elgooG

elgooG. Think about it. Read it out loud. The elfen folk out there would have already noticed that it's actually Google spelt backwards. So what?
Thanks to communism in China, google was a banned website that was blocked from the chinese public as it contained information they shouldn't be exposed to (read: contained links to websites that had the truth about communism).
So, what do the clever people that live on the internet do? they make a Google mirror, call it elgooG and LITERALLY mirror the site there (in other words everything is wrong way round, but fully functional!). This ofcourse bypassed the chinese proxies and gave our fellow chinamen the chance to elgooG whatever they needed!
Ofcourse this is now not necessary as Google has been openned up there, but still for all it's worth it was a great idea. The original elgooG still exists, just point your browsers here.

Till later, be safe

So I come back from a LONG day

only to find myself "tagged" by another fellow blogger!
Not sure what it means, but I think I've got to write down something about my favourite songs and stuff.
Feel a bit grumpy as just back from a great on-call (12 hours of hell), and looking forward to two more this weekend. SIGH.
But here goes, might as well cheer myself up with this tagging business:

Random 10 songs (title - artist)
1- Beyond the Invisible - Enigma
2- Pure Morning - Placebo
3- Idiot Wind - Bob Dylan
4- Where Do I Begin - The Chemical Brothers
5- Spitfire - The Prodigy
6- Ramblin' Man - Lemon Jelly
7- Zoolookologie - Jean-Michel Jarre
8- Rez - Underworld
9- The Sunscreen Song - Baz Luhrman
10- Orinoco Flow - Enya

What is the total amount of music on your computer?
LOTS! to be exact: 19.84 gigabytes, 3250 songs

The Last CD you bought?
Hmm, it was either Michael Jackson - Number 1's or Annie Lennox - Medussa

What is the song you listened to before this message?
Let Forever Be - The Chemical Brothers

Write down 5 songs you often listen to or mean alot to you?
Gosh. A bit of a tricky one this... let's see
Leather - Death in Vegas (man oh man what a beat. love it)
Left outside alone by Anastacia (like the anger, a bit cheesy I know but still)
All My Little Words by The Magnetic Fields (pure genius, PERIOD)
From Rusholme With Love by Mint Royale (Bhangra vs Pop vs Manchester vs Vanilla Sky)
Surface to Air by The Chemical Brothers (electronic music at it's best, feel good beat)

Who are you going to pass this to? three people and why?
Unfortunately I don't have any blogger friends! The only one I do know is the one who tagged me. So for the time being I'm just gonna keep it to myself. Does passing it on to 80 year old demented patients count? no, thought not!

Good-delicious!

Surface to Air

Bliss. I type this feeling sort of content with myself. The decision to invest ALOT of money in a mac has sure paid off, it's so relaxing lounging around on your sofa while browsing the web.
Which agains takes me to another fine decision (or 2 really) that I took recently. The plunge into the weird and wonderful world of wireless home networking has paid off as well. Unfortunately my first choice of router (linksys adsl gateway) was a bad one, and the connection kept dropping. My penny finally dropped (pun intended :p) and I changed alliance to d-link, and man am I happy. The signal is strong all over the flat and till now has not droppped once (the linksys was dropping at least 5-6 times a day, but usually about 10!!). Again, the investment in wireless has granted me 2 luxuries: the ability to surf the net without geekily sitting infront of big, mean rave machine (my main pc!), and 2nd it's also enabled my xbox into accessing all the mp3s/divx etc on the pc wirelessly, which ofcourse turns the living room into a complete entertainment centre.
Pumping through the speakers now (another wise decision to get 5.1) is the EXCELLENT Surface to Air from the last chemical album (see earlier post below). Not only is it a feel good anthem, but it's also one of the best pieces of electronic music written this side of kraftwerk!
All together things are going ok.... Damn exam (again!) on Tuesday is a bummer, but I'm done working for it (well saturated/numb) and I might as well enjoy the rest of the evening.
Have a nice one.

Game wallpaper of the day

Just added a rather untidy (but fully functional) feature on G-D. On the sidebar, just under the site description is a preview of a game wallpaper that updates daily (courtesy of the brilliant gamewallpapers). Clicking on the preview will show you a bigger preview and download options. One day I might figure out how to make it more tidy, but for now this'll do.
Till then, good-delicious!

Push The Button

The Chemical Brothers are back again with their excellent new album, Push The Button. After disappointing with their last album (Come With Us), this time the bro's have gone back to their roots, making great techno/dance music with that pure "It must be a chemical brother's track" feel to it.
The first track (Galvanize) is being played all over the radios/clubs in the UK, and I'm sure most of you will recognise it if you hear it. It's based on a VERY ARABIC tune, with some cool dance/rap mixed in. A great track.
The whole album is well worth listening to, and ofcourse no chemical album is complete without a 7 minute epic, and this time the track (Surface to Air) really is an epic!
The album is closer to their 3rd album (Dig Your Own Hole) with it's strong strings and loud beats, but they still manage to throw in a few surprise (like the political hip-hop Left Right).
All in all a great album for fans of anything electronic. Not for the ever-popular britney/christina/celine/robbie williams/etc fans out there, this album is NOT for you!
Oh, and before I forget, it's alot better than the proj's last album. Not that it wasn't good but this one is just more well-done :)

ps: in the 2nd track (The Boxer), the chem's pay a little tribute to another British electronic artist, by including a part of one of his tracks in the middle of theirs. Hands up if you know who the tribute is for (ie post a comment!).

What's your cyborg name?

Just a small but pretty nifty website I landed upon today.
Cyborg Name turns any name into a funky futuristic robot name, with a choice of 6 different pictures to accompany it!
And if you like it that much, you can order custom printed t-shirts or mugs with your cyborg on it.
As you see, SoB actually means Synthetic Obedient Being, AND NOT WHAT THE RUMOURS HAVE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS!
Oh, and Ali means Android Limited to Infiltration. See, told you I was cool :)
Would be cool to see what other cyborg names you guys come up with. You all know where the comments button is.....

Saturday morning blues....

I'm fed up. Tired. Just down right blue...
Lots of things been happening in my life recently, mostly not pleasant.
Since finishing my 7 days of hell (night shifts) I've been off work preparing for a nightmare exam, my sleep pattern has been topsy turvy all week and insomnia has become a good friend of mine...
Last night I went to bed at around 1am and only slept at 6am! yeap, it's that bad... My ever-demanding brother called at
10:30 this morning asking about some problem he's got with word. I forced myself out of bed and made an extra strong black coffee, the effects of which I'm still waiting for....
Isn't it annoying when you feel like life just isn't on your side? everything seems to go the wrong way.
Some 19 year old girl is singing on tv now, to the most annoying tune I've heard in ages.
My head feels light, and all my limbs hurt.
Study? today? who's silly thought was that.....
I might just watch Cube Zero now. Somehow the idea of watching people stuck in cuboid deathtraps sounds very appealing. Maybe whoever controls my cube is just in a rough mood....

Games Clocked 2004

Not a very good year for my personal gaming I'm afraid! Part of the problem was that there were too many good games released last year (especially around the end), and ofcourse the usual lack of time/too busy story :)
But any how, in true SoB custom (I used to email this, but I think those interested in my news still visit this site, don't you?) here's my list of games clocked in 2004 and those that I'm playing (read: trying to play) nowadays.
Lots of xbox gaming going on, and some co-op stuff. And yes I did play r-type III for SNES (emulated ofcourse!) cos it's a great game!

GAMES CLOCKED IN 2004

XBOX
Beyond good and evil
Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy
Splinter Cell : Pandora Tomorrow
The Chronicles of Riddick - Escape from Butcher Bay
Burnout III Take Down
Halo 2 (co-op)

PC
XIII
Pain Killer
Doom III

Gamecube
Ikaruga (co-op)
Time Splitters 2 (co-op)

GBA
Metroid Zero Mission

SNES
R-type III - The 3rd Lightening

CURRENTLY PLAYING

XBOX - Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Blinx 2 - Masters of Time and Space (co-op)

Gamecube - Metroid Prime: Echoes

Pikmin 2

GBA - Nothing!

NDS - Spiderman

PC - Half Life 2

Ducti Triplett

Just bought me one of these things. It's a wallet made completely out of super duct tape! All wallets are 100% hand made, and are lifetime guaranteed not to peel or go sticky. If they do, you just send them back and they'll replace it with a new one for free :)
It's a funky thing to own I tell ya, and it feels quite sturdy and well-built. Let's hope it lives up to the expectations!
Interested? http://www.ducti.com

Till later y'all....

Cool Optical Illusions!

A great website I stumbled upon today, which has a vast collection (150+) of optical illusions for free! Great fun if you ask me!
Go boggle your minds at http://www.coolopticalillusions.com

Wikipedia

I just realised that I haven't told everyone about one of my most favourite (and controversial) websites. It's the free online encyclopaedia WIKIPEDIA. Controversial? very cos anyone who can access the page can also edit any article there, or add a new article about anything! This has caused alot of uproar from the traditional, conservative book keepers that reckon people will just get wrong info from the site instead of using a "real" encyclopaedia.
Personally, I think the site rocks and has been verified to be 90% accurate. That's good enough for me.
Get your browsers over to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and enjoy!

SoB

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Well, I wish you all a BIG, good-delicious 2005! hope everybody gets what they wish for, and the world becomes a more peaceful place (not that it's possible, but here's wishing).
Be safe....