Destiny - House of Wolves Expansion

Apparently Bungie are releasing another expansion pack for Destiny called 'House of Wolves'.

So that's another £20 on top of the £59.99 I paid for the game originally, well they can fuck off… £60 should be all I should have to pay for a AAA title. I've spent enough time grinding through the same old shit to get to the level my character is at and now I have to pay more? I'll bet that if got that expansion after an hour's worth of playing I'll be back to the same rinse and repeat grinding because it won't have enough content.

Fuck off Bungie.

That's what I think!

Yeah, I don't think so

A fictional TV drama series about Hip Hop (which I hate) and viewers complaining about it having too many ad breaks (which I hate even more)…

Yeah I think I'd rather take a cheese grater to my nut-sack than watch that show

Photography #101

Here's another example of using a telephoto lens, it's of a Chaffinch feeding with a Robin looking on in the background, I'm pretty surprised the Robin didn't chase it off 'cos they're aggressive little buggers when they want to be. I took it whilst holidaying at Centre Parcs back during Christmas time...

Oi! Get off my barbecue!!

Message to NASA

Stop faffing around sending probes to planets like Mercury and start properly planning on getting humans on Mars. I know it's hard, it's quite probably as hard as rocket science but that's no excuse for preferring to send 'easier' pilotless probes to various places around the solar system.

You're all dead clever and quite able to to a manned mission to Mars so stop gassing about the complexities of it or pooh poohing everyone else's attempts (like Mars One) and get on with it!

People my age want to see someone put a foot on Mars in our lifetime ffs!!

Or perhaps even the moon!

Well played Wasps

I watched Wasps beat Exeter 36 - 29 at the Ricoh today, that keeps them in 6th, still in with a shot at Europe next season.

Next game - against Leicester, again at the Ricoh and I shall be there, beers in hand, to cheer them on!

Go Wasps!

The players do a tour after the match to thank the fans...

A message to Paddypower

Stop sending me sms messages about betting... I AM NOT FUCKING INTERESTED.

A violent introduction to DayZ

I've started playing DayZ.

£11 via Steam looked like a good deal, plus I've got a couple of friends into it so it was a no brainer really, however the gameplay certainly isn't.

I'd seen plenty of people play it via Twitch and read many strategy articles so I knew that when I spawned into my first game my priority was to start looking for loot... it was pitch black so I could see sod all but I could hear the sea behind me so I cautiously made my way off the beach towards what looked like a structure of some kind and was immediately set upon by two Zombies... I didn't survive long.

The next two attempts I survived long enough to scavenge a hard hat, some work gloves and an iron bar, which help me survive a couple of Zombie attacks but I bled out and became unconscious so I had to respawn and try again, and again, and again...

In fact, that is pretty much DayZ is - repetition, repetition, until you are lucky enough to survive long enough to collect enough of a variety of food, water containers, medicines, weapons (and a backpack to carry it all), to help you survive. Until, of course, some nob comes along and snipes you with a headshot from a distance and steals all your shit because as well as dealing with bloody hard NPC Zombies there are other gamers on the server and they're all looking to rob you senseless

It's a pity they have that attitude but from what I've gathered a collective element of pure distrust has manifested in the game since it was launched. So much now that if gamers see each other they shoot first and ask questions later, rather than in the early days when they helped each other (or so I was told).

Anyway after playing it of a couple of hours today, my friend and I have collected a sizeable amount of loot between us so I'm hoping that we can survive enough in future sessions to see more of the DayZ land!

Google Earth Day - What animal are you?

I just took the test and apparently I'm one of these:

I can has Goatgurgers!

Not sure what to make of that to be honest… I had hope for being a Snow Leopard because they are awesome. Probably if I answered the questions untruthfully I'd become a sloth or a platypus or, knowing my luck, some sort of icky blob of puss.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

To celebrate the release of the latest teaser trailer and to prepare myself for what can only be an awesome December when the film hits the cinemas, I am going to geek myself out on a diet of Stars Wars stories on my Kindle between now and then.

I feel like I've lost touch with the Star Wars universe since Revenge of the Sith came out and I need to get my knowledge up to scratch!

Stargate Question

Hm.. if the Wraiths from Stargate Atlantis fought the Goa'uld from SG1, I wonder who would win?

That just popped into my head, thought I'd share.

Ding ding! Round One!

Elder Scrolls Online

ESO is now free to play apparently, bit of a kick in the bollocks for me since I paid £60 for the Imperial version last year plus several months of subscriptions but hey ho, I'll take the hit and try and claw it back by studiously researching the next bunch of AAA titles bound for the Xbox One, then make a careful and informed decision to buy based mostly on whether or not the devs/publishers are looking to rip me off.

That paid off recently when I decided not to get Evolve because it's one big ripoff (I think I blogged about that but can't be bothered to look).

Anyway, despite it being free to play now I let the automatic renewal fee go through so I could stay as a premium member, which gives me some additional luxuries, such as the awesome mount my character has got in the pic below. ESO has a new in-game currency called 'Crowns' and as a premium member I get a monthly allowance to spend in the online shop, this beast cost a fair few crowns but it's worth it to enhance the awesomeness of my character.

I should point out that there's nothing in the new online shop that give players' skills, abilities and weapons an advantage, it's all just cosmetic.

Whoa boy! Where's that tin of Whiskers?

Extensis, you fail.

Over the years I have used various versions of Extensis Portfolio to catalogue the vast collection of graphical goodness we have on our works' network however I lost touch with it for a while due to other commitments.

So today, when I'm wasn't busy I decided to revisit using Portfolio to create newer catalogues of our archives and integrate it with our newer, updated IT systems.

I was somewhat disappointed to see that Extensis had discontinued the standalone version of Postfolio back in mid 2014. Not only that, but they'd vastly increased the price of this supposed 'newer, reinvented' version, restricted the number of sharable catalogues to a measly one and restricted the users to a measly three, this is for around £1500, and that doesn't include any kind of support either!

There are two other versions (Enterprise and Professional) that enable you to share unlimited catalogues and have more users but, by the looks of it you would have to take out a small mortgage to afford it or be one of the 'Fortune 500' companies that have Portfolio that Extensis coo about on their website, tossers.

Bloody ridiculous Extensis, there's no fucking way any small business would be prepared to pay that much when that kind of money could pay for a half decent server or a kick ass Mac/PC.

So I didn't bother because, as a small business living on the breadline after years of austerity (yes Extensis, drag yourselves out of your perfect world bubble and realise no-one has any fucking money), we have to prioritise our IT spending on other equipment/software. What I DID do though was get Portfolio 8.5 running on one of our XP boxes and started it cataloguing our new archives, and from what I've seen so far it is doing a pretty good job, albeit slowly!

I'll bet there are millions of photographers out there that rely on Portfolio to make it easier to go through their image libraries and that have now dropped it due to the cost.

So, shame on you Extensis, you've alienated individuals and small businesses by doing what you've done.

A Healthier Diet

Recently I've been readjusting my diet, for two reasons: 1. To accommodate my medical condition and, 2. To help lose weight.

Part of it has been experimenting with fruit and vegetable smoothies.

Up until now I've stuck to safe variations of bananas, yoghurt, apple etc. but they can often be loaded with sugar so I've turned to more vegetable-based smoothies and I read about one that combined Beetroots, Carrots and Pomegranates.

So I get the ingredients, wash them thoroughly, chop them up (which included an interesting dissection of a Pomegranate and it's seeds) and blend them together, the result was a very red fibrous liquid that looked disgusting and guess what? It tasted fucking disgusting too…

Back to the drawing board with that one, I think it's the amounts I put in rather than the combination itself, probably less Beetroot and more Carrot to try and get rid of the earthy taste.

I've also cut down on how much sugar I have in my tea, and, guess what? Tea taste's fucking disgusting now but I shall slog on regardless!

Awesomeness Transcendation...

There's something that transcends awesomeness… and that's the sight of Samuel L. Jackson with an Uzi on a movie poster ;) and he's 'The President'… apparently.

Photography #101

Meanwhile, here's a picture of some ducks... took at an undisclosed location near a river in Shropshire.

BLACK BEAN SAUCE!

Pubs #2 - Solo Drinking

The other problem with solo drinking in a pub is being hounded off the table by a bunch of bald-headed shorts-wearing dickheads, who proceeded to plonk their gay bottled beer and shorts combinations down on the table I was sat at in a unified show of herd mentality that me, being on my own and with an almost empty pint glass on show simply had to give ground to as I needed to go to the bar.

Leaving my jacket on the chair wasn't an option and arguing with them probably would have got me thrown out, or worse.

So I conceded, got two pints and headed to a quiter area of the pub, they've won the battle, but not the war. I have reinforcements coming in an hour or two! 

Problem with this quieter area is I can't see the Rugby or the Grand National coverage.

I need to finish one of these two pints, then drift back inside without making it look like I'm an alcoholic in front of the nice people sat at the table next to me.

Ah heck, who am I kidding? Plus I'm in an Aussie themed pub for God's sake!

Grand National

It's the Grand National today and whilst I'm not a gambler I do enjoy a good horse race! Our Grand National is like no other for suspense and action, people really do get worked up about it!

It's the start that does it - start, false start, start, false start, arguments, finger pointing, start, false start, stater steward is an idiot, start... YES! THEY'RE OFF, rumble, rumble... and they cross the Melling Road for the first time... etc etc, it's great! And if course the Chair and Canal Turn Jumps, they make, or break, a horse and jockey's race.

So good luck to all involved and I hope that all the horses are okay afterwards.

Pubs #1 - Solo Drinking

The main problem with drinking solo in a pub, especially a busy one, is that you have to be mobile.

Being mobile means carrying everything with you to the bog because there's no 'wingman' to look after it whilst you're there.

It also means that any seat you get is lost when you return and you have to start again, i.e. head to the bar, get another drink, then wait to strike like a praying mantis when a seat becomes available but only to lose it again when nature calls!

Sometimes I'll get two pints instead of one, for two reasons: 1. It looks like I've got someone on their way and I'm getting one in for them and 2. It saves me an additional trip to the bar, I can also leave both pints there when going for a piss and it lessens the chance my seat gets taken 'cos people think more than one person is sat there... also, and this is dependent on the time and the pub's location, I'll leave my jacket too.

Yep, solo drinking certainly has it's strategies.

Brum kick's London's ass

A great article on 32 reasons why my beloved city kick's ass:

Alcohol and it's 'time resetting' properties...

My last post showed my gaming with two of my buddies, a lot of alcohol was consumed and because of that, I have absolutely no recollection of taking that picture and posting it in my blog…

From the SMS texts I received we had a right laugh however I will just have to rely on that picture and hope that some scratchy memories come up out of the fog of my mind in the following months, which I'm sure they will.

Over the years I have consumed vast quantities of alcohol whilst gaming, it's not an uncommon occurrence for me during a weekend. My mate and I lost ten years of our lives to ISS Pro Evolution and Carling Black Label (and sometimes, Stella), we started playing it almost every weekend way back when it was known and International Superstar Soccer!

Recently, I've dialled back the binge drinking and the gaming too, although that pic doesn't really show it!

Geek gaming!

Ahhh yeah!

We're all playing Playing Team Fortress 2

Errrrrrrrecting a dispenser!!!!!!

Leaders Debate

I watched it last night and my conclusion from it is...

We're truly fucked.

Nigel Farage's lager arrives

Printer cartridges

I like to think that I've got one of the largest used ink cartridge collections around!