Tom

i just ordered excite truck. I'll sell monkey ball and red steel to finance the game. Also bought mario kart from VC in preparation for next weekend where thetre should be multipayer goodness on offer.

i was at uni, studying geology, with the intention of doing some form of field geology, most likely paleontology. Unfortunately I rapidly discovered that aside from paleontology the rest of the modules were excrutiatingly boring. Add to that a severe lack of money and an expensive course I dropped out. Currently I'm working for an insurance company. I could make a very sucessfull career out of this, as I'm doing well. But... no way! I'll do it a few years than move on. Aspiration-wise, I want to enrol at the Open University, to finish my degree, but studying a wider range of subjects to get a degree simply in 'science'. I am also trying writing. I have a couple of ideas on the go, need to get somethign finished then I'll see what I can do. In an ideal world, I'd be a travel writer, or have a record store and label.

i have tried several extensions for firefox that work. some better than others of course, can't rmeeber any names though i'm afraid.

Thank you for your birthday wishes! i went to stay with my sister for a few days and have just returned. Thank you for all the love! ps i'm slightly drunk so i may not make sense.

that basically is a good summary of why i'm sticking with a windows PC. I don't play games on my PC, I mainly use it to download and play music and video, so I need a pc with easily upgreadeable hard drive for a start. I have also had very few stability issues with XP. My PC is frequently on non-stop for over 2 weeks. I think the longest I've left it on is about 2 months and it doesn't crash. I think XP is a user friendly, functional and above all stable OS. One of these days I will get a Mac, but I really can't afford one now, and when I do get one it will be in addition to rather than instead of a windows PC. Picking up the new PC tomorrow!

I can't afford a mac, but i just went to see a man about building me a new one. Should come to about £300 which isn't bad and will hopefully last 4 years like this one. i'm using parts from the old one, and he will be restoring some of my lost data from my last reformat, which is great.

i'm undecided on this. Monkey ball was a major dissapointment imo. If it plays more like the Roll minigame in zelda I think i'll like it. i have a horrible feeling that monkey ball 1 is and always will be the pinnacle of this genre though, so i might just save the money and play monkey ball 1 again.

animals and politics are 2 of the funniest things I've ever seen. I'm off to ssee him in birmingham on the 15th, and I really cant wait. I've never gone to see a live comedian before so it should be really good. i do understand why peopel dont like him though. Cringe comedy is the marmite of comedy imo. Personally i think that his stand up shows is of a very different style to his TV shows, but i think alot fo people who might liek the stand up shows are put off because of the tv shows. btw the american office, from season 2 onwards in very different to the UK version, and I think its excellent. Its not cringe comedy, and reminds me of seinfeld in its style.

possibly some good news. or at least a temporary repreive from immediate death... turns out the recent freezing is most likely due to major overheating. My CPU fan had cut out for some reason, and it was so hot I burnt myself on the heatsink. Fan has now been checked over and the heatsink put in the freezer for a while. hopefully things'll be ok for at least a few more weeks. EDIT: Thank you nintendo for wii browser! i think it has died now, it is freezing before it's even finished loading up. just wondering if this could be due to a fried cpu due to the fan failing or if it would be something else. any ideas gratefully received, i really don't want to spend £500 on a new pc.

Thanks very much for the swift responses. That PC specialist site looks really good, and I have done some research on Vista and I think it's only Blu-ray and HD dvd copying Vista gets uptight about, still not sure though. I really dont want to get a new pc and discover my all my music and video no longer plays. I think i'll hook my IDE drives up via a USB caddy and just spend a couple of days copying data over. Whats a clone PC?

My PC is almost certainly on its way out. It's almost 4 years old with no major upgrades and is on almost non-stop so it's only to be expected. The most recent problem is a total freeze up, where everythign stops in its tracks, and i can't move the mouse or type anything in. I also has a selection of other quirks. Unless anyone has any bright ideas about fixing it I reckon I'll be buying a new PC. Dell are my 1st choice, as they seem to be very good value and I know they are good service as several friends have bought one. So, first question: would any of you wonderfull geeks out there reconmend anything over Dell (me building it myself isn't an option, I just dont want the stress)? Second: Dell all seem to be coming with Vista. Apart from the fact |I like XP, and it's never let me down I am also concerned that the key uses of my PC will no longer work, i.e. downloading films and TV shows and copying DVD's. Am I right in saying Vista wouldn't let me do that, or am I wrong? Finally: I have alot of media on IDE hard drives. Is this a format of drive that is now obselete, or should I not have too much problem getting a PC compatible with IDE? Thanks in advance!

where did you get firefly for 12pounds?

i went to isle of wight a couple of years ago, I had a fantastic weekend. The atmosphere is great and the location is really convenient for the shops and civilisation. I would go this year, as the line up looks great, but i cant do the transport. Have a great weekend

its not the cost, its the logisitics. The last train back to buirmingham would be long before the gig ends so unless it was a weekend work the next day would be a struggle. The farthest I'd normally gfo from birmingham is Nottingham, which is hell. Normally requires spending a night at the station platform.

i'm very jealous. i loved pulp and really like his new album. Sadly his current tour doesnt go anywhere near birmingham. as soon as he does, I'm there.

i got the boosh boxset from the hut for a very reasonable price. Can't remeber what it was though.

i bought the new Explosions in the Sky album. cant wait to hear it! I am hoping for best album ever status

i just got myself the peep show boxset. I had planned on going on a virtual console spree, but I have just got into peep show and am loving it!

i know, I am quite dissapointed in myself that it has put me off them tbh. ah well

i think she has a good voice, but i do not like them. The other 2 guys in the band seem to have very basic ability and I really don't like the music. And, sad but true, the fact she's so fat and hideous also puts me off them.

More (awesome) bands announced: Slayer, Marilyn Manson, Wolfmother, Killswitch Engage and Bring Me the Horizon. I have seen Slayer, KSE and Wolfmother before, and they all put on an excellent show, KSE really suprised me. I'm really excited to see marilyn manson. I though he wasn't touring again, i assume this is one of the the good things to come out of divorce. On the bad side I have discovered that in my office of 4 people 3 of us are all trying to get the friday off, and sadly I was too late, meaning no early arrival on thursday and comfortable setting up. I stead I'll arrive 8ish on friday night straight from work with no camping room left. eek!

i do exactly the same, except I also buy the cd's in all the flavours and all the radio promo cd's etc. I must have some songs on at least 10 different cd's and records. I only do it for my absolute favourite bands, as to buy literally everything is very expensive.

bye mate, hope you'll be back soon. I'll see you on msn soon.

happy birthday to you both.

i have to whole hearedly agree with you there. At everystage they have been excellent. I'm not saying they dont make mistakes, but they get sorted instantly and very satisfactorally. I for example have had my tv service upgraded as a goodwill gesture.