Happy Christmas Everyone!

PC Scare

My PC decided to do some weirdness last night. It couldn't load up my profile presumably because my registry was corrupted.

I panicked for a while and contemplated re-installing Vista but after a while I tried System Restore and that set things straight.

According to the internets, some applications installing/un-installing can leave handles open in the registry that cause the aforementioned problems.

TV Card

I managed to get the Hauppauge TV card in my PC back in action last night.

I've left it for some time because I didn't want to have to run coax across the room but there was no choice.

It's only the cable (not digital) feed from the set top box but it's better than nothing and now we can schedule it to record shows or even entire series.

VNV Gig

VNV Nation absolutely fantastic last night though it did leave me a little deaf afterwards but that's clearing now.

And if rain brings winds of change...

VNV Nation are playing tonight in town.

Bleeptastic

More Good News

It seems the long awaited (in Europe) Xbox Video Marketplace will launch here on December 11th.

Full details at http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/news-features/news/Video-Marketplace-announcement-041207.htm

So that's the new dash update and video marketplace. Huzzah!

Xbox 360 Update

Lots if nice new stuff in the update, some subtle UI updates, social additions but most of more video support

Full feature list: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemupdates/20071204-features.htm

Video tech details: http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/11/30/december-2007-video-playback-faq.aspx

Zune

With some much appreciated assistance from lady_bloodlust, we managed to set up my Zune profile (http://social.zune.net/member/blaquewraith) and my blaquewraith@live.com email address.

Just wanted them for the future and for the sake of it.

Only thing is, I can't log into the Zune software itself to start registering music plays :(

Zoinks!

Got Hellboy Director's Cut 3 disc set for €14.

Also got Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End Special Edition 2 disc set.

Nightmare Before Christmas 3D

lady_bastet and I went to see Nightmare Before Christmas 3D last night and it was spooktacular.

It was like a new movie seeing it on the big screen, in high def 3D and with surround sound.

It was a little awkward wearing the 3D glasses over my ones but well worth it. The 3D allowed you to see into the sets and get a better idea of their build.

?!?!?!?!

My head is totally asploding checking out http://www.brassgoggles.co.uk/.

Spotted this, which imsploded my brains, want... to... go...

http://www.tdrfan.com/tds/mysterious_island/

Doodlepots

Here's the ceramics lady_bastet and I painted in Doodlepots in Whitby.

I really enjoyed doing my Frankencat but my perfectionist streak went against me as we took ages.



And here is lady_bastet's nakie fairy.

Whitby in review

Hurray, I plucked up the courage and asked lady_bastet to marry me. We were out for a walk around the old town and made our way up the 199 steps and I asked her at the top (had the ring with me the whole week). Much joy and happiness abound. We also put the announcement in the Gazette.

Apart from that fantasticalness, the two weeks were great fun especially the silent movie karlthlthu, littlepinkfaery, gothic_haven and r0chet and ourselves worked on. Going the see if they'll show it at the next WDS ball. Paul from the Victorian Image was also much impressed. Apparently he worked on special effects (appeared briefly) in A Bridge Too Far.

Picked up a few CDs and some more books but otherwise pretty quiet on the purchases front.

Happy Birthday dequath

Hope you have a kick ass day!

Hypnotoad (or Obese Kermit)

lady_bastet bought this little fella for me but he eats everything.

Yum yum yum

My Conkers :P

This is my collection of conkers which I've gathered from the 4/5 horse-chestnut trees on the way out of our estate.

Goings On

Completed Halo 3 (on Sunday). Had a very exciting ending (in game) and bittersweet actual ending.

Apart from that, we're getting the house ready for Halloween-mas. New and old decorations abound.

Seeing as Mindless Self Indulgence are playing here soon...



Directed by Jhonen Vasquez apparently

Hay-diddly-ay-lo Twee

My wonderful lady_bastet bought Halo 3 for me while she was in town.

I fear I may be distracted for some time.

Tassel Club Photos

Some photos from the last Tassel Club show as part of Bulmers Comedy Festival.

Will miss them in October :(

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blaquewraith/sets/72157602147125301/show/

This is delicious!

Nearly made me fall off my chair, needed a laugh as I had just nearly split my head open...

What a nice day

Myself, lady_bastet and ickle_tayto headed out to Ardgillan Castle today to check out tabilities photos in the Castle Squared art exhibition.

tabilities had some choice photos on display, a collection from the Blackrock baths and some industrial shots, and some internal shots of a decaying house and it's rotting contents.

It would've been great to see tabilities but I believe he's off to Poland. It would also have been nice if the program had background descriptions of the pieces.

The other pieces were also very good. Kelly Ratchford's cute and spooky characters.

We also meandered around the grounds and had chips later in Skerries.

All in all a lovely day.

(Ooops, wee bit overdue)

Happy Birthday blackberry_roan.

Haven't seen you in ages so hope we bump into you sometime soon.

The Gaming Continues

My brother got Guitar Hero II a few weeks ago and he's been rubbing it in that he's flying through the game so I took a break from BioShock to see if I could move myself along.

Managed to beat the medium level (though only juston some tracks), opening a bunch of encores and Stonehenge.

Will try to get 5 stars on all beginner and medium tracks before moving onto hard mode.

The face melters are very very scary.

BioShock (again)

Completed BioShock a few days ago and already playing it through again.

I want to see about getting some of the achievements I missed out on as well as some of the visuals and game elements.

Tis awesome. I tell thee, awesome.

BioShock

I got BioShock while we were down in Wexford. I had downloaded and played the demo and was very impressed.

It takes place in a gorgeous art deco undersea city and features an ingenious weapon system.

Had to take a break as we had a lot of sorting to do and we had to settle things for Charlie.

Soiree anyone

From lady_bastet...

Was thinking of a bit of a get together so..

Our new place
Saturday 8nd September 8pm onwards

Accessible by Luas(and short walk) and 44\c bus

BYOB nibbles and good laughs will be provided

Playlist

Here's my playlist from last Saturday...

Rosetta Stone - Adrenaline
Siouxsie And The Banshees - She's A Carnival
Fear Factory - Blue Monday
Depeche Mode - It's No Good
New Order - Here To Stay
The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
Joy Division - She's Lost Control
Bauhaus - Passion Of Lovers
Therion - Rise And Fall Of Sodom And Gomorrah
Fischerspooner - Emerge
Apoptygma Berzerk - Mourn (Remix)
Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole
And One - Get You Closer
Covenant - Go Film

Dominion

Had fun again DJing on Saturday. It was great to see so many people after being away for so long and we got to see ferrousoxide

The club was packed, most I've seen in ages. This is possibly due to the late arrival admission fee.

Few hiccups during my set. The track listing on one of my CDs is off as I went to play a certain track but a different one came on. Worse than that, the manual pitch was on at 1.25x (I think) so all the songs sounded like dance remixes (was playing trad goth at the time).

Still got that sorted on on with the show.

Took a good few pictures and I've been asked by a few people to start putting new photos online so that IS underway.

Must try to get to Dominion more from now on.

DJing

If all is still as planned, I will be DJing tomorrow.

At the moment I iz lookin at http://community.livejournal.com/goth_macros & poopin meh self :P

Windows Live SkyDrive

There's a new service from Windows Live called SkyDrive.

It's an online storage service that gives you 500MB (at the moment) of storage & you can set up private, friends & public shares.

http://skydrive.live.com
http://skydriveteam.spaces.live.com
http://livefoldersteam.spaces.live.com/

DragonForce will f*ck your fingers up

Ok, I'm barely managing the normal stuff on Guitar Hero 2 but this is what's to come in 3...

A Gentlemans's Duel

Whitby Dracula Society Ball Photos

David Hutchinson has posted up the photos from Whitby Dracula Society Ball.

http://www.dhphotographic.co.uk/me/wdssb07/gallery/index.htm

Bitey bitey

Tassel Club (Festival of World Cultures)

Haven't been to the Tassel Club in ages & there looks like there's a good one coming up at the end of the month.

When: Sunday 26 August 2007 - 8.30pm
Where: Kingston Hotel Ballroom, Dun Laoghaire
Price: €25

Ireland’s Tassel Club presents Cirque du Cabaret: Vaudeville, Burlesque and eccentric circus; a glamorous tribute to vintage entertainment. For the Festival of World Cultures The Tassel Club creates a unique ‘wrap party show’, with a retro chic line-up of artists from across the globe, from Slovakia, New Zealand and Sweden. Hosted by originator and producer Sara Colohan the show will feature a collection of old time classics and chansons Français. With Maximilian Milano, Kristin Kapelli, bellydance, hula hoops, the delectable Epiphany in her Dietrich top hat and tails and for a party finale the indisputable French trademark the Can Can.

SOTD (Slideshow Of The Day)

Harajuku

♪ ♪ ♪

Happy birtday gothichaven

Love & hugs

London/Brighton

All geared up for a weekend in London with karlthulhu & littlepinkfaery.

Then it's onto Brighton for work. Hopefully that'll go well.

Dentist

Went to the dentist on Monday after years of avoidance.

Only had some plaque to be cleared, no fillings or anything else.

I was quite surprised.

My teeth feel odd now but I will try to maintain them better from now on.

Madness

Anyone who has my blaquewraithpix Flickr feed friended will probably know that it's gone bonkers & resubmits all the pictures every once in a while.

Don't know why this happens but just unfriend it if it's too much.

Jury Duty

I was supposed to be on jury duty for this week but it was short lived.

The only case I was selected to go on was expected to take 2 weeks, which would clash with my trip to the UK. They instruct you to let them know if this is the case, so I did.

So that was that & we were told to go home. Kind of glad as I have a few things to prepare in work for the UK.

The Story So Far

Was away in the UK from Thursday to Monday. Went to visit karlthulhu and littlepinkfaery in Derby then headed with them up to Whitby for the WDS ball.

Got some more Absinthe in Derby, one in the shape of the Eiffel Tower.

Whitby was beautiful as ever. We all went for a sunset walk down to the pier on our first night.

The WDS ball was a bit empty due to the terrible weather. I did manage to win the costume competition thanks to lady_bastet's makeup work.

All back to normal now but have jury duty next week & a possible on site visit the week after.

As requested a photo of our costumes, I was Count Orlok from Nosferatu & lady_bastet was a vampire's victim. Photo courtesy of karlthulhu.

Let's Get Ready To Rawk!

Got Guitar Hero 2 for the Xbox 360.

I have tired arms is all I'll say.



Arrggghhh!

Movies

Went to see Pirates of the Caribbean this evening. It was very good, can't beat two galleons bearing down on each other in a maelstrom.

Have a headache now but watching Black Books, the one with Simon Pegg in Goliath Books :) Go team.

Last Steps

Things are going from strength to strength with the Home Server. It's all up & running now on the network. Installed all Windows Updates via Remote Desktop & installed the Office Viewers but I think I'll leave it at that on the software side of things.

Ran a last sync with SyncToy of my music & videos to my external hard drive & connected it to server. Did this as it'd be much faster than transferring it all over wireless. Will get around to photos later.

I've installed the connector on my desktop & the notebook. Had some bother with seeing the server on the notebook but realised I had to allow access in the OneCare firewall. Once that was sorted, everything worked fine.

I may have a go at enabling remote access this evening.

Home Server Success

Finally, some success with the Home Server.

A colleague in work had a spare SATA cable so that saved me the time & annoyance of switching it from my desktop. Yay!

Our housemate managed to burn the ISO successfully to DVD & it booted correctly. Yay again!

Then I had problems with the SATA driver. Boo.

I thought the one from ASUS did not support Server 2003 so I got one from Silicon Image but that wouldn't stick during the "Specify additional drivers" phase (kept re-requesting it). Went back to the original ASUS driver which would stick but I got a blue screen of death on reboot.

After trying this a few times with partitioning & formatting I realised that even though I specified the SATA driver during the Server 2003 GUI install, I had to specify it again during the blue non-GUI install after reboot. Once I specified it again, everything installed as usual.

Had a quick test to see if I could detect the server on the network which failed but I just realised this morning that the OS may not have the drivers for the ethernet ports & I didn't even bother to check last night. Got them & ready to try again this evening.

At least it's only network stuff now.

Home Server

My grand plans to set up a home server in the new house have gotten off to a lumpy start.

I ordered a 500GB SATA hard drive from Komplett which promptly arrived. Unfortunately, it had no leads whatsoever (fair enough, I suppose). One of the lads in work was able to pick me up a SATA power cable the same day so I figured all was good.

The reason I thought this was because I thought I had one in the house, but I didn't. I'll have to wait until we're over in Finglas to get one or buy one (wait methinks).

The biggest problem is the OS. I want to put Windows Home Server on it but I can't write it successfully to DVD. I tried numerous CD/DVD burning software but all failed & now I have 6 or so DVD coasters. The closest I got was extracting the files from the ISO & burning them to the DVD with Vista's own software but the DVD would not boot at startup.

Anyway, I'll figure it out. Only a few bits to fix.

Address

Oh, by the way our address is,

5 Glencairn Court
Leopardstown
Dublin 18

Long time no post.

Been busy with all the moving into the new house then camping last weekend. Added to that, we don't have broadband sorted yet.

Have the house nearly sorted, finished off our room last night.

Will move things around in the attic next week & have to pick up DVD shelf & clothes horse.

The excitement of it all.

We met up with ickle_tayto, blackberry_roan & pearcider for lunch in town.

Was good to see ickle_tayto after her trip to the US & haven't seen blackberry_roan in ages.

Bit more sorting on the room. Had to put some boxes in the house side passage as the room was a tip. Took down some more shelves & filled holes.

Tired now.

Don't make me laugh

As lady_bastet has mentioned, we'll be renting a house with pearcider at the end of the month.

We spent the whole weekend packing up stuff from my mum & dad's house. Amazing how much stuff one collects over the years. Massive thanks to nephster13 for all the boxes. We've offered the room to my brother because we'll be moving everything out & the room will be empty (& we'll probably be over every once in a while now).

The farce begins though on the Sandyford side in lady_bastet's mum & dad's house. We had planned to move a lot of stuff out of the room but hang on to it for storage because we have so much stuff & don't want to clutter the new house. lady_bastet just rang me, informing me that her sister has nominated the room for herself & is not moving out with her partner (so much for commitment there).

lady_bastet has always said that the room would remain hers & we're both astonished how brazen & utterly lazy (down to the atomic level) her sister is.

Photos

Flickr's slideshow is great but scales the photos to the initial size of the browser window so I recommend maximizing and refreshing.

2007-09-30 Dominion
2007-08-18 Dominion
2007-03-21 Dominion

2006-11-19 Dominion
2006-09-17 Dominion
2006-08-20 Dominion
2006-06-11 Dominion
2006-05-20 Dominion
2006-04-29 Dominion
2006-03-05 Dominion
2006-02-19 Dominion
2006-02-04 Dominion
2006-01-28 Dominion
2006-01-22 Dominion

2005-12-10 Dominion
2005-12-03 Dominion
2005-11-26 Dominion
2005-11-19 Dominion
2005-10-22 Dominion
2005-09-24 Dominion
2005-09-10 Dominion
2005-09-03 Dominion
2005-08-29 Dominion
2005-08-13 Dominion

Brum brum miaow

Cat takes the bus...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=447527&in_page_id=1770

Xbox News

Leaked then confirmed news of the features of a new update due in May for the Xbox 360 dashboard.

Also a dinky keypad for typing in Messenger chats on the way.

Beautiful photos...

http://www.viona-art.com/
http://www.nadyalev.com/

New Shiny

I ordered a sweet external hard drive off Komplett. The one I have at the moment is quite bulky so I can bring this one around with me.

Massive thanks to karlthulhu & littlepinkfaery for having us over & taking care of us.

Had a great time at Carnival of Souls. Nice to have another festival to go to. They are fun.

Must remember next time to pick up lots of flyers for Dominion. Got some from Devolution mag though.

The Decemberists

I've been listening to Phantom in work (most of the day to be honest) & a few tracks/artists have caught my ear.

The Decemberists have a fantastic song called O Valencia which is played at least once a day. Love it, check them out. Especially karlthulhu, I think you may like them.

http://www.decemberists.com/
http://www.myspace.com/thedecemberists

(The video wasn't what I expected though but still good)

TV card

Got a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 500 MCE dual tuner TV card with FM receiver. Works perfectly with Vista.

I have it set up to use the cable off the NTL set top box rather than the digital as we need that for the main TV.

It's pretty cool though. So glad it worked as the one I bought about 2 years ago was a non starter.

Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver

Finally got the Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows. I was surprised to see it in HMV last week as it seemed to have just been released officially in the US.

Synced up the Wireless Controller fine. I did notice that you need to remove the battery to turn off the controller. There doesn't seem to be a shutdown function by holding the Guide button down.

The Wireless Headset had a few gripes. At first Windows Live Messenger wouldn't see it in the Audio/Video Setup Wizard. I tried rebooting but still nothing. Then I switched from offline to online mode in Messenger & it all showed up. From there on it was just like a normal microphone, still have to test it out though in a chat session.

Apparently the Wireless Racing Wheel does not support force feedback in Windows which is a bit of a shame (don't have that (yet)).

Vista

Got Vista yesterday but only managed to install it late last night.

Still in under 45 minutes I had it up & running. Things were speeded up by the fact I have all my personal files synchronised to an external hard drive everyday.

Vista also detected all my core hardware. I was surprised it picked up the sound & ethernet card but it did.

Only a few bits to finalise & I'll be back on track.

Yay!

Big thanks to ferrousoxide & nephster13 for the gifts, they fantastic.

Thank you so much.

Musicat

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ860P4iTaM]

Broken Again

Turns out the Xbox 360 is broken again.

What's really annoying is I just bought the VGA AV cable to connect it to my Dell flat panel monitor so I can have HD. Tasha also bought me a memory card to back up save games.

It's not so bad, I'll just get it replaced & all will be right again.

Finglas PC

I bodged together a bunch of computer parts left over from my main PC upgrade & now we have a PC in Finglas too.

The only downside is the monitor which is teeny tiny. Oh well, it was free.

Yay!

Saddness

I'm afraid the Xbox 360 is knackered. It crashes on startup sometimes or sometimes midway through on the dashboard & I even get the red lights of death every once in a while.

I've disconnected all accessories & it still does it. I will have to return it to Smyths.

Just back from Finglas, went to play Xbox 360 & it started crashing. Even got the red lights of death.

Managed to get it started up & formatted the HD (as it seemed to stay on without it connected) & so far so good.

Hope it's ok.

Click here for photos from our trip to Whitby including the Whitby Dracula Society ball.

Back Again

lady_bastet & I have returned from Whitby & the Whitby Dracula Society ball.

First & foremost, it was great to see our UK friends, karlthulhu, littlepinkfaery, gothichaven & r0chet as well as our new acquaintances Dillon & Cat, hugs to all you guys. Most of the time was spent window shopping (as a lot of places were closed for renovation but some were open) & having tea.

The Whitby Dracula Society ball itself was good fun. One or two familiar faces from the train ride last October but always hard to tell due to masks. Usual music was played with a leaning more towards trad goth. karlthulhu won scariest nightmare (Nightmares & Fairytales being theme) & gothichaven won best mask.

When all the others had headed, lady_bastet & I had a day for her birthday. Again we looked around & got her some nice pressies then went for dinner in the evening.

Long tiring journey back today finished things off. lady_bastet really likes Whitby & would give anything to live there me thinks.

And we're off...

lady_bastet & I are heading off to Whitby for the Whitby Dracula Society ball & to meet up with our UK chums.

On a negative note, as I was heading through town last night & going past Trinity, a bloke "accidentally"/on purpose kneed me in the thigh. Had to be on purpose cause it was quite high up & with considerable force (very sore). While lady_bastet can't see any motivation for such an action, I believe it was just malicious opertunity. Possibly he saw my coat or my glasses & thought "Here's someone who won't say anything back & if he does, kablamo!"

At this stage in life, I wouldn't put it past some skangers/chavs just stabbing you for something to do.

:( :( :(

Possibly the saddest video in the entire world...

Seymour

Meep :(

Happy Anniversary to me (sort of)

According to my Hotmail account settings, it's my 7 year Hotmail anniversay!

Yay me!

Ok... Eh... Ok... Umm...

So as many of you have probably heard Mr. Manson and Miss Dita have gone their separate ways.

What boggles my mind entirely is why Manson played away from home with a pretty and, no doubt lovely "girl", Evan Rachel Wood (who?) when he had the living goddess that is Dita Von Teese.


Pretty blonde girl

OR


Voluptuous, burlesque, pinup, fetish goddess!!!

Over in my parent's house this weekend & my Dad & I re-jigged the broadband network setup. Router is in the attic with ethernet cables dropping down to his PC & my original Xbox. My brother will be picking up the wireless network adaptor for his Xbox 360 so he's ok.

Got Xbox Live working on my original Xbox now that I have a Gold subscription. Took a bit of work, had to setup a credit card on my gamer profile so I could validate my Gamertag on the original Xbox.

I also picked up a teeny USB keyboard for use with my Xbox 360 for text chatting & other long typing stuff, it's only 2 inches longer that my hand. I was able to cleanly remove the KeySonic logo from the top left which was bugging me.

♪ ♫ ♪

Happy birthday ferrousoxide.