Modern Warfare 2 bandwagon

It was inevitable.  This was a game I've been looking forward too since I drenched myself in the previous incarnation, single player campaign, online play, replaying single player on vet, completing all the acheivements - it was just that good.  I'm hopeful Modern Warfare 2 lives up to expectations.

When I found out Sainsburys were kicking the game out for £26 it was a full gone conclusion, despite the disaproval from the wife :-)  In fact I was so fixed on getting a copy I was actually there before the store opened and I queued for a game for the first time in my life!

So, I have an early finish from work today - and quiet relaxation/sleep and a break from baby stuff will now be replaced with violence, machine guns, online banter, and smack talk.  Fantasic.

Office Wrestling

Me: *grapples*
Co-worker: *supplexes*
Me: *1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 punch in the corner*
Co-worker: *reverses, followed by a slap to the chest, runs to the other corner, removes turn buckle cover, grabs him and throws him face first into expsoed metalwork*
Co-worker: * runs to opposite corner, face crowd, peels off elbow guard, lifts it to the gods of wrestling, throws it into the crowd, screaming blonde catches, sniffs and faints, turns in time to land a flying elbow drop*
Me: *barrel rolls out of the ring, picks up the chair, puts it down, picks up a wooden spoon, puts it down, picks up some chesse, throws it on the ring floor. Clambers back into the ring, gets opponent in a DDT between the legs, falls backwards to execute move, half way down utters the words "smell my cheese", and watches his opponent struggle with the thought of being locked between my legs with the strong odour of cheese thrashing at his nostrils...*

Placeholder for something better

I owe a considerable post on life in general at the moment.  Most significantly the recent arrival of my baby daughter Olivia.  I'm struggling to decide whether to have a seperate blog for my gushing on that subject, or whether to include the likely sporadic posts here.  Either way they'll be mention on here which ever way, of course.

For now a quick summary of recent times.

- Daughter born!!
- Coping with late nights!
- Found my Siamese Dreams CD
- Playing COD 4... again.
- Got a Blackberry Bold (through work)
- Feeling web inspired

There's hopefully more to come soon.

Mixing Business with Pleasure

Is it possible to play Call of Duty 4 whilst tending to your 6 week old, on your own, at 1am?

No, it is not.

That's my mug!

About... I dunno, 4 years ago I subscribed to the trend of taking a cup to work from home to drink my tea from. Everyone was doing it. The polostyrene one's in the office were shunned. But no-one wants to wash up at work, right? And so these cups are left to furment either in the kitchettes provided, on desks, in cupboards, or stashed under a colleagues desk so that they constantly wonder "what IS that smell!?". And my cup from home was no different.

For days (perhaps only a day maybe...) I slurped my tea back with wild abandonment. It felt like being at home. Except I wasn't.

Then one day (the same day maybe...) it seemed necessary to wash out the previous beverage's remains and stains so off to the kitchenette I went, and meh. It got left on the side with dozens of other best intentions. When I returned the next day enthausmed for more cup fun and a whole new perspective on washing up, she was gone - stolen away as if it was one of those plain permantely stained cups provided by the work place. Gone.

I easily fell back into my polostyrene ways and the "make, drink, and drop" style remained mine and still does to this very day.

Every now and again when I've attened site in the depths of night for on call reasons I've seen my cup, either on the wash board filthy, or prestine in the cupboard and I always use it on these occasions. But again it is destined to realise its usual fate.

But today, when I needed it most, when I'd been up all night with Olivia and thoughts of coffee and awakeness burnt in my mind all the live long way to work - what should be greeting me when I cannot falter the lock on the cupboard that stores the polostyrere cups?

My cup. And I will never let you go again!!

...until you are dirty.

I think I'd like a bike...

I've been thinking about it on and off for a while now, and I really fancy a motorbike. Nothing crazy, nothing wildly powerful, I'm not into all that. But I'd like to try it, experience it, plan long rides with a friend, that kind of thing - sounds right up my street.

Of course there's the expense and the onset of a new baby on the scene, but surely that shouldn't stop me doing things I like or stop me from persuing a passion?

Certainly worth looking into. CBT for my Birthday, save some money, buy a little bike, enjoy. Sounds good.

*post heavily inspired by this blog: http://www.thepostman.org.uk/ and thankfully the need has since subsided*

The Smashing Pumpkins

I was sifting through some music I'd found on an old harddrive on Friday and stumbled across some Smashing Pumpkins tracks. They've really made some fantastic music.

I can remember being into the whole Nirvana and Pearl Jam thing when I was at school (around 91, 92), not the scene particularly but the music definately. Sure, I had a check-shirt, but I wasn't into guitar and I didn't hate my parents. Anyway, I think like a lot of people I hadn't really gotten wind of the Pumpkins back then (even though they had an album out, Gish, by that point) and I continued to unfortunately overlook them for a number of years. Around 95, 96 a friend of mine picked up Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and I gave it a listen. The attraction of the heavy guitars and ferocious vocals pulled me in, but I don't think I gave it much listening time as I was going through a Neil Young Zuma, Freedom, Weld kind of phase at the time.

When I hit University, and musical interests became a common topic of conversations/distraction, their name would pop up and I'd be able to convey my meagre knowledge of some of their music and at least know enough to know that around 96, 97 and on the back of their epic double album Melon Collie, their popularity was at a high. So I revisited that album, became hugely drawn to it, and with it came the usual process of buying up the back catalouge and soaking myself in it until I was drenched! Siamese Dreams effected me the most at the time, and had a big influence for me personally with regards to the music I was experimenting with. You see, around 97 I guess, I'd finally picked up the guitar. I'd always been into guitar driven music and now I craved being able to replicate my favourites - and in turn make something of my own. There's alot to be said for coming up with a chord sequence, or a melody, or even a noise that YOU made and that you like the sound of. It's writing to your own taste, and you can get more whenever you like. I don't pretend to be profecient or even intermediate some many years later, but I still get a kick out of it, and I still enjoy it bashing away the best I can.

Pumpkins were'nt the only band I liked the sound of around that time, with my love for Nirvana, Perl Jam, Metallica, Neil Young, and Foo Fighters all playing their part for my musical soul, but the Smashing Pumkins had so much energy in their music - so many layers - that I was quickly a huge fan.

Back to finding some Pumpkins tracks on a lost harddrive. There weren't many of them (I had the albums on CD anyway, right), but as I flicked through I remembered a dear favourite of mine, the track "Hummer" on Siamese Dreams. It's much easier to find music online than it ever has been, and in particular when I want to check out a track quick without the rigimors of finding them on sneaky sites and downloading copies that turn out to be a completely differnt band or porn, I fired up YouTube and did a quick search. Obviously loads of results, and to my delight there were a handsome amount of music videos and live performances. I poured over them for hours, happening on some rare footage and some documentaries to boot. The guitar came out, the tablature for Hummer was sought, and although I'd get no-where near replicating it in full or even well, I managed enough of the intro chords to fill me with that same enthausiasm I had for them over 10 years ago.

And once again I find the drive to work all that more acceptable, as Gish resolves around and around in my CD player, with Adore having never left the glove box, and when I finally locate my lost copy of Siamese Dreams I'm sure it will once again become a permanent resident until I've attacked my ear drums with it so much that I start thinking in rich swirls of melon collie and wallowing in fuzz soaked waves of guitar...