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Well, started doing some Christmas shopping today, i.e. buying stuff on-line Been about 4 years since I actually went into shops, too much hassle! Never had any problems with deliveries as I don’t leave it until a week before Christmas, which the press always seem to ignore when publishing articles about people spending loads of money on-line and not getting their gifts delivered in time. More fool them for leaving it so late! But, if anyone’s after some cool + unique knitwear and clothing, check out Snood, recently formed by my cousin Ruth!

And if Christmas shopping wasn’t exciting enough, figured out yesterday Kat has Dish Network TV up in Alaska, which just happens to provide ESPN, Fox sports and NFL Network (amongst 60-odd other channels). Reckon that will keep me busy during the day!

With the final interview at the US embassy on December 13th, the visa *should* be through 4/5 working days afterwards, though nothing has gone quite to plan yet! So, rather than finding it does come through properly and not being able to fly out until the first or second week in January, have booked flights up to Anchorage on December 27th Nice having yer sister as assistant manager at a travel agents!

Hopefully nothing else will get delayed, and mentioning I have flights booked at the interview might ensure the visa gets processed before the embassy finish for their holidays. If not, is only £50 I’d loose on the flights by cancelling, then just re-book and end up flying out the beginning of January anyways. At least I’ve got the flights guaranteed so can just head out straight after Christmas if things work out. Kat was looking at spending a few days in Anchorage anyways (though we’ll not be doing anything as extravagant as a Mt. McKinley flightseeing tour this time!), so will work out nicely. Can help carry all my bags

Since this is pretty much just my personal blog, it doesn’t get all that much attention apart from some of the computing stuff I’ve written. So, was pretty surprised to see around 300-400 hits per day recently. Driving up to Gateshead to get some more tattoo work done (pictures in a few days when it starts to heal…), I was listening to Radio 1 and now it makes sense why I’ve suddenly been getting so many hits.

I don’t have anything on Noel Gallagher back in the Live Lounge in 2003, though I did get bruised ribs from being right at the front of an Oasis gig in front of Noel in 2003 if that counts! Sorry folks, can’t help you with the competition on Radio 1, but rest assured I’ll be entering anyways to get him to play in my living room :p

But, rather than leaving you to go home empty handed, check out this post I wrote about some live acoustic sets did for ‘The Interface’ podcast a couple of weeks back. And, of course, for more awesome rock music, check out TPN Rock – one of the biggest + best music podcasts out there (which I just happen to co-host!).

Got final interview date at the US embassy – Wednesday 13th December. Would have been *much* nicer to get an interview just a week before, as the visa (if approved!) will be delivered via courier 4/5 working days after the interview. That puts it at around 20th December to (hopefully!) have the visa in my hand. Any gamblers out there? Not much chance of a flight before Christmas at a day or two’s notice, and even going out between Christmas + New Year would be tight both in terms of availability and price. Not impressed, but at least it’s the last step, and surely nothing else can go wrong

Trains down to London for the interview were ridiculous – £141 return to get me there for 10a.m which was just stupid. I’m all for tackling global warming, but return flights to London on EasyJet (BYO sick-bag…) were £31 inc. all taxes and having stuck on speedy-border rights to get me onto the plane first without hanging around. Return tickets on the Standstead Express into London were £22.50 return, so even sticking on a couple of taxi rides to + from Liverpool Station to the embassy with a decent tip for the guv’nor brings it to what, £70-£75? Half the price of the train, and the government wonders why people are reluctant to use them!

First up, got the police check back a couple of days ago which was all clean so have sent notification to the US embassy in London to request a final interview date. Got all the forms I need now, have heard nothing back about the medical which means I’ve got no problems there, so that gives 6 weeks for the embassy to arrange an interview and fly out. Fingers crossed – am hoping to hear back some time next week on an interview date, and so long as it’s before middle of December, shouldn’t be a problem with flight availability or costs to fly out before Christmas

Secondly, expect to see ‘Now Playing in iTunes’ on the right-hande side to show Damien Rice’s latest album, 9, a lot. I’m loving it – is a bit more powerful at times than ‘O’, and was a bit surprised to see the parental advisory sticker on the front of the album cover! Need a few more listens over the coming days, but not sure how many tracks I’ll pick up to play on the guitar myself, as there’s often strings and backing vocals, which work really well. Live sets are planned on Later with Jools Holland this Friday, and with Jo Wiley in the Live Lounge in a couple of weeks, so will see if any acoustic versions of the new tracks are played. Shame there’s no booklet containing some more artwork and lyrics, but the fold out sleeve is nice – I like the way it’s made from recycled paper + card rather than a plastic case which usually break anyways!

Admitedly, I’ve been a little slack in keeping up the studying for the OS X Server exam after passing the OS X Support Essentials exam 5/6 weeks ago, but I got round to going over all my course notes today and booked in for the exam on Tuesday afternoon.

Feeling pretty confident again as there’s not been anything too tricky on the review questions in the course materials or from Apple’s website. It is more challenging than the Support Essentials exam as there’s more new content to take in, but nothing new in terms of functionality I wasn’t already managing on the Windows networks I’ve ran.

But, as a nice little bonus for being part of the Apple Certification Alliance since passing the first exam, you get provided with a voucher code for 25% off further Apple exams, which brought the price down to a more reasonable £60. From what I gather, upon passing the Server Essentials exam, another voucher code is sent for the next exam, meaning all future Apple exams are discounted. Nice touch – certainly makes you want to keep going, and comes off nicely for Apple as they have an increase in the number of certified professionals managing their systems, thus keeping the end-customer happy.

Will see how the exam goes on Tuesday!

Following the excitement of live tracks from Noel Gallagher, the Q-Review podcast popped up in iTunes today kicking off with Damien Rice’s latest album, 9. I loved ‘O’ and ‘B-sides’ and play a lot of the tracks on the guitar, so had really been looking forward to the new album.

It’s out in Ireland today and the UK on Monday, so guess what I’ll be scraping the piggy-bank for?! Damien is also performing on Later with Jools Holland (yey, back on TV tonight!) on 10th November and with Jo Wiley in the live lounge on 24th November, so again, keeps me happy as his live tracks are usually excellent too! I’ve also got a copy of the Live Lounge CD on order too, which is very weird for me since I rarely purchase big-name CD’s with doing so much with unsigned bands, but when I really like a band or artist it’s time to grab the wallet!

And thanks for those that have been in touch supporting my move over to The Podcast Network. I’ve really enjoyed producing TPN Rock this week – reckon it’s pushed me on a bit and feel a lot more comfortable + natural on the mic. Never had problems before with the Unsigned Rock Podcast, but now what I’m doing is getting heard by a pretty big audience, it’s certainly spurred me on