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Site cleanup using Eclipse

Posted :: 12.08AM on Tuesday, 8th April 2008.

Eclipse is particulary handy when finding markup in your HTML that is not very well formed or invalid. Basic HTML misdameanors include converting those pesky & and <'s into their HTML code counterparts.

Eclipse reports over 1000 warnings over my site. Great, I have a lot of fixing to do.

New Computer Upgrades

Posted :: 10.57AM on Tuesday, 10th April 2007.

Upgraded my main Linux box last weekend. Now a AMD 4200+ Dual Core. Boy oh boy does this machine smoke! Was having problems with my old machine and had to upgrade for peace of mind more than anything.

I've always preferred stability over being tight on cash so hopefully this will be good on the stress level front.

New purchases of 2007

Posted :: 10.06PM on Thursday, 15th February 2007.

In an effort to keep my stock of Havana Cigars in a healthy condition over the next two years, I've gone out and bought a few boxes.

First on the bill are a box of Juan Lopez Petit Coronas. They seem to be hard to come by, with only one retailer I know of stocking these sweet, easy smoke. Juan Lopez are one of the underrated Cigars that you can buy; delicate sweet aromas that are not over-powering and are a joy to smoke any time of the day.

If your looking for a Juan Lopez in a bigger size, I suggest the Selection No. 2. A fine Robusto; an aged one can tantalize the taste bugs.

For my second purchase I went and bought my second box of Ramon Allones Specially Selected. One of my favourite Robustos, a good one is a dream to smoke. Very fruity, very easy to smoke. If I want a change from Bolivar, these are a great alternative.



As you can see from the image above. Don't they look just divine?

In the next few days I should receive a cabinet of Bolivar Petit Corona's and some Romeo Y Julieta Short Churchill's. The latter have grown on my massively over the last two or three sticks that I have smoked. The RyJ taste is unlike any other Habana, somewhat mellow with sweet undertones.

So I had to do it...

Posted :: 12.42PM on Wednesday, 31st January 2007.

... Yes. Yesterday I went out to buy Windows Vista. Not just the Home Premium Upgrade, but I lumped out £250 for Ultimate. Lets see how the installation goes tonight...

Site continues to improve & other general ramblings

Posted :: 11.23AM on Tuesday, 19th September 2006.

Managed to clean up more of the site today, including the RSS Feeds, The Gallery and a placeholder for my page related to everything Poker.

One of the things I didn't expect was how big this site was going to be when I re-done the site a few years ago. Keeping the Galleries, Playlist, Bootlegs & other things up to date can be a pain sometimes, especially when there's a few things you have to make sure that are in place or everything starts to fall apart. (Like this site is haha)

Hopefully today I'll have a bit more time to get certain sections of the site finished. Including the cleaning up of the Blog and the Playlist facility. The playlist section on this site is quite big, and there's a lot of wires to untangle. Bare with me.

In other news, the Scissor Sisters review I've promised should be up in the album reviews section this afternoon sometime. I've given it a somewhat positive review, hopefully you'll see what I mean when you read it.

Hopefully I can review another album by the end of the week, most probably the Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly one. I've heard it twice now, and it's not often you hear influences of Billy Bragg and Joe Jackson in someone's work.

Anyway, I better get back to work.


Ta-Dah! New Scissor Sisters album making the rounds

Posted :: 03.50PM on Thursday, 14th September 2006.

It finally happened, The Scissor Sisters' second album, Ta-Dah! finally leaked one week away from it's release date. I've managed to have two quick listens to the album, and hope to have a review on the site soon.

It seems that the Record Companies are doing a pretty good job of keeping albums from leaking pretty much up to their release date. I think Ta-Dah comes out next week, and there's still no sign of The Killers' Sam's Town and Beck's The Information, both due for release early October.

I'll probably end up buying the album on Vinyl, as I have a soft spot for the quirky New Yorker's. From first listen's I don't think it's up to the standard of the first album, but they're defiently a few standout tracks on there. And yes, there are some tracks on there that sound as if they belonged to Elton John.

Thinking about it, I haven't been floored by any of the new albums released by Groups and Artists that broke through around 2000 - 2001. The Streets, good, but not excellent. The Rapture, I've got a review for them soon, seems promising, Razorlight, so-so, The Sleepy Jackson, overkill. You get the idea.

Lets see what the Scissor Sisters can do....




I'm updating the site again

Posted :: 04.42PM on Thursday, 7th September 2006.

As you can see, bits and pieces of the site are being altered, while others being added.

New Beck Bootlegs to add, album reviews to include, and broken links to be fixed. Stay tuned!

The bristolticketshop Tsunami Concert frenzy

Posted :: 10.30AM on Monday, 24th January 2005.


New Beck album

Posted :: 09.38AM on Friday, 21st January 2005.

I managed to download the leaked Beck demo last weekend, and naturally for any Beck fan, I've been listening to it non-stop.

Like every Beck album, some songs you instantly fall in love with, some you fall in love with over time.

Fell in love at first listen:

Guero, Scarecrow, Earthquake Weather, Chain Reaction, Track11 and Track13.

Falling in Love:

Summer Girl, E-Pro, Brazilica and Hell Yes

Loving slowly:

Black Tambourine, Go It Alone


The album sounds like Beck is in Mellow Gold / Odelay mode with his serious Sea Change voice. Hopefully the final mastered version will have the vocals more at the front of the mix. But overall the album is very good. I'm refraining from using the word brilliant, I don't think the album hits the heights of Odelay in genius.

Yesterday the album got a name, Guero, and an official tracklisting:

E-Pro
Que Onda Guero
Girl (Probably Summer Girl)
Missing
Black Tambourine
Earthquake Weather
Hell Yes
Broken Drum
Scarecrow
Go It Alone
Farewell Ride
Rental Car
Emergency Exit


I'm suprised Chain Reaction got omitted, where Go It Alone and Black Tambourine manage to sneak in. Oh well, not my decision.

The journey to the Centre of $3/6

Posted :: 10.04AM on Wednesday, 19th January 2005.

I've come to the conclusion that I don't respect $2/4 - the players or the money I wage in a pot. There, I said it.

Like many things in life that you get addicted to, after a while you need bigger hits to feed your hunger. $2/4 is not giving it to me.

Firstly, I don't respect the money I put into the pot as I used to. Sticking around $30 into a pot doesn't worry me at all. I think this is unhealthy. I don't worry about chucking another $4 to value bet even though I've got the feeling that I may well be beaten.

You can argue that not feeling worry about the money in the pot is a good thing because it doesn't hamper your game, but I need this tiny area of uncertainty and "worry". Thinking to myself "oh it's only another $2 to call" has become a major leak in my opinion and it's got to stop.

Secondly, I don't respect the players and what they do. To cut a long story short, I don't believe they have the best hand when they bet out. Every player at this limit is a monkey who doesn't know what they're doing. They think bluffing is what the game's all about. To be fair to a vast majority of Party players, there's only a small percentage of players that are complete maniacs and will try everything to bluff you off a pot.

Putting this alltogether I've been on a major leak for the last two months in the game. The way I've been playing recently has become somewhat of a mindset, and now I have to break out of it's shackles.

I've decided, somewhat conversially, to play on $3/6. My bankroll is around $400 away from being able to comfortably deal with the swings that $3/6 limit hold 'em dishes to a player. Last night I decided to play on $3/6 for half an hour, and lo and behold, I played my 'A' Game again on $3/6. Missed the flop with AK. Lone opponent bets out on flop, I fold. No fancy 'lets raise for a free card to see if I can hit my remaining six outs' stupidity. I was playing tight again.

After 45 minutes I finished up on two $3/6 tables being nearly $90 up. I didn't play any stupid hand, didn't limp in EP with KJ and didn't hang around until the turn with a crappy pocket pair when there's an overcard on the flop and some guy is betting into me...

I also won a huge ($102) pot where I was in the pot and I flopped the bottom end of the straight. I was pretty sure I had the best hand on the flop and I basically jammed the pot to the max and took home the loot.

It's psychology. I don't want to go to the turn and calling a $6 bet. The people who play $3/6 must know something about the game. Poker is about the mind as well as the cards, sometimes even more so...

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