TTFN

In the airport, about to head off to see my sister in the UK.

My books arrived from Amazon & one is very big. Lots of words for little old me. If anyone likes Victorian literature, let me know, can show you the books sometime.

Anyway we've a long wait as we're here way early but better safe than sorry.

Have fun this weekend.

Books

Ordered some books from Amazon to fuel my up & down interest in Victorian literature & it's presence in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

The first is quite big & covers a multitude of characters, locations & ideas.

The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana

Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 1

A Blazing World: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 2

Already shipped & should be here soon.

Photo Backtracking

As I said many moons ago, I will start uploading my photos again to Flickr. So here's the first batch (excluding the ones I've already uploaded.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blaquewraith/sets/72157594247468973/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blaquewraith/sets/72157594247481289/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blaquewraith/sets/72157594247506645/

Same applies as always, let me know if there's any you want removed.

Work

I don't mention work much. Kind of just get on with things but I've found myself getting a little bit panicked of late trying to meet deadlines.

As I'm still learning the complexities of our software, I still have to ask people for help. Quite a bit actually. It's left me wondering if I should have picked things up better by now or am I actually cut out for straight up programming. I enjoyed the database design & admin stuff when I was doing that. That being said, it was much easier.

Maybe I'm just shying from the challenge. My team leader is a sociable but focused bloke & has said on numerous occasions that I'm doing well.

Patience I suppose...

Weekend's Photos

Here's the photos from Dominion on the weekend. Thought I took some of ferrousoxide but I mustn't have. Sorry about that.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blaquewraith/sets/72157594246222475/

Dominion

Getting out to Dominion was good fun this weekend too. Haven't gone in ages so it seemed extra special. Pretty much everyone was there with _velvetdarkness as guest DJ. Good job Will.

Have to remember to burn Siouxsie's Downside Up b-sides & bonus stuff for Paul Fitz & XPQ-21 for Arthur.

Apart from that, did a few shots of Jager with ferrousoxide seeing as she's heading off. Great seeing you again. Hugs.

Will try to get out to Dominon a bit more in the future but what with saving...

Will try though.

A Scanner Darkly

With the return of Mr. pearcider, we decided to make something of our usually nothing-filled Sunday & go to the movies. What to see was the question? A quick check of entertainment.ie, pointed us in the direction of A Scanner Darkly. I had heard of it a bit before as it is a trailer on the Xbox Live Marketplace but I hadn't watched it.

The review mentioned that it was by Philip K. Dick who, even though I don't read, I knew was a popular author of science fiction. It had Keanu "Whoa!" Reeves & numerous off center actors in the cast (IMDB). The review did mention something about an interesting animation style being used but we thought it would only be periodic. In actual fact, the entire movie is done with this quirky, layered, paint effect animation. It's pretty good particularly in portraying the drug induced hallucinations.

Not going to go into the plot at all, I just recommend people go see it as it is well worth it.

Seeing it kind of inspired an idea for a movie night with the likes of Clockwork Orange, Memento, Fight Club, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, etc. Basically a night of head melting.

More Games

Got some more games for the Xbox (with backwards compatibility in mind) including BLACK, Fable & Far Cry Instincts. Far Cry is the only one not BC at the moment but hopefully it should be on the cards.

Also got Kameo for the Xbox 360. Might see if I can get lady_bastet involved as there's a good co-op mode involved.

Quick Updates

Quiet weekend in Wexford. Cleaned up & fed the chickens. The chickens are funny.

Taking care of pearcider's housemate's hamster, Fudge. He's a cute little guy.

Was over at tabilities place this evening sorting out the last few things on his PC. Put Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Office Viewers, QuickTime, Windows Defender etc. on the PC to cover the last few bits & pieces.

Nearly time for sleep me thinks

Down in Wexford at the moment for the Bank Holiday weekend. Got a bottle of wine yesterday but left it in the freezer overnight. It didn't break the bottle but did push the cork out. Good thing as we don't have a corkscrew.

Hope it tastes ok.

Edit: Tasted fine. All gone now!

Webcam

Got my new webcam yesterday & tried it out once I got home. It's physically smaller than I expected but still well built. I've set it up on to of my flat panel monitor for better positioning, rather than on the desk.

It has some gimmicky features such as still/animated video overlays but more importantly it has plentiful controls to adjust settings, good zoom control & a facial tracking system which I still have to work out.

The software allows you to capture photos & instantly post them to Windows Live Spaces which is great as WLS has just re-launched with numerous updates including the Friends module.

Have already tested it out on Windows Live Messenger with a friend & once we got some mike issues sorted, it was great.