I've been so tired most of this week.
For some reason, on Sunday I got very little sleep. I've no real idea why - I just didn't feel very tired and so didn't sleep. But then on Monday I must admit I didn't feel bad as such - mentally a big sluggish, maybe, but not too bad.
However, Monday night I had a terrible nights sleep. I felt really hot for some reason, even though it wasn't really hot weather. Then at about 3:30am something woke me up - I haven't a clue what - and I struggled to get back to sleep.
It's really tough for me at this time of year (close to the Summer Solstice - the longest day of the year) as it almost doesn't get dark. I mean, it gets dark as in it's not light, but it's not dark in the same way it is in the middle of winter. Add to that potential moonlight and it makes it difficult for me to sleep.
I'm kinda weird in that I need for it to be silent and dark when I try to go to sleep. I'm a big fan of earplugs for that reason, but I've also tried sleep masks and those just don't work. What I've had to do in my current lodgings is fasten black bin bags to the curtains with safety pins, because it has white curtains. White curtains are almost useless at blocking out light.
Anyway, Tuesday the lack of sleep really caught up with me. I had some important work to do and I really struggled to get it done as my mind just kept drifting away.
Even in the evening I really struggled to even make my dinner. It was like some Herculean effort just to do a baked potato :/. I certainly wasn't in the mood to continue with scanning stuff. Oh - dunno if I mentioned that the new Japanese mags did turn up, on Monday. That makes two whole months worth of mags to scan, plus the next Megami turns up next week, I believe.
So, anyway, Tuesday night I was hopping that my body would just say "enough is enough" and I'd be out like a light. Well that kinda happened - I got off quickly, but, then the most bizarre thing happened.
In the middle of the night, with an almighty crash, one of my posters fell of the wall, waking me up. I know - how totally random is that? I did get back to sleep quite quickly, but still it meant I was fairly knackered still on Wednesday.
However, I did manage to summon up the willpower to do some scanning on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. I only got through the first animedia and a bit of the first newtype though, so still loads to do. I also watched the following:
Higepiyo was bonkers. This is bonkers in a good way - a mildly deranged comedy, rather than a shouty madcap one. I have to admit there were some patchiness though - episode 3 raised hardly a smile from me, whereas 4 had me belly-laughing towards the end. But overall it's a series I'd buy, I think - especially as it's a series of shorts, so even the duff eps wouldn't drag.
Queen's Blade. The first episode featured the Worst Translation Evar. It was so bad it was almost like watching it without subtitles as it made little sense. However, eps 2 and 3 were better translated and I have to say I didn't it was all that bad.
I'd seen a lot of people proclaiming it as the worst thing ever, but these people are idiots. I've mentioned before I don't understood the almost militant prudishness that seems to be quite prevalent in modern anime fans. It's like the very idea of sex offends them.
Not that there's any sex in Queens Blade (well, not in the first 3 eps anyway) but there are lots of exposed nipples and a general cheesecake pervasiveness. But what can you expect, it's inspired by an erotic fighting game where the aim is to get the girls naked. And it's not like it isn't quite self aware - they know what they're doing and they're having fun with it. The result isn't exactly ground-breaking, but it isn't the worst thing evar either.
Y'know it's been a bit weird lately as there's been shed loads for me to blog about, but I'm also kinda aware my posts are becoming giganto-huge. For example, there's BB10 stuff and the whole F1 shenanigans which I've hardly mentioned.
Friday, 19 June 2009
Thursday, 18 June 2009
double whammy
Ha ha: here's a surprise - more film reviews!
Told you I was bored and lazy over the weekend, didn't I?
So here's a double whammy of film reviews on consecutive days, and in more ways that one as this is about two films.
devil's advocate
First up is Devil's advocate.
This starred Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino and I was surprised at how good it was.
I've never really rated Reeves as an actor - he's always seemed very wooden to me - but his performance here was actually pretty good. His accent, which is supposed to be deep south, is rubbish and slips all over the place, but otherwise he's kinda convincing.
The basic plot - as the name suggests - is that Reeves ends up as the lawyer to the Devil. This is sort of a twist, I guess, but it's not the film's proper twist. It has two of those and the first is the most successful.
Not wanting to spoiler too much, but the final twist is one of those that a lot of people hate, although to be fair it also leaves us with a sort of anti-twist at the very end to counter that, but still it wasn't a particularly good way to resolve it.
So yeah, I wasn't expecting much but it was actually pretty good.
insomnia
The second film was the reverse - I was expecting a lot, but it kinda failed to deliver.
The basic problem was I didn't really buy into the insomnia thing. The idea was that Pacino's character goes up north to Alaska to help solve a murder (this in itself seems a bit odd, but setting it aside). When you get sufficiently far up North you get that weird effect where the sun never sets.
The idea then was that Pacino can't sleep because of all this bright light. Well, okay, I'm not that much of a luddite that I can't poke out some hidden meanings - the real reason for the continued insomnia after the first night is guilt.
"What I didn't buy into was Pacino's character's attempts to solve he problem.
First off, he's in a hotel that apparently doesn't have any curtains. That has to be a major clanger - no curtains at all so far up North? Nah. Also, they would have had proper black-out curtains that let no light through.
Then he tries to solve it by putting brown tape over the windows. Only he leaves some cracks... but then doesn't cover them over. He also only puts one layer on.
For some super-genius crime-solving cop, he's being a bit dumb here, but okay. What else?
Oh yeah, he doesn't go and get any sleeping pills. Surely even Alaska has pharmacies selling sleeping pills - even just the natural herbal ones.
He also doesn't buy one of those face masks. He also doesn't try getting so hammered he passes out.
Now as I say, the real thing is the guilt, but it's like if he'd still stayed awake having tried that stuff I'd have bought it. Not trying any of it just makes him seem dumb and hence the whole film (being based on how smart he is) falls apart.
Told you I was bored and lazy over the weekend, didn't I?
So here's a double whammy of film reviews on consecutive days, and in more ways that one as this is about two films.
devil's advocate
First up is Devil's advocate.
This starred Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino and I was surprised at how good it was.
I've never really rated Reeves as an actor - he's always seemed very wooden to me - but his performance here was actually pretty good. His accent, which is supposed to be deep south, is rubbish and slips all over the place, but otherwise he's kinda convincing.
The basic plot - as the name suggests - is that Reeves ends up as the lawyer to the Devil. This is sort of a twist, I guess, but it's not the film's proper twist. It has two of those and the first is the most successful.
Not wanting to spoiler too much, but the final twist is one of those that a lot of people hate, although to be fair it also leaves us with a sort of anti-twist at the very end to counter that, but still it wasn't a particularly good way to resolve it.
So yeah, I wasn't expecting much but it was actually pretty good.
insomnia
The second film was the reverse - I was expecting a lot, but it kinda failed to deliver.
The basic problem was I didn't really buy into the insomnia thing. The idea was that Pacino's character goes up north to Alaska to help solve a murder (this in itself seems a bit odd, but setting it aside). When you get sufficiently far up North you get that weird effect where the sun never sets.
The idea then was that Pacino can't sleep because of all this bright light. Well, okay, I'm not that much of a luddite that I can't poke out some hidden meanings - the real reason for the continued insomnia after the first night is guilt.
"What I didn't buy into was Pacino's character's attempts to solve he problem.
First off, he's in a hotel that apparently doesn't have any curtains. That has to be a major clanger - no curtains at all so far up North? Nah. Also, they would have had proper black-out curtains that let no light through.
Then he tries to solve it by putting brown tape over the windows. Only he leaves some cracks... but then doesn't cover them over. He also only puts one layer on.
For some super-genius crime-solving cop, he's being a bit dumb here, but okay. What else?
Oh yeah, he doesn't go and get any sleeping pills. Surely even Alaska has pharmacies selling sleeping pills - even just the natural herbal ones.
He also doesn't buy one of those face masks. He also doesn't try getting so hammered he passes out.
Now as I say, the real thing is the guilt, but it's like if he'd still stayed awake having tried that stuff I'd have bought it. Not trying any of it just makes him seem dumb and hence the whole film (being based on how smart he is) falls apart.
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
hancock
Y'know, generally I write these film reviews some time in advance. Generally speaking, I watch my rental DVD over the weekend and then on Monday one of the first things I do after writing Monday's blog is write the film review.
Partly this is because it helps the fresher it is in my mind and partly it helps me to know I have at least one pre-written thing for the blog should things get hectic. Occasionally, however, I struggle to write the review and things get a bit more condensed.
That's basically what's happened here. I'm a little unsure quite what to say. You may have noticed I often try to include non-sequitors in my reviews. Points that seem random but then generally come back to have some relevant meaning.
Clearly the opening of this review is just such a non-sequitor bit (actually I was going to go on about what Hancock means and how we use John Doe more in this country, but everyone knows all that by now, right?). I'm kinda doubting it will come around to mean anything, though.
The trouble I've been having is I have quite mixed feelings about Hancock.
While I was watching the film I quite enjoyed it. Or at the least the first half was enjoyable. The idea of a superhero that's a self-hating bum is intrigued. A hero who tries to help people but either makes a bit of a mess of it or causes untold damage that's not really necessary is a great hook.
The idea of a PR man who comes in to improve the hero's image is a clever satire and the idea that the noble hero falls in love with another man's wife is also very intriguing.
The problem is that things go distinctly pear-shaped in the second half. The problem is that they kinda back themselves into some corners, story wise, that then need explaining away.
The next bit is very spoiler-heavy, btw, so you may want to stop reading.
So basically one of the problems is that the PR man is a genuinely nice guy. He has this campaign all about big companies helping people out - social responsibility and all that.
How the hell he became a P.R. guy and he keeps his job, I've no idea. But the knock on effect is that it makes Hancock seem like a real piece of shit.
When he's making a balls up of everything and beaming mean you still kinda like him from a lovable grouch / unfortunate looser / misunderstood hero point of view. When he's putting the moves on another man's wife - a nice, decent man who has also helped Hancock - he's just a shit.
So they resolve this with a really great twist - she (Mary) has superhero powers too. Only that's not the resolution, the resolution is that somehow Hancock and her are a matched pair (eh?) who are kinda fated to be together (er, okay...) and are drawn to each other (hmmm...).
And it makes it a bit rubbish - who really believes in fated loves? There needed to be something more substantial - something tangible for why he and her start to fall in love. The twist wouldn't have seemed so random then.
This "lack of evidence" is also a problem when Hancock is in jail. It's one thing to have a news report saying crime is up; it would have been another to show us more of this. Yes, there's the bank robbery, but an escalating crime wave needed more back up than this one incident and a news report.
Also again, the 'evidence' is a bit wobbly in some other stuff too - Hancock and Mary cancel each other out (huh?) when they get close. Oh, but it's meant to happen slowly and it happens quickly here - I mean, why bother even adding that as it just makes it seem even more random :/.
Also the idea that they've both been around for thousands of years is just not sensible. They try to say they're angels, but the powers they display aren't exactly very angelic.
You see what I mean? Why I struggled to write it?
It didn't really even work as a parody of the bizarre stuff that happens in comic books.
I've a bucket-load of criticisms of the film, but I equally keep coming back to the fact that while I was sat there watching it I enjoyed it a great deal.
The gags are good, the performances are good and the effects are some of the best I've seen, but the logical flaws in the plot undermined a lot of that.
Partly this is because it helps the fresher it is in my mind and partly it helps me to know I have at least one pre-written thing for the blog should things get hectic. Occasionally, however, I struggle to write the review and things get a bit more condensed.
That's basically what's happened here. I'm a little unsure quite what to say. You may have noticed I often try to include non-sequitors in my reviews. Points that seem random but then generally come back to have some relevant meaning.
Clearly the opening of this review is just such a non-sequitor bit (actually I was going to go on about what Hancock means and how we use John Doe more in this country, but everyone knows all that by now, right?). I'm kinda doubting it will come around to mean anything, though.
The trouble I've been having is I have quite mixed feelings about Hancock.
While I was watching the film I quite enjoyed it. Or at the least the first half was enjoyable. The idea of a superhero that's a self-hating bum is intrigued. A hero who tries to help people but either makes a bit of a mess of it or causes untold damage that's not really necessary is a great hook.
The idea of a PR man who comes in to improve the hero's image is a clever satire and the idea that the noble hero falls in love with another man's wife is also very intriguing.
The problem is that things go distinctly pear-shaped in the second half. The problem is that they kinda back themselves into some corners, story wise, that then need explaining away.
The next bit is very spoiler-heavy, btw, so you may want to stop reading.
So basically one of the problems is that the PR man is a genuinely nice guy. He has this campaign all about big companies helping people out - social responsibility and all that.
How the hell he became a P.R. guy and he keeps his job, I've no idea. But the knock on effect is that it makes Hancock seem like a real piece of shit.
When he's making a balls up of everything and beaming mean you still kinda like him from a lovable grouch / unfortunate looser / misunderstood hero point of view. When he's putting the moves on another man's wife - a nice, decent man who has also helped Hancock - he's just a shit.
So they resolve this with a really great twist - she (Mary) has superhero powers too. Only that's not the resolution, the resolution is that somehow Hancock and her are a matched pair (eh?) who are kinda fated to be together (er, okay...) and are drawn to each other (hmmm...).
And it makes it a bit rubbish - who really believes in fated loves? There needed to be something more substantial - something tangible for why he and her start to fall in love. The twist wouldn't have seemed so random then.
This "lack of evidence" is also a problem when Hancock is in jail. It's one thing to have a news report saying crime is up; it would have been another to show us more of this. Yes, there's the bank robbery, but an escalating crime wave needed more back up than this one incident and a news report.
Also again, the 'evidence' is a bit wobbly in some other stuff too - Hancock and Mary cancel each other out (huh?) when they get close. Oh, but it's meant to happen slowly and it happens quickly here - I mean, why bother even adding that as it just makes it seem even more random :/.
Also the idea that they've both been around for thousands of years is just not sensible. They try to say they're angels, but the powers they display aren't exactly very angelic.
You see what I mean? Why I struggled to write it?
It didn't really even work as a parody of the bizarre stuff that happens in comic books.
I've a bucket-load of criticisms of the film, but I equally keep coming back to the fact that while I was sat there watching it I enjoyed it a great deal.
The gags are good, the performances are good and the effects are some of the best I've seen, but the logical flaws in the plot undermined a lot of that.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
holiday 4 - odds and sods
So this is the odds and sods round-up for the holiday.
The weather was hot. Very hot. Think as hot as it gets in the UK and this was only May, so I can't guess what it's like in mid-summer.
I got the crap burnt out of me - the holiday was a couple of weeks ago and I'm still peeling. Indeed, I stopped peeling and then started again, presumably as more damaged layers of skin made their way to the surface :/.
Unfortunately, all the weather forecasts I'd looked at beforehand hinted there may be rain, so I'd not really packed exclusively for HOT weather - I even had a jumper! But this also meant I didn't think about sun cream.
But what made the temperature worse was the humid. It was horribly oppressive. As part of the Kangaroo system you can get the track stats and on the Saturday it said it was over 70% humidity. The tour guide said he'd never known anything like it and he goes every year.
Overall, it was too much for me. Sun lovers would have been in their element I'm sure, but I find heat like that unpleasant.
I've no idea how the French road system works. Bizarrely it appeared that when the pedestrian lights turned green cars could still turn into that road. This seemed very dangerous as it put cars and pedestrians in direct conflict.
But the French clearly ignore all of the traffic signals and rules of the road anyway (how very French of them!).
It does seem to mean that horns become an integral part of the French way of driving. It was driving me and my Dad bonkers all the horn beeping. In England someone would have thumped them for honking their horns all the time.
However, what really took me surprise (and in contrast to this) was how nice everyone was. As an example, when we were examining the trams to see how they worked an old lady wandered over and, in very good English, explained it all to us.
When I was at school I did GCSE French. Languages and their intricacies are a long way from my comfort zone, but I did okay in the end. Obviously, being basically a trip to France, this potentially meant I'd need to exercise my French and those GCSEs were getting on for half a lifetime ago now.
Still I was impressed with how much I remembered. Although I was more impressed with how much English was generally spoken. I guess part of this is that Nice and the like are big holiday towns so they get a lot of tourists.
We also used the French rail system. My impression is a bit of a mixed bag.
One of the things that's very obvious is that they have lots of people on the platforms - ticket attendants, help, guards, etc. On British platforms you're lucky to see anyone who works their.
But as such, rather than have automated announcements, you're supposed to ask them. On British platforms there's regular, automated announcements and a far better board system. A classic example was when we went to Cannes our proper train pulled in on a different platform and there were no announcements at all!
However, the service is a lot cheaper (it's massively subsidised) and what you get is better. There are loads of stops and loads of different types of service - fast ones and stopping. Also they have these double-decker trains so there's loads more seating and it was mostly nice, new stuff.
Plus, the commy bastards had a bloody strike while we were there. And it appeared to be a strike that was essentially about nothing in particular.
So yeah - mixed bag.
I'll hopefully be posting pics later - I'm focused more on clearing this scanning backlog at the moment, so it may be next week. Oh and the Japanese mags did turn up yesterday. Signs would indicate the courier did have problems, but I'm not sure why, as the addresses on the packages were definitely correct :/.
The weather was hot. Very hot. Think as hot as it gets in the UK and this was only May, so I can't guess what it's like in mid-summer.
I got the crap burnt out of me - the holiday was a couple of weeks ago and I'm still peeling. Indeed, I stopped peeling and then started again, presumably as more damaged layers of skin made their way to the surface :/.
Unfortunately, all the weather forecasts I'd looked at beforehand hinted there may be rain, so I'd not really packed exclusively for HOT weather - I even had a jumper! But this also meant I didn't think about sun cream.
But what made the temperature worse was the humid. It was horribly oppressive. As part of the Kangaroo system you can get the track stats and on the Saturday it said it was over 70% humidity. The tour guide said he'd never known anything like it and he goes every year.
Overall, it was too much for me. Sun lovers would have been in their element I'm sure, but I find heat like that unpleasant.
I've no idea how the French road system works. Bizarrely it appeared that when the pedestrian lights turned green cars could still turn into that road. This seemed very dangerous as it put cars and pedestrians in direct conflict.
But the French clearly ignore all of the traffic signals and rules of the road anyway (how very French of them!).
It does seem to mean that horns become an integral part of the French way of driving. It was driving me and my Dad bonkers all the horn beeping. In England someone would have thumped them for honking their horns all the time.
However, what really took me surprise (and in contrast to this) was how nice everyone was. As an example, when we were examining the trams to see how they worked an old lady wandered over and, in very good English, explained it all to us.
When I was at school I did GCSE French. Languages and their intricacies are a long way from my comfort zone, but I did okay in the end. Obviously, being basically a trip to France, this potentially meant I'd need to exercise my French and those GCSEs were getting on for half a lifetime ago now.
Still I was impressed with how much I remembered. Although I was more impressed with how much English was generally spoken. I guess part of this is that Nice and the like are big holiday towns so they get a lot of tourists.
We also used the French rail system. My impression is a bit of a mixed bag.
One of the things that's very obvious is that they have lots of people on the platforms - ticket attendants, help, guards, etc. On British platforms you're lucky to see anyone who works their.
But as such, rather than have automated announcements, you're supposed to ask them. On British platforms there's regular, automated announcements and a far better board system. A classic example was when we went to Cannes our proper train pulled in on a different platform and there were no announcements at all!
However, the service is a lot cheaper (it's massively subsidised) and what you get is better. There are loads of stops and loads of different types of service - fast ones and stopping. Also they have these double-decker trains so there's loads more seating and it was mostly nice, new stuff.
Plus, the commy bastards had a bloody strike while we were there. And it appeared to be a strike that was essentially about nothing in particular.
So yeah - mixed bag.
I'll hopefully be posting pics later - I'm focused more on clearing this scanning backlog at the moment, so it may be next week. Oh and the Japanese mags did turn up yesterday. Signs would indicate the courier did have problems, but I'm not sure why, as the addresses on the packages were definitely correct :/.
Monday, 15 June 2009
lazy days
Odd sort of weekend. I struggled a bit to motivate myself to do anything - this is easily evidenced by the fact that I'd watched all of the week's TV I'd recorded by Saturday afternoon. Indeed, I actually watched a couple of films I'd recorded.
However, on the tail end of Sunday I did manage to get a bit of scanning done. It was nothing excessive - just last month's megami, but it's a start. Oh and I forgot to mention - I'm a bit worried about the other mags (Newtype, animedia and animage) for this month.
They were apparently posted on the 9th and it's now the 15th. Whilst that isn't a long time you may remember I normally get the mags so fast I'm amazed at the speed, but it's getting on for a week now. But most worrying of all I got a phonecall from an unregistered number on Friday. Unfortunately, I was actually on another call for work (some idiot blathering on for ages) so I couldn't take it.
This is not a good sign because it's happened before - I've had a call from the courier basically saying "they've poxed up the address - can I confirm the actual address?". If I've missed a similar call this month I won't be best pleased.
Anyway, did some scanning, so I watched some anime too:
K-ON! was so moe it was almost painful. Unlike many I've never really had any beef with moe so I'm not actually complaining there, it's just so blatant that that's what it's all about it was kinda like a punch to the gut of cuteness.
Not that the show is bad or anything - I found myself laughing at the funny bits and going "dawww" at the "dawww" bits - although the band angle is a bit of a mixed bag. I mean it's interesting, but it comes across as massively unrealistic - the girls with no experience seem to pick up their instruments and basically be as good as the one with years of experience.
I have to admit I found Basquash! a bit disappointing. The idea of giant basket-ball playing mecha seems great, but I dunno, overall the show seemed missing something.
Maybe it's because I was expecting certain things and then those things weren't there, but instead the things that were there were rather cliche. That's best explained with some examples. I though the mecha were going to transform - the main one is shown as having a cab that looks like a car. Now I guess that's actually because it's an improvised machine, but still transforming mecha would have been cooler.
Also, there a girl love interest and in a flashback that made me cringe the boy realises (wait for it) they knew each other as kids and promised to get married. Now there's something that you don't see every day - oh no, wait, yes you do.
I dunno, the pace also didn't help. I watched three eps and it only just felt like it was getting going.
I think I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, tough - perhaps it's one that grows on you. Plus the action scenes were great and the artistry is fantastic.
However, on the tail end of Sunday I did manage to get a bit of scanning done. It was nothing excessive - just last month's megami, but it's a start. Oh and I forgot to mention - I'm a bit worried about the other mags (Newtype, animedia and animage) for this month.
They were apparently posted on the 9th and it's now the 15th. Whilst that isn't a long time you may remember I normally get the mags so fast I'm amazed at the speed, but it's getting on for a week now. But most worrying of all I got a phonecall from an unregistered number on Friday. Unfortunately, I was actually on another call for work (some idiot blathering on for ages) so I couldn't take it.
This is not a good sign because it's happened before - I've had a call from the courier basically saying "they've poxed up the address - can I confirm the actual address?". If I've missed a similar call this month I won't be best pleased.
Anyway, did some scanning, so I watched some anime too:
K-ON! was so moe it was almost painful. Unlike many I've never really had any beef with moe so I'm not actually complaining there, it's just so blatant that that's what it's all about it was kinda like a punch to the gut of cuteness.
Not that the show is bad or anything - I found myself laughing at the funny bits and going "dawww" at the "dawww" bits - although the band angle is a bit of a mixed bag. I mean it's interesting, but it comes across as massively unrealistic - the girls with no experience seem to pick up their instruments and basically be as good as the one with years of experience.
I have to admit I found Basquash! a bit disappointing. The idea of giant basket-ball playing mecha seems great, but I dunno, overall the show seemed missing something.
Maybe it's because I was expecting certain things and then those things weren't there, but instead the things that were there were rather cliche. That's best explained with some examples. I though the mecha were going to transform - the main one is shown as having a cab that looks like a car. Now I guess that's actually because it's an improvised machine, but still transforming mecha would have been cooler.
Also, there a girl love interest and in a flashback that made me cringe the boy realises (wait for it) they knew each other as kids and promised to get married. Now there's something that you don't see every day - oh no, wait, yes you do.
I dunno, the pace also didn't help. I watched three eps and it only just felt like it was getting going.
I think I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, tough - perhaps it's one that grows on you. Plus the action scenes were great and the artistry is fantastic.
Friday, 12 June 2009
bb10 thoughts
Well this is a bit odd - http://www.isthisyour.name/mark_sunderland.htm. The thought that there should, according to statistics, be about 50-odd Americans called Mark Sunderland was kinda interesting.
Plan for the weekend is to start on this huge pile of stuff I've got to scan. Quite whether I'll actually be arsed I'm not sure - I'm not really in the mood to be at the moment I have to admit.
Right, well, I admitted I was watching the damn thing and I don't appear to have stopped, so here's a kinda summary of my thoughts of BB so far.
One of the things about BB is that, generally, those people that are interested in going on the show are, by nature going to be at least a little bit extrovert and possibly a little attention seeking. These things are basically a given.
And by my nature I'm the sort of person who doesn't really like those traits in other people. Especially when they're ramped up to high levels.
What I mean is that I instantly dislike people who put on a "big show" or who deliberately act OTT. This is a little difficult to really explain properly, as we all are a bit fake. We all have to 'put on faces' and pretend to be certain things at certain times.
It's like talking about other "people behind their backs", which is one of the things Big Brother always brings out, because the cameras are there all the time on everybody. The thing about it is that it's something we all profess to hate, and yet everyone does it.
Now I have a theory on why - I think it's part of being in and interacting with social groups. See, we communicate verbally, so in order for us to establish out pecking order in a group and in order to find like minded people in that group we discuss the common element - other people. It's only natural and normal.
Of the degree of bitchiness will vary wildly, the basic thing is the same.
Where was I?
Oh yeah - basically what I'm saying is that the housemates fall into two basic groups for me. There's the ones that stepped over that line of "fakeness" and there's everybody else. Now I don't think the everybody else are actually normal because of what I said above about the type of people that go into BB, but they're the ones that are near enough to what I consider normal for me to find them likeable.
But there's even a further sub-divisions within that. Anyway, here's the basic groupings:
The fakes:
Angel: She entered the house posing a lot and making hissing noises. Oh dear.
As time progressed she seemed a bit more normal, although she seems obsessed with exercise and proclaims almost on an hourly basis that people will 'get fat'. Also, when the housemates were given booze and pizza as a kind of treat thing, she instead sucked an egg and had a glass of milk.
Yes, you did read that right - sucked an egg. She punched a little hole in it and sucked out the contents. Seriously.
However, in terms of how she's been in the actual house generally she seems okay.
Siavash: To some extent I'm being a bit harsh here again. As a person I think Siavash is probably alright, but he's, well, I dunno how to put it - too obsessed with clothes, I suppose.
When he entered the house he had some natty suit on, but then while they were non-housemates they had to change into some generic clothes. Siavash kept complaining about not being able to get at his clothes and 'needing' his clothes. When he eventually got in this became apparent why - his outfits are bonkers and he's obsessed with clothes.
Now it's one thing to have a unique style, it's another to go into Big Brother with a full-on opera-mask with a ginormous 12-inch pointy nose packed in your case.
Maybe his general alright-ness will make me forget such things, but I'm guessing now that he has access to his clothes the opposite will happen.
Halfwit (Freddie): He and Sophie were required to legally change their names in order to get into the house, which is why the stupid name.
But it kinda suits him. He's a posh, rich toff type, which I've no fundamental problem with, although his toff accent is a bit extreme. No, it's the following I don't like: Says his profession is "Entrepreneur" - tool. Babbles lots of hippy-dippy shite - idiot. Sings, badly - cock. And worst of all proclaimed himself to be bisexual.
Now I've nothing wrong with bisexuality. To some extent I'm of the opinion that most people are, to a greater or lesser extent, bisexual. Whether or not the majority of people would act on any desires or feelings they had is the thing that fixes most people to hetero- or homo-sexuality, I think.
No, the problem is that people who proclaim their sexuality, especially when it's bisexuality, get on my nerves. It's always just smacked to me of "look at me, I'm so different from everyone else".
Let's put it this way - most people I think tend to view their sexuality both as their business and not a general area of discussion unless specifically asked about it. You don't go up to a group of people you've just met and just tell them you're bisexual right off do you? Surely topics like your favourite cheese are more normal.
Sree: He seems so utterly fake. He's Indian and he has the weirdest accent I've ever heard - not from the point of view of the sound of it, but how good his grasp of English is seems to come and go. It's like sometimes his sentences are all totally muddled and then suddenly he'll be throwing around big words.
I keep expecting a crime thriller-esque moment where, having confronted him about it, Sree smiles, leans back and then reveals how much of a creep his is, talking in a posh, plumy English accent.
He's weird too - on the one hand he proclaims shyness, yet if other people are talking he'll bound up and start nosing in. Also he keeps invading everyone's personal space - especially the girls, who he keeps pawing at.
And when it came to the day of evicting the first person he was clamouring around the housemates basically asking "do you like me?" and stuff. Then he goes to the diary room upset about possibly going, but it came across as really fake, playing on the sympathy vote.
Maybe it's all genuine and that's how he is, but it really comes across as someone faking it to try to win.
The normals:
Charlie: Mr Gay UK or something. He's a bit full-on for me personally - a good in small doses sort - but he seems like quite a good laugh. He has a tendency to do practical jokes though and I'm really not a fan of practical jokes.
Kris: A former male model and he is pretty handsome I'd say. I think a haircut and shave would actually work better on him, but otherwise he seems like a fairly normal chap. Albeit a normal chap who knows he's attractive to the ladies anyway.
Lisa: I think the term is 'butch lesbian' and she's definitely that. I've no real problem with her, although she seems to be the type that's into new age crap. She's mentioned energy a few times and I would guess she knows what Reiki is. Well, I know what Reiki is too, but I'd never believe it actually works. Not that I'd know if Lisa does either, but that's the feeling I get.
Marcus: Looks a bit like Wolverine (the comic book superhero, not the large weasel) with big lamb-chop sideburns. To me he seems like a decent enough chap. He's certainly not as flamboyant and OTT as some, but that's not a bad thing.
Noirin: She's Irish, but she's clearly of mixed-race parentage and to me that keeps being slightly disconcerting. I guess that's prejudice on my part isn't it? But I dunno, I don't tend to think of there being Black Irish people. I mean, with the IRA and whoever else going around blowing things up would you want to move there? And slaves weren't really used in Ireland in the way they were in the colonies or on the mainland, where they? Or maybe they were - I don't know.
Anyway, what I will say is she's very pretty (is it me or are mixed-race (what's the proper PC term? - I haven't a clue) girls all gorgeous?) and swears like a trooper and that's about it because she's really lacking for air-time - the highlights shows almost never show her, even when there's a big crowd.
Rodrigo: An early favourite to win. He's from Brazil, is really good looking in an elfish sort of way, very bouncy and up-beat and seems like a genuinely nice person so I can see why.
Cairon: Tough one. The big problem is he's only 18, but he looks a lot older. So oftentimes when I see him acting in the ways he does I'm unimpressed, but then I remember he's really only a kid so I forgive him a bit more.
The American accent is a bit odd, though. He's apparently actually from London, but lived in America growing up. What's weird though is you get odd English bits sneaking in from his time here - like he keeps saying 'innit' which is very English.
He's got an eye on Sophie and she seems to like him too, so things may get interesting there. He certainly doesn't seem to lack in confidence.
Karly: She did well in something called 'High Street Honeys' which is something FHM magazine did, apparently. She certainly pretty.
I'll tell you the most surprising thing, though - so far she doesn't seem bitchy or nasty. Indeed, there are quite a few pretty girls in the house and to be frank all of them seem like they're nice enough people. Which just goes to show you can't always trust stereotypes.
Things get a little confusing now as there are three girls with, like, variations on the same name - Sophia, Saffia and Sophie - and two of them have been having a big old barny.
Saffia: She seems very strong willed and more than a little independent. All good things in my book, although I have to admit I worry about a single mother of two very young kids who would go on BB which could last anything up to 3 or 4 months. There's independence and then there's independence. I hope there's a clutch of grandparents on hand.
Sophia: She's tiny. Apparently she has Lupus and I dunno if it's because of that but she must only be about 5 foot tall.
Sophia is the closest of those in the normal pile to being in with the fakes. Trouble is I don't think she's fake. But I do find her to be an unpleasant person.
Basically, she and Saffia are having a massive row. It's because on the first night Saffia and Sophia slept close together and talked a lot. Then Saffia had to pick 3 people to do a task to get into the house and she didn't pick Sophia.
Clearly Sophia took umbrage at this and I don't blame her for that. What I don't like is that Sophia has become utterly obsessed with it.
It's like later the other housemates played a small joke on Sophia by stealing her (un-drunk) champagne and her reaction to it did not show her in a good light. It just became such a big melodrama. Indeed, everything is a big melodrama for Sophia and I really don't like people like that.
Dogface (Sophie): Again, stupid name because of the challenge.
Basically, Sophie is probably my favourite. And yes a big part of that is that she's hawt and has huge breasts. And yes, I did Google for pics of her as soon as I got the opportunity. Sorry, that's very old-skool and unreconstructed caveman of me isn't it?
Only thing I would say is she clearly didn't need the boob job. I can see why she did it as her natural breasts are so large they did have a bit of sag to them, but such things are what make breasts and their infinite variety so appealing.
Er, sorry, got off the topic there a bit.
Basically, as well as the hawt thing, Sophie also seems like a really nice person. Slightly incongruously for a glamour model she seems a little shy. Or if not exactly shy then I think it took a while for her to settle in and be comfortable, and she's not an OTT type.
There was another housemate, Beinazir, who got booted out after only three days. I have absolutely no opinion of her because I'm not aware of her having done anything or said anything whilst in there - certainly there's nothing I remember from the highlights shows. Which is probably why nobody voted to let her in.
Wow this is a huge post - and all of it makes me feel slightly dirty.
Halfwit (Freddie) and Sophia are up for nominations. I'm guessing Sophia will be voted off, but I'd prefer to see Freddie go.
Plan for the weekend is to start on this huge pile of stuff I've got to scan. Quite whether I'll actually be arsed I'm not sure - I'm not really in the mood to be at the moment I have to admit.
Right, well, I admitted I was watching the damn thing and I don't appear to have stopped, so here's a kinda summary of my thoughts of BB so far.
One of the things about BB is that, generally, those people that are interested in going on the show are, by nature going to be at least a little bit extrovert and possibly a little attention seeking. These things are basically a given.
And by my nature I'm the sort of person who doesn't really like those traits in other people. Especially when they're ramped up to high levels.
What I mean is that I instantly dislike people who put on a "big show" or who deliberately act OTT. This is a little difficult to really explain properly, as we all are a bit fake. We all have to 'put on faces' and pretend to be certain things at certain times.
It's like talking about other "people behind their backs", which is one of the things Big Brother always brings out, because the cameras are there all the time on everybody. The thing about it is that it's something we all profess to hate, and yet everyone does it.
Now I have a theory on why - I think it's part of being in and interacting with social groups. See, we communicate verbally, so in order for us to establish out pecking order in a group and in order to find like minded people in that group we discuss the common element - other people. It's only natural and normal.
Of the degree of bitchiness will vary wildly, the basic thing is the same.
Where was I?
Oh yeah - basically what I'm saying is that the housemates fall into two basic groups for me. There's the ones that stepped over that line of "fakeness" and there's everybody else. Now I don't think the everybody else are actually normal because of what I said above about the type of people that go into BB, but they're the ones that are near enough to what I consider normal for me to find them likeable.
But there's even a further sub-divisions within that. Anyway, here's the basic groupings:
The fakes:
Angel: She entered the house posing a lot and making hissing noises. Oh dear.
As time progressed she seemed a bit more normal, although she seems obsessed with exercise and proclaims almost on an hourly basis that people will 'get fat'. Also, when the housemates were given booze and pizza as a kind of treat thing, she instead sucked an egg and had a glass of milk.
Yes, you did read that right - sucked an egg. She punched a little hole in it and sucked out the contents. Seriously.
However, in terms of how she's been in the actual house generally she seems okay.
Siavash: To some extent I'm being a bit harsh here again. As a person I think Siavash is probably alright, but he's, well, I dunno how to put it - too obsessed with clothes, I suppose.
When he entered the house he had some natty suit on, but then while they were non-housemates they had to change into some generic clothes. Siavash kept complaining about not being able to get at his clothes and 'needing' his clothes. When he eventually got in this became apparent why - his outfits are bonkers and he's obsessed with clothes.
Now it's one thing to have a unique style, it's another to go into Big Brother with a full-on opera-mask with a ginormous 12-inch pointy nose packed in your case.
Maybe his general alright-ness will make me forget such things, but I'm guessing now that he has access to his clothes the opposite will happen.
Halfwit (Freddie): He and Sophie were required to legally change their names in order to get into the house, which is why the stupid name.
But it kinda suits him. He's a posh, rich toff type, which I've no fundamental problem with, although his toff accent is a bit extreme. No, it's the following I don't like: Says his profession is "Entrepreneur" - tool. Babbles lots of hippy-dippy shite - idiot. Sings, badly - cock. And worst of all proclaimed himself to be bisexual.
Now I've nothing wrong with bisexuality. To some extent I'm of the opinion that most people are, to a greater or lesser extent, bisexual. Whether or not the majority of people would act on any desires or feelings they had is the thing that fixes most people to hetero- or homo-sexuality, I think.
No, the problem is that people who proclaim their sexuality, especially when it's bisexuality, get on my nerves. It's always just smacked to me of "look at me, I'm so different from everyone else".
Let's put it this way - most people I think tend to view their sexuality both as their business and not a general area of discussion unless specifically asked about it. You don't go up to a group of people you've just met and just tell them you're bisexual right off do you? Surely topics like your favourite cheese are more normal.
Sree: He seems so utterly fake. He's Indian and he has the weirdest accent I've ever heard - not from the point of view of the sound of it, but how good his grasp of English is seems to come and go. It's like sometimes his sentences are all totally muddled and then suddenly he'll be throwing around big words.
I keep expecting a crime thriller-esque moment where, having confronted him about it, Sree smiles, leans back and then reveals how much of a creep his is, talking in a posh, plumy English accent.
He's weird too - on the one hand he proclaims shyness, yet if other people are talking he'll bound up and start nosing in. Also he keeps invading everyone's personal space - especially the girls, who he keeps pawing at.
And when it came to the day of evicting the first person he was clamouring around the housemates basically asking "do you like me?" and stuff. Then he goes to the diary room upset about possibly going, but it came across as really fake, playing on the sympathy vote.
Maybe it's all genuine and that's how he is, but it really comes across as someone faking it to try to win.
The normals:
Charlie: Mr Gay UK or something. He's a bit full-on for me personally - a good in small doses sort - but he seems like quite a good laugh. He has a tendency to do practical jokes though and I'm really not a fan of practical jokes.
Kris: A former male model and he is pretty handsome I'd say. I think a haircut and shave would actually work better on him, but otherwise he seems like a fairly normal chap. Albeit a normal chap who knows he's attractive to the ladies anyway.
Lisa: I think the term is 'butch lesbian' and she's definitely that. I've no real problem with her, although she seems to be the type that's into new age crap. She's mentioned energy a few times and I would guess she knows what Reiki is. Well, I know what Reiki is too, but I'd never believe it actually works. Not that I'd know if Lisa does either, but that's the feeling I get.
Marcus: Looks a bit like Wolverine (the comic book superhero, not the large weasel) with big lamb-chop sideburns. To me he seems like a decent enough chap. He's certainly not as flamboyant and OTT as some, but that's not a bad thing.
Noirin: She's Irish, but she's clearly of mixed-race parentage and to me that keeps being slightly disconcerting. I guess that's prejudice on my part isn't it? But I dunno, I don't tend to think of there being Black Irish people. I mean, with the IRA and whoever else going around blowing things up would you want to move there? And slaves weren't really used in Ireland in the way they were in the colonies or on the mainland, where they? Or maybe they were - I don't know.
Anyway, what I will say is she's very pretty (is it me or are mixed-race (what's the proper PC term? - I haven't a clue) girls all gorgeous?) and swears like a trooper and that's about it because she's really lacking for air-time - the highlights shows almost never show her, even when there's a big crowd.
Rodrigo: An early favourite to win. He's from Brazil, is really good looking in an elfish sort of way, very bouncy and up-beat and seems like a genuinely nice person so I can see why.
Cairon: Tough one. The big problem is he's only 18, but he looks a lot older. So oftentimes when I see him acting in the ways he does I'm unimpressed, but then I remember he's really only a kid so I forgive him a bit more.
The American accent is a bit odd, though. He's apparently actually from London, but lived in America growing up. What's weird though is you get odd English bits sneaking in from his time here - like he keeps saying 'innit' which is very English.
He's got an eye on Sophie and she seems to like him too, so things may get interesting there. He certainly doesn't seem to lack in confidence.
Karly: She did well in something called 'High Street Honeys' which is something FHM magazine did, apparently. She certainly pretty.
I'll tell you the most surprising thing, though - so far she doesn't seem bitchy or nasty. Indeed, there are quite a few pretty girls in the house and to be frank all of them seem like they're nice enough people. Which just goes to show you can't always trust stereotypes.
Things get a little confusing now as there are three girls with, like, variations on the same name - Sophia, Saffia and Sophie - and two of them have been having a big old barny.
Saffia: She seems very strong willed and more than a little independent. All good things in my book, although I have to admit I worry about a single mother of two very young kids who would go on BB which could last anything up to 3 or 4 months. There's independence and then there's independence. I hope there's a clutch of grandparents on hand.
Sophia: She's tiny. Apparently she has Lupus and I dunno if it's because of that but she must only be about 5 foot tall.
Sophia is the closest of those in the normal pile to being in with the fakes. Trouble is I don't think she's fake. But I do find her to be an unpleasant person.
Basically, she and Saffia are having a massive row. It's because on the first night Saffia and Sophia slept close together and talked a lot. Then Saffia had to pick 3 people to do a task to get into the house and she didn't pick Sophia.
Clearly Sophia took umbrage at this and I don't blame her for that. What I don't like is that Sophia has become utterly obsessed with it.
It's like later the other housemates played a small joke on Sophia by stealing her (un-drunk) champagne and her reaction to it did not show her in a good light. It just became such a big melodrama. Indeed, everything is a big melodrama for Sophia and I really don't like people like that.
Dogface (Sophie): Again, stupid name because of the challenge.
Basically, Sophie is probably my favourite. And yes a big part of that is that she's hawt and has huge breasts. And yes, I did Google for pics of her as soon as I got the opportunity. Sorry, that's very old-skool and unreconstructed caveman of me isn't it?
Only thing I would say is she clearly didn't need the boob job. I can see why she did it as her natural breasts are so large they did have a bit of sag to them, but such things are what make breasts and their infinite variety so appealing.
Er, sorry, got off the topic there a bit.
Basically, as well as the hawt thing, Sophie also seems like a really nice person. Slightly incongruously for a glamour model she seems a little shy. Or if not exactly shy then I think it took a while for her to settle in and be comfortable, and she's not an OTT type.
There was another housemate, Beinazir, who got booted out after only three days. I have absolutely no opinion of her because I'm not aware of her having done anything or said anything whilst in there - certainly there's nothing I remember from the highlights shows. Which is probably why nobody voted to let her in.
Wow this is a huge post - and all of it makes me feel slightly dirty.
Halfwit (Freddie) and Sophia are up for nominations. I'm guessing Sophia will be voted off, but I'd prefer to see Freddie go.
Thursday, 11 June 2009
oops
Well today I'd initially planned to bring you the last of my textual blog posts about my holiday. It was meant to be a sort of odds and sods round up.
I am actually planning another post or two that will hopefully be some of the photos I took. Unfortunately that does mean I have to find time to wade through them all, though, so don't hold your breath!
Anyway, I say oops because I totally forgot that today we had a meeting planned with a customer. That means I've just not had the time to write the post.
The meeting was kinda pointless, tbh. It was sort of a progress meeting I guess and there wasn't a lot to discuss in terms of the progress, so it was a bit of a non-event. I actually tried to wiggle my way out of it by suggesting the project manager go on his own while I was on holiday, but that idea didn't seem to take.
I am actually planning another post or two that will hopefully be some of the photos I took. Unfortunately that does mean I have to find time to wade through them all, though, so don't hold your breath!
Anyway, I say oops because I totally forgot that today we had a meeting planned with a customer. That means I've just not had the time to write the post.
The meeting was kinda pointless, tbh. It was sort of a progress meeting I guess and there wasn't a lot to discuss in terms of the progress, so it was a bit of a non-event. I actually tried to wiggle my way out of it by suggesting the project manager go on his own while I was on holiday, but that idea didn't seem to take.
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
10,000BC
Wow, this film was bad.
I think I've mentioned that I read Empire magazine. My memory of their review for 10,000BC was that it was a bit daft but entertaining enough.
While I'd agree with it being daft I really didn't find it very entertaining at all.
There's actually a line about two-thirds of the way through that kinda summarises the main thing that annoyed me about the film. One of the good guys is explaining about the bad guys and says something to the effect that nobody knows where they came from.
He says something along the lines of "some think they came from the sky, others that they came from across the ocean from a land that sunk." Basically what this is referring to is the 'theory' that Egyptians were really aliens (see Stargate) and the theory of Atlantis (see, well, if you've not heard of Atlantis then start with wikipedia I guess :/).
But I think that it's also referring to Erich Von Daniken and his fellow "Real history is kinda confusing and a little dull and takes far to much painstaking research to work out, so here's a collection of bonkers ideas with half-baked and very loose evidence to back them up" writers.
Again, wikipedia's a good place to get the skinny on the whacky theories these people come up with.
Now part of me kinda likes these writers because they come up with some interesting ideas. What I don't like about them is that they genuinely seem to think their ideas hold merit and so do their readers.
But anyway, it's daft ideas like these that seem to have formed the basis for 10,000BC.
So as I say, the bad guys are possibly alien or from Atlantis or maybe just foreigners. Which I guess is okay, but you also get the utterly bizarre proposition that wholly mammoths were used to build the pyramids.
I mean seriously - whut?
Setting aside all problems of getting the timing wrong (mammoths are extinct by the time we build the pyramids), are we seriously supposed to believe that wholly mammoths with their huge mass and great big furry bodies that evolved to cope with the extreme cold of the northern latitudes during the last ice age would survive for any period of time in the Egyptian desert?
I mean come on - fantasy is one thing; utterly retarded is another.
And that's just one of many utterly ridiculous things.
My personal favourite is to do with the journey that the heroes go on.
If you look at the locations in an analytical way it seemed to be that the cavemen start somewhere in central Europe. They then move south, travelling through what appears to be a tropical jungle, arriving in a desert country that very much appears to be Northern Africa.
Okay, so if we ignore the whole jungle bit (especially since it's filled with terror birds - large, carnivorous, flightless birds... that were native to South America and extinct 2 million years ago :/) that seems like a basically sensible journey. However, it starts to unravel when you get to the point where all these tribes are apparently unfamiliar with boats and sailing.
That means they somehow made the journey without ever crossing or travelling down a large river, which is fair enough until you think about the time taken to trek around such rivers. But it also means they couldn't have gone from Europe to Africa by crossing the Mediterranean. That in turn means they must have passed through Egypt to get there... and yet Egypt is their final destination.
Eh?
And those are just the tip of the iceberg.
But the real kicker is that you could have ignored all of these blatant time buggerations and logical problems if the personal story had been any good. But it really wasn't.
The general jist was a quest for the hero to save his true love and I guess rescue humanity. Which is pretty tried and true ground you'd think, but I dunno, they totally bungled it. Not least of all because I didn't really care about the romance and the hero was actually a bit of an idiot and also rather bland.
Avoid.
I think I've mentioned that I read Empire magazine. My memory of their review for 10,000BC was that it was a bit daft but entertaining enough.
While I'd agree with it being daft I really didn't find it very entertaining at all.
There's actually a line about two-thirds of the way through that kinda summarises the main thing that annoyed me about the film. One of the good guys is explaining about the bad guys and says something to the effect that nobody knows where they came from.
He says something along the lines of "some think they came from the sky, others that they came from across the ocean from a land that sunk." Basically what this is referring to is the 'theory' that Egyptians were really aliens (see Stargate) and the theory of Atlantis (see, well, if you've not heard of Atlantis then start with wikipedia I guess :/).
But I think that it's also referring to Erich Von Daniken and his fellow "Real history is kinda confusing and a little dull and takes far to much painstaking research to work out, so here's a collection of bonkers ideas with half-baked and very loose evidence to back them up" writers.
Again, wikipedia's a good place to get the skinny on the whacky theories these people come up with.
Now part of me kinda likes these writers because they come up with some interesting ideas. What I don't like about them is that they genuinely seem to think their ideas hold merit and so do their readers.
But anyway, it's daft ideas like these that seem to have formed the basis for 10,000BC.
So as I say, the bad guys are possibly alien or from Atlantis or maybe just foreigners. Which I guess is okay, but you also get the utterly bizarre proposition that wholly mammoths were used to build the pyramids.
I mean seriously - whut?
Setting aside all problems of getting the timing wrong (mammoths are extinct by the time we build the pyramids), are we seriously supposed to believe that wholly mammoths with their huge mass and great big furry bodies that evolved to cope with the extreme cold of the northern latitudes during the last ice age would survive for any period of time in the Egyptian desert?
I mean come on - fantasy is one thing; utterly retarded is another.
And that's just one of many utterly ridiculous things.
My personal favourite is to do with the journey that the heroes go on.
If you look at the locations in an analytical way it seemed to be that the cavemen start somewhere in central Europe. They then move south, travelling through what appears to be a tropical jungle, arriving in a desert country that very much appears to be Northern Africa.
Okay, so if we ignore the whole jungle bit (especially since it's filled with terror birds - large, carnivorous, flightless birds... that were native to South America and extinct 2 million years ago :/) that seems like a basically sensible journey. However, it starts to unravel when you get to the point where all these tribes are apparently unfamiliar with boats and sailing.
That means they somehow made the journey without ever crossing or travelling down a large river, which is fair enough until you think about the time taken to trek around such rivers. But it also means they couldn't have gone from Europe to Africa by crossing the Mediterranean. That in turn means they must have passed through Egypt to get there... and yet Egypt is their final destination.
Eh?
And those are just the tip of the iceberg.
But the real kicker is that you could have ignored all of these blatant time buggerations and logical problems if the personal story had been any good. But it really wasn't.
The general jist was a quest for the hero to save his true love and I guess rescue humanity. Which is pretty tried and true ground you'd think, but I dunno, they totally bungled it. Not least of all because I didn't really care about the romance and the hero was actually a bit of an idiot and also rather bland.
Avoid.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
holiday 3 - the other days
So one of the best things about going to Monaco was that we were doing it as a proper holiday.
As mentioned the other day, Friday is a racing day, but it has no Formula 1 action. Plus, the Monday was a bank holiday in the UK, so the cost of flights was artificially elevated, so the travel company we went with did it so that the flights were on Tuesday. We therefore also had Monday as a free day.
On the Friday we decided to pay a visit to Cannes.
For many years I've often wondered why random Hollywood celebrities turn up at the Monaco Grand Prix, being interviewed on the start. Now you do occasionally get celebs at other GPs of course, but the frequency and calibre at Monaco always seemed unusual.
Well it turns out that the Cannes film festival basically runs at a similar time as the Monaco GP. The main activity of Cannes is normally over by the time Monaco rolls around, but you can imagine that the celebs are kicking about doing nothing when an invite turns up from Monaco and off they trot.
Anyway, so we thought we'd have a butchers at Cannes on Friday. That meant a short train journey down the coast.
We actually missed the train we were supposed to go on as they changed the platform and didn't properly announce it (more on such things at a later date). However, we got the next train and ended up where we were supposed to.
To be perfectly frank, Cannes is distinctly unimpressive.
It's kinda obvious that they created the film festival in order to attract people to an otherwise fairly standard French seaside town.
The actual film festival is held at a Casino close to the coast. It's probably the most ugly building I've ever seen.
Nothing was really happening, but the red carpets were there and bouncers were milling about on doorways.
Most of the seafront was blocked off mainly by tent-like things, some of which sold horribly over-priced merchandise. However, the harbour was accessible, so we had a wander around that. A bit like Monaco there were some staggeringly big and expensive-looking yachts. Some appeared to be hosting lunch parties and on one there was clearly someone that other people recognised.
We didn't know who it was so we guessed it was maybe a local French celebrity.
Oh, and while we were having lunch some bikini-clad girls turned up with some guys with cameras. Now, because of how it worked out I never really got a proper look at the girls, which when I think back on it is bizarre, because they came and sat right behind me. One of the girls must literally have been 6 inches away.
Now if you know anything about me the one thing you can be assured of is that I'm not a prude. However, one thing that's probably not apparent is that I find it... I dunno, confusing I suppose, as to whether I'm allowed to look, well, look at girls.
It's like I don't want to leer at them. It's such a typical reaction and I'm always unsure whether a girl finds it to be uncomfortable or not, even when she's clearly putting everything on display, as it were.
I also sort of hate the power it has over me. It's like the old cliché that men will do anything for a pretty girl. I hate that, but equally I know that in the same situation if a pretty girl asked me to do something I almost certainly would.
I'm not sure I'm explaining this properly - but the basic point is that these scantily clad girls were cavorting around on the grass behind me and I didn't have a look.
But then there is a caveat to that - the blokes with them were photographers and they were taking pictures. Very quickly a huge crowd formed of random people taking pictures and so I was basically buried in a scrum of sweaty blokes.
If there's one thing I hate it's the invasion of my personal space in such a fashion, which pretty much explains why I didn't look and high-tailed it out of there.
After the harbour we sat and had an ice-cream and then went for a wander around Cannes. If you're female and shoes and expensive designer clothes are your thing then Cannes's shops are probably heaven.
Oh and oddly there's a large Boulez (French Bowls) pitch in Cannes. There were quite a few playing as well.
So that was Cannes - colour me unimpressed.
On Monday we did two things.
In the morning we went into Nice, which is where we stayed.
If I'm honest I was totally shattered, so wasn't in much of a 'doing stuff' mood, but it seemed like quite a nice place. We had a pleasant lunch and sat next to a big fountain they have. It was in the middle of a gigantic plaza/square thing. It was so big I think you could have put the entirety of Farnham town centre in there and still had room to spare.
Nice is a big place. This was emphasised on a touristy train ride thing we did. It was a car thing that was made up to look like a train with carriages behind. We were going to do the same basic thing in Cannes, but it would have taken too long. This one lasted about 45 minutes or so with a 15 minute break in the middle.
It went past some sites and went up onto a big hill thing towards the edge of Nice and it was there we really got to see Nice - it's a huge place that would take you hours to walk end-to-end.
The train-ride was good actually - it was a bit touristy but took you to historical places you would not have known were there unless you spent hours wandering around.
We then went on the Tram. Public transport is not my idea of heaven, but my Dad likes that sort of stuff so he wanted to ride the tram.
We then headed back for a nap before we headed out that evening for a trip to the casino in Monaco.
Well that was the plan anyway.
In an attempt to find out what the weather was doing my Dad occasionally put the French news on in the morning. Now rolling along the bottom that morning I'd seen "SNCF" something-something that was too quick for me to really pay attention too.
It turned out that the something-something should have been translated as "bloody communist French rail workers are going on poxing strike yet again."
The strike started at 8pm (we basically arrived at the station at 8pm :/) Monday evening and went on until 8am on Wednesday morning.
This buggered us right up as you can imagine. We had to wait for a train that was running at Nice and then it threw into total confusion what time we would be getting back.
We'd planned to get the second-to-last train back, but it wasn't at all clear what trains would be running. We therefore only had a very short time in the Casinos because it would have been a nightmare missing the train.
The worst thing about that was that in actuality we could have spent hour in the Casino. The boards that were up that claimed the last train would run at 11:05 were clearly a total fabrication, because the train didn't actually turn up until way-past midnight.
For me this didn't matter so much, because I don't like Casinos. They make you feel like a criminal because all the staff are watching you. Plus they have loads of CCTV cameras.
And then on top of that most gambling games are complicated. Well, sometimes they're not that complicated as games as such, but they often have little rules you don't appreciate. Plus there's always etiquette and ways of behaving that no-one tells you about until you do the wrong thing, like betting too little on.
Plus even your bog-standard slot machines have become horribly complicated electronic devices. Long-gone are the days of things physically rotating to show you three cherries and oodles of coins falling out - it's all done with screens and credit slips.
On top of that I'm an appallingly unlucky gambler - I never win at pure-chance gambling.
Take for example the national lottery - I've been playing one set of numbers in each main draw using the online system for 6 months now and haven't won so much as a tenner.
Anyway - the casino thing wasn't for my benefit, it was for my sister who seemed really keen on the idea. Hopefully she had a good time, even if it was a lot shorter than expected.
In the end we didn't go in the Casino de Monte Carlo proper, but went in a Casino next to it. This casino you could wear anything in, but we didn't know that and so had gotten done up in all the clobber.
The net result was the three of us were up on the night, though. I lost a tenner, but my sister gained about £1.50 on a slot machine and my Dad and Sister had a win on the roulette wheel. A single number win pays out at 35-to-1 (minimum bet was £2) and they'd only spent £20 (I'm using pounds for convenience because the Euro exchange rate is piss poor at about 1:1) so they were up.
As mentioned the other day, Friday is a racing day, but it has no Formula 1 action. Plus, the Monday was a bank holiday in the UK, so the cost of flights was artificially elevated, so the travel company we went with did it so that the flights were on Tuesday. We therefore also had Monday as a free day.
On the Friday we decided to pay a visit to Cannes.
For many years I've often wondered why random Hollywood celebrities turn up at the Monaco Grand Prix, being interviewed on the start. Now you do occasionally get celebs at other GPs of course, but the frequency and calibre at Monaco always seemed unusual.
Well it turns out that the Cannes film festival basically runs at a similar time as the Monaco GP. The main activity of Cannes is normally over by the time Monaco rolls around, but you can imagine that the celebs are kicking about doing nothing when an invite turns up from Monaco and off they trot.
Anyway, so we thought we'd have a butchers at Cannes on Friday. That meant a short train journey down the coast.
We actually missed the train we were supposed to go on as they changed the platform and didn't properly announce it (more on such things at a later date). However, we got the next train and ended up where we were supposed to.
To be perfectly frank, Cannes is distinctly unimpressive.
It's kinda obvious that they created the film festival in order to attract people to an otherwise fairly standard French seaside town.
The actual film festival is held at a Casino close to the coast. It's probably the most ugly building I've ever seen.
Nothing was really happening, but the red carpets were there and bouncers were milling about on doorways.
Most of the seafront was blocked off mainly by tent-like things, some of which sold horribly over-priced merchandise. However, the harbour was accessible, so we had a wander around that. A bit like Monaco there were some staggeringly big and expensive-looking yachts. Some appeared to be hosting lunch parties and on one there was clearly someone that other people recognised.
We didn't know who it was so we guessed it was maybe a local French celebrity.
Oh, and while we were having lunch some bikini-clad girls turned up with some guys with cameras. Now, because of how it worked out I never really got a proper look at the girls, which when I think back on it is bizarre, because they came and sat right behind me. One of the girls must literally have been 6 inches away.
Now if you know anything about me the one thing you can be assured of is that I'm not a prude. However, one thing that's probably not apparent is that I find it... I dunno, confusing I suppose, as to whether I'm allowed to look, well, look at girls.
It's like I don't want to leer at them. It's such a typical reaction and I'm always unsure whether a girl finds it to be uncomfortable or not, even when she's clearly putting everything on display, as it were.
I also sort of hate the power it has over me. It's like the old cliché that men will do anything for a pretty girl. I hate that, but equally I know that in the same situation if a pretty girl asked me to do something I almost certainly would.
I'm not sure I'm explaining this properly - but the basic point is that these scantily clad girls were cavorting around on the grass behind me and I didn't have a look.
But then there is a caveat to that - the blokes with them were photographers and they were taking pictures. Very quickly a huge crowd formed of random people taking pictures and so I was basically buried in a scrum of sweaty blokes.
If there's one thing I hate it's the invasion of my personal space in such a fashion, which pretty much explains why I didn't look and high-tailed it out of there.
After the harbour we sat and had an ice-cream and then went for a wander around Cannes. If you're female and shoes and expensive designer clothes are your thing then Cannes's shops are probably heaven.
Oh and oddly there's a large Boulez (French Bowls) pitch in Cannes. There were quite a few playing as well.
So that was Cannes - colour me unimpressed.
On Monday we did two things.
In the morning we went into Nice, which is where we stayed.
If I'm honest I was totally shattered, so wasn't in much of a 'doing stuff' mood, but it seemed like quite a nice place. We had a pleasant lunch and sat next to a big fountain they have. It was in the middle of a gigantic plaza/square thing. It was so big I think you could have put the entirety of Farnham town centre in there and still had room to spare.
Nice is a big place. This was emphasised on a touristy train ride thing we did. It was a car thing that was made up to look like a train with carriages behind. We were going to do the same basic thing in Cannes, but it would have taken too long. This one lasted about 45 minutes or so with a 15 minute break in the middle.
It went past some sites and went up onto a big hill thing towards the edge of Nice and it was there we really got to see Nice - it's a huge place that would take you hours to walk end-to-end.
The train-ride was good actually - it was a bit touristy but took you to historical places you would not have known were there unless you spent hours wandering around.
We then went on the Tram. Public transport is not my idea of heaven, but my Dad likes that sort of stuff so he wanted to ride the tram.
We then headed back for a nap before we headed out that evening for a trip to the casino in Monaco.
Well that was the plan anyway.
In an attempt to find out what the weather was doing my Dad occasionally put the French news on in the morning. Now rolling along the bottom that morning I'd seen "SNCF" something-something that was too quick for me to really pay attention too.
It turned out that the something-something should have been translated as "bloody communist French rail workers are going on poxing strike yet again."
The strike started at 8pm (we basically arrived at the station at 8pm :/) Monday evening and went on until 8am on Wednesday morning.
This buggered us right up as you can imagine. We had to wait for a train that was running at Nice and then it threw into total confusion what time we would be getting back.
We'd planned to get the second-to-last train back, but it wasn't at all clear what trains would be running. We therefore only had a very short time in the Casinos because it would have been a nightmare missing the train.
The worst thing about that was that in actuality we could have spent hour in the Casino. The boards that were up that claimed the last train would run at 11:05 were clearly a total fabrication, because the train didn't actually turn up until way-past midnight.
For me this didn't matter so much, because I don't like Casinos. They make you feel like a criminal because all the staff are watching you. Plus they have loads of CCTV cameras.
And then on top of that most gambling games are complicated. Well, sometimes they're not that complicated as games as such, but they often have little rules you don't appreciate. Plus there's always etiquette and ways of behaving that no-one tells you about until you do the wrong thing, like betting too little on.
Plus even your bog-standard slot machines have become horribly complicated electronic devices. Long-gone are the days of things physically rotating to show you three cherries and oodles of coins falling out - it's all done with screens and credit slips.
On top of that I'm an appallingly unlucky gambler - I never win at pure-chance gambling.
Take for example the national lottery - I've been playing one set of numbers in each main draw using the online system for 6 months now and haven't won so much as a tenner.
Anyway - the casino thing wasn't for my benefit, it was for my sister who seemed really keen on the idea. Hopefully she had a good time, even if it was a lot shorter than expected.
In the end we didn't go in the Casino de Monte Carlo proper, but went in a Casino next to it. This casino you could wear anything in, but we didn't know that and so had gotten done up in all the clobber.
The net result was the three of us were up on the night, though. I lost a tenner, but my sister gained about £1.50 on a slot machine and my Dad and Sister had a win on the roulette wheel. A single number win pays out at 35-to-1 (minimum bet was £2) and they'd only spent £20 (I'm using pounds for convenience because the Euro exchange rate is piss poor at about 1:1) so they were up.
Monday, 8 June 2009
oh dear
Oh dear.
Oh dear, oh dear.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Isn't it funny how words start to sound wrong the more you repeat them over and over?
Anyway, why the lamentations?
Because I have a horrible admission to make.
An admission that's so fundamentally against who I both perceive and portray myself to be that I'm at best embarrassed; at worst ashamed.
No I've not embezzled thousands of pounds; no I've not murdered someone. I have... wait for it in those annoying dramatic build-ups that are all the rage on telly nowadays... been watching Big Brother.
I know, I'm disgusted with me too.
I've actually been trying to think up some kind of excuse I could use to make it seem more all right than it is. For example, this is the tenth anniversary of BB so I thought maybe I could say I was watching it for that reason. I don't trumpet the fact, but I actually watched and enjoyed the first Big Brother series.
The second series was where it kinda lost me, as I only watched bits. Which was going to be my other potential excuse - from series 2 on it seemed to become very gimmick orientated. This time, I was going to say, it seemed a bit more normal. Only that's not true at all, they've been gimmicking it up to the hilt.
Also the types of people they put in from season 2 almost became cynical choices. Rather than just being ordinary (well-ish) people they picked annoying people or deliberately picked minority or other small groups so viewers could feel good about not being prejudiced by not voting them out early.
And while I'd still say that's less of a thing this year, it's also not a valid excuse - there's one proper glamour model and one almost-glamour model in there, for example. They're hardly your average Joe Soap :/.
So basically I have no excuse. I've been watching Big Brother and I'm one of those people that always bangs on about hating 'reality' television and its cousins.
Well, there is one excuse. And it's kinda contained in the paragraph two above this one. There's a glamour model with very large boobs in the house. And I like the big boob if it's not been apparent before.
That's not the most self-flattering of admissions, but compared to the overall admission that I'm watching BB it's the least of my problems.
And I guess I'll be posting some blog updates as to what I think about BB stuff. Oh, although it's worth noting that even though I'm watching it, I'm doing so using my usual PVR magic, so I won't necessarily be current or up-to-date.
The weekend was otherwise fairly successful.
Weather forecasts beforehand had been filled with the doom and gloom of huge downpours and cold weather. And while this wasn't completely wrong where I was, it was more like Saturday morning it drizzled and then Saturday and Sunday night it rained. Otherwise it was pretty dry.
It was chilly, though. I was tempted to put my heating on at one point actually, although instead I just curled up under my duvet. The cold weather did have the advantage that it made it more pleasant to clean my car, though.
Which was why the weather mattered so much, btw. My landlord has gone on holiday for a week, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to clean me motor. The breaks in the weather where long enough for me to do so - even for me to Hoover without getting a massive electrical shock.
The other hope for the weekend didn't come off. As mentioned on Friday I'm way behind on scanning and so had hoped to find the time to start, but there just weren't the hours available. Especially with me still playing a bit of catch-up from my holiday.
Oh dear, oh dear.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Isn't it funny how words start to sound wrong the more you repeat them over and over?
Anyway, why the lamentations?
Because I have a horrible admission to make.
An admission that's so fundamentally against who I both perceive and portray myself to be that I'm at best embarrassed; at worst ashamed.
No I've not embezzled thousands of pounds; no I've not murdered someone. I have... wait for it in those annoying dramatic build-ups that are all the rage on telly nowadays... been watching Big Brother.
I know, I'm disgusted with me too.
I've actually been trying to think up some kind of excuse I could use to make it seem more all right than it is. For example, this is the tenth anniversary of BB so I thought maybe I could say I was watching it for that reason. I don't trumpet the fact, but I actually watched and enjoyed the first Big Brother series.
The second series was where it kinda lost me, as I only watched bits. Which was going to be my other potential excuse - from series 2 on it seemed to become very gimmick orientated. This time, I was going to say, it seemed a bit more normal. Only that's not true at all, they've been gimmicking it up to the hilt.
Also the types of people they put in from season 2 almost became cynical choices. Rather than just being ordinary (well-ish) people they picked annoying people or deliberately picked minority or other small groups so viewers could feel good about not being prejudiced by not voting them out early.
And while I'd still say that's less of a thing this year, it's also not a valid excuse - there's one proper glamour model and one almost-glamour model in there, for example. They're hardly your average Joe Soap :/.
So basically I have no excuse. I've been watching Big Brother and I'm one of those people that always bangs on about hating 'reality' television and its cousins.
Well, there is one excuse. And it's kinda contained in the paragraph two above this one. There's a glamour model with very large boobs in the house. And I like the big boob if it's not been apparent before.
That's not the most self-flattering of admissions, but compared to the overall admission that I'm watching BB it's the least of my problems.
And I guess I'll be posting some blog updates as to what I think about BB stuff. Oh, although it's worth noting that even though I'm watching it, I'm doing so using my usual PVR magic, so I won't necessarily be current or up-to-date.
The weekend was otherwise fairly successful.
Weather forecasts beforehand had been filled with the doom and gloom of huge downpours and cold weather. And while this wasn't completely wrong where I was, it was more like Saturday morning it drizzled and then Saturday and Sunday night it rained. Otherwise it was pretty dry.
It was chilly, though. I was tempted to put my heating on at one point actually, although instead I just curled up under my duvet. The cold weather did have the advantage that it made it more pleasant to clean my car, though.
Which was why the weather mattered so much, btw. My landlord has gone on holiday for a week, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to clean me motor. The breaks in the weather where long enough for me to do so - even for me to Hoover without getting a massive electrical shock.
The other hope for the weekend didn't come off. As mentioned on Friday I'm way behind on scanning and so had hoped to find the time to start, but there just weren't the hours available. Especially with me still playing a bit of catch-up from my holiday.
Friday, 5 June 2009
behind
I'm so fricking behind with everything.
Just before I went on holiday I bought a couple of new artbooks - the first in months - but now I've kinda realised that I need to scan them. And I've not scanned any of last months magazines at all. Heck, as I was taking the staples out I also realised I'd hardly even looked at those mags :/. And in the next week or two I'll be getting this months mags as well.
I've also gotten sick to death of the great big pile of old & imported mangas I was always planning to scan but have never gotten around to. Plus, I bought two calendars in a sale so I should scan them as well.
And speaking of magazines I've gotten way behind reading my magazines. I buy two each month - White Dwarf (which is for games workshop) and Empire (films) - and I've several recent issues of each still to read.
Part of the reason for that is that I've been really into manga just recently. I've been buying it like it's going out of fashion and so have been focused on reading all this lovely new manga. But that means I don't have time to read anything else.
The other thing I'm way behind on is my websites. Ever since I began doing my websites I've operated a policy of "building up" material. What I tend to do is write loads of reviews and make walls etc over a period of months and then have a big session making updates for the site.
I then roll these updates out on a weekly basis. The idea is that while the updates are rolling out I can be working on more new stuff and so (in theory) the cycle continues.
Unfortunately, what tends to happen in practice is that I work on the new material but then fail to have a new session of making website updates before I've run out of the old ones. The main reason for that is that making the website updates is kinda painful.
For one thing it's very confusing - I end up working across loads of different folders, trying to photoshop stuff here and copy-paste text there. Plus you're not just talking about the actual pages themselves - the front page and all the menus always need updating as well. It can be really slow progress.
The other stumbling block is scanning stuff. As mentioned, I can get way behind and of course for my reviews I like to have scans of the DVD covers, etc, so if I've not done any scanning I don't have them and so can't do the updates.
Of course the other issue is walling.
Generally speaking I try not to just upload reviews, but mix walls and psds in there as well.
Well unfortunately, just recently, I've been utterly uninterested in walling. It's kinda weird actually - a few months back I went through a huge burst of creativity making vectors especially, but then suddenly it sort of died.
The same thing happened with my writing - I had a huge burst of creativity and then *bam* I totally lost the desire to do it.
I mean, it's not that I don't have ideas and stuff, it's just the whole motivation to actually sit down and do stuff appears to have dried up. Hence why I'm so behind.
I think I'm going to take a few long weekends and try to do a bit of catching up. Well, if I can stretch to them - my recent 2 week extravaganza has left me a bit bereft of holiday days.
Oh, and my cold finally seems to be abating. The thing I can't work out about it was that it came on Sunday morning. Normally I get colds within 24 hours of contact with an infected person. However, that would mean I picked it up sometime on Saturday, but on Saturday I literally did not leave my bed-sit and didn't speak to anyone (I relaxed and watched all the telly I'd recorded while away).
The only possible source of germs where the landlords kids/grandkids, but as I say I didn't actually come into contact with them or even open the door. Very odd.
Just before I went on holiday I bought a couple of new artbooks - the first in months - but now I've kinda realised that I need to scan them. And I've not scanned any of last months magazines at all. Heck, as I was taking the staples out I also realised I'd hardly even looked at those mags :/. And in the next week or two I'll be getting this months mags as well.
I've also gotten sick to death of the great big pile of old & imported mangas I was always planning to scan but have never gotten around to. Plus, I bought two calendars in a sale so I should scan them as well.
And speaking of magazines I've gotten way behind reading my magazines. I buy two each month - White Dwarf (which is for games workshop) and Empire (films) - and I've several recent issues of each still to read.
Part of the reason for that is that I've been really into manga just recently. I've been buying it like it's going out of fashion and so have been focused on reading all this lovely new manga. But that means I don't have time to read anything else.
The other thing I'm way behind on is my websites. Ever since I began doing my websites I've operated a policy of "building up" material. What I tend to do is write loads of reviews and make walls etc over a period of months and then have a big session making updates for the site.
I then roll these updates out on a weekly basis. The idea is that while the updates are rolling out I can be working on more new stuff and so (in theory) the cycle continues.
Unfortunately, what tends to happen in practice is that I work on the new material but then fail to have a new session of making website updates before I've run out of the old ones. The main reason for that is that making the website updates is kinda painful.
For one thing it's very confusing - I end up working across loads of different folders, trying to photoshop stuff here and copy-paste text there. Plus you're not just talking about the actual pages themselves - the front page and all the menus always need updating as well. It can be really slow progress.
The other stumbling block is scanning stuff. As mentioned, I can get way behind and of course for my reviews I like to have scans of the DVD covers, etc, so if I've not done any scanning I don't have them and so can't do the updates.
Of course the other issue is walling.
Generally speaking I try not to just upload reviews, but mix walls and psds in there as well.
Well unfortunately, just recently, I've been utterly uninterested in walling. It's kinda weird actually - a few months back I went through a huge burst of creativity making vectors especially, but then suddenly it sort of died.
The same thing happened with my writing - I had a huge burst of creativity and then *bam* I totally lost the desire to do it.
I mean, it's not that I don't have ideas and stuff, it's just the whole motivation to actually sit down and do stuff appears to have dried up. Hence why I'm so behind.
I think I'm going to take a few long weekends and try to do a bit of catching up. Well, if I can stretch to them - my recent 2 week extravaganza has left me a bit bereft of holiday days.
Oh, and my cold finally seems to be abating. The thing I can't work out about it was that it came on Sunday morning. Normally I get colds within 24 hours of contact with an infected person. However, that would mean I picked it up sometime on Saturday, but on Saturday I literally did not leave my bed-sit and didn't speak to anyone (I relaxed and watched all the telly I'd recorded while away).
The only possible source of germs where the landlords kids/grandkids, but as I say I didn't actually come into contact with them or even open the door. Very odd.
Thursday, 4 June 2009
holiday 2 - the monaco grand prix
I've no idea what a principality is.
My guess is that it's basically a bit of a country (in this case France) that's effectively been leased for free to someone. I'm thinking it's a bit like the Hong Kong thing where we won it off the Chinese but had this weird leasehold agreement where after 100 years (or whatever it was) we gave it back to them.
Anyway, whatever it is, it's tiny. You can easily walk from one end to the other in a few hours. Or at least you can if you don't mind walking up very steep hills.
Monaco is a harbour town and it's basically surrounded by cliffs so the whole place is on a huge slant and is incredibly steep. I'm basically talking 45 degree angles here - this is proper steep.
This probably represents my biggest surprise about Monaco - just how steep it is. There's a part on the circuit, just after the start, where they go up a hill towards Casino Square. I'd always known this was a hill, but on the first day, sat in the stands and seeing it I was stunned at just how steep it is, and how long too. It's quite the climb.
Monaco is slightly odd (well, it's a lot odd, actually) in terms of the weekend. Normally a Grand Prix weekend lasts 3 days - Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
On Friday you have F1 practice sessions. On Saturday you have another F1 practice and then the qualifying. On Sunday you have the F1 race.
In addition to this you have all sorts of support races. For example, you have GP2 (the feeder formula for F1) and Formula Renault. But you also have Porsche racing. These other races also have various practice and qualifying sessions too.
Depending on the circuit you'll also have other entertainment stuff too, like fly-bys or special drag races or whatever.
Anyway, at Monaco it's different - they also have Thursday. Now the traditional reason for this was that Friday always used to be a Bank Holiday. But now it isn't; however they haven't recompressed the race - it's still across 4 days.
This unfortunately means the events are more spread out. Where you might have 5 things on each of the 3 days day everywhere else, instead you get 4 things on 4 days at Monaco if you see what I mean.
Anyway, the point is that we only watched on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, which are the Formula 1 days. Friday had racing, but didn't have any F1 stuff, so we did other stuff then (I'll blog on that later).
On each day we sat in a different place. You'll need to have a look at the circuit on wikipedia to understand where.
Basically on Thursday we in the first part of the harbour, between Tabac (so named because there's an underground Tabac - a shop that sells cigarettes - on the corner) and Louis Chiron (who I believe is a Monaco Racing Driver from the old days). What the ticket allowed us to do was sit in any of the seats in the stands between these two corners, which was kinda cool.
I was amazed at how close you are to the drivers. Monaco is a street circuit and if you imagine a normal road, where the pavement is is where the stands start. I reckon in some of the stands if you'd have gone down the front you could have tapped the driver on the head as they drove past (except there's obviously a fence in the way!).
The closeness means it's bloody loud too. One of the things people are always amazed at is just how loud F1 cars are. The thing I compare them to is a loud fog-horn, but continuous rather than a burst - you have to shout right into someone's ear so they can hear you over the noise. If you then imagine that noise rattling around streets and also being close (most proper circuits have runoff areas and gravel traps so you're some way away) you can start to imagine how loud it is.
I got some good photos there, including a sighting of David Coulthard and Martin Brundle - both ex-drivers who do commentary/coverage for the BBC.
Another amazing thing about the harbour is how big some of these yachts are - they're like cruise liners, but are privately owned. There were millions and millions of pounds worth of yacht there.
But what's more, some of the smaller ones are parked up right at the edge of the circuit - the harbour is right next to the road they drive on. So there were people sat in the yachts, watching the race.
Also, in one of the lulls some page 3 type models came out of one of the yachts and started taking photos of each other. I couldn't really see from where we were, but they appeared to be wearing bikinis, although they certainly still got a reaction from the stands with people blowing those horns and cheering at them.
Saturday we were at Casino square. Of the three days this was probably the best in terms of the placing and the general atmosphere.
It was a single stand and it was the most comfortable seating, both in terms of what it was (moulded plastic seats that fit your bottom comfortably) and the space you had. You also got a really good view of the cars as they belted around Massenet and into casino square.
The casino is also right there on the other side of the track. In front of it was a large terrace type thing with a restaurant with a lot of people watching. Down the sides were some shops - that's another thing about Monaco.
If you want to watch the race you have two options. You need to be in a stand or you need to get onto a roof of one of these shops or in the rooms. You can't just go and stand and watch like you can at every other Grand Prix.
Well I say that - there is a place you can do that, called "the Rock". This has nothing to do with the wrestler and is literally a big rock where people stand and watch. But it's not some gentle slope - it's almost vertical. But on Sunday you would not believe how packed it was up there - I got some pictures.
Casino is close to where Lewis Hamilton spanked the barrier on Saturday and he walked right through the casino and I got a few pics. He kept his helmet on which was the first clear indication it was entirely driver error.
Casino was very civilised too - out the back was a little ark think where we could go when there was no track action and have a lie down. It was where we had lunch too and it was where we had another bit of a surprise.
We were all expecting that the cost of food and drinks and merchandise would be horrendous, but they weren't. Well, they were - but no more horrendous than at any other Grand Prix. We'd assumed that with the captive market and being where it was it would be doubly ridiculous, back actually they were about what you'd expect to pay at the British Grand Prix.
Anyway, on Sunday we were at Piscine (or swimming pool - and so named because there is an actual swimming pool there. It's a smallish one, but, rather incongruously, it had a water flume.). The stand actually faced along the track away from the swimming pool.
This was a bit of an odd position to be in. Form a track point of view you mainly see the back of the cars. There's a tricky chicane there that the Ferraris seemed rather intent on cutting all the time, but even then they're not really side on to you.
However, what you gain is a decent view of the pits (Monaco is odd in that the pit garages actually face away from the Start/Finish straight). This was something of a revelation. When you see them in the pits on TV it seems smooth and flowing and thoroughly well organised.
Seeing them in real life was like watching barely organised chaos - it's a massive flurry of activity and has much more of a feeling of impending, narrowly avoided disaster.
This is also where Kovalainen had his crash, which was rather stunning. I've seen crashes before of course having been to the British Grand Prix, but it was amazing to be so close to it.
When Kovalainen got out of the car he was clearly quite dazed. As I said from there you're right behind the pits and he seemed determined to run across to them, despite having to run across the circuit on what is effectively a blind corner. Also, the pits are actually slightly elevated, so how he thought he was going to climb over I don't know!
My guess is that it's basically a bit of a country (in this case France) that's effectively been leased for free to someone. I'm thinking it's a bit like the Hong Kong thing where we won it off the Chinese but had this weird leasehold agreement where after 100 years (or whatever it was) we gave it back to them.
Anyway, whatever it is, it's tiny. You can easily walk from one end to the other in a few hours. Or at least you can if you don't mind walking up very steep hills.
Monaco is a harbour town and it's basically surrounded by cliffs so the whole place is on a huge slant and is incredibly steep. I'm basically talking 45 degree angles here - this is proper steep.
This probably represents my biggest surprise about Monaco - just how steep it is. There's a part on the circuit, just after the start, where they go up a hill towards Casino Square. I'd always known this was a hill, but on the first day, sat in the stands and seeing it I was stunned at just how steep it is, and how long too. It's quite the climb.
Monaco is slightly odd (well, it's a lot odd, actually) in terms of the weekend. Normally a Grand Prix weekend lasts 3 days - Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
On Friday you have F1 practice sessions. On Saturday you have another F1 practice and then the qualifying. On Sunday you have the F1 race.
In addition to this you have all sorts of support races. For example, you have GP2 (the feeder formula for F1) and Formula Renault. But you also have Porsche racing. These other races also have various practice and qualifying sessions too.
Depending on the circuit you'll also have other entertainment stuff too, like fly-bys or special drag races or whatever.
Anyway, at Monaco it's different - they also have Thursday. Now the traditional reason for this was that Friday always used to be a Bank Holiday. But now it isn't; however they haven't recompressed the race - it's still across 4 days.
This unfortunately means the events are more spread out. Where you might have 5 things on each of the 3 days day everywhere else, instead you get 4 things on 4 days at Monaco if you see what I mean.
Anyway, the point is that we only watched on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, which are the Formula 1 days. Friday had racing, but didn't have any F1 stuff, so we did other stuff then (I'll blog on that later).
On each day we sat in a different place. You'll need to have a look at the circuit on wikipedia to understand where.
Basically on Thursday we in the first part of the harbour, between Tabac (so named because there's an underground Tabac - a shop that sells cigarettes - on the corner) and Louis Chiron (who I believe is a Monaco Racing Driver from the old days). What the ticket allowed us to do was sit in any of the seats in the stands between these two corners, which was kinda cool.
I was amazed at how close you are to the drivers. Monaco is a street circuit and if you imagine a normal road, where the pavement is is where the stands start. I reckon in some of the stands if you'd have gone down the front you could have tapped the driver on the head as they drove past (except there's obviously a fence in the way!).
The closeness means it's bloody loud too. One of the things people are always amazed at is just how loud F1 cars are. The thing I compare them to is a loud fog-horn, but continuous rather than a burst - you have to shout right into someone's ear so they can hear you over the noise. If you then imagine that noise rattling around streets and also being close (most proper circuits have runoff areas and gravel traps so you're some way away) you can start to imagine how loud it is.
I got some good photos there, including a sighting of David Coulthard and Martin Brundle - both ex-drivers who do commentary/coverage for the BBC.
Another amazing thing about the harbour is how big some of these yachts are - they're like cruise liners, but are privately owned. There were millions and millions of pounds worth of yacht there.
But what's more, some of the smaller ones are parked up right at the edge of the circuit - the harbour is right next to the road they drive on. So there were people sat in the yachts, watching the race.
Also, in one of the lulls some page 3 type models came out of one of the yachts and started taking photos of each other. I couldn't really see from where we were, but they appeared to be wearing bikinis, although they certainly still got a reaction from the stands with people blowing those horns and cheering at them.
Saturday we were at Casino square. Of the three days this was probably the best in terms of the placing and the general atmosphere.
It was a single stand and it was the most comfortable seating, both in terms of what it was (moulded plastic seats that fit your bottom comfortably) and the space you had. You also got a really good view of the cars as they belted around Massenet and into casino square.
The casino is also right there on the other side of the track. In front of it was a large terrace type thing with a restaurant with a lot of people watching. Down the sides were some shops - that's another thing about Monaco.
If you want to watch the race you have two options. You need to be in a stand or you need to get onto a roof of one of these shops or in the rooms. You can't just go and stand and watch like you can at every other Grand Prix.
Well I say that - there is a place you can do that, called "the Rock". This has nothing to do with the wrestler and is literally a big rock where people stand and watch. But it's not some gentle slope - it's almost vertical. But on Sunday you would not believe how packed it was up there - I got some pictures.
Casino is close to where Lewis Hamilton spanked the barrier on Saturday and he walked right through the casino and I got a few pics. He kept his helmet on which was the first clear indication it was entirely driver error.
Casino was very civilised too - out the back was a little ark think where we could go when there was no track action and have a lie down. It was where we had lunch too and it was where we had another bit of a surprise.
We were all expecting that the cost of food and drinks and merchandise would be horrendous, but they weren't. Well, they were - but no more horrendous than at any other Grand Prix. We'd assumed that with the captive market and being where it was it would be doubly ridiculous, back actually they were about what you'd expect to pay at the British Grand Prix.
Anyway, on Sunday we were at Piscine (or swimming pool - and so named because there is an actual swimming pool there. It's a smallish one, but, rather incongruously, it had a water flume.). The stand actually faced along the track away from the swimming pool.
This was a bit of an odd position to be in. Form a track point of view you mainly see the back of the cars. There's a tricky chicane there that the Ferraris seemed rather intent on cutting all the time, but even then they're not really side on to you.
However, what you gain is a decent view of the pits (Monaco is odd in that the pit garages actually face away from the Start/Finish straight). This was something of a revelation. When you see them in the pits on TV it seems smooth and flowing and thoroughly well organised.
Seeing them in real life was like watching barely organised chaos - it's a massive flurry of activity and has much more of a feeling of impending, narrowly avoided disaster.
This is also where Kovalainen had his crash, which was rather stunning. I've seen crashes before of course having been to the British Grand Prix, but it was amazing to be so close to it.
When Kovalainen got out of the car he was clearly quite dazed. As I said from there you're right behind the pits and he seemed determined to run across to them, despite having to run across the circuit on what is effectively a blind corner. Also, the pits are actually slightly elevated, so how he thought he was going to climb over I don't know!
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
no country for old men
Upon my return from holiday I watched no country for old men on rental. I'd initially planned to watch it before the holiday, but didn't get the time.
I have to say it was pretty good, although it wasn't quite what I was expecting.
It's a Coen brothers film and you can definitely tell it's one of theirs. Although it's not an out-and-out (black) comedy like the others of theirs I've seen it's got a lot of very dark humour in it.
Y'know I'm not entirely sure what to say about the film. I mean it's very good, but it's also pretty complex too.
To me it seemed to be an attempt to subvert just about everything. A big part of the film is essentially a chase - the protagonist, Moss, comes across a drug deal gone wrong out in the desert and steals the money. A psychopath, Chigurh, is then basically sent to recover the money and kill him, so he spends the majority of the film chasing him.
However, in addition, there's a sheriff who's "on their trail" as well. However, even though all of the characters do end up with scenes together, the contact between them is somehow distant and almost implied. By that I mean I don't think they ever actually see each others faces
For example there's a big shoot-out between Chigurh and Moss, but it's all in the dark and often done at a distance so they never see each others faces.
Similarly, a second psychopath is hired to sort out the mess Chigurh is making, but almost as soon as he arrives on the scene he seems to offer Moss a way out, but Chigurh then instantly finds him and kills him.
So do you see what I mean? These things are not how a normal story "should" go. It's subverting the norm.
The biggest subversion comes at the end. I won't spoiler it too much, but lets just say that anything you might expect to happen because of the type of film it is doesn't.
And from that point of view it's a really great film.
The difficulty is it also makes it a very complex film where you really have to think about what happened to get it. Which is always great, but it makes it a film you have to go to with that expectation - it's really not a switch your brain off type of movie.
I have to say it was pretty good, although it wasn't quite what I was expecting.
It's a Coen brothers film and you can definitely tell it's one of theirs. Although it's not an out-and-out (black) comedy like the others of theirs I've seen it's got a lot of very dark humour in it.
Y'know I'm not entirely sure what to say about the film. I mean it's very good, but it's also pretty complex too.
To me it seemed to be an attempt to subvert just about everything. A big part of the film is essentially a chase - the protagonist, Moss, comes across a drug deal gone wrong out in the desert and steals the money. A psychopath, Chigurh, is then basically sent to recover the money and kill him, so he spends the majority of the film chasing him.
However, in addition, there's a sheriff who's "on their trail" as well. However, even though all of the characters do end up with scenes together, the contact between them is somehow distant and almost implied. By that I mean I don't think they ever actually see each others faces
For example there's a big shoot-out between Chigurh and Moss, but it's all in the dark and often done at a distance so they never see each others faces.
Similarly, a second psychopath is hired to sort out the mess Chigurh is making, but almost as soon as he arrives on the scene he seems to offer Moss a way out, but Chigurh then instantly finds him and kills him.
So do you see what I mean? These things are not how a normal story "should" go. It's subverting the norm.
The biggest subversion comes at the end. I won't spoiler it too much, but lets just say that anything you might expect to happen because of the type of film it is doesn't.
And from that point of view it's a really great film.
The difficulty is it also makes it a very complex film where you really have to think about what happened to get it. Which is always great, but it makes it a film you have to go to with that expectation - it's really not a switch your brain off type of movie.
Wednesday - no country for old men
Upon my return from holiday I watched no country for old men on rental. I'd initially planned to watch it before the holiday, but didn't get the time.
I have to say it was pretty good, although it wasn't quite what I was expecting.
It's a Coen brothers film and you can definitely tell it's one of theirs. Although it's not an out-and-out (black) comedy like the others of theirs I've seen it's got a lot of very dark humour in it.
Y'know I'm not entirely sure what to say about the film. I mean it's very good, but it's also pretty complex too.
To me it seemed to be an attempt to subvert just about everything. A big part of the film is essentially a chase - the protagonist, Moss, comes across a drug deal gone wrong out in the desert and steals the money. A psychopath, Chigurh, is then basically sent to recover the money and kill him, so he spends the majority of the film chasing him.
However, in addition, there's a sheriff who's "on their trail" as well. However, even though all of the characters do end up with scenes together, the contact between them is somehow distant and almost implied. By that I mean I don't think they ever actually see each others faces
For example there's a big shoot-out between Chigurh and Moss, but it's all in the dark and often done at a distance so they never see each others faces.
Similarly, a second psychopath is hired to sort out the mess Chigurh is making, but almost as soon as he arrives on the scene he seems to offer Moss a way out, but Chigurh then instantly finds him and kills him.
So do you see what I mean? These things are not how a normal story "should" go. It's subverting the norm.
The biggest subversion comes at the end. I won't spoiler it too much, but lets just say that anything you might expect to happen because of the type of film it is doesn't.
And from that point of view it's a really great film.
The difficulty is it also makes it a very complex film where you really have to think about what happened to get it. Which is always great, but it makes it a film you have to go to with that expectation - it's really not a switch your brain off type of movie.
Upon my return from holiday I watched no country for old men on rental. I'd initially planned to watch it before the holiday, but didn't get the time.
I have to say it was pretty good, although it wasn't quite what I was expecting.
It's a Coen brothers film and you can definitely tell it's one of theirs. Although it's not an out-and-out (black) comedy like the others of theirs I've seen it's got a lot of very dark humour in it.
Y'know I'm not entirely sure what to say about the film. I mean it's very good, but it's also pretty complex too.
To me it seemed to be an attempt to subvert just about everything. A big part of the film is essentially a chase - the protagonist, Moss, comes across a drug deal gone wrong out in the desert and steals the money. A psychopath, Chigurh, is then basically sent to recover the money and kill him, so he spends the majority of the film chasing him.
However, in addition, there's a sheriff who's "on their trail" as well. However, even though all of the characters do end up with scenes together, the contact between them is somehow distant and almost implied. By that I mean I don't think they ever actually see each others faces
For example there's a big shoot-out between Chigurh and Moss, but it's all in the dark and often done at a distance so they never see each others faces.
Similarly, a second psychopath is hired to sort out the mess Chigurh is making, but almost as soon as he arrives on the scene he seems to offer Moss a way out, but Chigurh then instantly finds him and kills him.
So do you see what I mean? These things are not how a normal story "should" go. It's subverting the norm.
The biggest subversion comes at the end. I won't spoiler it too much, but lets just say that anything you might expect to happen because of the type of film it is doesn't.
And from that point of view it's a really great film.
The difficulty is it also makes it a very complex film where you really have to think about what happened to get it. Which is always great, but it makes it a film you have to go to with that expectation - it's really not a switch your brain off type of movie.
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
holiday 1 - journeys
So what I thought I'd do was split commentary on my holiday up into a series of blog entries, rather than do one ginormous one.
Today it's all about the journey.
I was thinking back on it and the journey was a little weird - going out there was the ginormous continuous slog, but coming back took three days!
Now going out the original plan was that we were all going to go from Devon. At the time both my Dad and my sister lived in Devon so it made sense to me that I should go down there and we could all go together.
However, in the mean time my sister suddenly got a new job and, rather selfishly if I'm being honest, decided she was going to go from where she mow lives. But I, being a little worried at trusting Dad to make the journey on his own, still went down to Devon.
Now from a logical point of view this made the journey a little daft. We were flying out from Gatwick and that's really close to where I live - closer in fact than my sister. But I was driving down to Devon to then catch a train to Gatwick!
Unfortunately I also needed some new tyres for my car, but it turned out that the tyres I have are basically only used on my car, so they needed to be ordered in. This meant I had to get them changed on the day I was driving down, which made things more stressful.
Luckily the journey down wasn't too bad as they got the tyres in a bit earlier than expected. However, due to the time the train set off I had to go to bed really early. As you might expect I was a little excited so I hardly slept a wink and then we were up and off to the train station.
The train took several hours. We also made a bit of an error by technically getting the wrong train; although really it wasn't the wrong train as such, it was actually the other option we could have taken, but hadn't wanted to as it meant more changes.
The reason for the error was that on the platform we changed to there were no announcements as to where the train was going, nor was there any board or sign up saying where the train was going. So, wrongly, we assumed the next train arriving was ours and got on it.
This was also where the weirdness of my driving to Devon and training it back became obvious - we stopped at several stations that are literally just down the road from me :/.
Anyway, we arrived and then we had the ordeal that was check-in to go through.
I've never flown before, so this was my first time and I was amazed at the amount of faffing about and waiting around there is. The flight itself was only one and a half hours long, but all the pissing about was twice as long as that - bloody daft.
Flying itself was odd. I can't say I really enjoyed the experience, but equally I didn't freak out or anything.
I'm afraid of heights and there was a moment when we were tacking off where this kicked in, but as we got higher it seemed to fade away. However, I did have a few moments where I had a light-headed, swimming sort of feeling about there being nothing underneath me for 30,000 feet.
Also we had some turbulence and I was really not a big fan of that at all. According to me sister who's a seasoned long-haul traveller, that wasn't really bad turbulence, but it was enough for me.
The worst part was watching the wing wobble - it was only a short haul flight so it was a small plane and apparently the wings are stiffer on bigger planes, but when you're in the turbulence you can actually see the tip of the wing wobbling up and down by several metres. It's very disconcerting.
Anyway, we arrived safe and sound in Marseille, but we were actually staying in Nice, which, it turned out was a 3 hour coach driver away. Okay, fair enough, but we had the comedy coach driver from hell.
He was very late picking us up, which isn't great given all the waiting around we'd already done. He also didn't speak a word of English. But worse was that halfway through the journey he pulled into a service area.
Our tour manager was a bit surprised and asked him what he was doing and it turned out he'd been on the road for 8 hours and so legally, had to take a break. So we all improvised some dinner and then set off again.
The kicker was that when we arrived in Nice it turned out he didn't know Nice at all. Now Nice is clearly a horrible place to drive around anyway - it's got loads of one way streets and there's also a motorway flyover that's so low coaches can't get under it. So it's a difficult journey to get to the hotel anyway and add into that he didn't have a clue where to go and so it was... fun.
So that was the journey there - I'd estimate that I basically spent something like 30 hours travelling with only a (rubbish) sleep in the middle.
The return journey was a lot smoother in the sense that there were no cock ups and we knew where we were going and doing. But as I say it took me three days. Basically on the first day was the coach journey to Marseille and the flight. We then stayed in the Travel inn near the airport.
Initially I though this was essentially a waste of time, but let's put it this way - I was in bed, asleep a mere hour or so after getting there. It didn't help that it had the worlds most rubbish air conditioning system that simply didn't work - oh how I longed to be able to simply open the window.
The second day was the train journey back. Then we had to pick up Dad's dog, which took hours as the kennels were bloody miles away. Plus when we got back I had loads of stuff to put in the car (I was taking my sister's sofa thing back with me).
That took so long it would have been daft (and dangerous) to attempt to drive back that evening.
So that meant sleeping over so the third day was when I finally drove home.
Blimey!
Today it's all about the journey.
I was thinking back on it and the journey was a little weird - going out there was the ginormous continuous slog, but coming back took three days!
Now going out the original plan was that we were all going to go from Devon. At the time both my Dad and my sister lived in Devon so it made sense to me that I should go down there and we could all go together.
However, in the mean time my sister suddenly got a new job and, rather selfishly if I'm being honest, decided she was going to go from where she mow lives. But I, being a little worried at trusting Dad to make the journey on his own, still went down to Devon.
Now from a logical point of view this made the journey a little daft. We were flying out from Gatwick and that's really close to where I live - closer in fact than my sister. But I was driving down to Devon to then catch a train to Gatwick!
Unfortunately I also needed some new tyres for my car, but it turned out that the tyres I have are basically only used on my car, so they needed to be ordered in. This meant I had to get them changed on the day I was driving down, which made things more stressful.
Luckily the journey down wasn't too bad as they got the tyres in a bit earlier than expected. However, due to the time the train set off I had to go to bed really early. As you might expect I was a little excited so I hardly slept a wink and then we were up and off to the train station.
The train took several hours. We also made a bit of an error by technically getting the wrong train; although really it wasn't the wrong train as such, it was actually the other option we could have taken, but hadn't wanted to as it meant more changes.
The reason for the error was that on the platform we changed to there were no announcements as to where the train was going, nor was there any board or sign up saying where the train was going. So, wrongly, we assumed the next train arriving was ours and got on it.
This was also where the weirdness of my driving to Devon and training it back became obvious - we stopped at several stations that are literally just down the road from me :/.
Anyway, we arrived and then we had the ordeal that was check-in to go through.
I've never flown before, so this was my first time and I was amazed at the amount of faffing about and waiting around there is. The flight itself was only one and a half hours long, but all the pissing about was twice as long as that - bloody daft.
Flying itself was odd. I can't say I really enjoyed the experience, but equally I didn't freak out or anything.
I'm afraid of heights and there was a moment when we were tacking off where this kicked in, but as we got higher it seemed to fade away. However, I did have a few moments where I had a light-headed, swimming sort of feeling about there being nothing underneath me for 30,000 feet.
Also we had some turbulence and I was really not a big fan of that at all. According to me sister who's a seasoned long-haul traveller, that wasn't really bad turbulence, but it was enough for me.
The worst part was watching the wing wobble - it was only a short haul flight so it was a small plane and apparently the wings are stiffer on bigger planes, but when you're in the turbulence you can actually see the tip of the wing wobbling up and down by several metres. It's very disconcerting.
Anyway, we arrived safe and sound in Marseille, but we were actually staying in Nice, which, it turned out was a 3 hour coach driver away. Okay, fair enough, but we had the comedy coach driver from hell.
He was very late picking us up, which isn't great given all the waiting around we'd already done. He also didn't speak a word of English. But worse was that halfway through the journey he pulled into a service area.
Our tour manager was a bit surprised and asked him what he was doing and it turned out he'd been on the road for 8 hours and so legally, had to take a break. So we all improvised some dinner and then set off again.
The kicker was that when we arrived in Nice it turned out he didn't know Nice at all. Now Nice is clearly a horrible place to drive around anyway - it's got loads of one way streets and there's also a motorway flyover that's so low coaches can't get under it. So it's a difficult journey to get to the hotel anyway and add into that he didn't have a clue where to go and so it was... fun.
So that was the journey there - I'd estimate that I basically spent something like 30 hours travelling with only a (rubbish) sleep in the middle.
The return journey was a lot smoother in the sense that there were no cock ups and we knew where we were going and doing. But as I say it took me three days. Basically on the first day was the coach journey to Marseille and the flight. We then stayed in the Travel inn near the airport.
Initially I though this was essentially a waste of time, but let's put it this way - I was in bed, asleep a mere hour or so after getting there. It didn't help that it had the worlds most rubbish air conditioning system that simply didn't work - oh how I longed to be able to simply open the window.
The second day was the train journey back. Then we had to pick up Dad's dog, which took hours as the kennels were bloody miles away. Plus when we got back I had loads of stuff to put in the car (I was taking my sister's sofa thing back with me).
That took so long it would have been daft (and dangerous) to attempt to drive back that evening.
So that meant sleeping over so the third day was when I finally drove home.
Blimey!
Monday, 1 June 2009
return to work
Well, I'm back to work.
Truth be told I'm a bit broken after the holiday.
The skin on my arms is still peeling, I'm still bloody tired and I appear to have picked up some sort of cold. It's a bit of a half-arsed cold, though - I don't really feel bad as such, but I've got a soar throat and a mild case of the sniffles. I'm guessing it's a reflection of being a bit run down more than anything.
It was an excellent holiday. I'll be blogging about it in detail later in the week I think - today is just about getting used to being back at work, I think.
I've still loads to catch up on post holiday.
One of the things I always forget is just how much internetting I do. You go away for not even a couple of weeks and you've 70 e-mails to deal with - and these aren't just spam, they need me to do stuff. And then there's all the forums and news sites a surf on a regular basis that I've been trying to catch up on.
There's a good week of catching up there alone and on top of that there's all the real-world stuff too of course.
Truth be told I'm a bit broken after the holiday.
The skin on my arms is still peeling, I'm still bloody tired and I appear to have picked up some sort of cold. It's a bit of a half-arsed cold, though - I don't really feel bad as such, but I've got a soar throat and a mild case of the sniffles. I'm guessing it's a reflection of being a bit run down more than anything.
It was an excellent holiday. I'll be blogging about it in detail later in the week I think - today is just about getting used to being back at work, I think.
I've still loads to catch up on post holiday.
One of the things I always forget is just how much internetting I do. You go away for not even a couple of weeks and you've 70 e-mails to deal with - and these aren't just spam, they need me to do stuff. And then there's all the forums and news sites a surf on a regular basis that I've been trying to catch up on.
There's a good week of catching up there alone and on top of that there's all the real-world stuff too of course.
return to work
Well, I'm back to work.
Truth be told I'm a bit broken after the holiday.
The skin on my arms is still peeling, I'm still bloody tired and I appear to have picked up some sort of cold. It's a bit of a half-arsed cold, though - I don't really feel bad as such, but I've got a soar throat and a mild case of the sniffles. I'm guessing it's a reflection of being a bit run down more than anything.
It was an excellent holiday. I'll be blogging about it in detail later in the week I think - today is just about getting used to being back at work, I think.
I've still loads to catch up on post holiday.
One of the things I always forget is just how much internetting I do. You go away for not even a couple of weeks and you've 70 e-mails to deal with - and these aren't just spam, they need me to do stuff. And then there's all the forums and news sites a surf on a regular basis that I've been trying to catch up on.
There's a good week of catching up there alone and on top of that there's all the real-world stuff too of course.
Truth be told I'm a bit broken after the holiday.
The skin on my arms is still peeling, I'm still bloody tired and I appear to have picked up some sort of cold. It's a bit of a half-arsed cold, though - I don't really feel bad as such, but I've got a soar throat and a mild case of the sniffles. I'm guessing it's a reflection of being a bit run down more than anything.
It was an excellent holiday. I'll be blogging about it in detail later in the week I think - today is just about getting used to being back at work, I think.
I've still loads to catch up on post holiday.
One of the things I always forget is just how much internetting I do. You go away for not even a couple of weeks and you've 70 e-mails to deal with - and these aren't just spam, they need me to do stuff. And then there's all the forums and news sites a surf on a regular basis that I've been trying to catch up on.
There's a good week of catching up there alone and on top of that there's all the real-world stuff too of course.
return to work
Well, I'm back to work.
Truth be told I'm a bit broken after the holiday.
The skin on my arms is still peeling, I'm still bloody tired and I appear to have picked up some sort of cold. It's a bit of a half-arsed cold, though - I don't really feel bad as such, but I've got a soar throat and a mild case of the sniffles. I'm guessing it's a reflection of being a bit run down more than anything.
It was an excellent holiday. I'll be blogging about it in detail later in the week I think - today is just about getting used to being back at work, I think.
I've still loads to catch up on post holiday.
One of the things I always forget is just how much internetting I do. You go away for not even a couple of weeks and you've 70 e-mails to deal with - and these aren't just spam, they need me to do stuff. And then there's all the forums and news sites a surf on a regular basis that I've been trying to catch up on.
There's a good week of catching up there alone and on top of that there's all the real-world stuff too of course.
Truth be told I'm a bit broken after the holiday.
The skin on my arms is still peeling, I'm still bloody tired and I appear to have picked up some sort of cold. It's a bit of a half-arsed cold, though - I don't really feel bad as such, but I've got a soar throat and a mild case of the sniffles. I'm guessing it's a reflection of being a bit run down more than anything.
It was an excellent holiday. I'll be blogging about it in detail later in the week I think - today is just about getting used to being back at work, I think.
I've still loads to catch up on post holiday.
One of the things I always forget is just how much internetting I do. You go away for not even a couple of weeks and you've 70 e-mails to deal with - and these aren't just spam, they need me to do stuff. And then there's all the forums and news sites a surf on a regular basis that I've been trying to catch up on.
There's a good week of catching up there alone and on top of that there's all the real-world stuff too of course.
Friday, 15 May 2009
hell is other people
Meeting from hell yesterday.
Actually that's not true. But only in so far as it wasn't a meeting but a 'brainstorming session'.
The thing I found the most frustrating was that we got to a stage where I thought we were on the cusp of making a selection. We needed to pick an idea to pursue and I thought we'd done some reasonable drilling down to get to some of those specific things.
However, at the point we were making that decision there suddenly appeared to be a huge leap backwards and instead of being low level we were suddenly very high-level and it seemed like nothing had been decided.
Worse, something totally counter-intuitive happened. We each got to vote and even though one option clearly won, the people who supported the one that lost stuck their heels in and we ended up going for that one!
Even worse than that, it's a shit idea that I quite frankly don't understand. Indeed, no-one I'm working with understands and it's us that have got to write the goddamn bid!
Awful.
Towards the end I was just focusing on one thing: I'm on holiday for two weeks from Monday.
Yes, that's right, two whole weeks off.
Plus, it's a proper holiday to foreign parts. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before properly, but me and the family are going to see the Monaco Grand Prix.
That part of the holiday lasts a week so I've a few days before hand to get my life sorted out and pack and stuff and then a few days after to chill out.
I'm really looking forward to it.
Doubt I'll be bogging during that period, so see you in two weeks.
Actually that's not true. But only in so far as it wasn't a meeting but a 'brainstorming session'.
The thing I found the most frustrating was that we got to a stage where I thought we were on the cusp of making a selection. We needed to pick an idea to pursue and I thought we'd done some reasonable drilling down to get to some of those specific things.
However, at the point we were making that decision there suddenly appeared to be a huge leap backwards and instead of being low level we were suddenly very high-level and it seemed like nothing had been decided.
Worse, something totally counter-intuitive happened. We each got to vote and even though one option clearly won, the people who supported the one that lost stuck their heels in and we ended up going for that one!
Even worse than that, it's a shit idea that I quite frankly don't understand. Indeed, no-one I'm working with understands and it's us that have got to write the goddamn bid!
Awful.
Towards the end I was just focusing on one thing: I'm on holiday for two weeks from Monday.
Yes, that's right, two whole weeks off.
Plus, it's a proper holiday to foreign parts. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before properly, but me and the family are going to see the Monaco Grand Prix.
That part of the holiday lasts a week so I've a few days before hand to get my life sorted out and pack and stuff and then a few days after to chill out.
I'm really looking forward to it.
Doubt I'll be bogging during that period, so see you in two weeks.
Thursday, 14 May 2009
24: redemption
And in a separate move of great surprisingness I watched a second film this weekend too!
The film in question was 24: Redemption.
It's intended as a bridge between seasons 6 and 7 of 24. I've obviously not seen season 7 yet, as it's only on satellite, but it comes out on DVD fairly soon.
Season 6 was a disappointing season, overall. Part of the problem 24 has is that it's built up a lot of baggage.
In the first season clearly everything and everyone was new. In the second season many of the characters returned; however one thing they did was to throw in some very neat twists involving those existing characters. The best and clearest of these involved a character called Nina who, in essence, turned out to be a bad guy where we all thought she was a good guy.
Now while that was a brilliant twist it ended up setting something of a tone for the show. Firstly, it started a big trend of treacherous women. Basically, if there's a woman on the show (and especially if she's involved with Jack Bauer) then she's almost certainly hiding something or is a full-on dirty terrorist.
Now that's okay, since a big part of 24 has always been the paranoia and not knowing who you can trust, but it does come across as a bit cynical at times.
The second tone it set was that any recurring character at some point will come under suspicion. Again, this goes along with the whole paranoia thing, but it does mean they set they end up doubling up on themselves a lot. Oh - he's a traitor now too. Is everyone a damn traitor?
It also created that expectation of recurring characters. In a way, 24 is better when it's dealing with new characters. It's one thing to find out that someone you've only just met is actually a traitor (or conversely turns out to be an undercover agent or something), it becomes cliché that everyone you knew and liked last season turns out to be a spy in this season.
The last tonal element that the Nina plotline set was a little more subtle. In season 1 it was pretty much the case that Jack was just doing what he did because he had too.
If he tortured some guy it was because he had to in order to get the Intel he needed (we'll leave the issue of torture being flawed and ineffective aside). However, because Nina was such a personal betrayal it created a vendetta.
Now if and when Jack pursued Nina and, indeed, got his hands on her, any nasty action he would take like torturing her or killing her was clearly now something eh wanted to do for personal reasons. It was about revenge and also hinted that he enjoyed torturing some people, in certain circumstances. He didn't just want to bring her to justice, he wanted to hurt her.
And that also strayed into the area of suggesting Jack might enjoy being a sadist. In other words, because his motives were muddied for Nina, they were generally muddied too.
But what about 24: Redemption?
Well, the basic idea is it's set in Africa. Jack is on the run from being called to justice in the US and nobody he encounters there is a recurring character.
Indeed, even in the stuff set in the States there's a sweep and clear tone to it - the old president is on the way out and a new one coming in. Plus there's a brand new bad guy.
It even looks like the bad guy in question is a proper, higher up bad guy. In previous seasons of 24 one of my frustrations is that Jack never really gets to grips with the proper bad guys. There's often a secret cabal of bad guys in the background who are pulling the strings, and Jack never even gets to know about them, let alone takes the fight to them.
The whole torture issue is somewhat addressed too. The character played by Robert Carlisle is a compatriot of Jack's and basically tortured to death someone who didn't actually know anything and therefore gave false info that resulted in a mission going pear-shaped.
This is good, but the problem in a sense is that although Jack has kind of tortured the wrong people on some occasions, it's never been that clear cut in the same way. It's almost saying Jack is 'better' than Carlisle's character, so it's okay for him to torture people.
They have ended up relying on physical torture a little too much for me in 24. I can see the problem - the show is set over 24 hours. That's not enough time to have him using proper interrogation techniques, which might take days. They also want to keep the show generally fast paced - dashing here and there, trying to capture/stop the terrorists rather than focusing on getting information out of people who have already been captured.
But it gets a little repetitive. I think they could do more in terms of psychological 'torture'. It's like there was one where killed a terrorist's family in front of him until he talked. I mean it was revealed they faked it, but still it's more interesting than just punching someone in the face or stabbing them or whatever.
Anyway, overall 24: Redemption is quite good. It's certainly nice to see some fresh places and people and I hope it continues into the 7th season.
The film in question was 24: Redemption.
It's intended as a bridge between seasons 6 and 7 of 24. I've obviously not seen season 7 yet, as it's only on satellite, but it comes out on DVD fairly soon.
Season 6 was a disappointing season, overall. Part of the problem 24 has is that it's built up a lot of baggage.
In the first season clearly everything and everyone was new. In the second season many of the characters returned; however one thing they did was to throw in some very neat twists involving those existing characters. The best and clearest of these involved a character called Nina who, in essence, turned out to be a bad guy where we all thought she was a good guy.
Now while that was a brilliant twist it ended up setting something of a tone for the show. Firstly, it started a big trend of treacherous women. Basically, if there's a woman on the show (and especially if she's involved with Jack Bauer) then she's almost certainly hiding something or is a full-on dirty terrorist.
Now that's okay, since a big part of 24 has always been the paranoia and not knowing who you can trust, but it does come across as a bit cynical at times.
The second tone it set was that any recurring character at some point will come under suspicion. Again, this goes along with the whole paranoia thing, but it does mean they set they end up doubling up on themselves a lot. Oh - he's a traitor now too. Is everyone a damn traitor?
It also created that expectation of recurring characters. In a way, 24 is better when it's dealing with new characters. It's one thing to find out that someone you've only just met is actually a traitor (or conversely turns out to be an undercover agent or something), it becomes cliché that everyone you knew and liked last season turns out to be a spy in this season.
The last tonal element that the Nina plotline set was a little more subtle. In season 1 it was pretty much the case that Jack was just doing what he did because he had too.
If he tortured some guy it was because he had to in order to get the Intel he needed (we'll leave the issue of torture being flawed and ineffective aside). However, because Nina was such a personal betrayal it created a vendetta.
Now if and when Jack pursued Nina and, indeed, got his hands on her, any nasty action he would take like torturing her or killing her was clearly now something eh wanted to do for personal reasons. It was about revenge and also hinted that he enjoyed torturing some people, in certain circumstances. He didn't just want to bring her to justice, he wanted to hurt her.
And that also strayed into the area of suggesting Jack might enjoy being a sadist. In other words, because his motives were muddied for Nina, they were generally muddied too.
But what about 24: Redemption?
Well, the basic idea is it's set in Africa. Jack is on the run from being called to justice in the US and nobody he encounters there is a recurring character.
Indeed, even in the stuff set in the States there's a sweep and clear tone to it - the old president is on the way out and a new one coming in. Plus there's a brand new bad guy.
It even looks like the bad guy in question is a proper, higher up bad guy. In previous seasons of 24 one of my frustrations is that Jack never really gets to grips with the proper bad guys. There's often a secret cabal of bad guys in the background who are pulling the strings, and Jack never even gets to know about them, let alone takes the fight to them.
The whole torture issue is somewhat addressed too. The character played by Robert Carlisle is a compatriot of Jack's and basically tortured to death someone who didn't actually know anything and therefore gave false info that resulted in a mission going pear-shaped.
This is good, but the problem in a sense is that although Jack has kind of tortured the wrong people on some occasions, it's never been that clear cut in the same way. It's almost saying Jack is 'better' than Carlisle's character, so it's okay for him to torture people.
They have ended up relying on physical torture a little too much for me in 24. I can see the problem - the show is set over 24 hours. That's not enough time to have him using proper interrogation techniques, which might take days. They also want to keep the show generally fast paced - dashing here and there, trying to capture/stop the terrorists rather than focusing on getting information out of people who have already been captured.
But it gets a little repetitive. I think they could do more in terms of psychological 'torture'. It's like there was one where killed a terrorist's family in front of him until he talked. I mean it was revealed they faked it, but still it's more interesting than just punching someone in the face or stabbing them or whatever.
Anyway, overall 24: Redemption is quite good. It's certainly nice to see some fresh places and people and I hope it continues into the 7th season.
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