New PC Purchase – Barebones

I bought my last PC in 2007. This was when I was at university and very skint. So I got myself a bog standard PC, then as I’ve been using it I’ve been upgrading the pieces bit by bit. Graphics card, new ram, extra HD. So now the next thing to replace was the motherboard.

When I looked into replacing my motherboard, I realised it was old! Looking forwards I would have wanted to replace the PCU next. I was stuck. If I replaced the mobo with one that fitted my current PCU I wouldn’t be able to upgrade to a decent one in the future. However if I bought a future proof mobo I couldn’t use my current PCU. Ok fine I’ll just buy a PCU as well … nope. Same scenario with my RAM, current RAM IS DDR2 and I would need DDR3 for current motherboards. This was getting too expensive.

I was planning on spending about £90 on a new motherboard. ( I like spending around £100 per component), but as I’ve just said I’d need RAM a PCU and then probably a PSU! Well I found an lternative, a barebones PC, these come as a motherboard, ram, PCU, PSU WIN! I just have to plug my current harddrives in, my graphics card, my dvd drive and away we go!

I went for the “Primo PLUS 500i” Intel H61 DDR3 Ready Barebones (Socket 1155). It is ACE. £125 what a bargain, granted I would have got a lethal mobo for £125 but I like the compromise for upgradeability.

Here’s the innards:

And the front on view:

System Specification

– Case: OcUK IMP microATX case – Black
– Motherboard: Asus P8H61-MX Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
– Power Supply: OcUK Value 500W PSU
– CPU: Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz (Socket 1155) CPU
– Memory: OcUK Value 4GB 1333MHZ C9

Now it’s not the most top end PC, but it’s good. Now I can start my cycle again of upgrading each piece one at a time and hopefully this PC will last me another 5 years!

Installation was easy by the way. Simple if you’ve ever been inside a PC and straight forward if you haven’t. HD sata cables connected, graphics card into the PCIE, turn it on, done!

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Eating Challenge – Flaming Challenge

Just done the ‘Flaming Challenge’ at The Bay Horse in Ashton, UK. Although it is available in any pub under the chain “Flaming Grill” in the UK. It is 2 12oz burgers, 2 chicken breasts, spicy chilli beef, cheese, bacon, onion rings and a lot of chips. It comes out at 1KG of food.

If you complete it you’ll get your photo taken and put on the “wall of flame”. Make sure you mention this when you are ordering your food so they can keep an eye on you for cheating. Not that you ever would!

Wow it’s a lot of food, the burgers are layered with cheese and fried onions, the chilli is then spread all over the top and the chicken breast on top of that. The whole burger is topped with the onions rings. It looked amazing, tasted great … and yet I failed! It was toooo much, but I’m glad I tried because at £9.99 that is cheap!

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How to throw an Oktoberfest Party

Oktoberfest costumes and steins (Click picture for detail)

Last night we threw an Oktoberfest party and it was AMAZING. Everyone had such a good time and it was hilarious. Here’s what we did to make it a success:

1) Fancy Dress

General theme was Oktoberfest ( Leiderhosen and Beer Girls ) or just German in general. We had two pretzels turn up (they’re made in Germany) and someone else was ‘Greece’ (apparantly Germany now ‘owns’ Greece after the bail out).

2) Bring your own Stein BYOS

We got everyone to buy steins/mugs to drink out of. You can get them ridiculously cheap on eBay if you have long enough to look. They come in a range of sizes from diddy shot glass size to litre tankards! ( I went for a litre one, see picture for ideas) If you want a new one the average price we paid was ~£9 inc p&p. Don’t forget you can stick it straight back on eBay afterwards.

3) German Music

There is an Oktoberfest album, this is some type of euro-pop all sang in german. I downloaded one album that was 3 hours worth and stuck it on repeat. (no one can tell its repeated because no one has heard it before!)

4) Dress the house

We had labels in German for the toilets, the beer garden and the living rooms. Also had a blue checked table runner and some german flags.

5) Food

Cooked Bratwurst (big hotdogs) with Löwensenf mustard for sauce. Also we had pretzels to snack on.

Thats it’s party on! We did buy lots of german beer and some german mulled wine, but we cheated and had some other alcohol as well. The absinthe went down well, lethal stuff!

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Ambigram Tattoo – Pleasure or Pain

Some people where asking about my tattoo, so here it is:

Ambigram Tattoo

Ambigram Tattoo – “The world is mine”

It is an Ambigram that says ‘The world is mine’ (read forwards or backwards).

I chose this saying as to me it means. I can do what I want, I am free to make any choice in my life and I won’t regret it because I have more choices to make after that. It is freedom and awe at the diversity of what we can do in the world and I as an individual am empowered to make those choices. To step up to the plate. ( A close second was going to be ‘cometh the hour – cometh the man’. Perhaps another time! ).

It is placed down my left hand side over my ribs and side and stops just above my hip. It took three hours to complete and I did it in one sitting.

I would say my pain threshold is pretty high so bear that in mine when I tell you what it felt like. I had to lay on my side with arm resting over my ear and above my head.

First they draw a stencil in ink and discuss exact positioning. Then they ‘transfer’ the stencil on to your body. You then check it out in the mirror and if you like the position the artist will start. If not you just wash it off and try again. (Mine was great first time).

It was outlined starting from my ribs and working down. I thought it felt quite nice, like a dull vibration on my side making my ribs shake, when the artist got down to my sift side (in between my ribs and hip bone) it was a bit more.. noticeable.

After two hours the artist asked did I want a five minute break, as I stood up I suddenly realised my whole arm that had been resting across my head was ‘dead’ and it swung loose as I stood up. Five minutes later we were back at it.

When the outline was finished he started colouring it in (all black), this was noticeably more intense than the outline. It was like a scraping motion but again I could deal with it on my ribs. It was then about 2 hours 30 minitues in and he was doing my soft flesh omg it started to really hurt, the time dragged and I was wincing slightly. I was scared to move incase it ruined my tattoo but the artist was holding the piece of skin he was working on steady so it was all good. Then it was done!

Bepanthen rubbed over it kept it moist while it healed, roughly three days later I stopped doing that (iirc).

I didn’t rush into this tattoo I’ve wanted one since I was 18 and got it when I was 25. There are multiple websites out there you can use to create / design / choose an Ambigram tattoo so I would take a look around.

Hope you found this maybe just slightly informative!

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Insta Apology – My Inglish Sucks (Joke)

My english sucks and I am english! I was just creating this blog and I typed my name “Blundell’s” then I got a red underline. Hmmm is it Blundells or Blundell’s or maybe even Blundells, I’m thinking Blundells now actually because Blundell’s would mean “Blundell is” right?

I only learnt their, there and they’re a few months ago (and I’m 25). I used to just put there all the time. Actually they’re was never a problem because that is obviously they are, but it was their that I now know means”possessive” to someone and there means a place… I’ve just remembered why I learnt my 3 th’s I was doing my TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) course, that is a whole other post, and yes I did pass it!

So here I am starting my blog and the first thing I am to do is apologise for my spelling and grammar over the whole site. Please use my blog as informative and enjoy the content don’t get caught up on my grammar, duz it reely matta anyw4y?


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