Expensive Tools
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Bought four of these today. Very expensive, but they did each come with a free chair.
Lumia 800 Going Red
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Got a spiffy red case for my Lumia 800 today. I like the way that it really looks part of the phone, even to the way that the buttons show through holds in the case itself. I’ve got a blue one on order so that I can change the colour to reflect my mood. As long as I only have three moods – black, red and blue.
A Slice of History
/I was up in the loft again today and I happened across something of great historical interest. I found a Computer Science Departmental Prospectus from 1978, the year that I graduated. I’d kept it because, ahem, I’m in it.
This is the cover. Any idea which language this is?
..and this is the money shot. I think I’ve probably still got those shoes somewhere. And that hairstyle….
The computer in the corner (yes, that is a computer) was a Prime machine and myself and the other chap (another prize for naming him) were allowed special access to it for our Final Year Projects. We then went onto create an unbeatable version of the “Fox and Hounds” board game that was so good that nobody wanted to play it.
Good times.
New Years Hornsea
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For some reason we always try to go and see the sea early in the New Year. This usually means a trip to Hornsea. Today the weather and the tide were very kind to us, and so we had a little walk down the beach and I took some snaps.
The weather was nice, but very chilly in the wind. We sought refuge in an amusement arcade.
They have these “Penny Falls” machines where you try and push pennies off the a ramp. This looks like it is good to drop, but I reckon those coins are super glued into position…
Lego Camper Van Christmas Fun
/This
plus this
equals this
Yay!
Best Christmas Present Ever?
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This is what Charlotte gave her dad for Christmas. Great stuff.
Christmas Question
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Is it called Boxing Day because you end up with lots of empty boxes?
Happy Christmas Everyone
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Christmas would not be Christmas without some Lego Starwars action
Free Xbox 360 with Nokia Lumia 800
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I didn’t realise it at the time, but getting a new Windows Phone has other benefits as well. In the form of a free Xbox 360 with every brand new Nokia Lumia 800. I think the offer has expired now though. I’d have got the phone anyway, free console or not, but it is rather nice.
I’ve had an Xbox 360 since day of release. I have fond memories of around 30 of us sitting in the dark playing Condemned when I took my shiny new console in having picked it up on the very first day. I have less fond memories of the “Red Ring of Death” and sending the whole thing back for repair fairly shortly after that of course….
Anyhoo; today the postman brought me a brand new Xbox 360. It is the new design one and almost shiny. It doesn’t have a hard disk, but it works a treat using an internal 4G of memory and is much, much quieter than my previous machine. Number one sun put in a copy of Skyrim and fired it up. Very, very good. I find it hard to believe that this is now a “mature” console.
The new machine works so well that it has now taken over from my original device. If anyone out there wants a “one careful owner” console, give me a yell.
Me, I’m off to buy a hard disk to plug into it.
Fifty Years of Private Eye
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Last week we went up to London for a day trip. One thing we wanted to do was take a look at the “Private Eye: The First Fifty Years” exhibition in the Victoria and Albert museum. Private Eye is a satirical magazine which must be finding life quite interesting in a world which seems to have moved beyond satire in the last few years.
Free to visit and some very funny cartoons. Worth a trip, but you’ll have to hurry as it closes early next year.
Start the week with a sunrise
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If you are going to have to get up on a Monday morning it might as well be to a sunrise like this.
Driving Home and Hanging Blinds
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Nothing like driving 225 miles and then hanging some vertical blinds when you arrive home.
Christmas Bash 2011
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We had our Christmas Bash today. A bit near the end of the semester so it was a fairly select gathering, but fun none the less. We did the usual Team Fortress 2 and Pizza
After 3 hours of solid effort Simon found all of the 78 words in the “Three Thing Game” Christmas Wordsearch. We had to give him a prize, but only after we’d checked the age rating of it.
Double barrelled cracker action. I think the blur adds atmosphere….
There are some more pictures on Flickr.You can find them here.
Christmas Shopping on Oxford Street
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We took a day trip to London today. Great fun. We were even brave enough to go down Oxford Street. To say it was busy would be a bit of an understatement. But it was nice.
Political Note: I don’t usually comment on politics on this blog. My opinion is that no matter how you vote The Government always seems to get in. But I feel I must apologise to the rest of the world about the behaviour of our Prime Minister with respect to the European Talks last week. When a previous Prime Minister was negotiating very important treaty stuff he hid a diplomat under the table who passed him notes with sensible things to say written on them. Apparently our Mr Cameron did the same, only he took Jeremy Clarkson.
Christmas Bash 2011
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If you want to know where all the cool people are (and me) next Thursday, we'll be at the departmental Christmas Bash with games, a monster word search, pizza and all kinds of fun. If you are a student in the department you can come too. Tickets go on sale in the departmental office from 2:00 pm Monday 12th of December.
B Grade Radio
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so - what is it?
Bought a “B Grade” radio today. Turned out that the ‘B’ stood for “Broken” in this case. Fortunately they had another one in stock to swap it with, for which the B seems to stand for “basically the same thing but a lot cheaper”.
The Lego Advent Calendar
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I’m now a Lego VIP. Perhaps the oldest one that they have. I’ve got a plastic card with a picture of a little Lego man on it and they send me frequent emails about bargain deals in plastic bricks.
Anyhoo, these are the first two day’s worth from the Lego Advent Calendar. Hope there is a Lego Death Star behind the door for the 24th….
VideoBash on December 12th
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Christophe dropped into my first year lecture today to promote the upcoming Videobash at the university. It’s a co-production between ComSoc and the university film society. Movies, video games, fancy dress. Looks like fun. I think they still have some tickets left. You can buy them next week on the 7th, 8th and 9th in the union.
On a related note, you can get the Final Fantasy movie – The Spirits Within on Blu-ray for 6.49 on Amazon, which has got to be a bargain.
Nothing wrong with Cardiff
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Somehow reed.co.uk seem to think I want another job. They keep sending me emails about jobs that “match” me. Today it is an “Assistant Manager in Cardiff”. Frankly I’m not convinced.
Too Many Accounts
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Today I bought something on the internet and paid extra so just to avoid having to register on yet another shopping site. I found a site selling the item for a tiny bit less but they wanted me to register and set up a username and password (and would presumably bombard me with emails and “offers” ever afterwards). I wish sites wouldn’t do this. Some places have an “order without setting up an account” button and I much prefer this. When I’m shopping on the internet I’m after the goods, not a relationship.
