So much to discuss and I have no where to begin, my mind is full of all several points of discussion, but let me begin with some entertainment and take it from there. I was in Birmingham yesterday. Being a small town boy, while lure of the big cities lights are something I enjoy, I hate driving around such a big city. The sign posts rarely help and without satellite navigation, getting lost is an easy thing to do. Never the less, we made it eventually to our destination. When inside I noticed that they had a DVB free to air set top box and wondered what channels were available. To my surprise, there are many more than the BBC would led you to believe. In any case, I had no desire to watch France smash Ireland in the Six Nations, so opted to flick around (difficult to do without a remote) and switched onto ITV2, which was screening The Grammy’s. The opening segment I had already seen the previous night, online and it had blown me away. Over on the Pop Justice web site, they show the performance in full. I remember hearing on the radio that the Gorillaz would be performing live, but wondered how well this would work in practice. They pulled it off very well, and then the sudden appearance of a living legend, just adds to the excitement of the performance.
Across the city centre there were billboards for the new Channel 4 Friday night comedy, The IT Crowd, which of course they call the ‘it’ crowd to afford making it seem a show about computer people, rather than a funny show about people that work with computers. Does that make sense? I must say there was a vast improvement in this weeks episode, but it has not been the side splitting comedy of The Office or Ali G. I know it must be difficult to get the balance right between geek jokes that would only be funny to select members of the audience and keeping the rest of the television viewing public happy with the pace. The more I see Moss, the more I see myself in him, particularly e-mailing the emergency services. Not that I would ever do such a crazy thing, but I would rewrite an e-mail if it sounded too formal. I have done that several times at work. Channel 4 are keen for this new comedy to succeed but the ramblings on the internet are overtly negative. They have their own web site in addition to the micro site over at Channel 4. Yet you know you have truly arrived when there is an entry on Wikipedia. The review over at Edu Geek is perhaps reasonable and reserved in judgment. While I am glad the comedy show is making use of the web and screening shows before their scheduled release on television, they could have done more with the web content. Perhaps personal blogs for each character, or better still further links based on the final scenes of the episode. A link to the Moss’ Lonely Hearts profile would have been great. Lessons need to be learned from the Beeb with their Dr. Who and The Office spoof web sites.
During work this week, a colleague mentioned that another colleague was not a lemming. This sent me back over ten years to my first gaming experience. Then over the recently discovered Canadian blog has covered the topic of these green haired creatures. Not since Champ Man, have I been so addicted to a game on the PC. I did not get very fair, but the puzzle did get difficult. Over time, you kicked yourself if just one lemming didn’t make it, when your bond with the suicidal animated characters. Never before has a game spawned an entire gaming genre (even if somewhat brief) in the shape of the the ‘save ’em up’. It is so tempting to download an emulator and play some of the classic games.
Finally updated the Audio page with not only the latest update on my digital music collection, but also a weekly updated chart courtesy of Last FM which shows the number times a select group of artists have had their music played on my computer. Updated every Monday afternoon and will compliment the full statistics you can find on my Last FM account page.
The reason I believe I have adjusted so well to life in the work place is my year out during my degree course. This gave me a chance to experience the real world and the pressures it brings. Without it, I would have found both finding a job and making the adjustment from student to working the 9 to 5. Perhaps the recent study that graduates leave University lacking transferable skills is true, but the BBC provides a great guide to covert that nerd into a network wiz kid.
The theory goes that if you have a good experience, in customer service you will tell three people, if you have a bad experience you will tell ten people. This is why, taking this into a modern concept with blogs finally makes the established big companies and mainstream media sit up and listen. Blogs are here to stay and just looking at the recent stats from Technorati proves they are both reactive to world effects and persuasive when it comes to consumer choices. Perhaps one day, this blog will be so popular that people will be willing to take advice and guidance from the author.