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I went load up a game of God of War at work today while I was on my break, only to discover the data was corrupt. Panic! But no I thought, I backed it up before we upgraded it. So off I troddled home after work and set about finding it on Time Machine and restoring it. Then I had to sift throught the save folders (really Sony you couldn’t name the folders just the game name?) and when I loaded them back on the PSP I was quite optimistic.

This was shortlived as it’s still saying it’s buggered. I’m gonna get Chris to have a go at it cos if not I’ll need to start all my games (except ones I’ve started since the upgrade) will need to be started again. Which is fine for some games but I’d plugged over five hours into God of War and seven into Crisis Core.

Can he fix it?

Technorati Tags: chris, games, PSP, Sony

Today I met Chris for some coffee and he upgraded my PSP to the latest hacked firmware and so I can finally play Patapon.

And it’s brilliant! It’s adorable and cute and rhythmic and perhaps even cuter than Loco Roco.

Basically the game is a button masher, but you have to mash in time to a rhythm. The patapons are these strange little creatures that seem incapable of doing anything except in tune to a beat and you get to play their rhythm beating God.

Hitting the face buttons in various different combinations makes them do different things and you can string combos together to hit a fever mode which seems to make them stronger and better, but also harder to determine the rhythm to play.

One odd thing I’ve noticed is that you can’t pause in the middle of a level, which is sort of logical when you think it’s a rhythm game and pausing would break the rhythm, but amn’t I supposed to be their God?

I am hoping it continues to be as good as the first two levels I played were.

Technorati Tags: games, patapon, PSP, Sony

Late last summer Tim and I went to The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant in Seattle.

It was was a really fun night and the food was pretty tasty. I said if I got the chance I’d go again. Two weeks on Friday I’ll get that chance.

Our friends Xak and Domi are gonna be visiting from San Fran for the weekend (my first weekend there) and we’re having a BBQ on Saturday with a load of friends coming over for food and gaming.

But we wanted to do something a bit low key on Friday so just the four of us are heading out to dinner and then Xak and Domi are gonna hit the bars. Obviously I’m too young to go (next year tho!) so Tim and I will prolly head home to catch a movie or something.

Saturday should be good fun cos we’ll have Rock Band (a game where up to four people play a band with two guitars, drums and vocals) and SingStar (karaoke basically) so it should be a good night.

Two weeks from now I’ll be in Seattle. I can’t frickin’ wait.

Technorati Tags: games, PS3, rock band, Seattle, singstar, Tim, xbox 360

I’ve always had a challenged relationship with my dad. I was too young to remember anything before he left and I guess that’s always tainted my opinion of him since.

I know he tries and I should probably try harder but I just can’t. He did a bad thing in the past and I don’t think I can ever forgive him that.

Tim said to me the other day about being a divorce child but I wouldn’t say I am because I don’t remember my parents ever being together. I have no memory at all, except things I’ve seen in photos, of the five of us ever doing something as a family. I guess I begrudge my dad that.

But at the same time, he’s also probably shaped me to be the person I am. They say the lack of a father figure is one of the things that can turn a child gay. I’m also sickened by the thought of ever cheating on Tim. So I guess he at least instilled a moral compass in me that always points due north.

And I don’t say this stuff to hurt him, I’m not that spiteful. I just have to get it out and I can’t say it to his face (I’m a non-confrontational person) but it needs to be said.

He hurt my mum and I can never forgive him that. But at the same time I can’t hold his past against him forever. People change and I should probably try harder to separate the past and the present.

But see then he goes and annoys me again like he did last week. He phoned up the house to “speak to me” but I know it was actually just to speak to my mum as he could’ve got me on my mobile.

Anyway he asked her if she was going to my grandparents’ party in a couple weeks (she is) and that he takes issues with that and if she’s going, he won’t be. First of all, my granny invited my mum, so she obviously wants her to be there. Secondly, how childish to blackmail someone that you wronged by saying you have an issue with them being somewhere they were invited?

He seems to think my mum doesn’t have a right to be there when in fact she has more right to be there than lorene does. My mum is connected to the family via us. She could’ve stopped us seeing any of his family but she’s not that kind of person (thank fuck or imagine what I’d be like!) and so I think she deserves to see them.

I can’t even process how unbelievable it is to say you wouldn’t go to your own parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. Never mind that but to say you have issue with your ex-wife going when you’re going to take the woman you cheated on her with? He should be hanging his head in shame instead of trying to make my mum feel like she did anything wrong.

She never did, and she never will. Sure my mum has her flaws (*cough*smoking*cough*) but she is an amazing parent and yes I should probably tell her more often but I have issues with saying this stuff, hence the blog!

I honestly believe my mum has always put our well being first and would do anything for us and for that I will always love her.

Ack this has turned into a complete ramble. I don’t say any of this to hurt anyone but simply to get it off my chest in the hope that they will read it. Read it and understand it.

One of the things that always bugged me about Leopard was that Apple never made the awesome pretty scrollbars from iTunes standard across the entire system.

So today I took it upon myself to do it. It looks much nicer now. I also got rid of the aqua progress bars and added the iTunes ones too.

So pretty!

Technorati Tags: Apple, itunes, Mac

I realized today that I hadn’t ordered travel insurance yet so I went online to the site I normally use and was quoted £70 for my entire stay (until I was back home in Glasgow) or £56 until I got back to London a few days before.

I decided to do a bit of searching around since I always use the same one and wondered if there were any cheaper ones. Ten minutes later I had found a travel insurance search engine and discovered backpacker/long stay insurance.

I figured I fall into long stay since I’m away almost three months so I ordered that kind of insurance and it was £56 for the 91 days or £44 for the 88. I went with the latter.

Technorati Tags: holiday, money, Seattle, Tim

What is hopefully the last of my Mac woes, I had to delete all my old Time Machine back up because it’s been back up really slow ever since I restored my system from it.

I think it had something to do with my username changing but anyway I deleted them all and now it seems to be going a lot faster. It’s doing the initial back up just now so it’s taking a while.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Mac, time machine

Coldplay’s new album Viva La Vida or Death and all His Friends releases in June and after last month’s taster of Violet Hills wet my appetite, the new single released Viva La Vida has me really excited this album is gonna be good.

You can hear a smidgeon of it on Apple’s new iTunes ad with the typical, but still pretty, visual effects. Oh and if you want a bunch of the screens for wallpapers then go here. Some of them are pretty nice.

Technorati Tags: Apple, coldplay, itunes, Music

Haze is a game that’s been a lot time coming. First it was releasing on both PS3 and Xbox 360 but then it was releasing on PS3 exclusively for a while, then it was only on PS3. This annoyed me because it looked really good and I wanted to play it.

Well I guess I needn’t be annoyed anymore, apparently it just isn’t that great. Which is a shame because if it’d been well received by the PS3 crowds then there was likely a chance for it to grace the 360.

Ah well.

Technorati Tags: games, haze, PS3, xbox 360

I had a really vivid dream last night. I had become a cop (I think it was my book I’m reading that spurred the dream) and my first call out was to a person on a high building threatening to jump.

I got there and my boss (who was Dr. Bailey from Greys Anatomy strangely) wouldn’t climb up and when I looked at the ladder it was a really rickety one and it was very high.

I was about to start climbing it when the person jumped. I remember shouting at Dr. Bailey to shut her eyes and cover her ears but I stood and watched it myself and the person smashed into the ground.

I think that bit was a replay of something similar that happened in GTA4. After that I had another dream about Halo or something and then later I seemed to go back to the first dream, or else it was just similar, and I was in coming out of a theatre or cinema and my mum and dad were arguing and my grandparents were there.

There was also something about a car chase before I was in a park playing soccer with a huge soccer ball with my sister and some people I didn’t know. That part was inspired by a post from my friend Xak’s blog I think.

All in all it was a strange night for dreams. Strange especially because I remembered them. But isn’t it fascinating how my dreams were influenced by things I saw throughout the day? Kinda makes me curious if I could influence my own dreams by exposing myself to certain things throughout the day.

Technorati Tags: sleep