Quotable Advent Calendar 25

"Merry Christmas everyone!"

- smeg_head, British blogger.

Quotable Advent Calendar 24

"But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come
round... as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only
time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one
consent to open their shut-up hearts freely."

- Charles Dickens, British author

Quotable Advent Calendar 21

“A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer.”

- Mitch Hedberg, American comedian

Quotable Advent Calendar 18

“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a
department store, and he asked for my autograph.”

- Shirley Temple, child actress

Quotable Advent Calendar 17

“Christmas is the one time of year when people of all religions come together to
worship Jesus Christ.”

- Bart Simpson, 10-year-old ‘child’.

Quotable Advent Calendar 16

"Roses are reddishViolets are bluishIf it weren't for ChristmasWe'd all be
Jewish."

- Benny Hill, UK Comedian

Quotable Advent Calendar 15

Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for
it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their
kids pay for it.

- Richard Lamm, American Politician

Quotable Advent Calendar 14

Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they
are all 30 feet tall.

- Larry Wilde

Quotable Advent Calendar 13

My first copies of Treasure Island and Huckleberry Finn still have some
blue-spruce needles scattered in the pages. They smell of Christmas still.

- Charlton Heston, American actor.

Quotable Advent Calendar 12

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and
goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.

- Calvin Coolidge, US President (1923 – 1929)

Quotable Advent Calendar 11

My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving
others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?

- Bob Hope, comedian & entertainer

Quotable Advent Calendar 10

“Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never
fattening, never sinful, and permanently personal.”

- Lenore Hershey, Journalist

Quotable Advent Calendar 9

“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.”

- Charles Schulz, Cartoonist

Quotable Advent Calendar 8

“Wii sounds like we, which emphasises this console is for everyone.”

- Nintendo Press Release

Wii Came, Wii Saw, Wii Conquered

It’s possibly the earliest I’ve been awake all year. Just before 7am this morning I left the house to trudge, bleary eyed, to Game. I arrived to find I was officially the third Wii owner of the day.

After a bit of faffing around with synching the Wii-motes up I finally launched into Wii Sports and I wasn’t disappointed. The control is brilliant and just as sensitive & responsive as it’s been hyped to be. Yes it does take a bit of getting used to but all games are playable in minutes and after half an hour you start to master the quirks of the controller. The addition of a speaker into the remote really adds to the experience with sounds of the games whooshing from your hands to your TV.

I’m officially hooked. The baseball is tricky but 10-pin I already have down to an art. I admit I’m slightly disappointed with the content of Wii Play (apart from the cool Tanks game) but it’s worth it for the second controller. I’ve already designed a Mii (though can’t quite get the hair right) and I’m now resisting the urge to download Mario 64.

Gaming is fun again!

Dec 7th | Quotable Advent Calendar 7

“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on
a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.”

- Albert Einstein, Physicist

Here Wii Go

It’s weird but I thought my Gamecube would be the last console I would ever buy. I didn’t find the games a compelling as my N64 or Megadrive and ultimately decided perhaps I’d finally grown up. Then around 12 months ago I heard about the ‘Nintendo Revolution’. I knew gaming was still a passionate interest of mine. The DS had rekindled the flame and games such as Mario Kart and Wario Ware had got me playing daily once more.

There’s something about the Wii though that has really got me excited. It’s games that finally you can actually physically play. Even Miss Smeg has mild excitement about the new console.

PS3 looks amazing and undoubtedly it will be. But does it really offer anything new other than refined graphics and faster processing?

Wii is the first step to truly realising virtual reality without having to use those ugly bulky headsets of the 90s. It’s still years away but with Nintendo finally realising a fully interactive control device, gaming is exciting once more.

Of course there is a problem. I haven’t actually seen a Wii yet let alone touched one so it could all end in bitter disappointment. I mean surely it can’t be as interactive as it makes out? It’s not going to be the fluid response the adverts are making out is it?

I’ll let you know in 24 hours…

Quotable Advent Calendar 6

“I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about
human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely
destructive. We've created life in our own image.”

- Stephen Hawkings, Physicist

Quotable Advent Calendar 5

I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying,
toys not included.

- Bernard Manning, British comedian

Quotable Advent Calendar 4

“The one thing I remember about Christmas was that my father used to take me out in a boat about ten miles offshore on Christmas Day, and I used to have to swim
back. Extraordinary. It was a ritual. Mind you, that wasn't the hard part. The
difficult bit was getting out of the sack.”

- John Cleese, British comedian

Quotable Advent Calendar 3

“One of the unsung freedoms that go with a free press is the freedom not to read
it.”

- Ferdinand Mount, British journalist

Quotable Advent Calendar 2

“Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it
permanent.”

- Marilyn vos Savant, American columnist

First Night

Last night was my first Xmas gig of 2006. I restrained from playing Xmas tunes and instead belted out all the cheesy party classics that I’ll be sick of by the 23rd. It was an odd night, a small crowd. It started off shakily as no one seemed enthusiastic. It may be December 1st but Xmas still seems far off despite the twinkling of the fairy lights enveloping the room.

I was also plagued by faulty CD players. For most of the night I was managing on an iPod and one CD player which was a bit stressful. I didn’t really care about me looking shit when the CD stopped playing halfway through a song, at heart I knew it was the equipment not me but I was concerned that it was spoiling the enjoyment of the party goers.

Thankfully a pissed game of music chairs lifted everyone’s spirits and it was back on with the music.

Tonight I will hopefully have a brand new CD deck and, ready for the quiz on Sunday a brand new mixer – which should save me lugging the heavy existing one up and down stairs probably the cause of said faulty CDs!

Xmas night 1: 7/10

Quotable Advent Calendar 1

“The new classes are, in ascending order, the morons, the yuppies and the stars.
The first watch TV, the second make TV programmes, the third appear on
them.”

- Roger Scruton, British philosopher

Quiz TV

The government is planning to clamp down on the TV Quiz Channels. I must say I’m glad. After 10pm they clog up Freeview relentlessly, which is frustrating as upon returning from work after that time at night I’d quite enjoy watching some intelligent programming instead of morons calling in dumb answers to air headed presenters.

The government have argued that these TV channels are ripping off the UK public. Charging at least 60p per call which isn’t even guaranteed to connect. You have a 1-7000 chance of actually winning on these shows.

If you’re foolish enough to call these programmes then you deserve losing your money. One man complained he’d spent £300 calling shows like ‘The Mint’ and ‘Quizcall’. My feeling was simply ‘And?’ The channels do actually clearly state the rules and the costs at all time – that’s why I’ve never called in! No one forced this gentleman and others like him to take part, he’s only got himself to blame. Still though, the government want to clamp down on this ‘rip off’.

Odd though, that no one mentions the government’s own Quiz… the one that costs at least £1 a go (40% more expensive that the quiz channels) and the odds of winning are 14million-1. You’re far less likely to win at Lotto than you are at Quizmania yet for some reason that’s deemed perfectly acceptable…