Adam's Blog

iPod Touch

2007-10-02T17:33:00.001+01:00

Nice. So one day late after launch I get my hands, and finger prints on a new iPod touch, to keep me sweet until the iPhone is out, but also to help on a 14hr flight to Thailand next week.

Gotta say, first play I love it. The interface is just lovely to use. Especially after using the shitty jerky bug-ridden interface on the N95. I haven't properly set it up yet, but the few photos, tunes and vids I have put on there look amazing. The touch zoom interaction works so naturally, I even think my Nan could use it.

The gimp in me ensured the WiFi was configured and working as a priority, after which I chose to watch YouTube on a 4inch display while sitting in front of my computer. Gotta love watching steaming videos from your hand. Trips to the toilet have remained frequent throughout the day.

At last!

2007-04-08T20:00:00.001+01:00

Carrera 4S

Well, after 4 weeks of waiting for Hans 'sitting on' Fritz to send over a simple spring from Germany, I decided to give up on the GT3.

This pretty much worked out for the best, given that everyone I've been within a 5 mile range of since last month has told me it was a stupid idea. Buying a track car to sit on Woking ring road for hours on end is pretty much like going out with Jordan to capitalise on her vocab for intense games of Scrabble.

Anyhow, this little beauty came on the market on Friday night, and was duly purchased by noon the next day. Although a little slower than the GT3, it has absolutely every extra going for it. Much more practical for everyday use. Ah, you gotta love it when you have the ability to convince yourself that spending every penny you've ever earnt on a car is actually considered practical. It's all about points of reference!

So, I drove it back from the dealers and actually fell in love. I didn't realise there was this extra element to driving, actual pleasure at every twist and turn, and this has nothing to do with speed, more down to the way it handles. Its 4WD and is pretty much on rails as you take it round a bend at full pelt. Although getting up to 60 in the time it takes to shit your pants is also fucking cool.

Being a closet geek, the technical stuff got me just as excited, the built in phone, satnav, actual computer, BOSE sound system, etc... The geek police stopped me only a few clicks away from texting Twitter from the dashboard computer. That would have represented a new low. Almost as low as writing a blog when there are keys in my pocket and....

Geek? Me?

2007-03-27T00:07:00.000+01:00

It was a Saturday morning, I was ten minutes early for a haircut and had some time to kill / hands to warm before my appointment. Wandering around Windsor enjoying one of the first Saturday mornings I've ever seen without a hangover, I found myself staring into the window of a Sony Center in much the same way a Big Issue seller would stare into the happy place that is McDonalds and imagine the sweet sweet taste of a Big Mac.

With my brain totally switched off for fear of a rational thought, I wandered in to look at the tellies. Hmmm, nice HD tellies.

After being asked several times if I needed assistance by unknowledgeable Saturday staff, I showed an interest in an LCD Bravia TV. To fill the rather large hole left in my soul due to the fact I couldn't pick up my car this weekend, I went on to further quench my thirst for irrational purchases by picking up the TV and one of only 3 remaining PlayStation 3s, convincing myself that I 'needed a Blu-Ray player anyway' and that this is just a cheap (thus actually saving money) way to achieve that. An eager salesman with very little persuading threw in an extra wireless controller, HDMI cable and TV stand with it as well. The gaming joy awaiting was going to be unstoppable.

Turned out to be a rather expensive hair chop, but the rest of the day was as expected as I breached new levels of geek configuring the PS3 to my wireless, PSP and after much faff, Flickr Account with the help of Flickr Backup. All about seeing your photos in 3D realness.

I then joined fellow excited geeks across the country in Resistance: Fall of Man in multiplayer mode, where I soon realised that due to my arms being longer than anyone else online, my hand/eye co-ordination made for great cannon fodder. Still great though, I'd even go as far as to say its the most fun you can have online with two hands.

Sold...

2007-03-19T21:02:00.001Z

Cleaned!

Although she's drained me of most of my disposable income over the last 2 years, I love this car and only have just one more drive to work in it before its taken off my hands forever.

I just sold it to a chap from Auto-trader made me an offer. I've added £2.5k of body kits, exhausts, induction kits etc over the past year which made bog all difference to the resale value. As much as I enjoyed chavving it up, I won't be making that mistake on my GT3 that I plan to pick up on Saturday, having been Carlos for 4 days.

The guy I sold it to is only from Lightwater, so I will no doubt see her again with another man caressing her steering wheel as he takes her up the M3.

Poland Trip

2007-03-05T11:42:00.001Z

Flickr Set

Just got back from 4 days in Warsaw in Poland. We stayed at the Oki Doki hostel, which was my first hostel experience. On the first night, because I booked separately, I was led off from the comfort of actually staying with anyone I knew and had to share with 7 other strangers. Properly weird. Nice though, pretty freindly - once you get into the idea of a hostel is to pretty much chat shit to people all day.

I had to stay on the top bunk, and crept into the room at about 4am. Everyone was already asleep as most people were bumming around Europe on a £3 budget and evenings were traditionally about reading, pool and generally wasting a year in the most unconstuctive means possible. I however, was putting my time to great use by poisoning my body on as much Vodka as they could serve.

This was possibly the worst night, as I after about 5 seconds, realised that I needed a pee, so took my drunkeness to the toilet, waking everyone up a second time by crashing into everything in my path. So, after a night of holding in farts (I was a mixed dorm, I'm not an animal), being careful not to snore and trying to lie in silence, I put myself in for transfer.

Re-bonded with my pals, I could be myself and not have to worry about noise or being a drunken English arse.

So the rest of the trip was pretty much the same deal. When its 50p a pint, or about a quid for a very large vodka, there's not really a choice.

There was one moment when we decided to do something other than drink, purely so that we had something else to say to parents and girlfriends that could possibly form the beginnings of a conversation. We went to an old Nazi Prison where the SS pretty much sank to the lowest forms of humanity during the German occupation of the second world war. Very interesting, and slightly depressing, but worth going to. The stark contrast from the evening's activities was a little surreal, and hard to believe it didn't happen all that long ago.

Nazis aside, we then set out about town for night number two. We started off in the hostel, spoke to loads of people, really interesting folk from around the world, relentlessly knocking back 50p drinks before heading out to the streets to visit the vast array of night spots dotted around the city center. :)

You're Warned but Your Off

2006-12-29T14:06:00.000Z

You're Warned but Your Off

As if weaving in and out of dithering old ladies in a post-Christmas daze isn't already a hideous experience. I saw these for sale (sail?) in Marks and Spencer today. Literally teaching kids it's OK to aim for 50% in a spelling exam.

I can't even believe it.

How did this happen? There must have been several levels where this may have been noticed before the public got to see it. And I thought M&S was for 'posh people and all that'. Clearly not any more. Admittedly, these were probably made in China by some child who would love just one of these slippers as a home, so the fault isn't at the sweatshop - it's squarely with M&S.

I can't decide if getting it wrong on just one, instead of two makes me more angry or not. I mean, even if you did leave school with nothing more than a working knowledge of a Sky Plus remote, you can still see that the shapes are different - there's a different amount of letters and one of them has a gap with a little mark after the U. No excuse.

This isn't the first time M&S have been so shocking:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6208295.stm

Details a T-Shirt sold where the slogan reads 'Mum's dreaming of a quiet Christmas just like the one's she used to know'. Brilliant.

Secondly, there's:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1888977,00.html

Here M&S have a pyjama top with two giraffes on it with the words 'Baby Giraffe's'.

I can live with "MOT's", and "Banana's half price, passed there sail bye date", but not this!

It's that time of year.

2006-12-17T13:31:00.000Z

Christmas Tree

Yet again, tradition dictates that we bring a tree indoors and give the cat a great excuse to shit in the house.

We just got a Christmas tree for the lounge and it got me thinking how this ever became normal. Imagine we visited an alien planet and discovered that once a year, the top of the evolutionary chain in this discovered world would bring a plant indoors, cover it with lights, plastic balls and sweet food produce. Quiz their sanity as they watch it die slowly over the following 10 days as the Dyson struggles to keep up with it's dropping foliage. Then, when it's completely dead, muse how they put it in a corner of the garden and hope one day a passing drunkard takes it off their little alien hands. I'm pretty certain this is the prime reason we've yet to see life outside of our own, crazy, tree-hugging world.

I know that sounds a bit Anti Christmas (not Santa's sister), which isn't me at all. I love Christmas, the smell of the tree (when not concocted with cat poo), and everything else to do with this merry season. Amen.

Dressing like a knob

2006-11-28T21:05:00.000Z

flickr photo
Originally uploaded by tumbleweed1979.

There's rarely anything less about than fancy dress.

Although the frequency has considerably dropped since Uni, there is still the occasional fancy dress party to attend. I've always been slightly miffed by the thought, but now it only happens once, maybe twice a year, it ain't so bad.

I think the reason I used to be so against it, was it would usually cost £50 to hire something that looked so far removed from what ever you were supposed to be, or you would have to spend days on end, shuffling around charity shops trying on dead man's clothes as the old lady snarled at you across the counter as if you were about to rob the place.

These days, we have ebay. So, with very little effort, it's possible to knock up costume in less than 1/2hr. That I can deal with. You can literally pay people to do all the charity shop work for you. My seller for the jacket I bought of ebay for £35, actually left the £5.00 label from PDSA on the sleeve, blatently showing off that I'd paid over the odds for my laziness. Ironically, it did cost £5 to put it in the cloakroom.

The place where dressing like a bellend is apparently the door policy was Carwash in Old Street. I had a look at the dresscode before going and realized that it must be run by lesbians, or simply written by someone who had started to see just how shite fake afro wigs are. Here's an example:

This is what's allowed and positively encouraged:

Glitter, Sequin & Feathers
Hot Pants
Platforms
Bikini Glam
College Cheer Leaders
Hats

This is what's discouraged by the friendly door staff:

Checked shirts
Elvis Suits
Fake Facial Hair
Ben Sherman
Stupid Fake Afro Wigs
Sports Trainers
Brogues

In other words, 'Chaps, we're gonna make it pretty damn impossible to pull anything off'.

Anyway, that aside, it was a wicked night and I generally shocked myself that it is actually possible to enjoy music that's over 10 years old. Most people did look like a penis, but keep it ebay, borrow a tie, and all is good. I can't wait for Techno to be retro.

Bacon, Vodka and a Church at midnight

2006-10-23T19:56:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday morning was less than enjoyable, shouting Welsh at the sink for the best part of two hours I'd had enough of the punishment. All week I'd been promising myself to keep it small the following Friday, so that I could perhaps enjoy Saturdays the way they're meant to be enjoyed..by looking at the outside world under the glow of a Mac screen.

However, an ill-timed call from Pompy during my first and last pint in Browns, led me down south within the next 50 mins. The evening started quite quiet, even the occasional single was purchased when the lure of a double was only a further 40p. 20 units invariably led to another and before long I was dancing out of tune, and singing out of beat. It really was that bad.

Anyway, walking home at about 1 o'clock, we pass a church. There are a few people outside, but we proceed with caution, not wanting to get too involved with the God Squad at this hour. A few yards down the road however, and someone else hasn't quite got the same idea. A rather un-intellectual drunken rant about Dinosaurs and Darwin filled the air. Some little twat was kicking off, and although I'm a man of science and reason, the gathering outside the church were clearly uneasy. So a mate and I helped move this chap away and restored peace. My good deed for the day and it was only 130am.

THEN it got weird. We were thanked and asked in for a bacon sandwich. All good I thought as I was led down the cloisters by a religious nut. Turns out they're not that bad. I spent the next hour talking to a Vicar in jeans about pretty much everything. It was pretty cool - I wasn't claiming to be right and neither was he, it was just a decent conversation with a chap clearly more sober than me, although I held good ground without sounding too much like a drunken fool pissed off that Father Christmas doesn't actually exist. Turns out they believe in monkeys as well, and there was the occasional time when I thought - Hmm, good point.

Waking up the next day, I thought about the night before, and although you won't catch me sticking a fish to the back of my car, I was very impressed at the way the Church wanted to engage the unengageable - ie the drunken rabble roaming the streets of Pompy on a Friday night. Nice bacon sarnie too.

Procrastination

2006-10-15T13:43:00.000+01:00

It's amazing the amount of 'urgent' stuff you can find to do when you can't face the washing up. It was simply a matter of live or death that I configured my Squeezebox to show my Twitter activity.

Well Hung in the bedroom

2006-10-15T10:58:00.000+01:00

Canvas print lounge

It's not everyday one gets inspired while in the dirty Weatherspoons at the bottom end of town. I was sitting on / stuck to a chair a few months back and saw some 'local artwork' on the wall. One particular piece was a fantastic display of Photoshop filters entitled 'Castle 4'. The artist / barman had taken a photo of Windsor Castle, 'found it's edges' and duplicated the image 4 times while applying various colour filters.

OK, so this wasn't be best example of making your own stuff for the wall, but it got me thinking I was going to do the same. The great thing about it, is you can design the image in exactly the colours that you know will suit the room, ie Red for the lounge and Blue / Brown for the bedroom.

I wanted it to be clear that I'd made the images and also wanted to give it a personal touch. That's why I've decided to make both of them from photos I'd taken in the past.

The first one I created for the lounge and printed out at A1 size with full bleed down the sides. The original photo was taken on top of the empire state, and I messed about it Photoshop until I was happy with the results. I then sent it off to photocanvasprinting.com who for less than £100, printed, mounted and sent it back within the week.

Canvas print bedroom

My second canvas I wanted to create was for the bedroom, we'd recently returned from holiday in Crete and I'd had a nice photo of Helen that I wanted to create an image from. Under strict instructions of keeping it brown and blue, I designed the image on the right which I then had printed at A2. Unlike me, it's now well hung in the bedroom.

Cafe

2006-10-10T00:38:00.000+01:00

Cafe
Originally uploaded by tumbleweed1979.

This weekend, I went back home see my folks. I thought I'd go for a walk and went to Hayling Island, a place of many happy memories as a kid. By the looks of it, it hadn't changed much in 20 years. Quite sad to see, but the sun was just at the right place to take some photos.

Squeezebox / Last.FM geekness

2006-10-07T18:53:00.000+01:00

After very little effort, I've just set up my Squeezebox with my Last.fm account with SlimScobbler. Who wouldn't want to do that!

A Squeezebox, for those unaware, is a wireless device that you plug in to your stereo that allows you to play any songs from your iTunes, BBC's Listen Again (Judge Jools!) or ShoutCast streams from the comfort of the lounge without geeking it up through a computer.

So, while it's doing that, it can send all the info to Last.FM who cleverly work out my 'tastes' and continually adjust my personal radio station, recommended bands and neighbours. Which in turn I can play back through my Squeezebox with the Last.fm pluggin. Using the remote, I can enter tags, artist names (for similar to), and it will play it straight back. Allowing me to listen to anything I like without even getting off my arse. Brilliant.

Blogs, phones and drink.

2006-07-16T13:59:00.000+01:00

Ok, so there is a very high percentage chance that this will be my first and last blog. Only history will tell whether or not there in indeed any point in keeping an online blog for nobody to read.

Anyway, as I'm kind of in the industry, it would be nice to tell clients that I'm a 21st century man and I keep a 'blog'. I've always seen anytime on the internet not looking at smut to be time seriously mis spent, and I'd always question the motives of those who do not need to empty their internet history on a daily, if not hourly basis.

So what started all this? Well, I've finally upgraded my phone to a k800i. It's taking me 8 months over my end of contract period to actually find the time / motivation to call 150 and spend about 4 minutes exchaning various details. A suitable time slot arose this morning, and I finally did it.

The reward of a totally new phone should have been enough of a motivation for me to do this earlier, but as nobody was going to shout at me for not doing it, nor wound I ever need to engage the right side of my brain tp spin together a creative yarn of excuses, it wasn't going to happen.

Back to my original point, the k800i is pretty much a camera that can make phone calls. It can also automatically blog any photos you take with it's 3.2mpixel camera.

So, my geek tendencies lead me to Blogger. My even geekier tendencies lead me to writing this on a laptop in the garden on the UK's hottest day.

So the clever bods at Sony Ericsson (too many Ss not enough Cs? I'll never know), have allowed me to be in a position where I will permanently have a digital camera on my person. Great.

Don't get me wrong, all those dark, wobbly shots of drunken nights out in low res taken from my aging Nokia, have served as a great 2nd / backup memory for when my intoxicated brain fails to retrieve (if it was ever stored) large chunks of the night. But now I can be suitably embarrassed the following morning in pure high resolution jpeg loveliness. The large chunks in the morning for me, have never been a problem. Pretty much a given these days.

So this got me thinking as to the next generation of night out phone -

1) One 1 person in your phone book should be allowed to be text with an X at the end after 11pm.
2) If you've had to re dial the number more than 3 times, it should lock up. They can do that on cash machines - it's simple.
3) If you enter a new contact as 'bird' or 'fit one' or 'tits', it should delete immediately, and automatically phone a taxi for you.

Well, that wasn't too bad - where's the spell check button?

350z

2006-07-16T13:00:00.000+01:00

350z
Originally uploaded by tumbleweed1979.

Picture of my new Nismo bodykit.

Had it painted and fitted last weekend - quite happy with the job, but not feeling the rubber bits that come with it!

Anyway, here are the photos, I didn't opt for the spoiler for the moment, just the front, side and rear lips and skirts.