First Class Virgin

I meant to post this last week, but didn't think to take my phone's usb cable with me... Virgin Trains normally offer upgrades to 1st class on weekend services for £15. I decided that for once I'd splash out and see what 1st class was all about. As I boarded the fabled "Coach A" of the voyager I was confronted straight away with two members of staff sitting around chatting (one of whom was in my seat) and four transport police were around a table. The 2x2 layout of the regular coaches (two seats each side of the train) was replaced by a 1x2 arrangement. Sitting down I found a small creased welcome card that informed me that I could get some complementary food and drink, but as it was a weekend I would have to go and get it myself(!). A quick wander through the squalor of the "regular" coaches and I was at the buffet car. Excitedly I pushed my 1st class ticket in front of the server with images of cooked breakfast (unlikely as it was nearl 2pm) or some big sandwiches. What I got was a little underwhelming consisting of a small carton of orange juice, mini Kit-Kat, mini slice of fruit cake, mini (can you spot a theme?) bag of pretzels, two crackers and soft cheese (but no knife) and a bag of fairly minging dried fruits.


After finishing this meagre offering I sat back, not really noticing any improvement in the quality or comfort of the seat. There was something nagging at me though and once I got off at Birmingham New Street and pushed may way past the now familiar groups of Aisan youths in puffa jackets I realised what it was - it was exclusive: I didn't have to worry about kids screaming or running up and down the carriage; didn't have to fret about letting people in and out of seats as they frequented the buffet car for more overpriced food; and not even a hint of worrying that some heft bloke with bad B.O. would sit next to me. I could simply enjoy my journey in peace.

If the £15 had been for both ways then it would have definitely been worthwhile - if only to hear the staff members bitching about collegues, but as it is I can't say that I'll be upgrading again without good cause.

Will the Refurb be Finished in Time?

In case you didn't know, Trevs has been undergoing a massive refurb over the summer. This has meant the noise of contractors, their vehicles and no access to any facilities for the whole 3 months. So great was the time pressure that postgraduates and finalists were turfed out of their rooms for graduation week at the end of last term. As time passed the hardy and of resident postgrads began to hear rumours that despite doing one less block than planned, the refit was behind schedule.

By the start of July, there entire grund floor of college had no floorboards (as we found when we went exploring).

As september came around, news came that the builders would be working longer hours and then weekends in order to finish. Inside, college looked like a disaster area.


Now the builders are furiously working 24 hours a day to get the work finished. As of yesterday, most of the rooms were finished, but the landings and amenities were still nowhere near ready. The new postgrads are already here and the freshers will start arriving on Saturday. The worry now is what is the quality of the job going to be after they have rushed - we all remember the new windows that were put in 18 months ago that leaked straight away...

Nintendo's Revolution

After taking a near 10-year gap from games consoles, I finally relented and bought a cheap Gamecube about 19 months ago. By sticking to the principle of not paying more than £15 for a game I've slowly built up a collection of excellent games. Now though, the big 3 companies are about to launch new models. At the recent E3 show they were unveiled one by one.

First up was Microsoft's Xbox360. Aggressively pushing for a pre Christmas launch may yet backfire as several key launch games have now been postponed. The console itself offers more power but most of that will go on HD graphics which will be the buzzword for the next few years.

Second up was Sony, who showed off the prototype for the PS3. Sony have gone on record as saying that the PS3 will be expensive. Given that they're including a BluRay drive with the console bears this out. The launch for this one will probably be Easter in Japan but we may not see it here until 2007.

Finally was a press conference from Nintendo. The revolution was only shown in model form - specifications were not ready and there was no sign of the controller. Critics mulled over how this was thrown together just to keep up with the competition. The response came last week with the release of details about the controller...

The biggest thing to happen to controllers in the previous 15 years had been the N64's analogue stick. Together with games such as GoldenEye and Mario64 this controller forced Sega and Sony to rerelease their own pads to try to compete. The revolution controller, at first glance, looks nothing more than a remote control with a few buttons on it. Memories of "interactive systems" such as the CD-i flash before your eyes. After reading a few lines of the description though, you calm down...The sensor rests under your TV - this can read signals from the "remote" about the orientation of the device in space. Move the controller right and the sensor knows, move it closer to the screen and it knows, twist it round...well you get the picture. Extra peripherals can plug into it (I've posted a picture with a mini joystick).

Imagine first-person game where you move with the joystick and can look around simply by moving the controller around; a dark game where the controller acts as a torch and you choose where to shine it; A driving game where the controller becomes a steering wheel or even a bat/racket for sports games. Have a look at this link for more info. My interest has been captured now. So much so that I'm probably going to pick one of these machines up as soon as they launch.

There's a nice article on gamepad history over at 1up.

Lesbians against Bush?

I've just found this very funny video of yet another G. W. Bush gaffe. In case you don't know OBGYN stand for obstetrics & gynacology - an area trainee doctors can specialise in. The news anchor's response is very Spinal Tap esque (I'm thinking the Stone Henge scene) - how he manages to keep a straight face is amazing.

My Final Year Beckons and I'm Finally Ready

Although I'm still technically a 2nd year PhD student - the two 3rd years are in final preparations before they leave. The new intake of freshers is nearly here and will inevitably look unbelievably young (This lot weren't born until '86/'87). I never though I'd be ready to leave this place (Trevelyan College) but I guess that since I'm going to be just about the oldest student still here it's finally time to move on. Trevs is a big conveyor belt. Every year that arrives ends up just like every other year: they arrive as optimistic naive freshers, friendly to everyone in their year. Then they move on to living out and become set in groups of friends and after the first few weeks stop comming into college. They then arrive back in college for their 3rd year in the same groups as always: The footballers tend to hang around together and get drunk, there's the group of popular 3rd year girls, the goon 3rd years who study all the time, the 4th year lingusts who band together and the 4th year scientists who are invariably grumpy. Every year likes to believe they are contributing something new to college, and certainly there are some characters that stand out, most so far all the years below me have followed this pattern.

Although I never considered it, the longer I've stayed, the more I've wished I made more of my ealry time here. I was awarded college half colours, but most of the stuff I've done has been since the graduation of most of my friends in 2002 forced me to move in new social circles.

All that's left is to make the most of my last year whilst doing a lot of work and look forward to August when my beautiful girlfriend Angharad (hopefully) returns from her year away in Japan.

Another Year Older...

Today is my 25^th Brithday. I was struck with fear last year when I mistakenly thought I'd be 25 then, but this year it's for real. It's an odd feeling: at 25 I don't feel any older than I was but now there is no doubting it - I am definitely mid-20s. And still a student... Still, when we're probably going to have to work till we're 70 it doesn't hurt to put off the real world for a few more years.

A Quick Word on Retail Links

In all my blogs, I'll normally try to publsih links to where some stuff can be bought. The observant amongst you will notice that I'm using affiliated links - everytime you buy anything after following a link (even if it's not the item originally linked to), the discussion site, The DVD Forums will earn a bit of comission. It sounds like a nerd forum, but despite the name, there are a wide range of forums spanning film, music, sport, photography, games and the ever popular bargain forum. It costs a lot to keep a community like this going so hopefully the affiliate links will help.

The places I link to may not be the cheapest, however, so here are a couple of sites to help you source the cheapest supplier of DVDs and CDs:

• DVDs


• CDs

I'll post more about finding bargains soon.

My Slow Break Away From Mainstream Music

It was at university that I started off broadening my musical tastes. In my first year I discovered Moby - indeed my friends and I managed to see him on his Play tour at Newcastle Uni (v. small venue). 2 Months later he'd hit the big time and was filling Wembley Arena. My second year had me introduced to the entire Pink Floyd back catalogue, but I'm still not sure what all the fuss over Dark Side of the Moon is all about. One legend that does appear to hold water is that of the strange syncronisation between DSOTM and the 1930s MGM film The Wizzard of Oz; multiple sites about this have been set up but here's a good one.
My third year saw me introduced to the fantastic Ben Folds Five. Sadly no longer together, although the eponymous Ben Folds still releases albums, eps and his tours are still in very high demand.

All new to me, but still very commercial music and most people will have at least at 1 if not more of these albums. I've also found myself listening to the same albums over and over. I've got about 10gigs of music on my iPod but kept finding that the same albums get played again and again - I'd hit a rut.

My breakthrough came about 6 months ago when I got hold of the soundtrack to a small indie film called Garden State. I've been a huge fan of Zach Braff after his performance on the excellent Scrubs show. In fact, Braff wrote directed and starred in the film. To say it is a good debut film is an understatement - if you haven't seen it I urge you to check it out - especially if you are in your 20s. The soundtrack features a very eclectic mix af artists: from the well known Simon & Garfunkel and Coldplay to fringe artists such as Zero 7 and Nick Drake and most interestingly, little known artists such as Colin Hay, The Shins and Cary Brothers. Fans of Scrubs will probably have heard all these acts as the music in Scrubs is also fantastic.

Colin Hay is the former front man of 80s group Men At Work, best known for there massive hit Down Under. Since the band split, Colin has gone solo and now produces some fantastic simple acoustic music. I've ordered the albums Man at Work and the US version of Going Somewhere.

Cary Brothers, remarkably seems to still be not signed. This is dispite appearing on the above mentioned soundtracks (3 songs have appeared on Scrubs). He currently has a 4 song ep out called All the Rage and later this month releases the follow up ep Waiting For Your Letter, the title track of which can be downloaded from Brothers' own site.

So thanks to the show Scrubs and Zach Braff's wide ranging Graden State OST I've finally managed to pull myself out of my musical rut.

Hello

Well...Finally. Welcome to my blog! I say finally because it was originally my intetion to start up a web site called Kiran's Rants way back in summer 2002. Back then the concept of blogs had yet to hit and even when they appeared I quickly banished the orange B button from my Google toolbar as it was taking up valuable real estate. Since then however, I've seen the power of blogs and have finally been persuaded to start one up by my wonderful girlfriend, Angharad.

So to begin with a bit about me: I'm currently 24 years old (25 on the 7th September), I have no siblings, have a 1st class masters degree in chemistry from the University of Durham and indeed am still there, living at Trevelyan College and about to enter my final (funded) year of a PhD in organic materials for light emitting devices.To round off the introduction post - here's a picture of me taken on my dodgy quality phone.