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I’ve Been Shopping!

August 19th, 2010

I’ve never been much of a girly girl, and I fail completely at the art of clothes shopping. I operate like a bloke; I know what I want, and I go in, buy it, and get out.

Instead, I like to spend my spare pennies on things like films and games for the ps3 & wii. iPad apps are quite tempting too! I know, I’m a bit of a geek. So, when I was given an amazon voucher and some money for my birthday, I spent a fair bit of time looking at the ps3 games as well as the Blu Rays. These are the two selections I came up with…

Pride and Prejudice

I have had this six hour BBC adaptation on DVD for years, and it’s widely regarded to be the best ever Austen adaptation. Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favourite books, and I have watched this particular dramatisation dozens of times. I may have watched the Colin Firth wet shirt scene more than that. Anyway, I’ve decided to replace my much loved DVD with the Blu Ray, because of this exciting news…

Experience the BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning series Pride and Prejudice like never before, as the magic of period drama is rekindled with state of the art technology. Returning to the original film negatives, this stunning adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel has been painstakingly restored frame-by-frame to reveal the sumptuous costume and detail that makes Austen’s world so enchanting.

I bought this from amazon at the bargain price of £12.93.. For six hours of pure Jane Austen. I think that’s about a third of the RRP so I’m a happy bunny.

Harry Potter Years 1-6

Shortly after getting my iPad, I reread the entire Harry Potter series (in 9 days. I couldn’t sleep very well that week!) and it rekindled my love for the series. I’ve just finished Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 as well, and I’m starting to get overly excited for the seventh film coming out in two parts over the next 12 months. It’s fair to say I’ve got HP fever!

Understandably, I want to prepare myself for the upcoming films by rewatching the whole series so far. We only actually have two of them on DVD, so buying the lot on Blu Ray has been the plan for a while. When I saw it discounted to £32.99 I jumped at the chance to get the boxset.. That works out to just over a fiver per film, and that’s very reasonable for Blu Rays!

Follow the first six years of Harry Potter’s matriculation at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with this box set that contains the original video releases of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to my packages arriving! I’ve had two notifications telling me they’re on their way so they should be here any day. That’s one of the only disadvantages of online shopping – no instant gratifiation! On the other hand, there is a lovely sense of anticipation while awaiting delivery!

Have you bought any good films recently?

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Another Year Older!

July 31st, 2010

Last weekend I turned 25; or as my loving husband put it, I am now a quarter of a century old! It was really nice to be able to celebrate my 25th birthday at my parents house in Cornwall, and I was spoiled by lovely mum who cooked a gorgeous meal for lunch, complete with a scrumptious rhubarb crumble for pudding!

Birthday Presents!

I got some lovely birthday presents from friends & family, including lots of books by some of my favourite authors, a beautiful bracelet and a panoramic ’3D’ lenticular jigsaw from James which should be fun. He also gave me New Moon on blu ray and Lego Harry Potter for the PS3 which I’ve been having fun playing this week.

My parents took me & James to the Jake and Elwood show at the Hall for Cornwall in Truro, which was absolutely fabulous. The show is based on two characters (played by Dan Aykroyd & John Belushi) in the Blues Brothers films; a double act that started on Saturday Night Live. We had a meal in the restaurant first which was delicious; I had a minute steak and then shared a banoffee pie with James for pudding. The show itself was great; the two characters were spot on with their singing and mannerisms, the band was fantastic and they even had two dead people1! Showing true dedication, the two people that impersonate Jake & Elwood Blues have even had their names changed by deed poll! They managed to get some audience participation going, although it was a shame that the seats were only half filled, and only one side of the audience really got involved. By the end of the show there were people dancing in the aisles. Mum even treated me to a trademark Blues Brothers hat & the necessary shades too.

My big sister made me a crazy cake for my birthday; the bottom layer was chocolate chip & the top layer was vanilla flavoured marble cake in yellow, pink & green. It may have looked a little odd but it tasted good…

Birthday Cake Multicoloured!

It was a lovely birthday and has been a nice relaxing week in Cornwall – more blog posts and photos to come of what we’ve been up to!

In other news, Hayley sent me some questions to answer for her blog, and she has now posted my rambley replies over at her blog, so head over for a read if you’re interested.

  1. James Brown and Ray Charles! [↩]

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Three MiFi Version 2: First Impressions

July 21st, 2010

When I gave the MiFi Version 1 I borrowed back to the guys over at Three Mobile Buzz, I missed it more than I expected… So, I was rather happy when I got an email from Michelle offering me a trial of the new model!

I’ve been using it for a few days now, and I am happy to report that it is far less frustrating than the first model. All the major niggles have been fixed and it’s much easier to use. As a bonus – It’s also a lot more attractive! The device is now a lovely matt black on the front with a sparkly silver back, rather than having the slightly dodgy looking brushed aluminium plastic front and white plastic back of the first model.

Happily, it only takes one button push to get up and going, and there is a little light on the power button to show whether it is on or not – much easier! I found the three buttons of the first model really fiddly to use, and the symbols on the screen were so confusing I wasn’t sure if I’d managed to start the thing up properly.

The major change with this new model, is that the screen is much more informative – you can now see the connection info (including the number of wifi devices connected), the signal strength, a better battery indicator, and it also displays the session time & data usage. This is especially useful if you are low on data allowance and don’t want to use it all up by accident!

Also, you can now access the dashboard with any computer - instead of being via a windows program, the configuration for the gadget is a webpage located at http://3.home – which is really easy to remember. The dashboard lets you manage the device, view data usage and send & receive SMS messages. So as long as you have a browser, you’re good to go! This is great news because it means that you can manage the settings using an iPad or similar, and it even has an iPhone webapp version too.

Overall, the version 2 device is a big improvement on the first – my mind is now definitely made up about buying one, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to other people. I’m also really impressed with Three and Huawei – they have really listened to their customer’s complaints and made massive steps to rectify the issues people had with the first model. This kind of behavior from a big company is kinda unexpected nowadays, so it’s refreshing to see!

I’m off to Cornwall for a week on Friday evening, to celebrate my birthday, meet up with an old friend, and generally relax and enjoy a few day trips. I’m taking the MiFi with me, so I will be able to blog and stay in touch while we’re on the road & when we’re out and about.. it will be interesting to see how the network is down there. I’m really looking forward to having a great break!

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Some Useful iPad Apps

July 18th, 2010

As you know, I am really enjoying my iPad and it’s becoming really useful for a number of things, thanks to the increasingly great number of brilliant apps that are available in the app store. Five apps that I’ve been finding useful are…

TV Guide for iPad - Free!

Released by tvguide.co.uk, this app is great for checking whats on the box, and the iPhone app by the same people even lets you use Sky Remote Record and also links to shows on iPlayer. I’m hoping that the iPad version will get these updates at some point… at the moment you can view the schedule, manage your channels and view show information.

Website ~ iTunes

Soulver – £3.49

I really love the mac app Soulver, and I have both the iPhone and iPad apps as well – it’s a calculator app with a whole different approach to the problem. Instead of resembling a physical calculator like most calculator apps, Soulver looks more like a notes app. You type in your problems on the left side and the results are shown on the right.

Website ~ iTunes

Terminology - £1.19

A beautiful dictionary and thesaurus app, Terminology has some really useful features; for each word there are links to several popular web sources including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wolfram|Alpha and Google, allows you to star your favourite words & keeps a history of your searches.

Website ~ iTunes

Movies (Flixster) - Free!

I love this app – James and I really enjoy going to the cinema and this app lets us check up on what’s coming out (both at the cinema and on DVD), watch trailers, check the showtimes and see cinema details. It also shows ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, Flixster users and film critics.

Website ~ iTunes

iTeleport - £14.99

This app is great for managing our hackintosh server from my iPad (and our iPhones – it’s universal). iTeleport is pricey for an iPad app but it is really worth the cost, as it’s so speedy! I’ve never used a VNC client that is so responsive, with the exception of the Screen Sharing that’s built into OS X. The app has a great ‘function key’ keyboard which is very useful, so you can use keyboard shortcuts, etc. It’s also good for people with limited technical know-how, because you can just install their PC/Mac client and, using your google account, your iPhone/iPad will be able to automatically connect with no technical setup.

Website ~ iTunes

Tags: geekiness, iPad
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Gaming Anticipation

July 14th, 2010

As well as enjoying some nostalgia about my favourite old games, I’ve been looking forward to some new ones that are due to come out (or they have come out, but have yet to make it into our collection).

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (PS3)

UK Release Date: 19th November 2010

We got Assassin’s Creed II bundled with our PS3 and instantly loved it. In fact, I think we lost the remainder of the Christmas holiday to playing it! I’ve since completed everything bar a few trophies and a dozen or so feathers, including both of the (very enjoyable) download content additions. I’m really looking forward to this next game, which is coming out later this year. It looks like they’ve managed to improve already brilliant gameplay and really take it to the next level. I can’t wait to get this!

 

Website ~ IGN

Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (PS3)

UK Release Date: 25th June 2010

I love all of the Lego computer games by Telltale, and I love Harry Potter.. so this one is a bit of a no brainer for me! I am getting this for my birthday and am really looking forward to playing it once we get back from Cornwall in August. I have just reread all 7 books of the series in anticipation. It looks like they’ve done a great job incorporating the magical elements into the game, as they did with the Force in Lego Star Wars. The Lego games have a great 2 player co-op mode, so this is one I can enjoy with James instead of squabbling over who’s turn it is!

Website ~ IGN

LittleBigPlanet 2 (PS3)

UK Release Date: Late 2010

LittleBigPlanet was one of the first games we got to go with our PS3, and after hours and hours on a particular level, I finally completed the story mode! I love LBP and have even made my own level. Considering how versatile the first game was, I’m amazed at some of the improvements they seem to have made – level building seems even better in the new version, which comes out in the Winter. I can’t wait to get my hands on this!

Website – IGN

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

UK Release Date: 11th June 2010

I completed Super Mario Galaxy 1 and have been eagerly awaiting the sequel ever since! Hopefully I will get my hands on this one soon, as the trailers look brilliant! I love the way Mario moves around the little planets, and the whole concept of the game is really fun. All the different power up modes are great, and it looks like there are some great new ones coming with this sequel – I love the look of the clouds one in this trailer.

Website ~ IGN

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

UK Release Date: Unknown (2010/2011?)

Only just announced at this year’s E3 show, the long-awaited & longed for sequel to the fantastic Twilight Princess has finally come to light. We now have a name! And a trailer! Yay. No release date though :-(. Oh well, I’ll just have replay Twilight Princess in preparation of Skyward Sword’s release!

Website ~ IGN

Tags: gaming
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  • About Me

    I am 25 & a self confessed geek. I am a recently married self employed web designer, with a 9-5 desk job to help pay the bills. I love reading, puzzles, my iPhone (and everything else mac!), web design & blogging. I have a very sweet Norwich Terrier called Homily.

    View my amazon wishlist, email me, or find me on all my networks at me.zoecorkhill.co.uk.
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    • Three MiFi Version 2: First Impressions | Zoe Corkhill on My two weeks with MiFi
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