30 Sep 2009

Pre Term Life
by | posted in: blog, Games | 0

So because i moved in like a week and a half early , the past week has just been lazing around doing pretty much nothing all day.
I wake up at around 12 , then the rest of the day usually involves playing games on the PC until i get hungry – i then cook – and will probably end up in the living room watching south park or playing wii with the others , that or actually go out – if we go out , likely go to a bar or to the girls house which is like 2 minutes walk away.

We think we got internet sorted out today , we got disconnected the other day and then they only sent us a modem but not a router so we’re still waiting on that.
I just sorted out my travel for the next 25 weeks or so , £187 for a 2 term bus pass ,i figured i should buy it now since i dont think i’ll be able to hitch rides with the others (they’re all engineers doing 5 hours a week or something apparently)

Living here where i have to pay for electricity and shit has also made me realise just how expensive electricity is.
For example , if you was to use around 500 watts constantly for a month , the bill would be around £45-£50
Now consider a lightbulb uses 30-60w, TV uses around 100w , PS3 uses around 300w , my PC uses around 250w when gaming (120w idle)…
God forbid anything in the kitchen , Sandwich toaster uses 700w , kettle uses around 900w , microwave uses 700w and the electric shower uses…. 7kWatts (SEVEN FUCKING THOUSAND!)

ummm….

In other news , finished Resi 5 100% the other day with anony , finished Batman Arkham Asylum (90%) – which was a really good game btw , currently working my way through Red Faction Guerrilla which is good fun as well leveling buildings down into dust (although it does bother me that all of the enviroment is made out of cardboard)

25 Sep 2009

2nd Year Accomadation
by | posted in: Uni stuff | 0

So i havent even showed you guys my new house yet , firstly , my room
Lots of storage space behind the giant mirror cupboards , and the stuff in the middle opens up as well – i have about 20 packs of crisps stashed there for now

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Heres the view of our garden from my window

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The bunker thing at the end is like something from Resi
(inside the bunker) , Yeah , thats hay on the floor there , some random wooden planks and cardboard , vines over the wall , an old bbq and there are a few tanks of gas which are out of the shot

pimg-0023_1Lounge and kitchen next..

pimg-0020_1Tiny TV , equipped with a PS3 and a modded Wii.
There are also usually a few laptops in this room , 2 at the time of photograph.
The small little white square/LCD thing to the right can monitor electricity usage when you plug it into the wall – Did you know a PS3 uses approx 300 watts as soon as its turned on? For comparison my PC (including monitor and speakers)  ranges from 100w (idle) to around 240w (gaming)

pimg-0021_1This is our kitchen , it smells funny :/

pimg-0022_1We also have a hole in the wall between the kitchen and lounge. Oddly , this is NOT a brick wall , its a thin wall probably made from cocktail sticks and mud with brick plates stuck on top in a bricklike fashion.

The house on the whole is…. well… parts of it make it unsurprising that it was pretty cheap , for example light switches behind doors or stuff like this..

pimg-0018_1Lights without bulbs and without switches pretty much sums up our house.

21 Sep 2009

Pre-Moving out day..
by | posted in: Uni stuff | 0

So i think im done packing majority of my clothes and stuff in my suitcase , obviously still to go is my computer , peripherals , and whatever else i decide to take tomorrow morning.
Of course , im pretty sure im going to forget to take SOMETHING with me , as this has happened the past 3 terms i went to uni.

Odds of me forgetting to bring stuff….

0-20% :
Important item of clothing – eg. trousers
Wallet / Uni ID card
Stash of instant noodles and bulmers that i have downstairs
Kitchen stuff , plates and that

20-40% :
My Phone / DS / PSP / MP3 player
Something integral to my computer – eg. Mouse/power cable etc
Computer Speakers

40-60% :
Blanket or duvet cover or something
PSP/DS/MP3/Phone charger and/or cables to connect it to pc
My Printer
Compressed air canister in my cupboard

60-80% :
Pens or paper
Clothes Hangers
The clock dave bought me for christmas
Sake in the cupboard
BB Gun
Headphones

80-100% :
Nail Clipper
Something important to my course – eg. core textbook or lab book or something
Everything else not on this list

Id also like to note that i would have 100% forgotten my lab coat if i didnt just remember about it.
Debating whether or not to pack my 3d glasses , my domo-kun plushie , IIDX controller and my nunchucks

Ps. man im gonna miss my hifi speakers connected to my PC , maybe i’ll buy a 5.1 set when i go there…

16 Sep 2009

And then it all came at once
by | posted in: Games | 0

Complete drought of PC games for a good 2 months or so and then whamo

allatonce

Resident Evil 5 is pretty awesome so far , finished chapter 2-1 on normal.
Runs impressively well , 50fps or so average @ 1920×1200 with no AA but all maxed , the only gripe i have is the way that you cant trade weapons whilst playing online – which tbh makes no sense at all , theres also no split screen co-op like in the console versions , or i dont think there is anyway.

Note : I didnt download championship manager , id never download something that rubbish.

15 Sep 2009

Nvidia 3d Motion Discover
by | posted in: Games | 0

3dholyshit2

It lives! (You need Red/Cyan glasses)

I saw a thread on WSGF with some guy basically talking about this , I had no idea it existed – arguably my own fault for never updating my drivers.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/3D_Vision_Discover_Main.html

basically in the latest Vista Nvidia driver you can activate stereoscopic 3d for any game , this includes TF2 , L4D , UT3 , Street Fighter IV….
Full list of tested games here but any fullscreen game it will try and turn 3d , usually with varying degrees of success but it at least gives it a go – Generally the least you’ll get is any overlaying GUI will appear closer than everything else which is kind of nice.

Other games dont work particuarly well , for example audiosurf is impossible to play as you essentially become colourblind – i havent actually tried playing TF2 online but there is a colourblind setting for that at least.

monkeyisland3d
Good ol’ guybrush made the transition to 3d flawlessly

14 Sep 2009

Macross Frontier
by | posted in: Anime | 0

macross

Finished Macross frontier tonight , it was…. pretty damn good.
25 episodes and i finished it in 4 days says it all i think.

The anime is somewhat of a mix between some sort of bizarre musical and space dogfighting , occasionally occuring at the same time.
The story focues on alto , a military pilot and what essentially turn out to be 2 famous singers – theres then an alien race trying to destroy them all and they have to fight for survival. Throw in a few twists , a few love triangles , an overprotective brother , some screaming and some tradgedy and you have Macross frontier.

Forewarning : as i said , this anime may as well be a musical – lots and lots of songs and such. Those who cant stand j-pop probably shouldnt bother.

PS. Anime has the most epic final episode ever. srsly.

8 Sep 2009

Dennou Coil
by | posted in: Anime | 0

So i finally finished Dennou Coil today , a 26 episode anime series

dennoucoil
Definately one of the better anime’s ive seen , with a very unique universe.
The closest thing i can sort of compare it to i guess is the ‘megaman battle network’ universe (if you’ve no idea what that is you should probably actually grab a gba emulator and play it , good game)
Basically , technology has advanced to such a level where there is a parallell virtual world running synchronized with the real world , so to access the virtual world you wear glasses and such – this then essentially overlays a videogame sorta thing to the real world , so you’d be able to see cyberpets or viruses running around the world (but if you was to take off your glasses you wouldnt see anything).

The story then has its ups and downs , some parts intresting some parts just silly (hacker battles? wut?) but overall definately a good series with the story actually being way more important than it sometimes lets on.

I could talk more about the awesome stuff that happens but in all honesty part of the enjoyment of the series is seeing how their world works – watch the first episode and see if you like it , if you don’t – this series probably isnt for you.

7 Sep 2009

£22.77 poorer
by | posted in: blog | 0

But the blog will be online another year at least.
I didnt say anything about updating said blog however :P

I thought i should do something special to celebrate , and concluded id draw something awesome for you guys.
Unfortunately the best i could come up with on short notice was some sort of super-cow thing.
The glint in its eyes is its passion for rice krispies.

batcow

6 Sep 2009

Tate London – ‘Modern art’
by | posted in: blog | 0

So i went to meet with some uni friends in london , they ended up going to the Tate in London , basically a modern art gallery…
The things we saw there were…. impressive…

And by impressive i mean im amazed that we were standing in a gallery staring at a white hexagon of paper glued to the wall.

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This was arguably one of the more entertaining ones , 9 pictures… of a guy disapearing into the floor…

Heres the other picture i took..

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Here we have a piece of wood carved into a dead tree , a piece of cloth on the floor , a piece of thick rope arranged on the floor , at the back left there is some ropes hanging out of the wall and at the back right there are pieces of wood cut into intresting shapes.

Other noteworthy mentions were the bedframe hanging off the wall by a hook , the piece of wood with 200 nails in it , the dead palm tree , the 6 sacks of grain , the old bells on old tables , the stack of wood and bricks with a tyre on top and masking tape on the side and a video of a naked woman pouring blood over herself.

Fucking modern art.

I will now to the best of my ability try and recreate one of the pieces of art i saw…

modernart

Tate gallery im waiting for your call.

3 Sep 2009

Why you should be careful who you move in with…
by | posted in: blog, Uni stuff | 0

Long story short , you can only stay on campus for your first year , after that you’re forced to move out and find private accomadation , we left it semi-late but managed to find a reasonable 6 bedroom house – however the rooms are of varying sizes.
Being academics and stuff… we figured it makes sense to apportion the rent somewhat according to the sizes of the rooms , eg room A has larger room than room B and as such pays £x more per month and room B gets the money which makes their rent cheaper.

We cut cards to decide who gets first pick of the rooms , there are 3 large rooms and 3 small rooms – I get 4/6th pick (note: there are 3 large rooms.)

Having a discussion on facebook , we’re currently pondering larger rooms pay the smaller rooms £20 per month , so larger rooms are paying like £70 per week and smaller rooms pay £60 a week – sounds sort of fair right?

And then theres always one special one who wants everything…

(click to enlarge into a readable size)
adamisaplum
*sigh*