Remember, Remember The 9th of Novem...hmm...

We went to the fireworks last night (and by "we" I mean me, Cannard and Rob), and overall it was disappointing. It was too windy, so from our viewpoint in Wetherspoons patio-ish bit most of the show was a bright dot flying a few metres into the air from the jetty, before the wind took it behind the pub building, and then there was an explosion. And this year it was to commemorate those who fought in the war 90 years ago. Which is just the kind of celebration they want : explosions, flashes, people goose-stepping around...maybe that was just us.
And in no way were the fireworks choreographed to the music being played. It was as if two different companies were running a side each, and hadn't discussed it beforehand. You'd reach the rousing bit of "Land of Hope and Glory" only for there to be nothing matching it in the sky. I say the sky, but from our estimates the fireworks were exploding no higher than 10 metres off the ground. But they did play "Dambusters", and for this they should receive credit, for this is a wonderful song, and was hummed during the walk home. We stopped short of walking in formation, but mainly because there were no German factories to flood nearby. That would be a British Legion commemoration I'd go to watch.

The Goings On Of The Last Few Days

Going back to Thursday of this week, which is about a 2 days ago, I've been to a Jobs and Careers Fair in Taunton, Rileys, fishing, the National Franchise Exhibition at the NEC, and more fishing.

The Jobs fair was held at the County Ground, home of Somerset County Cricket Club, was one of the biggest wastes of time I've ever endured, and I went to see The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe at the cinema. First we (me, Clayton and Cannard) parked up and went into the cricket shop to re-grip Claytons bat, and wander around for a bit. Then we strolled into the Pavilion where the fair was, and were immediately disappointed (although I was more let down by the fact that I feel anything with the word "fair" in the title needs at least some kind of raffle to merit the name, and preferably a Helter-skelter of some description). There were stands for employers such as Somerset Care, since everybody round here is either old or works with people who are old. There were also separate stands for the Army and the Navy (no sign of the Air Force), but who would go to a careers fair in order to join up? They are either for the casual browser who are looking for a career change, or someone who has a good idea of where they want to take their vocation, and are looking for more information. A willingness to be shot at for Queen and country isn't really a path trodden by these. There was a brief moment of interest when we came across the booth for "The Space Program". Turns out this is a dance group, and "Space" was a deceptively presented acronym. Leaving meant walking past the woman who minutes earlier had given us our sponsored bags to collect information in, so we waited until her back was turned when filling more bags with leaflets, and made a break for the door. Since we were in Taunton, and it would feel like a wasted journey otherwise, we trekked to Rileys, where I wasn't asked for my membership card. This was a good thing, as it expired a couple of days before.

Upon returning home, I had about 5 minutes to change my shirt and trousers for a fleece and waterproof cargos, and headed out to go fishing with Cannard and Clayton. None of us had rod licences, but Cannard said this didn't matter. I thought it did.
Two rods between 3 people probably isn't the best way to take part in what is already a fairly boring "sport", but we had to make do with what we had. The weather wasn't looking wonderful, but I was prepared with my (brief) history in geology, so I was well able to clamber over fences and wet fields in full waterproof gear. If I'd been asked I might even have been able to give a grid reference or two. It probably wouldn't have been right, but I'd have given it a go. It the course of events though, I managed to step in a large puddle of freshly deposited cow faeces, rip my waterproof trousers, and nearly fall in to a very wet, very cold river. So not unlike most of my field trips at uni. Suddenly a storm hit us, and by suddenly I mean one minute it looked fine for us to keep going, and the next we were running through flooded fields back to the car. Having stood in what was a steadily rising number of pats, it was understandable that my shoes were not entirely welcome in the car. I would usually have had no problem with this. It was my fault, so I'd have to take them off and put them in a bag for the journey home. Fine. However, its not particularly easy to do this when you are standing in gale force winds with rain seemingly going sideways, while holding a large lightning conductor. I ended up walking up the front path to my house in my socks.

We got lost on the way to the NEC. Clayton wouldn't listen to the satnav, and despite my insistence that it was saying "keep right" he thought it would be better to keep left. We missed the roundabout and were heading towards Birmingham Airport. A quick U-turn sorted that out, but it set a tone for the rest of the day. Once in the exhibition it was hard to tell which booths we'd been to, and which we hadn't. Plus all the time you were on the look out for either over-zealous salesman or scantily clad tarts thrusting registration forms into your hands. Better play it safe and sit though the seminars on how to set up a franchise. Very informative, but at the same thing so dull that Clayton decided it was time to see which of his joints click the loudest when left unmoved for a few minutes. Turned out it was his elbows. We left the exhibition at 3, thinking it would take about 2 hours to get home. Back by 5, everyone's happy. On the way out theres a sign saying "Hall 6 via Skywalk". Assuming theres an exit near Hall 6, we thought we may as well take a different way back to the car. The Skywalk, as it turns out, is not like the Skywalk on the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Its more like a corridor of travelators with some windows in, and the view from these windows is that of the industrial units about 5 metres away. Not a huge success, but not much different from the alternative we'd seen on the way in. However, once we'd reached the exit (which was further from Hall 6 than we'd hoped) we didn't know which way it was to the car. Any sensible person would say go back the way we came, wait for the car park shuttle, or at least consult a map before proceeding. I suggested all of these things, but my opinion was thought unnoteworthy after suggesting that the Skywalk might be interesting. What followed was around 1 and a half hours of circumnavigating the NEC and its accompanying industrial park, a total of 3 miles after wrong turns and a lack of shortcuts, the whole while blaming me for getting us into this mess, and how we probably could have been home by now if we'd gone the right way. This was later brought up as we were sat in a traffic jam on the motorway which we probably would have missed if we'd gone went out the way we'd gone in.

We went fishing again this morning. And again it rained. Not so much this time, but enough to force us back to Claytons for Micro Machines on the Sega. There was a brief time where he had beaten my long-standing record on Basement Bumps. There was much jumping around and exclamation as he had become obsessive about beating it. I took the record back within 10 minutes. Clayton is probably sat at MY Sega in his room surrounded by empty Red Bull cans trying to beat it again.

So there we go. A very productive few days. Got a meeting on Monday about doing an AAT qualification so I can become a trainee accountant, which should be fun.

Boje

Britain On Tour

Le Tour de Grande-Bretagne (as I'm sure ITV4 have tried branding it, as we all know the French invented cycle races...) finished one of its stages in Burnham yesterday, and was greeted by "enthusiastic school children" who had been let out of school early to see it.
Its not surprising that this isn't one of the great tours (like France, Spain and Italy), since the Tour de France takes the competitors through the Alps and Pyrenees, past vineyards and gothic cathedral-like structures in glorious summer sunshine. And what do they get on the Tour of Britain? Some hills over Exmoor, a burnt out pub, the Woodpile, and the glamorous finishing straight with the Bejing Buffet and JPS. All in the rain.
And theres been a lot of rain. Usually on the other tours all the talk is about what tactics are going to be used, and which riders will get to the front when. But as soon as they hit Somerset the whole pre-race chatter is about waterproofs.
Summer came and went, but nobody thought to tell the cyclists.

Boje

Its All Very Exciting

I'm going down to the JobCentre again today, to try and get another £90 out of the government for spending two weeks doing nothing, and one evening frantically scribbling in jobs I might have applied for. And one of the ones I did apply for (Yeovalley) has given me an interview for tomorrow at 10.30. In the morning. Not in the evening. You may know of the Yeovalley in Highbridge, which would be the one sensible people would apply for. Not me though. I've gone for Blagdon, which according to Google Maps, is 17.6 miles, and 32 minutes away. All this means I'll have less time (and fewer minutes) to play computer games and tell people about them. Which leads me nicely to...:

UPDATES AND RESPONSES:

In reply to Markus (for that is his name) who doesn't smoke (for that is what he doesn't do. Decide amongst yourselves whether or not to take into account the double negative), I have played the Total War series. I have on this computer Shogun Total War - Warlord Edition. I have also had some experience of Rome and the two Medievals, but found them less fun, and more confusing than Shogun. Rome was one of the games that got us through the month in Scotland last year, along with Age of Empires, and the ever present Football Manager.

And on the recommendation of Benji K, I have obtained a copy of Republic: The Revolution. It seems a very good game, although I feel it may take some getting into. It feels a bit like Age of Empires crossed with Hooligans, with a bit of Risk chucked in. I'm also looking into getting Democracy, or Democracy 2 if I can find the real nations mod first, which was made by one of the programmers who worked on Republic.

And a Football Manager update : I decided against a team in the Conference South, mainly because no one would sign for me. Apparently they didn't see the draw of moving to Burnham to play at Rosewood Park.
So I started a game with Dundee United in the Scottish Premier. Didn't do any fiddling about with it, had the starting budget of £20 million, and won the league and both cups. I, like Arsene Wenger, make a point of only buying young players (apart from when he bought Silvestre), so my teams average age is just 20, with a youth team full of talented 15/16/17 year olds, and a new youth academy on the way. I think I'll be staying in Dundee for a bit, and then moving on to see if I can win things in England, Spain and Italy.

Boje

It Turns Out I Don't Like EA Sports

This is a combined status update/review of some of the games I mentioned that are clogging up this very PC. I hope to show that you needn't discount a game because it has the wrong year in its title, or because it was downloaded from a freeware site. And by the same haggis I hope to show that new games in a series are not necessarily better than the ones they replaced. So make yourself comfortable, obtain some kind of cheese-based snack, and prepare yourself for many paragraphs of pointless drivel. Or leave now, while you still can...

Football Manager 2007 : I've just installed the 7.0.2 patch update, so I'm starting a new game. Think I might make a Rosewood Park Football Club, and stick them in Conference South and see how they do. No cheating this time. Just using the players it gives me to try for promotion and maybe some silverware (the Johnstones Paint Pot is probably my best hope). I'm deleting the save file for my made-up Plymouth City team, as they are winning everything, and its getting a bit boring. And as for my pre-game edited Liverpool team, I won't even bother, as there's not going to be any fun in beating everyone 8-0, only to then have to reload when I lose 1-0 in an FA Cup semi-final against Rochdale.

FIFA Soccer Manager : A game from 1996/97 that was bought in Lidl's for £1.49 a few years ago. Its not the most advanced game in the world, but seasons only take about 20 minutes to complete. I've got a couple of save files going on this, most of them already with bursting trophy cabinets, such as my Dundee United side who were the Champions League winners in 2000, after I got them promoted from the first division, and my Plymouth side who started in the third division, and by 2007 had won everything there was to win. Its not hard to do well in FSM, since there's a fairly straight forward strategy to follow whenever you start a new game:
1) Find your players best positions, and put your best 11 together.
2) Sell the dead weight and get a loan in to buy new, better players.
3)Try and get through the season with your skeleton squad
4) Buy the young, cheap players that are generated at the end of every summer.
5) Win your way through until you have enough cash to build a huge non-tiered stadium, since you get nearly the same number of seats for about a twentieth of the price.
6) Once your team is in the top division, buy rubbish players on the cheap, and sell them for extortionate prices because they are now top flight players.
Eventually you'll have enough money from ticket sales and transfers to be able to pay well over the odds for any player you want, including those not transfer listed, thus creating a young uber-team who will beat anyone.

Grand Prix Manager 2 : This has the 2008 update, so my BMW squad have got Heikki Kovalainen
and Nico Rosberg driving for them. Nico was my test driver last year, but when we were half way through the season, it turned out that Nick Heidfeld was signing for Red Bull Racing, and by the end of the season he'd taken his newly won championship with him. The team were not happy, but we won both championships the next year, and he crashed in his third race putting him out for the season.

Cricket Coach 2007 : I stumbled across this after linking from a freeware site to its homepage, and found that it was a free download. That turned out to be the demo, which makes sense, but all the same I persisted and acquired a free copy through means unknown. Its very much like Football Manager in layout, which causes me to think that a lawsuit may be on the way, but its still very good, despite its spreadsheet proportions. I'm playing as Somerset, of course, and I'm half way through my second season, having signed Shane Warne and Inzy as my overseas players.

Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 : I made good use of the downloadable player editor with this, so that a team comprising of me, Cannard, Clayton, Badger and Robby D (plus others) won the Champions Trophy in Manor Gardens colours. I think I'll start an Ashes tour next, and give those Aussies a lesson in virtual cricket. This game is far better than EA's offering (the originally titled "EA Cricket 2005") which just depends on licences from the cricket boards and first-class teams, rather than creating a playable game, as is the case with...

FIFA Manager 2008 : EA's attempt at a football management game, following in the footsteps of their previous goes at the market (the aforementioned "FIFA Soccer Manager", three "Total Club Manager" branded efforts, and the current "FIFA Manager" series which started in 06). In many ways, a more complete game than Football Manager, its a kind of RPG/sports management/business mogul game. Little touches like spending your money on a swimming pool for your new semi-detached house, and a more involved sponsorship side. But since you don't feel so involved in the football part of the game, its not nearly as addictive as Football Manager, which has led to many lost weeks. Like EA Cricket, it does have the licences for the top teams and tournaments, but all that means is you get a nice logo in the corner, and it says "FIFA World Cup" rather than the Football Manager equivalent : "World Cup", which can be put right with a few minutes of database editing anyway.

Chart Wars 3 : A game where you own a record label, sign bands, get them to tour, write songs, release singles and albums, and get them to promote them. I keep it simple by having just one band on my label "Fossil Records" (geology joke there). There are all kinds of things you can do to edit this games database, like add new bands, venues, festivals, awards ceremonies, and labels. Which I have. My current band "Slide" have had 3 number twos in a row, after touring for a year and releasing singles which reached the dizzy heights of number 54 before they became well enough known to appear on Jools Holland. Chart Wars doesn't really have any graphics. Its basically a bunch of tabs and buttons to get you through menus until you get to where you want to be. Very good for a game that is distributed for free by a programmer who now works on Football Manager.

Popscene : Make your characters, form a band, perform on the street/small bars/bigger bars/clubs, get signed, and release some records. Its quite a nice way to pass the time, but the graphics stop it from being as involving as other music management games.

Rise Of Nations - Thrones and Patriots expansion : Buy this game. Don't download the torrent, because if you do they'll stop making them since they think no-one is interested in it. It is an amazing game. Essentially Age Of Empires, but better. You go from a load of peasants with sticks, to being able to fire nuclear weapons. And you should always be the British, as I am being in my current Conquer The World campaign, as everybody knows the British are the best at everything. Much better than the poncy Yanks, and their French statue.

FIFA 08 : Recently deleted to make space for the Football Manager patch, I feel it deserves a mention. FIFA has been with us now for many years now (I think since 1993, International Soccer with David Platt on the cover), although my first experience of it was seeing FIFA 96 (Jason McAteer) in Pink Planet in Weston, the first one I played was FIFA 97 (David Ginola in his Newcastle days), and the first one I owned was FIFA 98 : Road To World Cup, which in my opinion was the best FIFA game ever (with Beckham on the outside, and the much-missed 5-a-side option on the inside).
Anyway, FIFA 08 was a good game, but not great. My all-star Plymouth Argyle side, with edited strip to include the Ginsters logo that EA omitted, were flying high in the Premier League. But FIFA 08 is pretty much just FIFA 06 with updated squads. Yes, they added new stadia, new clubs, new strips, and a few new modes for padding, but it is in essence its the same game engine as 2 years ago, which is a long time in computer graphics terms. And there will always be the argument about which is better : Pro Evo or FIFA. I'm leaning towards Pro Evo now, for much the same reason I prefer Brian Lara to Cricket 05, and Football Manager to FIFA Manager. EA depend far too heavily on their expensive licences to get them sales, whereas the other developers (Codemasters, Konami and Sports Interactive) always put playability above superficial touches, many of which can be altered after sale anyway.

Wireless

This keyboard is now wireless. As is this mouse *wiggles mouse, thus proving its wirelessness*. Unfortunately, the monitor is so far still wired, which means that although theoretically I could be typing this from way over on the other side of the room, my eyesight prevents me wandering further than a squint away. That and the fact that moving to the other side of the room would require standing up, and I'm only willing to do that if its neatly sewn into my desk-to-bathroom journey, or if a bag of Skittles is involved. I suppose the wirelessness of the keyboard does allow for laid back, keyboard-on-lap typing, but since that is where my guitar invariably resides, I see no point for this extended range.
And while I'm on the subject of pointless wireless set-ups, what is the point of a wireless system that lets you use internet on a laptop all over the house? The kitchen is for cooking, and the dining room is for eating the products of the kitchen. The conservatory is for playing poker in, the lounge is for watching Top Gear in, and the study is for playing FIFA 98 in. The only place I can envisage using an internet enabled laptop is at the desk where the PC currently sits.
It seems I've talked my self out of getting a laptop, which is a shame. I'd like to have somewhere for my stuff, which takes up the majority of the space on this PC. My 50GB of music, plus however much memory Football Manager, FIFA 08, FIFA Manager 08 and Brian Lara Cricket use. I could dump it all on my PC, but we come back to a common problem. My PC is in my room, a full 10 metres from this desk. The going back and forth with memory sticks, the frustration at my intolerably slow Dell. Its not worth the bother.

Boje

"They Call Me The Jobseeker...

...I've been searching low and high. I won't get to get what I'm after, till the day I die"

Which seems a bit too long to me. As today I officially started the long and arduous mission of completing a JobSeekers benefit application. Yes, its a bit defeatist. And I may be claiming when I've done nothing to contribute to society, but Mum told me to, so I have to do it.

We went down to Bridgwater (since Burnhams JobCentre has closed, thank you very much Mr Brown...) and had to join a queue. I'm British, so I like a good queue. There were things to look at, leaflets to organise in a manner which would most annoy the supervisor, and touchscreen job-finding computers.

So there we were, queuing and waiting, everyone having a lovely time, when out of the blue, I'm up! I explain my current predicament (searching for a job, wishing to claim JobSeekers...) and I was handed a pamphlet. Now, I'm not a huge fan of pamphlets at the best of times, but it had been a reasonably long journey from my bed to Bridgy Job office, only to be confronted by a woman who clearly had an appointment book with vacant spaces big enough to build on, only she would prefer if I make an appointment. That's what I was there to do! All I had for my troubles was a piece of paper with a phone number on it. Apparently it is no longer good enough to be somewhere in person, you now have to call in advance, essentially making an appointment to make an appointment.

Everything's alright though. The government now has my details, and I'm waiting for them to get back to me, when they'll make a 40 minute phone call to confirm everything I've told them is correct. I may get that £40 a week, but that'll have to go towards paying for the procedures treating the cancer all this phone radiation is going to give me.

Boje

Bandwagon Jumping Is A Government Encouraged Form Of Exercise...

I won't have a bad word said about doing things just because someone else is. This has happened plenty of times in history without complaint. For example, the US joining World War II after Britain were already in it (unless you are American, in which case you believe you were in it from the start, won it on your own, and feel that countless films are required to commemorate this achievement).

Anyway, or anyhoo if you are that way inclined, this is my bright and shiny, brand-spanking-new blog. It'll be a platform for my many ramblings, lists of varying degrees of length/pointlessness, campaigns for the return of archaic phrases, and other exciting things to look forward to.

Boje