The Sims
In an effort to save what money I have, I decided to download the Sims 2 and play that for the next couple of weeks.
I opened for 2, because as much as I like 3, it really didn't add much to the gameplay. The Sims 2 requires less of my laptop and so runs smoother.
I started off with a guy and a girl and went from there. The original couple are still in the game, approaching the 'elder' life stage, while their eldest daughter is married, a son in University and twin kids approaching their teens.
I'm still using the same house that I started with, which was originally a one bedroom deal, now has like 6 and covers most of the lot.
My aim is to see how big a family tree I can have by the time I leave for Florida (which at the time of writing is just two weeks away).
Photography
My Flickr account holds just about every photo I take. Due to that, it contains both a lot of work that I'm proud of and a lot of work that is pretty crap. I decided during the week to go through my photos and pick out some of my favourites, for whatever reason and put them into one set.
I didn't get all my favourites, just a sampling. Looking through nearly 3000 pictures isn't something I wanted to spend too much time on. However, I'm happy with the set with which I ended up with.
A link to the set.
Quiz
Team Name: Team! If you wanna go faster.
Score: 41
While sometimes we have a hard time finding 3 people to go to quiz, this week it seemed that everyone wanted to go. We had a team of 6. While, Logan, O'May, Matthew Davidson and Dave Thomas had their own team.
After quiz, we headed up to McDonald's. While leaving, O'May shouted about going to Spynie Churchyard. I went home and grabbed the camera and we headed out.
The edited footage of which has been put together into a new series of sorts called "The David Thomas Chronicles." -- More on that next week though.
Accountant
Friends
I was watching a video on Youtube earlier, from Michael Buckley, he was talking about going back to school, making friends, etc. His video was aimed mostly at high school kids, going to the new school.
It occurred to me, while watching it, that most of my friends aren't from that period in my life, but from Primary school. It's not that I didn't make friends in secondary school, I did. But the closest friends I have are, for the most part, kids I went to primary school with and the people who don't fit into that group, were met through the people that do.
I don't really have a whole lot to say on that topic, other than I think it's pretty cool that the people I'm friends with, I've been friends with for the majority of my life.
Tron
With the sequel coming out soon, I decided it was time I sat down and watched Tron. The film is 28 years old and I'd never seen it. Going into it, I wasn't sure, but I ended up loving it .
The effects were dated, but it just added to the film's charm. Something I'm worried the new one will lose, with it's updated CGI. While it looks amazing, the fact that the original didn't is one of the things I liked about it.
I'll definitely still go and see it though and I plan to pick up the DVD of Tron as soon as I can.
Kodak Playsport
I'm going to Florida in a couple of weeks and while I have a nice camera to take pictures on in the form of a G1, I wasn't sure what I was going to do about video. I had thought about just taking my compact Lumix, even with it's half-broken screen and using that... But... I dropped it again... and the screen is now nearly unusable.
I had a look at my money situation and figured out that I would be able to spare a hundred quid or there abouts. So, I did some research online, reading a lot of reviews and found that the Kodak Playsport I'd seen in ASDA was actually a pretty good little camera.
It has several recording modes. 1080p, 720p @ 60fps, 720p @ 30fps and WVGA. As well as a 5MP still camera. It records on to an SD card and can charge via USB (as well as a wall socket). Not to mention the fact that it's waterproof up to 3 metres.
Looking at some quality samples on youtube as well, I decided to go ahead and buy it. It was a little bit more expensive than I thought i'd seen it for in ASDA, but not by much.
The only thing I'm not sure about, but will hopefully be able to put to the test this week, is the battery life. The sites say 90mins. Which, for the kind of camera is about average, I think, and that can go up or down, depending on what quality setting you use. 90mins is nothing though, compared to the battery life I get with my 'big' camcorder. The battery on which lasts for like 6 hours on continuous. So that'll be something I have to adjust to.
Quiz
Team Name: Respectable
Score: 33.5
Wasn't a bad quiz this week. Just didn't do that great either. Gutted.
I was watching a video on Youtube earlier, from Michael Buckley, he was talking about going back to school, making friends, etc. His video was aimed mostly at high school kids, going to the new school.
It occurred to me, while watching it, that most of my friends aren't from that period in my life, but from Primary school. It's not that I didn't make friends in secondary school, I did. But the closest friends I have are, for the most part, kids I went to primary school with and the people who don't fit into that group, were met through the people that do.
I don't really have a whole lot to say on that topic, other than I think it's pretty cool that the people I'm friends with, I've been friends with for the majority of my life.
Tron
With the sequel coming out soon, I decided it was time I sat down and watched Tron. The film is 28 years old and I'd never seen it. Going into it, I wasn't sure, but I ended up loving it .
The effects were dated, but it just added to the film's charm. Something I'm worried the new one will lose, with it's updated CGI. While it looks amazing, the fact that the original didn't is one of the things I liked about it.
I'll definitely still go and see it though and I plan to pick up the DVD of Tron as soon as I can.
Kodak Playsport
I'm going to Florida in a couple of weeks and while I have a nice camera to take pictures on in the form of a G1, I wasn't sure what I was going to do about video. I had thought about just taking my compact Lumix, even with it's half-broken screen and using that... But... I dropped it again... and the screen is now nearly unusable.
I had a look at my money situation and figured out that I would be able to spare a hundred quid or there abouts. So, I did some research online, reading a lot of reviews and found that the Kodak Playsport I'd seen in ASDA was actually a pretty good little camera.
It has several recording modes. 1080p, 720p @ 60fps, 720p @ 30fps and WVGA. As well as a 5MP still camera. It records on to an SD card and can charge via USB (as well as a wall socket). Not to mention the fact that it's waterproof up to 3 metres.
Looking at some quality samples on youtube as well, I decided to go ahead and buy it. It was a little bit more expensive than I thought i'd seen it for in ASDA, but not by much.
The only thing I'm not sure about, but will hopefully be able to put to the test this week, is the battery life. The sites say 90mins. Which, for the kind of camera is about average, I think, and that can go up or down, depending on what quality setting you use. 90mins is nothing though, compared to the battery life I get with my 'big' camcorder. The battery on which lasts for like 6 hours on continuous. So that'll be something I have to adjust to.
Quiz
Team Name: Respectable
Score: 33.5
Wasn't a bad quiz this week. Just didn't do that great either. Gutted.
Sailing The Seven Seas
Apple
I had yet another discussion about my dislike of Apple this week.
I know a lot of people, in recent years have taken to disliking Apple, because they don't like iPhone users. Either through jealousy or genuine annoyances. My dislike for Apple goes back to a time well before the iPhone, though, it does, in part, include it.
My problem comes from the general 'cult' of Apple. I used to watch the keynotes they'd put up online, where they'd announce the latest products. That was until I started getting far too angry at them. The one that will always stick in my mind is from the second or third generation of iPhone. They were announcing all the new features, one of which was the ability to search your contacts.
Many people remember the fact that you were able to search your contacts back in the days of the Nokia 3310 and might wonder why Apple decided to omit this feature from what they were trying to boast as the best phone on the market. It's not something that will make or break a phone, clearly, but it seems, to me anyway, to be common sense to include it.
When Steve announced the feature though, the crowd went wild. It was like Apple were the first people to ever think of including such a feature, not just on a phone, but anywhere. Why hadn't anyone thought of it before?!
If you ask a mac user, why you should get a mac over a windows computer, the general answer will be "Macs never get viruses. They never crash. They're amazing."
I've crashed a mac.
I'm not saying they don't have their place in the world, I just don't particularly see them as superior machines. Infact, I don't see any of the products as particularly superior. People are falling in love with a brand, with a logo and trusting it's every move, blindly believing the hype and marketing that the company puts out and that's never a good thing.
Community
Over the course of about 3 days, I downloaded and watched the entire first season of Community. An american sitcom that centres itself around a group of people attending community college.
Given that I watched 25 episodes over the course of a week, I think it's safe to say I enjoyed it. Feels like it could be the 'New Scrubs' -- With the same kind of humour, and the way background characters are more recurring than true background.
Scripts
Despite not being entirely finished with "Seven Days" (the full seven days are written, but I'm not happy with how it ends and it really needs to be re-written), I've been thinking more about a 'sequel' of sorts. The events in the 'sequel' would take place over the same week of the first. But it would be from a different character's point of view and introduce a whole range of other people, before crossing over with the original in Paris.
I started writing it a while ago, when I had, what I considered to be, a cool idea. But haven't written more than about a page worth of stuff.
Windows 7 & ambx
The PC we have, for the past year or so, has been running Linux. Ubuntu to be exact. While that's been fine up until now, I actually tried to buy a copy of Windows 7 for my mum, for her birthday (the PC is pretty much her computer and she prefers a Windows PC over Ubuntu), however the seller I bought it from on Amazon turned out to be a fraud and although I managed to get my money back, I was left without a copy of Windows.
Stuart had sent me an ambx kit, and so, I decided to set sail on the seven seas and get myself a copy of Windows 7. After a couple of hours, the PC had gone from linux to 7 and the ambx kit was set up. The PC is connected to the television in the livingroom, so the ambx should be pretty cool for watching films and stuff.
Seeing how easy it was to install 7 on the PC, I decided to install it on my laptop too. I wasn't one of those people who hated Vista. My laptop could run it fine, and so I never really had any problems with it. 7 seems to be working out pretty well though.
Quiz
Team Name: Halal, is it meat you're looking for?
Score: 46.5
I'd kind of written off quiz tonight, Allan had pulled out and I was just going to go home. Robyn text asking if I was going and eventually it was decided that I was. Paula decided to come along and we ended up with a team of six and finished third (don't let anyone else tell you otherwise).
I had yet another discussion about my dislike of Apple this week.
I know a lot of people, in recent years have taken to disliking Apple, because they don't like iPhone users. Either through jealousy or genuine annoyances. My dislike for Apple goes back to a time well before the iPhone, though, it does, in part, include it.
My problem comes from the general 'cult' of Apple. I used to watch the keynotes they'd put up online, where they'd announce the latest products. That was until I started getting far too angry at them. The one that will always stick in my mind is from the second or third generation of iPhone. They were announcing all the new features, one of which was the ability to search your contacts.
Many people remember the fact that you were able to search your contacts back in the days of the Nokia 3310 and might wonder why Apple decided to omit this feature from what they were trying to boast as the best phone on the market. It's not something that will make or break a phone, clearly, but it seems, to me anyway, to be common sense to include it.
When Steve announced the feature though, the crowd went wild. It was like Apple were the first people to ever think of including such a feature, not just on a phone, but anywhere. Why hadn't anyone thought of it before?!
If you ask a mac user, why you should get a mac over a windows computer, the general answer will be "Macs never get viruses. They never crash. They're amazing."
I've crashed a mac.
I'm not saying they don't have their place in the world, I just don't particularly see them as superior machines. Infact, I don't see any of the products as particularly superior. People are falling in love with a brand, with a logo and trusting it's every move, blindly believing the hype and marketing that the company puts out and that's never a good thing.
Community
Over the course of about 3 days, I downloaded and watched the entire first season of Community. An american sitcom that centres itself around a group of people attending community college.
Given that I watched 25 episodes over the course of a week, I think it's safe to say I enjoyed it. Feels like it could be the 'New Scrubs' -- With the same kind of humour, and the way background characters are more recurring than true background.
Scripts
Despite not being entirely finished with "Seven Days" (the full seven days are written, but I'm not happy with how it ends and it really needs to be re-written), I've been thinking more about a 'sequel' of sorts. The events in the 'sequel' would take place over the same week of the first. But it would be from a different character's point of view and introduce a whole range of other people, before crossing over with the original in Paris.
I started writing it a while ago, when I had, what I considered to be, a cool idea. But haven't written more than about a page worth of stuff.
Windows 7 & ambx
The PC we have, for the past year or so, has been running Linux. Ubuntu to be exact. While that's been fine up until now, I actually tried to buy a copy of Windows 7 for my mum, for her birthday (the PC is pretty much her computer and she prefers a Windows PC over Ubuntu), however the seller I bought it from on Amazon turned out to be a fraud and although I managed to get my money back, I was left without a copy of Windows.
Stuart had sent me an ambx kit, and so, I decided to set sail on the seven seas and get myself a copy of Windows 7. After a couple of hours, the PC had gone from linux to 7 and the ambx kit was set up. The PC is connected to the television in the livingroom, so the ambx should be pretty cool for watching films and stuff.
Seeing how easy it was to install 7 on the PC, I decided to install it on my laptop too. I wasn't one of those people who hated Vista. My laptop could run it fine, and so I never really had any problems with it. 7 seems to be working out pretty well though.
Quiz
Team Name: Halal, is it meat you're looking for?
Score: 46.5
I'd kind of written off quiz tonight, Allan had pulled out and I was just going to go home. Robyn text asking if I was going and eventually it was decided that I was. Paula decided to come along and we ended up with a team of six and finished third (don't let anyone else tell you otherwise).
A Drink Called Lonliness
Don't you know you've got your Daddy's eyes..?
I don't drink, never have really. Never been drunk, at least. I think people, at first, assume it's for some moral reason, or I've had some bad experience in the past. Something psychological to it. The simple fact of the matter is that I don't like the taste.
Now, it's when they hear that that some people have a problem. Not many, and usually not a big problem. But the usual response is something along the lines of "WKD? Why don't you have one of those. They're just like juice!"
Yeah, to you, maybe. To me? I can drink them a lot easier than I can other alcoholic drinks, but I can still taste the alcohol and I still don't like the taste.
I don't see the point in drinking something I don't like, to get to a point where I'm feeling a way I don't need to feel in order to have a good time. I have absolutely zero problem if people want to drink, I even enjoy being around my friends a lot of the time when they're drunk. They can be fun.
Some people, however, drink too much. ...and are twats.
Lonliness through the lens
Cag got in touch at some point, asking if I wanted to go take pictures. Not just any pictures though, pictures based on Limmy's "lonliness" set on flickr.
I'm not the biggest fan of Limmy, but I enjoyed the set and agreed to go with her. We took a walk around town and discovered a few lonely things. However, not as much as we thought we might. Which was slightly upsetting. Or, perhaps uplifting. Elgin's not such a lonely town after-all.
Photos
Pictures from the set, again. & Lonely Elgin & Other things
Quiz
No quiz this week. Watched Sherlock instead. It was good.
I don't drink, never have really. Never been drunk, at least. I think people, at first, assume it's for some moral reason, or I've had some bad experience in the past. Something psychological to it. The simple fact of the matter is that I don't like the taste.
Now, it's when they hear that that some people have a problem. Not many, and usually not a big problem. But the usual response is something along the lines of "WKD? Why don't you have one of those. They're just like juice!"
Yeah, to you, maybe. To me? I can drink them a lot easier than I can other alcoholic drinks, but I can still taste the alcohol and I still don't like the taste.
I don't see the point in drinking something I don't like, to get to a point where I'm feeling a way I don't need to feel in order to have a good time. I have absolutely zero problem if people want to drink, I even enjoy being around my friends a lot of the time when they're drunk. They can be fun.
Some people, however, drink too much. ...and are twats.
Lonliness through the lens
Cag got in touch at some point, asking if I wanted to go take pictures. Not just any pictures though, pictures based on Limmy's "lonliness" set on flickr.
I'm not the biggest fan of Limmy, but I enjoyed the set and agreed to go with her. We took a walk around town and discovered a few lonely things. However, not as much as we thought we might. Which was slightly upsetting. Or, perhaps uplifting. Elgin's not such a lonely town after-all.
Photos
Pictures from the set, again. & Lonely Elgin & Other things
Quiz
No quiz this week. Watched Sherlock instead. It was good.
SEX AND VIOLENCE!
Kincraig Wildlife Park
It was Donna's last day, after a week of being in Elgin. So we decided to head up to Kincraig for the day. Allan, Donna, Kara, Paula and me. I made some CDs for the road from the song suggestions we'd all made the night before.
The day was a pretty wet one, but a good time was still had by all. The last time I'd been was almost exactly a year ago, with my Mum. It was cool seeing the tiger cubs, who, were only a month or two old when I was last there, walking around their enclosure as 'Big' cats.
When we got back from Kincraig, Kara and I, sort of, bullied Paula into taking us to the cinema. We went to see inception, which... I'm not sure I loved. I mean, it was definitely a good film and an awesome premise - but everyone else seems to have loved it and... Not so much. I'll probably catch it again on DVD, see what I think then.
Cathedral & Spynie Palace
I'd thrown out the suggestion of going to the cathedral on the drive home from the cinema. Then I slept til around 3pm the next day. I woke up to texts from both Paula and Kara. Kara's simply said "Wake up!" -- I'd put my phone on silent for the cinema and didn't take it off silent.
I got in touch with them, saying I was still up for the cathedral if they were... And they were, so we went. I threw some clothes on, got my bike out and cycled down to meet them. After which, we went to the pub for a quick meal.
Then I cycled home and decided not to go out, cause, essentially, I was just too comfortable.
Wednesday, we went to Spynie Palace. It was kind of raining again, which wasn't so great. But got a few decent pictures. After a while there, we went to Lossie and got some ice cream. While in the ice cream shop, my mum came in. So, I introduced her and Kara. Then we left, and I came home.
I think the Mythbusters were wrong.
The Mythbusters once did an experiment to see whether or not running in the rain would keep you drier than walking. On Wednesday night, we went to the Muckle for a bit and then decided to go on to the Granary. When we left the Muckle though, it was raining heavily. So, we decided to run.
Arriving at the Granary, we were soaked. Well, our fronts were. Our backs were dry. Water was running down my face into my mouth. I don't know how we could have been any wetter.
Aberdeen
On Thursday, we headed to Aberdeen. The whole gang, Richard, Paula, Allan, Kara and myself. Our first port of call was Codona's for food. "The Congo Bar", although a tad expensive, does really good food. After that, we were aiming for Satrosphere. A place that Paula had promised would be amazing.
It was not. She claims it was because half the building was taken up by a crap "Walking With Dinosaurs" exhibit, but I don't believe her. We had fun with what was there and sat through "Science On The Spot" before leaving. After a brief stop-off at ASDA, we found ourselves back at Codona's, where Paula got ID'd for the 10p machines.
Paula, it should be stated, is 23. You have to be 18 to be in the area where the 10p machines are.
After that, we went on the waltzers, which was a pretty bad idea, then went home. The journey home wasn't that great, but feeling like you're gonna throw up the entire journey never is.
Goodbye
Friday was Kara's last day. Paula, Kara, Allan and myself met up for some lunch. We decided on the Granary, which actually ended up being pretty nice. Not cheap, but good food. After that, we went down to the train station, where Kara's train was due in about 20mins.
She bought her tickets and we were getting ready for it to arrive, when it was announced that it'd been cancelled. The next train wasn't for another hour.
We ended up spending that hour, on the floor, playing some card game. I won, I lost. It was a rollercoaster of emotions...
Then came the time for Kara's train to actually arrive. We all hugged goodbye and then watched her train leave. She was only here a week, but, due to the amount we did in that week, I guess, it felt a lot longer. It'll be weird her not being here any more.
Photographs
Kincraig Highland Wildlife Park, Elgin Cathedral & Spynie Palace
Quiz
Team Name: [No team name]
Score: 37.5
Once we got our sheet back, I just went and handed it in, totally forgot about the whole team name thing. Weirdly, we weren't the only ones. Pretty happy with our score this week though. Got a lot of the more obscure questions right.
It was Donna's last day, after a week of being in Elgin. So we decided to head up to Kincraig for the day. Allan, Donna, Kara, Paula and me. I made some CDs for the road from the song suggestions we'd all made the night before.
The day was a pretty wet one, but a good time was still had by all. The last time I'd been was almost exactly a year ago, with my Mum. It was cool seeing the tiger cubs, who, were only a month or two old when I was last there, walking around their enclosure as 'Big' cats.
 |
| One of the tiger cubs in 2009 |
 | ||||
| One of the tiger cubs in 2010 |
Cathedral & Spynie Palace
I'd thrown out the suggestion of going to the cathedral on the drive home from the cinema. Then I slept til around 3pm the next day. I woke up to texts from both Paula and Kara. Kara's simply said "Wake up!" -- I'd put my phone on silent for the cinema and didn't take it off silent.
I got in touch with them, saying I was still up for the cathedral if they were... And they were, so we went. I threw some clothes on, got my bike out and cycled down to meet them. After which, we went to the pub for a quick meal.
Then I cycled home and decided not to go out, cause, essentially, I was just too comfortable.
Wednesday, we went to Spynie Palace. It was kind of raining again, which wasn't so great. But got a few decent pictures. After a while there, we went to Lossie and got some ice cream. While in the ice cream shop, my mum came in. So, I introduced her and Kara. Then we left, and I came home.
I think the Mythbusters were wrong.
The Mythbusters once did an experiment to see whether or not running in the rain would keep you drier than walking. On Wednesday night, we went to the Muckle for a bit and then decided to go on to the Granary. When we left the Muckle though, it was raining heavily. So, we decided to run.
Arriving at the Granary, we were soaked. Well, our fronts were. Our backs were dry. Water was running down my face into my mouth. I don't know how we could have been any wetter.
Aberdeen
On Thursday, we headed to Aberdeen. The whole gang, Richard, Paula, Allan, Kara and myself. Our first port of call was Codona's for food. "The Congo Bar", although a tad expensive, does really good food. After that, we were aiming for Satrosphere. A place that Paula had promised would be amazing.
It was not. She claims it was because half the building was taken up by a crap "Walking With Dinosaurs" exhibit, but I don't believe her. We had fun with what was there and sat through "Science On The Spot" before leaving. After a brief stop-off at ASDA, we found ourselves back at Codona's, where Paula got ID'd for the 10p machines.
Paula, it should be stated, is 23. You have to be 18 to be in the area where the 10p machines are.
After that, we went on the waltzers, which was a pretty bad idea, then went home. The journey home wasn't that great, but feeling like you're gonna throw up the entire journey never is.
Goodbye
Friday was Kara's last day. Paula, Kara, Allan and myself met up for some lunch. We decided on the Granary, which actually ended up being pretty nice. Not cheap, but good food. After that, we went down to the train station, where Kara's train was due in about 20mins.
She bought her tickets and we were getting ready for it to arrive, when it was announced that it'd been cancelled. The next train wasn't for another hour.
We ended up spending that hour, on the floor, playing some card game. I won, I lost. It was a rollercoaster of emotions...
Then came the time for Kara's train to actually arrive. We all hugged goodbye and then watched her train leave. She was only here a week, but, due to the amount we did in that week, I guess, it felt a lot longer. It'll be weird her not being here any more.
Photographs
Kincraig Highland Wildlife Park, Elgin Cathedral & Spynie Palace
Quiz
Team Name: [No team name]
Score: 37.5
Once we got our sheet back, I just went and handed it in, totally forgot about the whole team name thing. Weirdly, we weren't the only ones. Pretty happy with our score this week though. Got a lot of the more obscure questions right.
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