This was one of the last books the Ludlum had near completion before his death in 2001, following which his family had a ghost writer finish up the manuscript allowing it to be published.

The premise of the story is that Hal Ambler a former HVA (High Value Agent) is locked in an asylum for agents who have mentally snapped, but pose a threat to national security as there’s no knowing what state secrets they may expose. The twist to this is that Hal isn’t insane.  Throughout most of the book you follow Hal as he escapes the Asylum and tries to find out why  he’d been locked up in the first place.

As each of his sources seemingly draw a blank at first, he starts to doubt if he is sane or not. That is until after a failed attempt on his life, which makes the start of his involvement in schemes of a much larger scale.

Much like the Bourne Identity the reader gets to learn about Hal as he searches through various links of what he can remember, often with a flashback of a single operation he was a part of in Asia roughly two years before his escape. Each flashback is extended from the previous, giving more information about what had happened. While these happen at various points throughout the book they never came across as feeling repetitive.

The story does slow down towards the end in terms of pace, I can only assume this was where the ghostwriter was putting in the finishing touches as it feels like it looses some of it’s momemtum at just the wrong time. Whilst there is a nice twist to try and bring it back for a big crecendo it just seems to fall short of the mark.

All in all, I’d still recommend it as I generally found it hard to put down with the amount of mystery, action and the intricate intertwining characters that you would come to expect of a Ludlum book it’s still very much worth reading.

Using the 64bit version of this, the progams files folders are now split into two. One for the x64 programs and one for the older x86 programs. Which at first can be a little bit confusing when your looking for an individual program amongst them, but you quickly get used to it. Down the line this may be useful when looking for 64bit upgrades to programs.

The new library feature is better than I was expecting it to be, as it allows you to add folders from various places all to be viewed in one central location. What I found to like about this the most though was that even in the Library “folder” you are still able to sort different locations individually to your own personal file sorting preference.

The new start bar, is in my opinion so much better than the old XP / Vista one. While the start menu is basicly taken from vista in how it works. The bar itself makes it alot easier if you run alot of programs at once compared to XP. Instead of showing the multiple instances of a program individually then grouping them once too many are open, it automatically groups them on a large button with the programs icon on. Since the whole OS has been designed to work with touch support. Meaning the buttons by default are a fair size to allow for easy poking. Working your way around with a cursor is nearly effortless.

As for working through file hierachy it’s basicly the same as Vista, which once your used to it, does work better than the XP one, as it allows for quick access to any of the folders higher in the chain.

I’ve yet to install the few DX10 games I’ve got, so that’ll have to wait for another day.

All in all so far 7 is shaping up to be a good choice, and with the pricing plans recently announced I’ll more than likely upgrade to a full retial copy.

That’s all for now.

The first of which of the Film Wanted.

Now wanted in itself pretty much sells itself on it’s special effects in which members of a society of assassins bend bullets trajectory to enable them to manage to pull off spectacular kills on their targets. While the special effects are great the plot isn’t as much so. Though it does manage to pull off a small plot twist which changes the main characters perspective of the world he’s entered since joining the Fraternity.

Though that does bring me on to something else, the fact this assassins society is called the Fraternity just seems a little bit lack luster to me. At least the name Weavers for the individuals with the ability to bend bullets sounds well kinda cool. The weaver name also gets a bit of back story too, but Fraternity just sounds like they pulled the first name out of the air that sounded slightly more exclusive than club.

The other thing that got me out and about recently was the opening night of Propaganda in Swindon.

Propaganda is an indie music night which in Swindon was hosted by Envy.

This opening night had The Hoosiers as guest Djs along with what i believe to be the resident Djs of DJ Dan and Matt Noir. Between them all they play a wide range of indie with the odd couple of hip hop tracks thrown in.  Now this was the first time I’d every been into the Envy part of Liquid/Envy and I have to say I prefer it to Liquid’s interior.

I can’t really think of anything else to say about Propaganda that would do it justice to how great an evening it was, other than I have a new event to turn up to on Thursdays now.

I was witness to the comedy stylings of Jimmy Carr. Now I have to say, I’ve had tickets to this since February of this year so,  it wouldn’t be an understatement to say this show was packed full to capacity.

Having watched him on such TV shows as 8 out of 10 cats and from what I’ve heard about his shows I knew I was going to be in for a treat.

I have to say I’m finding hard to sum up the show as with so many jokes used throughout, it’s a little hard to remember them when trying to do so. They do seem to pop into my head every so often, when something reminds me of one of them.

All in all though it was an amazing show that I thoroughly enjoyed as the only times I really stopped laughing was to gasp for air. Though one thing may stick in my mind for quite some time to come, from after the show had ended.

Of which is. At the end of the show Jimmy announced he would be doing some signings, so I made sure to get the program that I’d purchased at the start of the show signed. However whilst I was in the process of doing so, with the usual sort of meet and greet hand shake etc. He commented about the t-shirt I was wearing at the time, about how he thought it was quite funny, to which I was pleased as I bought it as I thought the same.

The T-shirt in question is this one:

Of which was purchased from www.threadless.com

That about wraps it up really.

~*~Thursday~*~

So after spending forever saying goodbye to everyone I left for Reading where I would be meeting up with some friends to camp during the course of the weekend. The ride there went without a hitch but was painstakingly slow once we were closer to the festival due to the vast amount of traffic. After then spending even longer trying to find the boat for green camp and several phone calls I eventually made it to the camp. Be it alot later then I had first hoped.

Rigth after reaching the camp though, I had a major problem, I couldn’t phone anyone… so with my phone not working prperly my chances of finding the people I was suposed to meet where next to none. So I ended up wondering around Green camp in hope of the off chance that I may see them, though that never did happen that night. Just when I started to think all hope was lost though, three guys I’d never met before decided to take pity on me any told me there was a spot left next to their tent in Yellow camp. So after the short walkfrom green to yellow, we arrived at their tents. Where we talked and drank for a while formaly intrducing ourselves to each other.
Their names being; Dave, Dan and Matt.
After trying to put my tent up in the dark it was decided that it would be easier to do so in the morning, and I would sleep in Matt’s tent for the night. so after putting all my stuff in his tent we went wondeing around the camps sites in search of people to talk to.
After talking to some people we returned back to the tents at about 2 or 3am and dozed off for the night.

~*~Friday~*~

When friday morning came, after a very cold nights sleep. I found that my phone was working again, so I called home as I arranged I would. And wondered around for a bit to find the people I was suppossed to meet the previous night. Again no luck, however on my way back I found someone else who I had planned to meet up with waiting for the main arean to open. So I decided to hang around for a while chatting to him and the people he was with before heading off back to where I was camped to sort out the tent.
When I got back I was introduced by Matt to Kay and Nicola of whom had joined us in the morning. Trying to put up their tent proved to b to much hassle so I offered them mine as it was alot easier to put up. After putting their tent away again, I got mine out of Matt’s and proceeded to put it up. Whilst doing so, Blake ended up coming to look for me in yellow finding me within a short time considering where we were camped. and helped with the final bit of putting up the tent.

So with the tent put up and sleeping arrangements sorted, both Blake and I headed off in the direction of where he was camped bidding farewell to Kay and Nicola for the time.
After a quick walk from where we were camped, Blake had lead me to his camp in green. We both ended up sitting around here ignoreing the fact that the arena had been opened up  and the first bands had began, but that was because we didn’t really care about who was playing first.
So after finally getting round to going into the arena halfway through yourcodenameis:milo’s set we checked out the nokia tent where I entered a compition to win a gibson guitar.

After this and a quick look in a shop next to it I headed off to the Radio 1 stage where I caught the end of yourcodenameis:milo’s set, and from what I could see from that, they pull on hell of a live show. After Milo had finished I decided that I’d have another quick look at the official merch store where I ended up picking up an Official Reading 2005 T-shirt, of which I put on over the t-shirt I was already wearing before heading back to the Radio 1 Stage to see the rest of the bands.
The first band who’s set I saw properly was The Blood Brothers, now this is a band that when I first saw on a music channel months beforehand thought sucked. However whenI saw them live they did anything but.  After Blood Brothers I ended talking to a couple of guys who turned out to be from sailsbury, sorry that I can’t remember your names guys, we slowly moved towards the front.
Next up on the bill was the The Dead 60′s, now not really knowing anything of what they sounded like made it a new experience for me. One of which I enjoyed.
Next Death From Above 1979, now this is a band I’d heard nothing but good things about and had listened to an album,Your a Women, I’m aMachine. Live however is a different matter, they sound so much incredibly better, it’s as if they had been unleashed from the constrats of the CD. During the set and after it still making my way ever so slowly towards the front, almost there at this point.
The Subways played next, one of the bands everyone wanted to see. They played an amazing set that really got the crowd going, with the added benifit that the bassist was wearing a miniskirt as per usual…. they ended their set with Rock’n Roll Queen, which during the guitarist/singer climbed the stack of speakers to the left of the stage and played from the top of them.
Finally made it to the front after The Subways just and in time for Fightstar to come on
Despite alot of hate towards them due to Charlies old band, Busted, they played a great set, playing all the hits such as Piant Your Target, Palahniuks Laughter, Hazy Eyes and Speak Up.

My Chemical Romance followed Fightstar, plenty of low quality pics of them on link too. Though we noticed something odd during the set up for them, both the drummer and lead guitarist were setting up for themselves instead of having roadies do it for them.
When they allhit the stage though the reaction fromt he crowd was something that can only truely be exaplained by being shown it. It was that great. Hitting straight off into I’m not Okay, they had the crowd singing along to every song, and doing as Gerrard commanded.
After MCR had finished thier set almost everyone left the Stage to go other places, me and the two guys from sailsbury, there was a picture of the three of us. We headed off to see The Queens of the Stone Age, who had already started by this point and were well into their set, however they played Little Sister after we’d got there.
When they’d finished we split up arranging to meet at the smae point when The Killers started, I wondered off to have a look around the shops, when I thought why don’t I get Steph something, after looking around for a few minutes I decided to call her, something she wasn’t expecting. I spent what must have been quarter of an hour on the phone, in which we discussed all sorts of things. Eventually the call ended Taking a small chunk of my credit being a cross network call. During the call The Killers started thier set, but I didn’t really think to much of them.  Straight after the call I went over to where I was meant to meet the two guys from sailsbury, however I couldn’t find them so ended up going back to the Radio 1 Stage to watch Black Rebel Motocycle Club.
What can I say about them besides what a great act, they played both of my favourite songs by them, Spread Your Love and Whatever Happened to my Rock’n Roll, which made things even better for me.

On the Friday evening I went out with a few people I know and got really drunk. That being about as much as I can remember about that unfortunately. .

However on Saturday after having missed the bus into town about 3 times, I eventually met up with a group of friends and set out for the cinema. The film of choice was to be Heartbreak Kid. While it’s not often I’ll go see a romantic comedy, I am also a a fan of Ben Stiller as a comedian/actor. As such the film definitely had it’s funny points and there wasn’t as of the typical sappy moments that would would normally find in this genre as you would in say a Hugh Grant film. As every-time there seemed to be one a joke of some sort got thrown in, be it physical comedy such as one scene where Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller) and Lila (Malin Akerman) are both riding their bikes and as they try to kiss, Lila’s bike flips due to having rode into point metal box.

Overall Heartbreak Kid isn’t one I’d go out of my way to see, but was still enjoyable to watch.

Then onto Sunday. Sundays for me typically envolve sitting around relaxing listening to music, watching TV and playing games at the moment. This one wasn’t really any different except for the fact that Top Gear has returned to the screens again. Which always makes for great evening viewing, as some people may remember during the summer the Top Gear props warehouse was a victim of arson. So as a result throughout the show the presenters would make references to it as some segments of the shows props were destroyed while others had survived. What made it funny was that Clarkson was blaming 5th Gear for the fire and compared some recent news about them to Top Gear and how they’d done it first and on a grander scale.

That just about wraps up the main things for last weekend, shame the post was about a week late though, been fairly busy this week.