Thought For The Day

One should only ever press the snooze button twice before getting up.

My First Moblog

Welcome to my first attempt to moblog. Can't add photos yet but might work it out at some stage.

New Beginnings: Part 3

I have just changed my profile details to Chesham, Buckinghamshire. This is because last week we moved there from Streatham.
Chesham is a lovely little market town and has some great pubs in it and in the surrounding countryside. I will have to write more about these as and when I go drinking in them.
Right now I am mostly unpacking boxes.

Boy do I hate unpacking...

Dib Dib Dib

Today (August 1st) is the centenary of Scouting. There is a massive jamboree today at Brownsea Island just off the coast of Bournemouth. Learn more about it here.

Congratulations to the Scouts all over the world.

New Beginnings: Part 2

Congratulations to Mrs. Mouse-to-be. She handed in her notice yesterday and is now leading up to starting a new job with the Liverpool Irish Festival.
This is a very exciting time for both of us. I'm now fully into my new job at WMS. She will be working on the LIF.

Talk about exciting!

Thought for the Day: Comic Writing

I think there is something quite comedic about someone reading The Idiot's Guide to Comic Writing.

New Beginnings

Right, so, nearly two months on since my last entry. It's amazing how, when life isn't just right, you can't be bothered with some things.

Well, I'm kind of back now. I have recently started a new job as a tester at WMS Gaming, and am now waiting to make my first foray into the United States to head office. I am hoping to go up the Sear's Tower and take some pictures. If I manage this, I will be posting the pics on my photo blog and flickr.

Watch this space...

World or Warcraft - part 2

It is now 10:45 in the morning, a little while after my last blog.

I'm now downloading another patch! This one is small, just 219MB.

You would think that the patch would have been incorporated onto my disk vastly reducing the time I have to wait to play this game, and therefore increasing my chances of becoming addicted.

Right now I just feel frustrated, and can't really be bothered with the game.

I'm going out.

World or Warcraft

I sit before you ready to embark on what my gamer mates call "crack for geeks".

This is World of Warcraft.

The Times a couple of weeks ago was giving away a free two week trial of this game. I have now installed the game and am waiting for a small patch (697MB!) to install and update.
A quick sideline on patches. I started off my career as a tester at a games publisher in London. One of the games released, Fallout Tactics, had to be patched almost immediately (not my testing, our sister company). I say "almost immediately". What I actually mean is "on the day of release" (no wonder the company is no longer around). This patch was 80MB, and made industry people nearly pass out when they heard this needed to be downloaded, or requested from customer support.
"80MB on a 56k modem, that could take days!"
If you were paying per minute for your connection, you could end up paying almost as much as the original game. Ludicrous! This wasn't that long ago either, only in 2000.

So now I am sitting here blogging waiting for 697MB of patching goodness to download in "About 2 hours". I'm going to wait for it and play the game because I am curious to see what all the craik is about (see what I did there?).
10% downloaded...
World of Warcraft stormed onto the world stage in 2004 and has since continued to grow into a community of gamers 8 million strong. That's 8 million people paying approximately £8.00 per month subscription! For more information, I recommend you read the Times article. If you choose to give the game a go like I am, you can either request a disk from The Times, or you can download it from the World of Warcraft official site.

You see, I haven't even played the game yet and I am dealing it like an addict!

24% downloaded, still "About 2 hours" to wait...
It's only a game. Plus, it's only a 2 week trial, then I can give it all up.

30% downloaded, "About 75 minutes" to wait...
Tell my mum I love her.

40% downloaded, "About 65 minutes" to wait...
Tell the future Mrs. Mouse that I will see her at the wedding.

50% downloaded, "About 51 minutes" to wait...
Why am I sitting here watching a download?

60% downloaded, "About 42 minutes" to wait...
Bored, hungry, going for breakfast.

. . .

. .

.

How Slack?

Yep, I’ve been slack with keeping my blog. How will I ever become a famous blogger if I don’t blog? How can my friends and family ever figure out what’s going on if I don’t blog? How can I ever get into the habit of writing often (so I can potentially write a book) if I don’t blog? On a scale of 1 to 10 in slackness I go all the way to 11 (thank you Spinal Tap).

On a plus point, I am still taking photos, but they are in 35mm format and I need to take a few more photos before I can send the films off to be developed. With such a nice Easter weekend being predicted by the weathermen, I think I will have no problem taking photos.

Bring it on!

Commuting on the Tube

I have mentioned before how good Diamond Geezer's blog is. His entry Strangers on a Staircase is no exception. It covers the thoughts of people getting off the tube in whichever rank they are. It is amazing how often one encounters the 28th and 29th people off the tube during rush hour.

Happy Birthday Future Mrs. Mouse

The future Mrs. Mouse was born on this day a couple more than 20 years ago (it's not polite to mention a lady's age). Everyone sing in full voice now:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS. MOUSE TO BE
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

There were quite a few people born on this day in history:

Johnny Cash was born today in 1932. The original Man In Black was known for many hit country songs including Boy Named Sue, Ring of Fire, and I Walk the Line.

Fats Domino, also a singer was born today in 1928. He sang many songs, but the one I remember clearest was Bluberry Hill. It reached number 2 in the American charts in 1956.

Levi Strauss was also born on this day in 1829. He is famous for the Levi's brand of jeans worn by many of the gold prospectors during the California Gold Rush during the late 19th century.

So there you have it. Johnny, Fats, and Levi are definitely in illustrious company.

Happy Birthday!

Sinus Headaches are not Fun

I have had a sinus headache for the past four days. Now, I have had the normal blocked sinus headache before. Most people experience these when they have a particularly snotty cold.
Last Friday, I woke up and headed off to work. It was only about two stops into my normal train journey when I realised that I couldn't focus on my newspaper or anything around me because the pain in my left eye and on the left side of my head was so bad.
I have spent the past four days, including Friday, leaning over a bowl of boiling water and sniffing Otrivine. I am still in pain, but not as bad as it was. At its height, I almost could not see out my left eye, and moving my head at all caused hard thudding pains down the left side of my head and neck. This is the worst headache I have had in memory.
I hope this bloody thing goes away soon so I can get back to my photography, as well as other projects I have on the go (you will hear about them at a later date).

Nannoo, Nannoo

Idiots

As you may know, I have another blog. SheyMouse's Photoblog is where I post a lot of my photos. I know I am not the greatest photographer in the world, but I am learning and improving with every day. Therefore, if I got good enough to be exhibited in the Natural History Museum in the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition I would be very annoyed if someone came and did this:
BBC: Activists Deface Shell Exhibition
I first saw the article on Londonist. I agree with everything that the article says. Here is the link:
Londonist: Oily History Museum

If someone did that to my photo, protective glass or not, they would have to sleep with one eye open for a very long time.

The people who did this were trying to get a message across about global warming, etc. being bad. All they succeeded in doing with me is putting me off ever listining to or reading any of their material. Defacing someone elses property (particularly art) is shameful, and cowardly.

If you want to get your message across, why not make a statement that these wildlife photos may no longer be possible if the climate keeps on changing? If any of you who did the defacing read this, I hope you are ashamed of what you've done.

Muppets.

Happy Australia Day!

Today (January 26th) is Australia Day. All over the world Aussies are going into pubs and drinking their favourite (usually overpriced) Aussie tipple (mine's a VB) and probably having a shrimp on the BBQ, or a vegemite sandwich. So, as they say in the Visit Australia ad here in the UK:

Where the bloody hell are you?!

First Snow for London

Last night the first snows happened in London for this winter. Everywhere looked nice and white, and the wind stayed away.
Go over to my photoblog to look at some of the photos.

2012 to 2012

Today is a momentous occasion for London (and the rest of the UK); there are now 2012 days to go before the 2012 Olympics. You would think there would be some sort of celebration to try and drum up some enthusiasm. Nothing. All we had this morning on the BBC news was Lord Coe going on about how he wants the games to be the greenest games to date. Woo hoo. That has really got me excited... Not! Where's the "Today is a great milestone in the journey to the Olympics!", message? I don't want to hear statistics on how little waste there is going to be. I want to hear about how great things are going to be! It's not even the main news item on the London 2012 website!
The Olympics is becoming so over budgeted that someone soon is going to say 'enough'. Then what will happen? Less seats in the stadia? Already there is going to be less money going to non-Olympic good causes due to the increased funding required from the National Lottery fund.
I think the British Olympic Committee (BOC) has missed a perfect occasion for positive promotion of the Olympics today. If people feel good and excited about something as big as the Olympics, then they won't focus so highly on the money aspect.
I am a big fan of the Olympics. I think that it is a good way to promote racial equality, sportsmanship, sports for health. Having never been in a country leading up to hosting the Olympics before, I am unaware of how other countries and people viewed their government's handling of money and publicity for the event. I am perhaps talking for a point of ignorance slightly, but I feel that the BOC were a bit ignorant at what the overall costs would be; you would have thought they would find out about things like VAT first! I also feel that the press are not getting enough "good news" from the BOC and therefore have to dig up dirt for their papers. The BOC needs to get their house in order and start 'attacking' the British view on the Olympics by releasing good publicity as soon as possible. After all, we all like an excuse to celebrate don't we?

Every Man Should Know His Limits

Yesterday I mentioned how manly I feel when pressing the button of my umbrella to see it fully extended while others are still fumbling with theirs.

Today I found that it is a quick tranisiton between feeling cool and manly and looking like a complete tit while fighting with your umbrella in 60 - 80 mile an hour winds.

Sometimes you are just meant to get wet!

Every Man Should Have One

Every Man Should Have: A Push Button Umbrella

I have a good quality compact push-button umbrella. When I press the button, it extends out instantly to cover me from the rain while people are fumbling with their old fashioned hand extended ones.

It makes me feel very manly when I have to whip out my umbrella.

Customising One's Blog Template on Blogger

One of the features of blogger is that I can view/edit the HTML of my blog template. I have been trying to work out how to do this. I think I have finally done it. If you visit here and see everything messed up, I have pressed 'Save' rather and 'Preview' and am probably weeping in a corner.

It's not fun unless I am pulling it apart and figuring how it works.