Year: 2013

Been noticing something lately.

I’m getting smiled at a lot.

And it’s not just by the people who know I’ll grin at the slightest excuse, it’s completely random people too.

And you know what ? There’s some utterly gorgeous women included in that collection of people who have been bursting into smiles as soon as they look into my eyes. (Lol – spot the demographic I notice most!)

I’ve spent a while wondering why it’s happened too. I’ve not had another dose of plastic surgery to make me look amazing. I’ve not done any training (outside of the conditioning that comes with walking to/from the bus) so I’m not one of those people who can wiggle their pecs on command (to be honest, I wouldn’t want to be). I’m back to being pasty white geek type.

I guess one reason is that my condition in general is improving. It must be showing from the outside, at least the outside bits I allow other people to see. I’ll be back in short sleeves for work tomorrow, so people will spot the ugly half-healed bits on my arms. I hope I don’t put too many people off their lunch.

However, there’s a key word in that last paragraph : “healed”. I’ve not been back to the Doc’s lately, so no drugs to cloud the issue. But it does look like I’ve identified what was initiating the problem (eating too healthily!) and identified treatment (occasional gunk, lots of water and keeping the bad bits clean). When the healing’s going better, that’ll be the time to go back to the Doc’s. I need to confirm what I’m allergic to, which means a test. However, the test won’t give good data if there’s interference from skin irritated from not being fixed yet.

That’s not what I wanted to think about though. I wanted to think about why the pretty ladies all seem to be smiling at me these days 🙂 Perhaps it’s the hat.

No – I think it’s deeper than that. The skin thing has had it’s own effect on me. I’d go to work, hope I wouldn’t leak too much, I’d go home, I’d hide. Sleep (if I could) and repeat. That pattern turned me into an internal looking shell. Confidence was very low and I thrive and depend on my confidence. I think now that my confidence is returning (job’s feeding me a steady diet of “yep, dun that rite”), it’s starting to show in how I seem to the outside world.

That would be :
Easier smile
Less haunted look
Missing the pain behind the eyes
No zombieplague patches in visible places

Yeah. I’m probably seeming better than average at the moment. I’m still a long way away from being able to play cricket again. Things like some of the messier signs being visible if you know where to look. But – my condition is improving to the point where I can exert less care in managing the condition which in turn means better sleep and all those positive feedback things.

It also helps that I’ve laid to rest a few demons that were plaguing me, although that’s partly about deliberately putting certain things on hold until I get better. Conditions at work are better now too.

I think that’s enough for now.

Getting smiles = great
Getting smiles from beautiful women = pretty awesome
Definitely makes me grin 🙂

PS I suspect it was probably the hat all along.

Muahaha

Of all the things that’ll keep me out of cricket this year, I didn’t think it would be internal injuries.

Today was a good day. The outsides of my legs were much better. I’m not counting my chickens just yet though, I need them good enough for me to be able to throw myself around without second thoughts. Otherwise, I’ll just start off the damage again.

Since I went back to my old unhealthy diet and exerted more discipline to stop me damaging myself, my skin’s been steadily improving. It’s not ready for cricket yet though but it’s getting closer. I will need to go back to the doctor’s at some point though because there’s a few awkward bits that refuse to totally repair. I also need to be gentle with the bad bits.

So ladies – no scratching of the back 😉

Yep. Lots better than I’ve been for a while. Enough that I’m thinking more that joining in with the cricket season is a definite possibility instead of thinking I’d be on the sidelines.

There’s just one problem …

I’m getting old. The outsides are improving but I’m struggling on the insides. My leg muscles have always liked to destroy themselves with cramp (which I think is dehydration related to the skin condition) and my knees and hips are probably running low on cartilage.

Had to run for the bus this evening and was surprised that I didn’t have a full running stride available. I still made the bus though so I’m not slowed down too much :-). My full running stride is pretty massive actually, when I say I’m quick, it’s an understatement. I have enough scope to still be pretty quick on the field even when I’m managing an injury. (When I hurt my back in the last game of last year, noone noticed)

But … there’s that getting old thing again. It’s taking longer to recover from those injuries and a few of them aren’t healing all that well. I’ve known it was coming, last year’s Pink Hat thing was done partly because I know I don’t have that many seasons of running around left in me.

I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts – if my skin lets me 🙂

Turnabout ? Last week it hurt to stand up straight because the skin on the backs of my knees was really bad. This week, it hurts to stand cos my left calf isn’t too great. But I can live with that, a muscle strain will get better and the rest of me should follow as my skin lets me sleep more easily.

PS You know what’s spooky ? Exactly the same thing happened last year, things cleared up in time for cricket but then worsened considerably after the season finished. Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself …

Ok,

We actually watched this one on Friday so it’s taken a little while for me to think of stuff to put in the post. I was thinking about posting it yesterday but I held off due to what was happening in Boston. Hope they catch the culprit.

There’s two things to review actually, the film and how we watched it. A criticism I have of the Vue iPhone app is that it doesn’t break down film times by the screening type. So when we picked the 5.10pm showing, it happened to be a Vue Xtreme showing. What’s that I hear you ask ? It’s claiming to be better definition and better sound. More on that later.

How was the film ?

Love him or hate him and I know a tonne of people hate him for his off screen antics, Tom Cruise does get picked for a lot of very good movies. If you’ve not seen Knight and Day yet, you’ve missed out on a good one. This one is pretty decent too.

And that’s coming from a engineer scifi geek. There has to be a lot of boxes ticked for it to get the approval of the engineer geek. Things have to look right. Designs have to look as if they serve a purpose and can perform their function. A centrepiece of this movie is the podcopter they fly around in. It’s quite insect like in design, with thin stalks connecting a glass cockpit, 2 engine pods and a stabiliser at the back. The design just feels right. The engine pods are in the right place and they didn’t clobber us over the head too much with how the design of things like the cockpit and the guns just worked.

Yep. Happy scifi engineer geek. The drones were suitably menacing too.

I’m staying quiet about the potential of growing food out of sight of the sky, undetected for 70 years. And I did turn around to CK about 2 minutes in as the scenario was being set up and say “Bullshit”. Yep. Some of the backstory was contrived but overall, it made sense and didn’t get in the way.

Yep. In a certain other movie I was foaming at the mouth at a starship being built on the ground. Grr. Good movie, big plot holes. The plot holes are more cunningly disguised this time.

I liked Oblivion. It kept the action going, the interest was maintained, it wasn’t too unsubtle with telling its story. That’s where a lot of modern storytelling falls down, it assumes idiocy on the part of the viewer/reader and dumbs it down way too much.

I won’t say too much more because there’s great potential for spoilers. It’ll be a good one to watch the second time around to see how much is subtly set up for later.

That’s enough about the movie, how about the cinema ?

Vue Xtreme is sold on better clarity of picture and better sound. However, instead of getting in on a £4.50 voucher, it cost me £10.55. That’s a huge premium and is around the kind of price I will want to pay for the bluray eventually. Is it worth it ? No. I heartily do not recommend gimmicks like Vue Xtreme.

Better clarity in movies – is good.
Better sound in movies – is awesome.

However, cinema are rarely set up to allow the viewer to exploit that betterness. You are rarely in the sweet spot for getting anything from the surround sound and the distance of eye from screen means you lose some of the detail. That said, the picture followed the action well, whereas other Vue Cribbs projectors turn action to mush as they’re too old to keep up with the frame rate. The sound was also too loud and was distorting.

The best bits on soundtracks are not the loud bits. It’s the quiet bits that set up the atmosphere for the loud bits to make you jump. I watched the Das Boot directors cut off bluray last night and the biggest gain that bluray has is the sound quality. Things like hearing the clangs of spanners or hushed voices build suspense. Especially in something that depends on sound like a submarine thriller.

So – higher quality in movies ?
Cinema – save your cash. The distances involve conspire against getting anything out of the experience.
Home movies – huge benefit. Das Boot above and I’d cite Book Of Eli too for having sound that feels like the action is going through you.

You have to applaud them for effort though, cinemas need to keep the people coming through the doors in a time when things like movie channels on tv and movie services on the internet are taking the business away.

Gotta wonder how long the cinema will exist as an entity ? I like going to the cinema for the watching of movies with friends thing. But … home cinema is a far superior viewing and listening experience.

When the amplifier plays nice that is. I’ll leave it there before I launch into something about unreliable Onkyo amplifiers !

Someone said there’s a bit too much hate out there on the interwebs and the world in general at the moment. Let’s see if we can’t do something to offset that, at least in the small way I can here.

And it’s been too long since a music post too – lol 🙂

First up isn’t music directly but a Youtube person called Lucahjin. I first discovered Lucahjin via The GameStation podcast and ended up watching a couple of videos. The reason ? She has a voice that if you lean back and close your eyes, it feels like you’re getting one incredibly soothing massage. Here’s an example, her first video of a Journey playthrough. I’m definitely going to be keeping an ear on her second channel, Relaxajin.

Goldfrapp is currently playing on iTunes, which brings my mind to their best chill out album, Road To Somewhere. Listen, relax …

Following Goldfrapp is a track from Simon & Garfunkel but I’m not linking the track that’s playing. Instead, one of the most beautiful tracks I know. May you always find your Bridge Over Troubled Water.

And that gives me the idea for No 4 : Knights In White Satin, by the Moody Blues. This version is better than the Elkie Brooks version in my iTunes library simply by not overcomplicating a tune that sings for itself. The only thing that could make that song better is having someone I could sing it to.

5th is a recent discovery. I was walking through HMV looking at stuff I wasn’t going to buy and over the tannoy comes another lady singer. My ears prick up and I’m looking her up via the iPhone app (Shazam). That tells me it’s Beth Orton, who incidentally wasn’t available to buy in the shop. Cue a bit of internet shopping later … Here’s to Thinking About Tomorrow. (watching Oblivion tomorrow!)

There was something many years ago called the Secret Policeman’s Ball which was memorable only for two things. It was so universally awful that we turned it off halfway through. However the second thing that made it memorable was far better … Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn done to sign language.

Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow got bought recently but to be honest, it isn’t great. However, Oh England My Lionheart is incredible.

8th in line is another new discovery, The Staves. Another one picked up after hearing it in the shop and on iTunes single of the week 🙂 Pretty darn good too. Here’s Mexico. Check it out, enchanting voices that gang up on you with the harmonies.

Been collecting a little more classical lately. Here’s an example : Clair de Lune. Listening to that makes me wish I’d learned to play an instrument instead of just trying to sing along to …

… Tracks like no 10 Norah Jones singing a cover of Are You Lonesome. I hope you’re not Lonesome tonight.

Been listening to more from Morcheeba too, here’s Fear & Love. You never quite know what you’re going to get from Morcheeba, they like to mix styles within their albums and even their songs. But when they go for a ballad style, you’ll sit up and listen.

I’m a big fan of Bat For Lashes and probably would have gone to see her when she came to Bristol last year if not for the skin condition. Oh Yeah, I’m that big a fan.

Last one sees me looking at a few albums that are coming out soon (one’s out already) and hoping they live up to the promise from the earlier albums. That’s Paramore’s latest (waiting for an acceptable price), there’s one coming from Little Boots and Lene Marlin plus I do believe that Mindy Gledhill is working on one too. And I Do Adore Mindy Gledhill’s fun style which she shows off in this track.

PS I’ve tried to keep all the links here new … But it was just so incredibly tempting to link in Blue Sonic Boy as it played through from the Mice New & Improved album.
PS2 I’d have linked the wonderful and heartbreaking Laura from Bat For Lashes if I hadn’t linked it before …

We seem to be losing a lot of famous (and infamous!) names at the moment …

It’s been very curious to see the differing reactions to the latest one (the Iron Lady). To some she’s revered, to some she’s reviled. I’m not going to say which side of the fence I’m on (although some readers will know !), that’s not the point of this post.

There’s two points I want to talk about – how do we want to be remembered ? And how should we remember other people ?

That second point is actually the true key. How we look at others is a reflection on our own souls. You have to have a very dark place in your’s to revile a fellow human being so much. It doesn’t matter who it is you’re talking about there. To wish another person dead is a sign that there’s something wrong with you.

(I have to also say there “Or something seriously wrong with them.” As believe it or not, I’m pro death penalty. But only in the truly extreme cases where permanent institutionalisation or incarceration isn’t an option)

I’ll not go too far back in history but when I heard that Gaddafi had died, I’d remembered what he’d done. I was actually fairly ambivalent to his passing, he’d been removed as a threat to our world by his own people. What my major emotion actually was involved some revulsion at our supposed allies, who had lynched him instead of using due process (like with Saddam).

What I’ve seen from some people with Maggie Thatcher resembles what the lynch mob thought of Gaddafi.

Yes you. I’m talking about you. Look at yourself from the outside without all those preconceptions and blinkered ideas that keep getting thrown at a world that doesn’t agree with them and which doesn’t want to know.

There’s a few people like that out there. They’ll insist on thrusting their own prejudice on you from a point of view of “yeah, my view is outrageous, how come your’s is different ? something wrong with you ?” I can appreciate the art but no I won’t be getting any tattoos any time soon, even though a few people I know see them as essential. But then again, having tattoos now would be spectacularly stupid because of my ongoing skin condition.

Been ranting haven’t I …

Chill pill time 🙂

We’ve been losing some very significant people over the past few months and there’s more to come.

Two examples – my nan is one. I’ve wanted to say something there for a little while now. I have a few different last memories of my nan. She was fairly smart, although age was slowing her down there. She could understand most of the modern tech, although that was partly a curse for us because it meant she could figure out how to break stuff. Lol.

But around Xmas time, she’d started fading and was losing track of conversations. By the time the end came, there wasn’t much left in there. I’ll remember that for a long time (curse of memory) but what I’ll then do is retrieve the picture in my head of my nan grinning away at us. That’s a better time to remember. It was also reinforced by what her friends said about her at the funeral. Their memories were wholly of the last good times, with my nan being the life of their little circle.

Yep – those memories, the good memories are the ones to remember.

My second example isn’t dead yet but he’s now on borrowed time. I’ve become a big fan of Iain M Banks. His Culture novels are well worth reading. The Algebraist was pretty darn good too. But … he’s been diagnosed with a cancer that gives him about a year to live. We’ll remember him through his books. Hopefully he’ll have the chance to write the truly definitive Culture novel. The last few have been promising to reach the heights of Excession but haven’t quite hit it. Surface Detail was amazing but Matter and Hydrogen Sonata were non-Culture in the case of the first and So What in the case of the second.

Still, we’ll remember him through some truly exceptional books. Like we’ll remember Heath Ledger for films like A Knight’s Tale and Dark Knight. He’s another who was taken from us too early.

I’ll leave it there – but I’ll ask : when you reflect back on your thoughts, will you be truly happy that you metaphorically spit on another human’s grave ?

PS It was Men In Black 3 (not bad actually) tonight but I think a viewing of A Knight’s Tale is due.

It’s Easter time 🙂

Which means the first good chance I’ve had since Xmas for a much needed break. The stretch between December and April always tends to catch up on me but this time the break is needed more for healing than for getting my energy back.

This skin condition is still there, I dunno if it’s better or worse than before Xmas. Actually, I know it’s improved because I have shoulders that feel like they have proper smooth skin on instead of bark. There’s still some bits of me that are spectacular though. That’s where the holiday is helping, as it means I can keep the bad bits cleaner without interference from things like suit trousers. (Yep, I’m not stepping outside much and the heating is turned up)

Yep – it is improving but as far as cricket goes, there will be two things that stop me play :

Skin recovery – it’s still taking a long time. If there’s still any bad bits, I can’t play because of how much I throw myself around on the field.
Internal damage – I’m getting old. At 38, I’m getting stiffer and stiffer and should really be looking after myself better. My hips won’t support dodging around for that much longer. However, a slow me is still faster than a lot of people on a cricket field.

That said though, my legs aren’t as swollen as they have been and I have bony ankles again 🙂 Yey. I’m also pasty white over much more of me than was the case a month ago. What I need to do is leave myself alone more so my body can heal itself. It seems to want to do that now that I’ve cut out a lot of the healthier stuff and gone back to a diet closer to what I had before the original leg infection.

But that’s enough about health.

Easter is also about munching as much chocolate as you can get away with 🙂 Been doing my part there. The bad skin thing is actually helpful because it means I’ve not done that “just in case there’s offers going” run to the local shop for more easter eggs. That said, I’ll need to do a run in the next couple of days to get more apples. Nearly out of those again.

Also been catching up on recorded stuff, I’ve almost caught up on the unlistened to music and have been on the games again.

Recorded stuff :
From the Earth To The Moon is a decent series about the Apollo missions. I enjoyed watching this one again and having more time let me finish it off.

Series about actual events seem to be the things catching my attention at the moment. Series like those out of the Deadliest Catch stable. The latest ones are Yukon Men and Mountain Men, stories of people on the frontier. It’s a simpler life and quite appealing, although I know I’m not healthy enough to survive out there. There’s a sense of immediacy though about these stories that makes them compelling. Genuine danger lifts them above the artificial procedural fiction shows.

Music wise :
I had a wander through the Mall again last week, which means lurking in HMV for a while seeing if there’s any attractive items on sale. Over the tannoy comes an unusual singer, with the Shazam iPhone app telling me it’s Beth Orton. Weird how they’ll play music over the tannoy that you can’t buy in store. So I bought it from Amazon instead. Not bad – unusual, imperfect and quite charming. I may be checking out more later.

Games :
I completed the first step in the Mass Effect trilogy run that I started I dunno how many months ago. Mass Effect is a trilogy set in a scifi world a couple of centuries ahead of where we are now. It’s dark and gritty, made darker and grittier by impending invasion by an implacable and relentless machine race of destroyers. This will be the first time I’ve replayed the last game since the first play through.

Few comments there – Mass Effect 2 is the better game of the 3. It has tighter combat and more varied (if not as open) areas than the first game. The bits that tie the game together (like the quest log) are tighter and less buggy. The third game should have built on that but fell short. Yes, the areas and levels were better but it felt like they allowed bugs in that shouldn’t have been there. And one premise of the 3 series was that decisions made in the earlier games would have significant impact in the third. You didn’t really see that as it felt your decisions were overridden in the third.

Still, it’s one of the more epic trilogies in games. I’d rather play through Mass Effect again than finish the static Skyrim.

Talking of gaming, that’s what I’m about to do now … Not Mass Effect though, I’m gonna take over the world in Civilisation 4 🙂

Especially if they are Snow Queen specials.

(and I still have a sadface from having to turn some of them down last week !)

My mind’s turning more and more to the incoming cricket season …

I’m hopeful I’ll make it, although there’s lots of healing to do before I can consider running around. Since ditching all the healthy stuff (except apples, still having those) I seems to be very slowly but genuinely improving. When I don’t set it back of course by self inflicted damage.

But I’m still nowhere near the minimum level of being intact that would see me stepping foot on the cricket field. It’s getting closer, bits of me that were angry red are now much closer to pasty white.

Good signs.

Thought I’d talk about the cricket though and reminisce a bit about what my role was.

Without being too boastful, I could do everything on the cricket field 🙂 I’ll keep wicket, I’ll open the batting, I’d open the bowling with swing, I’d be able to bowl spin and I could have been a brilliant fielder. Although saying that, you have to consider the standard being played. My bowling was never that quick and its main weapon wouldn’t work if the sun was out.

I’m curious about the attitudes I had towards the various aspects of the game.

Batting – yeah. Always wanted to do this, although it took a few seasons (and a hole dug in the back garden from excessive practice) before I reached the heady heights of No10 in the batting, let alone opening. I always quite enjoyed the batting, possibly because of limited opportunities. I could never hit the ball that strongly but could keep the scoring going well by finding the gaps.

Batting is in fact the only remaining bit of unfinished business I have in cricket. I’ve never scored a 50 and while I’ve anchored sides to wins, I’ve never done the bulk of the scoring.

Bowling on the other hand … When I started in the men’s team, my team was struggling midtable. We had problems across the 2 sides with bowler availability, which meant we couldn’t really put sides under pressure or keep them to beatable scores. The side I played first against got 273 in the earlier game with them that year. Scary number. That’s a lot of runs for that league. So I’m coming in to the side and expecting to get whacked …

Didn’t turn out that way 🙂 I cut my pace right back to get accuracy and it worked. I got massive (and I mean feet) inswing and broke through their main batting with figures of 4 overs, 9 runs for 4 wickets. Most of those were bowled. My bowling’s never been too quick and I don’t have the height to get lots of bounce, so that probably shows just how much the ball was moving sideways in the air.

Over the years, I’ve meddled with all the different types of bowling. My match bowling was always medium pace swing and seam bowling as that was always most effective. I could start the ball off in a channel wide of the stumps, it would swing to pitch in a line with leg stump and then it could move the other way to hit the top of off. When that happened, it tended to lead to a wicket because that’s kinda unplayable :-). Didn’t happen that often though.

I’ve always tried bowling spin, both finger spin and wrist spin too. Finger spin is easy, wrist spin is much more difficult (it’s what Shane Warne does). I was even starting to pick up some of the stranger varieties of spin, for a little while the doosra was literally the only delivery I could land where I wanted it to.

I don’t feel I have anything to prove with the bowling. I only had a few seasons as a bowler before the shoulder injury but even starting late in that first season, I came out with more wickets than anyone else and won the bowling trophy. My bowling pushed us to runners up in the league that year and I have the medal for that hanging up in my living room.

But – a couple of shoulder injuries means that bowling is now pretty much impossible. Surgery is an option I should probably check but … I have 95% movement in my shoulder, the 5% that’s missing is only needed for bowling. And at 38, I’m getting too old for it. I don’t really want to risk the 95% movement on an uncertain result.

Fielding can be great fun. I’ve improved there considerably. When I started, I was scared of the ball. You can’t afford that in cricket because it makes you tentative, which just gets you hurt more. You need to be totally committed in attacking the ball or there will be little fumbles which lead to breakages.

I’d describe myself as a good fielder. I had the speed to get to the ball, plus my eye was good enough to take the catches. With the bowling and batting knowledge, I’d have the anticipation to know where the ball was going to go. I’ll regularly get runouts for the team. But – I’d only describe myself as “good” because lack of practice means I’m relearning the job while on the field. With regular practice, I could have been much more scary to the opposition :-).

And – over the whole period, I’ve occasionally kept wicket too. That’s usually been as a “no one else is stepping up, over to Sleepypete”. I don’t think I’ve ever embarassed myself there, although it’s always been with borrowed gloves. That’s not ideal because borrowed gloves tend to be harder and less pliant. In the game last year, I couldn’t really feel the ball sticking in the gloves, I had to look.

So there we go – show me a cricket field and ask me to do anything (except bowling now – too dangerous all round).

Chilling out at the moment – I remembered to start the recording last night so it’s the last bits of play from the Test Match last night on the telly before F1 qualifying.

I’m hopeful I’ll make cricket this year but there’s still lots of damaged skin to repair before I do.

I (half) read something on The Register earlier …

It was at my lunchtime at work so I didn’t really have the time to really properly read it but it’s worth a look if you’re thinking about buying something PC related.

Here’s the link : Build a BONKERS Gaming PC.

The story has a lot going for it and I agree with a significant amount of it. But … I wouldn’t advocate buying what they say you should buy. Great article … but you can be more efficient with your money. The secret to buying PC bits is to just spend enough to get what you need and to resist the temptation to get what you want.

For my last build, I had a choice between the best desktop cpu at the time (Intel i7-2700k) and the second best (Intel i5-2500k). There’s not actually that much difference in performance between the two, except for a £80 price difference. And … guess how much a SSD hard disc cost ? Going for what was “need” freed up enough budget to get an SSD that transformed the performance.

I’m not going to tell you here exactly what to buy, because that specific component advice will be out of date literally next week. But what I will say is follow these guidelines :

If you don’t need a desktop, buy a laptop. They’re more flexible.
If you don’t do gaming, then you don’t need a desktop.
Desktop – Spend your budget. Getting the best you can now means it’ll last longer and you’ll spend less in the long run.
(my working person budget PCs lasted for years, my student budget builds lasted 18 months)
Go for Intel over AMD, they’re faster and run cooler which means they also run quieter.
If you can get an SSD hard drive, go for it. They make Windows fly.
Nvidia vs AMD/ATI – don’t listen to one person’s advice, get many statistics based reviews. Too many fanboy arguments dominate which graphics device is best
Separate sound card ? Waste of money. Get the next graphics device up instead.
Cooling system ? Go MASSIVE. They’re much quieter.
Power supply – do not underestimate this. A weedy power supply leads to Blue Screen Of Death when the machine is worked hard.

What else ? Avoid water cooling. It’s unnecessary unless you want to shorten the life of what you buy by burning it out. Plus water + electronics don’t mix and water cooling means maintenance beyond occasionally blowing the dust out.

Buying PCs is a topic closer to my mind than it could be – my mum got let down by an Android based tablet bought (mis-sold) to replace a netbook. That’s all my mum really needs, a netbook. My requirements in a laptop are different … But for my mum, the advice is to not spend any more than they need to but to make sure it’s an Intel box.

My desktop will last me quite a while because it still has the grunt to cope with new games. It may get another graphics card in a year or three but that’ll be all it needs. Honestly, PC components aren’t advancing in power the way they used to.

My laptop is another story … It’s done really well. I think Eve Online was one of the first things to go on and has a date of “20/12/2009” in its program folder entry. That’s one sign of how well it’s done, I couldn’t remember how many years I’d had it and had to look it up. 3 years 3 months so far and the only scare it’s given is the hard disc. It is struggling to keep up with HD video though, that’s a bit much for the (AMD) processor. It’s struggling to cope with me too, the keyboard is suffering from the increased dust from my skin condition.

I don’t honestly know what I’d replace it with. Something big still, however 17″ widescreen laptops are out of fashion. I’d definitely want to get an SSD or hybrid hard disc as that makes a massive difference in performance and smoothness. But you have to go for more expensive laptops to get an SSD. A touchscreen would be nice.

But that’s for another day. This laptop’s got at least another year left in it, touch wood. We’ll get something that fits my mum soon too. Something that fits, not something that the shop want to sell.

Oh – before I forget, there’s one more critical rule. Whatever you buy, you made the right choice.

And another critical rule – when you buy techie PC stuff, whatever you do, don’t look at prices for the next few months. Seeing what you bought available for £100 less a week after you spend the cash is … depressing.

Takes the gloss off getting the new toy !

Lots more sport on this weekend 🙂

(this one isn’t going to be all about sport … I hope 😉

First and last up is the cricket. England are playing New Zealand in the second test this weekend and I’m hopeful they’ll pull off a win tonight. I missed a trick last night … Plan A was to go to bed at lunchtime (11.30pm our time) and set the rest recording so I could watch it this morning. Oops. Someone forgot to start the recorder.

Ah well – I caught the highlights instead. Just like …

Formula 1 grand prix racing is back. Yummy.

Waaaaait … yummy isn’t the word you’d usually associate with motor racing is it ? Well, it is when you see who has taken over presenting duties for BBC this year. Yep, a certain Suzi Perry. I have a major weakness when it comes to attractive ladies with dark hair who have a certain smile. Guess what ? Suzi Perry fits the bill.

I’ve known a lot of them over the years, even had the rare chance to have a chat with two of the best lately (Snow Queen and Miss L). I definitely miss the Bright Young Thing’s quizzical smile from across the floorplate. And of course the Pretty Contractor Lady too. But it’s not just how they look. A person’s most engaging quality is their mind and that’s why certain people stand out.

Just like Suzi Perry with the motor racing … They played up the glamour angle big time this morning for her introduction but people who have followed Suzi Perry over her career know it’s not the glamour that keeps people interested, it’s the intelligence behind the face.

I’m that … close to cancelling the series link for SkyF1’s coverage already. BBC only have live coverage for 9 of the 19 races this year and highlights for the rest. I’d usually fast forward all the way through SkyF1’s coverage (except the actual racing) but BBC’s filler is usually worth watching.

It’s not just cars and cricket, there’s rugby on this weekend too. It’s the last weekend of this year’s Six Nations championship. England should really have won it but got screwed out of it yet again by the referee (this has happened a lot with this particular ref). Gotta say though, while England were frustrated by the ref, Wales controlled the game and deserved the win.

He says through gritted teeth.

Italy have surprised people this year. They’re rapidly becoming genuine contenders with a few good wins. They nearly surprised England too. Hoping that Scotland beat the French later tonight.

It’s not just been about the sport though. I’ve been watching the Avengers movies again. What can I say, I like Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal of Tony Stark/Iron Man 🙂 (and his Sherlock Holmes too). Today was the turn of Thor in the morning while waiting for the F1, now it’s Captain America in the gap between games.

Right – back to Captain America 🙂

Time to grab the popcorn.