last week we I finished moving ObscureInternet to WordPress. This I new version has been dubbed “ObscureInternet V2.5″. Now the trick is to get people involved in writing for the front page again.

I’ve also been considering moving this blog from ObscureInternet to it’s own domain. This is for a number of reasons, first of all it is a pain in the arse to run two WordPress installs on one domain, they are two complete different things (and brands) and they deserve life away from each other. Moving them apart will also help encourage the thinking that ObscureInternet belong to the community rather then myself.

July has proved an eventiful month. Work has taken me to Colnbrook, Attrichingham, Blackpool and Lytham (twice) and The family and I went away this weekend to Legoland for our Second (ahem) trip in the last year, getting the last drops out of annual passes before they run out.

Hopefully you’ll have noticed In the last post that I took a large number of pictures, this is because I got myself a new digital camera. I bought this Samsung NV4 as I think It is a great looking camera, with a good number of features and doubles as a mp3/video player as well, so I’m very happy with it.

I bough it last Friday as I wanted a new camera because the battery in my old Sony 3.2MP camera had packed in, and this one was much smaller and sexier camera. I also wanted it before I went away for the weekend and so I could take pictures of both the Legoland trip and the Holiday to Ireland I am on next week.

Yes, I am on holiday in Ireland next week, but don’t worry, the blog will still be updated.

I’ve done a fair few Legoland posts before, so this one is in a brief guide to our latest trip in pictures.

The weather was very hot and sunny the weekend we visited.

The good weather (and the school holidays) meant the park was very very busy.

The queues for most of the big rides where over an hour, so we invested ten pounds each in a Q-bot. Q-bot is a virtual queuing system which worked very well. we could book a ride, take our time getting there and then head straight to the (almost) front of the queue.

The first ride we went on was the Vikings’ River Splash, here are some nice people attempting to soak us.

Those people and the rest of the ride was successful in soaking me. Also in this picture you can see my Q-bot.

The crowds before the Revenge of the Aztec Queen show.

Two criminals, only one is wanted.

A duck!

A horrible mummy.

The Waterworks along with the Rat Trap remains one of Conor’s favourite attractions.

MiniLand, where the world has been recreated in Lego. You kind of take Miniland for granted after you first visit, but you shouldn’t because there are lots of little details hidden around it. Can you spot the one in this picture?

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

Conor and I had to have another go and Build and Test to see if we could emulate our earlier successes

I couldn’t recreate ‘The Bus” but Conor built his model thinking bigger is better.

Here it is, in all it’s glory. It wasn’t very fast, in fact his earlier versions didn’t even move.

Conor also had a go at the Build and Test Technics, making this spinning people thingy.

A giant Lego figure made out of Lego. How much does this rock? (Answer is; Lots)

Well this is the end of our trip, and the end of our annual pass. Legoland will have to do without us for a few years.

You can find more pictures here.

Middlesbrough F.C. have recently unveiled their new away kit for the 08/09 season, and in rare bit of good news regarding Boro kits, we have returned to the Black and Blue Striped kit. Which was first seen in the Jack Charlton’s Seventies era, and is a particular favourite of mine.

I’m tempted to splash out on one, even though I got tired of Middlesbrough F.C. of sticking with Second Rate kit manufacture like Errea a number of years ago.

Not only do I have to install crappy Quicktime when I update iTunes (which I only use because it’s the only decent podcast client available), but you also ask me if I want to install Safari. That would not have been so bad had you not installed it anyway even though I had I clicked ‘no’.

Shove that and your overrated iPhone up Steve Jobs’ arsehole.

I’ve was keeping up with my Wii Fit, every day without fail. So much so in-fact, that it was becoming a bit of chore. So I decided to take a little break from it, however because I’ve been a bit busy with work/procrastinating/travelling, I’ve gone a week with out Wii Fitting or doing my OneHundredPushUps, which is a much longer break that I wanted to take.

Now I can’t restart the Wii Fit today as the living room (where I do my Wii Fit, because it’s the only room in the house with a Television) currently looks likes a building site. The ceiling is being replaced as being as it has been cracking and falling down for the last few months, but hopefully it should be done and dusted (or rather de-dusted, if that is a word and not just a map on CounterStrike) by the end of the day.

When I do restart the Wii Fit I have decided that I will also only weigh myself once a week, as the daily weigh-ins can be confusing and damaging to my movitation. I can lose 2 pounds one day and then put it all straight back on the next. I will also need to retake the OneHundredPushUps test and restart doing that as soon as possible.

I have also come to the conclusion if I’m serious about losing weight and getting in shape, I need to go to the gym on a regular basis. So I’m going to get a bit of money together and join the local council run Gym, it is the one I went to previously and it is very good. The current plan is to get myself a annual membership for my Birthday in August.

Inspired by a post in the forum I decide to see if I could pick my ten favourite games of all time. It’s been very difficult choosing, but here they are in no particular order.

Half Life

The Half Life series is a definite FPS series. To create a single FPS games that is outstanding and ground breaking is a great achievement but to create three (Half life, Half Life 2 and Portal) is nothing short of amazing (and that’s not including the Half Life 1 Spin offs and Half Life 2 episodes). We are all waiting impatiently for Half Life 2 Episode 3

Counterstrike

Counterstrike is my favourite On line game and then only one I play on a semi-regular basis. An multi-player FPS game without instant respawning an endless supply of ammo makes this game the thinking player’s multi-player shooter.

Command & Conquer

Westwood invented RTS (real time strategy) games with Dune 2, and then under the Command & Conquer brand they turned into a brilliant franchise. I have loved pretty much all of Command & Conquer games except for Tiberian Sun, even after Westwood disappeared into the behemoth that is EA.

Civilization

This was a game you could start at 6pm one evening for a few turns and then you would discover it was 6am the next morning. I did this myself on the Amiga version in the 90′s, and have been doing it again recently on the DOS based version. I find the newer versions to be too bloated to be as much fun.

Championship Manager

I spent a lot of the mid 90’s playing this Championship Manager 93/94 on the Amiga, in one, two and three player modes . I find the newer version of the game to be to far too complex and demanding of my attention and time, but this game will always hold a special place in my heart.

Grand Theft Auto

A lot has already been written about the Grand Theft Auto series, but the best thing about all these games is the ability to freely roam in a large city environment and of course the ability to commit crimes and random acts of violence. It’s a very therapeutic experience, it almost makes up for the huge delay in releasing the games on the PC.

Final Fantasy VII

This is the Game the Introduced myself and the rest of the Western world into Japanese RPG games and changed the face of gaming, also the only game to spawn a movie follow on.

Stephen Spielberg said in 2004 “I think the real indicator [that games have become a storytelling art form] will be when somebody confesses that they cried at level 17″. Which just goes to show how Spielberg knows little about gaming and nothing about about the death of Aeris.

Tomb Raider

Another game that had a huge impact, taking a Prince of Persia genre of games from the two to three dimensions and giving the PlayStation a must have flagship title.  The sad part of the Tomb Raider is Lara Crofts laughably overly large breasts and the publicity they attracted in the mainstream media which still last today could be the thing the game is best remembered for.

Wizball

I had to pick a Commodore 64 game for this list, and choosing one was a very difficult thing to do (so much so I’m going to do a post about my favourite C64 games). However after a long battle Wizball came out on top. It won, not just because of the game’s bold originality (there still isn’t a game like it today), it’s great graphics or it’s brilliant Martin Galway soundtrack (The game over tune make a great message alert for my mobile phone) but because of it’s sheer playability. A game so good it won ZZAP!64 magazines’ Game of the Decade.

Turrican 2

I also had to choose a Commodore Amiga game, and again choosing one was a very difficult thing to do (look out for a post about my favourite Amiga games too). Turrican 2 is very well qualified for this list. It has brilliant graphics, an awesome soundtrack by Chris Hülsbeck, great level design, huge end of level bosses, varied game play (One level is a side scrolling shoot’em up) and amazing playability.

I struggled over this list for weeks, so excuse me if I missed something out. I suspect Super Mario Galaxy would have made this list if I’d play it a little more over the passed few weeks. Look out for more top game lists coming soon.

It’s been another busy busy week, I don’t know where all the time goes. Is it July already? It’ll be Christmas next.

Since we last spoke, the wife has celebrated her birthday, so I bought her a nice and expensive (for me) half eternity ring to replace her engagement ring. She doesn’t wear the engagement ring anymore as the emerald fell out and was lost while she was in the lift at work. We also went out for a meal to celebrate. We went to Etsuko, a Japanese in the town that we’ve been wanting to try for a while (we walk past it every time we go to the cinema). The food was good and the bill was certainly very reasonable, we certainly would eat there again.

Inspired by the Official Wii Fit Experiment I’ve been continuing to do my Wii Fit training every day (except for the two days I was away). This week for the first time, since I started training, I’ve managed to lose weight. Yes, I’ve managed to lose two pounds this week, which moves me out of overweight and into ideal (just).

I did over an hours training on Friday to celebrate. So, although I am sore today, I am gonna keep it up.