Since posting it to YouTube it’s had more than 1,000 views and it seems it’s become part of a narrowboat-related collection of tributes to The Lonely Island.  My brother spotted one (the second in this list) and I discovered the rest last night.

First off, there’s this one:

Now, this has one major issue, not shared by the others. No boat. Sure, there are clips of other people on boats, but there is a distinct lack of footage of the protagonists on a boat. I guess they were hoping nobody would notice, due to their superior lip-syncing (when compared to all the other examples).

Second up:

Okay, this is certainly much better, but they fall short of the mark by making themselves immediately wrong through use of their own lyrics. Good idea, customised for the entire narrowboat experience – except they’re singing “I’m on a barge”. No, they’re not. It’s a narrowboat. They also appear to be a bunch of toffs; but I guess I should let that go.
Finally:

This is definitely the best of the bunch (and puts our lip-syncing to shame ). Especially love the stop-motion movement of the boat to speed it up; and the sleeping bag for a dolphin.
What they all lack, however, is T-Pain – which is a crucial ingredient.. Oh, and HD.
Just to remind you of the awesomeness of ours, here it is again:

And we threw in a cow pissing in the canal for good measure too…

The first thing to work out is whether you need or want a deposit at all – or whether you’ll opt for a 100% mortgage – and that will depend upon your own personal circumstances. One thing that is clear, and has been much reported, is that due to the credit crunch the number of mortgage deals has been halved as lenders become more cautious about who they lend money to – in the face of not having as much to lend in the first place. What 100% mortgages remain are therefore very costly. As a result, general advice is if you can avoid a 100% mortgage, do – as they no longer represent good value.

In my case I already knew I wanted to save a deposit – so the things I’ve been looking at are when to buy, what proportion to save and where to save it. That first question is a biggy – and I don’t think anybody’s got a good answer to that at the moment so I’ll leave it for now, but the other two are a little easier to answer.

In terms of how much to save – the simply answer is “the more the better”. As with 100% mortgages, deals on low deposits have dried up a lot too – so it’s unlikely that a mortgage based on a 5% deposit would be as good value as one based on a 10% deposit. Before the credit crunch the difference wasn’t that great. I’m personally aiming to save a deposit of around 20% – and I’ll be looking for somewhere with at least two bedrooms. What I also need to consider is ensuring I can afford the payments while continuing to save and increase my mortgage contributions. As mentioned in ‘Too Much Month’ the main thing I’ve done to maximise my savings is moved somewhere sharing the rent with two other people – so I’m now spending £250 per month versus the £635 I was paying when living in Manchester on my own. It’s also closer to work – so my travel costs have gone down significantly too. I took a look at what I spend on essentials (including savings of £100 per month for an emergency fund) and realised that I basically live on a salary of just under £15,000 a year, gross. The bulk of everything else is going in to savings, with the remainder being things like comics, DVDs etc.

If you’re living in rented accommodation on your own then I’d recommend looking at sharing – it can reduce your rent as well as other outgoings – like council tax (given you only get a reduction to 66% for living on your own). Share with just one other person and that’s dropped to 50% – so you can save something there so long as you aren’t moving in to a property in a higher band. Another suggestion I’ve read is moving back in with your parents to reduce your outgoings; not an easy thing to do but it may well be worth while to allow you to reach your overall goal. Another thing I’ve done is move increases to pay to savings rather than spending – though given the rise of fuel and gas/electricity going on at the moment that’s probably less of an option than it once was.

Of course these steps are just as applicable to clearing debt as it is to saving for your house deposit.

Next up – where to save? In my case I’m currently using an ISA and HSBC’s Online Bonus Saver, plus the HSBC Flex Saver for my emergency fund. I opened the ISA last April but only filled it in December thanks to a combination of savings and the Christmas Bonus at work which all went in to the ISA. This year I’ve been more fortunate as a combination of savings (including cashing in on 6 days of untaken holiday, which I got the money for in January) plus a significant chunk of money from my family, I’ve managed to reach the £3,600 limit for this year as of my most recent pay-day. The rest of my money (barring £100 a month for the emergency fund) is now going in to the Online Bonus Saver – which has a variable interest rate of 5.25% AER. I can get instant access to that should I need it – but I’m thinking that I might be able to get a better rate elsewhere. Handily enough I wandered to the Financial Services Authority website – which maintains comparison tables for a variety of areas – including savings. I’m going to have a think about what I need from the savings account (immediate thinking is I need to be able to switch money to my ISA next April without penalty) and see whether there is something that better matches my requirements.

If, like me, you’re looking at saving money to buy a house then hopefully this has been of some use to you.

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This picture was taken with the Canon EOS 400D using my new Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens.  It’s a fantastic little lense ideal for fast portrait shots in low light, without using flash.  And it was a bargain at £70.  I’ve also bought a couple of filters – Canon Lens Filter UV 58mm and Hama Circular Polarizer Filter 58mm - plus a Lowepro Nova 3 AW and Hama tripod with carry case.  Best of all I paid for it all with winnings from Betfair – which is nice.

The following shot uses the same lense, but this time I’ve put it on wide aperture, at highest sensitivity with an exposure time of just 1/4000th of a second.  Very clear image on a motorway – especially considering the combined speed would have been something like 140mph!

In order to make the most of my camera and resulting images I’ve now signed up to Flickr.com where I can upload larger images (and things other than people) than I could with Facebook.  I’ve installed a plug-in in Wordpress which interacts with Flickr – hence the pictures on the right.

I appreciate that for many your hearts are now palpitating in excitement, in *anticipation* of what feasts may follow such an astounding revelation and opening to a Blog post. I understand that you may be tempted to guide the whole world to read this post right now but, before you guide your mouse pointer to reach for the ‘Digg’ icon, I ask that you temper your desire and read through the entire post so you may appreciate my artistry in it’s entirety. I’m sure you’re all aware you should not judge a book by it’s cover.

That kinda shit stands here too.

I have taken delivery of my shiny-camera. It is shiny. And it is a camera – the Canon EOS 400D Digital SLR to be specific. Vital criteria met.

I’ve posted three albums on Facebook so far – a couple of BBQs and pictures from Zen’s twice-annual football tournament. I’m enjoying playing around with the manual settings and learning how to use it and get the most out of it in different situations. Though I am finding that the lense I have is not sufficient to getting the best out of some situations – for example a lot of the football photos came out blurred because getting a balance between lighting (without flash) exposure time and aperture size (cursed aperture science!) is extremely difficult with a kit lense. There’s a reason why the photographers at football matches have a bazooka attached to a tiny SLR. Had I a little more money now I’d be buying a telescopic lense for my Isle of Man trip as I’ve no doubt it’d get better pictures than I can achieve with the kit stuff. That said there is plenty I can do with the standard lense through use of manual settings. It’s pretty impressive what you can get in indoor lighting conditions with a stable surface and long exposure – and I am tending towards avoiding using the flash if at all possible to get more ‘natural’ images. One effect that “kinda” worked was an extended exposure on a tap with running water. It created a kind of ‘cloud’ effect to the water – but as it falls in a fairly controlled straight line it’s difficult to see. I’m interested in trying the same on a small water-fall-esque thing. The one at Robot House (work) may be interesting but, like a tap, is a little too vertical – maybe the scenery in the Isle of Man may lend itself more to that – if I can acquire a tripod. I have to say a lot of what I’m doing is ‘trial and error’ – but it’s fun to try and when it works it feels really quite rewarding.

Grand Theft Auto IV for the Playstation 3. Awesome. Really not much I can add to every other review. If you don’t like it then you probably have problems (or are over 32 years old, in which case ignore the following). Seek counseling. If that doesn’t work try getting a hose from the exhaust of your car to the cabin, start the engine and relax. Really, I can’t help you. I”m sorry. (*disclaimer: don’t kill yourself on my account, really I’m the last person you should take that kind of advise from – I don’t care whether you die or not. I might not like GTA:IV and just be saying I am to piss you off – hell, it could help the housing market).

Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii. Actually fantastic – so much fun but for the reason *I* like games. I’m primarily a casual gamer – I rarely spend hours playing a game – and if I do I’ll typically leave it a week or so before playing again (ignoring Football Manager which I’m sure is hooked up to some Nygma device from a bad Batman film plot, thus prevent me assuming control of the time I spend playing it). GTA:IV I played for 5 hours on Saturday last week – but haven’t played it for more than a week now- I know it is awesome but I don’t want to *just* play that and do nothing else. In fairness weather is a deciding factor as well; it’s been sunny and I’d much rather sit outside than play games. In that and many other contexts, MarioKart can just be picked up and played whenever; either solo or online. It’s a quick-blast of fun on your own and a good addition to the Nintento party-piece armada. The control mechanism works really well (unless your Tufty “scha scha pad” Eddison) so it’s quickly accessible. For those who do lack motive control resulting in an inability to steer a wheel (I think the numeral dents in Tufty’s car shows perhaps the game is not at fault) you can use the Nun-chuck or a Game cube controller to steer. But you shouldn’t as so much of the fun is the tactile feeling of moving the controller to steer. This, of course, comes from somebody who used to try and dodge Tie-Fighters and obstacles in the Death Star run by ducking in X-Wing. It’s pretty much designed for my gaming style.

Wii Fit (Wii). I acquired this on the Sunday after release thanks to the populace of Rochdale being completely oblivious to the fact that Morrisons stocks such games and hardware. I had a similar experience when myself and colleagues acquired the Sony PSP on release day – despite it being almost impossible to acquire otherwise (that said the PSP was something I purchased on a whim – and, longer term, regretted- still got a decent price on e-bay though). It really does tire you out, but it’s a lot of fun too. Bizarrely it reports my BMI as on, or around, 22 – so ‘ideal’. Though it says I’m week. To be honest I can understand why – my legs are really quite scrawny when compared to my beer-reinforced upper-body. The only major issue is that I feel rather self-conscious using it with people around – Yoga with friends really DOES NOT work. Similarly, the hula-hoop thing is border-line obscene.

Image via Wikipedia

Inexplicably I’m in a bad mood this evening. I really don’t have a clue as to why, but there it is.

Work is going well and the last couple of weeks have been especially good with Zen Internet’s move to Robot House and some pretty good “wins” in terms of analysis we’ve done on common calls (but I won’t go into that as my blog is not for ’shop’ talk – and even if it were, it’d just bore you ).

My own move has gone well too – all settled into the new place, washing machine installed (a Bosch thing. Exciting, eh? ) and the garden was put in a couple of weeks ago so the place is set up for summer barbecues – should Rochdale be kind enough to grace us with sun this summer… for a change.

I’ve booked my holiday now and will be spending the week of my big 3 – 0 (3 Oh no) in France on the boat. It’s looking like all my holidays are going to be clumped around a few months this year. At the beginning of June is my trip to the Isle of Man. At the beginning of July is my trip to France and August (or is it September – I best check) – I’ll be holidaying with my family in the Lakes at the same place we went last year (scroll down for piccy).

Given I’ve been in a bad mood this evening, and I had planned and budgeted to buy one anyway, tonight I’ve ordered a Canon EOS 400D to cheer myself up.

In other news… My monthly comic subscription arrived today. The latest issue of Countdown to Final Crisis supplied however was 02. So I’ve got to wait a month for the conclusion (or the beginning I guess, in the context of ‘Final Crisis‘).

And finally… more comic-related news. Allegedly the Justice League film has been shelved. Oh, and Lionel Luthor was killed in Smallville.

That, of course, is another move in progress. This time next month all of Zen will be re-united at last in our new HQ (Robot House), which will be good. The times above are taken to Robot House – old HQ is probably 5 minutes walk away from the new house.

I’ve purchased a new washing machine – a Bosch thing that should get delivered on Thursday morning. Annoyingly the slot is “7am to 1.45pm” – I’ve asked them to call before delivery so I can make my way over from work but they can’t guarantee it – which is frustrating. I’ll stay over on my airbed on Wednesday night and use flexi in the morning and just hope they deliver early.

Few other things need sorted; curtains for my room, sofas for the living room (Ikea cheapo things) and I want a new bed – which is something I’ll keep when I buy, so I’m allowed to take that from my house savings (like the washing machine). BT line gets installed on the 16th.

In other news… I’ve booked flights to the Isle of Man to stay with my bro and family at the end of May/beginning of June – during TT week. This’ll be the first time I’ve been over during TT week, so shall be… an experience.

And finally… I’ve just bought the new Goldfrapp album – and it is good.

How did I achieve this? I ‘invested’ in a HD-DVD player for the X-Box 360. Shortly afterward Warner took the decision to only release on Blu-ray and just last week Paramount and Universal followed suit, with the final nail in HD-DVD’s coffin being Toshiba canning the manufacturer of HD-DVD players. Thankfully I only bought two HD-DVDs – Superman Returns and Batman Begins, both available on Blu-ray. The ending of the format war is overall good – as buyers now don’t need to worry about what format releases will be available on.

This meant I had to begin the hunt for a Blu-ray player. I’ve avoided buying DVDs for more than a year; but there are plenty of things I want and it seems the catalogue on Blu-ray is pretty decent. Choosing a player I thought would be complicated, but thanks to the helpful posts of AVforums I concluded that the only option at present is – surprisingly – the PS3. The reasons for this are simple; at present existing players are not upgradeable to support future iterations of Blu-ray releases – Blu-ray extras will include interactive Web content which requires an amount of storage, and Internet connectivity, in the player. While the PS3 currently doesn’t support these features for Blu-ray discs it has the hardware to do so – and is firmware upgradeable. Most players available are not upgradeable to the full feature set – though if you’re just interested in watching the film, it’s not an issue.

So, I now have the 40GB PS3 – cheaper than the 60GB and reportedly quieter. I also don’t need the additional USB slots, multi-card reader or PS2 backwards compatibility for what is essentially my Blu-ray player. I’m liking it – primarily because it’s a lot quieter than the 360 (though so are planes taking off, in fairness), but also because Blu-ray discs (BD) are in 16:9 so appear full screen rather than letter box (though that could simply be down to the discs I’ve chosen). I got the Spiderman trilogy for £27 from Amazon – so already I have one more BD than HD-DVD. I also got Burnout: Paradise – which is an awesome game – though lacks the multi-player (other than online) that made it’s predecessors a fun ‘party’ game. Still – that’s what Mario Kart for the Wii will be for.

In other news, saw Tufty’s projector and screen at the weekend – very impressive. Had a 720p source going into it, projecting onto the 104″ screen. Picture was very sharp even at that size – very much like watching at a mini-cinema.

Now, I HAD budgeted £2k for a car… plus insurance. I’ve obviously fallen short of that. I was also on holiday with family last week, and I was pretty much convinced by my bro that I needed a MacBook Pro. Erm, so I’ve bought one. A refurb 15.4″ 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo with 2GB ram, 120GB HDD and 8600M with 128MB RAM. For £1100 – so a bargain. I have one last extravagance left now – the iPhone and then all money = savings for house deposit.

No doubt I’ll get some comments from my mum when she reads this blog. :p

Most important of the cats though is the big cat which arrived from Amazon – Leopard.  I’m now going to go and install it.  Wish me luck!