Be Excellent To Each Other

So, everyone likes getting new toys and gadgets, doing cool things, new experiences. So why not post them here in a non-smug way and let everyone see your joy.

We finally got a decent telly. We had been using a borrowed analogue 4:3 CRT (made by 'Base'), and it was very small and crappy*. Going up to a 42" HDTV has made quite the difference, and I'm very pleased with it. Bioshock looks pretty nice, eh?

Lady T has got some new baking gear and has promised to make some cakes and scones

so, YAY!



*It did have a remote control with a million buttons (give or take a few), and had a built in game of sokoban.

I just got back from my first in-person American football match, and an enjoyable day it was too. Saw lots of other fans, there was no trouble, and we all cheered the Cowboys getting mullered.

And it was my first trip to Wembley; second most impressive stadium I've been to.

See, what you've done there is you've gone to watch a Western. Americaball is a sport, silly.


Anyway, I have Crackdown again, and Saints Row 2, and Arkham Asylum. I've had them for a week or two actually, but only just had time to really cane them. All three of them are more than enough fun to warrant a 'yay!'.

Dude, it was the 49ers vs the Broncos!

That's what I thought, too.

Sorry. In my tiredness, I didn't fully explain: whenever there was a break in play, we'd get live feeds of what was going on elsewhere. The one match that got most reaction was Jags-Cowboys. It was funny to see a match on the screens get such an immense ovation.

On the good news front, my daughter gave me her iPod Nano as her bf had just bought her a new one. I rarely buy new gadgets myself, so up to recently I was still using a mini disk player for my mobile music needs. I still love my MD as I haven't seen anything better for recording off-air and then editing down to the bits I want to keep, but the is Nano obv. better for music on the go.

Also, my daughter's bf paid for our cars to be professionally valeted on Friday. What a nice chap. Mine's not been that clean since before I bought it.

She's pregnant/gotten married without telling you/other.

Ah, MiniDisc! Deserved to be much more popular than it was, that did. Until decent MP3 players came along, the MiniDisc format was the best thing out there in terms of overall usability.

My Yay! thing this weekend was being able to dedicate virtually all of it to playing Fallout: New Vegas. I'm not sure how much time I've sank into it now, but thanks to this last weekend, it was a lot. I suppose most people wouldn't find that all that fantastic, but I've been so busy lately it was nice just being able to mong out for a while.

Last weekend was Yay! because on Saturday, myself and my brothers went on some very silly Spy Training experience, where we ran around shooting automatic air guns, sniping, laser tag, learning pistol draw techniques and doing some slightly rubbish and homo-erotic "self-defense" training. I do hope our actual intelligence forces get slightly more intensive training than that to be honest, but it was a laugh for the afternoon.

Then in the evening myself and the missus went to an early Halloween party where we played silly games and watched The Monster Squad and REC (which traumatised the missus, so job beautifully done).

Oh, and last Wednesday I finally went back snowboarding for the first time since breaking a rib doing it months ago. Took me a lot longer to get back into it than I thought it would, but hopefully I'll keep at it this time.

I've had record traffic on SavyGamer this month (excluding that time several years ago when I got kotaku'd twice in one day).

I'm getting new driveway gates fitted today!

I finally got around to painting the fitted wardrobe doors in our bedroom the weekend. They've only been plain MDF for about a year now....

It's one of those jobs which makes me think I should have done it sooner.

Basically, a six month project was completed last week, the last two months of which have seen me burn up contract days like nobodies business. And during those two months, I had an MSc module which is 7 days a week for 8 weeks without any break.

So I thought sod it, bought Fallout:NV and really am enjoying it. (Even if it is a bit too slow.)

Grouted the kitchen floor, so only need to paint skirting board and fit plinth and splashback, and hood, and pelmet, and paint in cupboard, and paint door frame and door, and move everything back in from lounge, left to do. Oh. Not so Yay! after all. The real Yay! about this is the dishwasher is fitted, and that is awesome, but that was done a few weeks back (still love it though!)

Electrified to keep the proles at bay, I hope.

My 'yay' for this week is a tax rebate and insurance settlement combo. It's not an awful lot of money, but it's wiped all of my debts clean and left me in the black with 100% of my wages going to me, for the first time in years. Now I just need to not spend like a twat.

Nice one, Malabar.

Aye, being debt free is great. I've gone slightly into my overdraught recently, so trying to save a bit to make sure I don't go into a crazy debt spiral.

Maria cooked a yay-worthy lamb tagine on Saturday.

Unfortunately it is now all eaten.

Pregnant: It's possible, but I doubt it. Married: That's planned for 2012 when they've saved a couple of million quids.

Both cars were parked outside his office and he'd already arranged for the mobile valet man to do his, so it was simple enough to do mine too. Mrs W is terribly pleased as she's always telling me I don't wash it enough, but I do it regularly, once or twice every calendar year.

Yay of October was definitely FO NV. It seemed like it had taken forever to arrive and then I really got stuck in.

Friends of the family are coming the weekend after next, meaning I can sit on the beach freezing my plums off with a fishing rod in my hand. Always a reason for a good yay !

I found out a few days back that the entire family are spending Christmas together again this year after we were supposed to be doing different things. Which is very very important to me as last year was the best one I had done in ten years but at the same time was a bit messed up due to my cousin breaking her ankle very badly and her dog dying. So as soon as I found out that (touch wood) we will all be getting together with no tears or bad things I yayed very loudly

I also yayed when I found out that for the first time in my life I would finally be able to smile without revealing crooked and broken teeth. My teeth were always rubbish so even though these ones will be bogus they will be totally straight and nice and white. Awesome sauce.

Yays are good.

I also went to this. It was most excellent (Particulary after the intensely annoying and clueless Broncos fan behind me had his smugness turned into a foot stomping rage quit near the end - and that was only when they were tied.)

My yay! is binning Sky this month and going Freesat HD instead. Should of done it ages ago and save me nigh on £50 a month!

Is it as simple as swapping out the sky box? You use the existing dish I mean.

It is. Plug and play.

Nowhere near the amount of HD channels on Freesat as there is on Sky though, if that sort of thing interests you

Yes, although they don't guarantee it, that worked for us. Only irritation is the lack of Channel 4 HD.

My Yay of the weeks include my PC coming tomorrow, got my humble indie pack, team fortress 2 and my free pre-order of back to the future in preparation.
Also Fifa Ultimate Team out on wednesday, so thats the next 3 months lost not playing on my new PC; excellent.

Oh and Newcastle hammering Sunderland 5-1.

A couple of Yays for me this weekend.

Should they ever ask, being asked to be Godfather to my friends daughter was a big yay. Given that I spent 9 months trying to convince them that their baby should be called Tiberius. And then calling her Tiberius every time I see her/ask about her. I was somehwat suprised and of course very pleased.

But really the biggest yay was getting a new PC for use as an HTPC. Then navigating through a Linux install and getting .mkv support working with only minimal support from my personal Technical DepartmentGaywood.

Minidisc still comes along to the skatepark with me, it's put up with a fair amount of beating & it's still going strong. I'd like to see my ipod takehalf of that

ftfy with my pedant hat on.

Sorry dad.

Talking about paying off debts, as of this week's pay-check I have officially paid off 10K of debt since I moved to Manchester 2 1/2 years ago! Still another 6.5K to go but this feels like a significant milestone and I'm pretty chuffed with myself for getting this far

Also, Supersonic festival in Birmingham last week was brilliant, and then getting to see Swans (my favourite band ever) play another 2 times in Leeds and Manchester was also fantastic... and catching throughsilver at the Leeds gig was Yay too

Those who've met me know I'm pretty Yay most of the time anyway, but these are special Yays for this month

Sky fund part of that so there's no chance of it appearing on Freesat unfortunately.

If you've got the Humax Foxsat PVR then you can patch it into your router then get iPlayer through teletext at pretty good resolutions. Probably works on other boxes as well but deffo in the Foxsat.

Despite my still being An Massive Mental, Hel's shortened the timescales and I'm giving up my rented house mid-December. We ordered a new fridge-freezer for a mere £1760 last week. And are buying a sofa tonight. And are off to Belgium for 6 days, on Wednesday. And I'm hoping to get onto the books of Manchester Institute of Psychotherapy before we go, for an assessment after we return.

Good things are good.

What the fucking fuck?!

That's a fuckton of money. Mine is a huge american double-door effort and I only paid £750.

I know. It turns out that we're both a bit... challenged... when it comes to considering cost when all other criteria are met, and the 20+ alternatives we've considered are very unsuitable.

It's a huge side-by-side, but only 63cm deep. All the others are at least 73cm deep, too tall, lacking in volume, have an ice-maker, or don't have boxes in the freezer or enough shelves in the fridge and/or freezer.

I would like to add my Fuck to the two Fucks above.

I hope that Fridge come with another 3 fridges for that price

I can only assume it dismembers as well as stores bodies for you for that price.

She has been joking about locking me in it.

As a consolation, though, that's a bloody sexy fridge.

No ice maker!

For that money I'd want it to make a fucking snow man to pass me my drinks.

Don't drink the yellow drinks.

Good lord, you could store a whole pig in that thing.

I think you should go buy a whole pig, quick! Craster will send you pulled pork recipes!

Why... why would someone not want an ice-maker in their fridge if they can clearly afford to buy one that has one? Ice makers am bestest!

Do they take up a fair whack of space? I'd love an ice-maker in mine, as I always forget to make (or buy) my own.

I deliberately didn't have one, too. They take up far too much freezer space for the use I would ever get from them.