The Gospel According To Rhys - Colwyn Bay North Wales Web blog About Sport Technology Web 2.0 Internet Life and Making Money Online

Regular readers will know I’ve been learning to drive for about half a year. I am desperately seeming to sacrifice all of my chances of passing.

A few months ago, I talked about my trip to Rhyl, which should’ve included my theory test. You see, idiots like me forget minor details like driving licences when they sit their theory test. I eventually passed (and lusted over some girl on the train. Damn it’s a good train journey from Colwyn Bay to Bangor, even without that), but it didn’t half bother me that I fucked up royally.

This week, I did another little fuckup.

You see, my mum has intrusted in me her Toyota Yaris, which looks something like this:

It’s all well and good, but I’m used to driving Volkswagen Golf’s, which look like this:

It’s been a long road to this point. My favourite brother (sorry Rick, but you are in New York and I am jealous for that) had to learn in my dad’s totally unsuitable cars, so I’ve had to do convincing to my mum to learn in a car with power steering, and brakes, I’ve had the talk on how cars handle differently, and how I should drive easily with other people’s cars. I’ve convinced my mum that I’m a safe, responsible driver and that I can handle her car.

She’s bought me insurance, and was all set to go for a drive on Tuesday.

Only I forgot my L plates.

Silly me.

Luckily it wasn’t that bad, and I drove a bit the next day.

I’m sure you can chance it though by saying “oh, they must’ve blown off”. What is the law about this?

Quiet weekend again for me this weekend, so I’m using it to catch up and promote a few projects. Guy’s a livesaver for Shagablogger, so I feel I should work on that. See you Monday!

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I am quite forgetful (more on that tomorrow), and generally a little clumsy. That’s why I’m good at IT related projects where you can undo anything and everything. Unfortunately, by career as a brain surgeon was cut short when I found out Ctrl+Z doesn’t work.

I’m also a creature of habit. My days are generally pretty well planned at least one failed future Mrs. Wynne dumped me for lack of spontinaity. I’m sorry, but the guy who comes from work, rips your clothes off and gives you twelve hours of mad loving is also the same guy who comes home from work and slits your throat in a moment of spontineity.

Ahem.

As a creature of habit, one such is through typing. One thing is that I can basically zone out, not think about typing, and end up with a pretty legible article. However, I always have to spellcheck.

Take my work. Often I have to write tourism articles for content, usually for local areas. One such area is Rhyl. Quite frankly, I’m not paid enough to paint Rhyl in a positive light, but I do my best. However, I always type “Rhys” instead of “Rhyl”, which leads to amusing sentances such as “Rhys is a good way to spend the day”. Which is actually more true than if I typed Rhyl.

When I started blogging, I got more and more into blog, so that now I type words such as blocks or blonde, I usually type in blog. It’s a force of habit.

But it gets worse.

Yesterday, I was typing out a form. I typed in sex (as in gender, filthy pigs), and typed SEO.

I seriously need a girlfriend.

Do you type things out automagically like me?

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Last Friday, I purchased the latest Nintendo franchise game to make it’s way onto the Wii - Super Smash Brothers Brawl. I enjoyed, rather than loved the previous two games, so how would this fare out.

To begin with, I thought it was terrible, it was overly simple, I like my fighting games like Tekken and Street Fighter, whereby you have to learn the special moves or tactics, and to begin with it does seem like a clusterfuck of special moves, and the camera is often so far out that all you can do is button bash.

The other really annoying thing is that two of the most heavily advertised characters (being Metal Gear Solid’s Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog) aren’t instantly playable, there not even easy to unlock. I stumble upon unlocking them by playing the Subspace Emissary mode, after 5 hours of game time.

The Subspace Emissary mode is an interesting one, it puts the game in a side scrolling adventure mode. If you do play in this mode, heed my advice, use a Classic Controller. For those who have ever played Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub Zero will know that most beat-em-ups have “up” as a jump, whereas most platformers have a separate button for jump. The reason is simple, platformers require pixel perfect jumps. With the classic controller, they designate a special button for jump, whereas the original controller uses up, which is tricky and unworkable.

I will say this though, the Subspace Emissary is a rather fun mode. You face wave after wave of easy enemies, such as goombas and koopa troopers, and has a pretty good storyline (found out later that the story is written by a chap who wrote some of the Final Fantasy games, so it is pretty good). It can get a bit frustrating at times, but it does work okay.

Online mode is passable, it’s not as good as Mario Kart Wii, it can slow down with a lot of action on the screen (I have been disconnected once before as well), and everybody online seems a lot better than me. But overall I can’t really think of much wrong with it, as it’s the same for a blast like other Wii games, nothing serious.

So, all in all, you’d think I am not convinced on this game? Wrong. It is really quite addictive, especially with mates. I’ve racked up over 20 hours of playtime (similar to Mario Kart on it’s first weekend), it’s something about it. When you get used to the snazzy effects and the way the game is played, it is an excellent beat em up, so my advice would be give it time.

The other thing that helps is an encyclopedic knowledge of Nintendo games. Seriously, I spent ages recognising tunes from games in the past, and little background characters and effects from previous games. There is loads to unlock on this game, trophies, characters, stages and music. The latter can be used on various themed stages (for example, you can use all of the Sonic tunes on the Sonic stages), there’s even some newer tunes like a Wii Sports Medley useable for the stage the Pictochat.

And the stages in the whole? Brilliant, but you need to have an idea of what Nintendo has done in the past to truly appreciate it. My personal favourite is the Wario Ware Stage, where fighting stops to complete a Wario Ware challenge.

So, if you like fighting games, or are a Nintendo nut, and you have a bit of patience, I would reccommend this game. Anybody else have it though? My Smash Bros number is 4554-1418-1010. I’ve added it to my Wii Friend Code Page, so drop your Wii codes in there if you wish

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Hi everybody! This is the first time in two months I have done this, as I was in New York this time last year. Yeah, I’m feeling gutted about it too. Nevertheless, here’s my sponsors for this month, thank you! Find out how to advertise here.

• Fiddy P, the blog of Andy Bailey, gives his thoughts on a Book on Wordpress.
• Easyretrirerich.com advertises Ty Couglin’s “Reverse Funnel System”.
• MiniJuegos
• Search Engine Marketing Blog
• Darren Grover

Of course, more importantly are the readers. Here’s the top 10 for this month.

• Kristoff hasn’t been blogging for over a month, but here’s a post he written about The Day He Went to Blackpool
• Manuel shares His Nightmare.
• Debbie posted one of the most infectious songs in the world on her blog - You’re So Gay (and you don’t even like Boys) - it’s been in my head for weeks!
• Grace starts up an interesting idea, A Blogging Scenario
• Jon gives his thoughts on the iPhone 3G.
• Melissa is loving The New Series of Top Gear.
• Eva White Goes on Holiday.
• Han is also on holiday, Han is in Florida.
• Fern goes on a blogging meetup.

Thanks guys, and I also got something rather interesting too!

Han sent me a postcard from her trip in Florida.  Now as well as confirming she has no idea on what’s cute (she thinks the crocodile on the front is gorgeous. Who is she? Steve Irwin?), she also went on a bit. So much so that they (either being her parents or the US Postal Office) stuck the stamp over some of the words!

Numpty! But thanks for it!

Question of the day, just what tales and titbits are hidden behind the stamp?

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photo credit: Jonas Šileika

So, last night, Euro 2008 ended on a crescendo last night, with Spain beating Germany 1-0 in the final. So much of the tournament was fascinatingly watchable, with shocks, fantastically watchable games, end to end moments, comebacks and plucky countries.

Some of the great moments were Turkey coming back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 within 10 minutes. Holland’s decimation of world champions Italy and runners up France in the group of death. Austria being the plucky underdog and not looking anywhere near their 92 world ranking, outshining their neighbours the Swiss. We head some classic and memorable goals such as Wesley Sneijder’s sweeping volley against the Italians being top of my list. We’ve seen passion, which have translated well in the tournament.

I think what made this tournament so special was the distinct lack of home interest. It began terribly, a few dud games before getting starting, and it showed. People were talking about “If England were there”. Well they weren’t, and I think the lack of self promotion and constant biasedness to our green and plesant land made this tournament just watchable. In the end, whilst the tournament began with referencing England’s failure being unjust and that they should be there, overly English commentators were suitably humbled and they were never mentioned again.

So, would I be happy never to see England in a major tournament again? Definitely. With the lack of England car flags, the papers dominated by Coleens, Gerrards, Lampards and Metatarsals, and the enevitable riots when England get eliminated. This summer has been peaceful, and - with no England - we saw some fantastic football. Don’t get me wrong, some of the classic moments would have still occurred if England were in the tournament, but I feel they would’ve been swept under the carpet with our nation’s press focussing on Wayne Rooney’s pug-ugly face.

Wales on the other hand? Well, I’ve already got my ticket for Durban in 2010.

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