Life Stream

Ok, so I have been neglecting my blog for a while, not really updated it even though some key events have passed such as the out come of the UK government elections, and the fact LOST has now finally finished. After consuming about 6 years of my life we finally have an answer, although not the most clear one I had hoped for, still some things remain a mystery. Oddly I’m not feeling an urge to round this up in any way other than to just leave it there.

I will keep this post short in hopes my next one will be a little more enthusiastic, but I thought it was good just to post something during the month of May, even if it is only once!

Watching a UK first this evening, the first televised election debate in the UK on ITV. A first time the 3 major parties have gone head to head live. I am a bit disappointed with ITV’s title screens at the start of the programme, it was a very 80′s theme tune. I think this will also be the first programme ITV have aired without showing any adverts (banned by the rules).

I am quite fascinated by some of the stories they are telling, I feel they may be spending too much time on this rather than putting across their policies.

I am really enjoying the sly little jabs they are getting in about each other, such as their advertising campaigns. David Cameron got a good one in about the recession and Gordon Brown.

The debates will continue next week on Sky News and the week after on BBC. Looks like UK politics is moving into the 21st Century, now we just need paperless voting.

Theres no better way to test out a new phone than have a play around with it, so fittingly im writing this using a wordpress application. So as you can imagine this will be quite short whilst I still get the hang of it. I have downloaded a few applications my favorite so far is swype, which was the keyboard I was previously using on windows mobile. It works brilliantly on android and the amoled screen makes it so easy to type fast. Im also enjoying being more connected with things like twitter and facebook which work great on HTC Sense.

I was just watching BBC Click on the iPlayer, during the website round up they featured a website where you become the “Hero” of a short movie. You upload an image of yourself to the site, use the tool to crop your face and then hit go! The player does all the work making your face appear throughout the movie on billboard, photo frames etc… The idea behind it is a thank you for the Swedish government for paying your TV Lisence. Thought I would check it out, you can see my movie below featuring me as the Hero, of course you can make yourself or anyone else the hero. Check it out at http://en.tackfilm.se/

At long last the hiatus (also known as a mid season break) for most TV shows is over, which means of the best loved US shows will be hitting the screens in the UK shortly. I am quite excited to pick up where most shows left off, there is the return of Stargate Universe which is said to be a little more action packed. Also the long awaited return of Glee to our screens. Bones has also picked up again this week after a short break.

Destiny

I have been awaiting the return of Stargate Universe, this is the 3rd franchise of the Stargate series and focuses more on the characters than the tech and aliens we are used to from Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. So a quick recap, a team of scientists are working on what’s known as the Icarus project, the key to unlocking the gates 9th Chevron. After the base falls under attack they dial the 9th Chevron address (ignoring orders to dial earth) to evacuate, they become stranded on a ship called Destiny. The team sent through are not an expedition team and have limited supplies and communication with earth. We go deep into how the characters ended up working on the project with a few small plots which put the characters in danger. I was quite happy with the current format although a massive change from the usual Stargate we are used to, seems some fans want a bit more action luckily we are told this is coming very shortly (via GateWord). This second half of season one should see some of the characters have their first alien encounters and some more technology being used. I can’t wait until UK release on Tuesday 3rd April 2010, on Sky 1.

Glee Cast

We also see the return of Glee which has hit the UK by storm, getting into the UK Official Chart on a number of occasions. Just before mid season break the Glee club had just won Sectionals, I haven’t heard many plot spoilers on this one for the second half of this season. Although after an interview on BBC Radio 1′s Scott Mill’s show with Jayne Lynch (plays Sue Sylvester), it was revealed that Sue would also be singing this Season. Whether she sings as part of the club (which is unlikely) or just on her own I am sure it will not be an episode to miss. We will also catch up with many of the characters sub plots. This is one of the great things about Glee, the main plot of being in the Glee club brings all the cast together. Each individual also has their own sub plot where we learn more about them. I am also expecting to see a few new faces shortly as Fox recently held open casting calls for the show. Glee returns to our screens in the UK on April 14th, on E4.

Bones has also recently returned to our screens after a very short break, it’s always good to see Booth and Brennan in action together. I find it amazing how they can learn so much form just looking at Bones. Not a lot to say on this one as there is no constant plot just as we learn more about the characters each time. I am just glad to have it back.

How I Met Your Mother

I was discussing with a colleague at work the TV programs we watched, it started with a discussion about Glee and oddly how interesting it is, the characters are what make that show and I am a big fan of Sue Sylvester, brilliantly played by Jane Lynch.

So we listed a few more and one that stood out to me was How I Met Your Mother, I have seen it trend a few times on some of the IPTV websites I visit. So I have decided to venture into a new program and so far its pretty good, some mild adult humour got me laughing a few times but I can’t pin point exactly what it is that makes you want to watch more. Maybe I am just hooked on wanting to find out How Ted (the lead character) Met his children’s Mother, the plot line works well with the whole story starting out being told by Ted in 2030 to his Children, giving one of those life lessons I guess, but we rewind to 2005 when Ted meets Robin, in the first episode we find out Ted is in love with Robin, we also find out Ted never actually ends up with Robin as he refers to her as “Aunt Robin” to his children at the end of the episode.

Marshal and Lilly are in a relationship and have been for 9 years, soon to be getting married. Ted is best friends with Marshal and gets most of his love advice from him and Lilly, we then bring Barny into the mix who is the clown of the group, more interested in 1 night stands than looking for love like Ted. One thing pointed out the most by his friends is that Ted thinks too much rather than just doing, thus limiting his chances with women. Ted is also picky with who he dates, looking for his perfect soul mate.

I guess what makes it good to watch is the fact we can or want, to relate most of our life to these characters and the things they do.

Another quick update, I am still watching The Secret Life of an American Teenager, I have skipped ahead to the current series which was not the best idea, when looking back I found the first episode confusing now I am totally confused with who’s doing what, none the less I will continue to try and pick up the story line. It is starting to get a bit predictable now though and the story line doesn’t feel it can develop much further.

I have just had one of the most expensive purchasing days of my life, never did I think when I woke up this morning today I would spend a grand total of £4000+ What was I thinking?! The story behind it was the Archos 9 (featured below) and buying a new car. The reason for the Archos 9 purchase was simple but and hugely debated one (which took place in my head), I thought I haven’t bought anything nice in a while, it’s time to treat myself and especially right after Christmas why not? So my day started out with a £400 purchase on what I think will be a brilliant little toy for next year at university and something portable to watch movies on, a bit of an upgrade from an iPod or iTouch I know, but if you knew me you would know how much I love TV and Movies so a bigger screen is much better! I have also always wanted a table and at this price I couldn’t say no. In the past I have looked at hybrid notebook tablets but I have gone for a pure tablet.

My day also ended expensively, more expensive than when it started. I have been looking for a new car recently due to my current beloved car is on its way out and I really hate to say it, there is some odd attachment to your first car and I will actually hate to see it go but we have had some fun and I need a more reliable car seeing as I travel to London daily for my job. Its also a bit of a step up, a newer model and bigger engine. This will push up my weekly costs of petrol slightly but I am also looking forward to putting my foot down and moving off faster! So as with any purchase what are the specs? It’s a Vuaxhall Corsa 1.2 litre, Silver, 2004 Reg with only 7,800 miles!! I am glad to be getting a car with such low mileage to start with as commuting to London will drive it up fast, so when I come to sell it I may be able to price it slightly higher. This will be like driving a new 2004 reg car seeing as its hardly been driven. Some other features I am looking forward to are the power assisted steering, air conditioning, CD player and power socket (I can finally charge my phone whilst driving).

So that’s how my expensive day came to be!

Archos 9

I saw this just before Christmas and have wanted one ever since, with Eee PCs and Netbooks really taking off and some of the big brands like Intel and AMD start to create small processors just for this purpose they small PCs are becoming ever more powerful. Archos have used one of these Netbook processors and placed it into a tablet making it one of the best but low cost tablet products on the market.

The tablet is one of the first to run Windows 7 and here are some specs about the device.

Intel ATOM Z510 1.1 GHz, 1GB RAM, 60GB HDD, Wireless & Bluetooth, 8.9″ Screen and an estimated 5h battery life.

It also boats a nice sleek design, although mainly covered in plastic but with a gloss effect and silver writing. The device also has its own stand which can prop the device up at two levels, one for computing and the other for watching movies on. So this device is quite clearly aimed at computing and entertainment. Looking at some of Archos’s old products it seems they are all about entertainment.

I have looked at a few reviews on this device and everyone seems quite pleased with it, although the reviews are not saying it’s amazing I certainly couldn’t find any saying it was horrid. I must try and find one of these instore so I can have a bit of a play with it, the screen uses resistive touch technology compared to lots of devices which now choose capacitive touch such as the iPhone and BlackBerry Storm.

With the Apple Tablet only around the corner (expected to be released January 31st 2010) will it push this new portable tablet to the back of the shelve. I think the deciding factor here will be price, no doubt the Apple Tablet will cost in the region of £900+ as with most apple computing products the Archos is just a bit more appealing at £450. I guess we will have to wait and see what the Apple tablet boasts.

GSK House

So I was expecting to write this yesterday, I was quite excited to have a team VTC (Video Tele Conference) where we would get to see all our team in the US and finally get to see what they look like after 6 months of working at GSK! What a shame we get the 1 room in GSK House which doesn’t work! (Damn you V2M Room) I must admit I was impressed when I walked in though, it looked like a news studio with the big news reader desk and backdrop, 2 nice big 50 inch LCD screens, if only it had worked. So that was a massive disappointment to the day, we will have to wait until Q2 before we get to do our next one now!

I suppose the title of this should read, VTC & Workload. I did mean to write this above the VTC really but I just thought I would blurt out that above. So this week myself and a colleague have been picking up a huge increase in incidents due to 2 members of our team being off sick! I think we processed about 30 tickets in a day which is a hell of a lot considering we usually do an average of about 10 a day if that sometimes! We are working on an increased amount in our queue anyway, I think we are coping quite well!

Welcome to my new blog, so I decided to use [blippr]wordpress[/blippr] this time than create my own system. I think I deserve a bit of a rest, I mean why bother creating a custom blog (as fun as it may be) when someone has created a brilliant open source one with loads of plugins!

So I guess onto my first real post…

I started watching a new TV program today it’s called “[blippr]The Secret Life of the American Teenager[/blippr]“, it airs on ABC Family (quite appropriately judging on the story line), I am not quite sure what to make of it yet. In the first episode we find out the main character is pregnant, she doesn’t want to tell her parents, she is also starting a relationship with a random freshman pretending she’s not pregnant whilst not telling the real father who she slept with a band camp, who apparently is trying to get with every girl in the school it seems. There is nothing new in the plot line, looks set to be one of those ones where she has the baby and everyone finds out who the real father is etc… you get the idea. Anyway I might dare to watch only a few more before I abandon this one for good.