You know me, I’m a lazy blogger, but this is important. I actually have some great news to share! Well.. great for me, anyway. You see, fine people of the interweb, on this date, exactly one month ago, at this exact time, someone who has quickly become incredibly special to me fell into my lap. Let me set the scene for you… there I am, in front of my computer watching “Everybody Loves Raymond” or similar when one of my closest, if not best, friend IM’s “Quick, Facebook, back me up!” So to Facebook I go, and there is the most amazing status about Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” sounding “alike” to Queen’s “Under Pressure”. So there’s this girl that’s commented, not quite getting the original joke, she made me laugh, I could have some fun with this! I chimed in with “I call shenanigans on Queen! That’s like, copyright infringement, which is WRONG!!”, which really got her going. So anyway, there I am, mocking this amazing fiery girl, she’s brutally tearing into me, she’s not holding back at all. I say to Jon “I think… I think I need to like, marry her.” So I post, and she posts, and Jon posts, and I post… this goes on for well over 2 hours! She was so passionate, and so wound up by that point the whole joke just went woosh over her head. Even though I had royally pissed her off – e.g. her tweet mid-arguement “I just corrected an Englishman… Dear God, the world is moronic. -.-;;” (haha), she still added me as a friend, god only knows why. She sent me poetry, and I had intended to keep the joke going, but when I read it I couldn’t. See, most girls write poetry, unfortunatly most can’t write poetry. So you end up with thousands of live journals with “I’m going to the mall with Muffy and Buffy!” and then sub-par poetry scattered throughout. Her poetry was actually good. It turned out she was working on a BA in English and had a natural flair for it! >_<

So there I am, attracted to this girl that’s nothing like my exes but everything I always pictured myself wanting. She ticks all the boxes, and then some. She’s perfect for me, but I’ve blown it right? XD It’s not your ideal first meeting! You’ve mocked this girl for the best part of 3 hours now, been turned down by her (- at which point I jokingly upped the offer to eloping in Vegas!) you haven’t put on any nice fronts, you’ve been yourself. I thought we’d just be very flirty friends. Gah, why couldn’t we have met at Jon’s wedding? Thing’s could’ve played out so differently. I could’ve had a better shot… Wrong! Apparently if you would just be yourself for a few hours, the perfect, and I mean most perfect, girl (or guy) for you will just fall square in your lap. We’re talking on facebook daily. We exchange AIM sn’s. We’re racking up an average of 14 hours a day. I’m ignoring work, friends, family for this girl. She’s engaging me on intellectual levels I’ve never reached before. It turns out we’re absolutely perfect together. We want the same things from life, and from each other. We share the same beliefs. She’s a strong woman, not a silly little girl, but at the same time isn’t against me taking care of her. I don’t have to treat her like a glass doll.Things that I thought would bother me with her, things that exes have complained about, don’t, they mean nothing. I’m not a jealous person, I don’t put girls too high up on a pedestal, I don’t have high expectations, she, my Rachel, makes me realise this. We have such a incredible combined sense of humour, twisted in it’s complexity. She never gets angry at me for being me. She bolsters my confidence. I completely adore her.

I call her – yes, I call her, nervous, shy me… I’m not nervous, nor shy with her. You’d be amazed. Why is this? How can I converse with you, Rachel, for 18 hours a day on occaision, how can we talk for so long our throats get sore, our lips get dry and not have any awkward pauses? Nor get nervous? How can we discuss our deepest depths of emotion without the shield of the internet to keep us safe?

I seem to have little time, or desire, for anything else. It’s taken all my free time and strength to sit here and write this post, which is why I’m writing it so far in advance.

We’ve completely skipped the dating stage. It doesn’t feel rushed, it feels like a natural progression of us. We’re both level headed, problems that have arisen have quickly found their solution. We work as a team, a natural extension of each other. We’re in at the deep end and swimming majestically. The date is set, we’re going to Vegas in 10 months time.

Without it needing to be said between us, this is right, this is perfect, and finally, this is eternal love.

Okay, so, I finally got some free time away from other things to add a post here. This weekend I signed up to eBay again. I did have an account at some point, but it was so long ago now I don’t even think the E-Mail registered to that account exists anymore. I never really used eBay before, reason purely being 9/10 you can get the exact same product, brand new, with warrenty, less than it costs on eBay including postage, but it does have it’s uses which I’ll get to in a second. I was there looking for a cheap specific sagem/netgear blend router locked into the Sky ISP, my old adsl modem isn’t compatible with Windows 7 (which I’m using), and I didn’t feel like buying a £60 router, nor re-signing up to my ISP for 2 years to get one free. So I found one and started bidding, fully boxed, with all the cables, £15.50 including postage, cheaper than the cheapest of routers. It got sent out yesterday (Monday was Bank Holiday). I should say my ISP isn’t actually Sky, I just have their firmware fully hacked already, so it’s quick for me to unlock it to use on my own ISP, I could’ve bought one unlocked but no box (very used), and £5 more, still cheaper than a brand new Netgear. The really cool thing though, while I was browsing eBay, under the video games section is this – wii Sports Original Hard Case. (Nintendo, if you ever read this, include a god damn DVD Case next time, it costs you like, 20p or so to make? There was even space for it in the wii Box!) The price at eBay is crazy cheap at £3.50 including postage but I’ll get to that. It arrived today, sent out yesterday, I should say too my Postie’s a great guy, hold’s stuff for you so you don’t have to go to the sorting office, will call out to you too and give you the mail if you missed him and he spots you in another road – Postie’s as Postie’s should be. On to the pics…

Just to be clear, the reason the 3rd one doesn’t match below, is because the 3rd one is wii Fit.

There’s ton’s of these on eBay, various prices, I went for this one because of the original case – and I definitely made the right choice. The others say “similar to the cases used by Nintendo”, this is the ACTUAL case used by Nintendo. Click the pics to get a bigger version, checkout the wii logo above the disk on the inside of the case. You’ve heard me say quality costs before. trust me on this, pay a little more, get a better product, be happier with it. Now you could make these yourself, there’s tons of images for you to print here on Google, but then you’d need to get an original wii case, good ink, heavy photo glossy paper, and crop it to the correct size before printing to match the quality of the one I bought, it’s a hassle I didn’t need. Look how crappy the cardboard one is when compared to your other bought games. Ok, it’s “just” a case, and it probably didn’t need a whole blog post, but the game it’s protecting is the reason we all bought the wii, be honest! Give it the best, and have it match in with the other games in your wii collection. Go buy one. Simples.

Here’s a couple of quick mockups for WordPress themes I’m currently working on. Apologies for the watermarking, don’t want the design stolen before it’s done .

First is inspired by Jons girl, the ever lovely Mandaleen.

Second is a quick theme for a gameserver blog.

Both rendered in photoshop, have yet to code the xhtml/css for them.

Copied the rules from a friends Facebook post but I’m not posting this there, because I’m too lazy to write an actual blog post (I won’t waste one of the 25 on that obvious fact though!).

Rules:

Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, truths, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

I’m not “tagging” anyone, because I think it’s lame. The post itself is not lame. The whole “send this to xx people or you’ll die” that follow these things (especially in e-mails) is lame.

1. (Thing) I was/am a huge Sooty fan, and he can still bring a smile to my face.
2. (Goal) Have a house built to my own specs with technology and eco-friendly-ness (it’s my word by feel free to use it) built in to every inch. Ultimately I’d love to do this with a partner who has similar interest, but I’m easy.
3. (Thing) Don’t be shy about asking me for ID. I do not look my age, I know this, I carry ID with me. BUT, when I give you said ID, don’t stand there staring at it for 5 minutes working out the dates in your head. If you are too stupid to do simple math (1985 + 21 = less than this year = ok), you probably shouldn’t of left the house this morning, this is not MY problem, this is YOUR problem, don’t punish me for it by making me wait.
4. (Thing) On a related note, I’m unlikely to buy a £80 professional chefs knife to stab someone with when you have £1.50 knives that will probably do, so don’t look at me that way when I bring the professional knife to the checkout, with said ID.
5. (Goal) Build a MAME cabinet. Emulation is a hobby of mine, this is how I’d like to cap the hobby off.
6. (Truth) For the love of god please stop confusing tollerance with acceptance. *You* are the cause of political correctness gone mad.
7. (Truth) Sometimes the best movies are the cheesy ones you bought for £2.99.
8. (Truth) If you are a parent, BE a parent. Get off your lazy fat ass, and take care of the damn kids *you* chose to have.
9. (Truth) Stargate IS the best Sci-Fi show ever. Fact.
10. (Truth) Half-Life IS the best FPS game series ever. Fact.
11. (Goal) Learn to dance with a professional. To the girls who have tried to teach me and for those who have yet to try: I appreciate it, very much so, but I feel I’m *so* bad that I’m beyond your help.
12. (Goal) Complete the Marathon distance in a respectable time. I never got to do a lot of exercise when I was younger, I’d like to do this while I still have a chance. I’m not saying I want to run in the actual marathon (though that would be incredibly awesome), just to know I’m fit enough to go that distance running/jogging/walking is enough.
13. (Thing) If I’m in a restaurant and your menu says it comes with lime, I’m expecting lime. Do not bring me lemons. Lemons are not Limes, it doesn’t matter how you cut them, they’re still not limes. It’s quite simple, limes are green, lemons are yellow.
14. (Goal) Learn to code faster. I can complete small apps within a weekend, I’d like to change this to completing medium size apps within a weekend.
15. (Truth) Stop forwarding me virus hoax’s! Those are not REAL viruses, most of the time they don’t even exist! They’re there only to get your email address and SPREAD. YOU ARE SPREADING THEM BY FOWARDING, MORON! Please read: This and This.
16. (Truth) Stop pretending that “Smart Price” products are “just as good” as high end M&S products, read the ingredients lists. You spend £300/week on alcohol, you can clearly afford the high-end. It’ll do your health the world of good.
17. (Thing) I’m a total snob, especially when it comes to my field, but I know what I’m talking about. My friends are also snobs in their own fields, I trust their opinions on things, you should trust mine.
18. (Thing) If I know I’m right, I won’t flat-out say it, but I WILL talk down to you, because you’re an idiot (as stated earlier). If talking down to you doesn’t work, I’ll let you make the mistake, even if it costs you big. Sometimes I feel the only way to help certain people is to let them get burned, just a little bit.
19. (Thing) Between Jon and Me, we own 2 servers, and about 20 or so domains, if not more.
20. (Truth) Not everyone on the internet are peadophiles. Not everyone that wears a hoody is going to stab you. There is hardly any real forms of racism left in the world. The world is *not* going to explode in 2.3 seconds. These are all fact. Stop believing everything you read in the press, at the end of the day they’re there to sell papers. Scaremongering sells, so does sex, that’s why both are in the press constantly, learn this.
21. (Habit) Sometimes when I get in I’ll get straight online and reply to E-Mails, without even taking my coat off.
22. (Thing) I own what I consider two top-of-the-line input products, a Logitech G9 laser mouse, and a Enermax Aurora aluminium keyboard.
23. (Truth) Innocent Orange Juice (With Bits), is the best orange juice you’ll ever taste out of a carton.
24. (Thing) I can read and understand almost every programming language out there, but can only write effeciently in PHP.
25. (Habit) I’m a sucker for a good deal, even if I don’t need the product at that time – but see myself using it soon. If you know me I’ve probably forwarded you a bunch of deals on various things at least once.  If I were a girl I’d be labelled “Shopaholic”, fortunatly I’m not!

Maybe it’s just me, but every mainstream chocolate I’ve tasted the past 5 years (at least) just doesn’t taste like it used to. Hell, I’ll even go so far as to say it doesn’t taste like chocolate! I’m talking about the mainstream chocolate’s, the ones you’ll find on your high street or at your local cornershop, not places like Hotel Chocolat. I’m not naming names but I will name some exceptions to the mainstream chocolate rule… Lindt Excellence which is always perfect (love the 70% or higher), and Thorntons – which you won’t find in your corner shop but you will find on your highstreet. Thorntons make my favourite box of chocolates, “Eden”. If you’re looking for the perfect box of chocolate’s to give your girl (or boy – let’s not be sexist) before a date, look no further…

The boxes alone make these chocolates special. They come in three different box sizes, a 79g box which contains 7 chocolates (one of each flavour), a 159g box which contains 2 of each, and a 321g box which contains 4 of each. You can clearly see the design brief for these boxes, seductive, eye-catching, “Eden”. Whichever designer (or design team) got to work with thorntons on this, they nailed it. From the colours to the silk bow, to the gold leaf on the label, everything about these chocolates says “buy me”.

The sticker on the top right actually belongs in the middle, holding the cover paper over the chocolates, but at this point they were already opened. Now, I don’t know about you but whenever I’ve bought a normal box of chocolates to share, the hard-caramel, the nuts, the plain chocolate centres, the fudge, basically all the “hard” centres, they always get left. It won’t happen with Eden, “why?” I hear you ask. There are none! They’re all soft-mousse centres (no sugary fondent either).

As you can see they come in seven different flavours, with a clever little stripe on the top of each to distinguish between them.  The flavours in question (on the left side, starting from the top) are:

Desire – Orange and double cream, covered in dark chocolate.
Seduction – Strawberries and cream, with a hint of Louis Dorrnier champagne, covered in white chocolate.
Original Sin – Double cream and créme de cacao, covered in dark chocolate.
Passion – Passion fruit and guava, covered in dark chocolate.
Temptation – Apple, fig and single cream, covered in milk chocolate.
Obsession – Mango and double cream, covered in milk chocolate.
Lust – Raspberry and mascarpone, covered in dark chocolate.

The Eden theme is consistently carried throughout, as I’m sure you can tell, but it just makes eating these all the more fun. Each chocolate is full of flavour, and none are boring. Head on over to Thorntons for the specifics. They’re my favourite chocolates for good reason.

I also recommend trying their “Coffee Creams”, if like me you’ve been having trouble finding a store (or even a box of chocolates!) that stock those. The coffee nazi’s had them removed from practically every chocolate collection out there. The only downside of those being, they’re milk chocolate, don’t you think they’d be better using 60% dark chocolate? Take the hint Thorntons .

If there’s any fan’s of the movie S.W.A.T. out there, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll enjoy CTV’s Flashpoint. So far I’ve seen 3 episodes, so I’m a little behind, but I’m loving the show right now. The show is about a S.W.A.T. team called the SRU (Strategic Response Unit). They have a range of weapons, gadgets, and information to work with, so there’s something for the action fan, something for the tech fans, and something for the strategy fans. Each episode starts off with a incident taking place, and SRU responding to it, so from the first 2 minutes of the very first episode you knew what this show was about. The episodes then flash back, to however many hours or days before the incident is needed to tell a backstory. So far all I’ve seen is hostage situations, but I’m told there’s also bomb threats and such. Episode one was about a stalker (he seemed like one anyway) who took a girl hostage outside a building. Episode Two was about a father holding a whole hospital ward and the doctors hostage in order to get a heart for his dying daughter and the SRU having only an hour to resolve the situation until the donor heart became unusable, this was probably my favourite episode so far. The acting of the guests in episode two was amazing, the father’s desperation really came across and the ending was great. I mean, in episode one
the only one you wanted saved was the poor girl the guy had hostage but in episode two, you could fully understand why her father took them hostage. Episode Three was about a drugs bust, that episode was pretty great too. In episode three a young former drug addict (now clean and turning his life around), tries to patch things up with his family. Ultimately doing so leads him back to a drugs boss and he winds up walking straight into the middle of a drugs bust. Being created, and produced in Canada, all of the main cast are Canadian, all except for one American… Amy Jo Johnson, who I’m sure every guy will better remember as Kimberly (Pink Ranger) on Power Rangers. She kicked ass then, and she certainly kicks ass in Flashpoint. I’ve just read that CTV are producing another series at the moment, so I assume it’s fairing pretty well ratings wise. This show is to the Canadians and Americans as “Ultimate Force” is to the british. Let’s hope it doesn’t suffer the same fate. If you get a chance to check it out, do so, I’m sure you won’t regret it.

I figured the best way to start writing here is to write a little about me. I’m Rob, though I also get called Robbie.. always by american girls, occaisionally “Robbie Lee”, I also go by Lee which is my middle name, or “Lee Lee” a nickname given to me from birth by my cousin. I was born in Chatham, Kent, on the 29th of December 1985, which makes me 22 at the time of this post. My height comes in at 5′6″, and my weight comes in at 10st (that’s 140lb’s for the americans), seems no matter what I eat I never go over or under that. I live in London, England, hated this city growing up but I’ve come to learn some parts of it have true beauty. Love the 80’s, the music, the movies, the TV shows, it’s probably my favourite era in general. Love Sci-Fi, favourite show of all time is probably the Stargate series. Love action, love comedy, love romance, not a huge fan of horror, or black and white movies but the occaisional one will grab me. Love tech and gadgets, as I’m sure you’ll eventually figure out.  For those of you that don’t follow star signs, I’m a typical capricorn. I’m not overly social, I tend to have just a select few of really close friends. Family’s important to me. Not much of a gamer, a game has to really grab me on an emotional level for me to play it more than casually, though I am into the hardware, again, love my tech. Somewhat of a board-game lover but sadly it’s a dying genre. I’ve always worked on, with, or at computers. I spend whatever spare time I have… which isn’t often lately, with either design or programming, usually relating to the web in some way though I do spend a lot of time repairing photos too. Can’t live without photoshop being on my system – best peice of software ever created that wasn’t firefox, can live without dreamweaver though, I find it just as easy to program in notepad. Speaking of programming, I’m fluent in XHTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQL. PHP probably being my favourite of them, due to it’s versitility. I also love all parts of home design, including the “boring” parts, like routing cables and pipes. I’m not at all good at any sport, though if I had to pick one it’d be tennis. I’m good with tools, can fit a kitchen or bathroom (and have), can easily decorate a room, can solder pipework, and have extensive knowledge of the uk electricity system. I have loved, and I have lost. I grew up with severe astma, though I lost it sometime the past few years, I can hit 610L/Min on peak flow, which basically means that my lung capacity is higher than most males in my age group. Generally I’m a pretty healthy person now, though if you’d of known me 10 years ago you’d of seen a different person. I can cook and enjoy cooking, love cooking italian food because it’s full of flavour, probably the reason why I don’t like most english recipes. The love for Italian inspired this champagne and red theme in fact. I have a love food and good conversation, you’re much more likely to find me in a restaurant or quiet wine bar than you are a pub or club. I think that pretty much sums me up.

This is the post I use for testing styles.