Amazing Quick Changing Artists

I have absolutely no clue how all this is going on!

The changes with the red sheet and the confetti are simply stunning.

Courtest of Wolf - I'd link to his blog but it was last updated a year ago :p

Braid and Gobliiins are back!

Two things:

1\ The beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL Braid is out on PC on the 30th. Don't disappoint me like you all did with World of Goo (you pirated it, ALL of you). Please buy this game. PLEASE. If only for the amazing soundtrack. And the puzzles. And the art. And the gameplay. And the story. And everything.

2\ Did anyone know that Gobliiins 4 is coming out? In fact, it's out on the 27th of this month!! Core gameplay remains exactly the same (goofy, obscure, random puzzles). The original was successful enough to spawn two sequels, but has the gameplay withstood the test of time? I guess only time will tell (pun intended)

Did I mention that everyone should buy Braid? I'm buying it AGAIN (I own the 360 version).

Don't let me down people.

The Calypso dude!

Remember the Jarre 1989 Paris La Defense extravaganza?

He had those awesome, awesome big massive puppets dancing about to Calypso 1.

Now someone has made an awesome, awesome puppet made out of Lego :D

Found here :)

And here's the youtube video for those that might have forgotten:

The 200th Edge

Edge magazine is 200 issues old this month. To celebrate, Edge have done something I think is a world first: they have created 200 unique covers for the same issue, all of which are printed and are in circulation! Now, imagine having to "catch them all".

More importantly, they're beautiful to look at. With the usual culty/pixely/newgen mix of stuff, you can behold all of them right here.

I suggest you do as I did and save them all, I have a feeling the C&VG servers will pull these soon.

Enjoy.

a classic book for a modern child

haha!

Baby Countdown!

Is to your right. Scary.

There's 3D images each week, and a dreaded (this many days left) big number at the bottom.

Oh dear.

Please Help To Make The World You're Living In Better

I've spoken about Surface To Air many times before, the seminal track by the mighty, mighty Chemical Brothers. But, I feel compelled to give it it's own post this time round.

Yesterday I was driving back from London (at night, as usual) and Surface To Air was pumping, almost exclusively on repeat, and wasn't it just bliss, hence inspiring this post :)

See, Surface To Air is one of those long, epic Chemical tracks that feature in most of their albums. Usually clocking in at 8 minutes, this one is from their 2005 album, Push The Button. Starting off with a distorted computer voice telling us to "please help to make the world you're living in better", the track starts of with just a single fluctuating bleep that sounds like a deep water diver trying to tap out a tune... this gradually builds up bit by bit until the main bass rhythm kicks in, a beautiful riff that's more guitar than electronica, all the time with little sounds of what can only be imagined as majestic and graceful sea creatures passing along the rhythm as it "surfaces to air"....

Layer upon layer of music is added to this ever repeating riff, until it explodes with percussion at what must be the "surface", and the realisation that it's all calm, serene, and beautiful up there, all alone, bar for the one or two creatures that pass you by. Probably with some man made ships or submarines making their presence evident with some metallic bleeps now and then.

It's a journey, one hell of a journey in fact. It washes you away, massages your ears, and takes you to some electronic sea bed where things are in harmony and peace with each other, and to surface to air is to breathe which is to live. This is acoustic nirvana, music at it's very best.

When it's all over you want to do it all over again, paying more and more attention to the various sounds that you might have missed before, interpreting them differently with each listen.

It's magic.

So this is what she looks like

Awesome fanart of our favourite announcer.

I also learned today that she's voiced by non other than Ellen McLain, her of GLaDOS fame :)

No more Kitchen

The kitchen is offline permanently.

It was fun while it lasted.

Quakelive open beta now..... open!

The Quakelive open beta just opened!

As expected, the servers are being hammered, but I managed to register!

I'm still intrigued as to how id have pulled running the game within a browser, an amazing feat if it works well!

For those that don't know, Quakelive is Quake 3 Arena for free, which runs within a browser window. It's id's way of saying thank you to all it's fans. Awesome.

If you do join, look me up: Sobtanian.

See you in the arena, marine!

PS: I'm told by reliable sources that you can also set it to run fullscreen. Awesome x2.

Look at what the postman brought this morning

I'm happy. Very happy. And excited!

Will be the 3rd time I see the big man, twice for Kelly, but she's not that bothered :p

This is how I feel lately

F.E.A.R. 2 Slow Mo Sniping

I'm enjoying F.E.A.R 2. It's good fun, and excellently spooky at times.

I also enjoy sniping in slow motion! I enjoyed it so much actually, that I captured a video with FRAPS, converted it to DivX, and uploaded it to youtube! See how much work I do for you ungrateful so-and-sos :p

Enjoy.

Oh, and play the game.

PS: you can watch it in HQ on youtube itself :)

Guitar Loser

My nephew certainly thinks so, he sent me this awesome t-shirt as a gift. I like it, and will definitely be wearing it around the house as I shred to Guitar Hero!!

Flower

Over the last few hours I've gone through every emotion and feeling I can think of. I've been confused, perplexed, intrigued, excited, disappointed, happy, sad, elated, depressed, scared, confident, upset, in love, but most of all, amazed.

Amazed at the beauty of Flower, the grace by which it takes us on a journey, a journey of a dream, and at the feelings and emotions it invokes, without saying a single word.

Flower is the 2nd PSN game from Thatgamecompany, the makers of FlOw. It's instructions couldn't be any more simpler "tilt the controller to soar, press any button to blow wind. Relax, enjoy".

Taking the journey of a petal, you direct the wind to blow it in any direction you like, discovering beautiful vistas of all colours, discovering other flowers, and taking their petals along with you.

And that's all the game mechanic there ever is, and all it will ever need. With such simple execution, the game manages to grip you by it's beautiful and gentle graphics, and by it's excellent, excellent music. Calming scores, little riffs as you find each flower, soar into a bunch of red flowers and listen as they all jingle together, all the time affecting the environment around you.

There's definitely a game in there, a simple game nonetheless, but any kind of complexity would take away from what the designers want - for you to witness, experience, and interpret Flower as you like.

Each level follows the dreams of a different flower, all of which share the same window sill in a grey, dull, and industrial city... as you play each level, you realise that there's a message here, a message of hope, of innocence, of destruction, of rejuvenation, of peace, of war, of love and hate. 

It's difficult to say more about this game without actually spoiling it's surprises. All I can say is that for the brief 2 or so hours it lasted, I felt like I was reading the best story ever told, watching the most beautiful play ever made, and listening to the best music man has created. All wrapped up in the medium so many of us favour, the power of game.

This is gaming at it's finest, innovation at it's best. Flower, I salute you.

The Simpsons new intro sequence!

Now that my favourite, favourite, FAVOURITE TV/Cartoon/Comedy show ever is both HD and WS, they've upgraded their intro sequence!

The Simpsons Movie on Bluray does look gorgeous, so actually having regular episodes in HD is great too. Not sure when it'll turn up here though.

God of Phoooaaaaarrrrrrr!!

God Of War III info explosion today :)

New screen shots, new preview, and an epic, epic new trailer (longer than the one earlier this year), showing some Kratos lovin'....

Excited? SURE! Psyched? HELL YEAH!!

Let's hope it's out this year......

PS: The whole trailer is in-game engine... no prerendered bullshots :)

The Future Geriatricians!

Martyn, Dinesh, and sexy genius....

Mustafaboy

Haniboy has a new baby boy :)

They've called him Mustafa. We'll call him Mustafaboy...

That's sprog number two, the first being my second wife to be, Layan.

Fingers crossed, we'll soon be adding Adam Alsawaf to the clan ;)

The Scarf

Some of you might know this already, but I'm learning how to knit :)

I've always been fascinated by it since being a kid, watching my aunt knit away..... 

So, a few weeks ago I went to the knitting shop and bought some needles, some yarn, and books for beginners (not to mention the .pdf of "knitting for dummies")...

My second project (the first one is a basic thing for the baby) is a scarf for Kelly for Valentine's Day... and here it is in all it's glory :)

For the knitters among you, it's garter stitch, stocking stitch, and cable.

Invaders Must Die - The Prodigy

Promo album (11 tracks).

On the kitchen for those interested ;)

PS: having a listen now.... not sure yet... seems to be a return to old skool, which is good-ish, but can't really make my mind up.

Meet The Spy!

Not official though :p

New Left4Dead stuff!

New game mode. vs mode for the 2 other maps. Free SDK (exciting, since it lets people create campaigns that can be found via match making!).

It's great to see Valve looking after it's customers so well... and they're updating TF2 also, so they're not just forgetting one for the other. Good stuff!

More here.

Twitter bar

There's a new sidebar on Good Delicious. It follows my twitters.

Which reminds me, please guys, join twitter. It's a really really easy way of getting in touch, essentially just one line of 140 characters max.. that's it. No it's not like facebook, it's a lot simpler... just one line to say what you're up to.

It's great fun to see what people are doing, and to organise stuff (like jigjigs). Me and Anmar (the only 2 on the damn thing) did a jigjig via twitter yesterday.

Also, loads of famous people/companies/websites are on twitter, hence giving you an RSS-like feed. In fact, that's it, it's like RSS for your friends.

I've invited a couple of you already, but as for the others, please give it a shot... it'll keep us in touch more.

www.twitter.com

As part of my quest to read books relating to Videogames and their culture, I ordered a variety of books from Amazon the other day.

Below is a video of the coolest book cover EVER created. Seriously. Rogue Leaders is the story of Lucas Arts and how it came to be, and is a very big and colourful book with loads of concept art and never seen before snaps of our favourite games from Lucas.

The cover though, is something else. Geek porn if I've ever seen it.

More about Rogue Leaders (and the other books) later.

Bit.Trip: Beat

I'll let the video talk for itself. I'm a sucker for trippy music games, as you know :)

Wiiware exclusive, in case you were wondering.

Sound familiar?

virus-database.com says:

CLL.94

Details

CLL.947

It is not a dangerous memory resident parasitic virus. It hooks INT 10h, 21h and writes itself to the end of COM and EXE files that are executed. On any INT 10h call the virus writes zero to ports 200h, 220h, 240h, all, 2E0, on any INT 21h call the virus writes random data to ports 230h-233h and 250h-253h (disables soundblaster? Adaptec adapters?). The virus contains the text string:

Creative library link. Copyright(c) 1994 by Michael Carington.

Wrong actually.

It disables videoblaster cards. Not soundblaster.

I wonder why anyone would make such a thing. Could it be to get rid of the competition? Make sure that no one else has a cutting-edge videoblaster? Who knows. I guess we'll never find out.

Oh, and who's Michael Carington? Who'd think up such a name. And why would he be stupid enough to put his real name in a virus. Silly.

It's amazing CLL reached as far as it did really.

Valve goodness

The escapist magazine has a very interesting article called Storming The Fortress, where they talk to Valve about Team Fortress 2. The juicy tidbits are that there's a new Payload map coming (woop woop!), a new very different game mode (let's hope it's not an arena variation), and maybe a 10th class! Oh, and the next class update is the damned scout. Shit.

In other news, the amazing replica model of the amazing Portal gun pictured below was created for flickr user emilyskeith by her boyfriend. To quote Joystiq's report verbatim:

This replica Portal gun was created for Flickr user -- and soon-to-be Portal cosplayer -- emilyskeith by her boyfriend, and is clearly a triumph of prop making. In fact, we consider it a huge success.

We're sure it was hard for Emily to overstate her satisfaction with the finished replica, which features working orange and blue LEDs and was weathered to convey the idea that she wasn't the first Aperture Science subject to use it. To her boyfriend: you've ensured that her love for you will be still alive for years to come. Also, we want one.

Universe Computers and Consoles

As it stands now.....

Thanks to Mustafa for being crazy enough to go back to Iraq and taking this snap :)

Spot the Boomer!

This is the moment the survivors got overwhelmed by the infected.

Can you spot the boomer in the middle of all the mayhem?

PS: it was a vs match and we (the infected in this case) practically owned the other team.

(click to enlarge)

it's the smaller things

Remember a time when games didn't really have save points? They didn't need them really.

Games were short, but were a challenge to play. A challenge that you progressively got better at until you virtually finished the first stages without even thinking, or losing a life.

It was a simpler time. But also one that required a time commitment from the player. When you start playing a game, you play it with the intention to finish. Of course, the media wasn't as large or flexible to accommodate saving. Games were on tapes (saving could take minutes!), cartridges (expensive to produce), and very rarely floppy disks. It was more common to get a code to unlock the next level, rather than a save point. And we all had that time back then. We could all just load a game and just marathon play it until finished. Or at least try.

Games were designed with this limitation in mind. Imagine being able to save in R-Type, or Commando, or even Green Beret? If you could, you'd finish the game the day you buy it, and the thrill of playing would just disappear. There's nothing more thrilling than getting past that bit you're stuck on and move on a bit, just to hit a more challenging bit later on!

But then games started becoming more than games. They  started telling stories, involving us in their tales and making us connect with the characters. I challenge any gamer that says that they haven't been affected emotionally by a game. Whether you feel happy that the hero has done his deed, or sad at a death of a character, or even scared or nervous; games are involving us more than ever. Which is why we need save points now.

Imagine a book that you can't read unless you do it in one sitting. If you stop, you start from the beginning. You'll get bored of the repetition, you'll lose connection with the characters, and just not bother any more. Luckily the media we play games on now has evolved and we can save now. But, unlike a book, saving in games isn't like putting a bookmark, it depends on what the designer wants you to.

If the designer wants, they can let you save any time you like. The infamous F5 quick save hammering that we've all done when trying to complete a challenging level is borderline cheating. In fact, it is cheating. Or the designer can give us save points at calculated places. Some insanely distant and frustrating, some before key points in the game, and, the dreaded one, some after a pivotal moment where you can't go back and change your mind.

Saving is a smaller thing in games that is hugely overlooked. In the right hands, saving a game can be a very enjoyable experience, and one that adds to the game experience. See Full Spectrum Warrior for a great example of a save system that's integrated within the game world. In the wrong hands, saving becomes down right annoying. Lazily coded menus, odd interfaces that hinder the process, and long save times.

It can also be used to great effect to add (or remove) challenge from a game. The quick save mentioned above can significantly make a game easier (an odd example is FarCry 2. On the PC you can quick save, on consoles you can't - you have to find a safe house and sleep in it. The console idea is a lot more immersive), and checkpoints placed properly can make a game that more exciting. We've all played a game where you're fighting a tough section just to see (or hear) the checkpoint in the nick of time! It's a sensation of elation nothing else can mimic.

So here's to saving. The unsung hero of games these days. And here's to the developers that take the time and effort to think about their save points. To them, we salute you.

from heaven

I think last year was mostly a good year. Except for the incident with my dad's kidnap, which thankfully had a happy ending (figuratively), things last year were definitely for the better.

I finally managed to become MRCP, me and Kelly got married and also pregnant (final product ETA June 09), and I also managed to secure a 5 year training programme in Geriatric Medicine, the speciality I want to do as a consultant.

I went to Dubai twice, once in the blazing heat of August, and then with Kelly in the cool weather of December. I also saw my dad in Amman, and met up with some golden oldie friends (Blue Blood, Wolf, NBA), all of which I last saw 8 years ago!

The saddest news from last year was the tragic demise of a great Baghdad College friend called Harith Abdullah. He was killed in a car accident in Dubai, freakishly enough the same time me and Kelly were there. RIP Harith, you will be missed.

Last year was also the year that all hell broke loose when it came to video games, and gaming in general. There were so many megaton releases and essentials that I ended up owning most and playing none. I still haven't even put the Metal Gear Solid 4 disk in the PS3!

I also got to do more reading, both of fiction and graphic novels. A13 introduced me to graphic novels and the whole scanning scene, while my purchase of an iRex iLiad got me reading all sorts of novels again.

It was also the year when Clan Khara was born. 3 members strong (with no real hope of more coming), me, Blue Blood, and pyroMax form the team. Team Fortress 2 dominates our stats, but the 2008 release of Left4Dead has kept us busy too. We now have our own dedicated server hosted with multiplay. It's called The Toilet and is an 8 player Left4Dead server. Great stuff.

It'll be interesting to see how 2009 pans out. I hope it's a good one for everybody. I for one am learning how to knit for the baby (a scarf is my first project). I tell you, it's not easy!

Finally, without further ado, here's the games I clocked 2008

PC

Tomb Raider Underworld

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Call of Duty - World At War

Abe's Oddysee (no I didn't finish it 11 years ago!)

Shadowgrounds Survivor

Flipside

Clive Barker's Jericho

World Of Goo (my love for this is public. Get it people, get it!)

Dead Space (EA surprises us with an original IP that copies the best bits of killer games like GOW, BioShock, and RE4 to create an atmospheric, scary, and gripping space survival horror. Great stuff)

Psychonauts (this is the 2nd time I finish Tim Schafer's masterpiece of design, humour, and story telling)

Half-Life (how I missed this the first time I don't know. Neither does Blue Blood :p)

360

Gears of War 2

Mirror's Edge (more here)

Castle Crashers

Braid (Proof if anything that bedroom coding is alive and kicking. One of the most artistic and beautiful platformers/puzzlers to hit any machine, Braid tells the story of one man's fruitless mission to "find the princess". It is perfect in every manner, from the art style, to the music, to the time-bending puzzles, to the great ending, it just drips with style and elegance. And to think it comes from the brain of one man)

GTA IV

Rez HD (more here)

Ninja Gaiden II

PS3

Siren Blood Curse

Ninja Gaiden Sigma

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Ratchet and Clank: Quest For Booty

Wii

Super Mario Galaxy (All DAMNED 120 stars! There's a 121th star, but that's just OTT. SMG is Nintendo and Shigeru's finest moment, redefining 3D platforming just like the phenomenal Super Mario 64. Top stuff)

No More Heroes (Suda 51's spiritual follow up to the excellent Killer7. Taking videogame clichés and conventions to the max, and coming up with a weird and wonderful hack and slash 'em up that borrows from and makes fun of almost everything related to the world of gaming and gamers. As ONM put it, a video game lesson in 10 classes. NMH2 is officially coming too!)

Lost Winds

Zack and Wiki

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.