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iTunes Store in South Africa!

Well, sort of...

I downloaded the new version of iTunes today (7.7), and was looking around in it as to what's new, plus lauding the fact that we don't have a iTunes music store over here, when just for interest sake I clicked on the entry with which to choose your iTunes store. And lo and behold, there was an entry for South Africa!

Anxiously I clicked on it, thinking: Are we getting a music store finally? No more skullduggery in getting legal music from the iTunes store?

Alas, it was not to be. The iTunes store we have is just the new App store, for iPhone and iPod Touch Apps. No music, no video, not even podcasts, nothing...

I am guessing they are reading it for the launch of the iPhone 3G in South Africa later this year (when, Vodacom, when?), so at least when we do get the iPhone 3G we will be able to download and/or buy some apps for our new toy. One quirky thing though, all the prices for iPhone apps are in US $, what, too lazy to convert it to Rands, Apple? Or a way to dupe is into spending more money? If the South African Playstation store can have its content in Rands surely Apple can too?

All I say is watch this space, there are things afoot...

Long time no post....

Yes, I know it has been a while, but I've gotten some fervour of late, so things might be looking up...

I have also started a new blog, called Gaming in the Dark, which I hope will offer a unique perspective on the current load shedding situation in the country and how it pertains to gaming, general and specific. So, check it out!

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Feedback

It has been a while since I posted anything, so there is quite a bit to go through, so lets get to it!

rAge
Well, the rAge Expo was a lot of fun, I quite liked it, since it was the first time I was there. What amazed me was the length of the queue when we got there, and it was only 10:30 am!

When we finally got in, we got our goodie bag and first headed for the Food Court, because we organized an informal PSP/DS LAN there. And there actually was people! There was people from Rebound out of Pietermaritzburg, El33tOnline from Durban, and a little later guys from Bloemfontein joined us. All in all we had a blast, we played WipeOut: Pure and Fired up on the PSP, andI even played some Mario Cart on the DS, which was also a whole lot of fun. I wish I had more money to be able to afford both a DS and PSP :(.

The rest of the show was quite interesting too. Of course it was mainly focused on the XBox 360, since it was the official launch event of the console in South Africa, but there was a little bit of DS, PSP and PS2 around, mostly at vendor stands though, Ster_Kinekor wasn't even at the show! We know that the PS2 is not that good in comparison with the Xbox 360, but still, people have short memories, so if the PS2 is not there, people will forget about it, especially with 360 being at their throats all the time.

We stayed at the expo until it closed at 18:00, by that time we were quite tired, but I went to Flint's place so he could show off his 360 a bit. Played a bit of Oblivion and one or two of the Xbox Live Arcade games, which is also fun if you are gaming on the run! And now with Microsoft releasing their XNA gaming development kit for the 360 and PC, things look quite good.

Oh, here is a bit of an scoop for everyone: Whilst at the EA stand at the Expo, we heard someone whisper that there was an exclusive demo of the creature editor of Spore upstairs. So upstairs we went and after a bit of begging, one of the girls at EA gave us a short demo of the creature Editor. Very impressive to say the least! They allowed us to take some cellphone picures, so here they are for everyone to enjoy!




Having a ball
Now woth my dancing show over, I had to find something else to occupy my time, and to get a bit of exercise.

So, when a friend of mine asked me to go and play action netball with him, I said why not? We have practised a bit already, and it is quite a fast game, played in exactly the same court as action cricket. I am in a mixed team, which means there are 3 men and 4 ladies, and we will be starting on one of the bottom leagues, but that doesn't matter, just to play the game will be fun.
Our first league game is tomorrow, so here's hoping we are not that terrible!

Bits
Other than that nothing else is new, just playing SSX on tour on the PSP, and waiting for Tekken: Dark Ressurrection to come out in this country so I can go and buy it, and waiting for my ship to come in so I can buy myself an XBox 360, so cheers vireers from me!

Recovery 101

Well, the show is finished and I think it was a major success! We had a nearly full house for our last performace, which is good to know! Now I can concentrate on my life again, since I have it back now. I wonder what I am going to do with all the time I have now?

In other news, the rAge expo is tomorrow, and me and my friend Matt "Flint" Benic is going there to see what is cooking, and hopefully kick some butt in the unofficial PSP / Nintendo DS LAN we organized. So if you read this and are there, come and say hi. I will be the tall old guy with the thinning hair amongst all the kids :). It will also be fun meeting all the people from the forums (which I read occasionally, but not really post to). Just remember kids, the idea is to have fun, don't go serious on me!

Matt is also getting his Xbox 360 tomorrow (jealous!), so we will probably set that up too sometime over the weekend. Otherwise I think it will just be a chilling weekend just to get my breath back...

Backstage photos

Backstage photos
Originally uploaded by skock_2000.

Here are some backstage photos from my show. Were going on stage in an hour,so here goes...

Backstage photos

Backstage photos
Originally uploaded by skock_2000.

Here are some backstage photos from my show. Were going on stage in an hour,so here goes...

Backstage photos

Backstage photos
Originally uploaded by skock_2000.

Here are some backstage photos from my show. Were going on stage in an hour,so here goes...

Backstage photos

Backstage photos
Originally uploaded by skock_2000.

Here are some backstage photos from my show. Were going on stage in an hour,so here goes...

The show must go on

Well, last night was the first performance of my dance show, A step too far, and I must say it went well. There were not any serious bugger ups, and the audience enjoyed it tremendously.

The only bad thing that has happened is that one of our lead roles popped her kneecap in our final dress rehearsal on Wednesday, so she cannot dance unfortunately. Big disappointment to everyone of course!

But a little positive after that negative is that because of that and a few other circumstances, our director/choreographer is going to be dancing on Saturday night! That will be a treat for everyone who is going to come and watch! As far as I know the Saturday night is basicly a sell out, which is very good news indeed!

Other news
Well, Rage is only a week away, with lots of LAN gaming (even PSP/DS), the launch of the Xbox 360 in South Africa and lots of nice stuff! Can't wait...

Well, I'm nearly off to the theatre and then after the show I'm in Bronkhorstspruit for the (long) weekend, so take care everyone!

First photoblog!

This is just a test of my photoblogging setup between Blogger (beta) and Flickr. Now I can send emails to my blog from my phone together with pictures! Whoo-hoo!

Later

Test
Originally uploaded by skock_2000.