Diary of an up and coming sociopath

After work on Friday Nikki went back home to drive her sister up to an open day. Thus I spent saturday morning communing with the inside of my eyelids having opted, as ever, to skip the whole getting up debacle.

It wasn’t an entirely wasted day though, because I took out some time between sleeping and eating to listen to the Bright Eyes album “Digital Ash in a Digital Urn” (verdict: Not bad. Definitely worth more investigation.) and read the book I bought on Friday.

One of the things I did on Friday, see, was buy Optic Nerve #9 from Foyles, which contains the first part of the story from issue #10 which I bought a few weeks ago. Because It felt absolutely dumb to be paying for something that costs like £2 with my card, I thought I’d treat myself to a new book as well. You may have noticed that I’m especially fond of doing is treating myself to new purchases just after I get paid. Still, I chose a slimline version of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis because like most people, my familiarity with the book doesn’t extend past the first line.

Anyway, I read that on Saturday, and was plenty impressed. It’s clearly the kind of text that literary types will really get their teeth into, and as an amateur interested in that sort of shite I found it incredibly gripping, as each new development allowed for more interpretation and the augmentation or contradiction of existing ideas. Plus, it’s quite a good story. A depressing one though. Which is arguably my favourite kind, because nothing cheers me up more than a horrendously bleak ending for all involved (it wasn’t bleak for everyone in this case, I guess, though maybe it was for different reasons. Oh, I dunno. The main character got utterly shafted, that’s enough to make me happy).

I had very few expectations about it when I went into the book, but coming out I’m glad to have read it. I’ve read some books that are famously excellent and been disappointed. For the record: I disliked Catcher in the Rye quite a lot the first time, mainly because I totally missed a large part of the story (and because of the colloquialisms driving me up the wall) and I’ve never been able to get even halfway into On The Road because it’s the most tedious book I’ve ever read. One day I’ll conquer it, but I’ll need a supply of legal, over the counter wake-up drugs, and possibly a pin to jab myself with.

The plan is to investigate more Kafka, anyway. Tom reckons he’ll send me The Trial when he’s done with it because he’s not finding it to his tastes, but I did find a spanish e-text of The Metamorphosis so he’s going to give that a shot.

Because I’ve been unable to report back on it, I’d just like to record that the Turkey experiment was a success. I had Turkey for literally every meal between Sunday and Thursday, but as noted, I ate out on Friday and on Saturday I ceased to trust the integrity of the meat. I’m going to have to check out how long cooked meat is good for, because the idea of throwing away perfectly edible poulty like that…it hurts.

The third episode of Hyperdrive keeps the series just on the cusp of being funny. For every joke that works, there’s a scene with that terrible female character. Christ, they even managed to make the android character have one decent joke. Still, it’s credit to my total lack of taste that I’ll keep watching it, because it’s still not as bad as the first season of Joey.

I remember being told by Garry and Dipesh that January was going to be a hard month for us in Travel, being the peak time of the industry. What I didn’t know is quite how true that was. I feel like I’ve spent the last couple of weeks running around like a headless chicken. By the end of this I’m going to need a holiday myself.

Today Nikki met me from work and we went up to Virgin, and I bought Bubble Bobble Revolution for the DS. It’s all fine nicking Josh’s games, but I’ve been sizing up this remake for months and now I’ve finally been paid, I feel like celebrating. Of course I’ll celebrate some more when Fopp gets Family Guy Series 3 DVDs in and Forbidden Planet gets We3 in, but them’s the breaks. Try not to let the consumerism disgust you, it’s all I know.

On Saturday, I bought a Turkey crown. It cost me a tenner. I cooked it on Sunday and I’ve literally had turkey for every meal since. Luckily, Turkey is low in fat and works well even in sandwiches, so I’ve resorted to taking lunches to work in the hope that I can eat it all before Friday, which is my cut off date for e-coli or bird flu, or whatever it is Turkeys have. It’s a Herculean task.

Speaking of TV, and let’s face it, I was a few paragraphs back, Nikki and I finished watched Angel series 5, only around 18 months after we finished season 4. We’ve now begun on watching Quantum Leap, which surprised me by actually having a really excellent first episode. I remember it being way dodgier than it turned out. Not to mention how the high concept is just crying for a sequel/remake, Galactica style.

I’m also attempting to get back into the practise of going to sleep at a reasonable time on worknights. Seems to be going quite well. I’m not sure I can bring myself to do any earlier than half 12, though. It’s a never-ending struggle between body and brain. I love being asleep, almost as much as being awake at night. The weekends used to happily absorb the slack but since that one time when I slep 13 hours because no-one was around to wake me up, I’m starting to see it can’t go on that way forever. I’ll consider this a trial period.

Because I know you’re all big fans, another one of my famous “First listen” reviews. This time, it’s for the new Placebo album “Meds.” I don’t really need to say it, but for anyone who doesn’t know, Placebo have been like my single favourite band for like 10 years. I own every single and album they’ve ever done, including the Fierce Panda Bruise Pristine 7″ and the Deceptive release of “Come Home.” If there’s any band I’m qualified to pass immediate judgement on, it’s them.

That said, since a nasty incident when I slagged off Muse a while back, I always like to preface this with a plea for moderation. I love this band like almost no other. There is a 99% certainty that I am a bigger fan of them than you are. That does not, however, mean that I blindly love everything I do, and if you disagree with my opinion, then for god’s sake, do it without threatening to punch me in the face, calling me gay, or swearing too much. If you can’t manage those three (and you’d be surprised…) then just try spelling and punctuating correctly, yeah?

So, on with the review. As ever, I’ll be writing down what comes to mind as I listen to the tracks and declaring either a hit or miss depending on how good I thought it was.

Placebo - Meds

Meds - Starts off with a sound that reminds me of their debut album’s b-sides. As with the single, the vocals seem especially clear over the rest of the music. Guest vocals are excellent. Seems quite lyrically complex compared to the usual output. I like the end of the track too. Good opener. HIT.

Infra-Red - Weird beginning. 30 seconds in and it’s sounding like a marilyn manson track more than anything. Suddenly turned electronica for the chorus though. I like the parts done in that style a lot. I’ve always hoped Placebo would pursue the electronica direction a bit more. Kind of wimps out at the end though. HIT, just about.

Drag - The music’s good on this one, but the vocals/lyrics are killing it. Actually the music itself isn’t even that great. The “drag bee-hind” hook sounds stupid as hell, which is a pity because it’s repeated a lot. A LOT. Not keen on that one. MISS. Oh god, how much a MISS it is.

Space Monkey - With a name like this, I’m expecting it to be the token experimental track. Bingo. Distorted, spoken and hushed vocals on the verse, and they sound great. Choruses are brilliant too. This is blatantly going to end up my favourite track off the album. I love the lyrics too. Hmm. nearly acapella part near the end is it a bit dodgy but I think the rest of the track props it up. Some very weird sounds towards the end. Atmospheric as hell. HIT!

Follow the cops back home - Slow track time? Seems about right. This has a shit title, it has to be said, and the music itself is simplistic to the point of barely being there. Longest track on the album so far, at almost 5 minutes, and I’ve had way more than enough in well under 3. I’ve never been a particularly huge fan of the slower Placebo tracks (Black Market Music’s aside) but I’m even less forgiving with this one. I can tell now it’s the one that, when they play it at a gig, will seem to drag on for hours. MISS.

Post Blue - Hey, this has a good start. Sounds a bit spooky. Haha. What a line. “It’s in the special way we fuck.” Something very strange happens at the 2 minute mark. Sounds like they’ve been getting to know and love the vibraphone or something. Pretty good overall. HIT.

Because I want you - Wasn’t an immediate fan of this one. As I said before, the vocals are a little stark. It’s a rarity in that I can tell this would be absolutely amazing if seen live, but on the record it’s not actually that great. I’m a little concerned that they chose this as the single, because if it repesents the best example off the album, we could be in trouble. HIT.

Blind - It’s hard to find something to say about this. I quite like it. The contrast between the spartan verses and the full choruses works well. Actually, I know why I’ve been confused. It sounds like Garbage circa Version 2.0. That’s not an unfair comparison for the production on the entire album actually. It just clicked. There are so many programmed drums on this album I’m starting to wonder if they’ve even still got a drummer. HIT.

Pierrot the Clown - Song hasn’t even begun and I’m staring at this title with trepidation. So far it’s slow with a lullaby-esque glockenspiel, and the odd guitar strum. The lyrics are quite good, but it’s lacking much variation. The morose tone doesn’t sit well with my image of clowns as murderous psychopaths. It’s a bit more european in approach. Unfortunately, it’s ending without ever really have got going. MISS.

Broken Promise - With Michael Stipe! Apparantly. Yep, that sounds like him there. Speak up man, I can barely hear you. Erk. This track explodes at the 1 minute mark. This is employing guest vocals in a manner not unlike the Bowie version of WYIN. I have to ask, what’s the point? It all freaks out a bit just before the 3 minute mark. Christ, what a racket towards the end. Oh god. Acapella. Kill me. MISS.

One of a Kind - Hey, funky bassline. Pity about whatever the hell that other thing is. I like it a lot, aside from that one instrument which is unfortunately showing up several times per beat. It’s really good when they get rid of it after a couple of minutes. HIT, despite that horrible sound.

In the cold light of the morning - Oh jesus christ. Rhyming “morning” with “yawning”. Not loving that. OH JESUS. Rhyming “scratchin’” with “action”. Fetch me the body bags. My appreciation for this track has died on the table. Not so much on the table, as at the scene. Sounds like the credits for a Tim Burton film. MISS.

Song to say goodbye - At this point, I’m not expecting any great. There’s a 10 second period a minute in that would make a great song in itself, but it’s over way too quick. I don’t know what’s going on with what sounds like a detuned xylophone being played. At least there’s some theremin action to keep us going. Picks up a bit in the final minute. Can’t help wondering if this title is a little metatextual. HIT, because I feel generous about the better parts of the track.

So, 8 Hits, 5 Misses. Not a horrible amount, but the hits are quite lukewarm. I won’t be wearing out the CD any time soon. Hopefully a live performance will put a better spin on things as it did with Ben Folds’ Songs for Silverman.

As singles, I think Meds could handle the task well. Post Blue if the drug and sex references can be somehow overlooked/censored. Meds and Space Monkey are my favourite tracks by far. Cold Light and Follow the Cops are tied for my least favourite. Overall though, I can’t see this being an album I’m going to stick with much. It’s not particularly bad or anything, it’s just not the album I was hoping for.

Before a band you like releases a new album, there’s often a sense of caution in the first listen of a new song. When I first heard Bitter End I remember being so relieved about 5 seconds in that it was great. By contrast, when I first heard Because I want you, I was was thinking “Well, maybe the album will be a bit better…”

As an album, this is quite cohesive, but it can be a little grating with all its weird samples, and at the same time quite dull because it’s all a little lethargic getting going. Where is Meds’ This Picture or Special Needs? Where is its Special K? It’s all a little unvaried. Most of the tracks seem to start off with a single sample and then either build up layers, or suddenly explode, but nothing starts off, or even keeps on going, like their old material did.

Well, that’s what I think so far. I look forward to seeing how these opinions measure up in the future…

On Friday it was amusing to get into work and find the whole site down for all of europe. I’ve never seen such a failure of architecture that wide, and everyone took great joy over the fact that it wasn’t their fault, or more importantly, their responsibility to fix it.

As the day pressed on though, the site was repaired and we had to find new distractions. The most obvious, of course, being the whale in the Thames. As I write this, he was not long pronounced deceased during the rescue attempt. I’m afraid it’s depressed me somewhat. That whale was a symbol for all that was good in these uncertain times, spreading joy and wonder throughout the masses and uniting the city in a way only a deeply confused mammal swimming the wrong way up the wrong river on the wrong coast can. Maybe his death even nobly reminds us of the frailty of existance. Nikki suggested that instead of that pregnant woman with no arms, we should put a statue of the whale in Trafalgar and I’m wholly in agreement. It should be life size, bronze, and he should be reaching out towards the skies and his destiny, with fin outstretched. Remind me to e-mail Ken Livingstone.

Of course, now he’s dead (the Whale, not Livingstone) I’m starting to wonder if a museum wouldn’t be a fun place to put him. He’s a true legend. Let us hope we can all die with such public admiration focussed upon us.

After work yesterday Nikki and I went to TGI Fridays in Piccadilly Circus. I had steak and mashed potato for the main course, and a heart attack for dessert when I saw the bill. I’m used to paying about half that for eating out. Let’s just say it wouldn’t be impossible to get a week’s shopping at that price. After the food, we went to what appeared to be a late-night sweet shop in the Trocadero which had all those dodgy sweets you ate as a child (like the chocolate drops with rainbow sugar things on them) and gangsta rap playing loudly over the PA (”The Game” I believe.) Rather than pic ‘n’ mix, I went and bought a muffin from Millie’s Cookies. There was a sign on the counter, written in biro, which read “Information Centre: 20p per information.”

Today we got back from Tescos to find a bundle of leaflets had been shoved through the door. It’s not unusual, we get leafletted a lot here, and usually by the same companies every week. For a change, though, we got something new. It was a leaflet from the “Citizen’s Comission for Human Rights” about the evils of psychiatric abuse.

“Children are the Future” it proclaimed in 24-point text, “but is psychiatry making sure many won’t have one?” Now, I know a bunch of crackpots when I see them. I knew right away that this was going to be hilarious so I began reading it aloud to Nikki and Ian even before I’d read it myself. As I got through it, I realised all the ranting about the overuse and mis-prescription of ineffective drugs, and the mutiple abuses perpetuated by psychiatrists sounded like familiar dogma. And the name… it’s the kind of name that sounds like something important and governmental, but on closer inspection is, in fact, gibberish, and doesn’t even have anything to do with what they were claiming their organisation exists for. It dawned on me pretty fast what this was.

Almost as soon as I had thought it, Ian reached the same conclusion and ran off to check google. Even before he’d got that far, Nikki noticed the head offices were in East Grinstead. And any good activist should know what that means. Yes, friends, we had been leafletted by a genuine Church of Scientology front company! This utterly made my day. Google “Citizen’s Comission on Human Rights” and/or “CCHR” and you’ll see for yourself. They have some wacky ideas about how to deal with the insane, I’ll tell you that much.

There’s something we found a little sinister, though (and I’m going to stick in the word “allegedly” here so we’re all plenty clear this is conjecture and opinion. The CoS are allegedly quite litigious.) about how the actions of one allegedly insane alleged writer of alleged science-fiction who allegedly decided to turn an allegedly quick buck by allegedly starting his own alleged religion, can be traced directly do some guy being emplyed to shove leaflets through our door. Acting more or less directly on orders from L. Ron Hubbard, some guy has paid someone to distribute this propaganda and advertising literally into our own homes. C’est muchas disturbing, nein? I never expected scientology to come into my home before today.

Anyway, I’ll try and photograph the leaflet soon so that we can all drink in the insanity.

Today was just like the most frantic day I’ve ever had at work. It seemed like every time we turned around things were fucking up, and for no good reason. Frankly much of it had to be left undiagnosed with the assumption that it’ll just work tomorrow. Which, given the way the systems work (or don’t) that’s highly likely. At least my bonus amount was given to me today, and it’s going to pad next month’s pay in a wonderful manner. Drinks, Meals, Hotel Rooms and Prostitutes are on me. As the Milky Bar kid was occasionally heard to remark later on in life.

Still, being Thursday, I was glad to find the comics available in shops. It keeps me going through the long days at work sometimes, the promise of comics to come soon. Granted, some of them were shite this week, but on the other hand, the second issue of All Star Superman came out. I know that doesn’t mean much to everyone but to me the satisfaction is like when one of those soccer teams you like scores a conversion just before the end of the last frame. To use the appropriate lingoistics.

The greatness of that comic was kind of combatted by the increasing amount of crack the spider-man writers are smoking. I blame JMS squarely for all that’s gone on, because it seems like his pet themes getting played up here. Peter David’s issue was great, though, as were all of his parts of the crossover, so I think I’ll stick with FNSM in the future.

I had to pass on the new Transformers comic from IDW because I flicked through it and it barely had any Transformers in. I have to speak in the voice of the fans here. Whatever version of Transformers you’re watching, the human characters are the least interesting. No-one, but NO-ONE wants to read an entire first issue where the most you see of Optimus Prime is his arm with the rest of him off-panel. The more recent examples of Transfomers writers seem to think that the best way to make an impact is to have the robots show up on the LAST PAGE. It’s be funny if it hasn’t happened repeatedly. This is part of why I liked Furman’s “War Within” series - no bastard humans to speak of.

As you can tell, I’m quite passionate about Transformers. Just imagine what I’ll be like when the movie comes out, though. I’m thinking (pessimistically so) that it’ll make my reaction to the HHGTTG movie look mild, and that was a film so hated by me that even I, who makes a sport out of unpicking the threads of pop culture (especially the shit kind) would prefer just to forget it exists than continue to slag it off. But there I go again.

I just installed Wordpress 2.0. It’s got a bunch of really excellent improvements on the backend. Let me know how it’s going, especially if you find any bugs. I refuse to believe that even transferring across my slightly hacked and incomplete theme files didn’t massively break things. I looks really pathetic from that side, though. It’s like being in a newly decorated and refurbished house when all people can see is the same old red brickwork. I’ll make a new style for this if it kills me. Anyway, you know who to point the blame at when things fuck up. The wordpress authors.

I had all this other stuff that seemed grossly relevant about 20 minutes ago when I got distracted by the Wordpress 2.0 press release that’s been on my headlines page for weeks. Right now all I can remember is that I was going to say how we went up to Seb and Rachel’s in Oxford and played on Seb’s old consoles (a collection that rivals my own, though I don’t think he has a NES) and had dinner. Also I helped fix their internet connection in a role that was mostly reduced to consultancy because Seb really knew what he was supposed to do anyway. ALso I bought myself some Vimto and animal biscuits from the Oxford Co-Op.

Today my DS Flash cartridge arrived from Hong Kong, adressed to “James Ltunt” which is close enough for me to open it without any concern about mail fraud. It’s hideously complicated equipment (because it’s barely documented at all) and I’m slowly but surely figuring it out. I can currently play GBA Roms which has opened up a whole new avenue of games samplement, but I’m most interested in getting stuff like a NES Emulator and ScummVM DS up and running. And, obviously, because I’m a morally bankrupt thief, I’m interested in running commercial NDS Roms. I’m confident I’ll figure it all out though, or my name isn’t James Ltunt.

Thursday night Nikki and I went to see one David Ford do a gig up in the newly-trendified bit of Camden, at Lock 17, which was formerly known as the much less trendy sounding Dingwalls. We went to the local Lloyds No. 1 bar for food though, which is also new and trendified, next to the newly opened Fopp. If they keep it up like this, Camden won’t be a shithole soon. But then, think of the character it’ll lose. Where will I go to get offered drugs if not there? (well, Brixton, but that’s besides the point.)

I think it’s the fourth time I’ve seen Ford do his solo stuff live, though these days “solo” is a bit of a loose term because there were about 6 people on stage. Both the support acts were pretty good, the first was called Eliza Wren Payne. She played some acoustic stuff that would probably draw comparison to a lot of other female singer-songwriters if I could only remember their names, but it was decent enough to make me look out the website in search of freebie MP3s earlier. The second support was called Si Connelly and while he had areally great guitar sound, I wasn’t too keen on the vocals. Could’ve been way worse though.

The thing that struck me most about the gig was that compared to previous ones, this seemed utterly packed. Given how little this tour was promoted, I consider that to be a good thing. Not only was it packed, people were actually paying attention and there was a really good atmosphere around the place. Last time I saw Ford play to a room that packed, it was 15 year old kids. The average age has gone up a little since.

My favourite song in the set was Katie, which I remember hearing for the first time down at the little heavenly social off Oxford Street about six months ago, and instantly loving even then. It was a particularly excellent version last night though. The encore included a cover version of Afternoon Delight that was great too, partially because like all the best cover versions, it straddles the boundary between homage and humour. About halfway through he stopped playing and said “This is a song about afternoon lovemaking.” with more than a hint of glee.

We managed to grab a bootleg off the website which is of excellent quality, and demonstrates quite well what a great performer he is. And there’s another tour in February that I would recommend to anyone with a spare tenner.

Of course, staying late at the gig meant I was utterly wiped out all day on Friday. We went for a team meal at Nandos at lunchtime though, which was exactly what I needed after a few hours of horrendous haze. It’s been a hell of a week, in which the site managed to die twice. January is apparantly a big month for travel, and we’re only halfway through. God help me.

I expanded this from a comment on Seb’s livejournal. I did want to make this an entry anyway, but I arrived at his LK first and just started rattling off, and you know what I’m like…

But anyway. Josh, Ian, Al and I gathered in Josh’s room for the incredibly rare experience of actually watching a British TV programme, in the ultra-rare situation that it was also on TV. Allow me to pontificate a bit on this subject, because it’s not like I think British TV is necessarily shite, it’s just that there is virtually nothing that interests me on it. Jonothan Ross, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, HIGNFY and Rory Bremner pretty much sums up everything I’ll watch on normal TV, and I’ve even taking to downloading, well, all of those things at one time or another because it’s slightly more convenient. The problem I have with UK TV is that drama-wise, it’s hard to compete with US networks who have shitloads of money and talent.

There’s no reason the BBC couldn’t make something like Lost, or Desperate Housewives, Battlestar Galactica, or Buffy, it’s just that when they do, it comes out as a low-rent facsimile, because they just don’t have the budget. And that’s before you even take into account the natural glamour inherent in the American. Lost wouldn’t be quite so compelling if they were clearly on a soundstage and all had Mancunian accents, and something like the Battlestar Galactica remake wouldn’t have quite the same gravitas if it were being filmed at Shepperton (that’s a Red Dwarf commentary joke for all you enthusiasts.)

I’m starting to feel like this is a polemic for another day though. I have plenty to say about comedy, animation, and the way niche viewing is catered for by a larger output in sheer terms of numbers, but I have to go to bed soon and I really want to get around to Hyperdrive.

So…

I didn’t think Hyperdrive was that bad. I’ve not found any new british comedy programmes that remotely cater to my sense of humour in literally years. Look Around You comes closest, but I’ve pretty much accepted that in the UK the public likes X, and I like Y, so I rarely expect stuff to split my sides. I’m aware that Hyperdrive isn’t even the best written british sitcom around, but the setting and premise are appealing enough to hold me where similar quality, even better sitcoms don’t.

It’s fair to say I’m horribly biased, and this forgiveness is based entirely on the fact that it’s got Nick Frost in it though. (Man Stroke Woman is exempt from this forgiveness because it is horrendous.) Much like how I watched Enterprise well after it had plainly gone to shit (some time around 25 minutes into the first episode) because it had Scott Bakula in, I can sacrifice my sense of humour if it means getting to watch certain actors.

I thought Jeffers was actually the best character in Hyperdrive. That is, he actually seemed to be a character rather than a joke delivery vector. That silver woman was a waste of space though. I read her imd profile the other day and I think it said that this is her first acting job and that she used to be a model, so I was expecting her to just be hanging around to give the show some cheesecake/fanservice, but no, they didn’t even have that much of a plan for her role…

It’s no Red Dwarf, it isn’t really trying to be, but the comparisons are unavoidable. Especially when they do things like nicking the ‘Dwarf technique of showing there’s an alien around by sticking a filter on the camera and doing half the scenes as “Alien POV.” The CGI on the ships was surprisingly good for the BBC, assuming it was actually CGI. The things that made me laugh most were all about the quintessential lameness of Britain. Which, surprisingly, ties back to what I was just whining about. The fact that they had a bottle bank on board the ship was easily the most inspired joke in there. After years of watching US Sci-Fi, it’s good to see that uk television can give a slightly more realistic vision the future, even though it looks like cardboard and silver paint. Giving the computer a slightly Brummie accent amused me no end, as did the reference to Ealing. You can tell I’m being represented by the BBC, as a Midlander who now lives in Ealing. Good show.

It’ll probably get better, anyway. I remember thinking after the first episode that I didn’t find My Name is Earl all that funny, but a few episodes in it had improved substantially. There’s still hope that they’ll get some decent episodes out of Hyperdrive yet, though, ask me again in a week or two…

Well, the transport strike didn’t have much of an effect, but by christ, getting up early so we could find out what the effects were has made the day a horrendous slog. 6:15am, I woke up, and stayed up, until now. I’m going to bed.

In other news, the Clerks 2 teaser is awesome, though perhaps not as awesome as the announcement of a second season of the Genshiken anime. So far no-one’s translated the official announcement, but it looks to be scheduled for October ‘06. A long way away, but it’ll be worth the wait. I also wrapped my head around the principles of AJAX on Sunday and it’s pretty easy. I’ll be expanding on it as soon as I get the chance. Probably the weekend, after which I’ll have something glorious constructed. Probably.

I realised that for all my want to make site changes and redesigns and such, I do actually have a decent reason to do it. Last time I made a site it was because I was teaching myself XHTML, CSS and PHP. I want to do something using that most vaguely defined collection of technologies known as AJAX” The very naming of it has transformed the kind of stuff people have been doing for years into the new hot thing that people are going to want on CVs. Not that I have much need for my CV just yet, but it doesn’t hurt to be on the ball. I suspect it’ll fade away quite fast, but for now I’m interested enough in seeing whether I can do it to have a go. And perhaps it’s worth upgrading to wordpess 2 now that it’s out, as well.

That’s settled then, tomorrow I’ll start the project. I just completed the mission stuff in San Andreas (excellent game, excellent plot) so as long as I can dodge the DS for long enough, you might even see stuff before this time next year. The main likely problem is that I just bought a NeoMax flashcard so I can play homebrew and “backups” on my DS,. Once that arrives I’m sure I’ll lose interest in anything else for a few weeks. I am thinking of doing a comprehensive guide though, because it’s nigh-impossible to find recent reliable information on the damn thing. How unusual it would be to have new and almost useful site content…