Went to Portsmouth this weekend for my friend Claire's birthday, and very good it was too. Had a very nice meal, drank lots of wine and went to a cool little club that appeared to be in someones basement - rather enjoyed myself.

Went to see The Pixies last night. Very good it was too, they played most of the classics and a few obscure numbers I didn't recognise. I'm happy to report that Frank Black (or Black Francis) has still got that scream, and Kim Deal still makes my knees go all wobbly when she sings. Enjoyable night out.

Back to today, you may have heard of the release of something called a Playstation Portable here in Blighty. Well as an early-ish adopter of the Japanese system I thought I'd give a little buying advice...

1. Buy a screen protector - even though I'm very careful with my PSP I've managed to get a couple of tiny dents on my screen. To be honest you don't notice them when the system is on, but I still find it naggingly annoying that they are there

2. If you want a game to show off the PSP get Ridge Racer, it's blindingly fast and looks like the dog's proverbials. It's also quite good fun to play even though the first few races are far too easy.

3. If you want a game to last get WipEout Pure. It's satisfyingly hard and the downloadable content for this game is a blinding move, just when I start getting a bit bored it seems that Sony telepathically reads my mind and releases a new content pack.

4. You'll want a bigger memory card if you get Wipeout Pure, the 32MB is pretty much useless.

5. If you appreciate simple elegant game design, interesting visuals and a decent soundtrack and/or you like Tetris you'll want Lumines. If you don't agree with any of those pre-requisites then why the hell are you buying a PSP?

6. Steer clear of Ape Academy, the loading times are longer than some of the mini-games in the Japanese version, I doubt they are any quicker in the European version, and even once they do load the games are all a bit shit.

I'd like you to say hello to Sam...

He's a bit tired now as he's had a busy day. Two strenuous walks, some general frolicking, learning how to sit and winning a gold cup in a Frisbee catching competition has taken it out of him a bit, and it is past 11 o'clock which is far too late for a young puppy.

Before I get too carried away let me explain, this is Nintendo's new attempt at a non-game, called Nintendogs. In it you interact with a puppy using the Nintendo DS touch screen and microphone with the general aim to keep him or her happy and to try to train the puppy to be a good and obedient young dog.

Frankly it terrifies me, partly from the lifelike behavior and animation of the dogs, but mainly because I'm scared of being investigated by the RSPCA if I forget to turn my DS on at least twice a day to feed the damn thing.

Makes a bit of a change from shooting things in the face...

just noticed I've had this drafted in Blogger but didn't post it for some reason, posting this Monday night...

I may have been a bit premature about the Doom film, a new trailer has been released which is starting to sway my opinion. Don't get me wrong, the film still looks like it will mainly suck, but this new trailer shows quite a few of the First Person Scenes (ie the bits that look just like the game) and you know, they look great! The part at the end of the trailer involving a pinky demon and (/takes a moment to compose himself) a chainsaw (eek!) is especially pleasing.

To compensate for the previous crappy post here's a link to a game that should take your mind off it...

The most exciting thing that has happened to me this week is I got home last night to find that someone has dug up the hedge that was outside the front of my house. OK, it was dead - and had been dead for about a year - just seems a bit odd that someone suddenly decided it had to go. Must be some sort of portent...

Another weekend, another step closer to some sort of mental breakdown I reckon...

Anyway, can't be bothered to write anything - just thought I'd point you in the direction of the page for my new phone. Just a few pictures of people in pubs, some mild vandalism on a train and a few pictures of The Streets at the Brixton Academy from Friday (verdict: they were OK I guess).

That is all.