Colin Mercer On The Inter-Web

This time I am not going to talk about the practicality of being in New York, hopefully you all read my past summary of being in New York for a few days. Instead I want to pick briefly on a few specifics I have come across today. Infact, at the time of typing this the list is 4 things.

1) Slate Bar barman: what a nice chap. I had to wait around to talk to their boss, so went for a pint at the bar. Within a few minutes of sitting there, at an empty bar on my tod the chap came over and asked where in England I was from. We started chatting about the cliche English things, London, Oxford university, Radiohead etc. My favourite bit was when he said it was now happy hour and the Stella was now only $4. We talked tourist stuff, he recommended a Mexican place for me to go for lunch/dinner just around the corner and also wrote down a cool bar to go to. The Mexican was awesome (Chipotle), the bar, hopefully see it tomorrow night. I left, hopefully the guy will be working on Thurs too.

2) After returning to the hotel I fancied some dinner, so popped down to the bar. A quick glance at my laptop clock shows me it is 2.30am my time and after only getting an hours kip before the flight I kinda think I’m doing ok. In the bar I order myself a G & T and sit back and enjoy, a bit of Jaiku and Twitter and emails. Wings, I want WINGS, so I order Wings, out of stock, as are the chips and wedges. Hmmmm only other thing on the menu I can face is the Pizza. It shows up, by Pizza they mean cheese on burnt toast, rip off!

3) Sitting in bar waiting for food there is a very weird situation building next to me. A 50 yr old chap has met with a mid 20s girl. They start talking fashion, clearly its a business meeting. Nothing too weird, other than the age difference. The bloke’s fashion business is basically to buy shit clothes and modify them, add frills and embroidery. Fruit of the Loom? However, see this Tweet and the situation gets a lot more interesting. The latest thing to happen is that the girl had ordered a diet coke, she has just walked out without taking a single sip. Blokey is still sitting here nursing his finished whiskey. Just heard him on the phone say “I just wanted to touch base with you” and “you’ll know me when you see me” also “we’ll have a good time” I think this guy is some sort of throw back and someone needs to tell him to leave it!… hero!

4) Couple at the bar selected fish and chips from the menu. It has just arrived… the English will know what I mean by a Sundae, it looks like that, but its the newspaper that its served in thats shaped in that way. Genius. How stereotypical!

5) I didn’t want to go this far, but a new amazing one just walked in… two cute girls sitting next to me, bloke walks in and gets introduced to one of them. Clearly this is some sort of setup for the other. The guy basically seems like a social recluse, not comfortable in anyway etc. His first story involved a high school prank, bad start. Now talking work and how they have a car showroom at the bottom of their office block. Ladies, is that sexy? He better not get lucky!

Just to clear up some confusion, no I haven’t thrown my new Xbox out the window!

+ =

This is the Xbox which I FINALLY plucked up the nerve to buy on Sunday! YAY ME! Along with it a couple of games and I’ve liberated a 30inch TV from downstairs to add to my bedroom powerplant.

This post is however not about the games or the Xbox itself, it’s about the way that Windows and the Xbox integrate. Admittedly this is my own fault for not reading up on it before hand, but I have a friend who always used to play his computer downloads through his TV (things like TV shows, PAID for films etc nothing illegal *wink wink*). Little did I know that you either need a top version of Vista to do this or you have to pay some extortionate amount of money for what is known as the Windows Media Center. There are otherways of course, you can buy a classic Xbox and chip it, then there are customised programs which work the same as Media Center. This has not been developed for the 360 to date.

So now I have a couple options:
1) Take the free upgrade to Vista I have sitting on my desk and convert everything to Vista
2) Download and install the pirate copy of Windows Media Center, including a safemode boot up and install of the crack (dodgy much?)
3) Buy a classic Xbox and chip it (£40 + £20)
4) Get over the desire to watch things from my PC on the 30inch TV and settle with the 19inch monitor I have

Thoughts?

Oh yes, this really is your chance to win a half eaten open pack of Wasabi nuts! Sell by date is clearly printed as oct08.

All you need do is… Be the first to get me on jaiku! After google’s take over new user registrations have been closed, however members can invite. Send invite to colin[at]colinmercer.co.uk and comment here.

The prize will be posted via snail mail as soon as an address is supplied. Gooo team!

I wonder how many porn hits I get thanks to that title.

There was an article on the BBC site I noticed today all about Gordon Brown condemning reports that soldiers had been told not to wear their uniforms whilst off duty around the UK due to receiving verbal abuse about the Iraq war situation etc. To me this seems propostorous, my personal opinion is that the war is probably wrong and we are there for totally the wrong reasons. However, if someone is willing to risk their life for the country how dare they get abused. I have respect for the guys and gals who go out there, my cousin is in the raf and his commitment amazes me!

Read the article here.