Is it nearly 2008 yet?

Bloody Christmas nonsense. And the traditional "is it next year yet?" thing tonight. Great.

Still, I've got a big pile of DVDs to wade through now. Which might keep me going for a bit. And by the time I've got through those, I'll be able to get lots more for free.

Just got a cheque for 20 quid and another 5 quid Amazon voucher. Which brings my final total for the year up to £636.74. Pretty good. If I keep that up next year, that covers the big long list of DVDs and CDs and books that all seem to be appearing at the same time. Or I might just save them up and by the time I have enough, I'll be able to find a Wii for sale.

My new drive does not contain bank account details

No, really. The new harddrive I ordered from Amazon does not (or at least, shouldn't) contain 25 million people's bank account details. But possibly someone thinks it does. That would explain why it seems to have gone missing. Amazon seemingly sent it by TNT. The company that delivers mail, not the explosive. (That wouldn't really work, would it? Exploding people's packages and hoping they get thrown many miles and just land in the right place?)

So obviously someone is thinking "Hmm, looks like a harddrive. Wonder if it's got anything interesting on?" Or maybe it's just got delayed. Of course, you have to wait 3 days after the expected delivery date before complaining to Amazon. (That expected date being 6 days after it was sent, and 8 days after it was ordered). And then they'll chase it and let you know within 2 days. Good job I'm not desperate for it.

But Amazon generally seem to be quite good at sorting out problems. Never had any trouble, and things do go wrong or get lost now and then. To be expected with the amount of stuff they must be sending out.

And I've just added £28.07 to my total of free stuff (a cheque converted from $50 makes it an odd amount). Making £611.74. Which is pretty impressive. Let's see if I can get more than £700 next year.

How quickly can I fill a hard drive?

A couple of months after buying a new PC, and I've only got 17% of my disk free. Ok, so that's technically more than I had free on the old PC, but the drive is twice the size. And because it's a faster and fancier PC, I'm installing more stuff. (How much space did the Half Life 2 Orange Box take up?? Worth it just for the glorious Portal, obviously).

So, having just got another 15 quid of Amazon vouchers (£583.67 now), I've just ordered another drive. 320gig should last me a little while.

Problem is, with my fancy box for my guitar, I can record my guitar doodlings. Record those at CD quality, making sure I record both pairs of outputs (the one with the effects and the clean one), and that's about 345Kb/s. Or 20Mb a minute. Or 264 hours on the drive. (Allowing for 320gig drives not really being that big). About 11 days. And given that if I ever get around to trying to record something approaching a proper song, that's 3 or 4 guitar parts, each one taking 3 or 4 attempts before I get fed up, and we get 16 hours. Which would be quite a long song, I guess. And my fingers would probably explode.

But then there's all the other stuff I'll shove on the drive too. I give it 6 months at most before I need another one. At which point, they'll probably be 1/4 of the price or something silly.

So 500 quid is possible then

Another pair of £5 Amazon vouchers, and 2 cheques for £50 each, and my total of stuff for the year is now £568.67. Which is pretty impressive.

And probably about another 50 quid still to come this year, maybe more.

Wonder what target I should set for next year?

Still playing with my fancy box

But that might change, what with christmas coming up. Although I have got the pedal board for it coming as a christmas present, so I guess maybe not. It's still causing me to perform 20 minute guitar solos though. And by "20 minute guitar solos", I just mean I get some drums and maybe some odd noises going, and then fiddle with the guitar for ages, with all the effects neatly in time.

And I've also added £6.63, plus £15 quid of Amazon vouchers to my total of "Stuff from the Internet". Making £458.67. With about £150 to come, which might get to me this year.

Fancy guitar box and more vouchers

15 quid of Amazon vouchers today, bringing me to £423.15. Oh, and a DVD that would cost £13.89 from the people who supply it in exchange for points. Making, erm, £437.04.

And my fancy guitar box came. Plug the guitar in, pick one of 40 different amps it can pretend to be (ranging from nice and clean to downright dirty and almost painful), one of 121 effects (the usual choruses and flangers, and some weird ones), plug the USB cable into the PC, start my software to play some other noises, and then play the guitar until my fingers hurt. All the effects being nicely in sync with the tempo from the software. Handy for those delays where you want to get a nice rhythm going by playing in time with the echoes of the previous notes.

It's very nice, has 8 big knobs to play with, and 10 buttons. And flashing lights. Need to make sure the software is recording things properly. In time. Minor issues with the delay between playing something on the guitar in time with the PC, and then finding it's not quite in time because of the delays in the PC playing the sound. But it's definitely worth the bargain price of 80 quid.

And the PC still isn't quite right

3 weeks of fiddling with it, and I've still not quite got it working how I like it. On the plus side, I've not had any real problems with Vista, despite what all the horror stories about it have said. It's a subtle improvement over XP, but probably best kept for new machines with hardware that's guaranteed to work with it.

And I've solved one of my problems, with the aid of a little USB midi interface. So now I can make some sort of attempt at music with it. Oddly enough, the extra processor power means I can add even more layers of instruments up to the point where it still manages to complain about the lack of processor power. Whoops.

And the year's total of free stuff is now £408.15, so looks like 400 quid was a bit of an easy target. Now I just need to spend all those Amazon vouchers on something fancy. A nice little box to plug my guitar into the PC which just happens to do all the effects and "amp simulation" I could ever want for a bargain price. Should do me nicely.

I've recovered from seeing Siouxsie last week. Was certainly a good night out. Possibly not the wisest choice to get right at the front in such a small venue. Especially when she came on and launched straight into a handful of old Banshees songs. About 2 bars into Israel (the first song), and the whole crowd was going a bit mad and bouncing about and it was getting all hot and sweaty and mildly painful. Which, of course, is just what you want.

Not convinced by her health and safety worries though. She shouldn't be having to wipe up water from the stage. (Someone gave her flowers that kind of leaked a bit). She should have people to do that for her.

Whoops

Next time I try and help someone out with a broken PC, I'll try and avoiding salvaging some of their old bits, thinking they'll at least be working and an improvement to my PC. Bit more memory from Phil's PC now he's got a new motherboard and new memory? Bad move. My PC exploded as well.

Ok, it didn't actually explode, but something disastrous happened. So I've now got a new one. Which is an improvement, I guess. But a long and painful process to get it to the state I want it in. Not helped by having to cope with Vista being somewhat different to XP. Generally an improvement though, I think. But with many annoying things about it. Just different annoying things to XP.

Plus I got rid of a few of the bits from my old PC to a very grateful neighbour, who paid enough to order a MIDI interface. Which I kind of need, really. Now I just need to get a decent sound card in it as well. Then some way to get the guitar into the PC with decent quality. (Not really going to get much success out of plugging the guitar straight into a mic or line input, I suppose).

At least I've added another 16 quid to the total of freebies. Making £398.15, or something. Roughly. So that'll be the 400 quid target broken then. With potentially £100+ to come this year as well. Woo hoo, as they say.

No wait, I can't count

That last one should have been £350 now. Give or take a few pence. Stupid exchange rates. But I've just ordered a 20 quid Virgin voucher (it was the best option). Making £370. (And some DVDs on their way from Amazon - why must they tempt me so? Could have saved the vouchers and got something expensive, and probably got bored of it after a few weeks).

Ok, make that £381.99, because I spent some Nectar points on the REM live CD/DVD thing that isn't out for a couple of weeks.

Which means I shall easily reach my £400 of freebies this year target. Yay!

Close to £400!

£355 now. I think. Allowing for exchange rates. And another 20 quid I can claim tomorrow, plus there'll be at least £15 more this year. Making £390 plus whatever else I get.

I like all these free things from the internet.

PC Shennanigans

Just upgraded my PC somewhat. Fancy new graphics card, new power supply, and a cable to the TV. Which is handy for watching things I've downloaded, I guess. Only because I finally sorted out the Amazon certificates that weren't being added properly. And another 5 quid voucher I got (making £331.43 now). Took many emails and even a phone call to get Amazon to work out the problem. And then they seemed to put the troublesome 5 quid on my account as 5 euro. Which just wasn't making things much better.

Changing the PSU was surprisingly easy though, I guess. Except for the 1 connector that was in an impossible to reach place. So now I've got the original case, motherboard, processor and harddrive, but not much else. And the harddrive will need to go soon anyway, because it's not big enough. Wonder if I can replace every single bit of the PC and still call it the same PC?

Siouxsie? Album of the year?

Quite probably. My copy of Mantaray is still on it's way, apparently. But I've listened to it already. Several times. Very good. A cross between The Banshees and The Creatures, obviously. With extra bits chucked into the mix. And at least 1 song that makes you think you could quite easily imagine her doing the song for a James Bond film. Worth rushing out to buy the album, I think.

And I got the Babylon 5 DVD. Quite entertaining. Fairly impressive how the CGI stuff has got better since the original series. And there are sock puppets on the DVD. Hopefully they'll make more of them and they'll improve on it.

Amazon have broken their website, it seems. I've got £14 of gift certificates I can't add to my account. And many things I'd like to buy with them which I can't. Oh well. Add another £5.70 which is on it's way into my bank account and the total this year for all these nice freebies is... £326.43, which isn't too shabby.

It was dry!

Blimey! Some sort of miracle happened. Cornwall was dry and warm and sunny all weekend. So we had fun. 50 or so people in a field. A nice warming fire to keep things warm in the evenings once the sun went down and it started to get chilly. Plenty of fun things to do in the days. Land's End isn't quite as tacky as it could be, and you can always ignore the visitor centre and admire the views. Or the actual, real-life pretend dalek. Some nice little Cornish villages to wander about. Just one random incident of Spooky Pirate Fog on the Saturday night. Some people dressed up as pirates on the Sunday. (Plus 1 pilot and a parrot). Some pleasant enough entertainment from a talented young man with a fancy keyboard in the evenings. So let's hope we can go again next year.

And I got home and discovered an email with a 20 quid HMV voucher. So that's the Siouxsie album & single ordered. And the Babylon 5 DVD. (And a total of £306.73 this year! Yay!)

I expect something to explode soon. While it rains.

Could it be a dry camping?

3 days time and we're off to Cornwall. And the weather's actually looking like it might manage to stay dry and warm-ish. Well, warm enough so we don't freeze. Except at night, when it always gets cold. But that's what a nice big campfire is for. And not too warm in the day that we get all hot and burnt. Which is good.

Ermintrude the sat-nav is going to be interested. Google reckons it's 219 miles. Which is obviously a further than the straight distance a particularly clever and accurate homing crow would fly. Or 208 miles if you avoid the motorways. (But that adds about an hour!). Ermintrude, on the other hand, thinks it's about 176 miles and takes 15 minutes less than Google thinks. Which is about how much quicker it should normally be due to Google thinking every road suffers from horrible traffic and slow speeds. (It always over-estimates the time). I think we might just have to go the sensible route, down 3 roads we know are ok-ish. We'd already planned where to stop for coffee (just after a particularly scary bit of the M5, with it's huge plummety drops on either side), and breakfast. Wouldn't want to get there too quickly but without having breakfast.

Must remember to make a CD full of MP3s for the journey. Over 4 hours, and the car can play MP3s off CDs. So no need to try changing CDs and failing to stick it in the little slot because someone decides to speed up, or slow down, or go over a big bump at the exact second I try and stick it in.

And I just got a cheque today. For a massive 5 pounds. Forgot I even did the survey that earned me that one. Add another 5 quid for Amazon, and I'm now up to £286.73.

I've done well on the free stuff this week

Obviously someone likes me. Still lots of rewards owed to me (it takes ages for them to give you the stuff for doing these surveys sometimes). But I got a cheque for £25.48 (sounds like a silly amount, but it's 50 of those American dollars). And I've decided to collect all the Family Guy DVDs (I never really got the point of that programme, until I got bored one evening and sat their watching about 4 episodes in a row on various channels). That claims to be worth £17.99.

And in a fit of "well, I'd better spend these points on something while they have anything to spend them on", I've somehow ended up with the DVD of Pan's Labyrinth, which I've not seen but quite liked the look of. Average price everywhere, about a fiver. So the grand total is: £276.73 this year.

Not bad for not really doing much. And various other things on their way soon. Could end up with closer to 500 quid this year at this rate.

Rain. Then some more rain. Then it gets silly.

Well, that was the camping rapidly turned into a disaster. Got to the campsite on Friday, thought it was a bit wet, but not too bad, went for a spot of lunch, got the car stuck, nobody else was going to get there at that point anyway, I escaped with half the stuff, couldn't get back to Phil when it turned out the AA weren't going to arrive on Friday, he was stuck there for 24 hours (with a nice lady making tea and giving him a bed), rescued him on Saturday, car still stuck there, and all a big disaster.

Can't even write short sentences now.

Oh well. Maybe next year. Did manage to get into Swindon to spend the 20 quid HMV voucher (or card, really) that eventually came on Friday morning. The day after I chased it up. (£228.26 this year now). And the Virigin voucher I'd got. Hot Fuzz on DVD (excellent film). For the PS2, I got Okami (looks like a very nice Zelda type game, all drawn in a strange Japanese style), and the DS version of FF3 (always a good thing, an FF game?).

Only problem is, the PS2 memory card has now died, and a replacement is on it's way from Amazon. So I can't play Okami until that arrives. Well, I could, but wouldn't be able to save it. Which would be bad. The card dying doesn't, of course, surprise me in any way at all after the rain related disaster of the weekend. Oh well. At least my jeans have dried out now.

Noisiest guitar ever?

This is just getting annoying now. Possibly due to the amount of stuff plugged in to assorted electrical sockets in this room, and possibly due to all the guitar leads being old and everything all being tangled up together, my guitar is too noisy. And that's before I start playing it. Plug it in, switch the amp on, and listen to the amazing buzzing noises. And some passing taxis. While trying to avoid standing on the worn out wires, which leads to mild but still unpleasant electric shocks. Really should get around to sorting it all out.

Camping again in 2 days time. If anyone turns up. And it doesn't rain too much. metcheck.com had a funny turn the other day and were predicting temperatures of -21c. But did claim it would feel like +6. Possibly due to the 252mph winds. I think it was wrong. I hope so, anyway.

And now back up to 15 quid in my Amazon account, with 5 quid arriving today. (£218.26 this year!). Wonder if Amazon sell quiet guitars?

Why no rain?

This is worrying. Camping time again in 8 days time, and it's all lovely and warm and sunny. Does this mean it'll be wet and horrible for the camping? I suspect it does. Annoying thing is, the camping was originally due to happen last weekend, but it was rearranged to next weekend for the obviously better weather we'd have and so a couple of people who couldn't come might be able to make it. Except they're still not coming (with good excuses), and it'll be raining. Grrr.

Still, we got the tent sorted last weekend. Put it up in the back garden, hose it all down, let it dry out properly, repair some loose seams. And hope a cat hasn't sneakily pissed on it.

And free stuff keeps on coming. Another 15 quid of Amazon vouchers, and a 10 quid Virgin voucher should be on it's way soon. £213.26 then. Beating last years total easily, I think. I think various vouchers will have to be saved up for a couple of CDs (Siouxsie has a new one in September, and The Cure might actually manage to release there's this year, but probably not). And the Babylon 5 DVD is out in September too.

Rain and more camping

Well, I suddenly went away for a few days camping. Up north. Near Newcastle. Surprisingly warm and sunny on the Wednesday we arrived. Lots of rain on Saturday (which was an excuse for not walking on the roof of the glass centre in Sunderland, really. That and the 2 story drop beneath you with only some allegedly strong enough glass under your feet!). And rain on Sunday (while wandering around one of the best National Trust places we've been too - Cragside. Worth visiting), but that stopped for a bit at least. Then it was cold, wet and windy on the Monday while packing up the tent and driving back down the M1, which was closed a couple of hours later.

So, with the nice sunny weather on Thursday and Friday (to visit Alnwick with it's weird garden, and Beamish, which is a little town and mine and farm all stuck in 1913), I guess we can't complain. Except about the scary glass floor thing. And the rain in Newcastle. And it's horrible bouncy bridge.

Managed a good night out to a pub on Saturday evening with friends who live in a castle (really). And we got all adventurous with cooking. (Ok, barbecuing stuff. And making rissotto because you can do it all in 1 saucepan on a little gas stove). Oh, and I finally got the DS, so we were sat around in a field in the evening playing games (as Phil has one too). Against each other. Except when I was playing with myself, as it were. So overall, we got lucky and it was fun. But next time, we'll go somewhere that isn't 6 hours away!

And the quest for free stuff has given me 15 quid of Amazon vouchers and £6.30 into my bank account. Of which 10 quid of the Amazon vouchers went on the DS. Still makes £188.26 this year.

Being wet in a field

Well, the camping was kind of a success. Even though we only had 9 people in the end, due to various people having assorted excuses and it generally being very, very wet, we had a good time. Got the barbecue lit eventually on Friday, got it going easily on Saturday evening when it decided to stop raining all evening. Then got soaked putting the tent away after lunch on Sunday. Found a nice little pub for Saturday lunch. Had a nice afternoon tea on Friday (how we didn't end up with 2 soups, I don't know. Silly, confused woman).

And despite it being a bit cold, we all had fun sat around a barbecue filled with wood to keep warm. This did, of course, mean we all instantly froze the second we went to bed and tried to remove clothes. But sleeping bags soon warm up.

And someone liked the idea of getting Amazon vouchers he could spend on nice things, so I should get some more stuff out of that. Another 10 quid of Amazon vouchers this week, making 70 quid in there, and £166.96 free stuff in total. Nice.

Back to not doing this then, am I?

Well, really, not much has happened anyway. Been sorting out the camping stuff for next weekend. (Which is looking like it might be a bit wet now. But at least we'll have cakes. If I can make them successfully and get the icing the right colour).

And a trip to London to see James (the band, not some random bloke called James). Who were rather good. All mildly civilised, leading to absolutely no minor (or serious) injuries despite being right at the front. Which is sort of not right with several thousand people behind you and a barrier at rib-injuring height in front of you. Strange set of songs they played too. Couple of new ones, various popular singles, and some weird stuff.

Although, if you want to make an entrance by starting off behind a curtain which falls down just as all the lights explode into life and the song starts up properly, it might be worth remembering that it loses some of it's dramatic effect if you then get a roadie to pull the curtain off the stage during the first verse of the song.

Phil has also been buying new stuff for camping. A nice little barbecue, and a roof box for the car. In theory, this means we can fit all the stuff we have in the car easily. In practice, the extra space will probably instantly be filled with stuff we could probably have done without. (Like 37 pairs of shoes).

And I've now got another 15 quid in my Amazon account (making 60ish), and 2 quid gone into a Paypal account (I need it for something). Making £156.96 so far this year. And other bits owed to me soon.

The Mission CD arrived (3 days before it was released), and it's rather good. Best they've done for 17 years, although it does sound a bit like the Cure in places (not that that's really a bad thing). And he still can't write decent lyrics. ("they could impale you so don't run with scissors
/ cos being stabbed is not good for your health"??? Sorry, but I don't generally buy CDs for their useful health and safety advice).

Still not keen on Easter Egg Chocolate

That's all, really. It doesn't taste too good, and there's not enough of it. Might have to start on the nice one Phil bought.

After ordering the John Lewis voucher he wanted for him. Another 10 quid of free stuff from pigsback. £139.96. I'm determined to get 400 quid of free stuff this year.

Of course, if I could get 400 quid of free stuff all at once, I'd spend it all on cakes to feed the campers next month. At least the number of campers is going up again. 31 now. Which means lots of cakes. And I must remember not to eat them all with the early arrivals on the Thursday. That would be bad.

Easter - why??

Easter Egg chocolate is rubbish. And I have some to eat. This is not good. Although, Phil bought me a nice little fancy looking egg that might be made of nice chocolate. Not sure I want to eat it though, as disappointment may ensue.

And there were children around. Phil discovered he can still operate a hula hoop, to entertain at least one child. I discovered I can't, which is almost as entertaining. On the other hand, I discovered that my newest niece likes me and doesn't insist on throwing up on me. Although what is it with babies farting all the time? When you're holding them? It's not pleasant.

I also have sore feet. We thought we'd go for a nice walk yesterday. Guessing the distance on Google Maps suggested it was about 6 miles. But that might have been underestimated by a couple of miles. But at least there was a little village pub to stop at half way. Mad landlord, possibly a bit desperate for customers. (Too friendly, coming outside to see if anyone wanted anything else before the pub shut. At 2.30 in the afternoon). It would appear though that we walked "almost too far". And that I crossed the line into "too far" while walking to the bathroom and back during the adverts in the middle of Heroes (very good programme, and a particularly good episode last night). That would explain why a large blister appeared at that time.

And the freebies still keep coming. I've got the new Mission album ordered (with Nectar points, because they're selling all CDs for half price this week). Still 3 weeks to wait for that to arrive (mind you, it's about 5 years since their last proper album). So that's another £7.99. And another 5 quid Amazon voucher my mum owed me. So the grand total so far is £129.96. And 45 quid of that is in my Amazon account. I think I need the prices of things to come down.

Should get another 30 quid of stuff sometime, from sorting out dad's car insurance. Check various companies, making sure to do it through the right website first and get 30 quids worth of points for me. And save him money on his renewal quote. But why, after purchasing the insurance, do they then offer to send you large print or braille versions of the policy? Might they not want to know that first, on the grounds that anyone needing braille versions of their car insurance policy details probably shouldn't be driving in the first place?

Vanishing campers, small children, rubbish films

It's turning into one of those weeks.

I decided I'd send reminders to everyone who hadn't quite decided about my camping shennanigans next month. And the numbers of probably going and definitely going people then plummeted from 39 to 29. Still, at least there'll be some people going, and that's what counts.

And I survived an invasion by small children, doing my uncley duties with even the latest addition. For a 5 week old baby, she was surprisingly good. Didn't throw up on me once. Or create unpleasant odours. Well, some mild farting. Which is quite disturbing when you're holding a small thing that starts wiggling and farting and possibly won't do to well if dropped.

I'm almost half way to the target for buying a DS. Another 5 quid of Amazon vouchers from various surveys. Bringing the total to £40. (And my grand total of "free" things for the year to £116.97). Which I can't complain about. By the time I can afford the DS, I'll have got around to killing that FF12 Yiazmat bastard. He's not dying without a fight, it seems. Probably just as well, otherwise the game would be a bit rubbish.

"Grrrr!"

"No, not Grrrr. Die!"

"Oh, OK." (insert battle winning music here)

Oh, and the rubbish films? It appears that Sky have made it mildly easier to find rubbish films to watch, by rearranging all their movie channels. 12 channels have now become 10 channels, 1 of which is a +1 hour version of another. So 9 channels, really. And one channel (and the +1 version) show the same films every day for a week, so it's more like 1/7th of a channel. So 8 1/7 channels. That's 68% of the channels we had before. (Actually, less, really, since some of them now start later in the day). On the plus side, they're showing more adult films during the afternoon. Except you can't stop it asking for the PIN number when you watch them.

So I was watching The Fog. The 2005 remake version. It was quite bad. Very bad, really. Apart from the obvious question of "Why?", to which the answer is probably John Carpenter wanted some easy money, there's the issue of the CG fog. When you can get small machines that generate lots of fog from some cheap liquids, and the whole premise of your film involves fog, why would you then go and use computers to create the fog for most of the film??

Actually, it's possibly not really that bad a film. Just entirely pointless. A "horror" film that's about as tame as an episode of Doctor Who. And not quite as fun. Who decided that getting a 15 certificate for these sorts of films was a good idea?? I want them reluctantly granting an 18 certificate after demanding many cuts.

Still doing FF12

Well, all the Espers are mine now. Did the long walk through the mines to fight Zodiark. And killed it. Just. First 90% of the battle was over in a couple of minutes. It's just that last 10% of killing it that took the most time. See, once you've inflicted a suitable amount of hurt on it, it's suddenly immune to physical attacks. And then starts reflecting your magic back at you. Cunning rearranging of my equipment, and I could slowly attack it with magic with a single character while the other 2 kept him alive.

So now I'm trying to kill Yiazmat (or something like that). A giant thing who's a bit hard. Half an hour, and I'd killed about 5% of him. Gave up at that point. (I wasn't going to keep going for 10 hours!).

Also got another DVD (to add to the shelf with no space left). A Scanner Darkly. Very strange and enjoyable film. The combination of the weird animation style (drawing over the real actors, or whatever they did) and the music makes it a bit uncomfortable to watch. I guess that's the whole point. It just all feels ever so slightly wrong. Worth spending the Nectar points on.

And now I've got another fiver (for pointless ads on my website), bringing me to £111.97. With £35 quid of that sat in my Amazon account. I'll get that new toy sometime this year, I'm sure.

SquareEnix, you're quite, quite evil!

Bloody FF12. I obviously have to finish all the sidequests, and do everything there is to do. A good 2 hours wandering through mines, killing the most evil creatures in the game, find the final Esper I'm missing, fight it, almost kill it, and then die. How annoying is that?

That's after wandering through the big crystal for ages to find the previous almost final Esper. No map, and every single location looks exactly the same. And there's hours of running backwards and forwards to open gates (with the switch for the gate being almost too far to get back before a totally random timer runs out). Still, at least there was a save point just before fighting her. And then a long walk to get out of the place again. And it keeps me off the streets.

And the "free" stuff count keeps going up. £10.99 worth of DVD (with Nectar points from surveys), and £6.49 of book for Phil. £106.97. Half way to beating the 200 quid or so last year. With enough Nectar points left to buy a CD I want, but I'll have to wait 3 weeks to get it half price. And almost a 10 quid voucher for Phil from pigsback. Which explains why he just emailed me an Amazon voucher. Giving me 30 quid there. Not getting far with this "buy a DS" plan. Or I might save up even more and buy a Wii.

And FF12 is still good

A bit too good. By not having anything else to do, I've finished it. Well, the main bits. Some of the extra bosses and the hunts are a bit nasty. Well, time-consuming. The Hell Wyrm took about 90 minutes to take down. And there's still a couple of places where I'm tending to die quite quickly.

But it's a very good game. Best since FF7, definitely. And as it appears there's going to be a FF12 game for the DS, it's time Nintendo had some of my money. Amazon will happily give it to them if I ask them to send me a DS. Just got a 5 quid voucher for some surveys, bringing the total in my Amazon account to 20 quid (once Amazon give me the 2 quid refund because FF12 is now 2 quid cheaper than it was when I ordered it! Ask, and they refund the difference if it's within 30 days. But only if you ask).

So, the total for my free stuff this year is £89.49. Almost enough for a DS, except I've spent a lot of that, and it wasn't all in one place anyway. Oh well. I might save up enough there some day.

So, FF12 eats all my time

And I still haven't finished watching my DVDs. Stupid sendit.com managed to send the wrong DVD. Quick phone call to them (so much easier than emailing), and they sent the right one and it arrived the next day. So I was wading through 4 DVDs of Ross Noble and his random ramblings (his reasons for not putting a blanket over an owl nearly caused me to wet myself).

But then FF12 arrived, and I've been engrossed in that ever since. It's certainly a big game, and definitely worth the wait. And for once, you don't mind having to wander about beating stuff up to get yourself up to a suitable level. And it's hard. I've died many times. I presume there are optional bosses lurking about somewhere that will provide even more of a challenge. I'm kind of not looking forward to being killed by them repeatedly.

By the time I've beaten it soundly, something else interesting will have appeared and my Amazon balance will be back up to something silly. Another 5 quid yesterday, making £84.49 this year. I'm getting quite impressed by the amount of free stuff I'm getting now.

Now, back to killing stuff. FF12 has taken a few things from FF Tactics. Clan hunts. Involve even more wandering about until you find something particular nasty to try and kill. And it's a lot of fun. Better go and see the moogle and see what he's got to say to me now.

How much free stuff?

First, the useful tip. If you buy something from Amazon, and they then go and drop the price the second the thing arrives, complain. They refund the difference between what you paid and what the price drops to at any point in the 30 days after it's dispatched. Very useful to know, although I could have done with knowing that earlier.

Thanks to ipoints , the total of free stuff is now £79.49. I was hoping for an Amazon voucher from them, but they've just changed their prices. 830 of their points for a 30 quid Amazon voucher? Because they post it to you, despite Amazon having quite a good system where they can email you the voucher. So I got a £20 voucher for sendit.com, who are pretty good too, I guess. For 395 points. And it looks like they give you points for buying stuff even if you use vouchers you got from points. Only an extra £1 worth of points, but can't complain.

So that's more DVDs to watch, and only a week or so before I can get my hands on FF12.

Why I can't save Amazon vouchers

Well, my plan to save up all the Amazon vouchers I seem to collect and buy something nice isn't turning out too well. Every time I get one and add it to my account, I then spot something else I'd like which I can afford and spend them all on that.

Just won £15 of vouchers last week (from telling people what I watch on TV). Brings the total of free stuff for this year to £40. But then spotted the new Frank Black CD/DVD package. So I bought that. (Lots of him playing some of his old songs on his own, including some Pixies songs. Plus a handful of new songs, including one that consists entirely of about 20 layers of vocals and nothing else. Very odd).

And I finished reading Cell, so I need a new book. (Good book, Stephen King back to his more trashy writing, which isn't a bad thing. Bit too much like The Stand, but that was one of his best books anyway. Just that this time, the virus comes through phones and not some deadly escaped 'flu. And only 500-something pages, so a quick read).

Phil also had a slight mishap with play.com. He somehow tried to buy the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 2DVD+2CD fancy live box of joy. Using his old card details. So they pointed this out to him and he gave them a new, non-expired card. At which point they sent two copies of it, charged to the new card. Rather than send it back, I now have it. Which means the money I'd saved up from Ciao for answering their surveys and reviewing some DVDs had to be extracted from them. (Luckily, they just transfer it straight to your bank account, so it's easy). That's another £14.49 from them, bringing the total to £54.49 this year. Not bad going so far then. Oh, wait. 5 quid Amazon voucher for not doing much with my website. Makes £59.49 then.

It's a rather good DVD though. Must be heard in the full DTS sound, at loud volumes. Slightly odd choice of songs. 10 from Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus, which makes sense as the tour was to support that double album. And 4 others. Lacking The Mercy Seat. And several others you might expect. But you also get the second DVD, with more songs, and videos. (15 minutes of incredibly silliness for 1 of them!). And 2 CDs of more live stuff. Over 500 minutes of stuff in all. In the most stupid box ever. Why do people put DVDs in boxes that they can easily escape from? It's already annoyed a cat, by leaping from the box onto the poor thing as she wandered past at the wrong time.

You can tell there's nothing on TV...

...And I've not got anything else to do.

I now have no DVDs to watch (well, none I haven't watched already), no games entertaining me endlessly (until FF12), and I'm trying not to read books too quickly.

Lisey's Story turned out to be an excellent book in the end. One of the best things Stephen King has written in quite a while. Even if it should be called Lisey's Dead Husband's Story, really. So now I'm reading his previous book (Cell), just because I haven't read it yet and it was half price. More like his normal style, and generally zombie-tastic. Which isn't a word. But do I care?

The total of free stuff is now £25. Getting complicated though. I didn't want any of the 10 quid vouchers I could order from Pigsback, and Phil didn't want any of the stuff he could order from Lightspeed. Quickly swapped vouchers, and I've now got not enough money in my Amazon account to buy anything useful.

FF XII

That's Final Fantasy XII. And not X-2. As in 12. And not 10-2. Whatever. I've ordered my copy now, for the bargain price of, erm, zero pounds.

Ok, not really zero pounds, but that's how much it cost me. Just did a survey, claimed some points, turned it into an Amazon voucher, and realised I had the 30 quid necessary in my Amazon account.

Which means my total amount of free stuff this year is now £15. (Plus stuff I've not claimed). And from some time around the end of February, I'll disappear into a strange world with weird creatures. And hopefully not get too upset if it's too easy. (Which, from what I've read, won't be a problem).

Maybe I should go and finish the last bit of FFX I haven't done? After having the game for years, I played it again, did some of the bits I hadn't bothered with before (that silly blitzball game, all the monster arena monsters, all the dark Aeons), and then realised that the last hidden boss is impossible. He may be called penance, and might do cool things, but I wouldn't know because he wipes me out quite quickly. I'll have another go before FF12 arrives.

Free stuff for 2007

I'm determined to not have to buy any DVDs and stuff this year. So far this year, I've successful managed to obtain, erm, well, almost zero free things. But we shall see.

Pigsback were quite useful last year. £60 of CD-Wow vouchers. Currently, I have about 685 points. I'd better win some of their competitions again.

For placing a small advert on my website (from these people), I got 50 quid last year. And 5 quid already this year, in Amazon vouchers. A 5 quid Amazon voucher every month is useful.

Doing some surveys is also a good way to get some stuff. Lightspeed are now offering Amazon vouchers (and others, including money into a paypal account). 40 quid from them last year, and hopefully a 5 quid voucher soon.

Ciao also sometimes send me surveys, and you can get paid (not much) for reviewing stuff. They pay straight into your bank account (£11.84 to claim this year so far, a massive £15.36 from them last year).

I've also got a whole load of Nectar points (again from surveys, plus the odd trip to Sainsbury's). A couple of cds and a couple of DVDs there, I think. Possibly that's what I spent them on. Probably about £30 worth.

Oh, and ipoints is an odd one too. Mix of clicking adverts, some surveys, clicking email links, and I managed 20 quid of CDs last year. And on my way to collecting some Amazon vouchers this year. About half way to a 30 quid voucher.

And someone wanted to know what I watch on TV and I won a £5 Amazon voucher today. For telling them what I watched back in October. So that goes onto this years total.

So, over 200 quid's worth of stuff for free last year. And this year, I want more. The total this year is, erm, £10 in Amazon vouchers. (Will I have enough for FF12 when it's released? That's my first purchase of free stuff this year, I think). But with about 20 quid to come soon.

There are easier ways to get stuff, right?

New year already?

Well, that's christmas and new year out of the way. And apparently the rest of November, all of December, and half of January too. Must invent a time machine and travel back in time to last year and tell myself to make a new year's resolution to do this thing more often. That's my answer to everything lately. Invent a time machine.

Of course, I have an excuse. Phil got me the last 2 series of Futurama on DVD for Christmas, so I've been watching those. And once I've watched those, I'll have to wait until next year for new ones. Maybe. Morbo demands new episodes now, puny humans. And so do I. Can't someone get the hypnotoad to make persuade them to make them quicker?

Plus, I've been playing the Legend of Zelda and the Twiglet Princess, or whatever it's called. (Gamecube version, not Wii version. Obviously). Very good game, but way too easy. Stupidly easy.

So once I've watched all the DVDs, I've got a book to finish reading. Stephen King. Lisey's Story. Half way through it, and it's turning out to be rather good. I'll probably find it's got a crap ending or something.