 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||
27th January, 2007, Bloging Across Many Realms In order to aid my continuation of blog updates I'm sampling a few different sites in the hope that one will become the new home for Arcadefinger. First off we have the home made job [http://arcadefinger.50webs.com/] Feels good that I have full control but it comes at a price of no comments feature and I can't quite do certain things I would like. The second is Livejournal [http://arcadefinger.livejournal.com/] Seems to work ok but I was initially frustrated with the lack of custom options. The third is Vox [http://arcadefinger.vox.com/] (my personal favourite so far) All seems good apart from the fact that you have to register to post comments. I plan to keep all three going until one beats the others into submission by features and ease of use. Enough of the boring technical site. After spending most of Friday in front of the computer I had no plans for the evening. I do have to tell you about the culinary experiment I attempted to create though. Sorry if this is one of those things everyone already knows about. I had some eggs in my fridge and went for an omelette (3 eggs) with bacon mixed in. I thought I push some rather minor boundaries and throw in some baked beans in the frying pan too! What a find – safe to say that won't be the last time beans get added. Opens my mind to what else I can throw in….emm…maybe Pringles nest time. Subversive. After eating that treat I got a rather late text from Ralph about going to Corp to which I accepted, heading out after 10, a bit too sober for so late in the day. Met him in a place I'd never been before, Vodka Revolution, in which I couldn't find anyone and when I did, paid too much for my Southern Comfort. Not really suited to the trendy wine bar – much happier in Corp. After rockin' out to some metal I don't really know I walked home with Ralph and a mate of his. All in all a good nite, even though I didn't really get that drunk. Slept til about 12 today and ventured into town with Liz, still on crutches from dislocating her knee in Corp. Got back and watched Clerks 2 again – I really like that movie and I'm glad I chose to wait and watch it under typical Kevin Smith viewing parameters, ie at home on dvd. So that takes me to right now, typing while I listen to Beat Crusaders, a band Tom pointed me in the direction of. I'm sure familiar to some for their theme for the anime Bleach. Awesome band that I advise you to track down! Thanks for the recommendation Tom. Take it easy out there kids Dave x
26th January, 2007 Back in Black!
Well its about fuckin' time!! 15th of September to the 26th January......tisk tisk tisk! Its like I vanished off the face of the earth. Well safe to say that's not actually true and just an acute dose of lazyness on my part. Please know that I do plan to make a return (helped in part by realising today just how easy it is to update, kinda makes my lack of updates worse now doesn't it!).
Dave xx Chilled out day today. You see I'm working full time this week and as such my two days off are being treated as such… “days off!” I slept pretty late for the first time in ages to wake with a sense of guilt free restfulness. Nothing much planned apart from playing a bit of guitar and striding around in my snazzy new cowboy boots! That's right, cowboy boots. Working at Debenhams has finally paid off as these puppies were a customer return with fuck all wrong with them so I picked them up for an incredibly marked down price. New they cost £75 so I was pretty pleased with the transaction. I'm not sure if they quite suit the ‘mental projection of my digital self' yet but they feel good and that's all that matters. This desire for cowboy boots all stems from Tremors so I guess all I need now is a hat and Fred Ward and I'll be happy. The rest of the day was spent in the pub with James and Ryan pumping a bit too much cash into the Deal or No Deal quiz machine! Damn you Noel and your tempting ‘Cash Round'. Safe to say we left far more out of pocket but figured that isn't really the point as it provided more than enough entertainment. Working tomorrow but I've only got another full week before I'm on holiday for two weeks! For those that want it (Aaron) here the link to the SVC Chaos Rom for MAME. If that one fails there are a few other versions on that same site. Take it easy out there kids Dave
Hope everyone is doing ok today. Just to start out with a little music education for you all. It's a band I'd never heard of and probably wouldn't have if it wasn't for Wikipedia. As you all know Wikipedia is an interconnected mine field of brain juice just waiting for you to start your journey through it only to emerge a couple of hours later feeling like you understand this world of ours just that little be better. Well I jumped in with “Ska” and ended up with a list of bands to check out and its one of these I'd like to pass on to you the reader. They're called The Planet Smashers from Montreal, Canada, a third wave ska band of happy little tunes that are sure to make you smile. Already I've found my new ‘going out song' (that just means a good song to listen to before you leave for a night out, nothing morbid) so I thought I wouldn't just keep them to myself. Go check them out in what ever way you see fit. Let me know what you think. In gaming news its still SVC Chaos that taking centre stage and without boring you too much after the last long post. So far I haven't beaten the game or played any other challengers but I have realised that I play differently when I know I've got a few credits to rely on. Basically its like I don't play quite as good when I know if I loose I get another go. Today's AI victor was Ryu again!! That fucker only has one play style which involves fireballing forcing me to jump towards him then he uppercuts and then starts the process again. It's frustrating as hell and sort of feels like he's ‘cheating' and he's not ‘fighting properly'. I'll shank that bastard one day! Don't worry though kids as technology provides an edge as the X-Arcade is set up with SVC running at optimised speed via MAME on my PC. Some might say it's cheating but its just good practice time. Well that's all for me. Remember to keep checking up on Aaron over at MMI Until all are one Dave
Rather than apologise for the lack of recent updates (sorry!) I'll slip on by and start with recent news. I want to tell you about my recent arcade experiences for they are joyous and I just know you're dieing to hear all about it! As I said in a previous post I'm determined to play an arcade machine called SVC Chaos until I beat it, well in one of the days last week while waiting for some guy to finish off (I know I said you should join in on a game at the arcade but I was waiting for the perfect opportunity but it never came up!) and I noticed he was no mere amateur as his skills with Akuma was formidable. Adding to the belief that the machine is set on a hard difficulty he failed to complete the challenge and walked off in quite a street leaving me to play through a few rounds getting a bit further than before. Well on Friday I was well into my third match doing quite well and a figure sat next to me and the next thing I know “Challenger has Entered”, and my game was halted. I glanced round to offer a smiling welcome only to see the stern face of that guy I'd seen playing on it before. He offered no real greeting and I figured he'd lost all understanding of language and only understood the world through kick ass 2D pixel pain that I was about to dish out. Now to be fair, based on watching him play I didn't expect to win but I was pleasantly surprised by the very close rounds we were having. Both pulling off combos and specials like crazy it was clear we were both trying to impress the hell out of the other. Out of the three matches we played he won 2 and I won the other (in the 2 matches he won I did manage to claim a round at least!!) I was really pleased with the outcome as it was really intense and one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a while. Well I know this isn't really that interesting but I really wanted to tell someone as I though it was a pretty cool thirty minutes. Take it easy out there kids Dave
Just had to tell you about this cool new thing I get to use at work. Well first off I have to warn you that I tend to latch onto thinks that are only slightly cool while at Debenhams just to make the day go a bit quicker. Without going into too much corporate detail we apparently need to sell a lot more shoes than we are doing right now. Part of this new push is to always have the shoe department manned at all times. Before this was a little difficult as tasks could easily pull you away or if there were loads of customers it was hard to serve them all quickly. Now we got walkie talkies! These bad boys play up to the kid in me way too much as I'm clearly seeing this new toy as more of an event than anyone else. That said I think everyone gave it a little play with at some point during the day. Its real reason for introduction is simply to call for help if you need it while on shoes but my mind first went to Vietnam War-style radio calls “alpha tango bravo…man down!” etc…. Much fun. Then onto Star Trek communicator conversations such as “Beam me up Scotty” and the rest. If you understood the title of this Blog then you'll know that these walkie talkies (which are really tiny by the way) work using technology know as Push to Talk and it's used by loads of mobile phones in the US and apparently will come to these shores over the next few years. The experience I've had has shown me of the benefit – with these you'll never txt again! In other work news yesterday was the first day of my new 30 hours a week contract. This is broken down to 4 days a week, around 8 hours a day which means I now get an hour break to spend in Meadowhall again. It didn't take me long to find myself in the arcade. This time I'm leaving Time Crisis alone to move to another cabinet. They pulled Street Fighter Alpha 3 for some reason (even though it's the best one!) and left SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom (which I think is different to Capcom vs. SNK??) I don't really like it much simply because I'm sure the cabinet has been set on a high difficulty setting. I might be wrong and I'm just a bit shit, theres always a chance of that! But I don't think the first fight is meant to contain so many friggin' super moves. Sure I'd expect to see one but in one round Iori Yagami threw 3 of his massive attack that just keeps on hitting. The first round! Like I said I might be wrong but its so frustrating if he starts it when you're reasonably low on health as it will take it all! I did manage to beat him just to face Guile and watch him get a 20 hit combo after about 2 seconds and then just do it again straight after. This is my challenge and I'm going to try to master this evil machine over the coming weeks! ps I'm playing as Ken throughout. Take it easy out there kids Dave
We're now safely back in Sheffield from a weekend in our hometown of Grimsby (and yes the weather was adequately ‘grim'). We popped home for more celebrations for Liz's birthday, this time of the family variety. Unfortunately my dad was feeling a bit under the weather so a change to the plan of getting picked up and instead it was up to the train to get us back. I realised that getting the train everyday for work has totally changed my relationship with rail transport. Before it was always a semi stressful place where there was always the fear in the back of my mind that I would get on the wrong train and end up at “the end of the line!” which I pictured as some backwards place in the middle of no where were I would be never heard from again. Now I'm incredibly relaxed about the whole affair and when I read the platform number on the big board that lists all the trains I now just walk to that platform and board the train that's either already there or pulls up as I wait. No more asking station masters or other passengers as I gingerly sit down aboard the train. I'm truly set free, I wonder what I'm going to do with the extra 7 seconds I've gained! Anyway, Grimsby was as nice as it ever is and obviously includes delights such as seeing the parents and the family dog (called Ben), watching Sky, eating and drinking food I haven't paid for, etc. My room now in no way feels like the safe, comfortable cocoon it once did and instead is just a ‘place full of my stuff'. I don't mind as it makes me realise how much I like living in Sheffield . Liz got some awesome presents that due to their CD nature means I sort of get them too (bonus!). More education in Ska in the form of Fishbone and The Toasters and more Bosstones albums. Should be a good listen and nice to actually get CD's for a change. In gaming news its fallen to the humble (and incredibly geeky) Rubik's Cube to provide entertainment. For some reason I got trapped watching loads of videos on YouTube of people completing them in either really sort times, one handed or blind folded! It got me thinking that I've never actually owned one and its one of those things that loads of people have tried but not that many have completed. I asked at work and no one had finished one. I figured it would be a relatively cheap experiment and I aim to successfully beat the darn thing so I can add it to the ‘life cv'. I'll keep you informed of my progress. Well that's about it for the weekend Take it easy out there kids Dave
31st August, 2006 Snakes on a (comedy setting here) Hey peeps, Well I hope you liked the little slide show from Liz's birthday celebrations on Monday. Some of you might have noticed but credit for the slide show presentation goes to Emma as she's had one on her MySpace for ages and I just clicked the link and stole the idea. I think it's a great way to show loads of pictures as it only takes up the space of one. Expect more slide shows of various stuff as I think they spruce the blog up nicely. The dessert was actually too big and we didn't really come close to finishing it! I've not eaten that much in ages! Take it easy out there kids Dave
28th August, 2006 Sorry for the Delay Well first off I have to apologise for the lack of recent blogging. I don't even have a decent excuse either, simply the days passing me by without realising I needed to update! Terrible I know! A four day gap since the last update but I'm struggling to inform you of four days worth of activity. Either nothings happened or its just hard to recall! I'm guessing it's the first of those options as my time has simply been work and chilling out at home. I did however get my self a cool new t-shirt! It's from Gamestation so you can probably guess the theme of the design. It features the character select box from Street Fighter 2 and under it says “Life is full of choices”!!!! It was one of those instant purchases that I didn't need to think about for a second (even though the t-shirt is navy, not my favourite colour). This successfully quashed my gaming urges that initially led me into the shop and probably saved me from spending £30 on New Super Mario Bros. for the DS. In other gaming news I got through another few songs of Gitaroo Man. One of the best things about that game is the variety of the music featured. I mean something like Guitar Hero (which is awesome, don't get me wrong) only features songs of the particularity rockin' variety. In Gitaroo Man I've already button bashed my way through a couple of genres but recently I got a chance to take it down a notch. One of the songs is a real acoustic number and is the first to really relate the method of manipulating the Dual Shock to actually playing music. Beautiful action in the background too as a girl starts to fall to sleep and leans on your shoulder, it's a dream we all share. A lazy Sunday that included nothing but chilling around the flat brings us to today and an early shift at work. I didn't know but I'll get a good amount of money for working the Bank Holiday. I'd completely failed to realise and if no one told me I wouldn't have any idea. I was pretty busy but I was in an incredibly helpful mood today and that just makes those busy days fly by. I better watch out though as today was the first day where I realised the appeal of retail!!! Fuck me, I better stop thinking like that pronto! Something about helping all those customers! Well here I am now about to get ready for an awesome night out in celebration of Liz's 23 rd Birthday! Pubs then Corp should hopefully provide merriment! Also remember to head over to MMI for video clips and photos of Hong Kong . Take it easy out there kids Dave 24th August, 2006 Messy night, tough morning. Howdy all, Well I'm glad the podcasting is going down well. Its fun to do so it will probably continue for that reason alone. I gave it another listen to myself and the one thing I would like to add it just a bit more comedy. I think of some solid fried gold to talk shit about but when it comes down to it, its really hard to get to any kind of comedy high when I'm by myself. Enough of the podcast! The title of today's blog refers to last night and the large quantity of alcohol that was consumed. It was planed as just a simple ‘night out', no special reason or anything with a guy from work (Tim, I went out with him before) and an ex-employee (Dave) who left for another job a couple of weeks ago. We met up at 7 which is quite early but Dave had to catch the last bus home so it was decided to kick things off early to make the most of the night. In another educational pub crawl we started out in The Ball somewhere in Crooks. Its a part of Sheffield I have no geographical knowledge about but we soon headed down to The Porter Inn off Eccy Rd which is a bit more known to me. Both pubs were really nice and the topic of conversation was quite heavily centred on music and film to which I obviously chipped in with my two cents (mainly calling Morrissey shit and standing up for Return of the Jedi). Into town to The Devonshire Cat in an attempt to meet Ricky who was out that night as part of a leaving do for someone at his work. Sadly we missed him but it wouldn't be long before we finally met. Before that though it was time for special beers in The Cat and I partook in my tipple Pauliner. Mmmmmm, it really does taste like bananas! Then over to The Lava Lounge as Tim's mate was DJing. I called Ricky and they were all in the Leadmill so me and Dave grabbed some take away chips (I added sausage and beans!) as Tim said bye to his mate. The food was awesome and I miss eating when I'm drunk - it makes everything taste great. We ended the night in the Leadmill finding Ricky and his posse and all danced until closing. If you haven't worked it out Dave never did get that last bus home and instead it was a late one for us all. I can't be bothered to inform you of the shitty day I had at work today as living through it was torture enough. Safe to say I was feeling rough as hell after all that drink and I couldn't wait to get home. Well that's about it from me. Take it easy out there kids Dave 23rd August, 2006 Another Podcast Right, same procedure applies for downloading this podcast as the first one. Aaron, I know you had problems getting it from Megaupload so I sent it to you via email (megaupload did it for me so the same problem might crop up) Drop me a line if you cant get it and I'll sent it too you myself from my email account. Click to Download Podcast No. 2 – length 16:46 Take it easy out there kids Add a comment
I'm going to keep this one short as text now feels insignificant and small next to the might of mp3 podcasts! That's right kids, you can now hear Dave ramble on about shit. Now I want to explain that this first one is very experimental and is essentially just a test to see if everything needed to get my voice to come out of your speakers is working. I've had to use a website called megaupload to host the mp3 so the link takes you there. Once at the page if you look next to the title ‘MEGAUPLOAD' it will say ‘please enter' and then some random letters. Once entered click download. When I did it, it asked me to wait even though it wasn't downloading (it counts down the seconds). This seems fine and would presume its retrieving the file from its mass of storage. Once this is done you can choose where to save and it will download. Now I'm fully aware that this is incredibly pretentious to podcast myself as I don't really have anything interesting to say but if you appreciate it then you might get more. I need feedback as to weather its downloading successfully and what you think. I didn't say anything of importance this time as it was just a test. Unfortunately there is a buzz to the whole thing and I'll try to get rid of it for the next one. Click to Download Podcast (5.32) Take it easy out there kids Dave
Evening all Man I hate working over the weekend! Today I was at work at 3, well that's what I though, turns out it was 2 but no one noticed!) Makes me think I could be late loads more and get away with it, you see when it busy (such as a Saturday) its really easy to start your shift and get straight into a task. The flip side of this is that if your late everyone presumes you've been there the whole time but just on some other part of the shop floor. Debenhams menswear is pretty big so even if two people are on the same shift you can miss each other for a few hours. I was expecting to go on the tills today but no, see never had a chance since the training I received this time last week. Maybe they think I'm going to be crap and give out loads of money accidentally. Before I got to work I did get the pleasure of catching an episode of Star Trek (original series) and it was awesome. I never really liked the Kirk era but watching them on a Saturday morning is great, always provide many laughs, most of which is unintentional comedy that's just funny looking back on it now. Today episode had Kirk split into two people, one good and one evil. The evil one stumbles into the medical bay and demand brandy! Later we see him attempt to rape Yeoman Janice Rand!  That evil bastard! His evilness is clearly visualised by the subtle black eye shadow Shatner sports, look out for it kids, always a sign of evil. Gloves are also a sign of evil but not seen in this particular episode. Very amusing to say the least. I sit here now after my shift feeling surprisingly sleepy and cursing the fact that I have to work tomorrow! This is the first Sunday I've had to work and I know its going to be a wrench to leave to flat. I really need a Monday to Friday job! I miss the weekends! I really don't know why I complain as I only work 20 hours which means I get days off in the week, there's just something about weekends that my brain can't seem to adjust to. Damn you school for drilling me with Monday to Friday conformity! I'm hoping its not going to be too busy as if I am on the tills I won't feel too pressurised. I wasn't worried after my training but it's been a week and I've forgotten nearly everything. Take it easy out there kids Dave
Skipping over Thursday pretty quickly as it was very similar to Wednesday. It, like the previous day, was a day off work and so it was also spent painting and listening to various things provided by the internet. It was another gaming related podcast but not quite as good as others and also tuning winamp into some internet radio stations. Mainly 80's focused and the line up was on the whole excellent and at the end of every song it was real anticipation as to what the next nostalgic hit was going to be. Highlight of the evening was playing the demo of a PC game called Prey. I'm not really into PC gaming and even more put off by what I see as a pretty hardcore ‘first person shooter' genre. Prey fits into said genre but the chatter I've been hearing via podcast convinced me to give it a go. I haven't played too much of it and so will save my review until another blog but what I will say is that it was incredibly easy to set up and get playing. I realised that my very early experience with PC gaming (some 8 years ago now) is a very different beast to what it is now. I might give PC gaming another go although the main problem I have is to do with the genres it seems to focus on. MMOG are definitely not my bag baby. On to today and it was up early to catch the train to Birmingham !!! Unfortunately we (I was going with a guy called Alistair and a supervisor called Nicole) were greeted with ‘CANSELED' on all trains within a relevant time frame going to Birmingham . We found out that this was due to lightening hitting a signal box at York as thus diverting all trains going through that station. An alternate route was set at Derby to change to get to Birmingham at 9:50 (we had to be there at 10). I couldn't believe how much it cost…..any guesses…..£47!! I would have never have though it would be that much. Debenhams is paying so it's not really a big deal. A quick stop at Derby and we were on our way to Birmingham . I got a chance to play on my DS as it was too busy to sit with my colleagues. More train delays not helped by the fact that we couldn't find the store once we got there meant that we arrived about 50mins late! We spotted a few people arrive after us so I guess the train problems caused havoc for more than just us. I'm not going to bore you with details of the actual training other than to say there was loads of people and it was more like a conference with everyone split into 4 groups and moving to different ‘workshops' every hour or so. It was all pretty light and fun and although it was about shoes it was far better than a normal day on the shop floor at Meadowhall. We did get a lunch break to explore a bit of Birmingham to which I was shocked to exit the shopping centre to reveal the outside of the building. Turns out its this place:  I'd seen the building on tv and stuff before but didn't really relate it to any real place. The weather was pretty nice and made Birmingham seem like a really nice place (although I'm obviously only speaking about the city centre area that I saw today). A talk by a representative from a shoe company called Base ended in goodybags! Not much but a tshirt and Base ‘body spray' for free, I was happy. Enough of my ramblings for another day. Take it easy out there kids Dave
No work today but an early start with plans for the day. Painting being the main one and I got started as soon as I'd had my Weetabix….oh no wait, I mean Whole Wheat Biscuits as the Sainsbury's version is known. I would love to show you a photo of the Ryu painting thus far but as it's hopefully going to be a marketable idea I'm wary to post my genius idea to the world (I know only about 3 people read this but I'm playing it safe). This was therefore done while sat at my desk listening to various music and culminating in this weeks 1Up.com podcast (wittily titled ‘1Up Yours'). Before I started listening to this weekly slice of gaming related chatter I always found podcast a weird little anomaly. I mean why in this high tech 10Mb broadband instant video streaming world should something we've been able to do on radio for years be so popular. Luckily I haven't stayed in the dark too long as I realise it nice to listen to as I paint away, occasionally having to pause to laugh. I look forward to it every week now.
Mid paint stroke I did receive an interesting phone call that I'm going to share. I mentioned previously that I'd told Debenhams that I'm not planning on staying as I'm looking for more hours and more pay. Well what do you know, “ring ring….Hello Dave, we're offering you more hours with the chance to train to get to a higher rate of pay.” I said thanks and as such I now going to Birmingham for that training, it's all about shoes! Expect photos!! I'm still going to look for other work as this is in no way where I want to be but it's nice to know that the day after I hint at leaving they offer me what I want. I guess they need me more than I thought. Now apart from a trip to town for some essentials and the washing up that's pretty much been my day. Guitar playing has peppered the entire day (tips of my fingers are feeling pretty sore now) Its worth it though as I reached a goal a set myself a couple of weeks ago. I really wanted to play Ken's theme music from Street Fighter and thanks to a download for a tab program called PowerTab I can now play it reasonably well. Needs practice but I should be able to provide adequate background music to any upcoming fight I happen to witness. I think that would be pretty funny if you saw a drunken fight in the street and just stood and played an appropriate Street Fighter theme. They would love it……or shank you. Dave
I have to start this blog chuckling as Aaron prompt to update rings in my ear (kick YOU in the nuts!). A cry for a big update gets a big update! Well yesterday was the start of another week and one that started out like many before, as in quite boring. I did finally have to let Debenhams know that I probably wasn't going to be there for that long I was scheduled to go on a training day and this made me think about if it's going to be really worth it (for them I mean). Many I've spoken to said I just should have kept my mouth shut and got a day off work. It was a ‘product knowledge' trip to Birmingham this Friday but after a think I realised it would be better utilised by someone else as I will be leaving soon. I say ‘soon' but it might be a while before I find another job but at least this mind frame if keeping me positive and active in the search for better work. I had to tell them there was nothing wrong with working there but I need more hours and better pay. The thing is though is that if they turn round and offer my more hours and such I'll probably turn it down. I really want something in anyway creative, I by that I don't just mean arty type stuff but just something at the end of the day I can say ‘I did that'. I'm still applying for arty type stuff but nothing yet, also sent in a CV to Boots Opticians – not great but at least its full time (if I get it I mean). Outside of work things are much more chipper and interesting. Guitar playing is a pretty big hobby this last week (thanks to Aarons Yamaha) and I'm loving the chilled out sound and singing away to songs I only know the chords for. Very folksy! A bit different to that though this week as its been Tenacious D! Like 98% of my guitar playing it's the intro and some memorable riff about half way through and that's all I can play. Very enjoyable and that's something pretty new to guitar playing for me so I think I'll stick with it this time. I don't know why I've even got an electric and amp as its just not my style. I popped into Sound Control yesterday just to have a chat, something I've come to appreciate as a sales advisor. If I'm ever at work as someone is really chatty about any number of subjects under the sun it makes the day go much better. On the other side of the equation I just struck up a conversation about left handed guitars with one of the guys in there. 20 mins later I left a lot more knowledgeable about acoustic guitars and what its like to work for a music shop. Arcadefinger (business venture) news and the painting is still going strong. A lot more time consuming than I first thought but still very enjoyable. I've decided to wait until I've got a few paintings completed before I approach anyone about selling them. A nice little ‘back catalogue' will hopefully impress them along side a nice branding effort to make it seem like its not just some crazy idea from I guy that likes to play computers games and paint. Gaming news as always to end today and its on the subject of PS2 disks. Samurai Shodown came on a blue coloured disk, something I'm well aware of but I presumed they were more for the early release titles of the consol. I don't know if that a factor but when Samurai Shodown spins its really loud! I plays fine but I feel so on edge that at any moment my PS2 is going to implode at any second that I might take it back. Other than that its plays as awesome as I though even though the 2D Sprites suffer a little on widescreen TV. There's a massive red demon character in there that's new to me from my previous plays of the earlier games. He's massive and it makes fights look unfair at first glance. I'm not talking T-Hawk or Panda big, I mean half the screen big. I've got a pretty good 2D fighter collection on the PS2 now, I just need StreetFighter Alpha Collection now and I'll be happy. Street Fighter Alpha 3 is in fact the best of the series and ranks pretty high in ‘best game ever' list. Go out and play it. I'd love to comment on Street Fighter 3 but its still out of my reach!! One day…..one day! Query MMI if you want to know if its any good. Well I hope that eases the pain of whatever's causing you pain today. Everyone together…. Dave
Very relaxing day today and I should hope so too as shift on Saturday and Monday means it's the only whole day I get to spend with Liz. A quick trip into town makes for a good wake up call so I don't still feel sleepy at 3 in the afternoon. I provided an opportunity to pick up Samurai Shodown V for the PS2. Like many arcade games this one was unknown to me as a PS2 game. As a big player of MAME (with my XArcade of course!) and a fan of 2D fighters I've been playing Samurai Shodown one to four for a while now. They're awesome fighting games from SNK and I was aware of the fifth one but I could never get it to work on MAME (like so many arcade games that are reasonably recent) When I saw it in GameStation new for £9.99 I didn't have to think about it. I haven't had chance to play it yet but I'm not worried about the quality as I know its good.  Coming home we sat an watched Laputa: Castle in the Sky on Film4 and it was one of the nicest films I've seen in ages. I felt like when it was over I was awakening from a dream…..no really I mean it! I was the subtitled version although the credits listed the US voice actors used in the dub so that made a nice little end chuckle. As that's pretty much all I've done I guess this ends today's entry. Take it easy out there kids. Dave
Evening all Right, Saturday rundown from me to you kicking off with an early start at Debenhams for some interesting training to use the till there. You might think it's a bit late for me to be getting till trained as I've been there a good 2 months now and you'd think at some point I would have processed a transaction or two. Well its all about getting a log-in number and there's a lot of buttons on those PC-like machines so it was up to a 2 hour session today to get the know how. All pretty simple stuff as the screen tells you what needs doing next in the procedure but I'm not looking forward to the weird request that they always forget to teach. There is a sense of power to wielding those scanning guns though! I just know from experience of walking around the shop floor that when people are in anyway mad or frustrated with Debenhams they always head straight for the pay desk. I can hear them coming, the loud foot steps, the heavy breathing, I turn and point a shaky finger in the direction of the till, thanking yoda that I'm not the person they're heading towards for a good ole' rant. I soon will be my friends, wish me luck. Arcadefinger (the business venture) news now and I've started a canvas painting of Ryu (I know, I know not of Ken but I'm going for sellability on these) Maybe I'll do a Ken one next. I bought a copy of Official Nintendo Magazine and it had I tiny column entry suggesting that Ken is a bit like Own Wilson. I can totally see it since I watched the animated series, Ken is such a cool ‘player' wise ass. Speaking of which Shanghai Knights has just started so I'm cutting this blog short (not really, I'd said all I needed today already). Take it easy out there kids Dave
11th August, 2006 Attempts to move have failed  One from Ricky's 21st. Strangers only a few hours ago. Right lets fill you in on Dave Town news. Well after the recent Monday night out for Rickys Birthday it wasn't long before I was out again! This time on Wednesday night with a work colleague called Tim. Wasn't sure what type of night I was in for but safe to say it didn't end in disaster. First off to the Lescar which I know some of you out there know although I remember it being far more favoured by the likes of Ade and Jay and not many others. Wasn't too bad although I can see were it gets its reputation as being a little ‘rough' but in its defence it appears to simply be a little ‘local' with a lot of regulars. A few there then across the road to the Porter Inn all the while chatting about Sheffield , music, films and the like. The Porter Inn is a great little pub and I could easily see myself partaking in a swift half in my winter years. It's the closest thing I've seen to the pubs that always form the corner stone of so many British soaps on tv (but in a good way). Into town and we headed for The Lava Lounge on West Street but this is were I was starting to wind the night up and so my last pint was drunk pretty quickly. Luckily Tim met some friends in there so I wasn't leaving him out by himself and I merrily trotted home. Now unfortunately I experienced something that's happened a few times before. In an attempt to get home at a reasonable time and not too drunk (be it early start or moral judgment) I often drink my last pint quite quickly. Now this leaves me in quite a good state I a exit the pub but the rushed pace of that ‘one for the road' combined with the fresh air (I don't really know if that's true but I like to think air is an active ingredient in what happens) means that I get really quite drunk about half way home. It all just hits me as I start to relax at I know I'm 5 minutes from bed. Wednesdays knock of drunkenness resulted in me prising one of those phone box posters of Nacho Libre from its home in an attempt to get it back to the flat and stick in our shower. It's weird as the level of drunkenness as I left the pub was reasonably low but then to think of me struggling with that sticky poster (falling on my ass as the last bit of glue gave way) it just plain embarrassing. Finish on a little gaming news as I like to do sometimes and today allowed a little Gitaroo Man. I planned on playing longer but after only two songs my hands were hurting from the tense, vice like grip I had on the DualShock. It's a fun experience but the lead in time for the required button pushes is really short resulting in a real ‘seat of your pants' type of gaming. Take it easy out there kids Dave EDIT: Now lets see if Aarons stroke of genius works out:
|
||||||||
 |
||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
=