SpaCeMonKeY UK

Thursday, January 28

Have been practising a talk I have to do tomorrow about the Heritage Gateway. I'm a bit scared. I don't do talks. I don't like meetings because they have people in them, so doing a talk in front of those people is a nightmare... Oh well, chances are I won't die.

Since I last posted it was Rob's birthday. We went for a walk in Martinshaw Wood. It was raining and very muddy, but it was fun. And we went to the 50s American Diner. That place is brilliant. It's an actual American diner from New Jersey. I ate so much I nearly died. Which is kind of like America really. Except maybe there was actually slightly less food than there actually is in America. :)

My brother John visited for the weekend - he ate the most food at the diner, it was amazing! Three quarter pounders with pineapple rings between each burger and with bacon... a scary amount of food. He forgot his laptop power supply when he went home. He was sad. We posted a power supply to him - it got there yesterday - but I posted the wrong one! It works though, I think. At least, the one he left here works with my netbook, so it's probably reciprocal.

The Google Nexus One Phone seems to have a few problems. Turns out (like everything else Google do) they released a beta and are getting everyone to test it for them. I don't mind that when it's something you're not paying for (like Gmail), but when you paid £400 for it... Main problems are when you touch the screen it sometimes thinks you're pressing about an inch away from where you're actually pressing. And it has problems connecting to some wi-fi routers. Also there's a weird problem where the screen doesn't work if you're applying pressure to the sides of the phone. But as long as you don't squeeze it too much it's ok. Rob still seems happy with it but Google have gone very quiet about the problems - almost like they're hiding somewhere going 'la la la la I can't hear you'...

The new iPad looks cool, very shiny. If it catches on it's going to be bad news for the eReader market. Lately Apple seem unable to put a foot wrong, so they clearly think there's going to be demand for this. And at $499 it's cheaper than a $529 Google Phone (ok so it's not a phone, but it's basically a shiny gadget, and that's why people will buy both items, because they're shiny gadgets, and the iPad is so very, very shiny). And I don't really get the fuss about the name. I mean, come on, Nintendo Wii anyone? How quickly people forget - you get used to something and it stops sounding ridiculous. Bah.

I have a new phone, incidentally - a Nokia E63. It's kind of complicated, lots of Symbian related fun. I don't know what normal people would make of it. But for a geek it's cool. I set up my e-mail and made my Google calendar sync with its diary. Stuff like that. Obviously it's not all that shiny and doesn't have a touch screen, but you can't have everything, can you?

If you don't hear from me again I guess the talk tomorrow did result in my death. But as I said before, chances are that I won't die, so...

Monday, January 18

Have been working on my PS3 trophies - finished Batman Arkham Asylum last night. I wasn't really playing it for trophies. ;) There are challenge things to do though now I've done the story arc. What an AWESOME game! I don't finish many games, so you know they're good when I finish them. Yay!

Work has been a bit rubbish lately, for various reasons. Budget cuts mean everything's a bit uncertain. And there's a lot of work to do because we're moving offices. Like I didn't have enough to do already...

I'm sure many things must have happened since I blogged last. Rob bought a Google Phone. He seems very happy with it, but then he should be - it cost £400 with taxes! Yikes! He's been scanning barcodes everywhere to see how much stuff costs in various shops and speaking into it to translate into Japanese and taking photos to do image searches. Clever stuff.

I watched a bit of Life on Mars USA the other day. Seemed no-where near as good as the UK version. But maybe that's because it's designed to appeal to Americans who remember the 70s. It seemed more like a generic cop show than a time travel type mystery. And the actor who played Sam didn't seem as... I can't think of the word. He didn't make me feel sorry for him. And wow, Harvey Keitel? Amazing, but is he Gene Hunt? I hadn't realised how many British TV series were re-made for other countries.

Here's the trailer for the American version, and here's one for the UK version. I loved that show, partly because of the sheer beauty of the cinematography, the brilliance of the soundtrack, partly because of the actors (John Simms is so good - when you think he's the Master in Doctor Who as well, how different can two roles get?), partly because of the 'time travel' mystery (did he really go back in time?) and partly because of the excellent social aspects of it being set in 1973 - things like the treatment of Black and Asian people and, of course, women. (I say 'of course' because I am, of course, a woman.)

On a related note, the BBC brought back the test card on their HD channel. Cool. :)

Looks like the cold weather's over for a bit, which is good. Don't remember it being below zero for so long before. Very icy. The roads are in a bit of a state though now.

I leave you with this...

The Internet is Made of Cats!

Friday, January 1

Have had a very busy Christmas, with lots of loot (woo!). Christmas Eve we went to a midnight service at Aylestone Baptist Church. Christmas Day we went to Rob's parents for lunch. His mum had a Wii, I don't think his dad was so keen on it. :) Boxing Day was just me, Rob and my brother John. We made a duck-like animal out of stuffing and played games. The duck-like animal was tasty. Sunday we had people round - Mark, Piers, Ali and Mat joined Rob, John and me. We had a collaborative meal - Ali and Mat made soup and bread, John made Fidget pie (I did veg and the pastry), Rob made a white chocolate and strawberry cheesecake. It was all yummy, so that was good. Plus I got to use the posh Denby that only comes out one or two times a year. :)

We spent a while working out how to get master accounts to work on the Playstation Network. Apparently I should have had a master account from the beginning but only had a sub-account, which means you can't do certain things. And you can't upgrade sub-accounts. So I had to set up a master account from scratch (it lets you choose it as an option if you do it on the website). Have to get more trophies now...

After a couple of days of not doing much Rob and I headed off to Southend, which is where I am typing this from. Having a nice time with Mum, Dad and John. My aunt Ruth came round last night and we've having family friends Diane and John for dinner tonight. Haven't seen them for a while. Will go and see my mum's mum in a minute, give her her Christmas presents... So should probably go. ;) Bye!