BLOG MOVED

http://arcadefinger.50webs.com/
Arcadefinger

The technical problems are too much, until it gets fixed I've moved to my own site.

EDIT: Typical that the problem seems fixed now! After I spent time making that new blog!

connection problems

First off, I know I didn’t blog yesterday and I know the thousands of you out there must have been lost during the down time. For this I apologise but I have a good excuse. Lets go back to where this all began, yesterday at around 4pm.

Another uneventful day at work which finished at 3 leaving me hungry for something more than a sandwich back at home. McDonalds provided me with sustenance in the form of a toasted deli sub, chicken tika to be precise. Aside from the unwanted cucumber it was pretty good, I mean its not a patch on Subway but a good effort none the less. Coming home in the unbearable heat! It really was the hottest day I’ve felt in the UK. I entered my building to find the lifts out of action. This marks the start of the worst thinks you would want to happen on the hottest day in 100 years. Four flights of stairs felt like torture after the relatively short, but incredibly hot, walk home. Its ok I thought, once you get in you can take a nice cold shower and you’ll be as fresh as a daisy in no time. Once in the flat I peeled off my shirt, that’s no exaggeration, and headed to the shower. A turn of the tap resulted in dryness! Nothing. A few seconds of utter confusion followed as I then gave the sink taps a try, nothing. Kitchen sink, nothing. Shit! I’d arranged to meet Liz after work too and I was running late. With no water there was pretty much nothing I could do except put on some clothes again and head out! I met someone one the stairs who confirmed that the water was out in the whole building.

I headed to town hopping it would get fixed while I was out. I decided to slip my newly acquired flip flops on to head into town and while walking I thought that bare feet would be even better than flip flops! Holy shit, the pavement burned the soles of my feet in seconds. Back on with the flip flops but with the added bonus of some grit I’d picked up, mmm comfy. Bought some posters with Liz at the Forum and headed back. Lifts still out and an intermittent alarm still sounding. Once in our place we checked but still no water. I knew I wasn’t at work until 5 the next day so the prospect of not showering wasn’t too bad, Liz was at work at 9 though so steps needed to be taken. Luckily as we were heading out to the Royal Standard (to em…use the facilities, if you know what I mean. Remember, no water, no flush!) we met two guys from Yorkshire Water.


Turns out there was a power cut some time in the day and it tripped loads of circuits, including the lift, internet router and most importantly the pump that moves water around the building! This meant that it wasn’t Yorkshire Water’s problem and we had to wait until the morning to get water and internet. Thus explaining the lack of blog action yesterday. Yorkshire Water did do something pretty cool though (considering it wasn’t their problem) loads of bottles of water for the whole building. It probably didn’t go very far but we got some.

As you can see I’m online now and am happy to say I’ve just come from a lovely long shower!

On to today’s activities all I’ve done is a bit of tidying and finally put up the first poster. A new one that we bought yesterday.

Take it easy out there kids

Dave

Blogging while Seated

What an awesome invention the sun is, whoever was sat around in the cold and dark and was like “you know what we need?...” Buy that guy a Heineken! The reason I start on such a silly statement is because of the nice weather we’ve been having for what seems like weeks. Today was no exception and I’ve been told tomorrow will be the hottest the UK has experienced in 100 years! The sun seems to make everything so much nicer and pretty much every time I walk round Sheffield I love the place even more (I know that sounds mental but I stand by my claims) I did manage to avoid the heat though as I was working 10 til 3 today. A good and bad thing depending on how you look at it. I’ve never been one for the heat and the max strength air conditioning of Debenhams keeps me nice and cool. It does the moment I step onto the shop floor I should say, the journey to work only makes me sweat like crazy. Luckily various body sprays keep the odour to a minimum. While at work I’ve found that the heat keep customers away from the slavery of retail therapy which leaves me pretty hassle free during my shift.

I did have some after work tasks to complete so I got straight onto those at 3. And I mean literally as I had to do some shopping at Debenhams. Off with the name badge and I was browsing in seconds. I needed some new trousers and shirt for a family wedding we have to attend in 2 weeks. Liz already got her dress and we’d arranged to coordinate (*nods with pride) Black and red is the look we’re going for and so black trousers and black shirt were required. Luckily my time at Debenhams had cued me to the bargains and not too much growler was spent. Back in Sheffield town a trip to Argos presented me with a desk chair. Something we’ve desperately needed as its absence left computer usage a genuinely painful practice.The final product is meant to have arms but space restriction meant that I didn't attatch them.

I can tell you that my cheeks are nestled comfortable and my spine is fully supported. I had to scan in part of the instruction manual too as it features quite an unusual man showing you how to adjust the seat:

That’s all for today folks

Late shift? Only if I get free ice cream!

Let me tell you about my night at work. Got there for about 3pm ready for a late one full of busy work. Hardly! Everyone was complaining about it but it was all really easy and I think it was just because it was a Sunday night that their brains couldn’t handle the idea of working so late. Not to go into too much boring detail, basically another company come in to the store and scan every single item with handheld scan-gun type things. Our job was to check 10% of their checks to make sure they were doing it right. What this meant is that we initially had to wait until they’d done some scanning leaving me and two other similar aged dudes to stand around a chat. Even when we had to work it was really relaxed and not very hard. Just had to read out the barcode number while another person ticked a list. The weird thing was that on top of the fact that the work was actually really easy they thought we all needed free sweets, crisps and pots of ice cream to keep it truckin’ through the night! I ate so much as I found myself stood about a lot. As there were no customers we also got to wear what we wanted and I even had my MP3 player quietly playing at some points. Speaking of what to wear while at work I have to share this photo of me in my Debenhams approved t-shirt that was handed to me on Friday. BooYa!We didn’t even stay as late as we first thought either (got back at about 2:30am thanks to a lift from someone). My student days have trained me well as 2:30am is not that late at all and so its not like it threw out the next day either. All in all a good way to earn money and if they ask me again I jump at the chance.

On to today’s activities. All we had planned was eating at Jumbo’s – a plan we successfully implemented to the pleasure of my stomach.Me and Liz both ate our fill and I even pushed the boat out with a pint of XXXX. Yum! A leisurely walk back through town on one of the hottest days I’ve ever felt here in Sheffield (or even anywhere in the UK come to think about it) has left me smiling and sleepy back at the flat with no plans other than putting up a few posters to start making the place feel like home.

Another activity that’s been taking up a bit of time is learning (or should that be re-learing) to play the guitar. This time ‘unplugged’ thanks to Aarons kind passing of his acoustic to me before he left for Taiwan. Today I learned to play that NOFX song I mention below (Cool and Unusual Punishment) with the aid of a program called Power Tab.

I don't know that facial expression that is meant to be!

The YouTube Trap

Seeing Double at the Triple Rock by NOFX

Just a quick blog today and it falls to YouTube to fill in the gap. I'm at work today for 12 hours doing something called 'Stock Take' which involves going there at 3pm and staying until we get finished at about 3am! It’s a higher rate of pay and it all helps with paying rent but it obviously means this is today’s blog as it’s straight to bed for me when I get back. Why I chose NOFX is because I've been listening to them loads over the last few weeks and this ones from their newest album Wolves in Wolves' Clothing. Its not a particularly funny video or my favourite song from the album (that honour goes to Cool and Unusual Punishment – an awesome song about Tokyo so those out there who’ve been, check it out) but NOFX don’t seem to make many videos so it falls to Seeing Double at the Triple Rock to provide video goodness for today.

The weathers been awesome here for what seems like weeks and everything’s going great here – hope it is wherever you are right now.

Dave

The Easy Way Out

Edge 165 has been out for a while but I just got it today, good reading ahead.

Hello all, hope everyone is well in whatever they’re doing. The title of today’s blog refers to the fact that I left work early today due to a pulled chest muscle. It happened just before I left to get the train to go to work at about 9:30am. A sharp pain in the chest area combined with shortness of breath. Now I know that sounds really bad but I knew that it wasn’t my actual upper chest (if that makes sense) and that it was just below all the important stuff. I guess I would call it the upper stomach but where ever it was it was giving me sharp pains if a moved in pretty much any direction or even breathed. Once again, sounds worse than it was as this only lasted for a minute and it was a pain I’d felt before. I’m always pulling muscles as I’m not really flexible at all. I chose to go to work as I presumed it would wear off after some limbering up. It kind of did as the sharp pain left me but I found it hard to really catch my breath and still do even as I type. I chose to complain about it at work and left after about an hour and a half. What a wimp!

I thought I start to reveal more of the new place in photographic form. First of we have a little tour of the bathroom (is it still a bathroom if it has no bath?) These are just some of the details that I really like about the place.First off we have the wonder of mixer taps! I feel like I'm in a hotel everytime I use em. The Shower has one the same and the stark simplicity of their operation is awesome.Next its somthing which can be found throughout the new place. Brushed Crome fixtures. These bad boys are on every wall socket and light switch! Minus a little cartoon man shaving sadly.
This photo might not be clear but this is out toilet flush (well the round button cut off at the bottom of the pic is) Already somthing cool as I love anything thats just not normal and a round button in the wall makes me feel special inside. The text indicates that if you push the flush for a second time it stops it thus saving water...classy.Now this is somthing I really love (sorry if this is really weird) The shower has no moulded plastic tray as such and its just a raised step. The walls and floor are all tiled the same and it just gives the place a real 5 Star feel.

If you're getting sick of me going on about the new place I'm sorry.

Word!

Dave

Riding the Rails

I'd like to start with an irrelevant photo of the Peace Gardens.

I went to Doncaster today. Fuck if I meant to thought! I was at work at 10am until 3pm today and so as usual I set off from here at about 9:30. I’ve been doing this run for about 3 weeks now without a hitch but that was about to change. After about 4 or 5 mins of typical railway swaying and shuddering we came to a gentle stop at Meadowhall Interchange. Like always I left my seat to head to the doors and an older couple where waiting there already. The train doors ask you to wait until they are nicely illuminated before they will successfully do as they’re told and open the doors. The man in front did as ordered and then pressed ‘Open’ when it was lit….nothing. Its ok I thought, I’ve pressed the button loads and it doesn’t open for a while. But it stayed shut all to the horror of me hearing the tell tale two bell rings that 3 weeks of train travel have informed me is the universal signal for a train about to leave a station.

What could we do, the conductor was no where to be seen as the train gentle started to move. I ran down the isle to find help but by the time I reached the other end of the train we where chugging along at a fair old pace. “What’s the next stop?” I cry. You guessed it, Doncaster. To be honest I had to smile at the events, I don’t really have much loyalty to Debenhams and a quick call to let them know confirmed that they didn’t really matter that I would now be late. It left me with time to take in what some of Yorkshire had to offer and I was pleasantly surprised by the picturesque countryside I saw rolling by. Once at Doncaster I hunted out the station master to explain myself and ask for help – she was really nice and even offered to let me use their phone to call work but I’d already done it via my mobile. The 15min wait flew by as I struck up a full blown conversation with a woman from Africa who asked me why it was so busy at the station. I explained that I didn’t know and felt like revealing a little more about my train troubles. This was a nice opening into all sorts of topics and by the time the train arrived I felt I’d made a friend and sort of felt like a real adult for the briefest of moments. The conductor on the train back to Meadowhall found my story quite amusing and fear of having to pay to get back were quickly quashed as he smiled and walked further down the carriage happy that I’d already paid my way. Now what I found a bit unfortunate was the train that took me further from my desired destination didn’t make any stops on its way to Doncaster. If it stopped at Rotherham I probably wouldn’t have been late for work. Now the train that took be back to Meadowhall managed to stop at every little station on the track and probably a few that weren’t, meaning I was even later.

The view somwhere between Meadowhall and Doncaster

Eventually got to work just over an hour late and so I had to stay until 4pm. Luckily the trip back to Sheffield was problem free!

Scrub Until Clean

A view from our old place, a view we will never see again! Read on.

I’m still discovering cool new things about the new place and I know I’ve been going on about it loads but its only because that’s all I’ve been doing. The credit for this actually goes to Liz as it was her discovery. While I was a work yesterday she re-tuned the TV in an attempt to see if we stood a better chance of getting channel five (something we haven’t had while living in Sheffield) anyway it turns out we can get five so that’s good news but what was better was the other two channels it picked up during its auto scan. Now you might expect my excitement to be based on picking up- free sky channels or maybe Playboy TV but alas no, instead we find that channels 7 and 8 on our TV are live feeds from two cameras situated by the intercom system and the front and back doors of the building. At first I thought we’d somehow hacked into the system or something but I then realised that as it was only those two cameras we’re probably meant to have them as they help you to see who’s calling your room on the intercom. Shame we haven’t got any visitors yet but I look forward to it and its made me make sure I don’t make a ass of myself by the front or back door as everyone will be able to see (if they happen to be watching at that specific time that is).

On to today and its been pretty busy. I can now happily say (oh and I do mean happily!) that we are officially moved out of our old place! I moved the remaining stuff this morning leaving the task of cleaning the place to make sure we get our deposit. I decided to go nuts on the place and do a really proper job! With the help of my friend Henry I hovered everywhere and even used Nutridol (think of it as Shake n’ Vac but a bit more manly) The carpets were in a pretty bad state in some of the corners and under the bed – its was just a build up of fluff and dust thought so Henry gobbled it all up like he hadn’t eaten in a week! Next on to the surfaces as I wiped the desks and shelves with pine cleaning finishing of with some furniture polish (like I said, I was on a mission!). The bathroom got covered in cream cleaner then scrubbed to a pearly shine. Now by this point I was starting to flag but the kitchen needed doing. I cleaned the entire fridge, removing all the trays and moulded pieces of plastic shelves, washing them before putting them back. I used a lot of sprays to make it all smell nice too. Basically I was cleaning for about 2 and half hours and got so hot after about 10 mins that I did it all without my tshirt on.

I’ve got to meet the building manager at 5 to hand over the key – should all go off without a hitch.

Just an empty shell now

Take it easy peeps

Dave

Light at the end of the moving tunnel

Another day quite similar to previous ones in which any free time I’ve got I’m continuing to move stuff from our old to new place. Making sure not to tire myself out as I was a work at 5pm until 10pm at Debenhams. The bookcase got the honour of holding my DVD collection (modest though it may be) this morning and it really looked exactly how I wanted it to. There isn’t any room to hold my collection of PS2 games unfortunately but I guess that means they’ll have their own dedicated structure at some point. I worked out today that my initial thought that moving from one building right next door to another would be really easy was completely wrong! You see if you make a big move (say to another city or something) you take all the stuff from one place load it into a van or similar vehicle and then cart it over in one foul swoop. Pretty busy but only for like a day or something. Doing it the way we have it seem never ending as we’re having to take stuff all the way over before going back to pick up more stuff. Enough of my complaining, as of tonight 99% of the stuff is here at Jet Centro leaving me to clean the old place to make sure we get our deposit back. I think we’ll get most of it, only a few blue tack marks but it’s hardly much!

Just to tell you a little about what I do at work. Its pretty much what you expect of a sales advisor in a department store only minus working on the tills as you have to have training for that and I having ‘graduated’ that course yet. When I work a shift like tonight it’s really boring as there just isn’t that many male shoppers in the evening. I seem to be in the shoe department a lot and that’s the worst as it requires me to stand there like some kind of guard outside Buckingham Palace even when its deathly silent. The week previously was really busy but this week I’m back to my contracted 20 hours and the contrast is so illuminating. Basically I feel like I’ve got way too much free time to sustain independent living in Sheffield. It’s kicked my desire to look for a new job up a level that’s for sure.

I feel a need to end on gaming news but today will be a little thin (and I’m sure they’ll be days and days were I don’t play anything). All I played was Time Splitters Future Perfect again and all I’d like to pass on to you is the solidity of the graphics. Everything feels ‘chunky’ (in a good way) and like they have a real mass. The style is nicely cartoon exaggeration. I also learned there are 150 playable characters (out side of the main ‘story’ mode where you play as Cortez) all seem to have the same care and attention as the handful of ‘stars’ and I really like that. Another point in its favour is the cut scenes are genuinely funny, and comedy is such as hard thing to do in interactive media. I’m not saying rush out and buy it but I feel an obligation for my blog content and title to have some linkage.

Just a compleatly random pic of a mildly amusing sweet Liz found in Home Bargins

Until next time, peace out peeps

Dave

“Screw part A to part B using part C”

I let the blog slip for a day! I better watch that. I do have a good excuse though, I planned on blogging after work yesterday (about 10:30) but I just headed straight to the new place after work, leaving the PC alone at the old place. Last night was our first night sleeping over at Jet Centro (what a name!). Had a good nights sleep so that bodes well for the future living experience. I’m sure I did more with yesterday but I can’t seem to remember. I do recall a trip to Maplins as I needed a really long cable to connect to the broadband point in the new place. It’s really awkward as it technically not that far a distance between wall socket and PC but to avoid any wire tripping incidents it needs to snake round the skirting and thus I needed about 16 meters! Luckily I got my hands on 20 meters worth for £20 and as your reading this blog right now you can happily presume it works fine as I’m sat typing in the new place! ---->As you can see its a beast when its wound up.

As for today, well it started really well as I wasn’t at work today so I got to layz around the new place taking it all in. Awesome shower and you’ll be happy to know that the toilet is nice and comfy. I wasn’t being lazy for nothing though as I had to wait in all day for an Argos delivery of a bookcase. Arrived at about 2:30 so I got a chance to play Guitar Hero and Time Splitter: Future Perfect while I waited. When it arrived I was so glad I got it delivered as it was pretty fucking heavy just moving it from the lift to our door! I was in full Tim ‘The Toolman’ Taylor mode as I cracked open the flat pack. First page in instructions informed me I would need two types of screwdriver and a mallet to complete construction. As I had nothing, a trip to town was in order. Some might go B&Q, other Homebase, I head straight to Poundland for my first venture into DIY. Got kitted out and even had a pound left over for a little tool box! I felt so manly! I also managed to pick up an all important dust pan and brush as most of the floor surface in the new place is wooden. On with construction and it went of without a hitch although I did feel bad for high noise levels as the final process required me to hammer in loads of little tacks. Bang, Bang, Bang!

I was so proud of myself and got it finished just in time for Liz to come home and appreciate my efforts. I spent the rest of the evening carting my PC over, setting it up and making sure I had an internet connection. Like I said before, if you’re reading this it all went well. The desk doesn’t have a chair right now so the keyboard is stretching so I can type while sat on the bed. There’s only a few things left over in the old place and so that should all get done soon.

Until next time, peace out

Dave

229 into 86 = Good times

Got a nice chance to have a bit of a lie in today, it was much appreciated and I know my feet loved the fact that they weren’t required so much today. Liz was at home on Saturday for her sister’s birthday so she came home to Sheffield at about 11:30. We headed into town to do a bit of shopping for some essentials for our new place as we planned to move in later that day. A trip to Debenhams (as if I don’t get enough of the place while I’m at work!!) proved that we weren’t quite economically stable enough to deck our place out in designer style (even during their sale) so a trip to Argos was in order. It’s like not being quite ready for a Schwarzenegger flick and having to settle for a Van Damme. We needed a tall book case to hold our joint DVD collection but it was a bit too heavy for me to carry home so I got it delivered (its coming on Tuesday). I got them to bring the flat pack out from the store room for me to test its weight but it proved too much!

Next it was off to Sainsbury’s for some grub where we met some film studies pals in the form of Ralph and Ryan. Had a nice chat and it turns out they’re living pretty close to us so there’s plenty chance of a few cheeky beers together as some point. Got the vital ingredients for some fajitas to be consumed at the new place and mark our first meal there.

But first it was back to the old place to transfer some more stuff and take down the rest of the posters. We decided not to sleep at the new place and instead just to eat there and spend the evening just chilling out with some Coronas. Lime included of course, we do have some class. Cooked up some awesome fajitas after having to look in the instruction manual before we managed to get the oven working! What did I say about having class? Turns out you have to set the clock before it will successfully turn on! It still looks a little bare but a lamp shade and a few posters and the place will really feel like home. I’ve got to set up the internet over there in the next few days so if the blog goes off the radar for a bit you’ll know I’ve failed to get it set up. The broadband point is really far from the desk so I’m going to have to either get a really long cable or go wireless.

Our lovely sofa in our new placeThe kitchen before we really moved in

Later on in the evening cooking up some tea!

A bit of gaming to finish today’s blog. I recently got King of Fighters Maximum Impact for the PS2 and played a little to make sure I’d set everything up correctly at the new place. It’s the first 3D version of the KOF series and I really like it. Far more than Tekken 5! Maybe its just because I get to play as Terry in glorious 3D, I haven’t worked out if its actually any good. It did come in a nice box with a reasonably thick booklet and a second DVD disk with ‘making of’ treats and all for just £7 pre-owned. The DVD is a bit boring but its nice extra content to ship with the game.

Until next time…

"Player two has entered the game"

At the end of a hard day.....strongbow time me thinks?

Since I came up with the blog title of ‘arcadefinger’ I suppose I should start with some arcade news. Spent some more of my lunch hour today on Time Crisis 4, but since I was working on a Saturday the whole place was packed with chavs and the like. So much so TC4 was busy, luckily the two guys playing were pretty shit and died during the opening prologue. I stepped up and had an awesome time as the true meaning of arcade play unfolded. What I mean by this is some guy joined my game (TC4 has a thing called ‘linked play’ so a new player can enter at anytime) and we worked together to kick ass. Two complete strangers instantly bonded like we’d been best buds for year! That’s what two player arcade can do! Giving ourselves little nods when we finished a section, for a few minuets we were kings. We got pretty far (nowhere near completion but much farther than I’d got in single player) and I died first leaving him to go a little further. When I turned round a few people had stopped to watch, only about 4 but in a place that has no arcade culture I was pretty impressed. It might have been because I was in a shirt and tie and stood out a little bit too. I wish that happened more at the arcade, maybe it would stand a better chance of survival. I ask one thing of you all out there; if you see someone at an arcade machine and there is an empty two player, join in! If you can’t join mid play, wait until they’re finished and ask if they want to compete with you. Turn it into the social occasion it’s meant to be.

Today marks the end of my week of loads of overtime at Debenhams, I wont complain too much as loads of peeps work harder and longer but I’m still really knackered after a 45hour week. Back to 20 hours next week so that should seem a lot less. I means I wont get a lunch break so I don’t know if I’ll go to the arcade as much as this week. I’ll have to wait and see. I’ve got tomorrow off so I’m planning to do some shopping with Liz for stuff for our new place and move in properly. The tv’s over there now so thats confirmed that we're properly moving in real soon. If you want a tip about moving, move the tv first, you’ll really want to move in a lot quicker once its missing from your old place!

In other news I treated myself to some new Vans:I took them out to Corp to wear them in a bit but they still look really white!

Not Too Shabby

Just thought I’d post my degree results online as I’ve just found out:

Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Film Studies

Second Class Honours (1st Division)

I’m really pleased with this as I went back over some of my marks for individual essays and there were a few doosies in there and I was starting to thing I wouldn’t get a 2:1. A 68 for my dissertation really helped pull things up though.

Listening to some Chuck Berry on my day off work and it’s all going good here; I’m moving some stuff into our new apartment today too. It took us ages to get contents insurance and we didn’t want to move anything over before we got it. It’s all sorted now so my parents are coming over to help me move. It’s mainly just the TV I need help with but hopefully they’ll treat me for getting a 2:1! Best case they’ll get us a new microwave for the new place, if not maybe just lunch. How I’m feeling right now I’d take either.

In gaming related news I saw an E3 build of Guitar Hero 2 on The 1Up Show and the new two player mode looks amazing. I quite liked the two player mode of the first game so fully separate tracks for lead, rhythm and base playing at the same time will be amazing and the best thing was the song…..Strutter by KISS!! Fuck that’s a good song! Also while I’m working at Meadowhall I’m spending some of my lunch hour in the arcade there and spending a bit of coin on Time Crisis 4 – I’m liking it even though I kind of suck right now. Player one seems to be some kind of Mexican dude with artistically rendered facial hair, that’s one way to get two thumbs up from Dave.

When I’ve moved some stuff in I’ll take a few pics of the new place. Until next time chaps.

Dave

The Story So Far....

Well it comes to this. Let me just explain why this blog has sprung to life and why (hopefully) it will be kept up to date with relevant 'Dave' news. My good friend Aaron is sunning himself in Taiwan at the moment, he's also in charge of teaching young children English too but that’s his tale to tell, and so he's dutifully keeping us all in the loop of his foreign living via blogs. These posts mark a highlight of my day and so I thought I'd throw some news out there myself as it’s not only Aaron that is no longer living in Sheffield and in fact its most of my Uni friends. Now that’s why I'm here, I better start with some actual blogging....well I'll start for real tomorrow.