Grufff

I am disappointed that Rezzed moved to London this year. I live in Birmingham and really enjoyed going for the last 2 years. I guess London has to be kept happy though and it's the trade-off for getting the main EGX show in September.

Sea Creatures by SOAK is such a great song!

So is anyone still playing WoW at this point? Last time I played was during Cata - Killed Deathwing a few times with the guild I'd been in since the end of Vanilla, and then things turned sour so I quit. 2.5 years later, I got drawn back into the game because a few former guilds decided to return. I've now completely fallen down the WoW rabbit-hole, which is something I never thought I'd do again. Blizzard have really worked on the story-telling and single player experience in the game. Leveling 90 to 100 was fun (I've already levelled 3 toons to 100). After that though, I'm a bit indifferent about the general content at level 100. It's awesome that the expansion isn't mass daily quests, but at the same time, there's not much to do. It's not so bad for myself, as I'm slightly obsessive about stuff like mount & pet collecting. Raid content - Highmaul was pretty dull. There was nothing special in there and it wasn't a very interesting place. Blackrock Foundary - my guild's been there twice but it seems like a really good raid instance so far. Feels like a "proper" raid (more like something from TBC-era). We'll see how it goes though. Oh, and if you're interesting, I play an Elemental Shaman. We all know that Shaman are the best.

So I'm a big fan of Late of the Pier and have been hoping for ages there'd be a follow-up to 2008's awesome "Black Fantasy Channel". Doesn't look like this is going to happening any time soon. There was an unexpected surprise this week when LotP frontman Sam Eastgate aka Samuel Dust re-appeared with a new track under his LA Priest monicker with a new track and the announcement he's signed to Domino Records: The news got even better when I discovered LotP drummer, Ross Dawson, has also join a new band, Zibra:

Just to follow-up on this. I received my lovely white vinyl copy of the Ghost Culture album at the weekend. I'm really enjoying it and would recommend checking it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NImYkYzc73s

Daniel Avery's album is awesome. It's available through Erol Alkan's record label, Phantasy Sound. The whole album is brilliant - I particular like the tracks Water Jump and Drone Logic. I'm excited for the album release of another Phantasy Sound artist in January - Ghost Culture.

Jingle Cats is crazy - They have an entire album of Christmas songs. I bought it for an ex-girlfriend a few years back and she insisted on having it on loop for most of Christmas day.

No, it was known by it's original title "Star Wars". The "A New Hope" sub-title was added later on in 1981. "The Empire Strikes Back" & "Return of the Jedi" was titles in their own right though.

I guess part of the problem is that "The Force Awakens" is designed to be a sub-title. The original trilogy were titles in their own right and turned into Star Wars sub-titles later on.

Some of the quotes in this article about the match amused me - "According to the US commentators all New Zealand babies have a rugby ball in their crib"

I'm guessing it was a heavy loss.

I feel your pain. I can only grow a sparse section of facial hair underneath my chin/on my neck. I would absolutely love to be able to grow a beard and/or moustache at least once. Alas, I'm destined to be a baby-face the rest of my life.

I'm a bit later than previous years but I did start making Christmas puddings this weekend. Made me feel festive for about half an hour.

I'm assuming it wasn't just you and the guy running the karaoke that were there?

I really love Mr. Oizo and cannot wait for his new album next month:

I've been playing with an Evaluation Release of Windows 10. It's much better than Windows 8, but only because it's more like Windows 7.

Totally disagree. I didn't really like Trainwreak 1979 the first few times I heard it, and had a bad feeling that the album just wouldn't be up to scratch. Thankfully, the album isn't rubbish though, and hearing Trainwreck 1979 in the context of the album has got me quite enjoying the track. I'm seeing the band in Manchester next month and cannot wait!

I second this! One of the best parts of Halloween is deciding on an outfit idea and then working out how to make it. The last party I went to, I spent the entire night with my head wrapped in bandages, dressed as Hawley Griffin (The Invisible Man). It was really hot, I had to drink through a straw all night, and kept walking into things due to wearing dark goggles in a poorly-lit venue.

Wasn't it just Chris saying "Idleweiss" lots on the podcast?

Damn, Monday night is the one night of the week I'm always out.

This thread makes me depressed that I can't grow a beard or moustache.

I jump on this bandwagon if there's an invite spare

Good call with Com Truise! The whole of the Wave 1 EP is awesome! There's some really good stuff coming out of the Ghostly Intl label right now - Shigetto, Tycho, Matthew Dear, Tabacco. I really like Lusine's latest EP (Arterial) as well:

Really enjoyed the panel. The game looks really good and the character animation is so nice! Can't wait for the game!

I noticed you're in Manchester so maybe try: http://hacman.org.uk/ if you're looking for stuff like bike mainenance. I've been through a similar experience to what most of you described over the last year and half - splitting up with my ex, moving back to my folks place, and 3 of my best friends moving different cites. I've never really been the most outgoing of people and therefore spent about 6 months not really seeing anyone other than my folks or work colleagues, wishing I had something to do or people to hangout with. I came to the realisation that things were only going to happen if I actually did something about it myself. I took it as an opportunity to try out things I'd wanted to do when I was younger and never really had the courage to do due to be shy and a bit awkward. I taken up a martial art, joined sports clubs, started attending board game & video game events, volunteering as staff for beer festivals and other events in my area etc. My social circle has grown and I now know various new people that I class as good friends. There's plenty of free stuff out there is you look. The late-20s/early-30s is a really tough time to start making new friends, but if you put in the effort, it is possible.