Captains Blog

Erasure - Live at the Roundhouse - 25th October 2011 - Video

2011-11-27T12:23:00.004Z

Well, it has only taken me just over a month, but I have finally taken the film which I took at the Erasure concert off from my mobile phone and uploaded it on to the web. I've done a little tinkering with the videos, and here they are! Hope you enjoy them. I didn't film the whole show although I did manage about 45 minutes, but you'll see just how fantastic the night was (in case you didn't go).

Sono Luminus, Live at The Roundhouse, Camden - 25th October 2011

Always, Live at The Roundhouse, Camden - 25th October 2011

When I Start To (Break It All Down), Live at The Roundhouse, Camden - 25th October 2011

Fill Us With Fire & Breath Of Life, Live at The Roundhouse, Camden - 25th October 2011

Breathe & Victim Of Love, Live at The Roundhouse, Camden - 25th October 2011

Sometimes & A Little Respect, Live at The Roundhouse, Camden - 25th October 2011

Oh L'Amour, Live at The Roundhouse, Camden - 25th October 2011

Stop!, Live at The Roundhouse, Camden - 25th October 2011

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 14 - The Butterfly Song (Splodgenessabounds)

2011-11-20T10:53:00.004Z

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 14:-

Splodgenessabounds - The Butterfly Song

Here's a good 'un from 1980... If you've never heard this one before, then listen to it now... like me, you'll probably be singing and humming it for the rest of your life.

"Have you seen the butterfly, on the windowsill John (Windowsill John). The one I squashed last night, with my fingernail John (Fingernail John). I squashed his little head, his blood was green not red, so I left him (where'd you leave him?) On the windowsill John!"

Lyrics do not get much better than that!

Splodgenessabounds were/are an English punk group, and this song was released way back in 1980 as a triple A-side single (featuring a cover version of Two Little Boys, and Horse). My parents had it on vinyl, and have fond memories of listening, and singing along to it when I was very small.

Classic!

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 13 - Rio (Duran Duran)

2011-11-06T17:22:00.002Z

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 13:-

Duran Duran - Rio

It's been a few months since my last "Songs that remind me of my childhood", so what better way to return than a classic song by one of the top groups of the 1980's. Duran Duran is one of those groups that pretty much sums up the 80's for me and Rio is probably my favourite song from them. Strangely, whenever I listen to this song, I can always remember one morning when I was very little (probably 1982 or 1983 - my parents were taking me and my sister on a day trip to London, and this song was being played on the radio in the kitchen while we were getting ready. Funny how one song can can make someone remember such a random memory from ones chidhood.

Erasure - Live at The Roundhouse - 25th October 2011

2011-10-27T10:08:00.003+01:00

It's been a long time coming, but finally to coincide with our visit back home to Essex, we also got the chance to see Erasure live at The Roundhouse in London on Tuesday 25th October. The last time we saw Erasure was way back in May, 2003 during "The Other Tour", and this time was just as fantastic! The venue, the setlist, and the atmosphere was incredible and we can not wait for our next time (we're not going to leave it so long!)

Kicking off with "Sono Luminus", they then wowed the crowd with timeless classics like Oh L'amour, Sometimes, Stop, Victim of Love, and many more. They also played some tracks from their new album "Tomorrow's World", including When I Start (To Break It All Down), and my personal favourite Fill Us With Fire.

Two days later, my ears are still ringing. What an amazing time we've had. Such a shame we have to go home today back to Evesham... and to work.

Mastertronic - What if?

2011-09-11T16:58:00.003+01:00

I've been meaning to add these to my blog for several months now. Those of you who are my friends on Facebook may have probably already seen them. Because I have WAY too much time on my hands, I thought I'd mess around with putting together some fake Mastertronic covers for modern computer games.

Incase you are not aware (or can not remember), Mastertronic were big in the mid to late 1980s and were a major budget software label in the United Kingdom and produced a large number of cheapo games and re-releases for the Commodore/Spectrum/Amstrad/Atari 8-bit computers (and some 16-bit too) - most at a pocket-money-friendly £1.99!

Just a bit of fun really, but what would modern games look like if Mastertronic still released games like the good ol' days? Well, here you can find out!

A week in the life of an IT Manager in a school!

2011-09-10T14:53:00.007+01:00

Well, the kids are now back in school, and everything is pretty much back to normal. 6 weeks of upgrading the student and staff workstations from Windows XP Professional to Windows 7 Professional has been a rather stressful time which I am happy to say has proved to be quite successful (thanks to having a fantastic team). On top of that, two classrooms have been kitted out with brand spanking new PCs with Intel I5 processors - Lucky kids!!!!! (I had to make do with RM Nimbus PC-186s when I was at school - oh and some BBC Masters), in additon to upgrading one of our servers to MS Server 2008, migrating user accounts and printers and many other things.

Now one week in to the term and school year, I am knackered, counting down the days until half-term, but less stressed (now knowing everything has worked reasonably well) - infact, this picture of Sophie pretty much sums up how I am feeling at the moment!

What will the next week bring? Who knows, but for now I'm going to sit and watch Back To The Future with Kieran (again) while I recuperate from cleaning out our two garden sheds. I'm then going to have a retro-fest with some Commodore 64 classics, before playing some more Resistance 3 on the PS3 - I've got my weekend sorted!

On so begins a new term, and new year!

2011-09-04T17:25:00.000+01:00

And so ends another summer holiday, and the start of a brand new school year. What fun and excitement will it hold? How many students will come up to me this week saying that they've forgotten their passwords?

I've got to give a shout out to my excellent team (Ben Drewery, Ben Plawustiak and Adam Gisbourne for all of their hard work over the holidays - oh and of course Mike Ibbotson) Well done guys.

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 12 - Sweet Harmony (The Beloved)

2011-07-26T18:01:00.001+01:00

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 12:-

The Beloved - Sweet Harmony

"What's this?" I hear you ask... A 90's song in my list of songs that remind me of my childhood?

Some would say my childhood never ended, although personally as far as I'm concerned my childhood ended on Friday 25th June 1993 - my last GCSE exam AND my last day in compulsary education.

This song (as well as being an awesome tune), will always remind me of my last few months at school. Released in January 1993, this is one of my all time favourite songs. An amazing track, featuring a very 'interesting' video!

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 11

2011-07-24T09:16:00.002+01:00

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 11:-

PHD - I Won't Let You Down

Not sure what it is about this song that makes me like it so much. It does happen to be one of my earliest memories of 80's music (in that, I mean a song I can actually remember being in the charts when it was released). Released in 1982, I was only 5 years old. You've also got to love music videos that were shot on a budget of a couple of quid!

Enjoy.

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 10 - Road to Nowhere (Talking Heads)

2011-07-23T18:04:00.002+01:00

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 10:-

Talking Heads - Road to Nowhere

Just plain awesomeness. Not dull, boring, dreary crap you get in the charts today. Great memories from 1985!

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 9 - The Look Of Love (ABC)

2011-07-11T21:10:00.002+01:00

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 9:-

ABC - The Look Of Love

Quite possibly one of the defining moments of 80's music, this song will always remind me of my early childhood. It doesn't remind me of any specific memory, but the cheerful lyrics, the comicy video (is comicy even a word) is enough to make me wish it was the 1980's all over again.

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 8 - Invisible Touch (Genesis)

2011-07-09T11:45:00.002+01:00

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 8:-

Genesis - Invisible Touch

When I was young, my parents would quite often take me and my sister to Leigh-On-Sea, and we'd then walk along the seafront to Southend, stopping off at various pubs along the way (where I would spend many pennies on arcade hits like Pac-Land, Hard Drivin', Commando and Paperboy - thanks Mum and Dad!). It was really enjoyable, and even to this day, when I take my family back home to visit Laindon, we still do the walk. Anyway, this song always reminds me of the walk because when it came out, it was practically the only song being played in all the pubs we went in!

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 7 - Stop (Erasure)

2011-07-02T12:43:00.003+01:00

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 7:-

Erasure - Stop

People who know me well will know what a big Erasure fan I am. Although I had heard and liked their previous songs, "Stop" is probably the song that made me really like the group and showed me just how good their music was compared to what was on offer in the charts back in 1988. However, it was a few years later when I really became a fan and followed them more. It is also quite appropriate that I choose this song today because the postman has just delivered my copies of the newly released "Wonderland" and "The Circus" 3 disk remastered editions.

Anyway, this song always reminds me of Christmas 1988, and once again I remember it being on a compilation tape my sister made me for me.

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 6 - Never Never (The Assembly)

2011-06-30T19:50:00.001+01:00

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 6:-

The Assembly - Never Never

I love this song - Vince Clarke (post Yazoo and pre Erasure) along with Eric Radcliffe, and yes - that's Feargal Sharkey (A Good Heart) doing vocals on this. Once again, fond memories of life in the 80's fills my mind when I listen to this.

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 5 - For America (Red Box)

2011-06-29T21:43:00.000+01:00

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 5:-

Red Box - For America -

Two songs from Red Box stand out for me - This one, and Lean on Me, but I've chosen this one as it always brings back memories. Hard to believe it's 25 years old!

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 4 - New Life (Depeche Mode)

2011-06-28T17:10:00.003+01:00

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 4:-

Depeche Mode - New Life

A classic... Back in the days before Vince Clarke (Erasure) left Depeche Mode, and when they produced happy, cheerful songs. It was a tough choice - either this, or "Just Can't Get Enough", but since these songs are in no particular order, I went with this one.

1981! I was 4.... Obviously I do not remember when this song came out, but it is one of those songs that I can listen to now and suddenly many memories come flooding back. Enjoy :)

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 3 - Don't Tell Me (Blancmange)

2011-06-27T17:45:00.004+01:00

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 3:-

Blancmange - Don't Tell Me

This song pretty much sums up the 80's for me... Happy, cheerful music that you can sing and dance along to. Blancmange were a synthpop group who had a number of hits during the 80s. This one may not be their most well-known, (most people well recognise their "Living on the Ceiling" from the Berocca advert), but it is my favourite, and it always conjurs up many a good memory from this great decade.

Released back in 1984.... I was 7 years old...,

GhostBusters was the biggest movie of the year (followed by Beverly Hills Cop, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom).
Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Relax reaches number one and stays in the UK charts for 42 weeks!!!
Jet Set Willy is released on most 8bit computers.

Ahh... the memories!

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 2 - Life's What You Make It (Talk Talk)

2011-06-26T21:15:00.005+01:00

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 2:-

Talk Talk - Life's What You Make It

Quite possibly my favourite 80s track (and probably of all time). I just love this song. Released way back in 1985, I remember having this on a compilation of 80's tracks which my sister made for me - an old Dixons branded C60 cassette. I always remember it coming straight after Mike and the Mechanic's "Silent Running".

There is no other reason for me including this song on my list of childhood musical memories - when I listen to it, it brings back so many happy memories.

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 1 - What Is Love (Howard Jones)

2011-06-26T11:06:00.002+01:00

A friend of mine, Dan English does something similar every Monday... Well.... Some Mondays at least (Musical Monday), so I am going to start this - I will be posting videos to songs that remind me of my childhood. Why? Because I need something to keep me updating this blog! Expect to find them on my Facebook page as well.

The other reason for doing this is because I can remind people just how great 80s music really is (compared to the chod that is in the charts today).

Anyway....... Let us begin with.......

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 1:-

Howard Jones - What Is Love

Fond memories of this song - partly because my sister was a big fan of his and always played his music (I could always hear it through the thin wall that separated our bedrooms - I'd be busy playing games on my Commodore 64 and she'd be blaring Howard Jones and Nik Kershaw!). Wasn't really interested in it when I was young, but as I grew up and appreciated 80s music more, this one always stands out a classic 80s track.

Who? Doctor 'Flaming' Who, that's who.

2011-06-04T22:36:00.006+01:00

I'm totally gutted - Why? Not because Doctor Who has finished until the Autumn, but because tonights mid season cliffhanger was an underwhelming pile of excrement. I was expecting so much more... but.. (sigh)

I seriously do not understand why people praise Steven Moffatt so much - his writing is childish, diabolical in places and quite often cringe worthy. I swear, Kieran (my six year old son) has better ideas for stories in his little head.

Come on, River Song is Amy Ponds daughter? How obvious was that! I knew that was coming ages ago.

I really like Doctor Who (but nowhere near as good as Star Trek), but with the way things are going, unless Steven Moffatt improves his writing, or he relinquishes his position as writer and showrunner for Doctor Who, I will be switching off permanently.

I swear, Moffatt thinks he is great at writing season long story arcs - Hey Steven sorry to sound nasty but - go and get some lessons from J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5). He knew how to do it properly!

Still, after that rant, I will be looking forward to "Lets Kill Hitler" in the Autumn - only because it'll be the only thing worth watching on a Saturday night (and my only escape from all the rubbish talent/dancing/music shows that clog up primetime Saturday night television here in the UK.

SouthendPier360.co.uk & 3DConstructionKit.co.uk

2011-05-29T22:49:00.004+01:00

Well, I've finally got round to doing something I've been planning to do for quite some time. I've added two more internet domains to my growing collection :-

http://www.southendpier360.co.uk

http://www.3dconstructionkit.co.uk

During my various visits back home (Laindon) since moving to Evesham, we've always gone to Southend to walk the pier. I don't know what it is about it, but I find it so fascinating. I have countless photos, and more recently I took some 360 degree panoramic photos which I have stitched together, made interactive and are now available on a new website.

The other site I have created is dedicated to one of the best applications I have ever bought on any computer - The 3D Construction Kit by Incentive Software. I had this program on my Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga way back in the early 1990's and made quite a few games with it. I noticed that there wasn't really site dedicated to it, so here it is - with thanks to a few others who I have started chatting to on some old retro computer forums (particularly Steven Flanagan who has located lots of difficult-to-find games and materials for me to use on my new site).

Anyway, if you have a few minutes to spare, please check out these new sites.

2011-05-12T17:38:00.000+01:00

Yikes - it has only been 131 days (or 3160 hours) since my last post.... Sorry.

I had a nightmare last night which woke me up... I kid you not. In it, I was asked to replace all PCs at the school with Apple Macs. Scary stuff!

Interesting day at work today. I created all the new Year 9 student accounts (those who will be joining the school in September), and drew up some layouts for a new classroom which is being built. Trying to squeeze 26 computers in a small room is quite a challenge!

Trying to be more regular with my postings on here - watch this space.

2011-01-01T15:19:00.005Z

Its been awhile since the last post - usually if I have something to say, I'll say it as a comment on my facebook page www.facebook.com/stujwilson, but anyway -

Wishing you all a Happy New Year. Here's hoping 2011 is better than 2010!

"I've been driving in my car, it's not quite a jaguar"

2010-08-29T16:13:00.005+01:00

Here are some more pictures of my new car - I'm soooooo excited!

"Who's gonna to drive you home tonight?"

2010-08-28T19:06:00.006+01:00

Well, it is an exciting time for me at the moment - I passed my driving test last Monday (23rd) after weeks of worry!

Not only that, but today I have also purchased my first car. A Vauxhall Zafira 7 seater from 2005. Secondhand of course (theres no way I could afford a new one), but comes with only 47,000 miles on the clock, road tax for 6 months AND a full 12 month MOT and service.

To be honest, I never dreamt that I would pass first time. The problem is I now have to wait until next Friday before I can collect it!

(Yep, thats me behind the wheel!)

He's Dead Jim...

2010-08-16T19:52:00.003+01:00

Today was my last driving lesson before the big practical test next Monday (and fingers crossed, my last test ever, though I doubt that). Anyway, I don't know if it is some sort of sign or not, but I had my first road kill today - a suicidal pidgeon who obviously had had enough of life and decided to end it all by going under the wheels of a car.

Still... I feel pretty upset about it! I get upset if I stand on an ant, or accidently crunch a snail beneath my feet in the dark.

What am I like!

Work and no play....

2010-08-08T19:25:00.004+01:00

And so ends a fun-filled week. Infact, as I posted on Facebook earlier during the week, "I lead such an exciting life, full of wonder and an unmeasurable amount of awesomeness".

Who am I trying to kid... I need a change.

Work hasn't been too bad to be honest. The summer holidays are great because I get to actually do work and get things finished without the usual interuptions from teachers and students. Infact, what I managed to do this week, it would probably take me several weeks to do! Notable jobs include updating and migrating the schools MIS SQL database from 2005 express to 2008 Standard, and moving over 1000 shared user areas from one server to a new server running MS Server 2008. Inbetween that I've also managed to re-image an entire classroom

Oh... if you ever find yourself in the position of having to migrate 'shared' folders from one server to another (we're not talking about copying files and folders while keeping the ACL settings here.... no-siree!!!), you could use the Microsoft File Server Migration Tool Kit. You could write a batch file that reads a list of folder names and shared names and let it create them for you via a loop, or you can simply export the following registry key from the source server:-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSer\
Services\LanmanServer\Shares

... and import it on to the new server! Of course, the folder locations must be the same (in our case, in a folder called Users on the D Drive), but it worked fine, and was a lot quicker to do that any of the 'recommended' ways.

I still think I need a new job though...

This week will involve lots of phonecalls to Frogtrade - the developer of our new Virtual Learning Platform. For the price we paid for it, their technical support has a lot to be desired.

The Return...

2010-07-31T22:41:00.004+01:00

Well... I keep saying I'm going to start blogging again, and everytime I fail miserably, Here is my latest attempt. Hopefully I will not lose interest and keep it going.

At the moment, I am writing this whilst visiting my parents in Essex. Tomorrow will be Sophie's and Kayleigh's first birthday! My gosh, where has the time gone? We've got balloons, a cake, and I think we may all be going for a walk along the seafront from Westcliff to Leigh-On-Sea... a ritual that we always do when we come here, just like walking Southend Pier (like we did yesterday).

After spending the past week in Laindon, we will be heading back home on Monday to Evesham. Long gone are the days when I looked forward to returning to Evesham - I really want to move... Not even my job at the High School makes me want to stay anymore. 8 years down the line, and I am still homesick.

Thinking of work is getting me down a bit at the moment. Not sure why though, as it's not much different than most years. We've got quite a few projects going on during the summer holidays, and I'm stressing a little bit because they all need to be finished and/or up and running by the start of the new school term. To be honest though, lately I've been letting a lot of things get on top of me, along with the stressing and worrying - it's amazing I still have my hair! I'm sure I've knocked a few years of my ticker!

New Song - "Popcorn"

2010-05-16T16:59:00.005+01:00

I've been writing music again, and here is my latest creation - A cover of "Popcorn" (written in less than 2 hours on Friday 14th May 2010). Did you know the song is over 40 years old already!! I know it has been covered many times before, but I like it, so here is my take on the the song. I might record a music video to go alongside it oneday, but in the meantime you'll just have to settle with this.

I hope you like it. Comments welcome.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD/LISTEN TO THE SONG - POPCORN BY STU .WILSON

"Yes I'm back, and its not a repeat, so turn on your computer and start reading this stupid s**t!!!!"

2010-02-27T10:05:00.006Z

Right... Apologies to all my readers (all two of them!) for the lack of posts these past few months.

I've had an interesting few days this past few weeks. Went back to work on Monday after having the previous week off (half term), and on Wednesday I started my driving lessons again! It's been nearly three since I last drove, but I think I did well. Below is a map of the route I drove.

I only stalled the engine twice, and accidently switched on the windscreen wipers instead of indicating... but other than that, it went really well.

I also had to see the dentist because I've been experiencing excrutiating pain from one of my wisdom teeth. It appears I need to go to hospital and have it removed... Oh joy. I hope they do it under general anaesthetic.

So there you go! Kieran, Sophie and Kayleigh are growing quickly. I can't believe that the girls are nearly seven months old already. I'll say one thing for the past couple of months... They have flown by!

Welcome to 2010

2010-01-01T14:28:00.002Z

I will get around to updating this blog more often... but in the meantime, Happy New Year!!! I hope you all have a wonderful 2010.

Lots has happened over the past few weeks which has resulted in me losing my interest in updating this blog - I doubt I will talk about here, but rest assured things will resume as normal soon.

Pimp my C64

2009-09-11T21:03:00.013+01:00

On the night Michelle went in to hospital to give birth to Sophie and Kayleigh (Friday July 31st), I started a little project. I wanted to 'pimp up' one of my C64s by spray painting the case black, and swap an old style C64 keyboard so that it would match the newly painted case. Obviously it took me some time to complete (shortly after dunking the case in the bath to clean it, Michelle decided it would be a great time for her waters to break and we had to go to the hospital). I did manage to finish it a few days later though, and this is how I did it.....

Take two Commodore 64's (One breadbin style, and one C64C)

After removing the motherboard from the C64C (Thats another C64C that I own behind the motherboard).

Two empty C64 shells with the keyboards removed

C64 Motherboard again.

The infamous 'SID' chip

C64 Breadbin keyboard

C64 Breadbin after having a C64C keyboard installed.

More C64 goodness - C64C Motherboard, C64 Keyboard and an additional C64C computer

Before spray painting - A dunk in the bath, with bleach to clean and remove the yellowing.

One clean (and less yellow) C64c case. Shortly after this photo was taken, we were on our way to Cheltenham General Hospital. About 15 hours later, Sophie and Kayleigh were born!!

Several days later... After spraying the case, the C64 is ready to be reassembled.

Finished - Black sprayed (silk) C64C with dark keys from a C64 Breadbin

Side view

Rear view

Before and After....

My current C64 collection - 1 black C64, 2 cream C64s and 1 Breadbin C64 with a C64c keyboard. I also have an Action Replay V6 cartridge (red cartridge shown at the back of the right C64), and a C64TPC unit for connecting the C64 to my PC. I have also just aquired a Commodore 1541-II disk drive. Plus tons of software/games etc.

My Commodore collection also includes 2x Commodore Plus 4's
1x Amiga 500 with a 120mb harddrive and 40mhz accelerator

1x Amiga A1200 with a 2Gb harddrive + shedloads of tapes and disks full of games/applications/demos etc.

------------

While I am posting, I thought I would also include a photo of Kieran in his new school uniform. He started school last Monday at Bengeworth First School, and after a week, he absolutely loves going.

The life of an IT Technician/Network Manager.... Systems Manager

2009-09-01T22:51:00.005+01:00

I can't believe that it has been 6 weeks since the start of the summer holidays. School returns to normal on Friday (Friday of all days!?!) and I am already starting to panic...

It's not anything I have done - Over the past few months we have been having major building work on our IT block at the school. What started of as a simple 'replace the windows' job turned in to a massive 'shit, we've found asbestos in the wall columns' kind of job, and it has been ongoing ever since. Now, with only 3 more days to go, the IT block is still in a terrible mess. The builders have not been in for days, and I am left with 4 IT rooms that look like they have been hit by a bomb...

The new IT staff office (My office... the main Comms room is through that door - (note no furniture!!!)

This is a classroom and it needs to be ready by Friday - No desks... no computers... no nothing!

Classroom DU3 - Again, no computers, benches not complete and looks a complete tip

Classroom DU2 - Not as bad as it looks, but still needs work

DU1 - The only room we have been able to get in to a 'decent' state.

I love the way we were told at the start of the project that we would have 'plenty' of time to get the rooms ready for September - this includes any maintanance required, and the installations of Adobe CS4 and Microsoft Office 2007 on all the workstations.

Oh joy....!

One month late... but here you go!

2009-09-01T22:40:00.006+01:00

It has only taken me.... erm... 1 month, but finally here are some pictures of our two new girls - Sophie and Kayleigh. Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook may have already seen some of these. More to come soon. :-

They're here....

2009-08-01T21:36:00.001+01:00

I am pleased to announce the safe arrival of Kayleigh Louise Wilson, born at 13:23 (6lb 10oz) and Sophie Lauren Wilson, born at 14:41 (5lb 9 1/2oz), both born today (1st August). Both babies and Mother are fine. Photos to follow - I left my camera at the hospital with Michelle!!!!! I'm going to bed now as I'm shattered (and I wasn't the one pushing!!)

To be continued....

Congratulations Kieran.

2009-07-21T21:18:00.004+01:00

Today has been a combination of mixed emotions - It was Kieran's graduation day at Nursery, which meant there was a presentation at the High School where all the little kids got given a certificate and all the work that they have done over the past year to take home - A time to celebrate all they have achieved in the past year... Sadly though, it was also Kieran's very last day at Nursery School.

We (both myself and Michelle) are so proud of Kieran. He acted so grown up when his name was called for him to collect his certificate and folder. He has learnt so much over the past year, and hope he enjoys his new school in September as much as he enjoyed going to Evesham Nursery,

Baby update 2

2009-07-10T20:13:00.003+01:00

Michelle had another visit to Cheltenham Hospital today. It is so painful for her to walk, she has now been given crutches.

Bloody SPD

http://www.baby-pregnancy-ultrasound-3d-4d.co.uk/Pregnancy-SPD.htm

Baby update.

2009-07-09T20:06:00.006+01:00

Michelle is now 34 weeks and 1 day pregnant. She had a scan today and found out the following.

Weight
Baby 1 = 6 1/2lb (Head down)
Baby 2 = 5lb (Breech Position)

Although technically we should still have at least 6 more weeks, the hospital have told Michelle that if she has not had the twins by 38 weeks, then she would be induced. Mind you, the midwife seemed pretty sure that Michelle would have had them by then.

All fun!

Long time no see!

2009-06-24T21:32:00.003+01:00

My poor neglected blog...

It's been 7 weeks since an update. Much has happened in that time (including of course the release of the motion picture event of the decade - Star Trek), but it is also worth noting at this point that Michelle is now exactly 32 weeks pregnant today, and although technically we still have a few weeks to go, the midwife is pretty sure that Michelle will give birth to the twins within 36 weeks - That's just another 4 weeks!

On the pregnancy side of things, Michelle is fine and the babies are all healthy. The nursery is now comnplete and looks really nice, and we're basically just waiting for the girls to pop out now.

Work has been fun as usual, but I just can't believe it is only 6 weeks until the end of yet another year (and of course the summer holidays!) We've just employed two trainee technicians to help with the extra work we have had these past few weeks, and it's great because it allows me to do the things I need to do now as ICT Network AND Systems Manager... Yep I've had another promotion, and with that comes another pay rise... I love my job! Just spent over £40,000 on 30 new iMacs and 30 new HP D7900 PCs with 22" flat screens for two IT suites in the school - glad I will not need to set them up (don't you just love delegation!). Kids are spoilt today - I wish I had access to that technology back when I was in school.

This past month I have also been to the cinema 5 times! (For most people that is quite a small number, but I haven't been since Aliens Vs Predator Requiem and that was the first time in years). 3 of the 5 visits were for Star Trek - Yes, it was really THAT good. I also went to see Terminator Salvation, which was good, but nowhere near as good as the first two films. That brings me on to last night, and Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. Suffice to say, I was not that impressed with that one, and nearly fell asleep in the cinema towards the end. I'm no film critic, and I'm not going to pretend to be one here, but don't believe the hype on that one.

My spare time has consisted of the usual - gaming (especially playing Resident Evil 5 on the PS3), photography and spending lots of money (I'm good at that one) on new furniture for the living room, nursery, and a fancy new High Definition 1920x1080 Digital Camcorder so that I can capture the babies in high quality, high resolution goodness.

As for Michelle... She's a lady of leisure now for the next year and 2 weeks. Her maternity leave actually does not begin for another 2 weeks, but her work place have been kind and let her use the remaining available holiday (3 weeks) before the maternity leave begins. She has had a week off and she is already bored and fed up. It doesn't help with this awful hot weather. Bring on the Winter, the cold days and dark nights..... prefect.

Sneak Peak

2009-05-03T17:20:00.006+01:00

Yesterday (Saturday 2nd May 2009) must have been one of the most exciting days I've had since Kieran was born. We went all the way up to 'Window To The Womb' in Nottingham so that Michelle could have a 4D scan done of the twins.

A big thanks to Steve Ready, for coming all the way from Rainham, in Essex, to pick up in Evesham, to take us to Nottingham, only to bring up back home again to Evesham, and return to his little boy and girlfriend in Nottingham!! Phew.

More pictures are available on my Facebook profile (including a few clips from our DVD). Of course, you can only view them if you're my friends!!!!! ;)

Oh, and it is now confirmed - both babies are 100% female. Looks like me and Kieran are definitely going to be outnumbered.

Your Chariot Awaits

2009-05-01T20:47:00.007+01:00

Michelle is now in her 25th week of pregnancy, and today our new pram/pushchair arrived in the post.

Check out that suspension!!!!

Tomorrow we have our 4D scan at a place called 'Window to the Womb' in Nottingham. I can not wait, and hope the babies are as active tomorrow as they have been this past week. (Although, knowing our luck, they will probably have a long afternoon sleep while the scan is taking place).

'Better start saving up for their weddings'

2009-04-02T21:08:00.004+01:00

Today, Michelle, Kieran and I went to Cheltenham Hospital for the 20 week scan. All went well, and both babies are fine and healthy.

We also found out what we're having. As some of you know, I did not want to find out the sex of the babies, but Michelle wanted to know. The nurse told Michelle while I was out of the room, but since Michelle is hopeless at keeping secrets, I found out about 5 minutes later.

We're having two girls!! Well, one baby is definatly 100% female. The nurse was 98% sure the other one is a girl as well - she couldn't say for sure because the umbilical cord was in the way, but she felt pretty confident.

All exciting stuff.

Our next scan will be a 4D scan that we are having done privately on May 2nd. The next one at Cheltenham Hospital will be the 14th May.

It's Finished..

2009-03-22T21:12:00.008Z

The shed is finished (well, it needs a coat of paint, but that's all), and the trainset has a new home. This is great and frees up the spare room so that it can be converted in to a nursery for the twins.

There is still plenty of work to do on the trainset, but... well... see for yourselves.

Can we build it... Yes we can (Yeah, I think so)

2009-03-15T20:47:00.004Z

Work has finally commenced on Kieran's shed. With the birth of the twins just 23 weeks away (assuming that they arrive on time) I figured it was time to finally start work so that we can clear Kieran's trainset out of the spare and get to work converting it in to a nursery (or a new bedroom for Kieran - whichever we finally decide on).

Not bad considering I am totally crap at DIY. I did the cementing and laying the paving slabs on my own yesterday, and had some help from a neighbour with the shed. We finished tonight at 8.00pm, and hope to finish it all tomorrow.

Kieran is so excited and can not wait to play with his trainset inside it.

Farewell, my beloved 64

2009-02-15T14:43:00.011Z

Today is a very, very sad day.... After nearly 22 days, my beloved Commodore 64 has finally given up on me and died.

Actually, in honesty it does still work, but the SID chip (Sound Interface Device) has stopped working, and a Commodore 64 with no sound is about as good as a completely dead C64 anyway.

Still, through the wonders of Ebay I have been able to purchase a replacement, which is great because once I get it I will be able to use my newly aquired C64TPC device for transfering all my old programs from tapes to my PC for eternal preservation!

'Oh 64... you've been with me for such a long time....

I was but 10 years old when my fingers first caressed your keys.

You helped me through school, and during bad times.

I owe you so much.

I may have neglected you when I got my Commodore Amiga in 1992, but even now, with my PC, Laptops, PlayStation 3 and other computers and game consoles, you have always had a special place in my heart......'

I will miss you.

Double trouble

2009-02-13T22:08:00.002Z

Just as Kieran was getting ready for bed this evening, he came over to me, gave me a big hug and said,

"Daddy, can I have two sisters please".

It brought a tear to my eye. Bless him!

"Two heads are better than one, it's double the pleasure babe, It's triple the fun"

2009-02-12T20:37:00.004Z

What a day....

Today, Thursday 12th February 2009 is the day that we found out that we were having twins!

Even now, some 5 hours later after the scan it still hasn't sunk in properly. Don't get me wrong, we are both over the moon, thrilled and really happy - it was just such a shock.

To be honest, I've had a gut feeling for a week or two. Michelle is only 13 weeks pregnant, yet she is so..... 'big'. I mean that in the nicest possible way. I've been telling her that either she is wrong with her dates or that there is more than one in her belly!

The moment the sonographer placed the transducer on Michelles tummy, the two babies were as clear as can be. I knew it straight away, but didn't say anything until the nurse finally confirmed it to both of us.

Of course much of the time at Cheltenham hospital today was spent informing us of the complications that can occur when having twins, and to be truthful, some of the things we were told were quite scary.

The good news is that Michelle will be scanned and monitored every 4 weeks from her 20 week scan.

I really do not know what else to say. I'm still a little lost for words.

To Boldly Go.... (Again)

2009-02-08T18:43:00.008Z

I've been taking a few pictures of my model Enterprise and touching them up on my computer, and here they are for you to look at.

Snow Show

2009-02-05T21:13:00.006Z

The baby scan has been 'postponed' until next Thursday due to the 'severe' weather that has gripped the country over the past few days. By severe, I mean an inch or two of snow. Michelle rang Cheltenham hospital (St Pauls Wing) and was advised not to come.

I remember years ago when it snowed much worse than this, and I still had to go to school, or work. Even the slightest dusting of snow these days and that's it..... nobody can get to work.... schools close.... public transport comes to a standstill. It's like the end of the world!

Still, I can't really complain - they did decide to shut my school today, so I've been at home doing various things like putting a new facia on my PSP, putting a few shelves up, and editing a few home movies. I also managed to play out in the snow with Kieran and Michelle.

They say more snow is on the way. To be honest, I would actually like to get back to work - I've got so many things I need to be getting on with.

Anyway, I will leave you with these two pictures. The top photo is looking out from our frontdoor (obviously touched up in Photoshop), and the bottom one is of Kieran enjoying himself in the white stuff.

"We don't need no education"

2009-01-30T18:23:00.003Z

After nearly five years of working in a school, today has proved one thing - there is no such thing as discipline in our schools anymore... The children rule.

Walking through the corridors at Evesham High School today I have seen kids on their mobile phones without a care in the world, being mouthy to the staff, listening to their MP3 players during lessons and ignoring the teacher when they have been told to switch them off. I have seen them trash classrooms, unplug computers, and show absolutely no respect whatsoever to their environment, or us.... the staff.

Just a typical day really.

When I started at the school, I was quite keen to go to university to get a degree so that one day I could teach - It is something that I had always wanted to do - I don't think I'll bother. Why should I waste my time trying to help such unruly, disrespectful little turds. It's not just here though - it's everywhere.

There are no consequences for their actions - If students do something wrong, they get a nice warning and told not to do it again. They realise that they can push teachers as far as they like and that nothing will come of it. Schools are so much different from when I left 16 years ago. I never dreamt of calling a teacher gay, or a wanker to their face, or vandalise valuable school IT equipment.

These are the people who will one day be running our country in the not too distant future - is there any hope for us?

Rant over - sorry. I needed to get that off my chest. I actually had a really nice day at work really.

The beginning of a new year.... 24 days late!

2009-01-24T16:17:00.005Z

My poor, poor Blog... I have neglected you these past few weeks...

Not much to report on the baby front - Michelle had her first visit to the midwife on Monday 12th January and other than signing some forms and filling out her FW8 so that she can get her Maternity Exemption Certificate, there isn't much else to say. Michelle has her first scan on Thursday 5th February which I am eagerly looking forward to.

Christmas came and went, and so did my 32nd Birthday. Work has been full of the usual - students forgetting their passwords, getting verbal abuse from the little shits when I catch them doing things to the computers that they shouldn't be doing. The most challenging thing we've been involved in at the school is replacing our crap email supplier with our own in-house Microsoft Exchange 2007 server. The toughest part is still yet to come - not teaching the kids.... but training the staff!

Still, almost a year after selling my entire Star Trek video collection, I am happy to say that I now been able to purchase all of the Deep Space Nine and Voyager DVD boxsets (along with my existing Star Trek TOS boxsets). Thanks to some extreme selling on eBay, next month I will get Enterprise, followed by The Next Generation and my collection will be once again complete!! Yippeee.

They will stand proud, next to my Gavin and Stacey boxset!!!!!!!!!

I must go now and nurse a nasty headache.

3 + 1

2008-12-16T20:36:00.006Z

Just a quick post to say...

I'M GOING TO BE A DADDY AGAIN!!!

We both found out today that Michelle is once again up-the-duff... bun in the oven.... PREGNANT!!!

We are both over the moon. This is without a doubt one of the best Christmas presents ever. We have worked out that she is 5 weeks gone already which means that she should be due sometime during the middle of August 2009.

As you can see, I am ecstatic, and I will be using the Captains Blog over the next 8 and a bit months detailing all the events that will lead up to the birth of Wilson Junior number 2.

Stay tuned.....

Live long and prosper...

2008-11-12T08:34:00.013Z

With the new Star Trek movie only 176 days away from release date, I am really geeking out at the moment with all the new information coming out about the new movie. I haven't been this excited about a Star Trek film (any film actually) since the release of Star Trek 6 : The Undiscovered Country in back 1992!

JJ Abrams is doing a great job at keeping everything secret about this movie, just like he did with Cloverfield, but the official trailer for the new film is released this Friday, so I am sure a lot of questions will be answered then.

One big question was answered yesterday though - What will the Enterprise look like in the movie... Well... here it is!

Obviously they couldn't use the original design - afterall, it was designed in the 1960s and would look pretty dated now.

First impressions - Honestly, I am not that impressed... But then, I thought the Enterprise D from the Next Generation was one ugly son of a bitch at first, but after time I came to like it!

WOOHOOO!!

Can we fix it..... Yes we can. (PSP Repair Guide)

2008-09-25T19:01:00.012+01:00

Whilst playing Star Wars - Force Unleashed on my PSP over the weekend, I noticed something strange happening with the console. Even though I was not touching the joystick, Darth Vader continued to walk - like some strange 'force' had control of my PSP. I decided to try Monkey Island 2 (using the Scumm emulator), and noticed that the mouse pointer had a mind of its own and moved to the bottom right hand side of the screen without me doing anything. I decided to pop on to eBay and fortunatly found a replacement joystick module for an amazing £5.00 (including P&P)

I have decided to do a small guide so that if any of you have the same problem as me, you can fix it yourselves without forking out £40 - £100 getting it repaired.

Be warned though that it does involve opening up the PSP, so if yours is still under warranty, I'd advise not doing this.

Firstly, the most important thing to do is find somewhere nice to work - somewhere that is'nt cluttered. Oh, and make yourself a cup of tea too.

Next, get your replacement joystick module handy, and a very small cross head (Phillips) screwdriver. You may need a small flat head screwdriver, depending on whether you have good finger nails or not.

Pull off the joystick cap. If you have long nails, you could probably use your fingers. If not, use a small screwdriver. Just pry it off. Trust me, it comes off.

Turn the PSP over (screen down) and locate the following three screws. Unscrew them with the cross head (Phillips) screwdriver.

Remove the battery compartment cover and the battery and unscrew the screw as shown in this picture.

The next screw that you need to remove is located under the 'guarantee void' sticker. It is impossible to remove this screw without damaging the sticker, so unless your PSP is still under guarantee, unscrew the screw! You will probably not be able to see the screw, but trust me, it is there (well it is with my PSP1000 model). Either unscrew it through the sticker, or remove the sticker completely.

You can now remove the cover to the PSP. Try not to get your fingerprints over the screen.

Locate the faulty joystick module, and unscrew the two screws completely.

Replace the joystick module with the new one, and screw it back in to place. Re-assemble the PSP (making sure that the screws are tight) and....

Voila!!! One perfectly working PSP, with a joystick that no longer moves on its own!!!

They don't make 'em like they used to.

2008-09-07T17:27:00.010+01:00

This morning I've been rummaging through our loft, trying to make room for some of Kierans baby toys which he does not play with any more. I was pleasantly surprised when I came across a couple of boxes containing some of my old computers that I haven't used in years. I just had to get them out and have a go!!!

Amongst the collection was an un-upgraded Atari ST520FM, a Commodore Amiga 1200 (with a 1gb Harddrive), and my beloved Commodre Amiga 500 with its super 68040 accelerated processor (from 7Mhz to 40Mhz thanks to the A530 upgrade), 120Mb harddrive, toggle switch for changing between Kickstart 1.3 and 2.0, external floppy disk drive, Action Replay Mark III cartridge and a VideoMaster digitiser!!! WOW!

Fortunatly years of neglect did not mean that these machines would not work, and within minutes of setting them up I was able to load up all sorts of stuff stored on the harddrives. I found programs and songs that I had written years ago which I had forgotten about.

It nearly brought a tear to my eye!

Although I emulate the Amiga on my PC to play all of my old favourite games, nothing beats playing the games on the original hardware - It's the same with my Commodore 64 and Plus 4... Games load instantly when emulated on a PC, but sometimes it is nice to type Load, press play on tape and wait several minutes for the game to load.

The full retro experience!

The A530 turbo with 120Mb harddrive and 40Mhz (68040) processor), Action Replay III cartridge and VideoMaster video and audio digitiser.

A retro icon.... An original Atari joystick - what a classic!

The Amiga 1200 with its 1Gb harddrive

The toggle switch for swapping between the different ROMS - Kickstart 1.3 and 2.0

Sheesh...

2008-09-06T15:05:00.005+01:00

What an incredibly hectic week it has been!!

I don't think I have ever had such a busy first week back at school like the one I have just had. It's amazing how everything was working fine during the holidays, and on the first day back we lose the network in one part of the school, and the main administration software decided to not work (partly due to an error made by a senior member of staff)

We managed to fix the network on Friday afternoon after discovering that it was down to a faulty fibre transceiver in one of our cabinets. As for the other problem, we have found a solution, but can't do anything until Monday morning.

It never rains but it pours.

On top of that, you will not believe how many new Year 9 students came up to my office telling me that they could not log on! I mean, come on - I created the accounts in the holiday and set all of their passwords to their date of birth. All staff were told this, so is it really that hard for these kids to remember the date that they were born????

Anyway, changing the subject a little, I am pleased to announce that in my attempts in getting Michelle more tech-savvy, I have finally convinced her to start up her own blog. She has started a diet and after having an extremely successful first week (yep, she lost over 8lb in just one week), she wants to write all about it. This is the first time she has ever done anything like this, so if you do go and visit her blog, be easy on her!

You can access her blog by ---CLICKING HERE---

Right, I'm off now to relax on this rather grey Saturday afternoon and listen to some more movie soundtracks - Currently listening to 'Raise The Titanic'. Not a great film, but certainly one of John Barry's best soundtracks in my honest opinion.

T T F N - Ta Ta For Now!

I'm back!

2008-09-02T20:15:00.006+01:00

And so it begins...

Today I have returned back to work (and not a moment too soon). Although I have been in the school quite a bit during the school holidays doing some work, I thought that it would be nice to be back and for things to return back to normal again...

...Of course, I was hoping for an uneventful day, but by hometime I was already counting down the days until half-term. First I had to do a short Powerpoint presentation infront of all the staff in the large hall in the morning (I hate speaking infront of people), then we lost the school network in several of the school buildings which caused a minor panic. We've also made some very big changes to the way our school network works, meaning that each member of staffs laptop needed to be re-configured.

But hey.... It's good to be back :)

It's my job... and I love it!

2008-07-29T16:10:00.011+01:00

I popped into the school this morning to get a couple of small jobs done before going away this weekend - yes, I know I'm on holiday for 6 weeks, but I love my job so much, I just can't keep away.

While sat at my desk, I thought I'd take some pictures of my office so that I can show you a virtual tour of my work environment (as it looks at this precise moment in time), and to give you an idea of what I have to deal with being a Network Manager in a typical secondary school in the UK!!

Be warned.... it's messy!

1 - UPS x2

2 - Server 1 - Domain Controller / IBM XSeries 235 / Sits under the desk and does nothing! It will shortly be made redundant.

3 - Server 2 - Domain Controller / HP Proliant ML350 / Student and staff user areas / Profiles / Shared areas

4 - Server 3 - HP Proliant ML350 / Backup server / Print Server / Also used to store network programmes. I also use this server when VB programming

5 - Test workstation / Great for Unreal Tournament!

6 - Sound system / Needed to blast out 80's tunes on stressful days

7 - My PDA - used as a wireless testing device, and for playing Tomb Raider on the go!

8 - Pictures of Kieran

9 - My "To Do" tray - as you can see, I've got lots to do!

10 - Backup tapes (Ultrium 1,2 and 4 data tapes)

11 - A Collection of certificates that I've had since working at the school

12 - Some pictures that Kieran did for me to display in my office.

1 - UPS

2 - Server 4 - SIMS Server / HP Proliant ML350 - SIMS is our school administration software, and not some crap game about controlling the lives of little virtual people called Sims!!!!

3 - Server 5 - Administration File Server / Dell PowerEdge 2600 - Shortly will be made redundant.

1. - Server 6 - HP Proliant DL180 Rack Server - New Evesham High School web server (Not yet configured)

2. - Server 7 - HP Proliant DL180 Rack Server - Microsoft Exchange 2007 Server (Not yet configured)

3. - XServe - Mac Server for the new iMac suite in the school.

4. - Big kick-arse cabinet for all of these new servers!

5. - Big kick-arse rack mount UPS for all of these servers!!!

Computers from hell - The dreaded iMacs!!!! Sitting, waiting to be configured and installed in to the new iMac suite

1. - Our main comms cabinet, with fibre optic links to various other cabinets located in the different buildings around the school. This cabinet includes a variety of switches - HP Procurve 5406zl (with gigabit ports), HP Procurve 2650, HP Procurve 1400-24G and a couple of Netgear ProSafe WFS709TP wireless switches that we use to control and manage 35 wireless access points dotted around the school.

2. - All schools located in Evesham and the surrounding villages get their internet access from us - essentially Evesham High School is the central hub for internet access. This cabinet belongs to BT and includes all the fibre links to the other schools.

3. - Server 9 - Dell PowerEdge 840 - This is our proxy server, and gateway to the internet!

Our new state-of-the-art server (actually, an old BBC Master - kept for posperity!!

A collection of some of my certificates, and my infamous "I could rule the world with my Commodore 64" poster

The most important machine in my office - the air-con unit!

Anyone who enters my office is greeted by this poster - and reminded that no matter how bad it is, "Don't Panic"

Rock on Tommy!

2008-07-19T12:40:00.004+01:00

Well, the summer holidays have started and I am now off work for 6 weeks. Already after just one day of sitting on my arse I have accomplished something I never thought I'd ever do - It has only taken me 22 years, but I have finally completed the Commodore Plus 4 version of Tom Thumb WITHOUT losing one life!!!! (and without cheating!)

180000, all 26 keys and with 13 lives left is the highest score I have ever had! I missed a few of the treasures so I am sure I could get a slightly higher score, but I'm happy with it! For those who have never played it before, it can be a rather frustrating game and it is very easy to get far in it, only to be killed and to return to a checkpoint much earlier in the game.

For a game that cost a couple of quid back in 1986, I think I got my moneys worth!

All Aboard (Part 4)

2008-07-06T19:48:00.011+01:00

Work has resumed on Kierans trainset, and I must say it is beginning to look really good now. Michelle has been a star and has done the papier-mache over the second tunnel/hill and has covered it with grass.

We have also started to add foliage ontop of the hills and around the tunnel portals, and this has really added a touch of realism to the project.

The next job is to lay the road, and to add the pavement and foundations for the individual buildings along what will be the main stree(which have already been built and waiting in storage).

Happy 2nd Birthday C.B.

2008-06-24T17:05:00.005+01:00

Can you believe it? Two years (and 195 posts later), Captains Blog has reached its 2nd birthday.

I just wish I had something interesting and funny to post!

Come on life.... throw something exciting my way.

Oh well, only another 3 and a bit weeks to go before the school summer holiday (and 6 lovely weeks off from work!)

Back to school

2008-06-09T19:58:00.006+01:00

And so the next 18 months of my life begin...

Today I recieved in the post all of the learning materials for the course that I have started - The Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) course...

It has now begun!!!

Just a little bit of bed-time reading. The pictures don't do them justice - they're BIG!!

Hopefully I won't find the course too taxing. As a Network Manager, I can already maintain and administer a Windows Server and network, but as most of you know, having a professional qualification always looks better on a CV. Still, I am sure I will learn quite a few new things from doing it, (and of course at the end of it I get to put MCSA after my name!!)

Right, I'd better start revising!

3D Shennanegans

2008-06-01T20:16:00.005+01:00

I've been messing around in 3D again, and have come up with the above image in less than an hour!! - It's not yet finished, but I liked it so much I thought I would post it in it's current state.

It did start off as being my version of the Tyrell office as seen in the movie Blade Runner, so I may change it considerably yet!!

Dynamite Dan

2008-05-26T20:25:00.009+01:00

Whoa.... Sorry for the long delay inbetween posts. I have no excuse - I simply have not had anything interesting to write about.

Well, while it's half-term, I've got a week off work so I've been busy doing a little more work on the trainset, and I have also got back into programming and game creating and started making a game which I am currently calling "Dynamite Dan and the Demon-Possessed Factory From Hell".

The game is based on the classic cheap £1.99 games that you could buy during the 1980's and features wonderful quasi 3D graphics, 16x16 pixel tiled graphics and wonderfully authentic 8-bit sound effects. Although the graphics, sound and game design is by me, the game is based on three classic 8-bit platform games - Dynamite Dan (by Rob Bowkett for Mirrorsoft), Big Mac - The Mad Maintenance Man (Tony Kelly for Mastertronic) and Manic Miner (By Matthew Smith for Software Projects).

The game 'engine' is complete and I am now in the process of designing the levels. I actually find this part the hardest thing to do when developing a game, but fortunatly I have Michelle as a game tester so she can tell me if the level is too easy or too hard.

I am hoping to post a demo online soon for you all to try out.

Hopefully you will not have to wait too long for my next post.

All aboard (Part 3)

2008-05-04T13:10:00.009+01:00

Well, it has been awhile since I last updated you on on the progress of Kierans trainset that Michelle and myself are building. I have included some more pictures with this post to show you how it is developing. The first tunnel has now been covered with grass and is just waiting for some foliage (thanks to a massive box of lichen that I purchased from eBay quite some time ago!).

Michelle has done a wonderful job at building the railway station for me, and I have started work on building the frame for the second tunnel (the largest of the two tunnels).

Things have slowed down a little bit thanks partly to Grand Theft Auto 4 (which I am spending most of my spare time playing), but I am gradually getting back into the building mood, much to Kierans happiness! - the sooner he can have his trainset, the better!

I love you Amazon!

2008-04-28T17:53:00.004+01:00

OHHHHH YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

I've just found out that my copy of Grand Theft Auto 4 for the Playstation 3 has been dispatched today from Amazon (meaning I should receive it tomorrow - the day of release).

Reports are indicating that many shops and online stores have already sold their allocated stock as pre-orders and that unless you have pre-ordered, you will have to wait until the next delivery.

Thankyou Amazon. I'd best say goodbye to my social life (and my family!) - GTA 4 is going to be BIG!!

Pushy Phones4u

2008-04-11T17:55:00.007+01:00

Its that time of year again when I get to change my mobile phone with a new one. As usual, Phones4u gave me a ring the other day and tried to convince me to go with a brand new Samsung G600 mobile phone (the same model as Michelle). Now, Ive been quite happy with my Nokia N80 for the past year and felt that an upgrade to the new Nokia N95 8Gb would be my best bet.

Well, the sales person whom I spoke to on the phone just kept telling me that the N95 is a crap phone and that if I would go with the Samsung model, I could also get £150 cash back - yes, a cheque for £150.

I gave in, and said OK, with the understanding that if I wasn't happy with it, I could return it within 7 days.

One day later, my new Samsung arrived. I opened the box, had a proper look and came to the conclusion that the phone just was not for me - it had none of the features that I've come to expect from a phone, so I rang up and explained to them that I wished to return the phone.

As you can imagine, the sales person attempted to try and change my mind by adding an extra £100 to the cashback offer - yes, £250 cash back. I tried to explain that the phone was not for me.

I was then passed to another 'senior' sales person, and once again they tried to convince me to go with the G600.

Phones4u, get it into your thick heads that I DO NOT WANT THE BLOODY G600. I know that you all have sales targets and that you have to sell a large number of a certain model to reach your targets, but instead of thinking of yourselves, how about thinking about what the person who is actually paying for the phone wants. I know what I'm talking about - just because you sit behind a desk in some office selling mobile phones all day, don't think that you know everything about phones - you don't. I wanted an N95 - I need a phone with the functionality of a smart phone running the Symbian operating system. If you can't get me one, then I will go elsewhere.

Anyway, after threatening to leave them, they finally gave in, and have offered me a good deal on a N95 8gb with cashback (even though when I first spoke to them they said they couldn't offer me any cashback on the phone). Hopefully I should receive the phone in the post in the next couple of days.

All aboard (Part 2)

2008-04-06T19:59:00.003+01:00

Not much to report. Michelle and I have been continuing our work on Kierans trainset. The track and ballast are now completely pinned down to the board, and I purchased 3 buffer stops for the end of the lines. I have also added a single line level crossing too. Michelle has built for me the latest building that will stand on the set - a signal box (see picture below)

I've now been constucting one of the tunnels. Using small wooden supports, I have placed some wire mesh to simulate the contours of a hill. Paper-mache will be added later. Once that has dried, we can then add the grass scatter-mats to cover the hill with realistic grass.

All Aboard.......

2008-03-30T13:12:00.009+01:00

For Kierans first Christmas, we got him a Hornby Thomas the Tank Engine trainset - we knew he was too young for it at the time, but it was a bargain, and for the past couple of years I have been promising to build him a trainset - At last I bought the materials needed and have indeed started work on it.

First of all though, I had to plan the layout and size of the trainset - I settled for a nice 6ft by 3ft - not too big, but at the same time still a reasonable size for Kieran to play with (and yes, it will fit in his bedroom!!!). I used a fantastic little program called XTrkCad to design the track.

I popped down to our local Homebase store here in Evesham last Friday and bought the bits and pieces needed to put it all together - the wood, screws, joints, etc.

I couldnt get one large sheet of wood, so I had to settle on three 3ft x 2ft boards.

The next thing I started to do was lay the track (with the help of Michelle). Fortunatly I was able to purchase tons of extra track and track-ballast from Ebay several months ago.

Now, in the two days since I started work on the trainset, here is what it looks like now :-

Ignore the bottles of wine - I've been using them to prop things up (like the tunnel portals), and to show me where certains things are going to go.

Kieran absolutely loves it even in its unfinished state - I can't wait to see his face when it is finally finished.

As I progress with the project, I will post here new pictures.

London Transport Museum

2008-03-26T10:01:00.009Z

Despite Kieran having chickenpox, we still decided to visit my family and friends back in Laindon. Yesterday we took Kieran into London to visit the London Transport Museum. He absolutely loved it, and I have to admit it, so did I...

Kieran driving a double-decker bus

Kieran and Grandad beside Steam Train

Buses

Kieran and Nanny driving an Underground train on the Simulator.

An old 1938 stock Underground Train

Inside an old 1938 Stock Underground train

Kieran driving another London double-decker bus

Holiday Time / Last Ninja Video

2008-03-21T15:25:00.005Z

Well, the easter holiday is finally here. It's been a short, but very hectic term at school since Christmas but I'm so glad I've got the next two weeks off from work. We're popping down to Essex on Sunday to stay with my parents for a few days, and hopefully catch up with my friends.

Anyway, in the meantime, I'll leave you with a little music video that I have put together (and published on Youtube) for a Commodore 64 remix that I wrote a couple of years ago. Hope you like it.

Future gaming champion!

2008-03-04T18:58:00.005Z

There are those who would probably moan at me for letting my 3 year old son play computer games.... but I don't care - it never did me any harm!!! Since getting a Playstation 3, it seems that Kieran will not leave me alone without taking the controller away from me and having a game.

His favourite games at the moment are Formula One Championship, Ridge Racer 7, Gran Turismo HD Concept (Demo) and Super Rub a Dub!

Not sure what he is going to think of Grand Theft Auto IV!!!!! (Thats a joke by the way).

Anyway, I hope you like these pictures that I have just taken of him playing Gran Turismo and Formula One.

Kieran's ability at using a game controller (and indeed, a mouse on a computer) has amazed both Michelle and myself. I know that it is important not to let him play on it all of the time, but it has certainly helped in his hand/eye co-ordination development, and of course he finds it really fun too.

PS3

2008-03-03T18:42:00.007Z

After a few months trying to decide whether I can be bothered to get a Next Gen console, I finally decided to take the plunge and bought myself a nice shiny new PlayStation 3 yesterday. It was one of those 'game pack' deals which included the console, controller and two games - Ridge Racer 7 and Resistance Fall of Man.

I also bought an HDMI cable with it so that I can connect it to our 40" HD flatscreen television for proper high-definition gameplay.....

My first reaction after playing Resistance was "WOW!!!", and to say I was impressed with the gameplay (and graphics) would be a major understatement.

It was a tough choice between getting an XBox 360 or a PS3, but if I were to get an Xbox (which has been out now for around 3 years), it would be like buying a new computer that was 3 years old - not someting I'd want to do. Other factors include the reliability of PlayStation consoles - I've heard so much about the imfamous 'Ring of Death' on the Xbox, whereas in all the years I have owned a Playstation console (I have an original Playstation, Playstation 2 and PSP), I have never had anything go wrong with any of them......... Touch wood!

I just can't wait for Grand Theft Auto 4 next month, and Resident Evil 5 (whenever it comes out!!!)

Visitors from Gallifrey at Evesham High

2008-02-25T17:48:00.006Z

There I was, fiddling around on one of the servers at the school, when suddenly I heard this strange humming noise coming from outside... As I stood up from my chair and looked out of my window, I saw a most extraordinary sight..... A big blue Police telephone box had appeared in the school grounds, beside the 6th Form Centre and Humanities block....

Only joking!!! I thought I would share with you a little picture from a short video clip that I have been putting together, showing Doctor Who's TARDIS materialising in the grounds of Evesham High School!!

Yep, I do have WAY too much time on my hands!

Ch-Ch-Changes

2008-02-24T13:27:00.001Z

I hope you like the few changes that I have made to the Captain's Blog.

Social me!

2008-02-17T20:17:00.006Z

You know, a year ago I wouldn't have thought twice about joining these 'social networking' sites, but I have to admit that in the six or so months that I have been a member of Facebook, I have found it fun (and interesting), so I've decided to sign up to another site - This time - Bebo

It's funny actually because I spend so much time at the school trying to make sure the kids don't access this site (via proxies etc.) from the school network, and now here I am - a member myself!

So, if you're a Bebo member, look me up and feel free to invite me as a friend!!

I can be found at http://www.bebo.com/essexnumberone

Action Biker - The Video

2008-02-16T17:39:00.005Z

I've done another music video for a Commodore 64 remix which I wrote a couple of years ago. This one is "Action Biker" and was written originally by the legendary Rob Hubbard.

I have renamed this remix "Action Biker - The Laidback 'Vince Clarke-esque' Remix" and also features a video showing the complete game, from start to finish. I was able to record myself playing the game, and I finished it in a pretty respectable 24 minutes. Of course, the video doesn't go on THAT long!!

A high-resolution version will shortly be available to download

I hope you like it :)

Malvern Hills - The Pictures

2008-02-16T00:13:00.014Z

As promised, here are a selection of partial-panoramic photographs that I took while walking the Malvern Hills. I haven't done any major enhancements on them yet apart from adding a bit more colour saturation, just so that I can post them on here sooner rather then later.

I also have quite a few 360º panoramics which will be available to view shortly on my Panoramics website.

Anyway, enjoy!

On top of the world....

2008-02-12T20:21:00.000Z

I did it!!! I've walked 9.67 miles up, along and down the Malvern Hills! You can view my route by clicking on one of the Google Map images above.

As you can imagine, the views were incredible. I took loads of pictures and panoramics while I was up there, and I will hopefully post them on here in the next couple of days.

Here is a picture of myself on the Worcestershire Beacon (the tallest part of the Hills at 450 metres).... Ok, it probably wasn't the best idea to take a picture of myself with the sun in view, but it does make a rather dramatic image!!

I left home at 9.00am this morning, and finally got back at 18.30pm. I am knackered so I'm off to go and have a long soak in the bath!

The Hills Are Alive....

2008-02-11T16:19:00.001Z

Well, it has taken me over six years to finally get round to doing it, but tomorrow morning I'm off to walk the length of the Malvern Hills, all on my own!! I'm not sure if I am going to be able to walk the full 13km, but I'm eager to take some panoramic shots from the highest point (1395ft above sea level) and see some gorgeous views of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloustershire.

And, in other news, what with Valentines Day just round the corner (and because I'm just a big ole' romantic at heart), I've treated Michelle to a brand new phone for her Valentines present.

Her phone is now a nice shiny (and pink) Samsung G600, and I hate to say it, but it means she has a better phone than my contract one - although, one of my contracts finish at the end of the month, meaning I'll be able to get a better one than hers!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday...

2008-02-02T22:59:00.000Z

Just a quick post today to say - Happy Birthday Kieran.... 3 today!

I said it last year, so I will say it again - - You're one year closer to getting your pension!

Love Mummy and Daddy xx

'It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake.....'

2008-01-31T22:00:00.000Z

It is Kieran's 3rd birthday on Saturday, so foolishly I decided (as in ME - Mr I Can't Cook) would make him a cake.....

Ladies and Gentlemen... may I present..... The Cake!!!

Ok, I admit, I did have 'a little' help from Michelle, but not much!!!!!!!

Shame on you Mr Timbaland

2008-01-29T21:21:00.000Z

Ok, this may be old news to some, but you may have heard of R&B and Hip Hop producer Timbaland. Well, apparently he has been ripping off some classic C64 tunes and featuring them in his music, taking ALL credit without even giving the original arranger/composer any mention. Since most kids who listen to his music were not even born when the Commodore 64 was out, none of them know this and believe Timbaland is some super cool and original producer.........

This is no joke! Don't believe me? Check this out <----- CLICK HERE

This reminds me of Kernkraft 400's Zombie Nation which was a blatant rip off from David Whitakers 'Lazy Jones' on the Commodore 64.

It also goes to show that even now, the 8-bit sounds of a 3 channel Commodore 64 (and the thousands of incredibly talented composers) are still popular as ever before.

AND, while I am on the subject of Timbaland, whats the deal with R&B (Rubbish & Bollocks), and Hip Hop????? I mean, I'd rather listen to a room of screaming babies then put up with the likes of Rihanna, Nelly Furtado, The Pussycat Dolls, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!

Right I'm off to listen to some real music - A real C64 Remix done properly, with full credit to the original composer - Matt Grey - and it's remake - Instant Remedy.

The Geek Equation

2008-01-20T10:29:00.000Z

Pinched from Dan.....

Ok... ok.... I'm a geek, but I didn't think I was THAT much of a geek.

Still, I'm proud of my geekness!

To Boldy Go....

2008-01-18T18:30:00.000Z

At long last.... It's here.....

The long awaited teaser trailer for the new Star Trek movie has finally made it onto Youtube. The film of course has a Christmas Day 2008 release date, but you will also be able to see the trailer if you go and see Cloverfield in the cinema.

I'm not ashamed to admit it, but boy, did I get goose-bumps just watching it, and listening to Leonard Nimoy utter those immortal words "Space, The Final Frontier"...

Star Trek is back, and it's going to be BIG!!

31 Today!

2008-01-12T23:37:00.000Z

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday dear Stuart
Happy birthday to me!!

Telly Addicts

2008-01-09T21:12:00.000Z

After lots of hmming and umming, I've decided to take the plunge and replace our old JVC 32" CRT televison with an all new 40" Flat LCD Sony Bravia television.

Actually, I only decided to get one because there was a really good deal on the model that I was looking at, and fortuantly one of the teachers at the school was interested in paying a reasonable price for our old television.

Due to the rather large size of the new television, I've spent the last two evenings moving the living room around, and re-cabling the surround sound speakers, satellite and television aerial cables (with a little help from Kieran), and now I am knackered! The major change is that the television and settee have swapped places and are now on the other side of the room, which was no easy task with the amount of stuff we have in our living room.

I've even done the unimaginable..... I've completely taken apart my beloved computer and thrown away the computer desk to free up some more space in the living room. The computer hasn't gone completely though - The idea is to have it on the floor beside the new television and for it to be connected via a VGA cable directly for use as a gaming machine, and for me to use my wireless laptop more for other things.

It gets delivered tommorow morning, and I can't wait! The only thing is I'm at work all day, so I've got to wait until 4.15pm to play with it!

Pain in the head!

2008-01-04T18:29:00.000Z

As you may have read in a previous post, over the New Year while we were down visiting in Essex I was suffering from some really severe headaches. I've suffered from them for years now and they are weird in that when I do suffer from them, I get them day after day at exactly the same time for weeks at a time. Excrutiating pain above the right eye.

I've been suffering them for every day for the past week, so I decided to finally go to the doctors and see if he can advise me on any medication.

It turns out that I have been diagnosed with 'Horton's Cluster Headaches'. Now, I've done a bit of online investigating and I was quite shocked to see what they actually are.

Taken from Wikipedia:-

"Cluster headache, nicknamed "suicide headache," is a neurological disease that involves, as its most prominent feature, an immense degree of pain. "Cluster" refers to the tendency of these headaches to occur periodically, with active periods interrupted by spontaneous remissions. The cause of the disease is currently unknown.

Cluster headaches are extremely painful, unilateral headaches of a piercing quality. The degree of pain involved in cluster headaches is markedly greater than in other headache conditions, including migraine. The duration of the common attack is 15 minutes to three hours. Onset of an attack is rapid, and most often without the preliminary signs that are characteristic of a migraine.

Cluster headaches are occasionally referred to as "alarm clock headaches", because of the regularity of its timing. It has been known to strike at the same time each night or morning, often at precisely the same time during the day.

In episodic cluster headaches, these attacks occur once or more daily, often at the same times each day, for a period of several weeks, followed by a headache-free period lasting weeks, months, or years. Approximately 10–15% of cluster headache sufferers are chronic; they can experience multiple headaches every day for years.

Cluster headaches often go undiagnosed for many years, being confused with migraine or other causes of headache. Medically, cluster headaches are considered benign, but because of the extreme and often debilitating pain associated with them, a severe attack is nevertheless treated as a medical emergency by doctors who are familiar with the condition."

For years I have always thought that they were migraines due to the intense pain (and also because my Mum suffers them too), but although the pain can be far greater than a migraine, they are classed differently. At last - an answer to a condition that has been affecting me nearly all of my life.

Happy New Year! (Part 3)

2008-01-04T12:33:00.000Z

I've had reports (well only from Dan actually) that he can't view my New Year message!! Oh well, I'm guessing embedding a simple SWF flash file in an HTML page is just too much for some internet browsers(!!), so here is a link which should work, whether you are using MS IE, Firefox, Opera, or whatever other broswer!!

http://www.stu-wilson.com/blogger/helium/index.html

Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T14:14:00.000Z

Well, this is going to be my last post in 2007. To all the readers (well, the one or two of you) who read this blog - I hope you all have a wonderful 2008.

Besides suffering some of the worst headaches/migraines that I have had in years over the past couple of days (no they are not drink induced headaches), Michelle, Kieran and I are both in Laindon to see in the new year. Sorry to my friends who we never got a chance to see while we were visiting - We just haven't had enough time and unfortunatly I need to get back to Evesham by Wednesday afternoon to help organise a Wireless network survey at the school.

So, what are my hopes for 2008?...

...That'll be telling :)

Ho Ho Ho....

2007-12-25T11:15:00.000Z

In the words of Shakin' Stevens - MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

To be honest, I'm not a very merry person at Christmas, but as I write this, I'm watching Kieran playing with all the great presents that he got, and I think back to this very day 20 years ago - Yep, Christmas 1987 - the best Christmas I ever had......

Why was it so great..... Because it was when I got my Commodore 64, the best present I have ever had in all of my 30 Christmases. It was the one present I got the most enjoyment out of (and I still do, 20 years later!!). I don't know if it is just me, but Christmas just isn't the same now that I am older, but I think to myself that Kieran has still got all this enjoyment, and excitement to come, and it's nice to know that I'll be able to share it with him and see him happy opening his presents over the coming years.

Well, the excitement of Kieran opening his presents has now finished. We are now off to spend the rest of Christmas and Boxing Day at Michelle's hotel... Ho Hum.

Catch you later!

BARGAIN ALERT!!

2007-12-16T20:14:00.000Z

To anyone who is reading this and is interested - I am currently selling the complete collection of Star Trek Deep Space Nine VHS videos over on ebay for an amazing price of just £55!! Thats 101 video tapes - over £1000 worth of videos (at a cost of about £0.50 per tape).

BARGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok ok... before I start sounding desperate, these videos are in really good condition and deserve a new home. Every single episode of all 7 seasons of the hit show Deep Space Nine AND the first season of Enterprise thrown in free!!! Seasons 1,2 and 3 have been watched three times whereas season 4,5,6 and 7 have only been watched twice.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=320197302288&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=011

I want to eat your braiiiinnns.

2007-12-16T09:23:00.000Z

Dan over at http://www.0ddness.co.uk/ did this, and since I love anything 'zombie' related, I thought I'd try it out - What would be my chances of surviving a zombie outbreak? (chance would be a fine thing!!!!!! Bring it on!)

64%

And this is the best one - I took the 'How much of a geek I am?' test, and I managed to score 105%!!!!!! Just getting a score I shouldn't really be able to get has got to be geeky enough - (Honest, I swear I didn't cheat!). I think I found a bug in the code somewhere because for one of the questions, it asked me for the answer twice.

105% Geek

Baa, Humbug

2007-12-13T21:24:00.000Z

Apologies for the lack of updates lately. This has been down to me not having any 'me' time. Why?? I've been busy with work, putting together a special video for the school which will be entered into a national competition (I've done it for the past two years and both entries came 2nd place in the whole country!)

Anyway, as you can see from the picture, we have decided to put our Christmas tree up, much to the delight of Kieran. I've never been a festive person - infact, I cant stand this time of year. For me, its a very depressing period (not forgetting to mention how much I feel Christmas has become more commercialized). Infact, if it wasn't for Kieran, I doubt I'd even bother with it. I mean, if there is something that myself or Michelle wants to get during the year, we will get it - we wont wait until Christmas - I mean, whats the point?

Still, it's all about Kieran. Thats what I keep saying to myself. Its important that he enjoys it, and that has a great time! We've already done the Christmas shopping, and I think Kieran is going to be pleasantly surprised with what he gets on the 25th.

OH CRAP!!!!!!! Don't forget to backup

2007-12-01T13:49:00.000Z

As a Network Manager, I am always telling the teachers and staff at school to make regular backups of the work they bring into school from home on a USB flash drive. Well, I should listen to my own advice because one of the worst things possible happened last week - 1 of 3 hard-drives in my home computer packed up, causing me to lose over 20Gb of MP3's, and over 10Gb of pictures (including personal pictures such as our Wedding day, honeymoon, and Kieran's birth pictures).

Fortunatly I did backup my music collection in July on one of the servers at the school, so I have only lost a couple of albums (which I am sure can be downloaded again if I can be bothered to look for them), but the pictures are a different story. After frantically searching through all my old backup DVD's in our bedroom, Michelle did find a backup that I made in mid 2006. Thankfully, I was able to restore the Wedding, Honeymoon and Kieran pictures, but it does mean that I have lost all pictures that I took between July 2006 and November 2007 - including last Christmas, and Kieran's 2nd birthday photos. Bugger!

Suffice to say, I am now backing all my data up - The original copies on my desktop PC, one backup on an external drive used only for backup purposes, and a copy on each of my 2 laptops.

So there you go.... A message to everyone - REMEMBER TO BACKUP YOUR VALUABLE DATA.

Unfinished Business

2007-11-19T20:05:00.000Z

I've been going through my harddrive these past couple of days deleting old stuff that has basically been using up valuable megabytes, and I found a couple of things that I thought I would share with you :- A couple of unfinished games that I'd been working on.....

In an attempt to get back into game design, a couple of years ago I started work on a remake of an old Commodore Plus 4 game called "Treasure Island". I got quite far in the actual development of the game (the entire map, the sprites, tiles, collisions, enemies, coding), but for some reason I just gave up - actually, I think it was when we had Kieran, and I just didn't have the time to work on it.

Well, I figured I'd upload the game AS IT IS for all of you to see. I doubt anyone will find it interesting except those who perhaps had the original game. You can wander around the entire island, and a few baddies are present at the start of the game (including some big blue trigger objects that would be invisible in the finished game but are visible in this release for debugging purposes). I WILL finish it oneday as I got so far with it and it would seem such a waste not to complete it. One of the many things that I liked about my remake was that the landscape is completely made up from tiles, therefore it would be extremely easy to make different island layouts (perhaps even include an Island Level Editor at some point) - but in this version you just get the map that was in the original game. Anyway, enough of my waffling on about it..... Take a look at the screenshots below to compare my version with the original, and when you are ready CLICK HERE to download Treasure Island

And when you've finished that one, try out another game that I started but never got round to finishing....

"LANDER". Yep, its such an original idea this one.... Guide your spaceship across a rocky landscape and land it softly on the landing pad. (Hmmmmm, why hasn't anyone else thought of that one?) It was my attempt at recreating a typical 'Mastertronic" style 1.99 game from the 80's (remember those?)

Again.. don't expect a finished game....... I was working on this one about the same time as Treasure Island, and stopped work on it because I just didnt have the time to spend developing it. The first level is easy, but I'd like to see anyone try and finish the second level!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can download it .

My first (and probably only) Musical Monday!

2007-11-12T21:32:00.000Z

I just had to post this since Dan over at http://www.0ddness.co.uk/ posted the fantastic "Star Trekkin" as the choice for his Musical Monday.

I present to you my choice - Raumshiff Edelweiss by Edelweiss (an Austrian Electronica/Dance group) from the the early 90's. I remember first hearing this on MTV when Star Trek Generations was just coming out in the cinema... Ijust had to get myself a copy soon-after!!!

The Star Trek theme with a good thumping beat... It has never sounded so good.....

Great stuff!! If you like it, I'd check out some of their other stuff as well. They did a great song called

"Bring me Edelweiss" - <---- Click the link!!

...and yes, they are on my current MP3 playlist!!!!!!!!!

Star Trek XI - and so it begins.........

2007-11-09T21:38:00.000Z

I need to get this off my chest..... so here goes.....

With filming of the new movie starting last Wednesday, and with all the talk about the new Star Trek movie all over the web, some saying how bad it's going to be, others saying its going to wonderful, and others saying to just wait and see until it comes out, I just want to say that I loved the original series. I loved the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and enjoyed Voyager. I even found Enterprise an enjoyable series. I like Star Trek. I like to think of myself as a true fan (something Michelle and Kieran have to put up with with amazing dedication!!!!). I don't let it take over my life, but I am just so pleased that they are even actually making a movie.

I hear from so called 'true fans' that Star Trek is about going forward and not backwards and that they shouldn't be doing this movie in Kirk's era and stick with the Next Generation or a new crew in the Next Gen era. What made Star Trek so special were the stories and how they managed to show current events within an exciting sci-fi format - I loved the drama, the action and the fantastic characters that populated this wonderful universe that Gene Roddenberry created, no matter what century they were in, whether it was the 22nd, 23rd or 24th. There are so many stories that still need to be told in the TOS era. Afterall, why are all of those web-based fan movies like Starship Exeter and New Voyages so popular?

As much as I'll miss William Shatner and the gang in the new movie, at the end of the day these actors can't live forever. For Star Trek to survive and last another 40 odd years it needs film-makers like J.J. Abrams and his team to do radical things like this. Good luck to them.

I'm going to remain optimistic about this movie. I haven't been this excited about a Star Trek movie since Star Trek VI : The Undiscovered Country back in 1991/92, and eagerly look forward to any news and gossip that comes out with each passing day up until the film opens on Christmas Day, 2008. I'm sure that they can pull this off. I just dont understand why there are so many people who feel that the film will suck when they don't even know what its going to be about. I see and hear rumours all over the internet about possible storylines, but these are just rumours.

There will always be those individuals who think Star Trek is for geeks, and that all Star Trek fans are single men, sad nerds with no life - Hey.... I'm married to a wonderful, gorgeous woman, I have a lovely son and have a wonderful job and most of all - I'M HAPPY!!! - that doesn't sound too sad to you does it?

Anyway, back onto the subject at hand.... Star Trek has always been about showing an optimistic view of the future. Come on, lets be optimistic about this film... You may all be surprised.

Oh, by the way - In case you don't know, my favourite Star Trek was the original series.... and I am more than happy that although the actors will be different, I'll be able to see my favourite crew do one more adventure on the big screen.

Oh.. and incase you're interested..... Here's the cast!!!!

Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachery Quinto (Spock), Leonard Nimoy (Old Spock), Karl Urban (McCoy), Simon Pegg (Scotty), John Cho (Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), Zoe Saldana (Uhura)

I hear you knocking..........

2007-10-31T17:55:00.000Z

Uh oh... Its that dreaded time of year again - Halloween! I hate it. So far we've had none of the little s**ts knocking on our door yet - That might have something to do with the big sign that I have attached to our front door telling people to (basically) piss off and not knock!!

Anyway, I've been busy working on another 3D render - Here's an early shot. Its not quite finished yet, but it's coming along rather nicely. I still need to finalise the lighting and add some furniture and things just to spruce it up a little bit.

And finally... Many years ago (1999 or 2000 I think), I watched a really good program on Channel 4 called Spaced. I usually hate sitcoms, but this show was different. I loved all the references to Sci-Fi, computer games etc. Not only that but it also stars one of my favourite actors, the fantastic Simon Pegg (who just so happens to be Star Trek's new Mr Scott in the forthcoming Star Trek movie). Anyway, I decided a couple of days ago to order the complete boxset from Amazon and it arrived in the post this morning. Now I can't wait until the weekend when I will be able to sit down and watch every episode in one sitting..... Yeah... I'm sad I know!!

One last thing before I go.... Here's a nice panoramic image that I took with my camera for you to admire. I took when we visited Essex last week.

Basildon... Chav central....

2007-10-25T17:24:00.000+01:00

We decided to pop down to my old home in Laindon for a few days this week (We came on Sunday and are returning home to Evesham tomorrow), and although we've had a nice break, I would just like to say how arrogant, and horrible some of the people from the area have become.

To those of you who have pissed me off (and especially that silly brat who decided to call Kieran a c**t for no apparent reason while her mum (a typical essex single Mum in her tracksuit, talking on her mobile) just ignored the whole thing...... UP YOURS!!.

And why is it that Basildon is so full of scenes like this.......

Has Basildon become the Chav capital of Great Britain since I moved away in 2002?

Can't wait to go home now back to the country!

Note to Dan *** Sorry mate that we couldn't meet up while we were down visiting. I did try ringing your phone a few times, but I couldn't get through.