Sil-Mon Li

Got to Chicago fine and dandy… It’s a bit weird with the time difference… It’s only 23.13 here in Chicago but back in the UK it’s 05.15 and still awake! Not good.

Du da, Du Du Du Da Da, Du Du Du Da Da, na na na… All I can say about SWIII… definately better than Ep 1 and Ep 2. Not as good as Ep 4, 5, 6. Good tie up to the story, although no mention of Hans Solo…

So it was my bday bash on Friday. It was really nice to see Ally on the Thursday for my day but the Friday was the night to get drunk. It began about 8pm at The Poet on Folgate St . Jimbo, Chris, Willy, Ally, Micheal and Becs cam along. We got a bit tipsy and before we knew it, we decided that we should eat at La Tasca. We got there about 20 minutes before closing time but hurried the order through by just ordering 3 of almost everything on the menu. We were meant to head to 333 aftyer, but due the obscence amounts of food we had, it an unfortunate detour to home. All in all though, it was a really nice night out with all my buddies especially with Ally being there!!!

Good news! Just got my Performance Review from work. All I can say is that I was really suprised with the result and hopefully will keep this up over the next 6 months!!! Nice news before my Birthday!!! Oh and also, I’m going to Chicago on Sunday!!! Woohoo!!! Bring it all on!

It’s all happening this week! With the premiere of Star War Episode III: Revenge of the Sith occuring this week, it was probably a fitting time to announce the next generation of games consoles. The main announcements were made today at the E3 show however Microsoft did make a pre-announcement on MTV last Friday night. So in summary there are 3 companies in the “console wars”, the Nintendo Revolution, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 over the coming months (maybe a even a year!) we will find see if Charles Dawin’s theory of Natural Selection will determine who will win and who will be eaten alive!!! My first opinions of these consoles are as follows:

Nintendo Revolution: Out of the three consoles the Revolution seems to be on for a winner but only in terms of how it looks. However, I have yet to see the controller so I’m not going to give it all it’s glory eventhough I do lean towards Nintendo (only a bit!). I’ve had every Nintendo console since the NES and never another rival’s console (apart from the Sega GameGear). Power wise, it seems like it will be the lesser among equals with Nintendo quoting “we want to concentrate on the gaming experience”.

Xbox 360: First to release information on the system by showing an exclusive MTV event present by Elijah Wood. Looks wise, pretty poor. It’s a grey Dell desktop box on it’s side! Controller looks a bit wierd too. I’m not really that blown away with this machine. However, I like Bill’s tactics by releasing the Xbox 360 out before Xmas 05 (get those Xmas pre-orders now!) and then releasing Halo 3 on the same day of the launch of the PlayStation 3!

Playstation 3: Probably the most anticipated system to be release over the last 3 years. First looks… pretty poor as I can make picture it as an old HP bubble jet printer. The controller is even more bizzare! It looks like a boomerang or a banana?! However, this quotes the highest spec in terms of harware and performance with screenshots of games to blow your mind away. It’s also meant to support HDTV too!

My bets on bestselling console about this time next year will be: 1. XBox 360, 2. PlayStation 3, 3. Nintendo Revolution. However by next Xmas (2006), the position will have swapped with Playstion 3 in the lead and Xbox 360 trailing behind slightly and then the Revolution in last place as usual. It’s really all dependent on the games they release but Playstation 3 will be on top as always with the most versitile system. I won’t be suprised if Nintendo introduce another system while PlayStation 3 sales are still high. We’ll have to wait and see!

It’s a small world out there as proven last night when I went out in Fulham. One of my work collegue’s housemate works with my housemate (Chris). Another one of her housemate’s also kinda knows Chris through some random accomodation logistics when he just started work in London. They both ended up living in tempory accomodation before finding proper places to stay. Then the final “small world” comment of the evening ended that same person knew one of mates from High School where they both played hockey at Warwick University. What a crazy world we live in!!! Anyway, it was a really good night out in Embargos and ended up dying on the sofa at about 3am! I’ve got a really sore neck this morning…

Work had some spare tickets to go and see Queen on Tour at the Wembley Arena Pavillion. Pretty good night out. 5 other work collegues joined me and we had a nice champagne reception, 4 course meal, seats near the front and then an aftershow party!!! Not bad at all. Pictures to follow…

[Edit] - As promised some photos I took from my phone

I’ve just been watching the culture show on BBC2. It’s known as a fast-paced weekly magazine arts programme and yes it’s true. Things that interested me this week were perplexcity and breakin’ convention 05. I’m hoping to go to see some moves this Sunday. Will report back if it was good.

It’s my goal this summer to get good at something… I’ve been in London now for about 8 months now and apart from my regular activities of eat, work and sleep (and also the occasional visit to the gym!), I haven’t done any “extra-curricular” activites. After enjoying a bit of climbing (see pics below) over the last few years at Uni (thanks Matt!), I’ve decided I’m going to start doing this regularly! When visiting Alex this weekend, we decided to go to the Leeds Wall and after trying on about 50 different sizes she got me some new La Sportiva Kanatas as an early Birthday present. They seem pretty comfortable as climbing shoes go and managed to get a good session with Matt. I did a bit of bouldering and then went up on the rope. There was one route where I felt like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible II… I wedged myself between two walls to get up. It was wicked! However, my forearms and fingers are absolutely battered. I can’t even pinch anything!

I’ve now added the links and photos to the site. Please have a look at some of pics!