Victory for the Comic Muse

Well, it's 'Blog time again (otherwise known as that time when I try to avoid review work like the Plague ;) ) - Things are still pleasantly busy here, with plenty of articles to write, and another trip to London for an ATI briefing recently. As always, some interesting stuff was on offer, and it was good to catch up face-to-face with Rys again, however briefly.

We've also finally (although somewhat temporarily) transistioned across to our new-look front page at Elite Bastards, which is a sight for sore eyes and should help us both with promoting our own content and being ready for future improvements and the like. Aside from that, not much else to report on that front.

Book-wise, I finished reading The Da Vinci Code this week (Yes, I know I must be the last living person to read it!). In all honesty, I found the final stages of the book and its twist and turns too implausible to enjoy, so all in all it was a little disappointed. Still, it's back to my Haruki Murakami reading spree after this, which I would hazard a guess at being far more down my street if it's even a patch on The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles.

Musically, far too much of my time has been spent listened to the new Boards of Canada EP, Trans Canada Highway, ad infinitum. Predictably, it's Boards of Canada so I love it. Today I got hold of a copy of the new Divine Comedy album (see this Blog entry title for its name!), which seems excellent from my first listen, almost like everything Morrissey's last album could have been but wasn't in some ways.

Arsenal lost the Champions League Final, but did their fans proud which in itself was more than I was hoping for. More importantly, the weekend before they claimed forth place in the Premiership and a Champions League spot for next season, deliciously at the expense of Tottenham. Henry is staying now too, so things are looking up again for the Gunners. :D

Finally, over the past week or so I've been somewhat taking stock of my life after everything that has gone on in the past year or so, and I came to a somewhat startling discovery - I'm actually happier now than I was a year ago. Love being blind and all that, a year ago I was largely fooling myself into thinking I'd found happiness, when in reality I was anything but. I used to go home from work every day wondering what mood swings or accusations would be thrown at me, I was constantly having to try and pick my way through the swathe of pathological lies fired in my direction, and I was unable to voice my own true opinions without being shouted down or risking the aforementioned mood swings or accusations - To put it simply, every day was a draining and stressful experience. Oh, and then there was copious periods of time listening to Bryan Ferry and pre-Avalon Roxy Music... How did I ever survive?!

Now, in contrast, I have the time to pursue my own ambitions rather than being expected to bolster someone elses, can listen to the music and watch the shows I like, and more importantly I'm surrounded by people who genuinely share my tastes in general, and have respect and time for my opinions. It's really quite liberating. Vive la difference!!! :D

Panic on the streets of Birmingham...

It's been a busy time for me Elite Bastards-wise this past week (just for a change!) - Aside from continuing to plough through the ever-growing mountain of review hardware (with some pretty cool reviews coming up I have to say), the highlight of last week was a trip to Birmingham to cover the Computer Trade Show (aka CTS) for the site, complete with press pass of course...



Needless to say, the site name got some interesting reactions throughout the day. ;) Although the show was apparantly not as packed full of items of interest as last year's offering, there was still plenty to cover, and more importantly it gave me the chance to go toe-to-toe with a bunch of marketing people with regard to getting review samples (more work for me - Yay!). I had some productive discussions on that front, so we'll have to see how they pan out in the long run, and I had a few interesting meetings during the course of the day too.

It also looks like we've found ourselves a willing provider of samples for NVIDIA graphics boards, thanks to some insanely generous and decent fellow who keeps going around recommended us and fighting our corner whenever they talk to AIB partners... You know who you are, and you know how grateful I am for it. ;)

So, all in all, the site is continuing to move onwards and upwards, to the point where I'm seriously starting to need someone to help out with some of the review workload and to let us cover more products methinks. It's something I'm still mulling over though (I'm such a control freak sometimes!), so more on that soon no doubt...

Goodbye old friend...

A few hours from now, Arsenal's close to 100 year stay at Highbury will finally come to an end, as they move on to a new stadium at Ashburton Grove next season after their final league game this afternoon. Every Gooner knows it's a necessity to progress as a football club, but I'm sure it won't stop most of us from missing the old place.

It was somewhat premature, but at least I got to say my goodbyes to the place last Summer, before it gets turned into flats and apartments in the next few months.









So many cherished memories...