I’m hoping the internet police will look the other way on this one but, like a majority of internet users, I download music. I know I shouldn’t but it’s easier than buying it from a shop and it’s way too accessible. I’ve been doing since I can remember but sometime in 2008 I had a change of heart. Vinyl was becoming a trend and in an attempt to keep up with the Joneses, I decided to hop on the bandwagon. I’ve since amassed twenty five full length 12″ albums and 17 7″ singles and rarities.

Not an impressive collection but I do have a few rare albums that I’m proud to have bought for under a tenner. The first Justice album for £14 was a steal considering I saw it go for £137 the week before on an overinflated eBay listing. Then there’s my budding discography of Gang Starr and the gatefold of Sufjan Steven’s breakthrough album, Illinois.

Anyway, I’ve recently, as the sidebar will tell you, spent a lot of time listening to Ugly Duckilng. I could spend ages telling you how they are the best thing in hip hop at the moment, but that’s a different post for another time. The point is that one of their albums titled ‘The Leftovers EP’ can’t be bought online and can’t be bought on vinyl. I’m thinking I might as well buy it on a good ol’ compact disc. I hovered over the ‘buy now’ button for sometime before putting it off for another night.

The problem is that jewel cases suck. They’re the most horrible thing to look at, they’re probably the reason why I prefer giant cardboard sleeves. Regardless of this, I eventually tried to convince myself that CDs make more sense.

This is progressed in to even worse thoughts of why don’t I buy everything in my library on CD? It would be cheaper and I’d be able to get everything on it. It makes sense right?

I still might put it off for some more of the black stuff but if I bought everything on CD I would accomplish my goal of owning all my music a hell of a lot faster.

Just a quick one today, as I spent most of my day writing this review. Maybe I’m out of practice, it was my first review of the year.

Anyway, I implore you to give this smart game a go. It’s not for everyone as its trial and error ways will turn a lot of people off but if you can get around that and don’t mind a challenge then VVVVVV is worth checking out. Check out my full thoughts on VVVVVV…

I’m still trying to figure out why I’m doing this. I don’t think I have enough to blog about. Maybe I should start listening to those RJD2, Good Shoes & Hot Chip albums some more, so I can review them. Otherwise not much I can talk about.

I don’t lead an interesting life that isn’t full of uni work, sleep and eating. Maybe I should document some of my university design work and how that whole process works. Might be interesting to hear people’s feedback to it as well. Sounds like a decent idea.

Otherwise, not sure why I signed up. Writing every day has been more of a hindrance on my real writing if anything. That maybe because I’m struggling to review VVVVVV because it was simply enjoyable – neither brilliant nor terrible.

Anyway, expect more concise thoughts tomorrow.

You’ve got to wonder why everyone isn’t doing it. Take some bleeding edge technology, a smart idea and make the product look desirable through clean and thought-out design.

How many laptops look awful? Clunky buttons, random flashing lights that you shouldn’t have to see, physical buttons that disable wireless and hinges that weren’t built to stand the test of time – these are just a handful of problems you’ll find with ordinary laptops. Not the MacBook though, it’s not another Dell or Acer monstrosity.

Whether you agree with any of the above is irrelevant because everyone must be able to agree with how well Apple play the PR game. Just sending out invitations that reveal a little bit – but not enough to spoil the event – they’ve created buzz. Numerous blogs have posted them over the course of the day, numerous blogs have alluded to an iSlate.

Personally I’m not interested from a consumer point of view because i’ve got my iPod Touch and MacBook and I’m content with them for now. Unless they make a real convincing argument.

I guess I’m a little bit curious because I have to be, they could be making a serious step towards gaming. They did invite Kotaku among other gaming sites, so it must involve gaming somehow. Could you imagine an Apple console?

Just think about that one.

I’m feeling a lot better today and decided to celebrate with a film. Well that’s a lie, it just happened to be on when everyone else was watching TV. Actually the only key point you should be taking away from this first paragraph is that I watched a film.

Akeelah and the Bee is actually as good as its 84 on Metacritic suggests. It’s not a clichéd story despite it’s inherent predictability, but that wasn’t what ultimately put me off it. The parent of the surprisingly gifted child seemed to have a vendetta against people learning. Now I’m not a parent, neither will I claim to know everything about parenting but no parent would deny their child trying to better themselves at something, especially something academic. Kind of made no sense and did nothing for the plot of the film. However, I could think of worse ways to spend two hours.

I also watched Up, which everyone should watch in one thousand and eighty pea. It looked very nice to say the least. They did a bad job of the plot twists but the overall story and breath of characters were strong enough to make it another classic Pixar film. Probably as good, if not better, than Toy Story… maybe.

Well that’s enough of me trying to be a film critic for one evening.