The 7 undeadly sins.....

I just wanted to congratulate a couple of fellow Bloggers for their excellent contributions to the 7 Reasons website which is very, very funny! 

 Basically it is a Site where two friends come up with a series of lists of 7 Reasons why something is or isn't a good idea with hilarious results. For example, please check out this: http://7reasons.org/2010/08/26/7-reasons-that-lampshades-are-stupid/ 

7 Reasons why Lampshades are stupid! If this doesn't amuse you, I don't know what will! 

Have you tried perhaps the T.V series, Come Fly With Me? Starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams instead? You haven't......best not then, it really isn't that funny!

It's only a game......

Why are some people soooo obssessed with their Gamer scores on Xbox Live? True, it is nice to have lots of G Points but who REALLY cares if you have a lower score? Not me! I get just as much enjoyment if not more out of just playing a game rather than trying to get all the achievments.

For those who are unitiated in the ways of the Xbox360, when you play a game on your console you can earn up to 1000 points per game for performing certain achievments. These can be anything from completing individual levels of a game to rolling your car 5 times or achieving a certain amount of head-shots. For every game the maximum amount of points you can get is 1000 but often some of these achievments can only be done by playing multi-player games online or completing a game on Hard mode! Sometimes a game only has 5 achievments, such as completing every successive level in a game, but these still have to add up to 1000 points so you can see sometimes it is easier to get all the achievments on a game than on others.

One of the women at work, call her Bea, has a husband who requested to be my Xbox friend; this means we can see when each other is Online and what game we are each playing and also can look at each other's Gamer Cards which record our scores. Lately she has become obsessed because my score was only like 3000-something. She and her husband lent me this game where you only had to play 5 minutes and press  one button to get all achievments and an easy 1000 points. Fair enough. But they also lent me Terminator:Salvation and told me it was easy and that their kid completed it in like 3 hours or something. Both games were lent me so that I could "get my score up!"

So okay, I load it in and yes, it is fairly easy but it is slow to load and you can't skip the cut-scenes between playing so that every time you die and reload your last save, you have to sit through them all again! Boring!! I like played it for an hour, got a bit bored and went back to Batman:Arkham Asylum which I had nearly finished and was enjoying more instead!


Anyway, I bump into her today and Bea is like "So what's taking you so long with Terminator?" and I'm like "Well, like....I've not played it since Tuesday night because I was trying to get to the end of Batman!" and so she's like "Well I'm going to get my own Profile and I'm going to like thrash your score really quickly and beat you!" and so I'm like "Big Fracking deal!"

{Aparently, her and her husband were watching my Profile the other night to see how many Achievments I got on the games they lent me. Errr...like...hello? Sad much?}


I mean this woman is older than me and always bitching about her husband playing like loads of Xbox but still is giving me shit because my Gamerscore is a little low. And I'm like thinking "Jeez girl...back off and get a life!" I mean I like Xbox as much as the next guy but I want to enjoy my games not just play them to build up points on my profile! And maybe it's just me but as much as it might be nice to have a high score, I have a life you know and cannot be arsed obsessing about how I can get more bragging points which is basically all G-points are! They are no good for anything else!


Well, I know you are all bored now with my geeky Xbox talk so I'll wrap this up but honestly....when you start getting that obsessed with G-points, and not just your own or your husbands but someone elses, then you really need to have a harsh word with yourself! I mean there are other things I like doing too, yeah? Like spending time with my wife and daughter or reading...I mean it's not like I've got two ton of books to get through or anything? Friends from RISI will know all about that little obsession, I'm sure!


Anyway, until later......wah wah wah wah wah.....Game Over!


C U Next Time Blog Pals xxxx NarkyMarky

Additions to 1001 Books and authors for January....

Next up on my list of 1001 authors and books you really need to read is (23) Mission by Patrick Tilley! It is an odd read but a highly engrossing one all about a Jewish Lawyer dating a nurse who comes into the E.R one night to pick her up and finds her treating the body of a bearded male with severe injuries to his feet and hands and a spear wound in his side. This patient is Jesus Christ, not an imitation of the Messiah or a reincarnated impersonator but the real Jesus and he has thrust himself forward in time to bring a message to humanity and spread The Word. And he has chosen these two perfectly normal individuals to do it!

The book is very well written offering an alternative version to events in Bethlehem and beyond to those we might be familiar with. The concept is basically that Jesus and the Angels are extra-terrestial in nature and involved in an Intergalactic conflict that has gone on for Millenia and though this might sound controversial and blasphemous, it is actually handled very subtly and well. 

It is the best book Tilley ever wrote and a real masterpiece that is genuinely worth picking up! Don't be put off by the subject matter even if you believe and have faith because it is a book that really makes you think and has a nice, 
clever twist at the end that ties up all the loose ends that appear through the narrative. I really cannot reccommend this enough ~ it is an awesome, awesome life-changing book!

Not my car.....

This is not my car but it has got similar damage to that done to mine so thought I would include a pic anyway! As you can see, there was not much left at the front!!!!

 

Back from the brink......

Well, I'm back after an extended annual absence that always seems to happen around the December-Janaury point of the calender due in part to Xmas being my busist time of year and also to me finding it inordinarily difficult to start Blogging again after so many weeks not doing it! 

Much has happened whilst I have been away. The big thing in the last week is that Emilie has begun pooing on the potty after weeks of creating and refusing to go in anything other than a nappy! She would go for a wee on potty or toilet but not poo and I don't know what has changed but a bit of patience with her has certainly paid off and now, once she has realised she can do it, she is going on the potty all the time! We have made sure we give her lots of praise and encouragement and all of it is genuine. I am soooooo nproud of my little sweetheart for takling this big step and now can stop worrying about whether she was ever going to be fully trained!!

The other big thing is that I smashed my K.A up in the recent bad weather over December. I was coming down a slip-road that had not been properly gritted, hit black ice and spun out of control. It was quite worrying and when I saw a white van headed towards me, there was a moment when I thought my number might be up!! The van hit me at the front end of the drivers side but very nearly managed to miss me! I mean we are literally talking about a matter of milli-seconds! My car would not start, the wheels were locked into place and the other drivers ending up calling an ambulance because they were not sure if I was hurt. I smacked my head but otherwise was thankfully unharmed! My K.A however was a write-off!!

Take a tip ~ DO NOT EVER EVER TAKE CAR INSURANCE WITH FIRST CENTRAL INSURANCE! 

They are absolutely awful ~ insisted me going through the claim over the phone in the ambulance before they would recover my vehicle for assessment despite the Police telling them it was a hazard and needed moving; point-blank refused me a courtesy car because it was a write-off but also held off organising me a hire-car until their own Independant Assessor could confirm this and were nothing but a nusiance to try and communicate with! They are the worst Insurance company I have ever used but be warned ~ were the number one cheapest on Comparison site, Go Compare! In future, I will check out Martyn Lewis' website before I go with a company I have not heard of before as there were lots of disparaging comments about them on the forum there. Either that or I will go with a reputable company whom I have heard of before even if it does cost me a little more! Either way I would neither use First Central again or reccommend them to anyone! And, when I get a few moments to spare, I am also going to be writing to Watchdog, the Ombudsman and anyone else I can think of complaining about the level of service I have recieved! Basically the company was just forking me off so they didn't have to supply me with a car and that really isn't good enough!

Luckily, mum was able to lend me some money until a settlement came through for my old car and I was able to find a little Corsa relatively quickly with low mileage and for a reasonable price! It has only a litre engine meaning it has no real guts and takes an age to get to speed, but will be cheap to tax and is slightly more economical than my K.A was especially in these times when petrol prices are going up and up!

Anyway, that's about all for now.....nothing else immediately springs to mind that I wish to share so until next time....

Sayonarra folks!