It's his birthday?

Happy birthday, TripleA!

My retarded flatmate was playing that game and moaning aout how tough it is. I assumed that it was just because he was a retard.. Turns out it really is difficult, huh? That is the kind of game you definitely need to play with other people.. I could never play a game like that on my own.


1. Catching up on albums from 2009 that I missed. I haven't had such an indulgence of new music for a while. It's good.

2. Have done pretty close to nothing today, as I had a big piece of work I'd been working on all week and we sent it out this morning. Got a presentation about it on Monday but for now I'm taking it easy.

3. Finally got the nerve up to check my bank balance for the first time this year.. It's not as bad as I thought it would be! And I checked out the savings account that I have been direct-debitting into on a monthly basis for a while now and that is building up nicely.

4. Due to the above, I think I will be able to go on holiday or splash out a bit on clothes, toys and gadgets to entertain myself a little bit at some point this year. It was lookign iffy for a while.

5. Different types of tea. For too long have I been a slave to standard tea with masala, milk and sugar. I've started keeping various types of tea about and it's nice to mix it up. At work I'm mostly drinking Earl Grey with a squeeze of lemon, and at home I've been mostly drinking Lapsang Suchong (sp?). The Lapsang is really smokey; I worried it might be too full a flavour for me, but I've really acquired a taste for it. Also had some Lady Grey, which is nicer than Earl Grey, I think; a bit fresher, with more citrus in it already.

Assam and Ceylon failed to make much of an impact. I've reintroduced Jasmine tea to the rotation, and also started drinking Green team which I never used to like. Lemon and ginger is nice, but it's not really tea.


PS I do love a good bit of creative fancy dress. Snap some pics if anyone has any particularly good costumes at the Pokemon Party!

Well I went down to the living room this morning and it looked like a primary school arts and crafts session had just taken place, so that's a good sign. It appeared to be part of Whinehouse's Tentacruel costume. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Also, the reason we're actually doing this suggests there will be some good'uns. Essentially, it's one of my other housemates' birthday. He made an off the cuff remark several months ago about doing a pub crawl dressed as Pokémon, which quickly led to everyone hijacking his birthday plans and turning it into a Pokémon party. Then the enthusiasm waned over a period of months and it looked like we weren't doing it.

Then, a friend of ours said that his mum (who is into working with fabrics and had some downtime) had crafted him a Zubat costume and he was going to wear it come hell or high water. So the invite basically says "House Party at ours on Saturday. Mark's going to be dressed as a Pokémon, so if you want to come in costume it might make him feel less stupid". And now everyone's on board again. But yeah, I'm anxious to see the Zubat costume. His girlfriend is coming as Ninetales (with nine tales) and her costume apparently has an entire head for her to wear.

We also have ambitious plans of Metapods/Kakunas who will "evolve" during the party. Oh, and another housemate (there are six of us) is doing Bulbasaur and plans to strap a hanging basket to his back.

Lastly, yes, Megaman 9 is insanely hard. The majority of Megaman games are very challenging but this has to be up there with the toughest. It's perfect if there are three of us about and we pass the pad every couple of deaths though, and we'll probably do the same with MM10. The fact that you have a choice of 8 stages to tackle in any order you like also meant that we could individually decide which one we wanted to conquer next as our personal Everest and then have two others to give you pointers etc. when waiting for their turn. Until you really get your section nailed down, the lives are short and there's very little time spent not playing. It really feels like a multiplayer game. It's amazing when someone's confronting a section of precision, pixel-perfect platforming and everyone just shuts the fuck up until they make it.

I don't really understand what you're talking about, but it sounds like you freaky furries are gonna go ahead and have one hell of a time.

Good stuff!

(my afternoon is sufficiently slow that I will now individually google image search all of those Pokemon that you've mentioned)

That happened to me the other week. Absolutely beautiful moment. Unfortunately I've since had to pay my Road Tax, pay for a 5th Birthday party (plus presents) and then forked out to rejoin the gym, so I'm already skint again.

I'm loving that I've eaten really well for two weeks.

Loving that I finally got off my fat fucking arse and re-joined the gym.

Loving the Inspector Morse boxset that my Mam bought me for Xmas (I know, I'm a sad cunt).

Loving that no-one has been made redundnat at work for a whole 2 weeks!

Loving the fact that it's Friday!!

Worst pun in the world ever coming up. Don't read if you don't want to cringe and then wish you could punch me in the face!

Just go dressed normally carrying a telescope. When girls ask what's for, say "It's to peek at you".

Yes Rockwell, I figured if I dropped the names in you could carry out independent research. Rick, you pull a stunt like that again and you're banned.

I just watched the whole thing. Brilliant stuff. I need to watch his Star Trek ones next.

Unit in Southampton had a Pokemon party last year. A friend of mine had a particularly amazing Zapdos costume, but nothing topped the guy in front of me in the queue who came as Bulbasaur, got ID'ed, and promptly produced a Bulbasaur trading card (before showing his actual ID to avoid getting twatted). So much win.

That Unit 22 or some new Unit? I've only been gone a year and apparently every club has changed names and owners. So long as Lennons is still there I'll be ok.

I demand photos of this Pokemon party!

I'll do my best. Three or four people have photos on various cameras. I will wait for Facebook to turn up the goods and see if they're post-worthy. I will say that the standard of costumes was good considering the relatively short notice, but also that only 9 people were actually in costume because of said short notice. Everyone else was super-laaame. It was still a good laugh though. We also played the Pokémon drinking game and listened to the Pokérap three times. It was quite an ordeal.

So we had:

Mr. Mime. (me, in direct contravention of the "don't come as Mr. Mime because that thing needs to be killed" rule.)
Tentacruel. (Whinehouse)
Zubat
Ninetails
Venusaur
Butterfree
Poliwhirl
Vaporeon
Vileplume

The standard was surprisingly good. Vileplume involved an impressive umbrella rig set-up, Venusaur had a lampshade on his back covered in construction paper leaves, stuffed with yellowy lining and with actual flowers sticking out the back and Tentacruel was an elaborate papier maché affair. Star of the show in terms of effort/quality was Ninetails though. Three metres of faux-fur cut to create nine tails, an amazing white furry dress and a full white fox head with mock leather nose. It was really quite special and if she never uses it again it'll be a real shame. I'd consider selling it. It looked like something a woman with a furry fetish might use as a wedding dress.

I had a meeting at work earlier today, where I was informed that the company was sending me to New York for 2 weeks (all expenses paid) to meet some engineers, tour the underground system and compile a report on their construction methods.

I've had worse days.

I don't know you at all but I still feel the need to congratulate you!

Good work dude!

1: Got paid today
2: It was a 5 week pay this month and i got all my extra money from working a shit load of overtime at christmas
3: Because of the above i've been able to splurge out on a few new PS3 games which should keep me busy for the next few weeks
4: I'm off work all weekend
5: i'm gonna be drinking hard tonight which i'm very much looking forward to

1. Having a fringe again
2. Having medium length hair; got bored of it a little longer, and now I don't have to straighten it every single morning if I'm too busy
3. Robin Thicke
4. Having some old '99 mixes from Matt Darey to listen to before we go out later
5. My windscreen wipers no longer squeak, touch wood, after various reparations including spraying a whole lot of WD40 and punching the bonnet in frustration

1. Having 3 days off work
2. Going to party in Manchester
3. My ex wanting me back lol
4. My new Blackberry
5. Having a free house

1: I'm doing some Stand-up comedy tonight, it's only my second spot and i'm really looking forward to it
2: I actually enjoyed the Royal Rumble last night and i'm glad i stayed up for it
SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read
3: Edge returning at said Rumble was awesome
4: I picked up Watchmen and Tales of the black freighter/Under The Hood on DVD for £8 which is a bloody good deal
5: The Cleveland Show starts tonight on E4 and i've heard some good things about it, i just hope it's more American Dad style funny than Family Guy style funny

1. I'm seeing Rammstein on Thursday.
2. I'm going to Gordon Ramsey's restaurant (all expenses paid) on Friday.
3. I'm having a big family lunch on Saturday afternoon.
4. I'm having a fancy dress party on Saturday night.
5. I'm not getting out of my pyjamas on Sunday.

1) I'm going to see the awesome Tim Vine at the end of February
2) I have a lovely Peep Show Series 1-6 boxset
3) Over the weekend I had Pizza Express twice in two evenings
4) Got Resident Evil 5 last week and am enjoying it so far
5) Awesome TV is on the way back. 24 is back, Lost back on Friday, Supernatural back on the 10th

Good stuff, I'm going again when he's near by. Its about the 3rd or 4th time I've been to a show of his and its always a non stop laugh and so different from one show to the next.

1) 4 days in and the new living arrangement is going well. The savings will be epic at the end of the month, but for now, the social aspect fills me with optimism.
2) The current Mrs Brownie has bought me a Terminator boxset to keep me amused whilst she goes on a hen weekend this Friday. Good girl.
3) Swansea City in the premiership? It just might happen.....
4) My work trip to New York is booked. I'm staying in the Philidelphia, which is apparently near Time Square. Hopefully, I will finally get to MSG!
5) I've just been exposed to the greatness of Leroy Jenkins.

1. After a month in the wilderness, I now have the internet at home again.

2. My fourth trip to see SHIMMER is shaping up nicely. We're hitting Chicago for 4 days and then spending 6 in New York afterwards. Show tickets for both days are bought, flights have been purchased, hotels have been booked. That's all in 30 hours.

3. My new job's going well. A month at Leicester Sound and I'm feeling like I'm fitting in.

4. Possible relationship on the cards - just some stuff to iron out beforehand.

5. Moving house EARNED me money. My letting agent gave me back £100 more than they should have when returning my full deposit. I shouldn't have got it all back anyway, as I melted the carpet with an iron while sorting out the hems on the my curtains on the second day of me living there. However, the carpet cleaner said it was natural fiber damage, and wasn't my fault - they even put it in writing for me.

Then I got a refund from my electric company for all the overpaying I'd been doing on my direct debit deal I'd sorted out with them. £229, thanks very much.

1. Danny Butterfield's head
2. Danny Butterfield's right foot
3. Danny Butterfield's left foot
4. Danny Butterfield
5. Danny Butterfield's Mum and Dad

Steve Bull, Beverly Knight, Goldie, Robert Plant, Jamelia, Tessa Sanderson, Enoch Powell. We have beaten them all. We have beaten them all! Noddy Holder, can you hear me? Noddy Holder - your boys took a hell of a beating. Your boys took a hell of a beating!

As a West Brom fan, I echo the above statement

Noddy Holder's from Walsall, and Jamelia's a Brummie. [/pedant]

How did it go? Have you got more open spots lined up? Where abouts was it etc.?

As a wolves fan, I've heard quite enough of this shit already and it's only bloody lunchtime!! Shocking display from Wolves last night.

1. My social life seems to have suddenly exploded to the point I'm out three or four days a week instead of sitting at home. Although my bank account is finding it hard.

2. Two months ago I started seeing a fantastic person who likes me for me, so I can be myself instead of the image that a lot of men project.

3. Millwall seem to be on a bit of a winning run at the moment and should easily take a play-off spot. I hope I don't regret saying that now!

4. My dad got quite a lot of money from the state that he did not know he was entitled to (something to do with not claiming a pension from the navy that he was entitled to). He gave me a grand so I can go mad and decorate my room.

5. I'm hopefully going to Metal Camp in July with some friends, primarily to see Manowar!

1 - I caught a glimpse of my ex the other day, and he looked like he'd been bitchslapped with a branch from the ugly tree, then shat on from a great height by the ugly squirrels who live in the ugly tree. Damn, that was a lucky escape!

2 - I saw the live-action movie versions of the anime 'Death Note' yesterday, and they were amazing. Four hours worth of Tatsuya Fujiwara being evil and scheming equals four hours worth of me smiling!

3 - I'm getting a bigger bed, which means both me and my dogs will soon have more room to sleep. I know you're not supposed to let dogs on your bed, but screw it. Pets don't last forever - they at least deserve to be happy and comfortable while they're here.

4 - My mum got a promotion at work, which involves her getting paid more for doing pretty much the same job she's doing now. Only now she gets the kick the idle arses of the lazy, moaning, permanent-coffeebreak-having bitches she works with as a bonus.

5 - I've come to the conclusion that Yoshi Tatsu is not only extremely talented but extremely cute too. So I now have double the reason to watch him. Thank you!

1. I got a puppy! She's called Misty and she's 3/4 Border Terrier and 1/4 Jack Russell. She's adorable and she's the first family pet we've had since me and my brother became old enough to know what to do. She's learning to paper train at the minute and 4/10 she gets it right, but she's learning fast. We've only had her 3 days.

2. The "Thing a commentator wouldn't say" thread is hilarious. Easily the funniest thread we've had since Emperorseb's Wrestling Jokes one.

3. "Conan" on the 360. I got it as part of my latest streak in mediocre budget gaming but it's turned out to be a fantastic game. Probably more on that in the next few days in the 360 thread.

4. My teacher didn't turn up to uni today so the 7 of us that bothered to go in just left and went home.

5. The Cleveland Show. It's like Family Guy but blacked up.

Pic of the puppy, please!

Awww.. She is hella cute.

I'm very jealous.


not-so-fun fact: Misty was also the name of a budgie that we had when I was young. My sister accidentally decapitated her with a sliding door.

Holy shit. Ouch.

Amazing puppy AAA. Takes me back to... well, about a month ago,when I was staying at Whinehouse's... house... between Christmas and New Year along with two dogs and twelve puppies. It was absolute madness. The cuteness outweighed the deafening noise and overwhelming stench, such is the power of puppy cuteness.

Oh yeah, things...

1) Ordered a sexy new monitor today. I've put up with my yellow-vision monitor for a long, long time and I think I owe myself this shiny LCD beast. With the picture quality I'm expecting, the ladies of internet pornography will be so nude.

2) Streetfighter IV. Oh yes, the love is all kinds of back. Venturing to a tournament at the end of this month. An actual real life tournament. I expect to get murdered but I'm looking forward to it regardless.

3) This is probably my nerdiest top 5 ever, but fuck it...

The Nintendo Entertainment System. Been emulating again recently and enjoying the following:

Punch Out! - My years of dedication to Super Punch Out have made this significantly easier than I remember it. Got to the second fight with Bald Bull before encountering real problems. Soda Popinski was kind of a prick though.

Battletoads - It's actually quite rubbish (and I even knew that back in the day) but it has the best Pause menu music of all time. OF ALL TIME.

Maniac Mansion - Lucas point'n'click goodness. Razor's music is tremendous.

Megaman - We still haven't finished Megaman 9 but have decided to start working through the original NES series. Only just started this project. Cutman is down, nothing else to report. His stage was a billion times easier than anything in MM9. I think it helps that all the time we've pumped into 9 has made us effortlessly great at devilish Megaman platforming.

4) Weekends. I've recently been on this ridiculous streak where it's been someone's birthday every weekend for about five weeks. Friends, friends of friends and girlfriends of friends. It's worked out rather nicely. Trying out new clubs and eateries I've not been to before and generally making merry. Oh, and after the rousing success of our screening of James Cameron's Piranha 2: THE SPAWNING, Sunday evenings will be shit movie night for the forseeable future. We have a backlog of at least 6 CEX gems to watch, we have come up with a configuration for our living room to seat 10+ people all with a good view of the screen and next weekend we have a young and still Australian Nicole Kidman in NIGHTMASTER. It looks absolutely horrendous.

5) Fennec Foxes. They're bloody brilliant.

Look:





Yes! They're no red pandas, but they're still amazing.

Megaman 2 is the best, and a good amount of people would agree. Not only is it probably the easiest, but also has some of the best music and level design in a platform game ever. If you are as skilled as you say though, i'd try and leave Metal Man last as his weapon can fire in 8 directions and almost everything in the game is weak to it.
Megaman 3 is quite good too and has Protoman in it (who is awesome, you can unlock him in Megaman 9) but is quite harder.
Megaman 4-6 are pretty much identical except the increasingly awful names as they progress (Star man, Dust man and Hard Man to name a few).
Megaman 7 is on the Snes and is actually alright, but doesn't feel quite there at times.
Megaman 8 is on the PS1 and is definately worth finding. Apart from the awful voice acting the game is really quite good. It's got some good music, good levels, good bosses, plays well and is challenging but not Megaman 9 challenging.

Megaman Anniversary Collection for the original Xbox is back compatible and should be cheap if you can find it. It has 1-8 on it and some of the arcade fighting games too, with a load of artwork and extras to unlock.

Number 10 is going to have Sheep Man. I can't wait.

I'm more excited about Pump Man

It went quite well for only my second spot, obviously i'm still trying to find my way but for now i'm having a lot of fun experimenting with different bits and pieces and seeing what works and what doesn't. I've so far been lucky and had a really nice crowd on both occasions. It was at a club in Newcastle and i'll be back there in the next few weeks, i'm just waiting to find out what date.

Good stuff. I've heard there's some really nice gigs in N'Castle, mostly ran by Peter Vincent? A lot of geordie comics often travel to M'Chester to do the Frog...get on it! Just do as many spots as you can, doesn't matter if they're good, bad, in front of 2 men & a dog, it's all about numbers at this stage. Anyway.......

1. One of my favourite bands ever (Idlewild) are playing my home town in a tiny venue 10 minutes from my house.

2. I've got a new venue sorted with 200 extra seats to start running comedy at from May.

3. I've practically booked up for the whole year at above venue & managed to snag some awesome acts.

4. Being back online on my XBox 360, the missus is out with her mates Saturday night so chicken wings, beer & Streetfighter 4.

5. Get my bonus at the end of the month so can pay off my new car & book a romantric weekend in Rome (Brownie points coming my way).

Baby tonight is the night I make you mine [disk one of six].

1. Rammstein last night were amazing.
2. Dinner at Gordon Ramsey's tonight was lovely and even had a glass of pink champagne from the random strangers on the next table.
3. Can't wait to see my nephews at lunch tomorrow.
4. Having a fancy dress party tomorrow night.
5. For once, I had a nice birthday!

1. Went to see Nini Conti's new show on Friday - she was really funny and her legs were out for the whole show. Win.
2. I replaced the windscreen wiper arm on my car after it bent. Saved tons in labour charges.
3. It looks likely I won't spend Valentine's Day alone.
4. Got To Dance - it might be presented by Davina McCall, but that's where the complaints end. Beats So You Think You Can Dance into a bloody pulp, then pisses all over it's prone, lifeless corpse.
5. I now have a fan page on Facebook, set up by my breakfast show colleagues. It only has 6 fans though

I'm tempted to go and see Idlewild myself.

Where will Comedy been from May? Who have you got on?

We're at Nantwich Civic Hall from May. Acts appearing in the coming months unclude...Tom Stade, JAson Cook, Reginald D Hunter, Steve Hughes, Jon Richardson, Ava Vidal, Miles Jupp & Paul Sinha.

1) Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City: Forgot how good this album is, pefect for the depressing post Christmas winter.

2) Lost - It's back, it's still amazing, 14 episodes until it's finished, I can't wait to find out how it all ends.

3) Final Fantasy VII - Been replaying it in anticipation of the new one due out in March, it looks worse evry year but still plays like a dream.

4) Bret Hart back in WWE, ok so he's not having ***** matches no more but after giving up on seeing him in a WWE ring ever again it's amazing to see back on the TV.

5) Going back home this weekend for a night out, it's gonna get messy.

1) Survived my six month probation period in this job.

2) Streetfighter IV. Yes, again. Sad as it is to admit, it's quite exciting to be "in training" for my first ever tournament. Playing nothing but Blanka on this until the end of the month.

3) PREDATOR. Yeah! Watched this on Blu Ray with the housemates last night. What a great, great film. The Blu Ray transfer was surprisingly good too. Visually it was just a bit upscaled and the jungle scenes looked really pretty, but where it really shone was the sound. I've never heard it sound as great as it did last night. My favourite character changes from viewing to viewing. It's somehwere between Billy and Mac for now. Mac is fucking brilliant.

4) Wagamama on Friday. Ginger chicken udon and Duck Gyoza for me.

5) Seeing my Maidstone peoples for a friend's 25th next weekend. It's been far too long.

1) Blood test results are back, and i have pretty much been given the all clear, my doctor checked for everything, my liver, kidneys etc the works, wierdly the fertiity tests where the only ones i was incredibly worried about, but they have come back without an major problems, there is a slight anomolie but nothign to worry about from what my doctor says, i don't think i've ever been this relieved in my whole life!

2) My niece (who is two) made me a Valentines card at nursery to tell me how much she loves me, she was incredibly excited to give it to me, it was the cutest thing ever. Sadly, it is the only Valentines card i've ever got iirc, but it is also the specialist, i will treasure it forever!

3) I LOVE my new job, more than i have ever loved any job, i'm 2 months in to it now, and enjoy it more and more every day, unfortunantly i don't have the unlimited internet access i used to have in my old job, as i work in a school and the internet filter is super sensative, but it doesn't really bother me at all, as i'm always busy. I deal mainly with year 11, and they are just the best group of teenagers i've ever come across, even the ones that are 'nightmares' according to the teahcers are great with me, i seem to have managed to build a really good rapport with all of them

4) I finally got Sky Plus, well Sky HD actually, and i managed to get it for free, it's great! I don't know how i lived without it, actually i do, i just never watched TV

5) Life in looking on the up at the moment, long may it continue!

1. I have done more in the past 2 months than I did in the entirity of last year through self-motivation and every improving discipline.

2. I have lost some weight by cutting the crap out and doing basic excercise, through this I have dropped a pants and shirt size.

3. Started driving lessons. Why I didn't do this earlier is a mystery but it has made me determined to get my license and a car asap.

4. Having money and learning to appreciate/control it better. Due to not stuffing myself with crap I've saved about £45-50 in silver over the past 6 weeks.

5. My new phone! It's only an LG Chocolate 2 but it is smart, stylish and forfills my mobile needs.

This year has already been better than last year and I hope it continues!

Woke up feeling really fucking depressed, and the following have cheered me up...

1. Late 90's trance music; I fucking love this scene and have been delving deeper and deeper over the last couple of years, simply an astonishing amount of good stuff for such a small time frame. It's looked down upon on most elitist music sites and forums I go on, but I've got a feeling in twenty years or so this will be increasingly recognized, a lot of it has aged really well already, especially compared to a lot of 90's stuff. I spun some Aztec Camera records recently, and they sound dated as fuck, whereas the trance from the same period still sounds as fresh as ever.

2. 'No Likey No Lighty' - I always catch the repeat of this show, it's pure dumb fun, and I love it. Best dating show in years.

3. Relentless; not sure there is a better drink out there. I'm trying to stay off energy drinks, but this always has a place in my life, tasted great, has a great kick, fuck there is even Wordsworth poetry on the back of the can.

4. Green tea; phenomenal drink, I am slightly addicted. In between this and drinking five pints of water a day, I always need facilities handy unfortunately. Have to cut back if I'm having a long drive.

5. Philip Sidney; 'Astrophel and Stella' is probably the greatest collection of love poetry ever written, four hundred years old and still awesome. It's criminal that this isn't known among the famous English literary works. Poetry usually bores me, but this is worth anyones time...

"Oh no, her heart is such a citadel,
So fortified with wit, stored with disdain,
That to win it, is all the skill and pain."

1: The other half is here for two weeks from tomorrow.

2: I've got this Friday off.

3: I'll be seeing Kelly Clarkson the same night.

4: Just had my ears syringed, which is nowhere near as gross as it sounds. My hearing is stupidly good for now, to the point where things that I found quiet yesterday are now surprisingly loud.

5: Contrary to what my girlfriend and my mum say (bless them), I felt the need to be healthier and started running last month. At the rate it's going (I've lost 10 pounds so far), I'll most definitely be near or at my goal weight by my deadline of a month from now.