the end draws near

So yeah, I've been continuing apace with the whole scanning thing. Come the weekend I will only have 3 artbooks left to scan. They're quite big books though, so I dunno if I'll get them finished, but I'm gonna give it a go.

That won't be the end of all scanning ever - the new megami turned up Wednesday, for example, and there's those old magazines I bought that I should scan in before chucking anyway.

Plus there's the big stash of old foreign manga that I decided to scan before also throwing away. I decided to chuck them mainly because they take up so much space that I don't have, but I thought scanning them would alleviate my guilt a bit. Trouble is, of course, that means loads more stuff to scan. The upside is that I can get 4 manga pages on my A4 scanner, so they can be quite quick to do.

While scanning this week I've been watching:

• Kuroshitsuji was okay, I guess. I dunno, maybe I went into this with too many expectations, but it felt a little flat. It didn't help that the support characters are all bloody annoying and that the tone shifts all over the place from slapstick and stupid comedy to being really dark and serious. Sometimes that can work, but here it felt like a mess. Also, it's one of those with a big dark secret that's constantly hinted at - when that kicks in maybe it will be better, but there wasn't enough to make me want to find out.
• Kurozuka which was awesome. It's a bit melodramatic if I was to make one criticism, but that's quite deliberate. Plus the story is all about mysticism and people being immortal and stuff, so it kinda fits. But it also has scifi - it's just plain really good. Although it is just a little violent and sexy, so if those things aren't for you (you weirdo) then it may not be your bag.

screenwipe - writers

I watched screenwipe last night - I think it was actually on on Tuesday, but it's on pretty late so I normally record it.

I mention it hear because it was actually a special where he interviewed a bunch of writers. They were all writers for telly rather than novels, obviously, but there's not that much that distinguishes such things nowadays. They also covered a variety of genres - soaps, drama, comedy, etc.

Anyway, it as really interesting and I'd highly recommend you pop over to the BBC's iPlayer (which is an awesome thing in and of itself, which you should check out anyway) and check it out.

One of the most interesting aspects was the commonality - they were all interviewed separately and basically said similar things, one of my favourites being the whole procrastination thing. It varied - the types of procrastination were different and had different solutions (i.e.e when they actually got down to writing) but the basic theme was that generally they all avoid doing the actual writing until the last moment.

Because writing isn't much fun. Having written is great - when you can dot that last i and cross that last t, but the actual act of sitting there and producing words on the page is not hugely fun. Why seemed to vary a bit, but there was an interesting thing Russell T Davies of Dr Who said in that he sort of enjoys the misery of it.

He gave an example of a script that was due in as he was giving the interview but that he hadn't done yet. And he knew he wouldn't do until he absolutely had to. He also knew if he just went and did it right after the interview he would be happier, that his Christmas woudl be easier and simpler, but he wouldn't do that. Instead he would put it off and then be miserable as he got to a stage of being forced to do it.

As I say, you should go check it out - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/.

nerds in movies

I think it's safe to say that I'm a nerd. Or a geek if you prefer.

I mean, among my hobbies I include anime and animation in general, manga and comic books, playing computer games, reading science fiction books and making scale models. I also love gadgets, especially PCs and while I wouldn't specifically say I'm a "hacker" or anything like that level of understand I know a few things about them. To cap it all I did a degree in physics, my job is technical and I spend an inordinate amount of time on the interwebs.

So I'm a nerd and I know a fair bit about being a nerd.

Which is why I hate nerds in movies (and on television). Well, no, actually that's a bit wrong - I don't hate nerds in movies, the portrayal of people that are nerds can be quite accurate. What I hate are all the clichés and untruths that go along with nerdiness in movies. I've been compiling a top-three.

First off we have using a keyboard and/or mouse and generally operating a PC.

When they do this in movies it's always accompanied by "the sound of loads of typing on the keyboard." Even if all they're doing is the equivalent of 1 mouse click, or copying and pasting a name into a search field you get a huge rattle of keys.

Partly this is erroneous Foley work (Foley is where they make sound effects for films) but also it's the acting - the actors need to do something to represent "oh, now I'm operating the PC" so they pretend to hammer the keys. No matter how inappropriate that typing actually is.

Second is zooming in on things.

This is worst with video images, especially security cameras, which are generally very low resolution. Resolution is basically the number of pixels that an image contains and therefore defines the limits of the detail contained within an image.

So here's the classic - there's a grainy bit of video footage that shows the villain running to/from his crime. But as you look at it you can't really tell who it is. They then proceed to "blow it up" or "enhance it" and, as they get closer, or press a few buttons, suddenly the image becomes clearer and clearer until -dun-dun-dun- person X is revealed.

Bullshit.

If a picture is grainy and/or low resolution then that's it - you can't "blow it up" or "enhance it" and suddenly all this details appears. That's what low resolution means - the detail is lost. To add it in you have to make it up.

Third is how all unattractive female nerds are always actually gorgeous women wearing glasses and with bad hair, who, having removed said glasses and got a haircut, suddenly turn into sex-bombs they really are underneath. Then, all the men who bullied them or wouldn't touch them with a barge-pole are desperate to get in their knickers.

This is just ludicrous. If a nerd chick is hot, then they're hot - there are such women in existence. If they're not hot then yeah, maybe a make-over and a haircut might help a bit, but it won't suddenly transform them into the world's most gorgeous woman.

Of course there's one fundamental one above all of this, but it's so general and all pervasive it's not worth mentioning. It's the capability of technology.

Written yourself into a hole? Well that's okay, some piece of technology or miraculous bit of software will get you out of that fix.

I actually blame Bond for this one. In every Bond film Q always manages to give him the exact bit of kit that will get him out of the tight spot he finds himself in. I mean is Q fucking psychic or what?

Need the plot to jump to the next exciting event? Well, have some software that, after some keyboard hammering reveals the big secret and sends the hero on his way.

This is basically the entire plot of every 24 episode ever. Ether that or the reverse - the technology give misinformation or it will take exactly 10 minutes to unlock the file with the plans for the bomb in, but Jack only has exactly 9minutes before the bomb goes off.

Need a character (any character that is - except for the ham-fisted ludditic hero, all characters are master hackers) to do some hacking? Or foil a hacker/virus? Well of course obviously he's going to use software that paints a load of pretty pictures on the screen and does fabulous visual things.

Hacking is never a dull exercise of typing shell commands into uninteresting command prompt windows. Ever. It's visually stunning.

And don't get me started on how powerful computers are in films. Even a humble laptop can process 20 gigabyte image file in a matter of seconds.

abandoned ideas 1

I was looking at my folder where I keep my stories. Mostly, if I'm generous, I can say that they're all work in progress. The reality is more that many of them have been, if not abandoned, then moth-balled indefinitely.

I though I might do some posts covering some of these ideas, just for the hell of it.

Mall Games

The idea of this was it was a mall where, in order to buy thing, you had to go on raids and shoot your way through to the item and then to the checkout. So if you wanted to buy some toilet rolls you'd have to blast your way through to aisle 15 or whatever and then get to the checkout where you would pay and go.

I still like the idea - it has some potential as either a comedic thing or an ironic thing, or even as a satire. The problem is that the framework for it seemed never to come together.

At one point it was a virtual thing. In order to go shopping you logged in and the combat was virtual. But then, how would that work? If it's virtual it's like so what? There's no real danger - are you playing the game to get discount coupons or something? And why go to all that trouble just for a pack of toilet rolls? Plus it's compulsory or what? And what's the underlying story - what are the character arcs?

The other way is it was real, but again what's the framework? And what's with the checkouts? You have to kill your way through just to buy toilet rolls? And there are checkout staff to let you buy your toilet rolls you just killed 5 people to buy?

It kinda didn't make any real sense.

I did come up with a couple of possible other ideas to it, though. If it was virtual there could have been a conspiracy that actually you were controlling real people and they got killed where you were safe. This seemed a little impractical - where do all the bodies go? And where do they come from? It's also a bit "running man".

The other idea was that it was following a young kid and maybe it was some sort of tournament. Maybe a lethal version of Supermarket Sweep? This was the closest to coalescing into a story, but again there were things that didn't quite make sense.

monday funday

Had a bit of a blow - it's like mixed good and bad news.

My "tappy friend" at work, thumper, was successful with his interview and they've selected him for the contract. So, yay, no more foot-tapping madness.

But unfortunately they need him to do a thing before he can work there and it's not really happened yet, so even though he was supposed to start work today he isn't. The bigger problem is that he had to do something similar for a previous contract and that took ages. So long, in fact, that the contract was over before it had finished, so he never worked there on-site (they just gave him a few bits he could take away).

I so hope the same doesn't happen here. Fingers crossed he now starts next week some time (so not much benefit before Chrimbo).

There's also been another horrendous annoyance. They're digging up the main road (the A325) in Borden. Unfortunately the Tesco's there is where I tend to do most of my food shopping and they've put these temporary traffic lights up that are just a total fucking nightmare.

The A325 gets a lot of traffic, especially at lunchtime and in the rush hour and the temporary lights aren't synchronised with the proper lights, so it's been creating enormous tailback. On one occasion I turned back as it was clear that when I eventually arrived I'd need to set off back again (and probably still be late).

Did most if not all of the intended cleaning stuff this last weekend. It was a bit knackering and the weather took another cold spell and cleaning in my flat when it's cold isn't that much fun.

Well, living in my flat when it's cold isn't much fun full-stop, but there you go.

I got the chance to do a bit of scanning - not as much as I'd hoped, but better than nothing. I've only 5 artbooks left now. I think I've been spurred on by that a bit - I'm up for keeping going with the artbooks, where I normally start to flag quite quickly. Maybe I can have them done before Chrimbo, you never know.

Anyway, more scanning means more animu watched:

• Casshern Sins is good. It's actually a remake (and intended kick-start to a franchise apparently) of a very old show - one from back in the 70's I believe. Interestingly they've gone for a retro style for the character designs, but the animation is thoroughly modern, and it's very pretty indeed. I have to admit that I found the 1st episode very confusing, but after that it seemed to really settle down and it's got quite an intriguing story (although it is an amnesia job, which is a little cliché).
• Tytania seems quite good. It's sort of a classic sci-fi show (or space opera, even - literally in the case of the opening theme :/) although the story is fairly neutrally told. The Tytania of the title is a family who are sort of a bunch of tyrants, but they're not particularly portrayed as being evil and there wasn't really any direct evidence of them doing specific cruelties or anything (well, they shoot some guy, but that's more about politics than them oppressing a planet's population or something). The good guy is also something of a flake, though surprisingly bright with it. However, it looks like they blew the budget on the CGI spaceships as the rest of the animation is a little... lacking.

Have you noticed how these brief summary opinion things seem to be getting longer and longer and turning into mini reviews :/.