Hebden Bridge Blues Fest - Warm Up Gig

Xbox Kinect - Matthew Kinton Reviews

The Setup

The setup of Kinect is very important in order for it to be working well. Firstly, it has to be away from the speaker of your TV so if your speaker is on the bottom it needs to be on the top or if your speaker is on the top it needs to be on the bottom, however, if your speakers are in the middle it can go anywhere you like. Secondly, it needs to be at least 2 feet off the ground, once you are all plugged in you are ready to go all you have to do is turn on your Xbox and it will guide you through the setup and calibration.

The overall tracking of the player is rather good, though slightly slow to respond as Billy Painter found when trying to play my very own Kinect. It’s also great fun to get the whole of your family and friends up and playing together; but be careful though because I have it in my bedroom and lack of space is an issue, make sure you have a wide space so that more people can play and enjoy the fun.

A useful feature is absolutely no controller, which is handy seen as though batteries are a big issue for me and certainly a lot of other people, all you have to do is wave and the Kinect sensor will automatically see you and sign you in, though sometimes facial recognition doesn’t quite work unless you have lots of clear lighting all around the room.  There is also voice recognition where you can tell it exactly what do, which also doesn’t quite work unless everybody else is silent in the room.

While playing the game it likes to take pictures and names them according to your actions this is rather a funny feature because you get to look at yourself looking stupid. 

Kinect is about £130, which is quite expensive but I would wait a while till the price drops, also because the games need to be more developed. I have only played one which is Kinect Adventures, this is good fun to play for a bit, but there are only five mini games to play so it can get quite boring after a while.  

Mike's Thing That He Does

Yeah, this one's here

Hi,

Billy said I was allowed to advertise this thing I've been doing on here. Basically, I've started doing a web-comic kind of thing on Deviantart.com. Most of the time I just hold up pieces of paper, but occasionally I do other stuff. I'm going to pretend to be modest and say that it's not very good (but obviously I want you to think it's great).

So, please visit this and if you like it, return every so often to look at new things that I'll have put up.

Thanks,

Mike (but I do a whole pseudonym thing on Deviantart, so shh about me being called Mike)

But yeah, thanks

Lee Dam Swim, Lumbutts

Hi All,

Sorry it's taken so long to post since the swim last week at Lee Dam, Lumbutts. Well, it was very cold indeed! 5 degrees! But, due to the huge buzz and rush of adrenaline it didn't seem that cold at all! I could have stayed in there for hours... Well, a slight exaggeration perhaps! Very refreshing, very crazy and very unique. It was extremely enjoyable, and I shall be doing it again next year for sure.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who sponsored myself and Dieter Rutkowski, we raised around £300 for our respective charities (Australian Flood Appeal and The Great Generation), and your support made it all worthwhile and I'm delighted that we managed to raise so much for two great charities. 

I think it's only fair to mention that Dieter won the race too, which is a fantastic achievement. I shan't be intentionally slower next year though...

Lumbutts Reservoir Swim

It is official, after much deliberation, Billy will be doing the Lumbutts Reservoir Swim tomorrow (Sunday 16th January 2011). He will be doing it in aid of the Queensland Government who are accepting donations to support the Queensland Flood Victims. 

If you would like to sponsor Billy, please let him know either on here or by emailing him on billy@billypainter.com.

Thanks for your generosity!

New Faces in 2011 Pace Egg Cast

The Midgley Pace Eggers are delighted to announce that James Kay, Sol Cotton, Tom Jennings and Matthew Kinton will join the Midgley Pace Eggers for their 2011 performances on Good Friday. The standard at the auditioning process was, as always, very high and made selection difficult, but the four who will be joining us this year are four fantastic additions and we look forward to working with them and blooding some new talent this year.

Good Friday this year is on 22nd April.

Pace Egg Auditions

It's that time of year again where the Midgley Pace Eggers hold auditions in hope of finding some new and budding Thespians for this years Pace Egg extravaganza. 

The Midgley Pace Egg play is an old tradition within the Calder Valley, and has been performed for many years on Good Friday. The Pace Egg is based on the oldest play in the world, The Mummers Play.

The story is based around Saint George's triumphs and the whole play boasts his great champion status. Throughout the performance three challengers try to defeat Saint George (Bold Slasher, Black Prince of Paradine and Hector), who is a very cocky and mighty character. The play consists of eight characters, which this year was again made available to all ages, due to the school’s excessive range of performing talent. As always, it will be an all boys cast due to the ancient traditions of the play.

If you are interested in taking part in this years play, then auditions will be held this Tuesday, 3pm in the Ted Hughes Theatre at Calder High School. More info can be obtained from paceegg@painterschronicle.co.uk 

New Year's Day Treasure Hunt

The Annual New Year's Day Treasure Hunt, held in Mytholmroyd has raised a total of £147.36 in aid of The Fire Fighters Charity.

A total of 40 families entered the treasure hunt, a healthy increase on last years numbers and fun was had by all. The Hunt entailed a nice scenic walk around the countryside of Mytholmroyd with clues spread throughout for families to solve.

Billy Painter, who also organised the event last year commented, “I’m delighted with the amount of interest it has generated in the local community and the number of people who came to take part” 

“It was nice to see many familiar faces from last year enjoying the walk again and to make a financial contribution to a good cause like The Fire Fighters Charity” said Painter.

The Treasure Hunt (A Route) was won by the ‘Batty Walkers’ who scored 29 points out of a possible 31. Second place went to the ‘Mawby Family’ with 28 points, whilst ‘Sally + Co’ and ‘A Leah’ occupied third place with a total of 27 points. The winner of the Treasure Hunt (B Route) was ‘D. Pratt’ with a total of 21 point out of a possible 23. 

Details of the Summer 2011 Treasure Hunt will be released in the coming months.