Happy Birthday Simon

Hope you’ve enjoyed Oblivion as much as I did. If not, I’ll nerd you out with checklists & maps.

House Progress

We managed to get some work done on the house over Christmas. Along with the usual wall paper stripping (stairs, hall and living room) we also successfully installed the house alarm (no mean feat as I’m afraid of heights), ripped up the hall laminate and skirting boards and cleared out the shed (put all the kitchen unit boards and junk in there).

We have a skip bag for the junk which we will fill today.

Hopefully, we will have the kitchen guy up this evening too to discuss our plans.

Arthur Rackham

Oh and Arthur Rackham’s Alice in Wonderland illustrations :P

Alphonse Mucha

Me wants all of these!

LiveJournal Syndication

Don’t forget people, if you have a paid account (or know someone who does), you can create syndicated feeds to add to your friends list in LJ.

What does this mean? If you have an account on some other web service such as Flickr, Twitter, PhotoBucket, etc. you can create an LJ account for it and it will show up in your friends feed.

Go here add add your RSS feed, give it an “account” name and share it among friends.

I have one for my Flickr favorites, one for my Windows Live Spaces and one for my Twitter.

House

Well our energy levels could only last so long. Last night and this morning I felt exhausted for working on the house. Getting in after work then 1 to 2 hours of stripping wallpaper will take it out of you.

So we’re taking a break this evening and will pace ourselves better in the future. More sleep would also be prudent.

We’re still focused on getting everything done but without killing ourselves from now on.

All the upstairs is stripped so it’s down the stairs, the hall, living room and kitchen/dining room left.

Will be discussing/shopping for kitchens and doors this weekend.

House Progress

Almost done with stripping the wallpaper upstairs. Not bad for a week’s work (2 hours in the evening and the weekend).

We got a second steamer from one of Tasha’s dad so that has helped a lot.

Unfortunately I left it on one of the walls too long last night and some of the plaster coat came off!

Still, we’ll finish the back bedroom off tonight and get the landing, stairs and hall underway.

House Photos

Slightly delayed (like the house) here’s some photos of the progress after one week and before the handover.

2008-12-04 set slideshow

2008-12-14 set slideshow

House Progress

Last night, I took down all the internal doors and lock receivers, removed any of the wall fixtures like curtain rails, hooks, nails and accessories in the bathroom and finally removed any of the loose skirting boards.

Tasha continued to strip the wallpaper in the front bedroom but now that I’m mostly done with dismantling stuff, I’ll be able to help her.

Afterwards,we went for dinner at Arthur and Catherine’s and brought them back to see the house later on.

I was also sad to hear that Bettie Page died last night. No doubt there will be a resurgence of interest in her past and iconic imagery.

House Directions

For future reference coming over to our house, here are the directions from the Kilmacud Luas stop.

Progress

I finished dismantling the last of the kitchen units last night and am storing the big bits out in the shed (which is bigger than I thought). Still have to do the sink unit and remove the tiles in there.

Tasha stripped some of the wallpaper in the front bedroom with a steamer we borrowed (should make life a lot easier)

Tonight, the plan is to remove all the internal doors and maybe some skirting boards.

House

We got started on the house this evening. Tasha stripped the surface of the wallpaper up stairs so it’ll be easier to remove and I dismantled the crappy kitchen that was left.

Need to get a skip for the bulky stuff and the wheelie bins in for the smaller things.

Turns out the fireplace in the front room was just sitting in front of the old one so restoring it should be no problem.

More Sad News

My (maternal) grandfather passed away this morning at 6am. He had been very frail and fearful for the last few years but his death was painless and peaceful at home.

With the recent death of my aunt Mary too, it’s been a tough month or so but at least their passing's were painless.

Oblivion

I finished the Shivering Isles main quest and only have a few bits of side quests to do.

That’s all the guilds, Knights of the Nine, Daedric shrine, wilderness and settlement quests done.

I’ve lined up the other plug-ins via Xbox Live Marketplace and as soon as I’m back online, I can finish them off too.

I started off Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, an original Xbox game, last night. Spooky stuff and odd playing without a HUD. The controller shakes quite a bit.

House

Just got word. We finally get our keys on Monday (with an inspection on Thursday).

About… bloody… time!

Weekend

I’m very sorry I missed the last Dominion but Tasha had organised a surprise trip to visit Gabi and Simon in the UK. I hope everyone took lots of photos.

It was great to see Gabi and Simon again and we had a winter wonderful weekend with an abundance of snow.

It was my 30th birthday last week and thanks to everyone for their tremendous generosity and congratulations. Tasha got me an Xbox 360 Elite to replace the bird fluff infested one I have now. Will try to sort it out to sell it on but I won’t use the new one until we’re in the house. She also got Fable II for the Xbox 360 and Okami and Resident Evil 4 for the Wii so I’ll have lots to play once we’re in the house.

No More Dominion :(

I am very sad to report that there will be no more Dominion after this Saturday (see here for details).

I’ll admit that like a lot of the older gang, personal commitments kept me away in the last few months but it played an important part of my young adulthood and up until now.

Most of all, I am glad I got to have met such good friends and even asked Tasha out for the first time there.

My thanks to Greg, Orla and Conor for letting me guest DJ every once in a while. It meant a lot to me and helped my confidence greatly.

Unfortunately, as this week is my 30th birthday, I already have plans and will not be able to attend the last night :_(

I am sure the guys will work on something in the future and I look forward to their endeavours.

Oblivion Checklists

I’ve made up these checklists so I can be sure I don’t miss anything in Cyrodiil. They’re broken down by region and have any quests associated with them listed too. This way you can avoid them and wait for the quest to clear them out to prevent corrupting the quest.

Ayleid Ruins

Forts

Caves

Mines

Settlements

I was also looking at an excellent mod for the PC version, which would make an ideal official plug-in called Kvatch Rebuilt. Essentially, it’s a series of quests which progressively rebuild Kvatch (after being destroyed during the Oblivion Crisis). The castle, arena, guilds, homes, statues, etc. are restored and the quests are spaced over time for a more realistic progression. Seeing as Bethesda have done plug-ins for a wizard, thief, vampire and warrior, this could make effective use of the existing environment.

Oblivion Guide

Having completed the main quest (rather quickly I thought), I’ve moved onto the various city quests and will eventually move on to the faction quests.

I ordered the Prima guide for Oblivion and it arrived today. 544 pages! Tons of stuff covered so I should be able to cover everything in the game.

Stuff and Ting

So what’s been going on?

I’m doing on call work now. 1 week each month, 18:00 to 08:00 weekdays and all weekend but the pay is good and will be vital once we move in.

As for the house, we were told we’d have the keys by the start of October but that looks like it might move back as the council approval form and the seller documents are still out.

I DJ’d in Dominion on Saturday. Was worn out after an hour so I handed over to Will. I just ran out of track ideas and didn’t want to cut into Will’s tempo.

As Tasha mentioned, she didn’t pass her driving test unfortunately but she’ll get back on track with that once we’re in the house and back from Whitby.

We had planned to drive over to Whitby (which put extra pressure on Tasha) but we now have it all worked out and Tasha seems more at ease now.

Wii Fit

We finally got the Wii Fit over the weekend having waited weeks for it to arrive in Tescos so we could get my brother's discount.

I had a go last night and it says I'm right in the middle of my ideal BMI. Even so I'd like to use it as the activities help with balance and toning.

Oblivion

I'm concentrating on the main story at the moment, disregarding all the side quests. I just completed Miscarcand to get the Great Welkynd Stone and starting to defend Bruma but I have to go to the other cities to rally some support.

Here's a good site for an Elder Scrolls random name generator (based on actual Elder Scrolls NPC names), Silgrad Tower's Name Generator.

Watchmen

Bought and read Watchmen over the weekend. I really enjoyed it and can see why it's considered one of the greatest graphic novels of all time. Really looking forward to the film version to see how faithfully it's adapted, although the trailer looks awesome.

Also got the Crow (only recently reprinted, I believe) and Heroes graphic novels (watching season 1 of Heroes on DVD at the moment too).

And in work I'm making my way through the 500 Essential Anime Movies.

Which Next?

Now that I’ve completed GTA IV (although not 100%, maybe later) what should I play next?

On the Xbox 360, I have:

Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion (muddled about the starting dungeons last night for a bit)
Forza Motorsport 2
Mass Effect
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter

And for the original Xbox via backwards compatibility, I have:

Panzer Dragoon Orta
Prince of Persia The Sands of Time
Soulcalibur II (cleared this with Maxi on normal, I think)

More Games

Got 3 more Xbox games from Amazon UK, delivered to my sister and picked up while visiting her over the weekend. Panzer Dragoon Orta, Prince of Persia The Sands of Time and Soulcalibur II. All top games and an absolute bargain at around £5 each.

While away I also got Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Game of the Year Edition in Game.

So now I just have to find some time to play them (considering Oblivion actually devours time itself)

It will be mine…

No point in putting a picture up because everyone know what a flat screen TV looks like however with this TV it’s the specs that count. Built in freesat tuner, 42” widescreen, 30,000:1 contrast ratio, ton of connections.

Drool

(£1099 from Richer Sounds who ship from Belfast to Dublin)

Derby

Tasha and I had a fantastic weekend with Karl and Andrea at the Derbyshire Pagan gathering.

I enjoyed the company and the experience and wouldn’t mind going again in the future.

The trailer tent was a nice luxury as it gave all four of us space to move and sleep well.

In other news, Tasha got some money back on her insurance and her new driving test will be on the 23rd of September.

MEMEs

Anyone else notice that the fad of memes has passed? Thank goodness for that.

Combichrist

You know it’s been a great gig when you lose half a stone from sweating. It was fucking excellent in fact.

The venue was just about the right size. Good warm up from SkinjoB then on with the electronic onslaught from Combichrist.

Intruder Alert, Blut Royale, This Is My Rifle, Like To Thank My Buddies, Without Emotions, Electrohead, Get Your Body Beat, Red and This Shit Will Fuck You Up were all played (not in that order and a few more).

Followed up with a jammed club downstairs with DJing from Greg and Fitz, all in all a incredible night.

Bit tired now :P

Game Manual Clutter?

I have a good few games, not hundreds like some, but enough, which I store in a large CD wallet. The problem is each one has a manual, which I sometimes like to refer to. Unfortunately, it’s annoying trying to store them all together and even worse in the boxes so I’ve found a good solution in Replacement Docs.

They have good quality PDF versions of many game manuals so you can store them electronically. This means you can put the real manual into long term storage elsewhere.

New Games

Bought Forza Motorsport 2, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and Mass Effect over the weekend as a 3 for 2 Gamestop offer.

So much gameage after GTA IV.

GTA IV Music

Dominion/Mother Russia is played on Liberty Rock Radio, which is DJ’d by Iggy Pop.

Pretty odd hearing it playing as you’re running over people.

Weekend Away

Tasha and I had a wonderful weekend away with Gabi and Simon in Norwich. On Saturday we went to the open day in Kensal Green Cemetery and on Sunday we went to Houghton Hall again. Both were thoroughly enjoyable and I should have a few photos to post shortly.

It was a great weekend until crappy Ryanair was delayed as usual and we didn’t get home until near 2am.

The Real Liberty City

I've mapped out all the Grand Theft Auto IV Liberty City neighbourhoods against their real life New York city counterparts.

Most also have a link to the real world location's Wikipedia page.

Broker (Brooklyn)
Dukes (Queens)
Bohan (Bronx)
Algonquin (Manhhaton)
Alderney (New Jersey)

Stan Winston

Only spotted on the internets that Stan Winston passed away on the 15th.

Truly a special effects genius.

Joy Division Zune

You can't get them over her (the Zune that is) and most people will probably berate them because it's Microsoft but I think in still looks pretty cool. Limited to 500, documentary included and custom Zune Original finish.

http://www.zune.net/en-US/products/zuneoriginals/joydivision/default.htm

New shoes

I now own a second pair of footwear. Got these today instead of another pair of New Rocks (had an older pair of New Rocks in attic but have to break them in, ouch)

God bless you Dr. Maertens!

Our House

Although we still have paperwork to sort out, this is our house…

http://www.myhome.ie/residential/search/brochure.asp?id=GLPAH354192

Driving with my Boo

We had a great Sunday drive yesterday. We just headed out up past Ashbourne and said “Where shall we head?”. So we kept going and I checked the map to see if there was anything interesting, nothing found though and then we ran out of map.

I suggested a walk in the woods so we kept an eye out and found a small wood. It had a simple nature walk and went round and round itself. Took some nice photos and Tasha wishes she brought the dolls.

After that we went in search of the Hill of Tara. Didn’t take too long to find it but the end result is ultimately a hilly mound (sorry ancient Ireland but that’s what it is). More photos and a bit of lunch and off we went again.

We spotted a ruin on the top of a hill as we were at Tara so we narrowed in on that. We were pleasantly surprised as it was a decent ruin with some nice crosses and features. More photos of course then off home.

My eyes are doing ok though I’m wearing my sunglasses a lot to protect from dust and glare.

Isn't driving (or being driven) grand.

Harajuku Photo Gallery

Spotted this good gallery on Boing Boing of the many styles seen in Harajuku...

http://www.japanforum.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=2

Big News

The first big news is that I got laser eye surgery done last Wednesday and it was a complete success. I am now completely free of glasses and feel like a new person. Much thanks to Catherine for her encouragement and Tasha for her support. I have had no concerns yet but have worn sunglasses to reduce glare and protect my eyes. Lots of artificial tears though.

Second big news is that we finally managed to get a house, an actual bonafide bricks and mortar house. It's very near work and has a lot of promise, just needs our personal touch. We are very excited but a bit of greediness from the seller dampened the mood a bit but he finally agreed.

John's LJ Comments

I've been asked to re-enable the comments on John's LiveJournal and fortunately the previous comments have been preserved.

Feel free to go there and leave a message or go back through his posts to see what a vivid, independent and imaginative person he was.

http://tabilities.livejournal.com/

John's Book of Condolences

A reminder to anyone how hasn't had a chance to sign the book of condolences for John, that we will be holding on to it for a while longer before passing it on to his mum and dad.

If you have any notes, photos, etc. that you'd like to include, let me know and we'll sort it out.

John's LJ Comments

Based on the response from John's family, we can possibly re-enable commenting.

Their primary concern was abuse in the form of comment spamming but this is rare on LJ.

What do you guys think?

Photos

We got some photos printed out today for the book of condolences. Some of John on his own but also with as many different people as possible.

As sad as I am that he is gone, I can't help laugh when I look at the photos. He was always pulling funny faces or striking a pose, anything to raise a giggle.

Nee nee nah nah noo noo!!!

Miss you John.

John Younge 1972-2008

I am deeply saddened and still utterly shocked that my good friend, John Younge, has passed away.

At 36 years old, he has died young but he lived a very very full life, and has experienced more than I probably will in my lifetime.

His photography and art was always imbued with his unique vision and had recently grown in appreciation here and abroad. He had also captured many forgotten parts of Dublin and always wanted to keep these places in the minds of others. We will ensure his work lives on and that nothing is neglected, as he wished.

Although he could be intense when working, and no doubt perceived by outsiders as dark and moody, John was actually very light hearted and was fond of practical jokes and funny pictures. I will always keep the memory of his mischievous nature in my heart.

Lastly, my thoughts and love are with his mother and father. As an only child, they have suffered the double blow of losing their only child. Though he may have had no flesh and blood siblings, we will always consider him our brother.

We all miss you John, forever.

UK Visit

Tomorrow I'll be flying off to London for work. On site for a big patch deployment. If all goes well, I'll be standing around most of the time. If not, panic stations!

Other than that, we're settled back into Tasha's mum's which was surprisingly quick. Must be down to the fact we were so prepared for the day. Had a few issues with the hand over which caused further upset but now they are resolved.

There is another house in Sandyford just on the market which we will be looking at next week.

Sad Day

Today Tasha and I finish up in our rental house in Leopardstown. We have the last small few things packed into the back of the car and after work we hand over the keys and it's back to Tasha's mum's house.

It was great having the space and it will be difficult to adjust back to just one room but we will be saving a lot of money so there is a silver lining.

Neverwhere DVD

The DVD arrived already and I have it encoded to PC. DVDs are sort of a middle man for me now.

If you want a copy karlthulhu let me know.

Live Mesh = Awesome

Looks like SkyDrive and FolderShare may be redundant already.

Live Mesh allows you to sync files seamlessly to other machines and to the internet.

Still only in tech preview but the concepts look cool and the architecture is so simple.

Check out some of the tours here.

Twilight Princess

Playing Twilight Princess brought back fond memories of playing Ocarina of Time. Man I loved that game, such a fantastic story and now another beautiful story.

I'm taking my time with the game so I don't miss a thing.

Midna talks funny. It's cute.

Neverwhere Everywhere

karlthulhu

 suggested that I read Neverwhere by Neil Gaimen, so I did and I loved it.

I was so enthralled by it that I ordered the original DVD series and the graphic novel!

While they don't add to the story (the book version being the most complete) the graphic novel apparently presents the story better visually speaking and the original series is where it all started (I've read all about the video/film issues but that's ok)

The whole lot got me really interested in the disused underground tube stations of London. One of my company's clients is responsible for the London underground, could you imagine getting a tour of the accessible ones?

Would love to see an expansion on the story.

Wii Games

Tasha and I went out for dinner last night to cheer ourselves up for not getting the house. Lime Chili Beef in Cafe Mao is very nice by the way.

We also splurged out on some new games for the Wii, Zelda Twilight Princess and Kororinpa (as inspired by Andrea and Karl). I'm holding off on Twilight Princess until I have the 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy but Tasha's already yelping with frustration on Kororinpa.

House

The latest house in Enniskerry fell through, they were asking too much. I really wish the bloke that showed us around hadn't got our hopes up thinking it was a lot lower.

The house in Leopardstown is pretty empty now and we still have to sort out Tasha's room in Sandyford but things are in order for our move.

Wii socialising

So guys, what's your Wii number so we can catch you online?

Ours is 5730 7730 3119 0127.

We got a Wii

We bought a Wii (with Wii remote, nunchuck and Wii Sports) and Super Mario Galaxy and a spare Wii remote.

Smiles :)

Not long now

We're in the last month of our rental in Leopardstown. The year flew in and it was great having the space. Hopefully we can sort out a house for ourselves soon but until then we'll head back to Tasha's mum and dad's.

So we're busy packing everything up up shifting it back to my parents or Tasha's.

Stressed

Very stressful day today (and tomorrow). My team leader is out and the bloke that usually takes over is too so I've been left in charge.

Things went relatively ok but the backlog is freaking me out. Also had a conference call.

Just have to get through tomorrow then off to the UK again.

Good work advice

10 “Don’ts” That Will Help You Tolerate Any Crappy Job

This is not to say I have a crappy job :)

Off to the UK again

Myself and Tasha are going over to visit Karl and Andrea in Derby again. We got a great price on the flights and figured we'd make good use of the St. Patrick's weekend.

We're still packing up stuff in preparation for moving out of the house due to our rental finishing up. I enjoyed our time in the house but it's time to move onto our own place.

Charlie is molting and has a bald spot on the back of her head. She looks a bit rough but we're keeping an eye on her.

Happy Birthday aurniam

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!

Street Fighter IV

Nice announcement trailer from GDC for the Street Fighter reboot...

Dominion Photos

People... doing stuff... in Dominion... good times!

SkyDrive

I know a lot of people are opponents of Microsoft software and services but SkyDrive just came out of beta and has 5GB of free online storage a la box.net.

All you need is a Windows Live ID (Passport ID) and you're off.

Dominion 2.0(.1)

The new venue for Dominion went off very very well last night.

More spacious, cleaner, multiple flat screens for DVDs/video nights, good sound and light system. Woot indeed!

Fingers crossed the management were happy with everything and keep us on.

The peek-a-tures...

HD Format War Over

Bluray has won. Toshiba will cease production/promotion of HD DVD.

So will Microsoft release a Bluray addon/internal for the Xbox 360. Hope so.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1627196120080216

New Indy Trailer

Happenings

I was off sick last Thursday and Friday with the flu. I'm rarely off work but Thursday was pretty bad and I felt it wise to take Friday off too to fully recover.

Myself, lady_bastet and ickle_tayto went to Ikea on Saturday. I still felt a bit bunged up and had a headache on and off but I was on the mend. We wandered through the flat pack paradise and got a few bits for ourselves as well as some great value picture frames for nephster13.

My mum and dad were over on Sunday for dinner and a chat.

Apart from that house hunting is still underway and lady_bastet has started her driving lessons.

Camden Fire

Terrible news about the fire.

Seems everyone was worried that it might have been the lock markets but they are ok.

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=B618FFD5CEE637F0!3099&encType=1

Some photos from around Whitby...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blaquewraith/sets/72157603844596539/show/

And some of the waterfall/river near the hotel for our wedding...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blaquewraith/sets/72157603846848993/show/

And a happy birthday to tabilities too

See you later

Happy birthday to pearcider

"Birthdays are just nature's way of telling us to eat more cake." - Anonymous

Travels

We're heading off to the UK again today.

First, to see karlthulhu and littlepinkfaery in Derby then we'll all head onto Whitby for the WDS ball, where we'll meet up with gothichaven and r0chet.

The theme this year is fairy tales.

See you all soon.

Heath Ledger found dead!

Holy shit.

Just saw this on Sky News.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2255199420080122

What's Up

So what's been going on with myself? Haven't made a proper post since before Cristmas.

Got lots of lovely things for Christmas including Guitar Hero III, Call Of Duty 4 Modern Warefare, Company Of Heroes, lots of DVDs and half a ton of socks!

I finally managed to figure out how to encode my DVDs to WMV successfully. I was having problems when I ripped the whole thing to a single VOB file and encoded it. The solution was to rip to seperate chapters (and sometimes cells) and stitich them together in Windows Movie Maker. Results are perfect and half the size the DVD.

We signed up to online DVD rental company Screenclick. I've thrown about 80 DVDs on my wishlist, some bits and pieces I've wanted to see for a while but couldn't be bothered to buy and some critcally acclaimed movies such as those recommended in Film4's 50 Films to See Before You Die, Metacritic's All-Time High Scores and IMDB's Top 250.

We let Charlie and Sammy out together in the sitting room for a flap about. They got on well but we'll still keep them in seperate cages for a little while.

Not too long until the Whitby Dracula Society's ball.

Happy Birthday drmick

Hope things are going well in the UK and with the new job.

Happy Birthday ferrousoxide

Hugs to you