Caution MMU in progress !!!

Well we finally got the bonus announcements through from the big cheeses ... and for once they were highly AWESOME !!!! :D

So now comes the assignment of portions of said bonus to things ...
First off a sizeable chunk is heading to the "wedding fund" which made the G/f very happy.
Then there's the usual sensible things .. Car tax & insurance (booooooo)

And then .... there's the fun stuff ... The MMU ... or Major Media Upgrade :D

The first step ... Getting shot of the trusty old 28" CRT telly that's provided many years of movie watching & gaming goodness and replacing it with an spanking new up to date HD capable LCD one.
I was aiming for a 37" however after a few minutes with the measuring tape I've had to settle for a 32" .. in fact I've settled for this. I know it doesn't do 1080p but at that size I'm not going to notice that much of a difference, it does however have 3 HDMI ports which is important for the following phases of the MMU and for my uses it has "Game Mode" which I've seen running on my brother's Samsung and it looks fantastic.
I've literally just placed the order for it so now I've got that horrible wait for the delivery man to look forwards too ....

The next phase of the MMU involves my Xbox 360 .. or rather trading it in and upgrading to an Xbox 360 Elite. After a bit of arithmetic it works out at me parting with about 50 quid to get the job done .. which I can live with to get an HDMI port and the larger hard drive. The added bonus is that it should have the quieter drive and run cooler too. So that's 1 out of the 3 HDMI ports on the new TV catered for.

Phase 3 of the MMU involves the addition of the final part of my console collection ... a PS3
Given the recent demise of HD-DVD and the fact that I've actually got the money to do it, I thought it was time to add this to the hardware that surrounds my media unit. Not 100% too sure on the games I'm going to get with it but it's looking like "Ratchet & Clank" and "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune", and that takes care of the 2nd HDMI port on the TV.

The final phase has yet to be decided ... I was going to opt for a DVD player with an HDMI port for upscaling purposes but I'm thinking I might go for a DVD recorder with a hard drive. The only limiting factor to that is I need it to be multi-region, so the search is still on for that one.

So that's it .... the complete MMU .... Needless to say that along with all this shifting in hardware there'll be an opportunity for me to re-cable and tidy up what was once a work of art behind the media unit ....

Can't wait to see it all put together .... The first HD production I'm going to purchase ?

Planet Earth ... Essential documentary from David Attenborough, if you haven't watched it then go out and find a copy now. You won't be disappointed :)

How did I get myself into this ?

Okay .. I'll admit it this update has been a long time coming but to be honest, work was mental in the run up to christmas and getting things back to normal post festive period took awhile ...

So what is my first post of the new year going to contain ....

Well .. I'm getting married in September of this year and earlier on this week I got to talking with some of the guys at work about stag do type events over lunch, so I could give my best man some ideas.
This started off well and numerous ideas concerning boozing were put forth ... and then things started getting a little silly.
Somehow ... I think it might actually be my fault although I was only joking when I suggested it, but somehow I've been roped into a rally or race of sorts that's sort of in honor of my impending nuptials.

The plan is this ...
To drive from the office in sunny Uxbridge to Nice in France.

"That's not that bad" I hear you say ... Then comes the good bit ..
Each team must purchase a car for no more than £200 (Must be taxed & MOT'd) to make the journey.

The cars however aren't making the return trip as we're going to sell them/scrap them when we get there and fly back ...

We start at 6pm on Friday 9th May and we have to be in Nice by Sunday ...

How I got myself into this I don't know .. but I've booked the ferry and the flights home ...
I've roped my brother in as a suitable team mate so it's all systems go !!!

The entire trip/decent into chaos & madness is due to be documented via the medium of pictures, film and depending on what sort of connections I can blag, blogposts and my ever trusty Twitter feed ...

I've no idea what's going to happen ... I do know that we're going to have a lot of fun doing it though ...

So stay tuned for further updates ...

Oh .. one more thing .. if anyone has a line on a car that's reliable and going for under £200 let me know ...