When I was growing up I always said I would never ‘get old’ and would be in to the latest gizmos, gadgets, music and films. However as time went by I have stayed firmly an 80’s man. It was the main decade I grew up in and in my opinion was the decade of the best music and some of the best films. It was the era the terchnology started to make its presence felt, but not to the extent now that it is possible to create music or film without a humans touch.

As many who know me will be aware I am a big film fan, and have been collecting films first on video and now DVD for years (I bought my first DVD player in 1998). Luckily many of the movies from my youth are now available on DVD at very cheap prices (£2-£5 per movies), with the movie series also available in box sets. This has allowed me to get movies like Back To The Future trilogy, Gremlins box set and the Lethal Weapon series cheapily to replace the VHS videos I gave away a year ago (when I decided not to replace my worn out video player). Unfortunately there are still some movies and TV shows that I would like to buy which have not (and in some cases are not) been released in the UK - Doogie Howser MD, Home Improvement etc.

Since buying the Gremlins box set a couple of weeks ago I have watched both movies a number of times. They are classic movies with some very ‘un-american’ humour. Parts like the liquidized gremlin, out of control stairlifts, talking gremlins, ‘the Peltzer Pet’ and gizmo on a mission with his black arm band and red bandana have me laughing everytime. This, like many 80’s movies should be required viewing (although I know many of the established movie critics will probably disagree with me)

My favourite movies from the 80’s are

• Back To The Future Trilogy
• Gremlins 1 and 2
• The Breakfast Club
• National Lampoons Vacation Series
• Lethal Weapon Series
• Stand By Me
• Running on Empty

Most of these movies also spawned some of the best music from the 80’s - most being rock ballads. Songs like Power of Love by Heuy Lewis and the News and Don’t You Forget About Me by Simple Minds remain firmly in my mind as classics and are guaranteed to be on my MP3 player all the time.

I wonder what decade everyone else remembers as the best, and what your top movies are?

I am also looking for movie reviewers for a new web site I am creating. The criteria for a reviewer is just an interest in movies. I am after your feelings about the movie and what you liked and disliked about it. If you are interested then let me know.

In one of my madder moments, I have become Wiinabled after managing to find one of this years most demanded gifts - a Nintendo Wii. What was even more surprising was I found it on Boxing Day, despite claims that they were all but sold out over the entire country well before Christmas. To be fair though, I had to drive to Argos in Malvern to collect it, and it was the last one they had on the shelf.

Since collecting it, I have been playing Wii Sports, with some very funny results. I’m not known for being athletic - in fact I am totally opposite - but using a game controller like a tennis rack, baseball bat, golf club or even just a boxing glove is good fun and giving me some light exercise as well. The Wii Remote controller is a classic design, with it’s 3 way motion sensors so simply moving the controller results in a movement of the game character. When playing Wii Sports Tennis, simply swinging the controller as you would a tennis racket gives the intended result of your game character also swinging the tennis racket. After a few practice games it becomes very easy to play the games, just as you would the sports in real life.

Wii Sports also comes with a mini fitness section. In this you play 3 of the 15 practice sessions and finally get an age score based on how well you are doing.

In future I plan on getting Tiger Woods Golf as it should be interesting playing what is an already excellent game (it is the only game always I purchase each year for my PC) with the Wii Remote acting as a real golf club. I am still undecided whether to get the plastic addons to the Wii Remote that make it look more like the sports bat/racket/club you are using. They might make it easier to use in games like baseball, but they do look tacky.

In quarter 1 of 2008 Nintendo are also due to release the Wii Fit. This is a 2 pad floor based unit that detects changes in pressure placed on them. This means body movements can be detected easier and used in game play. As the name suggests, one of the first applications is likely to be fitness based games.

The YouTube video above shows the Nintendo trailer for the device. Internet rumours suggest it could cost about £40 when released.

Downsides so far are I am spending way too much time playing games, my arms ache from all the exercise they are getting swinging the Wii Remote and I am building up a list of games I want, so having money will get harder.

I’ve been busy doing some background updates to the site, adding some new plugins to the WordPress install I am using as well as adding some tracking via Google Analytics. I have also recently updated the sites theme to make it a bit brighter and more welcoming.

First off the new plugins are

1. a better social networking bookmarking feature. This is visible underneath each post as a ‘Bookmark to’ link. Please leave a comment if you would like any other sites adding to the list.
2. An improved commenting system with more advanced spam filtering. This is largely unseen from the front end but I can confirm the spam filter appears to be doing its job very well.
3. Gravatar support so any avatars hosted at gravatar.com are automatically polled into any comment posts. For those who are unaware, gravatars are Globally Recognised Avatars, which allow compatible sites to pull your avatar from a central source without needing to keep a local cache. For users it means only having to set your avatar once and then just supply the associated email address with the comment. For those who do not have a Gravatar account I have also added a neat check box into the comment form so an account can be created for you. If you do choose this then you will receive and email from Gravatar to activate your account so please supply a valid email address.

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It’s that time of year again when the UK grinds to a halt - it’s Christmas. A time for giving and receiving, over eating and over drinking.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and hope you all get what you want. Try not to over do things, and keep the Resolve easily accessible.

As most who know me will know, I love American Chopper (shown on Discovery here in the UK) but at the end of the current series the unthinkable happens - Vinnie Dimartino leaves - and he is closely followed by Cody Connelly. Since I heard about this back in September/October I had a feeling that they would be working together somehow. Their on screen friendship has grown over the years and it is obvious there is respect between the two.

In the past few weeks their plans have started to appear on the Internet and their new business venture is about to start  - V Force Customs. Although they are still fitting out their new shop, it looks like it could be quite impressive, with a huge double front window to the assembly area and a classic epoxy floor - watch as they tour the shop along with other typical Vinnie/Cody videos here.  The new shop also appears to be in between the current OCC shop and their all new ‘world headquarters’.

Hopefully they will be picked up by one of the networks and have their own TV series…..after all Vinnie was really the brains behind the recent Orange County Choppers bike builds and Cody was a good all rounder with enthusiasm to learn. I wish them both well for future, and it will also be interesting to see what happens at OCC now both Vinnie and Cody have escaped.

I recently upgraded my O2 XDA Graphite to Windows Mobile 6 using the upgrade path on the O2 website. Overall this was a very worthwhile process as my phone is now faster and more stable. The downside is I could no longer get my TomTom One V2 and the phone working together - so no traffic and weather updates. A quick hunt around the interweb showed I was not the only one to find this, and the cause appeared to be a decision by Microsoft to remove Bluetooth DialUp Networking as a default option. To add it requires the OEM (in the case of the XDA Graphite this will be either Asus or O2 themselves) to build a new version of the phones firmware - not likely to happen very quickly.

Not to be put off I decided to have another look around for a solution and found plently of others (although not with the XDA Graphite) having the same problem after installing WM6. There also appeared to be a potential solution which worked for some of using an installer to add in the old ‘Modem-link’ files used for BT DUN. The file (found here) should be copied to the phone and then installed by simply running the cab file. After this a soft reset of the phone is required (I found it worked best by removing the battery for 10 seconds) and then to pair the phone and TomTom together. For me this was all that was required and the pairing process worked first time, allowing me to use the TomTom Plus features again.

Once O2 get round to updating the firmware again, I hope they will have the foresight this time to include the legacy BT DUN files. It will make using the phone with my TomTom much easier.

Today is a sad day for my Sky TV viewing as Disney turned off ABC1 in the UK at 12 noon. I had just watched 2 episodes of Home Improvement (one of my favourite sitcoms from the 90’s) when the channel just went off the air. Not having seen any on-air announcements of the channels demise I thought my Sky box or TV had broken initially, but checking online (specifically at Digital Spy) led me to the unfortunate conclusion that ABC1 was no more. It seems a very odd thing to do to close down a channel without any mention to the loyal views, and feels like a bit of a slap in face from Disney.

Now I have to go hunting again to find a channel that shows all my favourites - Home Improvement, 8 Simple Rules (and I still think Matt reminds me of Rory in this show) as well as In Justice and Hope and Faith. Perhaps the soon to be launched Virgin 1 will take these shows when it launches next week?

Recycling waste is always a good idea as it typically uses less energy to recycle than it does to extract the raw material and make new. Freecycle is a scheme that goes a step further (and has done for quite a while now) by being a service where people with goods to dispose of can list them for others to collect and re-use. Basically it is a re-use network.

My local Freecycle has been running for quite a while now and I have had some excellent items (Widescreen TV, Gym Kit) as well as finding a new home for some of my waste (kitchen kit, computer kit etc). Apart from the huge number of ‘wanted’ posts that have been sent in the past, the scheme runs very well and is keeping waste out of landfill.

This weekend I added some more kit I was otherwise going to throw away. Typically I had a number of requests for some of the kit, which should all go soon. On some items it is usual to get emails asking more questions - which I answer as quickly as possible. On one item, after answering the question email I got a reply saying they would collect the item the following day. This despite me not confirming they could have the item. As I was still waiting onothers to either express interest or drop out I chose to hold off replying for a few hours. Then this person started ringing me - in total I had 6 phone calls in 2 minutes - from a number I didn’t know. I chose to screen the calls and it wasn’t until the 6th call that he even bothered to leave an answerphone message (which also confirmed he had traced my address too). Needless to say, this person will never get anything from me. It is totally unacceptable for anyone to hunt for phone numbers and addresses of people who are offering things for free. I have reported these actions to my local groups owners but unfortunately it does leave a bitter taste to know people are doing things like that.