Potentially there's some big news at work today, assuming things go as planned.
It involves either a 'yes' or a 'no' and part of me is quite keen on it being a yes, whereas another part of me quite wants it to be a no.
I know that's all a bit cryptic, but it's a business thing so I dunno if putting it into the public domain is a good idea.
This weekend will be an expensive and long-winded one I fear. The snow's really played havoc with... well everything, but one of the things has been the postal system. As such I've been getting loads of parcels and stuff quite late. Two of them appear to be more stuff from Japan and I've been hit with customs charges on them.
Interestingly, I'm collecting these from Farnham post office. Normally I pick them up from the depot in Aldershot. Not sure what that means (other than that the charges seem to be cheaper this time).
But also the couriers tried to deliver the latest newtype, animedia and animage to me but left one of those 'missed you' notes. Luckily they always try redelivery the next day, so hopefully my landlord will be in to collect, but if not, it probably means a drive over to Reading (which is bloody miles away).
I'll need to go shopping on Saturday morning too, which will be a big one as the whole snow cut-off thing means I've not been able to shop properly for several weeks. On the plus side this meant I've cleared out some older stuff from the cupboards/freezer that needed eating, but then it also means I've used up all sorts of bits and bobs that now need replacing in one hit.
I think I'll therefore probably try to do as little else that involves spending money over the weekend as possible. I certainly need to give the place a good clean, so I'll probably do that.
I did actually find a work-around for the whole Civ3 space-race victory bug by searching online, btw. It was to do with the movie it tries to play - I guess there's some incompatibility or other with XP or something. But that means I won that game, although I do seem to still be playing (if you win early it lets you play on) but my interest has waned.
I'm hoping therefore this weekend will basically be Civ-less and I can crack into loads of stuff (especially finishing bloomin trigun and blassreiter!). But then best laid plans and all that :/.
Oh, I forgot - another thing the snow seems to have knackered is the roads. The roads around Alton are in a shocking state. I'm assuming it's the snow and not the heavy rain we had, though it could be a combination of both.
But anyway, great big holes seem to have been gouged in the roads, with loads of loose gravel from them. It's odd, but it kinda reminds me of geography lessons and the whole "glaciation" type of weathering, where glaciers grind rocks along. But I'm sure this is more about the snow affecting where cars could drive and how they drove.
Friday, 13 February 2009
Thursday, 12 February 2009
growing intolerance
Recently I've found myself becoming more and more annoyed at religion.
I've never understood religion. I've never believed in a God or the supernatural on any level. To me they make wonderful stories, but nothing more. I lend no more credence to the idea of werewolves, ghosts or vampires actually existing than I do to the idea of God existing.
To me all these things reflect is the wonderful power of the human imagination. To me that's the miraculous and amazing thing, not the idea that there's some supreme being.
There are quite a few varieties of religion of course and on some levels I can understand why some people have a belief in "something". For some people I can understand that desire/need/hope. I don't personally think it's valid. I can believe that next week I'm going to win the lottery, that belief doesn't therefore mean it's going to happen, which to me seems the logical flaw in most religion.
Somehow words like "faith" and "belief" have a sort of get-out clause when it comes to the rational world. It sometimes seems that the rational and the scientific, the empirical and the proof are supposed to take a back seat when it comes to matters of religion. To me, this is patently ridiculous and also on some levels dangerous.
All things must be subject to rationality and the burden of proof. That's what it means to be alive. I don't run across motorways because I've been exposed to sufficient proof that by doing so I'm exposing myself to an unnecessary (and high) risk of death. Things in life need proof and rationality.
This is something of a sea-change for me. I used to say that I had no objections to other people believing in whatever they wanted. Nowadays I find myself less tolerant.
I think I'm still okay with people who believe in "something" or that leave the door open, as it were - as I say, I can understand this, even if it is silly - what I don't like is organised religions. Especially the main single-God faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
I'd never go so far as to trot out the old "religions cause wars". I think that lacks a certain understanding of the nature people. People struggle for power. Religion is and was always just a convenient way of manipulating people to do what you want in order to get/secure power for those at the top.
There's a good parallel with patriotism. Patriotism is essentially illogical, but it can be used to get people to join up to the military to fight wars - look especially at World War 1. Now is that the fault of patriotism itself, or the fault of those people in power who abused patriotism to get people to sign up?
However, what I do lay firmly at Religion's door is it's unequivocal nature. There's no compromise in these religions. Whilst those of us who are atheist are expected to allow others to believe what they want and give them the room and facilities to pray to whatever fictional friend they like, the very heart of those same religions is that if you do not believe then you are going to hell.
It is also the job of believers to convert people to their religion. That's what it's all about. Salvation through belief and faith.
So now I think the same way - salvation through atheism, rationality and science.
Note I'm not advocating "belief" in science or "belief" in atheism. It's a common mistake people make, but these things do not require your belief, since they are fact; whereas religion does.
I've never understood religion. I've never believed in a God or the supernatural on any level. To me they make wonderful stories, but nothing more. I lend no more credence to the idea of werewolves, ghosts or vampires actually existing than I do to the idea of God existing.
To me all these things reflect is the wonderful power of the human imagination. To me that's the miraculous and amazing thing, not the idea that there's some supreme being.
There are quite a few varieties of religion of course and on some levels I can understand why some people have a belief in "something". For some people I can understand that desire/need/hope. I don't personally think it's valid. I can believe that next week I'm going to win the lottery, that belief doesn't therefore mean it's going to happen, which to me seems the logical flaw in most religion.
Somehow words like "faith" and "belief" have a sort of get-out clause when it comes to the rational world. It sometimes seems that the rational and the scientific, the empirical and the proof are supposed to take a back seat when it comes to matters of religion. To me, this is patently ridiculous and also on some levels dangerous.
All things must be subject to rationality and the burden of proof. That's what it means to be alive. I don't run across motorways because I've been exposed to sufficient proof that by doing so I'm exposing myself to an unnecessary (and high) risk of death. Things in life need proof and rationality.
This is something of a sea-change for me. I used to say that I had no objections to other people believing in whatever they wanted. Nowadays I find myself less tolerant.
I think I'm still okay with people who believe in "something" or that leave the door open, as it were - as I say, I can understand this, even if it is silly - what I don't like is organised religions. Especially the main single-God faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
I'd never go so far as to trot out the old "religions cause wars". I think that lacks a certain understanding of the nature people. People struggle for power. Religion is and was always just a convenient way of manipulating people to do what you want in order to get/secure power for those at the top.
There's a good parallel with patriotism. Patriotism is essentially illogical, but it can be used to get people to join up to the military to fight wars - look especially at World War 1. Now is that the fault of patriotism itself, or the fault of those people in power who abused patriotism to get people to sign up?
However, what I do lay firmly at Religion's door is it's unequivocal nature. There's no compromise in these religions. Whilst those of us who are atheist are expected to allow others to believe what they want and give them the room and facilities to pray to whatever fictional friend they like, the very heart of those same religions is that if you do not believe then you are going to hell.
It is also the job of believers to convert people to their religion. That's what it's all about. Salvation through belief and faith.
So now I think the same way - salvation through atheism, rationality and science.
Note I'm not advocating "belief" in science or "belief" in atheism. It's a common mistake people make, but these things do not require your belief, since they are fact; whereas religion does.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Black Christmas
I didn't have a rental DVD to watch this week, due mainly to the weather, so I watched this film I'd recorded over Christmas.
It's actually really old - 1974 if memory serves - but it's quite good. I think they remade it recently, which seems to be quite a trend. I think they're remaking both Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street too.
I guess it's because the remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween must have done okay box-office wise. Dunno, it seems a bit ill-conceived to me.
Anyway, Black Christmas is a bit of an odd beast. The killer in it appears to be a truly deranged psychotic and he's pretty scary. There's lots of point-of-view camera work where he stalks around, for example. Also the scariest bits are these mad phone calls he makes where he rants and raves in weird voices and makes animal sounds.
I think also these are meant to provide you with some of the back story to his character. Some of the stuff he says hints that he was an abused child and stuff.
The problem is this doesn't really make sense. I mean, it's not like he behaves normally at all, and yet the flashes we get of him he seems to have a decent (70's) haircut and wears fairly new clothes. He also seems clean and presentable (very neat nails, for example) - how would he be like that if he's a total nut job?
I think what they were trying to do was sell a red herring to the audience about who the killer is supposed to be. The problem is that although this red herring is believable for the characters it isn't for us. Given some of the stuff we've seen it makes no sense as a red herring and so doesn't really provide any kind of scares.
There's also a lot of stuff that doesn't quite make sense. It's like one of the dead bodies is basically next to a window and although that window is for an attic it's weird that nobody sees it at all.
There are also quite a few moments where the noise of a murder is meant to be disguised by another sound, like carollers singing (it's set at Christmas if you hadn't guessed) but these don't really add up. Carollers aren't that loud.
Plus some of the ways people behave don't quite make sense.
I'm probably being too harsh here - it was a low budget psycho-killer film before such things were commonplace and as far as the actual killings go they're pretty good. It's just it seemed a bit long and with some long gaps between the murders that were filled with some stuff that didn't quite make sense.
It's actually really old - 1974 if memory serves - but it's quite good. I think they remade it recently, which seems to be quite a trend. I think they're remaking both Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street too.
I guess it's because the remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween must have done okay box-office wise. Dunno, it seems a bit ill-conceived to me.
Anyway, Black Christmas is a bit of an odd beast. The killer in it appears to be a truly deranged psychotic and he's pretty scary. There's lots of point-of-view camera work where he stalks around, for example. Also the scariest bits are these mad phone calls he makes where he rants and raves in weird voices and makes animal sounds.
I think also these are meant to provide you with some of the back story to his character. Some of the stuff he says hints that he was an abused child and stuff.
The problem is this doesn't really make sense. I mean, it's not like he behaves normally at all, and yet the flashes we get of him he seems to have a decent (70's) haircut and wears fairly new clothes. He also seems clean and presentable (very neat nails, for example) - how would he be like that if he's a total nut job?
I think what they were trying to do was sell a red herring to the audience about who the killer is supposed to be. The problem is that although this red herring is believable for the characters it isn't for us. Given some of the stuff we've seen it makes no sense as a red herring and so doesn't really provide any kind of scares.
There's also a lot of stuff that doesn't quite make sense. It's like one of the dead bodies is basically next to a window and although that window is for an attic it's weird that nobody sees it at all.
There are also quite a few moments where the noise of a murder is meant to be disguised by another sound, like carollers singing (it's set at Christmas if you hadn't guessed) but these don't really add up. Carollers aren't that loud.
Plus some of the ways people behave don't quite make sense.
I'm probably being too harsh here - it was a low budget psycho-killer film before such things were commonplace and as far as the actual killings go they're pretty good. It's just it seemed a bit long and with some long gaps between the murders that were filled with some stuff that didn't quite make sense.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
wrong order
Don't you hate when someone gets your order wrong?
I guess it happens most often in restaurants and places like that, but what I'm referring to specifically is on-line ordering. This is one of the big advantages of shopping in the real world - you know exactly what it is you're buying and you hand over your cash in exchange for that.
Also, if something goes wrong when you get home or whatever you've talked a real human who probably remembers you and, if you're sensible you've kept the receipt and you can just take it back.
One of the problems with being an anime fan is that you can't buy that much of it in the shops. Especially if you're an English fan like me. I like anime and I tend to buy a lot of it (too much, really) but that means I have to buy a lot of American (DVD region 1) stuff.
I have imported directly, but the problem there is you tend to get hit for customs occasionally and that's not cheap (see my posts about figurines I've bought that customs nabbed and made me pay VAT on - the VAT's not to bad, the fact that the Post Office charge 3 times as much again to "process" it for you is the real killer). So what I do instead is use certain sites that import the DVDs themselves and then sell them on.
I won't actually name names as obviously this post is about them making a mistake because really I still like them. See, the main problem is that I kinda understand the error they've made it's quite an easy one to have made.
Basically, I'm a huge fan of Code Geass and I've been desperately looking forward to the release of Geass on DVD by Bandai who hold the licence in American. The problem is that Bandai have make a huge mess of releasing it on DVD.
It was delayed for some reason and has taken a good while to come out (Gurren Lagann was out in Japan at a similar time and that's already been released). When it did come out there was some huge technical cock up that meant the first lot of disks were buggered.
They also released it in a confusing array of sets - there was supposed to be a single DVD box-set, but that was apparently cancelled (although it seemed to turn up later, but I'd already got the individual one by then). They were also releasing them as individual DVDs - so we're talking 6 individual DVD boxes. But then on top of that they're releasing them as three 2-DVD sets. So DVDs 1 & 2 in one box, 3 & 4 in one box and 5 & 6 in one box.
Okay, fine I thought - I bought the individual DVDs as that just seemed simpler to me. However, now the time has rolled around for disks 5 & 6 to be released, but there's no sign of them. However, the 3rd of the 2-DVD boxes has come out.
(Confused yet? You'll understand why the company made the error then!)
So I ordered that (as I say, I'm too desperate to watch the show to wait).
And recently this company sent it to me... only they didn't. What they've actually done is send me the third individual DVD, not the 3rd box set!
I wouldn't mind too much if they were the same price - I'd just forget about it and do another order. However, they aren't - the box set is more expensive than the individual one.
Trouble is I'd already ripped the cellophane off before I'd realised :(.
See this is why I hate it when people get your order wrong - because things get horribly complicated.
I guess it happens most often in restaurants and places like that, but what I'm referring to specifically is on-line ordering. This is one of the big advantages of shopping in the real world - you know exactly what it is you're buying and you hand over your cash in exchange for that.
Also, if something goes wrong when you get home or whatever you've talked a real human who probably remembers you and, if you're sensible you've kept the receipt and you can just take it back.
One of the problems with being an anime fan is that you can't buy that much of it in the shops. Especially if you're an English fan like me. I like anime and I tend to buy a lot of it (too much, really) but that means I have to buy a lot of American (DVD region 1) stuff.
I have imported directly, but the problem there is you tend to get hit for customs occasionally and that's not cheap (see my posts about figurines I've bought that customs nabbed and made me pay VAT on - the VAT's not to bad, the fact that the Post Office charge 3 times as much again to "process" it for you is the real killer). So what I do instead is use certain sites that import the DVDs themselves and then sell them on.
I won't actually name names as obviously this post is about them making a mistake because really I still like them. See, the main problem is that I kinda understand the error they've made it's quite an easy one to have made.
Basically, I'm a huge fan of Code Geass and I've been desperately looking forward to the release of Geass on DVD by Bandai who hold the licence in American. The problem is that Bandai have make a huge mess of releasing it on DVD.
It was delayed for some reason and has taken a good while to come out (Gurren Lagann was out in Japan at a similar time and that's already been released). When it did come out there was some huge technical cock up that meant the first lot of disks were buggered.
They also released it in a confusing array of sets - there was supposed to be a single DVD box-set, but that was apparently cancelled (although it seemed to turn up later, but I'd already got the individual one by then). They were also releasing them as individual DVDs - so we're talking 6 individual DVD boxes. But then on top of that they're releasing them as three 2-DVD sets. So DVDs 1 & 2 in one box, 3 & 4 in one box and 5 & 6 in one box.
Okay, fine I thought - I bought the individual DVDs as that just seemed simpler to me. However, now the time has rolled around for disks 5 & 6 to be released, but there's no sign of them. However, the 3rd of the 2-DVD boxes has come out.
(Confused yet? You'll understand why the company made the error then!)
So I ordered that (as I say, I'm too desperate to watch the show to wait).
And recently this company sent it to me... only they didn't. What they've actually done is send me the third individual DVD, not the 3rd box set!
I wouldn't mind too much if they were the same price - I'd just forget about it and do another order. However, they aren't - the box set is more expensive than the individual one.
Trouble is I'd already ripped the cellophane off before I'd realised :(.
See this is why I hate it when people get your order wrong - because things get horribly complicated.
Monday, 9 February 2009
civ3 adventures
Well, as I predicted/feared I spent almost all of the weekend playing Civ3.
To be entirely fair this wasn't all my fault. Saturday morning I went out to check on how the weather situation was and the basic headline was "extremely cold". This meant that the slush and snow that was left on the road that connects us to the estate had frozen solid and was therefore as slippery as fuck.
That meant I was pretty much trapped indoors. The sun did come out on both Saturday and Sunday and even though it never really warmed up, the sun tends to melt the snow despite that.
Now the honest thing of me to do would have been to do something practical or useful. There were lots of options
I could have watched some anime. I'm on the verge of finishing both Trigun and Blassreiter, for example. This would also have been a good thing because I need to realise some capital - heating my place doesn't come cheap and sellig a few anime bits on e-bay would go a lone way to help.
I could also have watched some fansubs while scanning the new megami. This would have put me ahead of the game, as it were - never a bad thing.
Another option would have been to watch some normal box sets or DVDs - I've loads of them kicking about too. Or I could have done some walling - I'm literally on the very cusp of finishing several walls. And for that matter I could have worked on some future website updates - hardly exciting but it needs to be done as I'm catching up with my backlog a bit. I could even have done some writing - the chaos of the last week hasn't helped me concentrate much on that.
But no, instead I just played Civ3. Again. Like I didn't spend several weeks moaning about how it was killing all my spare time a few months ago. Idiot.
The only thing I did manage to stay on top of was TV. Although I start with good intentions every week I find that I get quite a large stack of TV I've recorded when I get to the weekend. I managed to keep on top of that at least.
I also watched a movie I recorded over Christmas. Mainly this was thanks to the fact that my next rental DVD is delayed. The snow has really poxed up the mail - I've loads of stuff that I know has been sent to me but that I've not got yet.
But I'm an idiot wasting all my time like that. The only good thing is that I've got much more of an impetus to the game I'm currently playing, as I've run up against a bug. Basically, if I launch my spaceship then it tries to play a cut-scene and this causes the game to crash. I therefore can't win in that way, but it also means I need to get on and hammer the other races so that they can't launch their spaceships and beat me either.
Usually I play until the time limit games, but the problem with them is I've clearly won by two-thirds of the way through, so I get bored. This time at least I've got a definite goal - not that it's an easy one to achieve in a short time period, so I could still be playing for some time!
To be entirely fair this wasn't all my fault. Saturday morning I went out to check on how the weather situation was and the basic headline was "extremely cold". This meant that the slush and snow that was left on the road that connects us to the estate had frozen solid and was therefore as slippery as fuck.
That meant I was pretty much trapped indoors. The sun did come out on both Saturday and Sunday and even though it never really warmed up, the sun tends to melt the snow despite that.
Now the honest thing of me to do would have been to do something practical or useful. There were lots of options
I could have watched some anime. I'm on the verge of finishing both Trigun and Blassreiter, for example. This would also have been a good thing because I need to realise some capital - heating my place doesn't come cheap and sellig a few anime bits on e-bay would go a lone way to help.
I could also have watched some fansubs while scanning the new megami. This would have put me ahead of the game, as it were - never a bad thing.
Another option would have been to watch some normal box sets or DVDs - I've loads of them kicking about too. Or I could have done some walling - I'm literally on the very cusp of finishing several walls. And for that matter I could have worked on some future website updates - hardly exciting but it needs to be done as I'm catching up with my backlog a bit. I could even have done some writing - the chaos of the last week hasn't helped me concentrate much on that.
But no, instead I just played Civ3. Again. Like I didn't spend several weeks moaning about how it was killing all my spare time a few months ago. Idiot.
The only thing I did manage to stay on top of was TV. Although I start with good intentions every week I find that I get quite a large stack of TV I've recorded when I get to the weekend. I managed to keep on top of that at least.
I also watched a movie I recorded over Christmas. Mainly this was thanks to the fact that my next rental DVD is delayed. The snow has really poxed up the mail - I've loads of stuff that I know has been sent to me but that I've not got yet.
But I'm an idiot wasting all my time like that. The only good thing is that I've got much more of an impetus to the game I'm currently playing, as I've run up against a bug. Basically, if I launch my spaceship then it tries to play a cut-scene and this causes the game to crash. I therefore can't win in that way, but it also means I need to get on and hammer the other races so that they can't launch their spaceships and beat me either.
Usually I play until the time limit games, but the problem with them is I've clearly won by two-thirds of the way through, so I get bored. This time at least I've got a definite goal - not that it's an easy one to achieve in a short time period, so I could still be playing for some time!
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