On Saturday morning I went to the cinema with a couple of friends to watch the new Star Trek movie; and I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, I have since watched it again. There's enough for long-time fans and new fans alike. I would rate the film very highly and feel it's the best Trek film since Wrath of Khan.
I then went roleplaying on Saturday afternoon and didn't get home until well after 4am. I then enjoyed the Manchester derby on Sunday afternoon before falling asleep whilst watching the Noth London derby. The late night finally caught up with me.
I got my CMA41 result back earlier this week for my T175 course and scored 100% which is fantastic. Yesterday I got my TMA02 result back for the same course and scored 96%. TMA02 involved a discussion of virtual worlds, designing a web page about cloud computing and discussing the advantages of WiMax over other services such as 3G and WiFi. I'm really enjoying the course and am already starting to look forward to the next section of the course.
The cut-off date for the next TMA for my M150 course is due next week. I was rather concerned with my health and made a point of getting it in early. I should get the results of that back within a couple of weeks.
I'm also adding a OU Bloggers section to my Blogroll. If you're an OU Blogger that reads this blog then please get in touch via the feedback form and let me know. I would like to add links to as many OU Bloggers as I can.
I've been perservering with some pain in my left calf for a while now. It feels like it's constantly cramped. I had just assumed it was probably a muscle strain but after talking to a friend I decided I better get it checked out in case it was anything more serious. Anyway, I went to see the Doctor about it last Thursday and they referred me to the Nurse Practioner's Unit at the local hospital. They looked at the leg and said that it was likely to be a muscle strain rather than a clot but since my Dad has a history of DVT they would arrange me to have an ultrasound on the following day.
I had the ultrasound on Friday; it involved a couple of hour wait during which time I made inroads into Bret Hart's autobiography. They only scanned the top of my leg and when I mentioned that the pain was in my calf they said that they were more concerned of a potential problem further up and would only scan the lower leg if the pain continued to persist. The results show that I don't have a clot in my upper leg; which is a relief, but doesn't leave me any the wiser about my calf.
Anyway, it's been almost a week since I first went to the hospital and the pain in my calf has abated somewhat. It's not gone; but, it's nowhere near as bad as it had been.
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Dave Arneson may not be as well known as Gary Gygax, but his name is equally important in the development of D&D. It was Arneson who helped transfom Gygax's game Chainmail into what would become the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Late Tuesday night Mr Arneson lost his battle with cancer; he was 61.
I spent most of this last weekend in Folkestone with Alley; first time since he and his wife split. My main reason for staying was so that I didn't have to drive all the way into the heart of Norfolk and then all the way back home on the same day. I'd gone to Norfolk to drop some friends off for a 2 week boating holiday. I'm picking them up again on the 19th. Not looking forward to that. I have to leave home at about 3am to pick them up at 9am and then take another 6 hours or so to drive back home. Although I may insist on a couple of hours break before returning home.
Left home at about 8:30am, arrived in Horning about 3:30pm, left at about 4pm and arrived in Folkestone at about 7pm or so. Anyway, didn't really get up to much at Alley's; not enough time really. We spent most of Saturday evening just sitting relaxing, watching TV. Watched th Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday morning before taking Alley's kids to Tali's flat after lunch. I had the largest kebab I have ever seen on Sunday night whilst watching "You Don't Mess With The Zohan." I must have seen it about 4 or 5 times now but it was Alley's first. It really is a very good comedy.
Left Alley's just after 10am on Monday and arrived back home more or less bang on 7pm. Then took my sister shopping. Haven't really done much today either. Took Tricia her new laptop; took Dad to the Doctor and bought myself some new XBox 360 games that I will eventually get round to playing.
The 54th Eurovision Song Contest will be held at the Olympiyski Indoor Arena in Moscow on 12th, 14th & 16th May 2009. There are 42 entrants and they have been split up into two semi-finals and a final.
The first semi-final on 12th May will feature 18 entrants:
Montenegro: Andrea Demirovic singing Just Get Out of My Life
Czech Republic: Gipsy.cz singing Aven Romale
Belgium: Copycat singing Copycat
Belarus: Petr Elfimov singing Eyes That Never Lie
Sweden: Malena Ernman singing La Voix
Armenia: Inga & Anush singing Jan Jan
Andorra: Susanne Georgi singing La Teva Decisió (Get A Life)
Switzerland: Lovebugs singing The Highest Heights
Turkey: Hadise singing Düm Tek Tek
Israel: Noa & Mira Awad singing There Must Be Another Way
Bulgaria: Krassimir Avramov singing Illusion
Iceland: Yohanna singing Is It True?
F.Y.R. Macedonia: Next Time singing Neshto Shto Ke Ostane
Romania: Elena singing The Balkan Girls
Finland: Waldo's People singing Lose Control
Portugal: Flor-de-lis singing Todas As Ruas Do Amor
Malta: Chiara singing What If We
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Regina singing Bistra Voda
The second semi-final on 14th May will feature 19 entrants:
Croatia: Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea singing Liepa Tena
Ireland: Sinéad Mulvey & Black Daisy singing Et Cetera
Latvia: Intars Busulis singing Probka
Serbia: Marko Kon & Milaan singing Cipela
Poland: Lidia Kopania singing I Don't Wanna Leave
Norway: Alexander Rybak singing Fairytale
Cyprus: Christina Metaxa singing Firefly
Slovakia: Kamil Mikulčík & Nela Pocisková singing Leť Tmou
Denmark: Brinck singing Believe Again
Slovenia: Quartissimo feat. Martina singing Love Symphony
Hungary: Zoli Ádok singing Dance With Me
Azerbaijan: AySel & Arash singing Always
Greece: Sakis Rouvas singing This Is Our Night
Lithuania: Sasha Son singing Love
Moldova: Nelly Ciobanu singing Hora Din Moldova
Albania: Kejsi Tola singing Carry Me In Your Dreams
Ukraine: Svetlana Loboda singing Be my Valentine! (Anti-crisis Girl)
Estonia: Urban Symphony singing Rändajad
The Netherlands: The Toppers singing Shine
The final on 16th May will feature 25 entrants including 10 qualifiers from each semi-final and the following 5 entrants:
France: Patricia Kaas singing Et S'il Fallait Le Faire
Spain: Soraya singing La Noche Es Para Mí (The Night Is For Me)
United Kingdom: Jade Ewen singing It's My Time
Germany: Alex Swings Oscar Sings! singing Miss Kiss Kiss Bang
Russia: Anastasia Prikhodko singing Mamo
Videos of all 42 participants can be found on the official Eurovision site or here. If you're going to be in Moscow anytime between 11th and 16th May then tickets for any of the Dress Rehersals, Semi-finals or Final can be ordered from here.
After making just over 500 posts in 2008 I have seriously slowed down so far this year. This is only the 5th post I've made in March. There's not really been that much to blog about. I've either been busy, been studying or been ill. I've had 3 migraines in the last 4 weeks. Have started helping out a couple of friends and have managed to get the first TMA finished and submitted for my M150 course. Need to really try and knuckle down and get caught up with T175. I'm about a week or so behind where I really should be but am confident I can pull it around over the coming weekend.
OpenWith.org provides detailed information about most file extension and links to free programs that can open and create each type of file. Have a file you don't know how to open? Think you need an expensive piece of software to open it? Chances are there is a great free program that's just as good as the expensive one, and you'll find it at OpenWith.org.
LEGO Digital Designer is a program that lets you build with LEGO bricks on your computer. It's available for both Windows and Mac OS X.
Unit Converter will convert a whole myriad of measurements between different units. Included conversions include Length, Area, Density, Time, Temperature and a whole raft of others.
Crosstips is a great source of help if you like solving crosswords but aren't necessarily any good at it. Tell it how many letters the word is and what letters you already have and it will list a selection of possible solutions.
I received my first TMA back off my T175 tutor today. She seemed pretty pleased with the work I had submitted and had included some very useful advice along with her marking. Anyway, I am well pleased with the 95% mark that I received.
My first M150 assignment is due in at the end of this month and I can then get knuckled down to progressing with my next T175 assignment.
Whenever I'm in Egremont and feel a bit peckish I tend to gravitate toward JJ's Cafe; which is on the main street, a couple of doors away from Gregg's. Chrissy and I tend to visit it a lot for lunch whenever I happen to be through; especially on Wednesday. Anyway, we were heading off to Keswick yesterday and decided to have lunch in JJ's first. However, unbeknownst to us they were closed; Rupa and JJ had family visiting. Luckily Chrissy discovered that they were going to hold a Taste Of Asia evening today. After consulting with Geoff she booked a table for 5.
We went to the later of the 2 sittings this evening and had a wonderful time. Rupa, JJ and his two daughters put on a fantastic event. The food was superb and the atmosphere was brilliant. We were treated to an excellent selection of dishes and enjoyed singing and dancing after the meal. I can honestly say I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I'm not sure if they plan to hold a similar evening anytime in the future but I would be very keen to attend if they did.
If you ever have occasion to be in Egremont please do visit JJ's Cafe. It's such a nice, small, intimate place to enjoy what you could happily describe as a delicious home cooked meal.
Every night as a youngster growing up in the 1980s I listened to AFN Europe, the US armed forces radio and television network that broadcasts to Germany. Reception in the UK was, and continues to be, patchy at best.
My main reason for listening to AFN was for the sports that they used to broadcast every night. This was in the days before Channel 4 started showing the NFL and well before Sky came on the scene. However, they also used to have a half-hour short story show, a weekly countdown of the US Music Charts with Casey Kasem and the King Biscuit Flower Hour.
However, my favourite show; The Rest of the Story, which retold little-known true anecdotes about famous people or historic incidents, always with a little twist at the end, was presented by legendary US radio presenter, Paul Harvey, who died Saturday at the age of 90; after 75 years on the radio. I never realised how old and famous Harvey was at the time, and I haven't listened to AFN for well over a decade now. Hearing that Paul Harvey has died leaves me feeling nostalgic and a little bit sad. A little bit of my childhood has died.
XBox Live's Major Nelson has announced a Red Xbox 360 Resident Evil Limited Edition Console. He has also posted a photo set of it on Flickr. If I didn't already own a 360 I would be tempted.
The 81st Academy Awards are being held tonight at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. The Oscar nominees are as follows
Best picture nominees are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire.
Best director nominees are Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire, Stephen Daldry - The Reader, David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon and Gus Van Sant - Milk.
Best actor nominees are Richard Jenkins - The Visitor, Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon, Sean Penn - Milk, Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler.
Best actress nominees are Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married, Angelina Jolie - Changeling, Melissa Leo - Frozen River, Meryl Streep - Doubt and Kate Winslet - The Reader.
Best supporting actress nominees are Amy Adams - Doubt, Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Viola Davis - Doubt, Taraji P Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler.
Best supporting actor nominees are Josh Brolin - Milk, Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder, Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt, Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight and Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road.
Best animated feature film nominees are Bolt, Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E.
There is a document circulating on the internet that names Kate Winslet as best actress, Slumdog Millionaire winning best picture and best director prizes, Mickey Rourke as best actor, Heath Ledger as best supporting actor, Amy Adams as best supporting actress and In Bruges getting the best original screenplay award. Tonight's ceremony will reveal all and we'll see how accurate the document is.
This is pretty damned cool. It's an image wall made up of images posted to Flickr.
