Cracking game, hopefully putting to bed the rather idiotic cries of 'rubbish tactics', although with 8 minutes left I did have to end up using my Magic Ring of Goalscoring (a tactic I'm not keep on, for fear of wearing out it's magic). I shall be sending MUFC my normal charge of 7 pints of stella, a large radiant shard (http://www.thottbot.com/?i=12806) and another date with Sophie Howard.

Not too much luck in my first Raid in WoW. It because very apparrent that all the silly mistakes that your parties tend to get away with in small 5 man instaces end up wiping the raid when they happen in big raid instances. There is almost zero margin of error. Ours failed due to mainly a) the main tanks failing to hold agro, and b) general arguments over who was doing the pulling, leading to a rather comical moment where 2 main tanks decided to charge two different mobs, and for extra fun, a hunter decided to pull something else at the same time. Sufficive to say we wiped.

It's interesting to look back and see how all the previous instances you've played really are geared towards learning you the skills you will need later in the game. I know most of my friends should be ok when they get to 60, but there are still a couple that are still making basic errors that will get them killed later on. I know a lot probably think my tactics are enforced slightly more rigorously than needed, but I know they'd need to learn this now, or they won't stand a chance later on.

I also need to improve my UI a bit, lookin at some good raid add-ons now.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing."
Pb

Car is fixed. No longer sounds like I have a dying cat stuck under my offside rear wheel arch.

Finally hit level 60 over the weekend. Spent a while being happy, then a while wandering around Ogrimmar like a lost soul. Then helped a couple of guildies do Uldaman. Now going to get organised and start to do some Strat/Baron runs, get some decent kit.

5 Weeks to Holiday. Really starting to get excited now. So glad we are going to SF first - I don't think I'd manage to drag Rob out of Vegas if we went their first. I think it may be a struggle as it is.

Used up the last of the House of Blues cornbread mix last night, need to remember to bring another 30 packs back with me. That and a couple of cases of Jack Daniels cooking sauce.
Nokia's 20Lives (20lives.com) seems to have petered out a bit, the fun help site (20lives.co.uk) knocked up by my friends at NokiaGameClues was going well, until most people agreed on the fact that the game is actually a bit pants. None of the fun of competing with people all over europe as previous years. Now you just either win or lose; win and go in the hat for one of 18 (yes, eighteen) phones per country.

I must admit, it felt a bit funny first time I visited 20lives.co.uk - I think it's the first sort of NGC event that I hadn't really been part of, it was odd signing up to it and seeing all those other people as admins.. still, my descision to 'remove' myself from the NGC, and I still think it was the best thing to do in the circumstances. I think the big test will be how I feel if (when?) I get left out of a meeting.. I know I wouldn't intentionally not be invited, but not putting myself in the main NGC chat rooms certainly leaves me open to missing out on these things, so I couldn't really complain if I did miss out. I couldn't continue to have any more arguments in that room though. I know everyone doesn't hold anything against me, and I don't hold anything against them, I just couldn't carry on putting myself in situations where I came out of it feeling like I did. You have to draw the line where the bad times outweigh the good times. Unfortunately I hit that line.

Keep the faith,Pb

I've been on the recieving end of more critism of my views on q4t. Perhaps 'more' sounds a bit harsh, I get a great deal of postive feedback and comments, and as the old saying goes, you can't please all of the people...

As in the last time this happened, after sending a detailed breakdown of my views and explaining my stance to the person in question, the returning comments have once again boiled down to the fact that they are not happy with either the hunt in question, or the donations forum, rather than me - I just seem to be a happy venting point due to the fact I make myself accessable to people on the net quite easily. I wasn't too harsh on the person in question, and even let them have the 'last word' (certain people get upset if you don't let them have this) by saying I'd commented on evertyhing I could, and can't add anything futher, so I wouldn't be sending another reply. They have of course replied. Skipped down to the last line, and then never bothered reading the rest and deleted it. Ho hum.

Broke car last night. Zen Sr replaced the worn brake pads (cause of the rather ungainly noise coming from ZEN 1 over the last couple of weeks) however couldn't get the break cable reattached. Seems to be a problem with it that has caused the pads to wear down sooner than expected. Garage should have it sorted today. Made do with ZEN 2 to get me to work.

Shopped around a bit on exchange rates, and from what I can see, it's the same across the board - no one ever seems to give you anything near to what the market value is - so commission free travel agents it is. Best deal atm seems to be with the american express travellers cheque 'card', which gives a 'bonus' exchange rate. While I don't feel comfortable enough sticking all my money on one, I'll certainly stick some on it.

Started work on a treatment for my story idea last night, and added about another 4 pages to the bible. Actually have a tangable storyline idea now.


Pb

Well, unfornately, the time-honoured tradation of spaking the scousers in their own back-yard didn't quite occur, both teams really cancelling themselves out with some good defending and poor attacking from both sides.

Beer festival went well (well, until Rob hit on the idea of using up our remaining tokens on 'Moonshine' - after that it got a bit hazy.) Didn't get any pictures mainly due to the previous post - although it did go ahead, we sort of made our own way there apart from the 'other parties' so I didn't plan on taking my camera, as I feared rather awkward looking pictures may be the result.
Everything turned out alright though, even though some people took the bus home rather than eat some humble pie and ask for a lift back with us.

Menagerie's really zooming ahead now, I feel we aren't far from solving it.. although Dillon has posted that he may produce some more pictures. Don't know if this means we aren't infact close to solving it.

Level 59 now in Adventures in Azeroth, and am feeling a bit funny. Not quite sure how I'll feel about hitting 60. Of course, got plenty of other characters to level up as well... :)

Took offside rear wheel of car off yesterday, and discovered reason for the 'funny sounds' - outside break pad is wore down to bare metal, and scraping on the break disk. Took a trip to halfords, and after buying new break pads, and telling the guy they look nothing like the ones on my car at the moment, he adamently informed me that 'the computer can't be wrong' and 'these are definately the ones for your car mate'. Going back home, I confirmed by suspicions that they weren't after about 4 seconds. I'll take it to the fords gargage in northwich tomorrow.

Wrote 5 pages of a 'story bible' for an idea that's been floating around in my head for about 2 years now. Been put off for a while because of the stories use of magic, and worries that people may look on it being too Harry Potter-esque (even though it clearly isn't). Forgot how much fun it is to write.

Keep the faith,
Pb

Ok. I'm now in the unfortunate state where I'm not entirely sure if we are going to the beer festival anymore.

As I (and the other 2 members of my guild) were invited to attend the beer festival, we (incorrectly, as it transpires) assumed that the person doing the inviting would be sorting out the transport.

I got asked last week if we should go by public transport, or taxi, to which I replied 'taxi'. What I didn't realise is that this was really someone telling me that we needed to organise said mode of transport.

Now, as it's the day before the event, this lead to a couple of issues, namely the shortage of time. However, I managed to turn in a favour and got Pb Senior to provide transport to and from the event. I let everyone know this, and to be honest, I was slightly expecting a rousing cheer of "good work, Brando saves the day",ect. What I didn't expect however was for the organiser to basically inform me that they don't want to go now, because of the mood they are in.

From what I am aware, things seem to have developed like this.

I and 2 other mates were asked if we wanted to go, we said yes, and the chap asking said he'd sort out the tickets. The week before, he then mailed all 3 of us asking for us to go out on the saturday to 'sort out what we are doing'.

Now, for me, the 'sorting out' is entirely minimal - it's in the next town 8 miles away, and there are many local companies doing minibuses that would get us all there. I couldn't really see that much that needed 'sorting out' - I've organised holidays abroad without having 'sorting out' sessions, so I'm sure we could muddle through a night out in a nearby town. Besides, I couldn't go out as I'd already made commitments to someone else, and as it transpires, the other 2 also said they weren't going out either.

I couldn't go out rest of the week, due to work commitments (early start and being on call) so when I was asked (via txt) what are we doing about transport, bus or taxi? I replied that I preferred taxi.

What appears is that the person organising the tickets doesn't want to organise the transport, as they've allready sorted the tickets out. I always seem to end up sorting these things out, but anyway, seeing as it looked largely like I sort it out or it doesn't happen, I arranged the transport, and informed everyone. That's when I was told of the orginisers feelings that he 'doesn't want to go' now.

Now, we are supposed to be meeting other people in a bar in Northwich, so all I think I can do at this point is take the guys along and see what happens. Understand, I'm not annoyed with anyone (although I'd have liked someone to just come out and told me to book the transport) although I'm somewhat concerned by use of the phrase 'in a mood'. I certainly hope this person isn't in a mood with me. Anyway, I don't have the time, energy or inclination to be in a mood back at him, so he'll just have to go through this alone.

So, we'll turn up at the bar. If someone with tickets shows up, we'll go. If he turns up, we'll go with him, if he doesn't, we'll go alone. If no one turns up with any tickets, I'll buy the guys cocktails and make a night of it anyway.

Peace out.
Pb

50 days until holiday, and due to the wonderfull* exchange rates, I'm looking at sorting out my Vegas spending money.

However, I'm slightly upset by the exchange rates offered by the high street. I'm not entirely sure how these things work, but casually glancing over Lunn Polys' shop window posters indicates that due to their "100% commision free" currency exchange, this may be the way to go. Before I hand over my moderately hard earned cash, I take a quick shufty at the market rates.

According to the BBCs currency market data, the mighty sterling pound currently buys you 1.83775 George Washintons. The dollar has floated around 1.83-1.84 for the past 4 months. It rose from 1.76 at the beginning of May, and since May 24th, hasn't been lower than 1.82.

What's Lunn Poly's exchange rate? 1.745770.

Now, that's a hell of a difference, especially when looking to exchange a couple of grand.

So, I think the first plan is to check out certain banks and other currency change facilities to see if this is standard across the board (i.e we give you 0.10 less than the exchange rate as a way to make money) or if this is simply how certain bodies get around the 'no commision' promotion.

I think at least I shall enquire into where they get their exchange rates from, and why they are so low.

Cheers
Pb



* Well, wonderfull if you don't live in the US.

After the reletive disappointment of the football (Ok, Rooney was stupid, but come on, red card for clapping at a referee? what next - being sent off for raising your eyebrows?) I settled down for another fun eerie evening being 'Lost'. My box set arrived on Tuesday, and I've been stedily running through the series.

For anyone who's not seen it yet, firstly, where have you been? On a desert island? Seccondly, I won't spoil anything. Suffice to say, if you're watching it on Channel4 (or ee-fou-er) you have some big suprises to come :)

As a quick run through for those who havent seen it, the basic premise is a plane en-route from Sydney to Los Angeles fails to make it to it's destination. The plane breaks apart over an unknown island and crashes, leaving 40+ survivers stranded.

Now before you jump to the "Oh, it's Survivor, or Gilligan's Island for the new millenium", there are quite a few twists.

All of the survivors are strangers to each other (apart from obvious father/son/wife/brother partnerships, of which there are some) although many of them seem to have intertwined pasts. Most of the survivers seem to harbour guilty secrets. Things appear on the island that have no real explaination for being there, such as polar bears, or strange messages that have been tranmitted over the airwaves for over 15 years from an unknown loction. Some survivors seem to possess strange powers, some of which don't seem to be apparrent before arriving...

Oh... and there is a giant monster roaming the island.



I have had the pleasure of meeting a couple of the cast, so I got to run through my "I've met her - Oh, I've had a drink with him" routine (something I find myself doing a frightening amount of times these days..) . Daniel Dae-Kim being the first, and ... well, I can't mention who the other cast memeber I've met is, as it may spoil things for anyone who hasn't seen everything.

Charlie (played by the thankfully so far un-typecast Dom Monaghan) is easily one of the best things in this show, bringing some welcome comic relief and geniune warmth and friendlyness to an otherwise (intentionally) mainly dark and mysterious cast. Several fan sites have even popped up for Charlies (ficticious) rock band, DriveShaft. I have no doubt 'DriveShaft' memorabilia is making it's way onto eBay as I speak...

Right, going to bed. Started counting down days to holiday today..

Cheers
Pb

Beer festival time again! This weekend hosts the annual Northwich Beer festival, to which most members* of Nightwatch, Azeroths' finest, will be in attendance.

I shall be avoiding the horrors of the "cider" this time around (don't ask - it wasn't plesant), and sticking to the rather more toothsome ales. I shall however be following Ray's time-honoured tradition of going for the highest alcohol content beers, which suprisingly, tend to be some of the best. Ray has also employed a similar tactic in the past when choosing wine. This does not work.

Hopefully, I shall manage to post some photo's post festival (and hopefully post-hangover) on saturday.

Cheers
Pb





* Ok, well, 3 of them.

Hello. First real post, if you don't count the thing I used below for the 30 mins it took me to fathom out how to publish this thing correctly on my own website...

Well, I've got half a tank of petrol, so hopefully I should be able to avoid the idiots currently filling the fourcourts around the country. Not that I am overly bothered, if I can't get to work, I can't get to work. Unfortunately for me, I can dial into the office, so sadly 30 miles isn't going to seperate me from my work.

Work. Rather busy at the moment (however not busy enough to stop me creating this blog..) Lots of fun getting new API working, new test team so I feel like I've travelled back in time 6 months and I am having a lot of similar conversations all over again. Perhaps I can recycle all the emails I sent then...

Level 58 now in my Adventures in Azeroth. Still spending way too much time there, but it's so much fun..

Menagerie (http://www.dillonwaugh.com) is going through an interesting spell again due to a large influx of new hunters recently. If you've not seen this yet, and were born prior to 1975, this should certainly jog your memory banks - It's a tribute to Kit Williams' fantastic puzzle-book cum treasure-hunt Masqurade, and, like Kit's book, Menagerie has a buried bejewelled hare as the prize. No entry or purchase nessecary, but if you like it, please consider dropping a donation into Dillon's hat - you'll get some nice prezzies as a result, including (but not limited to) a rather nice insightful interview with Dillon by my good self.

Cheers
Pb

I need somewhere to spout my ramblings. This will now be it.