Japanese day

From next week onwards every Thursday will be Japanese day where I write a very stilted conversation between two people in Japanese in order to make my quota for my Japanese course. Where I'm learning Japanese. I really think so.

As predicted by myself I was hopelessly lost today & couldn't even remember to ask people their name. So I've hit my mp3's of Japanese learning. Expect my last.fm charts to be full of such hit artists as 'BBC Japan' and 'BBC Japan CD2'.

Text Blog (delayed)

Writing this slightly late as my mobile phone wouldn't let me send a blog. It further backs up what I wrote in that failed blog. Which was that I'm having a very crap week and feel as though I'm Larry David in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

However I've got over this hump and am now embracing this period of bad luck. In fact I now feel pretty, pretty good.

None more black

Man, I'm annoyed today. Just washed all my white work shirts in my crappy washing machine only for them all to some out with big black marks on them. So I'm going to have to buy another five/six shirts, then get the landlord to bring in a new machine.

The current one has never worked properly. It was all dirty when we moved in & has never spun round correctly. What a piece of crap.

At least we'll get our money's worth from the fifteen quid increase in rent.

Text blog

In fake news my alter-ego who is currently playing upfront for Forest (and won Euro 2008 for England) has rejected their latest contract offer. I did this by accident. I suspect Chimbonda did the same thing at Spurs and is now trying to cover his tracks. Cheerio!

Reviews Sunday

Sunday is now officially reviews day. Where I'll review things that I found during my week and then mark them out of seven (because then I can't give anything half marks*). In this inaugural edition I will be reviewing Mario Vs Donkey Kong on the GameBoy Advance.

Mario Vs Donkey Kong is based on Donkey Kong 94 which was the Game Boy game that could be played on the Super Game Boy for added graphical effects. DK94 is the game that connects 3D Mario to 2D Mario as it was in this game that Mario started to do backflips, somersaults and not really care about how many lives you had. It was also very hard and whilst easy to complete, to fully get all of the extra goodies took a lot of skill and patience. Yes, plenty of patience.



Mario Versus Donkey Kong is more of the same. But with better graphics and great sound bites**. The aim is to collect a key to get through the door, and the challenge is in all the little things that get in the way. You can also collect the three presents for an opportunity to win an extra life and completing the level with a high enough score gives you a star (apparently getting all of these unlocks expert levels, which luckily I'm nowhere near getting).



So it's Mario & Donkey Kong business as usual, except every six levels you have a section where you have to guide mini toy Marios to a toybox***. This is more of a challenge as the Mario's follow you, but can't do the same moves as you, so you have to make the level mini-friendly in a Timekeepers sort of way.

I'm rapidly losing enthusiasm for this reviews Sunday format, therefore I will end by saying that Mario Versus Donkey Kong is a worthy successor to the excellent Donkey Kong 94 and I highly recommend it to anyone. Six out of seven.

"Thank you very much for to reading my reviewsis."

* Unless you count zero as a mark, in which case three would be a half mark. But I'm not so it's not. Perhaps tomorrow I'll explain my scoring system. Hopefully not.

** They're really great. Charles Martinet really earns his money on this one. When starting the 'plus' levels Mario says "Here we go again. Again."

*** There's a vague plot about DK getting annoyed with Mario having his own toyline. In a first for a Mario game (probably) the Princess DOESN'T get kidnapped. Just some toys.

The Week In Twitters

Ordered Freya's valentines present #
making ringtones about MEATBAWLS!!! #
Am wearing a slightly glittery shirt to work #
Yay! Oscar is out! #
Had a good appraisal. Just need to convert it into money #
Think I've dislocated a tooth. Is that even possible? #
Did I really just hear someone mention 'Chutes and Ladders'? #
Dressed and ready to go out by noon. Ah Saturday how I've missed you #

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
How many times per day do you usually laugh?
On average? About five ish. Normally I'm laughing when I'm with Freya. Work, not so much. So I'd guess the par score for laughs goes up on the weekends.

Soup
What do your sunglasses look like?
I do not wear sunglasses. This might explain why my eyes are failing. That or too much time watching telly/on the PC. I must get back into books!

Salad
You win a free trip to anywhere on your continent, but you have to travel by train. Where do you go?
Let's go on the Orient Express. That way the train would be a pretty good holiday in itself. I would suggest a trip a la The Darjeeling Limited, but going from England to India by train would really wear me out.

Main Course
Name one thing you consider a great quality about living in your town/city.
I can walk into town to work and it only takes me twenty minutes.

Dessert
If the sky could be another color, what color do you think would look best?
Purple. I have no reason why.

Listese

Things I keep meaning to blog about but forget to. # Japan # Baseball # Baseball in Japan # MeatBAWLS! # Being an idiot # Being a massive idiot # Music # Advance Wars # Super Mario Galaxy # Work # My teeth hurting

Drop Sprogs

From having no-one babies ben loves babies! he wants a sprogling! a bear cub to call his own - erm sorry about that, I think Freya interrupted me there. From having none of my friends/work colleagues being with child I've had a run of people in such a situation.

I think there's about nine people at work who have just had kids, three who are about to have kids and my hairdresser has just dropped a sprog as well. I'm not taking the hint, even though I think I'd be a good Dad I just couldn't deal with my sleep being interrupted all the time. The annoying brat next door waking me every ten days with her crying is winding me up enough already. If I knew the crying was my responsibility and that I had to get up to make it stop I think I would be complaining about being tired much more than I am already.

I do look forward to a time when I'm so tired that I have afternoon naps. Unfortunately at the moment I feel tired enough to sleep, but never actually do it. Mostly because I'm at work when the mood takes me.

Championship Manager

I know I should be more positive and happy in these blogs, but I think I'm like Mr. Biffo in that I always see the worst in everything, or I at least I do when I'm writing this in the evening.

So I had my appraisal this morning and it went very well. The thing that worried me most was that my manager said "You've got a laid back style, but people still do work if you ask them to do it. That will be interesting to see how it works out when you're managing people yourself."

Me as a manager? Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

When I was about 11 years old and lived in Germany I was a latchkey kid and went home to an empty house after school. One time I got stopped by a Dutch guy in his car, this wasn't that unusual as we lived very close to the Dutch border. He asked me for directions to the local football ground, which was about 15 minutes walk away. I pointed him in the right direction, but he wanted me to get in his car and point out the way.

Luckily I was smart enough to know that this wasn't right so I lied and said that my Mum was waiting for me, so I had to get back. He didn't try anything else, but I rushed home whilst reciting the number plate to write down when I got in. I got home safely and wrote it down on the pad by the phone. Then I went to watch Knightmare or something.

Half an hour later my Mum and Dad got home & we had tea. At around seven-ish my Mum asked what the strange writing was on the pad. "Oh yeah" I said matter-of-factly "Some guy tried to stop me on the way home". Mum went a bit crazy and quickly rang the police.

Apparently the guy was well known for it, but I'm not sure if he was arrested or anything. Certainly all I said to the police was what I wrote above.

But anyway. Those Dutch eh? Crazshy Guysh.

Late again

Bah. The Long Blondes gig at Fibbers has sold out. Now if I want to see them I have to go to the Evil Faversham or the far away Leeds Uni. Don't think I can be bothered really. Some music fan I am.

The week in twitters

Wrestlecrap radio has reminded me of Sunny Beach #
Who is Paul Thomas Coates? And why does he want to be my friend on facebook? #
Just booked our log cabin for our honeymoon http://www.the-tranquil-otter.co.uk #
In Norwich. Wish I wasn't #
The travel inn hotel needs harder pillows #
And their plug sockets are too low to the floor #
50 minute wait in Peterborough. Great (irony) #
Now minus two wisdom teeth #
Anastethic (sp?) worn off. Ow this really hurts. Time to hit the tablets #
Logging into facebook as I can't access the twitter website #

Fridays Feast

Appetizer
What is your favorite beverage?
Coke-a-cola. Not diet, and definitely not Pepsi. Just the best ever drink at rotting your teeth and cleaning your toilets.

Soup
Name 3 things that are on your computer desk at home or work.
At work: Calculator, Transformers Bumblebee keyring, Sylvester McCoy Doctor Who figure
At home: 94 Euro, Ice Climbers pin decoration, Barbie sticker from the Dentist

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how honest do you think you are?
7/10. I am still wary with what to say on the Jeans/Fat issue.

Main Course
If you could change the name of one city in the world, what would you rename it and why?
Gotham City in Batman should be renamed Gotham, but as in Gotham Nottinghamshire. Which would mean that it's now pronounced Goat-ham.

Dessert
What stresses you out? What calms you down?
Pretty much anything can stress me out. But time heals all wounds. And calms me down.

Doing things by halves

I heard some people talking about when you feel you're old enough to no longer talk about your age in terms of halves and quarters. I don't think I've ever done that which means I must be very mature.

At least, part of me is. Did I mention my wisdom teeth have only just come through and I had them taken out yesterday? And I'm 27 and three quarters.

Two less teeth

My mouth hurts badly
Two wisdoms taken out fast
I hate my Uncle

Posting with tired eyes

On this day I was too tired to write a proper blog as I woke up four/five times during the night because the hotel's pillows were far too soft.

Posting in arrears

On this day I was exceptionally tired due to getting up at 5.30 to catch the train to Norwich. Then I attended an hour long meeting and then did nothing for four hours.

It's Business Time

Tomorrow I have to get up at 5.30 so I can get a train to Peterborough at 7, wait in Peterborough station for an hour and then get a train to Norwich. It's for work. I'm a little worried about what will happen as I've revised a report and instead of saying we save around £1.4m each month we're actually only saving just under £0.5m. I expect they will resort to violence to make me change my mind, however I know I have truth and justice on my side and will not be wavering.

So I will not be blogging tomorrow (well I will, but when I get home on Tuesday). In order to help you pass the time whilst you constantly press F5 on my homepage I point you towards http://www.alteraction.com/. This has the interactive game MASQ which is like a choose your own adventure book, but without swords and dragons and with rufty, clothes and the inability to bookmark a page so you can go back to it if you make a mistake. I highly recommend it.

The week in twitters

Unable to shut mouth on the right hand side. Will book appointment with Uncle/Dentist. #
Only 1gig left on the pc. Spring cleaning will come early... #
Able to close mouth so maybe I was being dentally hypochondric #
Waiting for my dentist/Uncle to call me back. Am scared to leave my desk #
I reckon my wisdom teeth are coming through, hence the pain #
Hoping my wisdom teeth need to be taken out. It may be a week of soup, but it will be a week off! #
Having to change 20 passwords at work #
Getting ready for the return of CSI. Teeth still hurt #
CSI is starting now. Will Sara be ok? #
Phew! Having a mega busy day at work #
Saw a schoolkid with an iphone. Felt upset for his parents. #
Yesterday: Nose dripping like a leaky tap. Today: More bunged up than Terry Vegetables #
Working past five for the first time this year. #
Just had a very stressful lunch :( #

Friday Feast

Appetizer
What is your middle name? Would you change any of your names if you could? If so, what would you like to be called?
My middle name is David. I would not change it as I like that my first name has three syllables, my middle name has two and my surname has one. I feel it has a nice cadence because of this. I realise I am a geek.

Soup
If you were a fashion designer, which fabrics, colors, and styles would you probably use the most?
Green. I have no other fashion ideas.

Salad
What is your least favorite chore, and why?
Not too sure. I'm a bit crap at tidying up after myself. And I don't like chopping carrots, they make my hands feel weird.

Main Course
What is something that really frightens you, and can you trace it back to an event in your life?
I have two examples of this. Firstly I'm wary of stickers being on my skin, this is from when I gave money to a clown for charity and he put a charity sticker on my nose. Perhaps I should be scared of clowns because of this, but the sticker was more traumatic.

I'm also scared of icy paths, because I fell over once and bashed my head somewhat rotten. This is a more rational fear, but I shouldn't be walking about like I've broken both legs just because it's slightly cold.

Dessert
Where are you sitting right now? Name 3 things you can see at this moment.
I am sitting in the spare bedroom on a stool (that reminds me I should buy a decent desk chair soon). I can see about 70 Euro. My Black Power tongue scraper. An Emmy The Great flyer.

Ball Ball Ball

In fake football news* I have just become injured for nine weeks with a groin strain. It's a bit annoying as Forest were top of the league, but now we're sinking like a heavy thing without good weight distribution. I'm currently valued at just over £30m and have over £10m in the bank. Shows what I could have done if I only applied myself.



* From New Star Soccer 3

Boring Work Post

I will be moving desks next week. The main annoyance about this is that my current PC has 2 gig of memory but my new PC will have 256 mb. This means that it will now take about eight times as long to do my usual tasks. I am upset about this*.

In other work news I did some useful work today. Believe me that's news in my current job.

* And annoyed, but I guess that came out in me calling it an annoyance.

Black Power!

Black Power!
Originally uploaded by uppi17

This is in reply to Matt's best Christmas present. I'm not sure if this means I win. I reckon probably not.

Friends in strange places

Well, I suppose I shouldn't say 'friends', what I mean is 'stuff I accidentally found that made me feel much better about myself'.

There was the article by Guy Haley in the latest issue of Death Ray about the future of the world. It's come at a time when I felt very depressed about the future of the planet, but Guy's article made me optimistic for what will happen. Apart from when he ended it with the Sun blowing up.

Then listening to the Long Blondes album made me happy that I was marrying someone I loved very much. This was something I wasn't depressed about, but with Kate Jackson singing her songs about cheating on people cheered me up. Because I'm not going to be like that.

Finally watching an old Who Do You Think You Are with Matthew Pinset calmed my nerves as well. Mostly because he found out he was decended from Jesus.

Other than those my teeth hurt. And my dentist cancelled as he was 'shaking like a shitting dog'. Cheers for that.

songs to add

Since I've bought my ipod nano I've had a few problems. Mostly with it not connecting to last.fm correctly, but I've also had to reformat it quite a few times. Now the problem I have is that I only have 8 gig of space which is miniscule in comparison to the 60 gig that my creative player had. So I have to decide which albums to put on my pod. I need a good mix of old stuff that I like, old stuff I bought but never got round to properly listening to, and new stuff I like.

I have decided on the following core albums (eventually I'll choose separate tracks, but I can't be arsed to do this at the moment):

• Lush - lovelife (got a massive jonesing for 500 after seeing one on Top Gear)
• Chicks - Criminals, chicas etc (actually I haven't got this, but I'm sure I read it's available to buy somewhere)
• Jarvis - Jarvis (got this last Christmas but still haven't listened to it properly)
• Long Blondes (bought this in Manchester a year & a bit ago but only listened to the singles - and they're playing in York!)
• Angelica - The Seven Year Itch (bought this in a HMV in Leeds but as they'd split up by that point I couldn't be bothered with it)
• Solex - all three albums (I like Solex so I will put it on)
• Steve Malkmus - Face The Truth (I like no more shoes)
• Petra Haden (her voice soothes* me)
  

I'm sure I'll still have lots of space but that will do for now. What do you have on your limited space mp3 players readers?

* I originally put 'sooths' me, which sounded very Frankie Howerd

The week in twitters

Idea stolen from suki.

• Back on twitter! Going to have an afternoon nap due to Xmas flu. #
• Still bunged up with cold. Still playing Super Mario Galaxy. #
• Shaved off my Christmas beard. Still feel like crap but will go into work tomorrow. #
• Been to work but went home due to illness and boredom. #
• Off to the shops to buy some coke & batteries for the wiimotes. #
• 2008 appears to be the year where I'll be constantly tired & not have a clue what's going on. #
• Feeling jetlagged. Body clock is out of sync due to this damned cold. #
• Going to the doctors. Have three ailments to talk about. #
• Two prescriptions given. Only rest is needed for my cold. So I'm going to work. #
• finding the new donnas album rather lacking in rock. now off to bed! #
• Having an absolute stinker of a headache. #
• Still got the headache. Tablets aren't working. #
• Illness update: Had a hot flush but has now been replaced by a suspected dislocated jaw. Ouch. #
  

Fridays feast

Appetizer
When was the last time you received a surprise in the mail, and what was it?

I won a mug in Mark Radcliffe's crucial three competition which arrived in the post a while back. Although this wasn't a surprise as I was on air when I won it. However I had totally forgotten about it when it had arrived so it was still a surprise (sort of).

Soup
If you could have a summer and/or winter home, where would you want it to be?
At the moment I'd want a flat in Tokyo. All year round. I've totally fallen in love with the place since we went in May. All I need to do is actually learn some Japanese & get a half-decent job.

Salad
Pick one: pineapple, orange, banana, apple, cherry.
Pineapple & cherry is out - don't like them. I only like orange juice - the fruit is far too fleshy. So it's between apple & banana. I'll go for apple as it's harder to crush/damage an apple as it is to do so to a banana.

Main Course
Describe the nicest piece of clothing that you own.
It's a t-shirt that has a girl from Battle Royale being killed in a very bloody fashion. OK so it's not strictly nice but it looks good - http://www.airsideshop.com/product.php?id=193.

Dessert
If you could forget one whole day from your life, which day would you choose to wipe from your memory?
Any day where I've had a hangover could be deleted. Although this might mean that I start drinking again so it's probably best I remember that otherwise that whole sorry affair would start again.

Kopfschmerzen

Ooh. I've had a really annoying headache all day today. It's the type of one that I have to call a stinker of a headache. There are three kinds of headaches I get, all of which are annoying, but this one is the worse. Mostly because it's the one I'm currently having, but also because it never seems to disappear until I've had some sleep.

The other headaches I get are either ones which disappear rather quickly after taking tablets or are migraines which mean I need to lie down in a dark room for an hour & then sleep. I'm meant to keep a diary of stuff I do to see if I have any triggers for my migraines, but I'm extremely lazy & forget to do so.

According to the BBC (linky here) low energy lightbulbs should be triggering my migraines. Except I've hardly had any since we've started putting them in our house. So either the migraine society are lying, or I've never had a proper migraine.

Anyway, I need sleep. And for Sophie next door not to wake up crying at four in the morning.

Tired

Hooray! It's the first blog of the year where I complain about being exceptionally tired!

At least I have an idea why this is the case this time around. I caught yet another cold/virus just as I flew off to Germany for Christmas. Which resulted in me spending Christmas Day sniffling and not eating as much turkey, jelly and chocolate cake as I would normally like to have done*.

The worse thing was I woke up at 3.30am on the Friday I was meant to be flying back to England. And couldn't get back to sleep. Ever since then my body clock has been all thrown out of sync, making me think it's 7pm when it's actually 2.30pm, eat about two mouthfuls of food before not wanting anymore and making me want to stay in bed when I wake up (but this isn't that new).

So I spent all of today at work (well the few hours I did spend at my desk) not doing too much. Which wasn't too much of a departure, except I was trying to make a new start for 2008. So it'll start next week, once I've had time too shake off my cold lag. Tomorrow I'll just write to-do lists and make sure my bond database can update Date of Births and include Outbound calls. I'm bored already for tomorrow.

* Although this did mean I was a lot thinner than usual on New Years Eve.

7 Blogs a week

Being an idiot (and because since I stopped NaBloPoMo-ing I only did one other blog) I have signed up to blog365 which means I have to do a blog a day. Luckily I have something rather important happening this year, but after my marriage on the 5th June I'm not sure what else I'll have to talk about. I do have some other stuff to do during the year though:

• Get a new job. Designing new reports isn't really the way I want my career to go. I need to start doing accountancy again (particularly if I'm paying two hundred quid a year to be a professional one)
• Keep getting fit. My Squash-a-thon sort of stopped in December, mostly due to Natalie being in India, but also due to me not being bothered to get anyone else to play against.
• Do more around the house. This may mean less playing computer games/going on the internet, which sort of goes against blogging everyday in 2008. However I reckon I took Freya for granted last year in a tidying the house/make my tea sort of a way and as a new man I need to stop doing this.
• Go to a doctor about this rash on my armpit. Actually this is more of a thing to do tomorrow.
• Sell all the CDs I no longer want on ebay. This could actually take all year. Anyone want Urusei Yatsura's Hello Tiger? Also see finally sending my GamesMaster videos off to Jack Templeton.
  
• Stop reading so many magazines. Pick one about music, one about games and one about sci-fi/films and stick to them.
• Go to sleep. You're really tired & the cold you've had over Christmas is really confusing your body clock.