I'm home...

...I'm already missing Tokyo.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 9:46 PM 6 comments   

sayonara tokyo...

Well - I got about 3 hours sleep. A couple girls decided to have a party down the hall at 5:10am. I nearly got up to see if I could join in - but got the extra hour in bed instead.

We check out at 7:30 (10 minutes). I'm going to really miss Tokyo. I really feel at home in this crazy city.

More when I get home.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 11:19 PM 1 comments   

Baka Gaijin desu yo!

Okay - last night in Japan... we butchered some songs in Karaoke bar.

Paranoid Android
Don't Stop Me Now
Roxanne
Where Is My Mind
God Save The Queen
Little Red Corvette

I think Tim has video of me doing my best Frank Sintra impression.

Yes - we were very drunk.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 6:47 PM 0 comments   

XXXXXXXX

We were talking on the way to the Square Enix Party about my blog. We kinda decided that since everything that has happened with the trip - I should probably not reference the companies we've been to see directly. So I have self-censored the blog. If you read it already - subarashii - you know where we've been. If you haven't - here's some pics from the Square Enix Party instead.







Final Fantasy X-2 (I think) Cosplay ;)



Queue to play Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. We VIPed it and jumped the queue to have a play.





Queues for mobiles games were big too. Jumped ;)



This character from Dragon Quest was everywhere and has it's own game.



FF7 Cosplay girls.. I'm in love.



Kingdom Hearts Cosplay girlies ;)



Turks from Before Crisis.



Queues for the merchendise were insane.



But not as insane as the queues for the movie presentation - which we jumped ;)

I have to go eat now.

Nic.

P.S. Told you Tim was a Rock Star...

posted by Nic @ 11:49 AM 1 comments   

Watashi wa doko deshita??

Okay - so I just did some math. In the last 81 hours I have had 8 hours sleep. That's less than 10%. I'm totally wrecked so I'm having an early night (midnight!!!!) in preparation for tomorrow's Square Enix Party in Chiba and then whatever we get up to in the evening.

Current plan is Karaoke then a club called 'Womb'. We'll see what the day brings.

So let me try and catch up. I was talking about the other night - which was insane. I can't really say who I was out with at this time - but I'm sure in the near future things will become clear. I may well be spending more time here ;)

We (Tim, Thor and myself) were up until 3am last night talking over the evenings meeting and meal but agreed to meet up for some food at 8:15.

I was the only one who made it :)

Not the greatest breakfast in the world I have to say - but this trip is on something of a (blown) budget so I'll suffer that little things :P

Breakfast came and went and I decided to heda back down to reception at 9am where DC was waiting. Both Thor and Tim had over slept, and who can blame them.

I decided to skip out on the first meeting of the day with TI since it was mainly a tech meeting. I decided to go do a little shopping in Shibuya and walk up to Gaienmae Station through Harajuku.

Here's some random shots of Shibuya for your travelog pleasure.











I did the usual gaijin thing and went shopping at Tower Records and HMV. I picked up a double disk by 'muffrare', the new 'Boom Boom Satellites', and a 'Solid Steel - DJ Kentaro' disk that isn't out in the UK yet.

I didn't pick up this...



A lot of shops were shut in Shibuya. I guess I was too early for some of them. Maybe they were out as late as me the night before. I pressed on through Miyashita Park, up Cat Street, down Omotesando and up Aoyama-Dori to Gaienmai Station where I was meeting Tim, Thor and DC for lunch before walking over to XXXXXX.

I got to say - BOY IT WAS HOT TODAY. And with all that walking, and even though I was just wearing shorts and T, I was sweating so much that there are salt stains on my Shirt. I could even feel the sweat running down my leg. Nasty ;)

Post lunch we went over to see one of my heroes, XXXXXX - President of XXXXXX. It was great to get to sit down and talk about games with him. He's a genuine innovator, and even though their latest project goes to master today - they gave us time and treated us really well.

After XXXXXX we jumped on the underground and headed off to XXXXXX for another scheduled meeting. Again - not going to go into why we are seeing these people, just trying to track the day for you.

Post XXXXXX we had a run through Akihabara. We didn't have a lot of time and spent most of it checking out the outrageous amount of handsets available. Hell - it's a business trip... I still haven't found time to pick up a PSP.

Dinner tonight was with Ryo Shimizu from Ubiquitous (http://www.uei.co.jp/). Ryo-san is a bit of an industry legend and has been involved in so many things it would be impossible to list them all. He's a good friend of DC's and this was more just a chance to sit down, shoot the breeze, and compare notes. Reiko from Ubiq also joined us, as did DC's wife.



Dinner was traditional Japanese. Was great. We all sat on the floor and ate sushi, sashimi etc...

Heading back we considered some Pachinko...



...but decided to call it a night. We did get a good tour of Shibuya's 'Love Hotel' district. Hmmmm... I guess checking in alone is not the done thing. I'll have to find myself a willing (read 'very drunk') partner ;)

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 3:02 PM 1 comments   

Wish you were here...

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 12:00 AM 4 comments   

Konban wa...

NOTE: I've taken the main post down since I was drunk and emotional. It probably better this way ;)

--------------------------------------------------------

Oyasumi Nasai.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 7:08 PM 2 comments   

Sumimasen. Watashi wa doko desu ka???

No seriously. Where the hell am I??? Wait. Maybe if I back track I can work out where I am.

Yesterday was epic. I’ll recap with the help of photo ops.

7:15am UK time I get up – get ready and head out to Heathrow to meet up with Tim (http://www.tearsinxrayeyes.com/) and Thor.

This is where I parked at Heathrow – just in case I have a ‘dude – wheres my car’ moment, or maybe you just want to steal my car.



Tim noticed Coldplay were on our flight. Tim has (ROCK STAR) played on the same bill as them at a festival in Spain couple of years ago. Tim some how manages to find time to be a rock and roll superstar, and also one of the finest coders you’re likely to meet.

Anyway – I sneaked a really bad pic of that lead singer bloke going through customs when we got to Narita Airport.



But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The flight out was pretty great. I had a whole centre row to myself.



Ahhhhhh… and stretch :) I wish every flight was like this!

The airplane food was the best I’ve ever had. But that was because I picked the bento option. Sugio desu ne.

Why don’t they have this food option when you fly to LA?!?!?! I’ll add that as yet another reason never to go back there ;)

I didn’t sleep on the plane. I never sleep on planes. Instead I watched ‘Sideways’ (very good), 2 minutes of ‘Elektra’ (very bad) and some Asian programs.

One was a program about sushi (a favourite subject of mine) and was one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen. It was presented by some really creepy guy doing shit magic in a darkened room for NO REASON WHAT SO EVER! Demo the sushi looked oishii desu yo.

Then I watched a program that was basically ‘Changing Rooms – Japan’ called ‘C’Mon a my house’. Yes – okay… I thought it was a porno as well at first. But no. Interior design done VERY cheap. Seemed like they were converting spare rooms into Shinto temples for 100 yen. Really, really, really bad stuff.

Then I watched a Chinese game show. It was a bit like Gladiators – but for couples. It went a little like this. Obstacle course over a stretch of water in a park. The (strong, masculine, dominant) male goes first, then helps the (weak, helpless, submissive) woman across.

Invariably the woman (bless her fluffy little head) falls into the water and we get repeated replays with the condescending commentators (I assume) taking the piss out of how weak and feeble they are.

SCARY SHIT! But *cough* compelling viewing.

In between all that I was putting together my last presentation..

So the flight was pretty damn good. I’m not the best flyer in the world – but I didn’t mind this one at all.

FYI: Tim and Thor got about 4-5 hours sleep. I got 0 hours sleep. (mark your score cards now)

We landed at Narita at 9am Japan time (12 hour flight + 8 hour on the time difference).

Customs was quick and the suitcases arrived very quickly. We shambled around the airport for a while. Got a change of clothes, coffee etc. I get cash. I meant to only get £25 out of the machine as a bit of spare cash. I actually got £250. Oppppssss :)

We decided the best way into Tokyo was the train.

Be careful. Your pussy might get hurt when you are on the train…



CHIKAN!!!!

We headed off to meet our Japan contact (DC) in the Hyatt in Roppongii Hills.

Roppongii Hills is REALLY nice. The station is amazing and is has this very cool spider statue outside.



The Hyatt is also really nice, combining a hotel – shopping – and eating.



We also met up with Coldplay again there. Had lunch with DC (Italian food – grrrrrrrr gimmie insane Japanese food now!!!) and walked over to XXXXX.



I’m not going to talk about why we were there – or what we were doing at any of these meetings btw. That would be bad bananas.

After XXXXXX we headed off to Meguro to meet up with XXXXXX. XXXXXX are a similar business to us, and this was really a meet and great. They were all really nice guys (and girl), and took us to dinner.

I mean no offence when I say. ITALIAN FOOD AGAIN!!! NOOOOOOO GIVE ME CRAZY JAPANESE FOOD NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Kore wa Pam-Chan desu.

They made us feel very welcome. It would have been nice to have spent more time with them but we had to get on the Shinkansen (Bullet train) to Osaka for a 9am meeting.

So 9:30pm Japan time we’re going 100s of MPH (probably) on a 2 and a half hour trip to Osaka.

I decided to buy a random drink for the train…



…which ended up being the same drink we had been served in all our meetings – and I’m not a fan.

So NO – we haven’t actually seen a hotel yet. NO - I haven’t had a minute of sleep. YES – we have been dragging our luggage with us all this time (I bet Coldplay didn’t have to). Baka-Tim didn’t bring a suitcase with wheels, so he has had to carry his bag round half of Tokyo and Osaka’s subway systems. CRAZY ROCK STAR!!!

We got into Osaka about midnight Japan time. As I got of the train I noticed a woman face down on the train platform. I thought she was dead. A couple people were stood over her. After about 10 seconds she moved. I guess she was okay – but you got to ask yourself if you should be working THAT hard!!!

Anyway, 10 minutes on the subway and we’re at our hotel finally. We check in, and some idiot has the idea to go for a ‘night cap’. Okay – it was me.

We dropped our stuff in the rooms and went out into Osaka at about12:20am.

This was a bad move on so many levels. The streets were full of ‘bladded’ salary men. It was something worth seeing, but something that was kinda creepy also. All we wanted was a beer. But all the bars we passed had women on the door that looked ‘expensive’. Some were saying goodbye to the drunken businessmen who’d paid for their company that night. Others were looking for new business.

We wondered around for about 40 minutes. Didn’t get a drink. Did get very lost. Got back to the hotel about 1am and went back to our rooms.

Japanese hotel rooms are funny. I’m not very tall, but I could touch both walls on the longest width of the bathroom.



It was also my first introduction to a proper Japanese toilet seat.



I got ready for the water spurt…



…then it came…



A strangely sexual experience!!!

Okay - I was starting to loose it after being up for 34 hours (or whatever) solid.



I decided to put on the Japanese dressing gown, which made me feel really sexy…



…and then I lost it a bit more.



Watched a bit of news to see if the UK had exploded again. Went to sleep. About 1:30am.

Woke up 3am. Felt fine – but decided to get some more sleep.

Woke up proper like at 6:45am. Took in the view…





Had a much needed shower and a shave…



…and met up with the other guys for breakfast at 7:30am.

Breakfast was oishii. I had lots of weird things. It was very nice.

8:15am we set off to find XXXXXX.

Osaka’s main subway station is roughly the same size as London and after walking for 3 days we got to our train (yes – we are carrying our luggage again). We got to the stop near XXXXX and then spent 30 minutes walking around asking every other person we met if they knew where the street was. Not fun. But we found it.

10:40am we made a mad dash via crazy taxi to the Shinkansen train station.



As I write this I’m halfway between Osaka and Tokyo…





…so if you don’t mind – I’d like to have my Bento box now :)




Nic.

P.S. My Beckham advertised product poster count is only at 2 right now.



I’ll keep my eye out for more. And here's a very Kubrickesque Vending machine room from my Osaka hotel...



They should call this the 'Serve-er Room'.

posted by Nic @ 7:34 AM 2 comments   

Sumimasen...

Sorry for the lack of blogging action recently. I've been preeping like a freak for my Japan trip. I wish I could put up the video I did for one of my propsals... it's kinda cool.

Ashita wa nihon ni ikimasu...
あしたは　にほん　に　いきます。。。

Tomorrow I go to Japan...

I have a crazy 4 day schedule that takes in most of the main Japanese games publishers, and sees me scooting between Tokyo and Osaka.

Watashi no tokerode ni Shibuya-ku desu.
わたしの　とけろで　に　しぶやーく　です。

I'm staying in Shibuya, which if I get any free time seems like a good place to be.

Hachikooooooo!!!!
はちこおおおおおおおお！！！

I'll take photos when I can. I'm hoping there will be loads of crazy kawaii cosplay-chans at the Square Enix Party. Maybe if I name drop I can get to sleep with some girl dressed as Tifa from Final Fantasy 7 (ooOOoooOOoooOOoooooOOooooOOooooO)

I'll try and take a picture of Fuji-san from the bullet train too - but who knows.

Anyway - hopefully the next post will be from deep in the heart of Tokyo.

Ja mata ne. Watashi wa shogoto wa ganbatte kudesai!!!
じゃ　また　ね。　わたし　わ　しょごとは　がんばって　くでさい！！！
Okay - laters. Wish my luck for my work!!!

ニック。

P.S. I'll let dabs correct my baka nihon-go. Ja itekimasu!!!

posted by Nic @ 10:54 PM 4 comments   

Bom - bom bom - bom - BOMBS!!!

Jeeez - another Thursday, another attempt to kill a whole bunch of people just getting on with their lives. I don't wanna start a big conspiracy theory thing going - but when I got to Marylebone this morning there were loads of Police checking the bags of anyone that could remotely be Muslim.

Wonder if they knew this one was coming.

I was nowhere near any of the attempts this time - which is probably why they didn't go off.

I'm sure they'll get me next time.

I wonder how long it will take to get that IRA bomb scare mentality back we all had in the 90s. Okay - so there's a bomb at Euston. If I go round via blah then I can get to blah - then blah - then home...

I'm having to walk through London a lot at the moment cos the circle line is closed. That is probably more risky to my life then getting on a bomb filled underground to be honest - so I don't care anymore.

Bring it on. You know where I live.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 11:45 PM 1 comments   

Nihon ni - go! Go! GO!!!!!!

とうきょう　に　いきます！！　やたい！

Medullacorp blog will be coming to you live from Tokyo next week as I'm out there on business for a few days. It may well broadcast from Vancouver too - but we're still looking at the satelitte placement - crowd control - and if Jacko will actually play live or just mine, etc.

Geek post starts...

I guess I'll end up buying a PSP while I'm out there since I was playing R-Type on a PC Engine emulator today. OooOOooOOooOOooOooOoooOOooOoooOOooooOOOoooOOoo. Now if Mame plays Ordyne I'll be in heaven. OoooOooOooOooOooo and Street Fighter Zero 3!!! OooOOooOo.

わたし　わ　おたくーさん。　：（　ばか　ニック　です　よ！

Geek post ends...

じゃ　また　あとで　ブログーちゃん　そして　くん、

きこうしょう！！！！！！！！！！

ニック.

P.S. Hope you all have your Japanese fonts installed :P

P.P.S. Fixed my particles ;)

posted by Nic @ 9:13 PM 3 comments   

Fags and Vader...

You got to love the Japanese (and I do!). While the rest of the world clamps down on the promotion of fags (as in UK fags = cigarettes), they seem content to keep puffing away and using the packs as convenient measuring devices.



...and I know the Japanese girls like a western man - but if this guy can pull, I'm sorted.



Nic.

posted by Nic @ 9:09 AM 1 comments   

When I blow out my candles I'll be wishing for...

It's my birthday soon, and my Mum and Sis were asking what I'd like. Ever since the Tsunami at Christmas last year I've been giving more and more to charity. I gave all the money I got for Christmas to the Tsunami funds and more.

I regularly give money to The Red Cross and Concern.

So when they asked what I'd like, I asked them to give to charity - maybe The Red Cross.

My Sis had a better idea and told my Mum about this:


It's a great place to find something worthy to buy for a friend for their Birthday, Wedding etc. Let's face it, here in the West have, or SHOULD HAVE, enough support systems in place to look after our own. Here in the UK we have a decent social services and the NHS. But poorer nations aren't so lucky.

It's lazy to blame corruption in their respective governments. That doesn't actually help the people affected. The fortunate few that walk on the planet should help the majority of less fortunate people.

So if for some reason you want to buy me a present for my birthday (5th of August btw), please pick a gift that means something to you from this catalogue.

I personally like 'Goats for Peace', 'A Hive of Bees', and 'Chicken Bank'.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 9:16 PM 2 comments   

Blow your own...

Ideaworks3D's (oh - and EA's) 'Need For Speed Underground 2' is out now in the US for V Cast cell phones, and is getting some pretty amazing reviews.

http://wireless.ign.com/articles/633/633278p1.html
http://www.gamespot.com/mobile/driving/needforspeedunderground/review.html

Have a look at it in action HERE, as screenshots don't really do it justice.

I didn't work on it, so I'm not exactly blowing my own, but I wanted to publicly say congratulations to the team. I know just how hard they worked to get this thing out the door.

The game is a minor miracle and pretty much shows up ever other mobile developer in terms of technical performance.

If you have a V Cast compatible phone, check it out.

Look forward to 'The Sims', 'Tony Hawks', and (of cource) 'System Rush' later this year.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 9:24 AM 0 comments   

Bob Moog...

Synth pioneer, and all round 'wall-of-wires' good guy ,Bob Moog has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.



I've never been fortunate enough to own a Moog synth. The Mini-Moog is the absolute classic and is treasured to this day by 'Mini' owners. There are a bunch of modern Moog products out there. More info can be found at http://www.moogmusic.com/.

You can also get a couple of VSTi Moog emulations for your sequencer of choice:
http://www.arturia.com/en/minimoog/minimoogv.php
http://www.arturia.com/en/moog/moogmodular.php

And just announced some hardware controllers if you want a more authentic experience, but still can't afford the real thing:
http://www.midisoft.de/minimoog-news/midimax.htm

There was also a documentary that came our recently. http://zu33.com/moog/

If you want to leave a message of support for Bob and his family, you can leave your thoughts HERE.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 5:05 PM 1 comments   

Best Thing Ever!!!

I have just set up a sister blog called 'The Best Thing Ever!!!". It's one of those things I say when I just kinda like something. It's something my good friend, Barns (http://www.fleafall.com) picked up on.

He sits next to me at 'the work', and has to put up with all the crap that comes out of my disengaged mouth. The guy is basically a saint.

The deal is this. Whenever I declare something to be 'The Best Thing Ever!!!" - I'll blog it.

unfortunately it's starts off with a bit of a damp squid. Actually a 'sarcastic' "Best Thing Ever!!!" - but thems the rules of the game.

So light up your bookmarks with this sister blog:

http://best-thing-ever.medullacorp.com

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 11:26 PM 0 comments   

How does one become...

...a HAND MODEL.

This is the first of an irregular series where I try and bust open the myths of unusual careers.



I read a lot of 'tech' news. I love to see what crazy things people are coming up with that we don't actually need in our lives, but somehow desire. But what struck me recently was how much work 'hand models' get - modeling this stuff.



So how does one discover this natural occurring talent for perfect hands? I mean - I look after my hands and nails. I mousturise. I file. But never once have I thought about basing a profession on them.

Maybe they have hand model scouts that walk the Earth with their eyes permanently dropped to check out the passing digits? Do guidance consolers in schools maybe spot young fresh talent for a finders fee?



I also wonder if there is an underground scene for hand cosmetic surgery? You know - for former hand models whose 'looks' are starting to slip a little.

So if you are a hand model - get in touch and tell your story of how you broke into this mysterious career. I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd love to know.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 9:21 AM 2 comments   

What the fuck!

This London bomb thing is just getting too freaky. So following on from yesterdays 3 easy steps... you should know the following.

The guy who blew up Edgware Road (where I was) came from the town where I was born in the North of England (Dewsbury) which is nowhere near London.

Now - and this is news just in - they are searching a house in Aylesbury. WHERE I FUCKING LIVE!

So okay...

1: Nearly 'died'. 5 minutes from the Edgware Road Bomb.
2: Edgware Road bomber was from the town where I was born.
3: They were searching cars in Leighton Buzzard last night (15 mins from my house and where I have friends and thinking about moving to).
4: They are now searching a home in Aylesbury - WHERE I LIVE!

THEY ARE GETTING CLOSER!

BBC News link.

...and more detail here from Sky News.

You know what... i think I'll just make it easy for them. They obviously want me so...



I'm beginning to feel like I'm in 'Final Destination'.

Nic.

P.S. Sorry this London bomb thing is taking over my blog - but WHAT THE FUCK!!!

P.P.S. I have a new game. Hunt the Pizza Hut on google maps.

posted by Nic @ 11:24 PM 2 comments   

How to make Nic feel paranoid in 3 easy steps...

1: Blow up a tube station Nic was at 5 minutes before.
2: Raid houses and arrest people in relation to the said bombing that live 2 miles from where Nic grew up.
3: Start searching cars for bombs 15 minutes up the road from where Nic now lives (and his friends live) and where Nic is possibly going to move to.

They are out to get Nic. Nic is officially feeling paranoid.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 10:41 PM 0 comments   

Official...

You can all now officially start worrying that I am loosing too much weight. I'm officially 1 pound lighter than I want to be. Maybe I have set in motion an unstoppable weight loss pattern as I have lost another 7 pounds since V2.0 was released 11 days ago.

If I loose an additional 6 pounds you can call the hospital and have me put on a drip or something.

I am eating now, before you say anything.

Nic.

P.S. Do you know how pissed off I am that people think V1.8 Beta was the best version of Nic!! All that extra development time!! Just not appreciated :P

Maybe I should have used better pictures... like this one:



WoooHooooo ladies.. imaging that distorted mush riding you like a cowboy. Yes. You have permission to be sick :D

posted by Nic @ 3:46 PM 3 comments   

Hmmmm....

...seems like I did miss the Edgware Road bomb by less then 10 minutes. That doesn't make me feel all that good.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 10:11 PM 0 comments   

After everything today...

...a little light reading - from my ever glowing pal, Suanie. She finally answered my 5 questions.

http://www.suanie.net/?postid=261

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 11:36 PM 0 comments   

London explosions...

FYI - I am okay. I was at Edgware Road station (scene of one of the explosions) less than 10 minutes before it happened. I feel very lucky right now. We still have people here at work un-accounted for. Hopefully this is just because the mobile network is totally jammed - or they are safe, but stuck in a tube tunnel.

Not sure how I will get home right as I live a long way out of London. But that is the least of my concerns right now.

UPDATE: 6pm

I made it home. I think I'm very lucky. I left my office in Bayswater about 2:50pm and decided to walk to Marylebone mainline station. I got there about 3:35pm. On the way there were blocked off roads around Edgware Road and lots of police.

My day went something like this.

I arrived at work at 8:50am this morning. The first I knew about the attacks was a call from my Mum at 9:30am. At that point it was 'a power surge'.

Like most people in the office where I work - we then watched it all unfold on Sky News.

Here's where the attacks took place.



I passed through Edgware Road at about 8:40am. I don't normally go through that station, but the Bakerloo line was already closed for some reason.

Here's a close up of my London route.



Normally my journey is mainline into Marylebone, then Bakerloo (brown line) Line to Paddington. Then I changed onto the Circle/District Line to Bayswater where I work. Because the Bakerloo line was closed I walked down to Baker Street and took the Circle Line all the way - passing through Edgware Road.

It took until after midday to get in touch with everyone that works at my office. Luckily no one was hurt. As we all watched TV in the main reception people started to come in with stories about what had happened. Lots of people stuck on the underground. Some very close to the explosions.

I went to lunch with Wayne about 1ish. There were lots of people sat around the Whitelys mall with nothing much to do. Lots of shops had closed. I was glad to see my friend Jaio, who works in the mall, was okay.

Getting back from lunch about 2pm I decided that it might be a good idea to go and see if the mail lines had re-opened. After collecting everything together I left and walked.

It was quiet surreal walking through London. It wasn't very busy - and everyone was simply getting on with their lives. I think we still have a 'Blitz' mentality. Regents Park was still busy and there were lots of tourists with maps trying to work out how to get to places.

When I got to Marylebone they had just started running mainline trains again. They were all going to Denon (whereever that is). I was told to get on that train. The get a train to Beaconsfield (whereever that is). Then get a bus to where I live.

Days like this - you just do what they say.

Just before the train set off they announced the first train to where I live so I jumped off and got on that. Because there were no other trains on the line - it was a very smooth journey.

I got home at 5pm.

I have to say - the rail staff were amazing. Trying to ease a really difficult situation. From the TV pics as well I can tell the emergency service responce has been amazing.

When I got to my destibation there was a film crew and journos. I guess cos this was the first train out of london. I guess. Not sure.

Anyway, I'm home. I'm very glad to be home. I feel kinda numb now.

I'm going to wait and see what the next few days bring. I was going to work from home anyway tomorrow.

London will pick itself up. It's a tough city. It won't stop people using the tube or busses. We lived under the threat of this for so many years with the IRA. It had to happen at some point cos this is the world we live in.

I just hope that is it and there are no further attacks. I'm also glad this didn't happen on Saturday during Live 8.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 11:39 AM 7 comments   

The DaVinci Code...

I can't believe people are still reading this book.


[notice he is hiding the title page in utter shame (erm - probably)]

It's a pet 'commuter' hate of mine. Mainly cos the only time anyone talks to anyone on the train is if they are both reading 'The DaVinci Code'. Then (if by some amazing chance they are male and female, and around the same age) it descends into a pseudo flirting session, with little one-up-manships about where they are in the book, who they think did what, and when, etc. I should care less, but I too read 'The DaVinci Code.' I got 2 pages in and thought it was some of the worst writing I'd ever seen.

I should care less, but I always throw the guilty reader my 'DaVinci's Cock - Death Stare' anyway.



Hey - I get my morning kicks where I can... alright!!!

Nic.

P.S. Just in case you were wondering, I was reading "The Master Architect Series II - Norman Foster. Selected and Current Works of Foster and Partner" :P Jeeezzz I'm such a superior mother fucker sometimes (erm... okay - all the time).

posted by Nic @ 9:51 AM 1 comments   

Date my Mate...

My good friend Suanie is open to offers. She sells herself pretty well on her blog.



Click on the banner to see if she is right for you. She's totally right for me, but I can only take on concubines right now. Shucks...

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 9:23 AM 2 comments   

V2.0a

Now 12 Stone 2, 170 pounds, 77 kilos. So another 4 pounds in 2 days :) Erm... someone get me off this crazy thing! Actually - I wanna be 12 Stone (168, 76) cos it's a nice round number. Start worrying when I dip below that :)

Funny though - having eated some chicken and cottage cheese last night, for the first time in ages I have felt hungry. Kinda weird.

Nic V2.0a

posted by Nic @ 9:57 AM 2 comments   

Cleanliness is next to kawai-ness...

Surely we'd all keep things clean if cleaning things looked like this.




Nic.

posted by Nic @ 5:06 PM 0 comments   

There's no place like .home...

My blog is now back where it should have always been, on my main site. Please fix any links you have set up to 'blogspot' back to http://blog.medullacorp.com. The blogspot address won't be updated anymore - so this is the last post you will see there. If in doubt, just click HERE and bookmark me again.

Normal service has finally been resumed.

Nic v2.0

posted by Nic @ 12:55 AM 1 comments   

Nic V2.0 goes live. Please remove all Beta versions...

The people around me know that I have been on a diet that last 6 months. Those of you that knew me before 2005, you should know that Nic V1.0 was retired. Nic V2.0 is now fully operational. Faster, stronger, more confident, and lets face it, goddamn handsome ;)

This is Nic V2.0 on July the 1st 2005.




I started a diet on January the 10th 2005. At that point I was 21 stone 2 pounds, or 296 pounds, or 134 kilos. The diet I've been on is called Lighter Life.

What's that?

It's an abstinence diet. You get given food packs (soups, shakes, and bars). Men have 4 packs a day. Women 3. You also have to drink at least 4 litres (8 pints) of water a day.



This is Nic V1.8 beta, released late May 2005. 14 stone 11 pounds, 196 pounds, 89 kilos.

Weight loss is rapid. Especially at first. I lost 23 pounds, 10 kilos in the first 4 weeks. I averaged 4.6 pounds, 2 kilos a week over 25 weeks.



This is Nic V1.6 beta, released March 2005. 17 Stone, 244 pounds, 111 kilos.

The diet is on one hand hard. You have to stick to it and adjust your life. Drinking that much water means you pee a lot. But on the other hand - it removes all choice so there's nothing to 'cheat' on.



This is Nic V1.4, released February 2005. 18 stone 8 pounds, 260 pounds, 118 kilos.

The diet has counselling. You go every week and talk about your relationship with food. These sessions are so important. Without them I think the diet would fail. You need to know why you are fat. Why you turn to food. Why you feel the way you do. These sessions address all that.



This is Nic V1.2, released January 2005. 21 stone 2 pounds, 296 pounds, 134 kilos.

Today is the first day I can eat regular food again. Just basic proteins first, and still 3 packs a day. But that's fine. I don't ever feel hungry any more. Food means very little to me know. And the most amazing thing is, I haven't had a drink in 6 months - and I used to drink 5 bottles of wine a week!

So here is Nic V2.0. Download now. Remove all previous versions. V1.0 is gone. Made completely obsolete by this MAJOR upgrade.



Nic V2.0 is 12 stone 6 pounds, 174 pounds, 79 kilos.

This upgrade is free to all users.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 6:04 PM 4 comments