Gemmers, the new game from I’m In Like With You was opened a few days ago as a public beta, meaning it still has some bugs and glitches that need to be worked out, but it is a functional game. Be warned, those of us who play it are quite fast and you will be losing quite a bit at the beginning while you practice and get used to the game. The basic object of the game is to get rid of the gems by finding groups of 3+. When you find groups larger than 3, it sends gems to your opponents. You can get various powerups to help you or to mess up your opponents. To win, it’s basically last man standing, so don’t let any of the gems hit the top of the screen. Not much else to be said about the game except that it’s just as addicting as Dinglepops and Draw My Thing. If you haven’t checked out I’m In Like With You before, I highly recommend doing so. See my post on Dinglepops here for more about them (I’m In Like With You).

Also, if you sign up with them (which I’d do as it keeps track of your play time, how many times you’ve played each game, etc.), feel free to look me up and add me to your friends list; click here to view my profile and you can add me from there.

So on Friday, Rhyme and Reason wen to the National UK Battle of the Bands finals. 11 bands got there, the top 3 were announced. We played excellently and give it all we had, but we didn’t make it in the top 3. The competition was tough and all the bands were extremely good. Even though we didn’t make the top, we still enjoyed being there. It was an experience in itself just to be able to go to the finals. We see it as the fact that we made it into the top 11 bands out of who knows how many in all of the UK, that’s quite and achievement in and of itself. I wish I had video footage and/or pictures of it, but no such luck yet. I believe Rob, the tutor, has video footage of our performance, but I haven’t gotten it or a link to it uploaded anywhere so I can’t share that with you… yet. Once I get it, I will post it so you can see it (would you rather I edited this post and added it into here or do a new post for those?).

 

Some of you may have noticed that there was a while that I wasn’t lifecasting; that was because my internet was being wacky and it was really bad. So instead of having a bad cast, I decided to wait until the problem was fixed. Well, internet is working OK again and I am lifecasting again.

Oh and I usually have to be at class at 0900 tomorrow, but the first class is canceled cause Mike won’t be there, so I don’t have to be in until 1130! Woo Hoo! How psyched am I about that? Yeah!!!!

I apologize that I haven’t posted in a week, but nothing has really happened except the Battle of the Bands. I will probably have a music recommendation post for you guys later on this week, so keep your eyes out for that.

 

If you follow my Twitter, you probably know I play Dinglepops quite a bit. Actually, I play it a lot (not as much as WoW, but still quite a bit). Here is a dynamic badges showing my stats on Dinglepops and Draw My Thing:
                                             

 

I’m In Like With You (picture above is the link to the site) is online games that you play with other people. They’re small basic games, but they are super fun and addictive. I play them during my breaks at college and my mates all huddle around the computer to watch/help out. We usually play Draw My Thing together as it’s easier to do as a group, but sometimes they’ll watch me pwn on Dinglepops. I suggest checking out the site, trying out the games and if you like it sign up (free and no email newsletters or spam, which is great). Also, look me up and add me as your friend on it, my screen name is ’saxnbass’. If we’re online at the same time sometime, we can play together.

They also have Blockers, which is like Tetris, but you need to be extremely good at Tetris to even attempt playing this game as most of the people playing it are insanely good at it.

Go check it out and have some fun playing these great games. Dinglepops was a new game a few months ago, Draw My Thing is the newest one and they are currently working on one called Gemmers.

Warning: These games are highly addictive and may cause you to waste significant amounts of time.

Alright, some of you may have already heard,but I haven’t told many people, so I decided the easiest way to tell you all about it is through my blog. If you’re my friend, you probably read my blog; if you don’t, you should. lol

Anyways, I’ve decided to drop out of LCM because the course is too easy and it’s done nothing for me. I am coming home to Italy for a year and then I’m planning on going to California for University. I’m hoping to be accepted to SFSU (San Francisco State University) studying Computer Science. While in Italy, I’m planning on getting a job or two. Preferably, I’d like to get my old job back doing the computers at the Power Zone (HP and Apple hopefully) as I love computers and know quite a bit about them. I’m looking at a career in the IT/networking department or maybe even something like Web Design, depending on how that works out for me (I’m getting Adobe’s Web Design Premium suite). I’d do the Computer Science course at college either way, cause Web Design requires all the Computer Science knowledge and you learn Web Design on the course. So yeah, that’s the plan. And I don’t know exactly when I’m coming back to VI, so don’t bother asking about that. lol (I have a feeling I’m still gonna get a comment asking me when I’m coming back. lol)

On Friday, LCM’s very own Rhyme and Reason (consisting of Eva, Vocals; Ozzy, Guitar; Sitomu, Bass; Will, Drums; Billy, Keys and Violin; Chez, Alto Sax; Myself, Bari Sax and Backup Vocals) went to Newcastle for a Battle of the Bands competition. The winners of the various heats go to the finals. There are only 2 winners for every heat. We played amazingly and had a good time. By the end, we were really nervous about if we would make it through or not. Well, I’ll just let you find out the same way we did:

 

 

 

I have a fair bit of pictures of the event on my Flickr (there is a set called “Battle of the Bands” to make it easy), should have more pictures going up when I get Eva to email me the ones she has on her camera.

 

I also have video footage of almost all of the other bands playing (couldn’t take footage while I was playing obviously. lol) and will be editing that when I have all the footage. Stay tuned for links to those. I’m also trying to get the footage of us playing from Rob (our tutor).

 

 

Watch Above Video before reading the rest of this post

 

 

After the competition, one of the judges (who works for Kitchenware Records) went up to Kristian (our tutor) and gave him loads of compliments about us. After that, he gave Kristian his card and said “When they start writing their own material, give me a call.”  Only down part to that is that Sitomu and myself are not staying in England. 

Here is what Frances has to say about her weekend in Leeds:

 

soooooo… to ‘everyone’ who is curious about my trip to england and whoever is not… here is the 
blow by blow of my almost deathful trip.
on friday the 25th(italian holiday) i left from the vicenza military base to go to visit Eric in Leeds
well i go to the aiport no problemo .. but then my bro called and told me that dad dissapeared and that the electricity just turned off. see you can’t leave the house and it is all in danger of not beeing there when you get back ! well i got to Leeds ok after 2H and a 1/2… then i took the bus … it was so funny to see everything so clean and NICE after living for ages in Italy . and just the fact that they drive on the WRONG side of the road is just COOL.
Friday night (after i dropped all my stuff off in Eric’s room) we went to a pub, coolest EXPERIENCE i ever had !!!
such weird people! well we had a few drinks and left for another pub around 1/2 night . had another drink and at about 2-230 Am we headded home. Eric still knew the way but we were both a little tipsy so i carryed him home KINDA …LOL Saturday was HANGOVER MORNING/AFTERNOON for me (Eric wasnt hungover but he didnt get out of bed early either… maybe he goes out to much in Leeds lol) … i got out of bed at about what was it … 4 PM ‘cuz Eric took me shopping so AWESOME !!!
Sat night we had chinese with Nikki and watched Laguna Beach = DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA
i decided i was going to socialize with the flat mates so i went and joined them in the kitchen .. so much beer and smoke!!!  that was fun 
sunday i went shopping and in the evening we : Eric , Marcia and I , all went out for pizza it was really good pizza!!!
monday morning nice cuddles in ericks bed and off to come home to bella italia … 
I was in italy at 3 Pm and finally got home at about 8.15 PM…
oh and just for the record i came home with new clothes , and a HUGE HICKIE !!! (ment to be joke but back-fired as me mom said that dad would ground me for ages … so i had to hide it ) . 
IT WAS MY FIRST TRIP WITHOUT PARENTS AND IT WILL BE ONE OF THOSE ‘I’LL NEVER FORGET’ ONES!!! JUST 
WOOOOOOOOW … BLOWES ALL YOUR PROBLEMS OUT OF YOUR HEAD !!! 

If you have Twitter, you know that I sold my iPhone today. I sold it to my college tutor, Mike. I’m really sad to see it gone, but I have to let it go. I’m coming back to Italy for a year, and the iPhone does me no good there. Since it’s a contract phone, I’d have to pay off the rest of the contract in order to cancel it (£370). I have had a Nokia N95 for a few weeks now, but didn’t really use it much other than QIK and the camera (5 megapixel) because I used my iPhone for everything else. Let’s just say that I won’t be surfing the net on it much, cause it’s your standard crappy web browser. It’s decent, but after using iPhone’s Safari, nothing compares. Also, I haven’t figured out the email, and I’m not going to bother for the month and a half that I’m still here. Other than that, it’s a beast. It has a 5 megapixel camera with a quality flash and it does video recording. It also has a front face (above the screen) camera, though it’s not 5MP. Nice thing is that it does sync with my iMac (contacts and calendar) very easily, and I have a program that let’s me sync it with an iTunes playlist. The N95 has a built in radio, which isn’t that good, but I have a radio now lol. On top of all the standards and QIK (the live video streaming online from my phone), I found a program that lets me use Skype, MSN, Yahoo, and AIM from my phone (and even does audio/voice calls for Skype and MSN). I usually have it running all day when I’m out and about, so feel free to send me an IM or even call me on Skype or MSN. I will tell you that if I’m in class, I won’t answer calls and text replies will only be sent when I have time to do so. Overall, I’m quite impressed with the N95. Now I know why they say it’s the leading competitor to the iPhone; it doesn’t have as nice of a user interface as the iPhone, but I will admit that it does a lot more (well, until the iPhone allows for 3rd party apps).

For specs on the Nokia N95, click here or for those of your nerdies that want the full on specs click here

 

 

Also, I’ve made a small change to the site. I’ve decided to get rid of categories. They’re more of a hassle than they’re worth. You make some, then you have a post that needs a new one, then you realize old ones work in that category too, etc. So I decided to get rid of the categories, if you’re looking for specific past posts, the best way to do so is by using the search feature (right hand side above the buttons). I’ve also changed the calendar to a list of the months as an archive for past posts. 

I’ve noticed a lot of people find my blog through search engines trying to find out how to tether their Nokia N95 to their MacBook. Since I do this on rare occasion (cause phone web browsers, except the iPhone’s, are pretty crappy), I thought I’d help these people out and give them a how to. I hope they find it helpful.
I do it via Bluetooth, so pair your MacBook and your N95. At the end of the pairing process, the MacBook will ask you about using the device’s data connection to access the internet (or something along those lines, I can’t remember the exact wording), select to set that up. You’ll have to go online to check on the specifics to your network provider. It should have the basics already selected correctly, but you’ll have to get the username, password, and APN from someplace. Since most providers don’t really like the idea of tethering, you may want to check online for this info rather than going and asking your network. Then I’d suggest putting the bluetooth and modem icons in the menu bar. For simplicity, I have my MacBook set as an authorized device on my N95 so it automatically connects, if you don’t have this, it’ll ask you on the N95 if you want to allow the connection. It’s more secure if you don’t have it authorized, but it’s easier if it is; the choice is yours to make. After you’ve gotten your networks settings and entered those, to connect to the net through your phone, click on the modem (picture of a phone) icon in your menu and connect. If everything has been done correctly, it should connect and you should be able to browse the web. Be patient, it’s not the fastest connection, but if you’ve got phone signal, you’ve got internet. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get back with you or email me at: info [at] ericnupp [dot] com

Maybe most of you haven’t realized that you can register on my site. If you register, you don’t have to input your name and email address every time you leave a comment, making it easier and faster to comment when logged in. There are a few other few perks to registering that I haven’t quite worked out yet. In the future, I will probably add a feature for a mailing list. It will basically be, if you’re registered, you can sign up to receive an email when I put up a new blog post (this will be optional, and you have to request to be put on the list of course). If I can figure it out, I may also post some blog posts that can only be viewed/read and commented on by registered users.

Also, if you ever forget your password, just email me and I can reset your password and you can change it after you log back in.

1st, I’d like to know if you like the idea of a mailing list option. 2nd what do you think to the idea of registered user only blog posts? Also, what do you think to the new buttons on the right hand side?