy install underlights, “phat” exhaust and a body kit kind of way) then prove it out on the track. Won some really tight races today and had plenty of smashes. Its ultimately more rewarding than Gotham Racing 4 as you can see the fruits of your labour pay off, you dont feel the desperate need to pass on the first lap, or bounce off the other cars. Just bought the extra track packs and more cars so I’ll give them a spin later.

In the papers today was news that Flinders St rail station, and the adjoining areas will be closed from tomorrow night until Sunday morning, to allow Spielberg/Hanks et al to film some material for his forthcoming WW2 miniseries “The Pacific”. By all accounts, its sounds like “Band of Brothers in the Pacific”, which should be prett-aaaaaay, prett-aaaaaaaay good as I loved  Band of Brothers. Might pop into Melbourne on Saturday to see if I can see anything going on. Exciting!

Plans for tomorrow include the aforementioned gym, then I think we’re going up to Boeing to have a mooch around the area, and see how long a walk it is to the nearest tram stop.  That is, if the rain holds off, which it should according to the forecast. Oh, and a bit more Forza 2. Might tackle some of the 1 hour long endurance races.

BUY. THIS. NOW.

….if you have an xbox 360 that is. Its called Rez HD, and is available from the Xbox Live Arcade. 800 points nets you a game like youve never played before. Ive never experienced anything like it. Its nuts and bolts lie in the form of an on rails shooter, like Panzer Dragoon for those who know it, but kinda crossed with Tron, and kinda crossed with a rhythm action game. Its so hard to explain what it plays like as its more of an experience than a game. You can download the free trial and play it for nowt as a sample, like I did. The demo was enough for me to purchase the full game - its sumptions. The graphics are, as Ive said Tron-like and also reminiscent of early 90’s dance videos and chilled at the same time. The music is superb - housey kind of electronica that suits the action perfectly. Im no big house music fan, but it complements the game so well, and works its way into your soul. Right, Im going to shut up now as I cant explain what this game is like. Just download it and try it - if youre a fan of gaming, you will love it. 

2 posts in 1 day - you lucky people! 

Bowl-a-rama!

Yes, thats what we got up to yesterday! Lawn Bowls. And before Im lambasted for being an old sod, let me just tell you this - I would say 90% of the folks there were aged 28 - 35. And when you think about it, its a damn fine way to spend a day. Met up with our mates at about 2.30, got a round in then went out for an intro to lawn bowls. Was really busy, with more folks turning up as the minutes went by. And as the beers flowed, the more interesting it got. It turned out to be a great afternoon, as it kinda felt like playing pool, or darts but outside in the sun. Its the kind of thing that is a side to beer and banter, not the primary focus, and Im sure if the UK had the weather for it, it would be just as popular. Seems most areas here have a lawn bowling club all, with a lot of young’uns there. Definitely like to do it again. Was a great day, rounded off with mexican food and huge margaritas. Hence the lack of update yesterday!

Anywho, today was quiet. Stayed in, only venturing out for a walk along the beach and a trip to the paper shop.  Played a ton of games on my 360, but it felt strangely unsatisfying. Maybe Im actually beginning to tire of gaming, and yearn for this job? Stranger things have happened. 

Tomorrow is driving lesson first off, waiting for the relocaition people to call to arrange a part delivery of our stuff, then maybe go to the gym for my 1 weeks free trial. Im looking forward to getting fit again, but Im equally dreading the first visit. Just the mild bending and rolling of bowls yesterday has got us both holding our legs every time we stand up - damn they ache! Right Im off to watch a download of the Man Utd/Spurs match now, so dont ruin it for me! Oh, and more pics (of bowling) added to my webspace/Facebook page. 

Xbox Live-tastic!

Not really done much today as I fancied a rest. Not going to be able to do it much in 10 days or so, therefore I’ll enjoy it while it lasts. Lovely day today, although it got quite humid towards the end of the day. No rain as forecast though. Had a walk down the beach, along the pier, back up Acland st then back home. Ate some tasty sandwiches, drank some tasty beer and played some tasty games. Found a decent bunch of chaps online to play Gotham Racing against. Not rank whores, or always picking the fastest cars - far from it. Its just an anything goes kind of atmosphere with folks picking cars and bikes from all classes - really enjoyable as nobody cares if they win or loose - its the taking part that counts (man!). Starting to get back into Mass Effect too as the whole “ye olde fantasty adventure” style of Assassins Creed and Conan are starting to make me yearn for more Sci-fi. Taking me a while to get back into it though, as its pretty in depth and Ive forgotten all the controls!

Plan for tomorrow involves going to a place called Northcote and having a mooch around there. Saw an advert in the paper today for cheap trainers and running gear so gonna go check it out. Northcote sounds pretty nice too. Little shops, boutiques, and cafes, and despite being the other side of Melbourne, its just 1 tram, direct from St Kilda. Good job, as I dont fancy fighting the Australia Day masses in the city centre. Wouldnt mind rocking up on the beach a bit later on in the day for bbq and fireworks though. Ive just got to hope theyre cooking pork sausages and not those disgusting beef monstrosities!

1 More Week of Being Dole Scum!

Got the official letter from Boeing today, offering me the position, but Im not going to mention anything specific as there is quite a detailed privacy section on the offer. Needless to say, its well paid, I can wear whatever (to an extent) and I start on February the 4th, as they want me to start on a full week, not like next week. So I get a week more of normal driving lessons and doing stuff before its nose to the grind stone time. Best make the most of it!

The weather was nice today so we decided to go over to Yarraville and have a mooch about.  Top and bottom of it is, that its a nice place, with lots of old period buildings, and it has a lovely little art deco theatre, that looks like the old Electric cinema in Birmingham (but newer and bigger). Yarraville also had quite a few nice little shops which sold antiquey type things. Didnt really float my boat but Becca thought it was good. As it was a small place, we spent the rest of the day in town, looking for a Sports Soccer style discount sportswear place for us to buy our gym equipment (yes we already have some but its in 1 of many unmarked boxes in storage and we cant go and open each one until we find what we want). However, Im not sure if its the time of year, or the fact that sport in general is taken a lot more seriously here than in the UK but nowhere wants to sell you stuff proper cheap. Most of the full price stuff, is cheaper than in the UK, but its still full price. I only wanted to pay $100 for trainers, but the cheapest we could find any was $150. Sooooooo…..we’re off to Chadstone tomorrow to see if we can pick stuff up there. 

Games wise, Ive been playing some of the online games I never got a chance to when they were released (thanks to crappy internet). I must admit to liking Halo 3 a LOT more than I ever anticipated. Its just so damn addictive, and its real easy to mute annoying folks when they mouth off. Shame I only ever seem to get to play on the Guardian and Snowbound maps! I tried Team Fortress 2 and was horribly disappointed. I only managed 1 game as I couldnt find any others. Whether thats indicative of how many folks play it, or the timezone differences between here, Europe and America that were at fault, I dont know. However, I cant say I liked it when I did play it. Far too fast and unsatisfying for my liking. I also dont like the way you move. When playing Halo 3, or Call of Duty 4, theres a physical prescence of you in the gameworld. You feel the long drops, bumping into stuff and it seems tangible that youre running around a believable place. I didnt get that with TF2. It just left me cold and feeling isoilated from what was going on. Oh well, its one less game I have to put time into. Shame though. I also spent a fair amount of time playing Gotham Racing 4 online, which was a load of fun. I didnt make the mistake of playing a Ranked match (usually full of twats who all pick the right car and moan at you if they smash into you, or use you as a brake), so a social playlist it was. No rules, no car classes, just whatever you want and it made it hella fun. Beating Ferraris while being in a Delorean was a big thrill and having bikes whizz past while in my car was also good fun. Best mode was called Bulldog - basically its playing “Tag” with cars. When one of you is tagged, you join in the hunt to tag the remaining cars. Its tremendous fun when there are 5 of you all chasing the 1 remaining car, all frantically trying to catch him. 

Anyway, Ive waffled on for games far too much. On to tomorrow, which starts with an 8.30am driving lesson (I’ll still be asleep!) then we’ll probably nip over to Chadstone, as mentioned before. Fingers crossed we manage to pick up some stuff. 

Edit: Few new photos on my webspace 

780 days of joy, then this…

Oh dear! Yep - it finally struck me too. After having a fully working console from 9am on 2/12/2005, it finally gave up the ghost today. Its been a bit dodgy over the past few days, with games suddenly developing a strange yellow tinge when playing, which could only be remedied by powering off and on again. However, today, it appeared right from the turn on, so as normal I turned the thing off then on again, except nothing came on the TV. I could hear it booting up, but no video came on. Tried swapping TV’s, tried swapping cables, both with no luck. It was pointless trying to claim on the extended Microsoft 3 year warranty as it would have been for Microsoft UK, not Australia. So after a bit of research, several minutes of grumbling,  and a LOT of walking around Melbourne, I begrudgingly picked up another 360 (the Arcade version - seeing as I already had all the other bits from my busted 360). Just finished setting it all up and everything now works fine, as well as being a damn sight quieter than my original 360. After it was all done, I forgot to remove the Halo 3 disc from my old xbox, so powered it up to eject the disc and found I had the Red Ring of Death in all its full annoying glory. So now I have $400 less, but I have a working 360 again which is important because……

……I DEFINITELY have the Boeing job (so I need to get my gaming in this week! The agency called today to say that Boeing had offered me the position and would be sending me out the details, all ready to start next week on Tuesday (as Monday is a national holiday for Australia Day). This is good news as I’d been fretting that something would go wrong and the deal would turn sour, but now its all done and dusted!

I didnt manage to sort an update for yesterday as by the time Id remembered to make a post, it was late and 3 episodes of Peep Show were on TV so just had to let it go. We didnt do much anyway, as the weather didnt clear and it was drizzly all day. However to get us out of the house we had a wander around Albert Park (the town bit, not the actual park) which was small, but very nice. Lots of small bakeries and cafes with choice goods. We didnt do much today either until the 360 went tits up. Not sure what we’re up to tomorrow as I have a drivng lesson at 1pm so it kinda splits the day in half.  Either before next week, we want to go to Yarraville, have a wander over Prahran again to look at trainers and swimsuits for Becca, and get some gym gear from town. 

…Now Cough Please….!

Todays been a good day on the whole.  Started off with a double driving lesson, which went brilliantly! The instructor was nice, patient, informative, friendly and helpful. Got behind the wheel after he took me to a quieter area and did damn well, even if I do say so myself. The automatic gearshift makes SUCH a huge difference. You dont have to worry about the clutch, biting point, stalling, braking with/without clutch. In fact, your left leg just sits there, doing nothing - its great! I went from sitting in the car learning about the a/c controls to driving on quiet roads, to driving on busy roads to parking and reversing! Was really impressed, and so was the instructor. I cant imagine it will be very long before Im putting in for my test, providing I dont stink at reversing around corners or parallel parking. 

Second on my list was going for the medical for the Boeing job. It was pretty intensive, not in a running on a treadmill kind of way, but in its testing the complete range of motion of my body, hearing tests in a noise proof booth and testing my reflexes all over my arms and legs. It was crazy, but it all went with out a hitch. The only 2 things of note are the fact that I have lost a bit of hearing sensitivity on the high frequencies, which is to be expected after the operation and all. And also, I appear to have “hyper reflexes”, which sounds as if I should be able to catch flys with chopsticks, but all it means is that if someone’s testing my reflexes for my ankle, it makes my whole leg kick out. Very sensitive. 

Only other things of note that Ive done today are eat tasty churros here on the high street at a new shop, and eaten a tasty curry at the thai restaurant around the corner.  And I mean REALLY tasty!

Also been playing a lot of Assassins Creed, which seems to be a Marmite game. Personally, I love it. Its so damn immersive, and looks fantastic. I think a lot of folks that dont like it, are just blasting through it and not taking it all in. Half the fun of it is completing every task in every city, just to see the little nuggets of information that flesh the level out. Its that amount of freedom which I think the haters are missing. Because it gives you free opportunity to roam anywhere and assassinate bloke “a” at any time rather than forcing you down a tunnel, some people do just that, and thats missing out on half the game. Anyway, I love it!

Oh, and for anyone that didnt realise or that isnt part of Facebook, I regularly add photos to my webspace which you can get at by clicking the “My Webspace/photos” link on the right hand side of this page, under the Blogroll heading.  

The “most stuff happened in least time ever” post!

First post of 2008 too. OK. I dont really know where to begin. New Year has come and gone, (with the dull tediousness that it always does) and we’ve flown half way around the planet again. Should be doing wonders for my airmiles. In one year we’ve gone to Vegas and back, out to Australia, back to England, and then back to Australia again. Great for airmiles, crap for bank balance! 

I would like to say that this is the return of my daily updates, but the internet is down at our apartment. We dont even have our original phone number anymore. Its very frustrating. the telecoms companies out here seem even worse than the UK. Well, I say ALL telecoms companies, but its really Telstra’s infrastructure and inept service engineers that seem to be mucking up. The guys at Netspace (my isp) have been really helpful, but is still not fixed as its down physical phone line connections, which are rented from Telstra or so Im told. The upshot if it is that Im checking all my emails, making posts and doing a bit of surfing each day either from my phone (expensive) or going to a net cafe and using my Mac there.  Cheap rates and its got air con.

 Ok, so I’ll draw a line under whats gone before and just start from today. Went for my aptitude test at Boeing (well, actually at an aptitude test company, but its for the Boeing job) and it went really well. Well, at least I think it did. It was a lot shorter, and easier than the behemoth I did for Toyota. Im just waiting to hear when the actual interview for the job will be now. It better be soon as I was told they wouldnt be interviewing after this week! 

Secondly, its bloody roasting hot here today. 42ºC! Its not unbearable, but I guess it would be if you were out in it all day. As it is, this net cafe is wonderfully air conditioned so its lovely. Probably off to get an ice cream or something after this, to cool down once we’re outside. Its a shock to the system after the -8ºC-ness of Birmingham over Christmas. Still…..its a nice shock!

Had some tasty tea last night - on passing the fishmongers/chippy we spied stuffed (with rice, prawns and chilli’s) squid so decided to by a couple. $10 each. Thats about £4 for the uninitiated - and god damn were they nice! The standard of food out here, and the quality is superb. Popped into the offy at the end of the street and asked if they had anything like Kronenbeg Blanc (I developed quite a taste for it over Xmas) but they didnt stock it. However, they put me onto a couple of imported Belgium white beers they do have in, and if they arent tastier than Blanc! Bloody lovely! And they go down a treat in this hot weather. 

On the games front, I came back from the UK with Assassins Creed, Conan, and Tomb Raider Anniversary (as well as some DS games I mentioned in previous posts), the last 2 of which I picked up in the sales. Ive only played Conan so far, and Im mightily impressed. Its basically, God of War on 360. Quick Time Events, mythical beasts, different weapon techniques and combos etc…. Its actually pretty impressive. For £20 that is. I dont think I would ever buy it full price but its well worth a punt at half price. Recommended! 

Had a look through the local rag here yesterday and found The Wombats and Maximo Park are out here in March. Cant wait - next time we go into town we’ll definitely be getting tickets. Speaking of which, it may be tomorrow. Dependent upon the weather really - I wasnt at all tempted today to go strolling through the city today, in this heat, and in a suit! the forecast is for this hot snap to run into tomorrow as-well so may give it a miss until it cools down. It will be a decidedly cold 24ºC on Saturday so might pop in then. 

Anyway, I’ll keep you all posted on whats happening here. It may not be everyday (until my net access is fixed) but it will be more often than its been. Can I just thank everyone at this stage, for your messages of sympathy and support. I dont know how I would have coped with the turbulent past few months if it werent for your kind words, helping me, and my family get through a terrible time. Thanks again. 

 And for those that arent aware, you can leave me a message for me at any time by clicking on the “Comments” icon at the bottom right of any post. You may be telling me Im gay for buying Conan, or that  I should shutup about it being so hot. Either way, Im not fussed - just comment!. And dont worry, its secure, spam protected and every one has to go through me before its displayed. So get commenting! 

Christmas + Sales = Done

So christmas is over, which is relief to be honest. To be fair though, it wasnt as bad as I was expecting, but I dont really know what I was expecting. None of this seems normal to myself anyway, as I dont usually spend this much time at my parents house. I just fear that when my life does get back to “normal” its just gonna hit me all over again. No point worrying over it anyway. I’ll just have to cross that bridge when I come to it. 

Managed to get some good stuff for Christmas and in the sales. Got 3 new 360 games (Assassins Creed for £30, Conan for £20 and Tomb Raider :anniversary for £15), a couple of DS games (Nintendogs and Touch Darts) a some DVD’s (some Ray Harryhausen films like Jason and the Argonauts, and Sinbad films) a new set of headphones, and a couple of books (Karl Pilkingtons new one and the Viz Profanisaurus), or which the Viz book has had me in stitches. Its basically a very thick Thesaurus type book, explaining the meanings of words, or phrases that have comedic significance. For example, an Airburst is a fart, a Dreadnaught is a large turd, but the best description is the description for the following….

 Anne Franks Drumkit - Used to describe something utterly useless that merely takes up space!

Superb! Maybe its an acquired taste, or childish fascination with new words, but I think its great! Anyway, sale shopping was mental. Wolverhampton on the 27th was not so bad, but Birmingham today was a bit mad. Its not so much the people walking the streets, its the shops. It makes you realise that 90% of the shops in town are ridiculously small. Not only that but theyre chock full of stuff that would still fill a shop twice the size. Ive enjoyed having a “half-time” break for coffee/beer but Im pleased that I dont haveto put up with any more moronic windowlickers staring skywards and just generally getting in the way.

Just got a few remaining things to do before we return, in just over a week. Going to take Becca to Dudley as she’s never been there (the lucky girl!), got a Birthday party to go to in Moseley on the 2nd, and wouldnt mind seeing a few friends again before we go. Seems mad that we’ve been here for nearly 6 weeks now. Looking forward to getting back home in the sun though - the darkness here is shocking!  

Im Melting! MEEEELLLTIIIIIING!

Jebus Christ, it was hot today! 37 degrees hot!!! By comparison, it doesnt quite look (thanks for the photo Andy!) that hot back in the West Midlands! I cant believe its snowing there already, its obscene! On the flipside, everyone is quite surprised just how hot it is here. The only downside is that the hot weather, and Southern winds have blown in a load of Flies from New South Wales. Its not so bad when you first go out, as the insect repellant shoo’s ‘em off, but that only lasts for 4 hours. Gets very annoying after that! However, 37 degrees with flies is preferable to snow and misery! Its meant to rain a little tomorrow and teh day after, but back up to 33 degrees by the weekend. 

Feeling better today too. Still fed up of not having a job, but just trying to be positive about it. Keep on looking, keep on waiting. Went into town today and braved the heat. Picked up a George Grill for cheap, and got a copy of Mass Effect for the 360, which I’ll be taking for a spin in a bit. Just let my tea go down. A VERY tasty tea I might add, of dim sum (which for whatever reason is called dim sim over here) but we got some separate gyoza (pork dumpling type things). Damn tasty, as I said. All washed down with an ice cold Magners! 

Not sure what are plans are for tomorrow, especially if its going to be wet. Our internet should, and I say SHOULD, be sorted tomorrow, so I will have chance to play online, and download the months worth of UK TV we’ve missed. But thats all assuming everything will be sorted, and based on my experience with telecoms companies here, I dont think it will be.  

If you dont like games, look away…..now!

I’ll be doing 2 posts today (you lucky people) as a lot of stuff has happened, or will happen. The first post, will be about games stuff, the 2nd,….well, about normal things. But more of that later.

So today I went to that Games Expo thingy at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. I was a bit underwhelmed by the size of the place. I was expecting some massive multiple roomed venue, which it wasnt. The convention centre itself was huge, but the Games thingy was only in one room. However, there were some pretty good stands to have a look around. Not too busy as well which helped, although I dread to think what it will be like over the weekend. 

On the games fronts, I got to see, and play a lot on many formats. On the Wii there was Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, The Resident Evil light gun game (which I cant remember the name of), and Rayman Rabbids 2, which was fantastic! They had a bunch of other stuff too, but Im only listing the things that I played on or impressed me. For XBox, they didnt really have much. Assassins Creed and Mass Effect looked great though. Out of the big 3 console manufacturers, Microsofts stand was by far the crappiest. Having a 15 foot high Master Chief helmet doesnt make your stand good! For PS3, there was Wipeout HD, Gran Tourismo 5 Prologue, Haze, Uncharted :Drakes somethingorother  Singstar, and surprisingly Ratchet & Clank looked good. For PC, Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 looked fantastic. It actually made me want to have another PC for gaming, as I quite miss the days of Battlefield etc… Also worthy of mention was God of War for PSP. It looked, and played great, but the controls were a little rsi inducing compared to the PS2. 

The highlight of my day though was an hour long presentation by a couple of guys from 2K Games, Australia who were the guys who made BioShock. They talked about the games early builds, problems, concepts and its development cycle, right up until release. Was extremely informative, and good to see what could have been. Interesting things of note were the fact that in an early demo the little sisters were slug like creatures that were actually deposited into the game world from a massive central “Queen” type creature who “laid” these Gatherers around the game world. These were dropped as the developers wanted the player to emote with the gatherers, or to feel guilty about killing them. So the first idea they had to try to get you to feel empathy with these guys was to make the little sisters, dogs with wheels! You know, when you see a dog that has no back legs, and it has wheels instead! They even had a concept sketch which looked hilarious! Some other ideas canned (the more interesting ones) were a 3rd and 4th class of Big Daddy. One which was dropped right at the end was a HUGE slow big daddy who had a cannon on his back. Another early type of big daddy (dropped) was one which had this slug type fleshy thing stuck on its helmet, with these tentacle that penetrated the glass “eyes” on the big daddy and were controlling him.  It moved VERY differently to the normal BD’s and you had the option of either killing the slug, or killing the host. Like I said, it was extremely informative…..if youre into that sort of thing!

In other games news, I missed out on getting an early copy of Mass Effect by about 5 seconds. I tried one EB here and it had already sold out, so I tried the other one, just in-time to see some guy swipe the last copy off the shelf, right under my nose! Dammit! I dont know why EB broke the release date, as nobody else had. Nevermind. Its not like I have long to wait (4 days).

Im glad I went, as its helped take my mind off a load of crap happening with our house sale at the moment. I wont go into detail, as there are things still up in the air at this time, but I’ll explain once we know more.

Off out in a bit to meet a couple of folks off one of the tech forums Im a member of. They might be child molesters, they may be nice people - we’ll just have to wait and see! I’ll post again once we get back about more normal stuff. I promise I wont mention games at all!