from hell

I have had 5 night shifts that I'm sure have been sent to me from the lowest, stinkiest, deepest pits of hell. I still have 2 more.

So, I'm going to see the new year dawn in while I'm trying to work out why Gladys fell, and why Queenie is confused.

Sucks. I would much rather spend it trying to push the Payload to the end of Badwater Basin, or shooting 1232 zombies in the face.

Have a Happy New Year you lucky SOBs!

Trigger Happy

(click to enlarge)

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/

Masters Of Doom, Changeling, and nights

On holiday I managed to finish two books:

Porn & Pong: an OKish look at how the videogame industry and the porn industry are closer than we imagine. Trends are the same, the explosion of both market's worth is amazing too.

Masters Of Doom: now this one's more like it. The true story behind how John Romero and John Carmack ended up ruling the PC gaming world. It's an amazing story, and even though it's all based on fact it's written very cleverly and is even a page turner! You'll find out the drive behind the two, the differences and the similarities, and more importantly the technical achievements they managed on the then-worse-than-consoles-PC. There's a lot more behind things like Commander Keen (the smooth scrolling was the first ever seen on the PC) and even the names of their games.

This is a book written for EXACTLY the kind of people that read this blog.. the geeky PC gaming/using fraternity that literally grew up drooling at Doom and it's Deathmatch. Read it, it's essential.

On holiday we managed to watch one film:

Changeling: here's a prediction I'm going to make. Changeling is going to net 4 Oscars: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress in Main Role, and Best Costumes (or design). Clint Eastwood directs Angelina Jolie (yes, she does act great in this film!) in a gripping true story about a woman who's son goes missing and the police give her back the wrong child. When she starts questioning them, the corruption behind the LAPD starts to show leading to a national scandal. On paper, this sounds dull, but trust me, it's difficult to say anything about this film without spoiling the shockingly true story.

It's also a film that rivets around the performance of it's stars, and they truly do shine. We watched the film with low expectations but ended up being so gripped by it and pleasantly surprised. Watch it.

Finally, I'm on a week of nights starting in 2 hours. That's 7 in a row. Hmph.

Dubai In Pictures

Skyline + beach from atop a boat

30 seconds exposure. It was windy-ish

HDR of sea and sky

Kelly watches the sun disappear

Kayaks!

Looks like a holiday brochure picture :p

The hotel/Dubai from our balcony

2 awesome kids kayaking. The look like celebs!

Another skyline from the beach. Soft-focused

Daytime beach/skyline

Dubai (Abridged Version)

I never got that borrowed internet back :(

Neither did I manage to feasibly go online from anywhere. Amazingly, the hotel didn't even have the option for paid net access, let alone free.

Anyway, we're back now. Arrived back Sunday evening. Went straight in to an on call on Monday. Tomorrow is Christmas Day (off), and Friday I start nights. It just keeps on getting better.

Here's a quick run down of what we did in Dubai, other then days 0-2 which are in previous posts:

Day 3 - lots  of lying around in the sun, reading books, and we ended it going to Al Khaima, the hotel's Arabic restaurant for some Lebanese food, Sheesha, and live music. The weather was just awesome, as was the atmosphere.

Day 4 - We met Haniboy in Mall Of The Emirates (happens to be my favourite mall over there, it's where we went on that robocoaster before!) and had a steak from the legendary Butcher Shop & Grill. The steak (and burger) there is just phenomenal.

In the evening Ziad got us in to the event they were doing the lighting for. It was in the next door hotel and was something to do with some Arab dude buying Fox, and bringing all it's programmes to Rotana (Arabic station). We saw some DJ stuff and some Arabic singers, but the main but was this amazing fire show which involved huge jets of fire choreographed to famous Fox music, including The Simpsons theme!

After Ziad finished work, me and him left the hotel at 1am in search for food. We ended up going to the seediest of internet cafés (somewhere him and his friends regular ALOT) and had some cheap, dirty, but really tasty food. Best thing is you can eat by the computers, which feature cheap internet and a ton of pirated shit to watch/play. It's a geek dream-come-true.

Day 5 - ATLANTIS DAY!!

We went to Aquaventure Atlantis. This is a new waterparked based in the huge Atlantis Hotel, itself based on the tip of the huge Palm Island that's just opened there. It was great fun, loads of funky rides and a near-free-fall slide called The Leap Of Faith.

Day 6 - More hotel based chillaxin'. In the late evening I went out with Zaid&co to Alkoofa, a restaurant, which that night had live singers until 3 am. It was loud, noisy, very smoky, but great fun.

Day 7 - We went with Haniboy's family (including my future wife, his daughter Leyan) and Ziad to Fujeirah. There is an island there called Snoopy Island (cos it looks like Snoopy lying on his back) where you can stay on the beach and snorkel. Unfortunately, due to lots and lots of red Plankton snorkeling was impossible. We swam in the sea though, used the pool and had some burger's at the local hotel. Was fun, but shame about the snorkeling.

Day 8 - Last day. Shopping, packing, and having Chop Chop (chinese restaurant thingie in the mall).

Best Lunch Boxes EVER!

Courtesy of Kelly. No idea where she found them :)

Isn't it great being back?

Yes. All of them have to be dictated :(

Dubai Day 2

First of all, I am on "borrowed internet". The company Ziad works for as a 3.5G router so they lent it to me to use in the hotel. Unfortunately, they need it back on their site now.

I will try my best to blog tomorrow from somewhere. On to the day:

The laziness that was our day started with a breakfast on our balcony. In a surprise move for any hotel, actually requesting the breakfast as room service is free. After that we walked down to the hotel's beach and did what people do on the beach (NO! Not that!). This is my first beach holiday as such, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought.

We wandered back towards the hotel and lounged about on the sun chairs just behind the beach, on a green lawn in the shade. That was even more fun, there as a nice breeze and though busy, the beach/surrounding area was quiet so it was very blissful. We had lunch there, and I stupidly ordered a mint refresher drink (Lemonade, Sugar, Mint). It tasted EXACTLY like liquid Mint Sauce, which Kelly loves. She had that and I ordered something called Dessert Kiss (mixed fruits). Much better.

This evening we're gonna have dinner in the hotel too (in case you hadn't noticed, today is hotel-only day, a traditional Alsawafx2 affair), probably at Al Khaima, that does BBQ and Sheesha. Mmmmmm.

Gotta go take the router back now :(

Dubai Day 1 (ish)

Our flight left Terminal 5 at 20:45 UK time, and we reached Dubai International Airport at 07:45... the ride was smooth, but there was a kid behind us that periodically would either cry "no no no!" or offer us crayons to play with... this kept us both busy and unable to sleep. Hence we were both tired and cranky :D

Amazingly enough, the travel agent had arranged our transport correctly, and we actually had someone waiting for us with a placard saying (ALSAWAF x 2)... they took us to the car (a nice big thing, not sure what) which drove us to Le Royal Meridien in Jumeirah. The driver insisted on pointing out landmarks but we couldn't understand his heavy Asian accent so we just nodded and smiled. Like you do.

The hotel is lovely... we've had great experiences in other Meridiens and this is no different. Really nice place, lovely staff. The receptionist took our details and said that the room was being prepared... in the meantime she gave us a pager to carry (can't get rid of them can I!) so we would be bleeped when the room was ready. They even let us have a free breakfast!

After about an hour or so the room was ready... it's on the 3rd floor of their Tower Block, and luckily for us it has a beautiful view of the beach, the pools and gardens, and Atlantis (on Palm Island). Both very tired, we had a shower and just fell fast asleep.

This evening we went out with Ziad and Bashar for some Arabic dinner and then a tea and Sheesha at Maxine Café in Jumeirah. It was nice, but we're still tired :D

Tomorrow is Chillaxin* Day, with lots of beach, pool, and food.

Things we would like to do including visiting Mall Of The Emirates, visiting Dubai Mall, going to Atlantis, going to Fujeirah's Snoopy Island, and a desert BBQ. Let's hope so :)

*a new word I've learnt from my great-cousin. I presume it's Chillin+Relaxin.

Dubai Day 0

Waiting at Terminal 5 for baggage drop to open.

New address, Stupid registrar, Jarre is back, L4D, and Dubai

Hello blogites!

Thanks for bearing with all the technical difficulties. More importantly, thank you all for your messages of support and help... I'm really happy that there are still people out there that follow my ramblings. It's great. Thanks again!

My old URL (ali-sob.com) seems to have disappeared. My STUPID STUPID registrar (www.discountdomainsuk.com, AVOID AT ANY COST) is not only expensive, but also technically incompetent and total shit. My registration with them has about a year left.

After lots of anger and grief with them, I've decided to move along.. it would have cost a bit to move ali-sob to somewhere else, so instead I've registered a new name with godaddy.com (thanks Anmar) for 5 years (a lot cheaper than stupid discountdomainsuk.com!).

The new address is:

WWW.ALIALSAWAF.COM

Sexy, don't you think? :p

Unfortunately, visitors to ali-sob.com will be greeted with DNS errors. If it does get fixed, I might get it to forward here, or vice versa, or maybe not.

On to more fun news now.

Jean-Michel Jarre is touring again, with 4 UK dates in May next year. I've booked 2 tickets for the London show (29/05/08) in advance before they all disappear, and I'm hoping a very pregnant Kelly by then should be able to come along.... according to her "I'll probably go in to labour there cos the baby will have enough of the music"... she's not a fan :( I'm hoping the baby will love it and become a Jarrenaut like it's supercool dad.

I mean me :p

We've been having a great, great time with Left4Dead (me, BlueBlood, Anmar + random friends)... it's a wonderful game both in coop and in vs (which is pure genius, warrants it's own post later).. it really brings out the cooperative spirit and brings us together as gaming friends... I can only wish that someone else picks it up and actually plays it, but for some reason I doubt that :p

Finally, tomorrow we fly back to Dubai (arrive Saturday AM) to spend a week doing nothing other than relaxing, reading books, and eating! The laptop will be with us, as will the big heavy camera/tripod, so watch this space we might just blog daily like NYC last year.

And that's the end of this long, overdue post. Thanks for listening!

8-Bit Jesus

Is an AWESOME chiptune album by Doctor Octoroc... remixing classical christmas tracks in chiptune, with nods to the big greats like Mario, Konami, and Ninja Gaiden!

Doctor Octoroc is kind enough to provide the first half of the album for free, a generous 9 tracks... grab it here and rock on to some awesome christmas bleeps and blops!

The Simpsons Mock Apple

Very effectively too :)

Happy Birthday Mouse!

Dear Mouse,

Happy 40th Birthday!!

Even though you're fourty, you've had lots and lots of plastic surgery and changes done to you. Did you know that you were born made out of wood!!

1968 it was... your daddy, Doug Engelbart, made a big wooden version of you and used you to show of his networked computers in a presentation. He didn't call you a mouse mind you, one of his friends thought you looked like a mouse, so the name stuck!

It wasn't until you were 16 though, remember that? Remember when your dad's friend, Steve Jobs, made that Apple II computer and started giving you away with it... wow you made such an impact! And, since then, you've been touched and prodded and pressed and clicked and moved by millions of people every day. Poor you!

And who could forget 1999? When that company with the funny name decided to make the very first "gaming mouse"... that was exciting wasn't it! You looked all funny with your new design, and you were shy and no one thought that you'd manage to be a gaming mouse. How wrong were they!

So, thank you very much mouse for letting us enjoy using (and playing with) our computers. Don't worry about the nay-sayers, or those gloomy people who think that we'll all be forgetting about you in 40 year's time, when things like touch screens and gesture controls take over your place. You'll always be my number one!

SoB.