a million-hour work day

Yesterday was crap.

On Wednesday evening my boss had a deadline to meet. She had to print off and bind a proposal so that she could post it. It had to be there by 10AM on Thursday morning, so this meant it had to go the special delivery that guaranteed it would be there on time.

Well, that service itself has a deadline of 5PM. After that time you can't send it via that service.

And she missed the deadline. That meant that, because I was the only person who was available I had to drive all the way to Bristol in order to make it there by 10AM to hand deliver the proposal.

I've never even been to Bristol, let alone to where this parcel had to go, so my Boss leant me her Sat Nav.

That was kinda the start of the problems (well, excluding the whole thing as being a problem full stop :/). Her Sat Nav (and I guess all Sat Navs) are meant o be plugged into your cigarette lighter. Well, my car doesn't have a cigarette lighter.

Which is a little weird when you think about it, because it has a hole in the dash which presumably would normally house a cigarette lighter, but there's no actual cigarette lighter in there.

Anyway, the charge on this Sat Nav was pretty low, so that meant she had to drive home and pick up her AC charger and drop it off at my place so that I could charge it overnight.

Now as I'd mentioned, I've never been to this place, so I didn't really know how long it would take. According to Google maps it was about a 2 hour journey, but of course I'd be getting there at about 9AM which is rush hour, which isn't exactly famed for smooth traffic flow.

I therefore figured it this way - it needs to be there by 10AM, but the place probably opens at about 9AM, so I should aim to get there between 9AM and 9:30AM as that gives me some leeway in case I have to walk somewhere or get lost.

If it's 2 hours normally, then it's gotta be about 3 hours in rush hour. I therefore se off at 6:15AM, having got up at 5:30AM.

In the end, even though those numbers may seem way over-cautious, they weren't far off. I did get slightly lost twice. I also had to stop for a pee. That meant I deliver the parcel at about 9AM, so not that far out all told.

But then to be fair, the sat nav took me on a bit of an odd route. I think it was set on shortest distance, so we went on this very odd rout I just wouldn't have used. The route I would have used would have been a good 15 miles further, but it's roads I know like the back of my hand and can get good speed on, but also they don't suffer from much traffic at that time, which I know from all the times I've been to Devon.

The Sat Nav also only just lasted the journey. The battery literally conked out as I was pulling up at the final destination. Thinking about it now, it would have been better to find my own way t the M4 and then switch it on and use it from there - that would have mean tit was only on for half the time.

When I was driving down the weather was bloody awful - it actually hailed at one point! It cleared up later on, but then I had the problem of bright sunshine shining on wet roads, which is always fun.

Having set off at about 6:15AM I finally got to work at about 12:15PM - of that 6 hours, 4.5 where solid driving.

So yeah, not much fun.

But what makes it tedious and annoying is that having started at 6:15 and done 4.5 hours driving across 6 hours did I get to go home early?

Did I buggery.

That's what annoys me about my boss. I mean, this was her fucking up and me having to go way, way out of my way to fix it, and is there just a little consideration for that? Is. There. Fuck.

it's a mario!

Until Saturday I had never played Super Mario Brothers.

Well, that's not strictly true. In fact, it's not at all true now that I think about it - I had a super mario game on the original gameboy.

But that was in green and black and on a tiny, tiny screen. The only other mario game I've played was a thing released for the Amiga that was more like bubble-bobble if you've ever heard of that. It was a single screen thing where you used to have to kill baddies that came out of pipes on fixed platform single-screen play areas.

You see, the problem was my family was always towards the poorer side of middle class. I don't actually know quite how they decide on classes - I don't think we were working class, but then we didn't seem to be as well off as all my friends families at school.

So where all my friends had all sorts of games systems as they grew up (I remember there was the divide between Nintendo and Sega fans, a bit like X-Box versus Playstation nowadays) I kinda missed out on all that.

So as I say, I thought I'd never really played a mario game - certainly I've never played the 'classics' back in the NES and SNES eras. (I've definitely never played Sonic.)

Anyway, the point is that on Friday evening I got a lovely package from Amazon that contained Tropico 3, which I've not really had a chance to look at, and New Super Mario Brothers for the Wii.

So not only do I now own a 'proper' mario game, I've actually bought a new game for my Wii! A veritable double whammy.

So what do I think of the game?

Well, I've been enjoying it, although I've been suffering from what I believe is called "Nintendo thumb" where the tip of your thumb hurts where you're been pressing on the hard D-pad control.

It seems the basic idea is that the game has a multiplayer mode as its big feature. I've yet to try that out, as I'm just pleased to have the chance to enjoy the old mario game. Is that a bit sad at my age? Probably, but I'm not sure I really care.

zodiac

David Fincher Directed Seven, which is one of my favourite movies, and certainly one of my favourite crime-thriller movies.

Zodiac was a serial killer who attacked 7 victims, killing 5 of them in the San Francisco area during the late-sixties or early-seventies. He was never caught, but he was also one of those serial killers who taunted the police, sending them letters that included ciphers - coded messages, basically.

If you've ever seen Seven, I think you can see where I'm going with this - it seems like perfect Fincher material, with a series of murders committed by a serial killer who behaved in an 'interesting' way.

And as far as that side of the film went, it's really good.

But there's a weird split-personality to the film that I have to admit I didn't like. It's like the film is trying to create a dichotomy - to break itself into two mutually exclusive parts, but it can't because the parts are inextricably linked. But also, it doesn't make any sense to try to split them up, and yet it seemed to be trying to do that.

The two parts are relatively easy to define. The first part where the Zodiac is active and the police are actively trying to solve it and the press are reporting the story and the public is interested and aware. The second is the part where Robert Graysmith is completely obsessed with trying to find the zodiac killer.

Why these don't work as two separate parts is because Graysmith was working as a cartoonist at one of the newspapers the zodiac was sending his ciphers to while he was doing it. In other words, he was actively involved (albeit on the very periphery) in the press side of the story.

So the split can't work because he's there in both parts. Also, when he's trying to solve the case the zodiac is still out there. He's maybe not actually killing any more, but there's nothing to suggest he's not a threat to Graysmith (and his family).

See, one of the particular problems with the narrative is that it's trying to weave real life into a satisfying narrative. The problem is that life doesn't give you nice narratives.

So where Fincher can show you the actual killings in a way that allows him to tell a satisfying, joined up "story-like" way, other stuff doesn't fit that mould. A good example of this is the cipher. Ideally, from a fictional point of view, all of the ciphers would be decoded, but they can't be, because they haven't been in real life and Fincher wants to stay true to that.

I mean, in a super-ideal world it would actually be Graysmith or someone close to him solving the ciphers. However, instead, the first one isn't solved by him, but a random couple who like doing puzzles.

Which is fine, if things are being portrayed in a documentary-like fashion, but they aren't, it's trying to weave these facts into a satisfying story.

I dunno, it feels more like he'd have been better doing a story inspired by the zodiac, rather than actually doing the zodiac if you see what I mean.

Another problem is that even though the film is 2 and a half hours long, it feels like a lot of it is given short shrift, because there's so much to fill in. The story covers many characters across many years and it just isn't possible to fit all of it in, but Fincher seems to want to try.

I'm giving it more of a mauling than it deserves as it's not actually that bad, it's just I think I was kinda hoping for a lot more than I got.

a hundred quid

Yesterday I spent just under £100 on bed linen.

That's a lot of money in anyone's book, but then to be fair I bought a lot of stuff: a duvet, 2 pillows and 3 complete sets of bedsheets, pillow covers and duvet covers.

See, what I think normal people do is they replace things when they need replacing. So if I was normal at the point that my sheets and duvet cover started to wear thin, I would have bought replacements.

I don't do that. I wait until the point where the duvet covers have holes in them and then... well, and then I wait a bit more until the holes are big enough to fit your hand through. At that point I then think about replacing them. And a few years later I get around to it.

As such, rather than the occasional spend on the occasional item, I end up needing to spend a fortune to buy a completely new set of everything :/.

I'm useless like that.

I'm pretty tired today. Yesterday I was bouncing off the walls for some reason, but I seem to have crashed today.

It's actually a little weird that I was hyper yesterday because first thing in the morning I had to go to the dentists. I've mentioned before that I'm not the biggest fan of the dentists.

I think part of it was because I chipped my porcelain crown a few months back and was therefore fully expecting him to say it needs replacing and it would therefore cost me another small fortune, plus involve all the hassle of more trips to the dentist.

However, I mentioned there might be something wrong, but he said he couldn't see any problems. This was really surprising as it was a big lump of stuff that was chipped off and I can see where it's come from.

My guess is that because it was several months ago I've kinda polished the area smooth with brushing, so he couldn't tell it was chipped. Also, the bit that's broken off was kinda a big protuberance, so it breaking off maybe wouldn't seem apparent.

Whatever it was, it's saved me some cash!

wasted weekend

Not wasted as in alcoholically, wasted as in potential squandered.

As I cynically predicted on Friday I spent a hell of a lot of time playing Anno. The problem (if it is actually a problem) is that I've finally got myself a game where I'm not wanting to abandon it and start again.

It's actually in the sandbox (free play) mode and I've finally got it sorted in such a way that I can build up the entire map. In other words, I'm well on the way to doing all the cool stuff like building the Cathedral and Mosque.

I've gotten close to these before, but found myself in a situations where I'd not quite planned it out properly and needed to completely trash and restart some islands. The net hassle of which would have been less than restarting altogether, so I did. But now I think I'm in a situation where I can go to the "end" and build a complete world.

Trouble is, the bigger things get, the more complicated it is and the more time it absorbs. Indeed, this weekend I did little else, even to the extent that my shoulder began to ache. I may have to lay off it for a bit, just so that I don't end up with shooting pains down my arm again.

I also played Super Mario Brothers on the Wii a bit, but more on that later.

The other major thing at the weekend was the weather.

A large part of Cumbria is now under water it seems, and while I don't live in a real flood risk area my part of the country has also been suffering with some severe weather.

On Sunday morning it was actually so loud it woke me up. Very little can wake me up when I'm in deep sleep, but this did. Although the weirdest thing was that it was like a burst of wind.

It seemed to be doing that quite a lot - it would be relatively calm (it was even sunny at a couple of points) and then suddenly there would be a huge burst of wind and mad driving rain with dark skies and then just as suddenly it would all calm down again. It was a little disconcerting actually, and you almost didn't know what to do.

When I went out on Saturday morning to get some shopping in (it was a big one as I'm entering my "buy tonnes of stuff now so that I don't have to do any shopping at Chrimbo" phase) I wrapped up preparing for one of these monsoons, but I overheated because it was actually rather mild. But then as I was coming out of Tesco's the heavens opened and in the short dash to my car I got drenched.

The prospect seems to be that it's going to be a very wet winter. I don't mind that so much, so long as it means it's also a mild winter. The last few winters have been terribly cold, which has cost me a fortune in heating. A mild, wet winter would therefore not be a bad thing for me.

plans

I'm a great one for lists.

It's become an ingrained ritual that every week I make a "to do" list for the weekend. Some weeks the to do list is crammed full of stuff interesting stuff, but the list is generally composed of exactly the same stuff.

Now this may seem slightly odd, because if it's the same stuff every week, why don't I just remember to do it? Well there's the thing - the few times I've not composed the list I end up forgetting something.

The problem seems to be that most things on the list are very small tasks. They are the work of mere moments, so forgetting to do them is very easy indeed.

Perhaps the weirdest thing about the list is that it's also a schedule. So, for example, it not only reminds me I've got to put the rubbish out, but it tells me to do it on Sunday morning. It says Sunday morning because then the large amount of detritus I generate on Saturday (and of course over the preceding week) will get thrown away, but it will also definitely get done before the bin men come.

This is level of pedantry is what makes my lists mine. But marks me out as a very peculiar person indeed is that I rebel against my own lists!

You see, what I do is even though I've said Sunday morning, I'll put it out Sunday afternoon, or even last thing Saturday. I'll do this even though experience has told me that Sunday morning is the best time. I'll do it even though it's only me that's reminding myself that Sunday morning is the best time.

It's one of my major oddities. I'll tend to make the final deadline (the bins are actually collected on Monday mornings), but I have to do it on my own terms.

But there's another key problem of mine in there - I have to have a deadline. It's one of the reasons I'm rubbish at finishing things. I'm horribly lazy - if I've no real deadline then I'll often not bother doing it. But give me a deadline and I'll meet it, though I probably won't do the work when I said I would :/.

Which isn't to say I end up doing everything last minute. Indeed, if there's a proper deadline involved there's a good chance I'll be finished a long way in advance.

That was slightly more introspective than I initially intended, but there you go.

This weekend I've planned to do very little other than my fortnightly flat clean. I've been so tired this last week and with the weather is looking like it's going to continue on in its rainy and windy vein, it didn't seem very wise to plan much so we'll have to see what I get up to.

My guess is lots of Anno playing instead of ticking any of my deadline-less tasks off :/.

the waters of mars

Wow, this week is turning into a mini-review spectacular, huh?

I guess the real shame of that is that it's an admission that I'm failing to watch enough stuff that I can do proper reviews of - anime DVDs, for example.

To be fair, autumn/winter is always a tricky thing for me from that point of view. I mean, the nights draw in and it gets cold out, so I'm even more inclined than normal to stay indoors, but all sorts of new shows always get shown during this period and I end up watching plenty.

Just as a random example - a new series of Top Gear started last weekend. It was quite a good episode as it goes, with the boys driving round Romania looking for a road that was supposed to be the best in the world. One of the highlights was James May being involved in two crashes - one of which involved a Lamborghini!

Anyway, I thought I'd do a super-mini-review of the Doctor Who special that was on last weekend, called the Waters of Mars.

It was pretty good.

Wow, that was short, huh?

But seriously, I think it basically worked. One of the things you don't get so much of in new who is really scary stuff. Well, I say that - to some extent, it's difficult for me to judge as the scares are aimed at a younger audience and I'm a long way from young nowadays.

What I really mean is that in the old format where you had longer storylines it would always end on a cliff hanger, which was inevitably quite scary. I remember lots of monsters leering out of the screen, just about to grab The Doctor / the companion or, indeed, you the viewer.

The new format means you don't tend to get those any more, though I'm sure for the kids there's plenty of stuff that sends them scuttling behind the sofa.

Anyway, the point is the monsters were quite a nasty piece of work in this episode and the use of water (that's not a spoiler really - just read the title) was quite clever as it can flow and splash and all sorts.

Although if I'm fair, the monsters looked more horrible than they actually behaved. They behaved creepily and made lots of faces, but they didn't really do anything like kill people or even really hurt them. Indeed, if I'm honest it was entirely clear what they wanted at all. In a way that was unusual, because it's usually fairly clear if people are good guys or bad guys. Here although the general feel was that yes, they were bad, there wasn't a definitive reason or explanation given for that.

It's a relatively minor gripe, but I think it would have helped a little to give it more of a concrete reason.

The ending was interesting.

The general feel was to try to give The Doctor a darker feel. It depicts him on the very precipice of a plunge into evil. In a way it was quite reminiscent of how you can imagine The Master becoming like he did - absolute power corrupts absolutely and all that.

I did actually think that myself, but they also pointed it out in the Doctor Who Confidential thing they do on BBC4 and I think it was pretty deliberate as the trailer for the next two specials due at Christmas will feature the return of The Master.

I'm looking forward to them - The Master's one of the really good villains and John Simm did a really good job with him when he was in it before.

my name is bruce

Forgot to post this yesterday!

A while back I bought a film called Elvira: Mistress of the Dark on DVD.

I'm still a little unsure quite why I bought it. I think part of the reason was that I'd seen the film years and years ago, but I'd kinda convinced myself that it didn't actually exist. When it randomly popped up on Amazon I therefore bought it.

As reasons go that's pretty damn weird for the sake of full disclosure, I should perhaps mention that the film also has boobs in it. That was undoubtedly a contributing factor too.

Anyway, the point is that the film was... odd. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it also didn't quite work. I think the idea was that it was supposed to be an affectionate send-up of cheesy B movies. The problem was that it also wanted to be a cheesy B movie, so the tone was odd.

Also, the acting was unusual. I dunno, I don't want to say it was bad, it was more like it was too self-aware. It also felt like it was "pausing for laughs" as if it was a TV show with a live audience, except of course it wasn't, it was a film.

So why am I bringing that up? Well because My Name is Bruce was bizarrely similar.

In both films, the lead is kinda involved in the B-horror film world and ends up in the middle of a real life B horror film. In both the feel is weirdly mixed - part affectionate send-up of B movies and part B movie. In both the dialogue is slightly over-worked and there's a feel of "pausing for laughs".

The reason I rented this was because I quite like the Evil Dead films and a while back I bought Bruce Campbell's autobiography. Reading that I hadn't realised there were so many Bruce Campbell films and this was a fairly recent one so I put it on the old rental list.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I did enjoy the film, despite the slight cheesiness. There's also an entertaining commentary, which was nice.

I think, however, that you need to have seen more of Campbell's stuff than I have to really enjoy the film. There were a lot of references to films and things that I don't know anything about, so I'm guessing proper Campbell fans would get a bit more mileage.

cod: mw 2

So last week I started playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

And last week I finished playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

It's not the longest of games.

It is one of the best looking FPSs I've ever played. It's also got one of the best soundtracks. And it's really fun when you're actually in there playing the missions. Plus it's got the usual brilliant pre-scripted moments that always made CoD something a bit special.

That's all good stuff. But there are a few bad bits too.

There's the length, as I mentioned - you'll be lucky to get 6 hours game play out of the single-player campaign. That's what I got and I'm rubbish.

Then there' the plot.

I remember when the first Modern Warfare came out I was somewhat sceptical. Part of my reservations were that the CoD franchise had always relied on depicting real-world events during World War 2. I mean, they were semi-fictionalised, but you could go and look up the campaigns and stuff on Wikipedia.

So when the first MW came along I was therefore really surprised that it had a decent plot. Now to be fair it wasn't the most original plot. There was lots of stuff you'd seen before, but what helped it through was the quality of the writing and the non-player characters.

It's less good in MW2. The plot is again very familiar, but it's also now got the problem that it feels like it's retreading what Modern Warfare did. Also, the characters are a little lacking.

Well, I say that - it's more like the game is so short we don't really get a chance to experience the characters as much. I didn't really feel anything towards them like I did before.

Another problem is that we seem to switch all over the place too much. I kept feeling throughout MW2 like I was playing a Bond film. You jet off to all sorts of exotic locations (given the timelines I don't quite know how you get to some of the places you do, but there you go), shoot the natives for a bit and then off you go again.

It's too choppy, too quick. Every level feels like a taster, not the full thing.

It also doesn't help that this time out the plot doesn't quite make sense. I'm going to give a good spoilery now that's also therefore a giant spoiler, so you may want to skip ahead.

Basically, there's a bit where one of the good characters fires off a nuclear missile.

His plan, it seems, is to detonate it in the upper atmosphere, causing an EMP that will knock out all electronic equipment.

Well, I think that's his plan. It's not entirely clear if he's not actually doing it to make it seem like the Russians attacked America, because it's a Russian nuke he fires.

But setting that aside, the whole thing is full of holes, the biggest of which is when the actual nuke detonates. You get this cool bit where you're an astronaut floating in space and you see the nuke fly up and detonate. Fair enough, but for some reason they had the ISS and you being blown away by the force of the blast.

The ISS is high enough up that there's no air - so how is a blast wave hitting the ISS? I mean, it's not like it's next to it - it's way off in the distance.

Plus that brings to mind the other big problem - the hero just set off a nuke over continental USA. He kills everyone in the ISS and how many other civilians, who would presumably be hit by loads of radiation and fallout.

Not to mention the idea is the EMP knocks out all electronics, so what everyone in planes drops out of the car, instantly getting killed?

Some hero.

But what makes that worse is after that no-one goes "he's a bad guy" or "that wasn't cool". They're all perfectly fine with it :/.

There are some other problems too.

One is with the mechanics. CoD has always relied on infinitely spawning enemies. You can literally stand in the same place and kill thousands of enemies as waves of them spawn.

This is okay in some scenarios like where you have a large army coming at you like you used to in the old CoDs, but here you are in several situations where it makes no sense. I mean, just how many bad guys can you fit on an oil rig? Well, millions, apparently, until you walk past the trigger point and they stop spawning.

I mean, really this is an old-hat way of doing things that they should really think about redoing. How about instead properly placed enemies that are tougher to kill with really good AI?

Compounding that problem, there's a problem in the levels set in Brazil that there's only about half a dozen character models. That works when you're being attacked by an effectively faceless regular army - the whole point is that Russian soldiers basically all look the same right?

But when you're in Brazil it's an irregular militia - so civvies with guns. And that means you end up killing the exact same guys over and over and it just ends up looking stupid.

I mean how many moustachioed Freddy Mercury lookalikes are there in Brazil? Hundreds, apparently.

far too efficient

Had a bit of an odd weekend, because I was far too efficient.

As I mentioned on Friday my main plan was to watch all the telly stuff I'd recorded. Indeed, it was so much my plan I hadn't really planned to do anything else.

But I was so efficient I'd watched all of it by mid-day Saturday, so Sunday I had almost nothing to do whatsoever. I ended up filling that whole by playing lots of Anno, which isn't necessarily a good thing, as there were lots of things I could have done that would have served me better, but I dunno, I'm not sure I care at this point in time.

The thing I did do that was kinda more productive was start watching a DVD I picked up the other week called "Monty Python - Almost the Truth - The Lawyers Cut".

Weirdly they showed a kind of super-trimmed down version of this a few weeks ago on BBC as part of a Python night (it's a staggering 40 years since the show started) and I'd assumed initially that this was just that short documentary on DVD, but it turned out this is actually a 6-part series, with each episode being 50 minutes.

Weirdly, the description implies the full 6-part show has been on the telly, but I've only seen that trimmed down version.

I've gotten about half way through - it's pretty good is my feeling so far. Certainly people talk quite candidly about stuff, which is good. I'm not sure about the non-Python bits if I'm honest. I think I'd rather have more of them talking than the interviews with other celebs.

Not that the interviews with celebs aren't okay, just y'know, more from the men themselves would be better.

This morning I've been avoiding work by watching this interview with Charlie Brooker of News/Game/Screen-wipe and Guardian columnist fame.

I'm one of those people that like Charlie Brooker (about his only misfire for me was Trashbat, which I didn't get at all). He's not to everyone's taste, but if you also like him the interview's well worth a watch.

The interviews been up a while, but my traditional routine only means I check out Brooker's guardian page on Monday morning, so I've only just seen it.

saki

I finished Saki this week.

I've been surprised by how much I enjoyed it if I'm honest. I still don't know the exact ins and outs of Mah-jong, and while a full knowledge didn't prove necessary in order to enjoy the show, I think if you know the game you'll probably get on better with some of the stuff.

One of the odd things about Saki is it's a mix of tournament manga where the characters are involved in battles against each other and high-school romcom. For me the blending sort of worked, although the romcom element is a bit weaker than the tournament side.

Also, as I mentioned before, it seems like any girl interested in Mah-jong is basically a lesbian, which although not something I'm entirely against, it gets a bit repetitive in a way. And it'd be nice if there were more complicated relationships in there - love rivals or love triangles for example. But then the sexual stuff is more an undercurrent than an explicit thing, so I guess that'd be going too far really.

The other odd thing is the pacing of the show.

There's quite a lot of prep stuff that builds logically into a regional tournament situation involving teams. This all works fine, but the problem is that doesn't represent the end of the show.

Instead, after this you get a lull and then it's into a second regional tournament involving individuals. Again, this builds to a climax, but then yet again, you get another lull and then you're launched into the nationals.

Except you aren't, because that's where the show ends.

It even goes to the slightly odd extreme of having highlights of 'what happens next' across the end credits and a final card saying "the adventure has only just begun".

Even though it's the end of the series.

And given the manga is only at 6 volumes and Gonzo has pretty much folded, it seems unlikely the story will ever continue. Which is a bit of shame really as it'd be nice to reach a proper conclusion. Maybe the manga will get licensed and I'll be able to follow it there.

Plans for the weekend currently revolve around Modern Warfare 2. In a typically impatient bit of planning, rather than add it to my pile of un-played games I installed it and started playing. As such, I'm not actually sure how much there will be left for me to play over the weekend, but then if I finish it I'll have to catch up on all the telly I've skipped in order to make room for me to watch it, so I won't be lacking things to do.