Merry christmas

This sketch is another one from the "Bottom" guys. A classic that was going through my head at the predlets nativity play. A bit of language in it, but worth it :-)

Clever dyson hand dryer

I love clever, innovative things. On a recent trip to London I got to see this dyson hand dryer in the gents at Waterloo station.
I wanted to take a photo, but that was just a little bit odd. However this hand dryer you place your hands in fingers pointing down. Drawing your hands out slowly a blast of air pushes the water out and down your fingers. Unlike other hand dryers which take ages and move the water around your hands as you wring them.
It may seem something small and not important, but it seemed very clever and an "obvious" solution

Gaping void on control

This was twittered by @monkchips and I just loved it. It is so correct, yet simple.
http://www.gapingvoid.com/0711allcontrol.jpg

All control is damage control. Brilliant, just brilliant.

Skate me

Skate me, originally uploaded by epredator.

Well it sort of looks like me. It is strange in some of these games now like Skate I go for a near me image, unlike the virtual worlds where I go for a predator look or my green spikey.
It may be to do with the context of the game. As a would be skater (I was never very good and the kit when I was a kid was appalling) I may be attempting to relive something. The nearly me look, slightly overweight but not as much seems to add to the sense of who I am in this environment.
It is akin to the differing tones of persona that I use when blogging here, inside work or on eightbar. All still me, but I am confronted with choices and shades of me to enhance my experience and the experience of others.

Even more Call of Duty 4

I have now managed to complete Call of Duty 4, and I am even more impressed than I was a few posts back.
It is obviously enhanced by very cool graphics and sound, but the variety and the emotional involvement as you push through the game is just so well done. The final scenes, which I wont spoil, were subtle, brilliant, emotive and just down right awesome.
So well done all at treyarch
This was just some phont footage from midway through. Awesome detail (in HD on the 360)
Of course holding a phone makes it hard to 'play' so there is not much movement. Still there are plenty of trailers out there. Or just go have a go :-)

I also managed to play a little online, which was mostly embarassing as I was canon fodder for the l33ts. Still I viewed it as a victory to get one kill. Once you can beat one you can beat ten, beath ten and you can beat thousands. (As a wise man once said, I will leave it to the you to find that quote)

Chess the bottom way

I was watching a re-run of bottom just now. It is one of my all time fave progs. This one playing chess is the one that stick in the mind. Its been running on the "dave" channel on sky.

strange numbers?

strange numbers, originally uploaded by epredator.

Ok these are not totally symmetrical but it does look a little unusual. Its not quite an episode of lost, and this is not a rabbit hole for an ARG but my car ended up with this odometer reading today when I pulled into the drive.
I dont think I am overly superticious, however I do like serendpity and a certain pattern becoming visible in things. Of course in this pattern I have no idea what it refers to and the combination is no more special that a completely random one.
As humans we look for patterns, some of us more than others, so this may remind me of something or be a day when something happens I will remember the 5,3,1 day accordingly in that flow pattern.

Singstar Ps3 - Who would have thought it?

Singstar Ps3, originally uploaded by epredator.

A belated 40th present arrived today with Singstar on the PS3 (only 4 months late). I know I am not singer, hence always trying to play guitar as a yoof. However, I have always fancied learning to ding a bit better and the feed back of singstar seemed to be the way.
Mrs Epred and I sparked it up tonight and it turns out she is way better than me on most songs.
We waded through duets on most of the songs that come with it, but the draw of the singstar online store grew too great.
If nothing else to buy Wizard's "I wish it could be christmas everyday" and our soccer anthem "three lions".
The thing was we got there and there were a fair few tunes from our generation. Culture Club, Depeche Mode etc.
I downloaded the 2 Duran Duran songs "Hungry like the wolf" and "Rio".
Having just sung hungry like the wolf it turns out of all the songs and all the styles I appear to be a Simon Le Bon clone :-) I got a pretty decent score, felt in tune (nealry) and seemed to be hitting and holding the right notes.
I am not going to be launching a pop career, though...... no I am not!
I am so looking forward to our UK version of rockband now, being able to combine the guitar and the singing and doing the band thing in a kareoke style.
I used to really not even consider karoike bars back in the 90's but now my performance and ego gene has been enabled I am more than up for giving it a go, after a bit of practice of course.
So atlast an app that makes me want to spark up the PS3. Just get some more songs on that shop Sony!

**Update I just twittered a precise 140 character one saying
"singstar, I am twisted sister, wolfmother, culture club, duran duran and the killers. I am not Robbie Williams or Gwen Stefani (relatively!)"

Green Spikey Hair - Skate and Guitar Hero III

One of my other non predator looking AV's in Second life and other places usually has green spikey hair as a bit of a nod to punk, and as a nod to the fact that if I cant have green spikey hair the system may be a bit too straight laced. Of course sometimes, in games etc, the options to open up hair colour come over time. I was a bit dissapointed that EA Skate. did not let me go green and spikey, despite the massive amount of customization. Though.... I am sure it in in there somewhere.
Skate is a really good twist on the skateboard games, using some very clever and intuitive analogue stick movements to ollie the board. It has the free roaming and self challenging aspects, "can I just do this one trick here just because"
It also lets you edit up videos, and unlike Halo3 where you have to run the game to see the videos (which to be fair are more than just videos they are fully interactive recorded games) Skate renders the video and allows you to share it stand alone.
Here is one of my attempts (see no spikey hair) you may have to select country first, the site is not quite youtube which is the only pity, I would like to post it there to make this post easier.
Whilst on green spikey hair though there is no such problem in Guitar Hero III. A very impressive mohawk green spikey cut is available on the punk character. This makes thrashing along to the anthem from my youth "anarchy in the uk" by the Sex Pistols (which explains alot) an even more integrated experience for me.
If anyone is in any doubt, guitar hero ii and iii on the 360 are fantastic. The depth of involvment in the music that just holding the guitar and being in the music playing is amazing.
That means I now have to write a much better post on the nature of involvement in modern media and how we can all evolve to appreciate artistic creations more through immersion.