Quite literally!!
We were having our loft insulated during the week, but because life is never straight forward, we actually have two lofts, and two hatches/man-hole covers (what ever the correct term is!)
The men successfully laid the insulation in the main loft, but when they came to do the other space they found that it was “full of old comics and magazines” – So, like a good home owner it was my job was to clear them out this weekend.
The previous bloke who owned the house was a bit of an odd-bod by all accounts, so I was secretly hoping it was going to be full of antique “Gentlemans Quaterlys”
But unfortunately this wasnt to be. Amongst all the rubbish and dust (lots of horrible black dust) were piles and piles of old childrens comics from the 70′s, and not the good ones either. They were all ‘Whizzer’ and “Whizzer & Chips” from between 1973-1975. A quick look on the interweb showed that they werent really worth anything (about 70p each) and they were so flithy (and not in the way i was hoping) that i decided i would just bin them.
But then, as i was approaching the end, i found this BEAUTY…

Its an ‘Invader from Space’ game – Yay! It was produced by Grandstand in 1980 and was one of the first tabletop electronic space invaders game ever released. (and pre-dates the much cooler Astro Wars)
It was thick with dust when i brought it down, but after a good clean and new set of batteries, it looks and works fine. Looking on ebay they seem to change hands for between £15 and £25, but as i wasnt allowed one at the time, theres no way im going to part with it now
Tags: Computers, Games, grandstand, Invaders from space
Ok, so its not really a triumph, but I FINALLY got round to playing Portal over xmas. I have previously been mocked for not playing it until recently, and Im actually rather embarrassed to even bring up the subject.
My justification is that I already owned Half Life 2 & episodes I & II, so there didn’t seem much point in splashing out £30 on the ‘Orange Box’ (Also, I wasn’t that arsed about Team Fortress)
I downloaded a copy Portal:Still Alive from Xbox Live marketplace, which is the original game PLUS 14 additional challenge maps, and special hard versions of the original game maps. So actually, I have played MORE Portal than the rest of you (you know who you are!)
Why am I even mentioning this? Well, I stumbled across this video the other day, and thought it was great.
http://vimeo.com/1612411?pg=embed&sec=1612411
The track features at the end of the game as the credits roll, and was written by Jonathan Coulton – but then you would have to live under a rock not to know that!
Tags: , Computers, Games, JoCo, Jonathan Coulton, Portal
This is soooo cool, especially the ‘power up’
The New x-box experience went live last week. One of the new features is the ability to create your own Avatar.

http://www.ilovefizzypop.co.uk/images/nxe_zym.jpg
Personally, i think i look pretty good
I couldnt face buying GTA:IV at midnight on the 29th, but i did buy it on the way to work at 8 in the morning. The guy in blockbusters said that they had 450 people turn up at midnight, and were open until 3:30am!
I am enjoying it, but my progress is very very slow (through lack of opportunity to play)
I did a little mission in front of my mother yesterday (She has been up for a couple of days to help look after Zym 2.0)
It involved me and my cousin ‘Roman’ chasing a bloke in a car. Every other word out of Roman’s mouth was either Fuck or shit – mainly cos I was banging into other cars, lamp posts & people, and on the radio was talk show caller lamenting the pharmaceutical companies for the lack of normal strength weed currently available in Liberty City.
Then, when I finally caught the guy, I punched him until he dropped his knife, then picked it up and used it to stab him to death.
I was laughing hysterically throughout all of this, while my mother was wishing she hadn’t agreed to hold the baby while I played it!!
Good Times