sjdean on the blog

Suit Up

2012-02-07T13:34:00.000Z

It's been all over my other media outlets, but I've finally bought a suit. Im inspired by Barney Stinson of How I Met Your Mother Fame and how dashing he looks in a suit. No, Im interested in him in that way, but I figured that his look would suit me, no pun intended.

So I've bought myself a suit from Marks and Spencer and a couple of really nice shirts including a suave Royal Blue (Polyester) Satin shirt.

Mmm. Lovely.

Fab Capello

2012-02-07T13:29:00.000Z

I don't know what the UK is coming to. Whether John Terry is guilty or not, we get to find out according to due process and a court of law. It is not the FA's job to punish him ahead of that process and Fabio Capello should be within his rights to state his opinion.

Fabio is supposed to be the manager, and if he thinks John Terry would suffer in the media spotlight then he is free to make changes as requested.

But the FA has just stepped in, overruled Capello, and our sickening papers are criticising Fabio for his freedom of speech.

The thing they should be criticising him for, is how useless he has been for the England football team. This mess is just an easy attack using "technicalities".

Candle Making

2011-10-28T13:36:00.002+01:00

It won't be long before I get back to my hobby of candle making. I will be buying some new moulds and scents to make my ultimate Christmas collection of candles.

My favourite website for candle supplies is 4Candles.

How I Met Your Mother

2011-10-27T21:49:00.001+01:00

As an Alyson Hannigan fan, I had to get to see How I Met Your Mother. I've heard great things about it.

I wasn't too enamoured with it when I first watched it, very OTT, no heart, too wooden, too forced almost. But three episodes in and Im warming to it immensely. Especially the theme song, How Beautiful by the Solids, who, coincidentally, are the creators of the show!

Tablet Computing

2011-10-26T23:34:00.001+01:00

I was unsure about the purchase of a tablet. I knew I wanted one, but I couldn't quite justify why.

I bought one out of spite when my recent engagement broke down and I was dumped on Facebook. I figured if there's not going to be a wedding, Im going to buy a tab.

So I bought the only tab worth buying - the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

It takes a little getting used to, but the screen is amazing, and when I can't have a computer, or if I just want to veg out and watch some TV, I can fire up my tab and surf some websites during the ad breaks or something.

Being Android, it doesn't have the amount of apps that the iPad and iPod does. Yeah, Im still waiting for PopCap and Plants vs Zombies - why Amazon US has to corner the market on this I don't know. But I've still got some great games and apps, and it covers the basics for me.

Really pleased with this purchase and at similar prices to the iPad, I think I was right to go with this. I don't have to "jailbreak" it to get basic functionality.

The only thing Im not happy about, is not getting the 32 gig version!

Lets Start Over...

2011-10-26T14:10:00.002+01:00

It's time friends for me to re-start my blog. Gone are the old posts dating back to 2004. Gone are even years of history.

Not gone however is my mind. It's questionnable I even had it.

I always wanted my blog to be an open discussion, an analysis of culture, to show my changing personality through the years.

But now it's time I think to draw a line underneath all that irrelevent rubbish and start again.

This year, I had my first girlfriend, got engaged in four months, and got dumped on Facebook because my fiancee couldn't handle me being upset at her inability to think of anyone but herself, with selfish, rude, critical behaviour. I sensed a certain relationship apathy and events unfurled and proved that I was right.

I got to see Rush on their new Time Machine tour at the LG Arena (and I eagerly await the release on BluRay and DVD in November).

I've just ordered Buffy the Vampire Slayer box set because I really loved season six, especially the episode called Grave. Im a secret Alyson Hannigan fan and that episode had me crying. Much like when Jim finally gets Michelle in American Pie 2, that is just such a beautiful scene.

I've now discovered the joys of H264 encoding, MPEG4 Type 10, instead of DivX MPEG4 Type 2. Im trying to create a media library on my XBMC. The process is slow and I notice the pixellisation too easily. They say you shouldn't be able to tell the difference on BluRay on a 37" Hi Def screen compared to a normal DVD from the distance I watch it at. Well I can.