Riiiiggght. Today I had a camp man run his hands through my hair, in exchange for money. On a completely unrelated matter, I’ve had a hair cut. It’s now ridiculously short. Also, the December issue of Gemaga magazine was released today (or so the Internet tells me) and with it is are 2 DVDs featuring Tokyo Game Show trailers, rumours being that 2 of these are for FFXIII and FF Versus XIII. Meanwhile, the December issue of OPM is now in shops complete with a PS3 cloth. As in, for cleaning it. The PS3, that is. It also has a review of FF: Special Edition and FFII: SE, the PSP remakes released in America earlier this year. Are they coming out here? They don’t look that great, whatever the case may be.

Apparantly, it’s Halloween today. Happy Halloween, everybody. Here’s the round-up of who’s been doing what for it on ze Internets:

Google, really not trying that hard at all:

YouTube, trying even less:

But, not to be outdsone by big businesses with huge amounts of money at their disposal, here’s the PS UK Forums efforts:

“Hellooooooooo.Why not check out our range of Halloween TREATS?

Click here if you dare….Mwahahahahahaha

Jesus. Scary stuff. Actually, to be fair, the forums have put in a fair amount of effort. The forums are now complete with purple text and a spooky background. Oh, and this smilie,

 Wait, no, that’s not scary. Awwww.

Meanwhile, Jamie has finally chosen a Halloween costume. Here it is being modelled by his faithful assistant, Igor, whom he only allows out on special occasions:

“Happy Halloween, everyone! May you all die tonight…”

This is the Japanese lady who lives in my kitchen.

She’s…quite scary.

I’m watching the season 1 finale of Lost on Virgin Media On Demand, on which they have every episode of the first series. ‘Tis awesome.

I have a Physics test on Monday. How annoying is that?

Annie recorded a radio show thing on her phone on the yard today. Seb’s in it, therefore making it awesome. I hope she uploads it to something, that would be incredible. Alternatively, it could just have been recording muffles, as she was holding the microphone upside-down, in which case it should probably be burned.

Other Stuff

• CCFFVII Soundtrack - I am the current highest bidder, with 4 days to go.
• There’s a demo of The Simpsons Game on the PS  Store. Dare I download it?
• What am I going to do for community service, seriously? I’ll ask around. Make a dodgy deal with teachers, etc.
• Flicking through the Littlewoods Christmas Catalog, which is ridiculously expensive, I noticed the following things on their PS3 worth mentioning: “Removable 60GB hard drive”, “Compatible with PS1 and PS2 games”, “Multimedia card slots”. Sucks to be you, Littlewoods. Also, I might add, the PS3 listed, including a copy of Resistance: Fall Of Man (which…is shite) costs £429. Lol.
• In Japan…the new 40GB PS3 is being sold for ¥39,980…which is £168…
• …£168.
• I’m gonna get a white SIX…Shock 3 Axis…when it comes out…just to make everything contrast and be weird.
• Is the YouTube video window bigger…or am I going mad?
• Natsumi is now called Natsume.
• All the members of Morning Musume are sluts…apart from that everlasting figure of innocence, Ai Kago. I looked up (in my amazingly incomprehensive Japanese dictionary) that Ai Kago means love basket. Awww. Well, as it turns out, her mother gave an interview stating the truth about her oh-so-unfortunate daughter’s life (it’s on Hello!Online). In it she discussed how Ai Kago had a mentally handicapped brother, and that her 35 year-old boyfriend owns a cafe in Shibuya called SOMA. Um…awwww…I guess.

• I’ve added more videos to my favourites on YouTube. Check them out, if you know what’s good for you.
• What’s the punishment for defacing British currency? Not that I’m doing it, I just saw some art guy on TV doing it.
• I now know how to assign abilities to my characters on Twottle! This is the happiest day of my life!
• Aaron reads this blog in IT. Hello. I’m watching you.

Song Of The Day: Ayumi Hamasaki - Fairyland

Here’s a silly picture of Cloud on a bike.

I just made a Radio Phil, but it was awful, so I deleted it.

The Original Soundtrack to Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII came out today in Japan. I’ve placed a bid on a $5 one on eBay, but as it ends at 4AM on Sunday morning, it’s unlikely I am going to win. The Buy It Now one is $33.

Other Stuff

• White PS3 and white Dual Shock 3-SIXAXIS FTW.
• They really can’t be bothered ending the series on a high - KnoxKast Episode 71.
• I saw Steven Singh today, sitting down in the dirt outside school.
• Happy Birthday Andrew for Yesterday.
• Autocar didn’t arrive today because of the silly Post Office people.
• I am 11 months older than Aaron, despite being in the same year as him.
• I have to do a long 20 mark History question tonight. Awwwww.
• Annie wasn’t in today. I say she’s gone to Mars, to get some Mars Cheese.
• FF Retrospective Part XI - it’s retro-tastic.

Song Of The Day: The Rolling Stones - She’s A Rainbow

They look like normal coloured rocks, don’t they?*

But no! You’re wrong! Wrong! They are merely sweets which look like rocks!

Annie got them from Hong Kong and randomly gave them out in a free at the end of the day. I ate two, saw how wonderful they were, and took three home in my pocket to show you how wonderful they were too. I’m quite sad, aren’t I? Still, I would like to personally thank Annie for these incredible pieces of wizardry, and I’m sure all of you would like to thank her, too. Thank you, Annie.

In other news, I did indeed buy Utada United 2006 from eBay. It’s coming from the same guy I bought the last two DVDs from in Hong Kong (where they sell rock sweets), so it should take about 10 days, if the silly Post Office people are off their strike by then.

I’ve got some Chemistry homework to do, but it’s no big deal really, as I haven’t got any other homework to do tonight. I could do it in the study period tomorrow.

I’m currently in the process of making the next episode of Bouncy Buddies - it’a gonna be awesome. Really. Well, it’ll be funny on a different level to the other episodes in the series. But…I think it works rather well. The Video Phil Christmas Special is progressing nicely too.

Other Stuff

• Wellock wanted Annie to take a picture of my hair for some reason.
• When will Patrick Kielty die?
• Sony have decided to drop the 60BG PS3 in Europe. Will mine become a collector’s item in years to come? No.
• “Get dust of of a PSP with a vacuum cleaner”. I prefer the other way…

*They look like Huge Materia! ZOMFG!

Song Of The Day: Aya Matsuura - Tropical Koishiteru

Video Of The Day: Sony Bravia Bunnies Advert

Sony have just announced an entry-level 40GB PS3…for £299. Also, the 60GB PS3’s price is being cut…to £349 - and that includes two games (haven’t said exactly what these games are yet…but games is games.) Ladies and gentlemen, I think it’s safe to say that the Xbox 360 is on a downward slope from here.

The 40GB hard drive aside, the 40GB PS3 only has two USB ports (compared to the usual four), memory card slots have been removed (not sure whether they’ve all been removed, or whether it’s just the SD and flash card slots that have been removed) and it isn’t backwards compatible with PS2 games. However, these aren’t really major drawbacks, for the reasons listed below.

• Are you really going to fill up a 40GB hard drive? Even if you did, the hard drive is removable anyway.
• I play PS2 games on my PS2. It’s an idea that works very well.
• What are you going to use four USB ports for? I only ever use one to charge the controller, which, by the way, remains wireless and motion sensitive.

The 40GB PS3 goes on sale in the UK on October 10th.

Of course, being an idiot who bought a PS3 on launch day, this doesn’t affect me at all. I could complain about Sony not looknig after it’s early-adopting loyal customers, but business is business, and I for one look forward to Sony doing well with this fantastic deal.

In other news, I got Final Fantasy Tactics: The War Of The Lions. It’s…hard. I can’t win the second battle of the game, and the story is…confusing. But the box is, indeed, white.

I didn’t win Morning Musume’s fifth album on eBay. Silly eBay. I really can’t stand bidding on things. It’s slow, dull and there is a strong chance that you could be outbid, with the price being raised to something ridiculous. Buy It Now FTW.

I suggest you read the MSN conversation I had with Calum on Thursday night. It really is the greatest thing ever.

Other Stuff

• My (current, at least) History teacher gave a magnificent speech on Friday afternoon that made a lot of sense and had a great-ish affect on me.
• GT5 Prologue will be released on the PS Store and Blu-ray in Japan on December 13th, with a demo available on October 20th.
• Given that Twottle (The War Of The Lions) was released in American and Europe within 5 days of each other, we should get Crisis Core the same time as them too.
• Lewis Hamilton is unfortunately on pole for the Chinese Grand Prix tomorrow. If he wins the championship tomorrow, the Brazilian race will be awfully dull.
• Apparantly Natsumi didn’t understand the word ’sit’. Awwwwww.
• I tried feeding Tom a Pringle. He licked it, then walked away.
• Sony’s PlayTV plugs into your PS3 allowing you to receive view and record television. Thing is, does it require you to leave the PS3 on all the time? And does it require a connection to the Internet?
• Utada.com is down. Did they forget to keep paying for it, or are they preparing it for Hikki’s next English album?
• No question - Otsuka Ai’s Smily video is the greatest music video ever, for the following reasons:

1. The sumo wrestlers (I guess they’re sumo wrestlers - they’re quite big) are wearing bras made out of coconuts. The fact that they’re wearing bras at all is only the start of it. They also wear grass skirts.
2. Otsuka Ai slaps these men’s stomachs. They chase her. They carry her on their shoulders. All of these things would look quite dodgy in the Western world.
3. At one point she is blindfolded and goes around the beach with a stick smashing melons, whilst the sumos run away from her. It is then revelaed that one of the sumos is buried up to his head in the sand, easily mistakable for a coconut by a blindfolded girl with a stick.
4. There’s some random guy with a moustache and a hat playing a pink guitar.
5. Otsuka Ai is almost run over by a massive red truck until one of the sumos kicks her, quite forcefully, out of the way.
6. There’s a massive smiling lampost which scares her.

You can witness the true majesty of this awesome video here.

Song Of The Day: Aya Matsuura - Good-bye Natsuo

It seems that £60 has been put into my bank account by EMA. Coupled with the £3,000,000 that Omar Zbili wants to put in there (after his business associate died in an awful plane crash, apparantly) that should add up to a tidy sum of money.

So, I downloaded the demos of Folklore and Sega Rally. What were they like? Well, here we go…

Folklore: Being a game based on Irish folklore, the main character (I chose to play as Ellen) inevitably ended up in a pub. Before said tavern discovery, I walked around having various flashbacks (or something) about my mother. All the cut-scenes are presented in an annoying comic book way, with no voice overs, so I didn’t really have any idea what was going on. The pub wasn’t as astmospheric as I imagine an pub from Irish folklore would be. Disappointing.

Would Sega Rally be higher than my lowly expectations expected? No. At one point I’m sure I heard the co-driver say “90 left…maybe”. The graphics are deceiving at first, until you realise that the Subaru Impreza you are given…doesn’t really look like a Subaru Impreza. It uses R2 to accelerate, which is a stupid idea that racing games all seem to copy now. Handling is like Ridge Racer, only slightly better. So, yeah it’s…pretty bad.

Other Stuff

• “That’s 69 way too many” - KnoxKast Episode 70. They announced on this show that Episode 75…will be the last ever KnoxKast. Fortunately, they plan to replace it with a show that will be exactly the same - Chaos Pony. Looking back, they chose The Library and The Greatest Conspiracy Ever as the only two vaguely listenable episodes.
• I have added Tim as a friend on the PlayStation 3…place…thing…y’know. I greeted him with the words “PHILIP MARKHAM IS WATCHING YOU POOP”. All he seems to do is play Resistance: Fall Of Man. Silly Tim. My avatar is now a (supposedly magic) 8 Ball.
• Computers are stupid.
• Cardiff Council advertised pole dancing lessons for 11 year-olds, proving that the Welsh are, indeed, retarded.
• Beowulf is a lughable attempt at a computer generated movie. “Oooh, we can design the characters to look and do whatever we want them to do, unbound by physical restrictions! I know! - we’ll make them look like the people voicing them! Yeah! And we’ll add in some generic action scenes featured in every single movie since the eighties!” I’d love to see Tetsuya Nomura kick them in the face.
• The War Of The Lions comes out tomorrow…I hope the box is white.
• I am still the highest bidder on Morning Musume’s 5th album. I am sooo cool.
• The postal workers are on strike. Sack them.
• It’s sad how the British music industry works. Amy Macdonald is a blatant rip-off of KT Tunstall and Kate Nash is a blatant rip-off of Lily Allen. The former is a Scottish guitar-playing indy type, and the latter is scum.
• Seb suggested a good idea for a new Butt Collector video. I’ve stolen his idea and will incorporate it into the Video Phil Christmas Special, which, by the way, will be awesome.
• There are 4 new demos on the PS Store. Skate? Why the hell would I want to play that? A game about the 100 years war? …no. The other two are so dull I’ve forgotten what they were.
• Why does Annie’s blog mention me so much? She’s in Hong Kong and she’s still talking about me. I’m gonna add Annie’s name as a tag to see what happens.
• The PSP box below looks completely out of proportion. Stupid box.

Song Of The Day: Koda Kumi - Wind

There’s a new Hikki song! Strangely, it’s been played on a new commercial for some hair product with no former announcement of it’s existence. Watch the 15-second commercial here. More information will be released on October 3rd. I like the song. It’s kinda…fast.

I sorted out all the files on my computer…there’s now considerably less of them. Tomorrow, I shall sort out all my school work. Yes. Remove all the pictures of lolchairs with penises, etc.

Jun Jun (top row, fourth along) still doesn’t know where she is or what’s going on, really, does she?

*note - the image above may change now and then randomly, so Jun Jun might not be where I say she is*

Morning Musume’s fifth album (imaginitively title ‘No.5′) is on eBay, but I will actually have to bid for it rather than just Buying It Now. How awkward.

Physics was strange today. We listened to noise. We had to walk past some noise, covering up one of our ears (the one that wasn’t pointing towards the noise) and listen out for…something. I didn’t pick up on anything, which really showed when the teacher aksed me a question and I got it spectacularly wrong.

The jumbo sausages from Plassey Fish Bar are shite.

I should probably be doing Chemisry homework, but I really can’t be bothered. I may do it later, or during the study period before Chemistry tomorrow.

They’re thinking of building a giant hydroelectric generator on the Severn estuary which will provide Britain with 5% of it’s power, and provide something for me to look at out of my bedroom window. It will be operated by Seb, and an army of trained lemmings.

Other Stuff

•  Tom doesn’t want to eat the jumbo sausage, once again proving that they are crap.
• I played the PS3 demos of Armored Core 4, Heavenly Sword and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Heavenly sword looks good but is stupidly repetitive (also, Nariko’s loopy Gollem-esque sister Kai scared me). I skipped the dull tutorial section of AC4, so that when the game started I had no idea what to do, so I just flew into the water, and died, apparantly. Ninja Gaiden Sigma is almost exactly the same as Genji: Days Of The Blade - not very good then. Next time, I shall be giving my brutal but honest opinion on the Folklore and Sega Rally demos.

Song Of The Day: Mikuni Shimokawa - Tomorrow