pre-blogging

I've been pre-writting most of my entries for the last few weeks.

I've mentioned this before on here - it's basically where I try to pre-write a bunch of posts at the weekend so that they're ready to just slap on the blog when the days roll around.  The big advantage of this is that, if the week is very busy, I don't end up missing days simply because I didn't have the time to write an entry.

The disadvantage is of course that the blogs tend to be about roughly relevant stuff, but aren't 100% current.  This is especially true of the later posts in the week, where something important may have happened early in the week, but I don't mention it until the week after.  Or I forget and don't mention it at all.

To be fair, I don't think it's such a problem because my blog has kinda always had elements of that anyway.  I mean, for ages now I've been posting mini reviews on Wednesday and Tuesday or Thursday are generally a reflection on the previous Sunday's weigh in and the previous week's dieting and walking progress.  Then of course during GP season, many Friday's and Mondays have at least some content relevant to the weekend's race.

So in other words, the blog is often not really about 100% current stuff.  I mean, fundamentally I try to do the blog as a Monday to Friday one post a day thing, but of course life is often not like that - loads of important (or bloggable anyway) stuff may happen during one week, but then nothing happens for the next couple of weeks.

But one thing I have found with all this pre-blogging is it's given me an opportunity to use my laptop more.  I've been sitting on my bed tapping away at the laptop most Sunday afternoons, post race, and it's been quite a good way to do it.

The only real problem I've been having is that my laptop space bar seems to be really unresponsive.  I don't really know if it's a reflection of my technique, or some problem with the laptop design or something that's not working properly, though.

I can't touch type.  I wish I could and I did have the opportunity to teach myself when I was younger, but never really put the effort in.  However, one small thing that was part of touch typing (well, I think it is) did seem to become a habit, which was using my thumb to hit the space bar.

I therefore don't really single-finger type either.  My technique s an odd sort of both index fingers (one on each half of the keyboard) combined with the occasional use of the middle and ring fingers on my right hand and my right thumb for the space bar and then random occasional use of both my pinkie fingers for shift keys.

I'm very right handed, which is part of why I use some of the other fingers on my right hand, but also, most of the more occasionally used stuff, like delete keys and semi-colons is on the right had side of a standard qwerty keyboard.

But also, one of the other main features is I have a map of where the keys are in my head.  So although it's not proper touch typing, I can type for long segments looking at the screen like a touch typist would.

Anyway, the point is I use my thumb to hit the space bar and a lot of the time the keyboard on my laptop doesn't seem to pick it up, so I end up with three or even four words stuck together.  It's quite annoying when you're reviewing or spell checking to unpick the words.

And I'm pretty sure it is my laptop, as it's never happened with other keyboards, and I recall always having this problem.  In particular when I was fooling myself into thinking I might try to become a writer I used my laptop a lot (indeed, that's kinda why I'd bought it) and had the same issue with missed spaces.

shelves of doom

I mentioned last week I would take some pics of my shelves, so I thought I'd present those today.

There are actually two shelves.

First is the one on the right.

A: Ink Cartridges
B: Some of my important documents.
C: Stack of important (and non-important, to be frank) documents that I haven't sorted out yet (though I'll need to go through them soon as I need to find something).  Plus this is where I keep my TV listing and all my remote controls.
D: These are basically piles of anime where I've bought and imported the original Japanese anime version (and I wonder why I'm skint).  I'm also in the process of collecting the western versions and my hope is that this combo will sell quite well on e-bay.  I'm somewhat afraid that actually they won't sell at all well, so I'm also kinda ignoring them.

E: This shelf is where I keep all the unscanned Japanese anime magazines.  As you can see, it's a fair pile, but it's a lot smaller than it was.  There used to be so many that they lived on the shelf below, which is much taller.
F: These are my PC games.  The ones in the front row are those I haven't really played much yet, if at all, and the ones in the back are ones I have played and want to hold on too or want to play a bit more, but feel I should really do something about those unplayed ones first.
G: And this is the core stack of anime.  As you can see it's quite a deep shelf and you have to remember that these are stacked in two piles, one in front of the other.  That's a lot of unwatched stuff.  It's also the stuff I've prioritised to watch "first" which obviously means I have a couple of other stacks of stuff I want to watch "after" :/.

H: This stack (again, double depth) is the real life TV series (or at least non-anime and non-film) all unwatched (well, I'll have watch the majority of the actual shows when they were broadcast, but I've not watched the DVDs).
I: This stack is "films".  Again, double depth and featuring a mix of live action, foreign and anime.
J: This is my cheater stack, where I've stacked up all those series I'm in the middle of.  It's yet another way of excluding stuff from the to watch pile because I like to marathon things.
K: These cake boxes contain all of the audio books that I've already listened to.  I like to listen to audio books while I walk.  as you can see I walk quite a bit.
L: This is the main chunk of box files containing important documents.
M: My digital radio which wakes me up in the morning.  I got it as a present from my Dad and was worried I might not be able to get a signal, but actually it's great.  My digital telly is problematic, but I think it's because the aerial is pointing at the London region antennae, rather than the Meridian, which is a lot closer.  Also we've still not switched over to full digital service in either region, so signal strength is lower than it could be anyway.
N: These stacks are original Japanese manga that I'm disassembling in order that I can scan the big spreads and dramatic images.  It's really a hang over from when I used to make wallpapers and I used to find new/different/original content by doing this.  Now they're just stuck in the huge scanning backlog (they're sell for a pittance on e-bay, so this way they at least get put to some use before being chucked away)
O: My right speaker, perfectly positioned so I get great stereo effect when watching DVDs or Blu-Ray... except of course I stuck a bunch of stuff in front of it :/.


Second is the one on the left.

P: The other speaker
Q: The overspill pile.  It's mainly anime, but there's plenty of normal TV stuff in there too.  My intention is to watch this stuff after the other stuff... yeah, because I'm ever going to get through all that other stuff :/.
R: My unread books.

 S: VHS Tapes - burn the heretic!  They're old anime VHS tapes that I felt guilty about chucking away without rewatching at least once.
T: Supposed to be my unread manga pile, but they actually spill down on to the shelf below.  I've actually not being doing so bad recently with keeping on top of reading manga.
U: This is ostensibly my western comics to read pile, but it also has a bunch of CD old/empty jewel case I intended to use as spare parts to replace broken ones, but have never gotten around to.
V: These are the CDs I'm hanging on to for now.  There's two stacking crates into eh kitchen of CDs I either want to e-bay (god, the effort required) or sell on one of those "sell your DVD sites" (bound to be a rip off).
W: These fans were headed out to the garage.  Well, until this current heat wave so now they're sort of back in use.
X: I'm rapidly running out of letter, so, from left to right we've got: The DVDs I plan to take to watch on my upcoming holiday; CD cake boxes containing fansubs (I'm supposed to be sorting through them but got distracted half way); my Blu-Rays (I promised myself I wouldn't let it grow :() and a box of software.
Y: These spindles are the blank ones with DVDs and (out of picture) CDs for burning stuff on too.  Oh, and some pants.

So there you go.  The perfect shopping list for burglars.  Well, burglar nerds.  Which is very different to nerd burglars.

taxi

Luc Besson is a director/writer I have a bit of a mixed reaction too.

He's made some stuff I've really liked - Nikita, Fifth Element, The first Transporter - and other stuff, like the Transporter sequels, I've really struggled with.  Taxi is probably a perfect example of the later.

There's a lot to like in the film - some interesting characters, some really great car chases, some nice funny stuff - and a lot that just doesn't work.  The problem for me is that one of the key things that doesn't work is the plot.  And for me, plot is one of the key elements of film.

Don't get me wrong, visual spectacle is one of the things that makes cinema an amazing art form and I'll happily watch something that's just purely visually interesting.  Trouble is a film like this they're trying to make the plot more important than that, and, to be frank, the plot was a horrible pastiche of bits of ideas pinched from other films and stuck together in a way that can only really be described as rubbish.

Also, I have to say the acting was rather hammy.  One of the things I always noticed with Hong Kong cinema was the hammy over-acting.  Everyone would over-act all the time.  If you were a bad guy you'd slope around making mean faces and being all menacing all the time.

Taxi seems to have the same bug (I specifically used HK as an example as Taxi seems really heavily influenced by HK cinema).  It doesn't feel natural or real or even like it's vaguely attempting to be either.  And it doesn't really even work as camp or something like that.

Tonally it just feels odd.

Also, there are lots of stupid bits in it that don't make sense.  For example, there's one bit where the guy says he'll be back in a couple of hours and it's clearly the best part of a day before he returns.  Now to be fair it's part of an ongoing gag, but even so, why he takes the best part of a day to return isn't clear.  There'd have been loads of chances for him to pop back for a few hours or call - he wasn't tied up in a basement or anything.

I'm being very harsh on the film.  It has a lot of fine Luc Besson stuff in it, and it's punchy and amusing and quite diverting, it's just that it feels lazily and haphazardly written and a lot of it doesn't make any real sense.  It's predictable, hackneyed and a bit lazy, to be frank.

confusion reigns

I ate loads of crap last week and so got on the scales expecting a gain, but found I'd lost a pound.

I really found it all very confusing.  The only theory I've got is that all the work I've been doing has really been sucking the energy out of me and also I had real trouble sleeping on Thursday night.

It was actually one of the weirdest bouts of insomnia I've ever had, in that I didn't actually feel tired.  Well, I felt a bit tired, but not like I do after I've had one of my normal bouts of insomnia.

I've a feeling I did manage to get some sleep at the beginning and that, in effect, I actually just got up at about 1:30 in the morning.  But as I say, when it became apparent that I really wasn't actually tired enough to make it even worth trying to go back to sleep, instead I watched some telly.

Usually that would then mean I'd be shattered during the day, but as I say, I was just a little bit tired - nothing particularly over what I'd expect for a Thursday after a busy week.

I did also manage to keep walking during the week.  I think that helped keep the old metabolism ticking over and get the proverbial blood flowing, but I dunno, there's clearly something in the whole lack of sleep thing that means I do burn up calories.  I wouldn't ever want to use it as a technique, as it's obviously not good for other reasons, but there it is.

One thing I have to say is I was particularly annoyed with myself last week eating some of the stuff I did, but I have been trying to use it to some extent to eat up some of the more random contents of my cupboards, fridge and freezer.  I've managed  to get through a lot of the stuff that's been kinda been "hanging about" since I started my diet.

About the only thing I've got left is a bunch of pasta meals and some rice.  I'm fairly relaxed about keeping the rice, as plain rice is too boring and long-winded a food to cook for it to be "naughty eating" thing.  Also, having it there means that if I sneakily buy certain meals I can cook the plain rice which is generally lower calories than the types of rice you buy, if you see what I mean.

I also felt rather daft with the extra eating too, as it was clearly... how to put it?  Pointless eating driven by a desire to eat, rather than a need.

That's quite a complicated description, but what I mean is, one of the reasons people like me tend to gain weight is because we eat when we aren't hungry.  A classic example of this is snacking - eating chocolate bars when you're not really hungry.

Well, in the evening what I've unfortunately been doing is eating stuff more because I'm in the habit of eating, rather than because I'm actually hungry.  More often than not when it gets to evening I'm only really peckish, but because I'll have bought some extra stuff I'll eat that stuff, which is just un-necessary.

It actually represents a significant difference to how I was dieting when I first started this and I think is a reflection of the thing I was doing of buying strawberries (and other less good stuff) instead of sticking to my diet.  It's that 'habit' I really need to break.

singapore GP

Sebastian Vettel very nearly took the championship this weekend.

Well, let's be frank - he has the championship, but there's a mathematical chance that Button could win it.  However, it's so slim a chance that it's negligible - Button would have to win every single race from here on out (a couple of the circuits - Japan definitely - suit the Red Bull car down to the ground) and Vettel would have to score no points at all.

Or, to put it even more bluntly, if Seb scores one more point in the entire rest of the season, then he takes the championship.  So it's his.

The Grand Prix itself was okay.  It was still horribly long and there wasn't a huge amount of overtaking.  Most of that overtaking came from DRS, KERS and the tyres.  Let's be frank - it's a terribly boring race that the excellent new rules helped to make okay.

Lewis was a bit in the wars again.  Massa must think Lewis has a personal grudge against him, as he keeps ending up the victim.  But then he must wonder at his luck full stop as everyone keeps crashing into him - Webber at Monza, for example.

I think the punishment for Lewis was very harsh, but you can understand it, as he did virtually ruined Massa's race.

I've gotta say I do think the Stewards are very inconsistent.  Schumacher got the lightest slap on the wrist at Monza and Lewis has ended up with a penalty simply because it's very difficult to see exactly where the tip of your front wing is.

Anyway, I also got my haircut as planned.

I don't actually enjoy getting my haircut.  I do get it cut at the same place, so I'm a bit more used to the girls they have and the environs now, but it's still something I just don't feel comfortable with.

My guess is that this is in no small part because my mum used to cut my hair.  I don't mean in a random way - she used to be a hairdresser (I believe she used to have her own hairdressers before the bank stopped the funding/overdraft or something like that).  As such, I've essentially grown up without the need to get used to a non-family member fiddling about with your hair and a sharp pair of scissors.

One thing that does puzzle me is, despite having the exact same cut type (number 2/3 on the back and sides, season and weather depending, and scissor trim on the top) it looks different depending on who's done it.  A key difference is how high up they take the trimming bit - some do only a sort of lower chunk that doesn't go above my temples, but others take it right up the full side of my head.

Weirdly I ran into the girl who used to do my favourite version when I was out on one of my longer walks.  I thought she'd been sacked or moved on, but she said she'd had an operation and that's why she'd not been in.

sing a pore (or is that bore?)

Singapore Grand Prix this weekend.

I’m guessing it will also be he weekend when Sebastian Vettel gets his hands on the championship.

It will also likely be another very big challenge for the new rules as Singapore is a dire race usually.  Like Valencia and Monaco it’s on a tight street circuit and therefore ends to produce dull races.  Unlike Monaco, Valencia was still dull and I would guess Singapore will be too.

A big part of the problem has been the length in Singapore - laps take such a long time that the race usually drags on for ages.

But we’ll see - who knows, maybe it will be a good one.  Of particular interest is the other part of how I've written the title.  According to the weather thing the BBC does for the next race it's basically been raining all week in Singapore.  Usually rain adds a bit of spice, but given that Singapore is a night race, illuminated by great big spotlights, I'm unsure quite what will happen if it rains.

Other plans for the weekend are relatively simple.  I need to buy my dad a present.  What he's asked for can only really be picked up in a shop so I can actually pick things up and have a look at them.

I also really need a haircut.  I get this weird thing with my sideburn area where they become very curly when my hair gets too long.  It's odd - there's a point where they suddenly become curly.

Well, I say that.  Maybe it's more that I suddenly notice it's happened.

I've been watching a lot of telly in the evenings and, as I mentioned before, I trimmed out quite a few programmes.  Also, some others have come to an end.  I'm therefore hoping I can do some scanning and, in particular, get back up to speed with anime stuff.

I'd quite like to plough through the fansubs I've got.  I mentioned before that unfortunately, this season, there seemed to be a retro step that meant more stuff was only really accessible via fansub.  Well, the new season is rolling around, so the hard drive I use to hold fansubs is very nearly full because of the combination of all the shows I've downloaded and my poor watch rate.

dental treatments

I mentioned a bit ago that I needed to get some dental treatment.

Usually on Thursday I’d talk about my weight, but it was pretty rubbish again this week.  I lost a pound (which I didn’t understand as I ate crap but then I thought about how much work and little sleep I’d had, so maybe it makes sense) and walking was average, so instead I want to talk about my dental work.

I had the last one the other week.  Basically, I’ve had two new fillings put in - both on the bottom of my mouth, but one on each side.

The one on the left of my mouth was a big one, and it’s that one that I think was really a replacement for a filling that fell out several months back.  It was also so big that it was close to my nerve and he was a bit worried that it would end up with constant pressure on the nerve that would cause me constant pain.

It’s that sort of pain that makes me uncomfortable with the dentists.  I know people are afraid of the dentist, but my thing isn’t really fear.

Basically, my teeth are rather sensitive, so whenever he has to do drilling, I’m always worried it will hurt.  Obviously everyone is worried about that, but mine is more like I’m worried that, although numbed, he’ll suddenly breakthrough to the nerve and it’ll be agony.

It’s quite specific and does literally go back to when I was very young and the dentist did a shallow filling and didn’t numb my teeth.  Now she didn’t break through, but there was a point where suddenly it went from a vague feeling of someone doing something to a sharp pain.

And I’ve also found that, even when numbed, I can often still feel them drilling and it hurts - even when it’s had a really long time to take effect.  It’s like when I had to have my root removed - he ended up having to numb two completely different areas in my mouth because apparently I have multiple nerve connections, which is quite rare he said.

Anyway point was I was fully expecting a rather unpleasant time of it.  In particular I was worried about when the pain killers wore off.  I've often had a lot of discomfort, but this time, both were all right.  The anaesthetic wore off, but I then wasn’t wracked with pain.

Now the one on the leftisn’t100% comfortable to eat particularly tough or hard food with, but overall I’d say it was a success.  In particular, the white filling used on the right is almost totally invisible, which is always nice.

But then given how much it’s all cost me, you would hope for good results.  I’m private (they used to be NHS, but, like most dentists around here, they went private a few years back - NHS dentists are like rocking horse poo around here, and the few there are have waiting lists as long as both my arms) so it costs silly amounts of money.

To be honest, it’s the hygienist that feels like the biggest rip off.  Especially now, as she’s given e about all the advice she can to help me do my cleaning, and it’s clearly helped as she did very little when I last went (though quite how two fillings ties into that, I don’t know).

coraline

Coraline is based on a book by Neil Gaiman.

I have to confess I’m not hugely familiar with Gaiman’s work.  I probably should be, but I dunno, I’ve never really had any exposure to his writing.  I also understand that the book is quite different to the film.

The film uses stop motion animation, which is something that I don’t gets enough exposure nowadays.  I think one of the main problems is that cgi animation tends to look a lot like a smoother, version of stop motion.

It’s odd, cgi is most identified as having very nearly killed off traditional animation (I’m talking Disney style films and western kids animation, obviously) but it also seems to have had a real impact on stop motion.  Even Aardman who were all abut stop motion produced a cgi film (the one about the sewer rats).

Anyway, one of the most popular stop motion films of recent years was the nightmare before Christmas.  For some reason, nightmare is very closely associated with Tim Burton, but he didn’t actually direct it.  It was directed by the same guy who adapted and directed Coraline.

You can see a lot of nightmare in Coraline.  There is a tonal similarity, both in terms of its direction and the story, though obviously the story is more influenced by Gaiman, but then as I understand it Gaiman’s work is quite gothical in style.

I have to confess I wasn’t a huge fan of nightmare.  The musical stuff felt too Disney and I found the story a bit predictable.

The Coraline story was a lot more imaginative, and the story themes are a lot more subtle.  Visually it was just as - if not more - inventive, and there’s some truly magical stuff in it.

It also puts in some nicely realised digital stuff, using it to really boost the film, rather than replacing it, like the rats film.

One of the real triumphs of the film is the characters.  They feel very real, being both beautifully animated, but also having surprising depth.  You can really feel Coraline is a real character - one you won’t necessarily always like, who is selfish as well as having a genuine cause for her behaviour.

Many of the supporting characters are quite fanciful and feel less real, but then that’s part of the point - we’re seeing them through Coraline’s eyes.

The switch into the other world is really well done and the bad guy of the piece is extremely cleverly handled - in particular with how it’s finally revealed and how that clicks several clever little visual clues into place when you watch it through again.

The DVD also had a really good commentary and some genuinely interesting documentaries.

You can hopefully tell I really liked the film.

too much to watch

Yesterday I ended with a mention that I was selling a bunch of stuff on e-bay.

One thing this did throw into sharp relief was that I’d started slipping with my anime watching.  Part of this was because there’s been a load of stuff I’ve wanted to watch on TV, but another big part is of course that I’ve had so much work to do.  I’d actually thought I may need to come in this last weekend, but in the end I thought - no, I need the break.

Something that was pleasing, though, was that even though the Saturday was again intense and physically demanding I wasn’t shattered on Sunday.  Well, I was tired, but not like I had been in previous weeks.

This was part of what enabled me to do the e-baying.  I’d tried a couple of weeks before, but had found it all too much and not done it.

Anyway, what I was really going to say was that it became apparent when I was e-baying that I hadn’t really watched much anime or read much manga since I’d last done a proper session.  I mean, I have watched and read some bits, but certainly I realised that all the other stuff had really knocked the wind out of my sails.

Of course, the flipside is that I’ve now managed to really bight into the stack of TV stuff I’ve recorded and not managed to find the time to watch.  In particular I’ve gotten about half way into the recent Torchwood series.

It’s been quite good so far.  I have to say it’s been a little slow if I’m totally honest.  It would probably have worked if it was more like the Children one, or even if it was maybe 6 episodes, rather than 10.  However, it really seems to have ramped up in the last few episodes I’ve watched, and we’re also starting to get into the proper conspiracy stuff.

I mean, there was conspiracy before (I assume I’m okay with talking about this as I’m sure if you were even vaguely interested you’d have been watching.  Well, okay, I wasn’t, but I have my reasons.), but it was about a pharmaceutical company being evil, and big corp being evil is hardly original or even very torchwood as it’s not really alieny.  But it looks like we're about to get onto the proper underlying conspiracy stuff.

It also seems to have gotten a bit darker.  The children one was very bleak and I’m kinda hoping we get that way with this one as so far it’s not really focused on the nastier side of the story it’s telling.

But anyway, point is that I also rationalised some stuff I was recording and having made a real big dent in my stuff to watch, I’m hoping that very soon I’ll be able to start watching anime again and then I’ll have some more stuff to sell as we get towards Christmas.  Blimey, I said the Christmas word.  It’s ages off, but e-bay’s free listing weekends aren't that often and it’s nice to take advantage of them as it can really boost the money I make.

They’re one of the few good things e-bay does.

And on a vaguely related note, my lovely fired Ezy suggested I take some photos of my freshly re-reorganised shelves (they’re the ones with all the anime on - it’s a thin link, but a link none the less) and I’ll probably have a go at that at some point too.  Although to be frank, they’re a bit difficult to really photo in a way that’s easy and clear, because there’s multiple layers of stuff so it’s not really visible.

triple bagger

Last Friday I briefly mentioned what I would get up to on Saturday morning.

Well, actually I mainly talked about how it had been a hell of a week.  Friday was by far and away the worst day.  I actually did what was basically a 12 hour day at work, and that was before having to go shopping and do a bunch of other bits so that the weekend would be easier.

I ended up basically passing out at about 10:30 (very late for me) and of course I get up earlier when it’s a cleaning weekend so tat I can get into the laundrette when it opens, so I was then up at 6:00.

Actually, I got up at about 5:30AM as when I got up for a pee in the early morning I was wide awake and I filled in the time by watching a bit of telly.

The actually washing was a triple bagger - I had two black bags full of clothes and then another bag with bed sheets and towels.  I used one of the big machines and one of the medium machines and then three tumble dryers.  It actually cost a fortune, but it means I’d caught up with the overspill that was left when I switched to ding my own washing.

Best thing was that there was literally nobody in there, so I wasn’t using up machines other people wanted access too.  I also noticed on Sunday morning that the place was completely empty when I walked past it on my (slightly delayed) morning walk, so I may put that knowledge to use later on.

Particularly when the winter proper rolls around.  I’m worried that when I fully break out the warmer clothes I may have trouble with the amount of washing I need to do.  I mean, obviously the warmer clothes tend to be bigger, but of course I wear multiple layers, so that means loads more clothes.

Part of the saving grace might be that I won’t be quite so tied into doing it every other week - the F1 season will obviously be over, so timing's not so critical.  If I can also use Sunday mornings, that may help too.

I actually took the first step with winter as I broke out the winter duvet.  Eventually I’ll end up with both duvets and only wearing jeans and tracky bottoms, but for now it’s just the warmer duvet.  Of course that does mean I’ll have to actually buy some new winter clothes...

I threw away quite a few clothes hen I switched to summer clothes.  Partly that was due to the diet (and certainly most of them would now be too big) but also most of them were rather knackered and replacing anyway.

Where the heck I’m going to get the cash for that from I’m not sure.

I actually had to get a bunch of stuff on e-bay this weekend as my finances were looking a bit tight.  I got a letter a few weeks back that they were increasing the cost of my electricity, so I took the calculated gamble of buying advance buying a load of electricity this month so that I wouldn’t be so badly impacted when properly cold weather comes around.

Of course that put a really big hole in my finances, because I can’t use credit cards to buy the electricity.  I therefore did some e-baying of a bunch of stuff, especially as it was a no-insertion fee weekend.

i need this

The weekend is rapidly approaching, and boy do I need it.

It's been a tough week at work, not least of all because several people seem to have gone on holiday at the same time.  That's meant that I've had to pick up a lot of stuff from them on top of my regular stuff.

There have been several things that have therefore gone un-loved if I'm honest.  And if I hadn't managed to clear off some of my own stuff before this week I wouldn't have managed to done most of them.

So it's been hectic.

The real problem recently is that we've had lots of requirements come in.  Usually we see a handful a month, but just recently it's been more like a handful every day.  And while most are pretty small things, they all need several days of effort.  And when you're a relatively small company everyone quickly gets maxed out with stuff to do.

But the real headache comes when you try to rationalise them - we won't do that one, but we will do those two, that sort of thing.  The problem for us is, because of how we work, it's difficult to really make those decisions straight away.

I mean, you can make them, but often you're simply chopping things off without really investigating.  And the investigation is the bit that takes time.  So it's a bit of a no win situation - if you do the exploration, you expend quite a bit of effort and may either end up with nothing or generate a lot of work for yourself.  If you don't do the exploration, you could be consigning the best opportunity you've ever seen to the dustbin and never know it.

Anyway, enough moaning.  And not that the weekend will be much of a rest.

It's a cleaning weekend, and that means starting off with a load of washing up at the laundrette.  I'm actually going to have to do three bags worth this weekend, so I hope it's not busy, as I'll need multiple machine and even more tumble dryers to get through it all.

Then I'll actually clean the flat and I'll probably give it a bit more of a thorough clean than normal, as it's a while since I did a thorough clean.  Then I'll go for a walk and all that before lunch.  It's no wonder I end up knackered on the Sunday.  Ideally I'd spread things out a bit more, but I couldn't work out how to do that and not simply end up impacting on other stuff instead.

re-rearrange

I rearranged my DVDs and books. Again... again.

I liked the idea of my plan when I rearranged them last time, but the results were a bit of a mess.  The big problem was that I mixed stuff up and tried to put books, anime and normal DVDs all together.

Trouble was the ‘slots’ on the shelf weren’t the right size and so what I ended up with was more like a jumble of stuff where I was trying for a more sensible order to watch stuff in.

My new arrangement tries to keep things together - so all my books are back over on the other book shelf, for example - and instead I’ve focused more on putting the groups into a sensible order to watch them in.  So in other words, all the books are together, all the normal DVDs are together and all the anime is together, but what I‘ve done is put those groups into an order where I can watch stuff from the top down.

Well, I say that, but there is one shelf that’s ended up as a random mix of stuff.  I’m not too fussed about that, because it’s more a reflection of the stupid amount of DVDs I’ve got to watch than any real failure in my ordering.

There was also an ulterior motive for my rearrangement.

Basically, I couldn’t find my copy of High School of the Dead.  HOTD was released last week on the Bank Holiday Monday an I’d pre-ordered the Blu-Ray version almost as soon as it was announced.  But I couldn’t find it.

I say I couldn’t find it because I was sure I’d received it.  I had a memory of being a little disappointed with the image they’d put on the Blu-Rays.  I also vaguely remembered unwrapping it and, more importantly, I checked my e-mail and Amazon had sent it on the Bank Holiday.

Now obviously there was the possibility that I hadn’t actually received it, but as I say, I was sure I had, but I couldn’t find it.  I have a small stack of Blu-Rays and it should have been with them, but no sign.

Therefore, by sorting out the mess I’d created with my last re-arrange, it gave me a chance to look through the piles and see if I’d put it somewhere odd.  But there was no sign.

And then, a couple of days after I’d basically decided I’d somehow lost it (perhaps doing something silly like chucking it away like I did with a volume of Bakuman) it turned up in the post.  It had taken some 8 days to arrive.  Now to be fair I do use the Amazon slow and free service and of course if they posted it on the bank holiday, it wouldn’t actually get picked up until later, but still, I think that’s the longest I’ve ever had it take to get to me.

I’ve actually cancelled a lot of the stuff I pre-ordered on Amazon - manga, mostly.  I‘m actually rather skint (all this dental work I’ve had to have has really not helped me) and I need to get more stuff on e-bay.  I’ve got quite a lot lined up - not least of all because I’ve been watching stuff on DVD - but I just don’t seem to be able to find the time to sit down and take photos and write the stuff for the auction pages.

the thing

John Carpenter's The Thing was the first Blu Ray I bought.

It was also the first Blu Ray I watched.  Or at least, the first Blu Ray I tried to watch.  I then discovered that there's actually no Blu Ray player software built into windows, so I had to install Power DVD.

I then discovered that there appears to be some protection that appears to prevent you from playing Blu Rays via a DVI cable.  I knew there was region protection and if I was to eventually play Blu Rays from other regions I'd need some form of cracking software.  I hadn't appreciated I'd also need it in order to watch any Blu Rays from a computer on my telly.

That's a long winded way of saying that by the time I'd sorted all those issues out I'd actually acquired several Blu Rays (and had basically decided that actually I need to buy a proper region free Blu-Ray, but that doing so appears to be a bit of a hassle, as players are not (yet anyway) sold as being multi-region like DVD players are) and watched them.

So why did I pick a cult SF/horror film from the early 1980s as my first Blu Ray?

Well The Thing represents something of a high water mark in terms of physical creature effects.  Yes it does look a bit dated, but what makes up for that is the wild, twisted imagination.  There's stuff in there that is so bonkers they've still not really matched it.  And the fact it was done physically then makes it even more special.

Really The Thing is two movies stuck together.  One film is a paranoid action thriller and the other is a bonkers creature horror film.  Of course this could have been a real disaster, but both elements work so well and gel together so well they end up enhancing each other, rather than detracting.

Of course, the film isn't without its flaws.  On particularly big one is quite why these people are down in the Antarctic anyway.  There are quite a few of them and they're a real rag tag bunch of misfits, which is fair enough, but why are they there?  Are they supposed to be scientists?  Only one of them actually appears to be a scientist, and one a doctor.  Some of the rest have clear jobs (radio operator, pilot), but the rest are just random people.

And the other question is how come they have so many guns and, more importantly, flame throwers?  You could maybe understand there being one rifle, just in case, but there aren't any particularly nasty threats down there.  For example, it's a common misconception that polar bears live on the south pole, but in fact they're entirely based at the north pole.

There are penguins, seals and whales of course, but they're hardly a threat.  And even if they were, a rifle or two would be okay, but flame throwers?  And we're talking proper flame throwers, not improvised things.

But setting things like that asides, as a film it's really great (well, assuming horror his your thing, of course).

dampened again

Got a bit of a soaking again this last Sunday on my walk.

I went a bit earlier than I usually do, as I’d checked the forecast and it suggested the rain would come at about lunchtime.  In the end it was quite sunny across lunch.  I think the forecasts were struggling a bit this last weekend because apparently the leftovers of a hurricane were drifting over us.

I didn’t get too wet, as it was more like a short sharp shower than the monsoon I suffered with last weekend.

I also put on a pound at my weigh in.  This was a reflection of stupidity on my part, as I bought too much food and ended up having to eat up some stuff.  I also bought a few naughty things and didn’t get quite as much chance to go for walks during the week as I’d normally expect.  The problem was the weather again, as it seemed to rain quite heavily early on and at lunchtime for some reason.

Part of the issue I’ve been having just recently is I’ve discovered some other options for things I can eat that aren’t too bad calorie wise.  Well, no, the problem is that I’ve discovered these things but haven’t properly worked out how to include them n my meal plans.

I therefore seem to keep ending up with multiple things to eat which obviously actually boosts my calorie intake, despite the specific things I’m eating not being bad in and of themselves as such.

Another weird problem is doing my own washing.

I used to drop my washing off on Wednesday or Thursday, when I would also nip into Sainsburys and pick up some rolls (and some naughty stuff in recent months) but also, crucially, I would pick up a copy of the Radio Times.

Now I do my own washing at the weekend, and I’ve not quite worked out a new strategy for when I go and buy my RT.  I know it shouldn’t be complicate, but it’s been throwing me a bit as it’s a lot simpler to just pick up an RT and it seems to encourage me to buy more naughty stuff as well.

I dunno, as I type it out it doesn’t seem that complicated, but I’ve certainly been struggling for some reason.

I also know I’m in real danger of finding excuses to cover what is me simply not exercising the will power that allowed me to do my initial weight loss.

viva italien

It was the Italian Grand Prix this last weekend.

It’s held at the Monza circuit, which is almost flat out - the track is mostly long straights with only a handful of corners.  They’ve actually added a few chicanes over the years to try to slow things down, but even with them it still only takes about an hour and 20 minutes to run.

When you think that some f the tracks (Singapore in particular) they’re often banging up against the two hour limit and that all races are intended to be about 200miles long (I think - there’s certainly an intended length) it dhows you how quick it is.

Despite that, the race was not normally one of my favourites.  See, while fast is probably great when you’re at the circuit, on TV it’s one of the first things you loose.  It also tended to make things processional - you don’t normally overtaken the straights, you overtaken the corners, out breaking or out manoeuvring the other guy.

But this weekend’s race was great, and I think is probably another testament to the clever things the Pirelli guys have done with the tyres.  There were also two DRS zones and I have to say it seemed to be giving the types of overtakes I’m not a fan of, where they just use the DRS to overtaken the straight, which is boring.

The race was also enlivened by a big battle between Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.  Schumacher managed to sneak ahead of Lewis in the first couple of laps and then Lewis seemed to really struggle to get around him.

There seemed to be a few clear reasons for that.  Firstly, the Mclaren also uses the Mercedes engine, which is acknowledged to be about the most powerful on the grid at the moment.  Also Mercedes had gone for a slightly different strategy, using a very skinny wing that didn’t have a DRS flap, but also, crucially, gearing the car higher so it could take better advantage of the high speeds.

That meant Lewis didn’t have a particular advantage, but also I think he wanted to be a little more cautious and be sure to finish the race.  Also, and it has to be said, Schumacher was, while not really breaking the rules, flirting with them.  What he was doing would have been fine a few years ago, but nowadays they’ve added rules about how you can move about on the track.

Now there was no punishment, but it was odd that Ross Brawn seemed to have to warn Schumacher to leave room for Lewis.

Unfortunately, from a championship point of view, Vettel won, which means he’s got it all but sewn up.  Especially since Webber smashed into Massa and didn’t finish.

internet & fansubs (BT)

I mentioned a while back that I’d gotten myself BT broadband.

Well, unfortunately I recently had to boost my package to the unlimited downloads one.  This is quite a lot more expensive (the broadband bit of the package basically doubles), but there was no way I was going to be able to keep within the bandwidth limit, and they charge you a huge amount for each gb you go over.

There are two basic problems that have really brought this to the fore.  well, actually there’s one problem, but it has a couple of facets.

That problem is the entire reason I got the BT broadband in the first place- fansubs.

As I’ve explained before, I got the Bt broadband because I was hammering my landlords connection so hard and so often that it seemed to be causing the line to fall over on a very regular basis.  When this happened it meant I had no internet access at all, sometimes for quite long periods of time.

Also, my usage was clearly causing the line to hit its limit often, so when my landlord used it he’d get really slow speeds.  Therefore, by transferring my fansub downloading to another line, I’d stop being an arse.

But then two problems cropped up.  Firstly, the shower broke.  As I explained at the time, that meant I couldn't download any fansubs because my computer is underneath the hatch to get access to the stopcocks.  And because it was out for a week, I created a big backlog of stuff.

The other problem is that this year there seems to have been a real problem over shows that have been picked up for legal streaming.  I try to be a good boy and only dl shows that haven’t been picked up by crunchyroll and AOD.  However, this year a whole raft of stuff either wasn’t licensed at all or was licensed, but I was region locked out of.

A new service called Nico Nico started, which seemed to take several shows and I found the site basically unusable.  But then quite a bit of stuff on crunchyroll was region locked and then there was this big announcement that most of it was going to be on AOD.

I’m not sure I buy into the conspiracy theories that it wasn’t picked up by crunchyroll for the UK because of AOD, but what was definitely true was that it was ages before AOD announced they had them and then literally months before they started appearing.

On top of that, AOD’s site has been crushingly slow, making it unusual and there’s still the problem that AOD's content can only be viewed full screen or in a tiny window, making it a much less practical site for me.

In other words, I seem to have reverted back to downloading just about everything.

And things seemed to be going so well :(

But it did mean that last month I was hammering the connection and I had to increase the bandwidth allowance.

What made this slightly more annoying was that when I tried to rest the payment direct debit thing, it wouldn’t let me set it to a sensible level.  It had this weird thing of one page was recommending a sensible amount, but then when I went onto the page to change it, it insisted I couldn’t take it below a different “recommended” amount that was £10 more than the other recommended amount.  I put the higher recommended amount in quotes, because if you it acts as a fixed minimum value, it’s not really a recommendation is it?

Still, I guess if a large credit build up because of this stupid flaw in the system, I’ll eventually be able to set it lower.

tweaks to blogger & drafts

They appear to have tweaked the layout and structure of blogger.

Generally speaking I often find myself having quite conservative reactions to changes like this.  I try to be open minded, but it’s difficult sometimes, especially if you’re talking about something that works perfectly well (or suits your needs perfectly).  Change for change’s sake is rubbish - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Of course, sometimes you only realise it was broke after they fix it, but this isn’t one of those cases.  However, I have to say I actually quite like these changes they’ve made.  They’ve added some stuff that, while not necessary, is quite nice/useful, and they’ve not broken anything.

It also looks prettier and feels more involved and a smidge more professional.  As I say, I don’t think it is actually changed much, but it has a nicer, cleaner feel to it.

I’ve not played with everything yet, but certainly the stats are nice.  Being a numbers nerd, stats are always nice, of course.

The new layout also showed me that something odd had happened to some of my posts.  Whether in fact they were fine before and got broken by the change I can’t know for sure, but I actually think it was some problem that I hadn’t realised.

Basically, quite a few (around a dozen over the years) of my posts had not been published.  Instead, they’ve been saved as drafts.  Quite why these particular posts never got published, I don’t know, but it was fairly clear from the page view counter they hadn’t been.

As I say, it was a bit of a random selection and I thought I was in the habit of always checking the blog once I’d published a new entry, but clearly something had gone wrong somewhere.

It would also explain a discrepancy I noticed a few times before, where two of the numbers that showed the number of blog posts didn’t quite seem to add up.  I can’t remember the exact phrasing, but it was something along the lines of the number of posts and the number of entries were different, because one must have been including all these drafts where the other wasn't.

signs

I kinda new what signs was about before I watched it.

In fact, actually, you can pretty much tell what signs is about from the title and the box / poster art.  However, being an M Night Shyamalan film, I was also expecting some sort of twist.  Or, more specifically, I knew the film was about aliens, but I was expecting some sort of twist on that.

And while there was a twist, it wasn't really concerned with the aliens, as such.  So the aliens didn't turn out to actually be humans from the future or friendly but misunderstood or anything like that - the aliens were pretty much as presented.  The twist was more subtle than that, and I think it worked.

In fact, I was actually surprised as I wasn't really expecting to like signs, but I actually quite enjoyed it.  Despite the clear indication that it's a story about aliens, he still manages to build a good feeling of suspense and tension and, crucially, it feels quite real.  It feels like, if aliens were to come here, this might be a possible way it plays out.

Well, I say that - there's a bit of a reveal at the end that doesn't quite make sense.  It's not the twist, as such, and I won't spoiler it, although some simple Google searching will probably reveal it to you if you feel so inclined.  But basically it's a bit of an odd idea that actually made the aliens a bit crap.  If you know much about science it would also make it impossible to be on the planet at all, but it's not too big a thing.

The film stars Mel Gibson of course and he gives a good performance.  It's a little difficult nowadays not to think of the whole anti-Semitic drunkenness thing of course, but after a while you get used to his character being quite a subtle, gentle person.

The DVD had some pretty good extras too.  There's a nice making of featurette and an interesting commentary.  Shyamalan is quite a talkative chap, which is always good.  Some directors can be rather quiet on commentaries, which I've always thought of as a bit odd as surely it's your chance to explain stuff about this film that you've invested a big chunk of your life in and, presumably, had an eventful time making.

I've not much else to say, really - I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

new regimen

My new regimen seems to be working okay.  Well, ish.

An unfortunate downside seems to be that the Sunday after the cleaning weekend I end up shattered.  It’s difficult to say for sure that it’s entirely down to the new regimen, but it seems very likely.

The problem with being sure is I’ve not been doing it very long and of course this last weekend I was coming off the back of a very tiring week (hard work and lack of sleep).  But certainly as Sunday dawned it was real struggle to get out of bed and the morning was pretty rubbish.  I perked up a bit in the afternoon following a particularly strong coffee, but it didn’t seem to last very long.

Certainly I didn't do any scanning, though I sat down and thought about starting, but in the end I slobbed out in front of a film.

Hopefully that's compensate for a bit by the fact that the other weekend is basically free of stuff to do apart from watch the grand prix.

Total Wipeout is back.  Well, ish.  It seems to have started with two celebrity specials, which the telly listing clearly indicated were episodes 11 & 12 of 12, so they were meant to come last.  I thought maybe I’d missed  the series, but a quick it of googling suggested that no, they’d simply shown the la two episode first.

The seem to have added some good new stuff for the earlier rounds, but the final section - the wipeout zone - is still far too easy.  Indeed, they may have made the one bit of it that was tricky (a long roe swing) easier, y replacing it with some not very fast moving turntables.

The gadget show is also back. Well, ish.  It’s now on Friday evenings instead of Monday.  I can't say that so far I’m impressed with the new slot.  I can't really fit watching it live into my schedule, which means it’s become just another program I watch at the weekend.

Leaving it until Monday might be an idea, but I dunno, if there's a problem with the recording (it’s on 5) the repeat is at the weekend, so I’d have missed it.  I guess I could record both, just in case.  Roll on proper digital switchover next year (only two years after when it was meant to happen!).

They’ve tweaked the competition, which now involves a celeb naming stuff, which works okay, but takes up quite a lot of time.  Otherwise it’s the same basic stuff, so I’m pleased it’s back.

Bit of a random one today.  Well, ish.

Hopefully the return of regular schedule fixtures like these with the drawing in nights and my new regimen will help to get me back to my dieting ways and also kick me back into doing things like scanning during the week.  I figured out that a big part of my problem recently has been that I've been pissing about in the evenings with complicated (and regrettably high calorie) foodstuff so I’ve lost all the time I seemed to gain last year.

damp enough for you, sir?

I got an absolute soaking on yesterday afternoon’s walk.

I’d checked the forecast the day before, so I kinda new rain was forecast.  In fact, to be honest, I was actually hoping for a bit of rain.

My afternoon walk on Saturday had been rather sticky.  It was surprisingly warm for the time of year (are we going to have an Indian summer, I wonder?) and I’d thought a little sprinkling of rain might not go amiss.

When I set off I took my cap as it was just starting to spot with rain and for about three quarters of the walk it kept spotting on and off.  It was also pretty muggy again, so these spots were actually quite welcome.

I didn’t take any sort of coat or other rain protection, though, as I figured if it did rain properly I wasn’t going to be that far from home and I could possibly duck under cover if needed.  But this was a bit of a mistake.

When it started raining, it quickly changed into a deluge and I got very wet very quickly.  Also, the timing was very unfortunate, as I was a good way from any decent cover and by the time I reached cover, I was so wet, stopping wouldn’t have made much difference.  I’d have just ended up being cold and wet for ages, before having to set off in the wet anyway (it continued raining for hours).

I therefore continued on and the rain managed to somehow get even heavier.  As I was coming down the bit that leads to where I live, there were rivers running down the road and everything.  It was a veritable monsoon.

This, of course, had that weird side effect of that super-pleasant feeling you get when you come in out of the rain and dry off and change into fresh clothes.  It’s a really oddly pleasant experience.

To emphasise just how wet it was, my clothes were still sopping wet when I went to bed and rather damp when I checked them after I got up.

In other weight/diet/exercise news, I unfortunately put on the best part of a pound at my weigh in.  To be honest, I’m actually surprised I only put on a pound, considering the crap I ate.  My guess is that my long walk on Monday and my sleepless night and resultant fatigue burnt off a lot of the crap I ate.

I think, basically, it’s a good thing I’m ending one diet period and starting a new one.  Hopefully, it will effectively draw a line under my recent poor performance (only 10 pounds lost across the period, less than half compared to the other periods).  My new plan is very ambitious, as I’m aiming to be “fat” by Chrimbo.

Obviously I’m already fat, but what I mean is I want to take myself out of obese and down into overweight.

If I make it, it will be great, but if not my next target for my birthday will stand a good chance of achieving this goal.  Once I’m down into overweight, I can hopefully look at slowing down, if not stopping the dieting.

While part of me wants to become normal weight, several other parts of me have very good counter points.  One big one is that if I get properly thin I’ll have real problems with loose skin.  Another is that while being obese is a noticeable health risk, simply being overweight is much, much less bad.

Thee are other points too, but those are the key ones.