I’ve gotta say, having briefly skimmed through Day9′s D3 stream from yesterday, I am really excited. I just hope it lives up to my expectations. Bear in mind, I still play Diablo 2+exp quite often (although I wouldn’t say I’m a hardcore player by any means), D2 has set the bar incredibly high. It’s one of my favourite games of all time, and I really hope that the D3 release won’t just be spurned by rabid D2 fans finding out that D3 is a pile of tosh (ahem – WoW).

So – read more about Diablo 3 here, or read the Beta announcement and opt-in FAQs.

SO EXCITING!

I also thought I’d throw in a picture of Kali and Freyja for luck. Freyja is shown here modelling her new buoyancy aid that her Granny (my Mum) bought for her to go swimming in France.

Kali couldn’t resist getting in the picture either, although I’m not sure she realises what it’s all about. She’s definitely a puppy, and more than a handful. Taking her on walks is a real struggle, but I’m sure we’ll get there. She’s only 15 weeks old bless her, but my she’s growing! In fact, this is her like 5 minutes ago:

If you’re wondering what the white powder is all over her head, it’s not dandruff, it’s sand from Freyja’s sand table we were playing with earlier and Kali decided to roll in some sand that had fallen off. Silly puppy!

We’re currently sat in Stoke on Trent (in Linda’s freezing cold house) sorting out the final bits and pieces of packing and shopping (hooray I have real flip flops now). Hannah is busy writing a couple of blog posts so that prompted me to do the same!

For those that don’t know, I’m taking a 7 day break from the stress of life, work and PHP and swanning off to Ölüdeniz in Turkey to enjoy some quality family time with Hannah, Freyja and the mother-in-law-to-be. I don’t have any specific plans for what to do, but I know that I’m going to do my best to chill to the max. I really am exhausted and really can’t wait to just unplug from everything. So… if my server goes down, or there’s an emergency at work, well you guys will just have to cope without me for a little while. It’s probably not such a bad thing if my server goes down for a while… less of my inane rubbish that spurts forth from my fingers into your eyes. And… with my low blogging frequency no-one will probably notice anyway!

So, here’s to me finally having a holiday, I can’t wait. So long and thanks for all the fish. Thanks for reading folks, that’s a wrap.

The Orphanage

As I said, the film as a whole I didn’t find particularly scary. A great story and has parts in that would probably scare others, but as a generalisation I would say I’m not scared by this film. Apart from one particular scene towards the end of the film where they play a game called “Knock on the Wall”. It brings out creepy ghost children and there’s just something about that that just makes me want to hide under a cushion. It’s just creepy, those ghostly children creeping up on her like that. Argh! Probably going to have nightmares now Hannah brought up this topic… doh!

Anyway, head on over to Hannah’s amazing blog and check out all the other entries – NOW!!

Dame Judi Dench

I think Judi Dench is fantastic – she makes a brilliant M. She’s got a huge film history and lots of stage acting experience, including directing. She’s been awarded a myriad of awards and recognised all over the place. With such a good career, you’d think I’d have more to talk about, but she is so well known it’s hard to find anything new to talk about her, so I’ll leave at that!

Beowulf & Grendel

No, this is not the animated film starring Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie, which although is alright, it’s not a patch on the live-action 2005 film starring Gerard Butler and Stellan Skarsgård (who, incidentally, is fantastic, and also stars as Bootstrap Bill Turner in Pirates of the Carribean, as well as Cerdic, a famous anglo-saxon king, in King Arthur). This proves that IMDB are wrong with their ratings on this one (6.5 for animated, 6.1 for live-action – it should be 7 for animated, 8 for live-action).

The film is an almost stylised version of the original poem, and it’s gritty and bloody. The film is Icelandic and I think really captures what I imagine that era to be like. Plenty of mead, raping, pillaging, blood and most importantly… troll rape. Yes you heard – this film has a slightly disturbing scene in which … well, I’ll leave it up to you to watch. I recommend this film – but take it with a pinch of salt. It’s just a great action film. With troll rape.

Bonus Points: Another foreign film I think is brilliant is City of God! So runner up to that…

The Evil Dead

This is arguably one of the best horror films of all time. In it’s time it was groundbreaking, and now, it’s… well it’s just fantastic still. It’s timeless and never ceases to amuse me. Sam Raimi did himself proud with this film and used inventive filming techniques throughout. Shocking, yet noticeably tongue-in-cheek, this over-the-top horror/gore film really hits the spot with me. Never mind all these blockbusters and action films of the 80′s – this is where it’s at – low budget brilliance. Bruce Campbell is just fantastic and perfectly cast, and the sequels are almost on par, if yet many times more daft and ludicrous.

Dead by dawn!

The Notebook

I have to say, The Notebook is actually a rather fantastic film. It’s a truly idyllic romance film which has plenty of moments to make any lady gush. Based starting in 1940, the protagonists Noah and Allie meet and are inevitably destined to be together. It’s a real fairytale-inspired story with turmoil and heartbreak. A truly soppy film which I’m normally a fan of, but it does a really good job of getting you to empathise with the characters and thus getting more involved in the story.

I was, however, disappointed that a laptop didn’t feature in the film…

Oh and Rachel McAdams is fit in it. Much better than that Mean Girls crap anyway.

Sir Christopher Lee

A fantastic English actor he is, Sir Christopher Lee has been in numerous films. According to IMDB, he’s done/doing 269 films, and at a ripe old age of 88 is an impressive feat. That’s 3 films a year, and considering the Lord of the Rings trilogy took over 5 years to make by itself, I’m not quite sure how he did it… Nevertheless, this brilliant actor has been in many fantastic films and his deep, strong voice is instantly recognisable.

In fact his escapades are not just limited to screen acting, but he also does voice work (who wouldn’t with such a fantastic voice?) and does a surprising amount of singing for various artists and for his own work and featured on a couple of Rhapsody‘s albums.

A truly multi-talented man he is, I think Sir Christopher Lee is truly deserving of “my favourite actor” this week

Click the lovely logo to visit Hannah’s blog and join in the fun!

The Departed

Starring alongside Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg and Martin “Father of #tigerblood” Sheen, DiCaprio plays an under cover police officer in a tangled web of gangster mayhem. Double bluffing and twisty turns make this film really enjoyable — and importantly for this film unpredictable.

My other favourite films starring Leo are Titanic (sorry Hannah, but I think it was fab), Blood Diamond, Catch Me If You Can and Romeo and Juliet (which was a close second to my choice this week!).

Unfortunately I have been rather lax this week and have only just gotten around to doing my post for this week. The theme for this week is Directors, and Hannah unsurprisingly chose Shane Meadows, a fellow Stokie with bald head and really bushy eyebrows. So who should I choose for this one? Well I’m going to nominate some with the films I like from the director to help myself then pick a winner:

1. Peter Jackson (LOTR, King Kong)
2. Gore Verbinski (POTC, The Mexican)
3. Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Drag Me To Hell)
4. Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones, Jaws, ET, Hook, Jurrasic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, War of the Worlds)
5. Christopher Nolan (Momento, Batman Begins, Inception)
6. Joel Schumacher (Lost Boys, Falling Down, Tigerland, Phone Booth, POTO, Number 23)
7. David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room, Curious Case Ben Button, Social Network)
8. Wachowski Brothers (Matrix)
9. James Cameron (Terminator, Rambo 2, Aliens, True Lies, Titanic, Avatar)

My issue with this topic is that there are so many films I love, but they’re all by different actors. This by no means is a bad thing – it just shows that there are many talented directors out there who really know their stuff and how to help make a film good. So my “short” list is done, now who to pick?? They are all good, so this is by no means a reflection on their talent, but my winner is…

Peter Jackson

I hadn’t heard of him until the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but boy those films are collectively an absolute masterpiece. Having just finished re-watching the extended edition (taken me about 3 months of watching bits at lunch!), it’s fresh in my memory. The films are engrossing not unlike a book might be. I don’t think anyone could’ve imagined up a better look and feel for the films.

Of course it wasn’t just Peter Jackson who made the Lord of the Rings films so amazing, there was an enormous cast behind it, all making the films so fantastic as they turned out to be.

I was sceptical, being a Lord of the Rings book fan, but the films really did deliver above and beyond expectations. Peter Jackson did himself proud with these films. His King Kong remake gets a nod too as it was a great film, although that is not the primary reason.

The exciting point about this is that The Hobbit films are also being worked on at the moment! I have heard snippets of news here and there on it, such as actors new and returning, but I was glad to learn that Jackson will be back at the helm. Only he can do these films justice, and after Lord of the Rings, I have very high expectations…

A couple of suggestions were Sin City (lots of boobies!!) and Schindlers List. I’m sorry for this, and I’ll probably get a lot of stick for this, but I found Schnidler’s List quite a boring film, and I fell asleep. So I did a bit of Googling, and came across this list, which helped me find my film of choice:

Memento

This film I really enjoyed. It sort of goes backwards and forwards through the story, so you have to concentrate a bit, but I love films like that, because if you do concentrate, you engage with the film more, and I think in turn enjoy the film more. This one has Guy Pearce in a great role and it’s well worth a watch. In HD of course

Definately check it out, and of course check out Sin City if you haven’t (how could you not have seen that??? It’s got lots of boobies in it!)

Yay for boobies!

Rambo

… is a undeniably an awesome ultra-violent film. Well, for people that like guns and silly violence anyway. It’s got to be the choice film for me. Sly Stallone pummelling countless bodies with his lovely big 50 cal (pictured) is pure genius. Senseless, bloody violence.

Some would moan that the plot is weak or whatever, but they don’t quite understand clearly. Rambo isn’t about plot (even though the plot, although not the strongest, does have some ties to real-world situation… daft, I know!). It’s about macho-ism and slick death. If you get squeamish, this ain’t the film for you either. It’s not a slasher in the way the Friday 13th series is, but it’s a different concept. It has lots of guns, an excessively high body count and is great fun to watch. Sly Stallone is brilliant at it, and I think it’s nearly the best Rambo film to be honest, behind First Blood. It’s even better in HD – so make sure you get it on Sky+HD or Blu-ray. Definately a film for a romantic night in with the wench. Whilst clutching your assault rifle. Drinking a cider with AK47 bullet ice cubes.

Bonus prize: Goes to the fantastic 2008 film The Hurt Locker. Although there are so many films I’m starting to think of that I could’ve written about (e.g. LOTR), The Hurt Locker is a fantastic film and very modern. It’s not ultra-violent, but it has a fantastic storyline and Jeremy Renner is fantastic in it. Again, worth a check out on Blu-ray.

Oops forgot yesterday… can see my enthusiasm for this idea fading already and I’m not even 2 weeks in… so here’s a view from my side of the bed anyway…

New tyres fitted!

I don’t know if I’ll keep this up or not but friends of mine (@jaspertandy and @kat_southseamum) have done this. In fact it was Kat starting it on the 1st that prompted me… so a day late I’m going to start my own 365 project, even though it’ll end up probably being 10 or so. But if it does work, it’ll get me back into blogging more regularly maybe!

You must be living under a rock if you’re not caught up in the mayhem that is the lead up to Yule. It’s been manic for us and the worst is yet to come… somehow we have to manage to fit in seeing all the family. We’re going to see my grandparents and Kevin and Juli this weekend which is great – two birds, one Stone (or 4 to be precise…). It’s nice though because my “gy gy’s” love seeing Freyja. It must be quite a feeling being grandparents.. so I can’t blame them really.

Taking of Freyja, she’s been talking more and more and is slowly forming more real-sounding words. If you’ve met her you’ll know that she loves to babble inherently so its reassuring to know she’s starting to learn real words now such as Apple, star, butterfly, and a host of others. I read somewhere that between 18-20 months toddlers learn about 10 new words a day, and I’d say she’s not far off that! She’s still a stroppy madam though.. but she hits us less now though which is good. Putting her in her cot with no toys and the light on (to distinguish from bed time) seems to be doing the trick, and of course is used if there is no other option. Generally a telling off does the trick but sometimes doing that blows things up a bit and some time out is really needed. The joys of parenthood

Of course with Yule coming up we have been stocking up the spare bedroom with presents… you can move in there even less than normal! We’ve preordered a turkey crown from M&S and I’m looking forward to cooking a good dinner…

I don’t really have much else to say to be honest. So… until next time!

Friday I was dead tired after work – it’s been so busy recently as everyone is working really hard at the moment and as always there’s a lot on – keeps me on my toes I suppose! So in the evening we cooked an absolutely gorgeous lamb chop with some veg and chilled in front of the telly.

Saturday was my Aunty Joan’s 50th birthday party so me and Freyja trekked up to Somerset with Sam, Collin and the children. It was lovely seeing everyone although I wasn’t actually at the party too long because Freyja got really grumpy and tired so I took her back to my cousin Katie’s and put her to bed. I wasn’t looking forward to sleeping in the same room as her as last time we did that she screamed the whole night through… but this time she was so much better. She did keep waking up which kept me up for most of the night, and at 6:45am she literally didn’t stop chatting at me for about 30 minutes until I gave in and put her in bed with me, and she fell asleep briefly! Bless her, she’s not done that for ages. Oddly enough, I did have a slight hangover in the morning as well, despite only having 3 cans and a pint, so after the journey home we had more pizza for dinner and I did a bit of work on my current client’s site while Hannah went to work.

Monday was lovely though – I got Hannah a lovely big bunch of Roses which she loved and a nice card, and we went out for a scrummy meal at 8 Kings Road which only had one other table at the time so we pretty much had one waiter, and then they left to so we had the waiter to ourselves! He was an excellent waiter, and I couldn’t fault anything there. The food was fantastic, and I’d definitely go there again.

Tuesday was not quite as posh – Hannah was working, so Phil came over and we scoffed another pizza. However all this pizza does not come without a price. I spent most of Wednesday feeling really ill which lasted all day, and I was even shivering under a double duvet doubled up wrapped up around me… it’s put me off pizza for a while anyway, which is probably a good thing! Even though it is so yummy… In fact, Hannah did a Dominos review recently, so have a read of that link.

So today, as the topic suggests, we went to have a look at Freyja’s pre-school! We turned up just as it was starting so all the kids were just arriving and all playing around. She was really excited, and after a quick chat (and trying to restrain her), she ran along and started playing with the other children which was great to see. When we got home today we went on an epic tidying mission – started in Freyja’s bedroom and swept through the whole house like a hurricane – except instead of destroying everything, it was cleaned! We did pretty well except for the vacuuming didn’t get done, but that can wait. Hannah’s gone out for a drink with her friends now – we had a lovely Tuna steak for dinner and I’m going to get on with some client work now, so until next week!

• Do some my clients site
• Play Fallout: New Vegas
• Cook dinner
• Food shop
• Order Freyja’s main Christmas present
• Sell old mobile
• Do my accounts

Out of that list all I managed to do was do some of my clients site, cook dinner, and Hannah ordered Freyja’s present. It was a productive evening because of doing the website, but everything else was shelved so I left it to the next day…

… which was Wednesday. It was a busy day at work as normal, and we got lazy and ordered pizza for dinner. I did however get to play about 10 minutes of Fallout: New Vegas before we flaked out and went to bed.

Thursday was a day of many deliveries for Hannah. Our new tumble drier came, which has been fantastic in this November Rain (Hah! Music reference…). Freyja’s main Christmas present from me and Hannah arrived as well, a shiny new toy kitchen thing which cost a pretty penny, but hopefully she’ll enjoy. We also had Tesco come, which reminds me, I need to get on with doing the shopping for next week!

Friday wasn’t too eventful (well, it was at work, had a big old meeting to discuss Phones…) – Hannah was working in the evening, so I got some client work done. When getting Freyja ready for bed, the fireworks started of course though. They’re noisy and unavoidable and thankfully didn’t keep her up too much. The great thing is seeing her face when they went off and lit up the sky – I wrapped her up nice and warm and we stood out the front of the house watching quite an impressive home firework display by one of our neighbours. She loved it and pointed and squeaked every time one went off.

Saturday I went shopping for some Christmas bits – big mistake. It was horrendously busy and full of annoying people. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate crowds and the general public, so it was a bit of a nightmare for me. Standing in a shop waiting for them to look up the item because Hannah’s Christmas present happened to not have a price tag and me sweating buckets and Freyja writhing and crying in her pram is really not my idea of a good time. I tried going to town to look at some book shops, but it was crowded, annoying and Freyja started whining so I just had to leave. We had home made Tomato Soup for dinner (I thought it fitting, being fireworks “weekend”), which was scrummy and Freyja loved it too. She loves home cooked food, and I swear she has a “home-cooked-food” detector that makes her not want to eat anything else… she knows what’s good for her at least!

Sunday was awesome – me and 3 others from the Deco got suited, booted, locked and loaded for Russell’s private day at UCAP Virus. Everyone played fairly, I don’t think I even heard anyone utter the words “Take yer f**king hit!!” which was really good. People were being tactical, not being idiots, and I think everyone had a lot of fun. Monday again was uneventful – Hannah worked, and I was shattered so I flaked out and watched crap telly, just like Sunday.

Yesterday me and Freyja went for a trip to our boss Luke’s house for his birthday celebrations and had a canapé evening. Most of the couple of hours I was there was me chasing her around making sure she didn’t smash Luke’s glass cabinets filled with expensive-looking glasses with the pool balls she was throwing around violently… so it was a bit of a relief when she was settled down to bed. On the downside, it looks like I need my car looked at – the orange engine light has come on so I’m going to have to take it in to have the computer checked to see what’s wrong with it. Not that we can actually afford to get it fixed… Gah!

Anyway, I’d better get on with doing the shopping (I love shopping online!), and get Hannah some dinner! Ta ta for now folks, enjoy your week.

Anyway, my Aunt Juli and Uncle Kevin came down to see us (but mostly Freyja), and Sam and Collin and the children came over too and we had a nice afternoon of all 4 children making a mess (that’s Freyja, Finley, Amelie and Uncle Kevin…) of the living room. In the late afternoon after Sam and Collin left we went out for a lovely meal at Water Margin in Portsmouth which is always a winner in my book – I love Chinese food and “all you can eat” Chinese is even better. After we came back and put Freyja to bed I helped Uncle Kevin with his new site, which we managed to smash through his list in a couple of hours with a couple of drinks…

Sunday was nice, we went to the Tenth Hole with Leila, Pete and friends. Hannah absolutely loves this place, but I find it far too busy and I’m really not sure about it. The cakes are nice, but I don’t think they’re that amazing. Still, Hannah enjoyed it which is good, but Freyja does get irritable after a while there because she can’t really run around much.

Monday we were planning to go up to my Grandparents (a.k.a “the Gy Gys”), but alas this was massively delayed by a completely dead car battery. Thankfully a very helpful chap saved the day, first by helping us jump start the car (which failed), and then by taking me to the nearby garage to get a new battery. We are ever so thankful to him, and I doubt he reads this blog, but thank you for your help! Anyway, we made it to lovely Kingsbury Episcopi and had a lovely day and yummy scampi & chips there, and were sent home happy.

Tuesday Phil came over and we typically had Two for Tuesdays pizza night and watched Robin Hood on Sky box office (although not in HD as annoyingly it wasn’t on until 3:30am…?!). It’s not a bad film, but it wasn’t as good as I was hoping. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves really set the bar high for me and I think I was hoping it would be as good as that, but it failed to deliver on my expectations. I suppose as an entirely separate film (which, in fairness it should be) it was good. Worth a watch, but maybe wait until it comes on regular Sky Movies HD if you haven’t seen it yet.

Wednesday I cooked a nice Sausage and Tomato sauce type meal – very simple to do (again, I should probably put the recipe up…) and it was very tasty so Freyja will be having that for dinner tonight – hopefully she’ll like that. I also ordered my new phone, an HTC Desire HD. Unfortunately Thursday morning I was informed it would be delayed… anger ensued… Anyway, Friday they said it was dispatched so I didn’t have to wait too long as it arrived on Saturday morning, woohoo! It’s very shiny.

Saturday, Hannah’s mum came down and I went to see a friend about a website for a bit then ended up in the pub until about 2am… urgh. I felt really hungover Sunday, and I’m not sure why, I didn’t even feel drunk and I had only had 4 pints… so I was pretty useless for the whole day, and really didn’t feel like going out that evening. However later, after a rather overly chillified Pumpkin and Chilli soup, I perked up a bit, and went out with 3 zombie girls who all looked fantastic in their makeup and everything. A fun night was had by all however, and I’m sure you’ll see the pictures on Hannah’s facebook.

Yesterday (Monday), was again knocked out by hangover pretty much and I spent most of the day playing Angry Birds, which I’m addicted to… however Hannah surprised me with a copy of Fallout: New Vegas when she came home from work so I got all excited and may have given it a hug and maybe more… So after I’ve done a bit more of my client’s site tonight I’ll be getting on with that and stealing the telly from Hannah. That brings me up to now, and I should really get some dinner on because I’m hungry.

Until next time my friends…

The lure of prizes and money is the, and when our budget is so tight and doesn’t give us any spending money for ourselves, it can be quite tempting.

However, being a model isn’t easy on the baby. Sure they try and make it as easy as possible, give them breaks, pamper them, let them play and so on, but there is so much travelling to locations or studios and it can be tiring for the little ones. I may have a total misconception of the whole thing, as – to be honest – I’ve not seen how much a baby model does.

However, The risk of stress and losing her sparkle that makes her such a happy little baby is too much for me and Hannah. Freyja means more to me than anything, and I want her to have the best upbringing I can. I want her to make great choices with what she wants to do with her life, and I want her to become proud of what she has achieved. She can’t do that if she’s already born into a life of modelling.

Sure I’d love to see my daughters face on billboards or baby products, and I’d love to have a bit of extra cash, but she is worth so much more than any of that. She’s my little girl, and you can call it being selfish (and it probably is), and I don’t want to share her with anyone but those who love her.

Mine… my precious…

Weeks progress as normal really – go to work, come home, give Freyja dinner, get her ready for bed, put her to sleep, collapse on sofa in front of tellybox. Normally on Tuesdays, Hannah goes to work as well so I’m left to do everything on my own, but there is an upside in that I get to spend time with just me and Freyja which is nice. If she’s in a good mood… She’s been teething lots over the last 7 days or so; her canines are coming through so she’s been mega grumpy recently.

Last Saturday me and Freyja made an impromptu visit to Somerset to see my granny who had just bought a PC (from previously owning a Mac) and couldn’t figure out how to get it connected. So I drove for an hour and a half up and fixed it for her. Things I do! Never mind, it was nice seeing them anyway!

We went to see my skin and blister on Sunday as well which was nice but Freyja was very ill and sicked up all over our car seat! Oh dear, think it was a tummy bug, because I had the same thing on the Tuesday, how annoying. I spent all day in bed sleeping pretty much. A nice change, but I hate being ill as I feel really unproductive and useless… Anyway, a couple of days later and Hannah got it as well as she was sicking up all night, so we all got it in the end.

Friday came and Hannah got all excited as Rob Zombie tickets were released for his tour in February 2011. Needless to say she was on the phone before 9am trying to get tickets. I managed to get them in the end through TicketWeb, so we are going to the gig, hooray!

Tom came down on the Saturday as well, and we had all the good times. We went to Sakura Japanese restaurant which was exceedingly good – I love Japanese food and Sakura was great. Next time I must try their sushi as I had a rice dish (sushi + drinking = bad combination). Sunday obviously was spent being hungover mostly, although I wasn’t too bad – probably because Tom forced me to drink plenty of water before bed – thanks Tom!

And Monday was great too – had Phil over after work, ordered in some pizza and watched Harry Brown which was absolutely 100% fantastic. I’d highly recommend this film to anyone, and is one of the best films I’ve seen for a long time. Brilliant. You can read Hannah’s review on it, which pretty much sums up my thoughts as well. Last night I did some work on a client’s site, and I’d better get on with some more now as Hannah’s at work. C’est la vie!

One article caught my attention (thanks Dan Mullins!) which was written by Mail Online columnist Melanie Phillips. I have never seen such blatant religious prejudice and general bigotry in my life. The entire article demeans Druidism and pagan religions as a whole. I’m clearly not the only one annoyed by this article, here’s a comment I have seen on Facebook (I have taken their name off for privacy, but if you wrote this and would like your name put in please let me know):

That article made my blood boil within the first few paragraphs. I am no religious man by any means but to say that one religion is more deserving of the title ‘Religion’ than another is plain ignorance and more akin to the behaviour of the… witchfinders than it is of any modern open minded human being.

Melanie Phillips attempts to discredit Druidism as a religion and tries to justify her clearly flawed opinion that Druidism is a less worthy religion that Christianity, despite pagan religions pre-dating Judeo-Christian religions.

Lets break this article down bit by bit:

Will someone please tell me this is all a joke.

Wow – what a way to start an article titled “Druids as an official religion? [...]“. It really sets the tone and makes me hate her instantly.

the [Charity] Commission says it accepts that the Druids worship nature and that they also believe in the spirits of places such as mountains and rivers, as well as in ‘divine guides’. This, apparently, makes them qualify as a religion.

Who are you, Melanie Phillips, to qualify anything as a religion? Surely the people that need to do that should not be intolerant of other religions and bigoted.

Can it be long before the BBC transmits Stones Of Praise, or solemnly invites listeners to Radio 4’s Thought For The Day to genuflect to a tree?

This is pointless sarcasm. You could say the same of any official religion.

After all, the Druids don’t do any harm to anyone. What skin is it off anyone else’s nose how they are categorised? Well, it actually matters rather a lot. Elevating them to the same status as Christianity is but the latest example of how the bedrock creed of this country is being undermined. More than that, it is an attack upon the very concept of religion itself.

I’m sorry – Druids are attacking what now? Druids are normal people carrying out their normal lives and those I have met have been very caring, generous people who are tolerant of other religions. And hold on – the bedrock creed? Last time I checked the British Isles have always had a multitude of religions, many of which pre-date Christianity. What about Anglo-Saxon paganism? Bards? Vates? Oh wait, and Druidism as well! Melanie is clearly misinformed about the country she’s living in and it’s history.

If the Druids qualify as a religion, can other cults such as the Scientologists be far behind?

That’s hardly a comparison Melanie! Comparing a small body of beliefs interested in self-help formed in 1952 to a strong unfaltering religion that dates back possibly more than 2200 years ago.

How on earth has our supposedly rational society come to subscribe to so much totally barking mumbo-jumbo?

Melanie, you are clearly misguided about our rational society, and Druidism itself. I’m not sure what is more “totally barking” – believing actual objects that exist have spirits, or believing in something that has been hotly debated to even exist. Not only that, believing that the world was created in 7 days, a virgin gave birth and a dead man came back to life and moved a rock. Religions interest me, and I’m not saying the stuff in the bible didn’t happen, but it’s a lot less believable than “life” flowing throw trees and plants.And finally, the closing paragraph:

Anyone who thinks radical egalitarianism is progressive has got this very wrong. We are hurtling backwards in time to a more primitive age.

So you think no-one should be equal? You might as well go and abuse every other religion and say that Islam, Judaism, Sikhs, and every other religion are making our country a worse place. It’s absolute rubbish and this article is complete tripe. As one of my friends put it, this article “is not worthy of lining our rabbits’ hutches”.

Well, I have put in a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission as well as e-mailing the editorial office of the Mail Online – I think Melanie Phillips owes Druids and pagans in general a good apology. If you feel as strongly as I do about this then I implore you to do the same.

Finally, if you want to read the whole bigoted article, click here.

Update 15:18: Someone has made a petition for an apology from Melanie Phillips – sign it!

Update 16:25: The Press Complaints Commission have received “a number of complaints” about the article and are investigating.

Update 11th Oct 10:06: The petition ended with a healthy 4,187 signatures, and the petition is being walked to the Daily Mail office and the Press Complaints Commission today at midday. Good luck to all those who are attending the walk-in!

Sunday we went to see Tom/Soph/Joss/Luke/Laurie for a lovely schnitzel dinner and to have a bit of banter. It’s always nice seeing them as I don’t get to see “them lot” as much as I’d like to, but it’s so much more difficult organising to come up sometimes. Monday evening Hannah went out for drinks for Mark’s birthday so I was left at home, apparently I was asleep when she came back so whatever was on telly must’ve been interesting… Tuesday she was working so again I was almost left on my own, but thankfully Phil came over and we watched The Hangover which was surprisingly funny and worth a watch for some giggles. Wednesday we had an evening in by ourselves (a rare occurrence now that Hannah’s working many days!) so we spread out on the sofa and watched some telly. Thursday I went to a “focus advisory group” to help Leila formulate some ideas for her new business venture, the Esteem Engine, which looks very promising and I think she wants me to do her website, so that’ll be more work for me to do! Yesterday Hannah was working again so I invited Phil over and we watched a couple of “An Idiot Abroad” episodes over a few beers and curry.

This morning Freyja has been super cute and saying great words such as “teeth”, “cheese”, “daddy” and “mummy”. She can touch lots of parts of her body when asked to as well now – her nose, eyes, ears, teeth, tongue, head, toes and tummy. She’s getting so clever at things, and the other day she built a whole tower out of mega blocks whilst I was at work and being really social with Hannah’s friends’ babies. Unfortunately as it’s the weekend I have to change all the poopy nappies. Today we’re off to get my eyes looked at for suitability for laser eye surgery which will be fun, and tomorrow I’m going airsofting again, woohoo! Roll on tomorrow…

Me and Han proceeded to Oblivion after, which I rate and was much busier than last time we went; we practically walked straight on last time no queueing – twice! We also checked out Submission and Enterprise for once – we normally skip over those as Hannah doesn’t like them for one reason or another, but I swayed her and it wasn’t too bad (and there wasn’t really a queue so didn’t waste much time), apart from on Enterprise, she sat in front of me and squished something that shouldn’t be squished!!

We headed off to the Charlie and Chocolate factory ride after that, which was an “It’s a Small World”-esque water ride with a Charlie and Chocolate factory theme of course, although it noticeably missed the loveable Oompa Loompas for some reason. Freyja really loved it, but the best bit was the ride in the great glass elevator after! A group of riders were put on a hydraulic platform and 3D projections display to give a convincing illusion of the elevator flying around and smashing into things – Freyja absolutely loved it and didn’t stop smiling – lovely!

We went on Rita after (just me and Han of course, Freyja is a little young still…) for a quick thrill and then had some yummy lunch – turkey and ham snammiches and Freyja had some raisins, and we even shared a couple of doughnuts – even Freyja had a few bites. Post-lunch we had to queue for Thirteen as there was no Fast Track available for this annoyingly, so that took about an hour or so. This new coaster was well worth the wait though – at first a fairly standard ride until the cars end up in a derelict wooden shed. The lights darken, and the cars drop vertically, which was a great surprise I was not expecting. A backwards stint followed which added more unexpectedness, and we came back to the station grinning from ear to ear. Certainly worth the queue, although I really wish there was Fast Track for this ride. Whilst we were queuing for Thirteen, Hannah’s mum took little Freyja on Galloper’s Carousel in a little princess carriage, which she apparently loved.

Next followed the all-time-favourite Nemesis, always worth Fast Tracking I think – 10 minutes or so queue and makes queuing for the front seats a little more palatable. As Freyja had fallen asleep on the walk to Nemesis, we took advantage of Han’s mum looking after her and squeezed in the last two rides in one, and got a quick go on Ripsaw in (although came off disappointingly dry) and onto Air, what I like to think of as the “Superman” ride.

We ended up all very weary going back on the monorail, on which Freyja stood on the chair and proceeded to have a little shout at a young couple who sat in the same section as us which amused them slightly. She’s nice and warm, tucked up in bed now and I’m sure she’s zonked out for the count all night. A busy day, but I think everyone had lots of fun. Same time next year, eh?

In other news, we are settling well into our new home and we couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help, especially our lovely parents who have given us guidance and support through everything, so a massive thanks to them! Work is busy as always; it’s keeping me right on my toes and some of the projects we’re working on are really exciting.

Hannah has been doing really good too since we moved back to Portsmouth, she’s making regular visits to new mums she meets on a site called Netmums, and has been visiting lots of play areas in the vicinity such as Krazy Kaves, which Freyja seems to love! I’m planning on booking a day off work one day so we can all go together as it looks like I’d have a lot of fun there too…

All in all, everything has been going really well for us and it’s thrilling watching Freyja growing up and developing such a wonderful personality. Time really is flying and we’re having such good memories – many of which I’ve got on video camera, but I just haven’t had time to sort through all the footage and actually get some videos on YouTube. It’ll happen one day I’m sure…

Browser Distribution

• Firefox – 58.93%
• Internet Explorer – 15.58%
• Chrome – 10.33%
• Safari – 9.64%
• Mozilla – 2.92%

Flash Usage

• 8.31% of visitors do not report to have Flash installed

Operating Systems

• Windows – 55.95%
• Linux – 29.54%
• Mac – 8.61%
• Android – 4.90%
• iPhone – 0.31%
• iPod – 0.17%
• FreeBSD – 0.06%
• Playstation 3 – 0.06%
• Blackberry – 0.02%

Java Support

• Yes – 76.80%
• No – 23.20%

Top 10 Countries Ordered By Visits

Other Figures…

• 1.23 average page views per visit
• 59 seconds average time on site (yikes!)
• 86.51% new visitors versus 13.49% returning visits

On the Freyja side of things, she’s drawing close to 10 months old now and is coming on leaps and bounds. She can make “red indian” noises (patting her mouth and making noise), walk around standing up and holding the furniture, put balls into the “learn and sort” helicopter toy I got her for Yule, crawl around on hands and knees with quite a pace, wave, throw tantrums and all sorts of other bits and pieces.

She’s truly a joy and makes me a very proud parent. She also eats us out of house and home, typically getting through a bowl of porridge and yoghurt for breakfast, a slice of bread with topping and a yoghurt and biscuit for lunch, a snack mid-afternoon, and a bowl of healthy home-made food followed usually by 2 or 3 yoghurts. As you can probably tell, she likes yoghurts, but there’s nothing wrong with that as they’re a good source of calcium as Hannah’s milk starts to deplete.

In other news, it’s Hannah’s birthday soon, so if you haven’t been invited (on Facebook of course…) and you think you should be, get in touch.

One of my niggles (pet hates if you will) about them is their unnecessarily dazzling headlights. I just saw the advert shown on a website and made me think of the title of this blog post…

It confuses my why Lexus thinks these Bi-xenon headlights are at all a good thing? Surely blinding your fellow road users so much that they crash is a bad thing? Aren’t Xenon headlights the ones that look blue from certain angles as well, confusing me that there is police ahead?

So yeah – if you want to blind your fellow users, buy a Lexus. Or a BMW. Or a Mercedes. Or similar car.

Let me quickly explain the top reason why you forwarding an e-mail is my problem.

• Have a look at the e-mail you’re forwarding. Chances are, you’ve included hundreds of people’s e-mail addresses. By forwarding to people and using the “To:” field of your e-mail client, you’re basically giving your e-mail address to everyone else you’re sending that e-mail to. And if that gets forwarded on, and not removing them, those e-mail addresses get sent around the internet. Would you give your telephone number or address to a complete stranger? No? Well STOP GIVING MY E-MAIL OUT. I’ve seen e-mails with literally thousands of e-mail addresses. Were it to fall into the hands of a certain sort of person, that list would make them money.
• You will not get a free laptop if you forward the e-mail on. Bill Gates will not give you any money at all. Your wishes will not magically come true. You will not get good luck. You will not suddenly fall in love. Fairies will not appear and grant you 3 wishes.
• You will piss people off.
• You think you’re being useful by sending on that “latest virus news”? You’re not – you’re fuelling spam which means YOU are just as bad as the VIRUS that you’re trying to warn people about. Protect yourself with anti-virus and anti-spyware software. If you don’t have some, get some here. It’s free, and better than Norton Antivirus Bloatware.
• Warning people about telephone scams? See above.
• Warning people about postal scams? See above.
• “Oh but my gran/mum/sister might not know and I wouldn’t want them to get scammed!!!” Your gran/mum/sister has common sense, and chances are they will have read the e-mail and forgotten about it anyway – scammers are clever and get you to do things like forwarding e-mails – oh whoops! You already did that…
• “I thought I’d send it just in case…” Again – YOU’RE SPAMMING, stop it. There is no reason to forward the e-mail you want to, so stop it.
• It wastes my time, which I could be spending doing something productive, or spending time with my daughter. It also wastes your time.

I’m fed up of it, so please, do me a favour and stop forwarding e-mails – not just to me, but to anyone. By forwarding e-mails, you are fuelling internet spam.

If you continue forwarding e-mails, then don’t you dare moan about how much spam you get.

Do yourself a favour, and if you recieve a forwarded e-mail from someone, send them a link to this article.

We are looking for a graduate who is passionate about the web

This sort of thing in job postings really annoy me. The notion that a degree makes a person better than someone with 3+ years of experience to me is a very narrow-minded way of thinking. Many employers use this sort of thing as a “first line of defence” tactic – to eliminate applicants that are clearly not suited to the job. However, there are many great developers out there with no degree, but many years of experience.

I asked an employee of Headscape about this, and he summarised that he expects they would consider those without degrees. Perhaps because I don’t have a degree it touches a raw nerve with me, because I’ve been very lucky to get where I am.

I got on the “software development ladder” through a good opportunity, because I had zero “years experience” and no degree, and from an employers perspective, a pretty risky option. Because I was given that chance, I now have over 6 years of professional development experience. Others in my 2003 situation might not be so lucky, and because employers require things like degrees, it makes those starter developers chances of getting even a junior job even harder.

It seems an odd concept to me that to get on that ladder, you must spend 4 years at university, wasting money and time, learning what you already know… In this industry* I would disagree that a degree is required, so why do employers still require that candidates have degrees? To me, all a degree does is prove that you can think analytically, but to even learn a programming language properly, you have to think analytically and logically anyway, so surely if you can prove you know the language, you therefore also prove that you can think analytically…

I’d like to see what other people think about this, maybe I’m a minority on this view?

* I specify in this industry because certain other professions, such as medical, I would say that a degree is required.

For those of you who are reading on feed readers or unable to see the image, the text reads:

For your additional security and to protect your personal information we request that you re-enter your password each time you wish to view a page containing your personal details.

This is probably one of the most annoying things I have ever seen on a website. Not only does it force me to enter my password every time I want to look at something (not just once, but EVERY time), it is also a huge accessibility issue. For goodness sake Dixons, have you even considered people who have difficulty using keyboards? Forcing them to enter their password EVERY SINGLE TIME is like making a bank with steps and no ramp for wheelchair users.

Personally I think it is hugely discriminatory to force users to enter their password not just when initially logging in, but every time you want to look at something? Whichever idiot thought of that idea should be shot, and this issue should be fixed immediately.

Sort your website out Dixons – employ someone who actually considers the people who may be using your website.

We had friends over on Saturday – it was nice to actually see some of my friends for once! We’ve learnt that having a baby can make socialising very difficult, and many of the things we used to do are not so easy any more, so it was refreshing that Tom & Soph came over to see us and a good night was had by all!

Yuletide is approaching already, and this year we’re off to Andorra with the family for a skiing trip. Freyja will be a little too young to remember it but I’m sure she’ll love the snow. Unfortunately I’ve learnt that my mum may not be able to ski due to her leg being sore and she’s had an injection and stuff from the doctors, so she needs to take it easy. Although having said that, she’d love to spend every day with her three gorgeous grandchildren!

In other news, I’ve been working hard on a new project of mine which some of you will have heard of. I’m not far from releasing it as public beta version, but more news when that happens. I’d love to commit to saying “Yeah I’ll blog every few days again”, but since Freyja was born my life has pretty much entirely evolved around her (of course!) which leaves me very little time – and the spare time I do have I spend watching films with Hannah! I will see if I can blog more frequently, as some of you have complained to me for not blogging so much and letting it fill up with tweets…

The popular opinion seems to be either health & safety, or cutting back on costs. I’d probably go with the former as some numpty parent probably tried to sue some cereal maker for trying to bring a bit of joy into a child’s life…

Anyway, I sent messages to Kellogg’s and Nestlé via their websites, and I actually got a (rubbish) response from Nestlé’s consumer relations department…

Dear James

We have taken the decision to move away from offering promotions that directly appeal to children. However, we continue to offer promotions which can be taken advantage of and enjoyed by the whole family, like our Go Free promotion.

We hope you will continue to buy Nestle cereals and take up some of our exciting offers lined up for next year.

Kind Regards

<name removed>

Consumer Relations

That’s not really an answer as such, which could be interpreted as them avoiding the topic entirely…

I have not yet had a response from Kellogg’s on the matter either…

Update 6th Oct 2009:

Kellogg’s responded! With a much more useful answer:

Dear Mr Titcumb

Thank you for your e-mail. The reason that we no longer have the inserts inside the packets  is because of a change in Government guidelines in Advertising and Marketing to children.

If you want to have a look at our current sites Headstarters, they are available at www.kelloggs.co.uk and I hope you enjoy them.

In the mean, time thanks very much for your interest.

If you have any further questions that I can help you with please let me know.

Kind Regards
<name removed>
Customer Service Representative

So basically – it is Labour’s fault.

Seeing the lifeless infant after the accident, the motionless stare, was just horrible to watch.

Warning: This video is not suitable for minors!

This video is just a dramatisation, but is a realistic representation of what could happen if you use a mobile phone whilst driving. Watch it, and maybe you’ll think twice…

Pick your Artist: Bal Sagoth

Are you a male or female:
- Enthroned in the Temple of the Serpent Kings

Where do you live:
- Into the Silent Chambers of the Sapphirean Throne (Sagas from the Antediluvian Scrolls) / Valley Of Silent Paths

How do you feel:
- Beneath the Crimson Vaults Of Cydonia

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
- In search of the lost cities of antarctica

Your favorite form of transportation:
- Shackled To the Trilithon of Kutulu

Your best friend is:
- The Hammer Of The Emperor

Favorite time of day:
- Star-maps of the Ancient Cosmographers

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called?
- The splendour of a thousand swords gleaming beneath the blazon of the hyperborean empire (Part III)

What is life to you:
- The sixth Adulation of his Cthonic Majesty

Your fear:
- The Fallen Kingdoms of the Abyssal Plain

What is the best advice you have to give:
- Blood Slakes The Sand At The Circus Maximus

How I would like to die:
- And Atlantis Falls…

My motto:
- A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria

Anyway, this year I’m looking forward to seeing some great bands, including Carcass, Katatonia, Saxon, Apocalyptica, Blind Guardian, Enslaved, Amon Amarth, Anathema, Europe, Satyricon and Turisas. It also means I get to finally update The Metal Page!

Last weekend we spent outdoors with her at a couple of picnics (one of which was my nephew Finley’s birthday!) which was really nice and so she got to see some friends and family. We’re keeping in touch with my parents in France via webcam which is great, and she gave them a smile the other morning which was really nice to see. If you’ve been following my tweets, you’ll know that she’s already smiling and laughing. At the moment most laughs turn into hiccups, but there is the odd time (normally when I’m at work, damnit!) that she does a proper laugh. I managed to catch her doing it this morning which was so awesome to see.

It’s a busy and hectic life at the moment, and I rarely get a chance to do anything for myself, but she is totally worth it.

Again, we start with installing the LAMP stack if you haven’t done so already:

sudo tasksel install lamp-server

So now you’ve got your LAMP stack up and running, lets download the latest SVN tag of Zend Framework. At the time of writing, the latest stable is 1.8.1, which I’ll use here. If you want to check for the latest version, visit http://framework.zend.com/svn/framework/standard/tags/ in your browser, and the last folder is the one you want. If you want stable full releases, ignore the RC/PR versions. So, once you’ve determined the version you want, we’ll check out the release:

cd /opt
sudo mkdir ZendFramework
sudo svn co http://framework.zend.com/svn/framework/standard/tags/release-1.8.1/

It is likely you’ll need to use sudo for these commands as /opt is owned by root by default. You’ll see a big long list of files being checked out, and once that’s done you’ll have a new folder appropriately named “release-1.8.1″. Create a soft link called “current” to the release folder so you can change the default included Zend Framework version without restarting Apache in the future:

sudo ln -s release-1.8.1 current

You can stop there if you like, and manually add the include path into your PHP scripts using set_include_path. However, if you would like the current Zend Framework included automatically, then continue by opening /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini in your favourite editor. Add the path to your include_path list. For example, if your current include_path is (and this is the default):

include_path = ".:/usr/share/php5:/usr/share/pear"

Then change it to:

include_path = ".:/usr/share/php5:/usr/share/pear:/opt/ZendFramework/current/library"

All you need to do now is restart Apache:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

In the future, if you wish to change to a new default Zend Framework version (for example 1.8.2), then just check out the SVN directory and change the soft link. You won’t even have to restart Apache, and the changes will take effect immediately! For example:

sudo svn co http://framework.zend.com/svn/framework/standard/tags/release-1.8.2/
sudo rm current
sudo ln -s release-1.8.2 current

Now to initialise a new Zend Framework project using Zend_Tool, we need to set up paths and so on for your command line. If you haven’t already, you need to install the CLI (Command Line Interface) for PHP:

sudo apt-get install php5-cli

Once that’s installed, we need to add the Zend Framework’s bin directory to the path. First lets add the framework path to the CLI’s php.ini. Do the same php.ini modification as above but in /etc/php5/cli/php.ini.

Edit your ~/.bashrc or /etc/profile (or wherever you’d like to add the path) and add this line:

PATH=/opt/ZendFramework/current/bin:"${PATH}"

To check this is all working properly, you can:

zf.sh show version

If you see the above output, then Zend Framework is successfully setup. For more information about Zend_Tool and how to set up a new Zend Framework 1.8.x project, read the documentation.

You can keep up to date with the latest Zend software, then just subscribe to their RSS feed!

Basically, you talk like an HTTP server (not specifically Apache, but “Apache” was similar to “A pirate”…). If you need help, here are some responses you can give people to confuse them.

Other ideas could be borne from this, such as Talk Like an MTA Day, or Talk Like SSH Day. I expect the later would have to be encrypted though…

Just imagine the conversation anyway:

You: Hi James, how are you?

Me: 200 OK

You: What?

Me: 304 Not Modified

You: I don’t understand…

Me: 304 Not Modified

You: You’re such an idiot…

Me: 400 Bad Request

Unfortunately due to a large amount of blood loss (from Hannah, not the baby!), Hannah and Freyja have been kept in overnight, which means I am home alone tonight with my thoughts and experiences on this truly lifechanging thing.

I will certainly never forget the first time I saw Freyja’s hair appearing, or when the head was born, or the cutting of the umbilical cord. I’m not exactly squeemish so I got stuck right in with everything I could, but of course mainly supporting Hannah the best I could.

I also would like to send a rather large hat tip to our absolutely fantastic midwife, and the rest of the staff in the labour suite. She did an astounding job at calming Hannah, keeping myself and Hannah up to date with the happenings, and surprisingly – for an NHS hospital – attentiveness was excellent, and for most of the time we felt like we had her [the midwife] to ourselves! Unfortunately we didn’t get the planned water birth at Blakes in Gosport, but all that matters is that both Hannah and our gorgeous daughter are OK, and for that I am truly thankful.

Well, I have sheets to change so I must get on – I am so tired and can hardly function, and I have to be up early tomorrow to visit Hannah at the hospital. So, until next time…

Can I just say how outstanding I think this game is? I was glued to my 360 for the entire weekend playing it as for once I decided to nothing at all. The graphics are perfect, the storyline is awesome, and the sheer amount of detail is unimaginable!

Like other Bethesda games, it’s hugely overwhelming the amount of stuff one can do, and I highly recommend the strategy guide, especially for setting up your character at the moment. It tells you things you wouldn’t think of, like the fact Lockpick is probably the most important skill in the entire game if you want any decent rewards (much to my annoyance, I didn’t read this prior to creating my character). The quest guides are pretty much walkthroughs, so if you prefer to play, just use the strategy guide as reference, although there are some good hints and tips (such as there’s only one way to get Three Dog’s cache).

Anyway, back to the game instead of the strategy guide… As I mentioned earlier, the storyline for this is just awesome, but I think the reason for that is because the story is so flexible and you can make it as dynamic as you want. For most of the part (excluding quests like Tranquillity Lane etc.) you’re given the freedom to do what you want, when you want. For a casual gamer such as myself, that is an enormous tick in the “pro’s” column.

The thing I love the most about this game is how engaged you can or can’t get. It’s good to play for 15 minutes; you can mess around blowing stuff up and hiring prostitutes, or you can play it for hours and get really involved, and often very sidetracked from what you were doing originally. Add to this the most important value in video games (that I haven’t seen pulled off effectively since the days of Elite and Monkey Island): awesome logic and literal puzzles. From the downright obvious (Prime’s Puzzle for example) to hacking those terminals if you don’t have the password, which require a little thought.

Fallout 3 really has done it for me, and I’m loving it. Not since the days of my Amiga 500 have I felt this engaged in a video game. Yeah, you can have COD4 and all your shooty crap where the objective is clear (point gun and shoot) and the storyline is weak at best, and by no means can you not just point and shoot in Fallout 3… but this game gives you the tools to go so much further than that and really get into it.

Hell I’m not even a big fan of futuristic sci-fi, I prefer a good fantasy theme any day, but this post-nuclear 50′s theme demonstrating total armageddon upon Washington D.C. and surrounding area is just irresistible to even the casual RPG fan when presented to you in such eye-candy graphics. As you might realise by now, I really love this game, and if you’re a fan of RPGs I highly recommend you pick yourself up a copy of this if you haven’t already – and even if you’re not a fan, play it round a mates and you might just like it and get yourself one.

And honest ‘guv, I’m not sponsored by Bethesda!

I will publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same.

Here is mine, and although I didn’t have to think very hard about who to post about, I still admire her more than anyone in the world.

Hannah is 39 weeks and 1 day pregnant today, and she’s still working hard at Netbasic. She’s not exactly a pro programmer, but she’s learning so quickly. From knowing nothing at all about HTML or CSS or Photoshop, she’s come forwards in leaps and bounds with the help of everyone here. It’s certainly not easy for her, she gets aches and pains all day, Braxton Hicks contractions, extremely painful kicks, and all sorts. She’s under the weather, tired and very drained, yet somehow she is carrying on, she’s still working hard and creating pages that are helping keep the company going!

I suppose this is just my way of saying how proud I am of her, and how awesome she is.

Disclaimer: Read the linked page and you’ll see it’s actually a completely different story. It could’ve been any console controller there… except for Wii’s, because clearly you won’t die fat using one of them…

I actually agree with the ASA in this instance, I think the advert is suitably fitting. It doesn’t mean you’ll die playing computer games, it’s more of a generalisation that sitting on your bum all day watching TV and generally not being active could lead to obesity or health problems.

The message I get from that advert is that my 15/20 minute walks are good, and if anything I should be getting more active!

I’ll have to go further afield to find a dentist, and it still isn’t going to be free. Last time I had a tooth pulled it cost about £100 on the NHS. That’s not a pretty sum. I also had a quick Google and found this Daily Express article. Clearly, NHS dentistry in the UK is abysmal. Why can’t it be free like medical services? I pay income tax and National Insurance – so what makes teeth so special? No wonder most people allow their teeth to rot away – they’d rather have that then pay the stupid NHS prices.

Perhaps we should start getting dental insurance…?

Pregnancy would be so much easier if we knew exactly when baby was coming… we still wait!

Help Secure Jacks Place @ Naomi House

Once again Sii is running everywhere in an effort to make himself fit enough for another sponsered marathon.

This time, he’s trying to raise money for jacksplace@naomihouse. Naomi House provide respite care, terminal care and bereavement support for children, young people and their families. Netbasic organised a trip last year to visit the hospice, and it’s really good to see what a fantastic job they are doing there.

Jack’s Place is a multi-million pound project to create an entire new building to provide support for young people. Because of the financial crisis,  Naomi house, like many charities, are currently going through a really hard time – they have a huge amount of funds at risk in the bank – and are campaigning to secure the funds that the hospice rely on to keep giving support for children with life-limiting and terminal illnesses.

Radio 4 will be airing a programme called Seven Days tonight at 8pm, which I hope will raise awareness for Naomi House’s campaign.

In the mean time you can help right now by sponsoring Sii’s run – it’s for a really good cause and your donation really will be appreciated, and will go towards buying a door that will allow the young people to go where they please, see their friends, or pop out in the garden for some fresh air – just like you and I can whenever we want.

Help Secure Jacks Place @ Naomi House

It fustrates me though when people (even an established name like Intel) are trying to lower the cost of laptops (or in this case Ultra Low Voltage technology) such as the Macbook Air when, even at reduced prices, most consumers still can’t afford them, and lenders still can’t afford to give out credit. All they’re doing is reducing the value of these laptops and (although ULV tech is a bit expensive even for the current climate) making them almost a “cheap” alternative to a decent laptop. Essentially, the market won’t be stimulated until people have money again. How that happens isn’t really my area of expertise.

In my personal situation, I can afford repayments on a laptop but no-one will give me credit in these “exciting” 0.5% base rate times. That means I won’t be getting a new laptop any time soon.

Now is the time I really wish I was one of those fat cat execs with $1.2 million bonuses after 5 months of work. I want a new laptop, damnit!

Just 6 more days and we’ll be full term, which basically means I will become Daddy James very soon. We are both going to her antenatal appointment (nice and early, 8:45am) tomorrow morning, and Sunday we’ll be checking out Blakes Birthing Centre in Gosport, hopefully where the birth will take place.

So… it is just a matter of time… more news as it comes!

If all required Diablo 2 ‘.MPQ’ files are installed on the hard drive, the game will no longer require the CD to play.

For users that originally performed a ‘Full Installation’ and wish to run without the CD, all ‘.MPQ’ files should be copied from the Diablo 2 CDs to the Diablo 2 directory. Most users will only need to copy D2Music.mpq from the Diablo 2 Play CD and/or D2xMusic.mpq from the Lord of Destruction CD. Mac users will need to copy these music files and rename them to ‘Diablo II Music’ and ‘Diablo II Expansion Music’ respectively.

Anyone who did not perform a ‘Full Installation’ will need to re-install from CD again to ultimately play without the CD. In this case, a ‘Full Installation’ is required, followed by file copy step noted above.

Which basically means, the need for a No-CD crack is no longer required for playing Diablo 2, wahey! I suppose the reason for that is beacuse they’ve made Diablo 2 and Starcraft available on their Blizzard Store for download to play, meaning that some users simply don’t have a CD to use. I never used a No-CD crack myself as I had my own copy of the game (I say this with sincerity!), but I know a fair few people who did – probably due to Diablo 2 being one of the best games ever.

I really hope Diablo 3 lives up to my extremely high expectations, and is worth the wait. In the mean time, I shall have to settle for a cool shirt*.

* Anyone notice that Blizzard’s site is entirely XSLT? How cool is that! I might learn me some of that…

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? King James and King Edward.
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Last time I had a few too many drinks I expect
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Depends how neatly I decide to write, but I prefer to type
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Salami or Antipasto
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Nearly! Due 30th March.
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yeah, I’m loveable and awesome…
7. DO YOU USE SARCASM? Yes, I love it
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Probably, yes
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Strawberry crisp stuff, but it’s so expensive
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No
12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Phish Food
13. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their face
14. RED OR PINK? Black – blacker than the blackest black times infinity.
15. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I can be very stubborn and react before thinking
16. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Hannah, Family and the Frosthold guys
17. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST? I don’t tag people. If they want to fill it out, they will.
18. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Black & Blue
19. WHAT GOALS DO YOU HAVE FOR 2009? Bring up our baby as best I can, and generally enjoy life.
20. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Burzum – Hliðskjálf… it’s a good atmospheric album, I like it.
21. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? I dunno.. red or something.
22. FAVORITE SMELLS? Fresh bedsheets, pesto or most things being cooked.
23. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? The service department at Peugeot Hamble to tell me the car has passed it’s MOT and is ready to be picked up.
24. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Anything involving people dying…
25. HAIR COLOR? Brown
26. EYE COLOR? Brown
27. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Yes, every day, dailies.
28. FAVORITE FOOD? Pesto dishes, and creamy dishes like home-made Chicken & Mushroom Pie or my Philly pasta, or pork loins, done most ways, preferably with some home-made crackling. Yum!
29. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Scary movies WITH happy endings, otherwise I have to watch a happy film after otherwise I get scared.
30. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? The first half of The Sum of All Fears on Film4 last night before I got tired, had a shower and went to snuggle with Hannah.
31. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Frosthold shirt!
32. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer, except when there’s snow!
33. HUGS OR KISSES? Both
34. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? I don’t tag people.
35. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? I don’t tag people.
36. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Php|architect’s Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide
37. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Mouse pads are GAY
38. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? The Sum Of All Fears
39. FAVORITE SOUND(S)? Metal and Hannah
40. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Neither – I’m just not a fan of either, sorry.
41. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? California or Whistler or Egypt – not sure which is furthest.
42. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? I’m a loyal friend – something that lacks in many people these days.
43. WHERE WERE U BORN? Fareham – Blackbrook Birthing Centre to be precise, which is now shut.
44. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? Meh.
45. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER? Drunk at house party, yay!

1. Put your music library on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write that song title as the answer to the question, no matter how silly it sounds! Most of the time they seem to work though, strangely enough.
4. Ok, go!
5. When you’re done, tag 20 people in this note, and make sure to tag the person who sent you this. The answer to #20 is the Title of your note.

1) IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OK?” YOU SAY?
The Amen Corner (Opeth)

2) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Atrum Regina (Dark Funeral)

3) WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Waking Up Blind (Evergrey)

4) HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Pyschopathologist (Carcass)

5) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
No Strings Attached (Skyclad)

6) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Sea Wolf (Bathory)

7) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Decade of Therion (Behemoth)

8.) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Chimera (Mayhem)

9) WHAT IS 2+2?
Tomorrow Belongs to Nobody (Carcass)

10) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Land of the Miracle (Edguy)

11) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
The Star-Spangled Banner (Iced Earth)

12) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
The Pilgrim (Iron Maiden)

13) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Into Battle (Ensiferum)

14) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Annihilation of a Hammerfest (Amon Amarth)

15) WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Clouds (Enslaved)

16) WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Under the Ice (Blind Guardian)

17) WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
At The Left Hand Ov God (Behemoth)

18) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Psychotic Precision (Cannibal Corpse)

19) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Under The Northern Star (Amon Amarth)

20) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Soul Burn (Meshuggah)

Type ONLY one word answers.

It’s harder than you think!! Here is what you are supposed to do…and please don’t spoil the fun…copy and paste into your own note, type in your answers and tag people.

Where is your cell phone?
Desk

Your hair?
Brown

Your father?
Awesome

Your favorite thing?
Hannah

Your dream last night?
Forgotten

Your favorite drink?
Mead

Your dream/goal?
BABIES

The room you are in?
Office

Your fear?
Death

Where do you want to be in 6 years?
Stable

Muffins?
Chocolate

One of your wish list items?
Certification

Where you grew up?
Fareham

The last thing you did?
PHP

What are you wearing?
Clothes

Your TV?
On

Your pets?
Dead

Your computer?
Huge

Your life?
Shiny

Your mood?
Hungry

Missing someone?
Yes

Your car?
Outside

Favorite store?
Amazon

Your summer?
Child

Your favorite color?
Red

When is the last time you laughed?
Today

Last time you cried?
Dunno

Three people who email me?
Sii, Chris, Jon

Three of my favorite foods?
Pesto, Bacon, Pork

Three places I would rather be right now?
Home, Bed, France

Three people I think will respond?
Dunno, Dunno, Dunno

Well that really wasn’t that hard…

I think it’s rather fetching personally… Hannah disagrees, but I don’t see her with a fancy customised Twitter page…

Probably because you always lose… “sorry, you’ve been declined…”

Unfortunately that means we can’t get the new shiny laptop we wanted…

Still, I made it to Netbasic this morning, and so did most of the office aside from Chris (stranded by trains – why have they not invented self-heating train lines that defrost??), and Sii (who lives on a hill which I expect is pretty frozen…).

Woot for snow!

We’ve had a really nice weekend; Friday evening was spent at Casson’s Restaurant in Tangmere near Chichester, and Saturday night was a yummy dinner with Tom & Sophia. Between Hannah and me, we managed to cook a pesto salmon en croûte and a very messy but sweet strawberry cheesecake; both courtesy of Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food book, which I highly recommend to anyone wanting to begin cooking. I warn you, the recipes do have slightly more expensive ingredients, but it’s well worth the extra pennies!

So here’s to the final 8 weeks!

• Amelie, my newborn niece is doing great (born 23rd December 2008!)
• Christmas was fantastic, we had a mountain of presents both at Hannah’s mums and at my sister’s, including a one-of-500 pressing of Primordial – Dark Romanticism on picture vinyl, Fallout 3 (at last!), COD5, a high-definition video camcorder and several other awesome presents.
• We spent £500 on kitting out the nursery – it’s looking awesome, and the last piece is the wardrobe, arriving tomorrow.
• I made my first Jamie Oliver recipe yesterday, a Chicken and Leek stroganoff – very yummy
• I made my first home-made loaf of bread yesterday, and it beats shop-bought bread hands down. So easy as well!
• I went to our “local” pub, the Parson’s Collar on 28th with the Frosthold guys, not bad. Very drunk.
• We played Munchkin Quest for the first time on the 29th. Very cool!
• Frosthold played a cracking gig at the Wedgewood Rooms on the 30th, as well as releasing our new CD, called When Brothers Fought In Arms… see the Frosthold website for details on how to buy a copy!
• I made a new Frosthold website incorporating the new artwork, and also in OO PHP5 instead of the old top-down PHP4 the original one was written for.
• We had a 4D scan of the baby yesterday. We determined it is 99% a girl, but she was so curled up with her hands and legs over her head that we couldn’t get a good 4D image – we rebooked for next week!

If I went into much more detail I’d make an enormous blog post, so I’ll leave it at that, but I promise I’ll start blogging more!

Hannah has this to look forward to in just a few months time…

Personally, I can’t wait!

The rather annoying thing is that it will be quite useful to get baby furniture, so despite being a big blue blob on Southampton’s horizon, it will actually be useful…

And in other news, I’m definately turning into a father… I have a Mothercare Mothercard now.

This is proof there are far too many iPhone Users.

This is what I got, and technically it’s not for me, it’s for the baby, but it’s an awesome little baby-gro.

It really hits home that in a little over 3 months, I’m gonna be a daddy.. and I just don’t feel prepared yet… but then I’m not sure what I have to do to feel prepared either.

Maybe kitting out the nursery and getting more baby things in the house will help a bit, so we’ll just have to wait for Christmas to see what Santa brings us this year.

Admittedly, this wasn’t the first snow of the year, because that was back in April, an that was much heavier.

Anyway, we went into work this morning only to find that I was being sent home due to the deadly Manflu virus that I caught – probably from my little nephew Finley!

So today, I’m working at home, and I’m having a little rest for lunch, whilst constantly increasing the thermostat temperature so it doesn’t get too cold. It’s back to the office tomorrow as I’ve been invited to a mysterious meeting in which I have to tell someone how to make a tracker… that could be interesting…

Basically, it’s a hammock for babies, and we decided to get one (with the help of Mum & Dad of course!) for our little one-on-the-way.

Despite the instructions being written in badly translated Chinese or Japanese or something, we managed to put it together alright. Just gotta tighten a bolt on top, and it’s done.

In fact, in 4 days, the baby becomes what doctors call “viable” meaning that if for some unexpected reason, she gives birth really early, then the baby is likely to survive.

Still, that’s a worst case scenario, and of course we hope everything goes to plan and as “normal” so to speak.

This year we’ve got the fortune of my parents being in the country, so we’ll be having two Yuletides this year, woot! All the more drink!

In fact, in the office, I’m the only one who actually bothered doing anything remotely Christmassy, having put up some black tinsel (or “tack” as Hannah calls it) around my monitors.

Ah well, at least I made an effort! Even though I’ll be spending most of Christmas day waiting for and then playing Fallout 3… and drinking…

Indeed, next year, everything will be different as we’ll have a little 9-month-old child crawling (or maybe walking!) around. I can’t wait to be honest!

We dragged out an old favourite, but varying a little with the Here and Now UK Edition of Monopoly. Playing reminded us both of why we never play it, because it’s such a long game, and boy it drags. Hannah eventually gave up trying and I managed to settle hotels on half the board and own the rest of the board… which I suppose is the aim of the game really.

Fun nevertheless, but it’s off to bed for me, ready for another busy week in the office… and a whole new week’s worth of Twitter updates.

• Grab the nearest book.
• Open it to page 56.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
• Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Similarly, a class that wraps an HTTP request (including headers, response codes, and so on) has only one instance per request.

The book that was nearest to me was Advanced PHP Programming by George Schlossnagle (ISBN 0-672-32561-6).

For those unable to really understand these ultrasound scan jobbies, the head is on the left facing the screen, and the larger right hand blob is the upper torso. The whiter line at the bottom, and the tiny little paw-print looking thing is it’s hand.

This photo is actually from the second scan over 2 days – we had a regular 20 week scan yesterday, and the sonographist spotted that the kidneys were slightly larger than normal. We doubt it will be anything major, but we were referred to a consultant we saw this morning to check the scan in more detail. The placenta is a bit low, so we’ll be having a 32 week scan, and possibly even a 36 week scan as well… we’ll see.

The other thing we got from the scan is our initial suspicion that it’s a boy may indeed be wrong – neither the sonographer yesterday or the consultant today could find any winkies, and today it was in a very good position for checking. The rather annoying thing about that is that we’ll have to think of a girls name (on which we have still not agreed, and probably never will, heh!). Freyja is a name we both seem to like at the moment… but we shall see!

The scan to the left is indeed our baby at 12 weeks and 2 days old, and at that point, he was just 6cm big. By this time I think he’s nearly twice that, and Hannah’s bump is getting bigger by the day (although still hardly noticable to the casual onlooker).

In addition to the random posts about Airsoft, Frosthold, and general computer-related bits, it’s pretty likely I’ll have a baby category, and this is the first post. Cheers!

We’re pretty sure it’s a boy, but we’ll find out at the 20 week scan with a bit more certainty. If it is a boy, we’ve decided on the name, and if it’s a girl, we haven’t. And we probably won’t. So it’ll be called “Baby Girl” heh.

LOLCODE:

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
IM IN YR LOOP
	UP VAR!!1
	VISIBLE VAR
	IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10? KTHXBYE
IM OUTTA YR LOOP

KTHXBYE

or maybe Whitespace…

Any thoughts?

A chap I work with, Sii, is doing the Bupa Great South Run jobby, and he’s trying to raise £500 for the Alzheimer’s Society.

Show your support and donate here: http://www.justgiving.com/siicockerill

Funny, but sort of worrying… I found this on Geekologie, and they got it from someone evidently named Claire.

I am running for the presidential elections:

Click here to view a news story about it.

Clicky McClick Here

And now the fail, I don’t really need to say too much about this one, except that they’ve realised the mistake they made, and have now renamed it to “Touch Dictionary”.

Well its Monday morning again, I’m back at work, and Chris has given me some kind of lung death throat destroying illness. I’ve sorted through the barrage of spam e-mail and general rubbish that arrives in my Inbox over the weekend, revealing that there are actually no e-mails worth reading.

I’m not the only one who is ill though, Chris was the originator, and he’s passed it onto Sii, Jon and myself. In turn I’ve passed it onto Hannah, and its likely Jon has passed it onto Jake has he had a lift this morning. What makes this worse, in a matter of minutes, we’ll all be going into our weekly meeting and spreading the lung death throat destroying illness even further.

Have a look at the Element Four website for more info! I’m also interested in finding out how much this thing costs…

Update [4th Oct]:

I e-mailed the company asking for more info, and where it will be distributed in the UK, and aboute the solar version. The response was that it can be run of a 600 Watt solar panel, and it will retail at $1299.00 (I assume Canadian, about £680 Sterling) and be available February 2009. Nothing specific was said about UK distribution, but £680 is a hell of a lot to shell out, as well as buying a 600W solar panel… it’s definately a long term investment, and as I’m still in rented property, I doubt I’ll be getting anything like this any time soon!

Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don’t change your clothes. Don’t fix your hair. Just take a picture.
Post that picture with no editing. (Except maybe to get the image size down to something reasonable. Don’t go posting an eight megapixel image.)
Include these instructions.

Don’t I look a happy bunny! My beard is also a bit skwiff today, eep! And for anyone who is wondering, yes those are Team Fortress 2 posters on the wall, and no, they weren’t my choice.

I’m trying to monetize it a bit to cover the cost of hosting for my various websites, but now that my Matched.co.uk ads are paying out quite well, I’m considering dropping them to help make the site look a bit cleaner. I am earning a very small amount from the Adsense units, but I think it might be better to just get rid of them for a nice clean site look…

What do people think… obtrusive? Shall I get rid of them? Or keep them?… I wonder…

I hope that Blizzard try a bit harder to make it not just another World of Warcraft-style game, and give Diablo 3 a really good dark and realistic look and feel. I hope they make it so grim and foreboding that it receives an M (for Mature) rating, not some pansy T (for Teen) rating.

All I have to quench my thirst for Diablo 3 until probably next year is some screenshots, the Gameplay video, and this beautiful Cinematic teaser/trailer…

Oooh… nice

The Satnav took us to a seafront road, where we parked and walked up to the parallel road above. We walked along there for some time, until we thought “nah, it can’t be along here…” so turned back, and got in the car. We drove towards the city centre and found a venue, which turned out to be the Engine Rooms, not the Concorde 2. So we turned around and followed their directions right back to where we first were, and had we have driven a little further down the road we would’ve found it the first time…

Anyway, we got into the venue after a little wait in a ticket queue to pick up our tickets, and ordered a fine glass of cider (or should that be “plastic of cider”?). I fully appreciated the outside smoking area (I love this venue just for that), and while Ben checked out the first band (Trigger the Bloodshed), I had a quick fag. The sound was pretty atrocious, I couldn’t hear any guitars, just bass, kick drum and the odd vocal line. I got a few photos (see my Facebook), but I was never sure if I liked them or not due to the bad sound…

A fag and coke later (driving, ya see?), and Meshuggah cracked open the can of fury. The place was rammed near the front, and I hazarded getting nearer to take some pictures. Some succeeded, but I was ill-placed in the inner ring of the “mosh pit”, so I got a bit battered. After a few pictures, I barged my way to the back and started enjoying the gig where I could watch the band without huge drunk men ramming into you… it was an enjoyable set, a little too loud for the venue maybe, and the sound wasn’t a huge improvement on Trigger the Bloodshed. Still, it was Meshuggah and they were top notch, and with a close down of Future Breed Machine, it was home time… or so I thought.

We hung around outside the tour bus waiting for the band, we managed to chat to Mårten Hagström for a bit and Ben got a picture. Ben (in the drunken state he was) wanted to stay and meet Fredrik Thordendal, so we waited in the rain for about half an hour until he came out. We got a snap each, and Ben drivveled on for a few minutes about how he loves Fredrik, and finally we set off home in the pouring rain. Multiple floods and several aquaplanes later, we were home and tired, and I drove back home to settle down in nice warm bed.

This petition aims to level the playing field a bit, and allow some venues to allow smoking, perhaps even in certain areas divided from the main area. I think the idea of allowing a certain number of venues to have a smoking license would be a good idea because it gives the owners of the pubs freedom of choice. Even if one or two pubs in each area allowed smoking, it would give smokers the freedom of to smoke where they want, within the boundaries of not affecting people who don’t want to be around second hand smoke.

All I’m saying really, is that I think the odd pub would benefit having allowed smoking. I expect their business would boom, and the non-smoking pubs would fail – thus proving once more that the smoking ban itself did indeed damage the entertainment industry a little.

I think the petition is fair to both smokers and non-smokers, so I feel I should encourage you to have a look and sign it if you agree:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/smokinglicenses/

* Apart from the odd few who moan about smoking on the street or in beer gardens – jeez, give us a break!!