I'm Off To Cyprus

OK peeps! I've advertised it enough. But within ten hours I'll be on a plane to a beautiful Mediterranean Isle. Right now in the UK, we've got snow storms invading the earliest Easter for 100 years. OK, I'll miss all that. I'm going to be best man at my best friends wedding... I HAVE to spend a week in Cyprus, whilst the Gingers are tucked away with Grandparents back in the UK.

I've got the PSP and the DS to keep me gaming, but maybe the lure of a foreign country and my best friends wedding, will keep me amused...

I'm a little phased, I don't have opportunities like this thrown my way too often!

Still, thanks to the wonder of the inter-web, I'll be able to keep track of any feedback on my phone! See y'all soon!

Respect Is Due...

I had the honour of meeting and chatting with Joe Strummer, and what a thoroughly nice chap he was. How often do you get the chance to meet and spend some time with one of your idols?
I managed to do this twice! It's great to see a bunch of megastars paying tribute to this legend, and I think they managed to pay him a fitting musical tribute... Enjoy Elvis Costello, Little Steven, Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen sending him off in a very fitting way...

God speed Joe!

Tony Sings The Clash...

The Clash Says It All...

A Perhaps Uncharacteristic Post...

My friends, my brothers...

If you are even nominally religious, perhaps even by virtue of your parent's or even grandparent's religion, Jew, Christian or Muslim, we all 'worship' the same God.

The 'big daddy' in the sky, Jehova (or whatever you want to call Him) is the same God to all of us!

Abraham is Ibrahim, Joseph is Yusuf, Mary is Maryam, Gabriel is Jibril, Isaac is Ishaq, and so on...

We all have so much more in common, than we do have differences...

I personally respect all religions equally, and have my doubts about all of them!

Personally, the infinitely non-religious Mr. David Icke, is where I'm placing my bets... For all of those humans that have pointed us in the right direction, I'll put my money on him! LOL!

Maybe, like me and Gnome, you hold the belief that religion is one of the opiates for the masses... It distracts us from the evil workings of those (governments) that subjugate us, and make us rely on salvation from a higher being, to placate our questioning... However, to allow yourself to be deluded by a 'schism', makes you part of the problem...

Love is all you need!

I'll reflect on this, as I soak up the Cyprus sun and play my DS. I'll be back to peddle more shit in a week or so...

Jigger, Macca and Linkin...

And finally I'm off to Cyprus for a week, so I'll leave you with this...

No Sleep 'Till Brooklyn...

Walk This Way...

Metal and Rap... Surely the greatest of all combinations?

My way or the highway...

Break Stuff...

Limp Bizkit

More metal-ish stuff...

Kickapoo

If you're lacking a connection to the metal type vibe, let this be your inspiration...

Mike Strutter... Need I say more...

Me and the Wii are friends again...

Well this is supposed to be the Wii-kly Sermons isn't it? I've shared my thoughts on the 360 (Bioshock and Gears Of War), the PS2 (God Of War) music and films this year, but have I mentioned the Wii? No...

You see me and the Wii fell out, around the time I got the Wii Zapper whilst it was great for playing Link's Crossbow Training (which even got Mrs. K hooked...) it was diabolical for playing Umbrella Chronicles... Using the Zapper made shooting and QTEs very unrewarding, and thus progress was difficult. I stalled on the game, started playing the PS2 and then forgot about the Wii when the 360 entered the house...

Then I got down right cranky about Umbrella Chronicles, gave it a couple of re-tries and then decided I might even trade it in, and I hadn't even finished the second level.

Then I tried it co-op with my best friend, but then made the mistake of BOTH using the Zapper!

it was fun until we had to shake them about for a QTE and then that was it! They didn't respond, I 'spat my dummy' (an old English phrase meaning I spat out my pacifier in a tantrum) and that was it! Both the Wii and Umbrella Chronicles were finished for me! Harumph!

However, flushed with the success of beating Gears, I decided to give UC another try using the Wiimote and Nunchuck. TADA!!!! Revelation!!!! I've completed two levels and two sub-levels in two nights! As well as playing through the original Resident Evil level, I've unlocked two secret wesker levels that I kicked ass on as well.

Those of you who are aware of my gaming tendencies will know a few facts... I love Resident Evil. It makes me cry tears of rage at really difficult points. I'm a fickle bastard.

So now you'll be unsurprised to know I've come full circle and Umbrella Chronicles is now my new favourite game! the controls are just right, the unlockables and cut scenes fill in a lot of the blanks in the Umbrella Chronicles. The graphics are fabulous and one in the eye for anyone who says the Wii's capabilities are sub-par. I see them as good as Gears or Bioshock... (but then again aren't God Of War's???)

I won't offer any proper sort of review... many people have already done a better job (including J's excellent review.)

I'll just offer the usual screenshots and video, plus the following lovely links! I love you Nintendo Wii! I love you Umbrella Chronicles! I love you world!!!

Umbrella Chronicles Official Site

Umbrella Chronicles Wikipedia

Umbrella Chronicles IGN

Here We Go Again...

Bloody machines! No sooner do we get the laptop, than the sodding keyboard on the PC goes on the blink! Bastard! Still, there's always the XBox...

Oh yeah, I forgot! I just got to the bloody boss on the final chapter... Cue crying, gnashing of teeth and many, many swear words. Yep, I've played through the game (on casual I admit) without recoursing to a walkthrough, or getting my middle son, Marty, to play the hard parts for me.

Then all of a sudden I'm fucked! I've tried and tried to beat him, I really have, but he just keeps kicking my sorry ass. Oh Lord! Why God, why???

Now I don't want it to be too easy, like the final boss in Bioshock was, but then again, I'm ready to move on... Games to play, people to see, you know the score... So what do I do then? I either get pecked to death by Kryll or shot to pieces by Mr. Badass. Ho hum... Maybe I'll just leave it and start Call of Duty 4...

Room 1408

Well here I am again, still plugging away through GOW (I've just uploaded a large map showing a honeycomb of locust tunnels from my old house, and am currently trying to get to a train, if you know the game...)

My blogging output has reached an all time low recently, as has my visiting and commenting on other blogs! All this should change soon as the competition to get on the computer at my house has recently been reduced due to the addition of a shiny new laptop courtesy of AOL.

Yes I know it is probably the WORST IP known to man, but a recent deal by the company, sees signing up for another two years rewarded by a Hewlett Packard laptop, an offer I couldn't resist!

So you know what my gaming habits have been lately, but what of my movie watching? Well apart from a Matrix weekend at my caravan in Wales (all three movies plus beer), I've also just seen the excellent 'Room 1408' starring Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack.

This excellent Stephen King yarn sees Cusack playing a paranormal hunting author, staying in and writing about 'haunted' places. He's cynical and disbelieving (desparate for proof of the afterlife since losing his only daughter...)

He then hears about a certain hotel in New York with the titular room, where several guests have met a grizzly fate. Still cynical he attempts to book in, only to be met with a refusal from the hotel manager, (Mr. Jackson...)

So he gets his lawyers on the case to force a booking. The manager begs him not to go in, bribing him with vintage liquor, fine cigars and an insight to just how horribly other unfortunate tenants have met their bitter ends...

But of course, Mr. Cusack ignores these warnings and that's where the 'fun' begins!

The film has a sinister and trippy edge to it, the viewer immediately put in the position of thinking of how they would cope with the trials and tribulations the protagonist experiences within the ghostly room.

The best horror films for me aren't those that overload the viewer with guts and gore, but those that give you pause for thought, weird you out and give you goosebumps!

I can't get enough Stephen King at the moment, I'm onto my third novel 'Needful Things', following on from 'Dreamcatcher' and 'Deadzone'. I love the way he conjures up small town America and slaps a twisted little spin on things.

So there you go, not much news really. I'm off to Cyprus for a week, two weeks today, to be best man for my friend, just me and Mrs. K, no gingers! I guess that's news. I'll try and squeeze in a few posts before I go!

Senser 'The Switch' (For Nebacha)

My dear friend Nebacha has recently opened my eyes to excellent Portugese act, Da Weasel.
They remind me of this lot of punky rappers from the English festival scene a few years back...

See what you think!

Second Gear...

OK I'm completely sucked in by this game it's amazing!!! I'm currently nipping between patches of light to avoid some ravenous crows (or bats or something) on my way to pick up a ride... Those bloody pesky "grubs" keep trying to shoot me and I'm in gaming heaven. I've worked out the weapon system, got the hang of knowing when to take cover and even on how to keep my squad alive and useful!!! SUBLIME!!!

Of course, I haven't got to my usual point of throwing down the controller, crying and proclaiming this the worst game ever, which will inevitably happen when I get stuck, but for now, I'm LOVING IT!!!

God bless you EPIC!!!