Red Bull Canimation

I've recently entered the Red Bull Canimation competition!
You can view my entry here. <- Click me

Voting is now live so please leave comments, likes and share with your friends in order to help me out.

Perplexing Update

I'm starting to wonder if dust had been the culprit for the disc not being read. Why it would only affect that one disc though I do not know.
I dusted out my disc drive tray with an anti-static brush and it's read the Stuff Pack disc without issue ever since.
So, unless there is a 'next time' the issue is solved.

Perplexed

I have nowhere better to put this so I may as well type it out here.
Last Saturday I purchased The Sims 3 Town Life Stuff Pack for The Sims 3 PC game.
When I got home I found my laptop wouldn't read the disk. Wanting to make sure it was the disk and not my laptop I tried a few other game and DVD disks. All of them ran fine.
I then decided to try the faulty disk on the old family laptop and to my surprise it read the disk without issue and autorun popped up to tell me that I needed to install The Sims 3 before I could install the Stuff Pack.
I was now very confused but decided it would probably be best if I returned the disk and exchanged it. This is what I did yesterday.
When I got home I tried the new disk with the same results as before, the disk couldn't be read. Why?! I tried it on the old laptop again and all ran fine like the previous time.
I decided that if my laptop couldn't read the disk then I could install the game by copying the contents of the disk onto my external hard-drive and install from there.
During the copying process I had the laptop give me the blue screen of death once and then tell me that the disk I was copying from was empty! I panicked thinking I had somehow erased the disk. After rebooting the machine again I found the disk was fine and continued to copy over the contents.
Before I attempted to install the copied files to my own laptop I thought to try the disk one more time. I have no idea why but I did anyway knowing full well it wouldn't work. I was wrong! The disk drive made a few odd clicking and crunching noises as it had done whenever it had failed before but this time autorun popped up and started the install process.
So to anyone who was bored enough to read through all of this entry, could it be possible that the errors on the family laptop did something to the disk to allow my own laptop to read it?

Makeover Shows

I think I'd like to go on one of those makeover shows. I'd be curious to see what could be done and how different I might look.

Contact Lenses

I'm wearing a pair right now!

My word do I need more practice at putting them in though. It must have taken me 15 entire minutes earlier. Not great if I want to pop a pair in before work in the morning.

I'm still not entirely convinced that I've got the left one in properly though as my vision keeps bluring slightly from time to time and I want to rub my eye. Thankfully I am resisting the urge quite well.

I think I'll go take a look in a mirror in a few minutes if it's not calmed down by then.

Mentalities

I think I have two rather different ones.

This thought struck me today whilst I was out walking before work.

When ever it comes to situations which require someone to take responsability or take charge I become very child like and wait for somebody else to do it and then immediately fall in behind them following instructions.

When ever I see somebody nearby acting childish or fooling around my immediate thought is usually "Oh, grow up will you." Then followed by the realisation that they are probably just having a bit of fun and since it isn't harming anyone why should I care anyway?

No real reason to this post. I just wanted to get that thought out of my head.

EA Customer Support is WANK!

I emailed them about a technical problem which they told me was gameplay related and to chat to players on the forums about it.
I told them I had done and knew it was technical.
They told me it was gameplay related and to talk to players on the forums.
I told them again that I already had done and gave them steps to reproduce it.
They went quiet on me for 5 days so I emailed asking if they were investigating it.
They told me the issue was game play and to talk on the forums.
I told them it was technical and gave the steps again.
They admitted it was technical and said they would investigate the issue.
I got a message two days later telling me there was nothing to do as it was my computer that didn't meet the specs, not something wrong with the game.

Why did they not just ask for my computer specs in the first place?! Gah!

Time...

You know how you can have too much time on your hands? Well I think I have too much time on my mind.
All I seem to think about lately is how I wish I could change the way I look. Nothing major but still, not really things I should be thinking about. Especially when all it does its make me miserable.
If money was no issue and I didn't care what others would think of me going ahead with it, I would have laser eye suregry, laser hair removal on my partial monobrow, and a hair transplant to refill my hairline.
My hair is the one thing that bothers me the most. I'm 23 and feel I have the hairline of a 50 year old. When asked, people say there is nothing wrong with my hair but being told something and then getting your mind to accept it are two seperate things.
I doubt I will act on any of these thoughts which only makes things worse though as the ideas and thoughts build up in my head without an outlet.

Hopefully once I've learnt to drive I will be able to get out and about which should distract me from these annoying but persistant thoughts.

All Change!

So I decided to have a bit of a change around here with the blog design. I've rather been neglecting this place but then I'm kinda lazy anyway and work hasn't really let up recently. Yes, I'm still at the Co-operative. What is it - a year now? I did not expect to still be there. I don't want to stay but I don't know where else to go either.

I'll probably add a picture for a header at some point in the future just to personalise this place a bit more.

Oh! I've also got driving lessons going now. I had my second one yesterday and although it is kind of taking me some getting used to, I am making progress.

Patch Together

Ok, so I'm not sure how many people stumble on my blog here but just in case anyone does, I've recently submitted a design to Patch Together. Hopefully this embedding code will work...



Click the image and it should take you to a page where you can vote whether you would like it made into a toy or not.

Moved

The move to the new house has now taken place. We moved on Monday 23rd but are still in the process of finding places for all of our belongings.

It's done nothing but rain every night since we got here.

Moving!

Along with the rest of my family, I am currently in the slow process of moving house. We should have moved twice by now but the date keeps getting pushed back. Hopefully we actually have a finalised date now.

This also means that for a while I will be without internet. Our current phone line gets cut off on the 16th and I believe the 23rd is when we will be in our new home so it should be shortly after that when I get access back, all being well.

I'm currently sat typing at a small desk in the dining room as our table and chairs have already gone to the new place!

Spore Hero and Scribblenauts

Well I finally bought Spore Hero on Friday when it was released. I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. I was puzzled on the second level for a while before I realised there was a whole section of the area that I hadn't tried to investigate yet!

I also bought myself Scribblenauts for my DS. An odd little game this one. You are given a task or a situation and must then solve it by writing object or creature names into a pad which then spawns them in the game world for use.
Got a tree to chop down? Type the word 'axe' and your character can then use it to chop it down. Type 'lumberjack' and he'll pick up the axe and do the work for you.
This one gets frustrating at times trying to figure out how to solve a level. I can see myself needing a guide for it at some point.

More Spore

Thoughts on Work

I've been at my new job for 4 weeks now. It is in no way going to become a career for me. That I know for certain. It's not what I want to do.
With how I'm feeling currently it may not last for much longer at all. I know it's early days but I feel that for every small thing I get right I get something wrong five times as large.
Today I was acosted by the manager for first of all being too slow with the task I was doing and then for having done the wrong task in the first place.
Last week I was told off for not knowing where enough of our products were for the customers. I've been making efforts to get better but it just doesn't seem worth it.
I really didn't think things would hit me this hard but I just don't seem to be able to cope with it. I think maybe I'm still too naive, even at the age of 22.
I don't dislike the work, I just hate the way the manager lets you know something is wrong. He makes me feel like I can do nothing right which just makes me doubt myself more and thus begins the downward spiral of misery.
I have three days off now and I know I will be feeling better by the time I go back to work on Wednesday but I also know that it's only a matter of time before I make another stupid cockup.
See? Already doubting myself again.

First Payslip

I got my first payslip from The Co-operative today! Sweet, sweet money!

First Shift

I've had my first shift at The Co-operative now. It was a six (6) hour shift and went a lot quicker than I expected. I suppose because I was kept busy I didn't have time to get bored. I started at 10:30am and finished at 5:00pm just in time to catch my bus home.

I didn't get too cold but I was wearing a vest! It was one of my dad's. I haven't worn a vest since I was about six years old. You could see it through my shirt as well. Nobody said anything though.

I was kept busy 'facing' the shelves, checking stock 'sell by' dates and reducing the prices of anything that needed to be reduced.

My next shift is Friday.

The World of Work

I shall be entering it soon.

Today I completed my induction for The Co-operative Group and I officially have my first shift on Wednesday. Apparently I will be getting trained up in the chillers section. I hope it's not too cold.

Thankfully it's not an early start so thats a plus.

SimSocial

As part of the marketing campain by EA for the new Sims 3 game due for release on June 2nd (5th in the UK) SimSocial has been released. It's basically a mini-game on the web.
You start by creating a Sim from a few limited options and then basically follow them through their life. All of the events appear on a PDA/mobile phone type interface. Unless you are already into the Sims franchise then this could become very boring very quickly. I'm finding it a very enjoyable time waster though. My Sim has already got a hmself a girlfriend which has unlocked the ability to spend the evening having a romantic meal or watching a romantic movie. The fact that she is a kleptomaniac doesn't seem to have shown any effect yet but she has helped him to get a better job. Well, same thing but different place with better pay.

If you want to go and check it out then you can do here> SimSocial

One last thing, you will need an EA account to play and save your game. If you don't have one then it lets you create one when you begin.

P.S. Save often! It seems to force you to take a ten minute break roughly every Sim fortnight and the autosave doesn't always work. Even if it says it does.

MyBrute.com

A site I found that someone had linked to on GaiaOnline.

Create a little brute and then battle it out against other brutes. Wanna have a go? Just follow the link here and then create a brute to fight me.

http://alistu.mybrute.com