Christmas with Pugs

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They don't quite get it ...

Merry Christmas

It's still Christmas morning, but so far the day is going very well.

A bunch of cool DVDs, some camera equipment and some toys found there way to me from Santa's sack, along with an xBox messenger and a couple of office toys.

Dancer got some nice kitchen porn, custom chocolates, wine and a few toys too.

So now we've got some Christmas movies on the TV, we've both called our families, we have a glass of nice red wine each, and pretty soon we'll be cooking up our Christmas pheasant.

The gifts are under the tree

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It's nearly Christmas!

Brutus helps wrap

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Why I learned to love Apple MKII

That G5 iMac we left with Apple on Saturday?

I ran over to pick it up today - brand new power supply.

Due to the wonders of Apple Care, this hasn't cost me anything.

Why I learned to love Apple

Back in May 2005 we bought an iMac G5. This machine has basically been turned on ever since.

A week ago, it started to shut down unexpectedly. A couple of days ago it shut down entirely, and wouldn't boot back up.

So today we took it to the Geniuses at the Mac store. Without so much as a query or a challenge, they took the machine off us, checked it in, ordered a new power supply, and it should be ready some time next week.

While there, they also switched the battery on my 18 month old Macbook out for a brand new one, as mine wasn't holding as much charge as it used to. No challenges, no fuss.

Not a single penny was spent during the trip (well, we bought a new keyboard for the iMac, but it didn't *need* one).

Apple are an awesome consumer experience.

Why Boston can't cope in snow

Yesterdays snow storm was pretty damned terrible. Record breaking levels of snow falling in a short amount of time, offices and businesses all closing at almost the same time, late response by city / state officials.

But it's done with, and no one got hurt.

Now read this article:

http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2007/12/14/snowy_standstill/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Front+Page

The name calling and finger pointing is hysterical - officials saying it would have been nice if it had snowed a bit later? Huh?! It would have been nice if it hadn't snowed at all!

Snow plows couldn't move either, so of course you weren't going to have nice clean roads. Last snow plow I looked at was a bit bigger than a car, so if I'm not getting into a spot, neither is he.

People. Are. Stupid.

Snow!

10 to 12 inches of snow fell yesterday.

At lunch we drove up the highway to a mexican place, clear skies. We walked out to 2 inches and the highway in gridlock.

Got back to the office and Dancer took her car home at 2pm. I left at 2:45pm.

To say it was busy is a massive understatement - it was gridlock *EVERYWHERE* with 2 inchs of snow falling each hour.

Cars, trucks, plows all skidding around.

I got home at 8pm.
Dancer got home at 9pm.

I had to blow the knee high snow off the drive before I could even get off the road.


Today?

Clear skies, clear roads, warm and sunny. Well, 40f feels warm.

It's the office party tonight - while it's on-site, it's not cheesy, they bring in a professional company who sets up a bunch of gambling tables and everyone is given free "money" to play with all night. Last year there was kareoke, this year there is a DJ.

Catered food, open bar, people dress up.

We've booked a room in the hotel over the road for the night, so we can both enjoy some drinks and not worry about the hour drive back home - our friend is staying over with the dogs.

Tomorrow we've got to hit the mall in the morning and take our iMac back to the Apple store - it's power supply died recently, and it doesn't boot up any more - considering it's out iTunes / music server for the house, this is a problem! Happily, everything is on an external drive if it is dead.

Then we get home, grab some shopping, because an even bigger storm is supposed to be hitting us on Saturday night. More snow, just what we need. We're not going anywhere on Sunday!

The Golden Compass

I went to watch The Golden Compass this afternoon - all on my own, as Dancer is on a work trip for a couple of days.

If you aren't familiar, The Golden Compass is based off the first book of Phillip Pullmans fantastic trilogy, "His Dark Materials".

I've been thinking about my reaction to the movie, initially I was quite happy with how they handled it, but after letting it sink in for the afternoon, I'm not so happy.

The story it is trying to tell is very, very fast paced. They cover huge amounts of geography, emotion, character building - somehow, the movie manages to lose that. It isn't until they meet the Ice Bears that you give a damn about Lyra, and her friend that she goes to great lengths to rescue is entirely forgettable.

The visual effects are stunning - but almost to the point of overwhelming the story. The balloon that Lee flies in is, in my mind from the books, of the style of a hot air balloon, but in the movies it becomes this flying ship kind of thing - the vehicles they use don't fit my interpretation of the world either.

So I think, after the movie is over and I've digested it, I'm a little dissapointed in the handling - apparantly the guy who directed American Pie was the director here, which is a very odd choice, but would explain a lot of the problem.

I hope they make enough money to finish up the trilogy - and I hope it improves - but so far, this isn't going to be the Harry Potter franchise replacement they thought it would - just like Eragon before it.

Gmail as my email client

Since getting my Blackberry, I've been getting tons and tons of spam. It makes sense as my email is filtered for spam at the client level, which was Thunderbird on my Mac.

Because the email is sent to the Blackberry before I download it on the Mac, no filtering.

When my Mum was here, I noticed she was downloading her other email accounts into her gmail account, and reading everything there.

Thinking about it a bit more, it made sense.

So I hooked my blackberry up to my gmail account, added my other two main email accounts into gmail, and have been running that way for a while now. Gmail spam filters take care of the junk quickly, and I pull clean emails into my Blackberry.

The gmail client for blackberry is good, but not has handy as the push email features of the blackberry itself, so I'm using that.

Good bye Thunderbird, I'm entirely online now.

Assassins Creed Intro

My parents bought me a copy of Assasins Creed for the xBox 360 for an early Christmas gift this year - and the game has impressed me so much, I wanted to write a bit of an informal introduction.

Firstly - this is out for the PS3 too - I understand the PS3 has slightly better framerates than the 360, but there are also reports of game glitches that aren't on the 360 - regardless of the lower frame rate, this game looks absolutely stunning, and is absolutely smooth. Easily one of the most impressive games, visually, even Mum was suprised by the quality of the graphics. The video you see here is the introduction, and appart from some slightly different camera angles, you're near as dammit viewing the actual game engine.

Right up front, the story line will suprise you. I hadn't read into the game at all, and was quite taken aback when it started - it isn't set in the past at all, but set in some alternate present, or near future. Very unique, quite innovative and a little bit wierd at first.

The game itself has the kind of storyline that will bring you back for more - tons of little side quests, tons of things you can collect, but don't get in the way of the main story line if you can't be bothered. I've knocked off 5 or so of the main quests already, and haven't explored half of what I can.

I had some problems with the control at first - the way you enter fight mode and attack / defend wasn't quite clicking with me - but now I'm counterattacking with the best :)

The cities you are wandering are very good looking - considering you can climb almost anywhere, it never feels like there are "obvious" climb points that seem unnatural to the city - everything flows nicely.

Out of 10 stars, I'd go with a 9 - there are some things that are a little *too* contrived - the monks you can blend in with never move until you blend - the citizens you save from beatings stay in one place and get beaten until you rescue them.

Apart from those, and they are minor, this is a fantastic game I've not been able to put down.

Scared pug

I need one of these ...

Is this what Yoda has been reduced too?

Since there will be no more Star Wars movies, even aliens have to pay the rent!

Preparing for the snow

It's that time of year - the Winter Weather Advisories come in, the snow starts falling. This afternoon the neighborhood rang to the tune of snowblowers being gassed up and tested out. Our new neighbors took delivery of a new blower, so they must be in the same boat we were last year, first year they need it - they were bright enough to buy it before the snow, we had to dig out to go get ours :)

My warm gear is ready, our blower is waiting - I put salt down on the drive tonight and got the trash out before it got too bad to drag the bins out.

It's pretty out there, all dark and snowy with all the lights outside the houses :)