That's a Bingo!

Well, actually its not. But it is one of these



So i had decided to go with Tesco mobile. Every friend I discussed it with said the grand plan was a winner, and despite the total cost of ownership (TCO) being quite high - whatever. Overall it worked out. I had a debate with my brother and dad about this plan (without revealing all the plan because there are certain bits not everyone needs to know) and they talked me into realising I couldn't afford one without borrowing fundage to buy one and get a lower tariff. I also didnt consider insurance, which was dumb.

So this morning, I felt glum. No new iPhone 4 for me. Not even a 3GS without borrowing funds. On a trip into town I popped into Phones4u (a company i've had a long standing dispute with due to me going in there enquiring about an XDA and then having to explain what one was...) and spoke to a member of staff about my options. They talked about trading my phone in and getting an iPhone 4 (cheaper tariff, lower TCO, win!) They didnt have any in stock though so bad times for me. Due to a signal related issue with Cascades (really its shambolic), I couldnt contact my dad or brother so popped into Carphone Warehouse.

They had an iPhone 4. They would trade my 3G in. It cost me £19 today. Yay! The downside about doing it today is extra bills from o2, but oh well. I changed to simplicity, so its not overly painful. July was always going to be a shit month financially anyway, so a slight extra bit of pressure isnt going to cause me issues.

I <3 my iPhone

The Swan and Knee-Jerking

The last post I wrote on here started with a tribute to famous people who I admired who had passed away. This time it is a quick note to say that I am appalled about what occurred in Cumbria this week. I am thankful in this country, tragedies such as these are very rare. My thoughts and best wishes go out to the families and friends of all those affected.

There has, of course, been suggestions the gun laws need to be reformed and restrictions on ownership needs to be tightened. There is a strong case for this now. I feel, however, this could be a mistake. As is stands (and if anything I'm about to say is wrong, then I am sorry), ownership of guns is strictly on a licence basis and can only be owned if people have a need for them (I don't have a need so I couldn't legally buy one). Making the rules on gun ownership stricter just criminalises more people needlessly. The law doesn't need changing in my view because, as I said earlier, this sort of event is very rare. The truth of the situation is simply this: if people want guns, they will get them; Legal or not. I used to believe that all gun ownership should be legal, like in the USA. However this sort of thing isn't so rare there, and after a recent spat of shootings there - I changed my mind. People I have argued with in the past compare legalising guns to legalising drugs. That view is foolish in my opinion. If drugs were legalised, they could be controlled much better than firearms for a start!

Anyway, I never intended this to be a long post. I'll close with a quick thought about a show bought to my attention via You Have Been Watching. Reality TV has long been something I've never cared for, in any form. Dancing, singing, talent shows, morons stuck in a house or any other form they can think of. Don't care. However I saw this one about The Swan. Basically they take people who are unhappy about the way they look, transform them with plastic surgery (having had "experts" sit round a table and discuss every reason why this person looks wrong), therapy and exercise and at the end of the 3 month period - allow them to see themselves in a mirror. Then the winners of the weekly shows go to a beauty pageant to be judged further! If I may, I'll just quote Charlie Brooker on this one:

The makers of this show are cunts!

That is up there in terms of awful shows with four weddings (come dine with me, but with weddings, not food).

That's all

Review Post: Trivium, Airbourne, Jeff Dunham

I spent probably the best part of 6 months trying to decide whether or not I intended to go to the Trivium gig. I made the decision some time ago that I don’t plan to go to many gigs outside of the Portsmouth/Soton area, unless public transport works out for me (IE, cheap). Obvious exceptions include Rammstein in Manchester, and if Maiden/Metallica/NIN tour, bands of that importance to me. Trivium are good, but they aren’t a favourite band of mine, so I didn’t know whether I wanted to go see them. They were damn good the last time they played Portsmouth, but fairly mediocre on the Black Crusade tour. I also don’t particularly like the latest offering from Trivium. Shogun was billed as their biggest album yet and it flopped a little for me truth be told. So, there were a few reasons, including being able to afford it, why I shouldn’t go. But they were on the doorstep (so to speak) so after pretty much deciding I wasn’t going, I bought a ticket. Went to the gig with Paul and met Jon at the gig. Me and Paul had decided before going that neither of us were really bothered with seeing Rise to Remain or Whitechapel so we decided to head down for Chimaira (one of the main reasons I decided to go). Chimaira (10) were fantastic. They played almost a best of set and it was just great. Would definitely go see them if they did a headline show locally. Trivium (9) were very good. They also appeared to play a set list that kept the fans happy. 1, maybe 2 from Shogun made me happy. They debuted a new song and covered Sepultura. Generally a good live experience. The decision to go was rewarded. The set list was:

1. The End Of Everything
2. Rain
3. Drowned And Torn Asunder
4. Like Light To The Flies
5. Throes Of Perdition
6. Down From The Sky
7. Ascendancy
8. Insurrection
9. Pillar of Serpents
10. Anthem (We Are The Fire)
11. Shattering The Skies Above
12. Slave New World (Sepultura Cover)
13. Dying In Your Arms
14. A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation
15. Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr

So, technical difficulties aside, Trivium were well worth seeing. I’m interested in the new album as Shattering is a great song. A lot to look forward to with Trivium.

Quite the reverse of Trivium, when Airbourne announced they were coming to town, that gig was booked up nice and early. The gig was originally scheduled for February but due to conflicting schedules, it got pushed back to the end of March. Sad, but not tragic. Before the gig, a band called Black Spiders were announced as support which was awesome. They were awesome as well. Black Spiders (7) are one to watch. It is a well known secret that support bands sometimes don’t get access to the sound levels that the headline band have. Indeed, according to Gojira, they had to play at 50% the volume that Metallica did. This must have been the case here. They set up and tested and damn. The sound test made my ears ring. Airbourne (10) were fantastic. The set list was superb, the band were great live (as per) and there was even the obligatory moment of craziness. The lead singer went through the crowd to play on the sound desk. Damn. The set list was:

1. Raise The Flag
2. Hellfire
3. Chewin’ The Fat
4. Diamond In The Rough
5. Blonde, Bad and Beautiful,
6. Girls In Black
7. What’s Eatin’ You
8. Born To Kill
9. Cheap Wine and Cheaper Women
10. Back On The Bottle
11. Heartbreaker
12. No Way But The Hard Way
13. Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast
-----------------------------------------
14. Running Wild
15. Stand Up For Rock N’ Roll.

Definitely going to see them live again if they come close.

When I first saw that Jeff Dunham was coming to the UK again, it was a must. His specials on US TV have all been genius and his show in 2009 at Hammersmith was awesome. So I went up with Mum & Dad. We decided to go up early which worked out quite nicely for a number of reasons. If you go up to London on a Saturday and you are driving, I recommend parking at Hotspur Park. It’s about 20mins from Waterloo, and doesn’t appear on the tube map, but a day travel card can still be purchased. Cost me £5 to get the day travel card (18-25 cards FTW). Anyway, got into London and walked to Leicester Square for a drink. From there went down to Buckingham Palace and back on ourselves with the intent to head to Covent Garden’s. Never been there before so that would be cool. In one of the craziest “small world” situations, we bumped into some family. We live in Portsmouth, they live in Liverpool. We bump into each other in London. Even now I’m still quite surprised.

After parting ways with them, we walked down Whitehall and back to Waterloo. From there, the Jubilee Line to the o2 arena. We went to a restaurant there called Rodizio Rico. The way it works is it’s an all you can eat place. There’s a side dish buffet in the middle of the room, which in all honesty I could have happily just eaten from there. Waiters walk around with meat on skewers and serve up different cuts of meat. Usual stuff but some stuff I’d never heard of before. I really enjoyed some of it; some was very different (chicken hearts for example). Drink prices were insane but overall, a damn nice restaurant.

The show itself was pretty damn good. Guitar Guy opened the show and he pretty much did what he did at Hammersmith. Updated the act a little bit but no real change. That was alright however considering how phenomenal he is of a guitar player. Jeff Dunham was very funny. Bits were repeated from Hammersmith but it was a new tour so there was a lot of new material. This made me a happy man and also a very entertained one. Memorable moments from the Jeff Dunham show:

1. Walter’s British Accent
2. Achmed’s ribs getting stuck on his spine
3. The reaction when Achmed first said “Silence!”
4. Peanut – generally!
5. Taste of China
6. The crowd completing jokes before Jeff/Bubba J got to the punchline

Not sure if I’ll go again next time he plays the UK cause it is expensive, but at the same time, that’s logic kicking in. Let’s see what happens when he actually announces it! Good day out in London that was.

Rammstein - Manchester Midweeker II

Manchester Midweeker started with meeting Dave for some breakfast before getting the train. The journey up was fairly smooth really (though motherfuck! £4 for a single across Zone 1 on the tube?! FFFUUU London!). After turning down the wrong road and wandering the backstreets of Manchester Piccadilly for some time, we eventually found the hotel. Got settled and pretty much just watched TV until needing to leave for the gig. Rock paper scissors for who got the bed/who got the couch. I got the bed and honestly, I felt like I lost. That was a soft bed, way too soft for a man of my carriage.

The walk from the Manchester Ancoats Travelodge is a decent one. It is not a long one but the hotel can be cheap, so I like that. Got to the entrance which is on a main road (and therefore loud). A tout came up to me and was saying something. My usual policy with a tout is to nothing them, and just say no to whatever. Transpires the guy didn’t want to sell me a ticket but he wanted a smoke. I obliged, figuring he’d go away if I gave him a smoke – which he did. Got into the venue aiming to miss Combichrist because what I had heard, I didn’t like. My word, was I ever wrong?! Combichrist (8) were pretty awesome. And the first band I’ve seen who play this genre of music without a guitar! Great stuff. Then there was the wait for Rammstein, which seemed agonisingly long. This is a band I’ve wanted to see ever since I first turned on Kerrang TV and their theme tune was Sonne. The lights went out, and they drilled their way through the back drop. Time to start!

Starting with Rammlied, Rammstein (10) were just phenomenal. I could attach a lot more superlatives to their performance, but wow. The set was:

Rammlied
B********
Waidmanns Heil
Keine Lust
Weisses Flesch
Feuer Frei
Weiner Blut
Fruhling In Paris
Ich Tu Dir Weh
Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da
Benzin
Links 2 3 4
Du Hast
Pussy
-----------------------------
Sonne
Haifisch
Ich Will
----------------------------
Engel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDNwLTvcnhk

Fireworks, Confetti, Foam semen, a Penis Canon, exploding babies, rising platforms, fights, treadmills, flaming wings, a rubber dingy over the crowd and more – the stage show was unforgettable. When the original backdrop fell to reveal the full extent of the stage, I (and i’m sure 1000s of others) thought “fucking hell, thats awesome!” I won’t forget this gig for some time and any other gig has a long way to go to top it. Skindred came close, but Rammstein so far rule all for 2010.

So that was cool. Got back to the hotel and watched poker and slept. The morning contained more TV and a mediocre breakfast. Travelodge do a lot of things right, but the breakfast can be hit and miss, which is a shame. I booked a later train than usual so we’d have some exploring time. Yeah, we explored the inside of a Ladbrokes. You know they are very similar to the Portsmouth ones in Manchester! Got into the train station to see the train that was due before our one was being constantly delayed. That throws up warning signs all over. The thing about advance single train tickets (or so I believed) is that if you miss your train, well then you suck at life. The train was cancelled and I think it’s safe to say you’ve never seen a fat man move so fast heading to the Virgin Trains travel centre! We were assured we’d be alright, or we should be ok to board the next one. I don’t like that. I was 100% you’ll be fine. Anyways, boarded the next train and sat in unreserved seats. And there we sat. Dave seemed so calm about the whole ordeal, whereas I looked like I was about to shit myself. I didn’t want to get thrown out at some random stop because I likely couldn’t afford the train to continue to London (unless it was Milton Keynes or the other early stop). We passed all the stops and were en route to London Euston when the guard arrived. I showed him both the ticket, and the seat reservation which said we should be on the earlier train that was cancelled. Transpires that didn’t matter and he just wanted to see we’d paid for the ticket. PHEW! No being thrown out, no fines, no needing to take deep breaths anymore. Got to London Waterloo on a packed train. It sucked balls. Got home and chilled. Manchester was awesome, Virgin trains took years off my life, Rammstein were awesome and I can’t wait to see them again

I was in a similar part of the world recently, Liverpool. Check back soon for a review of that journey!

Skindred, Stopping Smoking and The Teeth Removal Expedition.

I’m quite pleased to start this post off by saying as of typing; I’ve not had a cigarette in over 7 days. Today is the 8th full day to get through, but I can’t remember when I last had one. I genuinely believed quitting would be a lot harder than this. Even been out with friends as they are smoking and it wasn’t that bad of an experience. My cravings are still present when I am at work but yesterday I discovered why that is. Yesterday I was waiting for someone and I wanted to smoke – it then occurred to me that one of the main reasons I used to smoke was to break up my day somewhat. It used to be nice to stop working for 5mins or so and have a smoke and that is what I found yesterday. I was waiting and found myself thinking “I’d quite like to smoke right now”. I was bored and it seemed like a good idea. Is it possible to stop smoking by keeping yourself busy and not allowing boredom? Who knows but we shall see. Still, pretty pleased with myself so far and I’d like to keep it going. I hope not to turn into one of those twats who will become anti-smoking now. I get why people smoke, they aren’t evil people for wanting to smoke. Just like people who take drugs; people who take drugs aren’t all evil, but some give the rest a bad name. Anyways, I’ll keep an update on here whenever I post. 7 full days complete and counting....

What inspired me to quit smoking was the fact I actually had no choice. I had two wisdom teeth out on Weds 3rd March and was told I’d need to wait 3 days after the op to smoke. The operation was a complete arsehole though. Firstly, I walked in expecting one tooth to be removed. To be told I was having two out was a shock. To later find out that the dentist was well aware I’d need two, and informed my parents of this was frankly a piss take. I’m 23; I can take the news of me needing two teeth out. I’m not going to run away (have you seen me?!) But serious, I’m not going to cancel the op, I needed it done! Anyways, they numbed me up with injections in my gums, general mouth region but most painfully, the roof of my mouth. That one fucking hurt! The reason for the operation was that the bottom left wisdom tooth had become impacted and needed to come out. What actually was the situation was that if it wasn’t removed, it would knock my entire jaw line out and cause me to have major surgery on my jaw as a whole. Nice! Anyways – the bottom one was a cunt to get out due to the angle it was at and needed to be drilled. The roots of this tooth were imbedded in my jawbone as well – you can imagine my delight when the three parts of the tooth came out then! The top tooth was relatively easy to come out. Anyways, it’s done now and it hurt a bit and I bled a lot. Still sometimes in pain but it’s getting less frequent which is nice.

Anyways, the purpose of this posting. I can’t help but noticing that when looking back over my blog, it’s pretty negative. There was the optimistic post about 2010 (which btw, didn’t work out) and the post about Xmas. Other than that, it’s pretty much doom and gloom. Last night I went to go see Skindred, and it inspired me to start writing posts about the good live music experiences I’ve had this year, starting with last night. There will be others about Rammstein, Lostprophets and Whole Lotta Led coming soon.

I missed Skindred when they last came to the Wedge and thinking back, I think that was because I’d heard 1 or 2 songs by them then. Since then though my Skindred knowledge has improved significantly and when they announced a Portsmouth date I decided I had to go. I’ve never read a bad report about Skindred live and therefore I figured I wouldn’t be disappointed. The only downside to this gig is the fact I had the aforementioned surgery on my mouth and it was still sore at times. Therefore getting too involved with the crowd just wasn’t going to happen. Got there for near doors so would catch both supports. The first band (4/10) (who shall remain nameless) weren’t a bad band. They sounded like Blur and Arctic Monkeys got together, got pregnant but the kid was stillborn. The sound has all the potential in the world, but the stuff they played last night was fairly uninspired. They reminded the crowd I think about 9 times their name. That’s why I’m not saying it. I can understand coming out and saying it, and maybe saying it in the middle of your set, and then as you leave – that is fine and more than enough. The other reminders got annoying because I was aware, I didn’t need reminding. Maybe if your band was awesome I’d actually care about your name. As it transpires though, I don’t. Forever Never (8/10) were the 2nd band. They were really good. I’d heard so much about them, 99% good stuff from the Download Festival Forums but had never got the chance to see them live. I didn’t know what to expect either but they were great. Definitely want to learn more about this band. They come highly recommended from me. Skindred (10/10) were just something special though. The atmosphere was incredible. The set list was genius. There's very little I can say because there aren’t enough superlatives I can throw at this band to accurately describe them. Fantastic gig and I can’t wait until I get the chance to see them live again (Really wish I was going to Hammerfest now, oh well!).

Next gig is Trivium if I get my act in gear and buy a ticket. If not it’s Airbourne with the mighty Black Spiders supporting. Should be awesome except after those two, nothing until June. Still, In June its Rage against the Machine – so I guess I shouldn’t grumble!

ADT (or how customer service should not be done)

This week has been one of the longest work ones I’ve had in some time. Excluding breaks I’ve worked 53.5 hours. Not a great deal of fun. However the reason that was longer than the 42 hours I was expecting was due to ADT and their inability to deliver customer service.

We had an issue with our alarms at work. In a nutshell that means we couldn’t secure the store when we went to leave, so we couldn’t leave until someone came out to sort them. A call was placed late in the day, so it’s fair to say we expected a wait. No call from ADT about the location of the engineer during this first night we waited. That in itself is a joke. If they are supplying an engineer to people who are going to have to wait at a store when the hours become slightly unsociable, then they should keep us up to date in my opinion. If they don’t know where their engineer is, well that says an awful lot about their company. Anyway, after waiting 3 hours we got a call from the engineer saying he had arrived. Having gone to let him in, he wasn’t there. Actually, he was at a different store. So, not only did they not keep us posted about the location of this guy, they sent him to the wrong store. Nice! Anyway, he sorted something for us so we could leave.

The next day, this issue is not resolved. When the boss arrived first thing, the alarm went off. In a nutshell, this meant the night before the alarms had not been sorted. They apparently had just been secured so we could leave. This meant there was a problem again. A call was placed at 9am to say that this was the case and could someone come out ASAP. As the day trickled on, and there was not an engineer in sight, it looked like another late one. And that is exactly what it was. 6.30 rolled around and nothing. We phoned and ADT said “we don’t know where the engineer is”. You know what, find out and phone us back! Phoned again later “We don’t know where the engineer is – but they are still dealing with calls placed during the day”....sorry the call was placed at 9am....that’s not during the day?!?! After what seemed like an eternity, 1.30am rolled around and the engineer arrived. He was in and out pretty quickly, as the problem was caused by another one of ADTs engineers. Awesome!

My questions are these:
1. Why don’t ADT know where their engineers are?
2. Why don’t they keep people who place service calls in the loop if they are going to have to wait?
3. Why do they have engineers that are not properly trained (as was the case apparently with the first one!)
4. Why do you have the contract with the company I work for? Urgh!

I don't believe there are any fact inaccuracies in this story, but I'm still pretty tired after this stupid week

Inglorious Basterds - The Best Tarantino Film?

On Monday, the latest film by Quentin Tarantino was released on DVD and Blu-Ray. On Tuesday, I made it my mission to go out and purchase this DVD. I am struggling to think of a recent new release which I have bought within days of its release. Having seen the film twice at the cinema, I decided it was one which needed to be purchased. There are also very few new releases which make me say "i love this film". The Hurt Locker was a genius film, and This Is It was damn good also (granted, I'm a fan of Michael Jackson's music, so I guess that swayed me a little). I hope to purchase both of these at some point, but will not rush to get them, like I did Inglorious Basterds.

After watching it at the cinema, it was clear to me that this was one of the best films I've ever seen. It had a home in my list of favourite ever films along with The Dark Knight, Fight Club, Inside Man, The Green Mile, Phonebooth, Bad Boys 2, Sin City, and of course, Pulp Fiction. There is so much about the film which makes me smile, laugh and feel nervous about. In particular, the SS Colonel Hans Landa is one of the best characters I've seen in a movie for a long time. This character made me smile (by smoking a comically big pipe in a serious scene), made me feel nervous (when he discussed with the opening character about hiding jews and when he met with Shosanna) and laugh (when conversing with Lt. Raine about american expressions - "Thats a Bingo!"). The film keeps me hooked throughout with its powerful ending of Shosanna's plan and the Basterds plan coming together (albeit independently) and wiping out the Nazi Govt. The ending is also superb, with the evil Landa getting his comeuppance and getting his forehead carved with a swastika. Indeed, it is Raine's masterpiece...and perhaps Tarantino's.

for the TL;DR people of that last paragraph, there is a lot about the film which I love. One problem with a man like Quentin Tarantino is whenever he releases a new film, it is naturally compared with its predecessors. Where does it fit in with his other films? My personal order is this:

1. Pulp Fiction
1. Inglorious Basterds
3. Kill Bill Vol. 2
4. Kill Bill Vol. 1
5. Reservoir Dogs
6. Jackie Brown

To say a film is better than Pulp Fiction is a bold statement. In my all time favourite list of films, there are only two with permanent spots which are Fight Club (at no1) and Pulp Fiction (at no2). Inglorious Basterds is such a good film, but is it Tarantino's best? Personally, I feel that the two films are as good as each other. I don't hesistate to place Inglorious Basterds on top of the other films Tarantino has made, but better than Pulp Fiction? Its a very tough call. I need to watch the two films back to back to make a proper decision. Aside from that being a great day for movie watching, it will help decide.

For now, the two films are level. However Inglorious Basterds is starting to get its nose out infront. I've watched it each day since buying it, and am still not getting bored of any moment in it. The desire to watch Pulp Fiction is always there, but not on a daily basis like Inglorious Basterds is. If you have not seen this movie, go and rent/buy it. If you have, then chances are you'll agree with my sentiments and know what I'm saying.

To summarise. Inglorious Basterds is an amazing movie. Kudos to Tarantino for making yet another brilliant movie.