Elder Scrolls Online

I've been playing ESO for a while now and as I'm a passionate fan of the Elder Scrolls game I've been treating it like a fine wine - sampling it slowly, bit by bit!

Originally I played it on my Mac but the graphics card, an  ATI 5700, wasn't up to the task and it made the game hard to play and a bit boring visually as I had to turn every effect off. So, this year, I splurged on upgrades for my media PC and stuck a nVidia GTX 970 in it, plus 16GB of RAM, which, coupled with a Core i5 processor was more than enough oomph for me to play it with pretty much everything set to 'ultra' ;)

The pics below show the quality, sometimes, rather than questing I like to stand there and watch the sun rays dance through the trees...

Bootiful!

Think I'll need sunglasses!

Photography 101

I took the following pic whilst holidaying at Centre Parcs just before the New Year… it's a Long Tailed Tit and it landed on a branch (twig?!) on a tree right in front of the hide we were in, I had my telephoto lens attached at the time so was able to get a really detailed shot ;)

Long Tailed Tit

Wasps v Leinster #4

Yeah baby :)

I was rather drunk when I took this picture, it's the Irish fans' fault, they all collectively willed me to keep drinking!

Nice to have a huge exhibition hall at your disposal for games, such is Wasps' power these days XD

Wasps v Leinster #3

Fuck me, what a come back! 14 points scored in the second half, Wasps 20 - 20 Leinster

Wasps v Leinster #2

Ah well, Leinster are owning at half time, Wasps saw nothing of the ball to be honest but they coped with the pressure well to keep the score down... One thing that's struggling more is the pitch!

Half time and they're out repairing the damage done by the scrums

Wasps v Leinster #1

Pint anyone ;)

Go Wasps!

Winston Churchill - I Salute You

Today is the 50th anniversary of Churchill's death and as Sir Nicholas Soames MP (Churchill's grandson) says in this article most people think Churchill is a dog that sells insurance.

That's mainly because of stupid fucking ad breaks saturating our TV channels, warping people's perception of past, present and future with a mixture of inane, annoying repetitive content with the intent on brainwashing us into parting with our money, whether we need to or not.

So to Winston Churchill, you were a great man, a great leader, who got us through some very difficult times and if it wasn't for your guidance and leadership we wouldn't be enjoying the world we have today, so I salute you.

...and to Churchill Insurance I say, quite simply, fuck off.

No footy on ITV...

Looks like ITV have lost out on showing the FA Cup, Champions League and Europa League footy games and in a double-whammy to please football fans, Adrian Chiles is being replaced ;) no doubts Roy Keane will be pleased.

They're still showing football but I'm not sure what's left for them to cover… our local Sunday league perhaps?

Good thing really as ITV are notorious for butting ad breaks into injury time (any Liverpool fans reading?) They got on my shit list back in 2003 when, during the Rugby World Cup final, they switched to an ad break just when the England players started parading the trophy around the stadium. All those celebrating England fans desperate to lap up the atmosphere as best they could from their TV's ruined by a bloody car advert, way to go ITV plebs…

Mind you, Sky are no better, they put a fucking ad break on just before the players kick off, you can just imagine the ref furiously looking at his watch and 22 players itching to start, annoyed that they have to wait for BetFred to finish showing off their latest method to put multitudes of people into debt.

Ad breaks… I fuckin' hate 'em.

Alien Isolation

I've finally been able to creep out of that confounded locker and make my way into the next part of the game without that damned Alien finding me and subjecting me to an insanely graphic demise.

It's literally taken me months (playing the game on and off, not playing it 24/7!) to do this, bit embarrassing and n00bish really but I have a soft spot for all things Alien and, like a fine wine, I've been savouring every moment of this game.

It was a huge relief to hear, then see the next save point… and now feel like I can get on with my life!!

Sodding thing just wouldn't leave me alone!

Wasps v Leinster

I'm off to see Wasp v Leinster tomorrow at the Ricoh… should be a good game, and I am going to be surrounded by drunken Irish Rugby fans, great!

I've always admired Irish Rugby and their fans, two things comes to mind that describes them both - big hearted and battling. Some of the best games I've seen when watching England has been against Ireland, always tough matches.

So I'm looking forward to a great atmosphere as Leinster will bring loads of fans, especially with the Ricoh's capacity and I love that Wasps moved the game to Saturday to accommodate them, they'd never have been able to do that at Adam's Park.

Leinster are a heavyweight European club but both teams are coming into this match with big wins from last weekend so it'll be a real crunch match.

The beer will be flowing my man! I haven't had any alcohol since New Year's Eve either, so it'll be an interesting day! I'll post some pics off my smart phone… watch this space!

w00t!

Middle Age and Food...

As I walked into work on my daily commute my mind wandered to what I was going to have for dinner tonight… I could have used the time to think of much more creative things but no, I thought about steak pies, pizza or Chinese food instead.

Recently I've done that a lot and in discussion with others my age AND older it seems I'm not alone… as we get older, planning what to have for dinner seems to become the high point of the day. I guess there isn't anything else exciting enough anymore to preoccupy our minds and I must admit that I do get a tad excited about the meals I've planned later on, especially if I'm working through a long mundane project at work, I can break it up with thoughts of "Ah well, I can look forward to an ovenload of crispy duck and pancakes for when I get home!"

…and to think I used to get excited about skiing trips in Canada or piss-ups in Gran Canaria, nowadays it's a Tesco oven ready Cottage Pie!

Doomsday Clock

Apparently scientists have decided to move the doomsday clock forward to 11.57 - 3 minutes until the end of humanity… they say it's because of our failure to tackle climate change and world leaders' inability to agree on nuclear weapons stuff.

Pity it's not run by British public transport, it would be running half-an-hour late then…

Sayonara Google Glass

So Google have decided to stop selling their Glass product, not surprising really considering it was a really shit design that no-one wanted to be seen dead in (probably more so than being treated like a leper by anyone who saw them wearing them because of privacy worries), Google may be great at selling ads and big computer science stuff but their design sense sucks big time, I mean look at this:

Google's driverless car concept, it looks like something from fucking Trumpton for Christ's sake! The only people I could see using that would be, well… actually no-one, I simply cannot think of anyone, sane or not.

Now the Google logo, that's good, very simple yet striking and carries Google's brand perfectly… note that it was not designed by any Google's employees though, which is good because probably more than half the web's users don't want their eyes bleeding when they open their browsers every day.

Political correctness gone mad

I read recently that children's story writers have been advised to avoid using the term "When pigs will fly…" because it may offend Muslims.

When I see Muslims burning my country's flag in their streets, I tend to get a bit offended but I don't see them being given guidelines on not burning flags?

I mean really, "When pigs will fly…" is  a harmless term of exaggeration used for a situation that simply will not happen, I can't see how it can offend? But then I guess it's a good example of how diverse this world is where it's mostly one rule for them and everyone else can fuck off.

Similar subject but on a slightly different note (as the above doesn't really apply here) I read this article: Rotterdam's Mayor tells Muslims to pack their bags and go if they don't like freedom

I guess pigs will fly when Muslim extremists around the world put down their weapons and pursue peace.

Lightsaber Technology

You know it occurred to me the other day whilst I was commuting between work and home that the world would be a horrible place if lightsabers were invented.

I mean no lock, padlock, or even a door, would be able to withstand them, and changing your locks, or getting better locks would make no difference, we would have no security. Burglars would have a whale of a time…

If a lightsaber can do that, then it would have no problem
with a poxy wooden front door of a house...

Me Lurking...

Haven't posted for while, just letting the webosphere know what I haven't walked under a bus or succumbed to an exotic disease.

Keep it real people!

Sports

My God, I have come to the conclusion that all these years spent as a couch potato has seriously degraded all my sportslike abilities, hand, eye, ball coordination, thinking/strategies, speed... about the only thing I can count on in strength due to my visits to the gym but I doubt I'll taking on any weightlifting anytime soon!

Time to get off me arse and join a club in 2015 methinks!