weekend of super-cleaning

I'm going to do loads of cleaning this weekend.

The main one to do is the car - it's been months seen I cleaned my car. It needs a total going over - inside and out. The problem has been the weather - you can't really clean your car when the temperature is constantly sub-zero.

When it's not been sub-zero it's been raining, which is actually the big risk this weekend - the forecasts don't seem to be able to decide on if it's going to rain or not. The only thing they seem to have been agreeing on is that it won't be sub-zero temperatures (those return later next week :(), so that's all I'm banking on.

I've sort-of started writing again. I don't want to curse it, but I've started on a script. Well, also generally I’ve got my juices flowing a bit, but mainly I’ve started a script for my most-developed idea, Man in the Loop.

It actually occurred to me that what I've always wanted to try to write is TV stuff. Now the slight thing that makes me worry a bit here is that I've been reading "Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale" (which is awesome - I'll go into more detail when I finish it) and I'm worried I'm doing this simply because I like the book.

However, the other side to it is that when I started writing I did actually want to write telly, but sort of got distracted, I guess, into trying to do novels.

Dunno, we'll have to see if I don't just flake out again.

I've been doing a bit of scanning over the week, trying to get back up to date. The shows I've watched are:

• Tentai Senshi Sunred (Astro Fighter Sunred) was quite good. I didn't have a clue what to expect going into it, but it turned out to be a parody comedy type show. The parody is quite wide-ranging, but the most humorous aspect is that the hero is actually a bit of a jerk, whereas the evil villains are actually quite nice. The animation is a little crude, but deliberately so - think inspired by South Park.
• Tales of the Abyss was just about bearable. It's a fantasy job and it's adapted from an RPG. It was quite pretty and nicely animated, but the problem was in the story-telling - it was crammed full of info dumps and expositional speeches which were totally dull. I'm guessing it livens up later, but the poor story telling (and the general generic nature of the show) annoyed me so much I can't be arsed to even think about finding out.

That basically means I'm now almost up-to-date with the new January shows. There are some odds and sods left, about the only major ones being the Gonzo shows that were made available legally via Crunchyroll and Bost and I've started one of those – Blassreiter.

Speaking of Bost, it looks like it's died a death, without any new shows added in, well, years. Which is a real shame as I liked the Bost service. It's certainly way, way better than Crunchyroll, which I've decided is an abomination of a site.

final destination 3

This was on over the weekend and since I was a bit knackered on Sunday, as I've mentioned, I gave it a watch.

I was quite surprised actually. I mean, it's not really brilliant, as such, but it was certainly more entertaining than I thought it was going to be.

Unlike the second one which is more of a direct sequel, in a way this was almost a complete re-hash of the first Final Destination. But generally all three have essentially followed the same format.

One of the characters gets a premonition of his and a group of his friend's deaths (usually it's a bizarre set of events that leads up to the disaster). He then panics and as a result they get out of the way when the disaster does indeed happen and loads of people die.

After that, the people who survived start to die, but crucially they do so in the order they did in the original disaster. As such, the one who foresaw the deaths works out that "Death" is out to get them. This is how it explains the bizarre accidents that caused both the original disaster, as well as the subsequent deaths.

Essentially that doesn't really matter - what the Final Destination films are really about are the bizarre deaths, which are often quite brutal and fairly violent and gory. Often they're quite darkly humorous as well and on that front 3 delivers in spades and that's why I enjoyed it.

As a film it's quite poor, but as a "watch the good-looking kids get butchered" way to spend 90-minutes it's quite entertaining.

On thing that did annoy me was that there was a whole thing about a bunch of photos that were predicting the kid's deaths. To me, this seemed un-necessarily complicated and a bit abstract for the film, tbh.

magicians

This week's rental DVD was magicians.

It stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb, who are a double act. They've had their own show on BBC, which I have to admit was a little disappointing, but they're also the stars of Peep Show on Channel 4, which is one of the best sitcoms ever.

Mitchell and Webb don't write Peep Show, but Magicians was written by the people who do. It was also directed by a guy who used to be a Magician (in fact, I think the premise for the film was his idea). It also had Jessica Stevenson in it (off of Spaced), who actually probably gave the best performance.

If I'm honest, however, the film was a little disappointing. Trouble is I've kinda been thinking through as to why and I can't work it out. I think it was more about a combination of little things, rather than anything major.

For one thing it didn't really seem to actually have a stance on magicians themselves. Whilst that sort of thing is clearly just a backdrop to the story (stories are always about characters) it still came across as being partly appreciating magicians and partly thinking they're sados.

Another problem was that the jokes seemed a bit thin. Whilst you expect movies to be more focused on a core plot than perhaps a TV sitcom can get away with, doing so to the detriment of the gags seems like a bad idea.

I also found it difficult to like or, indeed, sympathise with any of the characters. In the peep show, I can understand Mitchell and Webb's characters as people, even when they behave despicably. Here they both just seemed like people I didn't really care about.

There wasn't enough establishing them as people for me to care about - just a montage of photos over the credits and a single scene where they chop a woman's head off. Why does this make me care about them? I didn't really care about her.

That last one is actually a pretty big one and may be the core story.

It certainly carries over into my frustration over David Mitchell's character and Jessica Stevenson - their relationship is all over the place and it actually got a little annoying (and confusing, to be honest).

Lastly is a bit of an odd one - it sort of seems like it's trying to be a parody of The Prestige. Unfortunately it only does the in a half-arsed way, plus The Prestige is a brilliant film and doesn't really deserve any sort of parodying.

yesterday's meeting

I was away all day yesterday for a work meeting. It wasn't the most productive. I thought I'd laid quite a good groundwork for a suggestion I made, but when it came down to it the customer didn't really seem at all keen.

I was told to give it a go, but as a 'redo' so that she could compare it to the existing one. So I've now got to do that, but I think I need to make it somewhat funky so that it's more impressive than I would otherwise have done and so wins the point.

Anyway I was a bit disheartened by that result to the meeting, so I was edging towards a bad mood. Then, when I was driving home the traffic was horrendous.

A while back some signs went up saying that they were going to be some roadwork's at the traffic lights that are just down the road from me. When the date came the workmen appeared, but the roadwork's actually seemed fairly minor.

However, I now suspect that was due to the extremely cold weather and they've only now started properly.

It's an absolute nightmare - they've turned the normal lights off and put temporary ones it. But of course the temporary ones have a completely different timing to the normal ones so that traffic quickly backs up and I got trapped in it yesterday.

I've had a look on multimap as I've always know there are some rat-run type minor roads that connect the main roads. I think I've identified an alternative route.

It kinda depends on the queue not reaching biblical proportions - if it spills all the way back on the A31 there's little I can do - but otherwise I should be able to muddle my way through.

This last weekend was a bit of an odd one. I sort of dashed around on Friday and Saturday like a blue-arsed fly. I was trying to get stuff done so I clear the decks and spend all Sunday scanning staff but I think I actually burnt myself out a bit so I only did a bit of scanning (well, it was a fair bit, but not quite what I'd planned).

Anyway, I watched some of the last stuff from the October '08 season:

• Hakushaku to Yosei (Earl and Fairy) was, if I'm honest, dull. It's sort of set in England from around the Edwardian or Victorian era somewhere, though only nominally - loads of it is inaccurate/fictionalised. It's also clearly aimed at girls with a pretty boy male lead who the girl is falling in love with but he's a bit of a bad boy rogue type... blah, blah, dull.
• Inazuma Eleven was okay, I guess. It's a kid's show and as those sorts of things go it was reasonable enough. It was sort of about a football (soccer) team, but it was quickly apparent this was more fantasy than actual football.
• Mouryou no Hako was really good. It was a bit on the weird side - there seems to be a lot of hidden mystery and quite a complex plot, but then those are never bad things :).

There are only one or two more shows to go, which is quite good timing as the half-season January '09 shows are just starting to get fansubbed.

Interestingly, though, quite a few appear to be now featuring on Crunchyroll. I have mixed feelings about that, as I'm not a fan of the crunchyroll site, but it's good to see that it's starting to happen.

animu holiday (well, not really)

As I noted I didn't get anywhere near doing all the stuff I wanted to over the holidays.

I did manage to get a bit of scanning done - I did the two megamis that I had, but I still have a newtype, animage and animedia left and the new ones will be arriving pretty soon.

The anime bits I watched while I scanned were:

• Nodame Cantabile: Paris was really rather good. This is actually a sequel, and I'd not seen the other series, so I only watched the first episode to get a flavour. I liked what I saw and may well look to see if it's purchasable (though obviously once I clear some other stuff).
• Jigoku Shoujo Mitsugane was also surprisingly good. Like Nodame this was also a sequel (in fact I actually thing it's a part 3 :/) to a show I'd not watched so I only took in the first episode. It seems quite dark and rather harsh in that eastern ghost story style, but then I've no problems with that. I know the first season of this is available, so I'll definitely be picking it up.
• One Outs was another one that was surprisingly good. Weirdly it reminded me of a show called Kaiji but it's not really got any real relationship to that manga/anime. It was more just the story style: heavy on the exposition, but in a thoughtful way. I was also surprised because it was about baseball (well, it's set in the world of baseball - it's not really about baseball, as such) and I don't really like baseball, but I still enjoyed this.

I also watched Maburaho over my holidays. It was, quite frankly, poor, but I'll do a proper review at some point, so I won't go on about it too much here.

I've also had two good pieces of news on the anime front. Firstly, a series I loved when it came out called Oh! Edo Rocket is going to be released by Funimation and secondly Baccano! is coming out on DVD this month, also from Funimation.

Both shows are really great and I'd recommend checking both out if you get the chance.

sunshine

The last rental I had from last month's lot was Sunshine, which is directed by Danny Boyle.

Boyle has done lots of great films - Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later - and this is no exception. It really is a good film.

Interestingly, it's a proper sci-fi film as well. The plot is a little hokey - it's about them restarting the sun with a bomb, which is wrong on so many scientific levels, but apart from that is was pretty accurate, scientifically.

One of the unfortunate things with doing proper science fiction nowadays is that you have some true giants in the field - Solaris and 2001AD come to mind as particular example here, but also things like the first Alien and Bladerunner ride a cusp of respectability too. How Boyle deals with this is quite interesting - he essentially ploughs on regardless.

In other words, rather than fret over how something might be "a bit like 2001AD", or make it a homage or try to do something completely (self-consciously) different, he just does it - if it's the same/similar or reminiscent then fair enough, if it isn't then that's good as well.

It makes for a much straighter film. It makes it more believable - that stuff was like that in those other films and this one too, because we've both got it right, if that makes any sense.

There are also some interesting sub-texts to the film, dealing especially with God and the meta-physical, and it kinda makes you think quite a bit, but not in a particularly brow-beating manner, the questions are just there if you want to explore them.

It's also stunningly pretty. The CGI of the spaceship is some of the best I've seen - and what's more, it was apparently a fairly low-budget film. CGI is at such a state of maturity nowadays it's almost scary.

I kinda abandoned the whole "I always prefer 'real' effects to CGI" attitude when I learnt that the end shot of Spiderman 2 was entirely artificial. Sunshine just confirms that digital is now so good you generally can't tell the difference.

the golden compass

While I was down at my Dad's over the Christmas holiday we watched this.

I've got to say it was pretty poor in my opinion. The problem - and I find this very odd given it's based on some very popular books - was that it was very poorly written.

It kept making the classic error of telling us stuff and not showing us, which is a horrible mistake for a film to make, especially. The whole ethos of show don't tell is because of movies and they effect they've had on us all.

There were some striking examples of this. In one scene the main girl, Lyra, goes and find these two young boys in a hut in the middle of a snowy-waste. Now how the hell these boys got there we don't know and the cardinal sin comes later. A nurse explains that the boys escaped, but we never see.

Okay, so maybe we didn't need to see it before Lyra finds them, but a quick flash to the boys escaping when the nurse said it would have sufficed, but we didn't get that either.

And that was just one small example - there were loads of things we should have seen (probably in cutaways) rather than characters telling us.

But there was another problem: dust. In this world, "dust" is a bit like a catch-all pseudo-religious thing. The problem is I dunno if you've ever seen Little Britain, but dust is kinda a comical word for me from that series.

It's also a bit confusing - dust is dust as well as being mythical dust :/. Couldn't they have had a better name?

The only really good part was to do with the polar bears, which was quite a well realised sub-plot. It also had some really great CGI effects. So great that, slightly ironically, the fake polar bears actually seemed a bit more real than the human characters.

Sorry, that's a bit harsh, but I have to say the cap to the poorness of the film was that the performances weren't all that great. They sort of seemed a bit pedestrian - a bit plodding where they should have been more up-beat and had more oomph.

retourney avec les work

So today is my first day back at work. *sigh*

I've been spending most of the day generally sorting out as well as trying to remember everything from where I put my coffee mug to what the heck I've been doing on the project I'm currently working on.

I did get one shock when I came in this morning - the new girl, Jane, has taken Ralph's desk. And I don't just mean she's perched there while he's away, but all of Ralph's stuff is piled up on a chair by the side of the desk.

One thing I would say is that at least she doesn't appear to tap her feet like Ralph did! But it could be a bit weird when he eventually comes back :/.

I'll put some updates later about all the stuff I got up. But in summery: 1) It's been FUCKING COLD and 2) I didn't do anywhere near as much as I'd hoped.

The second one was pretty obvious and happens every time I go on holiday. For some reason I always get it into my head that holiday days are somehow equivalent to about 3 work days, so I always plan to do way more than is actually possible. The reality is of course that holidays are only about 1/3rd that of work days, what with all the lie-ins and long lunches :).

chrimbalo holidays

Today is my last day of work before the holidays. Indeed, it's my last day of work for the entirety of 2008.

As such, since I actually post these blogs while I'm at work, updates are going to become a bit erratic.

I'm sure I'll post occasionally - probably as I watch films and TV and anime and stuff, but it won't be regular updates. Although if things go to plan and I watch all the stuff I'm intending too, it may actually mean more bloggage.

Anyway, the point is yay - no more work for two whole weeks!

ultraviolet

So the third film I watched this last weekend was called Ultraviolet.

It had Milla Jovovich in it and she looked pretty hot, but the movie itself was pretty awful.

It was written and directed by the same guy who did Equilibrium, which was a film I enjoyed, although it was somewhat flawed and it's these same flaws that have unfortunately been magnified here - the main one being that the plot was quite poor.

Now in Equilibrium it sort of worked. There were enough good bits to counteract the bits that didn't quite make sense and so overall it held together. However, in Ultraviolet the balance was the other way - there were just too many bits that didn't make sense to hold the whole film together.

What's worse is that at the very beginning it started off with this naff voiceover that almost underlined how clichéd everything was. Not that I have fundamental problems with cliché or genre-pieces, but it was contradictory: if you're going to leave stuff out or not explain it properly to make it seem more mysterious/complex, then don't have a narration that says "here's the plot, it's really simple."

The two just don't mesh together and all it does is highlight the fact your plot is a big mess.

It was also very confusing, partly as a result of the plot, but there were other problems too. One of the strangest was that at the very beginning the opening titles played over a series of shots of comics and manga. The music that played was also very reminiscent of the music that's used over the marvel credits for their films.

But here's the thing - it's not based on a marvel comic book. It's not actually based on any comic - it's an original work.

My guess was that the aim was to make it seem like that was the theme of the film and how to take it, but for me it was just confusing. If it's not based on a comic, don't have a load of pictures of comic books at the beginning.

Plus, for me the film owed way more to video games than it did comic-books. The action scenes were all way more like something you'd see if you were looking over the shoulder of someone playing a game than reading a comic.

Which is a fascination I myself don't quite understand - playing video games is fun and entertaining. Sitting and watching somebody else play a game (which is what films like this end up being) is not fun. So why do they keep making movies like that?

And yet, despite the drubbing I've given there's part of me that felt there were some interesting ideas kicking about here. It's like the world that was created and the character of Ultraviolet are kinda intriguing, it's just this film wasn't very good.

And I'm guessing that's why the film has spawned an anime (Ultraviolet: Code 044), although it does also help to explain why that anime is a bit rubbish :/.

lucky number slevin

It was quite the film watching weekend this last weekend.

I kinda got to Sunday afternoon and sort of knew I should do some things (like scan megami, etc) but that thing I was talking about last week about how I'm sort of treading water until the holidays really kicked into overdrive. So instead I basically just watched a bunch of films and TV I've recorded. Which isn't a bad thing - it cleared up some stuff I've had on my to do list.

Anyway, one of the films was Lucky Number Slevin.

I had almost no idea what this was going to be about, and was kinda surprised at how good it actually was.

However, I did kinda guess the end. I mean, there were a couple of little twists I didn't see, but I'd figured out the big reveals some way before they actually happened. Although to some extent I wasn't sure if they were really meant to be hidden that deeply anyway. It was a bit like a twist movie that didn't try too hard to hide its twists so that it was a bit fairer on the audience, if that makes sense.

Also, I have to say that Bruce Willis's performance was very poor. I think to some extent it was supposed to be aloof and distant, but the trouble was it was too far that way. It kinda came off as him just going through the motions, rather than making the character interesting on any level.

However, I think partly that was because the other characters were all really top-notch and interesting. In fact they really pulled the movie through, which was why the whole twist thing seemed less important. It was more about the characters than the plot, if you see what I mean.

Which is a good thing, don't get me wrong, it just meant Willis's detached and cold character stuck out like a soar thumb, because everybody else had a wit as sharp as a razor.

Although saying that it did seem a bit odd on that front, especially when you see Morgan Freeman and Ben Kinglsey's characters. Freeman especially seems rather too jovial for a man who's just been through what he's been through (I'm trying to avoid any spoilers), but I guess it sort of makes sense when you see the twist.

Anyway, the point is it's a film well worth checking out.

the last king of scotland

This last weekend's rental DVD was the excellent The Last King of Scotland, starring Forest Whittaker.

I've almost not got much to say about this that isn't summed up by the praise that's already been heaped upon it. It's a very good film, based on what I'm guessing is probably a very good book.

There was one slight thing that niggled at me, though, and this is more of a general point than specifically about this film - it isn't real... but it is.

Basically, the main character in it (apart from Idi Amin) is entirely fictional - he's basically been inserted into the story to give it a narrative structure and to allow us viewers a way in. But because it's a film about this fictional character there's a distinct blurring between fact and reality.

This invented character is not some dispassionate observer, he's intimately locked up in a story with Amin and it's that story that we really follow - the fictional one. But we're also tracking along with real events. Things that actually happened are in the story too, but again, lines become blurred.

The problem with this is there's a part in it towards the end that's very shocking but that didn't actually happen. It was a malicious rumour that was there at the time, but the problem is that when you see it in the film it seems like it was real. But because the film is fictional it can put that stuff in.

I dunno if that makes much sense - what I'm getting at is that I'm a little uncomfortable with the whole blurring the lines of reality and fiction like that. And as I say, that's a general thing, rather than just specifically a problem with Last King.

Anyway, you can certainly see why Whittaker won an Oscar for his portrayal of Amin. It's a truly fascinating portrayal of a fascinating man.

Which is where the film really excels. Amin was clearly a monster, being responsible for the deaths of around 300,000 Ugandans (and it's not exactly a densely populated country) and yet that's not all we're shown.

He's not shown simply as some slavering psychotic, but instead as just a man (albeit a very charismatic one). And it's that which made him truly scary.

break out the winter warming

I bought some additional heating this weekend.

It's an oil filled radiator - basically it's a bit like a normal radiator, but it plugs into the mains and is filled with oil. I've heard these are quite an efficient type of heaters but I really bought it because where I set when I'm on my PC is the coldest part of where I live.

I won't go into the details why, but it basically I can be sat at my PC with loads of jumpers on still shivering and then I'll get up to make a cup of tea and the rest of the room is sweltering hot. I bought the radiator so that I can plug it in and get some direct heat.

I went for the oil filled partly because of the efficiency, but also because fan heaters and convectors tend to blow hot air about and it can dry my eyes and throat out.

Anyway, we'll have to see if the £60 it cost is worth it. I'm hoping it works out cheaper than just spending £60 on more electricity and using my other convector heater. Signs seemed to be good following my testing over the weekend.

The other good news from the weekend is that I have finally finished scanning all of my artbooks. I'm a fair way off of finishing all scanning, but it's something of a landmark, I think.

While I was scanning the last book I also watched the following shows:

• Kemeko DX was distinctly "meh". To be honest I can't really be bothered to explain any more about it - let's just say it was nothing special and leave it at that.
• Ga-Rei -Zero- was okay. It unfortunately started really flatly - the first two episodes seemed to be too much action and not enough plot and the characters seemed very lightly defined. But then, in episode three there was a sudden change when it wall all bout two of the characters and suddenly it was interesting. I've no idea how the show would develop, but I'm urging on the side of it not being all that good given the first 2 eps.

my super ex-girlfriend

I knew I'd forgotten to blog about something, and it was the rental DVD I watched this last weekend - My Super Ex Girlfriend.

As ideas for films go, this one's a pretty good one. It's pretty much all contained in the title so it doesn't need much explanation from me.

It's essentially a rom-com, as you'd expect, but with the twist that one of the girls is super-powered. The character is played by Uma Thurman, who I kinda have issues with. She's hot looking, but I don't really rate her as an actress; however, having said that I thought this was about one of the best performances I've seen her give.

The other actors were all top-notch and the characters were generally great. I also thought that the basic plotting was pretty good, although for me it was a little under-done. Normally I complain about films being too long nowadays, running at well over two-hours when really they could easily be 1.5 hours. This film could have done with some more fleshing out - especially with some of the more minor characters.

I think this was more to do with them cramming quite a lengthy arc in. The title is super ex-girlfriend, but it's a surprisingly log time before she actually become ex. Perhaps if it had started closer to that point they would have had more time to devote to some of the characters.

The worst hit by this is Eddie Izzard's character, who is ostensibly the bad guy. But the thing is we don't really see him doing anything bad, as such, and he's pretty poorly fleshed out. There's kinda reason for that because of the end, but still, that whole side of it is quite unsatisfying.

I was also slightly prejudiced against the film in that when I read Kevin Smith's recent diary book he indicated that he'd basically had the same idea at a similar time but had not gotten his arse in gear to make the film. As such, because I'm such a fan of Smith I couldn't help wondering if his take wouldn't have been a lot better - even though this wasn't really bad as such.

Extras were a bit flimsy, I have to say - a couple of featurretes, basically.

Still, if you're after a rom-com that's not too heavy and a bit different from the norm then this is a pretty good film to go for, I think.

my super ex-girlfriend

I knew I'd forgotten to blog about something, and it was the rental DVD I watched this last weekend - My Super Ex Girlfriend.

As ideas for films go, this one's a pretty good one. It's pretty much all contained in the title so it doesn't need much explanation from me.

It's essentially a rom-com, as you'd expect, but with the twist that one of the girls is super-powered. The character is played by Uma Thurman, who I kinda have issues with. She's hot looking, but I don't really rate her as an actress; however, having said that I thought this was about one of the best performances I've seen her give.

The other actors were all top-notch and the characters were generally great. I also thought that the basic plotting was pretty good, although for me it was a little under-done. Normally I complain about films being too long nowadays, running at well over two-hours when really they could easily be 1.5 hours. This film could have done with some more fleshing out - especially with some of the more minor characters.

I think this was more to do with them cramming quite a lengthy arc in. The title is super ex-girlfriend, but it's a surprisingly log time before she actually become ex. Perhaps if it had started closer to that point they would have had more time to devote to some of the characters.

The worst hit by this is Eddie Izzard's character, who is ostensibly the bad guy. But the thing is we don't really see him doing anything bad, as such, and he's pretty poorly fleshed out. There's kinda reason for that because of the end, but still, that whole side of it is quite unsatisfying.

I was also slightly prejudiced against the film in that when I read Kevin Smith's recent diary book he indicated that he'd basically had the same idea at a similar time but had not gotten his arse in gear to make the film. As such, because I'm such a fan of Smith I couldn't help wondering if his take wouldn't have been a lot better - even though this wasn't really bad as such.

Extras were a bit flimsy, I have to say - a couple of featurretes, basically.

Still, if you're after a rom-com that's not too heavy and a bit different from the norm then this is a pretty good film to go for, I think.

treading water

It feels a lot like I'm just treading water until the Chrimbo holidays at the moment.

My first day of proper holiday is the 22nd, but with the weekend before it means my last day of work is on the 19th, so there's only next week to go.

Also, the office is now virtually dead - most everybody's on contract so that adds to the "end of term" feeling.

I've also kinda become disinterested in doing much of anything in my spare time and I think that's down to the approaching holidays too. I keep finding myself thinking "well, why bother doing it now - I can do it when I'm off in a couple of weeks."

Trouble with that, of course, is that I'm going to have tonnes to do over Christmas and New Year (what with it being Christmas and New Year :/) so it's not good for me to put off even more stuff to do then as well.

What makes it all worse if I'm so bloody tired - it's really difficult to get a good nights sleep when it's so cold like this. I may just break the bank and get more electricity (I'm on a meter thing) so I can at least not freeze to death - bugger the financials, I'll sort that out later.

scratchy throat

Been in the wars a bit lately

Yesterday the muscles in my groin were really aching. I've no idea why, though my suspicion was the horribly uncomfortable chairs they have at the pub we had Chrimbo lunch at. They're okay if you're just having a normal lunch, but we were there for the best part of 3 hours.

They seem a heck of a lot better today though - just a little bit of twingyness.

However, today I've woken up with a really scratchy throat. There could be a variety of reasons for this, ranging from the fact it's sub-zero in my room at night (I can't afford the heating) to the one I'm most afraid of - that I'm coming down with a cold.

Unfortunately, several people at the Chrimbo do did seem to have colds, so I could well have picked the germs up there :(.

I'd really hate it if I've got a cold - the weather's rubbish as it is, I don't need a disease making me feel horrible too :/.

tap that!

So break out the party streamers and the booze juice - my work colleague who taps his feet all the bloody time is gone. Well, by that I mean is he's on contract somewhere and so will no longer be driving me insane with his thumper impression for at least 6 months. Six whole months of blissful tap-free-ness! Huzzah!

It was the company Christmas lunch yesterday. The food was all perfectly reasonable, but it wasn't all that much fun. The problem is I think the bosses had decided to use it as a sort of networking opportunity so there were loads of people who I've never met there before.

Which is okay, I guess, but I'd have preferred a smaller thing - we occupied the entire room and it was a bit bewildering when all you want to do is cram down some turkey and Christmas pud.

Still, it's a lot better than nothing, which is what I understand a lot of companies are doing with the whole credit crunch thing.

holy shit it's cold

It's been absolutely freezing the last couple of days - I mean really sub-zero, brass-monkeys type cold.

Fundamentally I quite like cold weather - or at least given the choice between massively hot or cold I'd go for the cold. There are various reasons for this, but basically the whole thing of being in a toasty warm house and looking at on frozen scenes really appeals to me.

The key there is being warm inside. However, wear I live this is really difficult to achieve. Basically the heating I have is electric and it costs a fortune to have on - I mean literally if I have it on all day in weather like this it would cost me about £20 a day, which is a horrendous amount.

So I try to avoid heating the whole place, just heating the living room instead. I also try to wear more clothes so that there's less need to have the heating on full boar, but it can be a little sufffocating wrapped up in ten layers of shirts and jumpers.

Anyway, the point of this is I kinda don't like it when it's cold where I'm living now - it's a bit of a pain.

I tried to get the artbook scanning finished this w/end, but didn't quite succeed. Partly I was hampered by the cold - my computer is in one of the colder corners in the living room (I need to buy a new heater for the corner, I think) but also it was jst fatiguing.

The good news I now only have 1 artbook left and I've actually started it. The bad news is it's huge (around 125 scans!) so I doubt I'll get it done before the weekend.

I've grown a little tired of scanning as well, and may well have reached something of a mental blockade - I wouldn't be surprisde if I just stop now until somewhere around chrimbo time when I'm on holiday.

To give you some idea of how much scanning I've been doing I sampled all of these shows across the end of last week and the weekend:

• To Aru Majutsu no Index was surprisingly good. There seems to be a surfeit of shows that fall into the "echii romantic-comedy" category this season and I'd say this was one of the better ones. It also seemed to have quite a bit going for it besides the whole rom-com thing and it's extremely well animated.
• Toradora! was also surprisingly good. This again is another echii romantic comedy, although the echii-ness is actually fairly light. It's also got an interesting set of lead characters and a nice misdirect in that at the start they're not interested in each other. How this develops will presumably make the show a bit more interesting than the usual fair. It was also well animated again.
• Kannagi was okay. This was the third of the rom-com type shows I tackled almost in a row and it may therefore be a little bit of fatigue on my part but this didn't quite peak my interest in the way the other two did. I think it's because it's slightly more "standard" than the others - there didn't seem to be anything to make it stand out particularly. However, it was again very well animated. I dunno if it's just a weird co-incidence or the order I've watched them in, but the Autumn '08 shows all seem to be quite well animated.
• Kyou no Go no was okay. Think Azumanga Daioh but a little more realistic and you're pretty much there. I think the kids in this are a little younger, but it's essentially the same sort of idea - it's a slice of life job and they're in school and the stuff in the episodes happens during the breaks between lessons or at lunch or after school, etc. It's quite good, but I dunno it felt slightly too light for me. Plus there's a stylistic thing they do with serious faces (it's difficult to explain) that didn't really appeal to me.
• ef - a tale of melodies was okay. This is basically a sequel to ef - a tale of memories and if you liked that show then I'm sure you'd like this one. However, I didn't really like it so it didn't really do much for me. I'd say I found this less annoying, but not enough to elevate the series overall. Plus it still had that whole weird angles, bizarre effects and odd pacing that I found tedious in memories.

Blimey!

the end draws near

So yeah, I've been continuing apace with the whole scanning thing. Come the weekend I will only have 3 artbooks left to scan. They're quite big books though, so I dunno if I'll get them finished, but I'm gonna give it a go.

That won't be the end of all scanning ever - the new megami turned up Wednesday, for example, and there's those old magazines I bought that I should scan in before chucking anyway.

Plus there's the big stash of old foreign manga that I decided to scan before also throwing away. I decided to chuck them mainly because they take up so much space that I don't have, but I thought scanning them would alleviate my guilt a bit. Trouble is, of course, that means loads more stuff to scan. The upside is that I can get 4 manga pages on my A4 scanner, so they can be quite quick to do.

While scanning this week I've been watching:

• Kuroshitsuji was okay, I guess. I dunno, maybe I went into this with too many expectations, but it felt a little flat. It didn't help that the support characters are all bloody annoying and that the tone shifts all over the place from slapstick and stupid comedy to being really dark and serious. Sometimes that can work, but here it felt like a mess. Also, it's one of those with a big dark secret that's constantly hinted at - when that kicks in maybe it will be better, but there wasn't enough to make me want to find out.
• Kurozuka which was awesome. It's a bit melodramatic if I was to make one criticism, but that's quite deliberate. Plus the story is all about mysticism and people being immortal and stuff, so it kinda fits. But it also has scifi - it's just plain really good. Although it is just a little violent and sexy, so if those things aren't for you (you weirdo) then it may not be your bag.