Playing:

Bioshock

Gorgeous visual, gorgeous sound design, brilliant voice acting, almost real moral choices. Runs like a dog on my aging PC but is still an amazing game.

Quake Wars: Enemy Territory

Also runs like a dog on my “rig” but is very fast and fun, in the same vein as the original Enemy Territory. Similar to Battlefield 2, but then also very different – more arcadey. It also has the usual technical/gameplay polish of all the iD/Splash Damage games.

Team Fortress 2

The very, very late sequel to the original Team Fortress is now in beta and it is one heck of a lot of fun. Inspired visuals (cell shaded cartoon style) give it a whole new take and makes it a different kind of game. The slightly simplified graphics also help to make it fly along on my PC.

Watching:

Heroes Season 2

From the first episode it is certainly looking promising and just as good as season one. From the upcoming guest star gossip it also sounds like there is a lot more fun to come.

The Wire Season One

I watched the entirety of The Wire “off the internet” and now I’ve started buying the DVD boxsets because it is so damn good. Possibly one of the finest cop shows ever.

Madmen

A new show created by one of the writers of The Sopranos about the lives of the “madmen” – the Madison Avenue ad (as in advertising) men in the 1960s. Interesting period stuff which is covering a lot of the changing social aspects of American life.

I have a new flat! Kerry and I have amicably decided to split up and so for the last month or so I’ve been looking for a new place. I finally found a nice play on Causewayside in the Newington area of Edinburgh. It’s a good bright flat in a decent area of town and has been refurbished recently with new fittings. I’ll be properly moving all my stuff in two weeks but in the mean time I’ve got to buy all that fun stuff like: duvet, cushions, decent curtains etc. I’ve never lived on my own before, it’ll be nice to do whatever I want, whenever I want!

Indiana Jones lego? Awesome!

There are so many gems:

• Timeline of inventions
• Featured desktop backgrounds

Does it come in black?

Good grief! Coudal’s photoshop tennis has returned! Now re-named as “Layer Tennis”. It feels like an awfully long time since the last one, and I’m certainly looking forward to Shaun Inman vs Kevin Cornell on friday.

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”

Somehow doesn’t seem as catchy as the previous titles. I’m sure it’ll grow on me.

I think there is a two week delay between stuff happening and me blogging it. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Kerry and I were at the (brand new) Connect Festival in Inveraray on the west coast of Scotland. Here are some good points:

• Awesome lineup, including Bjork, Beastie Boys, Regina Spektor, Big Star, Teenage Fanclub, Divine Comedy and on and on…
• Excellent food
• Nice vibe
• Smaller crowd than T in the Park

Here are some not so good things:

• The mud! The horror!
• 8 washbasins for 4000 people? I kid not
• Campsite on a sloping bumpy field seemingly infested with spiders

But they’re all pretty minor, I mean, you don’t have to wash for three days.

There is a metric ass-load of photos on my flickr steam.

I saw Foo Fighters supported by Nine Inch Nails and the Silver Sun Pickups at Meadowbank the other week. It was part of T on the Fringe – the music part of the Fringe events and was an awesome concert. It was a long afternoon event (5-11) but the venue is a good size and there is plenty to keep you occupied. It almost rained a couple of times but for the most part we managed to keep pretty dry. There is a shed-load of pictures on my flickr stream and a video of Dave rocking out – surprisingly good quality from my new camera.