I'm now done with Salute for the day - lots of toys to play with and some great games to investigate. More on these later...
For now, my brief iPad Blogging experiment has finished and the results are in. Typing up a simple Text Blog post is easy to do, and - so long as I've got a static subject - so too is embedding a photo taken with the iPad, at the same time. However. I took a fair number of pictures on my digital camera - it's simply a far superior device, especially given the subject matter at somewhere like Salute - but I can't get these onto my iPad and therefore into a Blog post.
Even worse, photos taken with my iPhone are similarly locked into that device unless I'm in a WiFi zone. Despite having Bluetooth on both pieces of kit, they won't talk to each other because I've not paid O2 a fee to enable iPhone tethering. Ultimately this isn't a big deal - I've actually got an iPad digital camera connector kit, which accepts SD cards. If I'd remembered to bring it with me, I could easily have used that to swap the card and import the photos to the iPad.
It's just annoying that I've got 3 pieces of kit costing in excess of £1000' yet they can't share a jpeg amongst them without physically moving storage or paying for some kind of wireless or telecoms service.
In future the digital camera connector will be packed alongside the camera, which should have been obvious to me in hindsight. What it has highlighted is that the camera on the iPad is a bit unwieldy in some social situations and it's better to use the digital camera and connection kit than go with the more compact iPhone - it may be convenient and unobtrusive but without WiFi your digital snaps are unavailable.
Oh, and the reason I don't have access to the useful Excel WiFi service is coz I'm on the train back to sunny Southend :).
Welcome to my little slice of the Interweb (tm).
Monday, 23 April 2012
Saturday, 21 April 2012
Salute 2012
As usual the queue quickly went by as the gates opened and we flooded into Salute 2012. Those that are put off by such epic waiting and think that a cash ticket on the day is the way forward would be wise to stick with an advance purchase; after an hour of looking around I stepped outside the hall and there were still around 200 people slowly trudging forward for admittance.
Once inside I was greeted by a bustling mix of trade stands, promotional games and stalls and gloriously crafted demonstration games. The volume of stalls appears consistent with 2010-11 and there is a good mix of genres and periods for both trade and demos alike. My initial aim was to secure some quick purchases - the usual convention souvenir that I'm willing to pay a premium for. First up was a trip to the Meekin's stall and some 4:3 Osprey books.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Once inside I was greeted by a bustling mix of trade stands, promotional games and stalls and gloriously crafted demonstration games. The volume of stalls appears consistent with 2010-11 and there is a good mix of genres and periods for both trade and demos alike. My initial aim was to secure some quick purchases - the usual convention souvenir that I'm willing to pay a premium for. First up was a trip to the Meekin's stall and some 4:3 Osprey books.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Sandstone Ln,,United Kingdom
Salute 2012
I would like to start this with 'standing in the queue at Salute 2012...' but with two long lines of smelly gamers to contend with, I've steered clear of queueing and instead gone for the too cool for school option of a double espresso and some iPad action. With nearly an hour to go before the doors open this seems like the perfect opportunity to try out blogging on the go with my new toy. What follows is more of an experiment than worthy comment, but I'll persevere with it throughout the day and publish my Salute 2012 experiences throughout the day, so strap on in! Above this sentence you should be seeing an image, providing a view of the Excel hall and the Salute attendees waiting patiently for the gates of wargaming heaven to open. However, Safari won't let me upload the photo my iPad captured. So bear with me whilst I look for an app or workaround to solve this initial conundrum...
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Division 1 Champions.
Wednesday night saw a tense, low-scoring match between Southend-on-Sea 'B' and Rayleigh Fairview in a title clash for Southend Indoor Cricket League Division 1.
Prior to the match, SOSCC were sitting at the top of the table with 5 wins from 5 fixtures, with Rayleigh Fairview 8 points behind and having lost just the one match.
Previously we'd put in solid performances with the bat throughout the winter, passing 140 runs on 3 occasions, and one of those in a reduced 10-over match (instead of the usual 12). As such our skipper, Gilroy, really only had one objective to justify his place in the side, and that was to win the toss.
Five minutes later we were padding-up and looking forward to batting Rayleigh out of contention - with our points advantage we could pick-up bonus batting points, lose the game and still finish as division winners. And then we just fell apart with the bat...
Rayleigh bowled a mixed bag, but everything that wasn't hit cleanly simply went straight to hand. The opposition took their chances well and we were starting to bitch amongst ourselves about bottling it, and folding when it really counts.
We failed to even bat out the overs and trudged off on 64 All Out, and suffice to say that Rayleigh were in the box seat.
Gilroy changed the usual bowling order around, and opened with Bells & Gridley. And they kept it really tight, with excellent fielding all round from our side, we managed to restrict them to only a few meager runs each over. Then the wickets started to fall. Both Gilroy and Bells held on to some sharp chances which turned the pressure back onto Rayleigh and we began to sense that we could pull it out of the bag.
Tom & myself bowled the last 4 overs between us, and despite some cleanly hit sixes, we held our nerve and let the recently-replaced ball swing in and do the damage. I picked up the last three wickets and suddenly we had bowled them out for 55 to finish undefeated top of the table.
Great game.
Prior to the match, SOSCC were sitting at the top of the table with 5 wins from 5 fixtures, with Rayleigh Fairview 8 points behind and having lost just the one match.
Previously we'd put in solid performances with the bat throughout the winter, passing 140 runs on 3 occasions, and one of those in a reduced 10-over match (instead of the usual 12). As such our skipper, Gilroy, really only had one objective to justify his place in the side, and that was to win the toss.
Five minutes later we were padding-up and looking forward to batting Rayleigh out of contention - with our points advantage we could pick-up bonus batting points, lose the game and still finish as division winners. And then we just fell apart with the bat...
Rayleigh bowled a mixed bag, but everything that wasn't hit cleanly simply went straight to hand. The opposition took their chances well and we were starting to bitch amongst ourselves about bottling it, and folding when it really counts.
We failed to even bat out the overs and trudged off on 64 All Out, and suffice to say that Rayleigh were in the box seat.
Gilroy changed the usual bowling order around, and opened with Bells & Gridley. And they kept it really tight, with excellent fielding all round from our side, we managed to restrict them to only a few meager runs each over. Then the wickets started to fall. Both Gilroy and Bells held on to some sharp chances which turned the pressure back onto Rayleigh and we began to sense that we could pull it out of the bag.
Tom & myself bowled the last 4 overs between us, and despite some cleanly hit sixes, we held our nerve and let the recently-replaced ball swing in and do the damage. I picked up the last three wickets and suddenly we had bowled them out for 55 to finish undefeated top of the table.
Great game.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Red Menace
Thursday night was boardgames night down at the cricketers again. It was another reasonable turnout with 3 different tables of games on the go, I saw lots of Dominion being played behind me as well as the classic Acquire and Cosmic Encounter from Richard.
Added to this fine pedigree of games was my own Twilight Struggle, which Colin and I had earlier arranged to play. Obviously we came in for some friendly banter for having a private 2-player game of our own, and to be fair we did shun the rest of the group whilst engaged in the race for global dominance.
I played as the Reds for both of the matches we played, with neither of us having a particular preference of sides. The first game lasted barely three turns, with Russia scoring heavily in Europe, Asia and SE Asia, thanks to these cards appearing in my hand early on.
Having played once before I think I had an advantage with understanding the significance of Military Operations, Coups and the DefCon track. In that I realised how they related and how the Russians could Coup first early on to force down the DefCon track and gain Military Operations advantages that resulted in a few VPs coming my way.
The second game ran out of time for a definite conclusion, but Colin was playing well and had a good board position as we finished about 1/2 way though the Mid War period. I felt I suffered from a poor hand at the start of the Mid War, but I definitely made a couple of mistakes with Headline cards and failed to take advantage of a really strong Red hand on the last turn.
I wasted the turn trying to wrest control of Asia from the greedy claws of capitalist pigs because I held the Scoring card. Instead I should have concentrated elsewhere, in locations where I could have made significant gains as Colin was already starting to establish a presence in South America and Africa.
It was a really enjoyable game to play and I'd certainly like to bring it along for more play.
Added to this fine pedigree of games was my own Twilight Struggle, which Colin and I had earlier arranged to play. Obviously we came in for some friendly banter for having a private 2-player game of our own, and to be fair we did shun the rest of the group whilst engaged in the race for global dominance.
I played as the Reds for both of the matches we played, with neither of us having a particular preference of sides. The first game lasted barely three turns, with Russia scoring heavily in Europe, Asia and SE Asia, thanks to these cards appearing in my hand early on.
Having played once before I think I had an advantage with understanding the significance of Military Operations, Coups and the DefCon track. In that I realised how they related and how the Russians could Coup first early on to force down the DefCon track and gain Military Operations advantages that resulted in a few VPs coming my way.
The second game ran out of time for a definite conclusion, but Colin was playing well and had a good board position as we finished about 1/2 way though the Mid War period. I felt I suffered from a poor hand at the start of the Mid War, but I definitely made a couple of mistakes with Headline cards and failed to take advantage of a really strong Red hand on the last turn.
I wasted the turn trying to wrest control of Asia from the greedy claws of capitalist pigs because I held the Scoring card. Instead I should have concentrated elsewhere, in locations where I could have made significant gains as Colin was already starting to establish a presence in South America and Africa.
It was a really enjoyable game to play and I'd certainly like to bring it along for more play.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
In My Element
Friday night was a decent effort - Deano's mate, Jason, came over from Ireland and along with Kano we all got trolleyed out in joyous Southend.
Started off in Saks, which I think is a bit under-par, especially as it was crap music that was gearing up to karaoke.
Went off to The Last Post, mainly to illustrate to Jason how cheap booze is in England compared to Eire. We got distracted by the wallpaper, but bumped into Conner and his pals.
We carried on The Slug & Lettuce - next stop was supposed to be Bar29, but Dean's mate runs the S&L & he hoped to score a cheeky round. Fail.
After finally getting turffed out, we headed to Element, which I rate as a pretty decent club. Music was good and I managed to pour ots of gin into me, as well as do a fair amount of dancing around waving my arms about. I didn't even hit anyone!
Started off in Saks, which I think is a bit under-par, especially as it was crap music that was gearing up to karaoke.
Went off to The Last Post, mainly to illustrate to Jason how cheap booze is in England compared to Eire. We got distracted by the wallpaper, but bumped into Conner and his pals.
We carried on The Slug & Lettuce - next stop was supposed to be Bar29, but Dean's mate runs the S&L & he hoped to score a cheeky round. Fail.
After finally getting turffed out, we headed to Element, which I rate as a pretty decent club. Music was good and I managed to pour ots of gin into me, as well as do a fair amount of dancing around waving my arms about. I didn't even hit anyone!
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Rebel Yell Silenced!
Last night I chose to skip the weekly SOSEMT CC nets session and instead went to the local SOS Wargames Group. I found them via Goggle as they've got a new Blog up and running, and they are very conveniently located on the Grainger Industrial Estate. I was surprised that they've been there for a decade and so close at hand.
As usual, a mix of youth and maturity amongst the gamers but they were welcoming, allowing me to join in with their trial of Warlord's Black Powder rules. We played a 25mm American Civil War scenario, which saw the Confederate attack on our Union town soundly repulsed, despite early weakening of our left flank.
The conflict of the club-night being on a Wednesday at the same time as indoor nets is annoying and will probably mean I don't revisit the wargamers until late April when the cricket season proper starts.
As usual, a mix of youth and maturity amongst the gamers but they were welcoming, allowing me to join in with their trial of Warlord's Black Powder rules. We played a 25mm American Civil War scenario, which saw the Confederate attack on our Union town soundly repulsed, despite early weakening of our left flank.
The conflict of the club-night being on a Wednesday at the same time as indoor nets is annoying and will probably mean I don't revisit the wargamers until late April when the cricket season proper starts.
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