Paintballing Ponderings

I went paintballing today for a friend's birthday. It was really quite enjoyable, despite having to get up at 6.00am on a Saturday, walking 30 minutes from a station in the middle of nowhere to get there and being surrounded by angry testosterone fuelled middle aged men on a power trip and sweaty chavs in adidas tracksuits. The guns weren't all that accurate, the burgers at lunch were 50% cardboard and it cost a fair chunk, but the satisfaction from successfully executing a tactical manouevre and then nailing somebody from close range balances it all up. Not that I'd want to do it every weekend; maybe it should be a once a year trip. Anyway, now I'm knackered sitting on the sofa and I'm resorting to basic paintball humour. Pitiful, I know, but I still laughed (under my breath).

And while I'm on a dunking theme...

Crazy Asian stunt dunk:

And Vince Carter being outrageous in the 2000 Olympics:

Lex Luthor slays Superman (aka Nate vs. Dwight)

As usual, I am a week late on this one. It is absolutely sick though- kryptonite Nate Robinson defeats Superman Dwight Howard in the 2009 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. I especially love the green ball and the soulja boi 'superman' he does at the end. Unbelievable.

Nike Court Force Low x Air Max 97- Silver

And I'll take these as well. Inspired by the silver colourway of the Air Max 97. I especially like the striped toe.

Nike Dunk Low SB (Rodrigo Petersen)

When I get this feelin', I need / Fresh kicks healin'. So yes, I'm mostly spending my free week eating, sleeping, playing rugby and lying on the sofa looking at uber shoes which I can't afford on the internet. Latest discovery:

Price= £200 approx. Shame. Oh well, not as bad as the previously posted Eric Haze Dunks (roughly £400) and (get this) the AF-1 x Clot Chinese New Years (the one pair on ebay is £1200). Yowch. Damn the credit crunch! And the pound was doing so well. In a way, it's a blessing I have big feet- I can never get my size in these rarities. Oh well.

Nike Dunk- Eric Haze

So I know I'm five and a bit years late on these, but they are too sweet. I first checked them a while back on the net and then recently in Singapore a pair cropped up in the private collection at Limited Edition (Vault branch) and my love was rekindled. Currently a smidgeon skint, but you can look, right?

The Meat Ship

So I'm back. It seems appropriate that, now I have a week off, I further my attempts to create giant meat monuments. I've done the bacon explosion (gaining valuable insight into cooking times) and will next attempt... a bacon explosion wellington! But not like this one; I'm going ot do mine more classically with duxelle. I think I'll lay off the meat ship for a while; following a hedonistic week of glutony in Singapore, I reckon my ateries need a good few weeks off.

Incidentally, I've been going through the pages of BaconJew. I rather like the wide range of bacon related foodstuffs and appliances- especially this bacon alarm clock aka the Wake n' Bacon. See what they did there?

I'm off for a week!

Due to extenuating circumstances I've been called away from base camp and I'm off to Singapore. This means no posting (or, at the very least, sporadic posting). To make up for it, here are some hobbies you could take up to keep you occupied in my absence:

1) Home Brewing- I'm an enthusiast in this field anyway. All you need is a bucket (with tap), beer kits and patience. I recommend the Hop Shop and Hop and Grape. Make sure you sterilise your kit first! Oh, and start with a lager- they tend to come out alright whatever you do, in my experience.

2) Pyrotechnics- yep, a new field to me. Apparently this book is a good guide. Firework making sounds fun.

3) Topiary- sounds fun! I bought my sister this book by Barbara Gallup which is pretty good (I had a peruse). It even tells you how to craft a teddy bear.

4) Knife Making- Global Shmobal. Looks like you need a grinding wheel thingy though.

5) Preserving- an old classic. I would defer to the Women's Institute for this.

Or you could just get on with your life instead. Au revoir!

Valentine's Day? Meh.

It's great if you're going out with someone but rubbish if not. And what if you're just starting off in a relationship? How seriously do you take it? And it's too commercial. Seeing the amount of other couples out tonight sickens me. As you can tell, I'm pissed off! Will definitely be going to see I Hate Valentine's Day when it's released, even if it sucks. It'll be a one man protest.

UPDATE: I spent a good 15 mins reading these rants. Most amusing.

Wellworths?

Claire Robertson, manager of the Dorset branch of Woolworths, has bought it and is reopening in mid-March as Wellworths. They'll sell the same kind of stuff, but no clothes, CDs or DVDs. The same staff will be employed, but most importantly, the Pic 'n Mix will still be there. They also hope to be known as Wellies, hence they'll sell wellington boots. Nice.

It's Darwin's 200th Birthday!

And so, to celebrate, here's a collection of Charles Darwin themed links. Start at the bottom and work your way up if, like me, you're a little hungover:

The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online- contains all his publications, letters, private papers, bibliography, manuscripts and supplementary works. Pretty much everything you'd ever want to know.

The Darwin Song Project- 8 artists from the UK and US are congregating in Shrewsbury (Darwin's birthplace) to write songs that have resonance and are particularly relevant to Darwin. For those interested, there will be a concert on March 19th.

The Adventures of Darwin- a PS2 game released a while back which involves you running a prehistoric village. You have to hunt and gather to survive, thus increasing our numbers. And (get this) you can evolve. Geddit?

Spider Cat, Spider Cat...

... does whatever a Spider Cat does.

A Really Big Horse...

... is set to become the new 'Angel of the South' in Springhead Park in Kent. And it's going to cost £2m. Right. I don't really like it, actually.

Oh, and for those who watched the Superbowl...

Polamaluesque Puppy Dominates Puppy Bowl.

Incredibad

Incredibad, the new album from Lonely Planet (of 'Dick in a Box' fame) is released today. I'm intrigued- potential for hilarity, although potential for disaster too. I like 'I'm On a Boat' though.

Pong Clock

What a sick timepiece. It's just so cool. Time/score above, pong below. Awesome.

Duck Sim 2008

My top game of last year. The best I've ever done is level 4- simple yet fulfilling. Play.

N.B.: It starts slow, but stick at it- it's a rewarding experience!

Goodbye Rubik's Cube, Hello Rubik's 360...

So I'm fairly obsessed with Rubik's cubes. My p.b. is just under 1 min 30 secs, which is nothing to the fastest official time of 7.08 seconds by Erik Akkersdijk of the Netherlands. Anywho, imagine my delight when I discovered there's a new puzzle set to be released- the Rubik's 360. "Players must get the coloured balls from an inner sphere into matching slots on the outer sphere by shaking them through a middle sphere that has only two holes." Awesome!

Incidentally, I love this fact at the bottom of that article: "The slowest solver is thought to be Graham Parker, 45, a builder from Portchester, Hants, who finished his Cube earlier this month 26 years after he bought it. “When I clicked that last bit into place and each face was a solid colour I wept,” he said." I fully understand his tears.

Onitsuka Tiger's Giant 60th Anniversary Shoe...

...is pretty cool. It represents Japan, apparently. There's a nice animated short on their spanking new website too.

Telephone Box Aquarium

Artists Benoit Deseille and Benedetto Bufalino have converted an old telephone box into a fully functioning aquarium (complete with fishies!) as part of the Lyon Light Festival. Pretty damn rocking. (Via).

Afro Samurai

No, not that internet viral. It's only an upcoming video game! And with a premise like that, you know it's going to be good.

Bacon Explosion

Was very, very hungover today. All I wanted to eat was roast pork- I ended up slow roasting some belly. I wish I had made a bacon explosion instead- that'd be "a massive torpedo-shaped amalgamation of two pounds of bacon woven through and around two pounds of sausage." Awesome.