Non

So, the whole of Europe is waiting for the French vote to determine their own futures. Eyes of the world peer at the French and their world view.
By voting yes as the rest of Europe wants, we move on, all is well in the world, democracy, viva la france, viva la revolution.
The French are a noble peoples, their vote for international unification can surely be counted on, right? yes? right?

slight problem

If there's anything you can count of the French, it's to do the opposite of what the rest of the world wants.

Quite funny that people never expected this, do they not watch telly/read newspapers/listen to the radio?

The wonders of Skype

I know there might not be much need for this if you're all around and wotnot, but I just can't get over how cool this Skype thingy is. Been using it personally to call back dirt cheap, and it works well. Got my work buddies into it and it's pretty good for freebie conferencing seeing as we're scattered over the globe atm (somebody's in Australia, FrenchPolynesia, somewhere in Pacific, dunno where) and it's pretty cool if you can 'find' *cough, netstumbler, cough* a way onto the t'interweb to get freebie calls (and the quality is cool too). Been using it to chat to my group when playing Everquest too, (hot swedish chicks make funny noises for Selo's and ManaSong). Works well for 3-4 in the group chatting in a conference, not server needed like Teamspeak/Ventrillo and the sound quality is REALLY good, not too much lag either. Even had 'unusual' calls from Asian chicks (blocked them in the end, was cute for a bit, like chatrooms for the first 5 mins, then repeats with A/S/L get tired so quickly, chatrooms, not talking, as it's usually obvious the 'S' part). REALLY worth checking out, if you get a mic and headphone, gimme a bell, cost's nowt;

callto:robmahon

www.Skype.com , yet another essential t'interweb tool like pr0n, mmorpgs, CS, e-mail, web (in that order of importance)

My Saturday - Halifax snowboarding Comp

Went to Halifax on Saturday: another competition, another poor showing. It seems I can get it sorted in the practice, but not for the pressure event. Still there was never a danger of me showing up in the finals when the standard of riding was sickeningly high. People pulling 900's, 720's, front flips, back flips and all sorts of crazy rotation flips, left yours truly feeling old and inflexible.

Still I did progress myself and as ever I need to get more practice. Managed a few (for me) enormous straight-airs - travelling twice as far as I used to off the main kicker, along with my first grabbed 180's which felt great to achieve! Also some crazy rail spins and some more old skool tricks. Entered in the team event too, where we came out a lot better, but got destroyed by close formation skiers. (was extremely funny when the first guy fell on a run and the other three piled into him off the main jump though!)

Weather terrible, atmosphere nevertheless great.

So guys, when you gonna come over to Yorkshire for some boarding?

Star Wars - EPIII

A mate bought a bunch of tickets, so off we trooped to see Star Wars last night.
I'm somewhat the worse for wear now, having had all of three hours sleep before getting up for work; but I can at least report that it is...

....


....

Actually, quite good.
Now, lets be fair (and I won't spoil the plot for you), the acting is often very wooden, particularly in scenes between Anakin and Padme, the dialogue does them no favours though, being hackneyed enough to make Barbara Cartland blush (were she not dead anyway). There are a few truly laughable moments though - The robot doctor's prognosis on Padme, the name given to young Jedi to name but two. The CG is better though and a little less freneticaly edited, so you can get a handle on what is going on. The plot moves along reasonably well, and ties up all the loose ends you are likely to want. Best performance is Emperor Palpatine, surely steals the show.
Overall I'd give it a solid 7.5/10

back from hols

Back home to Miami after a brief jaunt across to Oklahoma. Had a great time, ate sooo many amazing steaks, scoffed so much high quality mexican food, I think I'm fitting in with the American way of life. Only way I'm going to look thin by hanging round lard bums is if I end up at a Sumo dojo.
Oh well, maybe next year.
Had fun last Sunday, clearing out the Tornado shelter in a mad dash as there was a Tornado watch for the area. 'Can't be a tornado can there? it's lovely outside, that storm looks miles away' Scary how these things develop and I can see how people new to the area wouldn't have a clue. It was really freaky seeing everyone else on edge, though to be fair, most of them were saying it wasn't the right colour in the sky to be having tornado's that close to us. Nonetheless, cleaned out the shelter, just in case. News today is that it's going to be the worst hurricane season ever for the east coast. I'm stocking up on Budweiser and beef jerky as much as possible, but I'm not sure it'll be enough. Might have to fall back on the Miller Lite if it gets too dicey, though hopefully things won't get that desparate.

Other stuff;
New NIN album is really, really good. Best album he's done I think. But that might be just me.

Tried a few places to check out PSP's, but couldn't find them for love nor money. The moment they hit the shelves, they're gone again. Lots of games to be sold, just no flippin' machines.

So, the new Xbox 360. Hmm, looks like the designers watched TOO much anime. If it could transform into something cool looking, then fair enough. Always thought the MS world should be more neon/chrome compared to the Apple 'limp wrist pale white', and the Sony 'Cool as owt Black'.
But definately blue leds. Can't go wrong with blue leds on any consumer electronics.

nothing to see here

except another reasonably interesting website from b3ta.

http://www.worldometers.info/
100,000 deaths today.
100,001
100,002 etc. :)

Oldest companies

So, a mate had a tinkle on the drums last week, and he mentioned that Zildjian (cymbal makers) were the world's oldest company and he said that they've been making instruments for years.
As ever I was skeptical (seeing as it was an american firm), although I wondered what the worlds oldest company was, and where zildjian ranks in all this...

When do you think the earliest company was founded??
1800? 1500? 1100? 718?
578!? :)

http://www.familybusinessmagazine.com/oldworld.html

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy review

Not bad at all.
Seen a few reviews of it that keep mentioning alot of dialog had been cut out from the books, but it's not that bad at all. There's still alot of humour in the film, just different from the book. Only natural that humour that relied on the written word would need changing to be more visual and it's not that bad. Still references the original joke in many places.
Characters work well, with Arthur Dent being played well in a similar way to his character in The Office.
Yes, there's a love interest between Trillian and Arthur, but it's actually handled ok. Need something to get the chicks to watch I guess and she's shown to be a stronger character in the film than the BBC version I'd say, alot more like the book handled it.
Only character that comes off as weaker than the books/BBC version I'd say is Ford. The BBC version seemed to handle him alot better as near omnipotent in the ways of the universe type of bloke who's always up for a decent beer. Mos Def doesn't really seem to create much of a character for him and just wanders through the film barely understanding much more than Arthur it appears. The few added parts certainly add more depth to the film, but I must admit, I do miss the cut away explanations that the BBC version did so well. No deep explanations of the Pangalacic Gargle Blaster, not treatise on how the Babel fish proved the non-existance of God, and the actual role of the Guide itself isn't that much. Alot less Guide entries (though something that is due to be remidied by the DVD version I've read).
Still, I laughed at a lot of scenes, and really enjoyed it. Laura was commenting on the way home though that alot of the words and jokes WOULD be lost on an American audience. They would probably miss the 'I'm English, I'm good at queing reference' (they stand in line, not queue apparently) and a few other bits that I never really picked up on. Not too bad, but may explain some of the poor reviews it's had perhaps.
All in all, well worth going to see. Good film, hopefully this one does well enough so that there'll be a sequel.

Question

So, who won?