The World of Matt

Downloading music isn't illegal in a field...

2007-04-02T09:08:00.000Z

With Download '07 approaching i've now purchased my ticket and am eagerly awaiting June and all of the quite frankly awesome lineup, with bands I want to see being Bring Me The Horizon, Dimmu Borgir (maybe), Dragonforce, Dream Theater, Evanescence (maybe), Iron Maiden, Killswitch Engage, Korn, Machine Head, Megadeth, Slayer, Within Temptation, and Wolfmother (maybe). Plus with Rage Against The Machine and possibly Disturbed still to be announced it's looking like the best Download ever!

I still haven't been paid for my work although i've been promised it this Friday coming... i'll update when I finally get it. I've been after this for ages, purely so I can buy this Sharp Aquos TV:

Why this one? Not only because it's 1080p capable (and therefore futureproofed for HDTV), but because even though it's £2000 I can get it from EmpireDirect for £1400... which for a 46" LCD 1080p TV is tremendously cheap!

Oh, and on one final note... Guitar Hero II for the XBox 360 comes out on Friday... WOOO!!! \o/

You Know The Saying - Points Mean... Live Arcade Games?

2007-03-17T08:36:00.000Z

I've been playing a lot more 360 recently (along with restarting FFXII to try and do everything in it), but I haven't really been playing actual 360 games. I had a quick go on F.E.A.R., Football Manager 2007, and Condemned, but i've mainly been playing Live Arcade. Why? Simply because in the past three weeks, we've had Alien Hominid, Worms (!) and the 1989 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade Game (!!!). I've also just found out that next Wednesday's release for the Live Arcade is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, complete with awesome 2D graphics and craptacula voice acting. Ahh, the memories!

On another note, I still haven't been paid by James Hardie for my work that I did for them before Christmas. This has literally gone well beyond a joke now - the company I did the work via (i.e. like a middle man) is so astounded by the time it's taken that they have decided to pay me themselves so i'm not waiting on it, whilst they try and wrangle the cash out of James Hardie. So:

Oh, and in case you're wondering, no, I didn't make this image - I actually found it online using Google Image search! :D

Wallet is about to die, needs cash badly!

2007-02-15T09:39:00.000Z

Yesterday at work, I was pretty bored (as usual) and decided to look at the release listing and pre-order all the games that I want to buy over the next month or two... and what a bad idea it was. Natwest are gonna think i've had my bank card stolen or something if I buy this lot:

Excite Truck (Wii) - 16th Feb
Supreme Commander (PC) - 16th Feb
XBox 360 Crossfire Receiver (PC) - 16th Feb
Crackdown (360) - 23rd Feb
Final Fantasy XII (PS2) 23rd Feb
GAMEWare Wii Rechargable Battery & Dock (Wii) - 2nd Mar
Sonic & The Secret Of The Rings (Wii) - 2nd Mar
Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS) - 9th Mar
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (360) - 9th Mar
Pheonix Wright, Ace Attorney: Justice For All (DS) - 16th Mar
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 (Wii) - 23rd Mar
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (PC) - 30th Mar
Mario Party 8 (Wii) - 30th Mar
Virtua Tennis 3 (360) - 30th Mar

All of those in the space of a month and a half... I estimate that even with my staff discount, that lot will cost me about £350... ouch...

White As A Feather...

2007-02-12T17:46:00.000Z

Wow, it's been quite busy this past week...

First off, the snow. I was actually quite suprised at just how much snow fell over the two days it was around, although I wasn't the least but suprised that Britain pretty much ground to a halt along the roads and trains. Why is it that the slightest amount of bad weather can completely destroy the transport system... I half imagine all the trains and buses exploding under direct sunlight...

Anyway, this weekend I was visited by a good friend of mine called Neil from over in Lancashire (where I come from), and we went out into Leeds to meet up with another good friend of mine named Tom, who now lives with his wife Ally over there. Unfortunately neither Stephen (another friend in Lanacshire) nor Ally could make it due to various circumstances, but it was all good.

Tom actually living in Leeds(ish) knew it a bit better than myself (having only lived nearby and visited the centre), so he knew a of a restaurant for us to try called Tampopo. Strangely, it isn't like a "normal" restaurant with one style of food, but it covers many eastern styles (such as Japanese, Vietanmese, Malyasian, and so on). Even so, I have to admit it was some of the best food i've had in a long time. I throughly recommend you try it if you have one nearby, although there's only four in the country! :P

After that it was a case of catching up and grabbing a few drinks, including visiting Cafe FAB, a great place I remembered from years ago, which has old arcades, table football, a life-sized Dalek, and of course, beer! What was suprising to me was that it hadn't changed in about four or five years. It was identical to how I remember it...

Now however, the weekend is over. It's back to work tomorrow... oh joy...

A Century Divided by Four

2007-02-02T10:29:00.000Z

Well, i'm now twenty five years old (yes, 25). I'm happy to report that it feels no different than being twenty four. I had a really nice evening though so it's all good.

In other news, tickets for Download Festival 2007 have now gone on sale! Yay! Admittedly they do cost £145 (plus a £10 booking fee), but for a week in June it's just hot weather, beer, and good music! Like this:

Finally, SquareEnix handily sent out an advance copy of Final Fantasy XII on PS2 to our store, which Tim and I have been sharing every half-week, and I must say, it's probably the best Final Fantasy i've played in years.

A Crusade That Burns...

2007-01-26T11:29:00.000Z

Well, it's been just over a week now since The Burning Crusade was released, and i'm slowly making my way through it. I have to admit, it's great fun and i'm really enjoying it.

The weather here seems to have taken a turn for the better. It has been raining pretty much constantly for the past few weeks, but yesterday and (so far) today have been sunny, if cold.

I've also gotten back into snooker recently, having just bought a £130+ cue off eBay for only £50. I'm still not used to the cue, and i'm not doing too well since up until a few weeks ago I hadn't played snooker for nearly seven years, but i'm sure i'll get the hang of it again pretty quickly.

Right, I guess i'd best get down to the post office. This is the first time in a while i've had concurrent days off, and I really need to get Daniels copy of TBC sent off, along with his graphics card and mouse. I've got a sneaking suspicion it's gonna cost me a bucket load of cash to get this hefty lot to Perth...

*Addition*

Typical. I go and queue for ages in the post office, get it weighed up, fill out the forms, and then they tell me they won't have any of the barcode stickers that are needed until tomorrow. Lucikly, they offered to hold the package in their safe so I can come back tomorrow and get it sent. Oh, and £57.30! £57.30!!! To send a box! Christ...

Calderdale Council FTW!

2007-01-10T16:51:00.000Z

Just got back and opened my mail (which i'd conveniently forgotten about till now) and there was a council tax bill inside for my old home in Brighouse. The bill amounts to... -£140.51? Yay, extra monies!

Now, off to watch more Boukenger!

Damn the French!

2007-01-10T14:21:00.000Z

Well, i'm back, after finally managing to build a new computer from my old computer and Daniel's... although it took a bit of work thanks to his useless motherboard LAN not working, and then being unable to find a new card until he remembered he'd swapped it into another machine. Grrr... Anyway, extra shiny computer FTW!

I'm currently suffering from some kind of chest infection, which is really annoying, especially as I can't get any antibiotics at the moment as i'm not registered with a doctor here yet. I'll just have to drink lots of water and take some paracetamol and hope I can stop it from getting any worse until my immune system kicks in.

Right, i'm bloody hungry now, so... off to find some food!

O'Wiily?

2007-01-08T15:11:00.000Z

Since my MSN display now shows a link to here rather than my Wii Code, I suppose it might be a good idea to pop the code up on here. I've added three people I know to my Wii Address Book, but none of them have added me yet *feels unloved*.

Anyway, the code is:
8024 - 1244 - 7234 - 8508

Right, back to work! Bye!

Greetings To You

2007-01-08T14:58:00.000Z

Well then, hello and welcome to this lovely blogging system thing, which handily uses a google account so I didn't even have to create my own! Everyone seems to be jumping on the "Ooh! Let's make a blog!" bandwagon, so it's high-time I did so as well.

So, as you can no doubt guess by the title, I now live in a West Yorkshire town by the name of Halifax. As you can guess by it being in the north of the UK and the middle of winter, it's friggin' cold and pissing it down outside, adding to the already dreary atmosphere this town has anyway.

I still haven't quite settled in here yet (i've barely had a chance to unpack stuff properly), so no doubt i'll be updating pretty regularly... not least when The Burning Crusade comes into stock at my work and i've got it in my hands (i'm hoping it'll be on Friday!).

Okay, i'm now going to go and caniballise Daniel's computer to make a super ultra one (i.e. one that's better than mine). See you all later!