August 2008 Archives

Shoe shopping

Shoe shopping, originally uploaded by samwebster.

Oh no, she's started shopping for shoes already!

Simple

Simple, originally uploaded by samwebster.

Stormtrooper golf bag

Weird.

You'll soon be able to buy Star Wars themed golf bags and headcovers, and who knows what else? I might go for the ball markers, I guess.

Official starwars.com article with more images.

Warning!

Going anywhere near this bicycle could result in a fatal injury or injuries!

How many warning stickers can you get on one bike? It must have been built for a particularly litigious society. Warning! Bicycle may move forward if you press on one or more pedals!

Hallway box

Ooooh, what's inside? Jack's very excited.

Annabel update

Annabel is now clapping and saying, "Dadadadadada". Kind of. She's very pleased with herself and seems to use it to get my attention.

The Nike+ Human Race

Have you seen or heard about this? It's the first global 10km running race.

I love the idea. You can sign up for and join a physical event, running with a large number of other runners at your closest geographical location (I think it's London in the UK at Wembley Stadium with Paula Radcliffe and 30,000 other runners) or you can sign up online and run on your own or with a few mates on your home turf using the Nike+ iPod running system. When you get home you upload your run data to nikeplus.com from your iPod and it's added to everyone else's collected data. It looks as though they'll be ranking by runner and country, and no doubt there will be a whole bunch of interesting data.

My sister bought me a Nike + iPod sport kit a while ago, but it only works with the iPod Nano. I've avoided buying a nano just for running as rumours keep surfacing about software for the iPod Touch and iPhone, which given its new abilities seems sensible. I'll definitely try it out even though I already use the awesome Polar S625x for all my cycling, swimming and running duties. It's great to see someone like Nike making it easy for runners to get direction in a fun and easy way. It's far more likely to keep people running with goals and milestones, and might get them to enter races, even if they're only fun runs.

I wonder if Nike do Ironman training programmes yet...

Nike+ Human Race

Oakwood Theme Park

We all went to Oakwood Theme Park yesterday and as you can see, Jack loved it. At the end of the evening we sat on the Treetops rollercoaster for 6 straight rides through fir trees in the dark! I'd been treating myself to doughnuts, ice cream, chocolate, beer, & more doughnuts, so I was feeling a little iffy after that.

Flickr.

iTunes film prices

I have a personal plea. If you're going to watch films from the iTunes Store (link opens in iTunes) and feel that you need to comment, can you please shut the hell up about the price? It is not expensive.

Every film I've rented or bought from iTunes has a huge list of reviews, and those at the top all complain about the price. "Whine, whine, whine. Why do I have to pay £10.99 to buy a film? Wah, wah wah. It's cheaper to leave my house and walk to a shop, or go to an online shop, buy the DVD, put it in my computer, download some software from the internet, install the software, fiddle with the settings, rip the film to the hard disk, resize it for my iPod, and then transfer it to my iPod." You're missing the point, whacko's. You're paying for convenience. And when was Apple ever cheap, you poor babies? You want cheap? Go to Poundland. You want quality? Go to Apple, or B&O, or some other damned expensive company.

Apart from that, you're wrong about the price too. Cloverfield on iTunes costs £10.99 to buy, as do all their newer films. Amazon is selling Cloverfield on DVD today for £11.98. Play is selling Cloverfield on DVD today for £11.99. This film was released on DVD on June 9th, according to Amazon, so they don't get cheap quickly either. "But what about the extras you get on the DVD?" That's what a DVD's for, you dumbass.

So stop thinking that you're making a difference by posting your dumb comment. And don't think you're helping by marking these whiner comments as helpful either, pushing them to the top of the list. Go to Amazon or Play and moan there that you don't want to pay £11.99 and tell them to make it cheaper. See how far that gets you. At least it gets you away from me.

Dan Yr Ogof caves

We went to Dan yr Ogof Showcaves today, and it was superb. Jack got to live out some of his Indiana Jones fantasies, and we went round and round the caves. I was impressed by how much was there, and a little surprised by how much Jack enjoyed himself.

Kim's done a little bit of caving in the past but I've always disliked the idea. I've been to other tourist caves before, but after today I'm probably a bit of a convert. It would be fun to explore some of the extensive cave system that you wouldn't get to see as a paying customer.

More snaps on Flickr.

Don't Die Young

I've been watching a little of Alice Roberts' BBC TV series, "Don't Die Young". Dr Roberts is an anatomist based at the University of Bristol, and has been heavily involved in publicising science. (Is that a term I just imagined? I mean to engage the public in science). You'll have seen her on the Coast series, if not elsewhere.

It's great to see some proper science on TV instead of the pseudoscience crap that TV moguls allow on their channels. Use BBC's iPlayer to see the stomach and intestines episode. There are no magical stool studies or tongue checks that tell you about the health of your kidneys here.

Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young: Series 2: The Stomach and Intestines. (Programmes remain on iPlayer for about a week).

Megan's Big Swim

One of our first year medicine students at Swansea is attempting to swim the English Channel next week. As you do. (These students are nuts for doing things that are ridiculously hard).

Go see how Megan is getting on at her blog: megansbigswim.wordpress.com. While you're there, click on her "Sponsor me" link and give some money to Oxfam.

Good luck Megan!

Lego Universe

Wow, Jack is going to love this - Lego are creating a MMORG (massive multiplayer online game). You'll be able to create your own character and earn bricks by completing tasks and solving puzzles. There's an epic storyline too, explaining how Lego Universe and its characters came to be. If they get it right like the Star Wars and recent Indiana Jones games it could be great. I wonder how massive it will be?

Read more on the Lego Universe website.

Jack's first visit to the climbing wall

I took Jack climbing yesterday to Dynamic Rock. We were there for 4 hours and even then he didn't want to go home! He's never spent so much time doing anything, except maybe a marathon Star Wars Lego on the Wii stint.

It's a nice climbing wall, and is pretty quiet at this time of year because most people will be climbing outdoors. The walls are OK, and plenty high enough for a 5-year-old. The staff are very helpful and friendly, and there's a nice atmosphere. Jack really liked the bouldering room and spent time alternating between the roped climbs and bouldering. He was moving really nicely through some problems I was giving him (mostly asking him to find a way to reach a particular hold).

Jack got a bit scared as he got higher up the roped routes, and was consistently giving up around the second bolt. It wasn't too difficult, just too high. When I finally insisted that we needed to go home and that this would be the last climb he tested the rope, kept going up and up, and with a couple of requested pulls from me at the other end he got all the way to the top!

When we got home he asked if we could go climbing. All morning today he keeps asking, "can we go climbing now then?" I think he's hooked.