Tickets Please

An unusually early start for me this morning as I had to be in front of the computer at 9am to buy my Muse ticket for their date at Wembley Stadium next September. Whoever came up with the idea of releasing them this early is some kind of maniac but I suppose it is nicely timed for Christmas. It was surprisingly easy to get hold of the ticket actually even though I was using the Seetickets website (with which I have had several bad experiences previously) but thanks to a tip from my housemate who had a code for yesterday's pre-sale I got in early and got to the booking screen after only a couple of page-refreshes.

It still strikes me as silly that this website doesn't follow the same rules as the Ticketmaster site. I always prefer to use the Ticketmaster site because a) it can cope with the demand when several high profile performers all release their tickets at the same time and b) employs a fair allocation process. Whilst Seetickets operate a lucky dip method, whereby everyone repeatedly clicks on the refresh button as quickly as possible to try and catch it at the right moment, Ticketmaster uses a queuing system whereby each user is places in a queue and the tickets are allocated on a first come first served basis - as they would in real life. The user is allocated a specified amount of time to complete each screen and will lose their place in the queue if they are not quick enough - fair enough - and on top of that, it allows the user to store their information under their user profile so that if they are registered, can complete the whole transaction very quickly. Seetickets don't have that option and their website is incompatible with the Google toolbar autofill feature meaning that you have to type all of the information in by hand. When was trying to buy tickets for Muse's last Wembley appearance, the Seetickets website crashed before 9am and despite refreshing every couple of seconds (something I expect people all over the country were doing and therefore adding to the strain on the already busy servers) I was getting nowhere. A couple of minutes later and I was in a queue with Ticketmaster and got my tickets fine. I have noticed that Seetickets have updated their website significantly since last time and although it didn't buckle under the strain and they have added an auto refresh feature, it is a long way off being anywhere near as professional and easy to use as Ticketmaster's offering.

Only one lecture today instead of two due to the lecturer being out of the country at a conference so I returned home early for once and didn't know what to do with myself. I decided (as I do 9/10 times in these circumstances) to catch up on yesterday's TV. It strikes me as slightly odd that whilst most professional TV critics get to watch the programmes that they review a couple of days (if not longer) earlier than the general public and lately I seem to be reviewing them the day after - possibly even two days after depending on when I publish the blog. I don;t suppose it matters all that much but it just occurred to be that it was a bit odd.

Of course, no Thursday blog would be complete without Wednesdays NMTB review. A pleasant surprise this week in the form of Martin Freeman who was miles better than I ever thought he would be. I remember his appearance as a guest on an earlier series and can only remember the despondent stare off between him and Mat Horne and not finding the whole thing that funny. It might have been because of my rather strong dislike of Mat Horne though and he has certainly gone up in my estimations since this performance. The star of the show however was Dappie from N-Dubz and you know that no matter how bad everything else is, he will bring laughter where before there was none. A spectacular entrance with smoke and wires gracefully lowering him from the sky to his seat to a mass of applause from the audience. His moronic banter with the very witty (and probably very intelligent) Noel Fielding was a highlight of the show and seeing him get outsmarted every single time made me laugh more and more. It's probably wrong to laugh at people who are intellectually challenged but like all things where you see people in a worse position than you, it makes you feel better about yourself.

Tonight is the night of the Children in Need concert and apart from a short performance from Muse and the duet between Cheryl Cole and Gary Lightbody, I'm not too fussed about any of the other performances. I had it on in the background whilst I was working so haven;t seen all of it yet but I always find that the best way to watch these sorts of things is to record it and the fast forward thorough all of the rubbish so perhaps a more comprehensive review will follow tomorrow.

Waterloo Road time again and up until shortly before the end of the series, I thought the characters had had an epiphany. Kim seemed to have started to finally see thorough Max to what he really is and Steph seemed to be enjoying the teaching course (after trying to sneak out earlier in the day). The teachers are all revolting against the measures that the new head was trying to put in place and were staging an official protest, things started to look up. Sadly it wasn't to be. Max came down even harder on the new character of Luke and forced him to get his revenge when he stole Max's car and through his case notes all over the playground. Drama unfolding at the end however when Kim forgives Max when he agrees to cooperate with Rachel and the rest of the teachers when making the new school rules.

A finally high to end the day on is when I found out where I had made a fundamental error in my assignment. The simple addition of and if statement means that my program now works and I can move on to the next section tomorrow. Hurrah!