Great (and really cheap) Jazz CD

I found this CD in the ABC Shop on the weekend. ABC JAZZ / JAZZ WITHOUT BORDERS is a sampler CD released showcasing the variety of artists in the ABC Jazz label. The most amazing thing is the cost! $4.95 is cheap in anyones language and it's a beautifully recorded compolation.
The opening track No More Blues - THE IDEA OF NORTH (A.Jobim arr. N. Crellin) is an awesome vocal arrangement. I've only had a little bit of time to listen and managed to get through the first 4 or 5 tracks but it's been a joy to listen! I would recommend picking up a copy, especially at the great price.

In other music related news I hope my new neighbours like Muse! I was relatively grumpy on Saturday morning and as a result decided I needed a bit of Muse - Absolution soul cleansing. The process is pretty much playing the CD at pretty high volumes and singing as loud as you can (usually trying to be louder than the stereo). By the time you've go to the Butterflies and Hurricanes track you're back in a happy place. So if my neighbours haven't heard the album before... they sure have now!

Woohoo... Standby!

I discovered a new feature on my DS this morning. I was trying to catch a few more stars in Super Mario 64 DS and as a result arrived at my bus stop much quicker than I'd anticipated. In my haste to get of the bus I just closed the lid of my DS threw it in my bag and jumped off the bus.
About an hour later I remembered that I had left the DS on and in my bag. To my surprise when I got it out of my bag it was in a standby mode. When you're playing a DS game closing the lid results in the system going into standby (basically saving progress) until you open the system again.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Got together with a few friends today to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I only really have 5 words to say about the movie :-

Brilliant! You must see it!

Anything else just wouldn't do the movie experience justice. In fact what are you doing sitting around reading this post... shouldn't you be out seeing this movie? My only suggestion would keep in mind concepts like "Adults at Kids Prices" when picking a session time....

Missing DVDs!

After a recent spree of DVD loans I looked at my DVD stand and noticed that there were more gaps that I thought their should have been. So, as you do at 11pm at night, I thought I'd do a resort and check of the list. Turns out it wasn't any where near as many loaned out as I thought.
Out of my whole collection I've only got about 24 not on the shelf (I could have sworn it was more!) Of that 2 are missing and have been a long time and only 4 are out without knowing their where abouts!

Alien Vs. Predator (Special Edition/ Widescreen)
Bourne Identity (2002/ Special Edition/ Widescreen)
Catch Me If You Can (Widescreen)
Fifth Element, The

Hopefully they turn up sooner or later...

My First DS Title (and a bit of a games shuffle)

After much deliberation over the title I was going to get for my DS, I finally came to a decision.
I thought it was fitting to get the game that symbolises Nintendo as my first full title for the Console. Super Mario 64 DS is a rework of the existing Nintendo 64 title. The game also includes a series of mini games (that you unlock during the course of the main game) which are every bit as addictive as Wario Ware, Inc: Mega Microgame$. With only 150 stars to collect it should be a fairly long playing title (as with all the games from the Super Mario Series and one of the reasons I picked it as my first title) especially as I've only got 4 so far!

On other gaming fronts I managed to finish Metroid: Fusion during my last few bus rides. It was a highly involved side scrolling shooter. Partly one of the reasons that I finished so quickly was the inability to put it down. The completion of every stage spurs you on to get that bit further through. They've combined the unlocking of new components perfectly with the completion of stages to get that urge to try out your newly unlocked feature leading to an endless cycle. With the end of that GBA title I started on Astro Boy: Omega Factor. It's more of a side scrolling beat'em up with a few shooter elements. It's pretty easy to push through the stages (I completed 7 in the first couple of times I played it) but it's fast paced action and regular check points makes it a great "pick up at the bus stop" game.
I've also moved on from Zelda: Four swords and I'm mucking around with the Kongas on Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat. It's worth pulling out just to see people trying to play a platform game with a set of Konga Drums!

Paralysed by choice

Despite my best efforts to be a good consumer and support my console, the combination of being grumpy and not being aimed with reviews resulted in no new games. I was keen to try out ridge racer or nfs: Underground. Ridge Racer was one of my favourite titles on the N64. I wouldn't mind an arcade racer, watching Ben get slowly addicted to Burnout3: Takedown reminded me how good these can be.

that's it I'm going shopping.

You know when you've had a bad day and you're just happy that it's over so you can go home and find something to make it go away. The obvious prerequiset to this is keys to get in.
This is something that I don't currently have. So I'm over it and I'm going to the shops and buying a game for my ds! (Tomorrow better be a better day!)

...into the fire

Today looks like it's going to be unpleasant. My first major project with this new system is nearing go live, and as is often the case with UAT it's starting to get messy. Being a new system we really didn't allow enough time for testing and as a result we're starting to find a few more things now. Some of the standard functionallity of the system, which we didn't test because of time constraints, turned out not to be working. Today I have a meeting with the project manager on their side and I can just feel a grilling coming on. I would be looking forward to the weekend at this point, but I know I'll be doing bug fixes so I'm not so excited :(