Blog In Progress

08:29: Bloody hell!! those damn courier people. You spend all day waiting for them and they never show up, but on a Saturday when you're fast asleep (was playing RE4 till late, GREAT game), and the damn buzzer goes rrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiinggggggggggggggggg. It's the courier man, with 6 boxes. Hauled them in (lucky I live in ground floor), and here they are on the floor


08:54: Surfing around on the net with powerbook in bed. That's a great thing of having a wireless laptop, freedom! Was gonna go to sleep but who can resist all this stuff lying around eh? gotta choose something to listen to while I do this. Oasis or Coldplay? both perhaps. I go make a strong coffee and dive in.


09:29: Just unpacked everything, and *nearly* broke the case! I've ordered too much shit, and there's so many packets to get rid of. Oh and that abit mobo pack KICKS ASS! if only it didn't have the picture of that guy on it that's good at games.


09:40: OMG! This mobo is awesome! it's got a front panel, tons of options, some kickass fans and other crap I haven't heard of. My fault for not upgrading the pc since 3 years :s


09:44: It's very reassuring to say the least, to know that your spanking new cpu comes packaged in recycled egg cartons. Maybe I should've stuck with intel.



09:57: OK Mobo half installed. I've mounted it in case and I'm trying to make sure I wire all those awkward wires you only find out about AFTER you've installed all the cards..... You know the feeling


10:23: I BET YOU I've installed those bloody usb header wires wrong! why don't they just charge us 50p more and put a damn connector. Gonna try to figure out this SLi thing now.

10:57: Ok, so I've finally managed to connect those huge geforces and I hope set them up for SLi properly. oof. Right, problem is, is my sound blaster gonna fit in there, beneath them beasts? I don't wanna end up using the mobo's default sound card do I...


11:18: Barely fits.......


12:00: Had a bit of an interruption from brother calling me moaning about his set of nights he just finished. Trying to squeezy my hard drives in (should've installed them BEFORE the geforces). I'm cut and bruised all over

12:28: OK. I think I've finished assembling everything inside the case. I had to dismantle the geforces to get to some connectors, but everything seems to be back in place now. Gonna wash my hands and hold my breath, here comes the power!!

12:37: IT'S ALIVE! yeap it seems to be breathing quietly in the corner, stuck with nothing to boot from though. I wonder if I should risk closing the case or installing windows first then closing it just in case... I think I might just install windows


13:09: Please enter your regional settings. Same old BS.

13:26: It's crashed.

13:45: OK I'm stuck offline with a half working pc. Problem is that the LAN driver is crashing windows. This 64bit xp isn't as cool as they say it is, especially that it needs new drivers (remember Win95/NT?!). Thank God I have a powerbook that's online

14:34: Found out a few problems: first, my boot drive is G: That sux. second, I've connected the 2 76gig raptors on different RAID controllers. Works but would be better if they're on the same. So I've taken out the 2nd geforce (cos it's the one blocking all the connectors), reconnected the hdds and disconnected the media disk reader (it had become c:). Reinstalling windows now. I'm hungry. Only had that cup of MARIO coffee earlier. I go fry eggs.

15:03: Time for a cup of TOM tea ;)


15:22: PC is online now! got the network sorted out, problem is that it thinks it's got one GPU instead of 2. Let's see...

15:45: Ok, not sure if I'm reading this right, but apparantely SLi is NOT supported on windows xp64bit. Hmm weird that, what's the use of providing a 64bit mobo with SLi but no O/S to support it. I really can't be arsed to install windows XP home edition now though, or maybe I will...

16:03: I might just install H/E. This xp64 business sucks, and problem is I went and paid for the damn thing! I should've read around the net before buying it. I'm sure it'll be useful in the near future when complete drivers are out for it. In the meantime, I wait for all my old files to copy from the old seagate to the new raptors... 55% through of 120gig........ I think I go play some Alien Hominid while this carries on.....

16:56: I think I've heard Coldplay's X&Y album a million times now. It's a great album though, and I think they should carry on with the same style, rather than "evolve". Couldn't get SLi to work on xp64 at all, so I install H/E now. Damn

17:12: wow! H/E already installed. Time to do drivers then see if this damn SLi thing works

17:38: well at least now the computer says it's ready for SLi! Just going to do a windows update and update all drivers to new, then maybe try out 3dmark2005, or the ever great doom3...

18:07: Right. XP H/E is up and running... sp2 is downloading now (it'll take ages), and everything seems to be stable enough for me to pop out to the gym. I hope to come back and find that it hasn't crashed. Until now it's been blazingly fast, not only cos I just fresh installed but I think the raptors know how to dish the data out.
Gym time....

20:50: Back from gym, computer has managed to install SP2 relatively event-free. I also did some shopping for a BBQ we're doing now. The weather is cool but who cares when the PC is so more important than the sun... Installing the last windows updates now, and the latest creative sbaudigy 2 drivers. After that I'm gonna do a default run of 3dmark05 and see what happens.

02:40: done with bbq, and pc managed to get 9000 points on 3dmark05 (is that good? I haven't got a clue). Disaster struck when the damn case fell off the table onto a 10 point extension lead! Has a big dent at the top now (not very visible), but it wouldn't let me close the side slides without a bit of DIY. All sorted now. Seems to be working as well. No time to check games now, I'm feeling really sleepy.

Omed

The other on-call doctor has just popped in. He didn't believe that this blog was mine, so he wanted his own entry. Go for it:

I'm tired... have to go to Peldon ward to see patients. Expect a cardiac arrest any second now.

See, boring isn't he! Aren't you glad you read my blog instead of his.

SoB at work over nights.

Malaena

Sigh oh sigh
I type this from work. It's 3:43am. I'm tired. Just been cursing the A&E doctor for lying to me over the phone and getting me to accept a case that really shouldn't be under medical care, but should be surgical. I'm too numb from nights to call him up now and kick up a stink.
I've still got one more punter to see, A Mr Alan something or another, that according to the A&E doctor, had "central crushing chest pain". Don't they all do....

But there's light at the end of this way too dark (and long) tunnel! In 5 hours time I'ld be finished from my week of nights, and to treat myself for passing mrcp1 and for finishing nights, I've just blown around £2500 on a MASSIVE PC Upgrade! I damn you internet, and credit cards, for making shopping so much easier, and spending too much money just a click away.
I've jumped ships I must admit. I bought an AMD 64 FX-55, an abit fatal1ty an8 sli, 2 xfx 6800ultra cards with sli, 2xrapt0r 74 gig hdds and 1x36gig, 4x1024mbyte of corsair dual rams, a dvd-r/+r/dual layer, a dvd-rom, a floppy/media reader, and I'm sure some more stuff that I can't remember. Oh and a case.
I'll post all about the upgrade when I get the stuff (this saturday I hope. Paying a extra bob to get the stuff quick) and I'll take some pics (ala wolf)

Now, I feel bad for spending so much.... i go cheer myself up with the patient... SIGH OH SIGH

Oh My God!

I was dreading tomorrow... it was the day my results for MRCP part 1 come out. I've tried this exam twice already, and it's a bitch to pass with success rates of 30%. I was wondering how I'd pull through tonight's shift, while wondering about the results, and I knew I wouldn't sleep tomorrow until the website would be updated with results. Damn pressure I tell's ya.
Anyhow, woke up today around 17:15, feeling sort-of refreshed. Turned my mobile on and I had received a voice message from a guy called George: "hi Ali, it's George. Look the results came out early today, and there is an Alsawaf on the list, not sure if it's you or not! can you check and call me back when you get this message". SHIT.
Now, I know for sure that there are only 3 registered doctor Alsawafs in the UK (there's a public list you can check on, you see). One was me, the other was my brother (a surgeon!) and the other was some guy who is also called Ali Alsawaf (same spelling!) and he works as a GP in, guess where, Colchester! (it's funny getting patients from him to me. from A Alsawaf to A Alsawaf). So it had to be on the website right? I quickly jumped out of bed and checked the site, sure enough, it said that an AFB Alsawaf had PASSED!!! NO WAAAAAAAAAAY!
Man am I relieved!! a damn mofo exam that is the bottle neck of MRCP, is no done and dusted. Thank goodness for that. If only I wasn't working tonight, I'd definitely be out jumping up and down the streets of britain!

The Way To Do It

Lately, I got the latest mame32fx (0.97) and with it the complete set of roms available (12gig of 5800+ roms). I found out that there were lots of new games that didn't work before, including the excellent raiden series. Anyhow, I realised that if I tilted my monitor 90 degrees, I could get a great view of vertical scrolling shmups... then I thought I need an arcade stick for all this. Already having an xbox one, I just bought a cheap xbox2usb convertor, and hey presto! I'm playing some great classics on a vertical monitor with an arcade controller. It really is great fun, and these games are really frantic and pump your adrenaline!
X-Arcade it ain't (I'm not paying 100 bucks for a joystick), but it sure beats keyboard/mouse.

And I go off to nights today, starting today 9pm. So I guess I'll be MIA till next week. Have fun everyone...
SoB

No way...

My oh my, what this world has come to.
20 years ago, playing games meant being a nerd that stayed home alot, hunched over either a D&D board, an adventure book, or infront of the telly all alone in your room, saving some pixel in distress from another pixel on the loose. Bliss. Those were the days of typing tons of code from a magazine just to have your mum pull the plug on the computer cos it was time for tea. It was the time when things were 2D, and alot more simple.
That's why I love retro gaming. I can play r-type again and again and again, but just can't replay any new games. Don't get me wrong, 3D rocks, the FPS is a great genre, and action adventures never looked any better. Doom 3 and Half Life 2 changed the world forever, but still, nothing beats jumping up and down a 2D hill with your favourite mascot, or running across a desert with a commando and his trusty machine gun.
Then ofcourse came PlayStation. Dragging us gamers out from the dens, screaming and kicking into the daylight (damn that sun!) and the whole public found us out! Not only were we playing, but so was every Tom, Dick, Harry and their wives/sisters/grandparents... Sigh
Why the rant then? Well, cos some clever person has taken the idea of retro gaming WAAAAAAY to far for my taste. I'll explain
Pacmanhattan is a real-life pacman game. Players dress up as either pac himself or one of the ghosts, and run around a block in Manhattan. Connected via WiFi, mobile, and GPS with their "controller", they update him where they are and he in turn updates a custom made pacman program. This way, pac eats all the dots while the ghosts try to hunt him down (the ghost controllers and pac's controllers see the same game screen). If pacman eats a power pellet, his controller gets to see where the ghosts are and pac has 2 minutes to go and "eat them".
I don't know about you, but I'm not sure whether this is good or bad for the image of gaming. It might be a cool and bold idea, but imagine watching weirdos dressed as videogame characters running around your local high street..... Have a look at the site, watch the videos and look at the pics, then make up your own mind.
As for me, I'm off to play some MAME games.

See ya when I next find a mad http again, G-D

PS: Play DanDaDan!

Dan Da Dan!

Ok, this I HAD to mention...
Another Japanese nutter freebie game, this one's actually really good fun.
Playing somewhat like a hybrid of Ikaruga meets Mr Driller, DanDaDan! at first looks is a basic shmup. But delve deeper and you'll find this game very unique and original. Controlling your ship, you cruise vertically and have only 1 primary weapon. Your enemies are mainly blocks of different colours, some of which shoot bullets either randomly or when destroyed... The genius bit is that when you destroy a block of a certain colour, any adjacent blocks of the same will be destroyed as well. This makes for some really clever puzzles and VERY frantic game play (if you're ever played any japanese shmup, from gemini wing, to radiant silver gun, and recently the excellent Ikaruga, you'll know what I mean!)
The game is very easy to get in to and has that crucial (just one more go) factor. Being free makes it even more of a delight!
Grab DanDaDan! from here and relive your childhood!
Keys are:
arrows: move ship
Z: primary fire. Hold Z to shoot a spinning disk that can go past indestructible blocks
X: Hyper (fires like a mad-man for a few seconds)

Enjoy this Good-Delicious-Game!

It Was Bulldozed in 1992

So we just had a long bank holiday weekend (ie Monday is a bank holiday, ie we don't work!). As the weather was cool I thought I'd take everyone to Windsor Safari Park. My memories of it as a kid were great, and everyone I asked here in Colchester thought it was a great idea.
The day before I was trying to plan the trip on my TomTom, and it couldn't find the park. So I thought I'd check their website and get the address from there. I googled "Windsor Safari Park" and I got http://www.windsorsafaripark.org.uk/ and I'm greated with the following message:

Come back to Windsor Safari Park in Berkshire just one more time. Although the park CLOSED in 1992, this site is dedicated to it's legendary animals!

yeap! the damn thing was bulldozed in 1992, and I'd been wanting to go there for the last 5 years. Why-oh-why didn't anyone tell me this before. So instead, I find Woburn Safari Park (alot more inferior I must add) and take everyone there. It was a great day out, but the best thing about it has to be in the picture :)

And so it's back to work tomorrow. Oh well, let's hope things aren't too bad. Patients tend to get sicker when left for 3 days in a row. I'm sure they'd be delighted to see their favourite doctor back in action, eh?

20q

I've been lounging around at home for the last 3 days. On Tuesday, I woke up with a rip-roaring sore throat (it must've been that guy that lives alone with his wife). As I had to do a 12 hour on-call, I went to our staffing co-ordinator an hour before duty and coughed and spluttered on her so she could get someone else to cover. It worked, and I've been home since. Yesterday was a shitty day, with lots of headaches and muscle aches etc etc. Today hasn't been too bad still, but feeling grotty now.
Anyhow, back to topic. firebox.com kindly send me a quaterly magazine with all their latest cool stuff, and something that caught my eye was a ball called 20q. It claims to find out what you're thinking of in 20 questions, and you could be thinking of ANYTHING. hmmm, BS I think.
A quick google 20q took me to www.20q.net an online version of the same. It turns out that 20q is an on-going and learning AI that has about 10 million neurosynapses (we have about 100 billion in our brain), that learns the more it's used. Interestingly, someone has shrunk it all into a small toy.
OK, so i gotta outsmart it. How about "WAR", it'll never get that. At question 18 the damn thing said "Are you thinking of a war?". OK, how about "light bulb". Again, round about 17 or 18 it guessed it right. Me and a friend spent nearly ALL of last night trying to outsmart the damn thing, and it just kept getting it right!
The only thing it can't get is specific places, things or people. Everything else it can. By asking simple questions like "is it bigger than a microwave", "will it break if it falls", "can you wash it" it'll effectively figure out 90% of things right (providing you give honest answers). The damn thing is simply amazing. I was even thinking of it and it guessed "Are you thinking of 20q.net?" I kid you not.

Here's an example of something that it guessed right in 20 questions. I won't tell you what I was thinking (answers in comments if you fancy), but it managed to guess it right using just the answers below...

19.Does it use numbers? No.
18.Does it make noise? No.
17.Would you find it in an office? Yes.
16.Is it usually visible? No.
15.Is it a synthetic material? No.
14.Is it straight? No.
13.Does it come in a box? No.
12.Can it be washed? No.
11.Do you hold it when you use it? No.
10.Is it something you bring along? No.
9.Can it fit in an envelope? No.
8.Does it contain a lot of water? No.
7.Is it found on a desk? No.
6.Is it square shaped? No.
5.Does it play music? No.
4.Is it smaller than a loaf of bread? Irrelevant.
3.Is it a common household object? Yes.
2.Does it help accomplish tasks? Yes.
1.It is classified as Other.

I've ordered the 20q ball (from amazon actually, sorry fireball) as it'll prove a good party game to just put on your tea table when someone pops in. Head over to 20q.net and experience it yourself (it even speaks a few more languages, eg German and Spanish!)
Oh, and before I forget. To cash in with the latest StarWars craze, Burgerking and Lucas have made an animated version of 20q. The Sith Sense is the same as 20q but with a very real animated Darth Vader doing the guessing, and playing his force mind games. Good for a laugh, but not as fast as the original site.

"Can you find it in an Church?"

LRTI ---> Sepsis

Ok, so I was on-call the other day. A middle aged man was refered with a nasty chest infection. The bug (and all it's toxic products) had made it's way into his blood, which made him quite hot and confused. I like to call this Lower Respiratory Tract Infection (LRTI) with secondary Sepsis.
So why do I mention this here? Our man was so confused that he gave me one of the funniest replies I've ever heard to a question before (not intentionally, he had no clue what he was saying)

ME: So, do you live alone?
PATIENT: Yes. I live alone with my wife!

:) made my day I tell you. I saw him yesterday and he was fine, so I reminded him of it. He didn't have a clue what he'd said, but worst of all he had no idea who I was. Oh well, goes to show that sometimes being a medic is a thankless job after all.

Over, and out.

Wait for Episode III, I can't....

A month ago, not more than that, and if you asked me what the Millenium Falcon was, or who killed Obi Wan Kinobe and I would've thought you were rambling mad.
It all started in the doctor's mess one day. I remember watching one of the Star Wars movies as a kid (Return of the Jedi I think), and I was trying to remember the events. I foolishly asked the doctors that were lazying around and was met with responses like *GASP!* YOU DON'T KNOW WHO HANS SOLO IS?!!! or YOU DIDN'T KNOW LUKE IS DARTH VADER'S SON??!!
And since every monkey under this sun knows all about Star Wars, I thought I'd see what the fuss was all about. I "acquired" the DVDs for all 5 released episodes, and watched them as they were relesed (ie 4,5,6,1,2). And I gotta admit, the Star Wars universe is brilliant! I like the badies most (who can resist Darth Vader's kickass presence), but all in all I'm happy I decided to watch them all, in preperation for Revenge of the Sith.
I think I disagree with the critics of episodes I and II. I really enjoyed I, and even though the guy that plays Anakin leaves alot to be desired, I still enjoyed episode II. Natalie Portman can be my senate any time, that girl rocks since the excellent Leon.
Oh, and isn't it shocking that Frank Oz (aka Miss Piggy, Fuzzy bear, etc) is Yoda!!
So, I can't wait to see Episode III. The trailers look great and it'd be cool to finally figure out how Anakin gets into the most famous mask in the world.
Finally, thought I'd end this post with 2 trivia facts about Star Wars
In Episode V (The Empire Strikes Back), the story starts with Luke being attacked by a snow monster (forgot it's name), and that slashes his face and scars him. That had to be put in the movie cos between episodes IV and V Mark Hamill had a car accident that scarred his face :)
And alot of the light sabre fighting scenes with Ewan McGregor in had to be redone, cos Ewan had the knack of making the sound fx himself (ie going woooo and wooooosh and so on) while they were filming, and this mucked up all the sound engineering. Can't blame him really....

Till later, when I'll finally blog about the excellent XBOX360, which I hope I can afford come X-mas.... the console war is beginning, and it's all for the better. I'll do them all justice in another entry.

May the force be with you.....

And you thought you knew how to play Tetris

didn't you?
everyone has played tetris. Whether they admit it or not, we've all had our moments with THE daddy of all modern age puzzlers.
But, we're note all Tetris Masters, like the guy in this video. Totally insane stuff, from some sort of tournament.
Fake or not, you decide... but pretty damn impressive!

Let's all rasterbate

Having a quick look around my flat (read dump), noticed that I'm missing a printer. Last one I owned (was also the first one I owned) was a cheapo canon that sucked big time. It broke and I just threw it away a long time ago. As it was the wireless age, I thought I'd get a network enabled printer. Went on froogle and typed "network printer". Alot of responses came back, but the HP deskjet 6840 from ebuyer caught my eye. Ordered that, and also 512meg of RAM for good old powerbook.. The printer is a good inkjet that has a few tricks up it's sleeve. It can autodetect paper quality (very useful), it can print borderless (even more useful if you're rasterbating. See later), can print double sided automatically, and finally is wireless 802.11g enabled, and it connected to sobnet in no time at all. I can now print from PC or MAC from anywhere within my HUGE flat ;)
Then it dawned upon me.... How about printing labels for all the *cough* backup *cough* CDs I have, especially DivX, XviD, (S)VCD, DVD-R etc. So off I go to PC world and get an Afterburner. Essentially, printer prints on special labels and the afterburner applies them flawlessly to the CD. After a few hiccups calibrating the printer to the labels, everything is now fine and the majority of my backups look nearly original. Funny that, as I've lost most of the originals I backed them up from... Those of you that backup like me and have yet to witness the wonders of self-labelling, do give it a spin, you'll be amazed at how fun it all is, and looking at the cds with labels is quite satisfying.
Not been doing much gaming lately... I've got SO MANY games I really have to do that I've just given up. Till now I've only clocked Doom III Resurrection of Evil, and that's it! I am though having a good time playing a great PSP game called Mercury. Created by the ever-amazing Archer Maclean (old timers, remember things like dropzone, IK+ etc), the game follows the Super Monkey Ball formula of tilting the world to move a blob of mercury, around a series of difficult mazes/tasks/etc. It's a great great game, with lots of clever gameplay. Some levels involve races against the clock, others involve strategic puzzle solving, while others require you to finish the level with a minimum percentage of mercury left (it falls off the level you see, if you're not careful), and combo levels are the most devilish, combining all the above. The gfx are great and the physics are as true as you'd imagine a blob of mercury would do. Great stuff and well worth everyone's pennies.
As I said before, watch SIN CITY. Also, while I'm on that note, do yourselves a favour and instead of reading this boring blog, get a copy of Kung Fu Hustle (thanks INDIA for the tip!). A great Chinese comedy about some very unlikely kung fu masters. Nothing special here in terms of direction etc, but a great movie with slapstick comedy and great fights to boot. Don't expect another Crouching Tiger, but more of a better Jackie Chan. Definitely worth the watch!
The Rasterbator is most probably the coolest website to grace the net in a long while. I'm surprised I haven't mentioned this before, as I've known about it before G-D was even born! In essence, pick a cool picture you have, upload it to the rasterbator and watch it turn into a work of art! The image is converted into custom-sized posters (printed on A4 pages) while being stylised into large dots. It's a bit difficult to explain without seeing examples, and there are some great ones on the page. The possibilities with it are endless. After getting deskjet (remember? from this same blog a long time ago.... it's amazing you're still around!) I decided to revisit the rasterbator and create my own piece of art. I found a cool picture of superman and rasterbated it on to 16 pages of photo paper (from the era of crappy canon). The result was so good I actually went and bought 2 frames and framed it all lovingly. It's now hanging proudly on my living room wall.

Go visit the site and come up with your own funky ideas. It'd be cool to see what you guys come up with.
Finally, decided to get a new set of headphones yet again. Remember a while back I mentioned the Seinnheiser PX100. A great piece of kit that lacks one thing: sound isolation. Now to achieve that publicly means either wearing some big-ass motha fucka headphones that only people with large 'fros or shaggy hear wear, or getting some in-ear phones. Looking already like a retired pimp, I went for the latter. Shure e2c is what I decided to go for, after researching the massive head-fi.org. Looking more like hearing-aids than anything fun, I bought mine from the apple shop in London. As it was a weekend Oxford Street was perhaps the busiest place in Europe. With cars, people and other wonderful noises around, I unpacked my e2c nervously and wore them as the manual explained (yes you do need to read the manual about how to put them in, and with 6 sizes of pads to choose from, it's not an easy task at first!). Lucky for me I've been taught how to stick things into people's ears succesfully, so I gave myself a taste of my own medicine (terrible cliché!).

Withouth the ipod on, it felt exactly like sticking your little finger in your ears. I turned on the pod and shuffled the tracks to see what would randomly come out. As the first mysterious song loaded, I walked out of the shop into the raging street. The sound of life around me was loud enough to reach me even with these foreign bodies in my ears. And then she sang! Alanis Morissette was singing JUST FOR ME. In a private session, complete with band and all, but me and only me there. Her voice more beautiful than I'd ever heard it before! She was telling about all she really wants, and I could hear every darn syllable, every breath of emotion, every little noise coming from her band! I was literally walking down the street dumbstruck. I couldn't hear a single thing from the monster outside, and it was only me and Alanis. A quick hit of next-track and along came Jarre, with his Bells. Not a favourite track but one that greatly showed me that even after all these years of Jarre fandom, I haven't really heard his music as he made it in the studio! The details in his music were amazing, and I'm sure I heard at least 2 new instruments I hadn't heard before in the same track!
And thus my journey to audio nirvana was getting shorter. If you like music, and if you really want to hear your tracks properly, get shure e2c. Even better, if you like to listen on the move then these babies are ESSENTIAL. problem is, they'll set you back around £70 = €105 = $133. Well worth it if you ask me, but I'd say that cos I just blew so much dosh on such a small thing!

Time to sleep now I guess. It's 01:35 now, meaning it took me 40 minutes to type all this crap. Amazing really, I'm sure a monkey with a typewriter could've come up with better stuff alot quicker.
SoB from Good-delicious HQ2

... Leave Me Breathless

The Corrs sang that line, and now I do.
There are 2 words that EVERYONE has to know about.
SIN CITY
I've just finished watching one of the most amazing movies ever made!
Imagine Kill Bill meets Pulp Fiction meets The Matrix meets Max Payne meets Comic books and you'll only be half way there.
Based on the Frank Miller comics of the same name, the movie follows 3 main stories involving 3 main characters, all narated by the main themselves. Not only is it beautifully film noire (with a few colours chucked in) but it's beautifully done. Direction, style, elegance, violence, acting, and just all in all a brilliant film!
I can't remember when was the last time I ranted so much about a movie (maybe house of flying daggers) but I can't stress strong enough for you people to GO SEE SIN CITY. NOW. THAT'S AN ORDER. DOCTOR'S ORDER.

Tiger

I'm officially back
not blogged for ages now, main reason was work :(
just out of the hellish week-of-nights, each night was busier than the one before. The cream on the cake? 6am on the very last night, 68 year old lady with a heart attack. Needed the full works (takes around 2 hours). Oh well, at least she's still alive (as far as I know...)
Tiger? yup. The new Mac OS X (that's read Oh Ess Ten) version 10.4 to be exact. It's added alot of new features to the system (including an excellent search system called spotlight, and a "dashboard" that has lots of useful "widgets")
But who cares about all those things. THE coolest thing has to be the iTunes Album Art screensaver, which gets all the album art you have and turn them into a very stylish display. It's absolutely stunning....
One more thing tiger did was turn good-delicious into an RSS feed! totally cool, I can now read my own news as RSS!
More to come from the house of SoB. Till then, be hyptonised by the snap below

Nonsense Poem

Nonsense verse is a form of poetry, composed for humorous effect, which is intentionally and overtly paradoxical, silly, witty, whimsical or just plain strange. (from wikipedia)
Why you ask, do I mention this late on a Sunday night?
well cos I just read one of the funniest (and cleverest) nonsense poems! not that I read literature, but I tend to browse around wikipedia alot (come on, everyone does it! just pick a random topic, read about it on wiki and then follow the links around various other topics! and NO I'm not a geek :p) and I stumbled on this great nonsense:

One fine day in the middle of the night,

Two dead boys got up to fight.

Back-to-back they faced each other,

Drew their swords and shot each other.

A deaf policeman heard the noise,

And rushed to save the two dead boys.

A paralyzed donkey walking by,

Kicked the copper in the eye,

Sent him through a rubber wall,

Into a dry ditch and drowned them all.

(If you don't believe this lie is true,

Ask the blind man -- he saw it too!)

Amu Ali

That's 7 days I've been offline!
yup, was in London doing a PASTEST course for MRCP-1 (AGAIN!!), very useful stuff, I feel a better doctor already :p
anyhow, over there I cancelled my 2mbit adsl and went for the big 8! yup, that's 8mbit of bit heaven (for the same price as the 2mbit one! my contract was old and overpriced!). The line still isn't active and hence I haven't been online till today, where I'm back in good old Colchester.
Lots of news to write about, I'll post later in a longish entry. But the important thing is that my bro's wife and kids are here now! They arrived on Sunday and are still trying to figure out which way to look when crossing the road.
Here's a picture of my 2 (yeah there was one when I left, but he must have duplicated!) nephews, Mohammed Hassan (The big guy) and Abraham.

Transparent wallpapers

It's amazing no one thought of this LONG before.
The idea is simple, take a picture of anything at a certain angle, set it as your laptops wallpaper, then take a picture of the laptop in that same angle! Not sure what I'm talking about? take a look at the picture below and you'll get it!
For more creative pictures like that one (all mac though), head over here.
I'll try to make my own one day. It seems it's a craze that's catching on!

Micro$oft, Microsucks, windoze, gaydows... ad nauseum

Since deciding to "Think Different" and buy an apple powerbook, I've been regularly exposed to LOTS of anti-microsoft attitude, by virtue of nearly any apple site/forum I visit (even the official apple site hints of it sometimes!).
In the beginning, it was fun to read the microsoft/gates/windows/pc (which nowadays doesn't mean Personal Computer, it means a Windows based IBM compatible!) jokes and remarks. But there is a limit, and in the end it all becomes very fanboyish/zealot stuff that isn't funny any more.
Sure apple make great computers, sure their OS-X is way better than windows XP, and sure it's alot more stable, but let's not forget the impact microsoft had on the pc world. Windows XP is a fine product, one that made using a computer fun and productive. And ofcourse Office is fun to work with as well. Oh, and try to get any good games on OS-X. You will but about 2 years after the windows version was out :)
Point is, I own both apple and pc, and I enjoy working with them both. They integrate well (hell, they both share files over my home lan), and each has it's pros/cons. Oh and windows has winamp, the BEST software ever written by humans. EVER.
But, before signing off to an oblivion of 5x12 hour shifts (Thursday thru to Monday inclusive!), there is one anti-microsoft joke that I found so funny I have to share it: Introducing the all-new Microsoft Vacuume. The only Microsoft product that doesn't suck!

Russian Roulette... for children

I kid you not.
Another crazy japanese idea, the kaba-kick is a russian roulette game for kids, where the loser gets shot with fake hippo bullets, and the winner stays "alive".
Not sure if this really is selling in japanese toy shops, but the idea is scary.

And on that notion, here's a small tribute to Bud Dwyer, the Pensillvanian polititian that, after being charged with corruption and bribery, called a press conference and shot himself in the head on live TV (the video is all over the net. Try google :p).
Here's to Bud, and a shot of his very last second in life.

The Latest SoB

Me

"Needs to be Blue-Lighted to London Chest"

Picture this: Friday morning, around 10:30am. I'm doing a ward round with the ever-faithful house officer. One of the new patients on the ward (codename FM) had had a heart attack the morning before. She'd been given the magic clot-buster drugs and was doing well. After saying hello to her and making sure she's ok, she mentions that she's got a bit of shoulder pain, radiating up to her neck. *SHIT* I ask for an ECG (heart tracing), and the nurse gives me one she'd done at around 9:30am, but just clipped it on the routine jobs thingie. Looking at the ECG, it's evident that FM is in the process of having ANOTHER heart attack as we speak!
Giving her a bit of morphine, I ask for another ECG. guess what? the attack is extending more and more into what's left of her heart muscle! *SHIT*
I gather all her papers and tracings and trot down to the cardiology (read: heart specialist) registrar, who happened to be conveniently on-call that day. She had one look at them and said "needs to be Blue-Lighted to London Chest. I'll come up". She came up and wrote up some fancy heart-doctor-only drugs, and spoke to her equivalent at The London Chest Hospital.
Soon after she had left, FM's blood pressure decided to dip down to 70mmhg systolic (anything less than 100mmhg is scary) *SHIT* calming her (and myself!) down, I tilted her bed head down and gave her some fluids in the vein. This helped up her blood pressure to 90mmhg. ACCEPTABLE.
The ambulance crew finally arrived, and me, a nurse, and 2 technicians took FM down to the vehicle. With use we had a plethora of pumps/monitors/adaptors/drugs and all that. They wheeled FM into the ambulance and then me and the nurse hopped in to sit sideways throughout the 50 mile journey. Soon after departing, our driver did what we were all looking forward to, he turned on The Blue Light. With lights flashing and sirens whistling, everyone got out of our way and we got there in record time. It was a rattly experience with everything jumping up and down, but an exciting one nontheless!
FM was a bit unwell in the last bit of the journey, she had more chest tightness and needed more pain relief (not surprising, her heart was half-dead already!). We got to London chest and took her up to CCU, where bed 5 was ready. The registrar there wasn't a pleasant one, I think that being faced with a sick person with half a dead heart at 4:30pm would make anyone grumpy.
We bought some ice creams (it was warm!) there and drove back home (no blue light, I pretended to have chest pain in the ambulance but they wouldn't buy it!). We reached Colchester at around 6:30pm, long after work had finished.
It had been an exciting day. Blue-lighting someone to London Chest was more fun than I thought, if it wasn't for the fact that there was a very ill patient with me, and a nurse that was sick throughout the journey!

Oh, and PLEASE don't smoke. PLEASE. This woman smoked 15/day, and she's just one of alot of people I see who end up like that. Don't say you weren't warned. Not everywhere has blue-lights to london chest.....

Is your microwave internet enabled?

got an email today, with the above subject
it was from ebuyer.com, a reputable (and cheap!) internet only pc shop, so it couldn't be spam.
clicking it took me here. Not sure whether this is way cool or way sad. You decide.
Next episode: online health check: wee on your keyboard and a website analyses it for you :)

Shi Mian Mai Fu

Or, as the western world knows it, House Of Flying Daggers.
I've seen it. More than once. Alot. I bought the sound-track. I cannot emphasise to you how important this movie is, for the whole movie industry, and for anyone who even remotely likes watching a good movie.
A beautiful story of love and revenge in feudal China, this film ups the ante that the classic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon created, and puts it at Godly heights.
The scenes, the wonderful colours, the martial arts, the story, the EXCELLENT music and the clever story that forces you to decide who's side you're on just make this movie an experience no one should miss.
This is one film that should not be criminally over-looked. If you even think you like movies, go and grab this one. Be captivated at what cinema can produce outside of Hollywood. 6 out of 5 SOBSTARS.

You Gotta Love The Japs

Cos they're just weird but also VERY creative!
Some mad (but obviously clever) japs decided to make a flash-game 2D beat 'em up, based on the mascots of japan's biggest bulletin board (2CH AKA The Ni Channel).
What's so cool about that then? well the fact that everything is ASCII! All the characters and they're moves are done in ASCII (but flash animated) and it has the depth of any street fighter game. Point your browsers here and go kick some japanese ascii ass :)

ps: the menus are jap, but just chose the first option, then you can choose (in this order) Battle, Free Battle, Vs Battle, Training and Options.

DO.... THIS..... NOW......

1\ Install shockwave (from here)
2\ Go to THIS website
3\ Once you're out of shock/coma/disbelief and have stopped playing,
4\ tell me how cool I am here

Sunday Morning I'm Waking Up

Can't even focus on a coffee cup,
Don't even know who's bed I'm in,
Where do I start? Where do I begin?

(small tribute to the chems there)
I have the runs. It attacked me last night after listening to a friend and going to Pizza Hut. I hate Pizza Hut. They suck. Since last night around 11 I've been on the loo at least 5 times, many of which were during the wee hours of the morning. I'm actually typing this while on the loo (oh the benefits of having a laptop eh?)
Talking of laptops, I have totally gotten used to my apple powerbook. The system is awesome, stable, and very very nice to use. Recommended to anyone. Gets 5/5 SOBSTARS :p

Quite recently, I typed "bastards" in google, to see what the first site came up as. To my surprise it directed me to some big corporation in the states! This has now been corrected (shame), but at the time it was quite a shock. Next time you're bored type something rude in google and you never know, it might even point you to here :)

Moby has released his new album (Hotel), which includes the advance single (Lift Me Up). I've been listening to this album nearly nonstop since it's been out, and all I can say is WOW! The album follows true Moby style, but this time misses out on his soul-diva lead singer and uses alot of his faint, haunting vocals instead. The music is just as we're used to from Moby, ie his well perfected style of gospel meets rock meets electronic. The album is alot mellower than his all-time classic Play, and is closer to the great follow-up 18. If you've never heard Moby before I say get Play, if you don't like that don't bother with the rest. Or if you're feeling adventerous, grab one of his old techno albums (Everything is Wrong comes to mind) and feel the beat. Anyhow, a great start to 2005 and again this gets 5/5 SOBSTARS

Finally, my beloved alsation died recently (aged 12) :( he's was still in Baghdad, and I had realised recently that he was unwell. My relatives decided not to tell me the day he died, but I found out eventually. I wish I was there with the poor soul while he passed away, but I guess all things come to an end. I do miss him more now that he's gone (he would bark like mad every time I called home!), and hope he's somewhere in doggy-heaven.

RIP Antar.

Total Immersion

I just CANNOT DESCRIBE how KICK ASS this technology is.
If you're even remotely interested in computers, you HAVE TO watch this video.

Now imagine how this can change the face of computer use forever. Let's hope it gets implemented cheap one day.

Empire of the Sun

Just noticed it's been 7 (seven, VII, V (in arabic :p)) days since I updated G-D. Yes, I have no new news since then (sad I agree).
Just finished watching Empire of the Sun. Now I urge anyone who hasn't seen this movie to go and get it NOW. It's a brilliant story of a british boy lost in China when the japs invaded it in WWII. Not only is it beautifully told, but it also shows you the torments of trying to survive in a war-torn country without parents or anyone to guide you.
Of course, being A Spielberg film does help :)

Live-shot h4x0r3d!

he he remember a while back I commented on a sad (and sick) site called Live Shot that let you kill real animals over the web? well it's now been hacked by "B4d-Byt3" and "swift" :D obviously linux fans (see for yourself). Serves them right for letting people kill real animals over the web.

Audigy 2 ZS

I only did this cos my old speakers broke. Seriously.
A long time ago (in a galaxy just here), my good old (and bloody expensive) inspire digital 5700 speakers (creative) decided to pack in. The decoder would suddenly stop outputting to a random channel. I spoke to creative and instead of repairing it, they sent me a whole new set of speakers! Being me, I decided to set those up in the living room (with the xbox/gamecube/dvd) and leave the broken set with the pc. Cheap I know....
Anyhow, finally the broken set starting getting on my tits. Random channels were turning off more than ever, and it was getting very annoying. I decided to invest in a medium-priced set of speakers. After extensive (well a few minutes) research I decided on creative's inspire t7900 which are a set of 7.1 analogue speakers that do not feature a decoder (just adding a decoder costs loads, and since they're only for the pc which can do it's own decoding, it'd be useless to buy one). To make things complete I invested in a soundblaster audigy 2 ZS (big creative fan here!). To be honest with you, there's absolutely NO DIFFERENCE in terms of sound quality or anything! Half life 2 pretends to support 7.1 but decides to ignore the side speakers, while anything 5.1 has it's rear speakers duplicated on the side ones. I have yet to find anything that truely supports 7.1
But there you go, as you've noticed recently I've gone berserk shopping wise (apple powerbook, ipod, psp, nintendo ds, speakers, sound blaster) but this only happens once in a while then I'll go numb again. Oh and I don't really have a life so I might as well waste it in front of this sweet radiation :)

Good Delicious and all that!

Alcohol

not sure how I'm typing this. or why.
I feel numb. finished nights today, no more working shitty hours!
Decided to get drunk the arab way (never gotten drunk before, but I sure am now!), ie get 3 friends, lots of food (mostly turkish kebabs), and 24 bottles of budweiser, 1 bottle of bailey's and a bottle of white wine.
The result? I am DEFINITELY drunk.... had at least 6 bottles of bear, glass of wine and glass of bailey's (damn irish cream, too good). Been laughing for no reason the last 2 hours, everything seems funny, even this boring blog entry.
got to sleep, already hung over from working nights, and now drunk. tomorrow is gonna be a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaddd day.
G-D y'all

Ambitious!

Yeap, that's what I was when I posted The First Night days ago.
I thought I could keep it up, and every day, before going to work, telling everyone about my adventures at work in the unholy hours of night. Problem is, I've been so busy and tired of it all that I couldn't even update G-D. Sigh.
I am STILL alive, and I got 2 more nights to go. Will it ever end?

The First Night

Just woke up. Came back home around 9:00, fell asleep somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00. My first night shift was what Doom had always told us, HELL ON EARTH!
I walked in to our EAU (Emergency Assessment Unit) only to be greated by the surgical SHO that was just going home saying "Hi Ali. Welcome to hell!". "Is it that bad?" I ask, he just nods and shuffles away.
I went in to the main triage area and saw lots of worried looking patients, many flustered looking nurses, and lots of doctors faffing around. To my delight, the person handing over to me still had 5 patients on their list that they hadn't seen! The house officer decided to leave at EXACTLY 9pm, while the day SHO was so slow all she had seen that day was 5 patients out of around 20 (the 2nd SHO on-call had to do all the work, so he had left by the time I got there as well).
With no other option than to put my head down and start ploughing through this field of disease, I started seeing the patients, one by one as Enya sweetly sings.
Throughout the course of the night I had a total 0f 15 patients, in other words I didn't even have time to scratch my ass, let alone think about the clever way to treat these people! I wonder how many wrongs I've done, and how many poor souls in that hospital have been harmed by my insane mind last night.
Here's a thank you to everyone who braved taking anything I prescribed last night. Hope you're still around to read this some day :)
Till tomorrow evening then, I leave you lucky people to enjoy your normal lives.

Tang!!!

Man oh man! I can't explain how I feel now! As Marjorie put it in Little Britain: "MAN I LOVE DE CAKE!!". In my case it's "MAN I LOVE DE TANG!!"
Let me elaborate. A few days ago a good friend of mine went to London. When he came back he said my mum had sent me something with him. It was a jar of Orange Flavoured Tang!! This EXCELLENTLY DELICIOUS powder squash is something I haven't had since being in Baghdad, 5 years ago! For some weird reason it just doesn't exist in the regular shops here, and my mum had found it in some remote arab shop somewhere. Oh the bliss of mixing 4 teaspoons to make one cup, the sweet/sour taste of it all makes me all nostalgic.
I surprised a few friends of mine, both arab and others that had lived/worked in arab countries, and they were all jumping up and down like me :)

Sad I know, but again I moan about nights. Trying to stay awake as much as I can makes me talk about silly things, like how Tang has made my day. Get me a life please........

Swing Shift

Another pretty word for the darn fucked up thing called "nights". Tomorrow I start a 7 day slog of these so called swing shifts, ie working from 9pm till 9am. As I'm the poor soul looking after nearly 200 medical patients + all new acute admissions that night, it's a tough job. Very tough. The first night is shit cos you're still thinking you should be asleep at 3am rather than jumping up and down some poor nanny's chest. That's fun for ya.
Got my PSP, this thing rocks! playing the excellent lumines (well it's made by Rez creator, so that's not a bad thing) and ofcourse ridge racers. But still I'm loving my DS more, the great yoshi catch and go is so cool, and this touch/shout/blow at the screen feature of the DS makes it all so good to play with.
Life is good after all. Nights are here though so not posting for a while.......

The long entry

It's late here. Very late. 2:20 am, Sunday is looming in and of course the vision of working again on Monday really isn't very inspiring. Freddy Mercury is telling me all about his "One Vision", and I'm typing this on my bed in London while hoping that the damn linksys doesn't drop the wireless signal again (decided to give my crappy linksys to mum, so I can use wireless net when I visit. It does the job but stalls alot).

Lots of things been happening in my life, but of course Good Delicious is the one the last to know. Gotta make sure I update this place more often.....

First off, my bro comes back from Jordan tomorrow. Hope he's managed to get me TONS of turmus (some funky mouth filler that only they seem to have), and also the obligatory baqlawa etc etc that every visitor to an Arab country has to get.

Went down to the Apple shop today in Regent Street (Great big place with lots of cool stuff). Wanted to get a case for my iPod (couldn't find anything nice and it was way too crowded). But i did manage to get my hands on replacement headphones for the crappy default ones (sure they look sexy but they just don't do the job right). The Sennheiser PX100 are a cool set of neo-retro headphones that finally do all that digital music some justice. My only gripe with them is that they're not as loud as the in-ear ones and also as they're not goofily big (ie DJ big), they don't isolate the outside world as much as I'd like. Still, these are minor things and I would highly recommend them to anyone wanting a replacement to the cheap stuff they give us in the box.

As I was allergic to money today, I decided to listen to those voices in my head and give in. The result? Well I placed an order at lik-sang.com for the potentially excellent Sony PSP. Yes, I know I've always hated anything PSX related, but this damn fine piece of electric wizardry is too good to miss out on. As it's coming from Hong Kong I hope it'll be here mid/late next week. More on it once I get my hands on it.

Earlier today (well, technically yesterday), I received an email from an old friend called "something to laugh about". As she's never sent me any mass emails before, I thought it might be interesting. It contained a link to this video, of the hilarious aussies, The Umbilical Brothers. 2 VERY talented people (one's a ventriloquist, the other's an acrobat. Both are psychic!), who had a sold out tour on Broadway called Thwak! To my delight I found out that they're touring London now, and am going to see them tomorrow (well, today technically) at London's Peacock Theater. Make sure you check the video for some great laughs!

Finally, just a random website I stumbled upon the other day. Live Shot is something only the Yanks would cook up. A crazy idea to say the least! Some "clever" guy who owns a hunting ground in texas decided to setup internet hunting! By paying a subscription, cyber hunters can access a range of computers around the hunting ground and look around with HD cams and then with a click of a button, SHOOT LIVE AMMO! Yes, that's right anyone can just start shooting about! The project is still incomplete and all you can do now is shoot at cardboard targets, but they hope to change that very soon with real game involved!
It really is scary this. The fact that some kid thousands of miles away can shoot at some poor boar is just mind blowing. What if another "real" hunter is killed? who is to blame? As the media loves to blame any death tragedy on video games (columbine anyone?), I wonder if they'll let this website loose for the whole world to shoot about on. Please no.......

Lemon jelly - 64-95

At last. I type this way too late for bedtime with my trusty iPod delivering me the latest creation from those clever people at Lemon Jelly.
Their latest album is called 64-95, and is a homeage to the different musical styles between those years. The duo have taken some famous (and not so famous) samples from various songs throughout the years and mixed them with their well-known catchy beats/guitars/bass, thus making a great album for anyone familiar to Lemon Jelly. It's also a great place to start if you haven't heard any of their previous 2 albums.
Worth mentioning is that there are a few tracks that are a bit distant from the usual style. Of note is the openning track which features some heavy electric guitars and has a more of a rock feel to it. Great track still!
It's not chill out music as they're frequently labelled. This is calm, fun to listen to music that's great for any occasion, any where and any time.

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

MMX ad

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....

5 out of 7 ain't bad

As meatloaf put it, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Ofcourse he was talking about girls, in my case I talk about the number of nights I've finished. That leaves me with 2 (tonight and tomorrow) and man I just can't wait for this weekend and new year!
This morning at around 6 I thought I'd manage to rest after working nonstop from 9pm the evening before, but then all that went down the drain when a very ill person came in to A&E, requiring two and a half hours of resuscitation and stuff. *sigh*
Hope everyone out there is OK. Sorry G-D is becoming dull, but real life sometimes takes it's toll on the much more superior virtual life.

Peace

So THAT'S what it is!

Man... woke up today around 17:30, got up to a TON of dishes that needed washing. Did that, then took the TON of rubbish out to the skip at last. Finally thought it would be good to have some "ASDA american fried chicken and chips", which needed 1/2 an hour in the oven.
Opened the oven and what do I find there? a TWO MONTH OLD half lasagne that was in a WELL ADVANCED decomposition stage!
The whiff was overwhelming! the whole flat instantly stank of rot, the oven was rendered invalid for at least a week, and I'm currently typing this with my eyes watering cos of the damn pong!
The funny thing is, for a few weeks every now and then I would smell something rotting in the flat but had no clue what it was. I looked all over the place for dropped pizza/dead rodents etc but still nothing! I just gave up on it and thought it was just me. But there you have it, that smell was non other than lasagne ala fungus.

Now I wonder if I can stomach the roast dinner I just microwaved... here's hoping!

Not-So-Good-Delicious!

Hi! It's you! GO AWAY

Not really sure why the title of this post is at it is. Any gamer worth their salt should recognise the quote from the cult classic, the Neverhood.
Anyhow, just wanted to update good delicious briefly. First and foremost a big MERRY XMAS to everyone out there. Hope things are much better next x-mas :)
I'm lucky enough to be working 7 nights (started yesterday, finishes new year's eve!), so my rhythm is going to be all topsy turvy until next year!
The mac is ok, the more I use it the more I realise how I was foolish in the past not to get my hands on one earlier. The system is absolutely gorgeous, and it's just how a computer should be.
And I guess that's it. There's a lot of gaming news and other stuff that I really should be putting here, but it's getting late now (20:40) and work starts at 21:00....

Merry X-mas y'all.

I know, I know, but this really made me laugh. Courtesy of the EXCELLENT little britain show

Trying to run a conversation and download something, ie CONFUSED!

You're NOT going to believe this

OK OK, sit down and be calm. Relax and take a deep breath.
I'm currently posting this from my new laptop! What's so shocking about that I hear you say? Well, this laptop happens to be a Powerbook 17". Which is, erm, ahem, made by.... APPLE!
Yes, your eyes don't fool you, the SoB has switched platfoms (well my main PC is still IBM + Windows)! To be honest, I'm still getting used to Mac OS X. It feels great to work with and literally drips with the style apple are really famous for. But being a windows whore for the last 9 years makes it a bit difficult to get used to something else. Add to that the fact that macs don't have a right mouse button, and we've got a problem Houston.
But still, the laptop itself is a piece of beauty. It's very light weight (about 3kg) and thin, with a big 17" screen and a slot loading (aka no tray) DVD burner superdrive. It also has MAC OS X (Panther) with the iLIFE suite installed.
A great thing about the system is that it's based on *nix so very stable and no viruses. Also, it sets itself up to be compatible with your existing network (in my case it seamlessly connected to my windows wireless network hassle free, and can read shared files from windows pc, and ofcourse use wireless internet).
For the time being, I'm happy. Let's see what happens in a week or so once I've calmed down :)

Till then, Good-mac-delicious!

It's here!

After going through some sort of madness and actually cancelling my pre-order for the nintendo ds, I actually managed to get my hands on one of these beauties (I had to ask a friend going to malasia to get me one and she had a rough time getting her hands on one cos they were all selling out!)
Anyhow, this shit is hot!! it's got dual screens and touchscreen, plus some really cool processors that can juggle around 3d images (it's like a portable n64 I guess!)

all in all a great system, I'll come back later with more details!

sob

NDS

Fanboy? NO!

Seems like it's been a while since I've updated good delicious. Life takes it's toll sometimes and work is getting too busy these days! oh and ofcourse there's the small matter of the life absorbing games recently out (half life 2 anyone? Metroid Prime Echoes, Paper Mario, Prince of Persia 2) Man I just don't know what to do next :)
In other news, I just found a video that would put a smile on anyone that knows who mario is (everyone!). Some japanese nut (fanboy!) has replicated the mario theme AND sound effects on an electronic guitar! It's brilliant stuff, and no explanation will do this video justice.
Point your browsers over to http://media.ebaumsworld.com/index.php?e=marioguitar.wmv and be amazed!
Till later y'all.