So this week I've not really gotten up to much - well, other than spending all that money I don't really have that is. I've been trying to watch more of the telly shows I normally record and then watch over the weekend.
I don't normally talk about all the telly I watch on here for some reason. I think that's partly because I'm such a PVR-whore. A PVR if you don't know is basically the digital/modern world equivalent of a VCR. It stands for Personal Video Recorder and does pretty much what it says - records programmes for you.
Only unlike a VCR, which uses magnetic tape, it does so to a hard drive. PVRs are actually the miracle that has spawned the modern anime fansub industry. In Japan, the fans PVR the anime shows (one thing we don't often realise in the west is that even though anime is on TV, it's often shown very late at night) and then make them available via peer-2-peer networks and Usenet type services.
Generally speaking they don't do this for western fans, though I understand there are some who do it on behalf of us westerners, but those are mainly western ex-pats. The Japanese fans do it to share with each other and the fansubbers just make use of the availability of it and add the subtitles.
Anyway, the point is that a while back I got digital telly. I bought quite an expensive model of decoder and it has a PVR built into it. Now during the week there are a variety of shows on that I want to watch, but because of a combination of work, eating, the time I go to bed and the types of stuff I actually fancy doing in the evenings, I tend to PVR everything.
That then means that I'm out of step with programmes, but it also means that at the weekends I watch a huge amount of telly. So much in fact that on the average Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning that's essentially all I do.
It's at its worst over the winter months as you get a lot more stuff on during winter. Over summer you get more sports stuff for one thing, but because people are expected to be out more in the evening, dramas and stuff tend to dry up too.
But this week I've been trying to get ahead of myself, watch more stuff as it's aired, rather than have a big stack at the weekend. Hopefully that'll free up some time at the weekend as I've a couple things I need to get done.
Anyway, the point of this blog wasn't really all of the above - what I wanted to do was moan about something.
Basically, two of my favourite shows are The Shield, which is a sorta-cop show and 30Rock a comedy show. They're both American and both air on channel 5. Or at least they used to - now they're being aired on 5Us (or something like that).
See as I mentioned there are more channels on digital, but quite a few of them are from the same broadcasters, so you have E4 and More4 and BBC3 and BBC4 and one of five's is 5US.
Now that's all well and good, except that my reception of 5's channels is really touch-and-go.
At the moment the digital broadcasts are "turned down" - they're not as powerful as they will be when they turn the analogue broadcasts off, because otherwise they'd interfere.
So that means that 5's signal strength is really borderline. I dunno if you've ever tried to watch poor-signal digital telly but it's impossible. With normal analogue what happens is it gets static and maybe the sound hisses, but it's still just about watchable. With digital it's more like a threshold - it'll be fine and then suddenly *boom* it's totally unwatchable because the picture and sound break up.
And that's what I've discovered with The Shield and 30Rock.
Now I would be buying DVDs of them anyway, admittedly, but they won't be out for months I imagine. What a pain in the arse.
Friday, 27 February 2009
Thursday, 26 February 2009
splooge
I've kinda splooged money away this last week.
To be fair, it's not entirely my fault as such. And they are things I need or have to get. Plus I have managed to hold back on going totally nuts with spending.
What am I on about?
Well, basically this year my Dad turns 65. So this is something of a special birthday anyway and on top of that we, the family, have got a special trip planned (more on that at a later date). So as part of that it seemed an opportune time to get him a particular gift that's special to the event and his birthday.
Me and my sister are going halves on it, but I've actually bought the items in question, so that was big pay out number one. Actually technically, it's not finished as we need to get some supporting bits, but I think I'm going to shop around in the "real world" as I think I need to actually see them up close to some extent.
Now really my Dad's birthday isn't until October and we've also decided to use the money we would normally spend at Christmas as well. However, because of when the trip is, we needed to get the stuff early and I'd noticed some good deals (credit crunch seems to be having some benefits :/) so I took the plunge this week.
The other big spend was one I had to make. Well, actually, I didn't have to get what I did - I could have spent a lot less - but it seemed daft taking a step down from my current model if I was getting a new one.
Not sure why I was being so cryptic there - unlike the present I'm perfectly free to tell you I got a new monitor for my computer. What I got was a 24 inch widescreen LCD monitor.
It's really rather spiffing, although I had a Dickens of a time getting the base on. I ended up having to grease the attachment bit so it would slip on, but before that I think I pulled a muscle in my arm I was pushing to hard to get it on :(.
The monitor is really bright and clear - almost painfully so in a dark room with it up high. I had to turn it down quite a bit to make it comfortable. Also, the big thing I was worried about with it was colour reproduction.
There seems to be something of an issue with LCD/flat panel type monitors in that the colour reproduction varies wildly. On some monitors what can appear to be a dark red just becomes black on another. However, in my experience, colour on Samsung monitors is really good, so I got one of those and I tried it out and I can't tell any difference in colour with my old monitor.
Yes, my old monitor does still technically work, but here's the thing - it's started making a really loud "squeaking" noise. It's like a really high pitched buzzing - I'm sure you've heard electrical equipment make such noises. The problem of course is it becomes staggeringly annoying when you're sat working at you pc for hours and it's squeaking like that. Especially since it's not constant - it goes up and down in volume and pitch.
So that's why I got the new monitor. I got a really big widescreen one because they're dirt cheap. This one literally only cost a smidge over £200 - for a 24 inch widescreen monitor! It's 1920 & 1200 res - that's huge, and for only two-hundred quid! Marvellous.
My real problem, though is I still have lots more expenses coming up.
Firstly, it's my sister's 30th this year (I know - my Dad's 65th and my sister's 30th all in one year. How poor timing is that?) and so I'll need to spend a good couple of hundred on that.
Plus the other problem is this trip - I need to get loads of stuff for that. I never really go on proper holidays, so I don't even have a suitcase, for example. Plus I want (or need, since these ones are scratched) some new glasses for then and they're not cheap. Well, the frames are okay, it's lenses that are expensive as I have a high prescription and have to get the special glass to make them thin or it looks like I'm wearing double glazing.
And on top of that in March car stuff will be due - car tax, insurance and service. Service won't be so bad as the deal I had was to get that for free for 3 years, but I'm pretty sure my car will need a new set of tyres and those certainly won't be free.
But also, like some sort of idiot-that-doesn't-actually-have-the-money-but-is-going-to-spend-it-anyway I've a hankering to buy the latest versions of Photoshop and painter, as well as upgrade to Vista.
To be fair, it's not entirely my fault as such. And they are things I need or have to get. Plus I have managed to hold back on going totally nuts with spending.
What am I on about?
Well, basically this year my Dad turns 65. So this is something of a special birthday anyway and on top of that we, the family, have got a special trip planned (more on that at a later date). So as part of that it seemed an opportune time to get him a particular gift that's special to the event and his birthday.
Me and my sister are going halves on it, but I've actually bought the items in question, so that was big pay out number one. Actually technically, it's not finished as we need to get some supporting bits, but I think I'm going to shop around in the "real world" as I think I need to actually see them up close to some extent.
Now really my Dad's birthday isn't until October and we've also decided to use the money we would normally spend at Christmas as well. However, because of when the trip is, we needed to get the stuff early and I'd noticed some good deals (credit crunch seems to be having some benefits :/) so I took the plunge this week.
The other big spend was one I had to make. Well, actually, I didn't have to get what I did - I could have spent a lot less - but it seemed daft taking a step down from my current model if I was getting a new one.
Not sure why I was being so cryptic there - unlike the present I'm perfectly free to tell you I got a new monitor for my computer. What I got was a 24 inch widescreen LCD monitor.
It's really rather spiffing, although I had a Dickens of a time getting the base on. I ended up having to grease the attachment bit so it would slip on, but before that I think I pulled a muscle in my arm I was pushing to hard to get it on :(.
The monitor is really bright and clear - almost painfully so in a dark room with it up high. I had to turn it down quite a bit to make it comfortable. Also, the big thing I was worried about with it was colour reproduction.
There seems to be something of an issue with LCD/flat panel type monitors in that the colour reproduction varies wildly. On some monitors what can appear to be a dark red just becomes black on another. However, in my experience, colour on Samsung monitors is really good, so I got one of those and I tried it out and I can't tell any difference in colour with my old monitor.
Yes, my old monitor does still technically work, but here's the thing - it's started making a really loud "squeaking" noise. It's like a really high pitched buzzing - I'm sure you've heard electrical equipment make such noises. The problem of course is it becomes staggeringly annoying when you're sat working at you pc for hours and it's squeaking like that. Especially since it's not constant - it goes up and down in volume and pitch.
So that's why I got the new monitor. I got a really big widescreen one because they're dirt cheap. This one literally only cost a smidge over £200 - for a 24 inch widescreen monitor! It's 1920 & 1200 res - that's huge, and for only two-hundred quid! Marvellous.
My real problem, though is I still have lots more expenses coming up.
Firstly, it's my sister's 30th this year (I know - my Dad's 65th and my sister's 30th all in one year. How poor timing is that?) and so I'll need to spend a good couple of hundred on that.
Plus the other problem is this trip - I need to get loads of stuff for that. I never really go on proper holidays, so I don't even have a suitcase, for example. Plus I want (or need, since these ones are scratched) some new glasses for then and they're not cheap. Well, the frames are okay, it's lenses that are expensive as I have a high prescription and have to get the special glass to make them thin or it looks like I'm wearing double glazing.
And on top of that in March car stuff will be due - car tax, insurance and service. Service won't be so bad as the deal I had was to get that for free for 3 years, but I'm pretty sure my car will need a new set of tyres and those certainly won't be free.
But also, like some sort of idiot-that-doesn't-actually-have-the-money-but-is-going-to-spend-it-anyway I've a hankering to buy the latest versions of Photoshop and painter, as well as upgrade to Vista.
splooge
I've kinda splooged money away this last week.
To be fair, it's not entirely my fault as such. And they are things I need or have to get. Plus I have managed to hold back on going totally nuts with spending.
What am I on about?
Well, basically this year my Dad turns 65. So this is something of a special birthday anyway and on top of that we, the family, have got a special trip planned (more on that at a later date). So as part of that it seemed an opportune time to get him a particular gift that's special to the event and his birthday.
Me and my sister are going halves on it, but I've actually bought the items in question, so that was big pay out number one. Actually technically, it's not finished as we need to get some supporting bits, but I think I'm going to shop around in the "real world" as I think I need to actually see them up close to some extent.
Now really my Dad's birthday isn't until October and we've also decided to use the money we would normally spend at Christmas as well. However, because of when the trip is, we needed to get the stuff early and I'd noticed some good deals (credit crunch seems to be having some benefits :/) so I took the plunge this week.
The other big spend was one I had to make. Well, actually, I didn't have to get what I did - I could have spent a lot less - but it seemed daft taking a step down from my current model if I was getting a new one.
Not sure why I was being so cryptic there - unlike the present I'm perfectly free to tell you I got a new monitor for my computer. What I got was a 24 inch widescreen LCD monitor.
It's really rather spiffing, although I had a Dickens of a time getting the base on. I ended up having to grease the attachment bit so it would slip on, but before that I think I pulled a muscle in my arm I was pushing to hard to get it on :(.
The monitor is really bright and clear - almost painfully so in a dark room with it up high. I had to turn it down quite a bit to make it comfortable. Also, the big thing I was worried about with it was colour reproduction.
There seems to be something of an issue with LCD/flat panel type monitors in that the colour reproduction varies wildly. On some monitors what can appear to be a dark red just becomes black on another. However, in my experience, colour on Samsung monitors is really good, so I got one of those and I tried it out and I can't tell any difference in colour with my old monitor.
Yes, my old monitor does still technically work, but here's the thing - it's started making a really loud "squeaking" noise. It's like a really high pitched buzzing - I'm sure you've heard electrical equipment make such noises. The problem of course is it becomes staggeringly annoying when you're sat working at you pc for hours and it's squeaking like that. Especially since it's not constant - it goes up and down in volume and pitch.
So that's why I got the new monitor. I got a really big widescreen one because they're dirt cheap. This one literally only cost a smidge over £200 - for a 24 inch widescreen monitor! It's 1920 & 1200 res - that's huge, and for only two-hundred quid! Marvellous.
My real problem, though is I still have lots more expenses coming up.
Firstly, it's my sister's 30th this year (I know - my Dad's 65th and my sister's 30th all in one year. How poor timing is that?) and so I'll need to spend a good couple of hundred on that.
Plus the other problem is this trip - I need to get loads of stuff for that. I never really go on proper holidays, so I don't even have a suitcase, for example. Plus I want (or need, since these ones are scratched) some new glasses for then and they're not cheap. Well, the frames are okay, it's lenses that are expensive as I have a high prescription and have to get the special glass to make them thin or it looks like I'm wearing double glazing.
And on top of that in March car stuff will be due - car tax, insurance and service. Service won't be so bad as the deal I had was to get that for free for 3 years, but I'm pretty sure my car will need a new set of tyres and those certainly won't be free.
But also, like some sort of idiot-that-doesn't-actually-have-the-money-but-is-going-to-spend-it-anyway I've a hankering to buy the latest versions of Photoshop and painter, as well as upgrade to Vista.
To be fair, it's not entirely my fault as such. And they are things I need or have to get. Plus I have managed to hold back on going totally nuts with spending.
What am I on about?
Well, basically this year my Dad turns 65. So this is something of a special birthday anyway and on top of that we, the family, have got a special trip planned (more on that at a later date). So as part of that it seemed an opportune time to get him a particular gift that's special to the event and his birthday.
Me and my sister are going halves on it, but I've actually bought the items in question, so that was big pay out number one. Actually technically, it's not finished as we need to get some supporting bits, but I think I'm going to shop around in the "real world" as I think I need to actually see them up close to some extent.
Now really my Dad's birthday isn't until October and we've also decided to use the money we would normally spend at Christmas as well. However, because of when the trip is, we needed to get the stuff early and I'd noticed some good deals (credit crunch seems to be having some benefits :/) so I took the plunge this week.
The other big spend was one I had to make. Well, actually, I didn't have to get what I did - I could have spent a lot less - but it seemed daft taking a step down from my current model if I was getting a new one.
Not sure why I was being so cryptic there - unlike the present I'm perfectly free to tell you I got a new monitor for my computer. What I got was a 24 inch widescreen LCD monitor.
It's really rather spiffing, although I had a Dickens of a time getting the base on. I ended up having to grease the attachment bit so it would slip on, but before that I think I pulled a muscle in my arm I was pushing to hard to get it on :(.
The monitor is really bright and clear - almost painfully so in a dark room with it up high. I had to turn it down quite a bit to make it comfortable. Also, the big thing I was worried about with it was colour reproduction.
There seems to be something of an issue with LCD/flat panel type monitors in that the colour reproduction varies wildly. On some monitors what can appear to be a dark red just becomes black on another. However, in my experience, colour on Samsung monitors is really good, so I got one of those and I tried it out and I can't tell any difference in colour with my old monitor.
Yes, my old monitor does still technically work, but here's the thing - it's started making a really loud "squeaking" noise. It's like a really high pitched buzzing - I'm sure you've heard electrical equipment make such noises. The problem of course is it becomes staggeringly annoying when you're sat working at you pc for hours and it's squeaking like that. Especially since it's not constant - it goes up and down in volume and pitch.
So that's why I got the new monitor. I got a really big widescreen one because they're dirt cheap. This one literally only cost a smidge over £200 - for a 24 inch widescreen monitor! It's 1920 & 1200 res - that's huge, and for only two-hundred quid! Marvellous.
My real problem, though is I still have lots more expenses coming up.
Firstly, it's my sister's 30th this year (I know - my Dad's 65th and my sister's 30th all in one year. How poor timing is that?) and so I'll need to spend a good couple of hundred on that.
Plus the other problem is this trip - I need to get loads of stuff for that. I never really go on proper holidays, so I don't even have a suitcase, for example. Plus I want (or need, since these ones are scratched) some new glasses for then and they're not cheap. Well, the frames are okay, it's lenses that are expensive as I have a high prescription and have to get the special glass to make them thin or it looks like I'm wearing double glazing.
And on top of that in March car stuff will be due - car tax, insurance and service. Service won't be so bad as the deal I had was to get that for free for 3 years, but I'm pretty sure my car will need a new set of tyres and those certainly won't be free.
But also, like some sort of idiot-that-doesn't-actually-have-the-money-but-is-going-to-spend-it-anyway I've a hankering to buy the latest versions of Photoshop and painter, as well as upgrade to Vista.
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
aliens v predator: requiem
The weekends DVD rental was Aliens v Predator: Requiem (or AVPRR as they rather sensibly re-named it).
I'm not sure I'd quite go so far as to say it was poor, but it wasn't great either.
Let's start with the positive - there were some fairly good fight scenes between the aliens and predator. There was also an appropriate aliens/predator total disregard for the humans approach.
One of the points of aliens and predator is that they're actually more horror than they are sci-fi and that means characters die randomly and in bucket loads, whether we as viewers like them or not.
It also tried a fairly neat trick - plopping the aliens and predators down in the middle of domestic life. The rest of plot was meant to resemble a soap-opera or similar and then bam! aliens and predators hacking and slashing their way through the town.
And there's a fairly cool coda/prologue type moment at the end.
However, the problems were myriad.
Firstly and most importantly it was way too dark. My guess is that this was almost necessary due to budgetary constraints. The film only cost $40M, so I guess making it pitch black means you can get away with more on the SFX front. Problem is that meant it was frustratingly difficult to see, well, anything. I had to slam the brightness way up on my TV :/.
Secondly, the whole normal suburban life thing kinda failed to be interesting. The characters were a little dull and predictable and it was difficult to really care about them. This whole aspect also seemed to be dumped wholesale about half the way through. When the aliens and predator really start doing there thing this aspect becomes almost totally irrelevant.
There were also a lot of weird things that didn't make any sense, mainly involving the predator.
At the beginning there's a whole thing with a distress signal. This is only answered by 1 predator, which seemed odd.
Then that predator behaves oddly when he finds the crashed ship, like he knew one of the other predators personally, but it's not really properly explained.
He then also behaves strangely when killing the aliens, using some weird blue fluid to dissolve them and any trace of them. Why, exactly he does this is not readily apparent. No predator has ever done anything like that before :/.
And if it's so that the humans don't catch on, firstly that makes no sense - predators don't give a shit about us - but also later on he kills a human and does the whole skinning them thing. So it's okay for humans to find that, but not traces of the aliens? Odd.
There's other stuff too (especially the Peed-Alien), but you get the point.
Overall I wouldn't really recommend it.
I'm not sure I'd quite go so far as to say it was poor, but it wasn't great either.
Let's start with the positive - there were some fairly good fight scenes between the aliens and predator. There was also an appropriate aliens/predator total disregard for the humans approach.
One of the points of aliens and predator is that they're actually more horror than they are sci-fi and that means characters die randomly and in bucket loads, whether we as viewers like them or not.
It also tried a fairly neat trick - plopping the aliens and predators down in the middle of domestic life. The rest of plot was meant to resemble a soap-opera or similar and then bam! aliens and predators hacking and slashing their way through the town.
And there's a fairly cool coda/prologue type moment at the end.
However, the problems were myriad.
Firstly and most importantly it was way too dark. My guess is that this was almost necessary due to budgetary constraints. The film only cost $40M, so I guess making it pitch black means you can get away with more on the SFX front. Problem is that meant it was frustratingly difficult to see, well, anything. I had to slam the brightness way up on my TV :/.
Secondly, the whole normal suburban life thing kinda failed to be interesting. The characters were a little dull and predictable and it was difficult to really care about them. This whole aspect also seemed to be dumped wholesale about half the way through. When the aliens and predator really start doing there thing this aspect becomes almost totally irrelevant.
There were also a lot of weird things that didn't make any sense, mainly involving the predator.
At the beginning there's a whole thing with a distress signal. This is only answered by 1 predator, which seemed odd.
Then that predator behaves oddly when he finds the crashed ship, like he knew one of the other predators personally, but it's not really properly explained.
He then also behaves strangely when killing the aliens, using some weird blue fluid to dissolve them and any trace of them. Why, exactly he does this is not readily apparent. No predator has ever done anything like that before :/.
And if it's so that the humans don't catch on, firstly that makes no sense - predators don't give a shit about us - but also later on he kills a human and does the whole skinning them thing. So it's okay for humans to find that, but not traces of the aliens? Odd.
There's other stuff too (especially the Peed-Alien), but you get the point.
Overall I wouldn't really recommend it.
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
the wee free men
I finished the wee free men over the weekend. It's pretty damn good I have to say. I've started on Wintersmith, which is the third of this set of books and it seems pretty good too.
I've always liked the Discworld's take on Witches. I think it's one of the things I miss the most from the earlier books. A lot of the earlier books involved both the witches and the wizards and while I wouldn't want to put down the later books simply because the witches aren't in them, I wish they'd pop up more often.
The wizards make a few appearances, but then Unseen University is on the outskirts of Ankh Morpork, so it's not much of a stretch. The witches seem mainly to live in the rural areas and most of the recent books have been set in Ankh Morpork so it's less easy to have them pop up, I guess.
Hopefully I can also keep up a decent head of steam with book reading and plough into my unread book pile some. If I'm honest it's the pile that I'm most regretful about not tackling. Reading is kinda my lifeblood - sort of like entertainment in its purest form for me.
The next most regretful pile is the games I think. This is mainly because I know the amount of time it would take to play them all through properly makes it the most difficult pile to tackle properly. Plus of course I've got a really powerful machine "for gaming" that just sort of sits there doing nothing most of the time :(.
I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I've been trying to write scripts recently, rather than a novel. It's been going pretty well and I'm kinda enjoying the process more than I do writing prose.
I started off with doing Man-in-the-Loop, which has generally been my most consistent project, though it's a bit complex and twisty at times for me to get my head around. Plus I realised I wanted the murders in it to be more realistic and I think I need to let it gestate a bit more before I continue properly.
I have started adapting another plot idea I had into a film script, though. It's going pretty well, but then it was always one of those ideas that I had quite well mapped out in my mind but never got properly started on actually writing.
Oh, and I forgot to mention yesterday, but that order cock-up I mentioned last week got all sorted so that was good, and I want' out of pocket. Plus now I finally get to watch Code Geass ! Yay!
I've always liked the Discworld's take on Witches. I think it's one of the things I miss the most from the earlier books. A lot of the earlier books involved both the witches and the wizards and while I wouldn't want to put down the later books simply because the witches aren't in them, I wish they'd pop up more often.
The wizards make a few appearances, but then Unseen University is on the outskirts of Ankh Morpork, so it's not much of a stretch. The witches seem mainly to live in the rural areas and most of the recent books have been set in Ankh Morpork so it's less easy to have them pop up, I guess.
Hopefully I can also keep up a decent head of steam with book reading and plough into my unread book pile some. If I'm honest it's the pile that I'm most regretful about not tackling. Reading is kinda my lifeblood - sort of like entertainment in its purest form for me.
The next most regretful pile is the games I think. This is mainly because I know the amount of time it would take to play them all through properly makes it the most difficult pile to tackle properly. Plus of course I've got a really powerful machine "for gaming" that just sort of sits there doing nothing most of the time :(.
I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I've been trying to write scripts recently, rather than a novel. It's been going pretty well and I'm kinda enjoying the process more than I do writing prose.
I started off with doing Man-in-the-Loop, which has generally been my most consistent project, though it's a bit complex and twisty at times for me to get my head around. Plus I realised I wanted the murders in it to be more realistic and I think I need to let it gestate a bit more before I continue properly.
I have started adapting another plot idea I had into a film script, though. It's going pretty well, but then it was always one of those ideas that I had quite well mapped out in my mind but never got properly started on actually writing.
Oh, and I forgot to mention yesterday, but that order cock-up I mentioned last week got all sorted so that was good, and I want' out of pocket. Plus now I finally get to watch Code Geass ! Yay!
Monday, 23 February 2009
website-a-rific
This weekend was mainly spent creating updates for my main websites, trismugistus.com and digital-bondage.net.
It can be something of a painful experience updating the websites. This is mainly because I don't really know much of anything about html or all the other web languages. My guess is that a lot of stuff on the sites could be done in much better, more automatic ways, but I don't know how, so they aren't.
The other problem is I like to mix things up. By that I mean that if this week I upload an anime review then next week I want to have anew wallpaper and then after that a manga review, then a psd file.
Admittedly that's not a huge range of stuff, but then over the years I've kinda learnt to focus the site on a few small areas. However, it still makes things chaotic, because that means I'm all over the place. In order to update something different I have to fiddle about with a different bit of the site (and also get the raw materials from a different part of my computer) and so I get very confused very quickly.
I swear sometimes that updating the site is 90% me looking in the wrong folders and 10% me actually doing stuff.
You see what I generally do is create the material I use on my site weeks, even months in advance. This allows me the chance to do it properly as well as allow things to gestate and change over time.
I then have a weekend like this one every so often where I blast through and do maybe anything up to 10 updates. The new and modified files for each update are then archived (and backed up - I learnt that lesson the hard way!) and I upload them at the appropriate time anything up to a few months later.
But as I say - it's easy to get very confused.
What else?
Oh yeah, I finally finished Trigun. It gets massively better in the last third or so, but for me it was just not enough to elevate the series.
Fundamentally, I guess the question comes down to whether the early stuff is necessary or not. Some of it is, in that it gives a contrast to the later parts. You couldn't jump into the last third and really get the full impact. But then I think you could easily loose about half of it and still get the impact.
I mean, it's not exactly filler, as such, but it's also not totally necessary.
Also, there was the issue I mentioned before about Vash suddenly pulling a stupid face and bursting out laughing at random or inopportune moments. That grated a bit.
I'll do a full review at some point.
It was quite the week for big announcements last week, as I mentioned before, and Funimation finished it off with Mnemosyne, another show I want.. Plus tokyopop appear to have a few new licenses that look interesting. I'm gonna be really skint in the coming months :(.
It can be something of a painful experience updating the websites. This is mainly because I don't really know much of anything about html or all the other web languages. My guess is that a lot of stuff on the sites could be done in much better, more automatic ways, but I don't know how, so they aren't.
The other problem is I like to mix things up. By that I mean that if this week I upload an anime review then next week I want to have anew wallpaper and then after that a manga review, then a psd file.
Admittedly that's not a huge range of stuff, but then over the years I've kinda learnt to focus the site on a few small areas. However, it still makes things chaotic, because that means I'm all over the place. In order to update something different I have to fiddle about with a different bit of the site (and also get the raw materials from a different part of my computer) and so I get very confused very quickly.
I swear sometimes that updating the site is 90% me looking in the wrong folders and 10% me actually doing stuff.
You see what I generally do is create the material I use on my site weeks, even months in advance. This allows me the chance to do it properly as well as allow things to gestate and change over time.
I then have a weekend like this one every so often where I blast through and do maybe anything up to 10 updates. The new and modified files for each update are then archived (and backed up - I learnt that lesson the hard way!) and I upload them at the appropriate time anything up to a few months later.
But as I say - it's easy to get very confused.
What else?
Oh yeah, I finally finished Trigun. It gets massively better in the last third or so, but for me it was just not enough to elevate the series.
Fundamentally, I guess the question comes down to whether the early stuff is necessary or not. Some of it is, in that it gives a contrast to the later parts. You couldn't jump into the last third and really get the full impact. But then I think you could easily loose about half of it and still get the impact.
I mean, it's not exactly filler, as such, but it's also not totally necessary.
Also, there was the issue I mentioned before about Vash suddenly pulling a stupid face and bursting out laughing at random or inopportune moments. That grated a bit.
I'll do a full review at some point.
It was quite the week for big announcements last week, as I mentioned before, and Funimation finished it off with Mnemosyne, another show I want.. Plus tokyopop appear to have a few new licenses that look interesting. I'm gonna be really skint in the coming months :(.
Friday, 20 February 2009
free and easy
It looks like this weekend I'm going to have a lot of spare time in the sense that there's nothing I've got to do.
Hopefully that means I'll have some time to sort out various odds and sods I've got kicking about. Examples are things like getting a couple of walls and vectors finished that are 'nearly there' and making some more updates for my websites.
Speaking of websites I had a request the other day to pull my finger out and get scan-city moving. Only problem there is I need to pay for some extra webspace for what I've got planned and, more importantly, I need to get a much newer version of photoshop. Both of these mean I need to get a replacement credit card - I chopped them all up when I was having my severe financial troubles last year.
I should also really get watching some anime DVDs (not least of all so I can sell them e-bay, speaking of money troubles :/). stuff has started to fall out of my shelves again where they're so overloaded.
It's been quite a good week on the anime front from one point of view. Funimation has been announcing new licenses like crazy (presumably at comicon, or a similar event in American). Early in the week these include Dragonaut the Resonance, Bamboo Blade, the Aegis of Uruk (but both series) and blassreiter.
These put me in something of a quandary. Dragonaut and Bamboo Blade I'll definitely pick up (eek - more money) and Blassreiter I'm pretty okay just to leave as having watched it online. However, Aegis of Uruk was really quite good and I'd quite like to be ablse to sit down and watch it properly on the telly.
See this is the problem with downloads for me. They'll never be quite as good as DVDs. I just prefer to watch DVDs... but I've already seen (and, more importantly, paid for) the first part of Aegis of Uruk. I dunno. I'll have to think about it.
What I wil definitely be getting is Seto No Hanayome. This was one of the funniest shows I've seen in ages and I've been eagerly waiting to see if someone would pick i tup. Of less interest is El Cazador de la Bruja. Basically it was by the same people that did Noir and Madlax. Not seen Madlax, but Noir was poor in my opionion, and Bruja didn't seem to stray much from the same basic formula.
That's on top of a few other really good shows I want coming on sale like Baccano and Clannad... I thought the anime industry in the west was meant to be in terminal freefall :/.
And talking about anime, I've spent the evenings this week scanning animedia and animage (both of which had a surprisingly good scan count - I thought this month was goign to be a total duffer), and I watched some new anime shows:
And on top of that I need a new PC monitor!
Hopefully that means I'll have some time to sort out various odds and sods I've got kicking about. Examples are things like getting a couple of walls and vectors finished that are 'nearly there' and making some more updates for my websites.
Speaking of websites I had a request the other day to pull my finger out and get scan-city moving. Only problem there is I need to pay for some extra webspace for what I've got planned and, more importantly, I need to get a much newer version of photoshop. Both of these mean I need to get a replacement credit card - I chopped them all up when I was having my severe financial troubles last year.
I should also really get watching some anime DVDs (not least of all so I can sell them e-bay, speaking of money troubles :/). stuff has started to fall out of my shelves again where they're so overloaded.
It's been quite a good week on the anime front from one point of view. Funimation has been announcing new licenses like crazy (presumably at comicon, or a similar event in American). Early in the week these include Dragonaut the Resonance, Bamboo Blade, the Aegis of Uruk (but both series) and blassreiter.
These put me in something of a quandary. Dragonaut and Bamboo Blade I'll definitely pick up (eek - more money) and Blassreiter I'm pretty okay just to leave as having watched it online. However, Aegis of Uruk was really quite good and I'd quite like to be ablse to sit down and watch it properly on the telly.
See this is the problem with downloads for me. They'll never be quite as good as DVDs. I just prefer to watch DVDs... but I've already seen (and, more importantly, paid for) the first part of Aegis of Uruk. I dunno. I'll have to think about it.
What I wil definitely be getting is Seto No Hanayome. This was one of the funniest shows I've seen in ages and I've been eagerly waiting to see if someone would pick i tup. Of less interest is El Cazador de la Bruja. Basically it was by the same people that did Noir and Madlax. Not seen Madlax, but Noir was poor in my opionion, and Bruja didn't seem to stray much from the same basic formula.
That's on top of a few other really good shows I want coming on sale like Baccano and Clannad... I thought the anime industry in the west was meant to be in terminal freefall :/.
And talking about anime, I've spent the evenings this week scanning animedia and animage (both of which had a surprisingly good scan count - I thought this month was goign to be a total duffer), and I watched some new anime shows:
- Sora Kake Girl was kinda good actually. It's definitely not a show I would describe as new or innovative, but I dunno, it seemed to have a certain charm to it. Plus it had jiggle and jiggle can count for a lot, although the character designs are a little unusual, but not in an un-appealing way. Dunno, maybe I'm going a bit soft.
- Asu no Yoichi might also be more confirmation that I'm goign soft. As far as I can make out the title actually translates as "Samurai Harem" or similar. To say it's therefore wearing its heart on its sleave is therefore something of an understatement - it's all there in the title. But do you know what, it's actually pretty good. And I think I know why - the main chracter isn't a douche bag. He's nice and kind but also tough and a good fighter. You can kinda see why the girls might like him. Plus it's agot a lot of good gags in it and - you guessed it - more jiggle. Did I mention jiggle can count for a lot?
And on top of that I need a new PC monitor!
Thursday, 19 February 2009
abandoned ideas 3
Third one of these as I'm just not in the mood to type out a proper blog entry, I'm afraid.
It's weird - yesterday I was totally "up" and full of energy. Today I feel like I've come "down" off of the high and feel a bit listless :/.
box
This was one where I got so lost in my own ideas I confused the crap out of myself.
Basically, the idea was sort of a riff on Hellraiser. If you're not familiar with Hellraiser, basically there's a puzzle box in it that, if you solve it it opens a doorway to hell. However, being Clive Barker, it's a bit more twisted, but I won't spoiler it.
Anyway, my box wasn't a puzzle box or anything, it was essentially just a symbolic thing. This was partly where I managed to confuse myself. It was partly that people just had a desire to possess the box (a la the ring in the Lord of the Rings, I guess) but also it kinda granted wishes.
But I wasn't sure if you had to gain the box in order to have your wish granted or if you got the box having had your wish granted. But either way possession of the box then brought disaster via the granted wish. So a bit like the classic Monkey's Paw story - granted wishes are bad, in essence.
Anyway, the structure was also a horrible minefield. The idea was it was effectively going to be a series of short stories. One was set back in medieval sword and sorcery type times. It was about a knight who was delivering a warning message or something - basically he had to get to a castle.
His wish revolved around being in love with the Queen and killing the King. It never really got much further than that.
The second story was about a detective with a death-wish. It was something to do with a bunch of drug dealers who had the box. Quite what his wish was and that side of it never really coalesced as I didn't get that far.
Lastly was something to do with an "average Jo" type. See there was basically going to be some witch or demon or something that, I dunno, tempted people or she was the one granting their wishes or something.
The end was that she got her comeuppance - Jo resisted the temptation of having his wish fulfilled and instead killed or something.
I dunno. As you can see it got a bit complicated and I realised I just didn't really know what I was doing. Even the basic idea of what the box did never really solidified into anything.
It's weird - yesterday I was totally "up" and full of energy. Today I feel like I've come "down" off of the high and feel a bit listless :/.
box
This was one where I got so lost in my own ideas I confused the crap out of myself.
Basically, the idea was sort of a riff on Hellraiser. If you're not familiar with Hellraiser, basically there's a puzzle box in it that, if you solve it it opens a doorway to hell. However, being Clive Barker, it's a bit more twisted, but I won't spoiler it.
Anyway, my box wasn't a puzzle box or anything, it was essentially just a symbolic thing. This was partly where I managed to confuse myself. It was partly that people just had a desire to possess the box (a la the ring in the Lord of the Rings, I guess) but also it kinda granted wishes.
But I wasn't sure if you had to gain the box in order to have your wish granted or if you got the box having had your wish granted. But either way possession of the box then brought disaster via the granted wish. So a bit like the classic Monkey's Paw story - granted wishes are bad, in essence.
Anyway, the structure was also a horrible minefield. The idea was it was effectively going to be a series of short stories. One was set back in medieval sword and sorcery type times. It was about a knight who was delivering a warning message or something - basically he had to get to a castle.
His wish revolved around being in love with the Queen and killing the King. It never really got much further than that.
The second story was about a detective with a death-wish. It was something to do with a bunch of drug dealers who had the box. Quite what his wish was and that side of it never really coalesced as I didn't get that far.
Lastly was something to do with an "average Jo" type. See there was basically going to be some witch or demon or something that, I dunno, tempted people or she was the one granting their wishes or something.
The end was that she got her comeuppance - Jo resisted the temptation of having his wish fulfilled and instead killed or something.
I dunno. As you can see it got a bit complicated and I realised I just didn't really know what I was doing. Even the basic idea of what the box did never really solidified into anything.
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
the number 23
This weekend's DVD rental was The Number 23, starring Jim Carrey.
To be brutally frank from the get-go, it was a total waste of the hour-and-a-half it took to watch.
And to be fair it started quite well. Well, I say that - the very opening titles were too reminiscent of Seven, which is a truly brilliant suspense thriller, whereas this is just not.
Anyway, after the credits the beginning of the story works quite well. Carrey's growing obsession with the book he acquires and the number 23 works. You can sort of see where he's coming from and it works on a basic level. Although even here there are some problems - the whole dog issue especially is never really explained or followed up on properly.
Also, the entire plot seems to revolve around a massive co-incidence. I think this was sort of intentional, but it's not really very well solved. There would have been so many better ways of achieving the same effect.
The real problems kicked in about half-way through. These mainly revolved around what I can only describe as plot-holes.
Just as a simple example, Carrey's gets told to take the day off (for medical type reasons) fairly early on and this is where his obsession really starts to grow. Fine, that's okay. But then by two-thirds of the way through he doesn't appear to be going to his job at all. And yet he never calls in sick. And no-one calls him up or pops around to see if he's ill (we're talking friendly small town setting here, I believe). And his wife and son never mention it to him - they mention the obsession but there's no "why the hell aren't you at work?".
As I say, that's just a simple example - some of the plot-holes you could fit an entire motel through (that makes sense as a pun if you've seen the film).
Let's see, what else was wrong?
Well, Carrey's performance wasn't great. I like Jim Carrey as a comic actor - I think he's very funny. He also did a great performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, so he can do dramatic. It's just here, I dunno, the pitch was wrong - the character started out quite jolly and as the madness ensued it seemed like he couldn't quite throw that off. I kept expecting him to turn to camera and make a silly face.
But really the biggest problem was the ending of the film.
I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that I was expecting one of two things, given it's about "23". Either it would turn out that yes, in fact 23 is an important number or there really was a conspiracy or some explanation that validated it. Or it would turn out that Carrey was totally bonkers.
The actual end was somewhere in between - both were sort of true, and yet at the same time neither was.
This was wholly unsatisfactory on just about every level. It didn't even have the good graces to set us up with some sort of doubt/question or undermine itself. It was just sort of a bit lame.
To be brutally frank from the get-go, it was a total waste of the hour-and-a-half it took to watch.
And to be fair it started quite well. Well, I say that - the very opening titles were too reminiscent of Seven, which is a truly brilliant suspense thriller, whereas this is just not.
Anyway, after the credits the beginning of the story works quite well. Carrey's growing obsession with the book he acquires and the number 23 works. You can sort of see where he's coming from and it works on a basic level. Although even here there are some problems - the whole dog issue especially is never really explained or followed up on properly.
Also, the entire plot seems to revolve around a massive co-incidence. I think this was sort of intentional, but it's not really very well solved. There would have been so many better ways of achieving the same effect.
The real problems kicked in about half-way through. These mainly revolved around what I can only describe as plot-holes.
Just as a simple example, Carrey's gets told to take the day off (for medical type reasons) fairly early on and this is where his obsession really starts to grow. Fine, that's okay. But then by two-thirds of the way through he doesn't appear to be going to his job at all. And yet he never calls in sick. And no-one calls him up or pops around to see if he's ill (we're talking friendly small town setting here, I believe). And his wife and son never mention it to him - they mention the obsession but there's no "why the hell aren't you at work?".
As I say, that's just a simple example - some of the plot-holes you could fit an entire motel through (that makes sense as a pun if you've seen the film).
Let's see, what else was wrong?
Well, Carrey's performance wasn't great. I like Jim Carrey as a comic actor - I think he's very funny. He also did a great performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, so he can do dramatic. It's just here, I dunno, the pitch was wrong - the character started out quite jolly and as the madness ensued it seemed like he couldn't quite throw that off. I kept expecting him to turn to camera and make a silly face.
But really the biggest problem was the ending of the film.
I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that I was expecting one of two things, given it's about "23". Either it would turn out that yes, in fact 23 is an important number or there really was a conspiracy or some explanation that validated it. Or it would turn out that Carrey was totally bonkers.
The actual end was somewhere in between - both were sort of true, and yet at the same time neither was.
This was wholly unsatisfactory on just about every level. It didn't even have the good graces to set us up with some sort of doubt/question or undermine itself. It was just sort of a bit lame.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
making money
I finished reading Making Money this weekend.
It's an excellent read - I wouldn't want what I'm about to say undermine that. It's genuinely very funny in places, and it has a good portion of Pratchett's usual wry observations on life, the universe and everything.
The only real problem I had with it was that the actual plot seemed a little thin, somehow.
The book is the second featuring Moist Von Lipwig. As well as having a great name, Moist is a great character - very entertaining and intriguing - and unfortunately I've a bit of a feeling that Pratchett got too wrapped up in this great character to the detriment of the actual plot.
Let's put it this was - Going Postal, the first with Moist, was probably one of the best Discworld books for a while. It kinda restored my faith in Pratchett as I'd be growing a little disillusioned by him focusing too much on the city watch and Sam Vimes in particular. Not that I don't love Vimes and the watch, it was just getting to the stage where the discworld books were almost becoming like a "whodunit" series.
There's nothing wrong with those, I must add, it's just that they were a bit samey, where really the Discworld thrives when it's exploring the new.
Anyway, Going Postal was all about Moist reinvigorating the Ankh-Morpork Postal service. But one of the key things about it was that the Post Office had a whole raft of different problems. Most had to solve all these, as well as him introducing all sorts of clever new ideas (this is what I mean about where the discworld thrives - the ideas are new to the discworld, but are already familiar to us and so give Terry a chance to be anything from ironic, through clever all the way up to outright critical).
The fundamental principle in all stories is that they are about change. Now as well as the changes in the post office itself, Moist went through a change. I won't spoiler it if you don't know, but lets just say he grew into his new life.
The problem with Making Money then is that these two things are a little lacking. Moist doesn't really change. I mean, he acquires a new job and goes through a load of scrapes but as a person he pretty much comes out at the end fundamentally the same as when he went in.
Also, he doesn't really change the whole banking world very much. His only real thing is the introduction of paper money. I mean, there's other stuff which I don't want to spoiler, but really the paper money was about it. Whereas in Going Postal there were loads.
Plus the bank in question isn't really in trouble as such where the post office really was. I mean it's hinted that the Ankh-Morpork banks aren't doing well, but not in any real tangible way like the Post Office.
But as I say, don't take it that I didn't enjoy the book - I really did, it's just some bits felt a little flimsy was all.
I've also started on Pratchett's The Wee Free Men. This is actually a children's book set on the Discworld. I'd not read any of Pratchett's children's books, but a while back I read A Hatful of Sky (which is the sequel) and really enjoyed it, so I though I'd pick this up. Plus there's a further sequel, Wintersmith.
I'm fair racing through the wee free men. Partly I guess that's because it's a children's book and is therefore both shorter and a little easier to read, but also it's an interesting reflection on how if a book is enjoyable you read it quicker.
I mention this because a while back I encountered another one of those books that really turned me off reading. The book in question was The Dark Apostle (or something like that). It's set in the Warhammer 40K world and it's really a chore to read.
The plot' okay, but the execution of it is really poor - it does everything you're not supposed to do in writing (like telling not showing - all that stuff). Now that's okay you may think - rules are there to be broken, but let's just put it this way: you need to know what the rules are before you break them.
I've still not finished actually - I'm kinda wondering if I shouldn't just e-bay it and save myself the grief.
It's an excellent read - I wouldn't want what I'm about to say undermine that. It's genuinely very funny in places, and it has a good portion of Pratchett's usual wry observations on life, the universe and everything.
The only real problem I had with it was that the actual plot seemed a little thin, somehow.
The book is the second featuring Moist Von Lipwig. As well as having a great name, Moist is a great character - very entertaining and intriguing - and unfortunately I've a bit of a feeling that Pratchett got too wrapped up in this great character to the detriment of the actual plot.
Let's put it this was - Going Postal, the first with Moist, was probably one of the best Discworld books for a while. It kinda restored my faith in Pratchett as I'd be growing a little disillusioned by him focusing too much on the city watch and Sam Vimes in particular. Not that I don't love Vimes and the watch, it was just getting to the stage where the discworld books were almost becoming like a "whodunit" series.
There's nothing wrong with those, I must add, it's just that they were a bit samey, where really the Discworld thrives when it's exploring the new.
Anyway, Going Postal was all about Moist reinvigorating the Ankh-Morpork Postal service. But one of the key things about it was that the Post Office had a whole raft of different problems. Most had to solve all these, as well as him introducing all sorts of clever new ideas (this is what I mean about where the discworld thrives - the ideas are new to the discworld, but are already familiar to us and so give Terry a chance to be anything from ironic, through clever all the way up to outright critical).
The fundamental principle in all stories is that they are about change. Now as well as the changes in the post office itself, Moist went through a change. I won't spoiler it if you don't know, but lets just say he grew into his new life.
The problem with Making Money then is that these two things are a little lacking. Moist doesn't really change. I mean, he acquires a new job and goes through a load of scrapes but as a person he pretty much comes out at the end fundamentally the same as when he went in.
Also, he doesn't really change the whole banking world very much. His only real thing is the introduction of paper money. I mean, there's other stuff which I don't want to spoiler, but really the paper money was about it. Whereas in Going Postal there were loads.
Plus the bank in question isn't really in trouble as such where the post office really was. I mean it's hinted that the Ankh-Morpork banks aren't doing well, but not in any real tangible way like the Post Office.
But as I say, don't take it that I didn't enjoy the book - I really did, it's just some bits felt a little flimsy was all.
I've also started on Pratchett's The Wee Free Men. This is actually a children's book set on the Discworld. I'd not read any of Pratchett's children's books, but a while back I read A Hatful of Sky (which is the sequel) and really enjoyed it, so I though I'd pick this up. Plus there's a further sequel, Wintersmith.
I'm fair racing through the wee free men. Partly I guess that's because it's a children's book and is therefore both shorter and a little easier to read, but also it's an interesting reflection on how if a book is enjoyable you read it quicker.
I mention this because a while back I encountered another one of those books that really turned me off reading. The book in question was The Dark Apostle (or something like that). It's set in the Warhammer 40K world and it's really a chore to read.
The plot' okay, but the execution of it is really poor - it does everything you're not supposed to do in writing (like telling not showing - all that stuff). Now that's okay you may think - rules are there to be broken, but let's just put it this way: you need to know what the rules are before you break them.
I've still not finished actually - I'm kinda wondering if I shouldn't just e-bay it and save myself the grief.
Monday, 16 February 2009
we are the losers, my friend
Well, it turns out we didn't get that piece of work I was edging around talking about on Friday.
This was actually the same piece of work I mentioned a little while ago. I've never seen such a palaver in all my life, I have to be honest. Really it's made so little sense I'd better just draw a line under it all, otherwise I'll start ranting and then I could wind up in trouble if this blog ever came to light :/.
The weekend was fairly useful. I didn't completely do everything I was aiming for, but then my plans are often quite over ambitious. I'm a bit rubbish at knowing how long some of the things are going to take and also allowing enough leeway.
One thing I did do was some scanning - I got through megami and newtype. Newtype is always the biggest mag each month and so often has the most scans, although this month it's a bit rubbish so that's not as impressive as it sounds.
While I was scanning I watched the end of Blassreiter. It's a pretty good ending. Well, no, that's not quite right - the ending proper was quite good, but then the prologue/coda was trite rubbish. It also didn't make a whole lot of sense, but ignoring that it wasn't a bad end to the show. If only those first few episodes had been better and the budget hadn't just gone on all the CG instead of the normal enaimation I think I'd like the show more.
The other thing I watched was Akikan. It was... odd. At heart it's basically a harem-type romantic comedy, but it was odd because it's also slightly surreal, though not in a good way. First off the idea was that the girl that turns up wasn't the usual alien or robot, but instead it was a drinks can. Yes, as in the can that holds coke or dr. pepper, only in this case it was melon soda. So the guy's meant to be falling in love with a drink's can that somehow turns into a girl... mmkay.
Also, it didn't help that every other element of the show is stepping right into cliche. In fact, no, that's not quite the impression I had. The impression that I got was more like the writer had simply taking all of his favourite things (harem, the "sudden girlfriend" type of show, lesbians, the OTT gay letch that hits on the main character, fighting contests/tournaments, main characters that are toal bell-ends (okay I'm prejudicing that a bit)) stuck them altogther with gaffer tape, seen a niche in the market (drinks cans ... :/) and toe-punted something into that niche.
As you can see I wasn't very keen at all. And I got through all that without even mentioning the piss poor animation!
This was actually the same piece of work I mentioned a little while ago. I've never seen such a palaver in all my life, I have to be honest. Really it's made so little sense I'd better just draw a line under it all, otherwise I'll start ranting and then I could wind up in trouble if this blog ever came to light :/.
The weekend was fairly useful. I didn't completely do everything I was aiming for, but then my plans are often quite over ambitious. I'm a bit rubbish at knowing how long some of the things are going to take and also allowing enough leeway.
One thing I did do was some scanning - I got through megami and newtype. Newtype is always the biggest mag each month and so often has the most scans, although this month it's a bit rubbish so that's not as impressive as it sounds.
While I was scanning I watched the end of Blassreiter. It's a pretty good ending. Well, no, that's not quite right - the ending proper was quite good, but then the prologue/coda was trite rubbish. It also didn't make a whole lot of sense, but ignoring that it wasn't a bad end to the show. If only those first few episodes had been better and the budget hadn't just gone on all the CG instead of the normal enaimation I think I'd like the show more.
The other thing I watched was Akikan. It was... odd. At heart it's basically a harem-type romantic comedy, but it was odd because it's also slightly surreal, though not in a good way. First off the idea was that the girl that turns up wasn't the usual alien or robot, but instead it was a drinks can. Yes, as in the can that holds coke or dr. pepper, only in this case it was melon soda. So the guy's meant to be falling in love with a drink's can that somehow turns into a girl... mmkay.
Also, it didn't help that every other element of the show is stepping right into cliche. In fact, no, that's not quite the impression I had. The impression that I got was more like the writer had simply taking all of his favourite things (harem, the "sudden girlfriend" type of show, lesbians, the OTT gay letch that hits on the main character, fighting contests/tournaments, main characters that are toal bell-ends (okay I'm prejudicing that a bit)) stuck them altogther with gaffer tape, seen a niche in the market (drinks cans ... :/) and toe-punted something into that niche.
As you can see I wasn't very keen at all. And I got through all that without even mentioning the piss poor animation!
Friday, 13 February 2009
day of truth
Potentially there's some big news at work today, assuming things go as planned.
It involves either a 'yes' or a 'no' and part of me is quite keen on it being a yes, whereas another part of me quite wants it to be a no.
I know that's all a bit cryptic, but it's a business thing so I dunno if putting it into the public domain is a good idea.
This weekend will be an expensive and long-winded one I fear. The snow's really played havoc with... well everything, but one of the things has been the postal system. As such I've been getting loads of parcels and stuff quite late. Two of them appear to be more stuff from Japan and I've been hit with customs charges on them.
Interestingly, I'm collecting these from Farnham post office. Normally I pick them up from the depot in Aldershot. Not sure what that means (other than that the charges seem to be cheaper this time).
But also the couriers tried to deliver the latest newtype, animedia and animage to me but left one of those 'missed you' notes. Luckily they always try redelivery the next day, so hopefully my landlord will be in to collect, but if not, it probably means a drive over to Reading (which is bloody miles away).
I'll need to go shopping on Saturday morning too, which will be a big one as the whole snow cut-off thing means I've not been able to shop properly for several weeks. On the plus side this meant I've cleared out some older stuff from the cupboards/freezer that needed eating, but then it also means I've used up all sorts of bits and bobs that now need replacing in one hit.
I think I'll therefore probably try to do as little else that involves spending money over the weekend as possible. I certainly need to give the place a good clean, so I'll probably do that.
I did actually find a work-around for the whole Civ3 space-race victory bug by searching online, btw. It was to do with the movie it tries to play - I guess there's some incompatibility or other with XP or something. But that means I won that game, although I do seem to still be playing (if you win early it lets you play on) but my interest has waned.
I'm hoping therefore this weekend will basically be Civ-less and I can crack into loads of stuff (especially finishing bloomin trigun and blassreiter!). But then best laid plans and all that :/.
Oh, I forgot - another thing the snow seems to have knackered is the roads. The roads around Alton are in a shocking state. I'm assuming it's the snow and not the heavy rain we had, though it could be a combination of both.
But anyway, great big holes seem to have been gouged in the roads, with loads of loose gravel from them. It's odd, but it kinda reminds me of geography lessons and the whole "glaciation" type of weathering, where glaciers grind rocks along. But I'm sure this is more about the snow affecting where cars could drive and how they drove.
It involves either a 'yes' or a 'no' and part of me is quite keen on it being a yes, whereas another part of me quite wants it to be a no.
I know that's all a bit cryptic, but it's a business thing so I dunno if putting it into the public domain is a good idea.
This weekend will be an expensive and long-winded one I fear. The snow's really played havoc with... well everything, but one of the things has been the postal system. As such I've been getting loads of parcels and stuff quite late. Two of them appear to be more stuff from Japan and I've been hit with customs charges on them.
Interestingly, I'm collecting these from Farnham post office. Normally I pick them up from the depot in Aldershot. Not sure what that means (other than that the charges seem to be cheaper this time).
But also the couriers tried to deliver the latest newtype, animedia and animage to me but left one of those 'missed you' notes. Luckily they always try redelivery the next day, so hopefully my landlord will be in to collect, but if not, it probably means a drive over to Reading (which is bloody miles away).
I'll need to go shopping on Saturday morning too, which will be a big one as the whole snow cut-off thing means I've not been able to shop properly for several weeks. On the plus side this meant I've cleared out some older stuff from the cupboards/freezer that needed eating, but then it also means I've used up all sorts of bits and bobs that now need replacing in one hit.
I think I'll therefore probably try to do as little else that involves spending money over the weekend as possible. I certainly need to give the place a good clean, so I'll probably do that.
I did actually find a work-around for the whole Civ3 space-race victory bug by searching online, btw. It was to do with the movie it tries to play - I guess there's some incompatibility or other with XP or something. But that means I won that game, although I do seem to still be playing (if you win early it lets you play on) but my interest has waned.
I'm hoping therefore this weekend will basically be Civ-less and I can crack into loads of stuff (especially finishing bloomin trigun and blassreiter!). But then best laid plans and all that :/.
Oh, I forgot - another thing the snow seems to have knackered is the roads. The roads around Alton are in a shocking state. I'm assuming it's the snow and not the heavy rain we had, though it could be a combination of both.
But anyway, great big holes seem to have been gouged in the roads, with loads of loose gravel from them. It's odd, but it kinda reminds me of geography lessons and the whole "glaciation" type of weathering, where glaciers grind rocks along. But I'm sure this is more about the snow affecting where cars could drive and how they drove.
Thursday, 12 February 2009
growing intolerance
Recently I've found myself becoming more and more annoyed at religion.
I've never understood religion. I've never believed in a God or the supernatural on any level. To me they make wonderful stories, but nothing more. I lend no more credence to the idea of werewolves, ghosts or vampires actually existing than I do to the idea of God existing.
To me all these things reflect is the wonderful power of the human imagination. To me that's the miraculous and amazing thing, not the idea that there's some supreme being.
There are quite a few varieties of religion of course and on some levels I can understand why some people have a belief in "something". For some people I can understand that desire/need/hope. I don't personally think it's valid. I can believe that next week I'm going to win the lottery, that belief doesn't therefore mean it's going to happen, which to me seems the logical flaw in most religion.
Somehow words like "faith" and "belief" have a sort of get-out clause when it comes to the rational world. It sometimes seems that the rational and the scientific, the empirical and the proof are supposed to take a back seat when it comes to matters of religion. To me, this is patently ridiculous and also on some levels dangerous.
All things must be subject to rationality and the burden of proof. That's what it means to be alive. I don't run across motorways because I've been exposed to sufficient proof that by doing so I'm exposing myself to an unnecessary (and high) risk of death. Things in life need proof and rationality.
This is something of a sea-change for me. I used to say that I had no objections to other people believing in whatever they wanted. Nowadays I find myself less tolerant.
I think I'm still okay with people who believe in "something" or that leave the door open, as it were - as I say, I can understand this, even if it is silly - what I don't like is organised religions. Especially the main single-God faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
I'd never go so far as to trot out the old "religions cause wars". I think that lacks a certain understanding of the nature people. People struggle for power. Religion is and was always just a convenient way of manipulating people to do what you want in order to get/secure power for those at the top.
There's a good parallel with patriotism. Patriotism is essentially illogical, but it can be used to get people to join up to the military to fight wars - look especially at World War 1. Now is that the fault of patriotism itself, or the fault of those people in power who abused patriotism to get people to sign up?
However, what I do lay firmly at Religion's door is it's unequivocal nature. There's no compromise in these religions. Whilst those of us who are atheist are expected to allow others to believe what they want and give them the room and facilities to pray to whatever fictional friend they like, the very heart of those same religions is that if you do not believe then you are going to hell.
It is also the job of believers to convert people to their religion. That's what it's all about. Salvation through belief and faith.
So now I think the same way - salvation through atheism, rationality and science.
Note I'm not advocating "belief" in science or "belief" in atheism. It's a common mistake people make, but these things do not require your belief, since they are fact; whereas religion does.
I've never understood religion. I've never believed in a God or the supernatural on any level. To me they make wonderful stories, but nothing more. I lend no more credence to the idea of werewolves, ghosts or vampires actually existing than I do to the idea of God existing.
To me all these things reflect is the wonderful power of the human imagination. To me that's the miraculous and amazing thing, not the idea that there's some supreme being.
There are quite a few varieties of religion of course and on some levels I can understand why some people have a belief in "something". For some people I can understand that desire/need/hope. I don't personally think it's valid. I can believe that next week I'm going to win the lottery, that belief doesn't therefore mean it's going to happen, which to me seems the logical flaw in most religion.
Somehow words like "faith" and "belief" have a sort of get-out clause when it comes to the rational world. It sometimes seems that the rational and the scientific, the empirical and the proof are supposed to take a back seat when it comes to matters of religion. To me, this is patently ridiculous and also on some levels dangerous.
All things must be subject to rationality and the burden of proof. That's what it means to be alive. I don't run across motorways because I've been exposed to sufficient proof that by doing so I'm exposing myself to an unnecessary (and high) risk of death. Things in life need proof and rationality.
This is something of a sea-change for me. I used to say that I had no objections to other people believing in whatever they wanted. Nowadays I find myself less tolerant.
I think I'm still okay with people who believe in "something" or that leave the door open, as it were - as I say, I can understand this, even if it is silly - what I don't like is organised religions. Especially the main single-God faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
I'd never go so far as to trot out the old "religions cause wars". I think that lacks a certain understanding of the nature people. People struggle for power. Religion is and was always just a convenient way of manipulating people to do what you want in order to get/secure power for those at the top.
There's a good parallel with patriotism. Patriotism is essentially illogical, but it can be used to get people to join up to the military to fight wars - look especially at World War 1. Now is that the fault of patriotism itself, or the fault of those people in power who abused patriotism to get people to sign up?
However, what I do lay firmly at Religion's door is it's unequivocal nature. There's no compromise in these religions. Whilst those of us who are atheist are expected to allow others to believe what they want and give them the room and facilities to pray to whatever fictional friend they like, the very heart of those same religions is that if you do not believe then you are going to hell.
It is also the job of believers to convert people to their religion. That's what it's all about. Salvation through belief and faith.
So now I think the same way - salvation through atheism, rationality and science.
Note I'm not advocating "belief" in science or "belief" in atheism. It's a common mistake people make, but these things do not require your belief, since they are fact; whereas religion does.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Black Christmas
I didn't have a rental DVD to watch this week, due mainly to the weather, so I watched this film I'd recorded over Christmas.
It's actually really old - 1974 if memory serves - but it's quite good. I think they remade it recently, which seems to be quite a trend. I think they're remaking both Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street too.
I guess it's because the remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween must have done okay box-office wise. Dunno, it seems a bit ill-conceived to me.
Anyway, Black Christmas is a bit of an odd beast. The killer in it appears to be a truly deranged psychotic and he's pretty scary. There's lots of point-of-view camera work where he stalks around, for example. Also the scariest bits are these mad phone calls he makes where he rants and raves in weird voices and makes animal sounds.
I think also these are meant to provide you with some of the back story to his character. Some of the stuff he says hints that he was an abused child and stuff.
The problem is this doesn't really make sense. I mean, it's not like he behaves normally at all, and yet the flashes we get of him he seems to have a decent (70's) haircut and wears fairly new clothes. He also seems clean and presentable (very neat nails, for example) - how would he be like that if he's a total nut job?
I think what they were trying to do was sell a red herring to the audience about who the killer is supposed to be. The problem is that although this red herring is believable for the characters it isn't for us. Given some of the stuff we've seen it makes no sense as a red herring and so doesn't really provide any kind of scares.
There's also a lot of stuff that doesn't quite make sense. It's like one of the dead bodies is basically next to a window and although that window is for an attic it's weird that nobody sees it at all.
There are also quite a few moments where the noise of a murder is meant to be disguised by another sound, like carollers singing (it's set at Christmas if you hadn't guessed) but these don't really add up. Carollers aren't that loud.
Plus some of the ways people behave don't quite make sense.
I'm probably being too harsh here - it was a low budget psycho-killer film before such things were commonplace and as far as the actual killings go they're pretty good. It's just it seemed a bit long and with some long gaps between the murders that were filled with some stuff that didn't quite make sense.
It's actually really old - 1974 if memory serves - but it's quite good. I think they remade it recently, which seems to be quite a trend. I think they're remaking both Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street too.
I guess it's because the remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween must have done okay box-office wise. Dunno, it seems a bit ill-conceived to me.
Anyway, Black Christmas is a bit of an odd beast. The killer in it appears to be a truly deranged psychotic and he's pretty scary. There's lots of point-of-view camera work where he stalks around, for example. Also the scariest bits are these mad phone calls he makes where he rants and raves in weird voices and makes animal sounds.
I think also these are meant to provide you with some of the back story to his character. Some of the stuff he says hints that he was an abused child and stuff.
The problem is this doesn't really make sense. I mean, it's not like he behaves normally at all, and yet the flashes we get of him he seems to have a decent (70's) haircut and wears fairly new clothes. He also seems clean and presentable (very neat nails, for example) - how would he be like that if he's a total nut job?
I think what they were trying to do was sell a red herring to the audience about who the killer is supposed to be. The problem is that although this red herring is believable for the characters it isn't for us. Given some of the stuff we've seen it makes no sense as a red herring and so doesn't really provide any kind of scares.
There's also a lot of stuff that doesn't quite make sense. It's like one of the dead bodies is basically next to a window and although that window is for an attic it's weird that nobody sees it at all.
There are also quite a few moments where the noise of a murder is meant to be disguised by another sound, like carollers singing (it's set at Christmas if you hadn't guessed) but these don't really add up. Carollers aren't that loud.
Plus some of the ways people behave don't quite make sense.
I'm probably being too harsh here - it was a low budget psycho-killer film before such things were commonplace and as far as the actual killings go they're pretty good. It's just it seemed a bit long and with some long gaps between the murders that were filled with some stuff that didn't quite make sense.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
wrong order
Don't you hate when someone gets your order wrong?
I guess it happens most often in restaurants and places like that, but what I'm referring to specifically is on-line ordering. This is one of the big advantages of shopping in the real world - you know exactly what it is you're buying and you hand over your cash in exchange for that.
Also, if something goes wrong when you get home or whatever you've talked a real human who probably remembers you and, if you're sensible you've kept the receipt and you can just take it back.
One of the problems with being an anime fan is that you can't buy that much of it in the shops. Especially if you're an English fan like me. I like anime and I tend to buy a lot of it (too much, really) but that means I have to buy a lot of American (DVD region 1) stuff.
I have imported directly, but the problem there is you tend to get hit for customs occasionally and that's not cheap (see my posts about figurines I've bought that customs nabbed and made me pay VAT on - the VAT's not to bad, the fact that the Post Office charge 3 times as much again to "process" it for you is the real killer). So what I do instead is use certain sites that import the DVDs themselves and then sell them on.
I won't actually name names as obviously this post is about them making a mistake because really I still like them. See, the main problem is that I kinda understand the error they've made it's quite an easy one to have made.
Basically, I'm a huge fan of Code Geass and I've been desperately looking forward to the release of Geass on DVD by Bandai who hold the licence in American. The problem is that Bandai have make a huge mess of releasing it on DVD.
It was delayed for some reason and has taken a good while to come out (Gurren Lagann was out in Japan at a similar time and that's already been released). When it did come out there was some huge technical cock up that meant the first lot of disks were buggered.
They also released it in a confusing array of sets - there was supposed to be a single DVD box-set, but that was apparently cancelled (although it seemed to turn up later, but I'd already got the individual one by then). They were also releasing them as individual DVDs - so we're talking 6 individual DVD boxes. But then on top of that they're releasing them as three 2-DVD sets. So DVDs 1 & 2 in one box, 3 & 4 in one box and 5 & 6 in one box.
Okay, fine I thought - I bought the individual DVDs as that just seemed simpler to me. However, now the time has rolled around for disks 5 & 6 to be released, but there's no sign of them. However, the 3rd of the 2-DVD boxes has come out.
(Confused yet? You'll understand why the company made the error then!)
So I ordered that (as I say, I'm too desperate to watch the show to wait).
And recently this company sent it to me... only they didn't. What they've actually done is send me the third individual DVD, not the 3rd box set!
I wouldn't mind too much if they were the same price - I'd just forget about it and do another order. However, they aren't - the box set is more expensive than the individual one.
Trouble is I'd already ripped the cellophane off before I'd realised :(.
See this is why I hate it when people get your order wrong - because things get horribly complicated.
I guess it happens most often in restaurants and places like that, but what I'm referring to specifically is on-line ordering. This is one of the big advantages of shopping in the real world - you know exactly what it is you're buying and you hand over your cash in exchange for that.
Also, if something goes wrong when you get home or whatever you've talked a real human who probably remembers you and, if you're sensible you've kept the receipt and you can just take it back.
One of the problems with being an anime fan is that you can't buy that much of it in the shops. Especially if you're an English fan like me. I like anime and I tend to buy a lot of it (too much, really) but that means I have to buy a lot of American (DVD region 1) stuff.
I have imported directly, but the problem there is you tend to get hit for customs occasionally and that's not cheap (see my posts about figurines I've bought that customs nabbed and made me pay VAT on - the VAT's not to bad, the fact that the Post Office charge 3 times as much again to "process" it for you is the real killer). So what I do instead is use certain sites that import the DVDs themselves and then sell them on.
I won't actually name names as obviously this post is about them making a mistake because really I still like them. See, the main problem is that I kinda understand the error they've made it's quite an easy one to have made.
Basically, I'm a huge fan of Code Geass and I've been desperately looking forward to the release of Geass on DVD by Bandai who hold the licence in American. The problem is that Bandai have make a huge mess of releasing it on DVD.
It was delayed for some reason and has taken a good while to come out (Gurren Lagann was out in Japan at a similar time and that's already been released). When it did come out there was some huge technical cock up that meant the first lot of disks were buggered.
They also released it in a confusing array of sets - there was supposed to be a single DVD box-set, but that was apparently cancelled (although it seemed to turn up later, but I'd already got the individual one by then). They were also releasing them as individual DVDs - so we're talking 6 individual DVD boxes. But then on top of that they're releasing them as three 2-DVD sets. So DVDs 1 & 2 in one box, 3 & 4 in one box and 5 & 6 in one box.
Okay, fine I thought - I bought the individual DVDs as that just seemed simpler to me. However, now the time has rolled around for disks 5 & 6 to be released, but there's no sign of them. However, the 3rd of the 2-DVD boxes has come out.
(Confused yet? You'll understand why the company made the error then!)
So I ordered that (as I say, I'm too desperate to watch the show to wait).
And recently this company sent it to me... only they didn't. What they've actually done is send me the third individual DVD, not the 3rd box set!
I wouldn't mind too much if they were the same price - I'd just forget about it and do another order. However, they aren't - the box set is more expensive than the individual one.
Trouble is I'd already ripped the cellophane off before I'd realised :(.
See this is why I hate it when people get your order wrong - because things get horribly complicated.
Monday, 9 February 2009
civ3 adventures
Well, as I predicted/feared I spent almost all of the weekend playing Civ3.
To be entirely fair this wasn't all my fault. Saturday morning I went out to check on how the weather situation was and the basic headline was "extremely cold". This meant that the slush and snow that was left on the road that connects us to the estate had frozen solid and was therefore as slippery as fuck.
That meant I was pretty much trapped indoors. The sun did come out on both Saturday and Sunday and even though it never really warmed up, the sun tends to melt the snow despite that.
Now the honest thing of me to do would have been to do something practical or useful. There were lots of options
I could have watched some anime. I'm on the verge of finishing both Trigun and Blassreiter, for example. This would also have been a good thing because I need to realise some capital - heating my place doesn't come cheap and sellig a few anime bits on e-bay would go a lone way to help.
I could also have watched some fansubs while scanning the new megami. This would have put me ahead of the game, as it were - never a bad thing.
Another option would have been to watch some normal box sets or DVDs - I've loads of them kicking about too. Or I could have done some walling - I'm literally on the very cusp of finishing several walls. And for that matter I could have worked on some future website updates - hardly exciting but it needs to be done as I'm catching up with my backlog a bit. I could even have done some writing - the chaos of the last week hasn't helped me concentrate much on that.
But no, instead I just played Civ3. Again. Like I didn't spend several weeks moaning about how it was killing all my spare time a few months ago. Idiot.
The only thing I did manage to stay on top of was TV. Although I start with good intentions every week I find that I get quite a large stack of TV I've recorded when I get to the weekend. I managed to keep on top of that at least.
I also watched a movie I recorded over Christmas. Mainly this was thanks to the fact that my next rental DVD is delayed. The snow has really poxed up the mail - I've loads of stuff that I know has been sent to me but that I've not got yet.
But I'm an idiot wasting all my time like that. The only good thing is that I've got much more of an impetus to the game I'm currently playing, as I've run up against a bug. Basically, if I launch my spaceship then it tries to play a cut-scene and this causes the game to crash. I therefore can't win in that way, but it also means I need to get on and hammer the other races so that they can't launch their spaceships and beat me either.
Usually I play until the time limit games, but the problem with them is I've clearly won by two-thirds of the way through, so I get bored. This time at least I've got a definite goal - not that it's an easy one to achieve in a short time period, so I could still be playing for some time!
To be entirely fair this wasn't all my fault. Saturday morning I went out to check on how the weather situation was and the basic headline was "extremely cold". This meant that the slush and snow that was left on the road that connects us to the estate had frozen solid and was therefore as slippery as fuck.
That meant I was pretty much trapped indoors. The sun did come out on both Saturday and Sunday and even though it never really warmed up, the sun tends to melt the snow despite that.
Now the honest thing of me to do would have been to do something practical or useful. There were lots of options
I could have watched some anime. I'm on the verge of finishing both Trigun and Blassreiter, for example. This would also have been a good thing because I need to realise some capital - heating my place doesn't come cheap and sellig a few anime bits on e-bay would go a lone way to help.
I could also have watched some fansubs while scanning the new megami. This would have put me ahead of the game, as it were - never a bad thing.
Another option would have been to watch some normal box sets or DVDs - I've loads of them kicking about too. Or I could have done some walling - I'm literally on the very cusp of finishing several walls. And for that matter I could have worked on some future website updates - hardly exciting but it needs to be done as I'm catching up with my backlog a bit. I could even have done some writing - the chaos of the last week hasn't helped me concentrate much on that.
But no, instead I just played Civ3. Again. Like I didn't spend several weeks moaning about how it was killing all my spare time a few months ago. Idiot.
The only thing I did manage to stay on top of was TV. Although I start with good intentions every week I find that I get quite a large stack of TV I've recorded when I get to the weekend. I managed to keep on top of that at least.
I also watched a movie I recorded over Christmas. Mainly this was thanks to the fact that my next rental DVD is delayed. The snow has really poxed up the mail - I've loads of stuff that I know has been sent to me but that I've not got yet.
But I'm an idiot wasting all my time like that. The only good thing is that I've got much more of an impetus to the game I'm currently playing, as I've run up against a bug. Basically, if I launch my spaceship then it tries to play a cut-scene and this causes the game to crash. I therefore can't win in that way, but it also means I need to get on and hammer the other races so that they can't launch their spaceships and beat me either.
Usually I play until the time limit games, but the problem with them is I've clearly won by two-thirds of the way through, so I get bored. This time at least I've got a definite goal - not that it's an easy one to achieve in a short time period, so I could still be playing for some time!
Friday, 6 February 2009
not who I thought you were
You ever think you know someone and then they say something that just totally knocks you for six? Something that just seems so out of character that it makes you realise that no, you didn't know them after all.
I had a moment like that the other day. I guess the real lesson is that you can never really know other people.
I've unfortunately been continuing to play quite a bit of Civ3, rather than do anything particularly useful. I think I need to finish this game I'm currently on and then I'll be able to get back up to speed with stuff.
The latest megami turned up the other day, so I'll try to scan it this weekend, though as I say more Civ3 beckons. I've also not got a backlog of scanning so it's not disastrous if I leave it. It was a little later than usual because, bizarrely, it had been addressed to Surbiton! I checked the original label (there was one stuck on top with my proper address) and it really had - it wasn't the couriers making excuses. How very odd.
One thing I have been doing (kick started by the train journey up to London on Saturday - I could never do it, but if I was ever to commute I'd get through loads of books) is reading one of Pratchett's most recent discworld books "Making Money". It's quite good - certainly a very easy reader with a very entertaining main character.
It's actually one of his semi-sequels, in that it continues the story of a character from another book, Moist Von Lipwig, which is why it's a little bizarre - it seemed to take a long time to get going. As I say, since it's re-using a character this just seemed a little odd. Not that it wasn't enjoyable, just unusual - it didn't leap into the deep end where that would have been a perfectly valid thing to do.
I'm also nearly done with Blassrieter. I think if it wasn't for the first 3 or 4 episodes, which are fairly mundane monster-of-the-week ones, I'd rate the series more highly. What I mean is it's worth sticking it out past those to get to the good stuff.
As I was expected, the snow's pretty much clearing away around here. It was quite unusual for it to be so think here.
No real plans for the weekend other than sleeping and resting - last weekend and struggling with all this snow has kinda taken it out of me a bit. I must be getting proper old!
I had a moment like that the other day. I guess the real lesson is that you can never really know other people.
I've unfortunately been continuing to play quite a bit of Civ3, rather than do anything particularly useful. I think I need to finish this game I'm currently on and then I'll be able to get back up to speed with stuff.
The latest megami turned up the other day, so I'll try to scan it this weekend, though as I say more Civ3 beckons. I've also not got a backlog of scanning so it's not disastrous if I leave it. It was a little later than usual because, bizarrely, it had been addressed to Surbiton! I checked the original label (there was one stuck on top with my proper address) and it really had - it wasn't the couriers making excuses. How very odd.
One thing I have been doing (kick started by the train journey up to London on Saturday - I could never do it, but if I was ever to commute I'd get through loads of books) is reading one of Pratchett's most recent discworld books "Making Money". It's quite good - certainly a very easy reader with a very entertaining main character.
It's actually one of his semi-sequels, in that it continues the story of a character from another book, Moist Von Lipwig, which is why it's a little bizarre - it seemed to take a long time to get going. As I say, since it's re-using a character this just seemed a little odd. Not that it wasn't enjoyable, just unusual - it didn't leap into the deep end where that would have been a perfectly valid thing to do.
I'm also nearly done with Blassrieter. I think if it wasn't for the first 3 or 4 episodes, which are fairly mundane monster-of-the-week ones, I'd rate the series more highly. What I mean is it's worth sticking it out past those to get to the good stuff.
As I was expected, the snow's pretty much clearing away around here. It was quite unusual for it to be so think here.
No real plans for the weekend other than sleeping and resting - last weekend and struggling with all this snow has kinda taken it out of me a bit. I must be getting proper old!
Thursday, 5 February 2009
those old friends
So Saturday was good.
The chums I met up with were going to a gig on Saturday evening, so we basically met up for a few pre-gig drinkees. I wasn't quite expecting to pack in as much booze as we did - we did rounds and I ended up sinking a total of six beers.
I was therefore pretty drunk when we left - a few more and I'd have been thoroughly soused. As it was I was stumbling around quite a bit. I put my headphones in when I got on the tube and it was a bit of a surreal experience, wandering around the tube, drunk with Greenday blasting in my ears. I'm also fairly sure I was singing too - dunno what the other passengers thought.
I actually fell asleep on the train home, which is always a risk when boozing, but luckily Alton is the last stop so luckily it doesn't matter very much. Then it was a quick walk up the hill, met up with a more local chum (it was later than I thought) and he ended up giving me a lift home.
Of course Sunday was therefore pretty much wrecked because I'd had more to drink than I thought I would. I just sort of laid in bed for most of the day and ate chocolate. I didn't really even watching anything constructive like anime or DVDs - just random telly.
Well, this morning's journey in was horrendous. The snow didn't really melt fully here yesterday, but it did freeze up. Then last night it snowed about another inch and then when I was driving in it was raining. You can guess what a mess it was - compacted, frozen snow with slushy snow on top and rain.
My traction control was working over-time with all the skidding about and the journey took ages. This sort of thing is one of the reasons I come to work very early - far earlier than I need to - as the traffic is less but it also allows a big leeway in terms of journey time.
The chums I met up with were going to a gig on Saturday evening, so we basically met up for a few pre-gig drinkees. I wasn't quite expecting to pack in as much booze as we did - we did rounds and I ended up sinking a total of six beers.
I was therefore pretty drunk when we left - a few more and I'd have been thoroughly soused. As it was I was stumbling around quite a bit. I put my headphones in when I got on the tube and it was a bit of a surreal experience, wandering around the tube, drunk with Greenday blasting in my ears. I'm also fairly sure I was singing too - dunno what the other passengers thought.
I actually fell asleep on the train home, which is always a risk when boozing, but luckily Alton is the last stop so luckily it doesn't matter very much. Then it was a quick walk up the hill, met up with a more local chum (it was later than I thought) and he ended up giving me a lift home.
Of course Sunday was therefore pretty much wrecked because I'd had more to drink than I thought I would. I just sort of laid in bed for most of the day and ate chocolate. I didn't really even watching anything constructive like anime or DVDs - just random telly.
Well, this morning's journey in was horrendous. The snow didn't really melt fully here yesterday, but it did freeze up. Then last night it snowed about another inch and then when I was driving in it was raining. You can guess what a mess it was - compacted, frozen snow with slushy snow on top and rain.
My traction control was working over-time with all the skidding about and the journey took ages. This sort of thing is one of the reasons I come to work very early - far earlier than I need to - as the traffic is less but it also allows a big leeway in terms of journey time.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
back to work - but for how long?
Well, I'm back to work today.
The snow on Monday morning was biblical. When I went to sleep Sunday not a single flake had fallen, when I tried to get out to my Car on Monday I was greeted by this:
The snow was at least 6 inches thick and on the road that connects us to the estate it was apparently 8 inches thick!
There was no way I could get out - the front of my car isn't even 8 inches high!
On Tuesday the snow had subsided a bit, but only because it had frozen solid. It was literally a nightmare of unmovable snow.
I would still be trapped today, except for the fact that my landlord had to get out yesterday and spent all Tuesday digging an escape route.
The roads of the estate were still icy, but I figured enough was enough - time to get out. Plus it was all reaching crisis point as my supplies are getting a bit low. I'm guessing more people will be back today and the shops will be absolute carnage, but I've not got much of a choice.
I'd love to say I spent the days off wisely, but truth be told Monday I basically worked from home. Tuesday I totally wasted - I just spent all day playing Civ3 (oh no - not again!). I should have done some hardcore anime watching or scanning or something, but I couldn't be arsed if I'm honest.
The weekend went well. It was good - I'll blog on it later, though.
The snow on Monday morning was biblical. When I went to sleep Sunday not a single flake had fallen, when I tried to get out to my Car on Monday I was greeted by this:
The snow was at least 6 inches thick and on the road that connects us to the estate it was apparently 8 inches thick!
There was no way I could get out - the front of my car isn't even 8 inches high!
On Tuesday the snow had subsided a bit, but only because it had frozen solid. It was literally a nightmare of unmovable snow.
I would still be trapped today, except for the fact that my landlord had to get out yesterday and spent all Tuesday digging an escape route.
The roads of the estate were still icy, but I figured enough was enough - time to get out. Plus it was all reaching crisis point as my supplies are getting a bit low. I'm guessing more people will be back today and the shops will be absolute carnage, but I've not got much of a choice.
I'd love to say I spent the days off wisely, but truth be told Monday I basically worked from home. Tuesday I totally wasted - I just spent all day playing Civ3 (oh no - not again!). I should have done some hardcore anime watching or scanning or something, but I couldn't be arsed if I'm honest.
The weekend went well. It was good - I'll blog on it later, though.
Friday, 30 January 2009
old friends
I'm probably heading up to London to have a few beers with some old friends this Saturday.
We're talking really old here - these are people I went to secondary school with, so they've known me for about two-thirds of my life! I've kinda dropped out of contact with everyone from that sort of era - life gets in the way of course, but what's made it the more difficult is that my Dad moved down to Devon.
So, even though everybody else moved too, their parents were still in the same place so they had somewhere to come back to, but I don't. If I wanted to go back to that area I'd need to kip on someone's floor, and I always feel really bad about asking to do that.
However, there was that sniff of some London based work I mentioned before, so I re-connected with some of the guys who I know work in London. That job fell through, but I figured hey, why not pop up for a few beers?
It's not anything spectacular - a few drinks and a natter. Apparently there's some football on or something, but the world of men chasing inflated pig stomachs is somewhat beyond my sphere of interest, so I don't really know what that's all about.
As to what I've been up to it's all bit a bit uninteresting really. I did some walling and I watched a bit of anime and some telly. The anime wasn't anything new, though - just me continuing to watch Blassreiter and Trigun.
I continue to be unimpressed with Trigun. They've really played up the Vash-the-fool aspect in the anime and it's bloody annoying. Just as the show gets to the cusp of being interesting Vash puts on his "stoopid" face and laughs maniacally. Unfortunately, what they haven't removed is all the cod-drama that spoiled my enjoyment of the manga.
Blassreiter on the other hand has gotten a lot more interesting. It's a bit melodromatic in places and the plot has a weird sense of being made up as it goes along, but it's certainly much more interesting than the first couple of eps suggested it was goign to be. The non-cg animation also seems to have moved up from "appalling" to "fairly bad" too, although that may just be me getting used to it.
We're talking really old here - these are people I went to secondary school with, so they've known me for about two-thirds of my life! I've kinda dropped out of contact with everyone from that sort of era - life gets in the way of course, but what's made it the more difficult is that my Dad moved down to Devon.
So, even though everybody else moved too, their parents were still in the same place so they had somewhere to come back to, but I don't. If I wanted to go back to that area I'd need to kip on someone's floor, and I always feel really bad about asking to do that.
However, there was that sniff of some London based work I mentioned before, so I re-connected with some of the guys who I know work in London. That job fell through, but I figured hey, why not pop up for a few beers?
It's not anything spectacular - a few drinks and a natter. Apparently there's some football on or something, but the world of men chasing inflated pig stomachs is somewhat beyond my sphere of interest, so I don't really know what that's all about.
As to what I've been up to it's all bit a bit uninteresting really. I did some walling and I watched a bit of anime and some telly. The anime wasn't anything new, though - just me continuing to watch Blassreiter and Trigun.
I continue to be unimpressed with Trigun. They've really played up the Vash-the-fool aspect in the anime and it's bloody annoying. Just as the show gets to the cusp of being interesting Vash puts on his "stoopid" face and laughs maniacally. Unfortunately, what they haven't removed is all the cod-drama that spoiled my enjoyment of the manga.
Blassreiter on the other hand has gotten a lot more interesting. It's a bit melodromatic in places and the plot has a weird sense of being made up as it goes along, but it's certainly much more interesting than the first couple of eps suggested it was goign to be. The non-cg animation also seems to have moved up from "appalling" to "fairly bad" too, although that may just be me getting used to it.
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