Just watched this video on youtube and had to share it with you. The guy speaks the truth.
Archive for the ‘Life in General’ Category
Surrounding Myself With Sound
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Just after Christmas I bought myself a BluRay player and had been really enjoying the immense picture quality. It made me want more. The next thing, I thought, would be to get the best standard of sound available. So I started doing some research into home cinema systems. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I realised that I had to get myself a 5.1 speaker package and also an amplifier to decode the digital signal from my BluRay into 5.1. I went to richer sounds and bought the Yamaha RX-V365 (see above) and went for Yamaha Speaker set up too (NSP-270).
NS-P270
After about 3 hours of setting up the amp and speakers in my house, I sat back, stuck an episode of Band Of Brothers on and was totally blown away. I had heard surround sound before. But I was fooking amazed at how good my sound was. I totally didn’t realise just how much more of an immersing experience watching a movie is with this get-up. The last few nights I’ve been having a great time surrounding myself with sound. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Since getting the setup I have also connected my PC up to the 5.1 and also my Virgin+ Cable TV box. Amazing!
Wires and Plugs
Which kinda leads me onto my next point. I have everything in my life in one room. DVD, BluRay, TV, PC (and peripherals), Cable TV, Amp, 5.1, Router, Modem, Speakers and a Wii. I’m all out of plugs. I have two wall sockets on the side of my room where everything is. Connected to these sockets are two 1:4 sockets. With another 1:4 connected to one of the 1:4’s. That gives me 11 plug slots. On one of the slots I have a 1:2 adapter giving 12 plugs. Every one is in use as I type this.
My house is going to burn down.
The Lock-In Update #4
Sunday, January 10th, 2010So it’s all over. The door has been unlocked and it’s now time to get back to reality. About 30mins ago I had to leave the cosiness of Gemma’s flat and get home as I’ve got work to do for Lucid Studio. Before summing up the experience I’ll get us up to speed…
After the daytime movie yesterday we both had a mess about on the Wii. Played Wii Fit and Wii Resort for a bit.It definitely gave us an appetite for dinner.
Dinner!
I had bought a Fajitas sauce from Tesco and the Wraps. Just stuck some chicken on the fryer added the sauce and served it with grated cheese and Mayo. Peppers and all that jazz are in the Fajita mix. Fooking marvellous so it was. The Simpson movie was on while eating so that was a laugh.
After dinner I had a wee chillout while Gemma done the dishes (result). Messed about on the iPhone and read a bit more of the aforementioned book.
Then it was on to the main event of the evening.
Gemma had just recently finished reading Alex Garland’s – The Beach, so on Friday, after we had decided that we were going to do this lock-in, I bought the movie adaptation on DVD. Gemma’s LOVED the book so I suspected she might want to see the film.
I got wine and the (long awaited) cheese out to accompany the movie, Gemma had a wee stash of chocolates that she got for Christmas.
I enjoyed the movie. Had seen it before ages ago but it was nice to have a refresh. Gemma did too but was disheartened by how different the film was to the book “Especially towards the end”.
Cheese Please!
After the movie we flicked the channels and ended up watching a bit of Requiem For A Dream. It’s an intense movie and perhaps not he best thing to watch with the Mrs. Seemed like she was getting into it though, but in the end tiredness won over us and we hit the hay around 1.40am.
This morning when we got up it was a bit of a sombre mood. The Sunday blues had well and truly kicked in and we were both gutted that our wee weekend was about to end.
I commented that one of my workmates had said, upon hearing what I planned to do this weekend, that “We wouldn’t last the pace”, and that “Cabin Fever would set in”. Gemma’s reaction was “I wish we could keep locked-in for the rest of the week, I don’t want to go back to the world”. She went on to suggest that we make this a regular thing and do it once every three or four months. I totally agree with her.
I know blogging this was a bit of a personal endeavour, and a means of escaping into my thoughts, but I hope you enjoyed it and even took something away from my experience of isolation.
I miss it already.
Mario out.
The Lock-In Update #3
Saturday, January 9th, 2010Well that is just over 24 hours of islolation.
Lunch!
Since my last update I made lunch and got right in aboot it while watching Scrubs on E4. Two soft brown bread rolls with square sausage and tattie scone each. Magnificent.
After that Gemma went and did her corrections for school (she’s a primary school teacher) while I read my book as mentioned in the previous post. Three chapters in. Very good reading so far, but I feel like everything brought up so far is already common knowledge. Maybe as a result of the popularity of the book?
An Amazing Scene From The Movie
After G-Town had finished her corrections we snuggled up on the couch and watched the classic ‘The Princess Bride’. In my eyes this is awesome, but sadly Gemma wasn’t seeing it. Think you have to have an emotional attachment to this from your younger days to still enjoy it.
So that’s us had our day-time movie. Gemma has started playing Wii Fit while I’ve jumped on the lappy to do an update.
Our lunch was a bit too late so still not even close to hungry for dinner yet!
The Lock-In Update #2
Saturday, January 9th, 2010Hello again!!
It’s Lock-In day 2. I’m writing this on the couch. Watching the repeat of Celebrity Big Brother. I’m basically just up, had a shower stuck my slacks on and I’m now messing about on the laptop waiting on Gemma getting ready – after which I’ll be making lunch.
Dinner!
Last night was amazing. After dinner we stuck on a movie called ‘The Boat The Rocked’. You Yanks out there will probably know it as ‘Pirate Radio’. It did the job. Light-hearted, funny and a lot of cracking old school tunes. The highlight being ‘So long, Marianne’ by Leonard Cohen (See YouTube Video). Gemma thought it was alright too. Probably not as enthusiastic about it than me.
During the movie I ate half a bag of Thai Chilli Sensations with a Garlic dip. I had a beer then opened up some of my cheese and had a few crackers. The main cheese event is tonight so I only had a wee bit.
A Classic
Straight after dinner me and Gemma were both knackered so we went to bed. I, however, stayed up and got started on a new book that I plan to get in-about later on today. It’s called ‘How To Win Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie. Of course I’ve heard of the book before, but it wasn’t until my buddy Colin recommended I watch a TV program about millionaire Warren Buffet that I became interested in reading. The program centred around how Warren Buffet was the unlikeliest kind of man to become overly successful and how he was still very grounded in his routes even through his unbelievable power.
One thing stuck with me. He talked about the aforementioned book as being his Bible. ‘I wouldn’t be anywhere without that book’, he joked.
I’m looking forward to getting into it. Especially the chapters on public speaking as I have the biggest public talk of my life coming up during my Wedding in July 
.
So with that, I leave you and get late lunch made.