Ninja!

I had thirteen friends over to my house yesterday to celebrate the fact that I was but another year closer to death. Whilst loitering around the side of my house, we decided to try and subdue any boredom that may or may not have been creeping in by engaging in game after game of Ninja!

In case you have been living under a rock, here is Philip Defranco's run down on the rules of ninja:

It was first time playing said game, but let me say this much, it certainly lived up to the hype! Some were apprehensive at first, but after a few games, everyone had joined in!

I even managed to win a game, eventually. ^_^

We could've played the game all night, had it not been so cold and dark. In the end, my girlfriend was crowned ninja champion and we retreated inside.

Anyhoes, the reason I made this post is to share this wonderful game with anyone that has not already experienced its wonder. Grab some friends and get playing!

Google+

I'm going to ignore the fact that nobody reads this blog and revive it anyway. Today, I finally got 'round to joining Google+, and my first impressions are good, I must say. If you have an account, you can follow me here. 

Setting aside the fact that none of my friends use it (although with my 150 invites I plan to try and change that), I had a look around at the features and was quite impressed at how to managed to incorporate the best features of both Facebook and Twitter into this new, clean interface.

The lack of clutter is a refreshing sight (this 'lack of clutter' is what initially brought me from Bebo to Facebook, but now it seems Google+ has taken it to another level), but don't mistake this for a lack of features. It has got everything you'd expect a social network to have, and then some.

The 'circles' feature is an innovative addition. Reminiscent of the Twitter 'lists', only with a much more user friendly concept, circles could and may well take social networking to a new level. The fact that you can filter your friends, co-workers, family, and acquaintances into appropriate categories at ease is a brilliant idea. Also, knowing that the user won't know the name of the circle they have been added to doesn't hurt either (meaning that you can have that circle of 'People I hate but felt obliged to add' if you insist on it).

So, to summarise, I like Google+, a lot. I think Facebook will remain the dominant force in social networking for the foreseeable future, but when Google+ goes fully public I can see it nabbing itself a nice percentage of the market share. I will be using both it and Facebook, until such a day comes (and I believe it will come, as people are always looking for something new) when all of my friends migrate to Google+, at which point I will assume that "haha, I was here before it was cool to be here" position. This, funnily enough, is exactly what I did with Facebook. I was one of the first to join (in my friend group, not out of anyone ever, obviously) purely out of curiousity, but I never really used it all that much until suddenly everyone was there. I see something similar happening with plus.

If you haven't checked it out already, do. I've got about 145 invites left (at the time of posting) if anybody wants one.

Musical Project & All That Jazz.

YouTube - Always Attract (Cover) - John & Isobel

Please check us out as we put a lot of hard work into this video and plan to make more! =)

Green Day Smite Paramore.. Barely..

 VS 

PARAMORE          GREEN DAY

As two of my favourite bands went head to head in the final of MTV's 'Musical March Madness', I decided not to get involved. I decided if I voted one way I'd be disappointed if my side didn't win. So I stayed neutral!

Those that know me well know that my allegiance usually rests with Paramore. They've been going through a rough time though, what with losing the Farro brothers (who posted this awfully blunt blog following their resignation from the band) and continuing on as a trio regardless. I still feel that because both the Farro's and Paramore's remaining members were biased in their accounts of what happened, the truth became a clouded mess that made me go "WTF Just Happened?". I still love their music, but I'm not sure where I stand with them as a band any more. They'll have to prove themselves to me again.

As for with Green Day, I was never an overly obsessed fan like some of my friends are, but I do love them a lot! They've done more with three power chords than most of today's modern punk rock/pop punk bands combined could ever dream of. Still haven't seen them live though, much to my disappointment and sadness! D=

Getting to the point, I didn't vote but I eagerly anticipated the result of this meaningless but coveted title! Considering the aforementioned turmoil surrounded Paramore recently, and taking into account Green Day's broad and ever growing loyal fan base, it was no surprise that in the end, Green Day won the title.

What was surprising, however, is that they scraped victory by a mere 2,500 (less, even). With over 120,000 votes cast in total, this means it was nail-bitingly close!

The original MTV article can be found here.

Am I happy Green Day won? Yeah, they deserve it. Hopefully by next year Paramore will have cleared the air, replaced the Farro's, released a new album, and then I will feel justified in leading a rally of Parawhore's to help Paramore take the title in 2012.

Music related lolcat. Still working on my own, but until I make one that puts me in stitches of laughter, I won't start uploading them. ^_^

Au revoir,

John.

April Fools!

Google always seems to go all out for April Fools day. This year was no exception. 


"Are you an incredibly fast Google searcher? Like, so fast that you can do 20 searches before your mom does 1?"


If so, you may be eligible for Google's job position as an 'Autocompleter':

They also announced that, as of April 4th, they would be changing to Comic Sans font, as people apparently preferred it. They were rolling it out as a Google Chrome Extension under the title "Comic Sans for Everyone". The best part, it actually works! Funny stuff! - http://www.google.com/landing/csfe/


Google China also claimed to have invented a teleportation machine! =P


Google's main prank of the year though, inspired by the Xbox Kinect:

As for other well known websites, Youtube celebrated their '100th year anniversary" by uploading some videos of the popular viral videos of the time, and I think it was "Hulu" that went retro, displaying their site in a format that would've been popular in 1996, and committing all the horrible HTML formatting horrors of the time! 


Seeing what the big corporations come up with is one of my favourite aspects of April Fools Day, apart from pulling pranks on your friends and teachers, of course! ^_^

Very fitting lolcat, I've been feeling 'bleh' all day..

Au revoir,

John.

The Endless Struggle [How to Bypass A Web Filter]

Warning, this blog brings out my inner nerd just a little bit! =P

Ever sit in school wanting to check out your Facebook page, go onto Youtube, or search words on Urban Dictionary, only to find that they're blocked by the network administrator? Yeah, we've all had that moment where we face that horrible message telling us we're not permitted to view a site for whatever reason. Proxies work at times but a smarter filter will weed out these proxy's one at a time. Irritating stuff!

I, however, have found a way around this! Through a fair bit of searching online, I seem to have come across the solution! There are a couple of ways, but I'll show you the easiest and most effective way to combat the pesky filter.

Please note: It is against the rules to bypass the school filter and can get you into trouble. Once you know the risks involved and the potential trouble you can get into if you get caught though, feel free to go for it.. Just don't blame me if it goes pear-shaped! From experience, most teachers don't even pay attention anyway..

What you'll need:

• A USB stick with about 2MB free space.
• A computer with a web filter you wish to bypass.

How to:

The best way to bypass these filters is to use a proxy server called 'UltraSurf'. It seamlessly bypass filters and leaves no trace to suggest that a proxy was even used! Here are the steps. 

1. Go to the website here and download  the latest version of UltraSurf.
2. Extract the file if necessary and copy it to your USB.
3. Put the USB into the computer and run the .exe UltraSurf File. 

Note that it's not a program, it's just an application, so no install necessary! It'll load up Internet Explorer and you can instantly browse filter free! 

If you have any trouble with it just leave a comment and I'll do my best to help! =) 

Just thought I'd share this solution, as it is a common issue that really bugs me. 

.. And now for a lolcat. Soon I will start making my own lolcats, as I have four cats that love to pose, but until then.. 

Au revoir,

John.

Espionage!

"Hey now, you said you wouldn't be doing the 'aul blogging on a regular basis, what's up with this then?"


Hmm, I did say that, didn't I? I also said that if I had something to post or to say, that I would post it. So here I am.

A couple of years ago, I sat down at a computer, bored as hell, and wrote my own short story. However, it's not any old ordinary short story, this one came with a twist! It started out with an introduction and went into the first paragraph. However, once the reader reached the end of the first paragraph, he/she was given a choice. They got to decide where the story went next, and were told to proceed to the relevant paragraph to progress through the story.

It's not a new concept, as I know myself and have been told, but it was new to me at the time! It was a lot of fun to write and the reviews from friends have been relatively positive!

The reason I'm going to post it here is that I'm considering writing a sequel. I've tried twice before, but never finished! However, this time, someone very close to me is begging me for a sequel, so I might just finish it this time!

I'll include a link to the story here. Please let me know what you think of it, and if you'd be interested in a sequel or not! All comments, positive or negative, are appreciated! The sequel would be of a better standard, as my writing skill has matured as I have matured.

Link to Espionage

It is a mission based 'choose your adventure' styled piece. Espionage contains mission one.

LOLCATZ FTW

(Sorry, had to get that outta my system)

Au revoir,

John

Not ANOTHER Blogger?

Blogging has really taken off lately, but unfortunately it has been for all the wrong reasons. People have been blogging to fuel their own egos, instead of to entertain or share content. It's kind of disgraceful. I won't name any blogs because I don't want to start a 'War of the Bloggers', but it really did turn me off blogging when I saw the kind of things being posted. I've seen entire posts being devoted to somebody telling their audience that either they have heard of the current game said blogger is obsessed with, or else they are completely stupid (paraphrasing, of course, but that's what was said in a nutshell). Essentially, said blogger assumed that because he thought something was cool, everyone who didn't was of no worth. That's not the correct way to promote your favourite game, silly! ^_^

I will eventually set up this blog to run on a regular basis, but I'm going to wait until I'm hit with a burst of inspiration. There's no point blogging for the sake of it. When I have something to talk about, or something to say, I'll post. I'll try to avoid succumbing to the current fad of posting blogs bragging about my life to fuel my ego, I'll leave a bullet and gun nearby so if that happens, a reader can deal with me.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this picture of a cat, that reminds me of my friend Conor.

Au revoir,

John.