Well now, I've been rather silent for the last couple of days.
This wasn't intentional, as such. And it wasn't because I was manically busy - in many senses the opposite. I have been oddly tired, but nothing that would really have stopped me blogging.
It was more a sort of coming together of circumstances.
Firstly, last weekend was the Bank Holiday weekend and I'd initially thought I would have a go at pre-writing a few blog entries over the weekend, as it was going to be quite quiet. That didn't really happen, due to a combination of tiredness (from the long day on Friday) and laziness.
The other thing was that I'd intended for these last few weeks to post a bunch of reviews I'd written but gotten behind with posting. Well, I posted all of those... and then ran out... and didn't write any more.
So writing a few of those reviews would have been ideal for this last couple of days, except as I say I couldn't be bothered over the weekend and then, well, couldn't be bothered during the week either.
During this week, as mentioned, I wasn't busy in the sense that I usually am, with loads of stuff that I have to do with deadlines, etc. However, I was busy with other stuff. I've been tasked with coming up with some bits for work and this was really the first week I've had time to work on them properly, so I took the opportunity.
Now I've been quite enjoying putting them together and that's meant that they've absorbed my time, but as I say, not because I've had to, but more because I've wanted to.
So there you go - a bunch of excuses, basically.
This weekend the Formula 1 season gets back in gear with the Belgium Grand Prix from the iconic Spa Francorchamps. It's usually a good race and the weather often makes its presence felt.
Friday, 31 August 2012
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
work, work and more work
So Friday was a bonkers work day.
As I mentioned last week it was my initial intention to come in on Saturday morning and finish off the upload for a bid we were doing. Well, that post was written on Thursday and instead of that I thought I'd try and do it all on Friday.
Initially this meant coming in very early - I started at about 7AM. The morning went okay, with me managing to upload most everything that we had already done, and taking me about 2.5 hours.
However, even if I'd wanted to (and had the time) some of wasn't finished, so wouldn't be available to upload until later.
In the meantime I worked on another bid. That went okay, although it was more work than I'd initially anticipated. It also didn't help that I was pretty tired.
Anyway, I sent that off at about 6PM and so then came my second attempt at the other bid. In case I didn't explain it had to be uploaded via an online portal, which are never the simplest or easiest of things, but the added problem here was it was clear almost everybody had decided to uploaded on the Friday.
That meant that as the day wore on the system basically ground to a halt. A single click of a "yes" button was taking several minutes to even register and start to update and uploading stuff was basically impossible.
I'd hoped that if I left it until early evening then a lot of people would be finished, but that didn't really seem to help matters as it was still crushingly slow at 6PM.
I therefore decided I would go and do other stuff (I bought some petrol, went shopping, had some dinner, went home, put the shopping away, changed clothes and sorted out a few domestic bits in preparation for the weekend) and then come back. This meant I returned to work at about 9PM.
At this time it was actually working well - back to how it had been very early in the morning. However, there was still a lot to upload, so it took me a further hour and a half or so to upload it all. I actually read some manga while I was doing it, so it wasn't too bad.
However, it did mean all told that I didn't get home until well after 11PM - that's quite a work day by anyone's standards!
On top of that, part of the reason I moved my plan to Friday was because we were supposed to be switching to a new server over the Bank Holiday weekend... and it didn't work. So I could have basically done it Saturday or even popped in on Monday!
Anyway, I'm going to try to take it a bit easier this week to compensate a bit for the huge week last week.
As I mentioned last week it was my initial intention to come in on Saturday morning and finish off the upload for a bid we were doing. Well, that post was written on Thursday and instead of that I thought I'd try and do it all on Friday.
Initially this meant coming in very early - I started at about 7AM. The morning went okay, with me managing to upload most everything that we had already done, and taking me about 2.5 hours.
However, even if I'd wanted to (and had the time) some of wasn't finished, so wouldn't be available to upload until later.
In the meantime I worked on another bid. That went okay, although it was more work than I'd initially anticipated. It also didn't help that I was pretty tired.
Anyway, I sent that off at about 6PM and so then came my second attempt at the other bid. In case I didn't explain it had to be uploaded via an online portal, which are never the simplest or easiest of things, but the added problem here was it was clear almost everybody had decided to uploaded on the Friday.
That meant that as the day wore on the system basically ground to a halt. A single click of a "yes" button was taking several minutes to even register and start to update and uploading stuff was basically impossible.
I'd hoped that if I left it until early evening then a lot of people would be finished, but that didn't really seem to help matters as it was still crushingly slow at 6PM.
I therefore decided I would go and do other stuff (I bought some petrol, went shopping, had some dinner, went home, put the shopping away, changed clothes and sorted out a few domestic bits in preparation for the weekend) and then come back. This meant I returned to work at about 9PM.
At this time it was actually working well - back to how it had been very early in the morning. However, there was still a lot to upload, so it took me a further hour and a half or so to upload it all. I actually read some manga while I was doing it, so it wasn't too bad.
However, it did mean all told that I didn't get home until well after 11PM - that's quite a work day by anyone's standards!
On top of that, part of the reason I moved my plan to Friday was because we were supposed to be switching to a new server over the Bank Holiday weekend... and it didn't work. So I could have basically done it Saturday or even popped in on Monday!
Anyway, I'm going to try to take it a bit easier this week to compensate a bit for the huge week last week.
Friday, 24 August 2012
zip it
So I had a bit of an embarrassing situation on Tuesday at work.
Basically to skip to the punch line the zip on my trousers broke. Now we're not talking about an explosion under duress or anything like that - this was that type of breaking where the teeth are undone even though you've zipped the zip.
I'm sure you know the sort of thing - a zip works by the teeth intermeshing, which you achieve by pulling the zipper up or down depending on if you want to close or open them. Well what sometimes happens is that the teeth become un-meshed when the zipper is in the closed position. Basically they become un-aligned and the zip no longer knits them together when it closes.
The way to fix this is to basically slide one set of teeth out of the zipper and re-align everything so that the zipper meshes them together. However, this is only really possible on those zips that are designed to come completely apart (so the zips you have on the front of coats, rather than on the pockets of a coat.
Of course the zipper on my trousers (otherwise known as the "fly") is of the pocket closing type, so I was left with the embarrassing situation of not being able to close my trouser's fly area. I ended up using a bull-dog clip on the inside to close them up.
Now actually this is the pair of trousers that's really slack and it's my intention once I get my new boosted pay packet to start to buy some new clothes. Plus of course I have another pair of work trousers, so it's not a big deal really.
I'd actually gotten rather ahead of myself on that front, expecting my wage to come in during this week for some reason, but of course it will be next week as the end of the month is on Friday.
It's a Bank Holiday Monday next week, so I'll only be blogging Tuesday to Friday. However, I will actually probably be working early Saturday morning, as there's some bits I need to do. It's not that I'm super-mega busy; it's just that I can't see how the timing is going to work out any other way.
Basically to skip to the punch line the zip on my trousers broke. Now we're not talking about an explosion under duress or anything like that - this was that type of breaking where the teeth are undone even though you've zipped the zip.
I'm sure you know the sort of thing - a zip works by the teeth intermeshing, which you achieve by pulling the zipper up or down depending on if you want to close or open them. Well what sometimes happens is that the teeth become un-meshed when the zipper is in the closed position. Basically they become un-aligned and the zip no longer knits them together when it closes.
The way to fix this is to basically slide one set of teeth out of the zipper and re-align everything so that the zipper meshes them together. However, this is only really possible on those zips that are designed to come completely apart (so the zips you have on the front of coats, rather than on the pockets of a coat.
Of course the zipper on my trousers (otherwise known as the "fly") is of the pocket closing type, so I was left with the embarrassing situation of not being able to close my trouser's fly area. I ended up using a bull-dog clip on the inside to close them up.
Now actually this is the pair of trousers that's really slack and it's my intention once I get my new boosted pay packet to start to buy some new clothes. Plus of course I have another pair of work trousers, so it's not a big deal really.
I'd actually gotten rather ahead of myself on that front, expecting my wage to come in during this week for some reason, but of course it will be next week as the end of the month is on Friday.
It's a Bank Holiday Monday next week, so I'll only be blogging Tuesday to Friday. However, I will actually probably be working early Saturday morning, as there's some bits I need to do. It's not that I'm super-mega busy; it's just that I can't see how the timing is going to work out any other way.
Thursday, 23 August 2012
the faculty
I have to confess I found this rather disappointing.
I'd heard that it was quite good, but I actually found it really derivative and therefore rather unoriginal. It was a bit like somebody had compiled together all the good alien movies they'd ever seen and thought that the melded together thing would therefore be good.
Trouble is that you just end up with a diluted version of those original films. Also, generally, a lot of the good alien films are actually based on books. The film tries to acknowledge this debt, but actually just ends up making it obvious how lacking this film is.
This referencing is achieved by having a character who is a science fiction nerd who is into all the classic science fiction films - in this case, alien films being of most reference (Body Snatcher's, Puppet Master's). However, what this also means is you have a rather stereotypical character who lacks any real motivation or defining character, other than being a misfit SF nerd.
And this is the film's real problem - the characters are all basically horrible stereotypes. You've got the wide-eyed new girl, the genius who, unchallenged by academia is a mischief maker, the jock who's misunderstood. It's all just the wrong side of cliché. A bit more exploration of these characters would really have helped.
The good side of the film is the slow takeover by the aliens, which, although very much in a bodysnatcher's vein is reasonably well done. However, even here there are real problems - what are the aliens? Why are they doing this? How do they do it?
There's a vague hint that once taken over the people are happier, but the film also fails to really explore this. And this is one of the most frustrating things about it - it manages to ditch the parts of these types of alien movies that make them quirky or interesting or that make you think.
The aliens basically just take over because that's what they do and they need beating.
The thing about the film that is amusing is seeing a lot of young actors that have gone on to bigger and better things. You've got Josh Hartnett and Elijah Wood, for example. And the performances are probably the highlight of the film.
I'd heard that it was quite good, but I actually found it really derivative and therefore rather unoriginal. It was a bit like somebody had compiled together all the good alien movies they'd ever seen and thought that the melded together thing would therefore be good.
Trouble is that you just end up with a diluted version of those original films. Also, generally, a lot of the good alien films are actually based on books. The film tries to acknowledge this debt, but actually just ends up making it obvious how lacking this film is.
This referencing is achieved by having a character who is a science fiction nerd who is into all the classic science fiction films - in this case, alien films being of most reference (Body Snatcher's, Puppet Master's). However, what this also means is you have a rather stereotypical character who lacks any real motivation or defining character, other than being a misfit SF nerd.
And this is the film's real problem - the characters are all basically horrible stereotypes. You've got the wide-eyed new girl, the genius who, unchallenged by academia is a mischief maker, the jock who's misunderstood. It's all just the wrong side of cliché. A bit more exploration of these characters would really have helped.
The good side of the film is the slow takeover by the aliens, which, although very much in a bodysnatcher's vein is reasonably well done. However, even here there are real problems - what are the aliens? Why are they doing this? How do they do it?
There's a vague hint that once taken over the people are happier, but the film also fails to really explore this. And this is one of the most frustrating things about it - it manages to ditch the parts of these types of alien movies that make them quirky or interesting or that make you think.
The aliens basically just take over because that's what they do and they need beating.
The thing about the film that is amusing is seeing a lot of young actors that have gone on to bigger and better things. You've got Josh Hartnett and Elijah Wood, for example. And the performances are probably the highlight of the film.
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
gantz (movie)
Gantz was always going to be a tough thing to adapt.
Certainly adapting it into a live action film that would need to make a fair old bit of money to cover the types of effects it would need would probably been a tough thing to sell. On the plus side it's a very popular series, but on the down-side it's not exactly family friendly material.
And if you made it family friendly you would stand a real risk of alienating that main fanbase. But still, you need to make it possible that it might appeal to a wider audience. Yet the key elements of gantz are horrible violence, aliens, killing, misogyny general inhumanity and a smidgen of rape on the side. It is, to be frank, a veritable smorgasbord of misanthropy, which is probably something you could get away with better in the anime adaptation, since the audience is more focused in the same area as the manage and the budget concerns smaller.
Anyway, it's hardly fun for all the family!
I was, therefore, not really expecting much from the film adaptation.
I was, however, pleasantly surprised.
They have made changes. The misanthropy is pretty much gone. I mean, there are still a lot of the unpleasant characters, but they're not dwelt on as much. Also, the main character who, in the manga, we get a lot of internal monologue stuff from and therefore we see he's not a particularly nice person, is tweaked to be more normal.
In the film it's more about him being scared about things, rather than not giving a shit, if you see what I mean.
However, this first film (there are two) is actually surprisingly close to the original manga, given the changes that have been made. The second film looks like it diverges more, based on the trailer, but this first one takes the major parts of the manga and retains the majority of them.
I mean it does tweak stuff, obviously, but not as much as you may think.
The film also looks really good. The effects are excellent - the aliens look very good and the suits, guns and gantz itself are all very well executed. I think the fact it's almost all set at night (a lot of the less dramatic stuff front during daytime is what's gone) helps out here - FX are normally easier to execute during the night.
But obviously they've also benefitted from the leaps and bounds of digital FX that mean even low budget films can look very good nowadays
So overall, I'd say it's well worth checking out.
Well, if you like SF, action, aliens or the original manga it's worth checking out - if those aren't really your bag, it's not going to change your mind.
Certainly adapting it into a live action film that would need to make a fair old bit of money to cover the types of effects it would need would probably been a tough thing to sell. On the plus side it's a very popular series, but on the down-side it's not exactly family friendly material.
And if you made it family friendly you would stand a real risk of alienating that main fanbase. But still, you need to make it possible that it might appeal to a wider audience. Yet the key elements of gantz are horrible violence, aliens, killing, misogyny general inhumanity and a smidgen of rape on the side. It is, to be frank, a veritable smorgasbord of misanthropy, which is probably something you could get away with better in the anime adaptation, since the audience is more focused in the same area as the manage and the budget concerns smaller.
Anyway, it's hardly fun for all the family!
I was, therefore, not really expecting much from the film adaptation.
I was, however, pleasantly surprised.
They have made changes. The misanthropy is pretty much gone. I mean, there are still a lot of the unpleasant characters, but they're not dwelt on as much. Also, the main character who, in the manga, we get a lot of internal monologue stuff from and therefore we see he's not a particularly nice person, is tweaked to be more normal.
In the film it's more about him being scared about things, rather than not giving a shit, if you see what I mean.
However, this first film (there are two) is actually surprisingly close to the original manga, given the changes that have been made. The second film looks like it diverges more, based on the trailer, but this first one takes the major parts of the manga and retains the majority of them.
I mean it does tweak stuff, obviously, but not as much as you may think.
The film also looks really good. The effects are excellent - the aliens look very good and the suits, guns and gantz itself are all very well executed. I think the fact it's almost all set at night (a lot of the less dramatic stuff front during daytime is what's gone) helps out here - FX are normally easier to execute during the night.
But obviously they've also benefitted from the leaps and bounds of digital FX that mean even low budget films can look very good nowadays
So overall, I'd say it's well worth checking out.
Well, if you like SF, action, aliens or the original manga it's worth checking out - if those aren't really your bag, it's not going to change your mind.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
mini heat wave
So we seemed to have a mini heat wave while I was taking my long weekend.
It was nice that it didn't rain on me, but the heat made it a bit unpleasant. It was actually another case of my classic comment on British weather that it comes with exclamation points. I mean the change was so sudden that it was quite a shock.
I have to say I found the whole weather extremely nostalgic.
It was, to coin a phrase, just like the weather we seemed to have when I was a kid. Well, no, actually, not when I was a kid proper, but when I was a teenager. My recollection of my teenage years (around the GCSE and A-level kind of time) was that the weather during the summer was constantly like how it was this last weekend - hot and cloudless during the day and not really properly easing off during the night.
I don't know if that's really an accurate reflection of how the weather actually was, but it's how I remember it. I remember days of going around friends' houses and having barbecues and lazing about and then smoking pot and getting drunk in the evening.
This weather was so reminiscent of that period, particularly as the smell of barbecue was filling the air when I went out for my walks around the estate.
As for other stuff I did it was all pretty unexciting.
I gave the car a thorough clean, including giving it a polish. Usually when I do these mega cleans I find them quite tiring because I do everything and so it take hours, but I also end up using muscles I don't normally use much so I then have several days of aches and pains.
This time I didn't find the doing as tiring, but the after-ache was really bad.
I also decided to do a load of backing up. In the end I did my hard-drive based back-up routine, but didn't get the time to also burn the DVDs I usually do as well. I like to be thoroughly backed-up having had several bad experiences of drives crapping out and taking everything with them.
I'll probably look at burning the DVDs this next bank holiday weekend, though I am currently anticipating I will actually have to work part of the weekend. This isn't so much because I have too much to do it's more because the timing of things other people are doing mean it just won't be finished in time for me to do anything prior to the weekend.
I decided to do the back-up because I actually had a bit of a worrying moment the other week when I plug one of my drives in and it came up as if it was a new disk and asked me to format it. In the end I got around it, though the drive ran incredibly slowly. However, I think looking back on it it was because I used a USB3.0 slot that the motherboard has and I never installed the proper drivers for those slots because I don't have any USB 3.0 peripherals, so it ran at the default USB 1.0 speed.
At least I hope it was that - if not, I've backed it up anyway.
It was nice that it didn't rain on me, but the heat made it a bit unpleasant. It was actually another case of my classic comment on British weather that it comes with exclamation points. I mean the change was so sudden that it was quite a shock.
I have to say I found the whole weather extremely nostalgic.
It was, to coin a phrase, just like the weather we seemed to have when I was a kid. Well, no, actually, not when I was a kid proper, but when I was a teenager. My recollection of my teenage years (around the GCSE and A-level kind of time) was that the weather during the summer was constantly like how it was this last weekend - hot and cloudless during the day and not really properly easing off during the night.
I don't know if that's really an accurate reflection of how the weather actually was, but it's how I remember it. I remember days of going around friends' houses and having barbecues and lazing about and then smoking pot and getting drunk in the evening.
This weather was so reminiscent of that period, particularly as the smell of barbecue was filling the air when I went out for my walks around the estate.
As for other stuff I did it was all pretty unexciting.
I gave the car a thorough clean, including giving it a polish. Usually when I do these mega cleans I find them quite tiring because I do everything and so it take hours, but I also end up using muscles I don't normally use much so I then have several days of aches and pains.
This time I didn't find the doing as tiring, but the after-ache was really bad.
I also decided to do a load of backing up. In the end I did my hard-drive based back-up routine, but didn't get the time to also burn the DVDs I usually do as well. I like to be thoroughly backed-up having had several bad experiences of drives crapping out and taking everything with them.
I'll probably look at burning the DVDs this next bank holiday weekend, though I am currently anticipating I will actually have to work part of the weekend. This isn't so much because I have too much to do it's more because the timing of things other people are doing mean it just won't be finished in time for me to do anything prior to the weekend.
I decided to do the back-up because I actually had a bit of a worrying moment the other week when I plug one of my drives in and it came up as if it was a new disk and asked me to format it. In the end I got around it, though the drive ran incredibly slowly. However, I think looking back on it it was because I used a USB3.0 slot that the motherboard has and I never installed the proper drivers for those slots because I don't have any USB 3.0 peripherals, so it ran at the default USB 1.0 speed.
At least I hope it was that - if not, I've backed it up anyway.
Thursday, 16 August 2012
fuck this shit
I'm in a really bad mood today.
I don't think it's lack of sleep, because I'm not really tired, as such. I mean, I'm a little fatigued, having put in some hefty days at work recently (both time-wise and effort-wise), but I've been sleeping okay.
I think part of it is that people haven't really been doing what I've been asking them to. It's been weird - I think we've agreed something or to do something in a certain way or by a certain time and then they just go and do something else.
I mean, on most of the things I don't mind that they've done it differently or at a different time or whatever, but why agree to what we had agreed if you're going to do something else? Why not just say what you've got in mind?
I just let out a big sign then.
Roll on my long weekend!
I don't think it's lack of sleep, because I'm not really tired, as such. I mean, I'm a little fatigued, having put in some hefty days at work recently (both time-wise and effort-wise), but I've been sleeping okay.
I think part of it is that people haven't really been doing what I've been asking them to. It's been weird - I think we've agreed something or to do something in a certain way or by a certain time and then they just go and do something else.
I mean, on most of the things I don't mind that they've done it differently or at a different time or whatever, but why agree to what we had agreed if you're going to do something else? Why not just say what you've got in mind?
I just let out a big sign then.
Roll on my long weekend!
Wednesday, 15 August 2012
dead snow
You know I really wanted to enjoy this more than I did.
Zombie nazis killing a bunch of kids in a remote, snow-bound cabin? What's not to love?
The problem is it doesn't really make a lot of sense. I know - it's a daft criticism, isn't it? I mean, it's a film about nazi zombies, right? It coudln't possibly make any sense.
Well, no, but there's such a thing as internal logic. Okay, there's no such thing as zombies, but if you're goign to have zombies you need to be consistent about what they are, what they do, how they behave, etc. But there isn't here - most of the zombies seem pretty mindless, but one fo them is made out to be a leader of sorts - well, why is he still vaguely clever and the others aren't?
And if he is meant to be vaguely clever, why is his only motivation to do with some small amount of gold? Gold that it's not clear how it got to be anywhere other than where the zombies left it.
There are loads of other problems too. One f the main ones is a random old bloke who turns up basically in order to tell the youngsters the plot. Quite why he randomly seems to have walked dozens of miles (his tent, which is in the middle of nowhere, even though it's implied he's a local, is shown to be the best part of half a day's snow mobile ride away) just to scare the piss out of these kids with a weird story is never at all clear.
Especially sicne he then gets bumped off in a way that's utterly inconsistent with what we're supposed to believe is the motivation for the zombies.
The effects are generally quite good. There's a hell of a lot of killing and blood and severed body parts.
There's also some nice stabs at humour in an evil dead sort of veign.
But there are problems here too - everythign is derivative or unorigianl. IT's like there's a bit where a guy chops his own arm off... like a cross between Evil Dead (chainsaws and arms) and Braindead (infected arm cut off). Except it's utterly daft that he seems to think this will work. Plus, it's not like it's quick - it takes ages. And all through it the zombies apparantly stand aroudn watching him.
You see what I mean? It's lack of any sense is so blatent that it ruins what should be the bits that make up for the stupid plot. And it's so derivative that you just feel leik you've seen it all before.
Shame, it coudl have been so much better with little to no changes.
There were quite a lot of extras - some of which were quite entertaining. In particular the fact the crew seems to rise up in a proto-communist, trade union kind of thing was quite amusing.
Zombie nazis killing a bunch of kids in a remote, snow-bound cabin? What's not to love?
The problem is it doesn't really make a lot of sense. I know - it's a daft criticism, isn't it? I mean, it's a film about nazi zombies, right? It coudln't possibly make any sense.
Well, no, but there's such a thing as internal logic. Okay, there's no such thing as zombies, but if you're goign to have zombies you need to be consistent about what they are, what they do, how they behave, etc. But there isn't here - most of the zombies seem pretty mindless, but one fo them is made out to be a leader of sorts - well, why is he still vaguely clever and the others aren't?
And if he is meant to be vaguely clever, why is his only motivation to do with some small amount of gold? Gold that it's not clear how it got to be anywhere other than where the zombies left it.
There are loads of other problems too. One f the main ones is a random old bloke who turns up basically in order to tell the youngsters the plot. Quite why he randomly seems to have walked dozens of miles (his tent, which is in the middle of nowhere, even though it's implied he's a local, is shown to be the best part of half a day's snow mobile ride away) just to scare the piss out of these kids with a weird story is never at all clear.
Especially sicne he then gets bumped off in a way that's utterly inconsistent with what we're supposed to believe is the motivation for the zombies.
The effects are generally quite good. There's a hell of a lot of killing and blood and severed body parts.
There's also some nice stabs at humour in an evil dead sort of veign.
But there are problems here too - everythign is derivative or unorigianl. IT's like there's a bit where a guy chops his own arm off... like a cross between Evil Dead (chainsaws and arms) and Braindead (infected arm cut off). Except it's utterly daft that he seems to think this will work. Plus, it's not like it's quick - it takes ages. And all through it the zombies apparantly stand aroudn watching him.
You see what I mean? It's lack of any sense is so blatent that it ruins what should be the bits that make up for the stupid plot. And it's so derivative that you just feel leik you've seen it all before.
Shame, it coudl have been so much better with little to no changes.
There were quite a lot of extras - some of which were quite entertaining. In particular the fact the crew seems to rise up in a proto-communist, trade union kind of thing was quite amusing.
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
how to loose friends and alienate people
Well, this was poor.
Loose friends was actually somethign I listened to as an audiobook and enjoyed quite a lot. It was an odd sort of enjoyment, though.
See, the thing about it was that the person described in the book - Toby Young - was a bit of a prat. But here's the thing - the book was written with sufficient hindsight and self knowledge (by Toby Young himself) that it made it enjoyable.
Young portrays himself during that period as a prat, fully acknowledging his prattishness and making fun of himself. It's not entirely a self piss-take, but there's a definite air of "what the hell was I playing at?" to it that means it's enjoyable.
And it's difficult to see how the book would work without that, because it's also central to the reason he failed in New York. Well, actually, central to both the reason he got the opportunity and then failed was that he wasn't really willing to play the game proper.
He starts off attacking what he loves because he loves it, but then when that thing tries to brign him onboard instead of flipping and playign the game, he does the opposite. But he thinks that bu doing so he will have even more success, where in reality he creates his own failure.
Guess what happens in the film?
Well, for starters, a lot of it is toned down - the attack isn't really there, as such. But also the point of the book is flipped on its head - he flips aroudn and plays the game and has success. But in the film (this isn't really a spoiler, as it's predictably hollywood) he then realises his mistake and gives it all up for love.
It's almost the complete opposite fo what the book was about and therefore it renders the title pointles. They could easily have made this film, called it somethign else and not been sued.
The other problem si that a lot fo the humour descends into the toilet. Now don't get me wrong there's some rudeness and crudeness int he original, but it's liek those are the only bits they wanted to keep. Also, without a lot of the more complicated and interesting things they loose some of their point, so they're just vomit, transvestism and cock & ball jokes.
To be honest, though, it's difficult to see how they would have made a film of the book as it was. At least, it's difficult to see how a reasonable budget Hollywood film would have gotten made without drastic revisions. A small, indipendent film maybe, but a film with the need to get quite a lot of bums in seats to pay for itself? A tough sell.
Loose friends was actually somethign I listened to as an audiobook and enjoyed quite a lot. It was an odd sort of enjoyment, though.
See, the thing about it was that the person described in the book - Toby Young - was a bit of a prat. But here's the thing - the book was written with sufficient hindsight and self knowledge (by Toby Young himself) that it made it enjoyable.
Young portrays himself during that period as a prat, fully acknowledging his prattishness and making fun of himself. It's not entirely a self piss-take, but there's a definite air of "what the hell was I playing at?" to it that means it's enjoyable.
And it's difficult to see how the book would work without that, because it's also central to the reason he failed in New York. Well, actually, central to both the reason he got the opportunity and then failed was that he wasn't really willing to play the game proper.
He starts off attacking what he loves because he loves it, but then when that thing tries to brign him onboard instead of flipping and playign the game, he does the opposite. But he thinks that bu doing so he will have even more success, where in reality he creates his own failure.
Guess what happens in the film?
Well, for starters, a lot of it is toned down - the attack isn't really there, as such. But also the point of the book is flipped on its head - he flips aroudn and plays the game and has success. But in the film (this isn't really a spoiler, as it's predictably hollywood) he then realises his mistake and gives it all up for love.
It's almost the complete opposite fo what the book was about and therefore it renders the title pointles. They could easily have made this film, called it somethign else and not been sued.
The other problem si that a lot fo the humour descends into the toilet. Now don't get me wrong there's some rudeness and crudeness int he original, but it's liek those are the only bits they wanted to keep. Also, without a lot of the more complicated and interesting things they loose some of their point, so they're just vomit, transvestism and cock & ball jokes.
To be honest, though, it's difficult to see how they would have made a film of the book as it was. At least, it's difficult to see how a reasonable budget Hollywood film would have gotten made without drastic revisions. A small, indipendent film maybe, but a film with the need to get quite a lot of bums in seats to pay for itself? A tough sell.
Monday, 13 August 2012
scrappy
It was a bit of a scrappy weekend.
My landlord has gone on yet another of his holidays. Actually, holiday is probably not the right word - can you take a holiday if you're retired? "Break" is probably more apt.
During the winter they often jet off to some exotic part of the world, but in summer they tend to go caravanning. I'm not sure where they're off to this time, but I've a feeling it won't be for as long as they've planned.
This week it's meant to rain and drizzle a bit and they're not very tolerant of bad weather (I know - why do they go caravanning then?) so I'm guessing they'll probably be back by mid-week.
Now I'd actually thought they were going on Monday but they went on Sunday, so I decided I would make use of their going this weekend and the nice weather we were having and clean the car.
As I say there's a fair chance it will be poor weather, so while it was nice I thought it best to give it a clean. Unfortunately I had a bit of a problem with one of the things I did and actually made it dirtier than it was already, so I'll have to buy a better cleaner and try and do it this next weekend (as I say, assuming it doesn't rain) - or maybe we'll get a reasonable evening at some point.
I was also rather fatigued on Sunday as Saturday had taken quite a lot out of me. The thing is, though, I'm not 100% why. I've a feeling it was actually more a case of work draining me during the week and then Saturday just sapping the last of my energy. With it being hot and quite muggy I found my afternoon walk particularly hard work, for example.
But also everything I did seemed to take longer and/or be more difficult than I'd anticipated. So, for example, I did a huge pile of ironing, but it took a lot longer than I was expecting.
So yeah, bit of a scrappy weekend.
This week I am taking Friday off. I'd originally planned to take both Friday and Monday, but with the days I took looking for a new job I have ended up with all Friday and half of Monday off. Either way it means fewer posts for the next few weeks (the week after is also the bank holiday). I'll probably us the opportunity to post a bunch of film reviews and get myself somewhat caught up there too.
My landlord has gone on yet another of his holidays. Actually, holiday is probably not the right word - can you take a holiday if you're retired? "Break" is probably more apt.
During the winter they often jet off to some exotic part of the world, but in summer they tend to go caravanning. I'm not sure where they're off to this time, but I've a feeling it won't be for as long as they've planned.
This week it's meant to rain and drizzle a bit and they're not very tolerant of bad weather (I know - why do they go caravanning then?) so I'm guessing they'll probably be back by mid-week.
Now I'd actually thought they were going on Monday but they went on Sunday, so I decided I would make use of their going this weekend and the nice weather we were having and clean the car.
As I say there's a fair chance it will be poor weather, so while it was nice I thought it best to give it a clean. Unfortunately I had a bit of a problem with one of the things I did and actually made it dirtier than it was already, so I'll have to buy a better cleaner and try and do it this next weekend (as I say, assuming it doesn't rain) - or maybe we'll get a reasonable evening at some point.
I was also rather fatigued on Sunday as Saturday had taken quite a lot out of me. The thing is, though, I'm not 100% why. I've a feeling it was actually more a case of work draining me during the week and then Saturday just sapping the last of my energy. With it being hot and quite muggy I found my afternoon walk particularly hard work, for example.
But also everything I did seemed to take longer and/or be more difficult than I'd anticipated. So, for example, I did a huge pile of ironing, but it took a lot longer than I was expecting.
So yeah, bit of a scrappy weekend.
This week I am taking Friday off. I'd originally planned to take both Friday and Monday, but with the days I took looking for a new job I have ended up with all Friday and half of Monday off. Either way it means fewer posts for the next few weeks (the week after is also the bank holiday). I'll probably us the opportunity to post a bunch of film reviews and get myself somewhat caught up there too.
Friday, 10 August 2012
other pics
I'd actually pre-written the post below and was intending to post it yesterday, but Thursday was absolutely manic so I didn't get the chance.
I mentioned some time back that I figured out how to get photos off my phone, so I thought I'd post the couple of random shots I took with the intention of blogging about. They're now quite old so a bit out of context. Firstly we've got some pictures I took back when the lovely summer of rain was just getting going and we were all surprised at the volume. I think we've become used to it by now.
I should explain this is a bit of road that goes down to an industrial estate and it's not an area that's prone to flooding, but as you can see it's like a small lake. It must have been a good 6 inches deep at least and was essentially the consequence of huge downpours over several days that caused all the drains and rivers to just stop clearing the water. Obviously it's the Queen's Jubilee year and we got the long bank holiday weekend, so by way of "celebration" I decided to make some fairy cakes.
As you can see I made up some red white and blue icing. However, in all honesty the icing wasn't very nice as the icing sugar was quite old so it tasted a little funny.
So if we're celebrating Britain then this must be me celebrating Britain's "multi-culturalism" and not simply because I made 6 cupcakes from the recipe and had three left over and some random bits of dark and white chocolate in the cupboard. These were a lot nicer than the iced ones, obviously as chocolate doesn't go funny if left. On these you can also see that some of the fairy cakes sunk a bit as they had a bit much batter in and when the others were finished these weren't quite set. Still it made a nice sink for me to put more chocolate in!
I mentioned some time back that I figured out how to get photos off my phone, so I thought I'd post the couple of random shots I took with the intention of blogging about. They're now quite old so a bit out of context. Firstly we've got some pictures I took back when the lovely summer of rain was just getting going and we were all surprised at the volume. I think we've become used to it by now.
I should explain this is a bit of road that goes down to an industrial estate and it's not an area that's prone to flooding, but as you can see it's like a small lake. It must have been a good 6 inches deep at least and was essentially the consequence of huge downpours over several days that caused all the drains and rivers to just stop clearing the water. Obviously it's the Queen's Jubilee year and we got the long bank holiday weekend, so by way of "celebration" I decided to make some fairy cakes.
As you can see I made up some red white and blue icing. However, in all honesty the icing wasn't very nice as the icing sugar was quite old so it tasted a little funny.
So if we're celebrating Britain then this must be me celebrating Britain's "multi-culturalism" and not simply because I made 6 cupcakes from the recipe and had three left over and some random bits of dark and white chocolate in the cupboard. These were a lot nicer than the iced ones, obviously as chocolate doesn't go funny if left. On these you can also see that some of the fairy cakes sunk a bit as they had a bit much batter in and when the others were finished these weren't quite set. Still it made a nice sink for me to put more chocolate in!
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
the mechanic
I've generally enjoyed most of the Jason Statham films I've seen.
They're not generally anything more than fairly basic action films, with Statham kicking ass and taking names. He's generally very good at the action stuff and they excel in the fighting and violence, rather than plot.
I have to say, though, that I found the mechanic to be quite poor.
Apparently it's a remake of a Michael Winner film, but I've never seen that so I can't really comment on that side of it. What I would say is that the problem really is the main character, played by Statham.
See, he's not very likeable, which is okay, but he's also most definitely not a proper anti-hero. I mean, his "job" is as an assassin, so he kills people, and it's sort of hinted that he only kills bad people, but this is never clearly stated. So he's a killer, but a killer of bad people.
So that makes him a "good guy", except he's not that either. Being an assassin it's fairly obvious that the plot involves him being used to kill somebody that he shouldn't have or that didn't need to die (it's a wonder assassins don't see this coming). But this really cuts to the heart of the problem.
He's supposed to be this super-efficient, sees everything coming guy, but he just takes the assassination contracts at face value. It's horribly contradictory.
He also weirdly ends up taking an apprentice out of... well, I'm not sure, guilt? It's not entirely clear - the apprentice didn't really want to become an assassin, he just sort of goes along with it.
It's all very random.
But what makes it worse is that where the poor plot would usually be compensated for by lots of action and fight scenes, the film doesn't really have that many. And Statham is only in a handful of them. Also, they're not particularly interesting - either super-efficient, bang you're dead, or horribly messy.
It was all very disappointing.
They're not generally anything more than fairly basic action films, with Statham kicking ass and taking names. He's generally very good at the action stuff and they excel in the fighting and violence, rather than plot.
I have to say, though, that I found the mechanic to be quite poor.
Apparently it's a remake of a Michael Winner film, but I've never seen that so I can't really comment on that side of it. What I would say is that the problem really is the main character, played by Statham.
See, he's not very likeable, which is okay, but he's also most definitely not a proper anti-hero. I mean, his "job" is as an assassin, so he kills people, and it's sort of hinted that he only kills bad people, but this is never clearly stated. So he's a killer, but a killer of bad people.
So that makes him a "good guy", except he's not that either. Being an assassin it's fairly obvious that the plot involves him being used to kill somebody that he shouldn't have or that didn't need to die (it's a wonder assassins don't see this coming). But this really cuts to the heart of the problem.
He's supposed to be this super-efficient, sees everything coming guy, but he just takes the assassination contracts at face value. It's horribly contradictory.
He also weirdly ends up taking an apprentice out of... well, I'm not sure, guilt? It's not entirely clear - the apprentice didn't really want to become an assassin, he just sort of goes along with it.
It's all very random.
But what makes it worse is that where the poor plot would usually be compensated for by lots of action and fight scenes, the film doesn't really have that many. And Statham is only in a handful of them. Also, they're not particularly interesting - either super-efficient, bang you're dead, or horribly messy.
It was all very disappointing.
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
farnborough airshow pics 2
More from farnborough.
The red arrows, obviously. They put on a full display, which was really good to see. It's been ages since I've seen the red arrows do a full display.
The arrows were parked up opposite the Breitling display team who also did a cool display.
It obviously wasn't all military planes there - I like this bulbous nosed guardian. very weird looking.
So here we have the F-15 and F-16. Very recognisable US jets.
The jet nozzles from the F16. If you were stood here with it fired up you'd get a rather heavy tan, rather quickly!
Parked next to them was the F18 Super Hornet. A Super Hornet actually did a display as well - it was impressive, both in terms of volume and manoeuvrability.
Right, unfortunately I've run out of the photos I was able to take with my proper camera. As mentioned, it ran out of juice as it had claimed to be fully charged, but really wasn't. So these remaining photos are all from my phone.
Here's the Chinook from the front - I took this on the way back, having walked all the way up the display.
The Osprey. The rotors are enormous. It's like having two big Chinook rotors stuck on the end of two stubby wings. A bonkers thing.
Another of those civilian aircraft.
A close up of its big old jet engine intake.
The Vulcan. Apparently it costs so much to fly it and it's in need of some serious upgrades, so it's a strong possibility this was the last time it will fly at Farnborough.
The Vulcan was at the very end of the displays, but it actually turned out that where they have all the "chalets" (which are only open on the industry days) there were a few aircraft on display too, including this F35.
The red arrows, obviously. They put on a full display, which was really good to see. It's been ages since I've seen the red arrows do a full display.
The arrows were parked up opposite the Breitling display team who also did a cool display.
It obviously wasn't all military planes there - I like this bulbous nosed guardian. very weird looking.
So here we have the F-15 and F-16. Very recognisable US jets.
The jet nozzles from the F16. If you were stood here with it fired up you'd get a rather heavy tan, rather quickly!
Parked next to them was the F18 Super Hornet. A Super Hornet actually did a display as well - it was impressive, both in terms of volume and manoeuvrability.
Right, unfortunately I've run out of the photos I was able to take with my proper camera. As mentioned, it ran out of juice as it had claimed to be fully charged, but really wasn't. So these remaining photos are all from my phone.
Here's the Chinook from the front - I took this on the way back, having walked all the way up the display.
The Osprey. The rotors are enormous. It's like having two big Chinook rotors stuck on the end of two stubby wings. A bonkers thing.
Another of those civilian aircraft.
A close up of its big old jet engine intake.
The Vulcan. Apparently it costs so much to fly it and it's in need of some serious upgrades, so it's a strong possibility this was the last time it will fly at Farnborough.
The Vulcan was at the very end of the displays, but it actually turned out that where they have all the "chalets" (which are only open on the industry days) there were a few aircraft on display too, including this F35.
Monday, 6 August 2012
chillax
It was a pretty quit weekend.
Which, to be honest, suited me down to the ground.
Over the last couple of weeks work has been pretty horrible, as we've been bidding a big framework. I have to say I'm not sure why we're bidding this framework, but bidding it we are and I have ended up with most of the actual effort to do it.
And it's been bloody hard work. Hard work not helped by the fact I've had this horrible cold for the last few weeks. It's finally starting to clear up, although it's still not gone and it's been more than two and a half weeks since I caught it. But then it took several days before it really kicked in, so maybe it's not surprising that it's taken weeks to clear?
The main problem is that it seemed to get into my sinuses, which has made me feel bunged up and left me mouth breathing which then gives me a headache. And as I say, I've been maxed out at work on top so I entered the weekend feeling drained.
In fact I entered Friday feeling drained and made several clear errors. I struggled through and did a bit, but if we worked flexi I would have taken off quite early, I think.
So this weekend I chillaxed.
Well, I say that. I spent Saturday morning cleaning and went on some very long walks that meant by evening on both days I was fit to drop. But that was nice - it was nice to feel tired because of those sorts of things, rather than fatigued because of ill health and work stress.
I also started to attack some of the stuff I've recorded. As I mentioned on Friday I recorded very little in the week, so I was into the recorded stuff quite quickly.
As it happened what I attacked wasn't really the TV shows I've recorded, but the Beethoven "Symphony cycle" that was played at the proms a little while back. It was basically all 9 of Beethoven's symphony and was mostly radio stuff, rather than TV programmes. I'm a bit of a fan of Beethoven.
Being radio I also managed to catch up on a bit of reading. I've gotten behind with a few of the articles and blogs I read and while I'm not fully caught up it was nice to bring some of them up to date.
Chillax is among one of those words that I know quite a lot people hate. I'm fine with them myself - one of the things I love about the English language is its fluid nature and how it absorbs words. I could easily have been an Etymologist as I find it endlessly fascinating.
One I'm slightly more puzzled by is "amazeballs". I think its origin is ironic, but how it's come to be used I'm not sure, particularly as it's actually slightly more complicated to say that amazing.
Which, to be honest, suited me down to the ground.
Over the last couple of weeks work has been pretty horrible, as we've been bidding a big framework. I have to say I'm not sure why we're bidding this framework, but bidding it we are and I have ended up with most of the actual effort to do it.
And it's been bloody hard work. Hard work not helped by the fact I've had this horrible cold for the last few weeks. It's finally starting to clear up, although it's still not gone and it's been more than two and a half weeks since I caught it. But then it took several days before it really kicked in, so maybe it's not surprising that it's taken weeks to clear?
The main problem is that it seemed to get into my sinuses, which has made me feel bunged up and left me mouth breathing which then gives me a headache. And as I say, I've been maxed out at work on top so I entered the weekend feeling drained.
In fact I entered Friday feeling drained and made several clear errors. I struggled through and did a bit, but if we worked flexi I would have taken off quite early, I think.
So this weekend I chillaxed.
Well, I say that. I spent Saturday morning cleaning and went on some very long walks that meant by evening on both days I was fit to drop. But that was nice - it was nice to feel tired because of those sorts of things, rather than fatigued because of ill health and work stress.
I also started to attack some of the stuff I've recorded. As I mentioned on Friday I recorded very little in the week, so I was into the recorded stuff quite quickly.
As it happened what I attacked wasn't really the TV shows I've recorded, but the Beethoven "Symphony cycle" that was played at the proms a little while back. It was basically all 9 of Beethoven's symphony and was mostly radio stuff, rather than TV programmes. I'm a bit of a fan of Beethoven.
Being radio I also managed to catch up on a bit of reading. I've gotten behind with a few of the articles and blogs I read and while I'm not fully caught up it was nice to bring some of them up to date.
Chillax is among one of those words that I know quite a lot people hate. I'm fine with them myself - one of the things I love about the English language is its fluid nature and how it absorbs words. I could easily have been an Etymologist as I find it endlessly fascinating.
One I'm slightly more puzzled by is "amazeballs". I think its origin is ironic, but how it's come to be used I'm not sure, particularly as it's actually slightly more complicated to say that amazing.
Friday, 3 August 2012
thank crunchy it's friday
So I've really felt the impact of the Olympics this last week.
Every week I set up all the programs I want to watch on my PVR and this week it was really quite apparent that actually all the stuff I'm setting up is on the radio. There's maybe been only 2 programs I've recorded this week. Well, I say that, there's Mythbusters on Quest every day, but it's basically all been radio stuff.
This is the first weekend of the four week hiatus for the Grand Prix and after the double header it's now a chance for me to clean the flat. I usually give it a clean every two weeks and at the end of that it's usually clear it really needs it.
When I have to leave it three weeks for the doubleheaders the place is proper filthy. I've tried cleaning anyway when there's a Grand Prix, but it really doesn't work - all the stuff I have to do on top of spending some 10 hours on all the Grand Prix stuff just makes it impractical and a little tiring.
It also kills off any possibility of me doing anything else and means I tend to end up with a full list of other stuff to watch on my PVR. It's better to just leave the cleaning for a week.
Also, the flip-side is that the nature of the double headers usually means that I end up double-cleaning and it's nice to clean when it doesn't really need it.
I'm hoping for some good weather, but it appears to be more of the same rainy, cloudy and not warm but not cold stuff for the weekend. While I had the cold I wasn't really up for doing much walking and I'm afraid I did a fair bit of comfort eating.
My diet has pretty much ground to a halt.
I've not really put anything on, but I've not really lost much either - I'm sort of bimbling along around a constant just under 20 stones weight. It's a lot better than I used to be, but still means I'm obese and my target was to get under the line for simply being fat.
I'd need to lose about 4 stones to get down there, which is less than I've already lost. Trouble is I've sort of slipped back into eating too many bad things. To lose weight I need to go back to the more strict diet I had before.
In theory I could up my exercise too, but there's not a lot more I could do in the time available I have. Certainly the exercise I do is balancing out the extra eating, so cut out that extra and I will start dropping again.
Part of the problem, to be honest, is that I really need some new clothes. The clothes I have are all at the stage of hanging off me. Obviously if I get some more clothes now and lose weight, then those clothes will need replacing, but of course if I stick with my current clothes then it's just going to be even worse.
Thankfully the new pay for my job should relieve my financial situation somewhat and I should be able to afford to buy some new stuff.
Every week I set up all the programs I want to watch on my PVR and this week it was really quite apparent that actually all the stuff I'm setting up is on the radio. There's maybe been only 2 programs I've recorded this week. Well, I say that, there's Mythbusters on Quest every day, but it's basically all been radio stuff.
This is the first weekend of the four week hiatus for the Grand Prix and after the double header it's now a chance for me to clean the flat. I usually give it a clean every two weeks and at the end of that it's usually clear it really needs it.
When I have to leave it three weeks for the doubleheaders the place is proper filthy. I've tried cleaning anyway when there's a Grand Prix, but it really doesn't work - all the stuff I have to do on top of spending some 10 hours on all the Grand Prix stuff just makes it impractical and a little tiring.
It also kills off any possibility of me doing anything else and means I tend to end up with a full list of other stuff to watch on my PVR. It's better to just leave the cleaning for a week.
Also, the flip-side is that the nature of the double headers usually means that I end up double-cleaning and it's nice to clean when it doesn't really need it.
I'm hoping for some good weather, but it appears to be more of the same rainy, cloudy and not warm but not cold stuff for the weekend. While I had the cold I wasn't really up for doing much walking and I'm afraid I did a fair bit of comfort eating.
My diet has pretty much ground to a halt.
I've not really put anything on, but I've not really lost much either - I'm sort of bimbling along around a constant just under 20 stones weight. It's a lot better than I used to be, but still means I'm obese and my target was to get under the line for simply being fat.
I'd need to lose about 4 stones to get down there, which is less than I've already lost. Trouble is I've sort of slipped back into eating too many bad things. To lose weight I need to go back to the more strict diet I had before.
In theory I could up my exercise too, but there's not a lot more I could do in the time available I have. Certainly the exercise I do is balancing out the extra eating, so cut out that extra and I will start dropping again.
Part of the problem, to be honest, is that I really need some new clothes. The clothes I have are all at the stage of hanging off me. Obviously if I get some more clothes now and lose weight, then those clothes will need replacing, but of course if I stick with my current clothes then it's just going to be even worse.
Thankfully the new pay for my job should relieve my financial situation somewhat and I should be able to afford to buy some new stuff.
Thursday, 2 August 2012
farnborough pics 1
So I processed the photos from Farnborough and thought I'd upload a few of them.
This is a UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle). the weird gold thing on the front is (essentially) a radar.
This thing is a boom for refuelling - it unfurls and is like a basket that the plane that wants to refuel sticks a boom into.
This is a C295, which is a transport type plane. As you can see, it's quite big, but if we look at the next shot...
What this is is the C295 again, which is next to the new Airbus A380, which is the enormous new passenger plane. The C295 actual has a Chinook helicopter in front of it and both together are not as long as the A380.
So this is a cleaner shot of the A380 and you can clearly see it's a double decker.
And mentioning the Chinook, here's a cool shot down the rotor blade.
This beasty is the A400M which I think I'm right in saying is about the biggest cargo plane used by the military. It is a monster (but still smaller than the A380!).
Back end of the A400 and a bit of an arty shot.
And this is a zoom to show the cargo deck of the A400. When carrying troops they actually put two rows of seats (so there are effectively 4 rows of seats down the length of it).
The Virgin Galactic is the space plane that's meant to be so regular people can experience going into space.
Think I'll leave it there for today.
This is a UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle). the weird gold thing on the front is (essentially) a radar.
This thing is a boom for refuelling - it unfurls and is like a basket that the plane that wants to refuel sticks a boom into.
This is a C295, which is a transport type plane. As you can see, it's quite big, but if we look at the next shot...
What this is is the C295 again, which is next to the new Airbus A380, which is the enormous new passenger plane. The C295 actual has a Chinook helicopter in front of it and both together are not as long as the A380.
So this is a cleaner shot of the A380 and you can clearly see it's a double decker.
And mentioning the Chinook, here's a cool shot down the rotor blade.
This beasty is the A400M which I think I'm right in saying is about the biggest cargo plane used by the military. It is a monster (but still smaller than the A380!).
Back end of the A400 and a bit of an arty shot.
And this is a zoom to show the cargo deck of the A400. When carrying troops they actually put two rows of seats (so there are effectively 4 rows of seats down the length of it).
The Virgin Galactic is the space plane that's meant to be so regular people can experience going into space.
Think I'll leave it there for today.
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
infestation
Big bugs is one of those staples of horror films.
I guess it's obvious why - bugs are not on many people's lists of favourite beasties and the bigger they are the more icky they tend to be. So making them really big is an easy way to create a good "bad guy" and of course splatting them is always fun.
Fun is the real order of the day here - infestation is definitely a low-budget horror, but it's the great sense of fun that really carries the film. I mean, there's not much here that's really original, but it keeps up enough of a sense of what it is that you're happy to go along for the ride.
Saying that there are a few interesting things in there. In particular the film starts very normally and the switch to the big bug stuff is very quickly and cleverly done. It also gives rise to a situation where our hero is very much a hero by accident. I mean, he rises to the occasion in the end, but it's just random chance that puts him into the situation he finds himself in.
The characters are just on the right side of cliché. You've mostly seen them before and you know what they're about, but you get enough of a flavour that they're proper characters to engage with them. It has a feel of being what you'd expect to actually happen if an apocalypse happened.
The sort of people you'd encounter would end up being pretty random - especially with how this works out. The hero essentially revives people and of course if you were in town on any particular day the sort of people around you could be anybody.
The effects are quite good. It's low budget, but nowadays they can do great things with both prosthetics and computer graphics even on tiny budgets so it really doesn't look bad at all.
One thing I would say is that the ending is a little frustrating. It's clear it was set up as being for a sequel, but it's very open ended. It's not quite clear what that sequel would be and the ending is therefore a little frustrating. Particularly in light of the fact there isn't a sequel.
You know I don't really have a lot else to say about the film, other than that it's well worth checking out if you fancy a bit of big bug action.
I guess it's obvious why - bugs are not on many people's lists of favourite beasties and the bigger they are the more icky they tend to be. So making them really big is an easy way to create a good "bad guy" and of course splatting them is always fun.
Fun is the real order of the day here - infestation is definitely a low-budget horror, but it's the great sense of fun that really carries the film. I mean, there's not much here that's really original, but it keeps up enough of a sense of what it is that you're happy to go along for the ride.
Saying that there are a few interesting things in there. In particular the film starts very normally and the switch to the big bug stuff is very quickly and cleverly done. It also gives rise to a situation where our hero is very much a hero by accident. I mean, he rises to the occasion in the end, but it's just random chance that puts him into the situation he finds himself in.
The characters are just on the right side of cliché. You've mostly seen them before and you know what they're about, but you get enough of a flavour that they're proper characters to engage with them. It has a feel of being what you'd expect to actually happen if an apocalypse happened.
The sort of people you'd encounter would end up being pretty random - especially with how this works out. The hero essentially revives people and of course if you were in town on any particular day the sort of people around you could be anybody.
The effects are quite good. It's low budget, but nowadays they can do great things with both prosthetics and computer graphics even on tiny budgets so it really doesn't look bad at all.
One thing I would say is that the ending is a little frustrating. It's clear it was set up as being for a sequel, but it's very open ended. It's not quite clear what that sequel would be and the ending is therefore a little frustrating. Particularly in light of the fact there isn't a sequel.
You know I don't really have a lot else to say about the film, other than that it's well worth checking out if you fancy a bit of big bug action.
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
olympics opening ceremony
So I watched the Olympics opening ceremony.
Well, I actually recorded it and then watched it the next day. The original ceremony lasted something like 3 and a half or four hours, but I only spent about an hour watching it. The reason for that was that I skipped through a lot of it and also had a lot of it on fast forward.
The bits I skipped entirely were the parade of nations and the speeches. The first seemed to take hours, which isn't surprising, I guess, since there are something like 200 and odd nations taking part. The speeches I just didn't really care, but it also felt like a great big comma in the whole thing.
I have to confess I also fast forwarded a lot of the first segment. It all seemed to take a bit too long for me and also there was a lot of dancing in what I felt was a sort of Andrew Lloyd Webber musical style. I think this stuff was probably a lot better if you were there.
One of the good things about watching on TV is that you can get close ups. If you're there you might not see things that close up (unless you have binoculars or a camera with a zoom lense). However, the down-side is that you have to look at what they show you. When you're there you can focus on the bits that interest you.
The very first section was a big "pastoral idle" that was then transformed into a kind of industrial landscape. The idea of the whole ceremony was to present a lot of British cultural stuff, so obviously the theme there was the industrial revolution. But I had a couple of problems with it.
Firstly I think the impression was supposed to be how nice the pastoral stuff was and how grimy and oppressive the industrial stuff was. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the industrial revolution was a barrel of laughs but the country life pre-industrial revolution wasn't exactly a happy fun-time.
Also, this whole section lasted far too long for me. However, the end of it, which was a clever introduction of the rings and a very striking image of the rings showering sparks was good. It also kicked off some stuff I enjoyed a bit more.
As I say, the whole thing was about presenting Britain and British culture and on that front I don't know how a lot of the stuff would have been understood outside of Britain. A lot of it was quite subtle and specific. For example, I don't know how well known the Eastenders splash screen is - would people from China know what the hell that was referencing?
However, I don't want to give the impression I thought it was bad. There was a lot of stuff I really liked, especially the use of music. There was also a great segment where it was about children's literature, which was really clever. Also the NHS was a nice thing to pay tribute to - the whole idea of the welfare state is a truly great British idea.
There was also a good amount of humour with Rowan Atkinson and the whole Bond thing being obvious highlights.
So overall I'd say it was good, although I'm glad I recorded it and watched it later. Danny Boyle did a really good job.
Well, I actually recorded it and then watched it the next day. The original ceremony lasted something like 3 and a half or four hours, but I only spent about an hour watching it. The reason for that was that I skipped through a lot of it and also had a lot of it on fast forward.
The bits I skipped entirely were the parade of nations and the speeches. The first seemed to take hours, which isn't surprising, I guess, since there are something like 200 and odd nations taking part. The speeches I just didn't really care, but it also felt like a great big comma in the whole thing.
I have to confess I also fast forwarded a lot of the first segment. It all seemed to take a bit too long for me and also there was a lot of dancing in what I felt was a sort of Andrew Lloyd Webber musical style. I think this stuff was probably a lot better if you were there.
One of the good things about watching on TV is that you can get close ups. If you're there you might not see things that close up (unless you have binoculars or a camera with a zoom lense). However, the down-side is that you have to look at what they show you. When you're there you can focus on the bits that interest you.
The very first section was a big "pastoral idle" that was then transformed into a kind of industrial landscape. The idea of the whole ceremony was to present a lot of British cultural stuff, so obviously the theme there was the industrial revolution. But I had a couple of problems with it.
Firstly I think the impression was supposed to be how nice the pastoral stuff was and how grimy and oppressive the industrial stuff was. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the industrial revolution was a barrel of laughs but the country life pre-industrial revolution wasn't exactly a happy fun-time.
Also, this whole section lasted far too long for me. However, the end of it, which was a clever introduction of the rings and a very striking image of the rings showering sparks was good. It also kicked off some stuff I enjoyed a bit more.
As I say, the whole thing was about presenting Britain and British culture and on that front I don't know how a lot of the stuff would have been understood outside of Britain. A lot of it was quite subtle and specific. For example, I don't know how well known the Eastenders splash screen is - would people from China know what the hell that was referencing?
However, I don't want to give the impression I thought it was bad. There was a lot of stuff I really liked, especially the use of music. There was also a great segment where it was about children's literature, which was really clever. Also the NHS was a nice thing to pay tribute to - the whole idea of the welfare state is a truly great British idea.
There was also a good amount of humour with Rowan Atkinson and the whole Bond thing being obvious highlights.
So overall I'd say it was good, although I'm glad I recorded it and watched it later. Danny Boyle did a really good job.
Monday, 30 July 2012
hungarian gp
This cold seems to be hanging around longer than normal.
I don't feel bad, as such, but I still have a snotty nose and a bit of a cough. It gets a bit better every day, but it's gotten to the point of just being annoying now.
It was the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend.
It wasn't very exciting.
I mean, Lewis won and the Lotus's look particularly strong, with both finishing in the top three, but in terms of the actual race, very little really happened.
Apparently it's quite a fun circuit to drive and the spectators get quite a good view, but the circuit has a tendency to produce dull races. On paper it does have some things to it that should make it enjoyable - it's quite short and there are quite a few sharp bends, including a couple of hairpins, for example. But the trouble is for these to be effective overtaking spots you really need a good long straight beforehand for the cars to build up speed on. This is particularly true where there are big bends that follow technical bits where drivers may make mistakes.
The main outcome of the race is probably to make the championship a bit closer. Alonso is still quite a way ahead, but there's now a clutch of 4 drivers who could all potentially catch him. However, it would probably take a spate of unreliability or lack of performance for Alonso for that to be likely.
There's also a very good chance, given the way the season has so far tended to play out that those drivers will actually all squabble over sins and second places, effectively taking points off each other. That happened in the last couple of seasons and was a big part of why Vettel won.
It's now the big august break, when the teams are required to have two weeks where they close the factories and everyone takes a break. It generally results in more than two weeks without races, though.
While it's good for me as it'll give me a chance to catch up, I have to say this year it would probably be better if they didn't have it. The races will stretch out until November this year, and it's a bit silly if I'm honest. Particularly as we'll probably start up again in March.
I don't feel bad, as such, but I still have a snotty nose and a bit of a cough. It gets a bit better every day, but it's gotten to the point of just being annoying now.
It was the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend.
It wasn't very exciting.
I mean, Lewis won and the Lotus's look particularly strong, with both finishing in the top three, but in terms of the actual race, very little really happened.
Apparently it's quite a fun circuit to drive and the spectators get quite a good view, but the circuit has a tendency to produce dull races. On paper it does have some things to it that should make it enjoyable - it's quite short and there are quite a few sharp bends, including a couple of hairpins, for example. But the trouble is for these to be effective overtaking spots you really need a good long straight beforehand for the cars to build up speed on. This is particularly true where there are big bends that follow technical bits where drivers may make mistakes.
The main outcome of the race is probably to make the championship a bit closer. Alonso is still quite a way ahead, but there's now a clutch of 4 drivers who could all potentially catch him. However, it would probably take a spate of unreliability or lack of performance for Alonso for that to be likely.
There's also a very good chance, given the way the season has so far tended to play out that those drivers will actually all squabble over sins and second places, effectively taking points off each other. That happened in the last couple of seasons and was a big part of why Vettel won.
It's now the big august break, when the teams are required to have two weeks where they close the factories and everyone takes a break. It generally results in more than two weeks without races, though.
While it's good for me as it'll give me a chance to catch up, I have to say this year it would probably be better if they didn't have it. The races will stretch out until November this year, and it's a bit silly if I'm honest. Particularly as we'll probably start up again in March.
Friday, 27 July 2012
proof were it needed
So there's a thing.
Yesterday I wrote two blog entries - one to post on Thursday itself and one to post today.
Only it turns out that I've posted both yesterday. I guess that proves just how confused and dazed I was!
And it's not improved a whole lot today as I woke up in the middle of the night sweating like a pig. It was really hot and sticky and I had to turn the aircon on again, which is impossible to sleep through, so I've basically been up since about 3AM.
Quite why it was too hot to sleep last night but not earlier in the week, I'm not sure, but I'd guess it's something to do with the fact they're forecasting a dip in temperatures and a return of the rain today.
Yesterday I wrote two blog entries - one to post on Thursday itself and one to post today.
Only it turns out that I've posted both yesterday. I guess that proves just how confused and dazed I was!
And it's not improved a whole lot today as I woke up in the middle of the night sweating like a pig. It was really hot and sticky and I had to turn the aircon on again, which is impossible to sleep through, so I've basically been up since about 3AM.
Quite why it was too hot to sleep last night but not earlier in the week, I'm not sure, but I'd guess it's something to do with the fact they're forecasting a dip in temperatures and a return of the rain today.
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