The winter olympics start today.
On the whole, sport isn't really my thing. The only sport I really follow is Formula one and I also have a passing interest in most other forms of motor sport. However, what I would say is that the winter olympics do have some interesting events. Certainly more interesting that the summer olympics.
I'm not a big fan of stuff on skis or skateboards, but I like all the ones where they careen down an ice course in a toboggan or what amounts to a tea tray. I also quite like the more team based events - curling is particularly interesting (I've always really enjoyed sports of that nature - bowling like sports - when I've played them) and the Scots are quite good at it too, which always adds something.
Anyway, I was chatting about it with a work colleague the other day and I was saying that although it's been unusually cold here (and in the USA, interestingly), the rest of the world has been quite warm and I'd heard that Canada was lacking snow. Which kinda shows how, even though I've said I'm vaguely interested, I've not really been paying much attention.
The reason not was because he informed me that indeed, the bit of Canada that's hosting the games - British Columbia, I believe - has had very little snow. So I asked how they were going to hold the games and he told me that they've actually been shipping snow up from the US.
I found this highly amusing - the idea that the slopes, etc have had to have snow dug up from America and shipped up North. Not in a bad way - it's just odd. Apparently it's happened several times before, though and they solved it in exactly the same way by shipping the snow to where it was needed.
I've been having a weird couple of weeks at work where things seem to come in big peaks and troughs. So for example, the start of this week I had very little to do, but then Wednesday and yesterday absolutely loads. It's all a bit confusing.
Sorry this post is a bit random and rambly. I looked back at my previous Friday posts the other day and realised they're always full of me saying how I'm hoping to do some stuff over the weekend but expecting I'll be rubbish and not do it, so I wanted to post about something else.
Friday 12 February 2010
Thursday 11 February 2010
more cold
It's been really cold again this week.
Quite frankly I'm getting rather bored of it being cold all the time. And I mean all the time - if feels like for the last 2 or 3 years it's never stopped being cold.
I mean, sure, I remember the summers, but they seem to have been really short-lived compared to the winters. That is, when it's not raining, of course. A few years ago the summers seemed to go on forever, with months of really hot weather - that's why I bought my air conditioner. To be fair, I hate hot weather too, but I'm just getting sick of feeling cold all the time.
Which is to say what makes the cold weather worse is that the heating where I work is really crap. I work in a single, open plan office, although it's not that large because we're a small company. There are lots of radiators on the walls, but they just don't seem to heat the space properly.
I think there are a multitude of problems. First, off there's a lot of window area. That's great for making the room light, but you loose a lot of heat through windows - even double glazed ones. Second, I think the insulation in the roof is rubbish.
But most importantly I think it's because the heating is off for long periods of time. I know for a fact that it switches off a good few hours before going home time and doesn't come on until I'm coming in (about 8am). Also, it's off all weekend, which I think is why it starts to feel warmer towards the end of the week.
Then there's the heating at home. It's electric, which is really inefficient. Plus where I am is really drafty and 'full of holes' where my landlord has done a rubbish job at DIY instead of getting builders in to do it properly.
Recently, my landlord went on holiday, and with it being so cold he said I should run a cable across from one of his sockets and run a heater from it (I've actually done this in the past without telling him ><;). His point was that if the pipes froze then that would cost him a lot more than the few quid it would cost to keep my heating going.
Anyway, I did this and left the heater on with the thermostat controlling it. I can't tell you how glorious it was to have the whole flat warm all the time. I've actually got this suspicion that it might be cheaper in the long run for me to leave a heater on all time and keep the place 'mildly warm'.
See, the problem is I tend to switch the heaters on full blast so it warms up the room I'm in and then turn them off again. Plus they're off during the day and at night, so it gets really properly cold. My suspicion is that this means more is used because I overheat the room. The difficulty comes in the fact that I'm not there all day and I don't have the heating on while I'm asleep, so it seems wasteful to leave a heater on all the time. But I've really no idea which works out cheaper.
Anyway, normally, the only time I really feel warm is when I'm in my car, or I say bugger it and slam my heating on full at home for a long time. Both of these cost a fortune in terms of heating - petrol is not cheap and my key meter is really quite expensive.
And that's the real rub, I think. As I say, I've always preferred winter, but I like winter where you go outside and it's cold and then you come in and it's toasty warm. Work is permanently cold and where I live is cold the majority of the time, so it's not really what I want.
I also get bored of wearing loads of clothes. As I type this I'm in my work clothes, but on top of my usual garb (socks, shoes, boxers, suit trousers, shirt and tie) I'm wearing the following: extra pair of socks, t-shirt, jumper and my suit jacket. If I hadn't run out I'd have a vest on too.
And I'm still cold (shows you how bad work is). But after a while I just get bored of it and want to strip off, especially at weekends. Sometimes I turn the heating up and wander about in my pants, which I know is really bad environmentally, but it's... I dunno, restrictive, wearing loads of layers all the time (especially since I still feel cold).
I do know one thing that works - exercise. The problem is, going for a walk or whatever isn't really appealing, especially when it's raining and snowing all the time!
Quite frankly I'm getting rather bored of it being cold all the time. And I mean all the time - if feels like for the last 2 or 3 years it's never stopped being cold.
I mean, sure, I remember the summers, but they seem to have been really short-lived compared to the winters. That is, when it's not raining, of course. A few years ago the summers seemed to go on forever, with months of really hot weather - that's why I bought my air conditioner. To be fair, I hate hot weather too, but I'm just getting sick of feeling cold all the time.
Which is to say what makes the cold weather worse is that the heating where I work is really crap. I work in a single, open plan office, although it's not that large because we're a small company. There are lots of radiators on the walls, but they just don't seem to heat the space properly.
I think there are a multitude of problems. First, off there's a lot of window area. That's great for making the room light, but you loose a lot of heat through windows - even double glazed ones. Second, I think the insulation in the roof is rubbish.
But most importantly I think it's because the heating is off for long periods of time. I know for a fact that it switches off a good few hours before going home time and doesn't come on until I'm coming in (about 8am). Also, it's off all weekend, which I think is why it starts to feel warmer towards the end of the week.
Then there's the heating at home. It's electric, which is really inefficient. Plus where I am is really drafty and 'full of holes' where my landlord has done a rubbish job at DIY instead of getting builders in to do it properly.
Recently, my landlord went on holiday, and with it being so cold he said I should run a cable across from one of his sockets and run a heater from it (I've actually done this in the past without telling him ><;). His point was that if the pipes froze then that would cost him a lot more than the few quid it would cost to keep my heating going.
Anyway, I did this and left the heater on with the thermostat controlling it. I can't tell you how glorious it was to have the whole flat warm all the time. I've actually got this suspicion that it might be cheaper in the long run for me to leave a heater on all time and keep the place 'mildly warm'.
See, the problem is I tend to switch the heaters on full blast so it warms up the room I'm in and then turn them off again. Plus they're off during the day and at night, so it gets really properly cold. My suspicion is that this means more is used because I overheat the room. The difficulty comes in the fact that I'm not there all day and I don't have the heating on while I'm asleep, so it seems wasteful to leave a heater on all the time. But I've really no idea which works out cheaper.
Anyway, normally, the only time I really feel warm is when I'm in my car, or I say bugger it and slam my heating on full at home for a long time. Both of these cost a fortune in terms of heating - petrol is not cheap and my key meter is really quite expensive.
And that's the real rub, I think. As I say, I've always preferred winter, but I like winter where you go outside and it's cold and then you come in and it's toasty warm. Work is permanently cold and where I live is cold the majority of the time, so it's not really what I want.
I also get bored of wearing loads of clothes. As I type this I'm in my work clothes, but on top of my usual garb (socks, shoes, boxers, suit trousers, shirt and tie) I'm wearing the following: extra pair of socks, t-shirt, jumper and my suit jacket. If I hadn't run out I'd have a vest on too.
And I'm still cold (shows you how bad work is). But after a while I just get bored of it and want to strip off, especially at weekends. Sometimes I turn the heating up and wander about in my pants, which I know is really bad environmentally, but it's... I dunno, restrictive, wearing loads of layers all the time (especially since I still feel cold).
I do know one thing that works - exercise. The problem is, going for a walk or whatever isn't really appealing, especially when it's raining and snowing all the time!
Wednesday 10 February 2010
man on wire
The weekend's rental was man on wire.
Man on wire was a documentary that came out a few years ago about Philippe Petit, who walked a high-wire between the world trade center buildings.
I was afraid that for me, the film would be something of a horror story. I suffer from severe acrophobia (fear of heights) and so the idea of watching some bloke walking a wire between two building some 400 and odd metres up sounded like it wasn't going to be much fun.
But the reality is that there isn't any actual footage of him doing the walk. There are some photos and some stuff shot from the ground, but this happened in 1974, just shortly after the towers were finished, so it's not like people had access to cheap camcorders.
In fact, in a way that would be my only real criticism - there's not much of him actually doing the walking. I know that's weird for someone who hates heights, but the build-up to it is so good and the documentary so well done that it feels like that's the only missing piece.
Also, there is footage of Petite doing a kind of preparatory walk between the towers of the Sidney bridge, so it kinda seems a shame that there's not anything from up on the towers. They also don't reconstruct that part, although there is reconstruction of most of the rest of it.
I guess the problem there is the elephant in the room - 9/11 when the towers were destroyed. The destruction isn't mentioned at all in the documentary and in a way it's actually good that it isn't. As it's been made, the film is like a tribute to the towers (and what Petite did of course) without dwelling on all the horrible aspects. It's like a memorial, rather than an obituary, I guess.
The tone of the film is just right. It's played like a sort of heist movie, which in many ways it was - what Petit did wasn't legal and he was arrested for it. But it's also a rather cheeky film. There's lots of little funny bits and you get the distinct impression that the whole caper was always just on the verge of collapsing.
What sees it through is Petite himself, shot basically seems to be so confident that it will happen that any set back simply doesn't phase him. He describes doing the walk as his dream and it's almost like because it's his dream it will definitely happen.
My favourite part of the film comes almost at the end, though. There's a nice feeling of French-ness throughout and the bit in question is very 'French' indeed. I won't spoiler it, but the thing that amused me is Petit tries to explain it, but really he should have just shrugged his shoulders and gone "I'm French - what do you expect?".
Which isn't a criticism, by the way - as I said, I liked it.
Man on wire was a documentary that came out a few years ago about Philippe Petit, who walked a high-wire between the world trade center buildings.
I was afraid that for me, the film would be something of a horror story. I suffer from severe acrophobia (fear of heights) and so the idea of watching some bloke walking a wire between two building some 400 and odd metres up sounded like it wasn't going to be much fun.
But the reality is that there isn't any actual footage of him doing the walk. There are some photos and some stuff shot from the ground, but this happened in 1974, just shortly after the towers were finished, so it's not like people had access to cheap camcorders.
In fact, in a way that would be my only real criticism - there's not much of him actually doing the walking. I know that's weird for someone who hates heights, but the build-up to it is so good and the documentary so well done that it feels like that's the only missing piece.
Also, there is footage of Petite doing a kind of preparatory walk between the towers of the Sidney bridge, so it kinda seems a shame that there's not anything from up on the towers. They also don't reconstruct that part, although there is reconstruction of most of the rest of it.
I guess the problem there is the elephant in the room - 9/11 when the towers were destroyed. The destruction isn't mentioned at all in the documentary and in a way it's actually good that it isn't. As it's been made, the film is like a tribute to the towers (and what Petite did of course) without dwelling on all the horrible aspects. It's like a memorial, rather than an obituary, I guess.
The tone of the film is just right. It's played like a sort of heist movie, which in many ways it was - what Petit did wasn't legal and he was arrested for it. But it's also a rather cheeky film. There's lots of little funny bits and you get the distinct impression that the whole caper was always just on the verge of collapsing.
What sees it through is Petite himself, shot basically seems to be so confident that it will happen that any set back simply doesn't phase him. He describes doing the walk as his dream and it's almost like because it's his dream it will definitely happen.
My favourite part of the film comes almost at the end, though. There's a nice feeling of French-ness throughout and the bit in question is very 'French' indeed. I won't spoiler it, but the thing that amused me is Petit tries to explain it, but really he should have just shrugged his shoulders and gone "I'm French - what do you expect?".
Which isn't a criticism, by the way - as I said, I liked it.
Tuesday 9 February 2010
flake of the week
I've been really flaky just recently.
This is over and above my usual flakiness that is.
The best example is my windscreen. Before Christmas I visited my Dad down in Devon and on the journey down I got a stone chip in my windscreen.
Now it was impractical to do anything about it while I was down there and also it didn't spread. Sometimes cracks and chips can grow and spread, but this one hasn't changed at all - it didn't even react when I hit that huge pothole that bent my wheel.
Plus it'll cost me money to repair. It's not in my eyeline, which they often won't repair and would instead need to replace the screen, so it's only a small amount, but it's still money. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's one of those insurance jobs, so it really is a small amount, but still.
I think I've been blaming the weather for this one - it always seems to be either raining or snowing recently and I don't think they can repair them when it's like that. Or maybe they can - I dunno, that's where the flakiness really comes into it.
Another example is my internet.
A while back John put in the wire to let me access his cable broadband. Since then I've been using it quite a lot and of course the whole intention was that I was going to switch my own phone line broadband off and hence same myself a lot of money.
Trouble is that the cable broadband is rather flaky itself. When it's working I can get some really high speeds, but they only allow you 1gb of bandwidth before they start throttling the connection. 1gb is not a lot.
And even when that's not in effect the connection speed can be all over the place - sometimes really fast, sometimes really slow, and unpredictably so. Plus, it completely dies a hell of a lot.
Now I know how to fix these deaths - you reboot the router by switching it off and on and it re-synchs itself. Problem is of course that I can't get in to do that, because it's in John's house. And h doesn't use the net a lot so he sometimes doesn't notice for several days.
Which all means I can't get rid of my broadband. I therefore had a look for something cheaper and none of the other packages people offer are as good as my current one. So what about downgrading? Well, although there are cheaper options from the same company I'm worried that if I switch something will go wrong.
I've no idea how to change the IP of my router, for example, so I'm worried that if I change it'll go tits up. I could probably sort this out by phoning them, but as previously noted, I've been really flaky about this stuff and haven't bothered.
And there's loads of other stuff. For example, I've got loads of e-mails flagged as needing action covering everything from buying some more clothes to joining forums.
I'm just being totally rubbish.
I also keep wondering where the time goes. I remember not so long ago I had the time to watch anime and scan stuff and do all these little jobs as well, but just recently it seems like I don't have any spare time to do anything.
And then I remember - I must spend at least 8 hours every week playing Anno, absolute minimum. When you factor in work and sleep and shopping all the other crap I have to do that's a huge chunk of all my spare time.
This is over and above my usual flakiness that is.
The best example is my windscreen. Before Christmas I visited my Dad down in Devon and on the journey down I got a stone chip in my windscreen.
Now it was impractical to do anything about it while I was down there and also it didn't spread. Sometimes cracks and chips can grow and spread, but this one hasn't changed at all - it didn't even react when I hit that huge pothole that bent my wheel.
Plus it'll cost me money to repair. It's not in my eyeline, which they often won't repair and would instead need to replace the screen, so it's only a small amount, but it's still money. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's one of those insurance jobs, so it really is a small amount, but still.
I think I've been blaming the weather for this one - it always seems to be either raining or snowing recently and I don't think they can repair them when it's like that. Or maybe they can - I dunno, that's where the flakiness really comes into it.
Another example is my internet.
A while back John put in the wire to let me access his cable broadband. Since then I've been using it quite a lot and of course the whole intention was that I was going to switch my own phone line broadband off and hence same myself a lot of money.
Trouble is that the cable broadband is rather flaky itself. When it's working I can get some really high speeds, but they only allow you 1gb of bandwidth before they start throttling the connection. 1gb is not a lot.
And even when that's not in effect the connection speed can be all over the place - sometimes really fast, sometimes really slow, and unpredictably so. Plus, it completely dies a hell of a lot.
Now I know how to fix these deaths - you reboot the router by switching it off and on and it re-synchs itself. Problem is of course that I can't get in to do that, because it's in John's house. And h doesn't use the net a lot so he sometimes doesn't notice for several days.
Which all means I can't get rid of my broadband. I therefore had a look for something cheaper and none of the other packages people offer are as good as my current one. So what about downgrading? Well, although there are cheaper options from the same company I'm worried that if I switch something will go wrong.
I've no idea how to change the IP of my router, for example, so I'm worried that if I change it'll go tits up. I could probably sort this out by phoning them, but as previously noted, I've been really flaky about this stuff and haven't bothered.
And there's loads of other stuff. For example, I've got loads of e-mails flagged as needing action covering everything from buying some more clothes to joining forums.
I'm just being totally rubbish.
I also keep wondering where the time goes. I remember not so long ago I had the time to watch anime and scan stuff and do all these little jobs as well, but just recently it seems like I don't have any spare time to do anything.
And then I remember - I must spend at least 8 hours every week playing Anno, absolute minimum. When you factor in work and sleep and shopping all the other crap I have to do that's a huge chunk of all my spare time.
Monday 8 February 2010
telly, telly, telly
As I suspected on Friday I didn't manage to watch all of the telly I had recorded. I got further than I thought I would, but part of that was because I dumped a good half-dozen things. What I've basically got left is the last episode of Wallander and now all 3 parts of the Great Rift wildlife series.
Crucially what I've also done is heavily prune my recording schedule as well. There's still quite a bit of stuff, but then it's that time of year when telly is quite good. However, what I'm hoping is that if I don't get distracted during the week I'll be able to watch a good chunk of it as I go and then next weekend I'll have a much smaller list of stuff.
My plan is to then turn my attention to putting a big tick in the box of stuff I've been really crap at addressing. By that I mainly mean watching some anime and doing some scanning, but also updating my site - I've got a few reviews written (and many more pending), but I need to scan in DVD covers and then make them into actual pages for my site.
I'd actually been hoping I'd pull my finger out and do some scanning this last weekend, but instead I played quite a lot of Anno 1404. The problem is I'm so close to 'completing' the map (by which I mean filling it with inhabitants and stuff to support them) that I keep thinking "just a few more hours and I'll be there".
The problem is that actually deep down I know it's going to take a hell of a long time for me to actually get to that stage. I'm close, but also a long way off. I'm also rather aware that at the end of the month the expansion comes out. I don't know whether to play with reckless abandon or to pray I exercise some sell control with the expansion.
Anyway, last week I got the chance to sample a few more anime shows:
Nyan Koi
I actually kinda enjoyed this. Maybe I really have lost my resistance to the repetitious nature of a lot of anime shows, because this is basically a high-school romantic comedy, harem-esque show and I've seen millions of those.
In my defence, in this series the main guy is not a total douche bag. Often the protagonist of these is a pain in the arse or a complete loser, or, even worse, downright unpleasant. Here, although he's shy around the girl he loves, that's about as far as it goes - he's not unpleasant, as such.
The twist of the show is also quite a nice one - he's cursed by a cat god and must perform 100 nice deeds for cats to lift it, but he's also allergic to cats. It's daft, but it kinda works.
Ladies versus Butlers
This appears to be a kind of 'sequel' to Kanokon. By that I mean it's by the same team/studio and is very ecchi and even appears to also be based on a Light Novel.
I've not got a very high opinion of light novels. They seem to either be really very good (Baccano is based on a light novel) or they seem to basically be the worst kind of cliché/trope ridden pap (Asura Cryin, for example).
Kanokon pretty much fell in the later camp, but because it took the ecchi right up to the line of very nearly being pr0n and had some good gags, I actually quite liked it. LvB tries to do the same basic trick, but this time I'm not so sure.
I dunno, I think it's because it's doing the light novel thing of ladling in as many of the typical and clichéd characters as possible that it gives a bit of a nasty taste in the mouth. Which isn't to say I didn't kinda like some of it, just that it didn't work for me quite as well as kanokon did.
Crucially what I've also done is heavily prune my recording schedule as well. There's still quite a bit of stuff, but then it's that time of year when telly is quite good. However, what I'm hoping is that if I don't get distracted during the week I'll be able to watch a good chunk of it as I go and then next weekend I'll have a much smaller list of stuff.
My plan is to then turn my attention to putting a big tick in the box of stuff I've been really crap at addressing. By that I mainly mean watching some anime and doing some scanning, but also updating my site - I've got a few reviews written (and many more pending), but I need to scan in DVD covers and then make them into actual pages for my site.
I'd actually been hoping I'd pull my finger out and do some scanning this last weekend, but instead I played quite a lot of Anno 1404. The problem is I'm so close to 'completing' the map (by which I mean filling it with inhabitants and stuff to support them) that I keep thinking "just a few more hours and I'll be there".
The problem is that actually deep down I know it's going to take a hell of a long time for me to actually get to that stage. I'm close, but also a long way off. I'm also rather aware that at the end of the month the expansion comes out. I don't know whether to play with reckless abandon or to pray I exercise some sell control with the expansion.
Anyway, last week I got the chance to sample a few more anime shows:
Nyan Koi
I actually kinda enjoyed this. Maybe I really have lost my resistance to the repetitious nature of a lot of anime shows, because this is basically a high-school romantic comedy, harem-esque show and I've seen millions of those.
In my defence, in this series the main guy is not a total douche bag. Often the protagonist of these is a pain in the arse or a complete loser, or, even worse, downright unpleasant. Here, although he's shy around the girl he loves, that's about as far as it goes - he's not unpleasant, as such.
The twist of the show is also quite a nice one - he's cursed by a cat god and must perform 100 nice deeds for cats to lift it, but he's also allergic to cats. It's daft, but it kinda works.
Ladies versus Butlers
This appears to be a kind of 'sequel' to Kanokon. By that I mean it's by the same team/studio and is very ecchi and even appears to also be based on a Light Novel.
I've not got a very high opinion of light novels. They seem to either be really very good (Baccano is based on a light novel) or they seem to basically be the worst kind of cliché/trope ridden pap (Asura Cryin, for example).
Kanokon pretty much fell in the later camp, but because it took the ecchi right up to the line of very nearly being pr0n and had some good gags, I actually quite liked it. LvB tries to do the same basic trick, but this time I'm not so sure.
I dunno, I think it's because it's doing the light novel thing of ladling in as many of the typical and clichéd characters as possible that it gives a bit of a nasty taste in the mouth. Which isn't to say I didn't kinda like some of it, just that it didn't work for me quite as well as kanokon did.
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