I have to confess that I've never been a huge fan of the borrowers.
I mean, I'm not saying I actively dislike it; it's just something that's never really appealed to me. I don't really know why - it's a fairly neat idea and clearly has enduring appeal, but I dunno, it's just never really clicked with me.
I am actually really referring to adaptations there. I know it was originally a series of books, but I've never read any of them. Perhaps I would like it more if I did. However, I have seen several adaptations - in particular a series by the BBC when I was a kid.
I mention all this to give background. And also just in case you didn't realise that Arrietty is an adaptation of The Borrowers. Arrietty is essentially the lead character, but it's interesting Ghibli went with that as a title, rather than The Borrowers.
Especially since it seems like a reasonably faithful adaption to the core of the story. I obviously say that not having read them, but the adaptations all seem to have the same core story too, so I'm guessing it's to that far odd.
Perhaps they did it to help make it feel a bit more unique given that they're relocated it to Japan. I don't really see this as a big issue myself. Moving it to Japan hasn't been accompanied by any weird changes to the basic ideas so localising it probably makes sense from a sales point of view.
Another thing to note is that Arrietty isn't a Miyazaki film - people tend to assume all Ghibli output is Miyazaki and he was the Exec Producer, the originator of the idea to adapt The Borrowers and the screenwriter so he had a big part to play but the film is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi.
Interestingly Hiromasa was actually responsible (key animation) for one of the bits I enjoyed most in Ponyo where the fish escape from submarine. And Arrietty has some really nice touches in the animation, although I have to confess some of it was also a bit clunky - the budget perhaps didn't quite match the ambition.
It's also perfectly reasonable, and is particularly suitable for a younger audience. The real problem with it is that it lacks a bit of depth. Unlike previous Miyazaki penned stories there isn't really much in the way of depth - it's all there on the surface.
So yeah, nice enough, but I'm not sure I'd want to watch it again and again.
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
re-arrangement
So I thought I'd blog today about the sort out of my telly corner I did while I was setting up the BT vision box.
Basically the BT vision box represented something of a crunch point for the TV stack, particularly in terms of plugs. I have a long-lead gang plug that has six sockets and surge protection and in days gone past this was plenty for the TV corner. However, just recently I've added a few things to it that meant I've actually changed another ganger off it too.
But even with this extra capacity I didn't have a slot for the BT vision box. Part of the problem has become redundancy versus convenience.
A while back I decided to get Blu-Ray, but I was not keen on the players and proper multi-region machines cost an absolute fortune. There are machines where, like with some DVD players, you could essentially 'crack' them to be multi-region, but this generally involves farting about with firm-ware that you constantly have to update.
My solution then was to get a PC I could use as a media centre. I blogged at the time how this turned out to be a huge faff as well, but I've come to a point of it working okay.
Now being what it is this PC can obviously play multi-region DVDs, but because of the faff involved I ended up keeping my multi-region DVD player. I'm not really explaining this very well. Basically when trying to add the BT vision box I already had these electrical devices to account for:
A 6-point surge protected ganger with the following plugged in:
The four plug ganger had the PC plugged in but meant I could also plug in the following as needed:
So as you can see at worst case that adds up to more sockets that I had available. In practice I never needed all things on at all times, but faffing about around the back of stuff to unplug things (and making sure you got the right plug!) was a pain.
There were also a couple of other issues. Firstly my picture through my PVR (via the aerial input) has been quite poor lately. It has a lot of interference and no amount of switching plugs and cables seemed to fix it. The solution was simple - use the SCART, but they were in an unknown box in the shed.
Secondly I don't use my VCR at all - now that we've switched over to digital I don't need to keep it as a back-up.
Thirdly there was the redundancy of having the DVD player and the PC.
And lastly my Amp has only 2 optical digital inputs. As such a bit of rationalisation was in order and I decided to have a bit of a clean-up too.
I've taken the VCR out of the loop, but in the end I decided not to get rid of the DVD player. Instead I've switched the optical cable it had to the box. My theory now is that if I want to just quickly watch a DVD the player is there, but if I want to watch it properly with the full sound thing I will have to use the PC.
Hopefully as I get used to it I will find the DVD becomes properly redundant like the VCR. However, part of the issue there is I've been using a wireless mouse and keyboard and while the keyboard works well, the mouse is a pain as I like to take the batteries out and that means re-synching it every time I use it.
I also found my other SCART cables and plugged the PVR in via SCART. The noise is all gone and the picture is a little better, though as I was afraid it has a few issues with up-scaling, but then that's a pretty standard issue many people have.
So there you have it - my only plugging in I need to do is for the base amp / lamps and I'm fine with those. Although as mentioned yesterday the BT box's LEDs are incredibly bright and it's weirdly fronted so I can't easily block the light. I may try and stick some tape over it (I'm unsure if this is where the receiver is for the remote signal) or simply plug it in when needed.
Basically the BT vision box represented something of a crunch point for the TV stack, particularly in terms of plugs. I have a long-lead gang plug that has six sockets and surge protection and in days gone past this was plenty for the TV corner. However, just recently I've added a few things to it that meant I've actually changed another ganger off it too.
But even with this extra capacity I didn't have a slot for the BT vision box. Part of the problem has become redundancy versus convenience.
A while back I decided to get Blu-Ray, but I was not keen on the players and proper multi-region machines cost an absolute fortune. There are machines where, like with some DVD players, you could essentially 'crack' them to be multi-region, but this generally involves farting about with firm-ware that you constantly have to update.
My solution then was to get a PC I could use as a media centre. I blogged at the time how this turned out to be a huge faff as well, but I've come to a point of it working okay.
Now being what it is this PC can obviously play multi-region DVDs, but because of the faff involved I ended up keeping my multi-region DVD player. I'm not really explaining this very well. Basically when trying to add the BT vision box I already had these electrical devices to account for:
A 6-point surge protected ganger with the following plugged in:
- TV
- PVR
- DVD player
- Dolby digital Amp
- Sub-Woofer
- four point ganger
The four plug ganger had the PC plugged in but meant I could also plug in the following as needed:
- 2 * lamps on timers (my landlord is paranoid about security and likes me to have these on during winter)
- Bass guitar amp
- VCR (yes, kicking it old school)
So as you can see at worst case that adds up to more sockets that I had available. In practice I never needed all things on at all times, but faffing about around the back of stuff to unplug things (and making sure you got the right plug!) was a pain.
There were also a couple of other issues. Firstly my picture through my PVR (via the aerial input) has been quite poor lately. It has a lot of interference and no amount of switching plugs and cables seemed to fix it. The solution was simple - use the SCART, but they were in an unknown box in the shed.
Secondly I don't use my VCR at all - now that we've switched over to digital I don't need to keep it as a back-up.
Thirdly there was the redundancy of having the DVD player and the PC.
And lastly my Amp has only 2 optical digital inputs. As such a bit of rationalisation was in order and I decided to have a bit of a clean-up too.
I've taken the VCR out of the loop, but in the end I decided not to get rid of the DVD player. Instead I've switched the optical cable it had to the box. My theory now is that if I want to just quickly watch a DVD the player is there, but if I want to watch it properly with the full sound thing I will have to use the PC.
Hopefully as I get used to it I will find the DVD becomes properly redundant like the VCR. However, part of the issue there is I've been using a wireless mouse and keyboard and while the keyboard works well, the mouse is a pain as I like to take the batteries out and that means re-synching it every time I use it.
I also found my other SCART cables and plugged the PVR in via SCART. The noise is all gone and the picture is a little better, though as I was afraid it has a few issues with up-scaling, but then that's a pretty standard issue many people have.
So there you have it - my only plugging in I need to do is for the base amp / lamps and I'm fine with those. Although as mentioned yesterday the BT box's LEDs are incredibly bright and it's weirdly fronted so I can't easily block the light. I may try and stick some tape over it (I'm unsure if this is where the receiver is for the remote signal) or simply plug it in when needed.
Monday, 17 September 2012
fuzzier than expected
So I spent some time this weekend setting up and playing with the BT vision + box.
First disappointment is that the "+" doesn't stand for HD. Indeed complaints abound on BT's support site that BT vision isn't HD.
Well, I say it isn't HD - some of the on demand type content is HD, so the box is obviously capable of outputting HD. It's just that the Freeview side of it isn't HD. Which is bonkers. you could understand it when if first launched, but why put out a new bit of kit that has some HD on demand content and HDMI and optical audio connectors but only has SD tuners - it even has two tuners so can record two things simultaneously, but it's not HD. Weird.
The second disappointment is that some of the content only appears to be available if you get the 'unlimited' package. Note that even though it's "unlimited", there's still stuff you can only get by paying for it. So it's unlimited apart from the limitations.
Now I understood this going in - it says on the website you have to pay for some bits if you've not got the unlimited package. that's fine - pay for what you want. Except the granularity suggested by the website is very broad - films not available at all, everything else you pay 50p and up for. Except that's not actually true - some of the non-film bits you also can't get unless you have the unlimited package. And I mean not at all - you can't pay to get them individually, you need the full unlimited package.
The third disappointment wasn't so much a disappointment, but that getting this unlimited package would not be particularly good value. Okay, you get all that stuff in the package, but most of it I've either seen or don't really want to see. I mean there's stuff I'd like to see, but not enough to make unlimited good value for money by a long way. Certainly not since most of the stuff I'd want to see you can pay for.
On the up side, the stuff available via the full-on paying methods (i.e. you pay irrespective of which package you've got) isn't too bad at all. There's a reasonable selection of films, for example.
However, unlike the other films you can only get via unlimited it wasn't at all clear if they were available in HD. Certainly some of the trailers looked quite high definition, but that may just be because the trailer is at a higher bit rate. I shall have to give the searching another go and see if that reveals the answer, or just give it a try if not.
Another up-side was that the iPlayer and the other catch-up devices work quite well. Well, iPlayer crashed the time I tried to give it a go properly, but then it's crashed when I've used it normally too.
A good thing there of course is that iPlayer is available in HD so those programs I can't watch as HD on Freeview I can't watch on the catch-up. And since I record and watch back 95% of my viewing that should suit me fine.
The last disappointment is the amount of light it puts out. Now this is a bit of a specific to me one, but I live in a bedsit, which means my TV stuff is in the same room as me. I also have difficulty sleeping when there are bright sources of light and the vision box really pumps out a lot of light.
Now I'm used to that to some extent and am adept at covering panels with clocks on at night to block the light. The problem is the vision box has a weird curvy front panel and it's so bright that this didn't really work last night. I'll have a fiddle over the next few days, but I've a feeling I may end up unplugging it and only plugging it back in when I want to watch some on-demand stuff.
Overall then I'm a bit disappointed - I certainly don't think it's worth £4 a month. I mean my PVR is way better at doing Freeview and easier to use and the few things the vision box does better are actually really only at their best if you pay 3 times that.
First disappointment is that the "+" doesn't stand for HD. Indeed complaints abound on BT's support site that BT vision isn't HD.
Well, I say it isn't HD - some of the on demand type content is HD, so the box is obviously capable of outputting HD. It's just that the Freeview side of it isn't HD. Which is bonkers. you could understand it when if first launched, but why put out a new bit of kit that has some HD on demand content and HDMI and optical audio connectors but only has SD tuners - it even has two tuners so can record two things simultaneously, but it's not HD. Weird.
The second disappointment is that some of the content only appears to be available if you get the 'unlimited' package. Note that even though it's "unlimited", there's still stuff you can only get by paying for it. So it's unlimited apart from the limitations.
Now I understood this going in - it says on the website you have to pay for some bits if you've not got the unlimited package. that's fine - pay for what you want. Except the granularity suggested by the website is very broad - films not available at all, everything else you pay 50p and up for. Except that's not actually true - some of the non-film bits you also can't get unless you have the unlimited package. And I mean not at all - you can't pay to get them individually, you need the full unlimited package.
The third disappointment wasn't so much a disappointment, but that getting this unlimited package would not be particularly good value. Okay, you get all that stuff in the package, but most of it I've either seen or don't really want to see. I mean there's stuff I'd like to see, but not enough to make unlimited good value for money by a long way. Certainly not since most of the stuff I'd want to see you can pay for.
On the up side, the stuff available via the full-on paying methods (i.e. you pay irrespective of which package you've got) isn't too bad at all. There's a reasonable selection of films, for example.
However, unlike the other films you can only get via unlimited it wasn't at all clear if they were available in HD. Certainly some of the trailers looked quite high definition, but that may just be because the trailer is at a higher bit rate. I shall have to give the searching another go and see if that reveals the answer, or just give it a try if not.
Another up-side was that the iPlayer and the other catch-up devices work quite well. Well, iPlayer crashed the time I tried to give it a go properly, but then it's crashed when I've used it normally too.
A good thing there of course is that iPlayer is available in HD so those programs I can't watch as HD on Freeview I can't watch on the catch-up. And since I record and watch back 95% of my viewing that should suit me fine.
The last disappointment is the amount of light it puts out. Now this is a bit of a specific to me one, but I live in a bedsit, which means my TV stuff is in the same room as me. I also have difficulty sleeping when there are bright sources of light and the vision box really pumps out a lot of light.
Now I'm used to that to some extent and am adept at covering panels with clocks on at night to block the light. The problem is the vision box has a weird curvy front panel and it's so bright that this didn't really work last night. I'll have a fiddle over the next few days, but I've a feeling I may end up unplugging it and only plugging it back in when I want to watch some on-demand stuff.
Overall then I'm a bit disappointed - I certainly don't think it's worth £4 a month. I mean my PVR is way better at doing Freeview and easier to use and the few things the vision box does better are actually really only at their best if you pay 3 times that.
Friday, 14 September 2012
a new vision
I think I forgot yesterday to explain why a shaving brush may help with my shaving.
Basically, the idea of shaving foam is that it does two things - it lubricates the blade as it passes across the skin, but the second is more relevant in that it essentially holds the hairs up off the skin surface.
Beard hair has a tendency to lay flat to the surface of the skin and this is one of the things that makes it difficult to shave. For me this seems particularly acute - my beard hair lies very flat and I also have some weird changes in direction of hair, particularly on my neck where the bottom part grows up and the rest grows down (well, sideways, actually).
This is also particularly ironic for me as my head hair tends to stick straight up for a good half an inch before the weight eventually pulls it down, and even then it's super fluffy. This was okay when I was younger, but recently I've started to thin and it looks odd because you can see my scalp, even though the hair is long. This actually prompted me to trim it off.
Anyway, the idea is that by using a brush you really get in and around the hairs, helping to hold them up. When applying the foam with your fingers, the big flat surface of your fingers has a tendency to flatten the hairs.
That's the theory, anyway - we shall see if it helps.
I recently got myself BT Vision.
They've had a special offer on where it's only £4 a month and the box is free. Now obviously I already have Freeview - and, indeed, the PVR I've got is a Humax one, which is generally regarded to be the best make. My dad has BT vision and a Humax digibox and says the Humax is way better and he's obviously been able to compare things long-term.
However, my PVR is not High definition and this Freeview is (well, I think it is - I haven't actually plugged it in yet, but more on that in a mo). It's also got this new on-demand service. This is the one that was announced a little while ago - I can't for the life of me remember the name they gave it, but it involves several of the big players.
As I mentioned I've not actually started the box up yet. My first problem is that I obviously need a clear period where I'm not watching or recording stuff and so that's put out most of the evening. But also I have a box of AV cables which I will need to play with various configurations and that's in the garage so I'll need to get it out. I'll also need to find my longer network cable as the one they supplied is about 20cm too short.
I'm therefore going to play with it this weekend. The thing I'm not sure about is to do with pass-through of signal. A while back I was having real problems with my PVR in that the signal was breaking up. However, by chance I discovered that by switching it around with my VCR (so it really was a while ago!) the signal improved massively.
So I'm not sure if I should split the signal and send it through both boxes independently (the BT vision has a HDMI connector - hence my assumption it's HD) or if it'll be okay passing the signal through.
I'll also probably take the opportunity to have a bit of clean around - a lot of dust tends to accumulate around the TV area.
Basically, the idea of shaving foam is that it does two things - it lubricates the blade as it passes across the skin, but the second is more relevant in that it essentially holds the hairs up off the skin surface.
Beard hair has a tendency to lay flat to the surface of the skin and this is one of the things that makes it difficult to shave. For me this seems particularly acute - my beard hair lies very flat and I also have some weird changes in direction of hair, particularly on my neck where the bottom part grows up and the rest grows down (well, sideways, actually).
This is also particularly ironic for me as my head hair tends to stick straight up for a good half an inch before the weight eventually pulls it down, and even then it's super fluffy. This was okay when I was younger, but recently I've started to thin and it looks odd because you can see my scalp, even though the hair is long. This actually prompted me to trim it off.
Anyway, the idea is that by using a brush you really get in and around the hairs, helping to hold them up. When applying the foam with your fingers, the big flat surface of your fingers has a tendency to flatten the hairs.
That's the theory, anyway - we shall see if it helps.
I recently got myself BT Vision.
They've had a special offer on where it's only £4 a month and the box is free. Now obviously I already have Freeview - and, indeed, the PVR I've got is a Humax one, which is generally regarded to be the best make. My dad has BT vision and a Humax digibox and says the Humax is way better and he's obviously been able to compare things long-term.
However, my PVR is not High definition and this Freeview is (well, I think it is - I haven't actually plugged it in yet, but more on that in a mo). It's also got this new on-demand service. This is the one that was announced a little while ago - I can't for the life of me remember the name they gave it, but it involves several of the big players.
As I mentioned I've not actually started the box up yet. My first problem is that I obviously need a clear period where I'm not watching or recording stuff and so that's put out most of the evening. But also I have a box of AV cables which I will need to play with various configurations and that's in the garage so I'll need to get it out. I'll also need to find my longer network cable as the one they supplied is about 20cm too short.
I'm therefore going to play with it this weekend. The thing I'm not sure about is to do with pass-through of signal. A while back I was having real problems with my PVR in that the signal was breaking up. However, by chance I discovered that by switching it around with my VCR (so it really was a while ago!) the signal improved massively.
So I'm not sure if I should split the signal and send it through both boxes independently (the BT vision has a HDMI connector - hence my assumption it's HD) or if it'll be okay passing the signal through.
I'll also probably take the opportunity to have a bit of clean around - a lot of dust tends to accumulate around the TV area.
Thursday, 13 September 2012
unusual purchasing
There hasn't been any news on the missing slice of my pay packet.
I think my boss is going to try to just sort it out for this month and not give me the missing amount for last month. Yet another disappointment.
Either way, with my wage increase I've been looking at loosening the old economic belt a bit and considering a few unusual purchases. Well, unusual for me - most are pretty normal for normal people who don't spend all their money on DVDs and books.
By that I mean clothes in that I have been looking at the various options for refreshing my work wardrobe in particular, but also a few other clothing and related things I need - a new dressing gown, in particular, for example.
Anyway, the one I specifically wanted to mention was that I'm looking at buying a shaving brush.
When I first started work I only shaved every other day. I don't mean I could get away with only shaving every other day as my beard is thick, dark, and grows quickly, but that I used to just go to work with stubble.
However, as I got older and as I've thinned down a bit, it's began to look like I was growing a full beard every other day. As such, I started shaving every day (well, work day). This meant I had to slightly adapt my shaving style as I used to close shave, but if I close shave every day I'm much more likely to get razor burn and stuff.
However, I've been somewhat disappointed with the results and one of the things I've been looking at as a possible solution is getting a proper shaving brush.
The best brushes are apparently made from badger hair and are surprisingly expensive. I mean, some obviously cost a fortune because of branding or whatever, but even cheap ones are several pounds. When you consider how "old technology" they are that's pretty expensive.
Another thing I've been looking at is mu whole teeth cleaning regime. Primarily I've been looking at getting a good electric toothbrush. I used to have a cheap one and it was okay, but it was battery powered (as in normal A4s) and after only a week or two you would be able to feel that the power was going down, even though I used the batteries with the power testers on them and they would say the battery was still 90% okay.
As such I've been looking at getting a proper rechargeable one, but there are so many different types it's quite confusing. Particularly since it seems like a relatively simple thing - the head oscillates, cleans teeth, done.
Lastly that I'll mention is a nose hair trimmer.
I bought a cheap one a while back when the nose hair issue was at a point where plucking them was more agony than I could take and it did okay for a while, but again, it's battery powered and quickly deteriorates in effectiveness.
I also got free one when I bought my hair trimmer, but it has a weirdly long guard on the blades and so leaves the hairs really long. Okay, they're not really long, but they're long enough that it defeats the point of using the trimmer.
The problem here is almost the opposite of the toothbrushes - there seem to be very few models and most are quite poorly reviewed and rated. As such it's difficult finding one that's not too expensive but also does the job.
I think my boss is going to try to just sort it out for this month and not give me the missing amount for last month. Yet another disappointment.
Either way, with my wage increase I've been looking at loosening the old economic belt a bit and considering a few unusual purchases. Well, unusual for me - most are pretty normal for normal people who don't spend all their money on DVDs and books.
By that I mean clothes in that I have been looking at the various options for refreshing my work wardrobe in particular, but also a few other clothing and related things I need - a new dressing gown, in particular, for example.
Anyway, the one I specifically wanted to mention was that I'm looking at buying a shaving brush.
When I first started work I only shaved every other day. I don't mean I could get away with only shaving every other day as my beard is thick, dark, and grows quickly, but that I used to just go to work with stubble.
However, as I got older and as I've thinned down a bit, it's began to look like I was growing a full beard every other day. As such, I started shaving every day (well, work day). This meant I had to slightly adapt my shaving style as I used to close shave, but if I close shave every day I'm much more likely to get razor burn and stuff.
However, I've been somewhat disappointed with the results and one of the things I've been looking at as a possible solution is getting a proper shaving brush.
The best brushes are apparently made from badger hair and are surprisingly expensive. I mean, some obviously cost a fortune because of branding or whatever, but even cheap ones are several pounds. When you consider how "old technology" they are that's pretty expensive.
Another thing I've been looking at is mu whole teeth cleaning regime. Primarily I've been looking at getting a good electric toothbrush. I used to have a cheap one and it was okay, but it was battery powered (as in normal A4s) and after only a week or two you would be able to feel that the power was going down, even though I used the batteries with the power testers on them and they would say the battery was still 90% okay.
As such I've been looking at getting a proper rechargeable one, but there are so many different types it's quite confusing. Particularly since it seems like a relatively simple thing - the head oscillates, cleans teeth, done.
Lastly that I'll mention is a nose hair trimmer.
I bought a cheap one a while back when the nose hair issue was at a point where plucking them was more agony than I could take and it did okay for a while, but again, it's battery powered and quickly deteriorates in effectiveness.
I also got free one when I bought my hair trimmer, but it has a weirdly long guard on the blades and so leaves the hairs really long. Okay, they're not really long, but they're long enough that it defeats the point of using the trimmer.
The problem here is almost the opposite of the toothbrushes - there seem to be very few models and most are quite poorly reviewed and rated. As such it's difficult finding one that's not too expensive but also does the job.
Wednesday, 12 September 2012
transformers: revenge of the fallen
Oh dear.
I said when I reviewed it that I didn't hate the first Transformers film. It was by the much-hated Michael Bay and it seemed to draw a fair amount of flack, but I personally thought it was okay as a popcorn action movie.
Don't get me wrong - there were a few things that didn't quite work for me and they fiddled with stuff in a way that also didn't quite work (Bumblebee isn't a VW bug?), but it was an enjoyable enough action movie with big giant transforming robots. There was also some internal logic to the thing, particularly as it went for a fairly simple story.
The second film is an abomination, particularly in this case because the plot is horrible and almost nothing makes any sense.
I guess I should warn for spoilers as I thought I'd lay out some of the more annoying ones.
A particularly galling thing was when the decepticons revive megatron. At the end of the first film they dumped him and some of the other decepticons at the bottom of the Marianas Trench (I think - certainly into the sea). Quite why they did this instead of smashing them to atoms I'm not sure, but in this film to revive them all they do is send down some repairing robots who stitch them back together and all's fine.
Clearly being killed, broken up, and dumped at the bottom of the ocean, subjecting their metal bodies to salt water, incredible cold and staggering pressure is absolutely no problem for your average decepticon... So why didn't Prime tell them to do something more effective!
Of course later on in the film, when Prime dies, they have to go through some rigmarole involving an ancient artefact and a sock (don't ask) to revive him. Yeah, because consistency is for pussies!
Then there's the bit where the decepticons go after Buster with a human-impersonating Decepticon. A human impersonating decepticon who is incredibly realistic. Because of course if you were able to impersonate humans you wouldn't do something like impersonate all the world leaders and take over the place. No, you'd impersonate a hot chick in order to try to get at some knowledge Buster has.
Then there's the whole thing about Megatron working for some uber-evil dude who lives on the moon. Yeah, the uber-evil dude who there's no mention of in the first film at all.
The uber-evil dude who all the other primes in ancient times (eh?) had to sacrifice themselves to create what is basically a key for his uber-evil device that he was going to use to kill life in the galaxy instead of kicking his ass. Y'know, the uber-evil device hidden inside the pyramids that we've never spotted before.
What the fuck is this bull-shit?
I said when I reviewed it that I didn't hate the first Transformers film. It was by the much-hated Michael Bay and it seemed to draw a fair amount of flack, but I personally thought it was okay as a popcorn action movie.
Don't get me wrong - there were a few things that didn't quite work for me and they fiddled with stuff in a way that also didn't quite work (Bumblebee isn't a VW bug?), but it was an enjoyable enough action movie with big giant transforming robots. There was also some internal logic to the thing, particularly as it went for a fairly simple story.
The second film is an abomination, particularly in this case because the plot is horrible and almost nothing makes any sense.
I guess I should warn for spoilers as I thought I'd lay out some of the more annoying ones.
A particularly galling thing was when the decepticons revive megatron. At the end of the first film they dumped him and some of the other decepticons at the bottom of the Marianas Trench (I think - certainly into the sea). Quite why they did this instead of smashing them to atoms I'm not sure, but in this film to revive them all they do is send down some repairing robots who stitch them back together and all's fine.
Clearly being killed, broken up, and dumped at the bottom of the ocean, subjecting their metal bodies to salt water, incredible cold and staggering pressure is absolutely no problem for your average decepticon... So why didn't Prime tell them to do something more effective!
Of course later on in the film, when Prime dies, they have to go through some rigmarole involving an ancient artefact and a sock (don't ask) to revive him. Yeah, because consistency is for pussies!
Then there's the bit where the decepticons go after Buster with a human-impersonating Decepticon. A human impersonating decepticon who is incredibly realistic. Because of course if you were able to impersonate humans you wouldn't do something like impersonate all the world leaders and take over the place. No, you'd impersonate a hot chick in order to try to get at some knowledge Buster has.
Then there's the whole thing about Megatron working for some uber-evil dude who lives on the moon. Yeah, the uber-evil dude who there's no mention of in the first film at all.
The uber-evil dude who all the other primes in ancient times (eh?) had to sacrifice themselves to create what is basically a key for his uber-evil device that he was going to use to kill life in the galaxy instead of kicking his ass. Y'know, the uber-evil device hidden inside the pyramids that we've never spotted before.
What the fuck is this bull-shit?
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
disappointed
I was rather disappointed with my weigh in this last Sunday.
I thought I'd done quite well during the week with only a few relatively small slips. However, I'd only lost a pound, which was quite disappointing. Particularly since my weight has been see-sawing around without any real gain or loss for a good few months now.
Having said that, when I think back at the week I can see that the small slips I'd felt I'd made were actually probably much bigger than I'd really thought. I ate a few too many sweet things and it all adds up. Also I'd really struggled with the walking.
Well, I'd actually really struggled with sleeping, having had a night where I'd basically been unable to get to sleep at all and with this then being followed up by a night where I'd woken up incredibly early. Usually when I have a bad night the next night I sleep like I'm in coma, but this time I woke up at 4:30AM, a good two hours before I usually get up.
And this waking up early pattern suddenly seems to have become something of a norm - with the exception of Sunday I've been wide awake at least an hour before my alarm was due. I've actually started to suspect that something is going on, like someone is getting up early for wake and making a noise that wakes me up, but I've no real evidence for that and besides, I usually sleep with earplugs in.
Anyway, the point is that the lack of sleep left me very tired and therefore in no real mood to do much walking during the week. Now usually there's a compensation when I'm suffering from insomnia in that I burn a lot of calories when I'm awake lots of hours like that, but in this case I'm not sure it's quite worked like that.
It was all rather disappointing, as I say.
In fact, I got rather depressed about it all on Sunday and ended up buying some actual proper chocolate bars when my walk took me past Sainsbury's and scarfing them. I felt bad... but also good.
What's been particularly frustrating over the last few months is that I've not been losing weight. I still do lots of walking and it's not like I'm eating loads of bad stuff like I used to, but I don't seem to lose weight.
I mean, don't get me wrong - I know bad bits I'm eating and the walking are cancelling each other out, but the depressing part of it is that it's not loads of naughty eating, it's just a bit. It's like I can't even have a bit of fun.
I thought I'd done quite well during the week with only a few relatively small slips. However, I'd only lost a pound, which was quite disappointing. Particularly since my weight has been see-sawing around without any real gain or loss for a good few months now.
Having said that, when I think back at the week I can see that the small slips I'd felt I'd made were actually probably much bigger than I'd really thought. I ate a few too many sweet things and it all adds up. Also I'd really struggled with the walking.
Well, I'd actually really struggled with sleeping, having had a night where I'd basically been unable to get to sleep at all and with this then being followed up by a night where I'd woken up incredibly early. Usually when I have a bad night the next night I sleep like I'm in coma, but this time I woke up at 4:30AM, a good two hours before I usually get up.
And this waking up early pattern suddenly seems to have become something of a norm - with the exception of Sunday I've been wide awake at least an hour before my alarm was due. I've actually started to suspect that something is going on, like someone is getting up early for wake and making a noise that wakes me up, but I've no real evidence for that and besides, I usually sleep with earplugs in.
Anyway, the point is that the lack of sleep left me very tired and therefore in no real mood to do much walking during the week. Now usually there's a compensation when I'm suffering from insomnia in that I burn a lot of calories when I'm awake lots of hours like that, but in this case I'm not sure it's quite worked like that.
It was all rather disappointing, as I say.
In fact, I got rather depressed about it all on Sunday and ended up buying some actual proper chocolate bars when my walk took me past Sainsbury's and scarfing them. I felt bad... but also good.
What's been particularly frustrating over the last few months is that I've not been losing weight. I still do lots of walking and it's not like I'm eating loads of bad stuff like I used to, but I don't seem to lose weight.
I mean, don't get me wrong - I know bad bits I'm eating and the walking are cancelling each other out, but the depressing part of it is that it's not loads of naughty eating, it's just a bit. It's like I can't even have a bit of fun.
Monday, 10 September 2012
the crucible of speed
Monza is the fastest circuit in the current F1 calendar.
That also makes it the shortest race and usually doesn't last much more than an hour. I also have it logged in my memory as not normally being a particularly good race - with so few corners and most of the corners there are being chicanes, overtaking opportunities should be relatively low in number.
It's not like there's a big technical section where a driver can make a mistake and allow his rival to catch. And knowing where to defend is hardly a stretch of the imagination - the handful of corners. And yet in recent years it's produced some really good opportunities. And it's generally true that overtaking tends to happen when you have a fast straight and then a tight bend and Monza has a few of those.
This last weekend it was a good race. There was plenty of overtaking, a few incidents and even a few strategic elements that came into play. The last of these was particularly surprising as, being such a simple circuit, you would think strategy was minimal.
However, it was strategy that basically let Perez get to second place. The problem was that the degradation of performance of the tyres meant that towards the end the front runners - who were by then all on very old harder tyres - were easy meat for Perez who'd used the harder tyres on his first stint and stayed out for a long time on them. That meant he had fresher softer tyres, which are quicker, and he didn't have to worry too much about making them last.
But the front runners were faced with a dilemma - if they came in for new tyres they'd have ended up behind they're closes rivals on circuit who didn't with no guarantees of being able to overtake them. The gamble worked out for Hamilton who was just far enough in front to stay that way for the end of the race, but Alonso and Massa both ended up being overtaken.
I have to say this race was probably the first really big victim of the BBCs new program pattern. They only showed highlights and, as mentioned, the race itself is only just over an hour long, so what they showed was only about 45 minutes (I think _ I didn't time it).
They did broadcast both race and practice on Radio 5 live, so I listened to those, but they didn't broadcast any of the practice sessions at all. None of them were on TV, obviously, but they also didn't put them on 5live or Sports Extra. I'm pretty sure they weren't on the internet either in anything but "text update" format.
Now if it had been a total duffer that would have been okay, but clearly it was actually quite entertaining. And that's one of the big problems with this only showing highlights for some races - there's no real way of predicting which are going to be the good races.
Take Valencia - it's always been as dull as dishwater and the BBC said they'd show the full thing. But then they lucked out and this year it was really good for once!
That also makes it the shortest race and usually doesn't last much more than an hour. I also have it logged in my memory as not normally being a particularly good race - with so few corners and most of the corners there are being chicanes, overtaking opportunities should be relatively low in number.
It's not like there's a big technical section where a driver can make a mistake and allow his rival to catch. And knowing where to defend is hardly a stretch of the imagination - the handful of corners. And yet in recent years it's produced some really good opportunities. And it's generally true that overtaking tends to happen when you have a fast straight and then a tight bend and Monza has a few of those.
This last weekend it was a good race. There was plenty of overtaking, a few incidents and even a few strategic elements that came into play. The last of these was particularly surprising as, being such a simple circuit, you would think strategy was minimal.
However, it was strategy that basically let Perez get to second place. The problem was that the degradation of performance of the tyres meant that towards the end the front runners - who were by then all on very old harder tyres - were easy meat for Perez who'd used the harder tyres on his first stint and stayed out for a long time on them. That meant he had fresher softer tyres, which are quicker, and he didn't have to worry too much about making them last.
But the front runners were faced with a dilemma - if they came in for new tyres they'd have ended up behind they're closes rivals on circuit who didn't with no guarantees of being able to overtake them. The gamble worked out for Hamilton who was just far enough in front to stay that way for the end of the race, but Alonso and Massa both ended up being overtaken.
I have to say this race was probably the first really big victim of the BBCs new program pattern. They only showed highlights and, as mentioned, the race itself is only just over an hour long, so what they showed was only about 45 minutes (I think _ I didn't time it).
They did broadcast both race and practice on Radio 5 live, so I listened to those, but they didn't broadcast any of the practice sessions at all. None of them were on TV, obviously, but they also didn't put them on 5live or Sports Extra. I'm pretty sure they weren't on the internet either in anything but "text update" format.
Now if it had been a total duffer that would have been okay, but clearly it was actually quite entertaining. And that's one of the big problems with this only showing highlights for some races - there's no real way of predicting which are going to be the good races.
Take Valencia - it's always been as dull as dishwater and the BBC said they'd show the full thing. But then they lucked out and this year it was really good for once!
Friday, 7 September 2012
monza
Well, Monza this weekend.
It's in quick succession with Belgium as one of these double headers. We've a few of these now until the end of the season.
I have to confess Monza is not usually a great race. I guess in its favour it is usually one of the shortest! The circuit is basically quite simple, and they get very high speeds on the long straights (though a few chicanes have been introduced to slow them down over the years). It's quite Italian in that sense, I suppose.
However, it does mean that there isn't much in the way of opportunities for overtaking and so it can be quite processional, but as I say not too long winded.
The highlight of Monza is usually the tiffosi who are basically the Italian fans. They're rather partisan, being biased in favour of Ferrari. I can recall quite a few races where good chunks of the crowd upped and left after both of the Ferraris crashed out!
I'm hoping Lewis does quite well. He started the season well with lots of consistency, but just recently he's been in a few incidents that have cost him quite a few points. I'm still of the opinion that Alonso is probably going to win, but if there is to be a proper battle for the championship I would rather it was between him and Alonso.
I've actually got a feeling that what will happen is that the others will essentially end up taking lots of points off of each other, a bit like last year.
It's in quick succession with Belgium as one of these double headers. We've a few of these now until the end of the season.
I have to confess Monza is not usually a great race. I guess in its favour it is usually one of the shortest! The circuit is basically quite simple, and they get very high speeds on the long straights (though a few chicanes have been introduced to slow them down over the years). It's quite Italian in that sense, I suppose.
However, it does mean that there isn't much in the way of opportunities for overtaking and so it can be quite processional, but as I say not too long winded.
The highlight of Monza is usually the tiffosi who are basically the Italian fans. They're rather partisan, being biased in favour of Ferrari. I can recall quite a few races where good chunks of the crowd upped and left after both of the Ferraris crashed out!
I'm hoping Lewis does quite well. He started the season well with lots of consistency, but just recently he's been in a few incidents that have cost him quite a few points. I'm still of the opinion that Alonso is probably going to win, but if there is to be a proper battle for the championship I would rather it was between him and Alonso.
I've actually got a feeling that what will happen is that the others will essentially end up taking lots of points off of each other, a bit like last year.
Thursday, 6 September 2012
ruined shoes?
One of the things I was going to blog about last week but didn't was the weather and walking.
On the bank holiday weekend we got some horrible weather on the Saturday afternoon. I'd seen the forecasts, but they were quite vague and the weather in the morning was okay. As I mentioned I worked very late on the Friday so I ended up quite delayed on the Saturday and it was a bit later in the afternoon before I went for my walk.
I had to go down to Sainsbury's to pick up some bits and as I was walking down it was still okay, though you could see the clouds building for a bit of a storm. Well, as I got to Sainsbury's (it's about two miles away) the heavens opened and I got a bit wet but then headed inside and bought the bits I needed.
When I came out it was still pretty heavy, but I hung around and waited for it to dry up. There was then a bit of a break and so I thought I would give it a go at getting back. My route was also quite tree-lined so I was hoping I'd stay fairly sheltered.
Well the first thing was that when the rain came back it was a full-on thunderstorm. I'm not fundamentally afraid of thunderstorms like some are, but I get a bit nervous when I'm out in one. Not from a point of view of being hit by lightning, but if it hits a tree or something nearby. So my route being tree-lined made me quite nervous, especially since my plan to try to avoid getting wet was to shelter under trees.
Now initially the rain wasn't too bad - I've walked in worse and not been fussed. However, it wasn't long before it was absolutely hammering it down. I mean, it was monsoon-like stuff with gobbets of rain hammering down. It was that level of rain where even if you stand under a tree it offers no protection at all as the rain just blasts through.
This step up happened about half-way home and initially I tried to shelter, but it quickly became obvious that I was getting just as wet as if I was still moving. I therefore set off home and got extremely wet.
I was oddly reminiscent of last year, actually, when I also got stuck in a thunderstorm and got soaked. At that time I bought a cheap poncho with the idea of carrying it with me if rain was threatened, but obviously I'd left it at home.
I also doubt if it would have sorted the real issue I had and that was that my relatively new walking shoes filled up with water. The real problem here is that the shoes are too big and I have to wear an extra pair of walking socks (weirdly my shoe size seems to have shrunk with the weight I've lost - I think it may be due to my feet being less wide due to a smaller load being pushed down on them: they're certainly not shorter. However, I think this means there was a route for the water to seep in having run down my legs.
That might seem extreme, but as I say it was a hell of a lot of rain that fell - it was streaming down me and every single part of me was soaked.
Now these shoes are Gore-Tex, which is kinda waterproof, and they obviously have a rubber soul, and these two things meant that the boots actually ended up acting like buckets - I could feel water squishing about in them and when I took them off they were full of water on top of my socks being wringing wet.
I was so wet it took tree full days for everything to dry out having hung it up with the dehumidifier going fairly constantly.
I was therefore rather worried that I might have destroyed this almost new and very expensive boots, but I tried them out this weekend and they seem totally fine. I guess because I dried them out thoroughly they're okay.
On the bank holiday weekend we got some horrible weather on the Saturday afternoon. I'd seen the forecasts, but they were quite vague and the weather in the morning was okay. As I mentioned I worked very late on the Friday so I ended up quite delayed on the Saturday and it was a bit later in the afternoon before I went for my walk.
I had to go down to Sainsbury's to pick up some bits and as I was walking down it was still okay, though you could see the clouds building for a bit of a storm. Well, as I got to Sainsbury's (it's about two miles away) the heavens opened and I got a bit wet but then headed inside and bought the bits I needed.
When I came out it was still pretty heavy, but I hung around and waited for it to dry up. There was then a bit of a break and so I thought I would give it a go at getting back. My route was also quite tree-lined so I was hoping I'd stay fairly sheltered.
Well the first thing was that when the rain came back it was a full-on thunderstorm. I'm not fundamentally afraid of thunderstorms like some are, but I get a bit nervous when I'm out in one. Not from a point of view of being hit by lightning, but if it hits a tree or something nearby. So my route being tree-lined made me quite nervous, especially since my plan to try to avoid getting wet was to shelter under trees.
Now initially the rain wasn't too bad - I've walked in worse and not been fussed. However, it wasn't long before it was absolutely hammering it down. I mean, it was monsoon-like stuff with gobbets of rain hammering down. It was that level of rain where even if you stand under a tree it offers no protection at all as the rain just blasts through.
This step up happened about half-way home and initially I tried to shelter, but it quickly became obvious that I was getting just as wet as if I was still moving. I therefore set off home and got extremely wet.
I was oddly reminiscent of last year, actually, when I also got stuck in a thunderstorm and got soaked. At that time I bought a cheap poncho with the idea of carrying it with me if rain was threatened, but obviously I'd left it at home.
I also doubt if it would have sorted the real issue I had and that was that my relatively new walking shoes filled up with water. The real problem here is that the shoes are too big and I have to wear an extra pair of walking socks (weirdly my shoe size seems to have shrunk with the weight I've lost - I think it may be due to my feet being less wide due to a smaller load being pushed down on them: they're certainly not shorter. However, I think this means there was a route for the water to seep in having run down my legs.
That might seem extreme, but as I say it was a hell of a lot of rain that fell - it was streaming down me and every single part of me was soaked.
Now these shoes are Gore-Tex, which is kinda waterproof, and they obviously have a rubber soul, and these two things meant that the boots actually ended up acting like buckets - I could feel water squishing about in them and when I took them off they were full of water on top of my socks being wringing wet.
I was so wet it took tree full days for everything to dry out having hung it up with the dehumidifier going fairly constantly.
I was therefore rather worried that I might have destroyed this almost new and very expensive boots, but I tried them out this weekend and they seem totally fine. I guess because I dried them out thoroughly they're okay.
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
captain america
Captain America has never really been my thing.
It's obviously quite a jingo-istic thing - I mean, he's not Captain Humanity or Captain United Nations, is he? He's Captain America. And that's always made him very "truth, justice and the American way."
All of which of course works under the assumption that "the American way" is on the same level as truth and justice, and, indeed, that they're somehow synonymous: that truth and justice equal the American way. I was never really convinced that was entirely the case and of course Cap represents those things.
Of course, being the first movie (well, excluding the other adaptation) this one tells Cap's origin story and that revolves around World War 2 and the Red Skull. In this case it also involves HYDRA and a bit of Norse technology. The later obviously ties it to the Thor franchise but the former is interesting.
In the comics HYDRA has always been a fascist organisation, but it never really originated in Nazi Germany. Here it's basically the Red Skull's pet scientific organisation. This works fine enough, especially as they ditch the silly bright costumes and properly retool them as Nazis.
In fact overall I have to say I quite enjoyed the film, despite my reservations. It's just nuanced enough, particularly in regards the whole "representing America" thing that it works. It actually manages to make something of a point in this regard and plays out how you might expect a Captain America to actually be used by the government.
The goodness comes through as being entirely down to him as a person, rather than any sort of jingo-istic thing. However, there is a weird element to it in that it basically has the message that if you're a weakling you can't fight, which seems odd - anyone can be trained up. Also, he seems smart enough, so could he not go into the engineering corps or something?
There is also a weird element that results from this aspect of the film. Clearly they needed both a small version and a big version and it makes more sense that the guy they employ is bigger and they just use digital trickery and other effects to make him look smaller for the first part. This works brilliantly - he really looks good.
What doesn't work is the voice. A bigger person will generally have a deeper voice simply because of how the resonance works. But they didn't adjust his voice at all when he's small, so you have this big deep, manly voice, coming from this little pip-squeak dude and I found it very disconcerting.
But apart from that I actually really enjoyed it.
It's obviously quite a jingo-istic thing - I mean, he's not Captain Humanity or Captain United Nations, is he? He's Captain America. And that's always made him very "truth, justice and the American way."
All of which of course works under the assumption that "the American way" is on the same level as truth and justice, and, indeed, that they're somehow synonymous: that truth and justice equal the American way. I was never really convinced that was entirely the case and of course Cap represents those things.
Of course, being the first movie (well, excluding the other adaptation) this one tells Cap's origin story and that revolves around World War 2 and the Red Skull. In this case it also involves HYDRA and a bit of Norse technology. The later obviously ties it to the Thor franchise but the former is interesting.
In the comics HYDRA has always been a fascist organisation, but it never really originated in Nazi Germany. Here it's basically the Red Skull's pet scientific organisation. This works fine enough, especially as they ditch the silly bright costumes and properly retool them as Nazis.
In fact overall I have to say I quite enjoyed the film, despite my reservations. It's just nuanced enough, particularly in regards the whole "representing America" thing that it works. It actually manages to make something of a point in this regard and plays out how you might expect a Captain America to actually be used by the government.
The goodness comes through as being entirely down to him as a person, rather than any sort of jingo-istic thing. However, there is a weird element to it in that it basically has the message that if you're a weakling you can't fight, which seems odd - anyone can be trained up. Also, he seems smart enough, so could he not go into the engineering corps or something?
There is also a weird element that results from this aspect of the film. Clearly they needed both a small version and a big version and it makes more sense that the guy they employ is bigger and they just use digital trickery and other effects to make him look smaller for the first part. This works brilliantly - he really looks good.
What doesn't work is the voice. A bigger person will generally have a deeper voice simply because of how the resonance works. But they didn't adjust his voice at all when he's small, so you have this big deep, manly voice, coming from this little pip-squeak dude and I found it very disconcerting.
But apart from that I actually really enjoyed it.
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
getting what's due
I've obviously been blogging about my job hunt and its conclusion (staying where I am) so I thought I might give a little update.
The stuff I mentioned last week as to why I hadn't blogged is actually part of the same thing - the stuff I was working on is part of the new arrangement.
This new job (or tweaked job) actually started at the beginning of August but it was only really last week that I was able to start work on it. It went okay for an initial stab, but it really emphasised to me how much there is to be done.
The other thing I wanted to briefly mention about it was that my salary took a big step up (though not as big as if I'd have moved, though as I mentioned there's the possibility of a big slice of cake later). However, I did not receive all I was due when pay came around.
The issue seems to revolve around a part of my salary that's really intended for me to get a company car. At the time we were discussing it I said I liked the idea but I've only just paid off my current car so I'd want a little time before getting a new one. However, in the other job offer this was covered by having a car allowance that is given as part of salary or a car as I saw fit and then adjusted as the circumstances required.
My current company agreed to the same thing, though at a much lower value (but then the other job was in London so I would have had a fair old cost of travel); however, when my pay packet turned up it was short by this exact amount. Now while we're not talking life-changing sums of money, it's not a lump of cash I would want to be without!
I've flagged the issue, but so far it's not been resolved. I guess sometimes these things happen, but I did make it clear when we were in discussions that salary was a big concern, since I'd not had a pay rise in more than 5 years.
The whole thing of capitalism is we're supposed to get money in exchange for out labour.
The stuff I mentioned last week as to why I hadn't blogged is actually part of the same thing - the stuff I was working on is part of the new arrangement.
This new job (or tweaked job) actually started at the beginning of August but it was only really last week that I was able to start work on it. It went okay for an initial stab, but it really emphasised to me how much there is to be done.
The other thing I wanted to briefly mention about it was that my salary took a big step up (though not as big as if I'd have moved, though as I mentioned there's the possibility of a big slice of cake later). However, I did not receive all I was due when pay came around.
The issue seems to revolve around a part of my salary that's really intended for me to get a company car. At the time we were discussing it I said I liked the idea but I've only just paid off my current car so I'd want a little time before getting a new one. However, in the other job offer this was covered by having a car allowance that is given as part of salary or a car as I saw fit and then adjusted as the circumstances required.
My current company agreed to the same thing, though at a much lower value (but then the other job was in London so I would have had a fair old cost of travel); however, when my pay packet turned up it was short by this exact amount. Now while we're not talking life-changing sums of money, it's not a lump of cash I would want to be without!
I've flagged the issue, but so far it's not been resolved. I guess sometimes these things happen, but I did make it clear when we were in discussions that salary was a big concern, since I'd not had a pay rise in more than 5 years.
The whole thing of capitalism is we're supposed to get money in exchange for out labour.
Monday, 3 September 2012
crash, bang wallop
It was the Belgium grand prix this weekend, from the famous Spa Francorchamps circuit.
And it was an incident packed race. I think a route of this was Friday, when it basically rained really hard all day. However, the forecasts also said it was going to be dry for Saturday and Sunday. This meant that the teams had no real motive for doing any running.
Using the Friday practice sessions for testing was basically pointless since they would tend not to get representative results, there was no point setting the car up for a wet race, the drivers weren't going to need any practice for wet driving and being wet meant there was a good chance they'd have an accident which would cause them real headaches.
All of this meant that they really only had the one hour practice session on Saturday morning to set their cars up. This in turn meant that the qualifying session was a bit on the random side - most of the cars you'd expect to be up the front weren't. For example, Vettel and Webber both finished ended up outside the top ten but Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber was second on the grid.
Not to take anything away from anyone - this year with the stable rules that only really removed the blown diffuser has meant that everyone has been a lot closer - add in the difficult tyres and you have this championship.
The race itself was therefore set up for a lot of battles, since many cars were 'out of position' and Spa is somewhere you can overtake (and not just in the DRS zone). However, unfortunately Romain Grosgean also caused a big accident on the trace down to the first corner.
He's actually a bit of a one for getting into accidents at the start. I think he's actually said that he gets a bit too excited and tends to act a bit rashly. Certainly he was clearly in error on Sunday, as he moved over so far that an accident was almost inevitable.
It was a particular pity on Sunday since he took several of the championship contenders out. It was quite a scary accident actually, as Grosjean's car was lifted into the air (often a consequence of wheels clashing, as here) but because it was a rear wheel he was also spun in the air and of course the cars are a lot longer than they are wide.
You could actually see wheel marks on Alonso's car that were close to where his head is. It's one of the difficulties of open cockpit racing, but then there are always issues over them getting trapped in the cockpit if it's covered - being a close-fitting cockpit, rather than an open space inside a car can cause problems. Especially where fire is always a risk - that's how a lot of drivers used to die in the bad old days.
Anyway, race itself was good and I guess the up-side with Alonso being knocked out is that it closes the championship up a bit.
And we go again this next weekend - there are actually a lot of double-headers until the end of the year, which is going to play havoc with my schedule, but there you go.
And it was an incident packed race. I think a route of this was Friday, when it basically rained really hard all day. However, the forecasts also said it was going to be dry for Saturday and Sunday. This meant that the teams had no real motive for doing any running.
Using the Friday practice sessions for testing was basically pointless since they would tend not to get representative results, there was no point setting the car up for a wet race, the drivers weren't going to need any practice for wet driving and being wet meant there was a good chance they'd have an accident which would cause them real headaches.
All of this meant that they really only had the one hour practice session on Saturday morning to set their cars up. This in turn meant that the qualifying session was a bit on the random side - most of the cars you'd expect to be up the front weren't. For example, Vettel and Webber both finished ended up outside the top ten but Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber was second on the grid.
Not to take anything away from anyone - this year with the stable rules that only really removed the blown diffuser has meant that everyone has been a lot closer - add in the difficult tyres and you have this championship.
The race itself was therefore set up for a lot of battles, since many cars were 'out of position' and Spa is somewhere you can overtake (and not just in the DRS zone). However, unfortunately Romain Grosgean also caused a big accident on the trace down to the first corner.
He's actually a bit of a one for getting into accidents at the start. I think he's actually said that he gets a bit too excited and tends to act a bit rashly. Certainly he was clearly in error on Sunday, as he moved over so far that an accident was almost inevitable.
It was a particular pity on Sunday since he took several of the championship contenders out. It was quite a scary accident actually, as Grosjean's car was lifted into the air (often a consequence of wheels clashing, as here) but because it was a rear wheel he was also spun in the air and of course the cars are a lot longer than they are wide.
You could actually see wheel marks on Alonso's car that were close to where his head is. It's one of the difficulties of open cockpit racing, but then there are always issues over them getting trapped in the cockpit if it's covered - being a close-fitting cockpit, rather than an open space inside a car can cause problems. Especially where fire is always a risk - that's how a lot of drivers used to die in the bad old days.
Anyway, race itself was good and I guess the up-side with Alonso being knocked out is that it closes the championship up a bit.
And we go again this next weekend - there are actually a lot of double-headers until the end of the year, which is going to play havoc with my schedule, but there you go.
Friday, 31 August 2012
all quiet on the blogging front
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.
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.
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!
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