Technology develops at such a ridiculous rate of speed that almost immediately after you buy some new gear, there’s a much greater and far upgraded version of the same tech. But sometimes instead of developing up to the tech we know now, there are big leaps that leave our heads spinning. There is also tech that appears in the background that we never know is there until it goes.

1) Microsoft Soapbox – Microsoft’s answer to YouTube that was supposed to enhance the known but rarely used MSN Video. It’s been running for about 3 years now and has now been shut down due to a lack of interest. I don’t think a lack of interest was to blame, it’s been so poorly marketed that I didn’t even know it existed until I heard the report of it’s death last night.

2) Flash Drive Capacity – The largest capacity flash drive that I’ve ever heard of is 64GB, but now Kingston has just announced a 256GB capacity drive. If this follows the increasing capacity of flash drives a few years ago back in the days of the megabyte (64-128-256) then haven’t we skipped a step here?

3) Gadgets to do stuff that we now have app’s for – remember the days before we used to put a lower case i at the beginning of everything? No, me neither. BUT believe it or not before iPint, we had Pints. Before iPhoto, we had Photos, before iCompass, we had Compasses, Spirit Levels, Pets and all manner of witchcraft that existed on their OWN gadget before we crammed them all into an iPhone. Primitive I know but it seemed to work.

4) Laserdisc – Ok, most people who are even vaguely into technology would’ve heard of laserdiscs, for the rest, Laserdiscs were essentially early DVDs introduced in the mid-70s that were about 8x the size, the vinyl record of DVDs as it were (I would love to see someone do a film remix using a laserdisc, if it were possible) that fell flat on it’s face and failed to VHS. Apparentely, the consumer tech market is all about form factor, just as DVDs were smaller and easier to carry than VHS, so too were VHS far smaller and easier than Laserdisc. I suppose that explains netbooks.

5) eBooks on computers – So we went from primitive books on a page to audiobooks, then (arguably) took a step back and put them back into words but digitally on ebooks, specifically on readers such as the Amazon Kindle or the Sony eReader. Thing is there was never any particular or best known service that put ebooks on the interwebs just for computers, of course there were (and still are) sites that publish books but it was never as popularised or marketed as the other forms I’ve mentioned, of course we’re developing back along the old lines with the Kindle 2 having a function of reading the book you’ve downloaded aloud. What’s next?
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1910868

I’m all for progress, but let’s not invent everything all at once eh. Save some for future generations.

I FINALLY got around to watching the Torchwood mini-series ‘children of earth’ which I’d recorded while I was in Malta (in HD). Having spent nearly a year looking forward to the series, it took me weeks and several missed oppurtunities to actually watch the bloody thing. Overall, I enjoyed it immensely. Here’s my rundown but beware of spoilers!

Ianto dies? What the hell! In series 1 when he was the tea-boy *slurps a cuppa* he was annoying as hell but now that he became more of a Torchwood person he became one of the best characters (granted there are only 3 and the other 2 are pretty good too). Apparentely, there are huge petitions to bring Ianto back, which I sort of hope they do but also hope they don’t just to avoid becoming repetitive (Suzie and Owen being resurrected et all). When Jack is all mangled and burnt up from the explosion and gradually begins to regenerate, I wished there had been more to that than charred body, slightly less charred body, fully healed and before it was clearly Jack I expected some big suprise, like it wasn’t really Jack. Speaking of which, now that the hub has been destroyed, presumebly Gray (Jack’s brother who tried to kill Jack last series and was drugged and kept frozen in the lab) was either killed or released from suspended animation and escaped, though the writers probably didn’t consider it. The last scene made sense though, of course Jack wouldn’t carry on running Torchwood after all that, it’s like how Martha couldn’t just go through all that crap with The Master and then just carry on travelling and I hope that the next series of Torchwood (assuming there will be one) involves Jack travelling the universe, as much as I think Gwen is a great character. I know that John Barrowman is appearing in the Doctor Who christmas special with David Tennant so maybe he doesn’t leave earth for long. I felt sure that Lois and Rupesh would become the next members of Torchwood but one dies and the other is only said to be released from prison, probably in the same way that Mickey and Martha were supposed to appear in series 3 but didn’t.

Speaking of the next Doctor Who episodes, it’s odd that they’re doing so much promotional stuff now when the next special isn’t due to air until November, but then I know Comic-Con’s going on in the States so perhaps they wanted to get out stuff before it’s mentioned at the convention. I really hope that they bring TWoM earlier but I suppose the animated episode that’s coming up and the third series of SJA (bit childish but I watch it just for the mythos) with The Doctor, I guess in terms of Doctor-screentime it just about equals out to a normal year, when I get bored enough I’ll work it out. I’ve been watching a tad more of the classic Who stuff, such as the part-animated serial ‘The Invasion’ with Patrick Troughton and Cybermen, it’s on two discs so I’m waiting for the second part to arrive but I enjoyed the first.

My 3D glasses should come some time this week so I’ll be able to test out online 3D content, I have a horrible feeling that it’s all going to go to pot and they’ll suck but it’s worth a look. I keep thinking to myself what can I do/achieve during the summer but I know that I’ll spend all summer thinking of something and then it’ll be time to leave for Uni when I won’t have time to do it. Just finished ‘Part One’ of 1984 so, by default, I shall continue onto ‘Part Two’. I’m anticipating things to come in the book and resisting to urge to vindicate myself by flicking through the next pages.

Continuing my rant about how boring the last 2 HP films will be, Jo reminded me yesterday that if they want to do things exactly, or close, as the book says, they’ve spent 6 films repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot from doing so. Fleur and Bill’s wedding, for example, wasn’t even mentioned in the last film but it becomes a big tipping point in the next book to indicate where the fun of the series ends and the serious shit begins, if you consider a magical battle with a disloyal wand as serious. Another example is the location and details on the remaining horcruxes, originally explained in Dumbledore’s collected memories during the sixth book but mostly excluded from the film, meaning that they’re going to have to do some serious explaining to get the three of them to, for example, break into Gringotts for Hufflepuff’s cup when they have no idea it’s a horcrux or where it is, that information, apparentely, died with Dumbledore.

I swear from now on I’ll do less sci-fi and more tech. That’s not to say I’ll do no sci-fi at all but just focus more on the actual point of this blog. Peace, love and assorted forms of data storage.

Hello friends, I mentioned in a previous post that I was working on a way to allow myself to stream my media, such as Revision3 shows (diggnation ftw) across a wired network because when I’m living in Halls next year at Uni I can’t have a wireless network because there’s a risk that, despite the security I’ll place on it, 1337 people will probably be able to hack a simple WEP key and then I’m opening up myself to gigabytes of pron (and no i didn’t spell that wrong) being downloaded from my room’s network connection. As a result, I mentioned that I was trying to work out a wired connection, which is fairly simple. I managed to find a really inexpensive Cat5e cable at Tesco and set it all up, thanks to UPnP it worked easily, though it felt like a bit of a step down in the tech ladder working with a wired network. Because the only routing device I have at the moment is a wireless router, I had to go into the BIOS to turn off my laptop’s wireless card becuase using the wireless router meant that my laptop ignored the big ethernet cable sticking out of it and went straight for the wireless signal like a fat kid on a cake, and it was far easier to disable my laptop’s wireless than the router’s. All of this is really simple stuff but I’m just glad that I’m not prevented from doing it due to some stupid mistake on my part and the knowledge that I can get basic stuff to work. It’s kind of helping me get over my fear that I chose the wrong course when I applied to Universities.

Speaking of University, I’ve begun the arduous and heart-wrenching task of clearing out 18 years worth of clutter and childhood junk/memories from my room. I found my very first flash drive on my shelf, 256MB and the casing broke years ago. Firstly, for a geek like me it has sentimental value as it was my first memory stick (I now have a 4GB cruzer, and that’s only because I can’t afford larger) and I can never bring myself to throw away any amount of data storage. I’ll probably discard of the old casing and wrap the innards (I’m not sure how to refer to it) in plastic tape or resin or something to protect it and keep it stored away as an emergency drive, though I shudder to think what kind of cataclysm means that my only option is to use a half-working 256MB drive. I wonder how much data storage I have altogether in my entire room, I’ve got a collection of memory sticks and SD cards in various sizes, as well as the solid state on my netbook and the hard-drives on my laptop, PS3 and old laptop means it must be considerable when combined.

I’m still contemplating building a hackintosh, legally of course (Tekzilla did a feature on legal hackintosh’s recently), I have no doubt that I CAN do it, but it’s just the cost involved in building a computer specifically for this and then not being able to install the OS for whatever reason, there’s relatively little I can do repair the fault. Then again, if it doesn’t work I could just stick in Ubuntu (or even buy Windows 7) and let her rip that way, but it’d suck to go to all that effort (including the cost of a now unusable OSX) and it not even work. If anyone has any hackintosh information to share, let me know. If I do it I want to have it done before I go to Uni, though that may be ambitious.

Have finally got around to reading more of 1984, I’m as far as *spoiler alert* Winston explaining how the ‘Ministry of Truth’ works, including his own job there. It is absolutely enrapturing and it left me reeling after I went to bed just about how, when Orwell wrote this in 1949, there was no digital technology and the methods he describes keeps track of paper copies of information, where people specifically track down “incorrect” paper information and destroy it. Now, with the internet and all information being, near enough, centralized (more and more publications are becoming solely web-based), it has to be even easier, and Orwell would have a field day were he alive today. Amazon and the Kindle I’m looking at you, the more I read of 1984 the more I realise the irony of that story (see earlier post).

I’ve seen Transformers 2, it’s an alright film though there are some major moments of “oh bloody hell” and some bits are just plain ridiculous, but it’s worth seeing (even if I won’t buy the DVD). Megan Fox spends a lot of time bent over a motorcycle for no discernible reason but I don’t think anyone except sexually-repressed critics are going to mind that one. Shia LeBoufufuueuf is probably there, and should always remain, an actor for children’s films, given that he has the scream down and is an……..alright…….actor. The critics say it’s terrible, but it’s in their job title to criticise, I say it’s an alright film that’s worth seeing, but it’s not going to win any awards, except perhaps for digital design, which has greatly improved.

Weekend of mindless manual labour and till work ahead, joy.

Went to the Lynd (pub of choice for college students in horsham) last night with people, Kym told me that she reads this blog just to make sure that I’m not bitching about her. Firstly, Kymberley, I never bitch about anyone (pah!) and secondly I wouldn’t do it on an open place like this, lol. But don’t stop reading this blog just because nobody else reads it so I need all the hits I can get.

To try out the new 3D stuff that’s been knocking around the interwebs, I’ve bought a pair of cheap 3D glasses off eBay so that I can check it out, I’m not sure why I didn’t buy them from there in the first place instead of contemplating buying My Bloody Valentine 3D or one of those kids films. Still, all going well I should be well equipped should 3D take over as the norm. Though I have confirmation from my dad that there’s absolutely no way to bring 3D in the way that we all know through the glasses to normal human iris’ so there’s no way it will ever take off. Holographic TV on the other hand, is far less impossible, so if anything takes over from HD (which we all know it will) I reakon Holographic TV (or as it will likely be known HTV) will be the next step. Then again, how much would it suck if you end up seeing a film from a crappy angle depending on where you sit?

My LOVEFiLM spat out an early Doctor Who episode ‘The Time Meddler’ featuring the First Doctor, William Hartnell, there’s something odd about watching this after being such a nuwho fan, there’s definetely something similar about the show and, indeed, the character of The Doctor, but it’s not quite as energetic as the new stuff but WH is playing a (physically) older Doctor so it makes perfect sense.

My pile of books is getting ridiculous now, I need some time just to read a big chunk of a book so my aim is to get something finished, and soon.

Here’s a picture of the new Doctor Who, Matt Smith, in his ‘Doctor’ costume for Series 5 along with Karen Gillan as his companion Amy Pond (I was right, read my last post).

I have to admit I’m in two minds about this costume. On one hand it’s definetely ‘Who’, kinda tweedy and eccentric, and very similar to David Tennant’s geek chic, but the only thing that’s putting me off is the bow-tie, when David donned the neck-tie it was at a (still present) time when that was cool but bow-ties can’t, and never should be, worn in public. Styling Matt’s hair as they have I suppose makes this look work a bit more, and granted I hated David’s suit at first. I will, as I shall with the actor, refrain from making definitive judgements until I have seen the suit in action. I’m not sure why the bottoms of his trousers are rolled up and I really hope that won’t be a permanent fixture, maybe they’re too long for him at the moment so he doesn’t want to trample them and rip them up. Also, a gold watch? Possibly a bit too bling for The Doctor but alright. Actually, forget the ‘two minds’ crap, I like it far more than I dislike it, it’s rapidly grown on me and it’s some good vintage Who.

I’m also interested by what Karen Gillan, playing Amy Pond, seems to be wearing for this scene. She looks adorable in that big blue jumper and she is a very good looking woman, along with the open shirt with the rolled up sleeves suggests that she’s going to be a very casually dressing character, which sounds awesome (and also a little odd that, for the first time, my choices of wardrobe are closer to that of the companion than the Doctor, but then to dress too clearly as the latter is a level of geek that even I am incapable of). I know it’s an off-set picture but they seem to be having a laugh which is good for on-screen chemistry. People have been giving Matt Smith a very hard time, saying that he’s too young, too pretty/ugly and criticising his acting ability, and I disagree on all counts. I’ve only seen Matt Smith in one episode of ‘Party Animals’ and it was enough to convince me, he’s a fine actor easily on par, if not better than, some other Doctor’s (I’m being careful not to compare MS to the few Doctors who were classically trained theatre actors) and, of course, I saw him in Secret Diary of a Call Girl with Billie Piper, the irony of which the fanboys are eating up *fanfiction ahoy*. Looks, I find, generally have nothing to do with acting ability, and it’s particularly common for Who (Tom Baker’s wide eyes and teeth, Colin Baker’s curly mop and garish coat, Chris Eccleston’s ears/nose/forehead) to have unusual looking people playing the role, though I think that SM’s choice was a bit tame compared to past odd-docs (examples above).

As for the off-quoted ‘Hollyoaks-ing of Who’ then I’d say that Moffat’s choice of costume has swiftly put an end to it. Yes, he’s younger than all previous Doctors, and it’s maybe not something I would’ve done, but don’t forget that this man has brought you some of the best Who stories yet and it’s become apparent that despite his success and praise before, now that he’s becoming head writer he officially, in the eyes of fanboys, becomes a Who-killing asshole. Leave the poor guy alone, he’s like us! Moffat’s just as much of a fanboy as we are for Who and he’s one of the best writers in the UK today, he’ll do well. Overall, it’s become habit for people to claim that 2010 will see ‘The Death of Who’, but that could’ve been possible with ANY past doctor if not done correctly, in the past 45 years the collective writers of Who have managed to write some utter craptraps and not yet killed it (defeating The Master with hope anyone?) and with a show like this, where showrunners and actors alike can change so rapidly, IF the combo of 11, AP and SM turns out to be potentially lethal, then it is simply a matter of regenerating, dieing and leaving in that order and the show can reset itself. But I am VERY confident that the next series will be utterly fantastic!

Firstly, I just found out that they’re making a Sherlock Holmes film that is due to come out Christmas 2009. At first I was excited about the idea but having seen the trailer, that is somewhat (albeit only slightly) dampened.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNPQjMBJCIU&hl=en&fs=1&]

It looks to me that they’re going to make it too much of an action film, and Robert Downey Jr. ……….really? Then again, this is 2009 and it would be very difficult to sell tickets to people who aren’t Holmes fans (in essence, the wider audience) without making it (or at least the trailer) a very action-packed explosion orgasm. Indeed, I can easily forgive them and enjoy this film regardless IF Holmes still uses his deduction and intuitive mind significantly more than going in all handpistols blazing. As for casting, I would’ve gone for a British actor for Holmes, but Jude Law as Watson seems absolutely perfect.

I just returned from seeing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, this is one of the few HP books that I haven’t listened to on audiobook being read by Stephen Fry 800 times each so the story wasn’t as clear in my mind as previously. Any mega-fan (of which I am only partially) can tell you exactly what was cut and what the alternative should’ve been, I think that Heyman made a few very bad decisions in what he cut (where was Dumbledore’s funeral and the epic Hogwarts battle?) and what he included (some of the teen angst stuff, while I enjoyed it, should’ve been cut to give way to the main storyline). Then again, fans really should stop getting on the case of the various directors for their cuts, they’ve got a lot of stuff to cram in and they generally do alright, but this one is still a strong contender for best HP film to date against the previous one. I may’ve already said this, but why on earth are they splitting Deathly Hallows into two books? Other than the first (what will translate as in film terms) 20 minutes of the story will be action and the rest of the first film will be the three of them sitting in a tent for another 2 hours.

I found a story about Amazon reportedly hacking into Kindles and silently deleting (and refunding) digital copies of Orwell’s 1984 (a physical copy of this I have just begun reading). The reason is that the company that made and published the digital copy for the Kindle to download did not own the correct copyrights and so the copies were distributed illegally. I hope that nobody needs me to point out the sheer irony of that situation (the name of the celluar network that Amazon uses is called WhisperNet ¬_¬) and it’s an interesting question, if companies have their own discretion at what degree of control they can exhibit over the stuff they sell, what degree of control can they thus exhibit over their customers? I’m not very far into 1984 but I’ve got as far as knowing the term ‘vapourising’ in that context. Apparentely it was not a new thing and reports are abound of other books going missing, though none of them as publicised as this, but I expect that due to the irony of a book about facist censorship and an authoritarian state itself being censored and “silently” removed that caused this to become so reported (albeit not very widely). Clearly, however, there is no such dark secrets or political motivation, and it is merely a clerical fuck-up that has caused the issue. When the Kindle, eventually, reaches the UK, I am sorely tempted to buy one, but I’m one of the old Romantics who enjoys holding a physical copy of a book, it’s the same reason that makes me, despite my considerable tech knowledge, prefer to buy CD’s instead of downloading them.

It links back to the idea of censorship in the digital age, physical copies are wholly and completely mine, nobody can delete them like ebooks, nobody can impose DRM or any sort of protection designed not to protect the copyright holder or the law, but simply to confuse me enough to make me shell out for another copy. Oh, I know that physical copies can be just as volatile and far less convenient than downloads, but it’s just an old habit of mine.

I’ve heard strong rumours that filming on Series 5 of Doctor Who (starring Matt Smith) will start tomorrow, and a press release (deemed to be “sensational”) will accompany it. Karen Gillan’s casting has been shrouded by the refusal of the BBC to reveal her character’s name, leading some to say that it has some significance, like that it’s River Song or Romana or something like that (or if they want to go for the RTD route, an anagram). Personally, I think it’s just for publicity and they’re not going to delve as much into the Doctor’s past (or future) as that, I predict that she’ll just be the classic companion, “fiesty” girl from London (with a normal name like Amy or Clare) who runs into The Doctor on the street blah blah blah. I’m much more interested in seeing Matt Smith’s costume, I’m hoping something vintage that will go at odds with Smith’s youth, but I keep hearing rumours that they’re going to give him “the student treatment” and give him skinny jeans and band t-shirts. I don’t think they will, but never say never. I will, as always, conjecture my opinion as soon as I grow one.

— Hey guys, my internet time at the hotel ran out mid-post so I finished and published this after I got home

Second (and probably last) post from Malta. After the disagreements on where to go and what to do intially, degrees of compromise and unity have sprung up which has made the whole thing much easier and extremely enjoyable.

The day after my last post (Friday), the ten of us went down to the country’s main port, Sliema, and got on a boat that took us around the island-country so we could take in the sites and views. It was an fantastic 3 hour ride but in the last half hour or so the motion got to me but still fantastic! The boat then stopped off at the island just off the northern coast of Malta called Comino where we went to the Blue Lagoon, a beach of clear seawater where you can see all the fish and sealife. We all perched our stuff on a big rock that we waded out to and me and Jess swam to the other side of the beach (there was another beach and cave directly opposite our beach). Jess is practically part-fish so she was warning me if I was about to swim into a jellyfish, they’re quite small so it would’ve only really stinged but still better to avoid. We all hung around this beach for a few hours and then had to get the boat ride back. That evening we went to the cocktail bar that Becky has gone to the numerous times she’s been here (Smallts) and had a few drinks. I found out a bit later that, even though they checked our tickets, we had gotten onto the wrong boat for the cruise, the boat we had paid for was only supposed to take us up to Comino and back again but we had gotten on the round-Malta one (which was double the price so we saved about 20 euros there).

Saturday consisted of getting the bus into the capital city of Valletta to go shopping, I picked up a few little things for my mum and sister but nothing particularly special, Jenn might read my blog so I won’t divulge details yet. We did split off for a bit with some people wanting to do more shopping, some (Tim and Croucher) wanting to go to the war museum and some (including me) wanting to go back to the hotel for a swim. This was an example of where splitting off turned out to be ideal because then we were all happy doing what we want and no-one was left on their own or unable to do their own thing. That evening none of us could be bothered to go out so we went to the local off-license (or it’s Maltese equivalent) and bought a load of alcoholic drinks and fruit juices and had a cocktail party on Kym and Jo’s apartment balcony. I created a drink of mainly rum, vodka and a messy combination of fruit juices that people seemed to enjoy, there’s still a reasonable amount of alcohol left that we’re not sure what to do with (though we all have a fair idea). Jess and Becky were already staying over to sleep on their balcony to stargaze and invited me to stay as well, which meant I could sleep under the stars and Joe could have the fan in our apartment to himself so everybody wins.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a day we had purposely left unplanned, for me holidays abroad always involve simply sitting by a pool and swimming but others, and rightly so, think differently. I persuaded the others to allow just one day where we don’t all have to be up at a certain time to do this and that and just see what becomes of the day. In the end me, Kym, Jo, Becky, Tim, Jess, Muffin and Croucher spent the early morning in the pool (something I had to stop doing abruptly as the sunburn on my back started to itch really badly) and then in the afternoon went for a stroll through the shops along the coastline where we’re staying and then to the beach where we perched sunbathing or swimming (me doing the former with my t-shirt firmly on lest I burn more) for a good three hours before we decided to go back for dinner. On the way to the beach, Tim and Croucher disappeared to go and get their swimming stuff and never returned, we soon found out why. That evening there was a bit of an arguement, it’s not worth getting into it but Phil, Lexie and Tim went to try and find Cathy (a friend from college who does scuba diving, who were running a diving trip in Malta, which Phil is attending today) and hang out with her for the evening. They weren’t able to find her so rejoined us, who had stumbled across a Karaoke bar……

We had fully intended to enter in as a joke. Me, Jo, Kym and Jess got up and sang possibly the worse ever rendition of Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’, so much so that the guy running it said “back to the music” when we were done and the next guy came on. Croucher entered on his own and sang ‘Take it Easy’ by The Eages, he was awesome and, given that by this point I had entered myself to sing a solo, I considered dropping out for fear that he was too good for me. I should here mention that it wasn’t a competition and just for fun. I stayed on Jo and Kym’s balcony that night again, admitedly sleeping on a far more comfortable sun-lounger but still.

I had selected to sing ‘Sugar We’re Going Down’ by Fallout Boy which I worried was too hard a song. The music started and I realised that I much rather have tried and made a twat of myself than not. I sang and got a huge applause at the end (louder from my mates admitedly but still), when I sat down I heard people muttering that I was actually quite good which they were evidently suprised at after Poker Face.

——This is where I got cut off so the remainder was written at home

Monday was a slow morning, and we intended to find the only aqua-park in Malta for the afternoon and hang out there. Phil was away at his scuba diving, as I mentioned. It took a bit of persuasion and the offer of subbing Tim (who was low on funds) to get him and Lexie to come with us (Lexie was going to stay with Tim to keep him company). If the aqua-park was too expensive we weren’t going to bother and go to one of only two sandy beaches in the country (the rest, like the one near us in Bugibba, are rocky), I was entrusted to find out prices before we left but couldn’t find them. The only bus we could get had to go down to Golden Bay Beach (one of the sandy beaches) before the park and we figured that it was free and we were there we might as well just go to the beach. We all perched by the sand for a little while and paddled before we realised that there was stuff to do. Those of us who went (Croucher and Lexie decided that they didn’t want to do any of them despite our attempts, Phil was diving) rented out peddle-boats and went for an explore around the area. I’m not great with rocking boats so I mainly stayed in the peddling side of things while me and Kym alternated steering, the part-fish Jess, along with Muffin and Tim were jumping in and swimming between boats. When our time was up, Kym, Tim, Jess and Becky decided to go paragliding, I could neither afford nor had the balls to join them so me and Jo retreated to a cafe that overlooked the beach with Jess’ camera and took pictures of the other’s paragliding while Muffin got a view from the ground (Croucher and Lexie soon joined us).

That evening we met up with Phil at dinner and considered what to do that evening. We got a call from Cathy (who we were unable to reach the night before) saying that we should all meet up at Geriatric Square (an area near our hotel where all the bars and big shops are), we split up for a bit to find her when we arrived and I passed her on the street and did a bit of a double-take. It was odd that, even though I expected to see her and was indeed looking for her, even though we’re more than 1000 miles from our country, we should still run into someone from Collyers on the street. It was her last evening so she was having a night out with her diving mates so we didn’t want to get in their way, we all had a chat for a while then we all went down along the coastline to catch the night-life. I say night-life when we really just went to the bumper cars and wasted what little money we all had left. Then we did split off somewhat but most of us went down and sat on the same bit of St.Paul’s Bay that we had gone to on Sunday and looked out along the coast (yes, I realise I’m painting somewhat Romantic view of the holiday but this is how it was) for a bit. Once again I slept on Jo and Kym’s balcony, I spent ten minutes in my apartment and realised just how stuffy it is in there and the balcony was much better.

We were all up early for the last full-day, we had asked about how to get to the Blue Grotto, a collection of naturally carved cliffs that formed fantastic caves and rock features along with the glittering, crystal clear water that made it blue. It took two hours to travel and the time we all woke up made us all a bit grumbly and tired but after we got on the boats that took us around the rocks we were all glad we did. Afterwards, Jo and Kym went off looking for food (we had skipped breakfast) and the rest of us sat on the rocks overlooking the sea for a while and a few of us swam for a bit. I went off looking for Jo and Kym and found them sitting in an air-conditioned cafe that was excellent, that was by far the hottest day and the amount of (uphill) walking made us all a bit tired. After a few hours Becky wanted to show us this small water theme park called ‘Popeye Village’, which is exactly what it sounds like, part of the set where they made the Popeye film. Phil and Lexie had decided they didn’t want to come to it so they stayed at Blue Grotto while we went, it was fun in a ‘look at all these adults acting like cartoon characters’ and it was nearly empty. Plus there was an area that looked out onto cliffs and led into the sea so we all went for a swim for about two minutes because Jess got stung under her arm by a jellyfish (they’re tiny little buggers that hurt but aren’t lethal or dangerous) and we looked around at the shops. I ran into the guy walking around pretending to be Popeye and had a ‘Popeye-Noise’ contest with him, he beat me.

We spent the last evening walking along the coast again and looking for bars, we went into one called ‘Miracles’ which was awesome, really good music and good drinks. After we left that bar, Phil and Lexie went back to the hotel, the rest of us decided we didn’t want to go to any more bars so we went back to our favourite bit of the coast, chatted for a bit and then came back to the hotel. The vodka I had bought for the cocktail party we had was only half empty and though I debated bothering to take it home, I eventually gave it to Tim and Croucher so they could do what they want with it and slept on the balcony once more. Technically I slept more on the balcony than in my own room but still.

Today was another early start, after a fumbling attempt at packing by the others (I’d lived out of my suitcase all week) we all had breakfast together and went to the main reception to pay off our drinks tab for the dinners of the past week. We had all worked out how much we owed (mine was just under ten euros) and asked if they could add together all the rooms into one big payment, they must’ve made a mistake or something because they only charged us around 20 euros and insisted that everything was settled so we went. Got the minibus to the airport which all went smoothly up until Lexie realised she had lost her phone. She says she had it on the minibus so it must’ve slipped out, she was pretty upset but we have the number for the bus company so I’m sure it’ll turn up.

Both ways, our flights went very smoothly and on our return to Gatwick our bags came quickly and Mum picked me and Muffin up and gave us a lift back. I can’t wait til Jen get’s home from work to give her presents. Also, I know it’s pretty odd that I have detailed everything that we’ve done here but I had such a fantastic time that I want everything I can get down on record. Besides, if people ask me what happened in Malta there’s so much to tell and I had such a fantastic time that I can just direct them here.

As expected, things didn’t always go right or to plan but they tended to only be little things, and none of them stopped me from having a good time, I did things that I never thought I would do, or was too scared to do and had the time of my life. Now I’m home and found out that my student finances have all been worked out and so it’s back to the old routine. Before my blog also resumes it’s old routine, I want to say thank you to every single one of my friends who came on this holiday for putting up with me when needed and just generally having a great time together. I expected that we’d all be sick of each other by the end of it but quite the opposite, Jo was saying how much she was going to miss not living with us all, and she’s right.

Tech reviews and news coming soon, I swear!

Hoorah! It turns out that there IS a computer in Malta that I can use for half an hour for a mere 1 Euro 20 Cents (I dunno where the euro symbol is on the keyboard). Getting here was fine, early morning but I just drank loads of coffee to stay awake, unlike the others I didn’t sleep on the plane so I was a bit more stressed out than the others. I thought about skipping out on the first night’s plans, but I am SO glad I didn’t.

I had heard that the Black Eyed Pease were playing Malta a while back on the day we arrived, but assumed that we wouldn’t have time or be in the right place to go see them. Then when we landed, the guy driving the coach to the hotel told us that there was a massive MTV Malta Party (Isle of MTV) going on that night (we arrived about 11am) in Valletta (the capital city) a half hour bus trip away. We went and, much to my surpise, caught the end of a set by Metro Station (who I love), Lady GaGa (who I also love) and after we left to get the bus back we could hear the Black Eyed Peas. Given that I didn’t sleep yesterday, that was the most suprising, long and fantastic day.

The hotel is alright, I was really put out and depressed at first because me and Joe got the smallest room of us all, without a balcony and (until this morning) without a fan like the others. After I had a good kip I felt better about it and now I know I can live with it given that we spend most of the day either out, in the other’s rooms or at the pool.

We spent today at a craft’s village because we want to get finding crappy souvenirs out of the way before we waste the rest of our money. Tonight we’re either going to an Irish pub (Croucher’s idea because we can never drink beer in Horsham) or go to a Cocktail Bar, personally I’d rather the latter. Tomorrow we’ve booked to go to the port to go to Comino Island and go to Blue Lagoon, apparentely clear beaches.

The only issue, other than the sweltering heat that’s kind of effecting me more than the others, I’m fairly burnt, is that there’s a lot of us. Ten people is a big group and we don’t all want to do the same thing as each other. Earlier, when we got back from the Village, we couldn’t decide whether to go to the beach or the pool so half of us went one way and the rest the other. It will, no doubt, become a recurring thing but I don’t see it as really a problem, there’s enough of us that splitting off doesn’t leave one person alone and we all stay happy. We’re all there as a group of friends so maybe we should all be doing everything together (and we are doing a lot of stuff together) but it’s impractical.

I’ve heard that the UK had 3 months rainfall in just 3 hours, which strikes me as very good timing, we left the ending heatwave of England to join the perpetual heatwave of Malta.

I haven’t had a chance yet to investigate tech news, or make a start on 1984 (I read the first page and then Kym yelled at me to get in the pool) so not much of a post on that I’m afraid, if anything else of interest happens over the next few days I will update in one big post shortly before we depart.

Cocktail Time!

This will probably be the last post until I get back from Malta if there isn’t a computer in the vicinity, Lexie’s picking me up at midnight to go to the hotel. Croucher implied that he may take his laptop (I’m not because they tend to want to take apart my tech at customs whenever I go to the airport and I only just fixed my netbook) so I may be able to steal his.

Though I haven’t mentioned it on this blog before, I’m quite interested in the arguement of theology vs. atheology, basically whether the Christian religion is right or not. I’m agnostic, but not in the normal way of simply not thinking about it because I consider the question quite a lot, I’m not looking to decide whether to become a christian, I think I’m more interested in the discussion than the actual question but it’s the source of much discussion with Tim (who’s going to Malta so more discussion may ensue) and Liam, though the discussion with the ferociously literal-bible-reading latter tends to be more of a berating as Liam tends to shout and angrily quote rather than allow me any word of doubt in edgewise, even though I’m giving him a chance to refute my own points, Tim’s much more of an even discussion.

However, I was watching this show I recorded “Revelations: How to find God” on Channel 4 which sounded interesting. It was about a group of agnostics who all lived different lives taking an Alpha course together. The view of the Christians and the Agnostics was very interesting and I was intrigued up to the point that a man stood up and made a speech about how the devil supposedly tries to trick us with things that feel good, like booze (an interesting link to Animal Farm which I finished reading last night).

But then when listing off the “evils that the devil” brings he included, and I quote, “the latest technological toy”. Now there, my friends, is where I drew the line. How on earth is technology evil? You can’t stand in the way of progress, nor can you stand in the way of a pissed off blogger! I’m still going to watch the end of it but that mere sentence got me riled enough to pause it and grab my netbook to have a rant while my thoughts on this were still fresh. It’s things like that that push me more towards the atheist side that I’m already probably more inclined to given that I am not in the slightest bit religious and believe strongly in evolution (granted most of my christian friends, save Tim and Liam, believe in it to, though they consider it God’s work). I feel that sentences like that make the Christian’s hypocrites, accusing Atheists of making inarticulate, random and rambling arguments when these guys were clearly rattling off a list of random evils.

When I think clearly about it, it seems to me that Christians and Atheists are very, very similar in their style and how they portray their views, it’s just that they argue completely opposite things.

I’m glad though, above everything, that despite the opposing views there’s no evident rift between Atheists and Christians on a personal level. Tim, Crouch and Phil (all Christians) are some of my best friends and it’s good to know that there’s no discrepancy between us that is due to religion, there is for Liam but I believe that with his angry proclamations, implying that my very questioning of religion will condemn me, he brings it upon himself in many respects. He’s a nice enough bloke, but get him started on religion and he becomes very unlikeable. Which is a shame because, like Tim, he clearly has a very close knowledge and understanding of the bible and it would be nice to get a new perspective on my discussions with Tim.

Overall, my general conclusion on my own personal belief is that I don’t know. I’ll keep arguing the point, investigating, discussing and even questioning my own perspective (which is why I plan to read at least one book each by a Christian and an Atheist on the topic) but that, at least until I die, I can never know for certain and shouldn’t waste my life trying to come to a decision on something that is so complex that it can’t, for me, be a simple matter of yes or no. Some, particularly Atheists, may say that being an Agnostic is as good as being a Christian. Others, particularly Christians, may say that my conclusion makes me a total Atheist anyway, and believe that if you want, but I know my own mind, and sitting on the fence gives a pretty good view.

I’m gonna be up all night with travel so I’ll probably just sleep today, might do a bit of Anything Goes but will most likely start 1984 on the plane, to which I will soon be writing about. If I don’t post and have to go an entire week without using a computer I may go insane, but I’ll soon addle my brain with cocktails and imagine I’m typing.

The rest is silence.