I'm having a shitty day.
There's a bid I'm doing and it's not going well. I kinda guessed it wouldn't and it's clearly a total mess and an utter waste of time.
What makes it worse is that I have no idea why we're bidding it - it holds almost no relevance for us and we won't hardly do any of the work I imagine.
What makes it annoying is that the people who will do all the work have utterly dropped the ball. They were given extremely clear instructions on what to do and what they returned to us utterly failed to meet those instructions.
Plus it was late and considering they've done virtually fuck all, that lateness is just plain insulting.
What I was really hoping was my boss would just say fuck it - don't bother. These people haven't held up their end so why are we bending over backwards to get the bid done?
It's times like this I wish I could just fuck off somewhere and get drunk.
Friday, 20 March 2009
Thursday, 19 March 2009
an uneventful week
So I've totally failed to do any scanning. I've no particular excuse - I just couldn't be bothered is the truth. This weekend seems the best candidate for getting it done (or started at least).
I'm also planning to do a bit of e-baying this weekend. I've a few things I can flog and I need to generate a bit of cash to help out over the coming months. It's an expensive time of year what with things like car tax and car insurance due.
I've been watching Rocket Girls in the evenings. It's a quirky little show that's kinda difficult to describe.
It's ostensibly about a bunch of oddballs and their attempts to get a Japanese manned space programme going. Now that premise could easily be done in a deadly serious way, but with Rocket Girls there's a much lighter approach taken.
But the key to it is that it does also keep the serious side intact. So the space programme isn't SF type space flight - it's orbiter modules strapped to solid-fuel rockets and there's weightlesness and no sound in space, etc. But then equally it maintains the lighter anime side - the girls wear fan-service approved skin tight costumes, for example.
And yes I did say girls and the 'girls' in the title are actual high-school girls. And that's exactly what I mean - it's anime so they're cute girls, but it's not as daft as it sounds - girls weigh less and these are basically smart kids so they're not just eye candy.
It actually reminds me of a programme I once saw that basically said that women make far better astronauts than men. Because they're smaller and less bulky they're easier to get up there, but also from a weightlessness point of view having bigger muscles is actually useless. In fact, it can be more problematic, not least of all because bigger muscles suffer worse in terms of wasting away under zero-g conditions.
So it's not as daft as it sounds, but equally, it is kinda daft. Which is all good, because it's a comedy series at heart.
I also acquired the comic version of Wanted the other day and have started on it. I've gotta say I'm not hugely impressed. It gives the distinct impression of trying to be a Watchmen for Super-villains, but, well, simpler and less well written if I'm honest.
I also started on the Death Note manga. I'd only ordered volume 1 so that if it was dire I wasn't really loosing out too much - I could just flog it on e-bay and forget about it. I've ordered the other volumes so I guess that means it's not dire, although I'm not entirely sure it's as good as people seem to have been saying it is.
I'll reserve judgement for until I've read more, but I dunno, it seems almost to be moving too fast for its own good.
I'm also planning to do a bit of e-baying this weekend. I've a few things I can flog and I need to generate a bit of cash to help out over the coming months. It's an expensive time of year what with things like car tax and car insurance due.
I've been watching Rocket Girls in the evenings. It's a quirky little show that's kinda difficult to describe.
It's ostensibly about a bunch of oddballs and their attempts to get a Japanese manned space programme going. Now that premise could easily be done in a deadly serious way, but with Rocket Girls there's a much lighter approach taken.
But the key to it is that it does also keep the serious side intact. So the space programme isn't SF type space flight - it's orbiter modules strapped to solid-fuel rockets and there's weightlesness and no sound in space, etc. But then equally it maintains the lighter anime side - the girls wear fan-service approved skin tight costumes, for example.
And yes I did say girls and the 'girls' in the title are actual high-school girls. And that's exactly what I mean - it's anime so they're cute girls, but it's not as daft as it sounds - girls weigh less and these are basically smart kids so they're not just eye candy.
It actually reminds me of a programme I once saw that basically said that women make far better astronauts than men. Because they're smaller and less bulky they're easier to get up there, but also from a weightlessness point of view having bigger muscles is actually useless. In fact, it can be more problematic, not least of all because bigger muscles suffer worse in terms of wasting away under zero-g conditions.
So it's not as daft as it sounds, but equally, it is kinda daft. Which is all good, because it's a comedy series at heart.
I also acquired the comic version of Wanted the other day and have started on it. I've gotta say I'm not hugely impressed. It gives the distinct impression of trying to be a Watchmen for Super-villains, but, well, simpler and less well written if I'm honest.
I also started on the Death Note manga. I'd only ordered volume 1 so that if it was dire I wasn't really loosing out too much - I could just flog it on e-bay and forget about it. I've ordered the other volumes so I guess that means it's not dire, although I'm not entirely sure it's as good as people seem to have been saying it is.
I'll reserve judgement for until I've read more, but I dunno, it seems almost to be moving too fast for its own good.
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
wanted
This weeks rental DVD was... nothing. I didn't have one for some reason. I've generally found lovefilm to be pretty good - certainly they've maintained quicker turn-around times than I used to get with the old Amazon system.
However, this week, even though I sent the disc back on Monday there was no sign of my next rental. I checked it at the end of the week and was going to report it as a problem, but it said to give it 4 days. I then got my "it's been sent" e-mail on Saturday.
Dunno why there was the delay, but either way it meant I didn't have a rental disk to watch. This was advantageous in a way as it meant I watched more telly shows, but it also gave me the chance to watch a purchased DVD - in this case wanted.
Overall, it's a pretty fun movie.
The basic idea is that the hero is a super-assassin with special powers but at the start of the movie he doesn't know that. During the course of the movie he learns all about his powers as well as the Fraternity, a secret cabal of assassins who shape fate.
I won't do a full review here as I'll leave that for trismugistus.com at a later date, but overall I'd recommend watching it.
I wouldn't say the plot was all that great, but it's a real roller coaster action film that provides a lot of really enjoyable fights and chases. After it finished I had quite a lots of bits where I thought "that didn't make any sense" or "why did that happen?" but it's that sort of movie.
Visually it's stunning, especially since it doesn't do anything too over-the-top with the camera. Often you can watch these films and feel ill because the camera's swirling about all over the place. Here, although there are plenty of stylistic flourishes, the action is filmed in a much more straight way and so it's much easier to watch and enjoy.
---
I finished Derren Brown's book "Tricks of the Mind" over the weekend. I think I mentioned this when I started reading it and it's not that it's taken me months to read, more that I read the first half really quickly, then left it on the shelf for months and then picked it up again a little while ago.
Not sure why I did that - I've enjoyed the book - I just, I don't know, kinda got distracted, maybe?
Anyway, it's a real mish-mash of stuff, which is cool. I mean as an example there's a section on techniques for improving your memory but there's also a bit on debunking pseudo-science/mysticism and why Derren is no longer a Christian. It's quite a range of subjects, but then also it's a range of styles - memory stuff is verging on self-help (that's the wrong word, but you get the idea) whereas the debunking is more polemic.
But then you've also got humorous stories and anecdotes that border on making the book auto-biographical and stuff on how to do hypnosis as well as a fascinating discussion on why hypnosis doesn't actually exist mixed in there as well. As I say, weird mix, but it certainly works.
However, this week, even though I sent the disc back on Monday there was no sign of my next rental. I checked it at the end of the week and was going to report it as a problem, but it said to give it 4 days. I then got my "it's been sent" e-mail on Saturday.
Dunno why there was the delay, but either way it meant I didn't have a rental disk to watch. This was advantageous in a way as it meant I watched more telly shows, but it also gave me the chance to watch a purchased DVD - in this case wanted.
Overall, it's a pretty fun movie.
The basic idea is that the hero is a super-assassin with special powers but at the start of the movie he doesn't know that. During the course of the movie he learns all about his powers as well as the Fraternity, a secret cabal of assassins who shape fate.
I won't do a full review here as I'll leave that for trismugistus.com at a later date, but overall I'd recommend watching it.
I wouldn't say the plot was all that great, but it's a real roller coaster action film that provides a lot of really enjoyable fights and chases. After it finished I had quite a lots of bits where I thought "that didn't make any sense" or "why did that happen?" but it's that sort of movie.
Visually it's stunning, especially since it doesn't do anything too over-the-top with the camera. Often you can watch these films and feel ill because the camera's swirling about all over the place. Here, although there are plenty of stylistic flourishes, the action is filmed in a much more straight way and so it's much easier to watch and enjoy.
---
I finished Derren Brown's book "Tricks of the Mind" over the weekend. I think I mentioned this when I started reading it and it's not that it's taken me months to read, more that I read the first half really quickly, then left it on the shelf for months and then picked it up again a little while ago.
Not sure why I did that - I've enjoyed the book - I just, I don't know, kinda got distracted, maybe?
Anyway, it's a real mish-mash of stuff, which is cool. I mean as an example there's a section on techniques for improving your memory but there's also a bit on debunking pseudo-science/mysticism and why Derren is no longer a Christian. It's quite a range of subjects, but then also it's a range of styles - memory stuff is verging on self-help (that's the wrong word, but you get the idea) whereas the debunking is more polemic.
But then you've also got humorous stories and anecdotes that border on making the book auto-biographical and stuff on how to do hypnosis as well as a fascinating discussion on why hypnosis doesn't actually exist mixed in there as well. As I say, weird mix, but it certainly works.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
or not 200
That's odd - according to the side bar over there that post wasn't the 200th. It says I made 147 posts in 2008 and 48 posts in 2009, which is only 195 :/. But according to the back-end dashboard thing I've made 200 posts. Odd.
Yesterday was a bit rubbish.
In the morning, as I was going out to my car, I realised I'd forgotten to fill my windscreen fluid, so I had to dash back in and get the fluid and some water. But as I did that I knocked over a bottle of oil I keep for frying chips.
It didn't quite 'go everywhere' but it made a mess on the floor, so I wiped up most of it, but had to leave properly cleaning it until I got back. I was slightly afraid the bottle of oil had cracked and would leak everywhere while I was at work.
Anyway, putting the fluid in (and the clean-up) took about 10 minutes and that meant I set off a lot later than I would normally, so I hit more traffic, which meant the journey to work was rubbish.
It was also quite warm yesterday - so much so that I didn't have to turn my heating on at all at home until just before bed. But at work, the heating was still on full blast and even though I turned down the radiator closest to me that didn't help much. So I had a fan on for most of the day but still sweated like a pig. Of course that's partially my fault for not getting my bloody hair cut at the weekend.
Then last night I had to clean up the oil mess properly, put my shopping away and cook dinner. Only for some reason I'd decided to have a fry-up - well, I know the reason, it was because I'd all sorts of random left overs. But the point is a fry-up is hardly a quick meal to do.
That meant I didn't eat until 8-ish and that obviously wrote off starting any scanning. But also I watched a documentary on peter kay's comic relief song while I had my dinner but for some reason it was all broken up due to poor reception. That wouldn't have been surprising if it was on 5, but this was channel 4 where I normally have good reception :/.
Anyway, I decided to watch the Red Garden OAV instead, so I've now finished all of that.
I guess I should warn for spoilers as I'm going to discuss the OAV which is a sequel to the show.
It's rather confusing. It's set several hundred years into the future and all of the 4 girls are still alive. This was fine - at the end of the series it's made clear that their bodies won't age and they'll live forever.
What isn't at all clear is how come all of the secondary characters in the original series are there too? Is that supposed to be based on the idea that we look like our ancestors? Well okay, but it becomes more bizarre when you see these descendants still in the same jobs as their ancestors or at the same school, or still friends, etc.
Then you have the added weirdness that the bad guy is there too, but now Lise is his 'sister' only she's not his sister she's a robot/cyborg... where the heck did that come from? And where did the other robots on Roosevelt island come from anyway? Did he make them? Why?
It was all just sort of random. I mean, it wasn't actually bad as such. It was more like they'd planned to do a fll proper sequel, but it got cancelled during production and they decided to compress the story and put it out as an OAV.
Still, it didn't really spoil my enjoyment of the series as a whole.
So that was the cap to the rubbish day - a rather disappointing OAV.
What makes it worse is I've woken up this morning knackered (I didn't stay up late) and therefore in a bad mood. We've got a quality inspection today and I really hope I don't get picked on as part of it as I'm really not up for it.
Yesterday was a bit rubbish.
In the morning, as I was going out to my car, I realised I'd forgotten to fill my windscreen fluid, so I had to dash back in and get the fluid and some water. But as I did that I knocked over a bottle of oil I keep for frying chips.
It didn't quite 'go everywhere' but it made a mess on the floor, so I wiped up most of it, but had to leave properly cleaning it until I got back. I was slightly afraid the bottle of oil had cracked and would leak everywhere while I was at work.
Anyway, putting the fluid in (and the clean-up) took about 10 minutes and that meant I set off a lot later than I would normally, so I hit more traffic, which meant the journey to work was rubbish.
It was also quite warm yesterday - so much so that I didn't have to turn my heating on at all at home until just before bed. But at work, the heating was still on full blast and even though I turned down the radiator closest to me that didn't help much. So I had a fan on for most of the day but still sweated like a pig. Of course that's partially my fault for not getting my bloody hair cut at the weekend.
Then last night I had to clean up the oil mess properly, put my shopping away and cook dinner. Only for some reason I'd decided to have a fry-up - well, I know the reason, it was because I'd all sorts of random left overs. But the point is a fry-up is hardly a quick meal to do.
That meant I didn't eat until 8-ish and that obviously wrote off starting any scanning. But also I watched a documentary on peter kay's comic relief song while I had my dinner but for some reason it was all broken up due to poor reception. That wouldn't have been surprising if it was on 5, but this was channel 4 where I normally have good reception :/.
Anyway, I decided to watch the Red Garden OAV instead, so I've now finished all of that.
I guess I should warn for spoilers as I'm going to discuss the OAV which is a sequel to the show.
It's rather confusing. It's set several hundred years into the future and all of the 4 girls are still alive. This was fine - at the end of the series it's made clear that their bodies won't age and they'll live forever.
What isn't at all clear is how come all of the secondary characters in the original series are there too? Is that supposed to be based on the idea that we look like our ancestors? Well okay, but it becomes more bizarre when you see these descendants still in the same jobs as their ancestors or at the same school, or still friends, etc.
Then you have the added weirdness that the bad guy is there too, but now Lise is his 'sister' only she's not his sister she's a robot/cyborg... where the heck did that come from? And where did the other robots on Roosevelt island come from anyway? Did he make them? Why?
It was all just sort of random. I mean, it wasn't actually bad as such. It was more like they'd planned to do a fll proper sequel, but it got cancelled during production and they decided to compress the story and put it out as an OAV.
Still, it didn't really spoil my enjoyment of the series as a whole.
So that was the cap to the rubbish day - a rather disappointing OAV.
What makes it worse is I've woken up this morning knackered (I didn't stay up late) and therefore in a bad mood. We've got a quality inspection today and I really hope I don't get picked on as part of it as I'm really not up for it.
Monday, 16 March 2009
200th post
Just thought I'd do a specific celebratory post to mark my 200th blog entry!
Not that it really means anything, it just sort of sounds like it does - 200 entries in my blog.
So hurrah for me spouting drivel 200 times in a row!
Not that it really means anything, it just sort of sounds like it does - 200 entries in my blog.
So hurrah for me spouting drivel 200 times in a row!
pulled muscle
I've pulled a muscle in my back. It's sort of in the middle on my right side, a bit below the bottom of my shoulder blade. It doesn't hurt if I just sit still but when I move in a particular way it gives me a bad twinge.
I think I pulled it yesterday while I was re-arranging all my computer gear. I've tried to put all of it on the desk where the actual PCs were on the floor before. Not sure if this is a good idea or not - it means the fans are going to be closer to me so it may be louder. I'll have to see.
I was a bit lazy with doing the desk actually - I should have done it on Saturday as part of cleaning, but I couldn't be arsed. Well, I say that, I was pretty damn knackered by mid-afternoon Saturday so maybe I couldn't have done it.
Anyway, the re-arranging took a lot longer than I thought (such things always do - you forget haw many cables and bits there are too sort out) so I did no scanning whatsoever.
That leaves me something of a quandary for the week - do I spend my evenings scanning? Or do I keep up the pace with watching anime DVDs? Either way I will watch anime, but when scanning I watch fansubs. I guess watching fansubs will be good too - the spring anime season is rapidly approaching and there will be loads of shows to catch up on. It will be good to be ahead of the game a bit.
Anyway, speaking of watching anime I finished Red Garden. The end was pretty good. There was one scene in particular that was very effective in a brutal horror kind of way. I was a little disappointed not to find out more detail about the history/back-story. It sounded quite interesting and it would have been nice to maybe have a flashback or two fleshing it out.
I haven't watched the OAV yet. I started, but it was quite late at night and having just watched the end of of the main series it was kinda jarring, because it suddenly seemed to leap forward in time and become all sci-fi, but, weirdly, with the same characters. I'm sure watching it with fresh eyes it will make more sense, but it did leave me puzzled.
I made some more of those carrot and pineapple muffins on Friday as well. Last weeks were something of a success in that they didn't collapse or explode and I didn't burn them or anything; however I found them to be very cinamony. Now don't get me wrong I love me some cinnamon, but if you're making carrot and pineapple muffins you at least want to taste the carrot and pineapple a bit.
Anyway, I therefore decided to make some more this week and drastically reduce the cinammon (just a dash instead of a teaspoon full) and, bizarrely, they still don't taste much of pineapple or cinammon. I even chucked in most of the juice the pineapples were in, but it doesn't seem to have helped the taste, only made them a bit too soggy.
Still, they're quite nice. The recipe contains raisins and I love how raisins become plump and juicy when you bake them in cakes and stuff. It's weird, normally they're kind dry things, but baked in cakes they're much nice.
I also made my spag-bol. I made a bit fi a tactical error with that, though as I started it a bit late. The recipe is phenomenal if it's given 3 or 4 hours to bubble away and reduce down, but I only had about 2 hours. It's still really nice, but in the back of my mind I know it could be even better.
I think I pulled it yesterday while I was re-arranging all my computer gear. I've tried to put all of it on the desk where the actual PCs were on the floor before. Not sure if this is a good idea or not - it means the fans are going to be closer to me so it may be louder. I'll have to see.
I was a bit lazy with doing the desk actually - I should have done it on Saturday as part of cleaning, but I couldn't be arsed. Well, I say that, I was pretty damn knackered by mid-afternoon Saturday so maybe I couldn't have done it.
Anyway, the re-arranging took a lot longer than I thought (such things always do - you forget haw many cables and bits there are too sort out) so I did no scanning whatsoever.
That leaves me something of a quandary for the week - do I spend my evenings scanning? Or do I keep up the pace with watching anime DVDs? Either way I will watch anime, but when scanning I watch fansubs. I guess watching fansubs will be good too - the spring anime season is rapidly approaching and there will be loads of shows to catch up on. It will be good to be ahead of the game a bit.
Anyway, speaking of watching anime I finished Red Garden. The end was pretty good. There was one scene in particular that was very effective in a brutal horror kind of way. I was a little disappointed not to find out more detail about the history/back-story. It sounded quite interesting and it would have been nice to maybe have a flashback or two fleshing it out.
I haven't watched the OAV yet. I started, but it was quite late at night and having just watched the end of of the main series it was kinda jarring, because it suddenly seemed to leap forward in time and become all sci-fi, but, weirdly, with the same characters. I'm sure watching it with fresh eyes it will make more sense, but it did leave me puzzled.
I made some more of those carrot and pineapple muffins on Friday as well. Last weeks were something of a success in that they didn't collapse or explode and I didn't burn them or anything; however I found them to be very cinamony. Now don't get me wrong I love me some cinnamon, but if you're making carrot and pineapple muffins you at least want to taste the carrot and pineapple a bit.
Anyway, I therefore decided to make some more this week and drastically reduce the cinammon (just a dash instead of a teaspoon full) and, bizarrely, they still don't taste much of pineapple or cinammon. I even chucked in most of the juice the pineapples were in, but it doesn't seem to have helped the taste, only made them a bit too soggy.
Still, they're quite nice. The recipe contains raisins and I love how raisins become plump and juicy when you bake them in cakes and stuff. It's weird, normally they're kind dry things, but baked in cakes they're much nice.
I also made my spag-bol. I made a bit fi a tactical error with that, though as I started it a bit late. The recipe is phenomenal if it's given 3 or 4 hours to bubble away and reduce down, but I only had about 2 hours. It's still really nice, but in the back of my mind I know it could be even better.
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