Got an e-mail yesterday saying newtype, animage and animedia were on there way. This seems far too soon to me - I'm sure they're not normally published until the 10th, but if I get them before the weekend then that will be quite useful as I could potentially get them scanned.
Dunno - it's seeming likely to be quite a bity weekend at the moment, with quite a few things I either need to (mostly cleaning and shopping related) or could do. Here's a sample:
The portable hard-drive I use for storing the fansubs I download is rapidly filling up. There's quite a few shows that I've either kyboshed or have come to a natural end, so there's plenty I can burn to DVD.
It's a bit of a tedious job at times, though, is burning DVDs. But it needs to be done.
Then there's e-baying: I've got a stacker-box full of stuff now that could do with e-baying. Some of it's a little unlikely to sell as it's not from popular anime or manga series, so I've not a huge hope of making a lot money, but even a small cash injection wouldn't hurt now.
e-baying is tedious to get started. There's all the farting about with taking, then cropping and resizing the photos. Plus there's weighing them and working out the postage costs (Royal Mail seems to increase the price of something every couple of months :/). And then there's writing the actual auction notes - I've a template, but it's still rather tedious.
I should also do a batch of ironing. It's not desperately necessary, because recently I've bought a few new shirts and I've plenty to spare, but the recent heat wave caused me to use up all my short-sleeve shirts. I've now got them back from the laundrettes, so I'd like to get them ironed in case we get another hot spell.
Then there's scanning of course - megami is here and the other mags are a possibility, but I've also got a couple of artbooks I should scan.
And mentioning the scans, I need to archive the scans I took in recent months. That always takes ages as I have to work out what series stuff is from.
There's the German Grand Prix this weekend too. I shall watch that, obviously, but there's also the US motoGP that was on last week. I've not had a chance to watch that - being in the states, it was naturally on quite late here in the UK.
Then of course there's my original plan - updating the website stuffs. Part of me feels I should hold back on the websites until my walling picks up a bit more, but I dunno it's been a long time without any updates.
I'd also thought about giving the car a quick clean as well - this summer weather really brings out the bugs, which seem to be magnetically attracted to my bumper. But the forecast isn't so good this weekend, so it may not be possible.
My, what an exciting life I lead!
Friday, 10 July 2009
Thursday, 9 July 2009
there is no god
Extract from "Why I Am Not A Christian" by Bertrand Russell:
This is a remarkably succinct summation of my own views on the matter and it was some 82 years ago this point was made, making it around two and a half times older than me.
All religion is based on fear.
The fear of the unknown and the fear of death. In some ways religion is therefore in a similar vein to one of Bertrand's own areas of expertise - Philosophy. In the same way that Rene Descartes stripped things back to "Cognito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am), religion attempts the same thing.
I think therefore I am works like this. Do I exist? Well, if I did not exist I wouldn't be able to wonder if I exist or not. Therefore, I must exist.
It's possible to pick this statement apart to some degree, but let's take it as read for now. What religion does is use a very similar line of thinking - and this applies to all religions, but the monotheistic are the easiest to work through as an example, and also probably the most prevalent fantasies at this time.
It says that this book (the bible, Qur'an, Torah, whatever) exists. It says that this book contains the word of God, as transcribed by a profit (or a mystic or a witness to the events - the exact person varies). Therefore God must exist.
Without God, these words could not have been transcribed or these events could not have happened, therefore God must exist.
When you come down to it, this is the basic argument for the existence of God, as defined by monotheistic religions.
The problem is that this argument does not hold water for one simple reason: we all know that people are perfectly capable of making stuff up.
In fact, there are multi-billion pound industries based solely on the fact that people are extremely good at making stuff up. Indeed, the level of imagination shown in most religious texts almost proves the very point.
We also know that people are entirely capable of making stuff up and, crucially, actually believing that it really happened. We also know that drugs can induce hallucinations and altered states of perception. We also know that some people hunger after power and influence.
You would think that, given even low intelligence, these clear flaws in the process would have put religion to rest some time ago.
The problem is explained by what Russell talked about:
1) People are taught to believe in God from childhood.
It is difficult to break this ingrained learning. Take the simple case of abused children - they sometimes grow up and abuse their own children in a horrifying vicious circle.
In addition, and somewhat ironically, religion is able to pervert the very liberalism that tolerates its existence. Society (schools and teachers) do not want to cause offence. We are all told that religious freedom is our choice.
This means any attempt to break the cycle of illogic results in cries of oppression from the religious. The irony comes in that all of these monotheistic religions preach conversion - it is the job of believers to force/compel/persuade others to convert to their religion: for them, religious intolerance is part of the very religion itself.
This prevents critical examination of the facts. It even seems to have gotten to the stage that science is being taught in an "optional" way, as if it is just one possible explanation of events and religions represent another. This is such a preposterous notion it beggars belief.
2) God as Big Brother
Religion acts on fear.
Fear is a very powerful emotion - possibly the most powerful.
Everyone is afraid of death. It seems cruel and arbitrary that, at some point in the future, I will die. It seems cruel and arbitrary that the people I love will also die.
Is it not, therefore, a comforting thought that I have an everlasting soul? And that my soul will live on in some form? Possibly it will even get to go to a super-nice heaven.
This is why it's very difficult to argue against God and religion and heaven.
Whatever arguments you make against Religion & God - how illogical it is, how ridiculous, how contradictory, how flawed, how dangerous and damaging - this is what it comes back to: people are afraid of death.
They don't want to die and they don't want their friends & family to die. But they know they will, so they take comfort in something that makes them the promise that, if they believe, if they have faith, then death won't really be the end that it seems.
It's a difficult thing to argue against that and therefore to successfully convince people when this fear is the core problem. In a sense, what have they to gain but uncertainty if they act rationally and logically and stop believing?
"Of course I know that the sort of intellectual arguments that I have been talking to you about are not what really moves people. What really moves people to believe in God is not any intellectual argument at all. Most people believe in God because they have been taught from early infancy to do it, and that is the main reason.
"Then I think that the next most powerful reason is the wish for safety, a sort of feeling that there is a big brother who will look after you. That plays a very profound part in influencing people's desire for a belief in God."
This is a remarkably succinct summation of my own views on the matter and it was some 82 years ago this point was made, making it around two and a half times older than me.
All religion is based on fear.
The fear of the unknown and the fear of death. In some ways religion is therefore in a similar vein to one of Bertrand's own areas of expertise - Philosophy. In the same way that Rene Descartes stripped things back to "Cognito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am), religion attempts the same thing.
I think therefore I am works like this. Do I exist? Well, if I did not exist I wouldn't be able to wonder if I exist or not. Therefore, I must exist.
It's possible to pick this statement apart to some degree, but let's take it as read for now. What religion does is use a very similar line of thinking - and this applies to all religions, but the monotheistic are the easiest to work through as an example, and also probably the most prevalent fantasies at this time.
It says that this book (the bible, Qur'an, Torah, whatever) exists. It says that this book contains the word of God, as transcribed by a profit (or a mystic or a witness to the events - the exact person varies). Therefore God must exist.
Without God, these words could not have been transcribed or these events could not have happened, therefore God must exist.
When you come down to it, this is the basic argument for the existence of God, as defined by monotheistic religions.
The problem is that this argument does not hold water for one simple reason: we all know that people are perfectly capable of making stuff up.
In fact, there are multi-billion pound industries based solely on the fact that people are extremely good at making stuff up. Indeed, the level of imagination shown in most religious texts almost proves the very point.
We also know that people are entirely capable of making stuff up and, crucially, actually believing that it really happened. We also know that drugs can induce hallucinations and altered states of perception. We also know that some people hunger after power and influence.
You would think that, given even low intelligence, these clear flaws in the process would have put religion to rest some time ago.
The problem is explained by what Russell talked about:
1) People are taught to believe in God from childhood.
It is difficult to break this ingrained learning. Take the simple case of abused children - they sometimes grow up and abuse their own children in a horrifying vicious circle.
In addition, and somewhat ironically, religion is able to pervert the very liberalism that tolerates its existence. Society (schools and teachers) do not want to cause offence. We are all told that religious freedom is our choice.
This means any attempt to break the cycle of illogic results in cries of oppression from the religious. The irony comes in that all of these monotheistic religions preach conversion - it is the job of believers to force/compel/persuade others to convert to their religion: for them, religious intolerance is part of the very religion itself.
This prevents critical examination of the facts. It even seems to have gotten to the stage that science is being taught in an "optional" way, as if it is just one possible explanation of events and religions represent another. This is such a preposterous notion it beggars belief.
2) God as Big Brother
Religion acts on fear.
Fear is a very powerful emotion - possibly the most powerful.
Everyone is afraid of death. It seems cruel and arbitrary that, at some point in the future, I will die. It seems cruel and arbitrary that the people I love will also die.
Is it not, therefore, a comforting thought that I have an everlasting soul? And that my soul will live on in some form? Possibly it will even get to go to a super-nice heaven.
This is why it's very difficult to argue against God and religion and heaven.
Whatever arguments you make against Religion & God - how illogical it is, how ridiculous, how contradictory, how flawed, how dangerous and damaging - this is what it comes back to: people are afraid of death.
They don't want to die and they don't want their friends & family to die. But they know they will, so they take comfort in something that makes them the promise that, if they believe, if they have faith, then death won't really be the end that it seems.
It's a difficult thing to argue against that and therefore to successfully convince people when this fear is the core problem. In a sense, what have they to gain but uncertainty if they act rationally and logically and stop believing?
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
non reviewage
Now normally I would do a mini-review of the weekend's rental title today.
However, there was no rental title this weekend. The way my rental account is set up I actually only get 3 DVDs a month and by this weekend I'd watched them all.
Usually, I would take the opportunity to watch something else - perhaps one of my bought DVDs - but as is probably obvious from the gushing posts I've been making about it just recently, the only thing I really watched this weekend was BSG. Indeed, it was a close call for me actually even managing to watch my usual chunk of recorded telly so heavily into BSG was I.
You'll be glad to know that I've started on season 3, but I don't really propose to talk about it again. Trouble is, I'm not really in the frame of mind to post one of my more 'discussion' or 'issue' based posts, so I'm afraid it's going to be more life drivel.
It's been raining quite a bit the last few days. It's also noticeably cooler. I know that not all of the country experienced a heatwave last week, but I for one am glad of the change. It's been so much more pleasant.
Last night I got home to discover my landlord had returned.
This was somewhat earlier than expected. I mentioned the early return to him and he said it was a day earlier than planned, due to the rain nearly washing them out. However, I'm positive that the note he left me said they were going to be away for much, much longer - several more weeks.
But he then indicated they would be going away again very soon. I'm guessing they were either originally planning to roll both breaks into one, or he simply got confused and put the wrong date.
It puts a kibosh on a couple of things I had planned, but nothing spectacular.
The latest megami turned up on Monday.
I could have had it last Friday, but for some reason they left one of those "missed you while you were out" notes. I dunno why they bothered doing that - it fits perfectly easily through the letterbox and doesn't require a signature.
However, one of the good things about TNT, the courier, is you can go online with the note and specifically tell them to leave it on the doorstep (or wherever). I did this on Friday and was hoping they'd deliver it on Saturday (I spent all morning glancing out if the window in the hopes of seeing them) but it was Monday they re-attempted delivery.
I'll hopefully get it scanned this weekend along with some other bits and pieces I need to scan, but the priority is still on getting my website rolling again.
However, there was no rental title this weekend. The way my rental account is set up I actually only get 3 DVDs a month and by this weekend I'd watched them all.
Usually, I would take the opportunity to watch something else - perhaps one of my bought DVDs - but as is probably obvious from the gushing posts I've been making about it just recently, the only thing I really watched this weekend was BSG. Indeed, it was a close call for me actually even managing to watch my usual chunk of recorded telly so heavily into BSG was I.
You'll be glad to know that I've started on season 3, but I don't really propose to talk about it again. Trouble is, I'm not really in the frame of mind to post one of my more 'discussion' or 'issue' based posts, so I'm afraid it's going to be more life drivel.
It's been raining quite a bit the last few days. It's also noticeably cooler. I know that not all of the country experienced a heatwave last week, but I for one am glad of the change. It's been so much more pleasant.
Last night I got home to discover my landlord had returned.
This was somewhat earlier than expected. I mentioned the early return to him and he said it was a day earlier than planned, due to the rain nearly washing them out. However, I'm positive that the note he left me said they were going to be away for much, much longer - several more weeks.
But he then indicated they would be going away again very soon. I'm guessing they were either originally planning to roll both breaks into one, or he simply got confused and put the wrong date.
It puts a kibosh on a couple of things I had planned, but nothing spectacular.
The latest megami turned up on Monday.
I could have had it last Friday, but for some reason they left one of those "missed you while you were out" notes. I dunno why they bothered doing that - it fits perfectly easily through the letterbox and doesn't require a signature.
However, one of the good things about TNT, the courier, is you can go online with the note and specifically tell them to leave it on the doorstep (or wherever). I did this on Friday and was hoping they'd deliver it on Saturday (I spent all morning glancing out if the window in the hopes of seeing them) but it was Monday they re-attempted delivery.
I'll hopefully get it scanned this weekend along with some other bits and pieces I need to scan, but the priority is still on getting my website rolling again.
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
manga scans
I finished season 2 of BSG.
Well, that's not quite true - I've still the extras to go through, so while I've the show I've not 'finished' the DVD set yet.
I think one of the things that's impressed me the most is that the show isn't afraid to take a few risks. One of the things a lot of episodic television relies on is the return to the norm or the preservation of the status quo. In other words, our heroes don't die and our baddies never win.
But with BSG it's more complicated. I mean, just as a simple example that isn't really spoilering too much, the baddies do kinda win and they do so at the very start of the show. I mean, the first ep has the baddies wiping out 99.9% of humanity - that's not at all far off a big tick in the win column.
And there's plenty of that as the show goes along too - at the end of series 2 the status quo gets knocked so far off axis that it's a genuine shock.
Another example is that what you would classically see as being a dramatic series end type episode occurs a third of the way through season 2 and what it actually does end on is much more of a punch in the gut affair.
It's really brave is what I'm saying, and it's better for it.
Anyway, despite my growing BSG obsession, the weekend wasn't entirely a bust in terms of getting stuff done.
I managed to tick off most of the stuff on my to do list, one of the most important being that I scanned a whole load of manga covers.
I'd normally talk about the anime I watched while I scanned at this point, but scanning manga covers is always too complicated an activity to allow me to watch any anime. But what it does mean is I can finally finish off a whole load of reviews I've written for my website.
Making all the pictures for my reviews is a horribly tedious affair. I mean, scanning them is a pain to start with, but then there's the long process of resizing them and cropping them for the reviews. It's all stuff that sounds simple, but in practice ends up being both mind-numbing and very long winded.
But hopefully what I'll do is have a long session of it this next weekend and then start updating the site again.
There's unfortunately been no movement from me on making any walls, or even vectoring some scans, so I doubt I'll be having updates for anything except the reviews for a good while.
I'm not sure if this represents an effective end to my walling 'career' or not. I'm certainly very de-motivated when it comes to the whole walling thing.
But then, truth be told I've been quite de-motivated to do anything. I mean, I've hardly written anything (creatively, I mean) I've not exactly been keeping on top of updating my websites and I've been struggling to keep up with the scanning.
I can't understand where all the time goes :/.
Well, that's not quite true - I've still the extras to go through, so while I've the show I've not 'finished' the DVD set yet.
I think one of the things that's impressed me the most is that the show isn't afraid to take a few risks. One of the things a lot of episodic television relies on is the return to the norm or the preservation of the status quo. In other words, our heroes don't die and our baddies never win.
But with BSG it's more complicated. I mean, just as a simple example that isn't really spoilering too much, the baddies do kinda win and they do so at the very start of the show. I mean, the first ep has the baddies wiping out 99.9% of humanity - that's not at all far off a big tick in the win column.
And there's plenty of that as the show goes along too - at the end of series 2 the status quo gets knocked so far off axis that it's a genuine shock.
Another example is that what you would classically see as being a dramatic series end type episode occurs a third of the way through season 2 and what it actually does end on is much more of a punch in the gut affair.
It's really brave is what I'm saying, and it's better for it.
Anyway, despite my growing BSG obsession, the weekend wasn't entirely a bust in terms of getting stuff done.
I managed to tick off most of the stuff on my to do list, one of the most important being that I scanned a whole load of manga covers.
I'd normally talk about the anime I watched while I scanned at this point, but scanning manga covers is always too complicated an activity to allow me to watch any anime. But what it does mean is I can finally finish off a whole load of reviews I've written for my website.
Making all the pictures for my reviews is a horribly tedious affair. I mean, scanning them is a pain to start with, but then there's the long process of resizing them and cropping them for the reviews. It's all stuff that sounds simple, but in practice ends up being both mind-numbing and very long winded.
But hopefully what I'll do is have a long session of it this next weekend and then start updating the site again.
There's unfortunately been no movement from me on making any walls, or even vectoring some scans, so I doubt I'll be having updates for anything except the reviews for a good while.
I'm not sure if this represents an effective end to my walling 'career' or not. I'm certainly very de-motivated when it comes to the whole walling thing.
But then, truth be told I've been quite de-motivated to do anything. I mean, I've hardly written anything (creatively, I mean) I've not exactly been keeping on top of updating my websites and I've been struggling to keep up with the scanning.
I can't understand where all the time goes :/.
Monday, 6 July 2009
bsg
I think I may have been getting a little obsessed with Battlestar Galactica.
This is BSG the remake/re-imagining, btw, not the original series. I have vague memories of the original BSG, mainly centring around the dogfights in space and also people holding blasters and shooting the Cylons.
At the time I wasn't aware of it, but looking back it's easy to see how it was a bandwagon-jumping exercise for Star Wars. Indeed, looking back at it they seem to have gotten awful close to copyright infringements on more than a few occasions.
I mean the Cylon centurions look like Storm troopers who have been painted silver and the viper fighters that the good guys use look a lot like miniature X-wing fighters. But still, even then it had something - it wasn't a complete dearth of interesting ideas.
As I say, I don't remember it too well, but I do remember enjoying the episodes I watched.
I was therefore a little sceptical about the remake. I, like many I'm sure, am generally sceptical about remakes anyway, but I'd heard very good things, so I bought the DVDs. It also helped that I heard the show would end with a definite end - I like series that have a definite end, rather than the whole rubbish American system of trigger-happy cancellations.
Anyway, as I think I mentioned last week, it's a real belter of a show. Indeed, in some ways I think now that I'm almost through season 2 I'd say this second season was the best of the lot. That's quite rare that a show gets better with each season.
The only thing I can't really get my head around is the episode count. The miniseries as I noted was shown as a single thing on he DVD, and then the 1st series was a fairly standard 13 episodes. But then it all goes a bit weird.
Season 2 is 20 episodes long. Season 3 is also 20 episodes long. Then Season 4 goes very odd - halfway through there's a sort of separate 'film' like entity called Razor, but then it got walloped by the writer's strike so it stops. There's then what they're calling Season 5 in the UK, but is really the rest of Season 3.
It's all a bit odd - I'm more used to 22, 24 or 26 as the longer series lengths for American shows.
It doesn't affect the quality, though - indeed, I think you could argue that less episodes would lend itself to better quality. I do confess I was actually afraid it would end up looking a little Mickey Mouse and it would be a case of praising the story over the visual side of things.
I couldn't have been more wrong - as well as excellent writing, the show really looks great as well. Especially the CG - the CG is verging on movie-level goodness, witch is remarkable for a TV series.
This is BSG the remake/re-imagining, btw, not the original series. I have vague memories of the original BSG, mainly centring around the dogfights in space and also people holding blasters and shooting the Cylons.
At the time I wasn't aware of it, but looking back it's easy to see how it was a bandwagon-jumping exercise for Star Wars. Indeed, looking back at it they seem to have gotten awful close to copyright infringements on more than a few occasions.
I mean the Cylon centurions look like Storm troopers who have been painted silver and the viper fighters that the good guys use look a lot like miniature X-wing fighters. But still, even then it had something - it wasn't a complete dearth of interesting ideas.
As I say, I don't remember it too well, but I do remember enjoying the episodes I watched.
I was therefore a little sceptical about the remake. I, like many I'm sure, am generally sceptical about remakes anyway, but I'd heard very good things, so I bought the DVDs. It also helped that I heard the show would end with a definite end - I like series that have a definite end, rather than the whole rubbish American system of trigger-happy cancellations.
Anyway, as I think I mentioned last week, it's a real belter of a show. Indeed, in some ways I think now that I'm almost through season 2 I'd say this second season was the best of the lot. That's quite rare that a show gets better with each season.
The only thing I can't really get my head around is the episode count. The miniseries as I noted was shown as a single thing on he DVD, and then the 1st series was a fairly standard 13 episodes. But then it all goes a bit weird.
Season 2 is 20 episodes long. Season 3 is also 20 episodes long. Then Season 4 goes very odd - halfway through there's a sort of separate 'film' like entity called Razor, but then it got walloped by the writer's strike so it stops. There's then what they're calling Season 5 in the UK, but is really the rest of Season 3.
It's all a bit odd - I'm more used to 22, 24 or 26 as the longer series lengths for American shows.
It doesn't affect the quality, though - indeed, I think you could argue that less episodes would lend itself to better quality. I do confess I was actually afraid it would end up looking a little Mickey Mouse and it would be a case of praising the story over the visual side of things.
I couldn't have been more wrong - as well as excellent writing, the show really looks great as well. Especially the CG - the CG is verging on movie-level goodness, witch is remarkable for a TV series.
Friday, 3 July 2009
will it be cooler?
So the big question for the weekend is will it be a bit cooler?
It's been very hot this last week, but not only that, it's been very humid and sticky too - especially at night.
I'm not sure if it's quite capped Nice/Monaco yet, but then for one thing this week I've obviously been at work, rather than sat out in the sun. While it's still hot, being sat in the sun is hotter still.
Also, I've the advantage at home of having the air conditioner. So wile it's horribly hot when I get back from work, within an hour or so my air con has cooled it down to something resembling warm. Then by the evening it can be veritably frosty in my bedroom.
I actually did a bit of an experiment the last two nights. Normally I try to keep my bedroom door closed when I use the aircon, in an attempt to make and keep that room as cold as possible. The problem with this seems to be that as soon as the aircon goes off it heats up very quickly.
What I tried was opening the door and also using fans to try to blow the hot kitchen air into the bedroom. My theory was that by cooling the whole place it would mean the bedroom would stay cooler for longer at night - there'd be no rush of hot air in from the kitchen.
I think it worked, though less successfully last night. I dunno, it can be difficult to really tell because you can't really account for the effects of natural variations.
Anyway, I'm hoping for a bit of a respite this weekend at least. A couple of cooler days would go down well. Especially as this weekend is a cleaning weekend, so finger's crossed.
But either way, I'm going to try to get my hair cut. Longer hair is not so good in warm weather.
I've been having a few weird experiences with the old bread maker. I've been trying to diversify away from the white bread and on Wednesday tried a brown loaf. It didn't quite go to plan, shall we say?
The problem was that it didn't really rise as much as I was expecting. The rising agent in bread is yeast, which gives off carbon dioxide as it ferments. Trouble with yeast is it's alive, but the form you buy it in is a kind of inert form.
But it does mean that it can 'die' or also be activated too early by exposure to water. I've been trying to run the bread machine so that it produces a loaf when I get back from work, but that means I obviously couldn't check the progress of this first brown loaf.
I've therefore no idea if I cocked up or if the yeast was knackered or what. But basically the bread came out almost slab like. It wasn't quite like unleavened bread, but it certainly wasn't fluffy and light like all the white loaves I've had so far.
But there is another factor of course - I've no idea how sitting in this natural heat waiting on the timer is affecting the process. What I did do was try a normal white loaf last night, but not using the timer.
It went okay - the loaf is light and fluffy, so I don't think the yeast is too blame. Maybe it was just the heat evaporating the water?
It's been very hot this last week, but not only that, it's been very humid and sticky too - especially at night.
I'm not sure if it's quite capped Nice/Monaco yet, but then for one thing this week I've obviously been at work, rather than sat out in the sun. While it's still hot, being sat in the sun is hotter still.
Also, I've the advantage at home of having the air conditioner. So wile it's horribly hot when I get back from work, within an hour or so my air con has cooled it down to something resembling warm. Then by the evening it can be veritably frosty in my bedroom.
I actually did a bit of an experiment the last two nights. Normally I try to keep my bedroom door closed when I use the aircon, in an attempt to make and keep that room as cold as possible. The problem with this seems to be that as soon as the aircon goes off it heats up very quickly.
What I tried was opening the door and also using fans to try to blow the hot kitchen air into the bedroom. My theory was that by cooling the whole place it would mean the bedroom would stay cooler for longer at night - there'd be no rush of hot air in from the kitchen.
I think it worked, though less successfully last night. I dunno, it can be difficult to really tell because you can't really account for the effects of natural variations.
Anyway, I'm hoping for a bit of a respite this weekend at least. A couple of cooler days would go down well. Especially as this weekend is a cleaning weekend, so finger's crossed.
But either way, I'm going to try to get my hair cut. Longer hair is not so good in warm weather.
I've been having a few weird experiences with the old bread maker. I've been trying to diversify away from the white bread and on Wednesday tried a brown loaf. It didn't quite go to plan, shall we say?
The problem was that it didn't really rise as much as I was expecting. The rising agent in bread is yeast, which gives off carbon dioxide as it ferments. Trouble with yeast is it's alive, but the form you buy it in is a kind of inert form.
But it does mean that it can 'die' or also be activated too early by exposure to water. I've been trying to run the bread machine so that it produces a loaf when I get back from work, but that means I obviously couldn't check the progress of this first brown loaf.
I've therefore no idea if I cocked up or if the yeast was knackered or what. But basically the bread came out almost slab like. It wasn't quite like unleavened bread, but it certainly wasn't fluffy and light like all the white loaves I've had so far.
But there is another factor of course - I've no idea how sitting in this natural heat waiting on the timer is affecting the process. What I did do was try a normal white loaf last night, but not using the timer.
It went okay - the loaf is light and fluffy, so I don't think the yeast is too blame. Maybe it was just the heat evaporating the water?
Thursday, 2 July 2009
bb10 is no more
I've mentioned before that on Thursday nights there's currently a ridiculous number of programmes that I want to watch. I also mentioned that two of them weren't very good.
Well, on Monday I summoned up the courage and deleted them from my PVR's recording schedule. At the same time I had a bit of a think and also came to the decision that I'm dumping bb10.
Part of me is missing it, but a bigger part of me is relieved that I've freed up so much viewing time. It's already paying dividends, because I immediately started watching Battlestar Galactica.
I'd heard good things about the new Battlestar, and so far I've seen nothing to make me disagree. If I'm brutally honest, the original miniseries wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped.
I mean it was in no way bad, but I was slightly left wondering why people had said it was so great. However, starting on Series 1 it became very apparent that it was a very good series.
And I think this difference was actually something of a falsity, caused by what they did to the miniseries on DVD. Even though it's a miniseries, it's been edited into one single entity. In other words, they've presented it as a (very nearly) 3 hour film.
To be frank, it's too long - I had to watch it in two halves. But also, because of the way American television has to be written to incorporate advert breaks it generally has a very clear 3 act structure. Because of the perceived button-bashing nature of American viewers, they like to go to the ad break with a big suspense moment that will encourage viewers to watch again after the ads.
So, if an hour-long show has 3 ad breaks, you end up with 2 big "act break" moments that will encourage viewers to come back. Plus, with it being a mini-series, each episode is of course going to end on a cliff-hanger too.
But that means when you edit, say, 4 of them all together you end up with 12 act breaks :/. Now that's fine in one sense, but it kinda makes the thing a bit exhausting to view. When you watch a normal show and marathon a 4 ep DVD you'll get the credits in there, telling you "okay, now you can go pee" or get a drink or whatever, or you're are at least aware that you're watching a new ep and can refocus your attention.
With it all edited together, these climactic act-break moments keep happening, but there's no respite - the thing just keeps rolling. And that makes it a little fatiguing to watch.
In other words, what I'm saying is, oddly, if it was broken up, I think I'd have enjoyed it more. But it was still good.
Well, on Monday I summoned up the courage and deleted them from my PVR's recording schedule. At the same time I had a bit of a think and also came to the decision that I'm dumping bb10.
Part of me is missing it, but a bigger part of me is relieved that I've freed up so much viewing time. It's already paying dividends, because I immediately started watching Battlestar Galactica.
I'd heard good things about the new Battlestar, and so far I've seen nothing to make me disagree. If I'm brutally honest, the original miniseries wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped.
I mean it was in no way bad, but I was slightly left wondering why people had said it was so great. However, starting on Series 1 it became very apparent that it was a very good series.
And I think this difference was actually something of a falsity, caused by what they did to the miniseries on DVD. Even though it's a miniseries, it's been edited into one single entity. In other words, they've presented it as a (very nearly) 3 hour film.
To be frank, it's too long - I had to watch it in two halves. But also, because of the way American television has to be written to incorporate advert breaks it generally has a very clear 3 act structure. Because of the perceived button-bashing nature of American viewers, they like to go to the ad break with a big suspense moment that will encourage viewers to watch again after the ads.
So, if an hour-long show has 3 ad breaks, you end up with 2 big "act break" moments that will encourage viewers to come back. Plus, with it being a mini-series, each episode is of course going to end on a cliff-hanger too.
But that means when you edit, say, 4 of them all together you end up with 12 act breaks :/. Now that's fine in one sense, but it kinda makes the thing a bit exhausting to view. When you watch a normal show and marathon a 4 ep DVD you'll get the credits in there, telling you "okay, now you can go pee" or get a drink or whatever, or you're are at least aware that you're watching a new ep and can refocus your attention.
With it all edited together, these climactic act-break moments keep happening, but there's no respite - the thing just keeps rolling. And that makes it a little fatiguing to watch.
In other words, what I'm saying is, oddly, if it was broken up, I think I'd have enjoyed it more. But it was still good.
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
iron man
doo, doo, doo-do-do, dodee-dodee-dodee-duh-doo-doo-doo.
Er, that's supposed to be a sort of sing-along version of the riff to Sabbath's Iron Man.
Well, anyway, moving right along...
I've never been that big a fan of Iron Man.
I've read the comic a few times, and Marvel are great ones for crossovers, so I've encountered him sometimes in the other books I've read. I dunno - he never really appealed to me, I guess. The thing I liked about the superheroes I tended to follow was that they were more along the lines of greatness-thrust-upon-them.
So I really liked Spiderman - an nerdy kid who has superpowers thrust upon him. He struggles with life just as much - if not more - as he does supervillains. I also really like Wolverine.
Wolverine always had the air that he was dragged into being a superhero because some internal moral compass could never stand to see bad triumph over good and only he could fix it. If he could, he'd happily step back and let others fix it, but when it came down to it, he did what needed to be done.
I also used to like the Punisher. I've not kept up with the newer versions, but the Punisher again was very much like Wolverine. The Punisher tended to deal in real-world crime of course, but there are a lot of similarities again.
One of the problems with Iron Man for me I think was the whole aspect of him being a weapons dealer. It was never clear to me quite how that worked - in the comics he still traded weapons (I think), yet in his spare time he was a vigilante superhero?
Also, the whole rich playboy aspect jarred with what I preferred. Spiderman was a nerdy kid who had to work to pay his bills and struggled with girlfriends, Wolverine I guess had a benefactor in Professor X but was a difficult, surly character who was difficult to love and Punisher could only leave by using the money he got from organised criminals he killed and of course had no love in his life since his family was murdered.
Tony Stark could buy half of the planet and was so damnable handsome, he could have any woman at the click of his fingers. Yeah, great from a power-fantasy point of view, but not my cup of tea.
What they cleverly do in the Iron Man film is iron out all of these issues.
So he's a weapons dealer, but he undergoes a crisis of faith, as it were. He becomes the victim of his own weapons.
He's a shagmonster, sleeping with all and sundry, but then we get to see he's actually probably in love with someone and it's suggested he shags around because he's lonely.
Now to some extent, these ideas are a little familiar, but this is where story telling and execution become of paramount importance. I mean, think about it - how many adaptations of Shakespeare's plays have there been? And, more relevantly, how many works "based on" those stories?
See, the point often isn't necessarily to do something new, but to do it well. And here they really did it well.
The cast is just about perfect - Downey Jr is brilliant as Tony Stark in particular. The effects in particular are spectacular - CGI has so come of age you virtually can't tell it's CGI anymore.
Also, there's a perfect blending between humour and seriousness, just the right amount of action and the right pitch in terms of tone and pathos.
It's not quite as good as Spiderman 2, but this has got to be up there amongst the best Superhero movies I've seen so far.
What's especially interesting is that the deleted scenes are on the disc as extras and I think that every cut they made was right. Sometimes you watch the deleted scenes and think - oh, they should have left that in as it explains better or whatever, but here everything they chopped out made it better.
Er, that's supposed to be a sort of sing-along version of the riff to Sabbath's Iron Man.
Well, anyway, moving right along...
I've never been that big a fan of Iron Man.
I've read the comic a few times, and Marvel are great ones for crossovers, so I've encountered him sometimes in the other books I've read. I dunno - he never really appealed to me, I guess. The thing I liked about the superheroes I tended to follow was that they were more along the lines of greatness-thrust-upon-them.
So I really liked Spiderman - an nerdy kid who has superpowers thrust upon him. He struggles with life just as much - if not more - as he does supervillains. I also really like Wolverine.
Wolverine always had the air that he was dragged into being a superhero because some internal moral compass could never stand to see bad triumph over good and only he could fix it. If he could, he'd happily step back and let others fix it, but when it came down to it, he did what needed to be done.
I also used to like the Punisher. I've not kept up with the newer versions, but the Punisher again was very much like Wolverine. The Punisher tended to deal in real-world crime of course, but there are a lot of similarities again.
One of the problems with Iron Man for me I think was the whole aspect of him being a weapons dealer. It was never clear to me quite how that worked - in the comics he still traded weapons (I think), yet in his spare time he was a vigilante superhero?
Also, the whole rich playboy aspect jarred with what I preferred. Spiderman was a nerdy kid who had to work to pay his bills and struggled with girlfriends, Wolverine I guess had a benefactor in Professor X but was a difficult, surly character who was difficult to love and Punisher could only leave by using the money he got from organised criminals he killed and of course had no love in his life since his family was murdered.
Tony Stark could buy half of the planet and was so damnable handsome, he could have any woman at the click of his fingers. Yeah, great from a power-fantasy point of view, but not my cup of tea.
What they cleverly do in the Iron Man film is iron out all of these issues.
So he's a weapons dealer, but he undergoes a crisis of faith, as it were. He becomes the victim of his own weapons.
He's a shagmonster, sleeping with all and sundry, but then we get to see he's actually probably in love with someone and it's suggested he shags around because he's lonely.
Now to some extent, these ideas are a little familiar, but this is where story telling and execution become of paramount importance. I mean, think about it - how many adaptations of Shakespeare's plays have there been? And, more relevantly, how many works "based on" those stories?
See, the point often isn't necessarily to do something new, but to do it well. And here they really did it well.
The cast is just about perfect - Downey Jr is brilliant as Tony Stark in particular. The effects in particular are spectacular - CGI has so come of age you virtually can't tell it's CGI anymore.
Also, there's a perfect blending between humour and seriousness, just the right amount of action and the right pitch in terms of tone and pathos.
It's not quite as good as Spiderman 2, but this has got to be up there amongst the best Superhero movies I've seen so far.
What's especially interesting is that the deleted scenes are on the disc as extras and I think that every cut they made was right. Sometimes you watch the deleted scenes and think - oh, they should have left that in as it explains better or whatever, but here everything they chopped out made it better.
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
empowered volume 5
When I got back on Friday I was greeted by a pleasant sight - the latest volume of Empowered had turned up.
Empowered is by Adam Warren, who I'm something of a fan of. His drawing style is what's called (or now called - there's something of a plethora of different terms for it) Original English-Language Manga, or OEL.
In other words, he draws in a manga style. It's not an entirely traditional manga style - over the years Warren's style has grown and developed as you'd expect of any artist - but manga-influenced, nonetheless.
Empowered is his latest project - it's been going for a few years now, and this is the fifth volume. Give-or-take, each volume of Emp is better than the last, although my personal opinion was that it dipped a little in volume 4.
Perhaps that's something of a reflection of how much I enjoyed vol3, but I think it was more to do with the extended fight at the end of the volume. It wasn't bad or anything, it just felt a bit 'been there, done that' for some reason - superheroes fighting for huge page counts is in every other book too.
Anyway, the point is that volume 5 is an absolute cracker. It too has a long chapter at the end, which also involves a big old superhero fight, but here Warren does what he's best at in Emp and kinda subverts that. Basically, it all goes tits up and they get wiped out in five minutes and then the rest of the story is about Emp simply trying to survive. Also, we get some true heroism in the form of people sacrificing themselves to save others.
See, there's nothing wrong with Emp using powers to do the superhero thing like in Vol 4, it's just that the book works better when it's subverting (that's really the wrong word, but I can't think of a better one) that idea and showing the other side. The Emp et al being human side.
I mean, in a sense, that's the core theme of the book - if Emp's very fragile suit gets torn up, she looses her powers, yet she still leaps into danger. And also, even when it does get torn up and she looses her powers she still manages to save the day. It's all about the true heroism.
Anyway, enough of the deeper analysis stuff.
What's also great about this volume is that it contains a good balance of "other stuff" too. As the volumes have progressed, the number of characters has greatly increased, as you'd imagine, and quite a few of them are more than just background characters. They're not quite stars of the book, but they're a bit more than supporting characters.
One of my favourites is the caged Demonwolf, a mega-powerful evil entity in the Lovecraftian vein who Emp trapped inside a sort of bondage belt thing. He now basically lives on Emp's coffee table and is essentially just a voice.
But what a voice - he has quite the way of words and is often used by Warren to narrate stories. These take the form of more fanciful/possibly-fictitious accounts through to more realistic narration.
What particularly amused me this volume is that the Demonwolf relates a story and quotes some of the character, but what they say gets processed through Demonwolf speak and becomes very humorous.
There's also a good chunk of Ninjette in the book and a character called Ocelotina recurs too.
This is actually an advantage of the way the book is structured. The book is written as a proper graphic novel, rather than being a collection of individual comic books. This means that chapter length varies, which means a shorter (or longer) chapter featuring a secondary character can be included without needing to batter it into the required page count.
So yeah, check it out.
The last few pages put a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye - if there's any higher recommendation than that, I don't know what it is.
Empowered is by Adam Warren, who I'm something of a fan of. His drawing style is what's called (or now called - there's something of a plethora of different terms for it) Original English-Language Manga, or OEL.
In other words, he draws in a manga style. It's not an entirely traditional manga style - over the years Warren's style has grown and developed as you'd expect of any artist - but manga-influenced, nonetheless.
Empowered is his latest project - it's been going for a few years now, and this is the fifth volume. Give-or-take, each volume of Emp is better than the last, although my personal opinion was that it dipped a little in volume 4.
Perhaps that's something of a reflection of how much I enjoyed vol3, but I think it was more to do with the extended fight at the end of the volume. It wasn't bad or anything, it just felt a bit 'been there, done that' for some reason - superheroes fighting for huge page counts is in every other book too.
Anyway, the point is that volume 5 is an absolute cracker. It too has a long chapter at the end, which also involves a big old superhero fight, but here Warren does what he's best at in Emp and kinda subverts that. Basically, it all goes tits up and they get wiped out in five minutes and then the rest of the story is about Emp simply trying to survive. Also, we get some true heroism in the form of people sacrificing themselves to save others.
See, there's nothing wrong with Emp using powers to do the superhero thing like in Vol 4, it's just that the book works better when it's subverting (that's really the wrong word, but I can't think of a better one) that idea and showing the other side. The Emp et al being human side.
I mean, in a sense, that's the core theme of the book - if Emp's very fragile suit gets torn up, she looses her powers, yet she still leaps into danger. And also, even when it does get torn up and she looses her powers she still manages to save the day. It's all about the true heroism.
Anyway, enough of the deeper analysis stuff.
What's also great about this volume is that it contains a good balance of "other stuff" too. As the volumes have progressed, the number of characters has greatly increased, as you'd imagine, and quite a few of them are more than just background characters. They're not quite stars of the book, but they're a bit more than supporting characters.
One of my favourites is the caged Demonwolf, a mega-powerful evil entity in the Lovecraftian vein who Emp trapped inside a sort of bondage belt thing. He now basically lives on Emp's coffee table and is essentially just a voice.
But what a voice - he has quite the way of words and is often used by Warren to narrate stories. These take the form of more fanciful/possibly-fictitious accounts through to more realistic narration.
What particularly amused me this volume is that the Demonwolf relates a story and quotes some of the character, but what they say gets processed through Demonwolf speak and becomes very humorous.
There's also a good chunk of Ninjette in the book and a character called Ocelotina recurs too.
This is actually an advantage of the way the book is structured. The book is written as a proper graphic novel, rather than being a collection of individual comic books. This means that chapter length varies, which means a shorter (or longer) chapter featuring a secondary character can be included without needing to batter it into the required page count.
So yeah, check it out.
The last few pages put a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye - if there's any higher recommendation than that, I don't know what it is.
Monday, 29 June 2009
phew, what a scorcher
God, it was hot on Saturday.
I managed to get the car washed and polished, but with hindsight, waiting until Sunday would have been the better decision. It was cloudier and a bit cooler on Sunday, so it would have been a more pleasant experience, but not by much, I think.
Saturday spurred me into breaking out the air conditioner on Sunday morning. I think this is going to be a very good thing, as the forecast is for a bit of a heat wave this week.
If this is the case it does mean I made a bit of a tactical error. I was thinking about getting a haircut on Saturday, but in the end was too lazy to bother (I have to get up very early to get to the hairdresser before any sort of queue forms). Whilst I'm not desperate for a haircut, shedding a bit on the top might help if it is going to be scorching.
Sunday I also did a huge amount of scanning and finished all of the magazines. Don't get me wrong, I still have a lot of scanning to do, but it was nice to finish the magazines. I actually put the scanner away as I'm kinda sick of looking at it, but it'll have to come out again soon.
While I scanned I watched some fansubs of course:
I watched some more Hatsukoi Limited. I actually kinda spoiled this for myself a bit by reading the manga online. What happened was I thought I'd see what the manga was like and if it was available in the west, but during my investigations I found it on a scanslation site and also discovered it was only 4 volumes long.
These discoveries kinda meant I ended up reading the whole thing. It was good, but it meant I knew what was coming next in the manga. However, interestingly they've tweaked the anime quite a bit and I actually the think the tweaks are something of an improvement, and definitely flesh things out a bit more.
Oh, and I also discovered it's by the same manga-ka who did Strawberry 100%. The art style is still gorgeous, but it's better than 100% as the plot strands advance in a much more succinct and direct way. There's none of that fannying about and tooing and froing that gets annoying in 100%.
Asura Cryin was kinda rubbish. I mean, it wasn't actively bad, but it was such a generic mish-mash of stuff you've seen before that it was very dull.
There's actually a quote I once heard that went something along the lines of "I'd rather be confused for 10 minutes than bored for 10 seconds" and in a way Asura Cryin tries to follow that principle. It starts off with all sort of weird stuff that you don't really know quite what's going on.
For example, the main character has a female ghost that follows him about. Or another example is a weird girl that turns up and gives him a suitcase. Or the other weird girl that breaks in that night, using magic and threatens him.
But the problem is that all of these surprising elements are basically standard anime elements. I mean, if I'd never seen any anime before ever then maybe it would work, but as it is I was able to guess most of the twists before they happened.
I then watched one episode of something called Jewelpet. This show is definitely not aimed at me - it's aimed at little girls and not only that, but it's raison d'etre is selling toys to young girls. Think Transformers, Pokemon, Beyblade, etc - it's a show aimed at flogging toys.
It was also quite poorly (cheaply) animated and wasn't exactly based on an original concept - there are these magical creatures that look like jewels lost around the earth and you have to go and find them.
However, more in my age group is Sengoku Basara. I have to admit that on some level I was a little disappointed by Sengoku Basara, because it was exactly what I was expecting.
I know that sounds weird, but I think I was secretly hoping for a bit more of a surprise element to it. I mean, what's there is all perfectly good, but if it had whipped out something extra - something a bit more bonkers maybe - I'd have liked it more.
Also, I was a little unsure how serious it was meant to be. There were some thing that were quite comical, but I wasn't sure how much of the rest of the show was supposed to be taken in that vein. For example, there's a really hot ninja who has a sort of 'love-explosion' moment where the background goes pink and she makes an orgasmic face. Which was quite funny, but a lot of the rest of the show was played with straight faces.
But don't get me wrong - I liked it, just probably not as much as I'd hoped.
I managed to get the car washed and polished, but with hindsight, waiting until Sunday would have been the better decision. It was cloudier and a bit cooler on Sunday, so it would have been a more pleasant experience, but not by much, I think.
Saturday spurred me into breaking out the air conditioner on Sunday morning. I think this is going to be a very good thing, as the forecast is for a bit of a heat wave this week.
If this is the case it does mean I made a bit of a tactical error. I was thinking about getting a haircut on Saturday, but in the end was too lazy to bother (I have to get up very early to get to the hairdresser before any sort of queue forms). Whilst I'm not desperate for a haircut, shedding a bit on the top might help if it is going to be scorching.
Sunday I also did a huge amount of scanning and finished all of the magazines. Don't get me wrong, I still have a lot of scanning to do, but it was nice to finish the magazines. I actually put the scanner away as I'm kinda sick of looking at it, but it'll have to come out again soon.
While I scanned I watched some fansubs of course:
I watched some more Hatsukoi Limited. I actually kinda spoiled this for myself a bit by reading the manga online. What happened was I thought I'd see what the manga was like and if it was available in the west, but during my investigations I found it on a scanslation site and also discovered it was only 4 volumes long.
These discoveries kinda meant I ended up reading the whole thing. It was good, but it meant I knew what was coming next in the manga. However, interestingly they've tweaked the anime quite a bit and I actually the think the tweaks are something of an improvement, and definitely flesh things out a bit more.
Oh, and I also discovered it's by the same manga-ka who did Strawberry 100%. The art style is still gorgeous, but it's better than 100% as the plot strands advance in a much more succinct and direct way. There's none of that fannying about and tooing and froing that gets annoying in 100%.
Asura Cryin was kinda rubbish. I mean, it wasn't actively bad, but it was such a generic mish-mash of stuff you've seen before that it was very dull.
There's actually a quote I once heard that went something along the lines of "I'd rather be confused for 10 minutes than bored for 10 seconds" and in a way Asura Cryin tries to follow that principle. It starts off with all sort of weird stuff that you don't really know quite what's going on.
For example, the main character has a female ghost that follows him about. Or another example is a weird girl that turns up and gives him a suitcase. Or the other weird girl that breaks in that night, using magic and threatens him.
But the problem is that all of these surprising elements are basically standard anime elements. I mean, if I'd never seen any anime before ever then maybe it would work, but as it is I was able to guess most of the twists before they happened.
I then watched one episode of something called Jewelpet. This show is definitely not aimed at me - it's aimed at little girls and not only that, but it's raison d'etre is selling toys to young girls. Think Transformers, Pokemon, Beyblade, etc - it's a show aimed at flogging toys.
It was also quite poorly (cheaply) animated and wasn't exactly based on an original concept - there are these magical creatures that look like jewels lost around the earth and you have to go and find them.
However, more in my age group is Sengoku Basara. I have to admit that on some level I was a little disappointed by Sengoku Basara, because it was exactly what I was expecting.
I know that sounds weird, but I think I was secretly hoping for a bit more of a surprise element to it. I mean, what's there is all perfectly good, but if it had whipped out something extra - something a bit more bonkers maybe - I'd have liked it more.
Also, I was a little unsure how serious it was meant to be. There were some thing that were quite comical, but I wasn't sure how much of the rest of the show was supposed to be taken in that vein. For example, there's a really hot ninja who has a sort of 'love-explosion' moment where the background goes pink and she makes an orgasmic face. Which was quite funny, but a lot of the rest of the show was played with straight faces.
But don't get me wrong - I liked it, just probably not as much as I'd hoped.
Friday, 26 June 2009
at the carwash... yeah
My only real plan for this weekend is to thoroughly clean my car - hopefully even to the extent of polishing it!
This is mainly because my landlord has gone on holiday... again. He did this two years ago as well - I think he had 4 separate holidays over the summer period, but then last year I don't think he had one. Not that I'm complaining - more power to him, he should be enjoying his retirement.
Trouble is, it currently looks like the weather is having other ideas - the forecasts are for more rain :/.
I've done a bit more scanning and watched the following:
Cross Game was surprisingly good. On the face of it, it seemed like a baseball sports-drama, and while it is definitely that, it's also quite a bit more too.
If I'm honest, I felt he first episode dragged a bit. I suppose it seemed that everything was a bit too nice and perfect for the man character, Ko. The characters were also quite young and it felt a lot like the show was aimed at that same demographic.
However, towards the end of the first ep there was quite a harsh tragedy (I fair got a lump in me throat) and it kinda hooked me in with that. The next episode skipped ahead 4 years so the characters were now into their teen years at middle school and with it the complexity also seemed to jump.
In other words, there seemed to be some quite complicated interpersonal relationships developing, as well as the whole baseball thing. So yeah, enjoyed it more than I thought I would and would probably watch it if it ever became available, though maybe not buy it.
It's a similar sort of story with Hatsukoi Limited. Well I don't mean story-story - Hatsukoi Limited has nothing to do with baseball - what I mean is that I found it surprisingly good.
It's a little difficult to explain what Hatsukoi is about, mainly because it's not that complicated. I know that sounds weird, but basically it's because it blends together a lot of genres. It's a romantic comedy at heart, but the easiest way I can describe it is to say that it's a lot like Azumanga Diaoh, but with all the girls being total stunners depicted in a more realistic style.
Which is where it gets complicated because I want to start adding in things like it's rather reminiscent of School Rumble too, but I'll stop there. The real thing of note is that I enjoyed it quite a lot and found it to be really quite amusing.
But I guess I should also comment on the big news of the day - Farrah Fawcett died! No wait, I mean Michael Jackson died.
It's all very sudden and shocking. Jackson was kinda ubiquitous when I was growing up - Thriller and Bad were released at the time I was a young kid, and they were all pervasive.
He had some good songs as well, I'll give him that, although clearly he wasn't what anyone would describe as "normal". But then how could he have been? He was a child star and went on to have the biggest selling album ever in thriller - anyone would end up a bit abnormal from all that.
This is mainly because my landlord has gone on holiday... again. He did this two years ago as well - I think he had 4 separate holidays over the summer period, but then last year I don't think he had one. Not that I'm complaining - more power to him, he should be enjoying his retirement.
Trouble is, it currently looks like the weather is having other ideas - the forecasts are for more rain :/.
I've done a bit more scanning and watched the following:
Cross Game was surprisingly good. On the face of it, it seemed like a baseball sports-drama, and while it is definitely that, it's also quite a bit more too.
If I'm honest, I felt he first episode dragged a bit. I suppose it seemed that everything was a bit too nice and perfect for the man character, Ko. The characters were also quite young and it felt a lot like the show was aimed at that same demographic.
However, towards the end of the first ep there was quite a harsh tragedy (I fair got a lump in me throat) and it kinda hooked me in with that. The next episode skipped ahead 4 years so the characters were now into their teen years at middle school and with it the complexity also seemed to jump.
In other words, there seemed to be some quite complicated interpersonal relationships developing, as well as the whole baseball thing. So yeah, enjoyed it more than I thought I would and would probably watch it if it ever became available, though maybe not buy it.
It's a similar sort of story with Hatsukoi Limited. Well I don't mean story-story - Hatsukoi Limited has nothing to do with baseball - what I mean is that I found it surprisingly good.
It's a little difficult to explain what Hatsukoi is about, mainly because it's not that complicated. I know that sounds weird, but basically it's because it blends together a lot of genres. It's a romantic comedy at heart, but the easiest way I can describe it is to say that it's a lot like Azumanga Diaoh, but with all the girls being total stunners depicted in a more realistic style.
Which is where it gets complicated because I want to start adding in things like it's rather reminiscent of School Rumble too, but I'll stop there. The real thing of note is that I enjoyed it quite a lot and found it to be really quite amusing.
But I guess I should also comment on the big news of the day - Farrah Fawcett died! No wait, I mean Michael Jackson died.
It's all very sudden and shocking. Jackson was kinda ubiquitous when I was growing up - Thriller and Bad were released at the time I was a young kid, and they were all pervasive.
He had some good songs as well, I'll give him that, although clearly he wasn't what anyone would describe as "normal". But then how could he have been? He was a child star and went on to have the biggest selling album ever in thriller - anyone would end up a bit abnormal from all that.
Thursday, 25 June 2009
bad science
My birthday was a little odd this year - it fell really close to the whole Monaco trip, so for one thing I couldn't really afford to do anything spectacular, but for another it meant the presents from my family members were much delayed.
What I got from my Dad has been really interesting - he bought me a bread maker and a steamer. With the weather having been so hot recently I can't say I've really had a chance to use the steamer yet, but it looks like a really good model. Hopefully I'll give it a whirl with cooking some rice this weekend, which is a pretty basic thing admittedly, but it'll at least give me the chance to try it out.
The bread maker is really great and I've been having lots of fun making loafs of bread. I've not ventured too far from the traditional white bread, but even with that there are different variations - sandwich or more traditional, different sizes and whether you want light or dark crust.
The least successful side of it for me is the sizes - small loafs work really well and are manageable, but the larger loaves are not so easily used. I mean, they're great, it's just they're difficult to cut up, especially for sandwiches, which is what I mainly use bread for, because of the shape they come out in.
But most recipes appear to have smaller versions, so it's not so much of a problem. My next big venture will be into bread rolls I think - they're slightly more complex in that the bread maker only does half the job and you have to do the last bit.
Anyway, the thing I wanted to mainly mention was what my sister got me. She got me a couple of DVDs, but also a book called "bad science" by Ben Goldacre.
It's an interesting read. It covers quite a few subjects, including CAM ("Conventional and Alternative Medicine") and the MMR hoax. I'd always known CAM was pure bullshit and that the MMR hoax was, at best misplaced good intention and at worst, outright lies, so it wasn't these that's got me thinking the most.
What got me thinking was the section on Nutritionists.
It turns out that nutritionism is little more than extension of the hocus-pocus of CAM. The practitioners (or bullshit peddlers is probably a better phrase) of this pseudo-science are little better than the crystal-healers and homeopathic experts of CAM.
This really surprised me, because where homeopathy seems fairly ignored by the news, nutritionist stuff does seem to be in the main stream. Think of all those "diet doctor" type programs any you'll see what I mean. Plus, even the BBC has news articles when the latest stuff about miracle foods emerges.
But the reality is that most of these are nearly total bullshit. The problem seems to come from the fact that proper science is done, but it's miss-reported and miss-represented. Also, there's lots of really bad science done.
The books well worth reading, although I have to admit to a little bit of a dislike for Goldacre's style. It's kind of an odd one, because the people he talks about are clearly contemptible and the bad science conducted is clearly worthy of some scorn. The problem I'm having is he doesn't pull back on the contempt and scorn in the way he writes.
So while I've no problem with him fundamentally doing that, it can read like a personal attack, rather than an evidence-based dissection, which is what it actually is.
What I got from my Dad has been really interesting - he bought me a bread maker and a steamer. With the weather having been so hot recently I can't say I've really had a chance to use the steamer yet, but it looks like a really good model. Hopefully I'll give it a whirl with cooking some rice this weekend, which is a pretty basic thing admittedly, but it'll at least give me the chance to try it out.
The bread maker is really great and I've been having lots of fun making loafs of bread. I've not ventured too far from the traditional white bread, but even with that there are different variations - sandwich or more traditional, different sizes and whether you want light or dark crust.
The least successful side of it for me is the sizes - small loafs work really well and are manageable, but the larger loaves are not so easily used. I mean, they're great, it's just they're difficult to cut up, especially for sandwiches, which is what I mainly use bread for, because of the shape they come out in.
But most recipes appear to have smaller versions, so it's not so much of a problem. My next big venture will be into bread rolls I think - they're slightly more complex in that the bread maker only does half the job and you have to do the last bit.
Anyway, the thing I wanted to mainly mention was what my sister got me. She got me a couple of DVDs, but also a book called "bad science" by Ben Goldacre.
It's an interesting read. It covers quite a few subjects, including CAM ("Conventional and Alternative Medicine") and the MMR hoax. I'd always known CAM was pure bullshit and that the MMR hoax was, at best misplaced good intention and at worst, outright lies, so it wasn't these that's got me thinking the most.
What got me thinking was the section on Nutritionists.
It turns out that nutritionism is little more than extension of the hocus-pocus of CAM. The practitioners (or bullshit peddlers is probably a better phrase) of this pseudo-science are little better than the crystal-healers and homeopathic experts of CAM.
This really surprised me, because where homeopathy seems fairly ignored by the news, nutritionist stuff does seem to be in the main stream. Think of all those "diet doctor" type programs any you'll see what I mean. Plus, even the BBC has news articles when the latest stuff about miracle foods emerges.
But the reality is that most of these are nearly total bullshit. The problem seems to come from the fact that proper science is done, but it's miss-reported and miss-represented. Also, there's lots of really bad science done.
The books well worth reading, although I have to admit to a little bit of a dislike for Goldacre's style. It's kind of an odd one, because the people he talks about are clearly contemptible and the bad science conducted is clearly worthy of some scorn. The problem I'm having is he doesn't pull back on the contempt and scorn in the way he writes.
So while I've no problem with him fundamentally doing that, it can read like a personal attack, rather than an evidence-based dissection, which is what it actually is.
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
planet terror
Grindhouse was a project undertaken by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez a few years back now.
The idea was for them to both produce a film that harked back to the b-movies that they'd "grown up on". These would then be shown as a double feature, back-to-back, with a few additional bits and pieces chucked in, like fake trailers. QT's offering was called Death Prof, and Rodriguez's feature was Planet Terror.
Broadly speaking it didn't work and flopped a bit at the box office. What they hadn't really factored in was that people aren't really keen on double features any more. Even though cinema ticket prices are quite expensive nowadays, the extra value offered by a double feature didn't really appeal to people.
Certainly I personally can remember thinking that over 3 hours of cinema sitting wasn't much fun for my bum during the LotR features and don't think I'd have much fancied it for the Grindhouse double feature )this was only done in the states - everywhere else got them separate).
So they've also split them up for DVD and extend them a bit. There's still a super-deluxe original-format Grindhouse version I believe, but for the purposes of recouping costs, separating the DVDs makes sense.
I've not seen death proof yet - they're both on my rental lists, and it seems planet terror has popped out first.
Tbh, I don't really mind too much, as of the two I prefer Rodriguez. If I'm honest I'm not quite as enamoured of QT as most film buffs - not that I think his stuff is bad, I just don't orgasm over it in the same way.
Anyway, the point is to talk about Planet Terror.
Overall, my verdict is that it's okay.
Basically, it's roughly a zombie-apocalypse film, although this is actually one of its problems - it's not quite a zombie apocalypse film and I think it would have been a bit better if it had definitely been that.
What it does to very well is capture the cheesiness of such B-movie fair. The problem with this is it means this film is also cheesy. Admittedly it's cheesy with a few knowing winks, but still cheesy.
Also I think a few more direct references to classic B-movies would have helped. There are a few, but not as many as I'd hoped. Instead, as the (interesting) Rodriguez commentary track explains it's more of a homage in general sense.
So we get Carpenter-esque theme tunes or scenes similar in style to his stuff, but not actually directly referencing his films. This works but only so much. Also it becomes apparent that Rodriguez is definitely a Carpenter fanboy.
This is great in that I'm also a bit of a Carpenter fanboy, but the problem is that it needed a bit more of a wider fanbase. Some more influences would have helped, as it it's like why not just watch a Carpenter film instead?
The only other thing that I found odd was that the films were on one level a homage to B-movies of the seventies and eighties and yet they featured a lot of very modern stuff. It's like, the cars were old and the way people dressed was somewhat of the period, yet people had what looked like blackberrys.
Similarly, the films were processed and all scratched up as if they were proper, abused double feature prints (there was even a 'missing reel') from long ago, and yet the plot refers to Osama Bin Laden - a very modern thing.
It made it a little confusing.
Anyway, overall I liked the film, but perhaps not as much as I'd hoped.
The idea was for them to both produce a film that harked back to the b-movies that they'd "grown up on". These would then be shown as a double feature, back-to-back, with a few additional bits and pieces chucked in, like fake trailers. QT's offering was called Death Prof, and Rodriguez's feature was Planet Terror.
Broadly speaking it didn't work and flopped a bit at the box office. What they hadn't really factored in was that people aren't really keen on double features any more. Even though cinema ticket prices are quite expensive nowadays, the extra value offered by a double feature didn't really appeal to people.
Certainly I personally can remember thinking that over 3 hours of cinema sitting wasn't much fun for my bum during the LotR features and don't think I'd have much fancied it for the Grindhouse double feature )this was only done in the states - everywhere else got them separate).
So they've also split them up for DVD and extend them a bit. There's still a super-deluxe original-format Grindhouse version I believe, but for the purposes of recouping costs, separating the DVDs makes sense.
I've not seen death proof yet - they're both on my rental lists, and it seems planet terror has popped out first.
Tbh, I don't really mind too much, as of the two I prefer Rodriguez. If I'm honest I'm not quite as enamoured of QT as most film buffs - not that I think his stuff is bad, I just don't orgasm over it in the same way.
Anyway, the point is to talk about Planet Terror.
Overall, my verdict is that it's okay.
Basically, it's roughly a zombie-apocalypse film, although this is actually one of its problems - it's not quite a zombie apocalypse film and I think it would have been a bit better if it had definitely been that.
What it does to very well is capture the cheesiness of such B-movie fair. The problem with this is it means this film is also cheesy. Admittedly it's cheesy with a few knowing winks, but still cheesy.
Also I think a few more direct references to classic B-movies would have helped. There are a few, but not as many as I'd hoped. Instead, as the (interesting) Rodriguez commentary track explains it's more of a homage in general sense.
So we get Carpenter-esque theme tunes or scenes similar in style to his stuff, but not actually directly referencing his films. This works but only so much. Also it becomes apparent that Rodriguez is definitely a Carpenter fanboy.
This is great in that I'm also a bit of a Carpenter fanboy, but the problem is that it needed a bit more of a wider fanbase. Some more influences would have helped, as it it's like why not just watch a Carpenter film instead?
The only other thing that I found odd was that the films were on one level a homage to B-movies of the seventies and eighties and yet they featured a lot of very modern stuff. It's like, the cars were old and the way people dressed was somewhat of the period, yet people had what looked like blackberrys.
Similarly, the films were processed and all scratched up as if they were proper, abused double feature prints (there was even a 'missing reel') from long ago, and yet the plot refers to Osama Bin Laden - a very modern thing.
It made it a little confusing.
Anyway, overall I liked the film, but perhaps not as much as I'd hoped.
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
keep on scanning
So I've been scanning away like mad just recently. I didn't get quite as much done over the weekend as I'd hoped, though. I mean I did a fair bit - a newtype, an animage and the posters from a megami - but I'd been hoping to get almost all of it done.
Part of the problem was that there was loads of telly for me to watch.
I noted before that I've been watching Big Brother and that essentially adds the best part of 7-8 hours of telly watching to my schedule per week. Now it's not as bad as that sounds, because it's more like one hour every day, but it means I can't watch other stuff in that hour, obviously.
But the big thing that's currently knackering me up is Thursday nights. For some reason about a third the programs I'm watching are all scheduled on a Thursday night. It's kind of getting a bit silly, tbh and I'm both hoping one or two of them will end and that I'll be brave enough to severe a couple of them, as they're not that good if I'm brutally honest.
Anyway, the anime shows I've been sampling while scanning have been:
Every year there are one or two shows that are 'stand-out' series for me. They're the shows that I desperately hope will get licensed in the west, and if I ever got to the stage of properly controlling my excessive spending, I would still buy these shows.
One of the best way for me to tell a show like this is if I get to the end of my usual 3 episode sample and I feel torn as to whether I should sample the fourth episode too. If I have a really strong desire to just keep going then that means the show is on the stand-out list. Of course if I'm a bit more happy to put it on hold then it can still be a good show I would probably buy (or all the levels below), but it's just not the best of the best.
Eden of The East is the first stand-out show I've found from this season's crop. It's got a really intriguing plot, an interesting idea behind it and deep characters - what more could you want?
Tayutama Kiss on my Deity was distinctly "meh". I actually only bothered watching 2 episodes as it sat neatly into a few holes.
Basically, it's an 'instant girlfriend' harem type show. The plot is about spirits and stuff, and to be frank it was kinda uninspired. Also, there seemed to be a severe lack of fan-service, which is normally a staple of this sort of show, so it didn't even have that going for it - plus the character designs weren't too my taste either.
Part of the problem was that there was loads of telly for me to watch.
I noted before that I've been watching Big Brother and that essentially adds the best part of 7-8 hours of telly watching to my schedule per week. Now it's not as bad as that sounds, because it's more like one hour every day, but it means I can't watch other stuff in that hour, obviously.
But the big thing that's currently knackering me up is Thursday nights. For some reason about a third the programs I'm watching are all scheduled on a Thursday night. It's kind of getting a bit silly, tbh and I'm both hoping one or two of them will end and that I'll be brave enough to severe a couple of them, as they're not that good if I'm brutally honest.
Anyway, the anime shows I've been sampling while scanning have been:
Every year there are one or two shows that are 'stand-out' series for me. They're the shows that I desperately hope will get licensed in the west, and if I ever got to the stage of properly controlling my excessive spending, I would still buy these shows.
One of the best way for me to tell a show like this is if I get to the end of my usual 3 episode sample and I feel torn as to whether I should sample the fourth episode too. If I have a really strong desire to just keep going then that means the show is on the stand-out list. Of course if I'm a bit more happy to put it on hold then it can still be a good show I would probably buy (or all the levels below), but it's just not the best of the best.
Eden of The East is the first stand-out show I've found from this season's crop. It's got a really intriguing plot, an interesting idea behind it and deep characters - what more could you want?
Tayutama Kiss on my Deity was distinctly "meh". I actually only bothered watching 2 episodes as it sat neatly into a few holes.
Basically, it's an 'instant girlfriend' harem type show. The plot is about spirits and stuff, and to be frank it was kinda uninspired. Also, there seemed to be a severe lack of fan-service, which is normally a staple of this sort of show, so it didn't even have that going for it - plus the character designs weren't too my taste either.
Monday, 22 June 2009
silverston's swansong?
On Sunday it was the British Grand Prix at Silverston.
Potentially this could be the last Silverston Grand Prix for a very long time. Bernie Eccleston, the "commercial rights holder" for F1, has signed a 17 year deal with Donnington Park for them to hold the British Grand Prix.
However, there is quite a lot of doubt as to whether Donnington will actually be ready in time for next year. There's been some stuff in the news about some financial struggles they've been having and there's quite a lot of money that needs spending, in order to improve the track and the facilities so that it can hold a GP.
Bernie had made a proclamation that if Donnington wasn't ready next year then there wouldn't be a 2010 British GP as it wasn't coming back to Silverston. This was not good news.
One of the things I like about British GP fans is that they're both passionate and knowledgeable, but they're also magnanimous. If someone drives well and wins - even if it's not what we were hoping for - then we'll congratulate them too. This was amply demonstrated by the big cheer Sebastian Vettel got this year after his truly dominate performance this year, even though all the Brits were clearly hoping Button would win here too.
In other words, Britain is one of the few places on the calendar where F1 (and, indeed, motorsport in general actually) gets a huge reception. The atmosphere is always great and the crowds are always big and vocal.
The same can't be said about a lot of the tracks on the modern roster. Indeed, some of them you're hard pushed to see any spectators in the grandstands, even on Sunday.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't mean that from the point of view of there's no point gong there, but it make it disappointing that Bernie was basically implying there wouldn't be a 2010 British GP.
However, he now appears to have relented, saying that there are now more "commercial people" in the BRDC so he's okay with Silverston having it in 2010 if Donnington isn't ready. The BRDC is the British Racing Driver's Club and they actually 'own' Silverston (I think it's actually held in trust or something) and this comes down to the crux of why Bernie doesn't like Silverston - he hates the BRDC.
From some perspectives you can understand why - the problem with this type of ownership is that it's put a lot of difficult restrictions on raising money to improve the rack, etc.
But here's the thing that makes this an annoying situation - Silverston makes no money from hosting the British Grand Prix, mainly because Bernie charges a fortune for the rights.
When you think about that it's quite an amazing revelation because tickets to the Grand Prix (and the Friday and Saturday supporting days) cost a small fortune. They're way over £100, but if you use that as a basic number, and then think that about 300,000 people attended this year (admittedly a record attendance, but still) then that means £30,000,000 revenue. And Bernie takes so much of it they can't make a profit.
He also keeps all the money generated from TV revenue. He is literally the fat cat that hoovers up most all the cash F1 generates.
Add to that the fact that he and Max Mosley - the head of the FIA - are thick as thieves and you start to understand why the teams have been acting the way they have this year.
Potentially this could be the last Silverston Grand Prix for a very long time. Bernie Eccleston, the "commercial rights holder" for F1, has signed a 17 year deal with Donnington Park for them to hold the British Grand Prix.
However, there is quite a lot of doubt as to whether Donnington will actually be ready in time for next year. There's been some stuff in the news about some financial struggles they've been having and there's quite a lot of money that needs spending, in order to improve the track and the facilities so that it can hold a GP.
Bernie had made a proclamation that if Donnington wasn't ready next year then there wouldn't be a 2010 British GP as it wasn't coming back to Silverston. This was not good news.
One of the things I like about British GP fans is that they're both passionate and knowledgeable, but they're also magnanimous. If someone drives well and wins - even if it's not what we were hoping for - then we'll congratulate them too. This was amply demonstrated by the big cheer Sebastian Vettel got this year after his truly dominate performance this year, even though all the Brits were clearly hoping Button would win here too.
In other words, Britain is one of the few places on the calendar where F1 (and, indeed, motorsport in general actually) gets a huge reception. The atmosphere is always great and the crowds are always big and vocal.
The same can't be said about a lot of the tracks on the modern roster. Indeed, some of them you're hard pushed to see any spectators in the grandstands, even on Sunday.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't mean that from the point of view of there's no point gong there, but it make it disappointing that Bernie was basically implying there wouldn't be a 2010 British GP.
However, he now appears to have relented, saying that there are now more "commercial people" in the BRDC so he's okay with Silverston having it in 2010 if Donnington isn't ready. The BRDC is the British Racing Driver's Club and they actually 'own' Silverston (I think it's actually held in trust or something) and this comes down to the crux of why Bernie doesn't like Silverston - he hates the BRDC.
From some perspectives you can understand why - the problem with this type of ownership is that it's put a lot of difficult restrictions on raising money to improve the rack, etc.
But here's the thing that makes this an annoying situation - Silverston makes no money from hosting the British Grand Prix, mainly because Bernie charges a fortune for the rights.
When you think about that it's quite an amazing revelation because tickets to the Grand Prix (and the Friday and Saturday supporting days) cost a small fortune. They're way over £100, but if you use that as a basic number, and then think that about 300,000 people attended this year (admittedly a record attendance, but still) then that means £30,000,000 revenue. And Bernie takes so much of it they can't make a profit.
He also keeps all the money generated from TV revenue. He is literally the fat cat that hoovers up most all the cash F1 generates.
Add to that the fact that he and Max Mosley - the head of the FIA - are thick as thieves and you start to understand why the teams have been acting the way they have this year.
Friday, 19 June 2009
yawn
I've been so tired most of this week.
For some reason, on Sunday I got very little sleep. I've no real idea why - I just didn't feel very tired and so didn't sleep. But then on Monday I must admit I didn't feel bad as such - mentally a big sluggish, maybe, but not too bad.
However, Monday night I had a terrible nights sleep. I felt really hot for some reason, even though it wasn't really hot weather. Then at about 3:30am something woke me up - I haven't a clue what - and I struggled to get back to sleep.
It's really tough for me at this time of year (close to the Summer Solstice - the longest day of the year) as it almost doesn't get dark. I mean, it gets dark as in it's not light, but it's not dark in the same way it is in the middle of winter. Add to that potential moonlight and it makes it difficult for me to sleep.
I'm kinda weird in that I need for it to be silent and dark when I try to go to sleep. I'm a big fan of earplugs for that reason, but I've also tried sleep masks and those just don't work. What I've had to do in my current lodgings is fasten black bin bags to the curtains with safety pins, because it has white curtains. White curtains are almost useless at blocking out light.
Anyway, Tuesday the lack of sleep really caught up with me. I had some important work to do and I really struggled to get it done as my mind just kept drifting away.
Even in the evening I really struggled to even make my dinner. It was like some Herculean effort just to do a baked potato :/. I certainly wasn't in the mood to continue with scanning stuff. Oh - dunno if I mentioned that the new Japanese mags did turn up, on Monday. That makes two whole months worth of mags to scan, plus the next Megami turns up next week, I believe.
So, anyway, Tuesday night I was hopping that my body would just say "enough is enough" and I'd be out like a light. Well that kinda happened - I got off quickly, but, then the most bizarre thing happened.
In the middle of the night, with an almighty crash, one of my posters fell of the wall, waking me up. I know - how totally random is that? I did get back to sleep quite quickly, but still it meant I was fairly knackered still on Wednesday.
However, I did manage to summon up the willpower to do some scanning on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. I only got through the first animedia and a bit of the first newtype though, so still loads to do. I also watched the following:
Higepiyo was bonkers. This is bonkers in a good way - a mildly deranged comedy, rather than a shouty madcap one. I have to admit there were some patchiness though - episode 3 raised hardly a smile from me, whereas 4 had me belly-laughing towards the end. But overall it's a series I'd buy, I think - especially as it's a series of shorts, so even the duff eps wouldn't drag.
Queen's Blade. The first episode featured the Worst Translation Evar. It was so bad it was almost like watching it without subtitles as it made little sense. However, eps 2 and 3 were better translated and I have to say I didn't it was all that bad.
I'd seen a lot of people proclaiming it as the worst thing ever, but these people are idiots. I've mentioned before I don't understood the almost militant prudishness that seems to be quite prevalent in modern anime fans. It's like the very idea of sex offends them.
Not that there's any sex in Queens Blade (well, not in the first 3 eps anyway) but there are lots of exposed nipples and a general cheesecake pervasiveness. But what can you expect, it's inspired by an erotic fighting game where the aim is to get the girls naked. And it's not like it isn't quite self aware - they know what they're doing and they're having fun with it. The result isn't exactly ground-breaking, but it isn't the worst thing evar either.
Y'know it's been a bit weird lately as there's been shed loads for me to blog about, but I'm also kinda aware my posts are becoming giganto-huge. For example, there's BB10 stuff and the whole F1 shenanigans which I've hardly mentioned.
For some reason, on Sunday I got very little sleep. I've no real idea why - I just didn't feel very tired and so didn't sleep. But then on Monday I must admit I didn't feel bad as such - mentally a big sluggish, maybe, but not too bad.
However, Monday night I had a terrible nights sleep. I felt really hot for some reason, even though it wasn't really hot weather. Then at about 3:30am something woke me up - I haven't a clue what - and I struggled to get back to sleep.
It's really tough for me at this time of year (close to the Summer Solstice - the longest day of the year) as it almost doesn't get dark. I mean, it gets dark as in it's not light, but it's not dark in the same way it is in the middle of winter. Add to that potential moonlight and it makes it difficult for me to sleep.
I'm kinda weird in that I need for it to be silent and dark when I try to go to sleep. I'm a big fan of earplugs for that reason, but I've also tried sleep masks and those just don't work. What I've had to do in my current lodgings is fasten black bin bags to the curtains with safety pins, because it has white curtains. White curtains are almost useless at blocking out light.
Anyway, Tuesday the lack of sleep really caught up with me. I had some important work to do and I really struggled to get it done as my mind just kept drifting away.
Even in the evening I really struggled to even make my dinner. It was like some Herculean effort just to do a baked potato :/. I certainly wasn't in the mood to continue with scanning stuff. Oh - dunno if I mentioned that the new Japanese mags did turn up, on Monday. That makes two whole months worth of mags to scan, plus the next Megami turns up next week, I believe.
So, anyway, Tuesday night I was hopping that my body would just say "enough is enough" and I'd be out like a light. Well that kinda happened - I got off quickly, but, then the most bizarre thing happened.
In the middle of the night, with an almighty crash, one of my posters fell of the wall, waking me up. I know - how totally random is that? I did get back to sleep quite quickly, but still it meant I was fairly knackered still on Wednesday.
However, I did manage to summon up the willpower to do some scanning on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. I only got through the first animedia and a bit of the first newtype though, so still loads to do. I also watched the following:
Higepiyo was bonkers. This is bonkers in a good way - a mildly deranged comedy, rather than a shouty madcap one. I have to admit there were some patchiness though - episode 3 raised hardly a smile from me, whereas 4 had me belly-laughing towards the end. But overall it's a series I'd buy, I think - especially as it's a series of shorts, so even the duff eps wouldn't drag.
Queen's Blade. The first episode featured the Worst Translation Evar. It was so bad it was almost like watching it without subtitles as it made little sense. However, eps 2 and 3 were better translated and I have to say I didn't it was all that bad.
I'd seen a lot of people proclaiming it as the worst thing ever, but these people are idiots. I've mentioned before I don't understood the almost militant prudishness that seems to be quite prevalent in modern anime fans. It's like the very idea of sex offends them.
Not that there's any sex in Queens Blade (well, not in the first 3 eps anyway) but there are lots of exposed nipples and a general cheesecake pervasiveness. But what can you expect, it's inspired by an erotic fighting game where the aim is to get the girls naked. And it's not like it isn't quite self aware - they know what they're doing and they're having fun with it. The result isn't exactly ground-breaking, but it isn't the worst thing evar either.
Y'know it's been a bit weird lately as there's been shed loads for me to blog about, but I'm also kinda aware my posts are becoming giganto-huge. For example, there's BB10 stuff and the whole F1 shenanigans which I've hardly mentioned.
Thursday, 18 June 2009
double whammy
Ha ha: here's a surprise - more film reviews!
Told you I was bored and lazy over the weekend, didn't I?
So here's a double whammy of film reviews on consecutive days, and in more ways that one as this is about two films.
devil's advocate
First up is Devil's advocate.
This starred Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino and I was surprised at how good it was.
I've never really rated Reeves as an actor - he's always seemed very wooden to me - but his performance here was actually pretty good. His accent, which is supposed to be deep south, is rubbish and slips all over the place, but otherwise he's kinda convincing.
The basic plot - as the name suggests - is that Reeves ends up as the lawyer to the Devil. This is sort of a twist, I guess, but it's not the film's proper twist. It has two of those and the first is the most successful.
Not wanting to spoiler too much, but the final twist is one of those that a lot of people hate, although to be fair it also leaves us with a sort of anti-twist at the very end to counter that, but still it wasn't a particularly good way to resolve it.
So yeah, I wasn't expecting much but it was actually pretty good.
insomnia
The second film was the reverse - I was expecting a lot, but it kinda failed to deliver.
The basic problem was I didn't really buy into the insomnia thing. The idea was that Pacino's character goes up north to Alaska to help solve a murder (this in itself seems a bit odd, but setting it aside). When you get sufficiently far up North you get that weird effect where the sun never sets.
The idea then was that Pacino can't sleep because of all this bright light. Well, okay, I'm not that much of a luddite that I can't poke out some hidden meanings - the real reason for the continued insomnia after the first night is guilt.
"What I didn't buy into was Pacino's character's attempts to solve he problem.
First off, he's in a hotel that apparently doesn't have any curtains. That has to be a major clanger - no curtains at all so far up North? Nah. Also, they would have had proper black-out curtains that let no light through.
Then he tries to solve it by putting brown tape over the windows. Only he leaves some cracks... but then doesn't cover them over. He also only puts one layer on.
For some super-genius crime-solving cop, he's being a bit dumb here, but okay. What else?
Oh yeah, he doesn't go and get any sleeping pills. Surely even Alaska has pharmacies selling sleeping pills - even just the natural herbal ones.
He also doesn't buy one of those face masks. He also doesn't try getting so hammered he passes out.
Now as I say, the real thing is the guilt, but it's like if he'd still stayed awake having tried that stuff I'd have bought it. Not trying any of it just makes him seem dumb and hence the whole film (being based on how smart he is) falls apart.
Told you I was bored and lazy over the weekend, didn't I?
So here's a double whammy of film reviews on consecutive days, and in more ways that one as this is about two films.
devil's advocate
First up is Devil's advocate.
This starred Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino and I was surprised at how good it was.
I've never really rated Reeves as an actor - he's always seemed very wooden to me - but his performance here was actually pretty good. His accent, which is supposed to be deep south, is rubbish and slips all over the place, but otherwise he's kinda convincing.
The basic plot - as the name suggests - is that Reeves ends up as the lawyer to the Devil. This is sort of a twist, I guess, but it's not the film's proper twist. It has two of those and the first is the most successful.
Not wanting to spoiler too much, but the final twist is one of those that a lot of people hate, although to be fair it also leaves us with a sort of anti-twist at the very end to counter that, but still it wasn't a particularly good way to resolve it.
So yeah, I wasn't expecting much but it was actually pretty good.
insomnia
The second film was the reverse - I was expecting a lot, but it kinda failed to deliver.
The basic problem was I didn't really buy into the insomnia thing. The idea was that Pacino's character goes up north to Alaska to help solve a murder (this in itself seems a bit odd, but setting it aside). When you get sufficiently far up North you get that weird effect where the sun never sets.
The idea then was that Pacino can't sleep because of all this bright light. Well, okay, I'm not that much of a luddite that I can't poke out some hidden meanings - the real reason for the continued insomnia after the first night is guilt.
"What I didn't buy into was Pacino's character's attempts to solve he problem.
First off, he's in a hotel that apparently doesn't have any curtains. That has to be a major clanger - no curtains at all so far up North? Nah. Also, they would have had proper black-out curtains that let no light through.
Then he tries to solve it by putting brown tape over the windows. Only he leaves some cracks... but then doesn't cover them over. He also only puts one layer on.
For some super-genius crime-solving cop, he's being a bit dumb here, but okay. What else?
Oh yeah, he doesn't go and get any sleeping pills. Surely even Alaska has pharmacies selling sleeping pills - even just the natural herbal ones.
He also doesn't buy one of those face masks. He also doesn't try getting so hammered he passes out.
Now as I say, the real thing is the guilt, but it's like if he'd still stayed awake having tried that stuff I'd have bought it. Not trying any of it just makes him seem dumb and hence the whole film (being based on how smart he is) falls apart.
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
hancock
Y'know, generally I write these film reviews some time in advance. Generally speaking, I watch my rental DVD over the weekend and then on Monday one of the first things I do after writing Monday's blog is write the film review.
Partly this is because it helps the fresher it is in my mind and partly it helps me to know I have at least one pre-written thing for the blog should things get hectic. Occasionally, however, I struggle to write the review and things get a bit more condensed.
That's basically what's happened here. I'm a little unsure quite what to say. You may have noticed I often try to include non-sequitors in my reviews. Points that seem random but then generally come back to have some relevant meaning.
Clearly the opening of this review is just such a non-sequitor bit (actually I was going to go on about what Hancock means and how we use John Doe more in this country, but everyone knows all that by now, right?). I'm kinda doubting it will come around to mean anything, though.
The trouble I've been having is I have quite mixed feelings about Hancock.
While I was watching the film I quite enjoyed it. Or at the least the first half was enjoyable. The idea of a superhero that's a self-hating bum is intrigued. A hero who tries to help people but either makes a bit of a mess of it or causes untold damage that's not really necessary is a great hook.
The idea of a PR man who comes in to improve the hero's image is a clever satire and the idea that the noble hero falls in love with another man's wife is also very intriguing.
The problem is that things go distinctly pear-shaped in the second half. The problem is that they kinda back themselves into some corners, story wise, that then need explaining away.
The next bit is very spoiler-heavy, btw, so you may want to stop reading.
So basically one of the problems is that the PR man is a genuinely nice guy. He has this campaign all about big companies helping people out - social responsibility and all that.
How the hell he became a P.R. guy and he keeps his job, I've no idea. But the knock on effect is that it makes Hancock seem like a real piece of shit.
When he's making a balls up of everything and beaming mean you still kinda like him from a lovable grouch / unfortunate looser / misunderstood hero point of view. When he's putting the moves on another man's wife - a nice, decent man who has also helped Hancock - he's just a shit.
So they resolve this with a really great twist - she (Mary) has superhero powers too. Only that's not the resolution, the resolution is that somehow Hancock and her are a matched pair (eh?) who are kinda fated to be together (er, okay...) and are drawn to each other (hmmm...).
And it makes it a bit rubbish - who really believes in fated loves? There needed to be something more substantial - something tangible for why he and her start to fall in love. The twist wouldn't have seemed so random then.
This "lack of evidence" is also a problem when Hancock is in jail. It's one thing to have a news report saying crime is up; it would have been another to show us more of this. Yes, there's the bank robbery, but an escalating crime wave needed more back up than this one incident and a news report.
Also again, the 'evidence' is a bit wobbly in some other stuff too - Hancock and Mary cancel each other out (huh?) when they get close. Oh, but it's meant to happen slowly and it happens quickly here - I mean, why bother even adding that as it just makes it seem even more random :/.
Also the idea that they've both been around for thousands of years is just not sensible. They try to say they're angels, but the powers they display aren't exactly very angelic.
You see what I mean? Why I struggled to write it?
It didn't really even work as a parody of the bizarre stuff that happens in comic books.
I've a bucket-load of criticisms of the film, but I equally keep coming back to the fact that while I was sat there watching it I enjoyed it a great deal.
The gags are good, the performances are good and the effects are some of the best I've seen, but the logical flaws in the plot undermined a lot of that.
Partly this is because it helps the fresher it is in my mind and partly it helps me to know I have at least one pre-written thing for the blog should things get hectic. Occasionally, however, I struggle to write the review and things get a bit more condensed.
That's basically what's happened here. I'm a little unsure quite what to say. You may have noticed I often try to include non-sequitors in my reviews. Points that seem random but then generally come back to have some relevant meaning.
Clearly the opening of this review is just such a non-sequitor bit (actually I was going to go on about what Hancock means and how we use John Doe more in this country, but everyone knows all that by now, right?). I'm kinda doubting it will come around to mean anything, though.
The trouble I've been having is I have quite mixed feelings about Hancock.
While I was watching the film I quite enjoyed it. Or at the least the first half was enjoyable. The idea of a superhero that's a self-hating bum is intrigued. A hero who tries to help people but either makes a bit of a mess of it or causes untold damage that's not really necessary is a great hook.
The idea of a PR man who comes in to improve the hero's image is a clever satire and the idea that the noble hero falls in love with another man's wife is also very intriguing.
The problem is that things go distinctly pear-shaped in the second half. The problem is that they kinda back themselves into some corners, story wise, that then need explaining away.
The next bit is very spoiler-heavy, btw, so you may want to stop reading.
So basically one of the problems is that the PR man is a genuinely nice guy. He has this campaign all about big companies helping people out - social responsibility and all that.
How the hell he became a P.R. guy and he keeps his job, I've no idea. But the knock on effect is that it makes Hancock seem like a real piece of shit.
When he's making a balls up of everything and beaming mean you still kinda like him from a lovable grouch / unfortunate looser / misunderstood hero point of view. When he's putting the moves on another man's wife - a nice, decent man who has also helped Hancock - he's just a shit.
So they resolve this with a really great twist - she (Mary) has superhero powers too. Only that's not the resolution, the resolution is that somehow Hancock and her are a matched pair (eh?) who are kinda fated to be together (er, okay...) and are drawn to each other (hmmm...).
And it makes it a bit rubbish - who really believes in fated loves? There needed to be something more substantial - something tangible for why he and her start to fall in love. The twist wouldn't have seemed so random then.
This "lack of evidence" is also a problem when Hancock is in jail. It's one thing to have a news report saying crime is up; it would have been another to show us more of this. Yes, there's the bank robbery, but an escalating crime wave needed more back up than this one incident and a news report.
Also again, the 'evidence' is a bit wobbly in some other stuff too - Hancock and Mary cancel each other out (huh?) when they get close. Oh, but it's meant to happen slowly and it happens quickly here - I mean, why bother even adding that as it just makes it seem even more random :/.
Also the idea that they've both been around for thousands of years is just not sensible. They try to say they're angels, but the powers they display aren't exactly very angelic.
You see what I mean? Why I struggled to write it?
It didn't really even work as a parody of the bizarre stuff that happens in comic books.
I've a bucket-load of criticisms of the film, but I equally keep coming back to the fact that while I was sat there watching it I enjoyed it a great deal.
The gags are good, the performances are good and the effects are some of the best I've seen, but the logical flaws in the plot undermined a lot of that.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
holiday 4 - odds and sods
So this is the odds and sods round-up for the holiday.
The weather was hot. Very hot. Think as hot as it gets in the UK and this was only May, so I can't guess what it's like in mid-summer.
I got the crap burnt out of me - the holiday was a couple of weeks ago and I'm still peeling. Indeed, I stopped peeling and then started again, presumably as more damaged layers of skin made their way to the surface :/.
Unfortunately, all the weather forecasts I'd looked at beforehand hinted there may be rain, so I'd not really packed exclusively for HOT weather - I even had a jumper! But this also meant I didn't think about sun cream.
But what made the temperature worse was the humid. It was horribly oppressive. As part of the Kangaroo system you can get the track stats and on the Saturday it said it was over 70% humidity. The tour guide said he'd never known anything like it and he goes every year.
Overall, it was too much for me. Sun lovers would have been in their element I'm sure, but I find heat like that unpleasant.
I've no idea how the French road system works. Bizarrely it appeared that when the pedestrian lights turned green cars could still turn into that road. This seemed very dangerous as it put cars and pedestrians in direct conflict.
But the French clearly ignore all of the traffic signals and rules of the road anyway (how very French of them!).
It does seem to mean that horns become an integral part of the French way of driving. It was driving me and my Dad bonkers all the horn beeping. In England someone would have thumped them for honking their horns all the time.
However, what really took me surprise (and in contrast to this) was how nice everyone was. As an example, when we were examining the trams to see how they worked an old lady wandered over and, in very good English, explained it all to us.
When I was at school I did GCSE French. Languages and their intricacies are a long way from my comfort zone, but I did okay in the end. Obviously, being basically a trip to France, this potentially meant I'd need to exercise my French and those GCSEs were getting on for half a lifetime ago now.
Still I was impressed with how much I remembered. Although I was more impressed with how much English was generally spoken. I guess part of this is that Nice and the like are big holiday towns so they get a lot of tourists.
We also used the French rail system. My impression is a bit of a mixed bag.
One of the things that's very obvious is that they have lots of people on the platforms - ticket attendants, help, guards, etc. On British platforms you're lucky to see anyone who works their.
But as such, rather than have automated announcements, you're supposed to ask them. On British platforms there's regular, automated announcements and a far better board system. A classic example was when we went to Cannes our proper train pulled in on a different platform and there were no announcements at all!
However, the service is a lot cheaper (it's massively subsidised) and what you get is better. There are loads of stops and loads of different types of service - fast ones and stopping. Also they have these double-decker trains so there's loads more seating and it was mostly nice, new stuff.
Plus, the commy bastards had a bloody strike while we were there. And it appeared to be a strike that was essentially about nothing in particular.
So yeah - mixed bag.
I'll hopefully be posting pics later - I'm focused more on clearing this scanning backlog at the moment, so it may be next week. Oh and the Japanese mags did turn up yesterday. Signs would indicate the courier did have problems, but I'm not sure why, as the addresses on the packages were definitely correct :/.
The weather was hot. Very hot. Think as hot as it gets in the UK and this was only May, so I can't guess what it's like in mid-summer.
I got the crap burnt out of me - the holiday was a couple of weeks ago and I'm still peeling. Indeed, I stopped peeling and then started again, presumably as more damaged layers of skin made their way to the surface :/.
Unfortunately, all the weather forecasts I'd looked at beforehand hinted there may be rain, so I'd not really packed exclusively for HOT weather - I even had a jumper! But this also meant I didn't think about sun cream.
But what made the temperature worse was the humid. It was horribly oppressive. As part of the Kangaroo system you can get the track stats and on the Saturday it said it was over 70% humidity. The tour guide said he'd never known anything like it and he goes every year.
Overall, it was too much for me. Sun lovers would have been in their element I'm sure, but I find heat like that unpleasant.
I've no idea how the French road system works. Bizarrely it appeared that when the pedestrian lights turned green cars could still turn into that road. This seemed very dangerous as it put cars and pedestrians in direct conflict.
But the French clearly ignore all of the traffic signals and rules of the road anyway (how very French of them!).
It does seem to mean that horns become an integral part of the French way of driving. It was driving me and my Dad bonkers all the horn beeping. In England someone would have thumped them for honking their horns all the time.
However, what really took me surprise (and in contrast to this) was how nice everyone was. As an example, when we were examining the trams to see how they worked an old lady wandered over and, in very good English, explained it all to us.
When I was at school I did GCSE French. Languages and their intricacies are a long way from my comfort zone, but I did okay in the end. Obviously, being basically a trip to France, this potentially meant I'd need to exercise my French and those GCSEs were getting on for half a lifetime ago now.
Still I was impressed with how much I remembered. Although I was more impressed with how much English was generally spoken. I guess part of this is that Nice and the like are big holiday towns so they get a lot of tourists.
We also used the French rail system. My impression is a bit of a mixed bag.
One of the things that's very obvious is that they have lots of people on the platforms - ticket attendants, help, guards, etc. On British platforms you're lucky to see anyone who works their.
But as such, rather than have automated announcements, you're supposed to ask them. On British platforms there's regular, automated announcements and a far better board system. A classic example was when we went to Cannes our proper train pulled in on a different platform and there were no announcements at all!
However, the service is a lot cheaper (it's massively subsidised) and what you get is better. There are loads of stops and loads of different types of service - fast ones and stopping. Also they have these double-decker trains so there's loads more seating and it was mostly nice, new stuff.
Plus, the commy bastards had a bloody strike while we were there. And it appeared to be a strike that was essentially about nothing in particular.
So yeah - mixed bag.
I'll hopefully be posting pics later - I'm focused more on clearing this scanning backlog at the moment, so it may be next week. Oh and the Japanese mags did turn up yesterday. Signs would indicate the courier did have problems, but I'm not sure why, as the addresses on the packages were definitely correct :/.
Monday, 15 June 2009
lazy days
Odd sort of weekend. I struggled a bit to motivate myself to do anything - this is easily evidenced by the fact that I'd watched all of the week's TV I'd recorded by Saturday afternoon. Indeed, I actually watched a couple of films I'd recorded.
However, on the tail end of Sunday I did manage to get a bit of scanning done. It was nothing excessive - just last month's megami, but it's a start. Oh and I forgot to mention - I'm a bit worried about the other mags (Newtype, animedia and animage) for this month.
They were apparently posted on the 9th and it's now the 15th. Whilst that isn't a long time you may remember I normally get the mags so fast I'm amazed at the speed, but it's getting on for a week now. But most worrying of all I got a phonecall from an unregistered number on Friday. Unfortunately, I was actually on another call for work (some idiot blathering on for ages) so I couldn't take it.
This is not a good sign because it's happened before - I've had a call from the courier basically saying "they've poxed up the address - can I confirm the actual address?". If I've missed a similar call this month I won't be best pleased.
Anyway, did some scanning, so I watched some anime too:
K-ON! was so moe it was almost painful. Unlike many I've never really had any beef with moe so I'm not actually complaining there, it's just so blatant that that's what it's all about it was kinda like a punch to the gut of cuteness.
Not that the show is bad or anything - I found myself laughing at the funny bits and going "dawww" at the "dawww" bits - although the band angle is a bit of a mixed bag. I mean it's interesting, but it comes across as massively unrealistic - the girls with no experience seem to pick up their instruments and basically be as good as the one with years of experience.
I have to admit I found Basquash! a bit disappointing. The idea of giant basket-ball playing mecha seems great, but I dunno, overall the show seemed missing something.
Maybe it's because I was expecting certain things and then those things weren't there, but instead the things that were there were rather cliche. That's best explained with some examples. I though the mecha were going to transform - the main one is shown as having a cab that looks like a car. Now I guess that's actually because it's an improvised machine, but still transforming mecha would have been cooler.
Also, there a girl love interest and in a flashback that made me cringe the boy realises (wait for it) they knew each other as kids and promised to get married. Now there's something that you don't see every day - oh no, wait, yes you do.
I dunno, the pace also didn't help. I watched three eps and it only just felt like it was getting going.
I think I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, tough - perhaps it's one that grows on you. Plus the action scenes were great and the artistry is fantastic.
However, on the tail end of Sunday I did manage to get a bit of scanning done. It was nothing excessive - just last month's megami, but it's a start. Oh and I forgot to mention - I'm a bit worried about the other mags (Newtype, animedia and animage) for this month.
They were apparently posted on the 9th and it's now the 15th. Whilst that isn't a long time you may remember I normally get the mags so fast I'm amazed at the speed, but it's getting on for a week now. But most worrying of all I got a phonecall from an unregistered number on Friday. Unfortunately, I was actually on another call for work (some idiot blathering on for ages) so I couldn't take it.
This is not a good sign because it's happened before - I've had a call from the courier basically saying "they've poxed up the address - can I confirm the actual address?". If I've missed a similar call this month I won't be best pleased.
Anyway, did some scanning, so I watched some anime too:
K-ON! was so moe it was almost painful. Unlike many I've never really had any beef with moe so I'm not actually complaining there, it's just so blatant that that's what it's all about it was kinda like a punch to the gut of cuteness.
Not that the show is bad or anything - I found myself laughing at the funny bits and going "dawww" at the "dawww" bits - although the band angle is a bit of a mixed bag. I mean it's interesting, but it comes across as massively unrealistic - the girls with no experience seem to pick up their instruments and basically be as good as the one with years of experience.
I have to admit I found Basquash! a bit disappointing. The idea of giant basket-ball playing mecha seems great, but I dunno, overall the show seemed missing something.
Maybe it's because I was expecting certain things and then those things weren't there, but instead the things that were there were rather cliche. That's best explained with some examples. I though the mecha were going to transform - the main one is shown as having a cab that looks like a car. Now I guess that's actually because it's an improvised machine, but still transforming mecha would have been cooler.
Also, there a girl love interest and in a flashback that made me cringe the boy realises (wait for it) they knew each other as kids and promised to get married. Now there's something that you don't see every day - oh no, wait, yes you do.
I dunno, the pace also didn't help. I watched three eps and it only just felt like it was getting going.
I think I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, tough - perhaps it's one that grows on you. Plus the action scenes were great and the artistry is fantastic.
Friday, 12 June 2009
bb10 thoughts
Well this is a bit odd - http://www.isthisyour.name/mark_sunderland.htm. The thought that there should, according to statistics, be about 50-odd Americans called Mark Sunderland was kinda interesting.
Plan for the weekend is to start on this huge pile of stuff I've got to scan. Quite whether I'll actually be arsed I'm not sure - I'm not really in the mood to be at the moment I have to admit.
Right, well, I admitted I was watching the damn thing and I don't appear to have stopped, so here's a kinda summary of my thoughts of BB so far.
One of the things about BB is that, generally, those people that are interested in going on the show are, by nature going to be at least a little bit extrovert and possibly a little attention seeking. These things are basically a given.
And by my nature I'm the sort of person who doesn't really like those traits in other people. Especially when they're ramped up to high levels.
What I mean is that I instantly dislike people who put on a "big show" or who deliberately act OTT. This is a little difficult to really explain properly, as we all are a bit fake. We all have to 'put on faces' and pretend to be certain things at certain times.
It's like talking about other "people behind their backs", which is one of the things Big Brother always brings out, because the cameras are there all the time on everybody. The thing about it is that it's something we all profess to hate, and yet everyone does it.
Now I have a theory on why - I think it's part of being in and interacting with social groups. See, we communicate verbally, so in order for us to establish out pecking order in a group and in order to find like minded people in that group we discuss the common element - other people. It's only natural and normal.
Of the degree of bitchiness will vary wildly, the basic thing is the same.
Where was I?
Oh yeah - basically what I'm saying is that the housemates fall into two basic groups for me. There's the ones that stepped over that line of "fakeness" and there's everybody else. Now I don't think the everybody else are actually normal because of what I said above about the type of people that go into BB, but they're the ones that are near enough to what I consider normal for me to find them likeable.
But there's even a further sub-divisions within that. Anyway, here's the basic groupings:
The fakes:
Angel: She entered the house posing a lot and making hissing noises. Oh dear.
As time progressed she seemed a bit more normal, although she seems obsessed with exercise and proclaims almost on an hourly basis that people will 'get fat'. Also, when the housemates were given booze and pizza as a kind of treat thing, she instead sucked an egg and had a glass of milk.
Yes, you did read that right - sucked an egg. She punched a little hole in it and sucked out the contents. Seriously.
However, in terms of how she's been in the actual house generally she seems okay.
Siavash: To some extent I'm being a bit harsh here again. As a person I think Siavash is probably alright, but he's, well, I dunno how to put it - too obsessed with clothes, I suppose.
When he entered the house he had some natty suit on, but then while they were non-housemates they had to change into some generic clothes. Siavash kept complaining about not being able to get at his clothes and 'needing' his clothes. When he eventually got in this became apparent why - his outfits are bonkers and he's obsessed with clothes.
Now it's one thing to have a unique style, it's another to go into Big Brother with a full-on opera-mask with a ginormous 12-inch pointy nose packed in your case.
Maybe his general alright-ness will make me forget such things, but I'm guessing now that he has access to his clothes the opposite will happen.
Halfwit (Freddie): He and Sophie were required to legally change their names in order to get into the house, which is why the stupid name.
But it kinda suits him. He's a posh, rich toff type, which I've no fundamental problem with, although his toff accent is a bit extreme. No, it's the following I don't like: Says his profession is "Entrepreneur" - tool. Babbles lots of hippy-dippy shite - idiot. Sings, badly - cock. And worst of all proclaimed himself to be bisexual.
Now I've nothing wrong with bisexuality. To some extent I'm of the opinion that most people are, to a greater or lesser extent, bisexual. Whether or not the majority of people would act on any desires or feelings they had is the thing that fixes most people to hetero- or homo-sexuality, I think.
No, the problem is that people who proclaim their sexuality, especially when it's bisexuality, get on my nerves. It's always just smacked to me of "look at me, I'm so different from everyone else".
Let's put it this way - most people I think tend to view their sexuality both as their business and not a general area of discussion unless specifically asked about it. You don't go up to a group of people you've just met and just tell them you're bisexual right off do you? Surely topics like your favourite cheese are more normal.
Sree: He seems so utterly fake. He's Indian and he has the weirdest accent I've ever heard - not from the point of view of the sound of it, but how good his grasp of English is seems to come and go. It's like sometimes his sentences are all totally muddled and then suddenly he'll be throwing around big words.
I keep expecting a crime thriller-esque moment where, having confronted him about it, Sree smiles, leans back and then reveals how much of a creep his is, talking in a posh, plumy English accent.
He's weird too - on the one hand he proclaims shyness, yet if other people are talking he'll bound up and start nosing in. Also he keeps invading everyone's personal space - especially the girls, who he keeps pawing at.
And when it came to the day of evicting the first person he was clamouring around the housemates basically asking "do you like me?" and stuff. Then he goes to the diary room upset about possibly going, but it came across as really fake, playing on the sympathy vote.
Maybe it's all genuine and that's how he is, but it really comes across as someone faking it to try to win.
The normals:
Charlie: Mr Gay UK or something. He's a bit full-on for me personally - a good in small doses sort - but he seems like quite a good laugh. He has a tendency to do practical jokes though and I'm really not a fan of practical jokes.
Kris: A former male model and he is pretty handsome I'd say. I think a haircut and shave would actually work better on him, but otherwise he seems like a fairly normal chap. Albeit a normal chap who knows he's attractive to the ladies anyway.
Lisa: I think the term is 'butch lesbian' and she's definitely that. I've no real problem with her, although she seems to be the type that's into new age crap. She's mentioned energy a few times and I would guess she knows what Reiki is. Well, I know what Reiki is too, but I'd never believe it actually works. Not that I'd know if Lisa does either, but that's the feeling I get.
Marcus: Looks a bit like Wolverine (the comic book superhero, not the large weasel) with big lamb-chop sideburns. To me he seems like a decent enough chap. He's certainly not as flamboyant and OTT as some, but that's not a bad thing.
Noirin: She's Irish, but she's clearly of mixed-race parentage and to me that keeps being slightly disconcerting. I guess that's prejudice on my part isn't it? But I dunno, I don't tend to think of there being Black Irish people. I mean, with the IRA and whoever else going around blowing things up would you want to move there? And slaves weren't really used in Ireland in the way they were in the colonies or on the mainland, where they? Or maybe they were - I don't know.
Anyway, what I will say is she's very pretty (is it me or are mixed-race (what's the proper PC term? - I haven't a clue) girls all gorgeous?) and swears like a trooper and that's about it because she's really lacking for air-time - the highlights shows almost never show her, even when there's a big crowd.
Rodrigo: An early favourite to win. He's from Brazil, is really good looking in an elfish sort of way, very bouncy and up-beat and seems like a genuinely nice person so I can see why.
Cairon: Tough one. The big problem is he's only 18, but he looks a lot older. So oftentimes when I see him acting in the ways he does I'm unimpressed, but then I remember he's really only a kid so I forgive him a bit more.
The American accent is a bit odd, though. He's apparently actually from London, but lived in America growing up. What's weird though is you get odd English bits sneaking in from his time here - like he keeps saying 'innit' which is very English.
He's got an eye on Sophie and she seems to like him too, so things may get interesting there. He certainly doesn't seem to lack in confidence.
Karly: She did well in something called 'High Street Honeys' which is something FHM magazine did, apparently. She certainly pretty.
I'll tell you the most surprising thing, though - so far she doesn't seem bitchy or nasty. Indeed, there are quite a few pretty girls in the house and to be frank all of them seem like they're nice enough people. Which just goes to show you can't always trust stereotypes.
Things get a little confusing now as there are three girls with, like, variations on the same name - Sophia, Saffia and Sophie - and two of them have been having a big old barny.
Saffia: She seems very strong willed and more than a little independent. All good things in my book, although I have to admit I worry about a single mother of two very young kids who would go on BB which could last anything up to 3 or 4 months. There's independence and then there's independence. I hope there's a clutch of grandparents on hand.
Sophia: She's tiny. Apparently she has Lupus and I dunno if it's because of that but she must only be about 5 foot tall.
Sophia is the closest of those in the normal pile to being in with the fakes. Trouble is I don't think she's fake. But I do find her to be an unpleasant person.
Basically, she and Saffia are having a massive row. It's because on the first night Saffia and Sophia slept close together and talked a lot. Then Saffia had to pick 3 people to do a task to get into the house and she didn't pick Sophia.
Clearly Sophia took umbrage at this and I don't blame her for that. What I don't like is that Sophia has become utterly obsessed with it.
It's like later the other housemates played a small joke on Sophia by stealing her (un-drunk) champagne and her reaction to it did not show her in a good light. It just became such a big melodrama. Indeed, everything is a big melodrama for Sophia and I really don't like people like that.
Dogface (Sophie): Again, stupid name because of the challenge.
Basically, Sophie is probably my favourite. And yes a big part of that is that she's hawt and has huge breasts. And yes, I did Google for pics of her as soon as I got the opportunity. Sorry, that's very old-skool and unreconstructed caveman of me isn't it?
Only thing I would say is she clearly didn't need the boob job. I can see why she did it as her natural breasts are so large they did have a bit of sag to them, but such things are what make breasts and their infinite variety so appealing.
Er, sorry, got off the topic there a bit.
Basically, as well as the hawt thing, Sophie also seems like a really nice person. Slightly incongruously for a glamour model she seems a little shy. Or if not exactly shy then I think it took a while for her to settle in and be comfortable, and she's not an OTT type.
There was another housemate, Beinazir, who got booted out after only three days. I have absolutely no opinion of her because I'm not aware of her having done anything or said anything whilst in there - certainly there's nothing I remember from the highlights shows. Which is probably why nobody voted to let her in.
Wow this is a huge post - and all of it makes me feel slightly dirty.
Halfwit (Freddie) and Sophia are up for nominations. I'm guessing Sophia will be voted off, but I'd prefer to see Freddie go.
Plan for the weekend is to start on this huge pile of stuff I've got to scan. Quite whether I'll actually be arsed I'm not sure - I'm not really in the mood to be at the moment I have to admit.
Right, well, I admitted I was watching the damn thing and I don't appear to have stopped, so here's a kinda summary of my thoughts of BB so far.
One of the things about BB is that, generally, those people that are interested in going on the show are, by nature going to be at least a little bit extrovert and possibly a little attention seeking. These things are basically a given.
And by my nature I'm the sort of person who doesn't really like those traits in other people. Especially when they're ramped up to high levels.
What I mean is that I instantly dislike people who put on a "big show" or who deliberately act OTT. This is a little difficult to really explain properly, as we all are a bit fake. We all have to 'put on faces' and pretend to be certain things at certain times.
It's like talking about other "people behind their backs", which is one of the things Big Brother always brings out, because the cameras are there all the time on everybody. The thing about it is that it's something we all profess to hate, and yet everyone does it.
Now I have a theory on why - I think it's part of being in and interacting with social groups. See, we communicate verbally, so in order for us to establish out pecking order in a group and in order to find like minded people in that group we discuss the common element - other people. It's only natural and normal.
Of the degree of bitchiness will vary wildly, the basic thing is the same.
Where was I?
Oh yeah - basically what I'm saying is that the housemates fall into two basic groups for me. There's the ones that stepped over that line of "fakeness" and there's everybody else. Now I don't think the everybody else are actually normal because of what I said above about the type of people that go into BB, but they're the ones that are near enough to what I consider normal for me to find them likeable.
But there's even a further sub-divisions within that. Anyway, here's the basic groupings:
The fakes:
Angel: She entered the house posing a lot and making hissing noises. Oh dear.
As time progressed she seemed a bit more normal, although she seems obsessed with exercise and proclaims almost on an hourly basis that people will 'get fat'. Also, when the housemates were given booze and pizza as a kind of treat thing, she instead sucked an egg and had a glass of milk.
Yes, you did read that right - sucked an egg. She punched a little hole in it and sucked out the contents. Seriously.
However, in terms of how she's been in the actual house generally she seems okay.
Siavash: To some extent I'm being a bit harsh here again. As a person I think Siavash is probably alright, but he's, well, I dunno how to put it - too obsessed with clothes, I suppose.
When he entered the house he had some natty suit on, but then while they were non-housemates they had to change into some generic clothes. Siavash kept complaining about not being able to get at his clothes and 'needing' his clothes. When he eventually got in this became apparent why - his outfits are bonkers and he's obsessed with clothes.
Now it's one thing to have a unique style, it's another to go into Big Brother with a full-on opera-mask with a ginormous 12-inch pointy nose packed in your case.
Maybe his general alright-ness will make me forget such things, but I'm guessing now that he has access to his clothes the opposite will happen.
Halfwit (Freddie): He and Sophie were required to legally change their names in order to get into the house, which is why the stupid name.
But it kinda suits him. He's a posh, rich toff type, which I've no fundamental problem with, although his toff accent is a bit extreme. No, it's the following I don't like: Says his profession is "Entrepreneur" - tool. Babbles lots of hippy-dippy shite - idiot. Sings, badly - cock. And worst of all proclaimed himself to be bisexual.
Now I've nothing wrong with bisexuality. To some extent I'm of the opinion that most people are, to a greater or lesser extent, bisexual. Whether or not the majority of people would act on any desires or feelings they had is the thing that fixes most people to hetero- or homo-sexuality, I think.
No, the problem is that people who proclaim their sexuality, especially when it's bisexuality, get on my nerves. It's always just smacked to me of "look at me, I'm so different from everyone else".
Let's put it this way - most people I think tend to view their sexuality both as their business and not a general area of discussion unless specifically asked about it. You don't go up to a group of people you've just met and just tell them you're bisexual right off do you? Surely topics like your favourite cheese are more normal.
Sree: He seems so utterly fake. He's Indian and he has the weirdest accent I've ever heard - not from the point of view of the sound of it, but how good his grasp of English is seems to come and go. It's like sometimes his sentences are all totally muddled and then suddenly he'll be throwing around big words.
I keep expecting a crime thriller-esque moment where, having confronted him about it, Sree smiles, leans back and then reveals how much of a creep his is, talking in a posh, plumy English accent.
He's weird too - on the one hand he proclaims shyness, yet if other people are talking he'll bound up and start nosing in. Also he keeps invading everyone's personal space - especially the girls, who he keeps pawing at.
And when it came to the day of evicting the first person he was clamouring around the housemates basically asking "do you like me?" and stuff. Then he goes to the diary room upset about possibly going, but it came across as really fake, playing on the sympathy vote.
Maybe it's all genuine and that's how he is, but it really comes across as someone faking it to try to win.
The normals:
Charlie: Mr Gay UK or something. He's a bit full-on for me personally - a good in small doses sort - but he seems like quite a good laugh. He has a tendency to do practical jokes though and I'm really not a fan of practical jokes.
Kris: A former male model and he is pretty handsome I'd say. I think a haircut and shave would actually work better on him, but otherwise he seems like a fairly normal chap. Albeit a normal chap who knows he's attractive to the ladies anyway.
Lisa: I think the term is 'butch lesbian' and she's definitely that. I've no real problem with her, although she seems to be the type that's into new age crap. She's mentioned energy a few times and I would guess she knows what Reiki is. Well, I know what Reiki is too, but I'd never believe it actually works. Not that I'd know if Lisa does either, but that's the feeling I get.
Marcus: Looks a bit like Wolverine (the comic book superhero, not the large weasel) with big lamb-chop sideburns. To me he seems like a decent enough chap. He's certainly not as flamboyant and OTT as some, but that's not a bad thing.
Noirin: She's Irish, but she's clearly of mixed-race parentage and to me that keeps being slightly disconcerting. I guess that's prejudice on my part isn't it? But I dunno, I don't tend to think of there being Black Irish people. I mean, with the IRA and whoever else going around blowing things up would you want to move there? And slaves weren't really used in Ireland in the way they were in the colonies or on the mainland, where they? Or maybe they were - I don't know.
Anyway, what I will say is she's very pretty (is it me or are mixed-race (what's the proper PC term? - I haven't a clue) girls all gorgeous?) and swears like a trooper and that's about it because she's really lacking for air-time - the highlights shows almost never show her, even when there's a big crowd.
Rodrigo: An early favourite to win. He's from Brazil, is really good looking in an elfish sort of way, very bouncy and up-beat and seems like a genuinely nice person so I can see why.
Cairon: Tough one. The big problem is he's only 18, but he looks a lot older. So oftentimes when I see him acting in the ways he does I'm unimpressed, but then I remember he's really only a kid so I forgive him a bit more.
The American accent is a bit odd, though. He's apparently actually from London, but lived in America growing up. What's weird though is you get odd English bits sneaking in from his time here - like he keeps saying 'innit' which is very English.
He's got an eye on Sophie and she seems to like him too, so things may get interesting there. He certainly doesn't seem to lack in confidence.
Karly: She did well in something called 'High Street Honeys' which is something FHM magazine did, apparently. She certainly pretty.
I'll tell you the most surprising thing, though - so far she doesn't seem bitchy or nasty. Indeed, there are quite a few pretty girls in the house and to be frank all of them seem like they're nice enough people. Which just goes to show you can't always trust stereotypes.
Things get a little confusing now as there are three girls with, like, variations on the same name - Sophia, Saffia and Sophie - and two of them have been having a big old barny.
Saffia: She seems very strong willed and more than a little independent. All good things in my book, although I have to admit I worry about a single mother of two very young kids who would go on BB which could last anything up to 3 or 4 months. There's independence and then there's independence. I hope there's a clutch of grandparents on hand.
Sophia: She's tiny. Apparently she has Lupus and I dunno if it's because of that but she must only be about 5 foot tall.
Sophia is the closest of those in the normal pile to being in with the fakes. Trouble is I don't think she's fake. But I do find her to be an unpleasant person.
Basically, she and Saffia are having a massive row. It's because on the first night Saffia and Sophia slept close together and talked a lot. Then Saffia had to pick 3 people to do a task to get into the house and she didn't pick Sophia.
Clearly Sophia took umbrage at this and I don't blame her for that. What I don't like is that Sophia has become utterly obsessed with it.
It's like later the other housemates played a small joke on Sophia by stealing her (un-drunk) champagne and her reaction to it did not show her in a good light. It just became such a big melodrama. Indeed, everything is a big melodrama for Sophia and I really don't like people like that.
Dogface (Sophie): Again, stupid name because of the challenge.
Basically, Sophie is probably my favourite. And yes a big part of that is that she's hawt and has huge breasts. And yes, I did Google for pics of her as soon as I got the opportunity. Sorry, that's very old-skool and unreconstructed caveman of me isn't it?
Only thing I would say is she clearly didn't need the boob job. I can see why she did it as her natural breasts are so large they did have a bit of sag to them, but such things are what make breasts and their infinite variety so appealing.
Er, sorry, got off the topic there a bit.
Basically, as well as the hawt thing, Sophie also seems like a really nice person. Slightly incongruously for a glamour model she seems a little shy. Or if not exactly shy then I think it took a while for her to settle in and be comfortable, and she's not an OTT type.
There was another housemate, Beinazir, who got booted out after only three days. I have absolutely no opinion of her because I'm not aware of her having done anything or said anything whilst in there - certainly there's nothing I remember from the highlights shows. Which is probably why nobody voted to let her in.
Wow this is a huge post - and all of it makes me feel slightly dirty.
Halfwit (Freddie) and Sophia are up for nominations. I'm guessing Sophia will be voted off, but I'd prefer to see Freddie go.
Thursday, 11 June 2009
oops
Well today I'd initially planned to bring you the last of my textual blog posts about my holiday. It was meant to be a sort of odds and sods round up.
I am actually planning another post or two that will hopefully be some of the photos I took. Unfortunately that does mean I have to find time to wade through them all, though, so don't hold your breath!
Anyway, I say oops because I totally forgot that today we had a meeting planned with a customer. That means I've just not had the time to write the post.
The meeting was kinda pointless, tbh. It was sort of a progress meeting I guess and there wasn't a lot to discuss in terms of the progress, so it was a bit of a non-event. I actually tried to wiggle my way out of it by suggesting the project manager go on his own while I was on holiday, but that idea didn't seem to take.
I am actually planning another post or two that will hopefully be some of the photos I took. Unfortunately that does mean I have to find time to wade through them all, though, so don't hold your breath!
Anyway, I say oops because I totally forgot that today we had a meeting planned with a customer. That means I've just not had the time to write the post.
The meeting was kinda pointless, tbh. It was sort of a progress meeting I guess and there wasn't a lot to discuss in terms of the progress, so it was a bit of a non-event. I actually tried to wiggle my way out of it by suggesting the project manager go on his own while I was on holiday, but that idea didn't seem to take.
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
10,000BC
Wow, this film was bad.
I think I've mentioned that I read Empire magazine. My memory of their review for 10,000BC was that it was a bit daft but entertaining enough.
While I'd agree with it being daft I really didn't find it very entertaining at all.
There's actually a line about two-thirds of the way through that kinda summarises the main thing that annoyed me about the film. One of the good guys is explaining about the bad guys and says something to the effect that nobody knows where they came from.
He says something along the lines of "some think they came from the sky, others that they came from across the ocean from a land that sunk." Basically what this is referring to is the 'theory' that Egyptians were really aliens (see Stargate) and the theory of Atlantis (see, well, if you've not heard of Atlantis then start with wikipedia I guess :/).
But I think that it's also referring to Erich Von Daniken and his fellow "Real history is kinda confusing and a little dull and takes far to much painstaking research to work out, so here's a collection of bonkers ideas with half-baked and very loose evidence to back them up" writers.
Again, wikipedia's a good place to get the skinny on the whacky theories these people come up with.
Now part of me kinda likes these writers because they come up with some interesting ideas. What I don't like about them is that they genuinely seem to think their ideas hold merit and so do their readers.
But anyway, it's daft ideas like these that seem to have formed the basis for 10,000BC.
So as I say, the bad guys are possibly alien or from Atlantis or maybe just foreigners. Which I guess is okay, but you also get the utterly bizarre proposition that wholly mammoths were used to build the pyramids.
I mean seriously - whut?
Setting aside all problems of getting the timing wrong (mammoths are extinct by the time we build the pyramids), are we seriously supposed to believe that wholly mammoths with their huge mass and great big furry bodies that evolved to cope with the extreme cold of the northern latitudes during the last ice age would survive for any period of time in the Egyptian desert?
I mean come on - fantasy is one thing; utterly retarded is another.
And that's just one of many utterly ridiculous things.
My personal favourite is to do with the journey that the heroes go on.
If you look at the locations in an analytical way it seemed to be that the cavemen start somewhere in central Europe. They then move south, travelling through what appears to be a tropical jungle, arriving in a desert country that very much appears to be Northern Africa.
Okay, so if we ignore the whole jungle bit (especially since it's filled with terror birds - large, carnivorous, flightless birds... that were native to South America and extinct 2 million years ago :/) that seems like a basically sensible journey. However, it starts to unravel when you get to the point where all these tribes are apparently unfamiliar with boats and sailing.
That means they somehow made the journey without ever crossing or travelling down a large river, which is fair enough until you think about the time taken to trek around such rivers. But it also means they couldn't have gone from Europe to Africa by crossing the Mediterranean. That in turn means they must have passed through Egypt to get there... and yet Egypt is their final destination.
Eh?
And those are just the tip of the iceberg.
But the real kicker is that you could have ignored all of these blatant time buggerations and logical problems if the personal story had been any good. But it really wasn't.
The general jist was a quest for the hero to save his true love and I guess rescue humanity. Which is pretty tried and true ground you'd think, but I dunno, they totally bungled it. Not least of all because I didn't really care about the romance and the hero was actually a bit of an idiot and also rather bland.
Avoid.
I think I've mentioned that I read Empire magazine. My memory of their review for 10,000BC was that it was a bit daft but entertaining enough.
While I'd agree with it being daft I really didn't find it very entertaining at all.
There's actually a line about two-thirds of the way through that kinda summarises the main thing that annoyed me about the film. One of the good guys is explaining about the bad guys and says something to the effect that nobody knows where they came from.
He says something along the lines of "some think they came from the sky, others that they came from across the ocean from a land that sunk." Basically what this is referring to is the 'theory' that Egyptians were really aliens (see Stargate) and the theory of Atlantis (see, well, if you've not heard of Atlantis then start with wikipedia I guess :/).
But I think that it's also referring to Erich Von Daniken and his fellow "Real history is kinda confusing and a little dull and takes far to much painstaking research to work out, so here's a collection of bonkers ideas with half-baked and very loose evidence to back them up" writers.
Again, wikipedia's a good place to get the skinny on the whacky theories these people come up with.
Now part of me kinda likes these writers because they come up with some interesting ideas. What I don't like about them is that they genuinely seem to think their ideas hold merit and so do their readers.
But anyway, it's daft ideas like these that seem to have formed the basis for 10,000BC.
So as I say, the bad guys are possibly alien or from Atlantis or maybe just foreigners. Which I guess is okay, but you also get the utterly bizarre proposition that wholly mammoths were used to build the pyramids.
I mean seriously - whut?
Setting aside all problems of getting the timing wrong (mammoths are extinct by the time we build the pyramids), are we seriously supposed to believe that wholly mammoths with their huge mass and great big furry bodies that evolved to cope with the extreme cold of the northern latitudes during the last ice age would survive for any period of time in the Egyptian desert?
I mean come on - fantasy is one thing; utterly retarded is another.
And that's just one of many utterly ridiculous things.
My personal favourite is to do with the journey that the heroes go on.
If you look at the locations in an analytical way it seemed to be that the cavemen start somewhere in central Europe. They then move south, travelling through what appears to be a tropical jungle, arriving in a desert country that very much appears to be Northern Africa.
Okay, so if we ignore the whole jungle bit (especially since it's filled with terror birds - large, carnivorous, flightless birds... that were native to South America and extinct 2 million years ago :/) that seems like a basically sensible journey. However, it starts to unravel when you get to the point where all these tribes are apparently unfamiliar with boats and sailing.
That means they somehow made the journey without ever crossing or travelling down a large river, which is fair enough until you think about the time taken to trek around such rivers. But it also means they couldn't have gone from Europe to Africa by crossing the Mediterranean. That in turn means they must have passed through Egypt to get there... and yet Egypt is their final destination.
Eh?
And those are just the tip of the iceberg.
But the real kicker is that you could have ignored all of these blatant time buggerations and logical problems if the personal story had been any good. But it really wasn't.
The general jist was a quest for the hero to save his true love and I guess rescue humanity. Which is pretty tried and true ground you'd think, but I dunno, they totally bungled it. Not least of all because I didn't really care about the romance and the hero was actually a bit of an idiot and also rather bland.
Avoid.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
holiday 3 - the other days
So one of the best things about going to Monaco was that we were doing it as a proper holiday.
As mentioned the other day, Friday is a racing day, but it has no Formula 1 action. Plus, the Monday was a bank holiday in the UK, so the cost of flights was artificially elevated, so the travel company we went with did it so that the flights were on Tuesday. We therefore also had Monday as a free day.
On the Friday we decided to pay a visit to Cannes.
For many years I've often wondered why random Hollywood celebrities turn up at the Monaco Grand Prix, being interviewed on the start. Now you do occasionally get celebs at other GPs of course, but the frequency and calibre at Monaco always seemed unusual.
Well it turns out that the Cannes film festival basically runs at a similar time as the Monaco GP. The main activity of Cannes is normally over by the time Monaco rolls around, but you can imagine that the celebs are kicking about doing nothing when an invite turns up from Monaco and off they trot.
Anyway, so we thought we'd have a butchers at Cannes on Friday. That meant a short train journey down the coast.
We actually missed the train we were supposed to go on as they changed the platform and didn't properly announce it (more on such things at a later date). However, we got the next train and ended up where we were supposed to.
To be perfectly frank, Cannes is distinctly unimpressive.
It's kinda obvious that they created the film festival in order to attract people to an otherwise fairly standard French seaside town.
The actual film festival is held at a Casino close to the coast. It's probably the most ugly building I've ever seen.
Nothing was really happening, but the red carpets were there and bouncers were milling about on doorways.
Most of the seafront was blocked off mainly by tent-like things, some of which sold horribly over-priced merchandise. However, the harbour was accessible, so we had a wander around that. A bit like Monaco there were some staggeringly big and expensive-looking yachts. Some appeared to be hosting lunch parties and on one there was clearly someone that other people recognised.
We didn't know who it was so we guessed it was maybe a local French celebrity.
Oh, and while we were having lunch some bikini-clad girls turned up with some guys with cameras. Now, because of how it worked out I never really got a proper look at the girls, which when I think back on it is bizarre, because they came and sat right behind me. One of the girls must literally have been 6 inches away.
Now if you know anything about me the one thing you can be assured of is that I'm not a prude. However, one thing that's probably not apparent is that I find it... I dunno, confusing I suppose, as to whether I'm allowed to look, well, look at girls.
It's like I don't want to leer at them. It's such a typical reaction and I'm always unsure whether a girl finds it to be uncomfortable or not, even when she's clearly putting everything on display, as it were.
I also sort of hate the power it has over me. It's like the old cliché that men will do anything for a pretty girl. I hate that, but equally I know that in the same situation if a pretty girl asked me to do something I almost certainly would.
I'm not sure I'm explaining this properly - but the basic point is that these scantily clad girls were cavorting around on the grass behind me and I didn't have a look.
But then there is a caveat to that - the blokes with them were photographers and they were taking pictures. Very quickly a huge crowd formed of random people taking pictures and so I was basically buried in a scrum of sweaty blokes.
If there's one thing I hate it's the invasion of my personal space in such a fashion, which pretty much explains why I didn't look and high-tailed it out of there.
After the harbour we sat and had an ice-cream and then went for a wander around Cannes. If you're female and shoes and expensive designer clothes are your thing then Cannes's shops are probably heaven.
Oh and oddly there's a large Boulez (French Bowls) pitch in Cannes. There were quite a few playing as well.
So that was Cannes - colour me unimpressed.
On Monday we did two things.
In the morning we went into Nice, which is where we stayed.
If I'm honest I was totally shattered, so wasn't in much of a 'doing stuff' mood, but it seemed like quite a nice place. We had a pleasant lunch and sat next to a big fountain they have. It was in the middle of a gigantic plaza/square thing. It was so big I think you could have put the entirety of Farnham town centre in there and still had room to spare.
Nice is a big place. This was emphasised on a touristy train ride thing we did. It was a car thing that was made up to look like a train with carriages behind. We were going to do the same basic thing in Cannes, but it would have taken too long. This one lasted about 45 minutes or so with a 15 minute break in the middle.
It went past some sites and went up onto a big hill thing towards the edge of Nice and it was there we really got to see Nice - it's a huge place that would take you hours to walk end-to-end.
The train-ride was good actually - it was a bit touristy but took you to historical places you would not have known were there unless you spent hours wandering around.
We then went on the Tram. Public transport is not my idea of heaven, but my Dad likes that sort of stuff so he wanted to ride the tram.
We then headed back for a nap before we headed out that evening for a trip to the casino in Monaco.
Well that was the plan anyway.
In an attempt to find out what the weather was doing my Dad occasionally put the French news on in the morning. Now rolling along the bottom that morning I'd seen "SNCF" something-something that was too quick for me to really pay attention too.
It turned out that the something-something should have been translated as "bloody communist French rail workers are going on poxing strike yet again."
The strike started at 8pm (we basically arrived at the station at 8pm :/) Monday evening and went on until 8am on Wednesday morning.
This buggered us right up as you can imagine. We had to wait for a train that was running at Nice and then it threw into total confusion what time we would be getting back.
We'd planned to get the second-to-last train back, but it wasn't at all clear what trains would be running. We therefore only had a very short time in the Casinos because it would have been a nightmare missing the train.
The worst thing about that was that in actuality we could have spent hour in the Casino. The boards that were up that claimed the last train would run at 11:05 were clearly a total fabrication, because the train didn't actually turn up until way-past midnight.
For me this didn't matter so much, because I don't like Casinos. They make you feel like a criminal because all the staff are watching you. Plus they have loads of CCTV cameras.
And then on top of that most gambling games are complicated. Well, sometimes they're not that complicated as games as such, but they often have little rules you don't appreciate. Plus there's always etiquette and ways of behaving that no-one tells you about until you do the wrong thing, like betting too little on.
Plus even your bog-standard slot machines have become horribly complicated electronic devices. Long-gone are the days of things physically rotating to show you three cherries and oodles of coins falling out - it's all done with screens and credit slips.
On top of that I'm an appallingly unlucky gambler - I never win at pure-chance gambling.
Take for example the national lottery - I've been playing one set of numbers in each main draw using the online system for 6 months now and haven't won so much as a tenner.
Anyway - the casino thing wasn't for my benefit, it was for my sister who seemed really keen on the idea. Hopefully she had a good time, even if it was a lot shorter than expected.
In the end we didn't go in the Casino de Monte Carlo proper, but went in a Casino next to it. This casino you could wear anything in, but we didn't know that and so had gotten done up in all the clobber.
The net result was the three of us were up on the night, though. I lost a tenner, but my sister gained about £1.50 on a slot machine and my Dad and Sister had a win on the roulette wheel. A single number win pays out at 35-to-1 (minimum bet was £2) and they'd only spent £20 (I'm using pounds for convenience because the Euro exchange rate is piss poor at about 1:1) so they were up.
As mentioned the other day, Friday is a racing day, but it has no Formula 1 action. Plus, the Monday was a bank holiday in the UK, so the cost of flights was artificially elevated, so the travel company we went with did it so that the flights were on Tuesday. We therefore also had Monday as a free day.
On the Friday we decided to pay a visit to Cannes.
For many years I've often wondered why random Hollywood celebrities turn up at the Monaco Grand Prix, being interviewed on the start. Now you do occasionally get celebs at other GPs of course, but the frequency and calibre at Monaco always seemed unusual.
Well it turns out that the Cannes film festival basically runs at a similar time as the Monaco GP. The main activity of Cannes is normally over by the time Monaco rolls around, but you can imagine that the celebs are kicking about doing nothing when an invite turns up from Monaco and off they trot.
Anyway, so we thought we'd have a butchers at Cannes on Friday. That meant a short train journey down the coast.
We actually missed the train we were supposed to go on as they changed the platform and didn't properly announce it (more on such things at a later date). However, we got the next train and ended up where we were supposed to.
To be perfectly frank, Cannes is distinctly unimpressive.
It's kinda obvious that they created the film festival in order to attract people to an otherwise fairly standard French seaside town.
The actual film festival is held at a Casino close to the coast. It's probably the most ugly building I've ever seen.
Nothing was really happening, but the red carpets were there and bouncers were milling about on doorways.
Most of the seafront was blocked off mainly by tent-like things, some of which sold horribly over-priced merchandise. However, the harbour was accessible, so we had a wander around that. A bit like Monaco there were some staggeringly big and expensive-looking yachts. Some appeared to be hosting lunch parties and on one there was clearly someone that other people recognised.
We didn't know who it was so we guessed it was maybe a local French celebrity.
Oh, and while we were having lunch some bikini-clad girls turned up with some guys with cameras. Now, because of how it worked out I never really got a proper look at the girls, which when I think back on it is bizarre, because they came and sat right behind me. One of the girls must literally have been 6 inches away.
Now if you know anything about me the one thing you can be assured of is that I'm not a prude. However, one thing that's probably not apparent is that I find it... I dunno, confusing I suppose, as to whether I'm allowed to look, well, look at girls.
It's like I don't want to leer at them. It's such a typical reaction and I'm always unsure whether a girl finds it to be uncomfortable or not, even when she's clearly putting everything on display, as it were.
I also sort of hate the power it has over me. It's like the old cliché that men will do anything for a pretty girl. I hate that, but equally I know that in the same situation if a pretty girl asked me to do something I almost certainly would.
I'm not sure I'm explaining this properly - but the basic point is that these scantily clad girls were cavorting around on the grass behind me and I didn't have a look.
But then there is a caveat to that - the blokes with them were photographers and they were taking pictures. Very quickly a huge crowd formed of random people taking pictures and so I was basically buried in a scrum of sweaty blokes.
If there's one thing I hate it's the invasion of my personal space in such a fashion, which pretty much explains why I didn't look and high-tailed it out of there.
After the harbour we sat and had an ice-cream and then went for a wander around Cannes. If you're female and shoes and expensive designer clothes are your thing then Cannes's shops are probably heaven.
Oh and oddly there's a large Boulez (French Bowls) pitch in Cannes. There were quite a few playing as well.
So that was Cannes - colour me unimpressed.
On Monday we did two things.
In the morning we went into Nice, which is where we stayed.
If I'm honest I was totally shattered, so wasn't in much of a 'doing stuff' mood, but it seemed like quite a nice place. We had a pleasant lunch and sat next to a big fountain they have. It was in the middle of a gigantic plaza/square thing. It was so big I think you could have put the entirety of Farnham town centre in there and still had room to spare.
Nice is a big place. This was emphasised on a touristy train ride thing we did. It was a car thing that was made up to look like a train with carriages behind. We were going to do the same basic thing in Cannes, but it would have taken too long. This one lasted about 45 minutes or so with a 15 minute break in the middle.
It went past some sites and went up onto a big hill thing towards the edge of Nice and it was there we really got to see Nice - it's a huge place that would take you hours to walk end-to-end.
The train-ride was good actually - it was a bit touristy but took you to historical places you would not have known were there unless you spent hours wandering around.
We then went on the Tram. Public transport is not my idea of heaven, but my Dad likes that sort of stuff so he wanted to ride the tram.
We then headed back for a nap before we headed out that evening for a trip to the casino in Monaco.
Well that was the plan anyway.
In an attempt to find out what the weather was doing my Dad occasionally put the French news on in the morning. Now rolling along the bottom that morning I'd seen "SNCF" something-something that was too quick for me to really pay attention too.
It turned out that the something-something should have been translated as "bloody communist French rail workers are going on poxing strike yet again."
The strike started at 8pm (we basically arrived at the station at 8pm :/) Monday evening and went on until 8am on Wednesday morning.
This buggered us right up as you can imagine. We had to wait for a train that was running at Nice and then it threw into total confusion what time we would be getting back.
We'd planned to get the second-to-last train back, but it wasn't at all clear what trains would be running. We therefore only had a very short time in the Casinos because it would have been a nightmare missing the train.
The worst thing about that was that in actuality we could have spent hour in the Casino. The boards that were up that claimed the last train would run at 11:05 were clearly a total fabrication, because the train didn't actually turn up until way-past midnight.
For me this didn't matter so much, because I don't like Casinos. They make you feel like a criminal because all the staff are watching you. Plus they have loads of CCTV cameras.
And then on top of that most gambling games are complicated. Well, sometimes they're not that complicated as games as such, but they often have little rules you don't appreciate. Plus there's always etiquette and ways of behaving that no-one tells you about until you do the wrong thing, like betting too little on.
Plus even your bog-standard slot machines have become horribly complicated electronic devices. Long-gone are the days of things physically rotating to show you three cherries and oodles of coins falling out - it's all done with screens and credit slips.
On top of that I'm an appallingly unlucky gambler - I never win at pure-chance gambling.
Take for example the national lottery - I've been playing one set of numbers in each main draw using the online system for 6 months now and haven't won so much as a tenner.
Anyway - the casino thing wasn't for my benefit, it was for my sister who seemed really keen on the idea. Hopefully she had a good time, even if it was a lot shorter than expected.
In the end we didn't go in the Casino de Monte Carlo proper, but went in a Casino next to it. This casino you could wear anything in, but we didn't know that and so had gotten done up in all the clobber.
The net result was the three of us were up on the night, though. I lost a tenner, but my sister gained about £1.50 on a slot machine and my Dad and Sister had a win on the roulette wheel. A single number win pays out at 35-to-1 (minimum bet was £2) and they'd only spent £20 (I'm using pounds for convenience because the Euro exchange rate is piss poor at about 1:1) so they were up.
Monday, 8 June 2009
oh dear
Oh dear.
Oh dear, oh dear.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Isn't it funny how words start to sound wrong the more you repeat them over and over?
Anyway, why the lamentations?
Because I have a horrible admission to make.
An admission that's so fundamentally against who I both perceive and portray myself to be that I'm at best embarrassed; at worst ashamed.
No I've not embezzled thousands of pounds; no I've not murdered someone. I have... wait for it in those annoying dramatic build-ups that are all the rage on telly nowadays... been watching Big Brother.
I know, I'm disgusted with me too.
I've actually been trying to think up some kind of excuse I could use to make it seem more all right than it is. For example, this is the tenth anniversary of BB so I thought maybe I could say I was watching it for that reason. I don't trumpet the fact, but I actually watched and enjoyed the first Big Brother series.
The second series was where it kinda lost me, as I only watched bits. Which was going to be my other potential excuse - from series 2 on it seemed to become very gimmick orientated. This time, I was going to say, it seemed a bit more normal. Only that's not true at all, they've been gimmicking it up to the hilt.
Also the types of people they put in from season 2 almost became cynical choices. Rather than just being ordinary (well-ish) people they picked annoying people or deliberately picked minority or other small groups so viewers could feel good about not being prejudiced by not voting them out early.
And while I'd still say that's less of a thing this year, it's also not a valid excuse - there's one proper glamour model and one almost-glamour model in there, for example. They're hardly your average Joe Soap :/.
So basically I have no excuse. I've been watching Big Brother and I'm one of those people that always bangs on about hating 'reality' television and its cousins.
Well, there is one excuse. And it's kinda contained in the paragraph two above this one. There's a glamour model with very large boobs in the house. And I like the big boob if it's not been apparent before.
That's not the most self-flattering of admissions, but compared to the overall admission that I'm watching BB it's the least of my problems.
And I guess I'll be posting some blog updates as to what I think about BB stuff. Oh, although it's worth noting that even though I'm watching it, I'm doing so using my usual PVR magic, so I won't necessarily be current or up-to-date.
The weekend was otherwise fairly successful.
Weather forecasts beforehand had been filled with the doom and gloom of huge downpours and cold weather. And while this wasn't completely wrong where I was, it was more like Saturday morning it drizzled and then Saturday and Sunday night it rained. Otherwise it was pretty dry.
It was chilly, though. I was tempted to put my heating on at one point actually, although instead I just curled up under my duvet. The cold weather did have the advantage that it made it more pleasant to clean my car, though.
Which was why the weather mattered so much, btw. My landlord has gone on holiday for a week, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to clean me motor. The breaks in the weather where long enough for me to do so - even for me to Hoover without getting a massive electrical shock.
The other hope for the weekend didn't come off. As mentioned on Friday I'm way behind on scanning and so had hoped to find the time to start, but there just weren't the hours available. Especially with me still playing a bit of catch-up from my holiday.
Oh dear, oh dear.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Isn't it funny how words start to sound wrong the more you repeat them over and over?
Anyway, why the lamentations?
Because I have a horrible admission to make.
An admission that's so fundamentally against who I both perceive and portray myself to be that I'm at best embarrassed; at worst ashamed.
No I've not embezzled thousands of pounds; no I've not murdered someone. I have... wait for it in those annoying dramatic build-ups that are all the rage on telly nowadays... been watching Big Brother.
I know, I'm disgusted with me too.
I've actually been trying to think up some kind of excuse I could use to make it seem more all right than it is. For example, this is the tenth anniversary of BB so I thought maybe I could say I was watching it for that reason. I don't trumpet the fact, but I actually watched and enjoyed the first Big Brother series.
The second series was where it kinda lost me, as I only watched bits. Which was going to be my other potential excuse - from series 2 on it seemed to become very gimmick orientated. This time, I was going to say, it seemed a bit more normal. Only that's not true at all, they've been gimmicking it up to the hilt.
Also the types of people they put in from season 2 almost became cynical choices. Rather than just being ordinary (well-ish) people they picked annoying people or deliberately picked minority or other small groups so viewers could feel good about not being prejudiced by not voting them out early.
And while I'd still say that's less of a thing this year, it's also not a valid excuse - there's one proper glamour model and one almost-glamour model in there, for example. They're hardly your average Joe Soap :/.
So basically I have no excuse. I've been watching Big Brother and I'm one of those people that always bangs on about hating 'reality' television and its cousins.
Well, there is one excuse. And it's kinda contained in the paragraph two above this one. There's a glamour model with very large boobs in the house. And I like the big boob if it's not been apparent before.
That's not the most self-flattering of admissions, but compared to the overall admission that I'm watching BB it's the least of my problems.
And I guess I'll be posting some blog updates as to what I think about BB stuff. Oh, although it's worth noting that even though I'm watching it, I'm doing so using my usual PVR magic, so I won't necessarily be current or up-to-date.
The weekend was otherwise fairly successful.
Weather forecasts beforehand had been filled with the doom and gloom of huge downpours and cold weather. And while this wasn't completely wrong where I was, it was more like Saturday morning it drizzled and then Saturday and Sunday night it rained. Otherwise it was pretty dry.
It was chilly, though. I was tempted to put my heating on at one point actually, although instead I just curled up under my duvet. The cold weather did have the advantage that it made it more pleasant to clean my car, though.
Which was why the weather mattered so much, btw. My landlord has gone on holiday for a week, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to clean me motor. The breaks in the weather where long enough for me to do so - even for me to Hoover without getting a massive electrical shock.
The other hope for the weekend didn't come off. As mentioned on Friday I'm way behind on scanning and so had hoped to find the time to start, but there just weren't the hours available. Especially with me still playing a bit of catch-up from my holiday.
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