I was away yesterday attending a job interview, so there was no post because of that, rather than me lapsing again!
Singapore Grand Prix this weekend.
Unfortunately, Singapore is usual one of the really dull races. It has some novelty appeal in that they hold it at night under great big lights. So far they've been lucky with the weather (artificial lights would be particularly bad if there was spray) and it's been a dry race.
The real problem with the track is that it's a street circuit. Street circuits have something of an appeal if you're at the track as you can get really close to the cars and the noise echoes around the buildings, but in terms of a race they're often quite dull. The problem is that roads are very different to circuits.
Circuits are generally a lot wider than roads and the corners and bends are much more organically shaped - following contours in the terrain or avoiding obstacles, etc., whereas streets are about taking you to somewhere as quickly and directly as possible.
It's also a very long, slow lap and therefore the whole race often rubs up against the two hour limit.
I think you can tell I'm not really looking forward to it. The BBC is only showing highlights, but I'll probably listen to it on the radio (if they're covering it).
Otherwise its' the last weekend before my landlord returns, so I will probably try to finish off stuff.
Friday, 20 September 2013
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
starship troopers: invasion
Invasion is actually the fourth film in the Starship Troopers series.
It is a "canon" in the sense that it follows on from the events of the previous films and even includes some of the characters; however, there's a notable difference in that it is a CG film.
When I started watching I wasn't sure it was canon. It used the costumes and equipment from the previous films, as well as the bug designs, but that didn't necessarily mean it fit properly into that same universe. It also even included the Marauder suits, which appeared in the third film (one of the weird things with me getting so far behind with reviews is that I have watched this, but it was on TV, so it is a lower priority for me to write about, and there are now about 20 things I've rented and not blogged about!).
The marauder suits are the films finally incorporating the proper mobile infantry concept that is actually key to the original books. Indeed, the concept of powered suits was actually invented by Heinlein for the original book and it was always a bit odd that it wasn't included in the original film.
I mean, I understand why they took all the troopers out of the suits - expense, difficulty identified with people covered up in suits, reduced threat from the bugs - but they could have had them in it a little bit, like at the end or in a lab or something.
Anyway, this CG film is actually Japanese. I actually think it was made by the same group that put together the Appleseed CG films, but I'm not totally certain on that. It looks about similar to the second of the Appleseed films, so certainly better than the first of those, but not quite in the realms of so real you can't tell it from reality.
It's also a bit odd in that it was filmed in English. I mean, it was filmed in Japan by a Japanese Director, but many of the actors were American and spoke English and the VAs spoke English. This works okay, but felt a little odd if I'm totally honest, but I'm not sure why.
The film itself is okay. It continues quite a lot of the tongue in cheek over the top aspects, but manages to stay this side of pastiche. The plot is a bit hokey, though, and twists itself in a couple of knots.
The real question though is whether being filmed in CG really adds anything. I'm not sure it does, tbh. I mean, I guess it means they were able to produce a bigger film than they otherwise might be able to? However, it also makes it more of a niche product, which limits the degree to which they can distribute it.
It is a "canon" in the sense that it follows on from the events of the previous films and even includes some of the characters; however, there's a notable difference in that it is a CG film.
When I started watching I wasn't sure it was canon. It used the costumes and equipment from the previous films, as well as the bug designs, but that didn't necessarily mean it fit properly into that same universe. It also even included the Marauder suits, which appeared in the third film (one of the weird things with me getting so far behind with reviews is that I have watched this, but it was on TV, so it is a lower priority for me to write about, and there are now about 20 things I've rented and not blogged about!).
The marauder suits are the films finally incorporating the proper mobile infantry concept that is actually key to the original books. Indeed, the concept of powered suits was actually invented by Heinlein for the original book and it was always a bit odd that it wasn't included in the original film.
I mean, I understand why they took all the troopers out of the suits - expense, difficulty identified with people covered up in suits, reduced threat from the bugs - but they could have had them in it a little bit, like at the end or in a lab or something.
Anyway, this CG film is actually Japanese. I actually think it was made by the same group that put together the Appleseed CG films, but I'm not totally certain on that. It looks about similar to the second of the Appleseed films, so certainly better than the first of those, but not quite in the realms of so real you can't tell it from reality.
It's also a bit odd in that it was filmed in English. I mean, it was filmed in Japan by a Japanese Director, but many of the actors were American and spoke English and the VAs spoke English. This works okay, but felt a little odd if I'm totally honest, but I'm not sure why.
The film itself is okay. It continues quite a lot of the tongue in cheek over the top aspects, but manages to stay this side of pastiche. The plot is a bit hokey, though, and twists itself in a couple of knots.
The real question though is whether being filmed in CG really adds anything. I'm not sure it does, tbh. I mean, I guess it means they were able to produce a bigger film than they otherwise might be able to? However, it also makes it more of a niche product, which limits the degree to which they can distribute it.
Monday, 16 September 2013
landlord away
My landlord has gone away on holiday for about a week and a half.
This is good timing and bad.
The good part is that it means I can get into the shed. I've a lot of stuff I need to get rid of in there, both from a space point of view, but also from a getting some cash point of view.
He's basically blocked in all my stuff in a corner, which is staggeringly annoying if I want to get something out, but I mean, it's his shed, I shouldn't really expect to have easy access, should I?
I'm particularly expecting to sell a lot of the figures I've collected. I think these were one of my madder moments from the recent years. They take up quite a lot of room and I don't actually have anywhere to put them. Unfortunately they also lose value quite quickly - once a series is a few years old, people don't want the figures. In fact, they don't sell all that well even if they're a current series, in my experience.
Still, I've so many of them I should do okay with getting a bit of money, which I sorely need.
I'm struggling with the finances quite badly. I'm just about living within my means, but I really need to see about getting something done in terms of a loan to replace the credit card debt. The payments for the cards are killing me and obviously being credit cards you're mainly just paying off interest, rather than the debt itself.
It's not so good in that it's a bit late - I had thought he was going away last week, which would have worked a lot better from a timing point of view. It also means the weather is now proper autumn, so it's been raining a lot, making it difficult to do some of the stuff I want to / need to. So, for example, giving the car a clean will be a bit of a trick shot.
This is good timing and bad.
The good part is that it means I can get into the shed. I've a lot of stuff I need to get rid of in there, both from a space point of view, but also from a getting some cash point of view.
He's basically blocked in all my stuff in a corner, which is staggeringly annoying if I want to get something out, but I mean, it's his shed, I shouldn't really expect to have easy access, should I?
I'm particularly expecting to sell a lot of the figures I've collected. I think these were one of my madder moments from the recent years. They take up quite a lot of room and I don't actually have anywhere to put them. Unfortunately they also lose value quite quickly - once a series is a few years old, people don't want the figures. In fact, they don't sell all that well even if they're a current series, in my experience.
Still, I've so many of them I should do okay with getting a bit of money, which I sorely need.
I'm struggling with the finances quite badly. I'm just about living within my means, but I really need to see about getting something done in terms of a loan to replace the credit card debt. The payments for the cards are killing me and obviously being credit cards you're mainly just paying off interest, rather than the debt itself.
It's not so good in that it's a bit late - I had thought he was going away last week, which would have worked a lot better from a timing point of view. It also means the weather is now proper autumn, so it's been raining a lot, making it difficult to do some of the stuff I want to / need to. So, for example, giving the car a clean will be a bit of a trick shot.
Friday, 13 September 2013
for sale
I ended yesterday mentioning the sale of the company I work for.
At the time I talked a lot about "cake". I may have subsequently explained this, but the cake in question was actually an employee share scheme. Basically the Managing Director wants to retire. To do this she needs to sell the company so that she can release a nice pot of money for her to go away with.
However, if you say to all the employees "I'm selling the company so I can retire" they may not view that too kindly as it introduces a lot of uncertainty, particularly around who will take over and what the new conditions will be like. This would therefore generally encourage the employees to look for new jobs, so by having the share scheme you effectively promise to give away a chunk of that sale money so that those people hang around.
My problem is that basically I've ended up with a share option, rather than actual shares. This option means that I have the option to buy the shares at a later date at a reduced price. The idea therefore being I sell the shares immediately as part of the whole sale and the difference between what they pay and what I get is therefore a nice sum of money.
But there are some problems.
The company is currently worth nothing. Now this is deliberate as it's basically a way of minimising tax, but it also means that the shares I've got are next to worthless. If sold the next day I wouldn't even have been able to pay off my smallest credit card debt.
Now in some ways that's a good thing in that it means they have the potential for the maximum gain, but the real problem is that I have no idea how many shares there are total and what my proportion of those shares is, and I only have vague ideas what the company is currently worth, what it might sell for eventually, and there are no mechanisms to know how the company/share value is changing.
So, to use some simple numbers, it's all very well knowing that at the start I have the option to buy 1,000 at 10p each and sell them at 20p each. That means I would get £100. But I have no way of knowing if the value of the shares has doubled across the year or tripled, or halved or what.
The other issue over the proportion of shares makes things even more complicated. Basically, for example, there are actually 1,000 shares, and what they've done is take, say, 100 of those shares, turn that into 1,000 shares, revalue them, and then distribute them to the employees.
This makes things very complicated to calculate the actual value of the shares. With the above numbers, if they sold each original share for £1, that means that the 100 shares would be worth £100, but as I say, they've then made each of the actual shares distributed 1/10 of those shares, so actually we get shares worth 10p each. This means it might seem attractive to us to sell the shares at £1, but then we only get 10% of that. Or, remember, we need to buy these shares at 5p each, so really we get 5% of the value.
But of course I don't know the real numbers. So if I've been given 1,000 shares is that a big proportion of the total pot? Have I got 10% of the shares? Or 0.01%? And this really matters because it affects what I actually stand to make, but I can't know, so it's all a bit meaningless.
It's like if I give you a million spondulics, have I just given you a fortune or nothing at all? Of course you didn't have any spondulics to start with, so in a way you've got a fortune, but only in spondulic terms.
I've been with the company the longest, which from what I was told means I have a bigger proportion of the shares. But then I was told a lot about the share scheme when I agreed to stay on and only a small proportion of it has turned out to be true. Firstly I was told there would be dividends. Well, there are no dividends on share options. I don't own any shares, so I've nothing to receive a dividend on.
It also transpires that the shares have been divided up based on seniority as the most important factor, rather than length of service. I mean, that's a factor, but seniority is a more important factor and of course I'm in the "middle" tier, so I'm pretty sure I have less shares than the directors, even though they've only been here a couple of years and I've been here more than a decade.
And here's the other thing - I'm underpaid. I've also been underpaid for the last five years when I didn't have a single pay rise, despite the rapidly escalating cost of living.
I have debt because I was underpaid (well, that and me being a fucking moron). So what's better, getting a new job that pays the market rate now? Or gambling that the amount I get down the line is sufficient to make up for that underpayment+ a little more?
Well looking at some numbers I can't make the latter make sense. Plus, as mentioned, I don't really enjoy working here any more.
So why stay? Particularly since it will be at least three years before the company is actually sold. I can't stay here three years - I can't stay six months. Did I mention I don't enjoy working here any more?
At the time I talked a lot about "cake". I may have subsequently explained this, but the cake in question was actually an employee share scheme. Basically the Managing Director wants to retire. To do this she needs to sell the company so that she can release a nice pot of money for her to go away with.
However, if you say to all the employees "I'm selling the company so I can retire" they may not view that too kindly as it introduces a lot of uncertainty, particularly around who will take over and what the new conditions will be like. This would therefore generally encourage the employees to look for new jobs, so by having the share scheme you effectively promise to give away a chunk of that sale money so that those people hang around.
My problem is that basically I've ended up with a share option, rather than actual shares. This option means that I have the option to buy the shares at a later date at a reduced price. The idea therefore being I sell the shares immediately as part of the whole sale and the difference between what they pay and what I get is therefore a nice sum of money.
But there are some problems.
The company is currently worth nothing. Now this is deliberate as it's basically a way of minimising tax, but it also means that the shares I've got are next to worthless. If sold the next day I wouldn't even have been able to pay off my smallest credit card debt.
Now in some ways that's a good thing in that it means they have the potential for the maximum gain, but the real problem is that I have no idea how many shares there are total and what my proportion of those shares is, and I only have vague ideas what the company is currently worth, what it might sell for eventually, and there are no mechanisms to know how the company/share value is changing.
So, to use some simple numbers, it's all very well knowing that at the start I have the option to buy 1,000 at 10p each and sell them at 20p each. That means I would get £100. But I have no way of knowing if the value of the shares has doubled across the year or tripled, or halved or what.
The other issue over the proportion of shares makes things even more complicated. Basically, for example, there are actually 1,000 shares, and what they've done is take, say, 100 of those shares, turn that into 1,000 shares, revalue them, and then distribute them to the employees.
This makes things very complicated to calculate the actual value of the shares. With the above numbers, if they sold each original share for £1, that means that the 100 shares would be worth £100, but as I say, they've then made each of the actual shares distributed 1/10 of those shares, so actually we get shares worth 10p each. This means it might seem attractive to us to sell the shares at £1, but then we only get 10% of that. Or, remember, we need to buy these shares at 5p each, so really we get 5% of the value.
But of course I don't know the real numbers. So if I've been given 1,000 shares is that a big proportion of the total pot? Have I got 10% of the shares? Or 0.01%? And this really matters because it affects what I actually stand to make, but I can't know, so it's all a bit meaningless.
It's like if I give you a million spondulics, have I just given you a fortune or nothing at all? Of course you didn't have any spondulics to start with, so in a way you've got a fortune, but only in spondulic terms.
I've been with the company the longest, which from what I was told means I have a bigger proportion of the shares. But then I was told a lot about the share scheme when I agreed to stay on and only a small proportion of it has turned out to be true. Firstly I was told there would be dividends. Well, there are no dividends on share options. I don't own any shares, so I've nothing to receive a dividend on.
It also transpires that the shares have been divided up based on seniority as the most important factor, rather than length of service. I mean, that's a factor, but seniority is a more important factor and of course I'm in the "middle" tier, so I'm pretty sure I have less shares than the directors, even though they've only been here a couple of years and I've been here more than a decade.
And here's the other thing - I'm underpaid. I've also been underpaid for the last five years when I didn't have a single pay rise, despite the rapidly escalating cost of living.
I have debt because I was underpaid (well, that and me being a fucking moron). So what's better, getting a new job that pays the market rate now? Or gambling that the amount I get down the line is sufficient to make up for that underpayment+ a little more?
Well looking at some numbers I can't make the latter make sense. Plus, as mentioned, I don't really enjoy working here any more.
So why stay? Particularly since it will be at least three years before the company is actually sold. I can't stay here three years - I can't stay six months. Did I mention I don't enjoy working here any more?
Thursday, 12 September 2013
work
So I thought I'd do the first blog about why I've not been having much fun just recently.
Unfortunately it's become very apparent to me that my decision to stay on at my current employer last year was a big mistake.
I'm really not enjoying work.
All the same crap still seems to happen. I had thought that some of the reason for me staying on was to help introduce some better ways of doing things, but basically they've all been either ignored or actively disregarded.
I'll give you a very good example - we've recently introduced a new Contact Management System. Now, Contact Management is key to what I do - bid management.
However, at no stage have I been asked my opinion or in any way included in the process.
The old thing we used to use was a bespoke system put together by one of the employees and it was bobbins. It was full of fields that nobody understood, nobody used to fill it out anyway and there was never any training to explain anything. The problem being it wasn't properly designed - it was thrown together and packed full of "wouldn't it be nice if it" stuff.
Guess what's happened with the new system?
It's full of stupid fields that are either pointless or nobody understand the purpose of / what to put in there. And there's not been any training.
Part of the problem is they've bought something that is a product - it is an "out of the box" thing. Now there are a few ways they could have gone that would have worked:
Guess what they've done?
They've kept the out of the box product and added in loads of fields that mimic the crap the old system used to have. So the problem is they're trying to make it bespoke when the product itself is set up such that in other to make it bespoke in any useful sense you have to get a programmer in to change stuff.
A programmer who costs a lot of money. And they're not willing to spend any money.
This bespoking has also been done by someone who is not that way inclined - he's not a programmer, not an analyst and really not at all suited to the job. And it's been "managed" by the MD. Who has started taking loads of holidays and breaks like she has already retired and is focused on trying to sell the company.
Which is the other thing, but I will continue with that tomorrow.
Unfortunately it's become very apparent to me that my decision to stay on at my current employer last year was a big mistake.
I'm really not enjoying work.
All the same crap still seems to happen. I had thought that some of the reason for me staying on was to help introduce some better ways of doing things, but basically they've all been either ignored or actively disregarded.
I'll give you a very good example - we've recently introduced a new Contact Management System. Now, Contact Management is key to what I do - bid management.
However, at no stage have I been asked my opinion or in any way included in the process.
The old thing we used to use was a bespoke system put together by one of the employees and it was bobbins. It was full of fields that nobody understood, nobody used to fill it out anyway and there was never any training to explain anything. The problem being it wasn't properly designed - it was thrown together and packed full of "wouldn't it be nice if it" stuff.
Guess what's happened with the new system?
It's full of stupid fields that are either pointless or nobody understand the purpose of / what to put in there. And there's not been any training.
Part of the problem is they've bought something that is a product - it is an "out of the box" thing. Now there are a few ways they could have gone that would have worked:
- Get a complete bespoke solution, a bit like the old one, but made by professionals.
- Get an existing solution and either:
- Pay to make it bespoke
- Modify the processes and procedures of the company to match the product.
Guess what they've done?
They've kept the out of the box product and added in loads of fields that mimic the crap the old system used to have. So the problem is they're trying to make it bespoke when the product itself is set up such that in other to make it bespoke in any useful sense you have to get a programmer in to change stuff.
A programmer who costs a lot of money. And they're not willing to spend any money.
This bespoking has also been done by someone who is not that way inclined - he's not a programmer, not an analyst and really not at all suited to the job. And it's been "managed" by the MD. Who has started taking loads of holidays and breaks like she has already retired and is focused on trying to sell the company.
Which is the other thing, but I will continue with that tomorrow.
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
underworld: awakening
I wasn't sure what to expect with this fourth film in the underworld series.
I enjoyed the first one quite a bit, but found the second one underwhelming and a little confusing. The third film was actually a prequel and was okay, but really Selene (Beckinsale's character) was the only one that was interesting and she wasn't really in it.
This fourth one does star Selene, but also introduces a daughter (sort of). Now when actresses and characters get older there seems to be a bit of a thing for them acquiring children. I mean, don't get me wrong, obviously people get older and have children, but when those characters are odd (vampires or superheroes or whatever) the children thing is also normally odd (not really a child, but a clone or whatever).
I dunno, you can get some weird stuff in order to force the film down the whole maternal instinct path. And that's basically the case here - the maternal thing is pretty much crowbarred in.
However, if you set that aside, I actually quite enjoyed the film. Selene is still quite an interesting character and it doesn't hurt that Beckinsale seems even more gorgeous (she may be of equal gorgeousness, but the previous films were a long time ago!). I mean, don't get me wrong, the story was a bit poor, constructed of quite a lot of clichés, but then if you're watching the fourth Underworld film, why would you be expecting anything less?
No, what I enjoyed was the visual look of the film, the action and the special effects.
Now it's not all great the film was shot in 3D and there were a few of those stupid moment they always build in to have stuff flying out at the audience but then look daft when you watch them non-3D (and daft in 3D if you're of that persuasion) but it wasn't too bad here.
I enjoyed the first one quite a bit, but found the second one underwhelming and a little confusing. The third film was actually a prequel and was okay, but really Selene (Beckinsale's character) was the only one that was interesting and she wasn't really in it.
This fourth one does star Selene, but also introduces a daughter (sort of). Now when actresses and characters get older there seems to be a bit of a thing for them acquiring children. I mean, don't get me wrong, obviously people get older and have children, but when those characters are odd (vampires or superheroes or whatever) the children thing is also normally odd (not really a child, but a clone or whatever).
I dunno, you can get some weird stuff in order to force the film down the whole maternal instinct path. And that's basically the case here - the maternal thing is pretty much crowbarred in.
However, if you set that aside, I actually quite enjoyed the film. Selene is still quite an interesting character and it doesn't hurt that Beckinsale seems even more gorgeous (she may be of equal gorgeousness, but the previous films were a long time ago!). I mean, don't get me wrong, the story was a bit poor, constructed of quite a lot of clichés, but then if you're watching the fourth Underworld film, why would you be expecting anything less?
No, what I enjoyed was the visual look of the film, the action and the special effects.
Now it's not all great the film was shot in 3D and there were a few of those stupid moment they always build in to have stuff flying out at the audience but then look daft when you watch them non-3D (and daft in 3D if you're of that persuasion) but it wasn't too bad here.
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
sleepy
I've been having a terrible time sleeping just recently.
I've been doing a bit of research (always dangerous!) and there's a suggestion it might be a form of insomnia. It's not the sort of insomnia you generally think of, where you have trouble getting to sleep, but instead I keep waking up in the middle of the night.
Specifically I've been waking up at around 1AM-4AM for the last 2 weeks.
That's quite a range and what actually appears to be happening is the waking point is drifting earlier and earlier. So I was generally waking at about 4AM when it first started, but on Sunday night it was 1AM.
It seems to be happening irrespective of the actual time I go to sleep as well. So if I go to sleep at 8PM then it happens, but if I go to sleep at 12PM it also still happens. Of course in the former case that means I've gotten a good chunk of sleep and in the latter I've only gotten a few hours. However of course in the former it means having no life.
There's also the problem of reinforcement.
By that I mean that by playing to the timetable (going to bed early in the expectation I'll wake in the middle of the night) it will reinforce the pattern. And, indeed, instead of being insomnia there's a good chance that is what it really is. It's something I've always been susceptible too - over holidays and weekends I will wake up when my alarm would go off and start to fall asleep at my usual time.
The insomnia is called Middle-of-the-night insomnia, which is a rather uninspired name, but it is actually something that seems to be well known. There are some possible medical reasons, but basically it seems to be down to stress, which would match well with all the rubbish stuff that's been happening to me and I still haven't posted about yet.
The frustrating side of it is that I don't have any trouble getting to sleep. No actually, the frustrating side of it is that when I wake up in the middle of the night I initially feel great and rested like I've had a good night's sleep and I think Finally "I've slept through".
It's then only after about half an hour that I start to think "hang on, why is my alarm not going off?" and then look at my curtains for the tell-tale cracks of light that indicate daylight, which I don't see and then I think "oh for fuck's sake, not again".
I then go for a pee and check how bad it is by checking my phone, which is when it gets annoying.
If I get up then by normal day time I'll be shattered. If I try to watch a bit of telly or similar before going back to bed I'll have woken up enough to have the same effect. If I read for a bit I get bored and then lay there often not able to get back to sleep. And if I just try to go back to sleep my mind races and 9 times out of 10 it doesn't work properly.
Even if it does work, the quality of sleep seems to be poor and I am still tired all day.
I've been doing a bit of research (always dangerous!) and there's a suggestion it might be a form of insomnia. It's not the sort of insomnia you generally think of, where you have trouble getting to sleep, but instead I keep waking up in the middle of the night.
Specifically I've been waking up at around 1AM-4AM for the last 2 weeks.
That's quite a range and what actually appears to be happening is the waking point is drifting earlier and earlier. So I was generally waking at about 4AM when it first started, but on Sunday night it was 1AM.
It seems to be happening irrespective of the actual time I go to sleep as well. So if I go to sleep at 8PM then it happens, but if I go to sleep at 12PM it also still happens. Of course in the former case that means I've gotten a good chunk of sleep and in the latter I've only gotten a few hours. However of course in the former it means having no life.
There's also the problem of reinforcement.
By that I mean that by playing to the timetable (going to bed early in the expectation I'll wake in the middle of the night) it will reinforce the pattern. And, indeed, instead of being insomnia there's a good chance that is what it really is. It's something I've always been susceptible too - over holidays and weekends I will wake up when my alarm would go off and start to fall asleep at my usual time.
The insomnia is called Middle-of-the-night insomnia, which is a rather uninspired name, but it is actually something that seems to be well known. There are some possible medical reasons, but basically it seems to be down to stress, which would match well with all the rubbish stuff that's been happening to me and I still haven't posted about yet.
The frustrating side of it is that I don't have any trouble getting to sleep. No actually, the frustrating side of it is that when I wake up in the middle of the night I initially feel great and rested like I've had a good night's sleep and I think Finally "I've slept through".
It's then only after about half an hour that I start to think "hang on, why is my alarm not going off?" and then look at my curtains for the tell-tale cracks of light that indicate daylight, which I don't see and then I think "oh for fuck's sake, not again".
I then go for a pee and check how bad it is by checking my phone, which is when it gets annoying.
If I get up then by normal day time I'll be shattered. If I try to watch a bit of telly or similar before going back to bed I'll have woken up enough to have the same effect. If I read for a bit I get bored and then lay there often not able to get back to sleep. And if I just try to go back to sleep my mind races and 9 times out of 10 it doesn't work properly.
Even if it does work, the quality of sleep seems to be poor and I am still tired all day.
Monday, 9 September 2013
italian grand prix
Well, that was a lot better than I was expecting.
I have to confess I wasn't really looking forward to Monza as my memory of it is as a circuit where it's very difficult to overtake, but that didn't appear to be the case this weekend as there was a lot of action on the track. Indeed it also seemed to disprove what I was saying about the DRS, but that wasn't quite as it might have appeared.
Basically because Monza is so high speed (I think it only has about 6 corners!) they all use a special low-down force package, and of course that means the rear wing is quite skinny. As such the DRS (which basically opens a hole in the rear wing to reduce its drag) doesn't have a huge impact. That means it generally allowed them to get into overtaking position without just driving past.
I mean, that wasn't always the case - there were some drive pasts, but even these weren't as daft as they were at Spa, for example, with the drivers able to defend a bit and then fight back at the next corner.
Unfortunately it was also a bit of a weird weekend.
Riciardo was confirmed as Webber's replacement at Red Bull, but the whole rest of driver situation is quite messy. It seems like Raikonen is likely to go back to Ferrari, and Alonso wasn't happy. Well, the feeling was that that was a big part of why Alonso wasn't happy. He could easily have been unhappy at how the weekend went generally.
It's odd - the Mercedes has generally qualified well this season and then gone backwards on race day, where the Ferrari seems to qualify poorly then do really well during the race. Reliability issues aside, I think Alonso has always finished some way above where he qualified.
And mentioning Mercedes, they had a bit of a shocker. Hamilton said he made a mess of qualifying, but I think that was overly harsh. Rosberg didn't actually do that much better, it was more that Hamilton messed up his quick laps in 2nd qualifying.
However, his radio then failed during the race, so he couldn't hear them calling him in for his pit stops, for example. He did make up a couple of spots, taking him into the points, but it was clear he felt he could & should have done a lot better across the weekend.
I have to say it now looks like Vettel is going to take the driver's championship as the others just haven't been able to deliver a consistent challenge.
I have to confess I wasn't really looking forward to Monza as my memory of it is as a circuit where it's very difficult to overtake, but that didn't appear to be the case this weekend as there was a lot of action on the track. Indeed it also seemed to disprove what I was saying about the DRS, but that wasn't quite as it might have appeared.
Basically because Monza is so high speed (I think it only has about 6 corners!) they all use a special low-down force package, and of course that means the rear wing is quite skinny. As such the DRS (which basically opens a hole in the rear wing to reduce its drag) doesn't have a huge impact. That means it generally allowed them to get into overtaking position without just driving past.
I mean, that wasn't always the case - there were some drive pasts, but even these weren't as daft as they were at Spa, for example, with the drivers able to defend a bit and then fight back at the next corner.
Unfortunately it was also a bit of a weird weekend.
Riciardo was confirmed as Webber's replacement at Red Bull, but the whole rest of driver situation is quite messy. It seems like Raikonen is likely to go back to Ferrari, and Alonso wasn't happy. Well, the feeling was that that was a big part of why Alonso wasn't happy. He could easily have been unhappy at how the weekend went generally.
It's odd - the Mercedes has generally qualified well this season and then gone backwards on race day, where the Ferrari seems to qualify poorly then do really well during the race. Reliability issues aside, I think Alonso has always finished some way above where he qualified.
And mentioning Mercedes, they had a bit of a shocker. Hamilton said he made a mess of qualifying, but I think that was overly harsh. Rosberg didn't actually do that much better, it was more that Hamilton messed up his quick laps in 2nd qualifying.
However, his radio then failed during the race, so he couldn't hear them calling him in for his pit stops, for example. He did make up a couple of spots, taking him into the points, but it was clear he felt he could & should have done a lot better across the weekend.
I have to say it now looks like Vettel is going to take the driver's championship as the others just haven't been able to deliver a consistent challenge.
Friday, 6 September 2013
italian grand prix
It's the italian grand prix this weekend from Monza.
Monza is one of the fastest tracks on the current circuit and is not that far off being an Indi-car style oval circuit. Indeed, I seem to recall the old, banked circuit was an oval. I mean, it has a few chicanes and that, but if you were to take an oval and stretch it and put a dog leg in it, that wouldn't be too far off of Monza.
Anyway, the point is that it's a very fast circuit and the race often doesn't take much more than an hour to run.
It's normally an okay race. It doesn't tend to have a lot of overtaking, though it is possible. Part of the issue is that being so fast and having so few corners it's not often they make mistakes, so there's not much chance to take advantage of that.
Still, it's usually a good race for Ferrari who tend to build a car that does well on high speed circuits. Hopefully therefore Alonso should do well, which should keep the championship alive.
There's also the possibility that if the Mercedes can get on pole in qualifying then they'll be able to dominate and hold the others back. That was part of the key as to why they did well in Hungary - get on pole and stay there.
Of course that's also the general Red Bull tactic, but then the car (deliberately) doesn't tend to have the highest top speed so they may struggle to achieve it.
Monza is one of the fastest tracks on the current circuit and is not that far off being an Indi-car style oval circuit. Indeed, I seem to recall the old, banked circuit was an oval. I mean, it has a few chicanes and that, but if you were to take an oval and stretch it and put a dog leg in it, that wouldn't be too far off of Monza.
Anyway, the point is that it's a very fast circuit and the race often doesn't take much more than an hour to run.
It's normally an okay race. It doesn't tend to have a lot of overtaking, though it is possible. Part of the issue is that being so fast and having so few corners it's not often they make mistakes, so there's not much chance to take advantage of that.
Still, it's usually a good race for Ferrari who tend to build a car that does well on high speed circuits. Hopefully therefore Alonso should do well, which should keep the championship alive.
There's also the possibility that if the Mercedes can get on pole in qualifying then they'll be able to dominate and hold the others back. That was part of the key as to why they did well in Hungary - get on pole and stay there.
Of course that's also the general Red Bull tactic, but then the car (deliberately) doesn't tend to have the highest top speed so they may struggle to achieve it.
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
belgium grand prix
Thought so - I wrote this yesterday, but turns out I didn't post it!
During my absence I only missed blogging on the one grand prix, which was Spa Francochamps in Belgium.
Usually Spa is one of the best races of the year, as it has natural opportunities to overtake and the drivers enjoy racing there. It's also a place where it often rains, and unpredictably so. Because of the hills it has its own little micro-climate that can take the teams by surprise.
Having given it the big build-up this year's race was okay. Qualifying was good as it was quite exciting. The weather played a major part and parts of the sessions were wet. However, in the race it stayed dry throughout.
I also have to say I think DRS ruins a circuit like Spa. The problem is that there are good places to overtake, and they still use them, but because there's quite a big DRS section some of the time they wait until they can get on the DRS straight and simply overtake with the extra speed. Which is the worst form of overtaking.
Good overtaking is getting them into the corner (or I guess sometimes when coming out of a corner) but simply driving past the other guy on the straight because you have extra speed that he doesn't isn't overtaking. And there was a fair bit of that this year.
DRS does work on a handful of circuits (notably the circuits in the middle east) but the intention was meant to be that it aided overtaking, helping them get into an overtaking position, not that it allows them to drive past.
During my absence I only missed blogging on the one grand prix, which was Spa Francochamps in Belgium.
Usually Spa is one of the best races of the year, as it has natural opportunities to overtake and the drivers enjoy racing there. It's also a place where it often rains, and unpredictably so. Because of the hills it has its own little micro-climate that can take the teams by surprise.
Having given it the big build-up this year's race was okay. Qualifying was good as it was quite exciting. The weather played a major part and parts of the sessions were wet. However, in the race it stayed dry throughout.
I also have to say I think DRS ruins a circuit like Spa. The problem is that there are good places to overtake, and they still use them, but because there's quite a big DRS section some of the time they wait until they can get on the DRS straight and simply overtake with the extra speed. Which is the worst form of overtaking.
Good overtaking is getting them into the corner (or I guess sometimes when coming out of a corner) but simply driving past the other guy on the straight because you have extra speed that he doesn't isn't overtaking. And there was a fair bit of that this year.
DRS does work on a handful of circuits (notably the circuits in the middle east) but the intention was meant to be that it aided overtaking, helping them get into an overtaking position, not that it allows them to drive past.
Monday, 2 September 2013
a month away
I’ve obviously not been blogging for the month of August.
This wasn’t deliberate. Well, it became deliberate, but it didn’t start that way. It started as just the usual lack of blogging, but then some stuff happened that meant I haven’t really been having much fun, so writing a blog didn’t really seem like something I wanted to do.
I’m feeling pretty miserable, actually. I definitely wouldn’t go so far or as dramatic) to say I was depressed, but I would rate my mood just recently as being below average and I’m one of life’s less cheery people, so you can see I’ve not been happy.
I’ll make some posts in the future about some of the stuff that’s been happening. These won’t be immediate, and I’m not sure this blog will be particularly regularly updated for a while, but I’m definitely going to do my best not to be totally silent for a whole month again.
I thought though for this return post I’d mention something a little bit positive.
I’ve been struggling with the diet/weight for quite a while now. I’d basically reached a point where my weight has stabilised, but it was some way above where I wanted it to be.
Now part of the problem was that I‘ve been eating bad things - high calories, stuff. However, it wasn’t like it used to be and I was a bit puzzled how my weight wasn’t really changing either way.
However, I've now figured out that exercise is also a big part of the problem. It’s not that I’ve stopped doing my walking - indeed, I’ve been doing the same amount that I’d built up to before. And that is the problem. I think my body/metabolism has built up to cope with this level of exercise.
It’s difficult to explain, but basically the last couple of weeks I’ve been testing out doing more exercise and it’s led to some more significant reductions, despite still doing badly with sticking to the diet. So the key is for me to increase the exercise. It’s going to be difficult as it means more time spent doing it, but I’m some way below the recommended 10,000 steps per day so it’s not like I’m going nuts.
This wasn’t deliberate. Well, it became deliberate, but it didn’t start that way. It started as just the usual lack of blogging, but then some stuff happened that meant I haven’t really been having much fun, so writing a blog didn’t really seem like something I wanted to do.
I’m feeling pretty miserable, actually. I definitely wouldn’t go so far or as dramatic) to say I was depressed, but I would rate my mood just recently as being below average and I’m one of life’s less cheery people, so you can see I’ve not been happy.
I’ll make some posts in the future about some of the stuff that’s been happening. These won’t be immediate, and I’m not sure this blog will be particularly regularly updated for a while, but I’m definitely going to do my best not to be totally silent for a whole month again.
I thought though for this return post I’d mention something a little bit positive.
I’ve been struggling with the diet/weight for quite a while now. I’d basically reached a point where my weight has stabilised, but it was some way above where I wanted it to be.
Now part of the problem was that I‘ve been eating bad things - high calories, stuff. However, it wasn’t like it used to be and I was a bit puzzled how my weight wasn’t really changing either way.
However, I've now figured out that exercise is also a big part of the problem. It’s not that I’ve stopped doing my walking - indeed, I’ve been doing the same amount that I’d built up to before. And that is the problem. I think my body/metabolism has built up to cope with this level of exercise.
It’s difficult to explain, but basically the last couple of weeks I’ve been testing out doing more exercise and it’s led to some more significant reductions, despite still doing badly with sticking to the diet. So the key is for me to increase the exercise. It’s going to be difficult as it means more time spent doing it, but I’m some way below the recommended 10,000 steps per day so it’s not like I’m going nuts.
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
tinker, tailor, soldier, spy
I actually listened to this as audiobook while walking shortly before watching the film.
I found the book good but a little confusing. It's one of those with a lot of characters who are introduced in fairly subtle ways and often without much in the way of physical description so there's not much for you to hang onto.
Plot wise it made perfect sense, but I had to really concentrate on the characters - particularly since the point is that one of them is a spy!
This film has a bit of a hard act to follow. It's one of a few adaptations and one of the most famous was by the BBC and starred Alec Guinness of all people and was quite well regarded.
This is also the first in a set of stories by le Carre and featuring the character George Smiley and revolving around Karla, a Russian spy. Smiley features in many other of le Carre's novels, but these are probably the most well known. What I'm saying is that if they are adapting this then they probably intended to do all of the other Karla books.
So do I think they should - was it any good?
Well yes, I thought it was quite a good adaptation. Smiley is played by Gary Oldman and I have to say he's perfect in the role. He really nails the character and it's a suitably subtle performance - Smiley is a very taciturn, deliberate, thoughtful character, not given to outbursts or displays of emotion.
The story is necessarily tweaked to fit the running time, though the main core of the story is there. The real changes are around the more peripheral characters. One of the best examples of this is Jim Prideaux. In the book there's quite a lot of stuff around his job as a school teacher, particularly revolving around one of the boys. In the film he's a school teacher, and we see some of the events, but they're incidental flavour, rather than things that take up significant screen time.
This has the advantage of not muddying the waters - the focus is squarely on Smiley, though it does remove some of the colour.
Overall I thought it was a good adaptation then, particularly of material that's very cerebral in nature.
I found the book good but a little confusing. It's one of those with a lot of characters who are introduced in fairly subtle ways and often without much in the way of physical description so there's not much for you to hang onto.
Plot wise it made perfect sense, but I had to really concentrate on the characters - particularly since the point is that one of them is a spy!
This film has a bit of a hard act to follow. It's one of a few adaptations and one of the most famous was by the BBC and starred Alec Guinness of all people and was quite well regarded.
This is also the first in a set of stories by le Carre and featuring the character George Smiley and revolving around Karla, a Russian spy. Smiley features in many other of le Carre's novels, but these are probably the most well known. What I'm saying is that if they are adapting this then they probably intended to do all of the other Karla books.
So do I think they should - was it any good?
Well yes, I thought it was quite a good adaptation. Smiley is played by Gary Oldman and I have to say he's perfect in the role. He really nails the character and it's a suitably subtle performance - Smiley is a very taciturn, deliberate, thoughtful character, not given to outbursts or displays of emotion.
The story is necessarily tweaked to fit the running time, though the main core of the story is there. The real changes are around the more peripheral characters. One of the best examples of this is Jim Prideaux. In the book there's quite a lot of stuff around his job as a school teacher, particularly revolving around one of the boys. In the film he's a school teacher, and we see some of the events, but they're incidental flavour, rather than things that take up significant screen time.
This has the advantage of not muddying the waters - the focus is squarely on Smiley, though it does remove some of the colour.
Overall I thought it was a good adaptation then, particularly of material that's very cerebral in nature.
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
hungarian grand prix
I didn't post a blog yesterday because I got busy with something from early on and basically forgot.
It was the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend.
It's been on the calendar a long time has Hungary, but it's not one of the classic races. The nature of the circuit is such that it's very difficult to overtake. The circuit is relatively slow speed as it is basically a continuous series of corners. This makes it challenging and (I imagine) interesting to drive, but doesn't facilitate overtaking.
However, saying all that, this recent race was okay. I mean, it wasn't amazing, but there was enough stuff happening that it wasn't totally dull.
It was also Hamilton's first win for Mercedes. I have to admit they've done a lot better this year than I thought they would - I thought they'd struggle this year and then possibly pull off a blinder with the new engines next year.
He's also theoretically in the hunt for the championship, but I think this weekend was actually somewhat distorted. Basically Vettel, Alonso and Raikonnen got a bit stuck behind Button's McLaren. Button actually did quite well in the race, as he was down in 13th after qualifying and ended up 8th. I think they drove a clever strategy that Button was able to make work, but it was helped by the difficulty of overtaking at the circuit, as he then delayed a lot of people.
However, there is another way of looking at that, in that Lewis was also in the position of having to overtake people on a difficult circuit, but he did it, where others either failed or took too long. Hamilton had to overtake Button once and Webber twice and did so it quick order each time.
To me this shows the difference between Lewis and some of the competition - give him a car that's up to the job and let him go and he will race, where others will perhaps tend to sit back and consolidate.
It's now the F1 mid-season break, so there won't be any races for a while, and I think when it comes back at the end of the month it's the always entertaining Belgium race at Spa.
It was the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend.
It's been on the calendar a long time has Hungary, but it's not one of the classic races. The nature of the circuit is such that it's very difficult to overtake. The circuit is relatively slow speed as it is basically a continuous series of corners. This makes it challenging and (I imagine) interesting to drive, but doesn't facilitate overtaking.
However, saying all that, this recent race was okay. I mean, it wasn't amazing, but there was enough stuff happening that it wasn't totally dull.
It was also Hamilton's first win for Mercedes. I have to admit they've done a lot better this year than I thought they would - I thought they'd struggle this year and then possibly pull off a blinder with the new engines next year.
He's also theoretically in the hunt for the championship, but I think this weekend was actually somewhat distorted. Basically Vettel, Alonso and Raikonnen got a bit stuck behind Button's McLaren. Button actually did quite well in the race, as he was down in 13th after qualifying and ended up 8th. I think they drove a clever strategy that Button was able to make work, but it was helped by the difficulty of overtaking at the circuit, as he then delayed a lot of people.
However, there is another way of looking at that, in that Lewis was also in the position of having to overtake people on a difficult circuit, but he did it, where others either failed or took too long. Hamilton had to overtake Button once and Webber twice and did so it quick order each time.
To me this shows the difference between Lewis and some of the competition - give him a car that's up to the job and let him go and he will race, where others will perhaps tend to sit back and consolidate.
It's now the F1 mid-season break, so there won't be any races for a while, and I think when it comes back at the end of the month it's the always entertaining Belgium race at Spa.
Friday, 26 July 2013
hungarian grand prix
Hungarian grand prix this weekend. It's not usually that interesting as a race, and the BBC is only showing highlights. After this there's a 3 week gap, during which F1 has its "two week holiday".
I have to confess I've not found this season all that memorable. There's been a few interesting races, but it doesn't seem as close as last year. Weirdly, even though the rules were pretty stable again, it seems to have had something of a crystallising effect on some of the teams. Perhaps they've shifted significant focus to next year's car?
It doesn't help that McLaren are not in contention and some of the mid-level teams have relatively poor cars.
I've no particular plans this weekend. I had thought that I might play some games other than SimCity. I mentioned doing this a while back, but didn't actually do it.
Alternatively I might try to get ahead with watching some of the anime I keep selling, rather than having to watch it once it's already sold.
My landlord is going away on holiday in September this year I believe so I'm expecting to have a go at the contents of the shed. There's quite a bit of stuff out there that I think I'm going to have to sell, given my financial situation.
I have to confess I've not found this season all that memorable. There's been a few interesting races, but it doesn't seem as close as last year. Weirdly, even though the rules were pretty stable again, it seems to have had something of a crystallising effect on some of the teams. Perhaps they've shifted significant focus to next year's car?
It doesn't help that McLaren are not in contention and some of the mid-level teams have relatively poor cars.
I've no particular plans this weekend. I had thought that I might play some games other than SimCity. I mentioned doing this a while back, but didn't actually do it.
Alternatively I might try to get ahead with watching some of the anime I keep selling, rather than having to watch it once it's already sold.
My landlord is going away on holiday in September this year I believe so I'm expecting to have a go at the contents of the shed. There's quite a bit of stuff out there that I think I'm going to have to sell, given my financial situation.
Thursday, 25 July 2013
loads of anime pt3
rideback
I seem to be making the same basic point on quite a few of these series I've watched - that I found the direction it took a little disappointing after the initial few episodes that I'd watched by way of preview.
Well in this case I can say... pretty much the same thing.
In the first couple of episodes of rideback we're introduced to the main characters, as well as the ridebacks, which are essentially bicycle mecha hybrids. They're pretty cool and the sudden and instant connection that the main character Rin has with them is just as enjoyable as I remembered. It also develops the point about her being a former ballet dancer and that the ridebacks become something like a replacement for this.
The problem really is that there's a whole political thing that is uses initially as a kind of backdrop, which is fine, but that then becomes a central part of the story. And my problem with it was that it was the usual unrealistic anime weird political stuff. I mean, it goes on about the world government and this being taken over and stuff, but it makes little to no sense.
Of course the important thing is how it affects the characters, and it does this quite well, though it does generate a couple of rather one-dimensional military types as a result, which just took the edge off of it for me.
I also found the character designs a bit off. I'm not saying they're bad, it's just they felt very old skool, but obviously it is quite a new anime. It wouldn't have been so bad if the technology was depicted in a similar old skool style, but it isn't so it felt a bit like taking an older anime and airbrushing some new CGI mechs over the top, which didn't really work for me.
I'm being quite harsh and it is an enjoyable anime that seems to have fallen between the cracks a bit; it's just for me it didn't become an instant classic.
kimi ni todoke
I actually first encountered kimi ni todoke in anime format, though it is actually an adaptation of a manga. Having sampled the show and enjoyed it I then read the manga and subsequently bought the anime. I have to confess I got a bit annoyed at the manga, so I was a little worried when I finally came to watch the anime.
Anyway, kimi ni todoke it's a shoujo series and centres on a girl who unfortunately looks like the character "Sadako" from the ring films, with a similar name. She is Sawako, where the ring character is Sadako, which her classmates give her as a nickname - it doesn't really refer to this fully in the anime, I'm guessing for copyright reasons, though keeps the nickname so it's still there. She therefore ends up linked by her peers to the occult, partly due to the films thing, but also because of her look and behaviour.
Unfortunately, Sawa is socially rather inept. She's actually very kind and does lots to help her fellow students, but the way she presents herself and behaves means that they are all scared of her - or creeped out by her, at least.
However, she has fallen for the class's mister popular and he has fallen for her, and the series is therefore about their love - will it overcome their shyness, etc?
Well, that's definitely what the anime is about. There are obviously some peripheral characters to this main story and the reason I got a bit pissed off with the manga is that it veers and hauls over to focusing on those peripheral characters. Now this would be okay if it was short-ish or it was about how the main characters really help them, but actually our main characters become a real side-act during these diversions.
However, the anime doesn't lose this focus, so it's more satisfying in a way. Well, the first series is. I found the second series quite frustrating. It deviates a fair bit from the manga and takes the whole miss-understandings aspect of the story to an extreme that I actually found a bit annoying. I mean, it justifies why their friends don't properly interfere, but I just wanted to bonk them on the head and say - "Look: you love each other, get on with it!"
But that's really only a small thing and it is a very good series that's worth watching if you like romantic stuff.
steins;gate
I have to confess when I sampled this one I wasn't massively impressed.
I'd watched a bit of the previous one in this "series" (I don't think series is quite the right word - I think these ones with the semi-colon by 5pb are related, but I don't think they have the same characters in them, so I'm not 100% sure how) Chaos;Head and found it awful. The main character was so annoying I couldn't watch more than an episode, from memory. The premise also seemed daft.
My sampling therefore pretty much boiled down to me watching the first couple of episodes and deciding the protagonist of this was also annoying (though not as bad) and finding the story very confusing.
However, later on I read quite a few people raving about the series, so for some reason I decided to buy it (yeah, no wonder I'm skint, right?). When I came to watch it, then, I wasn't really expecting much from it, and suspected I might end up stopping half way through.
I guess time mellows a bit as I didn't find the protagonist annoying, but did still find the plot a bit confusing. Well, initially I did - it takes a while, but it starts to make a bit more sense later one. Or rather it does until it fully gets into its time travel stuff, then it becomes quite confusing, but in a good way.
I have to confess, though, until about half way through the series I really didn't see what people were raving about. However, at that half-way point there's a particular episode that really elevates the series from okay to quite good. the rest of the series is about the ramifications from that, and it's this latter half that really works, helping to develop the characters and their relationships properly.
If I'm honest I'm not sure it quite "works" in terms of its time travel, as I think the way it does it means that it undermines itself, but really that's secondary compared to what it does with the characters.
I wouldn't put it in the "classic" bracket, but it was certainly more enjoyable than I'd expected.
I seem to be making the same basic point on quite a few of these series I've watched - that I found the direction it took a little disappointing after the initial few episodes that I'd watched by way of preview.
Well in this case I can say... pretty much the same thing.
In the first couple of episodes of rideback we're introduced to the main characters, as well as the ridebacks, which are essentially bicycle mecha hybrids. They're pretty cool and the sudden and instant connection that the main character Rin has with them is just as enjoyable as I remembered. It also develops the point about her being a former ballet dancer and that the ridebacks become something like a replacement for this.
The problem really is that there's a whole political thing that is uses initially as a kind of backdrop, which is fine, but that then becomes a central part of the story. And my problem with it was that it was the usual unrealistic anime weird political stuff. I mean, it goes on about the world government and this being taken over and stuff, but it makes little to no sense.
Of course the important thing is how it affects the characters, and it does this quite well, though it does generate a couple of rather one-dimensional military types as a result, which just took the edge off of it for me.
I also found the character designs a bit off. I'm not saying they're bad, it's just they felt very old skool, but obviously it is quite a new anime. It wouldn't have been so bad if the technology was depicted in a similar old skool style, but it isn't so it felt a bit like taking an older anime and airbrushing some new CGI mechs over the top, which didn't really work for me.
I'm being quite harsh and it is an enjoyable anime that seems to have fallen between the cracks a bit; it's just for me it didn't become an instant classic.
kimi ni todoke
I actually first encountered kimi ni todoke in anime format, though it is actually an adaptation of a manga. Having sampled the show and enjoyed it I then read the manga and subsequently bought the anime. I have to confess I got a bit annoyed at the manga, so I was a little worried when I finally came to watch the anime.
Anyway, kimi ni todoke it's a shoujo series and centres on a girl who unfortunately looks like the character "Sadako" from the ring films, with a similar name. She is Sawako, where the ring character is Sadako, which her classmates give her as a nickname - it doesn't really refer to this fully in the anime, I'm guessing for copyright reasons, though keeps the nickname so it's still there. She therefore ends up linked by her peers to the occult, partly due to the films thing, but also because of her look and behaviour.
Unfortunately, Sawa is socially rather inept. She's actually very kind and does lots to help her fellow students, but the way she presents herself and behaves means that they are all scared of her - or creeped out by her, at least.
However, she has fallen for the class's mister popular and he has fallen for her, and the series is therefore about their love - will it overcome their shyness, etc?
Well, that's definitely what the anime is about. There are obviously some peripheral characters to this main story and the reason I got a bit pissed off with the manga is that it veers and hauls over to focusing on those peripheral characters. Now this would be okay if it was short-ish or it was about how the main characters really help them, but actually our main characters become a real side-act during these diversions.
However, the anime doesn't lose this focus, so it's more satisfying in a way. Well, the first series is. I found the second series quite frustrating. It deviates a fair bit from the manga and takes the whole miss-understandings aspect of the story to an extreme that I actually found a bit annoying. I mean, it justifies why their friends don't properly interfere, but I just wanted to bonk them on the head and say - "Look: you love each other, get on with it!"
But that's really only a small thing and it is a very good series that's worth watching if you like romantic stuff.
steins;gate
I have to confess when I sampled this one I wasn't massively impressed.
I'd watched a bit of the previous one in this "series" (I don't think series is quite the right word - I think these ones with the semi-colon by 5pb are related, but I don't think they have the same characters in them, so I'm not 100% sure how) Chaos;Head and found it awful. The main character was so annoying I couldn't watch more than an episode, from memory. The premise also seemed daft.
My sampling therefore pretty much boiled down to me watching the first couple of episodes and deciding the protagonist of this was also annoying (though not as bad) and finding the story very confusing.
However, later on I read quite a few people raving about the series, so for some reason I decided to buy it (yeah, no wonder I'm skint, right?). When I came to watch it, then, I wasn't really expecting much from it, and suspected I might end up stopping half way through.
I guess time mellows a bit as I didn't find the protagonist annoying, but did still find the plot a bit confusing. Well, initially I did - it takes a while, but it starts to make a bit more sense later one. Or rather it does until it fully gets into its time travel stuff, then it becomes quite confusing, but in a good way.
I have to confess, though, until about half way through the series I really didn't see what people were raving about. However, at that half-way point there's a particular episode that really elevates the series from okay to quite good. the rest of the series is about the ramifications from that, and it's this latter half that really works, helping to develop the characters and their relationships properly.
If I'm honest I'm not sure it quite "works" in terms of its time travel, as I think the way it does it means that it undermines itself, but really that's secondary compared to what it does with the characters.
I wouldn't put it in the "classic" bracket, but it was certainly more enjoyable than I'd expected.
Wednesday, 24 July 2013
the king's speech
I think part of the reason I've fallen so far behind with these reviews is because I wasn't really sure what to say about this film.
You'll almost certainly be aware that the film won four Oscars and a whole slew of other things, was critically praised and made a bucket load. And, unfortunately for writing this review, I don't really disagree with that. It is a damn fine film.
As I understand it was actually based on an adapted version of a screenplay written by the voice coach (Lionel Logue). It is deftly written - the characterisations of Logue and Albert are particularly good, though some of the more peripheral characters are rather incidental and not really fleshed out in any particular depth, but then it doesn't really suffer for that.
Anyway, what is particularly good is it does make them feel like real people - Albert is quite caustic in many places and the no-heirs Aussie nature of Logue isn't over-done as it could easily have become pastiche.
The performances are also excellent. Firth and Rush portray Albert and Logue extremely well. Firth actually sounds just like Albert (there's some extras with original audio on there).
The locations are also well used. It could so easily have fallen into a big productions palaces and posh frocks thing, but it avoids that altogether. Indeed, much of the film takes places in relatively ordinary spaces.
So yeah, pretty short review as I'm not quite sure what I can really add. It is a good film. I guess if you were a total anti-monarchist you may be able to be miffed at it, but really the point of this is that it works because of that, rather than against it.
You'll almost certainly be aware that the film won four Oscars and a whole slew of other things, was critically praised and made a bucket load. And, unfortunately for writing this review, I don't really disagree with that. It is a damn fine film.
As I understand it was actually based on an adapted version of a screenplay written by the voice coach (Lionel Logue). It is deftly written - the characterisations of Logue and Albert are particularly good, though some of the more peripheral characters are rather incidental and not really fleshed out in any particular depth, but then it doesn't really suffer for that.
Anyway, what is particularly good is it does make them feel like real people - Albert is quite caustic in many places and the no-heirs Aussie nature of Logue isn't over-done as it could easily have become pastiche.
The performances are also excellent. Firth and Rush portray Albert and Logue extremely well. Firth actually sounds just like Albert (there's some extras with original audio on there).
The locations are also well used. It could so easily have fallen into a big productions palaces and posh frocks thing, but it avoids that altogether. Indeed, much of the film takes places in relatively ordinary spaces.
So yeah, pretty short review as I'm not quite sure what I can really add. It is a good film. I guess if you were a total anti-monarchist you may be able to be miffed at it, but really the point of this is that it works because of that, rather than against it.
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
duff stuff
I posted the other week about some things that seemed to have all broken at the same time.
When I started the post I was sure there was a big long list of stuff, but then the actual list wasn't that massive. I later remembered some of the stuff that has also broken that I forgot to mention.
Although first, I should say that my suspicion over what was causing my computer to go funny proved accurate - the wire that provides power to the CPU cooler was trapping the fan, causing it to make the funny noise and, presumably, do the whole restart thing. I'm not quite sure I follow how it was causing the issues, but I adjusted it so it's nowhere near and the noise and unreliability stopped.
Anyway - the other broken stuff does actually mostly relate to my computer.
First off the speakers - the right speaker has stopped working. The left speaker and the bass module are still functional, but the right doesn't seem to want to play ball. To be honest, the speakers are old and knackered anyway and had started to make odd feedback noises if the cables were in particular positions.
Then there's my printer. This appears to have gotten to the stage of printing some stuff in particular colours okay, but other colours or big things with lots of colours are coming out funny. I've tried cleaning the heads and using all the deep cleaning (which costs a fortune in ink) and it doesn't make any difference, so I'm guessing something is rather more permanently clogged.
There's a stage with printers were the need to clean them (and thereby waste ink) makes them uneconomical. I read somewhere that printer ink is one of the most expensive fluids in the world, ranking up there with semen from famous horses.
The next thing that's been on the fritz was my mouse. I've had it a very long time so my suspicion was that it was getting gunked up. It's an optical mouse, so there's not the rollerball gunk issue, but I've always produced a lot of greasy (and acidic) sweat that tends to foul even optical mice up.
However, with the mouse I was fairly determined to see if I could fix it, where the other stuff I will have to replace. I therefore set about it with a screwdriver (it had a surprising number of screws in it) and some tissues to wipe off any gunk.
I have to confess it didn't seem as bad as I'd thought it might be, so it may just be knackered, though it seems to be performing better now. Well, it is once I'd corrected my classic mistake.
Having put the thing back together, I naturally found a spare spring (there's always a spring or a screw left over!). I couldn't for the life of me work out where it had come from, but then eventually worked out it was the spring that you push against when depressing the centre mouse wheel. It took me ages to work out how it must go in order to achieve the tension, but it's all back together now.
And now for the biggie!
This actually happened just last week, but my exhaust fell off my car!
I was driving back home along the A31 when suddenly the car started making a very deep noise like those idiots who have the "loud" exhausts on. There was also a noticeable drop in power and a kind of scraping noise, leading me to think my exhaust may be damaged.
Even a cursory glance when I got back confirmed this and a more thorough examination showed that at the least back end of the exhaust (where the silencer is) was very loose, if not detached from the rest of the exhaust.
I therefore had to take it to the garage, having attached some string to hopefully keep it from dropping off.
A new exhaust + fitting cost me £145! But then also this was mid-week so I had to still go to work, which meant the train for several days, which added another £20. I have no idea how train fares work - they certainly don't seem to bare any resemblance to common sense. How it costs as much as they charged me I've no idea - how can two singles, one at off-peak and the peak one being only 2 stops cost half as much again as a 3-stop return bought during peak?
Oh, the joys of privatisation. Fuck you Maggie.
When I started the post I was sure there was a big long list of stuff, but then the actual list wasn't that massive. I later remembered some of the stuff that has also broken that I forgot to mention.
Although first, I should say that my suspicion over what was causing my computer to go funny proved accurate - the wire that provides power to the CPU cooler was trapping the fan, causing it to make the funny noise and, presumably, do the whole restart thing. I'm not quite sure I follow how it was causing the issues, but I adjusted it so it's nowhere near and the noise and unreliability stopped.
Anyway - the other broken stuff does actually mostly relate to my computer.
First off the speakers - the right speaker has stopped working. The left speaker and the bass module are still functional, but the right doesn't seem to want to play ball. To be honest, the speakers are old and knackered anyway and had started to make odd feedback noises if the cables were in particular positions.
Then there's my printer. This appears to have gotten to the stage of printing some stuff in particular colours okay, but other colours or big things with lots of colours are coming out funny. I've tried cleaning the heads and using all the deep cleaning (which costs a fortune in ink) and it doesn't make any difference, so I'm guessing something is rather more permanently clogged.
There's a stage with printers were the need to clean them (and thereby waste ink) makes them uneconomical. I read somewhere that printer ink is one of the most expensive fluids in the world, ranking up there with semen from famous horses.
The next thing that's been on the fritz was my mouse. I've had it a very long time so my suspicion was that it was getting gunked up. It's an optical mouse, so there's not the rollerball gunk issue, but I've always produced a lot of greasy (and acidic) sweat that tends to foul even optical mice up.
However, with the mouse I was fairly determined to see if I could fix it, where the other stuff I will have to replace. I therefore set about it with a screwdriver (it had a surprising number of screws in it) and some tissues to wipe off any gunk.
I have to confess it didn't seem as bad as I'd thought it might be, so it may just be knackered, though it seems to be performing better now. Well, it is once I'd corrected my classic mistake.
Having put the thing back together, I naturally found a spare spring (there's always a spring or a screw left over!). I couldn't for the life of me work out where it had come from, but then eventually worked out it was the spring that you push against when depressing the centre mouse wheel. It took me ages to work out how it must go in order to achieve the tension, but it's all back together now.
And now for the biggie!
This actually happened just last week, but my exhaust fell off my car!
I was driving back home along the A31 when suddenly the car started making a very deep noise like those idiots who have the "loud" exhausts on. There was also a noticeable drop in power and a kind of scraping noise, leading me to think my exhaust may be damaged.
Even a cursory glance when I got back confirmed this and a more thorough examination showed that at the least back end of the exhaust (where the silencer is) was very loose, if not detached from the rest of the exhaust.
I therefore had to take it to the garage, having attached some string to hopefully keep it from dropping off.
A new exhaust + fitting cost me £145! But then also this was mid-week so I had to still go to work, which meant the train for several days, which added another £20. I have no idea how train fares work - they certainly don't seem to bare any resemblance to common sense. How it costs as much as they charged me I've no idea - how can two singles, one at off-peak and the peak one being only 2 stops cost half as much again as a 3-stop return bought during peak?
Oh, the joys of privatisation. Fuck you Maggie.
Monday, 22 July 2013
melting
I think I'm melting
This last weekend there was a bit of a let up from the heat, but today it's been even hotter than it has been. It also seems much more humid today. The only small element of comfort I've been taking in the heat has been that the humidity hasn't been too high, but today it's been hot and sticky.
It's been costing me a fortune of course as I've been having to have the air conditioner on in order to bring things down into a more acceptable range for sleeping. One of the problems I have is that I can't have the windows open at night because of the risk of mosquitos (I react rather badly to their bites) but also I have to have the black bags on the windows in order to block out the light.
Unfortunately the way the sun shines on my bedsit is quite inconvenient as it tends to cause it to heat up quite a lot in the late afternoon / early evening, just when you don't want it to.
I have discovered a bit of a trick with one of my fans, though. I have to turn the air con off to actually go to bed, but I have a big vertical fan that has a timer on it. What seems to work quite well, therefore, is if I turn that on for a short period after the aircon is off then it blows across me, helping to keep me cool, but obviously the timer means it won't then go all night. It's quite loud, so I would be worried it might wake me up if I left it all night, but I tend to get dry eyes and things like that if I have a fan on me too long.
There were no posts last week as I was maxed out on the bid I mentioned. It was a horrible week, actually, if I'm honest.
This last weekend there was a bit of a let up from the heat, but today it's been even hotter than it has been. It also seems much more humid today. The only small element of comfort I've been taking in the heat has been that the humidity hasn't been too high, but today it's been hot and sticky.
It's been costing me a fortune of course as I've been having to have the air conditioner on in order to bring things down into a more acceptable range for sleeping. One of the problems I have is that I can't have the windows open at night because of the risk of mosquitos (I react rather badly to their bites) but also I have to have the black bags on the windows in order to block out the light.
Unfortunately the way the sun shines on my bedsit is quite inconvenient as it tends to cause it to heat up quite a lot in the late afternoon / early evening, just when you don't want it to.
I have discovered a bit of a trick with one of my fans, though. I have to turn the air con off to actually go to bed, but I have a big vertical fan that has a timer on it. What seems to work quite well, therefore, is if I turn that on for a short period after the aircon is off then it blows across me, helping to keep me cool, but obviously the timer means it won't then go all night. It's quite loud, so I would be worried it might wake me up if I left it all night, but I tend to get dry eyes and things like that if I have a fan on me too long.
There were no posts last week as I was maxed out on the bid I mentioned. It was a horrible week, actually, if I'm honest.
Friday, 12 July 2013
phew what a scorcher
Well, summer appears to have arrived this last week and, as per usual, it has arrived with an exclamation mark.
I've always found this a bit puzzling about the British weather, in that it suddenly seems to flip. A couple of weeks back I was regularly having to use my thick duvet cover and was dithering over whether to put my jumpers and tracksuits in the shed, and now I'm wandering about in shorts and a t-shirt.
Last weekend I actually broke out the air conditioner. I tried to avoid it on the Saturday, as it does obviously cost money to run and I don't have very much of that spare. However, Saturday night's sleep was terrible as it was too warm and so Sunday I had it on all day.
I used it again Monday and Tuesday after work, but then the rest of the week it's been a bit more tolerable and the evening more conducive to sleep.
It's meant to be really hot again this weekend, so I might have to wheel it out again, though actually there's a very good chance I'll have to be in work this weekend. The problem really is that I have a big bid that needs working on and I could have worked on it this week, but unfortunately a series of other bids needed me to fix them and that ate up all my time.
It's a shame really as I think the bid could represent a good general opportunity for the company, but it's kinda been received like a wet fart.
I find working where I do so frustrating. If I had a bit of spare cash I'd be back looking for a job, I think. Unfortunately money is so tight it makes it difficult - I'd need to buy some new smart clothes (trousers in particular) and then there would be the cost of travelling to the interviews, etc.
I've always found this a bit puzzling about the British weather, in that it suddenly seems to flip. A couple of weeks back I was regularly having to use my thick duvet cover and was dithering over whether to put my jumpers and tracksuits in the shed, and now I'm wandering about in shorts and a t-shirt.
Last weekend I actually broke out the air conditioner. I tried to avoid it on the Saturday, as it does obviously cost money to run and I don't have very much of that spare. However, Saturday night's sleep was terrible as it was too warm and so Sunday I had it on all day.
I used it again Monday and Tuesday after work, but then the rest of the week it's been a bit more tolerable and the evening more conducive to sleep.
It's meant to be really hot again this weekend, so I might have to wheel it out again, though actually there's a very good chance I'll have to be in work this weekend. The problem really is that I have a big bid that needs working on and I could have worked on it this week, but unfortunately a series of other bids needed me to fix them and that ate up all my time.
It's a shame really as I think the bid could represent a good general opportunity for the company, but it's kinda been received like a wet fart.
I find working where I do so frustrating. If I had a bit of spare cash I'd be back looking for a job, I think. Unfortunately money is so tight it makes it difficult - I'd need to buy some new smart clothes (trousers in particular) and then there would be the cost of travelling to the interviews, etc.
Thursday, 11 July 2013
cashless
I'm still quite badly skint.
Things aren't quite as tight as they were. I've been very stingy with my spending and my relatively higher salary has meant that it's started to come back into parity. I've also not done too badly with selling things on e-bay (the Blu Rays in particular) so that's helped alleviate the situation more than I had feared.
All my cards are still pretty much maxed out. Indeed, part of the issue is that some of them slipped over the credit limits and I got hit with various fees. That meant I had to spend even more to bring them back into the limits. Of course it also means I have no safety net in terms of spending.
It's quite surprising actually how bills turn up when you're skint that you don't normally think about when you're not skint. A good example of this was the TV licence. I'd actually been randomly thinking that I didn't seem to have paid this in a while and then the bill turned up last month and I was shocked by how much it was.
Well, I was shocked that I couldn't afford to pay it until payday came around. This was a little stressful in that it gave me a very small window to actually pay it (payday is quite a variable concept where I work), but also I realised I'd never really thought about how much the license is.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I think it's good value for money, but it's quite a bit to pay in a lump. You can do various quarterly or monthly things to spread the cost, but some of these work out more expensive and others you still have to pay, like, half straight off and then the rest is spread out.
It was a bit like my car insurance a few months back - it wasn't an extortionate sum of money (in this case after I'd shopped around) but paying it as a single lump or spreading it out left me scratching my head. the single lump was the cheapest, but it means paying a big wedge all at once.
I mentioned I'd curbed my spending - this has meant being a bit more careful with general shopping (I've talked extensively before about how I tend to hoard and so buy replacement things long before the old one has actually run out) but also killing off my spending online.
In particular I cancelled all my anime pre-orders (there are some "second halves" of series I should buy as I won't watch them until I do and they won't sell at all well as first half only, but I figure they won't sell out instantly and I can get them once I've gotten through the existing stuff, by which time I may have the money). I also cancelled everything I'd pre-ordered on amazon. In particular this meant loads of manga that I'd pre-ordered.
Something I did notice while I was doing this was that the price of a lot of manga has gone up significantly on amazon. My guess is this is because of the ending of the tax-exempt Jersey thing for small items that allowed them to sell stuff cheap. However, this does mean that amazon is now not the automatic choice and it's worth shopping round.
Again, with the manga there are some volumes I should buy in order to complete the series so I can sell it on e-bay. The series tend to divide into those that are still on-going, where I try to sell on the most recent volumes as I read them, and those that have completed where I try to buy them all so I can sell them as a complete lot. These seem to work quite well as they sort of match what those buying on e-bay want.
Things aren't quite as tight as they were. I've been very stingy with my spending and my relatively higher salary has meant that it's started to come back into parity. I've also not done too badly with selling things on e-bay (the Blu Rays in particular) so that's helped alleviate the situation more than I had feared.
All my cards are still pretty much maxed out. Indeed, part of the issue is that some of them slipped over the credit limits and I got hit with various fees. That meant I had to spend even more to bring them back into the limits. Of course it also means I have no safety net in terms of spending.
It's quite surprising actually how bills turn up when you're skint that you don't normally think about when you're not skint. A good example of this was the TV licence. I'd actually been randomly thinking that I didn't seem to have paid this in a while and then the bill turned up last month and I was shocked by how much it was.
Well, I was shocked that I couldn't afford to pay it until payday came around. This was a little stressful in that it gave me a very small window to actually pay it (payday is quite a variable concept where I work), but also I realised I'd never really thought about how much the license is.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I think it's good value for money, but it's quite a bit to pay in a lump. You can do various quarterly or monthly things to spread the cost, but some of these work out more expensive and others you still have to pay, like, half straight off and then the rest is spread out.
It was a bit like my car insurance a few months back - it wasn't an extortionate sum of money (in this case after I'd shopped around) but paying it as a single lump or spreading it out left me scratching my head. the single lump was the cheapest, but it means paying a big wedge all at once.
I mentioned I'd curbed my spending - this has meant being a bit more careful with general shopping (I've talked extensively before about how I tend to hoard and so buy replacement things long before the old one has actually run out) but also killing off my spending online.
In particular I cancelled all my anime pre-orders (there are some "second halves" of series I should buy as I won't watch them until I do and they won't sell at all well as first half only, but I figure they won't sell out instantly and I can get them once I've gotten through the existing stuff, by which time I may have the money). I also cancelled everything I'd pre-ordered on amazon. In particular this meant loads of manga that I'd pre-ordered.
Something I did notice while I was doing this was that the price of a lot of manga has gone up significantly on amazon. My guess is this is because of the ending of the tax-exempt Jersey thing for small items that allowed them to sell stuff cheap. However, this does mean that amazon is now not the automatic choice and it's worth shopping round.
Again, with the manga there are some volumes I should buy in order to complete the series so I can sell it on e-bay. The series tend to divide into those that are still on-going, where I try to sell on the most recent volumes as I read them, and those that have completed where I try to buy them all so I can sell them as a complete lot. These seem to work quite well as they sort of match what those buying on e-bay want.
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