Addicted...

It had to happen. I loved the original, so when I heard "Half Life 2" was coming out, I just had to buy it. I recently bought a new PC, upgraded the graphics card to one so powerful it practically has its own gravitational pull, and it has been running like a dream, allowing "Roller Coaster Tycoon 3" to reveal just how fabulous it is... oh yes, and to let me do work-related stuff more quickly as well. Anyway, last week "HL2" came out and I bought it on Thursday... and oh my God, it is better than I'd hoped it would be. I'm addicted to it, totally immersed, and I don't want it to end. Oh, and the level called "Water Hazard" is completely fantastic, and I now want a swamp buggy.

On a different note, CRM is back in my life (hooray!) Last week I ran two CRM courses - my first since June - and they went well, better than my last few non-CRM courses have gone to be honest. In addition, I've been talking to some of the guys at Microsoft a lot of late and they've officially asked me to rework the labs in the 1.2 applications course in order to, well, make them work basically. I'll be starting this as soon as I have the virtual PC images activated, and a copy of the latest manual. Just to bring me back down to earth though, tomorrow brings SQL 2000 Administration back, which must be about my 20th this year. Probably not, but it feels that way!

Last week I received a copy of the latest Bewrite book, "The Creature in the Rose", through the post. It looks good, and it's great to see "Martin's Wish" right in the middle of it, in all of its glory...

Finally, there's still no news on the Institute of IT Training Awards as yet. Bill Walker rang them last week as the shortlist was supposed to be announced in the second week of November, but they said there is a delay. Maybe this week...?

Got to dash - cleaning to do (not "Half Life" - honest.)